"I Do Not Seek Answers, But Rather to Understand the Question"

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Before I get into specifics, I want to thank Hawkmoon again for last week's excellent Best Character Ever blog, even though he was almost completely wrong. If you've got a pitch for a blog, hit us up at pacg@paizo.com!

Now, let’s talk monks. The design team loves to talk about what makes a monk a monk. Is it a desire for self-perfection and superior discipline? Ridiculous aerial gymnastics? The ability to punch something really, really hard? Nobody was willing to admit that one of these qualities was clearly more important than the other two, so we just used all three. Let’s meet the band!

Birdwoman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Wing Nuance)

Fun fact: the design team immediately nicknamed this character “Rooboocoop” after I named her. These are the people I have get to work with.

First up is Rooboo, a tengu monk. As anyone who’s played Skull & Shackles through knows, tengu are Pathfinder’s bird people. You’ve seen the Tengu Rookery and the Jinx Eater, but never a tengu character.

My favorite thing about Rooboo is her avian power suite. She can fly away from situations she can’t handle, and, like a magpie, she’s good at grabbing shiny things. Movement is a bit of a thing with her, as you can see from her Flowing Monk role. Move twice on a turn? No problem. Dance away from trouble? Ain’t nothin’. She can even blow her allies out of harm’s way with some downdraft action.

You’ll also notice she has a very unusual combat power. We’ll get to that later.

When Your Fist/Elbow/Knee/Foot is a Hammer...

You may make the first strike. I shall make the last.

Athnul, named after a character I played in a campaign long ago, brings some old-school martial arts to the party. She’s a bare-handed terror who takes Runelords Sajan’s unarmed strike and gives it a twist. She’s not here to overcome barriers. Athnul is here to punch things until they die.

Her Keen Strike Monk role is based on an archetype from Inner Sea Races called the Hamatulatsu Master. This version of Athnul is about finding the most effective way to cause pain, and she’s willing to help her party members do the same. As a side note, I’m very fond of adding a little support to a primarily self-sufficient character. This is a co-op game, after all, and hybrid characters can show people the fun in playing a different kind of character than the type they usually select. This Athnul also gains some spell-like abilities, as represented by the Divine skill feat.

Kamas and Rochins and Temple Swords, Oh My

Who's the best character now?

We’ve also created a new version of our iconic monk Sajan for this deck, affectionately referred to in-house as Stabby Sajan. As you can see, he’s interested in weapons that have the Slashing trait, and he’s got a variant of his original blessing-recharge power that’s got a little more kick to it. This Sajan is rarely without the means to defend himself. Those who guard the temple don’t go unnoticed by the gods.

We wouldn’t give you a Sajan that wants weapons and then leave you with only a wellspring of resentment. Instead, we’ve created more than 10 new weapons in this deck, including a fancier temple sword or two.

Time to bust out your war fan katas!

These new temple swords use the Strength/Dexterity/Melee listing you might remember from the Iconic Heroes promo card, while the bulk of the new weapons in this class deck allow characters with the Acrobatics skill to show off a little. Any character with the Acrobatics skill can make use of these, so the Rogue Class Deck’s Wu Shen and the Sorcerer Class Deck’s Amaryllis just got a little love. (For a peek into the design crystal ball, consider what other sorts of characters might use such weapons.)

That’s it for this week. Next week, Paul Peterson returns with the goods on Wrath of the Righteous’s Adventure Deck 5!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Hawkmoon's Best Character Ever: Sajan

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Now that most of the design team has told us about their favorite characters, we thought we'd invite PACG messageboards MVP Hawkmoon to tell us who his favorite character is.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a game about rules. At its core, it's really about one rule, the most important rule, appropriately named "The Golden Rule." That rule starts out with this sentence: "If a card and this rulebook are ever in conflict, the card should be considered correct." A character really shows what makes him special when he gets to break those rules. What makes Damiel great? Recharging potions that should be banished. What makes Darago special? Putting cards in your hand that would normally go back in the box. Those powers let you break the rules and bring the most fun to the game.

Everyone who plays this game learns two rules pretty quickly: You can only play one card of each type per step or check, and if you don't have a way to determine which skill you are using, you have to use Strength or Melee. The Best Character Ever gets to break both those rules on a regular basis, and his name is Sajan.

Rise of the Runelords Sajan can go crazy with blessings, and he's got a deck full of them to do just that. Anyone who has ever played him for a few adventures has probably enjoyed rolling over 100 on a check. Nothing makes you want to buy more dice for the game more than Sajan does. In fact, if you want to answer the question of how many dice of each type you could possibly ever need at one time, the answer has to involve Sajan (and is probably somewhere north of sixty dice). If you play Sajan, you'll usually save some time if you start your turn by saying "I'm going to need ALL the dice."

Sajan doesn't need a card to determine the skill for his check. His powers do that for him, and they let him throw some traits on there, too. Sajan won't have a problem with those pesky monsters that need you to use the Magic trait to defeat them. He's got some magic in those flaming fists of his.

But before I go too much further, let's look at the basics. One of the first things I do when deciding on a character is see if I can find his weakness. The easiest way to do this is to find the d4 in his stats. For Sajan, you'll notice the distinct absence of a d4 on his character card. Don't bother searching the back of the card either. It isn't misplaced. It just isn't there. That's right: no d4. The worst he'll do is a d6. Your friends won't complain when Sajan encounters the card they really want. He's got a d6, so just throw him some blessings, and he can acquire it. It's not like Valeros running into that spell Ezren has wanted for the past two adventures. You're worried about a nasty barrier? No problem. Sajan's got a d6 and loads of blessings to take care of that. He's also a template breaker. You thought Ezren was a bit odd with no blessings? How about a guy that starts with only three of the six types of boons? And more than half of those are blessings!

Now, let's examine his roles, Drunken Master and Zen Archer. Both roles give you ways to soak up non-Combat damage, and they both let you draw a card at the start of your turn. I consider that to be a safer way to increase your hand size. Since the card isn't in your hand, you are less likely to lose it when someone else does something foolish and that leads to you taking damage. Also, it keeps other players from greedily asking for all your blessings. Now, yes, as a Drunken Master he must draw 1 card. And yes, that can have some negative consequences, namely, getting him killed. But if you aren't recharging lots of cards with Sajan anyway, then you aren't playing him right.

My personal favorite role is Drunken Master, for this reason: "After you play a boon with the Liquid trait, you may succeed at a Fortitude 6 check to recharge it instead of banishing it." Throw in some skill feats to improve his Constitution, and at 1d6+4, that 6 is almost a guarantee. Give him the Amulet of Fortitude or a similar card, and it is a guarantee. Sajan was Damiel before being Damiel was cool. As a Drunken Master, almost no check is impossible. Give him a Potion of Healing, and he can go all-in, playing his massive amounts of blessings on other characters' checks and then healing them all back in. Or better yet, give him allies he can use to heal himself. (Father Zantus and the promo Poog of Zarongel were constants in my deck throughout Rise of the Runelords.) When my wife and I played a four-character party through Rise of the Runelords, Sajan was probably the biggest reason we didn't need a character with the Divine skill to heal us. And Drunken Master gets bonus points for probably being the most thematic role in the game.

But Zen Archer is no slouch either. He's recharging those ranged weapons he would otherwise discard. Give him some bows, and he can help with combat at other locations for the cost of a recharge. And don't miss the fact that his "go crazy with blessings" power still works, even when he plays a weapon to determine the skill for his check.

Recharge, recharge, recharge. Sajan's character card and both his roles center on recharging things. That's what he does! He can do it so often that you should get to see your whole deck multiple times in a game. And what's more fun than that? No waiting around for that particular card to come back up! Instead, you'll see it next turn… and probably again two turns after that.

And that is what makes him the best. Recharge cards, cycle your deck, shrug off non-Combat damage, and roll an unseemly number of dice. What's better than that?

Hawkmoon
Resident Adventure Card Game Expert

Next week's blog will bring you a whole new version of Sajan as we preview the Monk Class Deck!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

FAQ on Errata

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Illustration by Dmitry Burmak

As many of you are probably well aware, we have had a number of update documents drop in the past few weeks, correcting a wide array of issues with some of our rulebooks. Seeing that some of these have caused some controversy among players and GMs alike, I thought I would take a moment to talk about the process of creating these documents and give you all some insight on how we decide on the changes made to the game.

No book is perfect. It's an unfortunate reality of the publishing industry. Despite all of our best efforts and countless hours spent poring over proof copies and making corrections, every time we send a book to the printer, it is with the nagging knowledge that there are at least a few mistakes lurking in its pages. Almost without fail, we spot one within a week of getting the first printed copies shipped to our office, well after it is possible for us to fix it. At this point, the first internal correction file is made. As the staff here at Paizo starts using the book, we usually find a few more, and the file grows. Then the book ships out to the public and the questions begin in earnest.

After that point, we primarily rely on the FAQ system and forum threads to point out errors in our books that need to be addressed. When people on the forums notice problems, post threads, and click the FAQ button, we get notified through our system. About once per week we take a look at some of the most pressing issues, answering them as needed and noting many of them in our corrections file.

Finally, when it comes time for us to actually assemble the updates document that you see for each printing of our books, we get together as a team to discuss each issue. While many of the problems are straightforward mistakes that are easy to fix, some require us to rework a rule or make an adjudication on how it actually works in play. These can be contentious issues, both on the forums and internally, but we are always trying to do what is in the best interest of the game. Which brings me around to the most recent update document that is releasing today, making more corrections to Ultimate Combat.

And the Crane Wing feat.

Many of you might remember the conflict over this feat when Ultimate Combat was first released. We felt it was just too good for a heavily defensive build, so when the second printing of the book was released, we made changes to bring it more inline. Some people on the forums let us know that they felt we went too far in "nerfing" the feat and at the time, we said that we would keep an eye on it and see if it required further adjustment.

As it turns out, the feat did need some work, so we changed it so that it provides a +4 bonus to AC until you are missed by 4 or less (at which point it turns off until the start of your next turn). You can still use it to deflect an attack when taking the total defense action. This is an improvement and one that we hope makes the feat a more viable choice.

Of course, this is only one of a number of changes we made to various rules in Ultimate Combat. There were changes to the Musket Master and Pistolero archetypes, removing an ability that allowed them to ignore misfires at 13th level and double-barreled guns saw a change to balance them as well. The Myrmidarch and Titan Mauler both saw changes that strengthened them, allowing them to work better as originally intended, while the Master of Many Styles was altered a bit to make it more rewarding to those that stuck with it, as opposed to just dipping into the class for quick benefits. You can download the appropriate update document below, or from the Free Downloads or product page.

• First Printing to Third Printing (v1.1)—Download (2.3MB zip/PDF)
• Second Printing to Third Printing (v2.0)—Download (2.3MB zip/PDF)

The process of updating our books is never simple and it is a job we take very seriously. We know that many of you are invested in these rules and the characters that rely upon them. Hopefully this gives you a little bit of a better understanding about the process of updates. If you have any thoughts or comments about the most recent Ultimate Combat update, please post them in this thread (as opposed to making a bunch of individual threads) and we will try to answer your questions.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Open Your Eyes—Occult Adventures Art Preview

Friday, July 17, 2015

Download Standard | Download Widescreen | Download Mobile
Illustration by Wayne Reynolds.

Subscribers are beginning to get a peek at the gateway to the unseen world in Occult Adventures, which officially hits game store shelves and the convention floor at Gen Con on July 29! Since our art department has been keeping a fairly low profile, I wanted to take over and give you another preview of the artwork gracing the pages of this book. Enjoy these selections from Occult Adventures!

Illustrations by Igor Grechanyi and Subroto Bhaumik

Illustrations by Ivan Troitsky, David Alvarez, and Alexandru Sabo

Sarah Robinson
Managing Art Director

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

Friday Publisher Preview: Improving the Iconics

Friday, October 10, 2014

I'm writing today's blog from Times Square in New York City, where I'm staying while taking in New York Comic Con. NYCC is one of my favorite events of the year. For starters, the convention is the second largest event of its kind, bringing in more than 100,000 fans from all over the world. The show floor is like a marketplace out of a geek's dreams, filled with action figures old and new, original comic art, wandering nerd culture celebrities, back issues, original art, you name it. It's like four Gen Cons smooshed together, with an artist's alley off to the side that fills a room that could host most conventions. There aren't, alas, a lot of tabletop (or even video) game companies exhibiting at the show yet, but the fandoms are very, very similar and of course there's a ton of crossover with gamers. For me it's a chance to visit with East Coast business partners like Dynamite, publishers of the Pathfinder Comics range, as well as most of our book business distribution partners.

It's also among my favorites because it's the final convention of the year. For 2014 that makes it sixteen conventions or trade shows for me, and I have to admit I am exhausted. I always try to jam all of my business meetings into the first couple of days of the show, so I can enjoy wandering the floor as a fan myself. After focusing all of my convention attention on business from January until the end of October, it's important for me to spend a little while checking out all of the stuff that I geek out over. It's fun to get in touch with my own fannish soul, and at the very end of the convention season, just when I should be running out of gas, I find that New York Comic Con invigorates me, recharging my batteries for the year ahead.

NECA, the parent company of WizKids, have an awesome Pathfinder Battles display in their NYCC booth,
complete with some Lost Coast figures including the case incentive Shemhazian Demon!

Among the things that most tickle my nerdy fancy? Miniatures, of course! So let us turn our giggling, geeky hearts to three more paint masters for the upcoming Iconic Heroes Set #1!

Here we have Seelah, Human Paladin, our favorite champion of law and good. Seelah received one of the earliest representation of an iconic character in our regular Pathfinder Battles line, appearing in the very first set, Heroes & Monsters. That figure was fine—even impressive—for that early stage in the product line, but I never felt that it quite lived up to the early high standards set by the Beginner Box Heroes set, which predated Pathfinder Battles itself by a few months. It also had a bit of a scaling issue relative to other human figures, and came across as a bit small, not quite the imposing, powerful warrior we were hoping for.

I'm pleased to report that this new version of Seelah more than fits the bill. This version is considerably different from her original presentation, most notably in that the paladin wears her helm in this incarnation. That helm plays an important part in Seelah's origin story, so we thought it fitting to send the warrior into battle in her full regalia.

The shield appears white for now, but will soon get a tampo stamp with a crisp image of the holy symbol of Iomedae, Seelah's honorable goddess.

Sajan, Human Monk is another example, in my opinion, of improving a figure on the second attempt. The original Sajan figure looked pretty cool and didn't have any major flaws like scaling issues, but this new pose is so much better it automatically gives the newer model the edge. I love his battle-ready pose, and even his expression impresses.

While quality control at the production facility—something both WizKids and Paizo have repeatedly stressed for the Iconic Heroes line—will tell the tale when the final paint is applied, the new digital sculpting process allows for much finer and more interesting facial details than practical sculpts. From Valeros's smirk to Seelah's combat expression to Sajan's glare, these guys have real expression in their faces. It feels like a step forward for the line.

We last met Lini the druid's snow leopard, Droogami, in the Legends of Golarion set, where it was called simply Snow Leopard. Since then, we've given Lini's feline friend a sweet set of armor. We've also given it a somewhat realistic face—a first for the many great cats produced so far in the line, most of which seemed to end up with slightly comedic faces, like scary animals mixed with breakfast cereal mascots. I think this is a step up.

So there you have it. Three new figures, three improvements on their original appearances. I call that a win, and look forward to showing off the next set!

But before we can do THAT, we've got one matter of outstanding business for November's The Lost Coast set! I forgot to preview one last figure for the set. I'd held off because I didn't think the picture did the figure justice. Then I saw the replacement picture, which was blurry and even worse. Then I went back to the original picture.

Here she is:

This is the Elf Archer, who looks better in person than she does in our photo. She's based on one of my favorite pieces of art from the NPC Codex. She's a nice addition to our fairly limited ranks of elves in Pathfinder Battles so far. And if you're going to have an elf, it seems natural to make it an archer. The Elf Archer is a Medium, common figure.

And with that, I'm heading back to the convention! Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are, and we'll see you back here in a week for more exciting reveals!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Iconic Love

Monday, February 14, 2011

For some of us, Valentine's Day is just another day. We go to work, come home, maybe hang out with our significant others a bit or send the kids off to the sitter for a rare night out. For other people, however, Valentine's Day carries more significance, and flat-out demands acknowledgement. They see it as an excuse to truly cut loose, to go all-out with the romance and treat it like a real holiday.

And then, apparently, there's a third type of person: the type for whom Valentine's Day means a chance to go totally insane. Such appears to be the case with Pathfinder Tales author Kevin Andrew Murphy. How else can you explain the fact that he chose the occasion to, without any prompting or warning, write us an entire heroic crown of sonnets immortalizing the iconic characters' backgrounds in prose. (For those of you who've forgotten your 400-level literature classes, a "heroic crown of sonnets" is a specialized form of poetry in which you have 14 sonnets, each linked by their first and last lines, plus a fifteenth which is made up exclusively of the previous sonnets' linking lines, in order. Needless to say, it's incredibly difficult to do well.)

I'd say more, but I'm still processing the whole thing, so I think it's better to just post the sonnets in their entirety. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Fifteen Loves of Golarion

A Heroic Crown of Sonnets for Valentine's Day 2011
by Kevin Andrew Murphy

1. Alain, the Cavalier, "For Love of Glory"
I am the one who lives to tell the tale.
The victor is the braggart of his fame,
The first to know the glory of his name
But not the last. The bards now all regale
The common folk with ballads of my deeds,
The battles won by force of my prowess,
The ransomed kings who've bowed to my duress,
And Donahan, the noblest of steeds.
Sometimes I think he is my only friend.
The men I ride with? Those I can replace.
The maids I bed? Each just a pretty face.
Yet Donahan is mine till journey's end.
If he falls first, then part of me is dead.
I've said the words that needed to be said.

2. Alahazra, the Oracle, "For Love of Truth"
I've said the words that needed to be said,
For Truth is blind, and I am blind in truth.
My clouded eyes see little but forsooth
My inner eye sees clearly. I have read
The fates of men with but the barest glance.
I know the future as I know the past,
Which seeds will sprout and which of them will last,
For Destiny leaves nothing up to Chance.
It was not Chance that burned me with its fire.
The simoom's breath is but the Wind of Fate
That claimed me with its Flame. I now relate
The Fate of Love, if that is your desire:
All present loves become in days ahead
Mementos kept in memory of the dead.

3. Seelah, the Paladin, "For Love of Those Now Gone"
Mementos kept in memory of the dead,
Reminders of what nothing can restore.
The wingéd helm that dead Acemi wore
Now hides my face and my unworthy head.
I feel its weight: part guilt, part gift, part theft.
Part love. She saw and yet forgave her thief,
The child who stole her helm. Ergo, my grief.
Acemi is still dead and I am left.
I have no words to say in my defense.
I know my deeds. I must have faith in grace
So now I wear her helm and take her place.
What Iomedae learned: Inheritance,
A gift of trust from those you must not fail
Now silent in the realm beyond the pale.

4. Harsk, the Ranger, "For Love of Solitude"
Now silent in the realm beyond the pale,
My brother lies–and those who took his life.
I ended theirs with crossbow quarrel and knife.
The giants dead, now I alone prevail.
My kin who dwell below with bended backs
To toil at the forge or in the mines,
Or worshiping our gods at dwarven shrines,
Have my regard, and yet my brother's axe
Is all I bear away from whence I hail.
A hunter's life is love of solitude.
A Spartan camp, a pot of tea fresh-brewed
Will keep him more alert than mugs of ale.
My quarry's tracks are runes left for the sage.
I know the letters written on this page.

5. Ezren, the Wizard, "For Love of Scholarship"
I know the letters written on this page,
My father charged with some impiety
Against our god, some awful blasphemy
Too dire for words, and nothing can assuage
The gossips' tongues, for rumor needs no proof.
And Abadar? The merchant god cares not
Who prospers or who fails nor what is bought.
The Golden One stays in his Vault, aloof.
I spent my youth to clear my father's name,
In quest to save the business that he built,
But in the end I only proved his guilt.
Now scholarship's the only love I claim.
Yet law for arcane law can be exchanged.
Old orders sometimes must be rearranged.

6. Sajan, the Monk, "For Love of a Sister"
"Old orders sometimes must be rearranged."
So said the monks when taking twin from twin.
My sister Sajni's gone. I should begin
Describing how we came to be estranged.
We were conceived. Our lives were intertwined
Like threads of web and woof strung on a loom,
So were our limbs locked in our mother's womb.
Though born as two, we're more when we're combined.
We trained with temple swords and so time passed
Till at twelve years we each were sent away
And battle woes lost her to Jalmeray.
I left, deserting all I knew, my caste,
To seek my sister. Far too far I've ranged.
I've changed some facts which never should be changed.

7. Damiel, the Alchemist, "For Love of Change"
I've changed some facts which never should be changed
And yet that is the goal of alchemy:
Quicksilver shifting, mutability.
The philosophic art just seems deranged
To those too dull to grasp aetheric heights
Or dream of fixing one's perfected form,
Not living with the dull and banal norm.
You reach out when the stars are in your sights,
Yet what you grasp may be the fulgent dark
For nightmares ride as well between the stars.
Like Shelyn's smile can hide Zon-Kuthon's scars,
The bright quicksilver sea conceals a shark,
And from the left the villain steps onstage
To let men feel the battle fury's rage.

8. Amiri, the Barbarian, "For Love of Oneself"
To let men feel the battle fury's rage,
The Six Bears tribesmen donned the skins of bears
They'd taken from our totems in their lairs.
Each boy was sent to do it at an age.
We girls were told to sit inside and spin,
Awaiting a barbarian's return.
This never was a name that women earn.
I brought a she-bear's hide back to my kin.
The time came that a warband of my clan
All dared me to bring back a giant's blade.
When I returned, they mocked me as a maid.
The blood rage came. I slew them to a man.
That bastard blade I bear with me. Beware
To taste the kiss of malice and despair.

9. Seltyiel, the Magus, "For Lack of Love"
To taste the kiss of malice and despair,
One needn't know the touch of love or hope–
At very least, not of an equal scope–
And pain is seldom more than one can bear,
And when it is? Well, there is always death.
My mother died the moment I was born.
My sister's cries, those spared my life that morn.
I often think she should have saved her breath.
Sioria, oh how could you divine
The babe you saved would still be here alive
Or on a feast of wormwood one could thrive.
I'll kill your father once I first kill mine.
Foul Lairsaph was a fool to teach his spawn
To walk the road with weapons sheathed or drawn....

10. Valeros, the Fighter, "For Love of Adventure"
To walk the road with weapons sheathed or drawn
Is how a sellsword passes most his days.
That much at least is truthful in bards' lays.
The rest? Well yes, there is a need for brawn–
The same goes for an ox that pulls a plow–
But when your sword-arm makes some villain yield,
That's better than some plowshare in a field.
At least it's more exciting anyhow.
One day I may retire to a farm,
Grow beans and beets or brew a bit of beer,
But now I love my freedom and I hear
A distant village sounding the alarm.
If there's adventure calling, I'll be gone
To greet the hope that rises with the dawn.

11. Kyra, the Cleric, "For Love of Hope"
To greet the hope that rises with the dawn,
The Crown of Our Beloved Sarenrae
Who cast the Beast below to Asmodae,
Is how a priestess prays for I'm Her pawn.
Whate'er the Dawnflower wishes I will do.
When bandits burned my village and Her shrine,
That's when I saw the face of the divine.
Through streaming tears the sun shone and I knew
The Everlight had filled me with Her power
To heal the sick and ailing with Her light
And cleanse those past redemption of their blight
By scimitar, like Dawn's Eternal Flower.
One day I'll join my goddess in the air
To live a life of joy and forswear care.

12. Merisiel, the Rogue, "For Love of Freedom"
To live a life of joy and forswear care
Is what I always felt the world should be.
See something that you like? Then take it. Free!
If you don't like your lot, then folk should share.
They call it thievery, who gives a fig?
My knives can teach their tongues to be polite,
And while some think I could be more contrite
It's not like they're not working the same gig.
This knife I got from some Azlanti queen.
This one? From Galt. Belonged to some coquette
And these? From Geb. But most I just forget.
I only care if I can keep them keen.
You make life up like some bard's folderol.
I sing the songs that rise up from my soul.

13. Seoni, the Sorcerer, "For Love of Magic"
I sing the songs that rise up from my soul
And write the runes appearing in my dreams.
The ones I walk with talk about my "schemes,"
If schemes they are, or just an unknown goal.
I'd like to say I like just who I am,
Yet who can say just who they are? Not I.
Or what I am, or how I am, or why.
That statement just might be my epigram.
I only know when spells wish to be wrought,
The way they say that love pulls at the heart.
Just so I feel the call of arcane art.
It springs to mind like any other thought.
I'd work alone, but I lack that control
For love and friendship are what make one whole.

14. Lini, the Druid, "For Love of a True Companion"
"For love and friendship are what make one whole."
So spake the norn who whispered in the wood.
She vanished but her fey advice is good
And with it I can talk to mouse or mole.
The purest love is love you get from beasts.
My friend Droogami taught me this is true.
It's something though that I already knew.
I never bought the nonsense from the priests
About the love of gods as the most pure.
Who can believe a love you never see?
My love is for the leopard next to me
And she for me and that's what shall endure.
She's great and strong where I am small and frail.
I am the one who lives to tell the tale.

15. Lem, the Bard, "For Love of Happy Endings"
I am the one who lives to tell the tale.
I've said the words that needed to be said,
Mementos kept in memory of the dead
Now silent in the realm beyond the pale.
I know the letters written on this page.
Old orders sometimes must be rearranged.
I've changed some facts which never should be changed
To let men feel the battle fury's rage,
To taste the kiss of malice and despair,
To walk the road with weapons sheathed or drawn,
To greet the hope that rises with the dawn,
To live a life of joy and forswear care.
I sing the songs that rise up from my soul
For love and friendship are what make one whole.

James Sutter
Fiction Editor