Boxhead's page

Snorter wrote:

Could we have a breakdown of who's who on the cover?

I'm sure there's been a thread about it, when the original preview art was hosted.

I'm certain of about half, and can make guesses about the rest.

I was hoping the back cover would show our fictional characters, braying on the doors to get in.

Clockwise from the bottom left:

Paris Crenshaw, Kalyna Conrad, Garrett Guillotte, Dain Nielsen, Eric Hindley, Liz Courts, Tim Nightengale, and Hugo Solis.

Balcony: James Jacobs, Steve Geddes

Bottom of the Stairs: Thurston Hillman

And your back cover idea is awesome. Made me laugh!

Remember, the best joke ever played is that Tim and Liz somehow weren’t front and center.

I always love taig-mas. Don’t bother giving me presents, but never stop being you.

Rysky wrote:

It's annoying when you get inspiration for something with less than a week left and everything else going on keeps you from ironing those ideas out >_<

If any of you have any unfinished ideas, I recommend you get them written down asap, and work on them while the inspiration is still with you.

Test it on an NPC in your home game, run it past your friends, see if it's a feat or spell they'd pick for their own PCs. Ask someone you trust to spell check it, grammar check it or critique it. Ask your group's canon-savant to look for holes in your timeline or geography.

It might sound like punishing yourself, but practice is practice.
It could be of use to you, in a future issue or elsewhere.
And it's nothing to the punishment you'll give yourself, if the next issue's theme is announced, you know you once had an idea that would fit, but you're staring at a blank screen, unable to recall a word of it.

This is stellar advice. Always keep practicing.

QUESTION REGARDING FOOTNOTES....

I'm working on a flavor piece that mentions fey from several sources (the Bestiaries, a Pathfinder Campaign Setting book, and even an Adventure Path volume). Is there some standard I should be using to make things easier for the editors should the submission get accepted?

A quick pass through parts of Wayfinder #17 shows references to Bestiaries written out in parentheses (Bestiary 6) and an Adventure Path reference in superscript (AP #57). Should I stick with these? The multiple Bestiary parenthetical references seem quite repetitive, break up the prose, and tend to run up the word count.

P.S. - Got my physical copy of Wayfinder #17 around the same time He'sDeadJim got his; it looks Arr!-some!

The best thing to do for us is actually to leave us good notes using comments in Word. Then we can figure out if things actually need to be referenced or not. If you're not using rules elements, we often only include references for particularly obscure things.

Looking forward to seeing what people submit for this!

Bear in mind that siphon structure has a duration of concentration, and it's not as powerful as it looks. Plus you need a target object to siphon from, and can't take more than it's hardness. Combine that with attended objects getting a (fairly easy) Fort save, and I think it holds up. Now, you can abuse the spell by weakening your own adamantine longsword (or whatever), but it's still capped by caster level.

Hey folks,

With PaizoCon behind us and Wayfinder 17 in people's hands (physically and digitally!), plus the Bestiary released, I thought I'd take a moment to remind people that the next issue is open for submissions.

Be sure to read (and follow) the guidelines to maximimize your chances of inclusion. I look forward to seeing everyone's submissions!

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

I'm hoping to catch up with people at the bar afterward (9 p.m. ish). Will there be people at a bar afterward?

This is a distinct possibility. ;)

At the very least, barring extraordinary circumstances, I'll be at the bar...

This'll be great! Potential authors, artists, freelancers, and others should come out! Who knows what kind of mysteries will be revealed?

Blake isn't gonna say this, but if you want to continue to see Archives of Nethys get updated, you should support him on Patreon. Every bit helps.

Thanks Liz. I'm glad someone linked it to make it easier for us to find.

Proofing time! This issue looks great, in case anyone was curious.

In my own experience, the banquet goes like this-

People start lining up about 2 hours ahead of time. If there's someone you desperately want to sit with, get in line at this point. If you have a list of 3-5 people, you're probably okay closer to the 1 hour mark. If you don't mind sitting in a corner with Cosmo, show up whenever you feel like ;)

There's about half an hour to eat and chat, longer if you were at the front of the line, shorter if you were near the back. While tables generally only have 1 Paizo staff member, there's often guests of honour, freelancers, PFS VOs, 3PP publishers, and other awesome folk, so every table has the potential to be an amazing experience. Because Paizo staff get in early, they're often mid-meal or done when the masses pour in.

Then there's the presentation, during which people might still be having coffee, dessert, or drinks, but very little talking is going on. The reveal of upcoming products, thank yous and other miscellany takes 1-2 hours generally.

After the banquet is the trivia contest, and the main evening of BarCon. Both are a ton of fun, and if you've never done the trivia, I recommend giving it a whirl.

Of course, this is just my experience. Your mileage may vary.

Glad to see a lot of you are enjoying the book! It was my first attempt at developing a Player Companion, and I probably couldn't have asked for a better team of freelancers whose work I could build upon. Also, having John Compton do a 2nd check over my work (not to mention all the help during my dev pass) really helped make this product turn into something pretty rad.

Anywho, just excited to see people enjoying the content!

Thanks for all your work Thursty!

I have a few more questions concerning the monster masquerade material in the book if that's okay. Are they purely meant for use with feats and skills? I.e., basically wearing a 'monster suit'? Or is there magic involved, making them something more along the lines of polymorph magic?

It's designed to be a mundane set of feats that grant some monster disguise abilities.

Gisher wrote:

Franz Lunzer wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

The new Druid archetype sounds really cool. I'm guessing since it makes your Druid more weapon focused the mechanic trades out wildshape?

I'm also interested in the Oozemaster, largely because if it doesn't have an ooze companion I have no idea what it would do. Bombs that drop oozes on your enemies instead of explode, maybe?

You got it

Oooooooooooooooozes!!!!!

Wait what! Ooze bombs!

Oh I just realised it was not an actual thing. :(

I seriously need some sleep!

It's totally sort of a thing.

Dimensional Step Up is amazing, although moreso for evil GMs than players. My compliments to whomever thought it up.

Oh, neat! Apparently that was me!

While not nearly as exciting as Tim's post, I'd like to remind people that we still have room for advertisers in this issue. Your ads will be seen by everyone who attends PaizoCon in glorious print! That's pretty amazing!

Have a look at the first post and contact us at wayfinder.fanzine@gmail.com to get in on this wonderful opportunity.

He'sDeadJim wrote:

Its only the 19th.

They will need another week or so...approximately.

I'm sure they will get to it as soon as they can.
=)

Especially with this nagging. :)

Nope. Because of nagging, I am officially saying things will take one day longer. ;)

I have a specific question about using the "Pursue the Iron Princess" side-trek. "spoilered" to avoid revealing inappropriate details to players.

** spoiler omitted **

I'll have look at the AP volumes and see if I can't come up with some advice for you.

I would be very surprised if it ever happened, especially considering that Paizo content is not 100% accepted.

"Doors" is a weird question. PaizoCon is in a conference hotel, so the doors don't really close. Most days things kick off around 8am, but the hotel restaurant, cafe, etc., are open earlier than that (6am? 5am? I have no idea, early.).

Paladinosaur wrote:

I'd like to see a Allies Codex someday

I thought that was what the NPC Codex was for...

One of the key differences is having a theme to the group that makes certain concepts work way better. For example, pulling one or two of the Demon Knights out of context just makes them kind of weird NPCs, but having each of them together in a group makes for a cool organization (or at least I think it does).

Having a Bright Crusade, or Wizard's Guild, or Temple of Light would make for a cool and thematic set of linked NPCs. Such a book could be very neat, and provide another source of NPC stat blocks that can either act as allies or be easily inserted into adventures when a stat block doesn't make sense to include but could be useful.

If this holds, I too will miss RPG Superstar. It was my first real break into RPG design, and the stepping stone that got me into freelancing.

Awesome to see this again Mike! Don't bother counting me in, but this is just so cool of a thing to do I had to say something! Enjoy folks!

I do love a contest...

A collection of weird and frightful new monsters, by Eric Hindley, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, and F. Wesley Schneider.

Hey, look at that!

Eric "Boxhead" Hindley wrote:

I too am registered for this course! I'm a freelancer that has done work for Paizo, Raging Swan Press, Dreamscarred Press, Fat Goblin Games, and many other publishers. I can't wait to see how this goes!

Wonderful, Eric! Welcome aboard! Its awesome to have some accomplished veterans on the course - should make for a very engaging community!

I'm flattered to be considered an accomplished veteran by someone with your pedigree, and excited to engage with the community on this course!

I do love a contest...

I'm in! How drunk should I be? ;)

Congrats, Gabriel!

Had some time to read the entries, outstanding work all around! Best of luck to my fellow top six!

Congrats, Joe! Our first repeat finalist!

Some of our Top 6 finalists have indeed made the Top 32 in RPGSS or Top 5 in HBM in the past, but we also have new designers in the Top 6. ("New" names to me, anyway.)

Hey! I resemble that remark ;)

I thought true Canadians finished with "Eh" or an apology?

Sorry about that, eh. ;p

Eric "Boxhead" Hindley wrote:

Shadowborn wrote:

Eric "Boxhead" Hindley wrote:

I do love a contest...

*shakes fist*

*narrows eyes*

See you in Hell, Hindley.

You'll have a heck* of a time winning this contest!

*warning-one or more of the participants in this feud may be Canadian.

Eric "Boxhead" Hindley wrote:

I do love a contest...

*shakes fist*

*narrows eyes*

I am happy to announce that Kalyna Conrad and Eric Hindley have joined Wayfinder as our new Associate Editors!

Paris and I will be showing them the ropes as we work on Wayfinder #15 for PaizoCon.

Welcome to the team/family/motley crew/cabal!

Man, I should pay attention to these threads. Happy to be on board! The review process is deeply underway, hopefully editorial assignments and such will be happening soon!

I do love a contest...

Speaking as both a designer who worked on this book and a huge fan of monster books, I find the discussion about how much flavor text each monster gets to be very interesting. I like to think that the stat block can do a great deal of the heavy lifting when it comes to how a monster "lives", as it were. It should show if a monster uses stealth, or openly attacks; often what it feeds on (especially with blood drain or energy drain); how it moves around; what it's family units look like; etc. The text is there to give a bit of context to otherwise unclear sections. After all, every monster has a section for organization, treasure, and environment, as well as icons for some things. They're right there on the page.

There's also only so much to say about some monsters. Unless you are incredibly interested in fungal life cycles, swarms of ducks or whatever other obscure thing you may see, it's usually enough to note that some rare ancient curses result in ducks forming doom hordes. People can assume what the ducks eat and how the ducks mate. I'd rather have a cool special rule than a paragraph about the favorite foods of a given monster.

Paizo also has made a huge change to ensure the playability of monsters over past editions-all monsters are on a single page, or a two page spread. The gnoll entry above was on two pages, and the older entries had very limited art. One of Paizo's goals has also been to present a useful visual to be held up across the table. The only way to add words to a monster is probably to violate one of these rules, and i for one would hate to see that.

Let's not forget the smattering of items incorporated into Ultimate Equipment!

Howdy folks,

I have posted my comments on all of the monsters. They're pretty brief (it's been a busy week), but I hope something useful is in all of them. Overall, this has been a great round.

I'll try to come back in a few weeks and see if there's anything I want to expand upon, or answer questions.

Enjoy the encounter round!

Very well said and just what I needed to hear.

I speak from experience (and a history of not winning Superstar) ;)

On the cusp of the first round of eliminations, I'm going to bump this thread, and add a short sidebar.

If you want to work in this business, even infrequently, and you have made the top 32, you have some kind of spark. Maybe you couldn't make a great map. That happens. Maybe I'm talking to future contestants and the round has changed. That's cool too.

The important thing to do if you want to work in the RPG world is keep it up. Work for anyone you think is worth your time. Don't expect to get rich (especially right off the bat, but likely never). Write what you love. Own what you write (even if you didn't believe in it when you started). Go places and meet people. Hand stuff out if you can. It's a small world out there, and if you want to succeed, all you need to do is work!

On the other hand, if you made the Top 32 and fail to advance, stop for a moment and ask why? Are you ready to be a professional designer? Did you enter the contest on a lark? That's all fine, but some of the contestants here are really shooting for the big leagues. Are you there? (I wasn't...)

RPG Superstar is a foot in the door for everyone involved. Don't imagine that you need to win to eventually get the work you want. If you want to do this, just keep writing.

Adam Daigle wrote:

Yay! One of the rounds I'm judging!

"Making Monsters for Daigle" - totally going to be a band name.

Bah, too many words. Pretty sure it's just Monsters for Daigle... ;)

Congrats to all of the Top 32, but especially to my talented wife Kalyna, fellow Fat Goblin Jeff Swank and Taylor Hubler! Now make maps!

I am definitely very pleased with the reception (and why wouldn't I be?). Thanks for the kind words Endzeitgeist!

So, my brain keeps inverting the "i" in Barzillai, transforming the name into Barzilla!, complete with exclamation point. Which then makes me wonder what you have to do to earn the name Barzilla! Thrune...

Monster Movie Matinee is RPGNow's Deal of the Day!

Check out these great cinematic monsters for 50% off!

Aquamonstrosity (Creature from the Black Lagoon, with a nod to A-Team)
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Jungle Predator (Predator)
Killer Clown (Stephen King’s It)
Night Terror (Pitch Black)
Nightmare Stalker (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
Shark Tornado (Sharknado)
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This product was a real labor of love and I hope you check it out!

I'll be easy enough to find, and hope I can talk you into Psionics. I'll be around all weekend and am pretty easy to find (seriously, I'm about six and a half feet tall and half as broad). I'll hang out at the bar most nights, and if there's a lot of interest, I'll run an off the books version of this on Sunday night.

I'll start by linking this thread again.

I'll add a few things to the points above.

The 3PP open call thread is great, but make sure you peruse as much as you can on the entire 3PP board. I got my opportunities with Dreamscarred Press (and then Fat Goblin Games) by stumbling on a thread talking about how Ultimate Psionics was being delayed because of the sheer volume of content that needed to be written to hit stretch goals from their kickstarter. Plenty of opportunities just like that pop up over there.

Figure out what you like to write, and see who publishes that. Legendary Games puts out AP plug ins and mythic stuff, I'm pretty they aren't going to leap at your new campaign setting. Raging Swan does GM aids- usually smaller books that are light on crunch. They are unlikely to publish your new class. Most companies will read pitches, but try to make sure it matches what they tend to publish.

Related to that, try to write different things. Try writing spells, feats, monsters, magic items, NPCs, adventures, whatever. You never know what you'll find you have a knack for or what you'll enjoy. I tried for ages to write a complete, publishable adventure (and did it, see the Opened Mind by Dreamscarred Press), but I find I prefer to do monsters, or spells, or stuff like that. But I had to try it at least once, and now I know what to expect the next time I do it.

And one final point, know your limits. When you start, it's easy to yes to jobs. Know whether you can actually produce 5000 words of good content in a week, or two weeks, or a month. Figure out how long it takes you to write a monster. Know what your schedule for the rest of your life looks like. I work as a theatre technician. Most of he time, I have a fairly light schedule with plenty of time. But when a show is just getting started or wrapping up, I often do 60+ hour weeks. I'm mentally and physically exhausted in my spare time. This means that I fluxuate wildly from cranking out material to going weeks with almost nothing getting done. I I try to time my projects accordingly.

Congrats all!