>>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<<

In a Paizo world -

Who would write the first Pathfinder movie screenplay ?

Who would direct ?

What would the movie's working title be ?

Give some plot elements and scenes/places from Golarion that had to be covered. Please elaborate.

What guarantee's can you give that Mark Moreland will not make a cameo in the first movie?

Does Merisiel remind you of a girl from your past or present ?

Taking just the four iconics from the original AP:

Valeros: Young Val Kilmer (if time travel isn't an option, I'd cast him as Jason Statham).
Merisiel: Keira Knightly... or MAYBE Milla Jojovich

I belive my gf would have a fighting chance at being cast at Merisiel. She's taller than both Keira and Milla, been on the covers of Harper's Bazar and Vouge, has opened fashion week (Fashion world's Gencon) on two continents, has acted in several commercials in Japan and Canada (her manager does not allow her to do TV ads in the US for fashion reasons), loves to wear all leather outfits, loves Dragon Age, and has too strong a love for horror flicks.

link 1 (that's a wig)

link 2

link 3

If you had an Executive Producer credit in a Pathfinder movie would you give her a chance knowing that the paying public likes seeing new Hollywood starlets?

I once carried a not young Val Kilmer out of a club with the aid of two much stronger security men; good thing Valeros drinks.

My ex could play Seoni if Seoni were allowed a Russian accent.

GeraintElberion wrote:

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

I bet she can't cook !

Stop messing with us Baron, Not Hank Woon is one of your aliases!

No messing, trust me, she can't cook! I was just trying to help Mothman's cause/post.

For some reason, I'm having trouble trusting you...

Thandie Newton is a good call.

1) Why is Merisiel stabby?

2) If you could (understanding that with IP laws, you can't) take elements from different campaign settings to influence and/or craft a cohesive whole, what elements would you take from what worlds and why?

3) If you could give your younger self one piece of advice (ie time travel back, advise, then return) what would it be?

4) If memory serves, you wear glasses. Are you nearsighted or farsighted?

5) Who have you met in your professional game design experience that you feel pride for having met?

6) Who have you met in your professional game design experience that you really wish you hadn't?

7) Having written some.. *ahem* fairly mature themes into existence, what do you see as the most difficult thing about writing such? (ie was it the fan backlash, the 'I wrote this?' personal feelings afterwards, or something else entirely)

Dear James: why is the T-rex's skin red?

I think I can answer that one, Jeremy, at least with a prosaic reply. It's red because it's a fiendish dinosaur. Biological restraints don't function the same way on the lower planes.

Dear James Why is the T-rexs skin red. From a biological standpoint it is very expensive to produce such skin pigmentation, not too mention most reptiles (other than a chameleon and snakes) have very earth tone pigmentations. And snakes who use the expensively produced pigments for mating display A T-rex would have no use of such a display mainly because of it's physical build, a female T-Rex would be much more impressed by it's body build than a display. I find it highly doubtful and historically inaccurate that your T-Rex image is therefore red. Thank you for your time.

It doesn't have red skin, it has red feathers. ;-)

Do you like level appropriate random encounter tables or anything goes style tables?

Jeremy Mcgillan wrote:

Dear James: why is the T-rex's skin red?

I think I can answer that one, Jeremy, at least with a prosaic reply. It's red because it's a fiendish dinosaur. Biological restraints don't function the same way on the lower planes.

Pfffffft copout

Will you ever give your Dinosaurs feathers? What about a variety of Dragons?

Yeah, they look like they have mange without them...

Who would write the first Pathfinder movie screenplay ?

Me! Because I'm a control freak!

Who would direct ?

James Cameron. So it would make billions of dollars.

What would the movie's working title be ?

"Pathfinder" would be best, but that's taken. So we'd wait for a while until folks have all forgotten.

Give some plot elements and scenes/places from Golarion that had to be covered. Please elaborate.

Treerazer would be cool to be in the movie! And Sandpoint! And the Sandpoint Devil! And Merisiel!!!!

What guarantee's can you give that Mark Moreland will not make a cameo in the first movie?

94% unlikely to happen.

Does Merisiel remind you of a girl from your past or present ?

Nope. I wish she did, though! :P

Dear James, I was wondering if you find it annoying when people start a thread in the rules questions forum with words like "Question for James:..." :)

T.

As a man who works for a publishing company, if you had any advice for a beginning novelist, what would it be?

Write every day. For at least an hour. Keep those writing muscles strong!

Read every day also.

And try to find a venue for your writing. Try to start building up a catalog of shorter stories and look to get them published in magazines, online, or so on.

And keep the day job!

I belive my gf would have a fighting chance at being cast at Merisiel.

I believe you are correct!

*bows before The Mighty James Jacobs*

I was wondering if you would comment on my thread where I asked for advice and thoughts on a Reaver living through what he thought of as Ragnarok. The thread title is. Help Pagnarok has come and gone but I'm still here.

Sorry my link fu from black berry is very weak I would like to see your ideas

Alas... I cannot. Because I'm spending way too much time on this thread. :P

Did you ever, at any time in your life, have a nickname (that you didn't hate)?

By your prowess, skill, will, wit, luck and divine favour you have passed the test of the Starstone.

You are a god in Golarion.

What name and title would you take?

What would your alignment be?

What form would your favoured Avatar take ?

What would your priesthoods' favoured weapon be ?

Who/what would your herald be?

Give an ability/power/skill/feat/trait unique to your preisthood.

Would you allow dwarven clerics into your priesthood to govern your flock ?!

What holy symbol would you take ?

Would SKR write up your background with a non biased eye ?

HA! Great questions!

Name: Gwangi, Lord of Fangs
AL: CN
Avatar: Big-ass tyrannosaur (even though the REAL Gwangi was an allosaur)
Herald: A centaur dinosaur hottie. That's not weird, is it?
Favored Weapon: Scimitar
Unique power: Summon dinosaur spirits to feed upon the enemy
No dwarves
Holy Symbol: T-rex claw puncturing a dwarf's skull
SKR would!

No "A or B" Alright.

How do you "price" (or plus equivalent) Magic Weapon special properties? Unlike wondrous items, there doesn't seem to be any formula for it.

The easiest way is to write up the power and then compare it to existing weapon qualities. The ones that are in the core rules are pretty solid, and by comparing new ones to those, you can generally get the weapon quality in the right spot. It should be assigned so that it's a tough choice between the new weapon quality and others of the same magnitude, basically.

Do you get an employee discount on all Paizo products?

Can I get one for being the board's resident, kick-ass, really cool zombie who brews his own beer and mead?

Would Paizo use an NPC named Aber who becomes a zombie in one of the APs?

I get copies (usually 2) of every book we publish. And a nice employee discount on anything I buy at paizo.com, no matter WHERE it's from.

If I give you one, I have to give EVERYONE one, and then I'd get fired.

Nope. That's the kind of easter egg that annoys the Creative Director.

Besides Lamashtu, whom among the demon lords are the 'Big 3' in Golarion ?

(In the vein that Demogorgon, Graz'zt and Orcus were in older editions of the game.)

I am guessing Abraxas is one of them.

Will clerics of Pazuzu have bonus to hit clerics of Lamashtu? And vice versa ?

The big 3 demon lords (not counting Lamashtu) on Golarion are pretty much:

Nocticula
Cyth-V'sug
Pazuzu

Abraxas is big among the drow, and in parts of Nex, but overall not as much as those three.

And then both Angazhan and Deskari have a LOT going on as well. But they're not as powerful as Nocticula, Cyth-V'sug, or Pazuzu.

How do you feel about people equating Golarion cultures to IRL cultures? As in, Taldan = Byzantine, Ulfen = Norse, Kellid = Celt, Chelaxian = Roman, Mwangi = Bantu, Garundi = Egyptian, Vudrani = Indian, Tian = Chinese, Varisian = Romani, Keleshite = Persian, etc.

I feel like we did our job correct in building the ethnicities. Because many of them ARE based on real world ethnicities.

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Mothman wrote:

Hey, is this the Ask James Jacobs thread or the Brag About My Totally Hot Girlfriend Who Is A Model thread?

I bet she can't cook !

;p

Stop messing with us Baron, Not Hank Woon is one of your aliases!

So, James, do Baron's aliases have different girlfriends?

And would you be willing to consider Parminder Nagra, Hanan Turk or Aishwarya Rai for Kyra?

Maybe!

And absolutely!

Will you see the new Judge Dredd movie (now apparently simply being called "Dredd") when it comes out?

I probably will.

1) Why is Merisiel stabby?

2) If you could (understanding that with IP laws, you can't) take elements from different campaign settings to influence and/or craft a cohesive whole, what elements would you take from what worlds and why?

3) If you could give your younger self one piece of advice (ie time travel back, advise, then return) what would it be?

4) If memory serves, you wear glasses. Are you nearsighted or farsighted?

5) Who have you met in your professional game design experience that you feel pride for having met?

6) Who have you met in your professional game design experience that you really wish you hadn't?

7) Having written some.. *ahem* fairly mature themes into existence, what do you see as the most difficult thing about writing such? (ie was it the fan backlash, the 'I wrote this?' personal feelings afterwards, or something else entirely)

1) Because she's been hurt so many times that the knives are the only things she really trusts. They haven't let her down yet.

2) I would take the classic list of demons out of the Abyss and use the hell out of them.

3) Only one? Wow. Um... Hmm. Either "Start college as an English major and forget Aeronautical Engineering" or "That girl that's interested in you IS interested in you so you should go for it!"

4) Nearsighted.

5) Robert Kuntz. Wolfgang Baur. Monte Cook. Bruce Cordell. Lisa Stevens. Peter Adkison. Sean K Reynolds. Erik Mona. Chris Perkins. Chris Pramas. Ed Greenwood. Jim Butler. Jon Pickens. Rich Baker. The list goes on and on and on.

6) No comment.

7) The most difficult part about writing mature themes is when you're told you can't go somewhere and you have to ramp it back and self-censor what you're doing.

Dear James Why is the T-rexs skin red. From a biological standpoint it is very expensive to produce such skin pigmentation, not too mention most reptiles (other than a chameleon and snakes) have very earth tone pigmentations. And snakes who use the expensively produced pigments for mating display A T-rex would have no use of such a display mainly because of it's physical build, a female T-Rex would be much more impressed by it's body build than a display. I find it highly doubtful and historically inaccurate that your T-Rex image is therefore red. Thank you for your time.

NOM.

Now that that's out of the way, Tom would like to point out two things:

1) That dinosaur is a FIENDISH dinosaur. And red is the color of fiendish.

2) You were delicious. Tom thanks you for being so tasty.

What Tom said.

Good boy!

Will you ever give your Dinosaurs feathers? What about a variety of Dragons?

Dinos, yes. The deinonychus in the Bestiary has feathers.

Dragons? Maybe some day. But so far, no.

Hey James, when ar eyou going to allow Teter to make his writing debut in an AP?

Probably as soon as he lets me write some code for the website! Give a little, get a little! :P

James,

Who mapped the Ineer Sea region, in-world? I know Rob Lazaretti did the real-world art, but does such a map exist in Golarion? And if so, who is the cartographer?

I created the map of Varisia. Erik then took that map and incorporated it into the rough draft map of the Inner Sea region. Then Jason took Erik's map and turned it into a final draft. And then (only a few months ago) I took that map and extended it back out to generate the map of the entire planet of Golarion, which will be seeing print in "The World Guide: The Inner Sea" in February.

Full circle!

As for who mapped the Inner Sea region in-world? Some fancy-pants cartographer whose name has not yet been revealed.

How did Lawful Neutral Aroden end up with a Chaotic Good saint (Milani)?

Milani wasn't Chaotic Good when she became a saint of Aroden. She became Chaotic Good at some point after that. Probably even after she became a deity. Her switch from law to chaos is a pretty important part of her backstory.

How does Tom type with those tiny forearms. I mean his head would be over the computer screen....... o never mind I'll just get eaten again if I continue this train of thought :P

How does Tom type with those tiny forearms. I mean his head would be over the computer screen....... o never mind I'll just get eaten again if I continue this train of thought :P

Can I snicker? PLEASE!

Jeremy Mcgillan wrote:

How does Tom type with those tiny forearms. I mean his head would be over the computer screen....... o never mind I'll just get eaten again if I continue this train of thought :P

Can I snicker? PLEASE!

YES.

*Snicker Commencing*

Whose job is it to come up with the (often punny) Paizo Blog titles?

Whoever writes the blog entry has to come up with the name.

I'm hungry. Do you have anything to eat?

You're welcome to the nasty pizza crusts from the overcooked frozen pizza I just ate. They're in the garbage can.

Do you typically use random encounter tables when you GM?

Absolutely. They're great ways to kick start the creativity for an unplanned encounter, or to liven up a game when things lag a little.

*Snicker Commencing*

(grabs Studpuffin's beak, wraps a rubber band around it, cackles evilly)

Do you roll encounters on the table during the game or do you pre-roll before the game so you can prepare for the encounters? Or do you non-randomly choose encounters you like from the tables?

I roll them at the game. That way it's fun for me too. I like the challenge of having to ad-lib things in game.

Do you like level appropriate random encounter tables or anything goes style tables?

I much prefer level-appropriate tables that skew to +/– 3 APL.

Dear James, I was wondering if you find it annoying when people start a thread in the rules questions forum with words like "Question for James:..." :)

T.

No. But now I do. Ha. Funny!

Did you ever, at any time in your life, have a nickname (that you didn't hate)?

Unc.

I apparently look like my grandpa's uncle, so he called me Unc.

The most terrible creature alive: A T-Rex wielding a shark.

The most terrible creature alive: A T-Rex wielding a shark.

As nun-chucks!

SHARK CHUCKS!

Those must be stated! I demand it!

Do you view the linear fighter/quadratic wizard a feature in Dungeons and Dragons? Or a flaw?

SHARK CHUCKS!

Those must be stated! I demand it!

Shark Chucks 2 gp 1d4 1d6 ×2 — 2 lbs. B disarm, monk

1d4 additional points of slashing damage for each attack.

How would Shensen view the other PCs in your campaign (i.e, Kirin, Ostag, etc.)? How would she view the Pathfinder iconics?

If you could spend a couple of hours chatting with E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, what would you discuss with them?

Do you view the linear fighter/quadratic wizard a feature in Dungeons and Dragons? Or a flaw?

You have confused me!

POINT: JOELA

Would Paizo be interested in ever publish mods/APs for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition if WotC changed the license to be more accommodating?

How would Shensen view the other PCs in your campaign (i.e, Kirin, Ostag, etc.)? How would she view the Pathfinder iconics?

She'd probably get along the best with Styrian and Kirin, and the worst with Vorn and Velmarius.

As for the iconics, she'd enjoy the company of Lem, Merisiel, Kyra, and Valeros a bit, I suspect. Not so much Ezren or Harsk or Seelah or Sajan. She'd probably try to "save" Seltyiel from his lawful and evil ways.