Paizo has proven that people like Adventure Paths. But the one thing that has not really changed in all the adventure paths is the choice for iconics for these adventure paths. Other companies have but out iconics, but they are the same old Tolkien-ese, Tolkien-inspired, Tolkien over done races that you have seen a MILLION times. You have seem them so many time they have become a trope of fantasy. I mean come on, the Hobbit was published in 1937. So let’s stop playing with your grandfather’s concept of swords, sorcery and fantasy; and how about we bring the concept of fantasy to the 21st century.
Each Adventure Path Iconics brings you eight different playable characters that easily plug into the most common themes that you have seen in adventure paths. We have iconics for Asian inspired and Wintry based adventure paths with many more coming in the very near future including everything horror to good old fashioned pirates.
The different playable character races will consist of four human characters and four unique races from the NeoExodus: A House Divided campaign setting which include races such as:
- Cynean: These beings of living crystal are masters of magic. Crystalline scholars of all things arcane, the cyneans are as mighty in mind as in body.
- P'Tan: These feline looking, created from the primordial shadows and former slaves rose up and overthrew their harsh masters with their ability to cast black lightning.
- Enuka: The most primal and barbaric of the savage humanoids have nothing on the enuka. Enuka are ferocious creatures with instincts for battle and the hunt, animalistic predators blessed with humanoid form and intelligence.
And many more of these unique and interesting races added to the Adventure Path Iconics series. If you are tired of playing the same old elf from the forest or dwarf from underground from the hundredth time, give Adventure Path Iconics a try. You and you imagination will be glad you did. Adventure Path Iconics: Path of Jade will be out VERY soon; while Adventure Path Iconics: Path of Winter will be soon at RPGNow, DriveThruRPG and Paizo.
{New, unusual, interesting, pre-gen} =/= iconic, but good luck with the new line.
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{New, unusual, interesting, pre-gen} =/= iconic, but good luck with the new line.
We don't want "iconic" to be cliché and that has been the issue with many of the "iconics" characters we have seen recently.
We want you to see what an iconic character can be with being a cliché. I mean if this is supposed to be a game that draws on creativity and originality shouldn't your iconic characters be creative and original?
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I think the argument could be made that cliché is something of a prerequisite for being iconic; after all, the adjective means conventional or formulaic. An icon needs to be instantly recognizable as representative of the thing it refers to, and will almost inevitably become a subject for imitation and parody.
New things can certainly become iconic over time, but first they have to acquire a patina of repetitive viewing. The Paizo exclusive Pathfinder comic covers that reference Jaws, the Dark Knight Returns, Amazing Spiderman #50, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman are not themselves iconic; the original sources are, and that's why the Pathfinder comic covers "work."
I'd suggest that if Cynean, P'Tan and Enuka are fresh and cool and innovative, that alone precludes iconic status...for now.
I think the argument could be made that cliché is something of a prerequisite for being iconic; after all, the adjective means conventional or formulaic. An icon needs to be instantly recognizable as representative of the thing it refers to, and will almost inevitably become a subject for imitation and parody.
New things can certainly become iconic over time, but first they have to acquire a patina of repetitive viewing. The Paizo exclusive Pathfinder comic covers that reference Jaws, the Dark Knight Returns, Amazing Spiderman #50, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman are not themselves iconic; the original sources are, and that's why the Pathfinder comic covers "work."
I'd suggest that if Cynean, P'Tan and Enuka are fresh and cool and innovative, that alone precludes iconic status...for now.
I have to disagree with this. The adventure paths put out by Paizo already cover a wide range of themes each with their own established tropes and cliches but, the current pathfinder iconics are not all designed with these wide range of tropes in mind. Therefore, a product line that specifically dedicates itself to creating iconics with themes tailored to specific adventure paths (or any specific theme or tropes outside of generic medieval fantasy) would be something welcomed by me as a DM, at least for the interesting read or as a source of ideas that my players can draw inspiration from.
Now as far as these outside or interesting races go...I honestly would prefer those in a separate product and not mixed in with the iconics line as I would worry about how balanced such characters would be within the limited confines of the AP itself. In my mind the iconics line should keep itself to those races/classes already presented within the Paizo main line of books, but focus on backstories/mechanics that tailor those races and classes to a specific theme (such as Asia, Piracy, Horror, etc.).
Edit: Actually, NeoExodus pregens really wouldn't bother me much as long as they where expressly labeled such instead of included in the paizo line of adventure path iconics.
An example of what I would expect out of an adventure path iconics line
Then I think you will be pleasantly pleased on what we are doing. Better still we are going to have a free preview material of the Adventure Path Iconics coming VERY soon so you will not have to worry about what to expect out of this line.
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I have to disagree with this. The adventure paths put out by Paizo already cover a wide range of themes each with their own established tropes and cliches but, the current pathfinder iconics are not all designed with these wide range of tropes in mind. Therefore, a product line that specifically dedicates itself to creating iconics with themes tailored to specific adventure paths (or any specific theme or tropes outside of generic medieval fantasy) would be something welcomed by me as a DM, at least for the interesting read or as a source of ideas that my players can draw inspiration from.
In my mind the iconics line should keep itself to those races/classes already presented within the Paizo main line of books, but focus on backstories/mechanics that tailor those races and classes to a specific theme (such as Asia, Piracy, Horror, etc.).
Evidently I'm not expressing my thoughts well. I think a product line that tailors itself to a theme, genre or even specific adventure path could be useful to a lot of people as well.
I'd probably just call those characters "themed" rather than "iconic", though, because while Pirate, for example, is an instantly recognizable role or setting, "wizard designed for a pirate adventure", "bard deisgned for a gothic horror adventure" and "summoner for an Asian game" really aren't. Being designed for specific roles or settings does, as you say, make them useful for GMs and players who want to focus on that role or setting, but at the same time, it serves to reduce the different ways they're likely to be used as examples.
Who's the iconic consulting detective? Sherlock Holmes. Who's the iconic Asian consulting detective that focuses on the supernatural? I have no idea. I might want to see a writeup of such a character for a game I was going to run, but if I say I want to run a character like Wu Fang, Ghost Investigator, no one would know what I was talking about, because Wu Fang doesn't have the recognition factor to be iconic.
If he somehow gets wide exposure because enough people like the concept, in time he may become iconic, and so could any of the individual pregens in this LPJ line or in the product you linked to (which I'd bought, BTW, because I wanted to compare their changeling witch character with the one I'm running now.) Until and unless that happens, I'll think of them as themed pre-gens. No shame in that.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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An example of what I would expect out of an adventure path iconics line
Thanks for the shout out!
For a product like this, I think it's less important to focus on defining whether a thing can start out being "iconic" than it is to produce a set of characters that are "so cool they should become iconic." That's what Neil did with the Gothic Heroes product you linked above, that's what we've done with our brand-new Imperial Heroes, and I daresay that's what Louis is planning to do with his new product line. They've created new races as part of NeoExodus and now they want to show everybody what they can do when the creativity is dialed up full blast. If it rocks the house, then it'll become iconic. I look forward to seeing what LPJ is going to bring to the table!
For a product like this, I think it's less important to focus on defining whether a thing can start out being "iconic" than it is to produce a set of characters that are "so cool they should become iconic." I daresay that's what Louis is planning to do with his new product line. If it rocks the house, then it'll become iconic.
I certainly can't disagree with that.
[/nit-picking] :)
Doesn't an iconic character have to be unique to begin with before it can be considered a staple? Everyone iconic is at least a little unique.
For a product like this, I think it's less important to focus on defining whether a thing can start out being "iconic" than it is to produce a set of characters that are "so cool they should become iconic." That's what Neil did with the Gothic Heroes product you linked above, that's what we've done with our brand-new Imperial Heroes, and I daresay that's what Louis is planning to do with his new product line. They've created new races as part of NeoExodus and now they want to show everybody what they can do when the creativity is dialed up full blast. If it rocks the house, then it'll become iconic. I look forward to seeing what LPJ is going to bring to the table!
Thanks for the nice comments Jason. What you guys did at Legendary was really the inspiration for us doing this.
We think NeoExodus is the kind of setting that people would be interested in playing, if given the chance. Adventure Path Iconics gives them that opportunity to get a little peek at NeoExodus while at the same time of discovering so very cool pregen PC to play. Or as I call it a win-win.
Just in case you might be interested here are some of the rough draft and final headshots for Path of Jade and Path of Winter. Enjoy!
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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For a product like this, I think it's less important to focus on defining whether a thing can start out being "iconic" than it is to produce a set of characters that are "so cool they should become iconic." That's what Neil did with the Gothic Heroes product you linked above, that's what we've done with our brand-new Imperial Heroes, and I daresay that's what Louis is planning to do with his new product line. They've created new races as part of NeoExodus and now they want to show everybody what they can do when the creativity is dialed up full blast. If it rocks the house, then it'll become iconic. I look forward to seeing what LPJ is going to bring to the table!Thanks for the nice comments Jason. What you guys did at Legendary was really the inspiration for us doing this.
Glad to hear it. I'm all for awesome gaming product! :)
Also, if you want more inspiration, I should also mention our latest preview, for the next product in this line from Legendary Games, the upcoming Conquering Heroes! Viva la pregens!
We think NeoExodus is the kind of setting that people would be interested in playing, if given the chance. Adventure Path Iconics gives them that opportunity to get a little peek at NeoExodus while at the same time of discovering so very cool pregen PC to play. Or as I call it a win-win.
That sounds like smart business to me. Make one product that supports another and gives folks a foretaste of what else you have to offer. If they like the sample, hopefully they'll buy the whole batch!
Just in case you might be interested here are some of the rough draft and final headshots for Path of Jade and Path of Winter. Enjoy!
Nailed the art for Path of Jade. One problem with the Path of Winter Barbarian though...wouldn't the Power Girl look require a near constant Endure Elements to keep her from freezing in a Nordic setting? Not that I mind the current art, actually love the character design, but if your going for a path of winter type of idea the character should probably be buttoned up from head to toe to keep warm.
One problem with the Path of Winter Barbarian though...wouldn't the Power Girl look require a near constant Endure Elements to keep her from freezing in a Nordic setting? Not that I mind the current art, actually love the character design, but if your going for a path of winter type of idea the character should probably be buttoned up from head to toe to keep warm.
Nah. All fantasy player characters are super-acclimated to their environments. Have a look at the Battle Skald on p. 235 of the NPC Codex. Little more than a bikini and boots.
I really like this idea and could see it going far! This seems like its an awesome way to get a set of pre-gens for a given adventure path without relying on the most taken path.
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Nailed the art for Path of Jade. One problem with the Path of Winter Barbarian though...wouldn't the Power Girl look require a near constant Endure Elements to keep her from freezing in a Nordic setting? Not that I mind the current art, actually love the character design, but if your going for a path of winter type of idea the character should probably be buttoned up from head to toe to keep warm.
As I stated on the barbarians image it is a rough draft that I asked the artist to change the Power Girl top for the next round of art review.
Perhaps her people have adapted to the cold by growing a nice thick layer of body hair...
Looking good Louis! Any way to link the Path of Winter concepts not via Facebook?
Looking good Louis! Any way to link the Path of Winter concepts not via Facebook?
You can always check out our blog: In the Mind of a Mad Man for any updates especially our artwork. Enjoy!
We just got in the rough draft of the write ups for the iconics, so I expect to see this product available by mid March. We plan to have a preview of this product some time before that.
And just in case you were wondering, here are the remaining four head shots from the NeoExoduis races. Enjoy!
Here is the rough draft of the Adventure Path Iconic: Path of Jade Vash Kandar Male Human Samurai . We thought many of you might like to see it to get an idea of what we are looking to do with this new product line. Enjoy!
So after 300+ downloads, NO ONE has any comment for us? Come on guys, somebody out there must have something to say about this rough draft sample? Somebody??? Anybody???
Regarding the Iconic preview:
First, the PDF design looks great! The parchement background adds a nice touch, and the use of red fits well.
But as I will not GM or play in Jade Regent this won't be of use there. That particular character could make a good NPC as a far away traveler, though. That said, if I did want to play a typical samurai this could be good inspiration.
It's been half a decade since I studied kanji/hanja, but they don't appear to make much coherent sense. Is it from an old saying?
It looks very well done, if the rest are this good, i'll definitely pick this up.
It looks very well done, if the rest are this good, i'll definitely pick this up.
You can read Endzeitgeist's full review here about Adventure Path Iconics: Path of Jade (PFRPG). Hope this helps!
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The one for WotW-Iconics is done as well - just another look over and that one will get a review as well. ^^
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The one for WotW-Iconics is done as well - just another look over and that one will get a review as well. ^^
Jeff Lee has really embraced the NeoExodus line and proven himself to be a great up and coming game designer.
Thanks for the review, End. :)
What will the next one be, Path of Winter?
What will the next one be, Path of Winter?
Yes. We are just waiting for the artwork to come in. After that we have Path of Pirates and after that, we have two but we are not ready to announce them yet.