Erik Mona wrote:
sieylianna wrote:
So my post in the other thread projecting 30-50% recycled content was too generous, it's looking more like 80%. Maybe we'll get lucky and they will have an open call for submissions and we'll see some outside the box thinking. Otherwise, UE is not in my future.
Your original estimate is far more likely to be the case. This book will be more than 400 pages (so larger than most of our other books), and will contain more than 50% new content. There will be a TON of new items in this book.
A whole ton? That...well, that's just ludicrous. The logistics of shipping 2000-pound books are absurd. I'd suggest revisiting the plan entirely. Is the book perchance a compilation of 400+ stone tablets, held together by some high end titanium coil? I salute your love of trees and the environment, but it simply won't do. How do you propose we transport said book? I don't have a crane, or a pulley system with the appropriate counterweights; I'm also concerned that my players, iconic members of the gaming demographic's stereotype--misanthropic albinos that skulk in filthy, windowless comic shops by day, and their parents' basement by night, sweating off-brand Mountain Dew while resolving deep, unacknowledged social anxieties through unofficial PvP combat, wherein the losers of said combats are exiled into the hostile environment outside of the aforementioned comic shop until such a time when they acquire nourishment for the party, which, due to a most unusual and deadly allergy to nature and the outside world, must be purchased from a food establishment that, with the magic of modern chemistry, has found clever ways to make such wonderful commonplaces as pizza, chinese, hamburgers, and other various delectables entirely from fat byproducts; failure to purchase the appropriate quantity of food is punishable by a ritualistic killing of said player through the death of his character, often leading to social travesties that, upon revealing themselves to the public world, conjured such colorful depictions of the Tabletop gaming industry as were touted by concerned parent leagues across the nation in the eighties, and ultraconservative religious groups in the nineties--won't be able to turn the pages and use the information.
On Archetypes and balance: I am of the opinion that, should you choose an archetype, you do not have to go the "all-or-nothin'" route. If you like the third level ability of a given archetype, but none of the others, I see nothing wrong with selecting only that one, and continuing on your merry way; the differences it will make in the long run are so negligible that it's silly to argue over. I'll even let my players choose two archetypes, so long as the abilities the archetypes are replacing do not overlap.
PrCs and limitations: Depending on the level of the game, and the nature of the prestige class, I lower prerequisites based on BAB and skill ranks so players can step into their intended prestige class more easily. A prime example is the Rage Prophet: the Rage Prophet is a wonderful blend for Barbarians and Oracles, but in the scope of things, allowing a player to take the class at lvl 3 is no different than taking it at lvl 7 since, by lvl 20, they'll have the same number of spells, barbarian abilities, and oracle mysteries and revelations, regardless of when they started to level in Rage Prophet.
On the word "Ultimate," and further publications by Paizo:
Paizo is a business in an industry that relies on providing generic(generic in the stuffy English major sense; something that asserts tried and true conventions of a particular genre) fantasy experiences to the consumer. If the "Complete" books from the 3.X days are any indicator, the name of the product doesn't necessarily reflect the product's nature so much as how the producer wants the product to be perceived. Paizo's writers can fling the word Ultimate around just like DnD used the word "complete," which is the same way that retailers use the words "NEW," or "IMPROVED," or "FREE." It's a marketing tool. They will revisit magic, magic based classes, and magic-related goodies (like Golem add-ons (since the UM only introduced the Heart and Brain, when it could have found ways to play with old beliefs about the humours and the organs) or spell duels (which lacked the dynamics I wanted, and were far too formal. We've all seen that Harry Potter movie where Gand--Dumbledore and Voldemort slash spells at each other, and there is no reason we can't make our pen-and-paper spells duels as mechanically interesting. There again, my idea of a fun spell system for a duel would be inspired by the periodic table and chemical reactions)), and, unless they find themselves swept up in TSR and Wizard's wake, playing the pheonix with their products, Paizo will have no choice but to release books that are mechanically "Ultimate <subject> II," even if they are thematically elsewhere. Like the Ultimate equipment book, the new release will update the Adventurer's Armory (was that the name of the original?), and provide new equipment and rules, but it will fundamentally be more of the same. In Paizo's case, that isn't bad, I'm quite tickled by their product, but genres can only act generically.
Whoo. Watch out for those asides.
