Last Call for Feedback!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Today is the last day of the Occult Adventures Playtest. If you have already contributed to the playtest, thank you so much. These classes will benefit from your care, comments, and dedication.

If you have been sitting on some feedback on these classes, psychic magic, or the spells released with the playtest document, get on the messageboards and let us have it. The survey and messageboards will be closing at 2:00 PM Pacific time today. There won't be a second playtest round this time, so stay tuned to this blog for updates about Occult Adventures until its release next summer.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Long Time, No See

Monday, November 24, 2014

Over the past year, I have polled people in person and through the Pathfinder Society blog about which rarely-visited locations they would like to see more. This month we're returning to locations left largely untouched over the past four years or more, and I couldn't be more excited about the destinations!

The first release is Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-08: The Segang Expedition, which takes Pathfinders to Jalmeray for the first time in nearly five years (not counting the excellent Cult of the Ebon Destroyers! Rumors of a new shrine are too promising to pass up, and the Society quickly assembles a team to check it out. However, the expensive campaigns in Varisia and Mendev have taken their toll, and the PCs learn that they are accompanying several wealthy patrons who have their own agendas in the jungle. Author Benjamin Bruck has done an excellent job in spinning a compelling story with engaging NPCs, and today we're previewing a picture of one of these individuals: Baron Bomande Rudyahm. Can you tell where he's from?

Illustration by Daniel Dussault

Even years later, players still talk about the Society's first trip to Bloodcove, a dangerous port virtually owned by the Aspis Consortium and thoroughly hostile to Pathfinder agents. I'm really excited about this season's adventures in the Mwangi Expanse, and I'm especially pleased that with author Justin Juan's help we're able to return to this memorable city built on mangrove roots at the mouth of the Vanji River in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-09: By Way of Bloodcove. It seems the Aspis Consortium is planning a major operation in the Expanse, and it's up to the PCs to find out what it is while evading the Consortium's agents. Allow me to introduce you to one of these rogues, a local fixer named Na'alu.

Illustration by Marko Horvatin

For the GMs, I've already begun to implement some of the changes announced last week, such as preliminary work on scenario length and inclusion of a blank, untagged version of each new map. Expect more changes in place with December's scenarios.

John Compton
Developer

Iconic Heroes Set #1 Final Photos!

Friday, November 21, 2014

It's a rainy Friday here in Washington state, but my spirits are high above the darkened clouds thanks to a very special package that arrived from our partners at WizKids this week. The simple cardboard box contained a single "final" version of Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set #1, the first in a series of monthly non-random iconic character sets that hit stores in January 2015.

The Iconic Heroes sets are a response to fan demand for several different products.

1. Customers always—always—want nonrandom prepainted figures. The expense and nature of the prepainted plastic figure business usually precludes this, but the strong popularity of our iconic characters pushed WizKids over the line in wanting to give it a try.
2. Players of the popular Pathfinder Adventure Card Game have long been asking for an easy way to collect iconic character figures for use as pawns in the card game.
3. Many of the iconic heroes released in previous Pathfinder Battles sets are sold out and starting to fetch crazy prices on the secondary market. I just noticed that someone paid more than $40 for a single Amiri figure, which is absolutely nuts. Gamers want a way to get our cool iconic heroes at an affordable price.

So, in January, we'll begin releasing six-figure Iconic Heroes sets to address all of the above requests. Even better, each set include six unique Pathfinder Adventure Card Game cards that won't be available anywhere else, each associated with one of the characters featured in the set.

WizKids promised "premium quality" sculpts and paint application for the Iconic Heroes sets, which are also the first to benefit from the new digital sculpting process we're now using across the entire Pathfinder Battles line. Here at Paizo, we took those words to heart, and did everything we could over successive rounds of approvals to make these the most detailed, gorgeous prepainted versions of these figures ever made. I think all of us also had some ambitions to raise the bar across the board with prepainted miniatures. With the right reference art, approval team, and with concerted effort from everyone at WizKids, we knew the stars could be right for a paradigm-shifting series of figures.

I am pleased to report, my friends, that it appears that everything has gone right with Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set #1, which I now hold in my hands. I'm currently comparing several of the figures to previously released versions of the same character for previous Pathfinder Battles sets. In all cases the new version is not just superior, but plainly superior. And we're talking about some of the better figures we've produced to date!

I couldn't be happier with the way these figures turned out. It is my strongest hope that you guys will buy enough of them that WizKids considers the experiment a success and slates several new releases in this format above and beyond the already-announced characters. Because, really, at this stage I think we've done everything we can to make sure the product stands tall. It's all down to sales.

But enough of my talking, let's let the miniatures speak for themselves!

Here we have Valeros, our very first iconic character who appeared on the cover of Pathfinder Adventure Path #1, and he also has the distinction of being the very first Pathfinder Battles figure from our initial Beginner Box Heroes set. Good old Val is still figure #1 in this new line, and I think he looks better than ever before.

Virtually everything about this new figure is an improvement over the existing version (which I also really liked). Sculpt wise, there are lots of new details, including a bedroll on Val's back, more accurate hair, and a cool new facial expression. A huge improvement all around.

Seoni the sorcerer first appeared as a rare figure in the Rise of the Runelords set, where she swiftly sold out and became one of the most popular figures we've ever released. This was due not just to the fact that Seoni has always been one of our most popular iconics, but also because WizKids delivered with a fantastic sculpt and an excellent paint job.

The new one is even better. The new sculpt is much more "three dimensional," in that her ponytails are uniquely sculpted elements (as opposed to running flat down the back of the sculpt). The same is also true of her ribbons. The main difference here is on tampo application, "stamped on" details for fine work like script and design. On Seoni these details appear on her tattoos, on the script on her ribbons, and on her girdle. Theres no way this detail will be visible in photographs, but on the new figure the amount of design detail on Seoni's girdle is INSANE. As in, so detailed my naked eye can't even fully make it out.

The old version of the girdle was flat black, with no detail. Again, a huge improvement.

Last up today is our iconic monk Sajan, who first appeared in the Legends of Golarion set. Again, as an iconic character, the original Sajan figure looked pretty good in the first place. There were some complaints that the ties for his sleeves drooped down over his chest, making it look a bit like a bra, but other than that, he has a cool pose and looks very much like the art that inspired him.

It won't surprise you to learn that I think the new figure is better. Much better. The pose is far more three-dimensional, and I'm pleased to report that the sleeve tie tassels are no longer an issue, and the new Sajan is bare-breasted, just like God (and Wayne Reynolds) intended.

So far, Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set #1 is 3 for 3.

Swing by next week for a look at the next three figures!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Occult Adventures Playtest Coming to a Close

Friday, November 21, 2014

Greetings from the design team. I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that the Occult Adventures Playtest is coming to a close on Tuesday, November 25 at 2 PM Pacific time. At that time, the surveys will be closed and the boards will be locked.

We have received a mountain of feedback during this process, including a healthy number of reports from actual play experiences. While we are quite satisfied with the direction of the classes, your comments and thoughts have shown us the things we need to tune and alter for the final release of this book. We've got a lot of work in front of us, but you have done a great job helping us identify all of the areas that could use some revision. So, get those posts in now and please don't forget to fill out your surveys!

Finally, I wanted to show off another one of the sketches for these new classes. Take a look at the psychic!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Welcome Joe Homes!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Hi, I'm Joe Homes, the newest Paizo editor! I joined the editing crew quietly about 9 months ago as a contractor, but I'm really happy to be officially joining the team!

I graduated in 2010 from Western Washington University with a degree in acting and playwriting, and I have been writing, producing, and performing in webseries and YouTube shows ever since. My "let's play" gaming channel, Team Hypercube, just turned 2 years old, and my post-apocalyptic comedy webseries Job Hunters has nearly finished releasing its second season. I also have a personal vlog on YouTube and you can find me on Twitter as @plus2joe.

I'm a lifetime PC, console, and board gamer who discovered Pathfinder about 3 years ago. My style as both player and GM is pretty casual; my house rules would likely give the design team heart attacks. My gaming philosophy is that fun should come first, and if the rules get in the way of that, then it's time to bend them.

But the rules need to work on their own before they can be bent! As a longtime reader of the SRD, I know the frustration of encountering contradictory or ambiguous language and thinking "Well, that doesn't make sense." My favorite part of this job, therefore, has been encountering those issues before they get published, then bugging the designers and developers about them directly. Editors are the last people to see a product before it heads out to you, so we're the final line of defense against mistakes and inconsistencies.

I'll be trying every day to be on the reader's side, get rid of issues that make you say "huh?", and make the Pathfinder experience as smooth and awesome as possible. If I do my job well, you'll never notice!

Thanks, everyone! I can't wait for you to see the cool stuff we're working on!

Joe Homes
Editor

Designing for the Adventure Card Game

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Greetings! I'm Liz Spain, the newest game designer press-ganged to join the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game design team. It's electrifying to work with such an amazing team and get to play with adapting such a rich world. You might know me as the mad mastermind behind the steampunk exploration game, Incredible Expeditions: Quest for Atlantis, which hits wide release in January.

Since the work I'm putting into the next set for the Pathfinder ACG remains tightly under secret protection by blood-oath and ninja guards, it seems like a good time to wax rhapsodic on game design.

Designing the Aesthetics of Gameplay

Even the thinkiest of games can be considered an aesthetic experience. The feeling of rolling smooth, cool dice, the laughs you share with friends, and the calculations you run in your head all add up to the experience of the game as a whole. A well-crafted game design builds highs and lows into the gameplay.

The first scenario of "The Wormwood Mutiny" executes this idea beautifully. The adventurers have finished the base scenarios; they've defeated a number of villains and scavenged some good equipment. Spirits are running high. Everyone's excited to open the box of Adventure 1 to continue kicking pirate butt. Instead the table goes quiet as they read the first scenario and it's implications become clear:

Where I come from, the DMs call this "a kick in the teeth." The tricks the players have learned won't help them here. Each person has only the one precious thing they managed to slip in a boot before being captured. A cadre of tough henchmen before you, with one card in hand you feel exposed and desperate. The sudden transition from the highs of finishing the base set to losing nearly everything is a cold-water shock. Starting with only one card in hand makes the stakes of every card draw more intense.

Suddenly, scavenging and cooperation are paramount to the group's survival. Of course, holding this tension is nerve-wracking, so, if successful, the characters ramp back up to their expected power quickly. If our heroes survive, they'll be all the stronger for it and proud of their victory. From high to low and back again. The timing of these feelings is something game designers work to create. And if they're really good, we experience it as a seamless whole, without ever realizing their intent. Mwah ha ha ha!

Events at Board Game Geek Con

Board Game Geek Con in Dallas starts tomorrow! I'll be at Paizo's area running demos and games of Skull and Shackles. We have brand new Organized Play scenarios to test even the briniest of souls, so bring your Class Decks along and get spiffy promo cards. See you there!

Liz Spain
Adventure Card Game Designer

Improvements Are A-Comin'

Monday, November 17, 2014

Illustration by Taylor Fischer

Over the past several months, there have been some growing concerns with Pathfinder Society Organized Play. As we would like to take action to correct the concerns instead of let them grow and fester, we reached out to all 395 Venture-Officers a month ago to receive their feedback on what was wrong with the campaign, what was good about the campaign, and what we could do to improve or correct things to make Pathfinder Society even more awesome. Even though there were some difficult opinions expressed, most were true and it caused us to take a hard look at the organized play program.

After receiving feedback from the Venture-Officers, we formed a team of Paizo employees to work on solutions for the concerns that were expressed. This team included Lisa Stevens and Erik Mona, Mark Seifter and Mark Moreland, John Compton, and me. There were 327 responses from our VOs regarding thoughts and feedback on the current state of PFS. I went through each and every post and listed every one of the concerns expressed on a large white board in our conference room. The meeting took upwards of six hours, and through debate, discussion, and some give and take, we came up with some solutions to most of the concerns that were expressed.

The Venture-Officers are aware of many of the initatives we have set forth to accomplish the goals. There are still other topics we are continuing to discuss on the Venture-Officer message board to make sure they are the best we can make them for the campaign at large. I wanted to write this blog to bring the player base up-to-date on some of the initiatives we have set into motion with the awesome collaboration that took place between the VOs and the Paizo team.

Factions

First, let's talk about factions and their roles. After much discussion here at Paizo, specifically on some problems that were brought up in the long discussion with all of the Venture-Officers, we agree that factions currently don't play as important a role as we would like them to. We want factions to have meaning and substance. We think our factions help to set PFS apart from other organized play campaigns. We have strategized a four-pronged plan of attack which we think will help return factions to a more important role in the campaign.

• The five new factions are receiving a professional makeover for their faction symbols. Grand Lodge and Silver Crusade faction symbols will remain unchanged. If you have suggestions on what they should look like, please start a different thread. The target goal for this to be implemented is by the end of 2014.
• There will be revised and improved write-ups of each faction for both the PFS landing page at paizo.com and the Guide to Organized Play. We plan to implement these write-ups by the end of 2014.
• We will be adding "The Story So Far" type of pages to the PFS landing page at paizo.com. John is assembling a team of writers to help him accomplish this goal for all past seasons. These will be spoiler-lite and help to sum up each season for new and old players alike. The target goal for this is end of February 2015.
• We will be producing Faction Journal cards, similar to the PAXPort or the quests cards we provide at Gen Con. There will be one Faction Journal card for each of the seven factions.
• • The front of the card will list a series of goals (likely 10) to complete for the current season. These goals will be generic enough that they can be accomplished from playing not just the current season, but past season scenarios as well. For example, the Dark Archive Faction Journal may have one of their 10 goals be to find and recover five named manuals to bring back to the archives in Absalom. These could include the Inward-Facing Circle book from Silent Tide, the dozen black vellum scrolls in Voice in the Void, and any other documents or manuals that are found in sanctioned adventures. Each time you accomplish a goal, the GM will check off or initial a box on that particular goal.
  • The back of the card will include three award thresholds for accomplishing a set number of these goals. For example, if a PC completes three of the 10 goals, they will receive a small favor from their faction or a unique, faction-specific item. If they complete six of the ten goals, they could possibly receive a unique title that provides certain benefits or a better unique faction item. If they complete all 10 of the faction goals, their clout with their faction is sufficent to extend benefits to other PCs at tables where the character is present, while making their presence (and that of their faction) important to every character at the table. As a working example, a Silver Crusade PC who has completed all 10 of her faction's goals on her card might be able to use the her renown to call in a favor and reduce the prestige point cost of any PC's raise dead by 4 so long as she's there to flex her faction's muscles. Although this might not be the reward that appears on the Silver Crusade faction card when we finish this project, it gives a good example of the type of reward we're aiming for.
  • To reward GMs, we are considering adding an 11th optional goal that would be applied to the three different thresholds of rewards. For example, we may list 10 check boxes and for each scenario GMed in the current season, one check box could be completed. Once all ten are filled, one goal toward the a reward threshold would be met, leaving only two more to complete through playing the character.
  • The back of the card will also feature a form of the revised write-up of the faction described in bullet number two above, as well as a summation of season-long goals in descriptive text. This descriptive text will explain why the PC is trying to achieve the 10 goals for the faction and how it will aid the faction in the future—likely in the form of the faction head letters.
  • We realize that we are introducing this half way through the current season so everyone may not be able to complete the card for this season. On day one of Gen Con 2015, no more faction goals may be checked off from the Season 6 card. On the same day, a new Season 7 card will become available that may include a bonus reward depending on if the character completed five or more goals from the previous season. We hope this fresh approach will help to build the excitement in factions for future seasons as we plan to introduce updated faction goal cards every season at Gen Con.
  • These Faction Journal Cards will be provided as a free download on paizo.com, so anyone can print one off for a new or existing character at any time.
  • Every character may have one card assigned to him. If the PC changes factions any time in the future, he would lose all benefits from the card.
  • The Faction Journal card would not override the primary and secondary success conditions set forth in the scenario. Those are still in place to continue enforcing the importance of being a Pathfinder. The Faction Journal card will allow for more depth by adding greater meaning to the factions.
  • Use of the Faction Journal card is optional. A PC never has to take one, use one, or try to complete one.
  • The Faction Journal cards should be available by the end of January.

Scenario Length

Over time, scenarios have become longer, both in terms of word count dedicated to the adventure (rather than to faction missions, for example) and in terms of run-time. To an extent, it's also tied to the increased number of lengthy role-playing scenes and tougher combats intended to match the six-player assumption (i.e. more PCs means more enemies means more time spent in combat). In most circumstances, the longer scenarios are, the harder they are to schedule and run.

We are taking the following steps to address this issue and bring the expected run time (time from mission briefing to the resolution of the final encounter, not including set-up and paperwork) to four hours:

• Cut one encounter from Tier 5-9 and Tier 7-11 scenarios. These higher-level scenarios run over most often, and it's mostly a matter of high-level combat taking longer.
• Revise encounter expectations for Tier 3-7 to minimize long, drawn-out encounters resulting from especially high challenge ratings. If necessary, we will cut an encounter from Tier 3-7 scenarios, but preferably these can still work under approximately the same model.
• There are no changes expected on this front for Tier 1-5 scenarios, which generally fit the four-hour model without much trouble.
• You should start seeing these changes implemented in scenarios in December 2014 or January 2015.

Scenario Difficulty

We have heard your feedback that scenarios have become harder to just pick up and run. In part this is due to a large number of scenario-specific subsystems that require the GM—and sometimes the players—to learn a new set of rules during the scenario. In part, it's also a result of the reliance on the Pathfinder Reference Document when providing only short stat blocks for encounters. There's also the matter of the increasingly involved stories that scenarios are telling.

We are taking the following steps to mitigate these issues:

• Provide an appendix that includes the full Bestiary and NPC Codex pages referenced in the adventure as well as an un-tagged copy of any custom maps that appear in the scenario.
• Cap the number of required GM resources at four books per scenario (including the Core Rulebook). This should be relatively easy if the Bestiary pages are already included in the back of the adventure, as in most cases approximately half of the books referenced are Bestiaries.
• Include full stat blocks for creatures modified by the advanced, giant, or young simple templates. The exception to this would be modifications that appear in the "Scaling Encounter XYZ" sidebars. For example, if the adventure says that there should be an advanced otyugh, the full stats for an advanced otyugh will be there and ready to go. If the scaling notes say that a four-person group should instead face a young otyugh, those stats would not appear. This should at least cover the essential modifications and reduce the amount of on-the-fly adjustment that a GM needs to do.
• Limit the number of rules subsystems in scenarios. Subsystems aren't going away entirely, but we need to avoid relying on subsystems and simply save them for the times that they'll have the greatest impact. Should an especially large subsystem such as mass combat appear in a scenario again for whatever reason, it would be advertised on the product page. Simple point-tracking mechanics that only the GM sees (for example, keeping track of how many clues the PCs uncover) are likely to show up a little less often but are still a useful tool.
• You should start seeing these changes implemented in scenarios in December 2014 or January 2015.

Season Plotline

Over the past four seasons, the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign has based its season-long plotline on the most recent Adventure Path products. In some ways this has worked well due to the new campaign setting content available to players, GMs, and authors, but nearly as often, this decision has caused problems—either by binding the story of the campaign to that of a different product (and the continuity difficulties that can arise), driving the Society to do things that don't necessarily fit its mandate, or subjecting the community to a long storyline when many participants begin losing interest after the first several months. As the list of scenarios grows longer, the list of metaplots grows as well, providing a barrier to newer players getting involved.

To combat these trends, we are taking the following steps:

• Stop tying the campaign's story to those of the Adventure Paths. Player responses suggest that the Destiny of the Sands model of using a current Adventure Path as inspiration for a three-part series is about right, and even then it's not mandatory that every Adventure Path receives this treatment.
• Provide Pathfinder Society its own storyline using its own existing plot threads and creating new ones.
• Expand the number of stand-alone scenarios that explore a wide variety of locations rather than get tied down in one location with an ongoing story that is tough to follow if one misses a few pieces.
• Provide a "The Story Thus Far" handout that provides a low-spoiler summary of each season's storyline so that a player can quickly catch up on the critical plot concepts when sitting down to an adventure that deals with ongoing metaplot elements. The working length for each handout is about four paragraphs or 300-400 words. There would be one such document for each season and perhaps one for a few of the most complex ongoing metaplots (Grandmaster Torch, for example).
• You should start seeing these changes implemented at the beginning of Season 7, though some like "The Story Thus Far" handouts are likely to appear sooner.

Quests

From our feedback about the success of the Silverhex Chronicles quest line, we are aware we need more Quests and Quest-like events. Since we already have nine different Beginner Box quests broken up into parts one and two, this was topic was a no brainer.

We have added two Chronicle sheets to the development schedule for the Beginner Box Demos. One will be for the four demos in part one and the other will be for the five demos in part two. These should allow for you to draw more interest from players wanting to try the system out, as well as give you another two sets of quest-style adventures to run, bringing the immediate total of quests to three sets with the inclusion of the Silverhex Chronicles quests. Look for these two Chronicle sheets by the end of 2014.

We have quite a few more changes and additions in the works, and I can't wait to tell you about them. However, some are more ideas than polished action plans, so we need a bit more time to make sure we get the other exciting changes to PFS in order before we release the rest of this information publicly.

As always, we look forward to trying to create the best Organized Play experience we can for all of you. Please read our collected thoughts above and let us know what you think, how we might improve upon the ideas, and what we could change to make them better. Thanks again for being the best fanbase any game company out there has. Without your input, as well as that of the awesome Venture-Officer corp, we certainly could not make PFS the best organized play campaign available anywhere in the world.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

Lost Coast Now Shipping!

Friday, November 14, 2014

The newest full set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic gaming figures is NOW SHIPPING from the paizo.com warehouse in advance of the set's formal November 19th release date. This is your first opportunity to enjoy the new Ongoing Case Subscription Benefits like 30% off cases, singles, and other Pathfinder Battles releases, as well as 75% off the limited-edition case incentive Shemhazian Demon figure.

The Shemhazian Demon is among the largest (and heaviest) Pathfinder Battles "Gargantuans" that we've produced so far, and he's filled with all kinds of fantastic details.

Because we're not quite ready to show off images from the next set yet, here are a couple of rough shots I just composed in my office to show the final production-run Shemhazian Demon next to some other figures, for a size comparison.

Here we have the Shemhazian Demon next to the Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon from Skull & Shackles and the Gargantuan Blue Dragon from Shattered Star. This is one really big demon!

The iconic heroes from the Beginner Box Heroes set will need all the 20s they can roll as they face off against the giant Shemhazian Demon. Perhaps these versions of the iconics are worried about the newer, better versions coming out next year in the Iconic Heroes sets?

I'll have something else cool to show you next week. In the meantime, get ready for The Lost Coast to arrive, and set up your Ongoing Case Subscription to make sure you don't miss a single figure!

Erik Mona
Publisher

PS: Yes, I know it's past time to dust my office, thank you.

Occult Adventures Playtest Surveys

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Greetings from the playtest team! First off, we want to thank you for all of the playtest feedback and thoughts you have provided thus far on the Occult Adventures Playtest. There have been over 6,000 posts so far and that number keeps growing. As we comb through all of your feedback, we want to announce a new way to give us your thoughts, the Occult Adventures Playtest survey.

There are 8 surveys in total, most with 10 simple questions. There is one survey for each of the six classes in the playtest, plus one survey looking at magic and spells, and a final survey looking at the playtest as a whole.

You can fill out these surveys, and even go back and change you answers, anytime between now and the close of the playtest, which is scheduled for Tuesday, November 25th at 2:00 PM Pacific time! Filling out these surveys will give us some valuable insight on the classes in a way that is easy for us to quantify. Please fill out your survey today!

As an aside, we realize these took a little longer to pull together than initially promised. As a reward for your patience, why not take a look at the first sketch for one of the new classes set to appear in Occult Adventures. Behold the Occultist!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Strategy Guide Update

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The long-awaited Pathfinder RPG Strategy Guide hardcover arrived from out printer late last week, and we were disappointed to discover that the printer had bound all of the pages before the ink had fully dried, resulting in damage to the entire print run. We have discussed the issue with our printer, who apologized for the misprint and have agreed to replace the entire print run at their expense.

Unfortunately, this will result in a considerable delay in the book's release, shifting the Strategy Guide from a December release to a formal release date of February 25, 2015.

We appreciate your understanding and patience with this additional delay. The book is a fantastic resource for new Pathfinder players, and will be a welcome addition to the Pathfinder RPG library.

Erik Mona
Publisher

Occult Society

Monday, November 10, 2014

As many of you know, about two weeks ago the Pathfinder Design Team began the playtest for Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures, Paizo's upcoming hardcover book due out in the summer of 2015. I know a lot of you are already busy trying out the new classes in Pathfinder Society (there's a special Chronicle sheet available for download on the playtest's blog linked above), and in my conversations with the designers, they're thrilled to receive your feedback. In case you have tried out one of these six classes and not left feedback, why not do so now?

Some of the Pathfinder Society players in the Seattle area recently invited me to join in an Occult Playtest run of The Emerald Spire Superdungeon, and I'm finding the new possibilities provided by these six new classes are extraordinarily fun; it's hard to settle on just one concept when there are at least half a dozen that call out to me thanks to the new mechanics and amusing backstory possibilities. One of the leading choices is a half-orc owlbear "shaman" who is actually a medium channeling The Bear and The Owl spirits. I had better decide quickly, because the first game is tonight!

What about you? Have you come up with any interesting ways to weave your playtest character into the setting and the Pathfinder Society? Have you and your friends enjoyed the playtest Chronicle sheet?

John Compton
Developer

One Last Look at the Lost Coast

Friday, November 7, 2014

With The Lost Coast set releasing in about a week and a half, things are really picking up on the Pathfinder Battles front. I've already showed off the entire The Lost Coast set in several of my recent Friday blogs. I've also revealed the first twelve figures in our upcoming Iconic Heroes Sets. The other figures for following sets are still in development, and will appear in this space when they are ready.

WizKids has not yet announced the NEXT set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, so while I've got a bunch of images from that set ready to show off, they're going to have to wait at least another week.

In the meantime, to help everyone get in The Lost Coast spirit, here's a photo of the very first booster pack I opened in my personal case (pictured here are the Small Water Elemental, Lamashtu Cultist, Sinspawn Champion, and Troll).

And here's a complete setlist for The Lost Coast to help you keep track of who is who and what is what in the set!

• Common
• 1  Goblin Snake
• 2  Goblin Druid
• 3  Small Air Elemental
• 4  Small Earth Elemental
• 5  Small Fire Elemental
• 6  Small Water Elemental
• 7  Id Stalker
• 8  Lamashtu Thug 1
• 9  Squealy Nord
• 10  Firepelt Cougar
• 11  Lamashtu Cultist
• 12  Green Hag
• 13  Lamashtu Thug 2
• Uncommon
• 14  Shifty Noble
• 15  Gnome Eldritch Knight
• 16  City Watch Sniper
• 17  Elf Archer
• 18  Goblin Mutant
• 19  Brodert Quink
• 20  Shoanti Gladiator
• 21  Sinspawn Champion
• 22  Boggard Warrior
• 23  Leaping Boggard
• 24  Half-Elf Haughty Avenger
• Uncommon Larges
• 25  Malagus Kreeg
• 26  Conna the Wise
• 27  Forest Drake
• 28  Giant Frilled Lizard
• 29  Leucrotta
• 30  Troll
• 31  Fire Giant King
• 32  Hill Giant Chief
• Rares
• 33  Alhazra, Human Oracle
• 34  Damiel, Elf Alchemist
• 35  Medium Brass Dragon
• 36  Etainia
• 37  Justice Ironbriar
• 38  Lord Mayor Grobaras
• 39  Thelsikar
• 40  The Forest Shadow
• Large Rares
• 41  Lamashtu
• 42  Pazuzu
• 43  Large Green Dragon
• 44  Large Bronze Dragon
• Gargantuan Case Incentive
• 45  Shemhazian Demon

That's it for this week. Tune in next week, when I hope to be able to show off some of the amazing digital sculpts from our next set!

Until then,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Nightblade Sample Chapter

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

In Nightblade, Isiem is a fugitive, a former wizard-priest in the church of the dark god Zon-Kuthon who rebelled and left his old life behind to follow his conscience. Now, his unique heritage makes him perfect for a dangerous mission into an ancient dungeon, one said to hold a magical weapon capable of slaying demons and devils by the thousands. With allies ranging from a righteous paladin to the mercantile mercenaries of the Aspis Consortium, it’s up to Isiem to lead the expedition back into shadowed lands that are all too familiar...

Chapter One: Plague Birds

That's the last of the stevedores," Ena said. The hooded dwarf unfolded herself from her perch atop the lintel of a barrelmaker's shop, collapsed the miniature spyglass she'd been using to watch the warehouse in the distance, and swung down to the street with a nimbleness that seemed at odds with her stocky figure. "We'll give them a few minutes to clear out, and then it should just be us and the night watchmen around the warehouse." She raised an eyebrow at Isiem, the gesture almost invisible in the shadows of her hood. "You're sure you can handle them?"

"Two untrained men with cudgels?" the Nidalese wizard asked dryly. "I should hope so."

"Without killing them, please," another of their conspirators snapped. She was a tall woman, almost as tall as Isiem himself, and although the red scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face masked her features, he guessed she had some elven blood. It was in the inflections of her voice, the litheness of her movements—and her peremptory tone. He'd never met the woman before, and the rebels recognized no ranks, yet she commanded him like a servant.

But it wasn't worth the argument. It had been just over a year since Isiem joined the rebellion in Pezzack, and in that time he had learned that the rebels were an impossible bundle of contradictions. Merciless and merciful, crude but idealistic, largely disorganized yet capable of orchestrating sophisticated attacks.

Their assault on the warehouse was one such operation.

For years, the provincial town of Pezzack had been a nest of rebellion against the diabolists who controlled Imperial Cheliax. Its remoteness and the natural barricade of the mountainous, monster-infested wastelands to its east made it difficult for Queen Abrogail's agents to control. Despite two fiery assaults, infighting among the rebel factions, and an ongoing campaign by the Chelish navy to starve the resistance into submission, Pezzack remained effectively free.

That naval blockade was the reason that Isiem stood out here, shivering on a frigid winter's night, amid a ring of accomplices whose names and faces he did not know. Other than Ena, they were strangers to him, and he to them. Hoods and masks hid their faces; an illusion guised his own. None of them used names. If Chelish agents or insurgents from a rival faction caught one of them—as had happened before, and would happen again—that unlucky captive would have little to betray.

The only thing the conspirators shared was their goal. Ena's informants had whispered that something terrible was secreted in the crates that the stevedores had just unloaded into the loyalist-controlled warehouse on the water. What it was, the informants hadn't known, but it was deemed dangerous enough that Ena had contacted the best in the rebellion for help.

"I wasn't planning to kill the watchmen," Isiem said, sifting through the spell components arranged in his top pocket for easy access. He didn't need to re-sort them—he knew them all with calm, sure familiarity—but the ritual soothed him in the quiet moments before action. "I'm well aware that it does no good to turn their families against us. Besides, it's hardly necessary. They pose little obstacle to our goal."

"Likely to be bigger problems inside," Ena said. "Still don't know what, though. The devilers won't leave valuables unguarded, but they won't use obvious guards either. Whatever's protecting their goods, it's hidden and it's not living. They didn't have any extra guards on the ship, nor meals carried down to the hold. My spies saw nothing. Might be the cargo itself is the danger."

"We should burn it," one of the other masked conspirators interjected. His voice, like the half-elf's, was unfamiliar to Isiem. Ena seemed to have reached farther afield than usual in putting together this night's crew. "Bar the doors and burn down the whole warehouse."

"That is a profoundly stupid idea," Ena said. "Profoundly." The dwarf stretched her legs and started toward the warehouse, melting in and out of the shadows effortlessly in her mottled gray cloak. "Let me remind you: the point is to find out what the devilers are doing. If their cargo is valuable, we want to steal it and sell it. If it's not, we want to find out what their plans are. We can't do that if we burn it, now can we?"

"And the rest of the warehouse is filled with food," the woman in the red scarf added. "That's what raised our suspicions initially. How often do ships carrying food get through Governor Sawndannac's blockade? She's been trying to starve the Pezzacki into submission for months. But even if it was a ruse to ensure we'd take in their cargo, the fact remains that the warehouse is stocked with food. We can't waste it."

Kyril, like most paladins, has little tolerance for evildoers.

Chastened, the man offered no answer. Ena didn't seem to want one. The dwarf turned back to them long enough to hold one finger up to her lips, under her hood, then pointed to the right side of the warehouse and held up two more. With that, she slipped off to the warehouse's left side, facing the water, where a smaller side door stood beside the large loading doors. The dwarf crouched against the wall, working on the padlock that secured the smaller door.

Isiem went the other way. He could see the watchmen coming; their lanterns cut bright lines through the night's salty fog. They kept close together, sheltering themselves against the dark. Their oiled cloaks were beaded with damp, their hoods pulled low so that he could not see their faces.

Not that he needed to. As the watchmen passed a narrow alley between two warehouses, Isiem struck. He sifted a pinch of fine sand from a pocket, letting it trickle to the ground while he spoke the words of magic that would send his unknowing victims into slumber.

As its last word left his lips, Isiem's spell seized the watchmen. Without a word of protest, they slumped gently into the fog.

Isiem swiftly bound and gagged the men. They woke as soon as Isiem stuffed the rags into their mouths, but were too startled to offer much resistance. One after the other, he pulled the struggling watchmen into the alley and out of casual view. Morning would find them stiff, cold, and scared—but they'd live to see the new day, and that was all the kindness he could spare them.

At his signal, two of the other conspirators took up the guards' badges, cudgels, and fallen lanterns. Raising their lights to cut through the night, the false watchmen took up the patrol. They'd maintain the illusion that nothing was amiss, and serve as a first line of warning if some outside threat should intrude.

Isiem went around to the waterfront side of the warehouse. Ena had forced the lock on the small office door. The dwarf eased the door open and waved Isiem and the woman in the red scarf forward, slipping ahead of them into the warehouse. None of them carried a light; either by magic or by the innate gifts of their blood, they could see well enough by the misty moon.

Shelves and pallets filled the warehouse in towering rows. Pezzack was not a large town, and its warehouses were modest, but even so it was disorienting for Isiem to see corded bundles of salt cod stacked higher than his head, or rows of hanging hams like impossibly fat, salt-crusted bats crowded in a roost. The pungent aroma of garlic mingled with the spicy fragrance of the long, wrinkled red peppers that the Pezzacki called "rooster's beak"; under it all was the earthy odor of the cured meats that filled most of the visible space.

"Where's their bloody secret cargo?" Ena muttered, stopping amid a cluster of hams. The dwarf pulled a small charm out from under her jerkin: a single-pointed blue crystal wrapped in silver wire and hung from a leather thong. She slipped it from around her neck and let it dangle from her fingers, watching it intently through the dusty gloom.

After a moment, the crystal vibrated, then pulled toward a few unassuming wooden boxes stacked under a heap of grain sacks. "Magic," Ena grunted in satisfaction, putting her charm back on and tucking the crystal under her shirt. "There'll be something more than carrots and onions in those boxes, I'll wager."

"Be ready," said the woman in the red scarf. She drew a longsword with a smooth, blued blade. Another crimson scarf wrapped its hilt, but the pommel was bare, and on it Isiem saw a sword-and-halo etched in gold. Iomedae's mark.

"Help me with these sacks," Ena told Isiem, grabbing one end of a sizable bag.

It must have weighed over eighty pounds, and the dwarf's short stature made moving it awkward. Isiem hoisted the other side with a grunt, helping Ena ease it to the floor. He tipped his chin at the woman who stood poised with her sword. "She could help, instead of trying to stare down this barley. She's probably stronger than either of us."

Ena snorted. "That's what paladins do. Look noble while the rest of us do the heavy lifting." She raised her voice, directing two of the other conspirators: "Get the next sack."

Minutes later, with the grain sacks piled on the floor, Ena pried open the top box under the paladin's watchful gaze. She brushed aside a layer of straw and sacking, then paused and stepped back slowly. "Wizard. Come here."

Isiem came forward. The box was packed tight with bones, all painted black. Most appeared to be the bones of large birds, although he couldn't tell whether they were from eagles, vultures, or some rarer breed. He'd never been a great student of the natural world.

Alongside those bones were others that seemed to be the fleshless hands and arms of some small, clawed creatures. Kobolds, perhaps; Isiem judged that they were slightly too small, and the claws too developed, to belong to goblins. They, too, had been painted entirely black.

He picked through the bones. They had been stacked in neat, careful rows, nestled together to conserve space. Gummy, necromantic preservatives stained their joints and the crevices under the hands' hooked claws.

"What is it?" Ena asked tensely.

"Undead of some type, I think. I've never seen ones quite like this." Isiem shrugged, stepping back. "Open the next box."

The next box contained more black-painted bones, as did the one beneath it. The final box, however, held something different under its coat of yellow straw. Hinged glass cases, each filled with dead birds, gleamed inside.

Isiem picked up one of the cases. It held eight birds ranging in size from crows to sparrows, and it felt strangely light in his hands. A whiff of funereal spices—frankincense, sandalwood, Osirian black resin—hinted that it, too, bore some necromantic spell. A curled copper shaving on each of the birds' eyes, and a sprinkling of salt in their feathers, told him what that magic was: a rite to stave off decay.

More cases of dead birds filled the box. Isiem peered more closely at the one in his hands. The birds' throats looked swollen, as if they'd all swallowed eggs that had lodged in their gullets, and there seemed to be a dried, flaky residue about their nostrils and the sides of their beaks ...But even though his magic allowed him to see clearly in the dark, it was impossible to be sure through the glass.

Curiosity pushed him to open the case, even as caution pulled him back. Isiem didn't recognize the necromancy at work here, nor could he identify the disease that had killed the birds—if what he'd seen was a disease, and not some poison or side effect of the preservative spell—but he wanted to. Pezzack had little to interest a wizard of any real skill, and less to challenge one; Isiem had spent much of the past year mired in boredom. This was a mystery, and that pleased him.

He didn't want to kill his collaborators for the sake of his own curiosity, though. Or himself. Glancing over at the Iomedaean, Isiem asked, "Can you cure diseases?"

She nodded silently.

"Good." Isiem turned to Ena, who had taken up a seat on the barley sacks and was chewing a piece of purloined ham while she watched. "Warn the others not to come in here, please. I'm about to do something very stupid, I suspect."

"That's always promising." The dwarf stuffed her slice of ham into a pocket and stood up. "Try not to actually do it until I get back. Don't want to be surprised any more than I have to."

She disappeared amid the warehouse shelves, returning moments later with a satisfied nod. "It's done. I told them not to come back in until I give leave, whatever they hear in here. The three of us will have to handle whatever you're about to unleash."

"Nothing, I hope." Isiem unlatched the case. Even as he grasped the glass lid to lift it, however, a clatter and rustle from the bone boxes told him that his hopes were for naught.

"So much for that," Ena said, reaching into her cloak. Spinning on her left foot to face the boxed bones, she pulled out a small, spherical glass bottle that sloshed with liquid. The dwarf did something to it—Isiem couldn't see what—and flung the glass ball at the boxed bones.

With a crystalline tinkle, it exploded into a cloud of thick, fragrant fog. Bones rattled and scratched against the boxes' wood as if a dozen skeletons were dancing a jig within the mists. The undead were rising.

The paladin strode forward, her shield raised with one gauntleted hand and her longsword shining radiantly in the other. The fog glowed around her like a sunlit cloud—and then it erupted into a second flurry of motion, this time from the inside out, as dozens of avian skeletons hurtled up in a lace-winged flock. They hurled themselves into the paladin's face, threw their bodies against her shield, bashed against her armored legs. The sheer momentum of the skeletal flock drove the woman stumbling backward. Her red scarf fell away, confirming Isiem's suspicions that she was a half-elf.

"You were wrong," Ena said, letting a second glass ball tumble back into her cloak. She sidestepped around the chaos, looking for an opening. A pair of hooked knives flashed in her hands, reflecting the blue fire of the paladin's sword. "They're not undead. That fog is holy water, and it isn't doing anything to them."

"I can see that," Isiem said through gritted teeth.

The black-boned birds weren't attacking the paladin. She was only an obstacle to them, and they whirled past her like windblown leaves parting around a tree trunk. What they wanted—what drew them and drove them—was in the glass cases at Isiem's feet.

They swept toward him, sieving the air with their whistling wings. Between the birds' naked ribs, the skeletal kobold hands dangled like stirrups, twitching as they neared the cases and their cargo of dead birds.

As they drew near their goal, the flock funneled into a tight formation: a vortex of bones spinning toward Isiem. His hood blew back as they approached. Dust stung his eyes, blurring the oncoming skeletons into a single dark cloud.

He could still see them well enough to kill them, though. Squinting through his tears, Isiem focused on a spell.

The wizard plucked a tiny crystal cone from a pocket. Holding the cone to his lips as if it were a war horn, Isiem whispered an incantation through the polished stone. As he spoke the last word, he pointed two fingers in a V directed at the flock of winged skeletons and the paladin still caught in their midst.

The half-elf threw herself to the floor, not a moment too soon. Wintry cold and bitter frost blew from Isiem's crystal, smashing into the skeletal birds. Several of them burst apart immediately, blasted into pieces by the elemental force of the cold. Shards of their bones ricocheted off the walls and embedded themselves in the hanging hams like hellish peppercorns. Others froze and fell to the ground, where their ice-rimed bones shattered on impact. A few flapped away at the edges, slow and lopsided under sudden coats of ice. Ena pounced on the crippled birds, smashing them to the ground with a box lid and stomping them under her boots.

In seconds, it was over. The paladin picked up a discarded piece of straw-flecked sacking and scooped the last of the struggling skeletons into it, then dropped the whole bundle into one of the empty boxes and put the lid back on. "I don't think these were made to fight," she said, while knotting a rope around the box. Its lid thumped with the captive skeletons' efforts at escape. "They had some other purpose. Do you know what it was?"

"I have a guess," Isiem said, "but it's only a guess."

The half-elven woman rubbed her forehead, where a long red scratch disappeared into her dark auburn hair. With the scarf gone, she was a handsome woman, with high cheekbones and a strong square jaw. Not girlish, and perhaps not beautiful in the traditional sense, but possessed of a calm certitude that drew the eye. "I expect you'll want to study them, then." She examined her sword for dirt or damage, found none, and sheathed it. "Can you do so safely?"

"I should be able to." Isiem plucked a shard of black bone from the side of a ham. He could see no sign that the meat had been contaminated, but he pulled out a small knife and carved out the flesh around the puncture mark anyway. One never knew what taints such creatures carried. "Help me collect the pieces, please."

It didn't take long to collect the larger bones. The smaller fragments, however, had been scattered across the warehouse by the force of Isiem's icy blast, and spotting them among the piles of spilled grain was tedious work. After the better part of an hour, they still hadn't gathered all the pieces, and Ena began to cast meaningful glances toward the door.

"We should go," the dwarf said. "It'll be sunrise soon, and someone might come to check on the watchmen. No need to linger looking for bone scraps. We've got enough."

"I'd like to find them all," Isiem said.

"Why?" Ena pushed down her hood, rubbing at a nick above her left ear. Short brown stubble covered most of her head, but scars from a long-ago explosion left irregular bald patches across her scalp and eyebrows. "You can't cover up that we were here. The devilers are going to know that anyway. All you'll do is maybe get yourself caught."

"I won't get caught." Isiem showed her one of the little balls of resin he kept tucked in a pocket. An ivory eyelash was embedded in the gum, its pale arc barely visible. "Not by any ordinary watchman. And if they've got someone capable of breaking through my magic, we'll have trouble whether or not I stay to pick up these bones."

"What makes the bones so important?" the half-elven paladin asked. "Why risk yourself over them, even if you do have a spell to hide with?" She had wrapped the red scarf around her face again, concealing everything but her eyes, so Isiem could not be sure of her expression.

He heard no suspicion in her voice, though, only honest curiosity, and so he answered honestly in turn. "I think they're plaguebearers."

"Plaguebearers?" Ena recoiled. She eyed the toppled boxes nervously, scrubbing a hand against the front of her jerkin as if trying to rid herself of some invisible stain. "When were you planning to warn us?"

"When we left." Isiem shrugged. "The paladin says she can cure diseases, and I don't think the plague is directed at us, nor do I think the sickness escaped from its bonds. In my estimation, we are in little danger. Nonetheless, I'd rather not risk ordinary Pezzacki if we can avoid it. I've been wrong before."

"Who's it meant for, then?" Ena asked. "They sent it to us."

"The strix," said the paladin. Her dark eyes hardened above the scarf. "Birds, not people. Those dead birds in the cases are meant to carry sickness. The winged skeletons were meant to ...disperse them, perhaps?"

"Something like that," Isiem agreed. "The preserved birds hold the sickness, and the skeletal carriers see that it reaches its intended victims. The cases were not opened, so the plague should be contained. That's my theory, anyway. It's only a theory. I'll need to study them." He waved them toward the door. "In the meantime, I'll try to find the rest of these bone fragments. Don't wait for me."

"We'll meet at the usual place when you're ready," Ena said. "Two days?"

"Two days." Without waiting for Ena and her taller companion to leave the warehouse, Isiem resumed his search for the scattered pieces. A cold draft through the door told him when they had gone.

Hours later, stiff-backed and bleary-eyed, Isiem looked up to see soft gray light spilling through the warehouse's small, filthy windows. Morning was upon him. His spell of disguise had long since faded, and although he wasn't sure if he'd found all the bone shards in the warehouse, there was no more time to look. He had to go now, or risk being seen and recognized when the sun rose high enough to show his face.

The boxes were already stacked and waiting by the warehouse doors. Isiem cinched the neck of the sack he'd been filling and dropped it atop the heap. He plucked a few strands from a knot of horsehair in his pocket and let them float to the ground, weaving a short incantation between the falling threads.

From shadows and sea fog and five scattered hairs, a mottled black horse arose. It stood patiently as Isiem loaded the cases onto the black horse's back, covered them with sacking and fastened the bundle in place with crisscrossed ropes, then took the animal's bridle and led it out to the streets of Pezzack.

Off in the distance, blurred by fog, the small lantern-lit boats of fishermen pushed out to the cold black sea past the creaking, floating hulks of Docktown. Across the way, a baker's hearth threw a warm orange glow like a lighthouse in the mist. No one else was awake or abroad. Fog swirled over the ruts in the town's dirt roads and slicked the cobblestones of its few paved streets. It enclosed Isiem in a gentle haze, lulling him toward somnolence.

Until he rounded a corner and found himself abruptly face to face with a child.

The child was eight, ten, something like that. Boy or girl, he couldn't tell. Wide brown eyes, a smattering of freckles, a dirty wool cap pulled low over protruding ears. A puff of startled breath escaped the child's lips and hung white in the air between them.

Their gazes locked, and in those huge waif's eyes Isiem saw a fatal flash of recognition.

His illusory disguise was gone. It was his true face that the child saw. And that face, Isiem knew, was difficult to forget. As filled with colorful eccentrics as Pezzack was, a near-albino Nidalese from the Uskwood still stood out. There was only one such man in this part of Cheliax, and that one was known to be wanted.

He would be remembered. If the child was a loyalist—as some were, even in this rebellion-rife border town—Isiem could be reported. Then the Hellknights would come, implacable in iron, and the tensions in Pezzack would explode.

If the child was a spy for one of the other rebel groups, Isiem's position wasn't much better. The Galtan faction, led by a madman named Habar Curl, was always looking for proof that his rivals were insufficiently pure in their dedication to the cause. The slightest whiff of cooperation with Imperial Cheliax was enough to earn a beheading, as far as they were concerned, and tolerating a Nidalese traitor went far beyond that. There was no question that if he caught Isiem's friends, Habar Curl would bend their necks to his blade.

The safest course, therefore, would be to kill the child. It would be so very easy in the sleeping silence of the town. The mists would hide his bloody work; the sea would swallow its aftermath.

But Isiem hesitated, and the child spun on his foot—her foot?—and in a swirl of rags and skittering footsteps, vanished into the night.

Isiem didn't pursue. Swallowing a mixture of relief and fear, he tightened his grip on the black horse's reins and turned down his own path through Pezzack. Once again, quiet closed around him, broken only by the muted clop of the horse's hooves and the clacking of bones inside the boxes it bore.

It was not a loud sound, but that clacking filled the wizard's ears with echoes. Other places, other bones. Pangolais. Nisroch. Westcrown.

He had enough of those burdening his conscience already. Deaths filled his memories: friends, enemies, victims of fate and circumstance. Some had been avoidable. Most had not.

As he turned down the last twisting alley to his temporary refuge, Isiem wondered about tonight's encounter. Was it sparing the child or killing him that was the mistake?

He didn't know. He couldn't. Such knowledge was not for mortals in this world.

But there was only one choice that he would not regret. And as he stepped into the quiet darkness of his borrowed home, leaving the budding dawn behind, Isiem knew that he had made it.

Coming Up Next: A holiday hiatus for the Wednesday web fiction—we'll be back with more weekly stories in the new year!

Liane Merciel is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novel Nightglass and the free Pathfinder tales "Certainty" and "Misery’s Mirror", a well as the novels The River Kings’ Road, Heaven’s Needle, and Dragon Age: Last Flight. For more information, visit her website at lianemerciel.com.

Illustration by Eric Belisle.

Writing Flavor Text for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Flavor text is a critical storytelling tool in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, but we don't have room for a lot of it. In an RPG book, you can pontificate for pages on the cleverness of your plot, but in a card game, you've got a few lines at best to say what you need to say. Thankfully, we've got a lot of brilliant writers. I write some of the game's flavor text, with much more written by Brian Campbell, Wes Schneider, Jessica Price, and Rob McCreary, among others. I'll talk about mine, and maybe some of the other folks will chime in down the road. Here are some principles I use.

Principle 1: Set 'Em Up, Knock 'Em Down

When I have a limited amount of space, there's no trick more trustworthy than setting up a concept in your mind and then inverting it immediately thereafter. Here are three one-liners from role cards, from the Skull & Shackles Character Add-On Deck, Sorcerer Class Deck, and Wizard Class Deck.

Those are immensely satisfying to me, because the language bends to create alternate meanings. It can take a long time to make one of those work, but they're worth the effort.

Principle 2: Cross-Reference Like Mad

The big ol' dragon turtle Hirgenzosk is one of the most fearsome opponents in the card game. Henchmen don't generally get flavor text, though. But we want to make sure you know just how big Hirgy is. For that I circled back to him in Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 3: Tempest Rising. Release the Kraken!

A couple things are happening here. First, now you know how big Hirgenzosk really is. Second, you know there's a wise fellow called the Master of the Gales, and you might want to meet him. He'll be waiting for you in Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 6: From Hell's Heart.

Principle 3: Threaten the Reader

Some people think the highest goal of flavor text is making people laugh. I think the highest goal is to make people squirm. Here are a couple of different approaches to that, from the Skull & Shackles Base Set and Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 2: Raiders of the Fever Sea.

Jirelle is a lot more subtle here than Seltyiel, but both are taking control away from you. The Thresher even attempts to intimidate you by suggesting you're losing something in the process of reading the card. It all works. After all, a little aggression never hurt anyone. Well, except for all the times it did.

Principle 4: Punch It, Chewie!

In the Class Decks, we introduced a bunch of characters who are not exactly the folks we want over for dinner. Necromancers, gamblers, and other reprobates are now available for play. The not-nicest of this crew are the aforementioned necromancer Darago from the Wizard Class Deck, and Wrathack, a half-orc angel-killer from the Ranger Class Deck.

That last line matters a ton. A punchline is crucial to exiting a card with the reader liking you. It's the reason you can have nice things.

Principle 5: When All Else Fails, Be a Goblin

I seem to have a natural aptitude for writing doggerel. My novel The Maze of Games* is filled with it, I write spell limericks and parody songs, and, every now and then, I get to be a goblin. Here's the retail promo card Goblin Weidling.

If you aspire to anything in life, make it getting paid to write things like that.

Mike Selinker
Pathfinder ACG Lead Designer

*Developed by Gaby, edited by Tanis. Because they're the best.

The Goblin: An Unexpected Journey

Monday, November 3, 2014

In a condo in Florida there lived a goblin. Not a nasty, dirty, wet condo, filled with strange substances in corners and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy condo with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a gamer condo, and that means Cheetos.

This all came to an end when the human owner of the condo was summoned to the lands of the Northwest, there to take up employ in the kingdom of Paizo. And so began the goblin's 3,150 mile journey to the home of the Creators, a Quest fraught with peril and many a Subway sandwich.

Along the way there were inns for rest with a lovely stopover at Victoria Cottage in the Elven territory of Kansas where the human's sister provided hospitality and pumpkins.

The goblin took point with his keen eyesight and hearing, ever on the lookout for something interesting, like Bear Lake in Idaho/Utah, where there were no bears.

At other times, he just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery, something Ray, the human's travelling companion and driver, should NOT have been doing.

At last, they reached the point where they could travel no farther, the mighty Pacific Ocean.

His travels were almost over, but one last obstacle stood in his way.

Success!

Well, maybe more than one obstacle...

Until at last he made his way to the Cave of Finance and found a place where he could watch humans push dead trees about. And a big stapler.

A precious stapler. The one stapler to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, in the Land of Paizo where the Raptors lie.

So ends his adventure, as well as my own journey to become a new employee here at Paizo. I've always been an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction, but only discovered tabletop RPGs around four years ago. Since then I've fully immersed myself in roleplaying and am currently a 3-star GM in Pathfinder Society. I also enjoy board games, especially cooperative ones, crosswords, and puns. Which all means I think I'll like it here.

Scott Keim
Data Entry Clerk