FallenDabus's page

and a deity without followers is a dead one :O

Nope. That's a D&Dism as well. I can't point you to an exact quote at the moment, but James Jacobs has corrected it multiple times in the Ask thread.

EDIT: And here's the link

Huh... apparently, Lost Omens: Draconic Codex was leaked by a Barnes & Nobles page...

Good lord, every time I swear I'm going to cut back on my physical products, Paizo releases another book I must get in hardcover. Neither my wallet nor my shelves can take it anymore! TT_TT

Anyhow, the Draconomicon is one of the last 3.5 books I still have in hardback, so absolutely this is a must buy.

Paypal and single click pause/cancel on subscriptions! Both very needed QoL improvements, thank you!

Dope!

At the very least we need a timeline with ALL products on it. Figuring out the temporal sequence of one line of products is fairly easy, but figuring out how ALL the lines fit together is practically impossible at this point without constantly begging strangers to help you. Just the other day I found a thread that listed the Korvosa content in order, and I didn’t even know there was an order to it. And that’s just ONE city on one continent!

Well, I only saw this topic because I was updating my own, but I have been working on a visual timeline of Golarion for a good chunk of years now. It hasn't been consistent work and I am one person, so its in even less a complete state than the wiki, but I'm trying to pick away at it.

You can find it over here.

Me to me: "Okay, it has been a long time since I made that forum post, but its not that ba..."

*Looks at dates*
*Oh right, that was pre-pandemic*

Siiiigggghhhhh, okay, it has been way too long. Long enough in fact that I'm now using Aeon Timeline 3 instead of 2. Anyhow, trying to get more systematic (and consistent) with updating this because there has been A LOT of new dates thrown at us in the last 6 years. I am nowhere near getting them all in, let alone all of the 1e dates, but I have a system and have chunk of things like Tian Xia's dates in the newest file already.

And randomly, I have all of Lost Kingdoms in there because I just finished rereading it. Here's the link to its visual timeline.

Edit: And since I know not everyone will have access to Aeon Timeline, I've made a PDF of everything currently in my timeline, divided by geographic regions. It is in the main folder linked above, but you can also find it here.

I'll third it! It would be very helpful for staying up to date!

Holy cow, the number of little details jam packed in the Ancestry NPC section! This is an absolutely treasure trove and those worried it would just be human NPCs should be reassured: not only are there ancestry specific NPCs, there is a massive amount of worldbuilding in this book too.

Gazetteer? Building your own cultus? By the Gods yes!!!!

I expected Planar shenanigans in this adveture. I did not expect the planar shenanigans that stood out to me on first skim and the NPC written up in the back they are linked to. Bravo!

Getting some info on the state of Mendev and Sarkonis just makes this book even more hype!

FallenDabus wrote:

Hmmmm, if we get the Golden Road next, then all of the Southern Inner Sea regions are covered. That would be dope.

Still missing the High Seas (which includes chunks of Garund).

I would not complain about that either!

Hmmmm, if we get the Golden Road next, then all of the Southern Inner Sea regions are covered. That would be dope.

It is not a satisfying answer, but I think it is probably best to not have static rules-based answers about how people in world generally understand magic, because that creates a lot of narrative restrictions that have to be consistently followed in many different contexts.

THIS. The game engine is not the in-universe physics engine that Golarian runs on. It is a useful starting point (gods know I've written a lot using mechanics as starting points), but adhering too closely to mechanics as simulation robs you of narratives.

FallenDabus wrote:

Squark wrote:

KingTreyIII wrote:

Kerkamoth, Otomens, and Valmallos are not reprinted here. Valmallos I kinda get, since he's an inevitable and those...kinda aren't a thing anymore. The other two are weird, though.

The gods Thremyr and Vavaalrav list their Divine Skill as Religion, which...doesn't really make sense. Most of the time that a deity's Divine Skill is granted to a creature they already are trained in Religion (see clerics and champions). They are literally the only two deities that have Religion as a Divine Skill.

Those three are all inevitables, which is why they were quietly phased out (Or in Otolmens's case, omitted from the in memoriam section).

The skills seem like an oversight that needs addressing. While you can get a deity's divine skill via Raised by Belief too, that's still just awkward for clerics and champions.

Edit:Themyr's divine skill is athletics in Divine Mysteries, actually, so that's just an error. They did give Vavaalrav Religion, so that's "correct" at least.

Clerics and Champions aren't the only ones who can take the background though, so it's not really an issue? They just choose a different skill like any other background.

Raised by Belief isn't the issue. A Cleric/champion receives training in Religion and their deity's skill... Which for Vavaalrav is also religion. This probably still falls under the category of a class making you trained in a skill you're already trained in (Instead pick another skill of your choice), but it's a weird case and as far as I can tell unprecedented. Giving Vavaalrav's followers Society (learning about funeral traditions and keeping the memory of those who have died) or crafting (building mausoleums and other graveyard edifices) would make things easier.

Eh, right. Fair point, although pick a different skill does resolve it easily.

KingTreyIII wrote:

Kerkamoth, Otomens, and Valmallos are not reprinted here. Valmallos I kinda get, since he's an inevitable and those...kinda aren't a thing anymore. The other two are weird, though.

The gods Thremyr and Vavaalrav list their Divine Skill as Religion, which...doesn't really make sense. Most of the time that a deity's Divine Skill is granted to a creature they already are trained in Religion (see clerics and champions). They are literally the only two deities that have Religion as a Divine Skill.

Those three are all inevitables, which is why they were quietly phased out (Or in Otolmens's case, omitted from the in memoriam section).

The skills seem like an oversight that needs addressing. While you can get a deity's divine skill via Raised by Belief, that's still just awkward for clerics and champions.

Edit:Themyr's divine skill is athletics in Divine Mysteries, actually, so that's just an error. They did give Vavaalrav Religion, so that's "correct" at least.

Clerics and Champions aren't the only ones who can take the background though, so it's not really an issue? They just choose a different skill like any other background.

Clearly the warehouse is working hard to get everything shipped before the Christmas rush. Got my shipping notice today.

Ritunn wrote:

It's nice to see Set get the option for Holy and Unholy and some much kinder anathema. I know one of my players was quite sad to see the deity all evil, but it seems he got a more neutral take on his character now!

Him and Sobek. I was surprised they could have have holy priests

To be fair, Sobek was CN in 1e. And ooooo, I hadn't noticed those changes to Set. I like that much better than what we had before!

So I know I did this when Gods and Mysteries came out, but I'm doing it again... I really, really want a book that gives everyone in the Other Gods section (and all the new dieties in the Lost Omens books) the full 4-page spread the Core 20 got. Or at least book that does that for the dieties who weren't in Inner Sea Faiths and Faiths of Golarion. While things like realms and divine allies won't play a role in every game, they are very useful and they play a roll in a lot of my games :)

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Or maybe we now get to see the more noble side of Set, being forced to take the mantle of leadership in a way he never expected and reckon with the new responsibility!

While I'm the last person in the world to be objective about that, and have enjoyed Set-the-villain in the first Conan movie, Marvel comics, Vampire the Masquerade or Judges Guild's Dark Tower adventure, (way, way) back in the day, I would also be intrigued by the idea of Set, the spear-carrying god who stood on the prow of Ra's sun barque and fought off Apep, Who Would Devour the Dawn, every single day, and was, for a time, a maat-observing god of warriors and storms, not just 'Set, who killed his brother. Twice.'

Seeing a version of Isis who seduced Thoth to learn the secrets of necromancy, created a path across Duat, between the worlds of the living and the death to bring her brother-husband back to life, and in so doing, released the curse of undeath upon the mortal world, would just be icing on the cake. :)

Not to plug an entirely different game on Paizo's forums, but this is exactly the type of thing Scion 2e is out there to explore. But yes, a more 3D protrayal of Set would be greatly welcomed.

FallenDabus wrote:

Any meantion of where the dieties' divine realms are on the planes? Especially for those that didn't get a description in 1e?

Each of the core 20 get a sidebar on their realms in their four-page layouts and while I have not read all of the other god’s entries, it appears that they get a brief mention about their realms or demiplanes in each of their one-page entries.

Okay, that's something. Out of curiosity, where did Arazni's realm end up?

Any meantion of where the dieties' divine realms are on the planes? Especially for those that didn't get a description in 1e?

Available now!? I had marked my calendar for November 5th!

Still is on Amazon (which is not a complaint). That said, any word on when the audiobook version will be avaliable?

LiaElf76 wrote:

ShinHakkaider wrote:

There were MANY times where I walked into my "local" gaming store (The Compleat Strategist in nYC) and saw that they had a book on the shelves and I was STILL waiting for mine to show up in my mailbox.

That sounds like your local game shop was breaking the street dates for merchandise they received. I’m assuming that Paizo has street dates for its books like any other publisher. That’s not really something to get upset with Paizo about.

Not this person but I'd easily believe it. Shipping is preeeeeetty slow, on average I get the physical books 1-1.5 weeks (one time, it was 2) after the street date, so local shops would already have it. I don't personally mind it because books end up being just shelf decoration, but if I wanted the physical book, going to the local store is more cost effective since you get to save up on the shipping fees (In fact, given that it feels really wasteful to be subscribed just to get the PDF early, I'm likely to stop subscribing, and just buy every PDF, and then choice buy books from my local shops if I really like a particular book for any reason)

Yeah, it’s a thing that is regular if you aren’t in the US. Heck, new products drop tomorrow and my subs still haven’t shipped, so there’s at least a decent chance I won’t have the PDFs when things go on sale.

It’s not world ending for me, but it can be an irritant and I see how other may get reasonably upset by it.

I appreciate your clarification, but I feel parts of that aren't really directly applicable? Real life Set might've been all that, sure, but here we're dealing with Pathfinder Set, and I'm not sure if we can apply much of the real life stuff to it. Maybe. It's weird with Earth existing in the world as well. And also because he's pretty undeveloped, likely because... Real mythology exists. But I digress. In Pathfinder, Set is the lord of the dark desert, and he's really into murder and the undead. Doesn't necessarily match with the real myths.

If that's the conclusion we come to, its one more case of cultural appropriation of a non-European mythological and religious tradition by a Western game - one that doesn't have many modern worshipers, but does have an active worship in neopagan communites. See also the implicit Orientalism that was already meantioned.

Thanks, but no thanks.

pauljathome wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Sekhmet ;_;

Yup. One of my favourite PFS characters is an awakened leopard ClawDancer who used to be a temple guardian for Sekhmet. Great character (mechanically and for flavour).

At least mechanically she gets no powers from Sekhmet so won't be affected by any changes PFS makes wrt dead Gods. But she'll be quite peeved if her beloved patron is no more.

If you're looking for some Golarion-specific equivalents: Adanye is a cat goddess who is a guardian of the home, while the three Old Sun Gods of Mzali (Chohar, Luhar, and Tlehar) are all solar lion deities; Tlehar in particular is a passionate lioness, which matches Sekhmet pretty well.

And that's really it for me - you can put sun-themed cat goddesses in your Fantasy Africa without it literally just being Bast and Sekhmet.

Oooooooo - the Mzali trinity in Osirion would be rad! Gimme, gimme, gimme!

Are we to believe that Set and Horus or others buddied up? Doesn't make much sense.

Um... yes? Set was one of Re's most ardent defenders against Apep? There is obviously the longstanding rivalry with Horus and the murder of Osiris, but he was still depicted as a leader and an extremely important God within Kemetic myth.

Perennial reminder that Seti I and II were both named after Set still conceived of as being divine manifestations of Horus on earth. This is one of the reasons I'm with keftiu - Kemetic mythology and culture is vastly more nuanced than what fantasy RPGs tend to portray and it really needs an RPG dedicated to IRL mythology to do it justice (games like Scion spring to mind). Set is vastly more than a one note evil deity and bluntly, the way Pathfinder has portrayed him bothers me more and more as time goes on.

Kasoh wrote:

I did not expect a Mighty Max reference.

I literally had the episode "The Maxnificent Seven" in the recommended media for writers on the project.

Heh, I don't know if its possible to share, but having freelanced for other RPG companies, I would love to see what those recommended media lists look like for Paizo projects. Always facinating to see how other people bake the cookie.

TK-421 wrote:

Is this book supposed to be a replacement for Gods & Magic?

The description of this product, as well as the comment directly above yours, suggests this book is not only a replacement for Gods & Magic, but also an expansion upon it.

Which really is the best of both worlds. And not the Starfinder kind.

I do find it very interesting...

FallenDabus wrote:

Then maybe cool it on slinging insults at Paizo’s staff? I am 100% sure that’s what got your post deleted, not your criticism of their policy choices.

There was no such thing and it's a little hurtful that you would make such an insinuation. This thread's a super important topic with Paizo staff present; why would one do such a thing? But, please, do go ahead and jump to such conclusions if it makes you feel better about the world.

You said they were pathologically obsessed with with everything being on PFI. You may not see that as an insult. My immediate reaction reading that was that it crossed a line, despite agree that there should be space for free fan works to not be on Infinite.

If you are hurt and disagree with that interpretation, I cannot control that. But to me, that absolutely was an insult. And in light of that interpretation, entirely counter productive to your stated goal of convincing Paizo to change directions.

Cori Marie wrote:

I still see plenty of criticism in the thread?

Point at timestamps to see the post #s. You'll see gaps. One of them was a previously reply of mine (finishing up the Chopper's Isle sub-thread).

Then maybe cool it on slinging insults at Paizo’s staff? I am 100% sure that’s what got your post deleted, not your criticism of their policy choices.

Got mine. Not reading deep into it because I’d actually like to try running this mostly unspoiled with Mythic GM Emulator, but took a quick glance at the backstory in the intro. I’m very pleased with how this is playing out and appreciate the irony in picking this adventure to run with MGME.

Thank you Mark and James. That helps significantly with clarifying my understanding of how the new licenses work

Thanks for taking the time to address all of these questions and concerns Mark, it must be draining.

I do have a question about how these changes interact with stock art with proper names. This is something that Infinite clearly allowed and still allows (see my art of Daclau-Sarh as an exemplar). No changes on that front.

However, if I wanted to create stock art of Aldinach, would the new Fan Content Policy clear the way for me to sell that new stock art with the proper name on DTRPG instead of Infinite? Would the answer be any different if it was on Patreon?

Again, really appreciate the clarifications!

FallenDabus wrote:

Oooo, I has it.

Mind sharing what's in the toolbox (including beasties)? And what's one of the highlights of this particular adventure?

At work, so can't nessacerily going into detail, but...

Oooo, I has it.

VerBeeker wrote:

“I invite you to visit Droon!”

*punching ground*

I want to! I WANT TO SO BAD!

I'm really hoping that the droon teasers in this are bread crumbs for a soon-to-be-announced southern garund lost omens book, its a region of the world we've really never explored in anything 1e or 2e. We know more about Akiton than we do about southern garund lol

I do think it's likely. When this book (or more specifically the premise of the book) got announced, it struck me as foreshadowing Droon. Flipping through the PDF though... I really think Iblydos is coming next. There is a lot of riffing of Ancient Greece, both ancestry and bestiary wise. And it also does some work setting up High Seas/Ruins of Azlant sequel with all the aquatic stuff too. Though I suspect that is a bit further on the horizon.

Pretty straight forwards... what books do you want to see after Starfinder 2e launches? Both as an interesting thing to talk about and in hopes that the 2e team sees your list and thinks its a good idea.

1) Planar book. I've heard this one was planned for 1e before the OGL/ORC debacle pushed it in favour of 2e. Starfinder is a very planar-heavy setting including FTL that takes you through planes other than the Drift, so it really feels like we need this one.

2) Pact World Species. Oppertunity to get plenty of new species into the game, as well as flesh out the core species that never got the spotlight in 1e.

3) Pact World Gods. Galatic Magic is a thing, but I would really love to have a deeper dive on the gods and faiths of Startfinder. Ideally something like Inner Sea Gods rather than LO Gods & Magic (which is great, but I love those in depth summaries)

4) Some sort of lore line analagous to the Lost Omens line for Pathfinder. We do have the Pact World and Near Space books, but it feels like there is a lot more to explore on every planet. Plus, it would give use an oppertunity to go deep on other planets and systems outside the big two.

5) Azlanti Star Empire. Think this one is pretty obvious. They are big recurring villans and we've seen some glimpses inside the Empire, but I'd love to see more.

Bit bummed that I didn't come up with anything for this, but its lovely to see what other people did :D There are fun stuff here

Yeah, I'm in the same spot. I had some very good ideas, but I just had too many balls in the air and couldn't make it happen.

Ooooo, had not seen this thread before, but there are some very cool insights here, thank you Erik!
I'd definitely be in the crowd of people who'd love to see Iblydos and/or Vudra book if all of Casmaron is too much to tackle right away!

Huh, I think this is the first time I've gotten my physical copy before the Player's Guide came out.

McMoogle wrote:

Mark Moreland wrote:

AJCarrington wrote:

Was anything mentioned re an .epub version as well? This will likely be the first hardback I’ve picked up in quite some time, but love the flexibility of digital.

Godsrain will be available as an e-book and audiobook as well.

HOLUP

Paizo is gonna give me audiobooks!?

Desna smiles on me TvT

Audible does have the audiobooks of the other novels we have released (and the audio dramas too if you like full cast with sound effects)

The audiobook for Shy Knives is quite good!

It would be very cool to have a list of possible representatives, with the idea that the GM selects who shows up based on what kind of characters the players bring, choosing people that could align with and know the PCs already or be a foil to others.

I would not be surprised to see that in the Player's Guide.

I assume the timeline dates are in the Imperial Calender. Are they given with the AR equivalents, or do we need to calculate those ourselves if we are making a grand timeline of everything?

Interesting

Oh excellent, thank you Jonathan! I figured it would be okay, but nice to have confirmation. I guess I have a project for my Spring Break.

I am very curious about whatever that three headed white and gold stag thing is on the side of the box

Friday is a big day!

That trailer is awesome, I can't wait to get my copy!

Oh damn that was amazing!

Gods I love Alarming Disappearence.