Andrew Crossett's page

I'm still catching up on the existing novels (which is probably going to be harder since I imagine Tor has let them fall out of print).

It would be nice to see some novels to accompany the 2nd edition launch, and also some Starfinder fiction. But fantasy gaming fiction appears to be in a bad spot now. Even with the very successful D&D 5E, WotC hasn't published a new D&D novel since 2016.

I hope we will at least get more Pathfinder comics.

My thoughts on the matter of PF 2E:

This game was created for a reason: so that people who thought D&D 3.5 was the best fantasy RPG system ever made could go on playing a game very much like that one.

It was designed to accurately depict the diversity of options in a world with monsters and magic, not to simplify it. For people who want simple rules, there's Monopoly and Checkers.

The audience for tabletop, pen and paper RPG's is overwhelmingly Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. There are some young gamers, but most Millennials and iGen kids play CCG's and video games. It's what they grew up with, like D&D is what we grew up with. Young RPG gamers already have D&D 5E, and there's not enough market there for a competitor.

Pathfinder's market, to put it bluntly, is the people who have been playing it for the last 10 years. So those are the people the new game needs to please. Fix broken rules, add some cool new stuff, streamline and control the number of options so they don't become overwhelming, and make it so optional rules are optional (i.e., not required in any published adventures).

But I think if they try to make too many changes to the fundamentals of the game, they will find that Pathfinder becomes just another fantasy RPG rules system in, as Roland the Gunslinger would say, a world that has moved on.

Eventually I'll move on to D&D Next [I mean 5E :-)], once they release 6th Edition.

I don't think there will ever be a 6th edition of D&D... at least not a tabletop one. I get the idea that 5E was meant to be "D&D Forever"... a system that Hasbro could use to hang their D&D related IP (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc.) on, with licensing being far more important than game sales. I think that's why they haven't supported the system very much, though its unexpected success may lead them to re-think that.

I think PF needed simplification, but not in terms of the mechanics. Option bloat was the biggest issue. A quick look at the direction of PF 2E makes it look like they're going in the direction of D&D 5E... simplifying the game too much for my tastes.

Yes, I know options are just options... but PF was including references to non-core options in most of their products, making it difficult to easily play the game without all the supplements.

My ideal PF would be the core rulebook, the Bestiaries, the Golarion world books, and maybe one or two "Unearthed Arcana" type expansions. Unfortunately, the reality of being a game publisher is that you have to keep coming out with new product.

This looks like it will be the final death of the d20 system, which is a shame. I think it was the ideal RPG system.

No women on that list, which sucks, and is something I'm trying to address.

Gotta recommend P.C. Hodgell's Kencyr series... I read the first chapter of the first book (God Stalk) when I was 16 (in 1982) and was immediately smitten.

What do you think of Fritz Leiber? Michael Moorcock?

How many swear words do you think H.P. Lovecraft uttered when he got his copy of Astounding Stories with the first chapter of "At the Mountains of Madness" in it and found they'd illustrated the climactic moment of the story right there on the magazine cover? That's always been a head-shaker for me.

Do you like Ramsey Campbell's early Lovecraft stories (i.e., the stuff in the Inhabitant of the Lake anthology)?

Also, do you prefer mythos stories where the Horrors (Old Ones, monsters, etc.) can be fought and even defeated by the protagonists, or the ones where it's hopeless and the best the narrator can hope for is to escape alive and with his mind reasonably intact?

Any chance we'll get more detailed information on Queen Abrogail in the upcoming adventure paths?

Minions. I have had minions for a while. They don't last long though. Not sure I remember who those two were. Or even how they died. They were in it for the money, in any event.

Having them wear matching uniforms based on your outfit doesn't sound very chaotic of you, though. Is Kyra gradually edging you over to lawfulness, or neutrality? What next... paying taxes? :-o

Doing a search of this thread, I saw some old responses that tentatively said Queen Abrogail is about 24 years old (actually, 22 in a post from 2 years ago) and came to the throne around 4707. Are those still good estimates?

What relationship was she to her predecessor, King Infrexus?

Does Cheliax have an official line of succession to the throne? It seems like, in the Thrune era at least, new rulers take the throne by stepping over the corpses of their murdered predecessors. But surely a lawful evil regime like the Thrunes would at least have a pretense at a legal order of succession?

Did Abrogail become queen because she was the designated successor, or did she win a power struggle?

Also... spoiler for Reign of Winter...

Is there empirical evidence that hallucinations exist? You can't show me a hallucination, after all. Those people could all be lying.

If I said, "I've never had a hallucination, and it seems to me illogical that people could see something that wasn't there," how would you prove me wrong?

(I do believe that hallucinations exist, of course... and I believe in the possibility that ghosts exist, though I don't make any assumptions about what they are, if they do exist. I have more personal experience of "ghosts" than of hallucinations.)

I believe in the possible existence of ghosts. I don't suppose they could ever be conclusively proven to exist, since doing so would require actually catching one in a bottle. (Given modern tech, photo and video evidence can't be considered conclusive in any case anymore.)

I have never seen anything with my own eyes that I thought was a ghost. I have gotten a few video captures on a ghost cam (Ordsall Hall in the U.K.) that look an awful lot like detailed human figures to me. Could be matrixing, but it's awfully detailed matrixing if it is.

My grandfather died when I was 12 years old. The whole extended family gathered in his house (a big 19th century stereotypical "haunted house" on top of a hill... although I stayed there many times and never saw or heard anything suspicious).

The whole extended family gathered in the house for the funeral. The women and girls were given the beds, so all us dudes had to camp out on the floor. My father and I slept in sleeping bags on the dining room floor. It was the same room where my grandfather had spent his last few weeks, in a bed that had been set up there so my grandmother could look after him without having to climb the stairs all the time. He didn't die in that room though, or that house... he died in the hospital.

While I was lying there trying to fall asleep, I heard my name whispered very clearly, right in my ear. There was nobody there. My father was several feet away in his sleeping bag. It's wasn't my grandfather's voice, nor my father's. But it scared me enough that I spent the rest of the night sitting on the sofa in the other room with my eyes wide open, jumping every time the refrigerator came on.

Got my submission in. This is the 5th story I've written for these contests.

I hate to say it, but a deadline is the most effective way to get me writing.

It's my belief (perhaps wrong) that this is intended to be the last edition of D&D (the last pen-and-paper edition, at least). As such, WotC wants it to be as inclusive, iconic, and evergreen as possible. I think they'll lavish a lot of attention and resources on getting the core books into people's hands, and after that it will become low-key.

Yes, I think maintaining the intellectual property for licensing purposes will be a big motivation. And no, I don't see them getting anywhere near an OGL this time around.

I think D&D will outsell Pathfinder for 2 quarters, maybe 3 if WotC plays their cards right. But then the amount of new material will decrease while Paizo continues putting out its regular slate of product, and Pathfinder will top the chart again.

The new edition will of course alienate most of the players who came on board with 4th edition, just as 4th edition drove us old-schoolers away. On the other hand, some of those old-schoolers will be lured back by the new game. I never bought a single 4E product, but I plan on at least getting the core books for 5E.

Before 4E came along, at least 2/3 of my D&D purchases were of Forgotten Realms stuff. You could say I was a FR superfan, to the point of creating this. But with 4E and the "Spellplague," I'm afraid I avoided it like a roadkilled skunk. I don't know where WotC is going with "the Sundering" (the latest Realms-Shattering Event to update the setting to the new edition). I'd hoped it would split the FR into "Classic Coke" (i.e., a reset to the pre-Spellplague continuity) and "New Coke" (the 4E setting), with novels and such set in both... but that is a faint hope. Too bad... WotC would get a lot more of my money if I could start reading novels about my Realms again.

So you're saying that Valeros is better at womanizing than Merisiel? She will be hurt to hear you say that. She might try to womanize YOU just on general principles. (See Kyra for advice.)

How do you feel about going back to Irrisen for Reign of Winter? You must have some nasty memories of that place.

Also, now that you've convinced Imrijka to enter the Magic Box Space and post here, can Amiri be far behind?

Given your respective outfits, have you and Seoni ever tried to generate a Prismatic Sphere effect just by walking in circles around each other? Seriously... you've got the violet end of the spectrum covered while she holds down the red end, and I think between you you're wearing every color in between.

Also, you've both got really great legs, which you usually don't get with the plain old Prismatic Sphere.

Speaking as someone who played D&D for 30 years (1978-2008), spent several thousand dollars on gaming materials, and who has a real sentimental attachment to the game... I have to say that I'll give 5E a look out of curiosity, but I don't think I'll be playing it. Pathfinder is my game now.

It was surprisingly easy to make the break, and I have no interest in undoing it. The only thing I really miss is the Forgotten Realms, but they ruined that too thoroughly to repair. Unless they retcon the "Spellplague" and everything that followed it completely out of continuity, there's nothing left there for me either.

4E has fallen into a virtual tie with Pathfinder for the title of best-selling tabletop RPG, despite having major corporate backing, a 40-year-old household name brand, and a lot more money. The owner of my local games store tells me Pathfinder is now vastly outselling 4E in her shop. I think 5E is less a "money grab" and more a necessary bid for survival before the grey-suited, un-sentimental folks on the Hasbro board of directors, who think "gaming" means the blackjack table at Mohegan Sun, decide to yank out the plug.

Give me 5 good reasons WHY she should go out with you, first! Because she's a popular gal!

Well, for starters, I would be willing to follow each of her tattoos wherever they may lead.

...What? What? I meant that from a perfectly respectful spiritual standpoint. This is a journey I'm willing to make with her.

How about Merisiel? Does she mind if people call her "Meri?" Does she like sushi? Hibachi? If I take her to a hibachi restaurant, will she get impatient with the chef's knife work, grab them away from him, and show him how to make a much awesomer onion volcano? ("Look! Real lava!")

HEAVY METAL.

Which can only be fully appreciated if you were a 15-year-old boy in 1981.