Search Posts
The Tree of Stories looks so cool :star eyes emoji: It's been really, really cool to see what other authors do with the Magaambya over the years!
I figured out I was bi a few months ago and this community was really helpful for that time. Thanks everyone. eyyy, same!
Holomog! man I hope so, I’ve want d to see more about the place for years!
dragon stuff It's a bit late, but that probably should've been spoilered >_>
Hooray, it's live! This was a great assignment and automatons have tons of flavor to work with :)
Fantastic news! I'm so proud of the staff, freelancers, and community for all their support and hard work - and to the executive team, thank you for taking a huge step forward :D
Paizo management, recognize the union.
Any early impressions from subscribers? Glad you liked them! I wrote that section, with some excellent inspiration from Michelle :)
Thank you for all of your hard work, Linda! I've seen so much excitement around the recent PFS storylines :D
No wonder my Frankensteins aren’t animating!
[re: Ixal's post] I think there's some decent points in there, but I both agree and disagree. Give me a while to chew on it!
The subjective degree of oppression has nothing to do with that. (I've been writing this for a while and can't remember what the 'that' in the quote refers to, so I'm just using the idea of subjective degrees of oppression as a jumping off point) I'd rephrase this as which groups hold more real-world power, cultural political or otherwise, and that's a really important factor in these discussion. If you have something like North American indigenous culture, they definitely haven't held power in recent history. In many cases the US government tried to exterminate them and wipe out their culture. It's much different to have Native American cultural figures pulled into games than say, devils. Devils (as compared to Satan/The Devil) have been a part of a dominant culture-at least here in the US, where Pathfinder is made and where most of the freelancers live—for long enough that they're pretty well defanged and ubiquitous. Their inclusion in fantasy RPGs isn't really hurting anyone or exploiting any historical power dynamics, because devils're a part of the dominant group's cultural tradition. Christianity has also been well-represented in the halls of political power. Even non-career politician Christians have enough access to power—through feedback to legislatures, faith groups, etc.—that if something truly offensive were being done with Christian imagery, they be a meaningful part of any conversation to alter what was happening. Meanwhile, many Native American groups don't have the cultural or political presence/power to exercise that control over their own cultural heritage. E.g. the Washington football team with the slur for a name, or the state of New Mexico using one of the sacred symbols of the Zia pueblo on the state flag without permission. In short, remixing devils neither perpetuates any historical cultural misuse. And if devils/demons/etc were more important sacred figures in contemporary Christianity, the people who held actual stakes in their portrayal could exercise a meaningful amount of control over that portrayal. If marginalized authors were writing e.g. folklore creatures' portrayals in a Bestiary, that'd be different. They're the stakeholders, they have the context to choose a respectful, joyful way to bring that heritage into the game. You can see that in Bestiary 3, in fact! Off the top of my head, check out the stone lion and the tikbalang.
If I wanted to attend a school, I'd attend the University of Lepidstadt in Ustalov. To be fair, the Magaambya is a much different sort of school than the other big institutions we've seen on Golarion. Much more community-oriented and "get out there and do stuff" than a lecture hall, 101/201/301 kinda place.
I totally missed the more Haitian elements in this book (albeit I haven't finished it yet). Which parts of the book have any Haiti inspirations? Genuine question. I believe folks’re talking about Vidrian, the nation that used to be a Chelish colony called Sargava.
They have eight eyes, which they can use to Seek in two directions at once.Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse Preview from How It's Played.Okay somebody's gotta tell me more about the goloma because this is the most monstrous ancestry we've gotten yet and I am here for it Eight big ones, then thousands of itty bitty ones in their hair!
The gods section is fantastic, pretty much everyone one of them made me want to make a character who follows them.
One of my favorite details is kids doing informal boats races in the canals, like how suburban kids play hockey/basketball/soccer in cul de sacs with trash cans as goal posts or whatever. Adorable!
I swear one of the books describes it somewhere. I just can't remember where on what page. I believe I touched on it in Book 2’s Among the Xulgath section! I think you have pretty broad creative license, though - their diets are upsetting by most folks’ standards and demonic forces have messed with their species for a looooong time.
I didn’t write the section, but both undines (various aquatic critters) and ifrits (salamanders, most notably) seem like reasonable folks to have tails!
I noticed this as well, nothing after mid-November 2020 seems to show up.
Eyyy, now I don’t have to comb through months of old emails to catch up!
Ah, I recognize that! It's 1e, an alraune from my Ecology of Carnivorous Plants article in the back of Tyrant's Grasp book 4, Gardens of Gallowspire.
! I hope theres a bunch of runes in this. I can say that it does have... Spoiler: EXPLOSIVE RUNES!!!!! :p
Something about clicking right into the discussion thread seems to keep the various tabs from appearing. Go to the default product link, and just below the "See Also" section you should see the review tab!
Yep, they’ve said there’ll be ways to get non-spellcasting classes involved! I don’t know how this fact interacts with the details of the AP at all, but also keep in mind that canonically the Magaambya accepts people without magical aptitude, as mentioned in Lost Omens Character Guide.
HYPE *ahem* I’m very much looking forward to this AP!
I didn’t really follow the playtest, did the design team talk about their goals with the magus and summoner’s new spellcasting paradigm anywhere?
Gonna be such a cool book!
Is there a particularly clever cryptic crossword clue that's stuck with you?
Field commissions are also an option!
This thread being brought back is a good time to point out that one of Jatembe's Ten Magic Warriors was a serpentfolk, as revealed by Lost Omens: Legends! (which came out after this thread ended the first time) ;)
Nothing canon, but I did think about it a little when writing the Magaambya stuff for the Lost Omens Character Guide.
Probably incorporate those colors into their outfits, too! ‘Course that’s all just my musing, we’ve yet to see any official Paizo info. EDIT: I thiiiiiink one canon aesthetic note is the Tempest-Sun Mage NPC in LOCG having the names of people they’re protecting embroidered on their robes, but I don’t have my book handy.
Glad you liked the variant xulgaths! They were a lot of fun to come up with :)
I will say that if it’s reading entertainment you’re looking for Legends is a real good choice for that, too. We got to change it up from the usual encyclopedia format, so there’s short fiction and stuff in there!
So, isn't that pretty explicit about there being a place for non-casters in the Magaambya? Absolutely! When I was chewing on what to add to the Magaambyan canon for Lost Omens Character Guide, I figured an organization doesn't get to stick around relatively unscathed for 8,000 years without it being a pretty powerful force for good that no one really has an interest in disrupting (I mean obviously it's TTRPG world so there's some big villains and Spawn of Rovagug and what have you, but still). To me that meant diplomacy, community, and a comprehensive look at what it takes to build all that. Even at the school itself there's folks preparing food, cleaning, managing trade, etc etc. The Magaambya's existence is a community effort, just like less magically-inclined population centers. And sure, the Magaambya is maybe at the forefront of advancing magical research (gotta keep those Cascade Bearers busy), but it's just as important to them that their magic get used for something positive. I tried to illustrate that priority in the Jatembe short story in Lost Omens Legends, too. Point being that a key part of Magaambyan life is realizing basically everybody has value, and that anyone who plans to use knowledge to better others' lives deserves a shot. Standard disclaimer: Only what's in print is canon, and there may be some muddling of what my thought process was when writing the sections in question vs. what actually made it to print!
I also seem to remember seeing something recently about a role for non-casters on the faculty, but I can't find it again, so I may have made it up. :)
Somewhat relevant, it’s worth noting that one doesn’t have to use magic to learn at the Magaambya.
On page 110, it shows Thira Ash-Eyes as "N FEMALE HUMAN MAGUS". I haven't seen that class in PF2 yet. Those short parenthetical stat blocks don’t always match rulebook classes anymore; for instance, there’re some NPCs in a PFS scenario whose “class” is adorable brat!
Arcadia! :o
Not from Paizo of course, but you might be interested in this centaur ancestry I wrote for Rusted Iron Games!
I realize that the second I post this that it will turn out to be a giant button right in the middle of the page, but I can't find the AP in Ron Lundeen's blog. Any advice on where I can find it?
I was going to say Baba Yaga's more into necromancy than Jatembe, but if it's senescent than it could just be a good 'ol heal which is totally his speed.
I think Lost Omens: Legends more or less settles this one ;)
It was truly a pleasure working with everyone, we ended up with such a special book!
Maleagant has standards. Those’re real red flags if you ask me.
So for anyone interested in something altogether sillier, we've whipped up a, uh, "supplement." For the more socially-minded roleplayers :)
Oh wow, I didn’t even notice that. Nice touch!
I've got an idea that sort of spans two entry types, and I want to see if it's alright. I was originally going to write an anadi-style poem, a format taken up by the survivors of Tar-Baphon's escape in the Gravelands that they use to write eulogies. But I want to play with the format and structure, including some visual elements based on spiderwebs. That requires some explanation that wouldn't fit in a poetry entry's 35-50 lines. I think either fiction or flavor article would work to expand on that practice and ground it in the Aftermath theme. I also know submitting two articles contingent on one another is a no-no, and I worry that maybe this is sidestepping that rule a bit. What do you think?
Every map I’ve ever pulled from an AP hasn’t lived up perfectly. Eventually I just made the roll20 grid transparent and we all made peace with tokens being varying degrees of off-center on the map grid. It’s a bit frustrating on big maps but overall we don’t mind.
|
