Respect for the Past, Eyes on the Future!

Friday, December 1, 2017

When setting out to write Taldor, The First Empire, I found myself presented with a circumstance unlike any that I had previously undertaken: round up everything we've ever said about the nation of Taldor in the 10 years the Pathfinder campaign setting has been around, put all of that into a single cohesive document, make sure it's exciting and inspirational for readers, and lay the groundwork for a Pathfinder Adventure Path campaign that will take place entirely within the nation and deal with the inner workings of its government and long history. But if anyone could do it, I told myself in true Taldan fashion, it was me. Right?

The first major challenge was determining what tone we wanted to present Taldor with going forward, in part because we've been less than consistent on it in the past. Some sources made it out to be more like the Byzantine Empire, complete with laws dictating who could have a beard, while other sources described the court of Louis XIV, with nobles so incompetent that they couldn't even spell their own names correctly. The problem isn't with either presentation, but rather with the fact that there are a lot of fans of both sides of Taldor.

I spent much of PaizoCon 2017 chatting with the community about what they wanted out of the book, what they liked about Taldor, and what never seemed to make sense to them. The development team held a series of meetings wherein we broke down our own views of the nation and what we needed from it in the future, from NPCs, locations, and events to seed into the campaign setting for forthcoming adventures to even larger meta-plots. Then I took all of that and used it as a guideline when combing through the myriad bits we'd said about the Inner Sea's greatest nation to construct what would become the book itself.

Illustrations by Allison Theus, Mary Jane Pajaron, Raph Lomotan, and Katerina Kirillova

I'm incredibly proud of this book, and think the final result is one of the best entries in the illustrious Pathfinder Campaign Setting line. It will be headed to subscribers and game stores soon, and I look forward to hearing the what the community has to say. Check back next week, when I'll go over a few of the reasons why Taldor is the greatest nation in the Inner Sea, and enjoy these glorious illustrations as a preview of what Taldor, The First Empire has to offer.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Here There Be Aliens

Monday, August 14, 2017

Amid our preparations for Gen Con, we here at the Paizo offices are strapping ourselves in for the launch of the Starfinder Core Rulebook and all of its related material (in less than a week!), including the first volume of the Dead Suns Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station. You've already seen a preview of the adventure, but I'm here to talk about the exciting new aliens and other threats that appear in the back of the book!

Much like how Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes present new monsters, every volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path will come chock full of new creatures in a section we are calling the Alien Archives. Many of these aliens will be found within the accompanying adventure, and some will present rules for playing them as characters, but all of them will help to flesh out the wider Starfinder universe. For the first volume, we presented ourselves with a unique challenge: we asked artist Allison Theus to draw two new aliens of her own design, and we would then write statistics and words to match! Feast your eyes on what she provided to us.

Pretty cool, right? Here's where I came in. Starfinder creative lead Robert G. McCreary asked if I wanted to be the one to write up these new aliens. Of course, I jumped at the chance to contribute to the first ever Starfinder Adventure Path volume. And since I had created adversaries for the playtest and the Free RPG Day product Starfinder First Contact, I was already familiar with the system we were using to build NPCs.

Let me walk you through some of my thought processes as I got my first glimpses of the art, starting with the rauzhant—that's the purplish-blue flying creature. We didn't yet have plans to introduce any new types of dragons into the game, and this beast has some wyvern-like qualities, so I started with the dragon creature type. The next thing that drew my attention was its face… or lack thereof. I figured it would have some form of blindsight (perhaps even being completely blind without it), and it really had to be able to do something with all those extra teeth and fangs, as well as those little hook-shaped claws. I decided it would have the ability to clutch on to its prey after succeeding at a bite attack and then rake with those claws in subsequent rounds. In the process, a rauzhant folds up its wings so that it and its victim begin plummeting through the atmosphere of Liavara, the gas giant the creature calls home. Once its prey is dead, it resumes flight while feasting on the corpse. A Large creature, the rauzhant is CR 6.

Next, let's look at the vracinea—that sort of plant-spider hybrid. With its wood- and grass-covered exterior making for good camouflage in jungle environments (especially those of Castrovel), this plant creature seemed like it could be an ambush predator of some kind, using its bright-purple blossoms as a lure. I followed this train of thought for a bit, making the lure a supernatural effect, turning the creature into a kind of aboveground plant-based anglerfish. I decided that, as a plant, the vracinea isn't very fast, so I gave it a paralyzing scent that freezes its prey in place, giving the creature enough time to approach and begin chomping with its many sharp-toothed maws. Also a Large creature, a vracinea is CR 4.

Look for more exciting new aliens in the upcoming Dead Suns Adventure Path volumes and the Starfinder Alien Archive, all coming soon!

Jason Keeley
Developer

Dead Suns Dead Ahead!

Monday, July 31, 2017

We're fast approaching the release of the Starfinder Core Rulebook and the first Starfinder Adventure Path, Dead Suns! So, what do you have to look forward to? Keep reading, but beware—there might be a few spoilers ahead!

One of our goals with the Starfinder Adventure Path was to feature material that would be useful to both GMs and players. Of course, every volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path includes an exciting adventure for GMs to run for their players, but we've also worked really hard to include new rules and mechanics for players, such as new equipment, new character options, and new feats and spells. We'll also be presenting new alien creatures (both to fight and to play), new starships, and new planets to visit.

Illustrations by Victor Manuel Leza Moreno, Allison Theus, and Mirco Paganessi

For Dead Suns specifically, we wanted to show off the scope of the Starfinder setting. As a result, the Adventure Path starts off on Absalom Station, but the PCs soon leave the station to visit some other locations in the Pact Worlds, including Castrovel, Eox, and the Diaspora. But there's a whole galaxy to explore in Starfinder, so the PCs will also head into the Vast to visit some new, unexplored alien worlds. Before the campaign is finished, the heroes of Dead Suns will have visited space stations, asteroids, jungle planets, dead worlds, gas giants, derelict ships and not-so-derelict ships, and even vast megastructures.

What else can you expect in Dead Suns? The Starfinder Society is a major faction in the Starfinder setting, and it plays a central role in the Adventure Path as the PCs are working for the Society during the campaign. Two groups who make their debut in the Starfinder Core Rulebook—the Corpse Fleet and the Cult of the Devourer—are the main antagonists of Dead Suns, and the Adventure Path will feature expanded descriptions of both factions, as well as new rules elements thematically tied to these groups. In addition, there will be some ancient alien technology to examine, horrors from outer space to contend with, and of course, starship combat against a host of enemy vessels!

The first Dead Suns adventure, Incident at Absalom Station, hits store shelves and paizo.com in August, followed by a new volume every other month, so get ready. Adventure among the stars awaits!

Robert G. McCreary
Senior Developer

Outmaneuvered

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Even in the midst of PaizoCon preparation, the design staff just loves those crazy little rules questions that pop up on the messageboards, during actual play, or that just randomly stray into our heads when we are designing an archetype or putting the finishing touches on a monster.

Since I just returned from Comicpalooza in Houston, I had a number of those questions come up while conversing with players or that popped up during play, and shared those experiences when I returned. Well, no good deed goes unpunished. While in the middle of sharing my experiences, Jason quickly pointed out that we needed a Design Tuesday blog. So let's look at some question and answers involving everyone's favorite subject—combat maneuvers! Today I'll go over a couple of pressing ones. We will get into more minutia next week.

Illustration by Allision Theus

Question: Standing up provokes an attack of opportunity. I can attempt to trip a creature with an attack of opportunity. Can I use the trip combat maneuver to keep my opponent down on the ground?

In a word, no. By far this was the most common combat maneuver question at the show that people asked me. I had folks try to use it in the game, and I can understand why. As a tactic, it seems pretty powerful. Too powerful, and that's why there are some subtle timing issues that are going on when a creature attempts to stand up and provokes the attack of opportunity.

When the attack of opportunity is provoked for standing up, the creature is still prone, since an attack of opportunity interrupts the action that provoked it. Since that's the case, the creature is still prone when the attack is provoked, and you cannot trip a prone creature, as it is already prone.

Okay, all you trip monkeys out there, don't fret overly much. If you want an effect similar to the one you desire, you just have to pay a higher action cost. Use the ready action. Just make sure your triggered action is "after the creature stands up from being prone" or something similar. I know, it's not nearly as sexy (or free) but I have faith you'll find a way to make it work to the detriment of those wily monsters.

Question: A creature grappling an opponent typically needs to make two combat maneuver checks to pin someone (one to grapple, the next to pin). If you're pinned, do you also need to succeed at two checks to escape, one for the grab and the other for the pin?

The answer to this question is also no. When a creature is pinned, it gains this more severe version of the grappled condition, and the two conditions do not stack (as described in the pinned condition). While this means that you do not take both the penalties for both the grapple and the pin, this also means that pinned supersedes the grapple condition; it does not compound it. For this reason you only need to succeed one combat maneuver or Escape Artist check to escape either a grapple or a pin.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Pathfinder RPG Designer