GameMastery Guide Preview: Do it Yourself!

Friday, May 28, 2010

I'm really fond of all of Pathfinder's Adventure Paths. Being able to pick out my ideas, or having art for villains or creatures I invented, or hearing about how players contended with challenges we came up with all does my inner GM proud. But although we encourage every GM to tinker and make any of our published adventures theirs, there's a rich sense of satisfaction in knowing that your players have enjoyed the story you invented and the menaces you alone created.

Trick is, being a GM can be really hard... and time consuming... and a right pain in the...

With the GameMastery Guide, we've sought to help with that. While it's an easy claim to say, "Paizo Publishing's GameMastery Guide makes being a GM a breeze!" that over simplifies the matter. Being a GM can be a challenge, but that's part of what makes being a GM interesting, and what makes running a fun and memorable game a real achievement. Rather than trying to take all the work of being a GM out of your hands, the GameMastery Guide strives to help with that work, providing you with tools to inspire your storytelling, to provide PCs with details you didn't prepare, and to help you adlib when your party zigs when you expected them to zag. Such tools become most evident in the more than 100 charts and tables organized throughout this tome, providing you with facts, details, and inspirational springboards to keep your game fresh. Check out the sampling of clipped charts below for a peek at what I'm talking about. Hope you've got your percentile dice handy!

As for next week's GameMastery Guide Preview, in celebration of our wayward art directorix's return: More Art!

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Cartography by Rob Lazzaretti

Kingmaker: Iobarian Timeline

Thursday, May 27, 2010

An ancient land of half-forgotten empires and untold savagery, Iobaria sprawls beyond the frontiers of northern Avistan. History scars and shapes the people of this rugged land, the ruins of sprawling civilizations standing testament to ages of glories long lost, but which might rise again. Supplementing the "Iobaria Gazetteer" by Steven Schend in Pathfinder Adventure Path #33, the following timeline (also by Steven) presents an overview of the land's long history, laying bare the wonders and terrors that rule that rugged realm even today.

Iobaria Timeline
Year	Event
–5293	Earthfall. End of the cyclops Koloran Empire
–3923	Pit of Gormuz opens in central Casmaron
–1281	Taldor founded by Lost Azlanti and primitive native humans
–632	The Tarrasque, Spawn of Rovagug, destroys Ninshabur. Some hidden force turns the creature west across the Tovrus and into Avistan.
752	Ulfen explorers traverse the polar ice and settle into the taiga of northern Casmaron, founding Okormirr.
753	Okormirran explorers discover the Koloran Roads and begin building Orlov among an old ruined cyclops city. Orlov becomes larger than Okormirr by 764.
780	Founding of Orost.
788	Founding of Antoll.
795	Founding of Lenusya.
809	Founding of Mishkar.
818	Founding of Kirrosuli.
846	Founding of Kirya.
905	Iobar, son of Kjell of Orlov, conquers all challengers. He unites all territories under his own banner, claiming all lands from the Icewall to the Castrovin Sea as Iobaria.
937	Death of Iobar I at the Battle of Kridorn. Iobar's son Hrugil repels the pirate fleets from the east, spending the rest of his rule improving Iobaria's fleets, intent on eradicating the powerful mercenary pirate and corsair fleets of the northwestern Castrovin Sea.
975	Kridorn rises to become a port city, not a minor fishing town.
1080	Hroran and Kridorthrost founded in this year of plenty.
1106	The Tearplague scours all settlements between the Norinor and Finadar.
1240	Human settlers claim cyclops ruins in Caemorin, dubbing the settlement Mavradia.
1412	Founding of Zradnirras.
1466	Founding of Vurnirn after a 24-year-long struggle against Hoofwood natives.
1528	Founding of Mirnbay.
1634	The Chardeath sees many spontaneously combust in high fevers. The flames lead to the eradication of a third of all Iobarian settlements. This plague's source is revealed in 1869 as the necromancer Otyb the Undying.
1717	The red and blue great wyrms, Shrodniar and Voldmannasein, clash over Fangard. Some force from the forest depths strike Voldmannasein dead, while Shrodnair crashes near Antoll. Strange glyphs are discovered, burnt into the blue dragon, scarring even his bones.
1900	The centaur tribes of the Caemorin unite under the banner of Errindayn the Seer, sacking Mirnbay and destroying numerous humanoid settlements.
1986	Errindayn the Seer dies mysteriously after an unnaturally long life. The centaurs of the region abandon their warlike ways.
2108	Mirnbay refounded and defenses significantly reinforced. Centaurs barred from the city for more than 400 years.
2546	Ohjar's Plague kills a third of all male centaurs, orcs, and humans across the land in a mere 8 months.
2602	Humans and some native centaur tribes ally together to form the realm of Zastel in eastern Iobaria, its capital in Mavradia.
2654	Iobaria begins the Reclamation Wars against Zastel.
2686	Zastel reconquered and returned to Iobarian rule.
2742	The Choking Death. A respiratory plague suffocates more than 40% of Iobaria's adult population over the course of 8 months. The plague spreads west out of Iobaria (carried to Avistan by refugees) and devastates human populations in northeastern Avistan over the next 6 years.
2767	The Native Plaguestrife: Various druid sects, guilds, and politicians fan flames against those they deem "non-native Iobarians" by claiming no plagues ever happened until folk started coming east from Avistan. Skirmishes and vendettas weaken the power bases of many for decades.
2920	Earthquake rocks Taldor, Qadira, and central Casmaron. Coastal settlements along the northwestern Castrovin all damaged or destroyed by tidal waves.
3000s	Exodus. At least three separate waves of refugees abandon Iobaria over this century to settle other colonial lands to the west and south or new domains east of the Castrovin Sea.
3150	The Pestilentropy infected many nomads and settlers in central Iobaria, causing fevers and madness ultimately leading to death by overexertion or by the blades of those its victims imagine to be their foes. The disease or its manic side effects destroy more than half of Iobaria's farms, villages, crops, and cattle, leading to a decade of lean harvests and starvation for the region. This devastation and the lack of support for the people leads to the final dissolution of Old Iobarian rule.
3212	Three warlords (one of Issian descent) and their allies band together to restore the nation of Iobaria. Rallying to banners and flags of Old Iobaria, support for New Iobaria rose quickly with their reclamation of Orlov from foreign factions and their local pawns. The Restoration War lasts for nearly a century before New Iobaria officially exists and rules its lands.
3283	House Arjal and House Korya betray allied House Narkys, sacrificing its leaders and troops to dragons of the mountains and wilds, their newer allies.
3304	The Restoration War over, King Irral I turns control and demesne of all the old cyclops ruins to their white and red dragon allies.
3679	The Great Horde. A collection of ogre, giant, and cyclops tribes rampage across Iobaria under the command of Burlor, a cyclops wearing the Crown of Mirim and wielding the Perobov Maul. These monsters remain a threat long after the death of Burlor beneath the hooves of more than 25 tribes of centaurs.
4000	Amid the blizzards of a long and particularly harsh winter, frost giants from the Ice Steppes invade New Iobaria, pillaging and murdering. They reach Orlov before being repelled.
4499	Iobarian Choral the Conqueror unites Rostland and Issia into Brevoy.
4519	The Drakeplague kills more than 60% of the dragon population within 3 months. The silver dragon Cithaythren and Finadar druids perform a ritual to end the plague before it spreads beyond Iobaria at the cost of that dragon's life.
4600s	Sarkorian barbarians flee the expanding Worldwound, a number of tribes crossing the polar ice to Iobaria.
4607	Skirmishes and battles among Sarkorian refugees, native insurgents, and Iobarian troops begin the second fall of Iobaria with the loss of Mavradia to rebel forces. Battles and rebellions continue over the next 5 decades.
4659	New Iobaria reduced to the now-isolated cities of Kridorn, Mirnbay, and Orlov, each of whose rulers now claims to be the true ruler and heir of Iobaria due to blood ties to the dead kings.
4667	Red Revolution of Galt; many Galtan nobles flee north and eventually arrive in Kridorn.
4699	Royal House Rogarvia, descended from Iobarian warlords, disappears. House Surtova assumes power in Brevoy.
4710	The current year.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Photography by Gary Teter

It's Huge!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The way the story goes, Erik walked into the copy shop with a disc holding the map of the Inner Sea Region and asked the employee there to make the image as big as he could.

"Okay, here we go," the man said, holding up a sheet maybe two feet high.

"I don't think you understand," Erik replied. "I need this big."

Thus it was that last Friday, Erik and Wes came into the office holding a map of the Inner Sea Region that, when unrolled, measured seven feet tall and six feet across. As we all stood around it in shock, looking down on it in mingled wonder and terror, I think the same two thoughts were in everyone's brains. Here was the world we'd created...

...and now we needed to fill it.

For of course that's why we had the map printed. With the forthcoming World Guide: The Inner Sea (a revised and expanded version of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting hardcover, fully updated to the Pathfinder RPG) and the Inner Sea Poster Map Folio, it's time for us to finally buckle down and crank our own obsessive tendencies to the max as we attempt to place every location that's featured in a Pathfinder game product in its appropriate place. And of course, as if that madness weren't enough, the forthcoming world guide also presents a ton of new adventure locations and notable sites for regions that previously only had a few dots on a map. While there are still countless places left open for GMs to populate and describe as they see fit, this is our attempt to create something truly comprehensive to satisfy even the most detail-oriented GMs.

This, of course, is madness. I'm sure that within a month, we'll all be gibbering on the floor as the ink staining our fingertips reaches toxic levels. But until then, the Map will be on the wall, watching us, daring us to try to fill it in. How much of our hubristic attempt to catch everything makes it into the final map folio is anyone's guess—it may be that printing every tag would result in type too small to see with the naked eye—but you'll know when you see it that the Paizo editorial team gave their all to make it as accurate as they could, boldly chucking interns and coworkers into the line of fire. That's how much we care!

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Linnorm Helm

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Some people paint minis; others sketch their characters or scenes from their adventures. Me, I knit—tentacled beasties, piratical or tentacled hats, fingerless gloves with guild names embroidered across the knuckles.

Being between projects at the moment, I was browsing knitting patterns online and was disappointed to note that although there are some amazing fantasy knitting patterns, I couldn't find any Pathfinder-related patterns! That must be remedied!

As this realization coincided with the first set of pages from the World Guide: The Inner Sea hitting my desk, I thought it only fitting to create a pattern that represents one of the Inner Sea peoples. Thus, I present to you the Linnorm Helm^{1, 2}!

Linnorm Helm
Materials: worsted weight yarn: 1 skein MC (dark red; use 2 skeins for Large version), 1 skein CC1 (dark green), 1 skein CC2 (yellow-green)
1 set US 4/ 3.5 mm double-point needles
Gauge: 24 sts/29 rows = 4 inches/10 cm
Directions for larger version are in parentheses.

Directions:
Using MC, cast on 112 (128) stitches.
From bottom to top, work 2 repeats of the chart A (B).
Using MC, knit for 2 (3) more inches or 5 (7.5) cm.
To decrease for the top:
Row 1: (k6, k2tog)* [98 (112) stitches]
Row 2: Knit.
Row 3: (k5, k2tog)* [84 (96) stitches]
Row 4: Knit.
Row 5: (k4, k2tog)* [70 (80) stitches]
Row 6: Knit.
Row 7: (k3, k2tog)* [56 (64) stitches]
Row 8: Knit.
Row 9: (k2, k2tog)* [42 (48)stitches]
Row 10: Knit.
Row 11: (k1, k2tog)* [28 (32) stitches]
Continue working k1, k2tog until 8–10 stitches remain, then bind off. Weave in all yarn tails.

Chart A

Chart B

Errata: If you find that the bottom of the hat tends to roll up on you, start with a 1" ribbed brim, and then begin the chart. Just be sure to take this added length into account in determining when to start decreasing! For the medium size, knit around for 1 inch (2.5 cm) above the end of the chart, then decrease; for the large size, knit around for 2 inches (5 cm) above the end of the chart, then decrease.

¹ The charted motifs are based on a motif from Nancy Spies' wonderful book Here Be Wyverns.

² If you're wearing an actual helm, this hat works well as a liner. It's no fun to have your helm freeze to your ears in winter, believe me!

Judy Bauer
Editor

Departing Blog

Monday, May 24, 2010

Well, it was a fun adventure, but sadly, my journey as an editorial intern with Paizo must come to an end. The length of my internship seemed only a few weeks at most, though it has indeed been several moons, and other responsibilities vie for my attention.

I’ve gotten a taste of all this industry has to offer while working here, from the exciting realm of creative writing and development, manifesting wondrous creatures as well as legendary characters, to the slightly less glamorous—but nonetheless vital—task of alphabetizing spell lists and creating tables. Oh, I shall never forget the sea of tables I created for Paizo. If one can imagine mountains—nay, alps—of Excel spreadsheets, then one has ideated but a fraction of the truth. I could go on for paragraphs about the plethora of tables, which, if pasted side-by-side on a wall and gazed at from afar, might resemble ancient Osirian hieroglyphics that tell of brave adventurers, or perhaps an epic tale of Thassilonian lore scrawled across countless scrolls, or maybe even the systemized end product of a sleep-deprived college student who happens to write about dragons and stuff.

Poetic reminiscences aside, it’s been a good experience. I’ve still got another year of college left up at Western Washington University, but this internship has helped reinforce my dream of writing material for tabletop games such as Pathfinder, and assured me that I am on the right track. Perhaps you’ll see my name in future products, loyal reader, and you’ll be able to excitedly gather your comrades, your shaky hands barely able to retain their grasp on the Adventure Path or module clenched between your sweaty fingers, and you’ll show all your friends and say, “Look! I commented on that guy’s blog post before he became famous!” And everyone will look at you in awe, and solemnly utter things like, “Dude, are you hyperventilating?” and “Woah, are your palms sweating over this? Do you need a doctor?”

Until that fateful day, readers, I bid you farewell, and thank you for bearing with my garrulous blog posts and lack of proficiency in regards to the realm of corporate salesmanship. (On an unrelated note, buy more Paizo stuff! It’s good! Real good!)

Seriously though, it’s been good. Peace, y’all!

Photography by Wes Schneider

Patrick Renie
Editorial Intern

GameMastery Guide Preview: Things Get Weird!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Let me let you in on one of the guiding philosophies of the GameMastery Guide. We didn’t make this book to let you run my game, or a “Paizo-brand” game, or any sort of game anyone here thinks you should run. We created the GameMastery Guide to give you the tools you need to run your game the way you want. For example, let me note a few entries in the index:

• Airships
• Evil Characters
• Extraterrestrials
• Gambling
• Magic Shops
• Parallel Worlds
• Ship Combat
• Space Travel
• Steam Power
• Space Travel
• Time Travel
• Undead Uprising

Definitely some unusual stuff in there, and likely several topics you’ll have no interest in including in your game. But if something on that list does strike your fancy, now you’ve got help on how to make it work. These discussions aren’t all meant to give you in-depth rules on how to do this or that: while several provide a host of new rules content—like ship combat and undead uprisings —others walk you through what you need to consider to include such elements in your game. And even if you’ve never thought about taking your game in an atypical direction, who knows what might inspire you? Maybe it is time to unleash an undead uprising on your campaign, or take your PCs where no one has gone before.

Play what your want: that’s the guiding message of this book. Heck, there’s even a section on personalizing published adventures to make them work better for you and your players. Also, rest assured that the topics presented above are some of the weird stuff—the parts of the book that take the discussions beyond the norm. There’s still plenty for GMs who never get tired of traditional sword and sorcery adventure. But how weird does the weird get? Well, I’ll let these crazy illustrations by Florian Stitz and Eva Widermann show you (at least I think those are the artists… Sarah’s out of town this week).

As for next week’s GameMastery Guide Preview: let’s just say that we’ve got some fantastically interesting toolboxes to open.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Advanced Player’s Guide Cover Revealed!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Behold!

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

See Where It All Began!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

After almost two years of work, Before They Were Giants is finally away to the printer, and I couldn’t be more excited about it!

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

If I haven’t already filled your ear about it on the messageboards, the story behind the book is as follows. Back in the early days of Planet Stories, I came to Erik with a proposal for an anthology: What if we could get 15 of the biggest living superstars in science fiction and fantasy to give us their first published SF stories, along with interviews in which they critiqued their own stories, discussed things they know now about writing that they wish they had known then, told anecdotes surrounding the stories’ publication, and offered general advice to aspiring authors? Erik took the bait, and so began the long march toward the collection that would eventually be known as Before They Were Giants.

By far the most astonishing thing about working on this book was discovering how open, friendly, and approachable many of my favorite speculative fiction authors are. When the dust settled and I looked around, I was positively flabbergasted by the caliber of authors who were willing to sign onto the project, from Ben Bova and Cory Doctorow to China Miéville, Nicola Griffith, and William Gibson. And while I confess that the final author list directly reflects my own literary tastes, every author in the book is a master of the genre in one way or another, and reading through their interviews and advice—not to mention their maiden efforts, which run the gamut from humorous magical realist vignettes to post-apocalyptic satellite repair—is precisely the sort of thing that I always find fun, educational... and most importantly, inspiring.

As we get closer to actually shipping the book to subscribers and bookstores, I’ll probably be posting more about the project, including select excerpts from stories and author interviews. But for now, I just wanted to crow a little bit about what is, for me personally, the most exciting Planet Stories book to date. (Well, that and to show off the absolutely phenomenal cover by Kieran Yanner!)

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Faction Guide Excerpts

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pathfinder Chronicles: Faction Guide presents 24 example factions, rules for how PCs can gain reputations and status in these organizations, and rewards for PCs who pursue such things. The goal of this book isn’t to present the history and reach of these factions in detail, but to give codify ways (and incentives) for PCs to become involved with these group and provide unique benefits for achieving high status within an organization. Though this book is written primarily for GMs, it has no secrets that should be kept from the eyes of players, and each faction takes up exactly two pages so a GM can hand over all the necessary information for a faction to an interested player.

What follow are three examples of faction rewards PCs can earn, all of which require the character to be in good standing with the faction (about what you’d expect after doing two or three levels’ worth of adventures relating to the faction’s interests) and “spending” some of the goodwill they’ve earned for their work.

Church of Razmir: Gain the title “Priest of the Third Step.” Priests may purchase drugs and poisons from the church at a 10% discount. Priests also gain a +1 bonus on saving throws against poison and have free access to temple concubines and church-run businesses that require a cover fee (such as bars, brothels, clubs, gambling halls, or restaurants). A high-reputation member of the Church can earn a magical blessing from Razmir himself, granting the faction member certain spell-like abilities.
Prophets of Kalistrade: Acquire a litter and four strong servants (LN commoner 1) to bear the character around in it. The litter-bearers are willing to work in civilized areas or on roads, but not on rough terrain. Spending an additional 1 CPA means the litter-bearers are 1st-level monks, rather than commoners, and fight to defend the character, even to the death. Spending an additional 2 CPA upgrades the litter to an enclosed palanquin, increases the number of bearers to six, and adds another servant to carry the character’s banner and proclaim her arrival at appropriate junctures. The typical term of service for a litter-bearer is 2 years. A high-reputation Prophet can sell items at a higher profit, gain slavishly loyal bodyguards, and even acquire a lavish estate in Druma.
Whispering Way: Arrange a conjuring of an extraplanar undead (such as a devourer) or an incorporeal undead in a ritual similar to planar ally or planar binding. The character must negotiate and pay for the undead’s service, though he can spend CPA to have disciples of the Way pay the price for the service. If the character is a poor negotiator, he can pay 1 CPA to hire a charismatic advocate to bargain on his behalf. If the creature has the ability to create spawn, the spawn are not under the control of the character. A high-reputation member of the Way can learn necromancy versions of non-necromantic spells, acquire an undead “homunculus,” and even transform into an intelligent, free-willed undead.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Chronicles

Illustration by Jon Hodgson

The Unluckiest Owlbear: Part VI

Monday, May 17, 2010

It's been a long, strange, and humiliating trip for the poor unlucky owlbear. He's been shot dead, turned into a pigeon roost and object of mockery for slack-jawed yokels, torn down and broken apart by barbarians, and defiled by wandering wolves. But as is always the case with that pesky circle of life thing that nature loves so much, eventually he gets to return to his beloved woods. And hopefully warn future generations of owlbears of the dangers he faced.

Or maybe not. Maybe his forgotten head will just serve as a dinner platter for the next one to come along...

James Jacobs
Creative Director

PaizoCon 2010 Event Schedule!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Howdy folks!

Right now, on the PaizoCon 2010 page, you can view the official and final event schedule for Paizo's premier summer convention. Included are seminars, panels, game sessions run by the Paizo staff, and game sessions run by you.

We will decide things much as we did last year—namely, with a lottery. The lottery opens on Monday, May 17 at 2:00 P.M. PDT, and you will have until Friday, May 21 at 2:00 P.M. PDT to make your choices. Instructions for how to make those choices will be included on the website, but we are doing something different this year that bears mentioning. This year's lottery will only include fan-run game sessions, staff-run game sessions, and limited-slot seminars. It will not include panels, some seminars, or any of the Pathfinder Society scenario slots. Once the lottery results are announced on May 24, the panels, seminars, and scenarios will open for general sign-ups on a first-come, first-served basis. As these things are not as limited on space (or limited at all, in some cases), we wanted you to get a first crack at those limited events through the lottery and then fill the rest of your schedule with Society scenarios, open seminars, and open panels.

Below is the full schedule for event registration for Paizo Con 2010.

Today: Event Schedule is live and ready for review.
5/17 2:00 P.M. PDT: Event selection for lottery begins.
5/21 2:00 P.M. PDT: Event selection for lottery closes.
5/24 2:00 P.M. PDT: Lottery results announced; general sign-ups and event ticket trading begin.
6/4 2:00 P.M. PDT: General sign-ups end.
6/11 2:00 P.M. PDT: Event ticket trading closes; tickets are now final.
6/18 9:00 A.M. PDT: PaizoCon 2010 registration opens at the Coast Bellevue Hotel.
6/18 12:00 P.M. PDT: PaizoCon 2010 begins!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

GameMastery Guide Preview: NPCs and Early Copies!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Okay, okay, okay, let's get back on track here. We've been buzzing about shipping the Advanced Player's Guide a lot here, but that book's still in the distant future. Let's get back to what's in the near future: the GameMastery Guide.

First up, I promised last week to talk a bit about one of the most versatile weapons in this veritable arsenal of GMing goodies, the NPC Gallery. Chapter 9 of the GameMastery Guide sets GMs up with statblocks for more than eighty of the most commonly used NPCs in fantasy gaming. From acolytes to watch captains, these pregenerated statblocks are there and ready to use for whatever you might need them for, whether a PC decides to take a swing at the king or you need a bandit encounter right now. These NPCs give you all the details you need to use them, along with suggestions on what you might do to further customize them and what other NPCs they might hang out with to make encounters of varying CRs (a bandit lord with two sellsword bodyguards is a CR 12 encounter, for example). The organization on these is also pretty cool. Rather then page after page of alphabetized stats (meshing together beast master, beggar, and bounty hunter), we've grouped them in families that might naturally work together. For example, under city watch you get a guard, a guard officer, and a watch captain—forgoing the need to flip pages when the PCs get tackled by the guard and their commander—while later under the heretics header you get a cultist, a conjurist, and a cult leader, giving you an entire cult without the need to ever turn the page. But for when you need NPCs for a specific CR encounter or are looking for the perfect NPC, we also give you rundowns of the entire 80-plus NPC list organized both by name and CR. Check out a third of this list and a few of Alberto Dal Lago's incredible illustrations for the section below. If you ever hated having to cobble together stats on the fly or changed a game to avoid using stats you didn't have prepared, your life as a GM just got way easier. That's what the GameMastery Guide is all about after all.

Illustrations by Alberto Dal Lago

In other preview news, there seemed to be some disbelief last week about whether or not the picture we showed off of our printers' proof of the GameMastery Guide was real or not—or at least whether or not it was a copy of the full book or a mock up filled with blank pages. I'll let the following put the matter to rest.

And if you want to hear even more about the GameMastery Guide, tune in to episode 10 of the Know Direction podcast, where Ryan Costello graciously lets me go on and on and on about all the reasons this book will change GMs' lives for the better.

As for the next GameMastery Guide preview, next week... things get weird.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Dragon Slayers!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The last five months have been an uphill slog for the entire Paizo team. The goal: produce more than 30 accessories, Adventure Path volumes, modules, maps, novels, and hardcover books, before May 12th—the date by which our August releases need to be to our printer. The task has been daunting, and at several points along the way seemed unlikely, but at 10:30 last night, with the shipping of the Advanced Player's Guide and a scant hour and a half to spare, we slew our literal editorial dragon. Such means not just that (barring calamity) we'll have a big hardcover at this year's Gen Con Indy but that our module and Pathfinder Adventure Path lines are on schedule (even ahead of schedule) for the first time ever! So check out some shots of the hectic last few days around here. As for us, I'd like to say it's time for celebration and long naps, but it seems like that's never the case: we've got far too many cool things in store to rest yet!

The recently slain editorial dragon! (And his fiction-related wyrming!) We've been coloring off sections every time a product ships. And this wasn't even everything!	Erik, Jeff, and Jason in the final moments of the APG. 10:30 p.m. 5/11/10
James, Sarah, and my firmly tied shoes in the final moments of the APG. 10:30 p.m. 5/11/10	James's whiteboard provides much information, most importantly on the status of our senior art directorix.
Jeff, Sarah, and a contemplative James check through the final proofs of the Advanced Player's Guide.	Erik did his invaluable executive proof of more than half the Advanced Player's Guide in two seemingly endless and near sleepless days.
Some editing marks are weird.	A big stack of slain corrections and double checks on the final proofs.
Jason makes his first and Paizo's last marks on the 2010 Editorial Dragon! Erik (playing the theme to Rocky), Crystal, Judy, Patrick, and Sarah look on.	Sutter coup de graces the Fiction Wyrming. James, Rob, and Chris assist.

Wes Schneider

Managing Editor

Tim Hitchcock Is Insane

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Here at Paizo, we understand that our fans, friends, and contributors (and the sizable cadre of folks who combine all three categories) are a little different than most companies' communities. It's not uncommon for Paizo fans to send us pizzas out of the blue as a thank-you gesture, or offer to buy us drinks when they run into us somewhere in the city. (Both of which initially confused us—you're giving us presents for selling you books?—but we aren't complaining.) We've seen a room full of Paizo trivia champions, Paizo cosplay, and a whole darn Paizo theater performance from an extremely talented grade school (and their supremely cool teacher). It's humbling and awesome at the same time.

Tim Hitchcock, however, may have just taken the cake, at least for me personally. You see, a while back, Tim and I were talking about music in the Tuesday-night Paizo Chat. Tim, a musician who retired from touring in order to become a teacher, was asking me about the bass rig I used in my metal and hardcore band, Shadow at Morning, and my opinions on distortion pedals. I said that I thought they were cool, but I'd never gotten around to picking one up.

"Why don't I build you one?" he asked. Apparently Mr. Hitchcock knows a thing or two about electronics.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's not every day somebody offers to build you custom gear. I said sure, and promptly forgot about it for about six months.

And then today, I got this in the mail: proof positive that Tim Hitchcock is totally insane, in the best possible sense of the word. (When I originally opened the package, the glowing light made Wes think Tim must have finally had enough and decided to send us a letter bomb.)

Photograph by Christopher Carey. Goblin illustration originally by Kyle Hunter.

Without question (at least until I get it home and plug it in), my favorite part is the little goblin that Tim etched into the steel of the faceplate. (And in case you're wondering, the goblin is referencing the classic Big Muff bass pedal, upon which Tim based the electronics.)

Though Shadow at Morning unfortunately disbanded a few weeks before the pedal's arrival, I'm already in the process of recording with a new project, and you can bet that when we're ready to hit the stage, Tim's phenomenal creation will be front and center...

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Over the Mountain

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Working at Paizo is awesome—there can be no question about that. Most days—those days when I'm in my happy-hippie, all-is-right-with-the-world mood—I show up to work and think, "Wow, we're all so lucky to be editing RPGs all day! How did we ever get so lucky?" That's most days.

And some days, we *&#@ing earn it.

Last Saturday was one of those days. Every year around this time, we start to reach the mission critical phase on our Gen Con products, and it's all hands on deck trying to get them out the door in time for the do-or-die ship date which will allow them to be at Gen Con. This year is no exception, and while most of the big products (such as Dave Gross's Prince of Wolves—more on that soon!) have already been put to bed, the Advanced Player's Guide is still in the last, messy phases of its birth. Thus it was that Saturday found me, Rob McCreary, Judy Bauer, Sarah Robinson, Wes Schneider, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona in here for more than 11 hours on Saturday to try and get things handled. (It should be noted that Chris Carey was in his Fortress of Editorial Solitude, having been saddled with the final proofing of Before They Were Giants, and Sean was busy moving. I'm pretty sure Jason was in a coma somewhere.)

Even with most of the Editorial Pit on hand, weekend workdays still feel different than normal ones. Everything's a little looser, and what professionalism we cultivate tends to get abandoned (though I did not, as originally planned, wear my jammie pants).

All of this is necessary to explain the photographs, I promise.

You see, when we moved into our new office last September, it was immediately noted that the otherwise normal-looking office building is bordered on two sides by a big field of brambles (reportedly haunted by vagabonds and feral corgis) and a big grassy ridge. At several points since the move, Wes and I have looked up at the ridge and wondered what mysteries might lie, Narnia-like, just over its crest.

Around 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, having just finished editing chunks of the classes chapter of the APG until my eyes were ready to bleed, I decided I needed something stronger than caffeine to keep me going, and stormed into Wes's office.

"Wes," I said, in my most inspiring voice, "It is time. We're going over the mountain."

Wes looked at me for a moment.

"Yeah, okay," he said.

Thus it was that everyone save Erik and Sarah (who had left for the evening) and Jacobs (who's too old and wise for such things) trooped outside on our Voyage of Discovery. Leaping over the drainage ditch, we scrabbled up the steep, grassy rise and came out into a magical wonderland!

Photography by Rob McCreary

Well, okay, maybe it was a gravel pit. But the point was, we had gone over the mountain! And for what it's worth, the gravel pit was pretty cool. Wes and I spent a few minutes running up the mountain of rubble to get a view of the surrounding countryside, then noticed the idling dump trucks and realized it was an active gravel pit—one which might not appreciate a bunch of trespassing nerds—and beat a hasty retreat to recommence editing.

And there you have it—the wild excitement of a Saturday at the Paizo offices!

(EDITORIAL NOTE: Sutter and Wes would like any authority figures to know that the preceding anecdote is entirely fictional; that they in no way condone trespassing, accidental or otherwise; and that they're both too pretty for jail.)

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Illustration by Jon Hodgson

The Unluckiest Owlbear: Part V

Monday, May 10, 2010

If these installments of the Unluckiest Owlbear saga seem to suddenly be coming fast and furious, there's a reason—as our deadline for Gen Con "ship to the printer" approaches, we're finally seeing all of our product lines actually bunch up and get back on schedule. As a result, we've sent what feels like 40 installments of Pathfinder Adventure Path to the printer over the past few weeks. Which is, I suppose, good news for our poor unlucky owlbear, since that means the ongoing humiliations will be made public (and thus come to an end) all the sooner! This week, we present the penultimate installment of the saga, wherein the raiders have done their thing and moved on to other towns, leaving in their wake nothing but ruins and wolves. It's probably for the best that this illustration doesn't depict the natural progression of events as the wolves, moving in to claim new territory, begin to do what wolves do best when it comes to neglected statues...

James Jacobs
Creative Director

This Week at Paizo

Friday, May 7, 2010

It's been a busy week at Paizo... and we're not done yet.

Sean "The 'K' is for Konfident" Reynolds reassures me of what he already knows.	My desk midweek: ground zero for much chaos. (To answer the inevitable question here: Yes, I use them as bookmarks.)
It may drive us crazy, but putting out so many products does make for some pretty awesome hauls.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

The GameMastery Guide: Mascots & Masterpieces!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Aside from a metric ton of advice, new rules, charts, tools, and the like, one thing the GameMastery Guide has in spades is awesome new art! As you might have seen on the snippet from the credits page last week, a horde of fantastic artists contributed to this tome. We also did something a little unusual. Rather than illustrating every topic with our iconic heroes or scenes of battle or whatever have you, Andrew Hou created a host of murderously adorable little mascots. A host of murderously adorable little goblin mascots. So, guiding you through the ins and outs, the perils and the pleasures of the GM's art, you'll find these mischievous little menaces causing all sorts of trouble.

Illustrations by Andrew Hou

But the goblins aren't alone. We've got an entire gallery full of incredible art, with quite a few familiar faces, to preview over the coming weeks. For now, check out a few of our mascots' hijinks, along with a sampling of some of the GameMastery Guide's other full-body illustrations.

Illustrations by Eva Widermann	Illustration by Florian Stitz

Next week, check in for a first look at one of the things sure to get you GMs drooling, a preview of the GameMastery Guide's expansive NPC Gallery.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

WANTED?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

We try to mix up what we do on the inside covers of Pathfinder from Adventure Path to Adventure Path. Those interior pages are prime real estate, after all, what with being the first thing you see when you open the book, their extra sturdiness, and what not. There's precedent for leaving these pages blank or just putting in some design—like we sort of did in Rise of the Runelords—but that's boring. On the other hand, we could do what the Modules and Companions do, and chock these pages full of charts, tables, cover art, and standard maps. But you know what? Pathfinder Adventure Path has more class than all that. So we tend to err on the artsy side. We've done tales from the marid storyteller Shazathared, we've done illustrative maps, we've done cast lists and power charts. This time around, for Kingmaker, we're doing wanted posters. With the often-comic illustrations of Peter Lazarski launching these side quests, every volume of Kingmaker includes eight optional missions, hunts, and errands. As these are meant to be wanted posters, and with a few folks already making their own, we thought it'd be cool to slip a few more of these out into world.

However, we live every day in paralyzing terror of saying or showing something on here that might be interpreted as a spoiler. Therefore, so as not to cripple any of the AP's upcoming encounters, I've only attached character headshots here. Who are they? Well, your GM knows (or soon will), all you sneaky players, so you'll just have to wait and find out!

Illustrations by Peter Lazarski

That said, if folks chime in and want the monsters too, maybe, just maybe, we can be convinced to take a short jaunt on the wild side and release some of those too.

Wes Schneider

Managing Editor

Don't Tell Wes!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Paizo Productivity Tip #47: If you hide Wes's shoe in a high place on Friday evening, he can't go home and has to stay and edit all weekend.

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Illustration by Jon Hodgson

The Unluckiest Owlbear: Part IV

Monday, May 3, 2010

In Pathfinder Adventure Path #34, things once again take a turn for the worse for our poor unlucky owlbear. It's one thing to be immortalized as a statue in the middle of a village, where children laugh at you and birds poop on you and you eventually become forgotten as part of the town square's mundane decor. It's quite another when the barbarians come to town and, in a sudden urge to show off their destructive power and strength, tear your statue down! At least the owlbear's ghost can take solace in the fact that those pesky barbarians are probably being equally destructive to the adventurers who got him into this fix in the first place.

James Jacobs
Creative Director