Pathfinder Online and the Emerald Spire

The online game Beta is expected in mid 2014. When are you expecting to publish the Emerald Spire Superdungeon and Flip-Mats? Sooner (2013), same time, later?

Now if there was only a way to get multiples of each of the miniatures wihout having to pledge a huge $500, which is sadly outside my budget. These look good but you typically need several of a mini per encounter, especially things like goblins and undead.

We are looking at ways to get backers multiple minis. Hopefully I will have something to report in the next week or so.

Lisa

Quick Q:

Quote:

Will all these, in addition to Fort Inevitable, I mean the dungeon and levels also be in Pathfinder Online to explore with our avatars? I believe that's what Thornkeep does/will do and wondered if this will also "materialize" and be explorable in game also? /thanks in advance.

Eventually, we hope to put this dungeon and the Thornkeep one into Pathfinder Online. But I have NO TIMETABLE for when that might happen. Making dungeons requires a huge amount of assets and people's time to make. And we aren't going to have assets and time to spare for quite some time. So it could be years down the road. Who knows? Right now, we are really focused on getting Pathfinder Online built. The time for expansive superdungeons will be down the line a bit.

-Lisa

Kickstarter funding at ramming speed! This may turn out to be the fattest dungeon in RPG game history.

Now that the Kickstarter has reached 250k will we find out who the next author is? Or at least what the overall theme of the megadungeon is? Or if we'll get to vote on Author levels like we did on Thornkeep?

The next author has been announced. It is Keith Baker, creator of the Eberron campaign setting amongst many other credits.

As for more info on the Emerald Spire, I noticed that you are a Goblin Squad member from the first Kickstarter. So you already have your answer. In the Thornkeep PDF that you received, on page 26, you have two paragraphs of info on the Emerald Spire. See, Goblin Squad members DO get to know about things first! :)

-Lisa

Now that the Kickstarter has reached 250k will we find out who the next author is? Or at least what the overall theme of the megadungeon is? Or if we'll get to vote on Author levels like we did on Thornkeep?

The next author is Keith Baker!

I suspect Ed Greenwood will join the cast at some point.

I'm hoping Mike Shel, Greg A. Vaughan, Stephen S. Greer, Richard Pett, Crystal Frasier, and James Jacobs join the authors. The latter because The Engima vaults were awesome in Thornkeep. and the Former five because they've made some of my favorite Dungeons in pathfinder APs (The Lady's Light, Castle Scarwall, The Runeforge, Foxglove Manor and The Harrowing, respectively).

I'd add James L. Sutter and Richard Baker to the list, but to my eternal delight they're already authors.

EDIT: Did I understand the new Video on the Front Page correctly? You can now just add the RPG Print Pack to any level and get both the Print copies AND the PDF copies?

Don't forget Monte Cook and Erik Mona.

Dammit. Just take my money. Is there a bank account I can set up direct deposit of my paychecks to so we can cut out the middlemen?

EDIT: Did I understand the new Video on the Front Page correctly? You can now just add the RPG Print Pack to any level and get both the Print copies AND the PDF copies?

Yep.

Lisa

Great deal for those who just want tabletop stuff...6 flip mats and the 128 page book, all with PDFs too. $105...now they'll want the miniatures too of course ;)

I am fairly ignorant about Kickstarters, I have increased my pledge but I haven't see a point in which I could say "I want the Emerald Spire Superdungeon and Flip-Mat Multi-Pack in print".

This:

Backers will be able to indicate they want the RPG Print Pack Add On as a part of the post-Kickstarter fulfillment process. One set of materials is included in each Add On; to get multiple copies of the materials, please increment your pledge in multiples of $100.

I will get the possibility to say that only after the Kickstarter is finished, replying to some mail from Goblinworks?

@Diego Rossi - yes. Add-Ons are not a formal part of the Kickstarter system. They emerged via project runners experiments to see how backers would respond to various offers during a campaign.

So...I'm ok with my original pledge, and to get the book, I will need to tack on a hundred bucks at the end? After the drive is already done?

I can do that.

As I understand it (and from other Kickstarter's that I've backed) if you're at Crowdforger Pioneer and want the print book then you should increase the value of your pledge to $200 at some point before the Kickstarter ends. Then when the Kickstarter ends you'll get some kind of survey confirming your details and you can confirm the the extra $100 is for the printed book.

@Kain Darkwind - you increase your pledge now, but you don't change your reward.

Is there a way to get the soundtrack with the books if one does not want the game? Basically, I want just the material I can use for Pen and Paper RPG, except the miniatures, without the MMO things. I will never play an MMO and I am not interested in giving money to an MMO.

Is there a way to get the soundtrack with the books if one does not want the game? Basically, I want just the material I can use for Pen and Paper RPG, except the miniatures, without the MMO things. I will never play an MMO and I am not interested in giving money to an MMO.

Somebody did a cost analysis in another thread, the non-game rewards would cost more to buy individually than to make the pledge. You can either look at it as the game being free, or all of the PnP stuff being free, or everything is %50 off. give/sell the game to some friend or a random stranger.

If this happens, will the outcome of events that occur in the dungeon, or information learned from it, have a signifigant effect on the 'status quo' of Golarion in general and the River Kingdoms in particular?

I hope that means you'll support the Kickstarter.

Oh, don't worry. I'm most certainly going to pledge, if "only" for the PnP stuff. In fact, all of my Kickstarter pledges so far have been RPG related in some way. I've pledged for the OotS Reprint, the Reaper miniatures, Project Eternity and - last but nor least - the Thornkeep pdf lies secured in the Pathfinder-folder of my PC :)

However, my group just started RotRL Anniversary 2 sessions ago and it will be a looooong time before I could even think to play the emerald spire (or even Thornkeep, for that matter). They are mostly quite new to RPGs, so I'll first ask them if they even have ineterest in a Superdungeon. I've never played one, but I imagine they are somewhat light on story and just not for everyone.

@Lisa: I'm all in for a little drama, but I still think the blog text can easily be misunderstood. It would be far clearer to simply say something like
"If we get funded, we'll release a 12 level superdungeon. So far 4 authors are announced and each additional one will be revealed every 100k step of pledge. Stretch goals beyond the one million mark will add even more levels!"

In fact, the sentence

It will also add at least four, 8-page dungeon levels

is outright wrong, because there's no way the dungeon will come with anything less then 12 levels. And maybe it's just me, but a hundred bucks for 12 levels even sounds way better than paying that amount for only 4 levels.

I'm not complaining, mind you! I'm just pointing out some poor-ish wording in the blog :)

Baroth wrote:

Is there a way to get the soundtrack with the books if one does not want the game? Basically, I want just the material I can use for Pen and Paper RPG, except the miniatures, without the MMO things. I will never play an MMO and I am not interested in giving money to an MMO.

Somebody did a cost analysis in another thread, the non-game rewards would cost more to buy individually than to make the pledge. You can either look at it as the game being free, or all of the PnP stuff being free, or everything is %50 off. give/sell the game to some friend or a random stranger.

Thanks for the answer, but this is not what I was asking for. I was just asking for a way to get the soundtrack without paying money of the MMO. Making a 5$ pledge and adding 100$ will get me just the books. Now, is there way to add a bit of money to the pledge to get me the soundtrack as well?

If this happens, will the outcome of events that occur in the dungeon, or information learned from it, have a signifigant effect on the 'status quo' of Golarion in general and the River Kingdoms in particular?

It's difficult to say since the book has not been written and we want to give the authors leeway to bring their own personal touches to their dungeon levels, but I think it's fair to assume that there will not be earth-shattering changes to the River Kingdoms or the greater world of Golarion from a wide-ranging point of view. It's not going to burn down a forest or change the course of a river or murder a leader or what have you.

That said, if this dungeon gets as large as I think it will, we are going to have some of the most creative minds ever working together on a single Pathfinder adventure (and maybe any adventure for any system ever), and there's no telling what sort of weird lore and strange secrets these madmen and women will add to their dungeons. I would expect, at the minimum, to learn lost secrets of the ancient Azlanti wizards who built the place, additional lore about local residents, Hellknight operations in the River Kingdoms by way of Fort Inevitable, and other random bits of lore that could turn out to be important years later, after other authors riff on them and weave them into the fabric of the campaign setting organically.

There are elements we threw into the original Gazetteer on a lark that have gone on to inspire entire books, and the same is true of adventures like Rise of the Runelords, or even the Kingmaker Adventure Path.

I wouldn't expect the Emerald Spire to shatter the world you love. Rather, I expect it to significantly enrich it.

Thanks for the answer, but this is not what I was asking for. I was just asking for a way to get the soundtrack without paying money of the MMO. Making a 5$ pledge and adding 100$ will get me just the books. Now, is there way to add a bit of money to the pledge to get me the soundtrack as well?

Not presently.

I think it's fair to assume that some of the items generated as part of Pathfinder Online and this Kickstarter in particular may be available for purchase down the road (this is definitely true of the Emerald Spire, for example, though Kickstarter supporters will receive a unique limited-edition Wayne Reynolds cover), but there is currently no mechanism for this, no immediate plans for it, and no guarantees on things like price.

I do guarantee you, 100%, that picking up the Emerald Spire and the associated dungeon Flip-Mats as part of the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter will be much, much, much cheaper than buying them later as part of their eventual retail release.

Awesome, I wasn't necessarily thinking 'world shattering' as much as just that a "Mega Dungeon" of Golarion would just have some level of IMPORTANCE in the world, either presently or historically, and playing thru it would reasonably reveal a good amount of that importance... Perhaps just setting the stage for other world shattering events :-) ...Looking forward to it, not for the MMORPG aspect itself particularly, but if synergy helps all boats rise, I'm all for it :-)

Not presently.

I think it's fair to assume that some of the items generated as part of Pathfinder Online and this Kickstarter in particular may be available for purchase down the road (this is definitely true of the Emerald Spire, for example, though Kickstarter supporters will receive a unique limited-edition Wayne Reynolds cover), but there is currently no mechanism for this, no immediate plans for it, and no guarantees on things like price.

I do guarantee you, 100%, that picking up the Emerald Spire and the associated dungeon Flip-Mats as part of the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter will be much, much, much cheaper than buying them later as part of their eventual retail release.

Thanks for the answer. That is too bad. I was hoping there was a way to get the soundtrack in a package with the books as currently the only way to get the soundtrack is to commit a higher pledge tier.

As I said before, buying the books through pledging is not a problem and seems a good deal, I just wanted to buy the soundtrack as well without having to buy the game. Thus, I hope that it will be release separately and I can buy it like that.

Perhaps chip in something towards somebody else who may want the other higher tier rewards EXCEPT the music?

So, am I the only one thinking a pawn collection for the dungeon as additional option would be great?

Well played, well played – despite the fact that I have little interest in beta-testing, you got me to pledge $215 to get all miniatures and print products involved. ;)

AvenaOats wrote:

Quick Q:

Will all these, in addition to Fort Inevitable, I mean the dungeon and levels also be in Pathfinder Online to explore with our avatars? I believe that's what Thornkeep does/will do and wondered if this will also "materialize" and be explorable in game also? /thanks in advance.

Eventually, we hope to put this dungeon and the Thornkeep one into Pathfinder Online. But I have NO TIMETABLE for when that might happen. Making dungeons requires a huge amount of assets and people's time to make. And we aren't going to have assets and time to spare for quite some time. So it could be years down the road. Who knows? Right now, we are really focused on getting Pathfinder Online built. The time for expansive superdungeons will be down the line a bit.

-Lisa

I look forward to that day! Thank you.

Cat-thulhu wrote:

Now if there was only a way to get multiples of each of the miniatures wihout having to pledge a huge $500, which is sadly outside my budget. These look good but you typically need several of a mini per encounter, especially things like goblins and undead.

We are looking at ways to get backers multiple minis. Hopefully I will have something to report in the next week or so.

Lisa

I really hope you guys can work something out.

I am a mini junkie and 1 copy for each creature won’t be enough for me, especially for that awesome looking Bloodbriar Goblin Raider which I will want multiples of. I would definitely be willing to kick more money towards my pledge to attain more of each miniature.

I would just like to say "Thank you!" to all the PFRPG fans who are supporting the PFO Kickstarter, even if you're not (yet) planning on playing PFO. Your efforts are helping to make my dreams come true.

It is fairly awe-inspiring to be reminded of the talent that Paizo can muster to build dungeons and lore, and the idea that this is the source material on which the world of PFO will be built is incredibly exciting.

And thank you especially to all the folks at Paizo who are working so hard to make this happen. We are all in your debt.

So...I originally pledged 35. Now I increased my pledge to 135, and did nothing to my reward level.

That indicates that I want the book once this is all over, right? I just want to make sure I'm doing this right. Kickstarters are usually fire and forget for me.

Usually, you get to choose your optional add-ons once the Kickstart is over. You just log in to the site and choose to either use the additional money for add-ons (like the print pack) or to simply give it to them because you like them so much.

If funded you will be asked to indicate what you want to do with your extra $100 at the fulfillment stage.

Valinar

@Kain

You are correct

Thank you so much for your support!

Oh man.... that all looks so cool. But I just dropped $200 on the Runelord book and Christmas is coming. Couldn't they have delayed the kickstarter by a few months...

The online game Beta is expected in mid 2014. When are you expecting to publish the Emerald Spire Superdungeon and Flip-Mats? Sooner (2013), same time, later?

I would like to know this as well

This book may be of interest as well, to those who want to see more about the 'nation' of

Lisa Stevens wrote:

Cat-thulhu wrote:

Now if there was only a way to get multiples of each of the miniatures wihout having to pledge a huge $500, which is sadly outside my budget. These look good but you typically need several of a mini per encounter, especially things like goblins and undead.

We are looking at ways to get backers multiple minis. Hopefully I will have something to report in the next week or so.

Lisa

I really hope you guys can work something out.

I am a mini junkie and 1 copy for each creature won’t be enough for me, especially for that awesome looking Bloodbriar Goblin Raider which I will want multiples of. I would definitely be willing to kick more money towards my pledge to attain more of each miniature.

For an extra $75, you can get in at the buddy level. Find someone interested in the MMO but not the minis to split the cost and it becomes win/win.

Yes, I thought about that. But there is really none of my friends who would be interested in playing the MMO, so the other account through the buddy pledge would be wasted.

Also, with at least the Goblin Raider, I know I am going to want multiples, and I mean multiples having more than two, so the buddy level wouldn’t really be enough, anyways.

That is why I am hoping they can come up with an option to add more money for extras for each miniature.

All the more reason for me to fund the Kickstarter as soon as I get enough money to (I like having the funds physically there even before it ends).

While it would be nice to get the actual book, I think I'd be fine with just backing the game at the $100 level and getting the PDF via the $75 reward level.

As a subscriber to too many things here I have a concern that if I chip in another 100$ that I am going to end up with multiple copies...

Can you confirm that any items picked up as part of the KS will not be included in any subscriptions?

This all looks awesome! Extremely so. Thanks to everyone for making this monumental package possible. With that out of the way... I already pledged $175.00 for me and my special someone to be logged on day one. I also have a large Christmas expense this year because of traveling, and as it stands now I'm only a mere peon in the world thus far. Just another humble college student paying someone else for me to get up and study then bring homework back to eat up my free time everyday. I guess to my point, can we discuss some sort of a payment plan to put on that extra hundred to my pledge? No? What a shame. Oh! I could pay you guys in other goods or trade. I could wrap all your Christmas presents... or kill off some of your competition and make it look like an accident. Do you take souls or know their going rate? I wonder how hard it'd be to find a cleric of Asmodeus and have him draw up a contract during this busy holiday season...

It's worth the money at the $100 dollar level just for the books, maps, mini's and pdf's. Getting to play in beta for 3 months free as well just makes it that much better.

Definitely excited about a sanbox style mmo.

@Diego Rossi - yes. Add-Ons are not a formal part of the Kickstarter system. They emerged via project runners experiments to see how backers would respond to various offers during a campaign.

Thanks.

Hobbun wrote:

Lisa Stevens wrote:

Cat-thulhu wrote:

Now if there was only a way to get multiples of each of the miniatures wihout having to pledge a huge $500, which is sadly outside my budget. These look good but you typically need several of a mini per encounter, especially things like goblins and undead.

We are looking at ways to get backers multiple minis. Hopefully I will have something to report in the next week or so.

Lisa

I really hope you guys can work something out.

I am a mini junkie and 1 copy for each creature won’t be enough for me, especially for that awesome looking Bloodbriar Goblin Raider which I will want multiples of. I would definitely be willing to kick more money towards my pledge to attain more of each miniature.

For an extra $75, you can get in at the buddy level. Find someone interested in the MMO but not the minis to split the cost and it becomes win/win.

I think they've done a great thing recently in giving the pdfs with the book option. To be honest I was signed up to give $200, so I could get game plus game time plus the print stuff but then I remembered. I don't like MMORPGS much, prefer gaming on my ps3 lately =)

As great as Paizo's been with the print stuff, I also realized that there's no way I'd want to pay the $100 for the miniatures essentially.

What I'd love is if we were given the option to get the pdfs, print, and minis...say at a total of $130 or $140? I still think they're making a nice sum of money and that can be rolled into the mmo development.

The reason I quoted this is that you're right, we could find a buddy to split the cost with. Or we can just cut out the hassle n sell to a fairly sizable community those things they want, all the goods without the mmo =)

I /really/ wish there was a way to just get the PDFs! Thornkeep was an awesome deal - I got my PDF for $15. I would gladly pony up $40-50 for a uberexpansivemegadungeon, but really don't have an interest in the MMO stuff. -_-;

I thought about doing that, doing the buddy level, but none of my friends want to play PFO, so the second game/account would be wasted.

But besides that, it would still only give me 2 of each mini, and I would like quite a few multiples, at the least with the Goblin Raider. You can never have too many goblins!

Yeah talked it over with my best bud who loves MMO games I couldn't get him into it. And myself, eh just don't have a passion for MMO anymore, played WoW, Everquest, tried a few others. I'm so off of MMORPGs I didn't even try Star Wars: The Old Repulic and I LOVE STAR WARS! ;p

I mean I suppose I can try to get the miniatures off of Ebay, but rather there just be a nice package deal here for all those goodies ^^

Wahhhoooo Super dungeon !!! CAN we have something more than the boring dungeon without scenario ?
I presume it will be the case with such good authors ! Let us know...

How different is this dungeon from another one ?

As a subscriber to too many things here I have a concern that if I chip in another 100$ that I am going to end up with multiple copies...

Can you confirm that any items picked up as part of the KS will not be included in any subscriptions?

Absolutely.