You Are What You Choose to Be

Monday, January 18, 2016

I find that every time I take time off to visit family at the end of the year, I bring a project to work on in my spare time. As I packed my bags and finished my last minute Christmas shopping, the Adventure Path section of my Pathfinder bookshelf begged my attention. There huddled Iron Gods and Giantslayer between a support group of other volumes, staring out at me with what I surely imagined were the tear-streaked puppy dog eyes of misfit toys positively quivering with sadness. This hallucinatory guilt trip continued, even as I tried to show that I had downloaded all twelve PDFs for review as though it were some sci-fi version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Even while I watched the latest Star Wars installment with my family, I had the premonition that some Ghost of Christmas Past were hovering over my shoulder asking, "Rey gets a spaceship. Why can't we have spaceships in Pathfinder Society?" By the end of it, I was running through the rain-flooded streets of the southeast United States, shouting holiday well wishes, hefting Tiny Tim on my shoulders, and telling him how to be one of Hell's Rebels.

At least that's how I'd rather remember it. Ultimately, it comes down to telling a fun story, and today we add two more fun stories to the list of sanctioned Adventure Paths: Iron Gods and Giantslayer. I recognize that it's been quite a while since I first acknowledged that I would sanction these adventures for the organized play campaign, and I know that some of you already started playing them. In the past, we've prohibited retroactive credit for adventures played before the Chronicle sheets were available. This time we're doing something a little different. If you are still in the middle of playing one of these Adventure Paths but have not yet concluded it, you can receive retroactive credit for all of that Adventure Path's earlier volumes the next time you earn a Chronicle sheet for that campaign. For example, if you're just about to finish #93 of Giantslayer, when you receive that Chronicle sheet, you can also earn the Chronicle sheets for #91 and #92.

Download the Iron Gods Sanctioning Document — (1.1 MB zip/PDF)

Download the Giantslayer Sanctioning Document — (1.5 MB zip/PDF)

Currently, I'm be in Columbia, South Carolina as a guest of SCARAB, where I'm overseeing some interactive specials, running some of the recent scenarios, and herding kobolds through one of this year's exclusive adventures.

John Compton
Developer

Quick Housekeeping Note: You'll be able to find both of these sanctioning documents on the Additional Resources page/PDF and respective product pages later this week.

Wrapping Up Iron Gods

Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Iron Gods Adventure Path wraps up this month with Pathfinder Adventure Path #90: The Divinity Drive and the Giantslayer Adventure Path is set to launch next month with Pathfinder Adventure Path #91: Battle of Bloodmarch Hill, so to tie things off we'd like to share a few pieces of the excellent artwork that appeared throughout Iron Gods. Enjoy!

Illustrations by Kari Christensen and J.P. Targete

Illustrations by Dmitry Burmak, Tatiana Vetrova, Brynn Metheney, and Miguel Regodón Harkness

Adam Daigle
Developer

A Little Robotic Friend

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The final volume of the Iron Gods Adventure Path, Pathfinder #90: The Divinity Drive, is soon to depart the spaceport... I mean, our warehouse. In this volume, the adventure reaches its exciting conclusion, and it also marks the finale of Amber E. Scott's excellent story in the Pathfinder's Journal.

Not too long after working up the initial general plot for the Pathfinder's Journal with Amber, I got her first chapter in my email. I really enjoyed the two protagonists and how they worked together and wanted to see how she'd go on to develop their relationship. Then after the second chapter showed up in my inbox, I met a new favorite character—Tryg, the little robot that Eirian and Sidek rescue.

I liked Amber's description of the robot and I couldn't wait to see how Rodrigo Vega would draw it. When the first sketch came back I was delighted. He looked weird and cute at the same time, which is always a win for me. When the final art for that first illustration of Tryg came in I printed it out and pinned it to the wall of my cube. Like the protagonists in the story, I ended up falling in love with that little guy, so I figured I'd go ahead and stat him up since he's one of the few robots that we've illustrated in Iron Gods that doesn't have stats.

While I was working on the robot's stats, I took the chance to get Amber to talk a bit about her adorable robotic creation. She had this to say:

"What was most important to me was for Tryg to be more than just a mindless automaton. He had to have a personality and some free will; otherwise there would be no reason to care about his eventual fate. To me, Tryg was clever and curious and playful, too. He learns eventually that he's gonna get grabbed and tied up every night and first he tries to outsmart Sidek and later he's resigned to it." (My intent, even though I never said so explicitly, is because Tryg has a sense of what awaits him at the signal's source and he knows Sidek is trying to help him get there).

I also selected the name 'Tryg' as an alternate spelling of the Norwegian name ‘Trygg/Tryggr,' which means faithful/trusty, to reinforce the image of Tryg the robot as a loyal canine companion.”

Here's what this a lovable robot companion looks like in Pathfinder stats.

Tryg CR 1/2

XP 200
N Small construct (robot)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +3

Defense

AC 13, touch 11, flat-footed 13 (+2 natural, +1 size)
hp 15 (1d10+10)
Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +1
Immune construct traits
Weaknesses vulnerable to critical hits and electricity

Offense

Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +0 (1d3–2) or integrated laser torch +0 touch (1d4 plus fire)
Special Attacks integrated laser torch

Statistics

Str 7, Dex 11, Con —, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 1
Base Atk +1; CMB –2; CMD 8
Feats Alertness
Skills Climb +2, Disable Device +4, Knowledge (engineering) +3, Perception +3, Sense Motive +3; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Knowledge (engineering)
Languages Androffan
SQ tools

Ecology

Environment any (Numeria)
Organization solitary or crew (2–5)
Treasure none

Special Abilities

Integrated Laser Torch (Ex) As part of its built-in toolkit, Tryg is outfitted with an integrated laser torch it can use to cut through minor barriers. When activated, the torch emits a beam of highly focused light, cutting and burning through surfaces up to 6 inches away. Attacks from a laser torch resolve as touch attacks and deal 1d4 points of fire damage. This damage is not modified further by Strength. Tryg's integrated laser torch is mounted inside one of its appendages. When the laser torch is used as a tool or as a weapon to sunder, its damage bypasses hardness up to 20 points, and damage is not halved (as is normally the case for energy damage applied to objects) unless the object is particularly fire-resistant. A laser torch's cutting beam passes through force fields and force effects without damaging the field. Invisible objects and creatures can't be harmed by a laser torch.

Tools (Ex) Tyrg has tools built into its body that can reconfigure themselves into nearly any cutting, grasping, or drilling device. Tryg is always considered to be using masterwork tools for any Craft or Disable Device checks.

Stay tuned next week for a wrap up of some of our favorite art from the Iron Gods Adventure Path!

Adam Daigle
Developer

Illustrations by Rodrigo Vega.

Confessions of a Recovering Paizo Blog Addict

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Hello. My name is Mark, and I'm a recovering Paizo Blog addict.

When the Paizo Blog first started back in spring 2007, I was new to the Pathfinder fan community, and to be honest, Pathfinder wasn't even a thing. I rarely read it, because I wasn't quite sure what the people who made my favorite magazines thought they were doing making D&D content that wasn't officially approved and licensed as canon and therefore allowable in my game (yeah, I was one of those gamers). I read the blog occasionally, but that was it.

Then I started working (rather obsessively, I might add) on Pathfinder Wiki, and suddenly the blog was really useful, super exciting, and checking it daily became a big priority. Big isn't even the right word. I used to check religiously every day at blog time for the latest update so that I could add any newly revealed hints or secrets to the wiki, whether that was a spoiler about the monsters that were going to appear in a new Pathfinder Adventure Path volume or an image of Aroden creating Absalom.

Now, it should be noted that at this time, blogs were scheduled to go live at midnight. I was then living in New York City, so that was 3 AM where I was. And like the dedicated fan-boy I was, I stayed up until 3 to be the first to comment on each one, then I'd go promptly to bed. When there wasn't a blog or it wasn't on time, I got upset that I'd waited all night and forgone sleep for nothing. So entitled was I that I created an alias called Blog Police to remind the fine folks at Paizo that they'd "forgotten" a blog or neglected to include art in it that I could use under the Community Use Policy.

Oh how things change!

All this is to say that today's blog is being written after it was supposed to go live at noon. I'm sorry if anyone in Sydney has been waiting for a 3 AM blog. Here it is! And it's got art! And it's a preview of an upcoming book, Pathfinder Adventure Path #87: The Choking Tower by Ron Lundeen! Plus, a bonus wallpaper for download!

Illustrations by Maichol Quinto and Wayne Reynolds. Download the widescreen version of the wallpaper here.

Illustrations by Johan Grenier, Maichol Quinto, and Miguel Regodón Harkness

Ron's been a staple of many Pathfinder lines for several years now, but this is his first adventure path volume. Here are a few of the choicest pieces of art from the book, selected by yours truly based on which I like the most and/or feel would be most useful to the wiki. Enjoy!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Illustrating Zernebeth

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Tim Pratt originally created the Technic League captain Zernebeth for his Pathfinder Tales novels City of the Fallen Sky and Reign of Stars. Now she's going to be appearing as an NPC in Pathfinder Adventure Path #89: Palace of Fallen Stars, and Tim was kind enough to share his thoughts on what it feels like to see her get illustrated for the first time—twice!—and appear in an adventure.

When I was ten years old, cat-sitting for a neighbor while they were out of town, I noticed some D&D Monster Manuals on their shelf. I'd never played an RPG at that point, so the lists of stats and sizes and powers and hit points didn't mean anything to me, but the artwork seized my imagination and didn't let go. I still remember the drawings of beholders, umber hulks, green dragons, gelatinous cubes, mind flayers, rust monsters—and seeing them brought to life in ink lines and paint made my synapses sizzle.

As I got older, I discovered that some of the best fantasy artwork was appearing in RPG manuals and source material, and on fantasy trading cards. When I became a professional author, I experienced the thrill of seeing my work brought to life by various artists time and time again—and it's a thrill that never gets old.

Illustrations by Miguel Regodón Harkness and Tatiana Vetrova

But now, in addition to the pleasure of seeing a character I created depicted so vividly by Miguel Regodon Harkness and Tatiana Vetrova, I've got an extra special thrill, something that would have delighted my ten-year-old-self (and delights me equally all these years later): a character I created is going to be part of a *game*. My manipulative white witch cyborg Zernbeth is going to make life interesting and/or miserable for Pathfinder players lucky enough to pick up the Iron Gods Adventure Path. She's making the leap from my brain to your gaming tables.

Sometimes I really love my life.

Tim Pratt
Pathfinder Tales Author

Equip Yourself to Face the Lords of Rust!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

It's almost time for Lords of Rust, the second installment in the Iron Gods Adventure Path, to hit the shelves. Prepare to fight the minions of the Iron Gods with these mittens—guaranteed to stave off tetanus and increase your Craft bonus! This pattern first debuted at PaizoCon as a giveaway for our annual Crafting Circle, and has since been tested and debugged. Enjoy, and please share your results!

And because I've been asked several times, the pattern of 1s and 0s used on the palms of the mittens isn't meaningful, but you could certainly devise one that is (for example, this early project of mine encodes an E. E. Cummings poem). The length of the message you can knit depends on the particular binary code you use and whether you use 1s and 0s or black versus white stitches—you'd have about 12 characters with 8-bit ASCII using 1s and 0s, but 276 characters with 6-bit ASCII using black versus white stitches. So ponder what secret message to the Pathfinder Society, to android allies... or maybe to your robotic overlords you'd like to encode!

Download the Pattern - (45 kb zip/PDF)

Judy Bauer
Editor

Clash With the Lords of Rust

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Illustration by Johan Grenier

As the release date for Pathfinder Adventure Path #86: "Lords of Rust" nears, I thought I'd share a few details on what readers can expect. I don't want to spoil too much about the adventure itself, so I'll mention that it takes place in a giant junkyard and the PCs have to navigate all sorts of dangers and complicated relationships between various gangs. It was also written by a maniac. Most people know him by his human name, Nicolas Logue.

This volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path also answers some questions that have been on people's minds for a while. An article about the Technic League, written by Jim Groves, resolves some questions about how that unscrupulous organization's history and talks a bit about how the group operates. Something else people have shown interest in over the years is the faith of Brigh, so we got Sean K Reynolds to cover the topic in a deity article about the goddess of clockwork, invention, and time. I'm really happy with how the article turned out and I can't wait until readers get their own copies of "Lords of Rust" in their hands. The volume is rounded out with the usual collection of monsters and the continuation of Amber E. Scott's Pathfinder Journal.

To sate your hunger until you can grab a copy, enjoy some of the wonderful art pieces of Brigh, her holy symbol, and a worshiper that shows up in this adventure. (I threw in a bonus dead technician just for the fun of it.)

Illustrations by Johan Grenier, Migueal Regodón, and Dmitry Burmak

Adam Daigle
Developer

The Literary Origins of Science Fiction in Fantasy Settings

Thursday, September 4, 2014

"Do you know about other worlds? Don't you believe the stars are only huge jewels?"
—The Swords of Lankhmar, Fritz Leiber
Illustration by Caio Maciel Monteiro

With the release of Pathfinder Adventure Path #85: "The Fires of Creation", the first adventure in the Iron Gods Adventure Path, I thought it was worth taking a moment to talk about the literary origins of mixing science-fiction elements into fantasy settings.

Illustration by Ian Llanas

The origins of the Iron Gods Adventure Path itself are pretty clear. The seeds of advanced technology in Golarion go back to its inception, and descriptions of Numeria, Alkenstar, the Red Redoubt of Karamoss, and the Ruins of Kho have always included a level of technology much different than most of the rest of the Inner Sea. Golarion is a world where scraps of ancient lost technology exist in limited quantities, and it makes sense that at least one adventure path explore that aspect of the world. This follows a long tradition of mixing science fiction and fantasy elements in roleplaying games, dating back to near the beginning of the hobby.

The RPG hobby is in turn built on a long tradition of genre-blurring stories, dating back to at least the early 1700s. Earlier speculative fiction didn't mostly bother to define a difference between science fiction and fantasy. Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels was written as a satire, but it is also arguably an early work of mixed science fiction and fantasy. Beyond the well-known fantasy races of Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians, protagonist Gulliver encounters many other places including both the flying city of Laputa (a city of pure scientific thought and clear antecedent of Kho), and a land of magicians (Glubbdubdrib) where magic largely replaces technology.

Although not the same as most modern fantasy, another common category of early speculative fiction that often blends advanced technology and magic is the "lost world" genre, where a modern character discovers a fantastic land unknown to the rest of civilization. In some lost world books the discovery is the result of an exploratory expedition (such as is the case for Jules Verne's 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, an early example of the genre), while in other cases the discovery is entirely accidental (as in Edward Bulwer-Lyrtton's 1871 novel Vril, the Power of the Coming Race).

Similar is the planetary romance genre, where the foreign land is generally on other planets. One can argue that Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom (from A Princess of Mars, and a series of novels that follow) is pure science fiction, with its airships and radium pistols, but the fact that most conflict is handled through swordplay reveals its fantasy roots. The blending of science and magic is even clearer in related stories by Burroughs, the most obvious example being "The Wizard of Venus," where planetary explorer Carson Napier learns extraordinary powers from the titular Venusian wizard.

Many novels of the 1930s-1970s combined fantasy and science fiction in one setting, often inspired by the tradition of Barsoom and the planetary romances. The fiction of Michael Moorcock is one of the original influences for fantasy RPG settings, and includes multiple cases of high science elements. Most extensively, the adventures of Hawkmoon (who, as an incarnation of the Eternal Champion, is connected to the better-known Elric of Melniboné,) take place in a world that appears to be a post-apocalyptic version of Europe. Magic is commonplace, but sorcerer-scientists also often have access to ancient advanced technology, including the Black Jewel, which is implanted into Hawkmoon by his enemies to monitor his movements. Ursula K. Le Guin's 1966 novel Rocannon's World has fewer directly magic elements, but does describe the travels of a scientist with advanced knowledge through an alien land of castes and swordsmen. Poul Anderson's 1961 novel Three Hearts and Three Lions presents a protagonist from the modern "real" world who ends up in a parallel world where magic and trolls are real.

Instances where science fiction elements enter an existing, established pure-fantasy setting are less common but far from unknown. Robert E. Howard's fantasy character Conan encounters an alien in the 1933 short story "The Tower of the Elephant." Fritz Leiber's quintessential rogue and barbarian team Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser run into a time traveler in his 1968 novel The Swords of Lankhmar. Time travel and planetary travel both come into play in C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner's 1937 story "Quest of the Starstone," in which fantasy swordswoman Jirel of Joiry must deal with Northwest Smith, a smuggler and scoundrel hired from a tavern on Mars in her own far-flung future. (Those interest in seeing how that particular situation is resolved can read the story in Black God's Kiss, still available from paizo.com.)

The existence of fantasy tales that added a dash of high science is no reason for groups that dislike blending the two ideas to feel they must change their minds, but it is one of the reasons other groups love having the option to through a little more sci-fi into their fantasy games.

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Iron Gods Resource Roundup

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Many of you have already got your hands on Pathfinder Adventure Path #85: "The Fires of Creation," the first volume of the Iron Gods Adventure Path. Dedicated readers, eager fans, and other messageboard fanatics (you know who you are) have been clamoring for us to do something more with Numeria since the nation first appeared in the Campaign Setting, but adding in laser guns and robots isn't something you do without a considerable amount of preparation. So, to support the Iron Gods Adventure Path we went all out with a number of releases intended to fully flesh out the campaign and provide fun and interesting options for players and GMs alike.

While you wait for the next volume—Pathfinder Adventure Path #86: "Lords of Rust"—check out the wealth of resources we've provided to help you enjoy the Iron Gods Adventure Path.

Illustration by Lucio Parrillo

The first thing we needed were rules for all the technological wonders found in Numeria, so we came up with Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide. This 64-page book not only presents dozens of examples of high-tech equipment, but it also provides new feats, spells, archetypes, and even a prestige class suited to mastering Numeria's technological wonders. We didn't want to make it so that people had to buy this book to run the Iron Gods Adventure Path, so we made sure to include all the rules from the Technology Guide in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Resource Document (aka PRD). Our own resident robot recently remodeled the PRD to not only include this resource, but to also spiff up the place a bit. And it looks great! Have you seen it? Why not? Go, now. Go check it out.

Now that the rules were covered, we knew we'd need a good gazetteer of Numeria to allow GMs to really flesh out that part of Golarion. Knowing that there wouldn't be enough space in the back matter of the Adventure Path to provide all this information, we got to work on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars. This 64-page book talks about the nation's history, goes into detail about its settlements and people, provides hazards to watch out for while exploring the land, and outlines some of the most compelling adventuring sites and hooks to keep a group playing in Numeria for years.

We couldn't let the GMs have all the fun, so we knew we needed some exciting options for characters too. Instead of just doing one Player Companion to support the Iron Gods Adventure Path, we spread it out over two books. Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the River talks about the multitudes of people that live along the Sellen River, the largest river system in Avistan that reaches all the way up through Numeria. This Player Companion also include the campaign traits for players eager to jump into an Iron Gods campaign.

Also providing support for players hoping to play a stranger race in an Iron Gods campaign, Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the Stars provides character options for some of the most popular aliens in the Campaign Setting, new ways to incorporate astronomy into your games, and dozens of new traits, feats, gear, and other new mechanics all steeped in some Distant Worlds flavoring.

Finally, as with every Adventure Path, we also put out the free to download Iron Gods Player's Guide that provides advice and suggestions about making characters that fit the themes of the Iron Gods Adventure Path and excel at the challenges presented in the campaign.

Players and GMs running an Iron Gods campaign would also do well to check the messageboards to see all the fan-made goodies and shared advice from dozens of on-going campaigns. I hope everyone has as much fun playing in this Adventure Path as we've had working on all this material. Charge your batteries and strap on your gear. Let's go to Numeria!

Adam Daigle
Developer

Play Iron Gods, Read Iron Gods!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

As someone who spends most of his time living in the Pathfinder campaign setting, I think one of the coolest things about the Pathfinder Tales novels is their ability to give players and GMs a deeper understanding of Golarion. As GMs, we may have read the sourcebook on a region, but the novels give us a chance to see that place through the eyes of the people who live there, to get the sights and smells in a more immediate and visceral fashion. As players, the novels are even more important, as they represent a chance to get that feel for an area without reading an adventure or sourcebook full of spoilers. That's one of the reasons we included the Pathfinder's Journal way back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #1—so that GMs could hand those pages to their players and say, "Here's a story about the place you're adventuring in." Now that we have the novels, I wouldn't think of starting a campaign in, say, Nidal without pointing my players toward Liane Merciel's Nightglass as inspirational reading.

Which brings us to the newest Pathfinder Tales novel, Reign of Stars. While it doesn't follow the storyline of Iron Gods—no spoilers, remember?—this book is very much a prequel to that AP. Tim Pratt first introduced us to his ex-Technic League apprentice Alaeron back in City of the Fallen Sky, but this time, he's gone whole-hog and taken us on a tour of Numeria, complete with first-hand insights into the insidious dealings of the Technic League and the Black Sovereign. What's more, when developing both this novel and the Iron Gods Adventure Path, James Jacobs, Mark Moreland, Tim Pratt, and I all worked closely together to make sure that not only did the flavor of the various books match, but that characters and critters from the novel showed up in the Adventure Path and the Numeria sourcebook, and vice versa.

In short, I think we've created the perfect fiction companion to Iron Gods. So whether you're looking for something to read between sessions of the AP, or simply itching for robots and techno-rays from beyond the stars, consider giving Reign of Stars a shot! You can read the first chapter for free here.

Also, since we weren't able to run it last week, here's an awesome new illustration of the absentminded alchemist Alaeron himself, courtesy of Roberto Pitturru!

James L. Sutter
Managing Editor

Iron Gods Player's Guide

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

"You never said anything about an android being on board! Why not?"

Some people have been scrambling for this Adventure Path since before we ever announced it, and I'm happy to say that the Iron Gods Adventure Path is finally here! Next week GMs across the world will be reading Pathfinder Adventure Path #85: The Fires of Creation and prepping for an exciting campaign in Numeria—the savage land of super-science—thousands of players are dreaming up all the possible characters they can play in this Adventure Path.

The Iron Gods Player's Guide gives advice and suggestions to help players make the best character they can that fits in with the themes and challenges presented in this campaign. In addition to these tips, the Player's Guide provides six campaign traits that help anchor any character to the story told throughout the Iron Gods Adventure Path, a brief glimpse at the town in which the campaign begins, and notes on some of the things to expect during the campaign.

Don't waste any time! Download the Iron Gods Player's Guide now! Suit up and head out, because somebody has to go out there and it might as well be you!

Adam Daigle
Developer

The Stars Are Falling Soon!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Illustration by Patrick Reinemann

The latest volume of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line has started shipping out to subscribers, and it's one that I know a lot of players and Game Masters are very excited to get their hands on—Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars I asked one of the book's co-authors, Jim Groves, to write a few words about his own excitement surrounding the book, and what a few of his favorite elements of it are. Here's what he has to say (as well as a few pieces of preview art I generously appended to his text).

Like many fans, I was at home during Gen Con 2013. My personal situation required me to live vicariously through the Twitter feeds and messageboard posts of fans who generously kept me informed. When I read James Jacobs had announced the Iron Gods Adventure Path, I wasted no time e-mailing him, right then and there, while he was still on the convention floor. A few days later, I received a very friendly and gracious reply. James already had a list of authors in mind, and it is vital for the health of the product line to add new authors and vary the cast up from AP to AP. So I understood James's reasoning perfectly, but when Mark Moreland contacted me a few weeks later to work on Numeria, Land of the Fallen Stars, I was overjoyed.

When writing for Numeria, I felt it was important to honor the theme of otherworldly super-science, but not to absolute exclusion. There are a number of elements, like the Plain of Ten Thousand Swords and the Battle of Grasyhot, which are all about traditional barbaric adventure. I was also very aware throughout the entire process that Ustalav, the Worldwound, and the River Kingdoms were right across a borderline—a division many adventurers and barbarians do not honor. My hope is fans gain insight into how Numeria fits and interacts with the world around it.

Among my favorite plots is the Chapel of Rent Flesh, dedicated to kyton activities on Golarion. The origin and history of the kytons is wonderfully mysterious and provocative. They demonstrate an aspect of the campaign setting which does not conform to a tidy and artificially organized cosmology. The Chapel doesn't upend what we know about the universe, but it asks some interesting questions. I also love Hajoth Hakados and Chitterhome. These communities allow a GM to introduce unusual player characters and NPCs, not just for a Numeria campaign but for all of Golarion, without feeling they're "fighting the campaign setting." GMs should never feel that way, but I think we help with a liberal sprinkling of rationale and context. I hope the book inspires and supports people to develop their own incredible and original campaigns.

Illustrations by Caio Maciel Monteiro

As I said above, Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars is already on its way to subscribers and will be available in game stores, bookstores, and for PDF download to the general public on June 25! The book is a vital source of setting information for Game Masters running the Iron Gods Adventure Path or anyone looking for more highly-anticipated information on one of the Inner Sea region's most exotic locales.

Mark Moreland
Developer

Iron Gods Roll Call

I've been wanting to do the Iron Gods Adventure Path for a long time, but it's not all that easy to just roll out a campaign that makes significant use of mountains of items and armor and weapons and creatures and hazards that the game doesn't yet have rules for. I'm talking, of course, about lasers and robots and radiation and gravity suits and nuclear resonators and atom guns and neurocams and K-lances and heavy weapon harnesses and robojacks and thoracic nanite chambers and graviton generators and more. What are all those things? I'm afraid you'll all need to wait a few more months to find out.

But what you DON'T have to wait for is the list of Iron Gods Adventure Path titles and authors! Because here they are! Long time readers will note some new names, some familiar names, and at least one old name risen from the murky depths of the past!

• Part 1: Fires of Creation, by Neil Spicer
• Part 2: Lords of Rust, by Nicolas Logue
• Part 3: The Choking Tower, by Ron Lundeen
• Part 4: Valley of the Brain Collectors, by Mike Shel
• Part 5: Palace of Fallen Stars, by Tim Hitchcock
• Part 6: The Divinity Drive, by Crystal Fraiser

Oh. And here's a spaceship. (No... this isn't the Silver Mount. That one's a LOT bigger.)

Illustration by Rodrigo Vega

James Jacobs
Creative Director