Doug Bailey's page

Very glad to see more books but Paizo sort of screwed the pooch on the Starfinder roll out. Really needed to be more books at launch.

Not particularly excited about this product as I'm not into the horror thing (at least now - I've got dozens of White Wolf books from twenty years ago and even met my wife playing Vampire!) and don't fancy introducing those elements as PC options in Pathfinder, but I understand horror/zombie apocalypse fans are a sizable customer base and Paizo is going after those folks with this. I'd probably be less disappointed about learning this is what Paizo is devoting precious hardbound book development resources towards if I knew what the rest of 2016 held in store. Can we have a Faerie/First World hardbound in the near future??

Vic Wertz wrote:

Our Pathfinder Tales novels are available on Kindle.

I did not know that. I have gotten a couple of paperback copies of Pathfinder Tales novels as a door prize at cons, and while I enjoyed them, I just don't buy paperbacks any more and the pain of getting a PDF to display properly on the kindle has stopped me from going for the e-versions.

If they are on the kindle store, I am much more likely to read them.

Thanks!

Thanks. Marvel, for example, have comics available in Kindle format. They don't allow the highlighting that people often prefer when reading a Kindle book. But even making them available in Kindle format in a manner similar to Marvel comics would be nice. Also, might it be possible to offer just the text as Kindle document? As long as users understand they wouldn't get the great presentation of the layout of the printed books as a sacrifice to get full Kindle functionality with Pathfinder book text then I think that would be ok. I'd love to have the ability to access my Pathfinder books on my Kindle and be able to highlight and mark notes using Kindle functionality. Perhaps you can just make the Kindle file available on Paizo.com if a person purchases a book on Paizo. That'd also incentivize people to purchase Pathfinder books on Paizo.com rather than amazon.com.

Any chance we will see this eventually?

https://twitter.com/monkeyking/status/602314721463676928/photo/1

https://twitter.com/monkeyking/status/602315587805585409/photo/1

Rather sad that many seem to think a choice has to be made between visuals and gameplay as if only one can be at superior levels but not both. Also rather sad that many seem to think the people that work on the gameplay mechanics are the same people that develop the visual content. No one is violating any MMO hipster code if they want graphics and character motion standards from this decade to be satisfied when the game is released.

The latest video I've been able to find is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JUdZlu9cvc

This is pre-alpha footage. I am hopeful we can expect significant improvement in the graphics quality, texture quality, visual content depth and character motion quality when the game is complete.

Geb is the name of the Egyptian god of the Earth. Consider Egyptian names.

Hearthstone is the relatively new online collectible card game developed by Blizzard Entertainment set within the Warcraft universe. While the Warcraft universe is certainly rich, I think an online collectible card game set within the Pathfinder/Inner Sea universe would be much richer. Incredible demand exists for such games. For example, an iPad version of Hearthstone was released for the iPad earlier this month and quickly became the number one app in 38 countries. A gaming analyst has been quoted as estimating the game will generate $30 million in revenue for Blizzard this year. The development costs should certainly be less than more costly, graphically-intensive games such as MMORPGs and MOBAs. Hell, I'd even be interested in helping finance development of the game if Paizo were interested.

I'll post my review here also:

If Wolfgang is involved in the product you can trust that it is going to be top quality. Deep Magic observes this rule in spades. The quality and quantity of content this book offers is sure to sate even the most demanding gamer (e.g., me). Everything from the gaming content to the layout to the artwork to the organization is of the highest quality. From new magic options such as Battle Magic, Blood Magic, Ley Line Magic and Gambling Magic to 200 pages of new spells to new spell-casting archetypes to magical constructs... Deep Magic delivers again and again and again. This book could literally have been a two or three separate books. Deep Magic is a masterpiece that will certainly influence my gaming sessions for years to come.

I'm not sure what the point would be in Paizo purchasing the D&D properties. Habsro would likely want a pretty penny and Paizo, at least according to Dun & Bradstreet, only has about $4.5 million in sales (http://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory/paizopublishingllc-redmond-wa-16115 283.html).

We've all seen the TV ads where some gadget is sold for a "low price" but the "shipping and handling" charge is some crazy amount. Its easy to laugh about those companies because those ads are one big BS parade. However, I'm regularly shocked by what Paizo charges for "shipping and handling". But that hasn't prevented me in the past from ordering alot of stuff from Paizo.

However, today the issue really struck me. I ordered two of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook T-shirts from Paizo. The price for the shirts was $40. The "shipping and handling"? $13.12. This is using "standard postal delivery" which does not cost anywhere near $13.12. So obviously most of this charge is the "handling". When I try to order those same two shirts from Offworld Designs, the manufacturer of the shirts, the price for the shirts is the same, $40, but the shipping and handling is only $6.85 for Priority Mail shipment via the postal service.

So my question is for Paizo. Why are you charging $7-10 to place two shirts in a box?

Just for kicks, I tried to order a single die. ONE die. Cost of the die? $5.36. Cost of "shipping and handling" to send that one die regular postal mail? $3.83. Seems awfully high for a single die.

And before anyone posts it. I am completely aware I can choose to shop wherever and if I find Paizo's prices too high I can get most of this stuff elsewhere. But I want to support Paizo. But when I have to pay a significantly higher price and shipping and handling to order it through Paizo it gets tough to stomach.

I'd like Paizo to help me understand why their price structure makes sense.

When I saw this sentence from Sean I was not sure if he was being a smart-ass or not! :) "If the voters choose you to be this year's RPG Superstar, you're going to need to buckle down and and proofread everything you write, just to catch those missing commas and strangely-worded sentences."

Thanks for the responses. I've purchased 90% of my Pathfinder products off the Paizo website, own all the hardcover books and currently own ~80 softcovers. Maybe I'm just lucky but of the two new releases I purchased off Amazon I got them with a day or two of the official release. The estimated delivery date right now for my Amazon order for Ultimate Campaign is May 2. I've got Amazon Prime so there are no shipping costs.

@TOZ - Paizo's business model can't depend on customers voluntarily picking the worst price option.

Amazon has this for $26. I want to support Paizo but its difficult to justify paying $40 buying the book here on the Paizo website when I get it for 40% off on Amazon.

Could we please get a separate subfolder within the RPG Superstar message board for this thread next year? People want and appreciate feedback on their submissions and many people are very gracious to review and provide feedback on submissions. But having a gajillion items in a single thread creates a very unwieldy thread. I suspect people would be more inclined to provide feedback and exchanges would be easier about specific items if we were not all crunched into this single thread.

The item's imagery was solid, though the writing could have been a bit tighter. What kills it for me is this part right here. You wrote what's quoted up there, but this is what I'm reading:

"When this item is activated, your game will immediately slow to a crawl."

There's enough dice-rolling and math involved in the game as it is. Having to wait while people roll and average three times as many dice isn't fun.

One also has to ask whether it would be more economical to buy items or use spells that simply add bonuses for rounds or sometimes minutes, instead of dropping nearly 100k to do this for a single round.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback. I agree the item will make that round a mathfest and possibly tedious. I also concede the item might have limited appeal. The item could prove useful though in certain situations where fumbles rolled by you or your allies could be disastrous or high rolls by your opponents (e.g., you are faced with a Vorpal weapon) could be disastrous.

In full disclosure, I got home for work on the day submissions were due and decided I would submit something and dreamed this item up in about 45 minutes. What I have resolved this year is to come up with an item each month for the entire year and then submit the best of the bunch! :)

Feybone of the Eternal Singularity
Aura strong conjuration CL 12th
Slot _ ; Price 96,000 gp; Weight 1/2 lb.

Description
Strange runes surrounded by intricate fey scrimshaw cover the surface of this ensorcelled bone of a First World creature. The Feybone grants the wearer the ability to access a region of the First World where an intense and enduring stationary singularity resides. Upon activation, the waves of the singularity buffet the region around the Feybone diminishing the uncertainty associated with events occurring in the Feybone’s vicinity.

As a standard action, the wearer can activate the Feybone once per day by squeezing the Feybone firmly. During the next round, all ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws and skill checks performed by creatures, both friendly and hostile, within 30 feet of the Feybone are determined by rolling three times and dividing the sum of three natural results of these rolls by three. Bonuses and other roll adjustments are applied to the result as if produced by normal roll. At the conclusion of the round, the Feybone cannot be activated for 24 hours.

Actions impacting roll results operate as intended but within the confines of the stability-enhanced area. For example, if a Witch grants a creature within the Feybone’s area of effect with Fortune then the creature may reroll as the hex allows but both the original roll result and the second roll result must be determined pursuant to the methodology described above.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, gate, fey bone fragment; Skill Craft (scrimshaw) DC 25; Cost 48,000 gp

Doug Bailey wrote:

What this data implies is only 5% of passionate gamers are female.

No, what it implies that possibly 5% of passionate gamers interested in game design, of a competitive spirit, who feel comfortable with wondrous item design, who feel confident enough to enter a major contest, who feel that they have the time and interest to eventually become a freelance game designer, who are members of the Paizo community, who managed to get an item written and submitted by December 18, are female.

No? So you think gamers are 50/50 male and female but females are just less inclined to exhibit the attributes you list above? I think that is quite sexist. I think its more likely to imply that females are equally as passionate gamers interested in game design, of a competitive spirit, who feel comfortable with wondrous item design, etc. as males are but the pool of female gamers is 5% the size of male games.

@DQ

I was talking to one of my friends who does the MMORPG thing. She said she choses male avatars because the female ones get harrassed too much.

My wife does that because of that reason and also a male complaining about something in game is perceived very differently than a female complaining about something in game.

What this data implies is only 5% of passionate gamers are female. I'm not sure that is extremely accurate but its probably not far off that women are a small minority amongst gamers. My wife, who was always curious about RPGs when she was a kid, nonetheless never got involved in them but now is an avid gamer. I'm proud to say our 15 year old daughter is also an avid gamer as well. I wonder how many more women are out there that would love to play RPGs that don't either because no one thinks to invite them to try them out or they don't inquire themselves.

Exactly. There's two relevant ranks:

1. You made the top 32.
2. You didn't.

Nothing else is relevant to the contest :)

In your opinion - others may be interested in how their item fared even though it did not get into the 32 items selected by the judges.

Congratulations on getting into the Top 32! These boots remind me of the Tauren Thunderstomp from World of Warcraft! :)

I'm extremely excited. This is my first year submitting to the contest. I am already pleased that I mustered the time and focus to develop a submission. In some ways I have already won because the whole process has energized my desire to create. Also, I know we will see some great items when the top 32 is released. If by some chance my item is in the top 32 then that will be just icing on the cake!

I'd be interested in how many times the items in the top 90 on average were viewed by a voter as that could provide insight into the variation in quality amongst the top 90. For example, if each item was viewed 50 times then while the strongest items might end up in the top 90 their relative position could still be significantly influenced by such factors as the tastes of the voters and the strength of items against which each item was compared.

I saw my item once and voted for it but it was an honest vote! :)

Nice work!

Thanks all. Some good points made here. Now time to eat some Yule cookies! :)

I humbly request that in future contests submitters have the ability to view their submission's statistics during the round 1 voting period. The ability to view the number of "votes for", "votes against" and "ties" would make the month long voting process less frightful! Also, seeing how these statistics develop might provide more insight as to whether a submitter should start working on whatever round 2 submissions would be. This is my first year participating and I have never done anything like this so I'm quite curious to know how my item fares (and I am one of those "instant gratification" types). I am quite hopeful I might have come up with something and simultaneously quite anxious I have produced the game design equivalent of a "turd". Save us from ourselves Paizo!

A summary of this thread would make for a very nice additional design suggestion post from Paizo. Something like "Try to avoid the following phrases and design concepts:"

It'd be nice if you could log into your Paizo account and at least see how many votes your item has received and how many times it has appeared. Seems like it'd be easier to wait out the month we have to wait for! :)

I've not voted prior to this year's contest so I have no frame of reference. However, some of the submissions are stunningly garbled especially given there is a preview button where one can review his or her submission before submitting.

Voting begins 5pm ET apparently.

Thanks for compiling this list of guides. Very useful!

Like many here, I think the Confusion Bomb where the target cannot save versus the Confusion effect is way overpowered. A Level 8 alchemist can take down a level 20+ foe with the bomb. A ranged touch attack roll is easy for a level 8 character to make against a level 20+ mob. That's clearly overpowered.

The Tane are mentioned in one adventure (Rise of the Runelords 2 or 3) as a group of three entities from ancient times.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/additionalMonsters/jabberwock.html

I am trying to determine whether touch attacks benefit from modifiers. I understand touch attacks are versus the flat-footed AC of the target but it is not clear (at least as far as I can tell) whether touch attack rolls benefit from modifiers that a normal attack would use. For example, Ray of Frost (Core Rulebook, pg. 330) states it requires success on a "ranged touch attack." While that attack is done against the target's flat-footed AC does the caster get to add modifiers to his/her ranged touch attack roll? Dexterity? Intelligence?