More of the Fabled Appendix on the Way!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Greetings fellow blog addicts!

I'm happy to announce that the road to creating Paizo's very own Appendix N continues, as an interview with Pathfinder's Editor-in-Chief, James Jacobs, is in the works. James's love of Lovecraft, derro, and horror movies is fairly legendary around the office and on the message boards, and he should have a great list of influences for those gamers who want to add a dash (or deluge) of the horrific in their games.

As usual, the Paizo staff has been swamped, and figuring out how to coax them to take some time out from their busy schedules and endure my probably too-eager interrogations has been vexing me. Fortunately, Wes Schneider suggested rolling a d6 to determine which "lucky" staff member would have the honor of being interviewed next. As you can see, Mr. Jacobs was—unfortunately for him—assigned the number 2. Hooray for us!

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

Illustration by Tyler Walpole

Snagged from the Vault: Pathfinder #20—House of the Beast

Thursday, February 26, 2009

At much risk to ourselves, my colleague and I braved the defenses of Paizo's well-guarded vault to bring you, our loyal readers, this exclusive preview of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #20, House of the Beast. Now we must flee, before our pursuers discover us...

Sunlord Thalachos is Sarenrae's favorite angel, liaison to the mortal world, the hosts of astral devas, and the ranks of superior angels (including the Empyreal Lords). At 8 feet tall and 300 pounds, he is an impressive figure with a rich baritone voice, always speaking with clarity and precision. His metallic skin is as hard as steel to any that wish to do him harm, but as soft as velvet to anyone kind, merciful, and good. He is the champion of the Dawnflower in Golarion and her favorite weapon against the spawn of Rovagug (though she only calls upon him for this when no mortal heroes are available). Before the death of Aroden he often delivered prophecies on behalf of the goddess, and several stories in The Birth of Light and Truth were penned by oracles whom he personally escorted through Sarenrae's realm. Now the only similar duty he bears is appearing at auspicious births.

Look for the full article on Sunlord Thalachos in Pathfinder #20's bestiary, along with the full description of Sarenrae's faith!

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Bastards of Erebus—Playtest Two

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

David is pretty busy with his appendix posts, so I'm doing the second playtest blog. It began with Sean having us reset and trying our fateful battle over. Pre-battle, we toyed around with some new ideas, but ultimately decided that our last tactic was working pretty well (that is, until we died), and so decided to go with that.

The encounter actually started off a lot better than last time. We took out our first opponent rather speedily... and right about then things started to go against us. First my eagle got taken out. Then our dice betrayed us. Now, I know everyone has had bad dice nights, but this was incredulously, astronomically, and hilariously terrible. Even Sean shook his head in dismay, chalking it up as a first in his book.

That's when we began dropping like flies. The dwarf fighter and my druid were dealing the most damage, but of course this meant that we were the first to drop (meanwhile my eagle stabilized at –9). This left the gnome sorcerer and David's rogue. The gnome, after having a series of unfortunate rolls (like all of us), finally managed to hit one of the baddies while also providing a flanking bonus for the rogue... and then dropped. That left David and the final baddie, mano a mano. It went something like this (and by something, I mean exactly):

Sean: (Rolls a d20) 1.
David: (Rolls a d20) 1.
Sean: (Rolls a d20) 1.
David: (Rolls a d20) 1.

Two rounds in a row! Meanwhile, the gnome, the dwarf, and my druid are slowly bleeding to death. The gnome stabilized at I think –8, the dwarf at –9, and I just kept dying. But then, with a mighty strike with his rapier for 1 point of damage, David dropped the last foe and Sean declared (because he's a nice guy), that David managed to save me—right at –9.

Afterward, we leveled up (woohoo!) and moved on to the next phase of the adventure, which involves some careful planning on our part...

Hank Woon
Editorial Intern

Illustration by Daren Bader

Sword of the Dark God

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

With her masterful Skaith trilogy wrapped up in The Reavers of Skaith, it's time for Leigh Brackett to take us away to yet another world—or rather, another era. For while her latest release from Planet Stories, The Sword of Rhiannon, takes place on the same strange and populous Mars as The Secret of Sinharat, the story draws us far back into the past, when Mars was a lush world of oceans, pirates, and strange alien races.

Originally titled "The Sea Kings of Mars" when it first appeared in the pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories and later rebranded for its publication as a novel, The Sword of Rhiannon is the story of Matthew Carse, a Martian archaeologist-turned-looter whose discovery of a mysterious tomb and a sword belonging to the dark god Rhiannon sends him hurtling back in time to a Mars ruled by corrupt imperialists, their tyranny backed by the super-science of sinister snake-men. In this world, only the Viking-like Sea Kings and their winged and aquatic alien allies dare challenge their oppressors, and with the discovery of Carse's sword, the time has come for a last desperate battle. Enslaved by the beautiful but evil princess of the imperial Sarks, and somehow tied to the dark god himself, will Carse help lead the rebellion, or find himself exterminated by his own allies? For more, check out the following excerpt:

Panting, dripping, his mind a whirl of confused speculations, he dug outward through the soft soil till a small hole of brilliant daylight opened in front of him.

Daylight? Then he'd been in the weird bubble of darkness longer than he had imagined.

The wind blew in through a little opening, upon his face. And it was a warm wind. A warm wind and a damp wind, such as never blows on desert Mars.

Carse squeezed through and stood in the bright day looking outward.

There are times when a man has no emotion, no reaction. Times when all the centers are numbed and the eyes see and the ears hear but nothing communicates itself to the brain, which is protected in this way from madness.

He tried finally to laugh at what he saw though he heard his own laughter as a dry choking cry.

"Mirage, of course," he whispered. "A big mirage. Big as all Mars."

The warm breeze lifted Carse's tawny hair, blew his cloak against him. A cloud drifted over the sun and somewhere a bird screamed harshly. He did not move.

He was looking at an ocean.

It stretched out to the horizon ahead, a vast restlessness of water, milky-white and pale with a shimmering phosphorescence even in daylight.

"Mirage," he said again stubbornly, his reeling mind clinging with the desperation of fear to that one shred of explanation. "It has to be. Because this is still Mars."

Still Mars, still the same planet. The same high hills up into which Penkawr had led him by night.

Or were they the same? Before, the foxhole entrance to the Tomb of Rhiannon had been in a steep cliff-face. Now he stood on the grassy slope of a great hill.

And there were rolling green hills and dark forest down there below him, where before had been only desert. Green hills, green wood and a bright river that ran down a gorge to what had been dead sea-bottom but was now—sea.

Carse's numbed gaze swept along the great coast of the distant shoreline. And down on that far sunlit coast he saw the glitter of a white city and knew that it was Jekkara.

Jekkara, bright and strong between the verdant hills and the mighty ocean, that ocean that had not been seen upon Mars for nearly a million years...

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Pathfinder in 3D!

Monday, February 23, 2009

One of the more exciting things about working on Pathfinder is that, now and then, other companies have great ideas on how to augment and enhance what we're doing. With the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, please welcome WorldWorksGames to the Pathfinder fold! WorldWorksGames provides some incredible 3D paper dungeons, and with each Legacy of Fire adventure, they'll be providing a fold-up, miniatures-scale presentation of one of the key dungeons or areas featured in that volume's adventure. The first one presents the Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane—a dangerous dungeon players of the first adventure, "Howl of the Carrion King," will get to explore during the adventure's climax.

We've already shown off some of the images of the Ruined Undercrypt—here are a few more, and perhaps even more importantly, the helpful guys at WorldWorksGames have created an instruction book on how to set the dungeon up. So, if you'd like a better idea of what it's like to build a dungeon for your PCs to adventure in, download the building instructions (37 MB zip PDF) for the Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane now!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

The Fabled Appendix – Erik Mona (Part 3)

Friday, February 20, 2009

In the second part of my interview with Erik Mona about which books, movies, and other resources he would include in Paizo's Appendix N, he explained how the idea of a devil-worshiping colonial power—the concept of which eventually became the feared nation of Cheliax—began as a faction in a miniatures game that he developed in his free time. In this conclusion, Erik reveals that several other nations of Golarion, including Andoran and the Land of the Linnorm Kings, had their beginnings in his miniatures game as well. Of course, no version of the fabled Appendix N would be complete without a list of inspiration and educational reading, and Erik admirably provides a hefty list of source material!

Erik: Another colonial power in the miniatures game was the Vikings; the fact that I am from Minnesota, am a fan of the Vikings football team, am of Scandinavian ancestry, and am a fan of Vikings as a sword and sorcery archetype in general, made their conclusion pretty much inevitable. A lot of S&S authors, such as Robert E. Howard and Poul Anderson, pulled the Icelandic sagas into their own worlds. I wanted to bring this archetype into the world of Pathfinder.

Before we began working on Pathfinder, I created a homebrew setting for my own games. While I never got the chance to play in the world, the very first region I detailed in this setting was the realm of the Vikings, which I called the Land of the Linnorm Kings; when we created Golarion, I imported this realm, name and all, directly into the world. A number of sources influenced my vision of the Vikings: the Icelandic sagas, Poul Anderson's The Valor of Cappen Varra, The 13th Warrior, a number of different history books about the Vikings, and my own visits to Norway.

Another faction in the miniatures game included a fantasy version of colonial America as well as a faction inspired by Revolutionary France. Thus, Andoran and Galt were part of my conception of Golarion right from the beginning. A number of books influenced my conception of the Revolutionary faction, such as Claude Manceron's 5-book series The Age of the French Revolution about France in the years leading up to the Revolution, and Simon Schama's Citizens—I loved the idea of how the revolution started with idealistic intentions but then went horribly wrong.

A number of sources inspired the creation of other regions in Golarion: Irrisen is essentially the realm of the White Queen of Narnia meets Baba Yaga; the Realm of the Mammoth Lords was designed as an homage to classic Lost World tales of megafauna and giants, as well as Hollow Earth-style settings of the kind Edgar Rice Burroughs created; Numeria could best be described as Expedition to the Barrier Peaks meets Thundarr the Barbarian; Mendev was inspired by tales of the Crusades, and has elements of the Demon War from John Ostrander's GrimJack comic book, the Swarm from Hugh Cook's novels, and the forces of Chaos from Warhammer Fantasy; the primary sources of inspiration for the River Kingdoms were the Bandit Kingdoms of Greyhawk and the Young Kingdoms from Michael Moorcock's Elric series; Taldor was inspired by the climate and visuals of the Crusader kingdoms in the Holy Land, as well as the cultural decadence of Ancient Rome and pre-Revolution France; and Absalom was heavily influenced by HBO's Rome series, which depicted noble families whose lineages stretch back thousands of years, while the Starstone and the religious faiths with which it is associated are an obvious parallel of Jerusalem. The Starstone itself is inspired by the Kaaba in Mecca, and was named after a short story by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore titled The Quest of the Starstone. Planet Stories has reprinted Quest of the Starstone in both Northwest of Earth and Black God's Kiss, by C. L. Moore.

Thanks for reading, Paizonians! Stay tuned for more interviews with Paizo staff members as we continue to expand Paizo's Appendix N!

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

The Bastards of Erebus—First Playtest

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Much to our delight, David and I were invited by Sean K Reynolds to participate in the playtesting of his latest Pathfinder Adventure Path adventure, The Bastards of Erebus.

We really enjoyed the adventure (well, the part we got through before suffering from a TPK). In addition to a gnome sorcerer and dwarven cleric, our party contained a half-orc druid (me) and a human rogue (David). David's character was the only native Chelaxian, which actually proved pretty helpful a few times.

I can't really go into too much detail, but I will say that there was a lot of suspense, which provoked a lot of debating over which course of action to take (I always love that!). The battle that did us in was actually already pretty balanced, but we had some extraordinarily poor rolls, while the enemy enjoyed just the opposite.

My druid was kicking butt with her entangle spell, but alas, the spell's effect only reduces Dex mods instead of denying, so it was of little help to the rogue, and the defensive way in which I had cast the spell prevented easy flanking for not only them, but also ourselves.

Sean estimates that the playtest will take about 4 sessions to complete, and David and I are going to take turns blogging about it. Maybe his first blog will be better news than a TPK, but either way I know it will be a blast! Stay tuned.

Hank Woon
Editorial Intern

The Fabled Appendix - Erik Mona (Part 2)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This is the second part of my interview with Erik Mona about the sources of inspiration he would list if Paizo created its own "Appendix N." In today's blog, Erik discusses the books and ideas that inspired his creation of Osirion and Cheliax, two of the best-known regions of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting.

David: What historical, mythological, or fictional sources did you use to develop Osirion? I know you mentioned The Sirius Mystery on the message boards. Any other sources like this?

Erik: I've always been interested in Ancient Egypt. In terms of books, one of my favorites was a collection of illustrations made by the surveyors who traveled with Napoleon's army throughout Egypt. Napoleon's scientific surveys of Egypt were a major inspiration for the whole concept of the Pathfinder Society—a group of explorers and treasure seekers whose level of altruism can vary greatly.

Another source of inspiration was the book you mentioned, Robert Temple's The Sirius Mystery. Temple introduces the concept that alien astronauts, aquatic beings from a planet orbiting the Dog Star, came down and gave culture to the Ancient Egyptians. After reading this, I immediately had visions of aqueducts, waterways, and pools surrounding Egypt, with aboleths swimming in their depths, commanding the people to construct enormous monuments. In fact, the name "Osirion" comes from this mixture of Egyptian culture and alien influences, as it plays off of the names Sirius and Osiris.

David: What's the story behind Cheliax? When did you come up with the idea of having a nation of devil-worshippers? What were your primary sources of inspiration?

Erik: I grew up in Minnesota, and while I was visiting the state capital I saw an image that became indelibly burned into my brain, of a Christian monk preaching to a group of American Indians. Since then, the idea of religious colonization has always been in the back of my mind. A while ago, I designed a miniatures-based game just for fun. I wanted the game to have a lot of inherent conflict, so I came up with the idea of a fantasy society that discovers gateways to another world rich in resources. I wanted to make the game about colonization and the conflicts that arise from that, so I decided that I needed several factions that had antipathy for each other. For one of the factions, I went back to that image for the missionary—except instead of the Christian cross, I made their icon a pentagram. This took the theme I was aiming for—religious colonization—and made it undeniably, inherently evil.

For the faction's title, I used the name of an evil empire I had created for a piece of sword and sorcery fiction that I wrote in college. At the time, I had named this empire Chelan because of a horrible family vacation that we had at Lake Chelan in Washington State. After I moved to Washington, I wanted to change the name, but at the same time to make it sound more evil. Cheliax, in Golarion, originally started out in my mind as a colonial power—Arcadia being the stand-in for the unexplored continent that was in my miniatures game.

Thus ends the second part of my interview with Erik about his sources of inspiration. In the conclusion, Erik reveals how his miniatures game gave birth to several other Golarion nations and explains how Thundarr the Barbarian fits into the whole picture. Sources of inspiration abound!

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

The Road to the Pulps

Tuesday, January 17, 2009

The paths to our most cherished obsessions take on many varied forms. For me, one such passion is reading science fiction and fantasy from an older, often more spirit-soaring, freewheeling era. My Yellow Brick Road to the type of pulps we publish at Planet Stories began at an early age with an uncle bequeathing to me a longstanding love of Edgar Rice Burroughs's works. Probably the foundation for my fascination with the pulps was laid much earlier, reading H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, although at the time I didn't really realize their novels were serialized in magazines like Burroughs's. And even after I'd read a healthy dose of Burroughs, it wasn't until I found Irwin Porges's mammoth biography, Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan, that I first saw reproductions of those splendid All-Story Weekly, Blue Book, Argosy, Amazing Stories, and Fantastic Adventures covers and made the connection between ERB and the pulps.

Then, of course, there was Philip José Farmer. Farmer was for me, as for thousands of SF/F readers growing up in the 1970s and '80s, the mega-gateway to the pulps. And like many, I stumbled across his writings through Burroughs, picking up Farmer's post-modern metafictional masterpiece Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke, and later his "biography" of the 1930s scientific genius and crime-fighter Doc Savage. In these books Farmer proposed his intricate Wold Newton faux genealogy, linking together into one giant family an array of pulp era heroes and villains ranging from Allan Quatermain to Solomon Kane, Captain Nemo to Fu Manchu, and everything in between—and in many cases beyond. A virtual reading list of the "hero pulps," for which I will forever be grateful to Farmer for having amalgamated. If I would have been told back then that one day I would meet the man and edit three collections of his fiction, I would have lit up with such joy that my glowing manifestations would probably have been visible on far-off Poloda (for the as-yet ERB-uninitiated, I refer to a planet in the strangely shaped solar system from Burroughs's Beyond the Farthest Star).

I radiate a similar joy working with Erik and Pierce and James bringing back into print fantastic lost classics of the pulp era for Planet Stories. I think I speak for all of us when I say the task is more than a job, more even than a privilege, although it is unquestionably the latter. Planet Stories is about tradition, about carrying on the flame of the spirit of adventure and excitement and wonder of the type of science fiction that first soared free in the pulps.

But enough said about my road to the pulps. I encourage you to stop by the Planet Stories messageboards and let us know of your own unique journeys to the world of science fiction and fantasy literature. Like the out-of-this-world genre they lead to, they are always tales of wonder.

Christopher Carey
Planet Stories Editor

The Fabled Appendix – Erik Mona

Monday, February 16, 2009

As was explained in my introductory blog post, the purpose of this series is to create Paizo's very own Appendix N, a semi-comprehensive list of the books, comics, movies, and roleplaying products that influenced each member of the Paizo staff in their work on the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. To begin this series, there seemed no better place to start than with one of the original creators of Golarion and the driving force behind Planet Stories, Erik Mona. He had quite a bit to say. By the time we finished lunch, I had filled three complete pages with notes and had been forced to finish transcribing the interview on a napkin. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), the length of the interview has forced us to break it into three parts. In this first installment, Erik reveals which authors most influenced his idea for the general feel he wanted to give Golarion.

David: What authors or titles stand out to you as most influential on your game design and upon Golarion?

Erik: Robert E. Howard's Conan series, particularly the collections of the original Conan stories that have been published by Del Rey—The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Conquering Sword of Conan—those ones; Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories; Moorcock's Elric series; China Miéville's stories, particularly Perdido Street Station and The Scar; Jack Vance's 4-book Dying Earth series (which I think is now published in a Dying Earth omnibus); C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry series ; Hugh Cook's 10-book series The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness; H. P. Lovecraft; and Henry Kuttner's The Dark World and Elak of Atlantis.

A lot of these authors and titles influenced the mood and tone of the setting, as far as being sword and sorcery stories. Michael Moorcock's Elric series being the only exception, these stories feature protagonists who are not superhuman; each is just a dude. It's like how Captain America is a regular guy compared to the other Marvel superheroes—he can't fly and doesn't have any remarkable powers. Batman obviously falls into this category as well. The characters in these stories are powerful but not superhumanly so. More importantly, almost, is the idea that the environment itself is the antagonist, and the characters are exceptional—but otherwise ordinary—people who must fight back or the world will destroy them.

Tolkien was an influence only so far as he influenced D&D. The world he created just didn't fit with what we were trying to do with Golarion. To be honest, it is too hopeful, not grim enough. I asked Jason Bulmahn when we were first creating Golarion, rhetorically, if it would be possible for Paizo to build a world without gnomes, dwarves, elves, and the like. Of course we immediately came to the conclusion that it would be impossible, but it gives you an idea of what we were trying to achieve with Golarion.

Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue books were very influential in the way that they showed, through storytelling and world-building, the sort of milieux that the inherent style of a world governed by the game's rules. Even if used simply as a point of departure, that's an invaluable resource. The early Thieves World anthologies were also an influence, more in terms of style and world-view than anything else. Greyhawk and Sanctuary are photocopies of Leiber's Lankhmar, and when it comes to a location most exemplifying the fantasy RPG spirit, Lankhmar is the place.

Thus concludes the first part of my interview with Erik and the first installment of The Fabled Appendix. Next time: Erik discusses how Osirion and Cheliax were born, and the books and horrible vacations that inspired their creation.

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

The Great Beyond

Friday, February 13, 2009

In The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse, we get an in-depth tour of what lies beyond the borders of life and death, of reality and entropy, and of good and evil in Golarion. Here, Wayne Reynolds's incredible cover shows us not only a view of the Maelstrom (the chaotic neutral outer plane) but also one of its indigenous menaces—a protean. A CR 17 keketar protean, to be precise. Here's hoping poor Seltyiel's ready to handle some quickened confusions, a lawful weapon, and a good fortitude save to resist all those transmutations when the monster invariably claws him up. And for Desna's sake, Seltyiel... don't try to teleport when that keketar's that close to you!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

A Day at the Office

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Paizo office isn't just all about the RPGs and trade paperbacks—it's amazing what goes on around here. The other day, I came to work early just to participate in Pierce Watter's weekly taijiquan lesson. It's a great way to start the day; I learned the qigong warm-up exercises, the beginner's pushing hands exercise, and ten ways to kill a man with an eyelash.

Pierce is very knowledgeable about taijiquan (as his 40 years of martial arts training, being the founding editor of Internal Arts magazine, and multiple magazine articles in Kung Fu magazine will attest), and perhaps even more knowledgeable about various Chinese teas. Each day, Pierce prepares a pot of tea, and after the lesson he offered me some of his delicious brew (there's nothing quite like sharing a pot of tea with Pierce Watters while talking to him about Chinese tea culture, taijiquan, or his tenure at TSR).

So, with my day already off to a great start, there was only one way to top it: work on Pathfinder products. I was particularly pleased with this day; David and I completed the first two big projects we were assigned, and we gave an editing pass over a chapter of the upcoming sourcebook Pathfinder Chronicles: The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse. (This book is going to be great; what we read has David and me very excited to see the rest!)

By six o'clock, I was ready to call the day a success, go home and get some dinner (I had skipped lunch), watch some of The Office, and pass out. Little did I know that there was still more awesome headed my way: Sean K Reynolds approached and invited us to join him in his weekly after-work session of miniature painting! Even though I was starving, I had to check it out. So David and I hopped on over to the meeting room where Sean showed us the ropes of this delicate art while assuring us that the process is actually quite simple.

The really cool part was him unveiling a foam case filled with his as-of-yet unpainted miniatures and allowing us to choose one, saying with a smile, "You paint it, you keep it!" How cool is that?! (Incidentally, I chose what looks like a human female rogue, masked and hooded and wielding a longsword.) I'm really excited about these sessions, even though I still find the task a bit daunting. He says it's easy to learn, but then you look at his, and they're seriously works of art.

But you know what, even if I'm totally horrible (which I'm fairly certain will be the case, since I can't even stay in the lines of a coloring book... that's right, I color), it will still be a lot of fun. Also, Sean has some very entertaining anecdotes of various games he's played in with other famed game designers (which kept me there far longer than my growling stomach would have liked). David and I decided these stories absolutely need to go up as blogs, and we'll also be posting pics of our sloppy attempts at miniature painting once we finish our first ones (well, David's might actually be good).

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and certainly a great way to bookend what is just another day at the office!

Hank Woon
Editorial Intern

Open Call for Pathfinder Society Scenarios 27 & 28

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hello and welcome to another installment of the Pathfinder Society Scenario Open Call. Last week I selected the authors for scenarios #23 and #24 and they are, respectively: Steven Robert (Tide of Morning) and Tim Hitchcock (The Decline of Glory). Congratulations, guys!

That brings us to the open call round for #27 and #28 (#25 and #26 were assigned). This month's open call is the last open call for OGL 3.5 and the last open call until September. I'll repeat that: this is the last open call until September. So if you're waiting to get involved or submit, this is your last chance for a while. With the launch of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the fact that we have to start writing scenarios with the new rules in the next few months, we've decided to assign the first PRPG scenarios to current scenario authors who could include those authors selected to write #27 and #28.

As always, keep the following guidelines in mind when submitting:

1. Don't break our world. If you submit something that breaks part of our world, it'll be auto-rejected. The scenarios are one-shot, 4-hour adventures—epic story arcs, world-shattering events, wars, mass famine, etc. don't have a place in them.

2. Understand Pathfinder Society Organized Play before you submit. Specifically, understand that the Pathfinder Society is an organization of vagabond scholars, thrill-seeking treasure hunters, and extreme explorers. They are not necessarily the "good guys," they don't get "hired" for their adventures, and they're not generally looking to make the world a better place. Submitting generic 3.5 "save the day" adventure ideas will decrease your chances of getting to write one. There are plenty of resources out there to give you a feel for the Society: the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #1, and the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting all have information on the Pathfinder Society.

3. I need to feel that you've read or played a few scenarios before submitting. I'll get this sense through your proposal—our scenarios have a very specific flow to them and your outline should follow this flow. Read one or two before submitting.

4. Pathfinder Society Scenarios must be no more offensive than PG-13. Scenarios are played in public at public settings and children will be playing them. No more submissions that include violence toward children, please.

5. This is not a contest. This is more like an interview for a job—you're showing me your best idea and I'm deciding if the combination of idea and writing skill equals you being selected as our next scenario author. I need authors—not winners. And I really want to stress the author part of that. Only send me your best work that is reflective of your writing style. I can teach someone the rules system—I can't teach someone to write.

6. I just don't have time to return every submission with feedback. Feel free to post your rejected proposals to the Pathfinder Society messageboards for peer review. For those of you not submitting, please give feedback to those who do and are rejected.

7. Lastly, I posted some general feedback on recent submissions here. Please read that thread before submitting. It'll help. I promise.

Rules for submitting Pathfinder Society Scenario outlines are as follows:

1. Based on the guidelines for the current round, write a 750-word outline that includes the following:

a. A title
b. A brief introduction that acts as a prologue for the scenario
c. A brief summary of how the PCs proceed through each encounter
d. A brief summary of each encounter—minimum five encounters
e. A brief conclusion—what happens if the PCs fail or succeed
f. You no longer need to submit mission ideas with your outline

2. By the due date, email your outline to josh@paizo.com with the subject line SCENARIO NAME_SCENARIO#_YOURLASTNAME. Your summary must be in a MS Word document, Notepad, or Real Text format—these are files ending in .doc, .txt, or .rtf. Your file must be titled SCENARIO NAME_SCENARIO#_LAST NAME, i.e., PerilsofthePiratePact_17_Dayon.

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. Please allow 72 hours for a response before resending your submission.

The current open call is for Pathfinder Society scenarios 27 & 28—the July releases and last OGL 3.5 scenarios. The full schedule for this submission period is as follows:

• 2/12/09—Open call begins
• 2/20/09—Submissions due by 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time
• 3/6/09—Submissions review completed—selections and rejections notified

Guidelines

**SPOILER ALERT: Do not read the guidelines below if you wish to avoid spoilers for upcoming scenarios.**

Pathfinder Society Scenario #27
Suggested Title: Our Lady of Silver
Setting: Qadiran City (political intrigue scenario that pits wealthy merchant lords against one another)
Monster: Open
Level Range: Tier 5–9; tiers 5–6 and 8–9

Pathfinder Society Scenario #28
Suggested Title: Lyrics of Extinction
Setting: Mwangi Expanse (ancient culture destroyed by fell song—travel to the ruins to recover a copy of it)
Monster: Open
Level Range: Tier 7–11; tiers 7–8 and 10–11

PLEASE NOTE: Pathfinder Society Scenarios are written with a 4-hour time limit in mind. Your outline should reflect 4 hours of solid game play.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

The Fabled Appendix!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

For my inaugural blog post, I thought I'd try to hark back to some of the old-school roots that Paizo has blended together to create the world of Golarion. As many members of the Paizo staff have been playing the game since first edition, they've made it a design goal to create a setting that is true to the roots of the hobby while remaining fresh and exciting.

At the time of the publication of the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide in 1979, the book's Appendix N was fairly revolutionary. This appendix consisted of a list of pulp fantasy authors that E. Gary Gygax considered to have had the largest role in shaping Dungeons & Dragons. This list included such famous authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and Michael Moorcock. What made Appendix N so remarkable was that, at the time, most these authors were relatively unknown, with only a handful of older authors enjoying a resurgence of popularity thanks to the efforts of contemporary fantasists such as L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter.

Since the publication of that first DMG, Appendix N has played a role in the development of the hobby that is hard to overemphasize. The authors and works listed in the appendix influenced the earliest editions of the game and continue to steer game designers 30 years later. The first two printings of the first edition Deities & Demigods, for instance, contained the Melnibonéan pantheon from Michael Moorcock's Elric series, as well as the Great Old Ones of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. And today in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, Edgar Rice Burroughs's tales of Mars and Venus have helped to inspire Golarion's own red and green sister planets. Indeed, the whole Planet Stories line was launched with the intent of reintroducing pulp fantasy authors to modern gamers. The roots of Appendix N are deep and far-reaching indeed.

With this in mind, I plan to explore which books, movies, comics, and roleplaying products members of the Paizo staff have found most influential in both their style of design and the development of Golarion. And our first interviewee will be Paizo's own publisher, Erik Mona. Look for it next time!

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

Illustration by David Bircham

Osirion, Land of the Ph-rickin' Awesome

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Part of the joy of being an editorial intern is getting to read all the goodness that is Pathfinder. For free. And before the rest of the world. Recently, I was asked to give an editing pass over a few chapters of the new Pathfinder's Journal, "Dark Tapestry," penned by the prolific and outrageously talented Elaine Cunningham (seriously, who wouldn't want this job?!).

Set in the desert realm of Osirion, this new Pathfinder story does everything a piece of fiction set in an RPG campaign world should do: it reveals believable and interesting characters, it brings the setting to life, and most of all, it makes me want to play a Pathfinder campaign set in Osirion right now.

Really though, the story highlights for me everything I really enjoy about Pathfinder. There is a touch of the familiar, but at the same time, never once can I say, "Hey, I've been here before." While reading the Pathfinder's Journal, I recognized many well-known aspects—a magical item here, a class-name drop there—and even though I have been playing RPGs since I was in junior high, never once did I feel like it was just another tired rehash. And while Osirion clearly draws inspiration from ancient Egypt, never once does it feel like a shallow interpretation of real-life history. While reading Elaine Cunningham's words, it truly felt that if I could somehow peel back the crawling desert sands, it would reveal the bones of countless centuries, a deep, rich, and lived history filled with epic stories and sweeping tales of heroism and tragedy, of which the PCs' adventures comprise only the latest chapter.

So I think I'm going to slip on some sandals, slap on some sunscreen, and head on back over to Osirion. See you there!

Hank Woon
Paizo Editorial Intern

Introductions All Around! Part II

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Greetings, fellow Paizonians! Last week, Hank Woon and I upgraded our messageboard status from "Pathfinder Subscriber" to "Editorial Assistant"—that's right, we're the newest interns here at Paizo!

I'm David Eitelbach, and I'm as excited (or more so) as many of you probably imagine I would be to get a gig at Paizo. At 23 years old, I'm the youngest member of the Paizo team. My glorious years at college came to an end just as the economy flushed itself down the toilet, so without a job and the prospects of finding a career looking dim, I applied for the editorial internship —hoping beyond hope that Paizo would want me as badly as I wanted to work for them. If I was going to spending my copious amounts of free time reading Pathfinder anyway, why not do it at Paizo and get some editing experience under my belt? Amazingly (it seemed to me), I got the job... er, internship.

When I stepped into the Paizo offices for the first time, I finally understood how Charlie must have felt as he explored Willy Wonka's chocolate factory—there are roleplaying goodies everywhere! Every staff member's desk is piled high with toys; they have a mammoth collection of pulp science fiction and fantasy books, including original, tattered anthologies of every issue of Amazing Stories (it doesn't get more exciting than that for an H. P. Lovecraft fan); the shelves of their library are lined with dozens upon dozens of RPG products (including, to my glee, two Forgotten Realms Grey Boxes); and awesome Wayne Reynolds' cover art for upcoming Pathfinder Chronicles books are tacked to cubicle walls. I was in heaven.

That feeling of elation? Yeah, it's still here, a week later. This is the only time in my memory when I've been sad to leave work and excited to come in the next day. I spend my hours at the office reading and editing the Pathfinder articles I used to pore over during my free time, and I'm proud to help make Paizo products the best in the industry. Plus, I get free copies of all of their products, which is the very definition of awesome.

I have great plans for the blog: creating Paizo's very own "Appendix N," spotlight articles on various regions of Golarion with tips for sandbox-style of play, Planet Stories tie-ins to Pathfinder, and generally talking about the cool things that happen around the office. After all, interning at Paizo is my nerd-dream come true, and everyone else should have a chance to see just how awesome it is!

David Eitelbach
Paizo Editorial Intern

Illustration by Brandon Kitkouski

That's Racist!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

At Planet Stories, we're all about recovering cherished pieces of SF's past; treasures that have fallen between the cracks and been forgotten by modern readers, despite their merit and importance to the genre. But one of the problems with history is that it happened in the past... and the past is rarely clean. In order to unearth the gems, you have to dig up some serious dirt. So let's get messy.

Let's talk about racism.

One of the issues we've run up against time and again with Planet Stories, especially with stories from back in the 1930s, is the use of racist language and ideas. Even beyond the standard prejudicial themes and cliches of the day—the fact that the "advanced" races were always white, and all the dark-skinned characters were described by their bright white teeth (seriously, try finding one where that isn't mentioned)—pulp writers were fascinated by the issue of race. Remember, this is decades before the Civil Rights Movement, a time when the oldest readers might still remember legalized slavery.

Otis Adelbert Kline was no different. Both of his novels published by Planet Stories, The Swordsman of Mars and the newly available Outlaws of Mars, deal extensively with the issue of race, and for Outlaws, the entire plot depends on it: a planetary race riot between the white-skinned rulers, their dark servitors, and the menacing yellow men from another world. The patois of Dr. Morgan's faithful African-American servant, Plato, is also likely to make the unsuspecting modern reader cringe—for in this blatant (if sympathetic) caricature, Kline paints a picture of a past most Americans would like to forget.

Yet, as Joe Lansdale points out in his introduction, you can't hold these stories to modern standards of political correctness—and in fact to do so would be a disservice to the author. In his words:

Kline's work is of its time. Non-white races suffer under his hand, though Plato, the black servant of Dr. Morgan, is treated kindly enough, if in an unintentionally condescending way. Still, Kline, like Burroughs, would have probably been considered liberal in their times. They could at least appreciate the fact that someone of a different color could be brave and loyal and worthy of the mantle of humanity. Even Jack London had problems with that, and no doubt he is a more celebrated author.

"Worthy of the mantle of humanity." A phrase so obvious to most of us today that it seems offensive, yet Joe is absolutely right. At the time, belief in racial equality was a bold position in the States.

Which is why at Planet Stories, we feel that it's important to give you the whole manuscripts, unabridged and unabashed. In the past, publishers uncomfortable with content sometimes cut drastically from older books (especially Kline) in order to sanitize for their new era. We say: let the works stand on their own and speak for themselves. H. P. Lovecraft used the N-word. Robert E. Howard had some (today) scandalously negative portrayals of non-white races. Yet this is history, and to redact history is to lose a vital part of how we got to where we are.

In 2009, with the United States' first black president in office, I can read these books and separate the prejudices of the time from the stories themselves, and I have faith that Planet Stories readers will do the same. If anything, I think these books are all the more significant for their transgressions—a glimpse, not just of science fiction's history, but America's past as a whole.

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Introductions All Around!

Monday, February 9, 2009

I'm excited to welcome a few new faces to the Paizo offices: David Eitelbach and Hank Woon, our enthusiastic new editorial assistants! David and Hank are going to help us here in the pit with… well… pretty much everything and anything we can come up with—and not a moment too soon! Expect to see them posting on the boards, blogging about all the cool stuff that crosses their desks, and overall giving us a fresh look inside the Paizo offices. If you have any questions for Dave and Hank, or just want to say "hi," be sure to drop them a "welcome aboard" post!

But that's enough out of me. First up, meet Hank Woon, and tomorrow we'll check in with David.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Hello Paizo readers! This is my first blog for Paizo. Who am I, and why am I wasting your time, you ask? I am like you: fan, gamer, and enthusiastic supporter of Pathfinder. But, unlike you, I am not constrained by the typical boundaries set by the stifling paradigm known as "acceptable social behavior" or ridiculous and outrageous theories like "the law." So, through some cunning intelligence-gathering, I managed to locate the address of Paizo's hidden fortress, deep within the unforgiving wilds of Bellevue, Washington, and with no hesitation, set off on a quest to plunder its secrets.

Determined to unravel the delicate mysteries shrouded within, I cleverly forced my way through an unlocked hidden portal marked "Enter." Unfortunately, I was soon captured by Paizo's roving band of tiny, rabid, ninja robots (spawned from the unholy union of spare computer parts and chewing gum, these deceptively fast mechanical menaces are fanatically loyal to the Paizo team).

Now the Paizos have me lashed to a desk, and as punishment are forcing me to edit documents for them. The foolish mortals knew not that this is exactly what I wanted! When they are not looking (or throwing thumb tacks at me, as they are wont to do), I shall leak information about the inner workings of this academy of dark sorcerers; not just the docile, politically-correct image they put forth, oh no, no, no... The truth is much more interesting. There is danger, excitement, romance, adventure... and of course, the robots.

Stay tuned.

Hank Woon
Paizo Editorial Intern

The Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane

Monday, February 9, 2009

Anticipation for the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path is at an all-time high at the Paizo offices, and it seems like every day brings a new piece of art, an exciting manuscript, or a fabulously evil idea related to the forthcoming campaign. The latest earthquake of interest occurred when our partners over at WorldWorksGames sent us images of their very first downloadable Pathfinder Terrain kit: The Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane.

Kelmarane is the village rescued by the player characters in the very first Legacy of Fire installment, "Howl of the Carrion King," which hits in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #19. I'm especially thrilled with the new kit because I designed Kelmarane and the first Legacy of Fire adventure a few months ago, and have been not-so-patiently awaiting the release of my first adventure since Dungeon #124's "The Whispering Cairn," the first installment of the Age of Worms Adventure Path. When running that adventure for an all-star group of Paizo staffers I had to draw out my maps on a boring old set of blank tiles. The idea of springing my hideous traps and near-unfair villains on my workmates in a beautiful 3D dungeon crafted by the guys at WorldWorksGames... well, it's almost enough to bring tears to my monocular messageboard avatar's unwinking eye.

Feast your eyes on these early preview images of The Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane and gear up for the most exciting and fantastical campaign to hit Pathfinder since the day we released the very first volume! And I'm only partially saying that because looking at the dungeon in 3D makes it easier to imagine my friends' miniatures sprawled prone upon its flagstones like so much lifeless meat.

To arms, fellow Pathfinder GMs! To arms!

Erik Mona
Publisher

"Takin' it Easy" Uncontest Winners!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Okay. Wow, check out that "Takin' it Easy" Unthread (or, if you're at work, maybe don't). There's more than 300 posts on there, most being some really hilarious captions for the scandalous scene from Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #21. Totally a hard decision, but at the end of the day the caption that had the editorial pit most in stitches was James Martain's short but sweet:

"Dear Pathfinder letters..."

James picked up a few free PDFs for his hilarity. We've got a few worth some extra special mentions, though! Thanks for everybody who posted. Really funny stuff everybody, thanks for playing along!

Little did his friends know that Exren's arcane eye functioned perfectly well underwater.

Merisiel: "Hey, is Wrinkles dead?! I'm taking his stuff!"

For weeks Sajan had suffered the jibes and taunts of the others. However, by not inviting him to the pool party, they had gone too far.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

The Monsters of Adam Vehige

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Adam Vehige has been responsible for four of the cover monsters for the first fourteen Pathfinder Society scenarios: the sahuagin from The Hydra's Fang Incident, the ape from Mists of Mwangi, the zombie from Among the Living, and the giant crocodile from Eye of the Crocodile King.

For Pathfinder Society Scenario #15: The Asmodeus Mirage (coming this month), Adam brings us the imp, a little red devil perched on the skull of an inanimate gargoyle statue. Be sure to visit Adam's deviantArt page and check out more of his work.

Enjoy!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Illustration by David Bircham

Legacy of Fire Outline

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

With Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #19, we launch the fourth campaign set in the world of Golarion. Legacy of Fire features jilted genies, bestial gnolls, sinister merchants, and the legacy of the Rough Beast Rovagug in an Adventure Path intended to bring to Pathfinder a sense of the tales of Sinbad, the Arabian Nights, and the mythology from the Middle East. If you're looking forward to GMing this new Adventure Path, check out the free preview of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #19 we've posted—the complete outline and backstory for the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path! NOTE: It doesn't get much more spoilerrific than this, folks, so if you're intending to be a player in this Adventure Path, you should probably not look any further!

Legacy of Fire Campaign Outline (840 KB zip PDF)

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Cover! Behold!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

As quite a few of you have already seen, we've got a cover image for the upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! If you haven't, check it out! Wayne Reynolds, as per usual, shows us exactly what roleplaying is all about: magic, swords, and hungry dragons! Mark it on your calendars: 8/13/2009, it's the date your new campaign begins.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Illustration by Brandon Kitkouski

Lansdale on Kline

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

One of the greatest strengths of the Planet Stories book line is that, in addition to republishing SF classics by some brilliant and historically significant authors, we have the chance to get other amazing authors to introduce them. People like F. Paul Wilson, George Lucas, C. J. Cherryh, Ben Bova, Samuel R. Delany—it never fails to blow my mind every time I see their names in my email inbox. Through their introductions, these authors get to contextualize the forgotten literary heroes that influenced them most and help usher their teachers back into print, the better to educate the next generation of science fiction and fantasy authors.

Which, really, makes me wonder why I'm saying anything at all about these books, when I could get out of the way and let them do it for me. So without further ado, here's an excerpt from Bubba Ho-Tep creator Joe R. Lansdale on why Otis Adelbert Kline's The Outlaws of Mars deserves to be in your shopping cart as we speak:

The Outlaws of Mars was written in the thirties and appeared in Argosy Weekly. It is very much in the Burroughs interplanetary format. A young American, Jerry Morgan, already skilled in the ways of combat due to his time in the army, goes to the home of his uncle, Dr. Morgan, and is after a little too much explanation about telepathy and machinery, transported, via machine, to Mars. The reason for Jerry's departure is embarrassment of a sort, having to do with a woman. Though the event is never fully explained, it appears Jerry has allowed a lie about himself to exist to keep from compromising the aforementioned young lady. So, our noble, romantic, and very Victorian hero flees our world for one of adventure on Mars. Upon his arrival, there is enough action for three novels: some court intrigue, treachery, weird inhabitants, sword fighting, and one hot mama named Junia.

Frankly, the plot is of little consequence, and is not dissimilar from those of the Burroughs novels, or of any sword and planet adventure written by Kline himself. Movement is the name of the game, and Kline provides that in the proverbial spades. There is hardly a moment to breathe, and the only time the novel bogs down is when Kline tries to justify his plot with too much explanation. When Kline is moving the story forward, bringing on the action, keeping us tightly wrapped up in his warm and bloody dream, we are with him all the way. It is only when he pauses to explain that the cocoon we were so tightly wrapped in breaks open and we fall out.

These moments are few, and Kline is more than willing to rewrap us, and we are more than willing to let him. There is plenty of color and beauty and a sweeping approach to story that reminds me of the cinema. In fact, with the popularity of such films as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I would have thought by now, considering special effects have improved to the point of being almost as incredible as our most astounding dreams, that Burroughs and possibly Kline's characters would have been updated and filmed. Certainly, it's this color and sweep and majesty of background that make these stories so damned appealing; they are like movies in the head.

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Pathfinder "Takin' It Easy" Caption UnContest

Monday, February 2, 2009

In just over 20 issues of Pathfinder we've put our 12 iconic heroes through a lot. Pathfinder volume #4 features Seoni getting knocked off a cliff, Pathfinder volume #11 sees Lem getting strangled, and in Pathfinder volume #18 Lini gets abandoned by her allies (and her kitty!). So yeah, we're a little rough on those guys. So, in Pathfinder volume #21, we give them a little break. Check it out. (Forewarning, this is arguably NSFW).

Once you're done ogling Valeros, here's the deal. Until Friday we'll be accepting captions for this piece on the "Takin' It Easy" UnThread. We'll hook up whoever writes the caption that makes us laugh hardest with a free PDF or... something (we're still working out the details). Regardless, it'll be something cool. One caption per entrant please (that counts aliases as well).

So there you go! Write down what comes to mind (try to keep it PG–13 rated) and maybe we'll hook you up with something! Yeah, there aren't a lot of details, but we're playing things fast and loose 'cause we thought it'd be fun. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor