Is their an official or recommended contact method for new-to-Paizo artists to submit artwork samples? Is there such a contact for us Paizo fans to recommend new artists?
Creative Director
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Along the lines of the Pathfinder books focusing on devils, demons, etc., will there ever be similar volumes on angels, azatas, archons, etc?
And will aasimar get the same random traits treatment that tieflings got? And if so, can they have weird and strange options like tieflings, considering how weird many celestials are? (just to avoid the stereotype of them all being boring beautiful fair-skinned blondes and nothing but, which is a misconception a lot of people still hold against them)
We might do a book about angels and the like, but it'd be a different format book and certainly NOT part of the Book of the Damned line. We don't have an "opposite" book to that book.
Eventually I'd love to do an aasimar article similar to the tiefling article.
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Creative Director
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Has there any thought/discussion on basing a module on one of the iconics' past? Examples include tracking down Merisiel's elven heritage, find out what Amiri really did up north, defend Merisiel from one of her (numerous) enemies, just who/what is Seoni, track down Merisiel for some item she stole, etc.
Nope.
Adventures are supposed to be about the players' characters, not our iconics.
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Creative Director
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Rakshasas would be kewl, though I think Goodman Games did a supp already.
Isn't there a goblins book already in the works?
Erik would be squeamish about a book on succubi?
Just because Goodman published one wouldn't necessarily stop us from doing one. Especially since Paizo's take on rakshasas is quite different (our rakshasas, for example, aren't all tiger heads).
There is indeed a goblin book in the works.
Erik wouldn't be squeamish about a book on succubi, but there'd be enough of our more puritanical fans who would freak out about such a book that it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble.
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Creative Director
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Is Paizo planning any 2-3 "series" modules any time soon? I think there was some mention that Godsmouth might be part of a series, not sure if that is the case.
We just did a 3 series module arc: "Crypt of the Everflame," "Masks of the Living God," and "City of Golden Death."
Godsmouth Heresy is set in the same basic dungeon region as "Seven Swords of Sin" (under the city of Kaer Maga), we might do more adventures set there if Godsmouth does well.
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Creative Director
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I notice that a lot of cats here really are interested in the iconics. Any thought to a fiction line that might feature them either as a group or individually (similar to what Wotc did with the Paul Kidd books[party] or the collective authors T.H. Lain books[iconics])?
We'll probably be doing some stuff with the iconics in our webfiction line eventually, but for now that's more or less it.
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Creative Director
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How did the Apocalypse come in your Homebrew game?
Also what are some was other then the list below can you think of to end the world as we know it?
Nuclear war, Disease, Magical catastrophe, Alien invasion, killer tomatoes, Some thing with Clowns, zombies, Big monster attacks, stock market crash, eruptions, erospion (it was a big cause of the Great Depression, The re-election of zombie Nixon.
Trying to put together my version of the Apocalypse, also you can answer with just one word, I don't mind.
In "Unspeakable Futures," it was the firing of a gravity-based orbital weapon that tore a hole in reality and attracted the attention of Azathoth. The orbital weapon started firing on Earth at semi-random, causing great devastation and altering the fundamental realities of the world enough that the stars came right and numerous other great old ones woke up, causing further ripple effects that pretty much ended the world as we know it. Of course, the fact that all of the nations of the world misinterpreted these events and started launching nukes or other WMDs didn't really help.
Some other world-ending events:
EMP/mass blackout, floods/sea level rises, strange cosmic rays that zap everything to ash, mass insanity, impact events (asteroids or the like), changing fundamental realities by activating super-science devices, AI rebellion, and the gray goo created by out-of-control deconstructor nanites.
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Creative Director
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Three things:
1) As a Tengu, I am honored that you mentioned my kind in your choice of "player races" earlier on in this board. I too hope for a day when the people of the world can learn more of our kind, our great heritage, and stop assuming that the beggar Tengu on this side of Golarion are par for the course.2) You mentioned much earlier on that in your personal game system that you're constantly working on, it's gone through the 3.0 rule-set, the d20 modern rule-set, and you've now updated it to the Pathfinder rule-set.
With that in mind, what did you consider the toughest part about going from d20 modern to Pathfinder and do you have any advice about doing such a transition?
I ask because I am currently working on updating the d20modern system as a whole to Pathfinder (PFModern Alpha).
3) To that end, do you have any advice for such an endeavor?
1) Tengus rock.
2) Toughest part about going from d20 Modern to Pathfinder was making the classes interesting. D20 modern's class system is dull! OH! Another really tough part was figuring out how to cost technological items so that they mesh well with the existing magic item economy/costs, since d20 modern doesn't use that mechanic at all.
3) Yes, but not enough time to spell it out in a messageboard post, alas. The biggest bit of advice, I guess, is to design your game with a game world in mind—don't design it for everything, because that limits you too much. Pick a specific type of game, be it post-apocalyptic, spy vs. spy, survival horror, or whatever.
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Creative Director
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(swoon... rushes out into living room to admire the painting of Merisiel that Wayne did for Pathfinder #3's cover that sits above fireplace)(jealous) Who got the Kyra painting?
I've no idea. I bought the Merisiel one from Wayne. He doesn't give us the paintings for free once they're done.
We pay him to create them, and then get to use the artwork, but he gets to do what he wants with the originals, which is usually "sell them to collectors."
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Creative Director
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how insane is it to think of a lv200 pathfinder campaign?
if one does think of a lv200 game, what happenes at lv200? do we conquer gods? go on multi-plane crusades?
last question; if you were mad enough to play a lv200 game, what would you play as?
Not quite as insane as a level 201 game, but more insane than a level 199 game.
The problem with such high levels is that they have no definition. If you're conquering gods at level 200... what were you doing at level 24? Level 72? Level 101? Level 189?
200 levels is FAR too many levels for the game as it's currently designed, in any case.
If I were mad enough to play a level 200 game, I'd still play a bard.
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Creative Director
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Is their an official or recommended contact method for new-to-Paizo artists to submit artwork samples? Is there such a contact for us Paizo fans to recommend new artists?
Contact our art director, Sarah Robinson. Send her an email introducing yourself with a link to an online portfolio, and be patient; she's one of the busiest people here at Paizo.
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Creative Director
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Nope; thank Desna! Although that does mean that all my street samurai training is going to waste.Is Redmond as exciting as it is in Shadowrun?
Redmond Barrens: Dark slums only active because of the Shiawase Atomics Nuclear Plant and the Hollywood Correctional Facility, as well as a few other generic shops. The Halloweeners gang resides there.
Will you join the Halloweeners or will you, Wez, Erik and SKR do a run on the Shiawase Plant with Cosmo as your Decker running Matrix overwatch?
If Merisiel existed in the Shadowrun universe:
Would she be a Street Samurai or a Physical Adept?
Would she favour the Ares Predator or the Ruger Super Warhawk or Knives?
If she were in the Shadowrun universe, she'd probably be a physical adept. Whatever one's more about naturalistic bad-assery and not about cybernetics. She'd still be about knives, but she'd probably have a cool pistol with a sexy bayonet.
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Is there a monster in the Bestiary you think warrants its own supp?Lots of them.
The top five just off the top of my head:
Aboleths
Rakshasas
Intellect Devourers
Goblins
And, of course, SUCCUBI! But Erik would probably never approve that book, alas, so instead I'll nominate the aasimar as my number 5.
Any plans for more adventures with Intellect Devourers?
Will you be purchasing any of the minis from WotC's new set, Lords of Madness?
Dammit, Zombie, is that all you can talk about now?
Will you be purchasing any of the minis from WotC's new set, Lords of Madness?Dammit, Zombie, is that all you can talk about now?
Nope after that he talked about Intellect Devourers.
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Creative Director
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How'd y'all playtest the "sandbox" aspect of the Kingmaker AP?
The hex-crawling exploration technique is one I've been using for my homebrew campaigns for nearly ten years, so that was easy.
The kingdom building elements: I just ran several different kingdoms through several different iterations, and called upon the help of a few others here at Paizo and my buddy Jason Nelson to put it through the paces—same with the mass combat rules.
The actual adventures, though—as normal, playtesting of them was the responsibility of the individual author. When those playtests didn't happen, it was the developer's job to take up the slack.
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Creative Director
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On his fb page, Jason posted he received mail from gamers in prison. Have you ever read any of the letters and, if so, what was the most interesting one? The saddest? And have you seen the prison-made die sent by the incarcerated and (currently?) in Mona's possession?
We used to receive letters from prisoners all the time when we were doing the magazines. That's actually why the letters column in Dungeon was called "Prison Mail." I have indeed seen the paper dice that use "shiv tech" from paper... they're amazing and kinda frightening.
I'm not all that comfortable talking about the letter contents, though. Suffice to say, some of them were VERY interesting, but more of them were creepy and/or sad.
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Creative Director
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Excluding Lem, which iconic can perform well enough to get coin from passerby's (and this goes beyond having the Perform skill)?
That comes down to whoever has the best Charisma score, then, since I'm relatively sure we never assigned ranks in Perform to any of the other iconics. Which would mean that it'd probably be a tie between Seoni and Seelah.
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Creative Director
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If you were running an adventure path and for one reason or another the party had not gained enough xp reach the recommended level for an encounter they were fast approaching – an encounter that would be a challenge even if they were at the right level – how would you handle it if you were GMing?
I would either delay the encounter with a few more side encounters so the PCs could get more XP, or I would play it by ear and adjust the encounter's difficulty during play by arbitrarily changing things so that the encounter played out in an exciting but not unfair manner. And the PCs would never know any different.
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If you were running an adventure path and for one reason or another the party had not gained enough xp reach the recommended level for an encounter they were fast approaching – an encounter that would be a challenge even if they were at the right level – how would you handle it if you were GMing?I would either delay the encounter with a few more side encounters so the PCs could get more XP, or I would play it by ear and adjust the encounter's difficulty during play by arbitrarily changing things so that the encounter played out in an exciting but not unfair manner. And the PCs would never know any different.
Sounds like a plan.
If you are running an adventure, and you realised that the big bad demon end boss had an AC that the group’s best melee guy could only hit on a 17+ and the second best melee guy could only hit on a 19+ ... and has spell resistance and a DR that the group probably won’t have the resources to overcome (at least not with their primary weapon) ... do you think you’d be looking at a suitably challenging and memorable encounter, a very frustrating encounter for your players, or a TPK? (I’m thinking quite possibly a TPK, but maybe I’m underestimating the ingenuity of my players...)
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Creative Director
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If you are running an adventure, and you realised that the big bad demon end boss had an AC that the group’s best melee guy could only hit on a 17+ and the second best melee guy could only hit on a 19+ ... and has spell resistance and a DR that the group probably won’t have the resources to overcome (at least not with their primary weapon) ... do you think you’d be looking at a suitably challenging and memorable encounter, a very frustrating encounter for your players, or a TPK? (I’m thinking quite possibly a TPK, but maybe I’m underestimating the ingenuity of my players...)
TPK, especially since a demon of that power can probably follow/chase the PCs wherever they go.
That said, if it's just the 1 demon, the players outnumber it and that is a HUGE advantage, so I might downgrade the prediction of TPK to "very frustrating."
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James, how do you generally come up with your adventure ideas? Do you first come up with a general idea of plot, or a goal you want your players to achieve, or a monster or BBEG you want to use, or do you watch or read something that you decide you want to use a basis or kernel for an adventure? Some combination? Something else?
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Favorite: Succubus
Second Favorite: Nabasu
I guessed succubus, but I wasn’t sure what the second one would be.
Although nabassu are very ‘demony’, as far as I know they aren’t based on a ‘real’ mythological demon as for example succubus are – is this correct as far as you know? What is it about nabassu that you like? Do you know who ‘invented’ them for D&D or in what book they first appeared (was it the fiend folio)?
In Ed Greenwood's very cool 2E "The Drow of the Underdark" you are listed in the dedications on page 2 "for two names and more fun."
What were the two names? (I am guessing one was Eilistraee)
Was the "more fun" related to a gaming group you played in with Ed?
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Creative Director
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James, how do you generally come up with your adventure ideas? Do you first come up with a general idea of plot, or a goal you want your players to achieve, or a monster or BBEG you want to use, or do you watch or read something that you decide you want to use a basis or kernel for an adventure? Some combination? Something else?
Adventure ideas come from everywhere. I read a LOT of stories. Watch a LOT of movies. Play a LOT of video games. And Read a LOT of adventures. All of that input starts swilling around in a mash of ideas and inspiration, and when it comes time to write an adventure, it's just a matter of finding the right inspiration at the right time and pulling it all together.
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Creative Director
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Favorite: Succubus
Second Favorite: NabasuI guessed succubus, but I wasn’t sure what the second one would be.
Although nabassu are very ‘demony’, as far as I know they aren’t based on a ‘real’ mythological demon as for example succubus are – is this correct as far as you know? What is it about nabassu that you like? Do you know who ‘invented’ them for D&D or in what book they first appeared (was it the fiend folio)?
Nabassu first appeared in Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and then made it into the Monster Manual 2. When they got picked up for Tome of Horrors, the name got misspelled as Nabasu (one s), and that's the name we have to use these days.
I like them because they look really cool. Also, in their original first edition incarnation, they had a LOT of really unique and creative powers, like the ability to steal death and heal damage by hurting other things and some other stuff. Also, they grew more powerful the more they ate. They just had a lot of really neat, creative stuff going on, and I've liked them for that creativity ever since.
They were invented by Gygax, as far as I can tell.
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Creative Director
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In Ed Greenwood's very cool 2E "The Drow of the Underdark" you are listed in the dedications on page 2 "for two names and more fun."
What were the two names? (I am guessing one was Eilistraee)
Was the "more fun" related to a gaming group you played in with Ed?
In Dungeon #24, I had my 2nd adventure published: "Thunder Under Needlespire." That adventure was set in the Underdark, and among other things had two drow NPCs: Alak Argith and Allevrah Alystin or something like that. Ed apparently liked those two names enough to include them in the Drow book and dropped me a thank you; something I didn't even realize he'd done until a friend was looking through the book and noticed my name. Good times!
My guess about the "more fun" was the rest of the adventure.
Eilistraee was Ed's creation, but it's from that book that I first became fascinated with that deity, because at that point the concept of a good drow was more or less unheard of and really cool. I believe this was even before Drizzt... or if not, it was not long thereafter. About the same time in any event.
See that is why I'm afraid of moving to the UK. Wait I'll be in Scotland, so is old Hadrians wall still up?Will we ever see stats for penguins? How about dire penguins?Yes. No dire penguins, but maybe giant albino ones.Flubber, flubber
Mnar Mnar
Give me your fisheses! Build me a hurdy gurdy!
Hunger hunger
Alas, it was breached only this weekend by a flock of hungry 7th level gas-spore duelists. I'm just off from the estate and Pett Manor to fix it.
Will we ever see stats for penguins? How about dire penguins?Yes. No dire penguins, but maybe giant albino ones.Flubber, flubber
Mnar Mnar
Give me your fisheses! Build me a hurdy gurdy!
Hunger hunger
I like how Rich comes in here to just be crazed. He has no questions because he knows the answers.
And crank that hurdy gurdy! Because the MONKEYCLOPS will come a trollin' if the sound done stop!
DON'T INVITE THE CURIOSITY OF THE MONKEYCLOPS.
Ayee!
A MONKEYCLOPS! - A MONKEYCLOPS is come!
With its terrible lidless eye and its magical Battle-Fez of Misery and Shame!
Ayee!
Look to the corners - its coming through the dark corners!