From Hell's Heart, I Stab at Thee…

Friday, October 31, 2008

Every year I like to carve pumpkins for Halloween. I've carved pumpkins with WotC friends, New York friends, a gang of Vegas showgirls, and now with some Paizo peeps. We always have someone who has either never carved a pumpkin before (like the young lady from Britain in 2006) or hasn't done so since childhood. Like riding a bike, it's a skill that stays with you once you start doing it again. Wednesday night, Alison (Customer Service), Brock (Warehouse Team), and myself gathered in our freezing-cold main conference room and took serrated knife to the orange enemy....

Alison's "Ghosts in the Window"	Brock's "Elder Sign" (and notice that the front is a spooky face, and the Elder Sign actually projects candlelight onto the wall behind it)	And the latest retread of Sean's annual "Look it's a Spider on a Web"

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

Pathfinder Society Open Call Submissions

Thursday, October 30, 2008

After reviewing nearly half of the submissions for the Pathfinder Society Open Call, I want to address a few recurring issues and errors. Please note that not all of these issues and errors result in automatic rejection and don't assume your submission was rejected if you feel any of the items below apply to it. I have not yet selected the finalists.

Understanding the Pathfinder Society

This is the most important gaff I've seen—authors who don't really understand Golarion's Pathfinder Society. Either the submitter hasn't read the entry in Pathfinder #1 and the entry in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting or he or she is choosing to ignore it. Submitting a proposal for Pathfinder Society Scenario #17—Perils of the Pirate Pact and completely ignoring the motivations of the Pathfinder Society in your submission makes it feel more like a generic adventure and less like a scenario that should necessarily focus on Golarion's famed organization of vagabond explorers and thrill-seeking treasure hunters.

Avoid Passive Voice

Don't do it. Don't use it. Remove it from your writing style altogether. Passive voice is boring, distracting, and authors who use it often miss opportunities to approach a description from an evocative direction. For an excellent guide to passive voice, read this webpage from Purdue's English Department. Removing passive voice will strengthen your submissions and strengthen your final turnover.

Spelling Errors and Grammatical Errors

Use your spell check, have a friend read your submission, read your submission out loud—each of these is a great way to find errors. While one or two errors won't necessarily eliminate your submission, repeated errors will as they show a lack of attention to detail.

Use the Clues

In the summary for #17, for example, there were three clues: ettercaps, a book stolen from a Pathfinder Society venture-captain, and dead pirates dangling in spiderwebs over the River Sellen. Not using the clues from the summary in your submission makes your submission much less likely to be accepted.

Elaborate X

Many submissions spend more time on elaborate names, elaborate concepts, or elaborate scenes than on a good solid plot. While cool names, concepts, or scenes are cool, I'd rather see much more time spent making the plot flow well and making it make sense than submitters throwing spider pirates and complicated NPC names at me. You have one page to wow me—wow me with a good plot.

All in all, this has been a positive experience and I feel confident that I'll be able to reply with feedback to each submission. Check back on the Pathfinder Society messageboards and the Pathfinder Society website on Monday for the names of those selected for the Pathfinder Society open call. And importantly, don't let a rejection keep you from submitting for the next round!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Pathfinder! Now in Two Amazing Dimensions!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Anyone who's haunted the Paizo messageboards for a while has likely come across the artwork of Ashton Sperry, our own N'wah. (If you haven't, look for his posts in this thread!) That Ashton is a big ol' Pathfinder fan goes without saying. His deluxe-sized rune giant paper "miniature" so impressed us a few months back that when asked if we'd like to see more Pathfinder characters receive the same 2D paper miniature treatment there was absolutely no way we could turn him down. Well, the artistic fruits of Ashton's labor showed up today and they're simply too awesome to keep to ourselves! Heroes, and villains, and goblins aplenty! More proof that we have the most talented, most insane, most incredible readers in the world. So a huge thanks from all of us here to Ashton and his colorist Ben's (Benchak on the boards) amazing work!

And as we keep having to tell people, they're not paper dolls, they're precisely scaled miniature combat aids. There's a difference.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

It Just Keeps Coming

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Paizo is a very busy place. For any given month we're publishing six or more books, plus novels, item cards, and maps. I feel like those vaudeville acts where the guy's spinning plates on top of poles, keeping them all balanced.

I love it. I love being busy—I'd rather be busy than bored. Since I started at Paizo in July, I've developed at least 12 different products. And that doesn't count planning for future products (like the Pathfinder RPG) or giving feedback on other peoples' projects. Sure, sometimes we get behind, but I often say, "Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute," and we buckle down and work that much faster.

This very day I'm helping finish up Osirion, Land of Pharaohs and Pathfinder Chronicles Guide to Absalom, doing back cover copy for an as-yet-unannounced surprise, starting a development pass on Dragons Revisited, doing a quick development pass on Pathfinder Society scenario #7, doing a pagination for Clash of the Kingslayers, writing an art order for Guide to Katapesh, and reviewing sketches for the next item cards set. Phew! It's fast-paced and crazy, but it is very satisfying when the books arrive in the warehouse and I know that our team worked really hard to get them done. And this is a fairly typical day. I checked our schedule page for October and of this month's releases, I developed or helped develop four of them and wrote another. You may think that working for a game company is nothing but sitting around, rolling dice, and eating pizza, but it's actually a lot of intense crunch-time labor.

One of the editors of Dragon back in the '80s or '90s wrote an editorial about the monthly magazine business, and how you're always counting down toward the issue's deadline. The first day of working on a magazine is Deadline Minus 30, the next is Deadline Minus 29, and so on. And the day after you ship the book isn't Deadline Plus One—it's Deadline Minus 30 for the next issue. It never stops! You always have something to work on.

Speaking of which, I have three more things I need to finish before the end of the day. Time for some caffeine fuel! And maybe some delicious pie....

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

Breaking Ground in Absalom

Monday, October 27, 2008

For more than 4,000 years Absalom has been the City at the Center of the World, a metropolis-sized showcase of the greatest treasures in all Golarion. But it wasn't always like this.

Or was it?

Cities aren't born, they're made, usually through centuries of back-breaking labor and innumerable hardships. But that isn't the case with Absalom. It was brought into the world in a single moment, ready to grow, ready to flourish, ready to claim its place as a city-state to rival empires. From the earliest records of that miraculous place, recorded in Pathfinder Chronicles Guide to Absalom, comes the following account:

"No account exists of Absalom's first moments, for Aroden was alone when he raised the Isle of Kortos from the depths and placed the Starstone where it is now, marking the focus of what was to become the City at the Center of the World. Even in the first centuries of Absalom, when Aroden was a common sight in its halls and on its streets, no one claimed to know how or why Aroden moved the Starstone, or created its resting place. Some believe the Starstone Cathedral is Aroden's greatest construction, while others say the Starstone itself built the monument that protects it. The Cathedral was finished before a single inhabitant arrived in Absalom, though it has continued to grow and expand itself in the centuries since that time. Aroden never answered questions put to him about the Cathedral, saying only that any who needed to know of it would find the answers themselves.

"Indeed, all records of the first few centuries of Absalom are spotty at best. The Founding Law of Absalom, the laws which even the Grand Council may not change or remove, were written in stone within Azlanti Keep, but no other original documents survive. Four millennia of mold, accident, and even intentional sabotage have ruined every book, scroll, and tablet kept before 400 AR. While copies of copies claiming to be true to the original texts can be found throughout the city, even within Forae Logos different editions of texts often disagree with one another. Much of the first millennium of Absalom is less history, and more mythology.

"What is clear is that Aroden established the location of the city when he placed the Starstone, and that doing so took a heavy toll on him. Some myths claim the Isle of Kortos belonged to a terrible sea-demon or god of minotaurs, and that Aroden delved into a massive labyrinth to face and defeat that original resident. Other legends place Absalom as an old outpost of the Azlanti, sunken and brought back from the depths by that civilization's last son, and assign that as the reason gillmen continue to live in and around the city. Most natives actually assume Aroden raised the island up from the depths when he recovered the Starstone, creating it from the raw rock and kelp of the sea floor, but no record of this version of events can be dated any earlier than 1,450 AR and no record of Aroden himself making the claim exists. While this last version of events is official dogma to several churches, many serious scholars discount it."

Pathfinder Chronicles Guide to Absalom by Owen K. C. Stephens releases this December.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Could It Be Worse?

Friday, October 24, 2008

Through dark magic and foul rites drow corrupt the unworthy of their society into horrifying creatures—skittering, spider-legged abominations known as driders. But what about other races? If the drow work such perversion upon their own brethren, what terrors might they inflict upon their enemies? With demonic magic and deadly alchemy the fleshcrafters of Zirnakaynin rework their captives into terrible new forms, better suiting their cruel desires and sadistic pleasures. Take the muscle-burdened ghonhatine and pain-wracked irnakurse for example, just two of the new fleshwarps detailed in Pathfinder #16's "Abominations of the Drow." Can you guess what they use to be? And are you sure you really want to know?

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Upcoming Pathfinder Society Conventions

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Since we launched Pathfinder Society in August, I've received a lot of email from convention coordinators. They ask how they can run Pathfinder Society events at their shows, or seek more information about the Society, or sometimes just let me know that they're on board and plan to run events. Since they're helping us, I want to do something in return for them. Once a month, from now on, I'll use my weekly Pathfinder Society blog to detail conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society events in the next month. I'll even give you links to their shows (when I know them or can find them) and links to threads on our messageboards when coordinators from each show are asking for volunteers to run Society events. Here are the shows debuting Pathfinder Society between now and the end of November:

Cold Iron Conventions	Wisconsin	October 23–26, 2008
Ubercon	Parsippany, NJ	October 24–26, 2008
NeonCon	Las Vegas, NV	October 30–November 2, 2008
Lucca Comics and Games	Lucca, Italy	October 31–November 2, 2008
d20 Pro Conline	Online	early November
Game08 (thread)	Manchester, England	November 1–2, 2008
MACE (thread)	High Point, NC	November 7–9, 2008
Mepacon	Scranton, PA	November 7–9, 2008
GASPcon	Pittsburgh, PA	November 1–2, 2008
Shauncon	Kansas City	November 20–23, 2008
WolfCon (thread)	Chicago, IL	November 28–29, 2008

If you know of any future conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society, please put their con coordinators, organized play coordinators, or RPG coordinators in contact with me. I'd love to use the blog to support as many shows as possible. With your help, we can support them all.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Pathfinder RPG Prestige Classes

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

There were a fair number of rules that had to be cut from the Beta Playtest Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Prestige classes were one of the unfortunate casualties. Fortunately, along with the magic of the Internet, we can release these rules to you for playtesting and review. This document will be available on Monday, October 27th from paizo.com, but in anticipation, we thought we might give you a sneak peak at one of the classes in the document. Take a look at some of these new powers for the duelist prestige class.

Precise Strike (Ex): A duelist gains the ability to strike precisely with a light or one-handed piercing weapon, adding her duelist level to her damage roll.

When making a precise strike, a duelist cannot attack with a weapon in her other hand or use a shield. A duelist's precise strike only works against creatures with discernible anatomies. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to a precise strike, and any item or ability that protects a creature from critical hits also protects a creature from a precise strike.

Parry (Ex): At 2nd level, a duelist learns to parry the attacks of other creatures, causing them to miss. Whenever the duelist takes a full attack action with a light or one-handed piercing weapon, she can elect not to take one of her attacks. At any time before her next turn she can attempt to parry an attack against her or an adjacent ally as an immediate action. To parry the attack, the duelist makes an attack roll, using the same bonuses as the attack she chose to forego during her previous action. If her attack roll is greater than the roll of the attacking creature, the attack automatically misses. For each size category the attacking creature is larger than the duelist, the duelist takes a –4 penalty on her attack roll. The duelist also takes a –4 penalty when attempting to parry an attack made against an adjacent ally. The duelist must declare the use of this ability after the attack is announced, but before the roll is made.

Riposte (Ex): At 5th level, a duelist can make an attack of opportunity against any creature whose attack she successfully parries, so long as the creature is within reach.

No Retreat (Ex): At 9th level, enemies adjacent to the duelist that take a withdraw action provoke an attack of opportunity from the duelist.

Make sure to stop by on Monday to grab this free pdf to add to your game. The playtest period for these rules begins on November 24th and will run through December 7th.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

The Dark World Approaches...

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

In my last Planet Stories post, I talked all about The Dark World, Henry Kuttner's story of two men trapped in the same body and thrust into a world of mythology and corruption, and dropped quotes by everyone from Ray Bradbury to Marion Zimmer Bradley to Roger Zelazny about how much they adore the book and the ways in which its unique take on science fantasy influenced their own writing.

Since I can't top their comments, I'm not even going to try. Instead, here's an excerpt from The Dark World, coming soon from Planet Stories:

Gripped in my right hand I still held the sword. I cut at him savagely by way of answer. He sprang back, glanced over his shoulder, and drew his weapon. I followed his glance and saw another green figure dodging forward among the trees. It was smaller and slenderer—a girl, in a tunic the color of earth and forest. Her black hair swung upon her shoulders. She was tugging at her belt as she ran, and the face she turned to me was ugly with hate, her teeth showing in a snarl.

The man before me was saying something.

"Edward, listen to me!" he was crying. "Even if you're Ganelon, you remember Edward Bond! He was with us—he believed in us. Give us a hearing before it's too late! Arles could convince you, Edward! Come to Arles. Even if you're Ganelon, let me take you to Arles!"

"It's no use, Ertu," the voice of the girl cried thinly. She was struggling with the last of the trees, whose flexible bough-tips still clutched to stop her. Neither of them tried now to keep their voices down. They were shouting, and I knew they must rouse the guards at any moment, and I wanted to kill them both myself before anyone came to forestall me by accident. I was hungry and thirsty for the blood of these enemies, and in that moment the name of Edward Bond was not even memory.

"Kill him, Ertu!" cried the girl. "Kill him or stand out of the way! I know Ganelon!"

I looked at her and took a fresh grip on my sword. Yes, she spoke the truth. She knew Ganelon. And Ganelon knew her, and remembered dimly that she had reason for her hate. I had seen that face before, contorted with fury and despair. I could not recall when or where or why, but she looked familiar.

The man Ertu drew his weapon reluctantly. To him I was still at least the image of a friend. I laughed exultantly and swung at him again with the sword, hearing it hiss viciously through the air. This time I drew blood. He stepped back again, lifting his weapon so that I looked down its black barrel.

"Don't make me do it," he said between his teeth. "This will pass. You have been Edward Bond—you will be again. Don't make me kill you, Ganelon!"

I lifted the sword, seeing him only dimly through a ruddy haze of anger. There was a great exultation in me. I could already see the fountain of blood that would leap from his severed arteries when my blade completed its swing.

I braced my body for a great full-armed blow!

And the sword came alive in my hand. It leaped and shuddered against my fist.

Impossibly—in a way I cannot describe—that blow reversed itself. All the energy I was braced to expend upon my enemy recoiled up the sword, up my arm, crashed against my own body. A violent explosion of pain and shock sent the garden reeling. The earth struck hard against my knees.

Mist cleared from my eyes. I was still Ganelon, but a Ganelon dizzy from something more powerful than a blow.

I was kneeling on the grass, braced with one hand, shaking the throbbing fingers of my sword-hand and staring at the sword that lay a dozen feet away, still faintly glowing.

It was Matholch's doing—I knew that! I should have remembered how little I could trust that shifting, unstable wolfing. I had laid hands upon him in his tower-room—I should have known he would have his revenge for that. Even Edward Bond—soft fool that he was—would have been wise enough not to accept a gift from the shape-changer.

There was no time now for anger at Matholch, though. I was looking up into Ertu's eyes, and into the muzzle of his weapon, and the look of decision grew slowly in his face as he scanned mine.

"Ganelon!" he said, almost whispering, "Warlock!"

He tilted the weapon down at me, his finger moving on the trigger.

"Wait, Ertu!" cried a thin voice behind him. "Wait—let me!"

I looked up, still dazed. It had all happened so quickly that the girl was still struggling in the edge of the trees, though she cleared them as I looked and lifted her own weapon. Behind it her face was white and blazing with relentless hate. "Let me!" she cried again. "He owed me this!"

I was helpless. I knew that even at this distance she would not miss. I saw the glare of fury in her eyes and I saw the muzzle waver a little as her hand shook with rage, but I knew she would not miss me. I thought of a great many things in that instant—confused memories of Ganelon's and of Edward Bond's surged together through my mind.

Then a great hissing like a wind swept up among the trees behind the girl. They all swayed toward her more swiftly than trees have any right to move, stooping and straining and hissing with a dreadful vicious avidity. Ertu shouted something inarticulate. But I think the girl was too angry to hear or see.

She never knew what happened. She could only have felt the great bone-cracking sweep of the nearest branch, reaching out for her from the leaning tree...

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Illustration by Kevin Crossley

Illustration by Adam Vehige

Covers Unfettered!

Friday, October 17, 2008

As I've said before, I love my job! I get to take a look at things and see stuff before it comes out. As a gamer and as a fan, that right there is worth the price of admission. One of the things I like most about our products is our great artists and the fantastic illustrations they produce for us. Sometimes, however, a particular piece of art cannot come to the fore, as it's part of a greater whole, like a cover. So, because I can, I now present to you, unfettered from their PDF restraints, the art you see lurking behind the titles of the latest Pathfinder Scenarios Mists of Mwangi and Black Waters.

Jacob Burgess
Online Retail Coordinator

How Can I Help Pathfinder Society?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Good question!

Quite a few folks have asked me via email and on the Pathfinder Society messageboards how they can help spread the world about Paizo's organized play RPG program and get more players, from newbies to veterans, involved. To that end, we've whipped up a helpful one-sheet that you can download here as well as from the Pathfinder Society Organized Play home page. Below is a suggested list of places where you can display said one-sheet:

1. Give a copy to your local game store manager or owner
2. Post a copy on the activities board at your college or university
3. Print out several black-and-white copies and hand them to your friends at your local game day or home game
4. Send the PDF to everyone you know who might be interested in a new organized play system using the 3.5 edition rules
5. Send the PDF to a local game convention coordinator
6. Climb a tall building and hang a 200-foot-wide banner made from the PDF for all to see*
7. Post a copy in your cubicle at work so you can answer questions from other members of our secret gaming cabal who might recognize the logo
8. Link to the PDF from your blog, MySpace, online dating singles profile, Facebook, or any other networking website
9. Read the PDF aloud into a web cam and post your video blog on YouTube
10. Give copies to anyone you game with!

Click here to download the zipped PDF!

And a quick note about the open call: entries are due Friday night. Don't miss the deadline!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager
*DO NOT DO THIS

The Mean Streets of Absalom

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

When in Absalom, be mindful of the myriad gangs of thieves, thugs, cutpurses, criminals, knee-breakers, and other ne're-do-wells. And should you be among this legion of lawbreakers, best to make sure your marks don't command the infinite powers of the multiverse (or an endless supply of throwing daggers). In either case things aren't going to end well for someone as we see in another incredible Wayne Reynolds cover for our upcoming Pathfinder Chronicles tome Guide to Absalom.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

The Swordsman of Mars: The Media Takes Notice

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Otis Adelbert Kline was one of the first "forgotten pulpsters" we targeted a few years ago when Pierce Watters and I started talking about the classic SF line that would become Paizo's Planet Stories imprint. We originally wanted to do his first sword and planet serial, Planet of Peril, a yarn featuring an Earthman's adventures on Venus published a few years after Edgar Rice Burroughs invented the sub–genre with his "Under the Moons of Mars" (later A Princess of Mars). We backed off on those plans when our buddies over at Wildside released a new print–on–demand version of Planet of Peril, and instead opted to publish Kline's two Mars books first.

In a way this is fitting, as the Mars books seem to happen chronologically before the Venus books, even though they were published after. There are, at least, four more Kline serials I'd like to reprint as part of Planet Stories, and beyond that there are a handful of interesting stories that were never republished in the paperback era of the 1960s that readers might enjoy.

This month's publication of an Otis Adelbert Kline novel in the Planet Stories line may be our fourteenth release, but in many ways it feels like the very first.

Because of that, it's gratifying to see bloggers and members of the science–fiction media taking notice of the book and spreading the word about the new edition and about the Planet Stories book line. The latest comes from io9.com, an exciting new general interest sci–fi site that first mentioned Planet Stories a few months ago.

Kudos to io9 editor Ed Grabianowski for his excellent taste and his continued attention to our Planet Stories line.

Other recent Swordsman of Mars coverage:

Fantasy Book Critic October Spotlight

Marooned: Science Fiction Books on Mars

ComicMix.com

Grognardia

Author Win Scott Eckert

Erik Mona
Publisher

The Two Faces of Kyonin

Friday, October 10, 2008

In Pathfinder #17, the PCs visit the elven homeland of Kyonin. We'll be providing a gazetteer of this nation for GMs to use to expand adventures set in this verdant kingdom. As you can see by the two pictures here by Andrew Hou, though, Kyonin isn't just an idyllic sylvan setting with beautiful elven villages—there's a dark side to Kyonin as well. The fiend-haunted forest of Tanglebriar, empire of the demon Treerazer (that's his palace Witchbole shown in the not-so-friendly illustration), lies deep within the kingdom's borders, providing a constant source of high-level adventure opportunity for the brave and foolhardy.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Open Call: Pathfinder Society Scenarios 17 & 18

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Rules for submitting Pathfinder Society scenario outlines are as follows:

1. Based on a summary posted on the Paizo daily blog (see below), write a 750-word outline following the format of already available–for–sale scenarios.

2. By the due date, email said summary to josh@paizo.com with the subject line [Scenario Name] Submission.

3. Include your full legal name, email address, physical mailing address, and a contact phone number at the top of your submission—this text does not count toward your word count.

4. Once all submissions are in, the Pathfinder Society coordinator (Paizo's events manager) will take two weeks to review submissions and select an author for each. You will receive an email confirming receipt—please allow 72 hours for a response before resending your submission. The coordinator will attempt to respond to all submitters with feedback, but this may not always be possible.

5. If you are selected to write a scenario, you will be emailed instructions that include your word count, due date, and contract.

The current open call is for Pathfinder Society Scenarios #17 and #18—the March releases. The full schedule for this submission period is as follows:

10/9 Open call begins with summaries posted on the Paizo Blog and at paizo.com/pathfindersociety (see below)

10/17 Submissions due by 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time

10/31 Submissions review completed

11/3 Decision announced on messageboards and paizo.com/pathfindersociety after authors are chosen and notified

Summaries:

**SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THE SUMMARIES BELOW IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS FOR UPCOMING PATHFINDER SOCIETY SCENARIOS**

Pathfinder Society Scenario #17: Perils of the Pirate Pact

A gang of River Kingdoms pirates begs the Society for help after several members are found dead dangling in spider webs stretched across the Sellen River near Numeria. They offer an ancient text as a reward—an ancient text they originally stole from a Pathfinder venture—captain.

This is a three-tiered scenario intended for 1st to 7th level characters (Tier 1–7; Tiers 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7). It must include pirates, spiders, and at least one ettercap. It must be set on the Sellen River near the Numeria border in the River Kingdoms.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #18: The Trouble with Secrets

A secret vault beneath the Grand Lodge remains sealed after more than a century to hide an embarrassing event in the Society's past. When reports surface that the vault is open, the society sends the PCs to seal it and keep the Society's darkest secret forever hidden.

This is a two-tiered scenario intended for 5th to 9th level characters (Tier 5–9; Tiers 5–6 and 8–9). It must include at least one vampire and must be set beneath the Grand Lodge in Absalom.

Basic Outline:

Please keep the following basic scenario outline in mind when writing your 750-word summary:

Intro (1,000)

Encounter #1 (750)

Encounter #2 (750)

Encounter #3 (750)

Encounter #4 (750)

Encounter #5 (750)

Conclusion (500)

Faction Missions + Summary (1,900)

Extra words (345)

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 7,000

PLEASE NOTE: Pathfinder Society Scenarios are written with a 4-hour time limit in mind. Your outline should reflect this limitation.

Good luck and may the prowess of Cayden Cailean guide your keyboard.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Please Don't Feed the Bebiliths

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

In Pathfinder #17's adventure, "A Memory of Darkness," the heroes get to travel to the idyllic realm of Kyonin, the homeland of the elves. But as you can see here in Steve Prescott's cover illustration, Kyonin's not wholly a nice and happy place. Particularly down south, in the demon infested reaches of Tanglebriar, where bebiliths and other menaces replace bears in the "Reasons to fortify your campsite" list.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

It's a Dark, Dark World

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

"You're going to love this one," Erik told me when we decided to publish Henry Kuttner's The Dark World. "It's amazing."

"Cool," I said, and left it at that. After all, while being publisher of Planet Stories has given Erik the chance to accelerate his ascension to pulp scholarship, we see a lot of good books around here. So I got a little excited, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then I saw what some other folks had to say about it.

"I consider the work of Henry Kuttner to be the finest science fantasy ever written. The Dark World was the best fantasy I have ever read...my copy is already half thumbed to death as I imagine I have read it at least twelve times."
Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of The Mists of Avalon

Oh. Well...

"Henry Kutter was a neglected master... a man who shaped science fiction and fantasy in its most important years."
Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451

Huh.

"The Kuttner story which most impressed me in those most impressionable days was his short novel The Dark World. I returned to it time and time, reading it over and over again, drawn by its colorful, semi-mythic characters and strong action.... Looking back, Kuttner and Moore—and, specifically, The Dark World—were doubtless a general influence on my development as a writer."
Roger Zelazny, author of the Amber series

Okay, guys, I get it! Geez!

The honest truth, though, is that The Dark World is amazing. In Kuttner's fast-reading fantasy classic, WWII airman Edward Bond returns home from strange events during the war to discover that his mind is no longer his own. Instead, he now shares his body with his identical twin from an alternate dimension, the evil wizard Ganelon. Sucked through a portal to the mysterious fey realm known as the Dark World, Bond finds himself trapped between two warring factions. On one side is the Coven: a werewolf, a hooded immortal, and a beautiful and seductive witch, all eager to acknowledge Ganelon as their sinister ruler. On the other is the white sorceress Freydis and her band of forest rebels that want nothing more than to see the warlock's head on a spike. Within the first few pages, the book's central conflict comes out swinging: will Edward/Ganelon join with the rebels to release the oppressed world from the grip of a tyrannical, sacrifice—hungry god—or embrace the Coven to become the world's greatest villain?

It's a classic premise—the man drawn into another world of magic and swordplay—honed to the sharpest possible edge by Kuttner's clever brand of mythology backed by science. Yet the vibrant, instantly familiar setting isn't what makes this book stand out. No, what made it startlingly different in its day was its moral ambiguity. In an era—remember, we're in 1946—when you could reasonably expect any given protagonist to be a hard—jawed paragon of virtue, instinctively punching and slashing his way to justice without fail, Kuttner's hero is literally torn between good and evil. And for the first time in my pulp—reading career, I began to actually fear that our hero might not win. That the temptations of tyranny, unlimited power, and a life of luxury might be too much, and Edward Bond might—to quote another science fiction classic—give in to the dark side.

So take heed of what Marion, Ray, Roger—and, yes, Erik—have been saying and give The Dark World a shot. There are witches. There are vampires. There are werewolves. There are zombies. There are wizards and warlocks, dark gods with bloody sacrifices, and things that go bump in the night.

And they're winning....

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Looking to the Stars

Monday, October 6, 2008

So, after a lengthy and unscheduled delay, it looks like we're getting quite close to finally getting Pathfinder #14 into our warehouse and ready to ship. It's been a bit since we talked about this one, but here's a quick preview of something a lot of our readers are looking forward to—what lies beyond the planet of Golarion!

In Pathfinder #14, we'll be discussing that very topic—what other worlds revolve around Golarion's sun, what sorts of creatures dwell on those worlds, and how they and Golarion's denizens travel back and forth between the planets through the inhospitable gulf of space. Naturally, the map of the solar system attached doesn't show the planets and the distances between them to scale (we'd have to have a giant foldout section to do that, I suspect), but it does show off how many different worlds there are out there. It's a little overwhelming to me, to tell the truth; we've barely scratched the surface of one small part of Golarion, and we're already talking about the other planets! Hopefully Pathfinder #14 satisfies the urge for info about these other planets for a while, though—at least long enough for us to catch our breath and figure out what to do with all these worlds!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Welcome to Osirion!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Our third Pathfinder Companion takes us south into the legendary sands of Osirion. And what is pretty much the number one thing you need to watch out for in Osirion? Mummies, of course! But to me, it's not the mummies in Ralph Horsley's cover to Osirion: Land of Pharaohs you have to worry about... it's whoever built that freaky sphinx in the background that would have my characters nervous!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Coming Soon: Open Call for Pathfinder Society Scenarios

Thursday, October 2, 2008

** Warning: if you wish to avoid possible spoilers about future Pathfinder Society scenarios, do not read this blog post. **

Good news! Next week we begin our first open call for Pathfinder Society scenarios. What do we mean by "open call?" We mean:

1. Not every scenario we release is written via the open call process

2. Outline submissions are based on summaries, rather than true open calls

Rules for submitting Pathfinder Society scenario outlines are as follows:

1. Based on a summary (or summaries) posted on the Paizo daily blog as well as on the Pathfinder Society page, write a 750-word outline following the format of already posted and available-for-sale scenarios.

2. By the due date, email said summary to josh@paizo.com with the subject line [Scenario Name] Submission.

3. Include your full legal name, email address, physical mailing address, and a contact phone number at the top of your submission—this text does not count toward your word count.

4. Once all submissions are in, the Pathfinder Society coordinator will take two weeks to review submissions and select an author for each open scenario. You will receive an email confirming receipt—please allow 72 hours for a response before resending your submission. The coordinator will attempt to respond to all submitters with feedback, but this may not always be possible.

5. If you are selected to write a scenario, you will be emailed instructions that include your word count, due date, and contract.

6. Failing to follow any of the instructions above will immediately disqualify you from the open call.

The open call that starts next week is for Pathfinder Society scenarios #17 and #18—the January March releases. The full schedule for this submission period is as follows:

10/9—Open call begins with summaries posted on the Paizo Blog and at paizo.com/pathfindersociety

10/17—Submissions due by 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time

10/31—Submissions review completed

11/3—Decision announced on messageboards and paizo.com/pathfindersociety after authors are chosen and notified

While we won't begin accepting scenario outlines until next week, here are a few hints to get your brain juices flowing:

Scenario 17—Spiders & Pirates
Scenario 18—Vampires & Vaults

Good luck!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Massive Monster Muster

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

With sixteen volumes of Pathfinder and more than a dozen Pathfinder Modules under our belts we had a realization a few days back. That's a ton of monsters! Between Pathfinder's Bestiary and at least one new beastie in the adventures every month, we're looking at more than 100 never-before-seen nightmares, classic creatures, and fiendish foes over the course of the past year. Need proof? Take a look at a listing of the vast majority of new critters we've released from Pathfinder #1 to #15 including all the modules in between.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor