"At the end of the process for this issue, I selected 48 articles, and had to drop 33 submissions from pool. I honestly don't really consider the author names until the very end. Right before final selections, I review the author names, and if I have some "RESERVE" selections from an author that has all 3 articles, I'll look and see if a RESERVE from another author not selected could be used instead, so that we maximize our number of authors that get selected." That's a nice touch! I like it.
She just hit level 3 and I haven't leveled her up yet, but so far:
Some of her spell songs: Burning Hands (Fire and Rain by James Taylor)
Goblin Pox (Sick by Flyleaf)
I'm not normally the "Hey, let me tell you all about my super awesome amazing best character evar!" sort, but enough people have loved the concept for my PFS 2e character that @CanisDirus suggested I should post about her somewhere. I hope this is the right place for it. I'll bold the main point so you don't have to read through the whole thing unless you really want to. Fruppup is a goblin wizard from the former Kingdom of Zog, and just a child when it fell. One of the longshanks was casting fire spells, which of course had her completely fascinated. She hid so she could watch him do his thing. When the dust settled, she called out and asked if he'd teach her, then cautiously peered around a corner. The longshanks (who turned out to be a member of the Society) felt conflicted since she was a kid, and alone now because of him and his compatriots. So he risked taking her in. Fruppup was young and impressionable enough that the longshanks' culture rubbed off on her. She's still a spastic fire- and pickle-loving, dog- and horse-hating goblin with questionable goblin logic (She stunk up the place in one scenario full of misfortune with stinky goblin things like puff mushrooms, dead rats, and rotten eggs because "If air full of bad smell, no room for bad luck!" Her party's lucky she failed to find corpseflower nectar for sale...). But she's more able to control her impulses than most. And willing to cooperate, too. Since she looked up to her mentor and wanted to be helpful to others since he helped her, she joined the Society when she was old enough. Her approach to wizardry is...unconventional. Complex arcane language and chants are Dumb, Too Much, and Not Fun. For reasons only Nethys understands, Fruppup's been able to turn goblin songs into the verbal components of her spells (I filk songs that mention fire or burning, mostly). She's also never shaken her fear and distrust of the written word. Which is a bit of a problem when you need to study your spells each day to cast them. So she has her party members and various NPCs read her bedtime stories each night. The bedtime stories are her spells. She's also apparently really good at making pickles. I've only rolled single-digits to make them twice so far, and it's mostly been 15s or above on the dice. In the scenario about setting up the new trade route, they were so good that she convinced the orc tribe to start making them themselves as a local novelty item that could be sold to hungry merchants along the road. They're also her favorite subject for telekinetic projectile. She keeps jars of them in a bandolier for easy access.
I'd say that anything down to spiders qualifies as "sentient". People have a bad habit of conflating "sentient" with "sapient" - and even that may be a largely artificial barrier. That's exactly what I meant. Though I wouldn't phrase it as "down to spiders". Too many shades of "The further away it is from humans, the less evolved it is!" Annoys me to no end that it's standard in medical research to categorize test subjects as "lower species" and "higher species". As I've stated elsewhere prior, there should definitely be a [Sapient] subtype for Animals - apes, corvids, parrots, cetaceans, cephalopods, and likely more besides should have base Intelligence scores of 3-4 at a minimum. I wholeheartedly agree. 1-2 just doesn't cover the range or acknowledge that some are as smart as toddlers, who I'm sure would never be scored below a 3 according to the rules.
You...realize Homo sapiens is a species, right? And that there are many sentient animal species? But on the subject of animals, I actually do have a question for the developers. 3.5 and PF 1E have always had horrible animal stats. There's going to be some level of suckage inevitable when there isn't a biologist combing through everything, but have animals been revisited for 2E in a way that makes them more true-to-life?
I'm amazed at the level of thought and work you've poured into a 2E that sounds like it'll be completely different in a very good way...but this honestly feels premature to me. Starfinder is still brand new and you've even recently made a new Complete book for 1E. You've hit the 10 year mark with no signs of slowing down. It was really exciting to think that you'd be the ones to break that ceiling. So...a bit of a bummer to see the playtest for 2E released now in that respect. Been playing for years but there are so many archetypes and mechanics and whatnot left that I want to explore in 1E that I don't think I'll be switching over anytime soon unless 1E is phased out of organized play at cons while I still have 1E scenarios left or the next homegame GM wants to run the Playtest AP. Someday I'll join in the new fun...but not now.
This is probably too late for you, but I'll drop it here for anyone else wanting to know. Assault on Absalom spoilers: The Arpadors exaggerate their formal Taldan accents and mannerisms. Marton Arpador is the very fashionable patriarch. They were cattle merchants who bought their nobility. Basically, they have a bit of an inferiority complex about their paid-for noble status, so they overplay the part. They hide in their house because they're afraid, not because they're selfish. The Caperinas' matriarch is Annalia Caperina. The family is from Cheliax, but have renounced Asmodeus. Annalia found religion in response to the upcoming seige, though, which embarrasses the rest of her family. Like most Chelaxians, they're very lawful. The al-Hadirs are Qadiran and all wear their hair long. Naadhira is their stubborn matriarch and a worshipper of Sarenrae. When Taldor and Qadira were more actively at war, this house included many great war heroes. Naadhira is ashamed of this for some reason. The Tullians, unlike the other three, tried to evacuate instead of holing up in their house. The undead kept them from getting to their private ship. They aren't good swimmers, but made the desperate decision to jump in the water, hoping the undead wouldn't pursue. The interactive doesn't give any information about them because the goal is to pull them out before they drown, not convince them to leave their houses. It's not even said which country they hail from. They're so grateful to be saved that they rally to the call above and beyond the others, getting many other noble families to join in the fight.
Also, Garund=academia? o_oWhy is that surprising? Garundi empires number among them some of the most technologically and magically advanced in Golarion's history: the ancient Osiriani, the Shory, and the Jistka to name just three. In modern times, the sophisticated metropolises of Katapesh and Sothis are just two of the many centers of learning populated largely by Garundi. If one wants to play the real world analogues game, then Garund, to my way of thinking, might at least somewhat fruitfully be compared to North Africa and the Levant, two areas with rich histories of academic development and excellence. You're both mistaking my response for something it's not. I'm well aware of the history of scholarly contributions by North African and Middle Eastern cultures. I haven't delved into the history and culture of all the Golarian nations, Garund being one of them, so I didn't know what its real-world parallel is. I unfortunately don't have time to immerse myself in Golarion lore right now because I'm a very busy graduate student. My reaction is amusement at one of the nations (It could have been any nation and my reaction would be the same. Seriously.) being something I'm, at the moment, knee-deep in and simultaneously love and hate.
The list for half-orcs validates my view on how cheesy it is that players so often choose them...optimizing vs. role-playing--though not in every case. There are those few who actually attempt to accurately role-play conflicted races and not just optimize. If GMs kept that list in mind and put effort into social encounters... I am always cautioning my sons about what race they choose because there WILL be social repercussions. It's the nature of a world full of conflict. No kidding. My only half-orc so far is a bard who does Maori hakas. He worships Lissala as she used to be because, as a half-pinkskin from Belkzen, he has a very fatalistic view on life. I've gotten a lot of compliments about him and I *think* I've inspired a few people to be more thoughtful about the roleplaying aspect of character creation. |
