Amber Scott's page

I finished up the adventure yesterday and it's pretty awesome. I'm really looking forward to running it with you all. The characters are 4th level, but as I said you'll gain some special powers over the course of the session.

The characters are:
-human (Shoanti) barbarian
-halfling slayer
-dwarven druid
-elven magus
-aasimar warpriest
-human (Varisian) cleric

We can roll off for first pick at the table (highest number picks first). Looking forward to seeing you all there!

I'm very excited to be running this! It's (so far) my only contribution to Aethera, and it's pretty slammin' if I do say so myself. Yes I'll bring pregens along. :)

Excellent! We'll have a good crew.

Nice to meet you!

Thank you!! I haven't finished the characters yet but there'll be a caster-type, skill-type, melee-type, etc. The sewers will have...unusual properties, and while the characters will start out lower level, they'll increase in power substantially over the course of the adventure. I'll provide everything needed, just bring dice!

Hooray. Luck prevails.

Hello Amber. My name is Vinny. I got lucky and won this event in the lottery. Anything to know for this event or is it possible to know the pregenerated characters?

Congrats!! I hope you have a great time. I haven't finished the characters yet but there'll be a caster-type, skill-type, melee-type, etc. The sewers will have...unusual properties, and while the characters will start out lower level, they'll increase in power substantially over the course of the adventure. I'll provide everything needed, just bring dice!

I'd be happy to sign it!

Hello everyone! I'm beyond happy to be this year's RPG guest of honor. I love meeting new people and talking about game stuff, so if you see me wandering about between panels, feel free to say "hi!"

If there are any topics you want me to cover at my "talking about myself" panel, feel free to drop 'em here (or bring them up at the panel, of course).

Can't wait for the con!

During the game you mean? Nothing official. This is a short adventure I actually came up with last year for some friends. It went over so well, I decided to polish it up for the con. :)

I can't say for sure that I am remembering things correctly, but a very long time ago, I once wrote for an online magazine called "Explosive Runes" that was the product of the web site, DnD Online Games (and was active on that site under the same name I use here.

I think I got into a few conversations with someone over there at the magazine, who might have been Amber Scott. I didn't like her writing (which is really good writing) and she didn't like mine (which is not). But we seemed to get along alright over all.

I can't believe this thing is still out there on the web
Explosive Runes Magazine

I am not sure, but I think one of those writers was Amber Scott

Yep, that's me! Hi, Terquem!

I had no idea this thread was here. I was looking for something today and stumbled on it. Wow, what lovely words of support--I appreciate it so much! I'm doing well and keeping on with my writing. Thank you all again, this was just wonderful to read. :)

I've been a gamer and writer pretty much since I could read, and around 2004 I started writing articles for Dragon & Dungeon magazine under Paizo's guardianship. When Paizo made Pathfinder, I told them I loved working with them and would like to continue to support their company.

I mainly wrote game material for Pathfinder, but I've always wanted to be a fiction writer (which sounds funny because game material is obviously fiction, but, you know what I mean). James Sutter asked me to write an installment of the first Pathfinder Journal series with Eando Kline. Later, a writer was forced to withdraw at the last minute and Sutter asked if I would fill in, so I wound up with two stories in that series.

I asked James about writing a novel around that time, but he wanted me to have a bit more experience first. I wrote two more short stories for the web fiction feature, and also sold a few pieces of my own to other markets. Then I was offered the six-part Pathfinder journal for Mummy's Mask, which I was so excited to do. The characters really came to life for me and James gave me a fairly free hand with the stories. I'd just finished them up when Adam Daigle took over the Pathfinder journal feature and asked me to write the series for Iron Gods, which again I was happy to do.

All that work must have been enough to convince James I've got novel-writing chops, because I'm working on my first novel for the Pathfinder Tales line now. :)

Ack, I didn't think the reviews would include my foreword! I tried to follow the guidelines Tim gave me; sounds like I missed the mark. :-/

I'm not exactly sure how to phrase this (which is not a great sign for a writer ;) ), so I'll just say I've received both encouraging and questioning messages about me applying for this position and I appreciate them both. There are many reasons why I'm not applying, not just that I have a current job, but I'm not really comfortable listing all the reasons why. It comes off as defensive, I suspect, and of course some of the reasons are private.

I think it's true that women, people of colour, and other underrepresented groups are less likely to apply for this position for a variety of reasons. I've been in the industry for a long time and I've always tried to be a resource for new writers and existing writers trying to develop their skills. If anyone has questions about getting into RPG writing or needs a little guidance, feel free to contact me. I rarely check my messages here but you can reach me at medesha at yahoo dot com.

*poof* Did someone call?

Yes, that would be a very clever usage of the spell, if you had a healing cohort you trusted to watch over your organs and monitor your condition. If one of my players wanted to use the spell in this way I'd consider the following:

-Concealing your organ jars would be slightly more difficult--you couldn't put them in a secret compartment in a wall or anything, they would have to be in a room where the cohort could quickly access them.

-Assuming your cohort is an ordinary mortal, they may have difficulty sitting next to your organs and reading or knitting or whatever for more than 8-10 hours a day. Even if they were able to ward off sleep with a magic item (or if they were an elf), it would be difficult for an individual to sit in a room for days on end. Of course they could always cart the jar around, but that would put it at greater risk. Or they could stay close by (such as living in a house with the jar in the basement, where they were free to wander about and complete their daily tasks) but you would risk them not getting to the jar in time to touch it.

-I would be unable to resist centering an adventure around an old enemy showing up looking to settle the score with your cohort and finding an unexpected bonus in your preserved organs. But that's just me. :)

-given the flavour of the spell, having a mummified healing cohort to watch over your organs eternally would be SO cool. Or a heucuva!

Thanks for the kind words!

I shall be there. Possibly with bells on. :)

Heh. Now I'm feeling guilty, as I'm a writer and know what negative feedback is like.

Amber, I'm not protesting the quality of your writing. I've not even read it (I'll probably read it eventually when the print copy of the AP reaches me). I just don't like the format of having serial stories in the APs. And hey, here's a soapbox! ^^;;

No guilt necessary! I wouldn't be a writer if I wasn't able to hear both likes and dislikes about my work. I understand this thread is about the format of the fiction and not the content specifically (though it certainly can be) but I still find the comments interesting and useful. :)

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Good or bad it's always useful to hear. :)

Thank you!

Female. I think she's actually the first female protagonist I've written in. Pathfinder fiction. :)

Tyler: The book is 64 pages but not the adventure. The rules state "Paizo’s Pathfinder Modules are 64 pages. The winning adventure will be approximately 32-40 pages in length. The remaining material for the book will be filled with additional content appropriate for the adventure and its location, such as monsters and magic items. (Paizo will provide this additional content. Some of this additional content may come from earlier rounds of RPG Superstar 2014; if so, the authors of that content will be paid for their work and credited in the module!)"

I really enjoyed this proposal and its scope didn't immediately knock it to the bottom of my list. In the end there were others I liked more. :)

I'm not a judge in this round, so carry on. ;)

*furtively cribs notes from this thread*

What? What's that? Oh, nothing. Just carry on.

*slinks off to work on various projects*

Thanks everyone, this adventure was SO fun to write (and I think you'll like the journal too!)

Whee, I'm very excited! One might even say...SUPER excited!

I came looking for this thread just to see if Limp Lash had been erratad. I'm wondering if it's supposed to be a named penalty (like an enhancement penalty) that doesn't stack? You can keep focusing it every round to try to increase the penalty by rolling higher, but not adding to it...that's my best guess anyway. Or a level typo.

Alright, forget the sexism angle. What about the gimmick angle? Isn’t this basically just a marketing ploy?

I don’t believe so. As others have pointed out, “all women writers!” isn’t exactly a strong selling point, so if it’s a marketing ploy it’s a pretty weak one. From conversations with Louis and the Gamer Girls panel at PaizoCon last week, it seems more likely that it’s an effort by the company to support and develop more female talent in the industry.

Publishers use gimmicks all the time. They publish themed anthologies instead of just taking the best stories. They put popular monsters on covers even if the beastie only appears once halfway through the adventure. They use cheesecake art to get people to pick up the product. They coax tired writers out of retirement to produce lukewarm stories so that the writer’s name can get splashed across the cover. Publishing is marketing, and if women writers sold, you can bet every company in the industry would be hawking their sweet team of superwomen writers by morning. The fact that they’re not shows that an all-female AP is not a marketing ploy, because there are far more lucrative and time-tested marketing ploys.

You keep saying it’s important to develop women writers. Why? Do women really write differently than men?

Of course. Writers from different cultures also write differently. So do writers from different socio-economic classes and writers from different generations. Every individual has a unique existence that shapes his or her writing. Encouraging underrepresented writer groups, of which women writers is but one, invests diversity and a variety of styles and voices into a product line. Gamers are a diverse lot with a variety of tastes and playing styles. It’s unlikely that one subgroup of writers could produce material that appeals to everyone.

This is a ridiculously long post.

Sure is. TL;DR version: I think an all-female AP, in this time and place in the industry, is a good idea that can help develop underrepresented writers and hopefully inspire more women to enter the industry—not because men aren’t doing a good job but because variety is good for the industry.

But SEXISM!! I mean you basically just said it is totally sexist!

Ok, it’s totally sexist. I have a feeling the schism of this thread will end up being “is sexism ever justified?”

In essence, this is an affirmative action argument. Affirmative action is a set of policies that takes into account non-merit based criteria in order to combat discrimination or to offer opportunities to a historically underrepresented group. The term is American; in Canada we usually call it employment equity. Call it what you will, it’s an incredibly divisive topic. I don’t honestly expect to change anyone’s minds because it is so divisive; this piece is becoming more and more a way to figure out my own thoughts.

In general, I support employment equity provided a number of principles exist beneath the policies. In short:
-the groups who benefit from EE are genuinely underrepresented or discriminated against. Equal opportunity to seek and be considered for jobs does not currently exist at a reasonable level;
-a baseline of merit is required before candidates will be considered, regardless of what group they belong to; and
-enough opportunity exists for members not of that group to find analogous opportunities elsewhere if a specific opportunity is denied them.

My belief system is a bit more complicated than that, but that’s it in a nutshell. In this case, I believe an all-female AP meets the criteria and does more good than harm.

The first point is the most contentious. Women are genuinely underrepresented as writers in my opinion, but hard numbers are difficult to come by. It’s an opinion formed more by experience and anecdote than study. Others have already commented on the baseline of talent required for this AP and there are plenty of jobs available for male writers; there’s not a shortage of opportunity by any means. For these reasons I support this incarnation of EE.

But ALL women? Isn’t that sexist?

Yes and no. It’s definitely sexist from the point that individuals are being excluded on basis of their gender. The presumed corollary is that all other companies operate as meritocracies and so women have as good a shot as anyone to get into a project. Or at least most of them. But do we really know? As someone pointed out, I was the first female AP writer for Paizo and mine is issue 73. Right up until 72 everyone assumed Paizo was hiring the best writers available and they just happened to be male (right?) Proving that is, of course, impossible. Proving they didn’t and they deliberately sought out male writers is likewise impossible. I happen to be convinced that Paizo hires the best people for the job and it was finally my time; I’m a very experienced writer after all. In fact, I have found Paizo to be the best, most fair and evenhanded company I’ve ever written for.

When you’re a minority writer, it can be difficult to know when you’re losing out on jobs because of your appearance or because of your talent. The default as far as I’m concerned is always to presume my (or others') lack of work is merit-based; I'm (or they're) just not good enough yet. I doubt that's true in every case, though. I’ve experienced sexual harassment and heard of far worse, blatant discrimination levied by experienced writers, publishers, even pretty famous people. I don’t like to name names because, as I said, it’s so hard to prove. But it happens, and it can be very discouraging to non-mainstream writers.

It seems unfair that writers would be excluded from a project because they’re men. Writers are excluded from projects for a ton of reasons that are not merit-based, however. I’ve been excluded from projects because: it’s not my specialty, because I just did something like that, because I’ve never done something like that, because they want someone local, because I’ve written too much for the company recently, and probably because the editor just doesn’t like me. None of those reasons are merit-based. Because an all-female AP is non-merit and gender-based, though, it’s seen as "more" unfair—male writers can’t help being male. That’s true. But writers also can’t help having never worked on monster articles or having written a lot of projects with the word “righteous” in the title (at least, they can’t be responsible for knowing that would make a difference down the road) and no one bats an eye when they are excluded. Sexism is much dicier, and understandably so. It's full of emotion and questions of ethics. Yet I think in this sort of instance, when the balance is so heavily skewed towards men and women are still struggling to contribute to the industry, it can be understood.

I’d love the chance to jump in here with my thoughts. Ever since the AP was announced I’ve been considering what the ramifications of it are and what objections could be raised. I have a few thoughts on why people might resist the idea of an all-female AP and why I support it. I started writing out my points and it turned into a ginormous megapost so I'll break it up into smaller posts.

(This is all imho/ymmv/etc.)

Why restrict the writers to women? Why not take the most talented writers?

If writing jobs were limited to the most talented, there would be very few of us writing. I know I personally was not as developed a writer when I first started out as I am now. It seems a logical assumption that most jobs are placed via a sort of flowchart where the most talented writers are in the top bin, and if they’re not available you move on to the B-list writers, and so on. But that’s not always the way it works (nor should it be the way it works).

The most important reason for searching for non-A list writers is because if you don’t, you run out of talent quickly. Writers can only produce so much material and there are so many publishers who need material. If you only hire the same people over and over again, you run the talent well dry (and all your products start to look the same). Offering opportunities to new writers is a way to discover and develop new talent and keep the writing fresh. RPG Superstar is an example of this—you could easily make the argument that Paizo shouldn’t be offering jobs to untested people via a contest when they could be using their most talented staff all the time.

RPG Superstar, though, is seen as a meritocracy, and in a lot of cultures merit is seen as a neutral, laudable method for selecting individuals. It’s hard to argue with “the best person gets the job.” Where meritocracies fail is when individuals are barred from entry on non-merit based criteria before the selection process (and there are other potential issues, but entry criteria is the one I’ll focus on, as the others are much more philosophical and convoluted).

I’ll probably come back to this idea of self-opting out of a system later, knowing me, but for now I’ll say that there are not many women in writing, and for a publisher to consciously solicit and develop female talent is a smart way to build new blood in a company.

Thank you!

I somehow managed to miss the banquet last year so this year will be my first. I wanted to check--if you show up with a small group, can you be seated as a group? Also will there be vegetarian dishes offered? Thanks for the help.

RSVPd on Facebook. :)

Sorry if I'm slow about this, but what is "VO"? Are regular attendees able to grab the shuttle between the listed hours?

First of all, this is an awesome book. :)

Thank you!

Secondly, if I can snare Amber's ear, I've got one question now (and probably more later) ...

I like the reference to Lady Taramyth the Singing Flame that shows up in the book. Makes me happy. :) Was she originally going to get a full writeup, or did the agathion paragons/leaders (like Taramyth, Kelumarion, etc) get a slightly downgraded status versus some of the other NG empyreal lords that weren't linked to a specific agathion subtype?

No, none of the empyreal lords were downgraded or left out from the outlined version of the book. I can't say why (cause I don't know), but perhaps the mysterious inner circle of Paizo has plans for them. :)

Just to ask, as it didn't really get a clear answer I think, was Ragathiel's obedience intended to be full out ritual sacrifice? Would full out ritual sacrifice qualify for it despite being, well, full out ritual sacrifice of someone likely bound and helpless for it? My own takeaway had been that killing someone appropriately evil in the course of battle as it might come up would qualify, along with requisite ritual prayer after.

It was intended to be the latter--the mystery cultist comes across Evil Person, slays Evil Person, and gets boons. Not all the obediences would necessarily take an hour, but none should take longer than an hour. For example, Black Butterfly's obedience of doing an anonymous act of charity could involve leaving some gold on a doorstep, knocking, and running--no need to turn it into an hour-long ritual.

I see under Celestial Obedience on page 5 it says the rituals are "typically an hour" but for the feat it says "only an hour." The former was my intention. I'm guessing the discrepancy occurred when the feat text was aligned with the Demonic Obedience feat. (I am only the author though and don't have the 'official' answers :) ).

A few comments here--

1. Ragathiel's obedience is pretty onerous. My thought process as I created his boons and obedience was the idea that this is an incredibly powerful empyreal lord with very strict standards (and correspondingly powerful rewards). I think most games in which a PC plays a mystery cultist would see the PCs come into conflict with evildoers on a regular basis and that would allow for the obedience to be fulfilled. During downtime/between adventures there may not be opportunity to fulfill the obedience which I think is important too. Even the most devout servants can't serve perfectly all the time.

I think what I didn't do was anticipate how popular Ragathiel would be as a choice for players. I could have taken that into account more as I created the entry. If the obedience is too strict for an individual game, I agree that Dammerich's obedience makes a good substitute.

2. Ritual of Possession was supposed to grant channel energy 3+Cha times per day, yes, if you don't already have the ability. That was a mistake on my part.

3. Blood of the Martyr was added in development, but I agree it would seem that good-aligned casters would only use it on willing targets. Summon Stampede was likewise added in development.

4. Vinetrap was originally much different when I wrote it. It was a persistent area spell that targeted flying creatures passing through its area. I think what happened is my original spell block at the top of the spell was accidentally left unchanged (but I can't say for sure). I'm going to guess it should be a standard action to cast with a target of a single creature.

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone. :) Things are much better now I'm happy to say. I'm looking forward to chatting about CotR and other projects at PaizoCon this year with the people I meet!

Jason and I will be there as well.

This should be fun! I might even bring a PowerPoint. Put my business degree to good use.

Though I noticed that not every empyreal lord listed in the inside cover was covered in detail in the book (Not all had boons).

The inside cover lists all the "main" empyreal lords as well as the "lesser" ones from pages 54-55. The latter are not detailed but give an idea of all the potential empyreal lords out there. We did give them favoured weapons and domains just in case players really liked one of the minor ones.

I can't tell you all how glad I am to hear all these comments. I wrote this book during pretty much the worst year of my life. I remember sitting in the sun with Wes at PaizoCon and telling him about a friend of mine who had just passed away and how fresh and raw everything was.

I returned to Canada, went back to school, and in between classes and helping my newly-widowed best friend and dealing with my own grief (and an unexpected medical issue--yeah, it was quite a year), I wrote this book. It was comforting, in a weird way, to leave behind "earthly" things and contemplate what the ultimate good in a multiverse would look like. I tried very hard to give capital-g Good a lot of nuance and a lot of different dimensions. To think of all the different kinds of suffering and what would provide a balm. I hope I invested in it the gravity and peace and joy that I imagined during the writing.

Of course I tried to put in a lot of fun flavour and mechanics too, a lot of cool options and awesome crunch. I love how the mystery cultist turned out, particularly the capstone ability. I love the spells. And the mortification rituals! The empyreal lords, as you can imagine, were the most fun to write. I've always loved fairy tales and myths and legends and I tried to draw on them to make the lords epically fantastic, like Tabris covering seven leagues at a step, or Ragathiel wrestling in the Maelstrom for 16 years, or Eritrice's origin. I love Arshea and Bharnarol and Irez and of course Vildeis and who am I kidding, all of them.

This is not to say the book is perfect and those who have complaints, I will take them to heart. I just wanted to say that this book was a labour of love and also healing and I'm so glad it turned out the way it did.

Reading these comments has pretty much made my month. Possibly year. So glad everyone is enjoying the book!

I'm so excited to see this in print. Very cool hearing all your comments. :)

This upcoming AP is in my humble opinion, the most compelling AP yet. This AP has the feel of the 'Diablo' PC game to it, and reminds me of a few old Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy novels I had from adolescence. Paizo couldn't have picked a better AP, and I'll gladly buy every single episode. Bravo.

I read those Fighting Fantasy books obsessively. FF was the first RPG I actually played, before even AD&D. /memories

Thank you, everyone! Yes this is my first AP and while I'm no stranger to long, complex projects, an AP installment was certainly a dragon of a different color. The Paizo team gave me a tremendous amount of support and guidance, as always, and I think this series is going to be amazing. Can't wait to see it in print!!

Jason and I will attend, along with two friends we are dragging along from Canada. :)

Hm...I wonder if I could bring a cooler as checked luggage...

When I first checked my lottery results it said I was signed up only for Casting Plaster Bricks, as was my buddy. Then the results vanished while the issues were all sorted out, and our new schedules have only MinionQuest (and open events). Which is fine, I'm not going to worry about it. :)

Edit: To clarify, we saw the Casting Plaster on our schedule on Wednesday around 4 pm-ish. I checked the message boards and saw the schedule finalization was still "in progress" and didn't think much more of it till I checked our schedules today and saw MQ instead. I think we'd rather game than cast plaster (though I will miss hanging with SKR) so it's really not a big deal.

So the schedules up now are the right ones? It looks like I lost the one I originally had and got into one different one. Was hoping for a few more successes than one, but I'm sure I'll find some pickup games and have fun.

I don't see a way to register for open events either. Maybe they open up once you get your lottery schedule fixed?