Crystal Frasier's page

Q: has Malphene Trant been taking her mulibrous tincture for 6 months or more. Thank you.

There's no set timeline for Malphene, but her coming out as a young lady is described as "recent," so for the teenage timescale that probably means in the past 2-3 months. Given her... development, she was likely taking doses privately for months before this, so she's probably been taking the tincture for 6-12 months.

Paizo's staff is made up of a large number of people very aware of and active in addressing Xphobic, harassing, and inappropriate behaviors. Those staff members simply would not allow such things to exist given their experiences and devotion to safe gaming spaces. I'm confident that if they had published such content (by their estimation) it would have been removed. I certainly trust the judgement and perspective of those who are part of a marginalized community moreso than my own or the general public.

That's absolutely not true. Stuff slips by us all the time, either because it's subtle or specialized enough that we never notice it, or because X minority never saw the text (or we just don't have X minority as employees), and there's a LOT of bad material from much earlier in the product lifecycle. Miss Feathers from PFS and a LOT of the awful Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired material on the Mwangi Expanse both stand out as the later.

Just because a company employs a few minorities does not mean they're incapable of screwing up, and it's better we know when and how we make mistakes so we can try to do better in the future, rather than dismiss complaints.

These threads will never go away

*lights blowtorch*

We'll see about that

Welp now I am going to forever think of this AP as having the subtitle "Live and Let Die."

there is at least one volume whose proposed title, "Resurrect and Let Live," got rejected

As long as we're talking AP titles, I found myself humming an old song the other day and wondered why until I realized I had just finished my first read-through of "Crownfall."

The song? The theme from Skyfall. Are all the AP titles spy-movie references that I'm not savvy enough to get? :P

Not intentionally, but please feel free to continue assuming I am very clever :D

According to the gazetteer, Oppara has Law +7 and Society +5. Law gives a bonus to diplomacy to influence gov't officials, while Society gives a bonus to influence non-gov't officials. Would you consider the senators gov't officials?

I would explicitly ignore those modifiers for the AP. Those are meant to be for very quick, hand-wavey interactions, not for central gameplay

ericthecleric wrote:

Eru the One wrote:

Both downloads interactive maps are just the first page for me.

The interactive map file for 128 also has just the cover page for me. Does anyone else have this issue?

Yeah, I don't know who to send word to about this, but there are a number of us—I would suspect all—with this problem.

The appropriate people have been notified and we're working to fix the problem now

A Vault of the Onyx Citadel question, if I may: in the threatened case of the Vault of the Onyx Citadel landing on Molthune and Nirmathas, how high up were you envisioning it appearing ? Teleporting in at ground level, or dropping from high enough to squish buildings rather than materialise through them? (I am presuming it won't be dropping from high enough to imitate Earthfall because that seems less than good for the inhabitants) Also, how much thickness of surrounding Plane of Earth would it bring with it; would we end up with the mapped base of the Vault overlaying Molthune and Nirmathas, or something that looks from the outside like a gigantic rock?

Thank you for this most enjoyable AP, and a good New Year to you and yours.

Apologies, I didn't realize this thread was still going.

For the Vault, I imagined it mostly as a transposition, with the vault appearing more or less at group level and just showing things asside or crushing them as part of the arrival, more than dropping from a great height.

I don't see any great thickness of the Plane of earth being brought along. If anything, probably the outer edge of the vault would get left behind in the teleport.

All that said, your table and your story, so you can add whatever elements you want to make the story more dramatic or your world more interesting.

so where the play's guide it been more then two weeks now

I know everyone's excited for their free product, but please try to understand that the Player's Guides are free products that get worked on in the few available moments we have—breaks, lunches, after work—in between large projects, and the last six months have seen two a new RPG (Starfinder), and a new edition of our existing RPG in addition to our regular workload, on top of moving offices and rampant illness from this past winter.

Nobody would love to see this product we've all worked hard on hit the streets more than all of us who help put it together, but please appreciate that these are labors of love we work on as we are able, and when there's crunch, it delays some things.

The Player's Guide will be out as soon as it's ready.

On Eutropia's age: she was born one year before her brother Carrius II (Crownfall, p.55), who was "still-teenage" when he died (ibid., p.5), so he was probably around 18–19 then. Carrius died 20 years ago (p.20). Adding this all up results in Eutropia indeed being around 39–40.

Unless Carrius was 13!

Finished skimming, saw the Galluvix and that you can have it as improved familiar

I take my rating back, this AP is now THE best AP that has ever existed and will ever exist. It transcends the rating system, ascending beyond realms mortal can understand

But if you force me to put it in stars, 11/5 stars

If you enjoy a product, I strongly recommend leaving a review to tell everyone about the elements you liked, to help them decide if it's for them

It's a spoof cover of old 1960s romance comic covers.

Because Valeros and Imrijka smooch

CorvusMask wrote:

Sorry if it sounded like I was trying to make personal jabs at you, my articulation isn't very good, but I was honestly wondering that. I got that impression from you mentioning there isn't really any reason why

** spoiler omitted **

But yeah, sorry again if I accidentally came across as harsh ^_^;

thank you for clarifying, ill take that into consideration in future

** spoiler omitted **...

Eutropia's agenda upon reaching the throne is left deliberately vague so GMs can custom tailor to their group's priorities. Some agendas may appeal to certain groups while being intolerable to others, so we wanted to leave that portion of Eutropia's leadership as something for each game to decide best fit their needs and reflects the PCs' own interests and goals. We ultimately hope each GM will make their own Eutropia fit the interests and needs of their group, rather than trying to find the mythical "one size fits all" political figure.

But then if you read her responses as "condescending," then the problem may be with who's speaking rather than the words themselves, in which case you may want to review the advice in the introduction about creating your own potential heir for Taldor or even using one of the PCs as the heir to the throne.

I'm the developer for War for the Crown, and I specifically elected to go with the word "primogeniture" rather than delve into pedantry about specific subcategories of a tradition that was getting overturned before the PCs really become involved in the action. If my choice for brevity over specifics offends you, I really don't have anything I can say in response to that.

It's not changing. Feel free that add additional adjectives to it in your game, or if it breaks the world for you, simply skip this Adventure Path.

The "comfy old armchair that we all know and love" idea is fine until you realize only 1% of the population is allowed to sit in the chair, and the other 99% of the population is the footstool.

We've always portrayed Taldor as a nation whose glory days are long gone and whose infrastructure and social order are slowly decaying while everyone with the power to turn that around refuses to acknowledge there's a problem. If your home game version of Taldor differs from this that's fine, but the AP is set in the canon version of the nation.

chopswil wrote:

p. 21 BRASS CHATTERBOX

missing construction information

Unique custom item not intended to be commercially available

Oh, I see what you were asking about now. it looks like we accidentally used the magic item format in layout.

The brass chatterbox is a mundane clockwork device and should have no caster level or magic aura.

p. 21 BRASS CHATTERBOX

missing construction information

Unique custom item not intended to be commercially available

Unofficially. But I do love the Freeport setting overall and highly recommend it

Are corgis electric?

Corgis are Welsh. They run on coal.

I will point out that Green Ronin's Freeport camapaign setting for Pathfinder specifically has a noble base class.

Stone Dog wrote:

As a GM who is a bit torn between this and Hell's Rebels for the next campaign, what are the rough comparisons looking like? What is the scope? Just national or does it spread over a wider area? Does it have a clear menace? I'm coming off Reign of Winter and one of the things I like about Hell's Rebels is a clear and present villain. If there is a campaign outline in the back, what sort of spoilers does it have to offer?

Please, tempt me into another set of purchases!

Echoing the question to ask what Eutropia's program of social reform is.

Eutropia's social reforms are deliberately vague, so you can adapt them to your table.

The Pathfinder Society Assistance section in Part 3 indicates the number of agents in D2 is reduced by 2 to 2. Area D2 only has 2 agents listed.

That's a development error. If you get Pathfinder Society assistance, then only Fair-Minded Efarni is in area D2.

Where is Handout #1 used or found?

Top of page 24. The tag was left-aligned, making it a little harder to find at a glance

Are they? I just stuck all of the dates from T:tFE into the timeline I'm working on for Pathfinder and I didn't see them. Last four dates in the timeline are the Eighth Army of Exploration, the Red Revolution, naval campaigns against Qadira, and the present day. I'd be happy to be proven wrong or have missed something mind you, I'm just surprised because I specifically went looking for those dates.

No, my mistake. They were in the original timeline text, but got cut for space (and also because it's almost always a canon traps to say exactly when major NPCs were born; it's usually best to leave that to individual tables' needs)

Crystal, will this adventure path include the birthyears of several important characters like Stavian, his inheritors, and some of the influential senators? Maybe The Twilight Child will tell us the birthyears of General Relyson Gwein, Grand Duke Broyse Rengiana, and Grand Duchess Zymalla Rengiana?

Stavian and Eutropia's birth years are mentioned in the timeline for Taldor: The First Empire. The AP has textbook-style entries for several major Grand Princes from Taldan history (including their date of birth and date of death), but other than this we don't usually print birth years for any of our major NPCs

You a+&&*%!s didn't tell me it was [NPC]'s birthday

The first picture shows us Stavian playing with his children. Looks like he deeply loved them, after all. He is not a jerk, I guess. Anyway, Crystal, can I ask who were the three inheritors?

The three inheritors from the original draft were Princess Eutropia, General Pythareus, and a noble named Lotheed who had the backing of a secret society. I'm glad to say that all three are still in the final product.

And yes, Stavian loved his kids, but love is weird. Love runs parallel to LOTS of other strong emotions.

Will the subjects of the childhood pictures be identified, will the placement make it obvious, or will it be a guessing game?

The images are generally self-explanatory in the context of the book. I will spoil that the first image is a much young Stavian III with his children.

Hmmm, Princess Eutropia = Daria Morgendorffer? *sound of breaking stereotypes*

She's a little more.... personable than Daria, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't draw some sarcastic inspiration...

The last iconic for War for the Crown is Raveni, the psychic. We wanted a boom-stick who also knew how to maneuver in polite society.

Originally I championed for Lem instead of Merisiel, but was told Lem isn't an "A-list" iconic, and so I needed to use Merisiel instead. Now I just feel bad for Lem.

Okay, different question then; what do skittermander voices sound like?

Gravelly/scratchy, higher-pitch. They tend to repeat themselves or think out loud, or stop mid-sentence and switch streams of thought. They also tend to rely on emotive, non-word grunts, squeaks, and yells—meh, yeeee, grf, ect—especially when excited or afraid.

What would be some common Skittermander names?

Keep in mind, this is all head-canon and not official:

Skittermanders don't use personal names by default. They're lack of long-range thinking/coordination ability renders individual identifiers beyond "Hey you" or "That guy" largely unnecessary, and the fact that parents abandon their nonsentient offspring immediately after birth means they're not around to name any of their chattering horde. An individual who does something memorable, important, or funny might pick up a nickname for a while, but unless it's used constantly (especially in spending time around non-skittermanders), it will eventually be forgotten.

Skittermanders who become part of the larger galactic society often pick up nickanmes the same way, or happily accept names that others give... as much as they can remember, at least. A skittermander named "Prisoner-84792" might only go by "Prisoner" or "Eight." Of course, there are always exceptions, like Sgt. Seen-Some-Shittermander.

Crystal Frasier wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

What are, like, all the secrets for War for the Crown, and why will this be the best AP ever?!

This will be the best AP ever for everyone who loves Taldor more than anything else in the setting, otherwise YMMV.

But I will point out that you do get to go to 100% more fancy parties than you do in any other AP!

W00t for parties!

How many of the Intrigue rules (and which ones, if you can) are going to be incorporated as primary parts of the AP?

The only required intrigue rules we're importing are the Influence rules, thought we're simplifying it a little. There are also a few spots for verbal duels. We're only just starting development, though, so things could always change down the line.

Also will there be verbals duels in War for the Crown?!!

We're trying to strike a nice balance for people who like the verbal duel system from Ultimate intrigue, and groups that prefer to play out their interactions, but there will plenty of encounters where verbal duels are a noteworthy option

What are, like, all the secrets for War for the Crown, and why will this be the best AP ever?!

This will be the best AP ever for everyone who loves Taldor more than anything else in the setting, otherwise YMMV.

But I will point out that you do get to go to 100% more fancy parties than you do in any other AP!

A bunch of people over on the Alien Archive product discussion are trying to come up with a name for a grouping of Skittermanders.

Did you already have one in mind?

I would say a fracture of skittermanders

Is that last image a Verminous Witch or a Vellemancer?

It honestly works well for either

Gloamont Sanderson wrote:

No one should see the inside of a stewpot more than once in a lifetime.

Glo is f$%%ing awesome.

If we ever start doing novels again, I'm going to have to try and flesh this little guy out more

Wondering if we finally got a Hex Gunner Archetype for the Gunslinger class in this book?

It wasn't really appropriate to the themes and tone of the book, but Kobold Press released one in their Expanded Gunslinger supplement.

I may have misread thetweet I saw but did Crystal and Jessica work on this?

If so I'm even more psyched for it!

Yes. I did the development on all the parts I didn't write, and Jessica did the outlining and assigning to authors (including my brilliant and creative wife, who gave us the hag-riven and the malice-binder, among other things)

She wouldn't happen to be a pure bred Great Taldane by chance would she?

She has a mutt she adopted as a street puppy, and smirkingly refers to it as a "purebred Opparan wrestling spaniel." Of course, this being Taldor, various aristocrats are trying to reproduce it and claim their family created the breed a thousand years ago...

I for one am simply excited that this AP gives us a chance to detail Eutropia's beloved dog, Taldogis

Are the Guardians of the Galaxy films worth watching? A few friends have recommended them to me but I'm hesitant to give Marvel money after the racist crap they've pulled in things like Doctor Strange, Captain America and Iron Fist.

I feel like the first one is, but I'm not a fan of the second. I know a lot of people who said it was better than the first, but it felt like there was way more studio interference and no understanding of what made the first one succeed. The misogyny is more pronounced, the white guy power fantasies are cranked up more, the plot feels much lower-stakes, the climax is so long that it gets boring, and all the characters feel like paper cutouts of who they were in the first film.

The elevator pitch is basically, what if crites and popples had babies, and I have to imagine I'm the only 80's baby who wants to see the end result of THAT particular slash fic...

You haven't even SEEN the book? How could you possibly know whether or not they're awesome?

How many little happy dances did you do when stuff like, say, the androids being primarily agender and the shirren having three genders got approved?

I did a lot.

LESBIAN SPACE PIRATE COMMUNISTS FOR THE WIN!

I was happy to see Paizo using some design space to question assumptions we all take for granted. That's what scifi is supposed to be about, after all.

Neat.

What's your opinion on the Skittermanders?

I created them, so I'm pretty pro-skittermander

Who is your character for Starfinder, if any.

I made a Shirren Solarion with a weakness for alien pollen named Pixistik.

I play an android mechanic named Una Null. She's got an exo-cortex and is a big believer in self-improvement

And I did write a handful of aliens for the Alien Anthology, but I'm not sure how they survived development. We basically had to design them before the core rules were finalized

Oh, my world is in the core book. It's a very short contribution