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Here's an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie jpeg of my initial map for Per-Bastet, offered as a teaser so small that even Wolfgang can't protest I'm giving away the store too early. This will likely be redrawn by another cartographer, but here's the overview idea for a layout.
Great questions! Bear in mind that all I tell you now may no longer be true after our editors finish their task. If you go back and read this post when the project is completed, you might end up quoting American Hustle: "Some of this actually happened." Nuria-Natal's history and deities do not track Egypt's, although similarities abound. Although Nuria-Natal has its own, distinct flavor, these touchstones allow GMs to expand the setting into one that tracks more closely with historical events if they desire. An intense rivalry simmers between the capital city Nuria in the north and Per-Bastet in the south without thus far maturing into open hostilities. History does not record Per-Bastet's founding date, although all agree the city has existed for thousands of years. The first God-King dynasties to unify the warring kingdoms of what is now Nuria-Natal used Per-Bastet as their capital for 2,200 years, until power shifted downriver to Nuria 1,800 years ago. Before then, the God-Kings worshipped many different deities in Per-Bastet, although most people kept their devotion to the Cat Goddess, and when the Kingdom’s rulers followed Ra’s ascendancy into the North, Bastet’s cult remained. Per-Bastet is technically subject to King Thotmoses's sovereign power. Nonetheless, each time the armies of the Mharoti Empire have rolled west across the desert to Per-Bastet, Nuria has sent nothing more than token assistance, effectively leaving Per-Bastet to stand or fall alone. This has vested Per-Bastet's denizens with a deeply seated independent spirit that makes them look down upon Nuria as a city with little history and no soul. The manuscript takes this no further, leaving the decision how best to develop and exploit this rivalry to the GM. There are temples to all of the Nurian gods in Per-Bastet, but those of Bastet, Anu-Akma, and Wadjet are the only ones described. Sekhmet and Hathor do not presently appear. But if Wolfgang gives me more words . . .
Nafrini, the were-black panther High Priestess of Bastet, steps from her extravagant entourage of attendants into a shadowed ally entrance to stoop before a tiny, frightened housecat. “May the Cat's own luck protect you and yours from harm,” she says softly. “If that is not enough, remember that you are sleek and fast and far smarter than they imagine. If that is not enough, remember you are blood of the lion. And you have claws.” Hi folks, I wrote the City of Per-Bastet for Into the Southlands. I thought I'd introduce myself and field any questions anyone has about the manuscript, which is in the editor's capable hands right now. Let me know if anyone like a paragraph or two as a teaser.
I hate Tim Connors. And his wife Eileen. Can't stand 'em. I read "Escape from Meenlock Prison" the day I got that horrible issue of Dungeon. Just opened the frackin' thing up and read it. There's a girl in a meenlock-induced halucination. She's skipping jump rope down the hall of the horror-scape prison. Singing and skipping rope. With someone's intestines. That was years ago. I still can't sleep. Hate Tim Connors.
Fantastic!
Do you have any recommendations for submitting cartography solicitations directly to Paizo's Art Director? Some publishers request weblinks only and frown upon email attachments. Some want a concise resume describing recent work for other publishers while others prefer to review maps alone. What would Paizo's Art Director prefer?
I’ve been catching up on this thread, and I’m thrilled with all I read. I’m a professional artist who competes regularly in judged competitions whose results often have a meaningful impact on the competitors’ careers. Awards improve reputation, expand the number of galleries and collectors that know you and seek your work, and allowing you to improve prices. As in this competition, competing artists expose themselves by presenting work product that’s meaningful to them. We hang our hearts out, if you will, and then wring our hands, hoping we pass muster. Tensions ride high. It's terrifying and thrilling. Just like this is. But beyond that there’s more to contrast than to compare. Here, the judges take extraordinary efforts to make their selection procedure transparent. Wonderful! One rarely gets meaningful feedback from judges in art competitions. Here, the competitors discuss the competition with joy and integrity, with trepidation but great good humor. Where are the cynics, the doomsayers, and those irritating posers who think they’re superior? Altogether missing! What an erudite and friendly crowd! This is a great competition because the people, both judges and contestants, are making it so. Here’s what little wisdom I can offer from the often brutal trenches of professional art competition: Enjoy this! Revel in it! Everyone here has made this too much fun not to savor the thrill of the experience! Don’t worry about advancement. Judges here and in fine art competitions use objective criteria, to be sure, but they also have to employ subjective criteria to make their final decisions. No matter how brilliant our work, we can’t please every judge. Judges in three minor art competitions I entered rejected a painting that, in the fourth competition, won me the biggest prize and largest cash award I’ve ever received. We must never, ever believe defeat in one competition accurately marks or measures our worth. We should do what Wolfgang suggests and offer our best ideas to other publishers. Success comes through perseverance. I’m just stunned how informative, entertaining, and upbeat this competition is! Everyone stop and smell the roses! This competition process -- the experience before the results come down -- is itself such great fun!
I hear you, Coridan. But I’m not offended. I too like KQ. Moreover, KQ stepped up when the rest of the world fell down. I'm guessing they're still fighting for a secure place in the market during poor economic times. So I’m not thinking “shameless!” I’m thinking “scrappy!” (Oh goodness, now I sould like a commercial.)
Hey, that's great stuff, Smeazel! Thanks! I missed last year's event, and life keeps preventing me from reading all of the former threads covered, so I'm grateful for any help catching up.
You could have modeled the 'fluff' of your piece after the zombie's nature while using the Iron Body spell as your base component. A nice notion, Darkjoy! It would reduce the word-length. I feared, however, that pegging the item's functions to an existing spell and then distinguishing its differences might shove the item into that the spell-in-a-can pit from which RPGS submissions never return. Moreover, there are so many differences between the iron body spell and undead traits that I worried the judges would say, "Why's this author focusing on iron golems if he wants an undead item? Wrong flavor." Honestly, it's probably for the best you chose something else to submit. (At least, I'm assuming you chose something else to submit, rather than just forgoing the competition...) It's by no means a bad item--it's got some good atmosphere--but it may be a bit overcomplicated and, more importantly, it strikes me as perilously close to the kind of "monster-in-a-box" that was warned against last year. I appreciate your candor, Smeazel, and I concur. This one doesn’t pan out smoothly, which is why I’m free to post it here and solicit feedback. (Always save strong ideas for proposals elsewhere!) I hadn’t considered the monster-in-a-box flaw because I’d believed that flaw applied to items that merely acted like monsters – monster-like encounters disguised as items. I’d deemed this zombie transmuter purely a buff item, something to make a character or villain stronger, albeit in a gruesome and (hopefully) original fashion. But I see your point. If used by a villain instead of a PC, the DM is just swapping out foes for the encounter. A diabolical elvish sorcerer, for example, transmutes before the PCs' eyes into a slow-moving but effective spell slinger with all the protections of the undead trait. In that light, the item becomes something like a monster in a can. The item could be a mummified shrunken head worn as a fetish or a grotesque “glove” of zombie skin carefully shorn from a zombie’s hand. Or something.I would use a mask of flayed zombie faces for this kind of item myself. Ha! I can't tell you how much I love that notion, Nermal! But it’s an idea that's gotten a lot of love recently. I wrote an adventure that turned on evil cultists wearing powerful death masks stretched from the skins of their prior victim’s faces. I submitted an adventure proposal containing death masks skinned from dead PC faces. And I just edited another author’s article working on a variation of the same premise. I think I’m just becoming worn out on literal death masks. Nontheless, “Death Mask” would have made a simple, evocative item name!
I’ve often been envious of undead traits (yes, years of therapy lie in my future). So I noodled around with an item that temporarily transmutes a person’s physical abilities and attending characteristics into those of zombie. The item could be a mummified shrunken head worn as a fetish or a grotesque “glove” of zombie skin carefully shorn from a zombie’s hand. Or something. The user retains most class characteristics because the item doesn’t impact mental abilities. While used or worn, the user gets 60’ darkvision, +2 natural armor, +2 STR, damage reduction 5/slashing, healing from negative energy, the usual undead immunities and invulnerabilities resulting from no CON (immune to poison, paralysis, no ability damage, blah, blah, blah), uses his CHA modifier for CON checks, and doesn’t eat or breath. Great stuff! On the downside, the user has no CON or CON modifier (losing attending hit points until he leaves zombie form), suffers a -2 to Dex, can perform only a single move or attack action each round, can only move up to base Speed (and can only attack in the same round if charging), suffers harm from positive energy or cure spells, can be turned, is destroyed at 0 hit points, and looks downright awful. I ditched it, at least for the time being. It proved too cumbersome for practical use. The user had to re-configure easily half of his stats. Plus, it raised oodles of questions like, if the user can ignore a critical hit while in zombie form, does he suffer the additional damage as soon as he leaves zombie form? Moreover, describing all it did gobbled up so many words that few were left to infuse the submission with an appropriate horror atmosphere. And I didn't check all the supplements. I feared something like it might already exist out there. A nifty idea that didn’t maintain its integrity under close scrutiny.
Well said, Booms! If I were a judge here, I’d discard my own entry upon reading the one-word title, which contains the absurd typo. If an author's too careless to present grammatically correct, typo-free writing, how can you possibly trust his writing's content or the judgment underlying that content? I repeated that mantra to the litigation associates I supervised almost daily for years. That didn't make me popular, but they became better writers. Now it’s my turn to feel that barb's bite. The gods must have a bitter sense of humor. (By the way, Boomer, the “Crackling Whirling” rocked and rollicked and rolled! You write exceptionally, and that particular exception proved the error-free rule, in my book.) So looks like I'm out. Best wishes to the rest of you RPG Superstars! I hope your wondrous items forever raise the bar for magic items throughout the industry!
Yikes! I submitted and then noticed a typo. In the item name, no less. I don't think I've submitted anything meaningful anywhere, ever, with a typo in it before. Too late to amend? If so, there's always next year.
Aye! Most deserving!
I don't think we need to justify set pieces by pointing to parts of prior AP adventures that could have been carved out as set pieces. I have no doubt that the sections folks have identified could have served that purpose, but I think the set piece purpose has more potential than that. Both I and my players love a fluid, powerful AP. But neither I nor they can keep them hard wired into the overarching story at all times. We need a break, a change of pace, a contained adventure that lets us frolic and detour away from the driving narrative without falling out of that narrative's world altogether. Back in the days of DUNGEON's AP's, the magazine provided us with ample opportunities, in non-AP aventures, to venture elsewhere, blow off some steam, or just level up a step. For those non-AP adventures, DUNGEON drew from a wider group of authors than the admittedly excellent coterie presently ramping up the AP’s, ensuring through this diversity some wonderfully eclectic detours down which to frolic. Pathfinder, for all its strengths, has suffered for lacking this diversity and offering nothing but the unbroken, principal storyline. I hope and believe that set pieces will fill this need and patch this hole. I hope we'll get plucky, short adventures outside the AP storyline that nonetheless fold seamlessly into the AP campaign. We’ll get a wider group of authors shaking up the firmament a tad with new and nifty ideas. We’ll get a break and boost all in one.
Late to the thread. Sorry. AH is our favorite non-RPG, more popular even than Lupis in Tabula (the ultimate party game). This game's learning curve is steep but well worth it!! It's the best cooperative game we've found. And the art is to die for. I strongly recommend having one person learn the rules backwards and forwards, inside and out, and letting that guru step in and correct misconceptions during the first half dozen sessions of play. It speeds things along, which greatly enhances the game's enjoyment for all. I've got an eight-person gaming group. When we decide to play AH (which is about once every two months), the victim/host sets up the game (a three-to-four hour task the first time you try it if you're playing multiple expansions). We play one or two evenings that weekend, and the host leaves the game set up through the week on the same table (usually the formal dining-room table because nothing else is big enough). We play another game (or two) the following weekend. Then the host takes it down. Set-up demands so much time it's worth playing two or three rounds before taking it down. The Dark Pharaoh and Dunwich Horror expansions rock. The King in Yellow expansion usually spells sudden, unpleasant death without adding too much flavor. The terror track is grueling and the card for the third act always seems to come up way to swiftly. No one in my group is a fan of The King in Yellow expansion (probably because we've never survived). We've just procured Kingsport and will add it in this weekend. I'm giddy with excitement!
I bought the 34.5 x 48 Chessex vinyl battlemat from Paizo. It came rolled and squashed. When I lay it out on a table, the surface of the mat forms hills and valleys that cause miniatures to tip over and stop dice from rolling. These aren't creases; they're rolling folds. I tried gently folding back along the folds. No good. I tried ironing the battlement under a towel. I produced a unique odor that my wife didn't love but failed to flatten the rolls even a smidge. I've now got the battlemat stretched flat on the floor with each corner held down by a six-inch stack of gaming books. No progress yet. Maybe by the year 2050. Any advice on how to flatten this thing down? And what's the best way to roll it for transport to gaming sessions?
It rocks! Hitchcock is a god! But I'm somewhat biased . . . Sorry for the thread-jack. Ted Reed here, the author of SAW #7: Race for the Vault of Time. If you're looking for a full-color map for SAW #7, here's the link to my version, which I just posted on my website: Here's the link to the map detail: If you like the map is good, you gotta check out the adventure! And if the adventure grabs you, download them all! Obey the Slaw!
Hi all, Ted Reed here, the author of SAW #7. If you're looking for a full-color map for the adventure, here's my version, which I just posted on my website: Here's the link to the map detail: If you like the map, you gotta check out the adventure! And if the adventure grabs you, you must download them all! Obey the Slaw!
Here's another earnest vote for Arkham Horror! It's among the most lavishly designed board games I've ever seen, incorporating much of the best artwork from Fantasy Flight Game's Call of Cthulhu CCG. It takes a full play through to get your head around the rules, but they're quite good once mastered. We play about once every two months to break up our regular roleplaying routine, and everybody looks forward to it. It’s a cooperative game, with the players working together to fight the Mythos horror spreading into Arkham and its environs. We lose as often as we win, but it wouldn't be Cthulhu if winning were easy. We've added all of the game's numerous supplements, which is a bit of a logistical nightmare because the interconnected boards surrounded by the dozens of card decks, character sheets, and other paraphernalia fills my entire 110-inch long dining room table from side to side and end to end. It's such a monster to set up that we usually leave it up for a whole week and play once on both weekends on either side. But it's always a blast!
Hey Lou! Your avatar is one of Mike Schley's illustrations, so he's not just a cartographer, he's-- Wait. Wrong Mike thread. Kortes rocks, Kortes for President, fear no evil because Kortes is with me . . . okay, back on track now. Seriously, I'm liking Mike's adventures a lot. More, please!
I remember "Beast of Burdon" was th eone with all the Gnolls piloting the giant monster. It was in Dungeon #100. The big problem with that adventure was that the map was incorrect. There was an area on the creature that had like this little greenhouse with a Gnoll Druid or somesuch. It doesnt exist on the map. :( Other than that it was a good adventure. Never blame a mapping problem on the writer! Often, you can't blame the cartographer either. Odd things happen during the pre-publication process that could cause disconnects between adventure texts and maps. I did two maps for Steve Greer's "Fiend's Embrace" way back when. The art editor (a very cool guy named Mike Schley who's gone on to do some awesome maps on his own) gave me a manuscript that was full of pending edits and mark ups, warning me that things were still changing around. As things played out, the adventure's printed version closely matched the manuscript from which I worked, largely, I'd imagine, because Steve's initial work was so solid. Nonetheless, Mike had me tweaking things right up to deadline. Nothing distresses me more than a map I can't easily square with the adventure I'm trying to run. (Just thinking about the Crimson Fleet's headquarters still makes my head hurt, and Robert Lazzaretti, one of the best in the field, mapped that one.) But I can see how easy it would be for a mistake to slip by everyone, particularly on a complex map. Never blame the writer!
"Home Under the Range" played out as one of our most reckless, break-neck, hilarious adventures ever! Dungeon published plenty of treasures, but "Under" proved to be a true gem. Mike, give us more!
Off topic, yes, but I find that when I'm posting on a popular thread, and someone posts when I'm still in the posting box, and then I try to post, it gets eaten. I always highlight the text in the box, right-click, copy, and then try to post. If it gets eaten, I can always try to repost with a simple right-click and paste.That's so weird. My post with my submission keeps disappearing, and it looks like it's the only one.Mine's vanished too. Can anyone else see it? I do that too. It was just weird to post my submission, check it on the thread for typos after posting, have Eyebite respond to it, and then suddenly, several hours later, have it vanish. I still can't see it. I was about to re-post it when you said you can see it. So I guess it's just me. Very odd.
That's so weird. My post with my submission keeps disappearing, and it looks like it's the only one. Mine's vanished too. Can anyone else see it?
Here's mine. Please criticize! All scathing attacks are welcome! Help me learn! Hey! I had an airship that crashed too! Ha! Well, if you had one too, I'm taking that as praise. Edit: But I wonder if airships run afoul of Proposal Killer No. 6: "Use of challenges or rewards not in line with 4th-level characters."
Here's mine. Please criticize! All scathing attacks are welcome! Help me learn! Spoiler:
INTRODUCTION When the PCs launch a desperate wilderness chase to recover the stolen keystone that quells seismic activity under Azurestone Village, they can’t tell friend from foe and don’t realize they carry the fate of two frontier civilization’s in their hands. BACKGROUND
Wilderwolds frequently assault the geological fault running beneath the broken hills connecting Mount Valaitis to Azurestone, twisting the badlands ragged. Nonetheless, for centuries, the russet-colored keystone in Azurestone’s entrance arch has quelled all seismic activity within 25 miles. Legends say Azurestone’s tranquility shall end only if: The people fail to pay the cost
ADVENTURE SUMMARY Darkling Thieves
The ground trembles and Azurestone panics. Its elders offer a reward for the keystone’s swift return. The PCs accept the challenge. Another swashbuckling team accepts too, departing in a flying ship they rename The Red Raven, to cheers and applause. Few watch the PCs depart into snow flurries threatening to obscure the trail. The Chase
On a ravine bridge, two radas attack the PCs without quarter. Ruins of an earthquake-destroyed city cling to the ravine’s walls. Bas-reliefs depict radas writing, building, and dancing. A stone map shows one keystone in the ravine city, another atop Mount Valaitis, and three in other mountain locations, but none where Azurestone stands. The PCs overtake the main rada party trapped by a pyro-hydra atop a half-frozen lake. Through battle, the PCs capture the keystone. Nonetheless, Radas (or documents they carry) reveal the following: Centuries ago, wilderwolds stole the keystone from the radas’ ravine city, precipitating its collapse. Human adventurers from Azurestone then retook the keystone. Rada prophesies foretold that folk from Azurestone would eventually save the radas from extinction, so the radas let Azurestone keep the keystone on the promise to return it when needed. Centuries passed; wilderwolds destroyed all keystones except those in Azurestone and Mount Valaitis. Last month, wilderwolds dwelling within Mount Valaitis finally succeeded in stealing its keystone. They re-kindled the mountain’s fires and commenced churning a cataclysmic eruption yet to occur. Radas rushed to Azurestone to borrow back Azurestone’s keystone. The elders refused. Competitors
Fire and Ice
Fire mephits ignite The Red Raven’s sails to force a crash landing. If grounded, the PCs dodge falling rocks and jump lava channels to reach the peak. As the cataclysmic eruption mounts, the PCs defeat wilderwolds and place the keystone in the peak’s arch. The mountain instantly calms, and the evil forces retreat. Depths of Shuddering Flame
Flight of the Red Raven
Self-Critique Here's my self-critique. Please provide your own! Spoiler: Self-Criticism:
1. Always Start with Action
2. Don’t Be Too Linear
3. Answer All Questions Fully
4. Don’t Make Encounters Seem Too High-Level for the Party
5. Never Split theParty
6. Focus on Great Ideas and Crunchy Bits, Not Great Writing, Story Continuity, and Fluff
PLEASE ADD YOUR THOUGHTS!
Fantastic! Best of luck to all! Whatever happens, this has been fun!
But that is why Desna invented polyhedral dice! :D Nonsense. Karzoug invented polyhedral dice. How else could you explain my irresistible compulsion to purchase every one of them I see?
Yakfolk make me . . . smile?
Me too. Thanks for the help, Jason! You guys rock.
Is there a way to inquire about Paizo's receipt? I didn't send mine until 11:45 PST. Now, glancing quickly back over this thread, I'm concerned about timely delivery. I bcc'd Tim & Eileen Connors on my submission email, and they received their copy virtually instantaneously, but that doesn't prove Paizo did. How can we check?
I’m late to this thread, but Mr. Jacob’s original point rings true. Pathfinder and the GameMastery line need a distinct and recognizable style to make their mark in the marketplace. Paizo is fighting for its foothold on these new shores. Turning to reliable artists makes sense. When you go to war, you surround yourselves with those you trust to shoot straight. Do I like the style? The art in the GameMastery modules I have (D1 and W1) engages me but doesn’t knock my socks off. Some of it feels more workmanlike than inspired. Oddly, both the cute cartoon kobold and the cartoon Bulmahn-rosebud sprite in the Designer’s Notes draw unnecessary attention to how cartoon-like the other illustrations are too. IMO, the cartography in both modules outshines the illustration. The U.S. Mail still holds my first Pathfinder hostage, but I’m hopeful its art will floor me. I find the Pathfinder art samples on the blog compelling, although I’d personally welcome a step towards greater realism. I hope more varied art styles will emerge in both lines over time. (Personally, I want to see Lilith and James Keegan illustrate a dark-but-humorous GameMastery module – written, of course, by Tim & Eileen Connors and the ubiquitous Mr. Logue. But I’m prejudiced.) In short, I hope Paizo sticks to its guns until it wins an overwhelming market share. Then I hope to see a broadening of styles to embrace less cartoon-influenced illustration. (Now I’m shutting up. My hands are so bad these days that drafting this simple post took from dinner until 11:00.)
I ran the second session of "Escape" tonight. OH MY GOD!!! It was WAY too much fun!!! Some background. I’ve got two men and two women in my sub-group running the “Escape” adventure. Last time, the men went into the chateau through the front door, but the women snuck in through a back entrance they forced to watch from the shadows. The two men are a duskblade and an barbarian, both robust fighter-types. The women are a fighter and a rogue. They men met Rook, gave him their prisoner transfer order without having read it, received the keys, and went below with Mr. Fine’s help. The immediately found themselves trapped in a situation they’d not anticipated. Meanwhile, the two women snuck in the back and watched what the men did. They then eavesdropped on Ruck and Mr. Fine. Mr. Fine pointed out that the transfer order mentioned four guards. Ruck told Mr. Fine there were two more unwanted folks skulking about, and Mr. Fine and Mr. Dee better find them quick. The female rogue PC confronted Ruck and Fine at that point, demanding (at dagger point) that they tell her what was really going on. Ruck and Fine skewered her, dropping her to -1 hp in one round. The female fighter burst forth, enraged, and butchered both Ruck and Fine in two rounds. Mr. Dee and Lyle came running, but the female fighter’s prowess sent them running. The female rogue rolled lucky and stabilized at -2. The men, meanwhile, made it up to The Anglers. All of that happened last session. Tonight, I ran the charade we'd discussed. My task was been to convince the two women to join the men down in the dungeon proper. First, the women holed up for a time in the Warden's office, where they captured and intimidated the wine merchant. They breached the safe and found the ledger and the order to transfer prisoners (which the men had blithely handed over before going below). They now knew the transfer-prisoners’ names, Lyle Benedict and Blessed of Pelor. Next, they snuck upstairs to listen to the conversation between Mr. Dee and Lyle. Consistent with the plan you and I hatched, I had Mr. Dee and Lyle debating who these "murderers" were, how Lyle and Mr. Dee could, in good conscience, abandon their charges (the prisoners) to "the dark ones," and so on. I played Lyle as the inquisitive fool and Mr. Dee as his big-brotherly supervisor. "Why did they just murder the warden like that?" asks Lyle. "Do you know what kind of prisoners we guard, you imbicile?" asks Mr. Dee. "Political prisoners. People the world wants to believe don't exist. They're not just murderers. They're here to free someone -- or kill someone proper." The women bought it, pretty much. The rogue loaded her crossbow and peeked around the corner into the room where the men were. She ordered them to stand down. They dove for cover. Mr. Dee ended up behind a desk and Lyle, unfortunately, ended up behind a chair to small for his large size. The rogue questioned them on their intentions, and the two scoundrels kept to their story until Mr. Dee called Lyle “Lyle” by name. The rogue seized on that mistake, demanding to know if Lyle was Lyle Benedict, and ultimately tossing the transfer order into the room for Lyle to see. I decided Lyle was illiterate, but the jig was up. He admitted he’d been a prisoner and asked if the order meant he was free. Mr. Dee was furious but did his best to recover the situation. Lyle said he wanted to help the prisoners who’d surely die below as he had. Mr. Dee called Lyle a fool but let him go. Lyle volunteered to run the elevator if the women wanted to join the men below, saying he wished he could go with them. Mr. Dee said he was leaving. The women let Lyle lower them to join the men in the basement. In the interim, the men had seen The Anglers drag the dude by his intestines into the cell and, calmly, shut and locked the door to that corridor. They’d then broken the door (these guys are strong and, when taking 20, can break lots of stuff) into the “locked” (my choice) western cellar rooms and explored them. Just when they realized there was no way to run the second elevator without a key (which I’m going to strap to the true warden’s belt), the women arrived. They debated what to do. The men pointed out that there was a small fortune in wine down here, apparently sought by merchants and untended. The women pointed out that they had the ledger, worth surely a fortune in blackmail. As they debated how best they were going to spend their wealth, the main elevator creaked, a light shown from the north, and Lyle came running down, armed with leather armor and a new sword and shield. “I’ve come to help save the prisoners from the dark ones!” he announced gleefully. “Who let you down?” the PCs asked. “Mr. Dee. He’s waiting for us above.” The PCs checked. Mr. Dee was not waiting for them above. They were stuck again with no way out. So, with Lyle in tow, they ventured off as a group down the corridor into the dungeon proper. After that, everything went perfectly! The PCs uniformly failed their Will checks against the meenlock’s rend mind attacks. My good friend Karla, who plays the fighter, cursed me for sending her home after dark with the vision of a little girl in a white dress jumping rope with someone’s intestines. She was quietly chanting a spooky Danny Elfman tune when she left my house at the end of the evening. The male barbarian saw a three-eyed man jump into Lyle. He told the other PCs about it. Later, the male duskblade saw Lyle touch Karla’s fighter, saw a ripple in the air, and saw Karla’s fighter change posture. So the barbarian and duskblade became convinced the ghost of The Blessed of Pelor (who must be dead) is possessing the fighter. They all then met the real Blessed of Pelor in his prison cell shortly thereafter. The barbarian and duskblade immedately assumed the real Blessed of Pelor must be an imposter trying to escape with them by disguising himself as the dead Blessed of Pelor. The real Blessed of Pelor must be dead, they reasoned, or how else could his ghost be flittering about possessing people? “Oh, sure, we'll free you,” the duskblade said sarcastically to the real Blessed of Pelor. He then pointed to the supposedly possessed fighter. “But she's already possessed by your ghost. So why tell us how to get the Hell out of here and we’ll give your ghost back to you.” The barbarian smacked the duskblade. “It doesn’t work that way, you idiot.” “What’s he talking about?” the fighter asked. “All will be revealed in due time,” the real Blessed of Pelor replied serenely from behind the barred window in his prison dooor. It was GREAT!! Can't wait to finish!
Now let me contradict myself. When the Pathfinder adventure paths take the PCs to places like Hell or the Abyss, don’t create an atmosphere that feels even remotely terrestrial. I’m loving “Into the Maw”, with one caveat. The Abyss doesn’t feel that different than the material plane. I remember how startled, fascinated, and horrified I was when, as a teenager, my PC made it to the Demonweb Pits and found the webscape itself fabricated out of souls in torment. In contrast, the landscape of Divided’s Ire feels like any dungeon back on the material plane, albeit populated by demons rather than non-outsiders. Where’s the otherworldly feel? Where are the areas of reverse or no gravity? The castles of blood? The storms that rain tormented souls? The iron land of hooked chains and cages that hang up into the air from the ground? Why doesn’t the Abyssal Sea have sections where one sails across clouds, or fire, or blood, or bodies of skinned petitioners, rather than simple ocean? When we find the path to infernal realms in Pathfinder adventures, let them lead us to places beyond the mundane. Let them lead us to places beyond our comprehension.
I wish for breaks from the darkness, horror, grotesqueries, and violence. Don’t get me wrong. I love the darkness, horror, grotesqueries, and violence that fill most of my adventures! Nonetheless, in Dungeon’s AP’s, I’ve come to miss that rich sense of wonder found in most of fantasy literature I love. The Age of Worms was so dark and dismal that the atmosphere itself made my players weary. STAP is lighter, to be sure, but is plunging down ever deeper into the grim. Our tour through the Abyss doesn’t promise much relief. I wish the Pathfinder adventures would recapture the thrill of exploring regions of natural splendor or planes of wonder. I want an adventure to find Shangri La, or that leads the PCs up out of the mines and into Lothlorien. Give us something breathtaking to fight for, even if it’s only (or perhaps especially if it’s only) a place!
Ashenvale: I'm really not sure yet. The folks I've been in touch with aren't Art Directors, as far as I know, and that's who you'd need to talk to to solicit work. Once they're able to tell me those kinds of details, I'll be able to let you know. Until then, I just don't know who to suggest. I fully understand. Thanks for the info! I'll try searching their website and hit the Art Director directly. Wish me luck!
Fantastic! I've been an advocate for a book collecting your existing maps for some time. Including new maps within such a book would be awesome! Mr. West, who's the editor to contact at WotC to solicit cartography work? Now that we're losing Dungeon, I'd like to try peddling my wares over there.
Hey nautical-historical buffs, how deep should the draft be on these ships? How high should the ceilings be for interior ("below-decks")levels, and how much draft is left below the floor of the lowest interior "habitable" levels shown on the map? I sketched out the layout and understand the ship's placement and connections. It works, but it's not simple to see. (IMO, another diagram should have been included with the maps. It's a lot of work for a DM to prepare this set of encounters given the confusion the maps create.) To pull it all together, I need to estimate the horizontal dimensions of each ship. Should I assume 20 feet from main deck to keel, with 10 feet of height (floor to ceiling) for interior levels, leaving 10 feet of bilge or balast space below the interior levels? Thoughts?
Wow! Thanks! Now I'm inspired! (Shameless plug: check out my website's updated cartography here. In the first two new maps, you can zoom in on any room by clicking on it on the map's main image.)
I concur wholeheartedly! Nothing engages my players more than clues they can pick up and puzzle over. (Too much time spent playing Call of Cthulhu, I guess.) Handouts of all kinds are just plain fun.
Hear hear! Fantastic site, Mr. McArtor. Do you know of any more gems like that would be particularly useful to us?
This is tempting. Maybe I'll take a crack at it.
Thanks, Jason! Looking forward to it!
Would you like to hear from new people? How do we submit proposals or samples? What would you like to see?
“Charts of the Uncharted”? “Points off the Compass Known”? Or perhaps, after our beloved cartographer, “West of the Known World”?
I’m tired of D&D dragons. I think Pathfinder should jettison most of the existing rubric. Pathfinder dragons should defy player knowledge. Their alignments, personalities, and abilities should have little to do with the climates they choose and nothing to do with their colors. Dragon scales should come in all kinds of colors, . . . usually patterned or otherwise mixed together. . . . Moreover, dragons should have a wide range of unexpected abilities and weaknesses. And while breeds exist, each dragon should be unique in some fashion. I wouldn't expect Pathfinder's dragons to end up differing much at all from the classic ten chromatic and metallic dragons. They've remained pretty much the same for 3 decades, and that's not by accident. . . . It's foolish to make sweeping changes to something that's that well-loved. *SLAM!! Stagger, stagger, collapse* I guess this is why I don't run a publishing house. Fools rush in, and all that. But here's my vote for more creative and unique dragons than run-of-the-mill, know-them-by-their-color-and-size mimeographs. May they grace Pathfinder with their idiosyncrasies and distinctiveness!
My experience has been that, shortly after one meets Gargantuan and Colossal giants, all is said and done. *shivers with terrified excitement*
Hey James, you know what would be helpful? A list of monsters you've already got under your belt. You mentioned that you've already created a new take on the wendingo and linnorm, for example. I read that and stopped typing my wendingo query. I'd rather devote time to creatures you've not got your arms around already. (Nasty image there, if you let your imagination play it out . . . )
I’m tired of D&D dragons. I think Pathfinder should jettison most of the existing rubric. Pathfinder dragons should defy player knowledge. Their alignments, personalities, and abilities should have little to do with the climates they choose and nothing to do with their colors. Dragon scales should come in all kinds of colors, from drab earth tones to brilliant gemlike hues, usually patterned or otherwise mixed together. Amassing treasure, admiring themselves, and either counseling adventurers or rampaging against human communities should satisfy few self-respecting dragons as admirable goals. Moreover, dragons should have a wide range of unexpected abilities and weaknesses. And while breeds exist, each dragon should be unique in some fashion. The great azure dragon that preys upon narwhals beneath the arctic ice flows, for instance, breaths both fire and a gray life-leeching gas that drains levels. It's said that those who cast harmful transmutation spells against the silvery, mirror-like dragonettes of the deep wood turn to glass. But rumors that a charging dun dragon of the high steppes can knock you clean into the ethereal plane are surely fanciful. Aren't they? Alias
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