Pathfinder and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tup

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Free RPG Day 2016 has come and gone, and if you went to your friendly local game store or happened to stop by the ACG area at Origins, you got up close and personal with the Prince of Darkness! The Bale-flame of Naughtiness! The Dragon-Sired Master of Really Massive Bonfires! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you TUP THE TERRIBLE!

Master of stick-men! Rider of sheep!

As you can see, our friend Tup is a pyromaniac. He's got a sorcerer-style spell blast (but he's a goblin, so it's expensive). And if he uses a spell to trigger that blast, he gets a random spell from the box in return. In play, this results in a somewhat... erratic spellcaster, and with a hand size of 6, Tup tends to take it on the chin.

He's also surprisingly personable, for a goblin. When he was exiled from Thistletop, Tup wandered the countryside, stealing random clothes off farmhouse clotheslines to ward off the cold. He now tells people that he's a really short leper, and for some reason people buy it. Probably because he's so helpful. He really wants to help you. For me, Tup will forever be played by Mike Selinker, eagerly asking every time I attempt a check if he can help. I said yes once, and he grinned wider than I've ever seen him grin. Then he wiped out my hand.

But I did succeed at the check, so... all's well?

Tup has a role card showcasing two of his many ceremonial titles, as well as a cohort: his trusty riding sheep Deliverance. And by "trusty" I mean "startled by just about anything and prone to tactical withdrawal."

Make sure to read the role flavor text.

Tup the Bale-flame is all about the burning. Want help? He'll burn you. If he needs help, he'll burn himself. You got fire stuff? When you're done with it, he can still use it. Tup's a conservationist arsonist. There are even options for players who want to take Tup in a friendlier direction: he can take feats to reduce Fire damage dealt to himself and to others. The design team might look down its nose at you a little bit—after all, goblins are meant to live gloriously short lives and meet gloriously brutal ends—but we're a full-service organization.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game subscribers will be getting Tup for free (along with a fistful of other promo cards!) with the first Mummy's Mask shipment in October. Not an ACG subscriber, or just can't wait? He'll also be available for purchase starting July 1 right here at paizo.com, and we'll be bringing him to Gen Con as well.

I hope you've enjoyed this taste of Tup, because July might as well be named Goblin Month! Next week, you'll get a preview of one of the two July Adventure Card Game Class Deck releases: the Goblins Fight! Deck.

Until next time, Pathfinders!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer