Personally, Starfinder isn't for me. It's just... not what I wanted when I heard about Starfinder. I wanted something more like DragonStar, where it was full spellcasting (9 levels) with classic fantasy species, plus high tech. It just wasn't what I wanted.
As for mythic... Kaiju fights feel like they'd fit. I'd like the greek-themed region for it as well. I also feel like having mythic as a concurrent path is no different than something like Free Archetype.
I'm sorry, but in a thread about what we want from mythic (yes, it says stories, but I consider it more general), saying 'why not just start at higher level' is pretty danged insulting from my point of view.
Personally, if it's not Pathfinder, I'm not going to get Pathfinder adventures that use the content. Even if the PCs didn't get it in Pathfinder 1e, some monsters used the rules in adventures.
Not to mention that at this point, my gaming group has scattered to the four winds, and not all of them are willing to learn a new system even if (and it's a very big if) the system is programmed into a VTT. Pathfinder is reliably updated on several VTTs, which makes it a good stand-by.
Tertiarily, I really don't enjoy narrative systems like FATE, despite the fact I've tried to enjoy them. They just don't work for me.
I have been making a lot of drow with AI art of late. I just adore the look and feel of them.
Ooh! Would you please be kind enough to share? I would just love to see how they turned out!
(Both because I love new sources of character portraits and because it directly impacts my career as a graphic designer.)
Oh, hey, I used different profiles in the same thread. Whoops. Ah, well.
I'm afraid that I don't have any uploaded where people can easily view them. I use Novel AI and save them to my hard drive (and don't want to clutter my business HD with personal stuff). Let's see if one I uploaded to Discord works, though... Linky. This is for an 'eclipse elf' style, using a solar eclipse background.
Anyway, I should specify that 'adore the look and feel' was specifically in regards to drow. Getting the AI to generate art I like is significantly more difficult (and getting it to generate truly black skin is like pulling teeth). Considering all the issues with copyright and other stuff, my primary use for it is as example artwork for artists, for me to help visualize some secondary characters in my books, and to depict characters in VTTs.
I love dark elves. That's at least partially because my introduction to the Forgotten Realms was due to one of the Drizzt books (Sojourn, yes, I found them out of order due to the school library only having the one). At the same time, I'm not as fond of the 'classic' depictions of them being always evil or the like.
One of the dark elf characters I want to play are pretty straightforward. It meshes the ancestry with the game Sunless Sea, where I could play a dark elf swashbuckler exploring a vast, underground sea with its horrors aboard a steam ship.
The other is from an online RP I was once in, where the protagonist was a mage (she'd probably be an Arcanist in Pathfinder 1e, not sure in 2e). She was the last remaining member of a former ruling family of dark elves who weren't on bad terms with surface elves, but were overthrown. Half her soul was eaten by a daemon, so she ended up summoning a succubus and merging their souls to survive, making her a strange half-succubus hybrid, and for years she made her home in a stalagmite at the bottom of a lake of magma, quietly crafting items and rescuing slaves from the local markets as she could, before finally deciding to leave the underworld. I'd put her as Lawful Neutral, and I'd like to play her sometime.
In my own novels dark elves are different, but that's a whole different subject (they're primarily lawful in it). Suffice to say, I really want a drow ancestry. *shuts up*
Congratulations on the new job, Mark! I hope that it treats you well, and that things just improve for you in the future.
Also, your general willingness to communicate, your general kindness, graciousness, and enthusiasm is admirable. Everything I have seen of you has indicated to me that you're a wonderful person to associate with, and Roll for Combat is lucky to have you.
Science fiction is something I love, even if Science Fantasy is the main reason I got into writing (and what spawned my Eve of Destruction series). It's had a huge impact on my life.
A few of the Science Fiction authors which I remember most fondly:
David Weber, but most specifically The Armageddon Inheritance and In Fury Born.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Anne McCaffrey, specifically Crystal Singer and The Ship Who Sang. Many others, but those stand out in my memory.
The two Science Fantasy series that I remember fondly, even if some aspects of the first feel a bit dated:
Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz
Grand Central Arena by Ryk Spoor
My suggestion is to join Freelance Forge, a forum that includes a lot of Paizo Freelancers. You can post your open call there, and then I can also post it to the official Paizo Freelancers discord to get more eyeballs still.
Another good spot might be on the Know Direction discord, but ask Perram's permission to post there first.
Good Luck!
Hmm
I already ended up joining Freelance Forge, but thank you for the suggestion! I've hired someone for the initial project, and we'll see how I feel about things once I've gotten that done. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, after all!
Huh. I wasn't aware of that origin (and never saw the version mentioned in the article), so this is new to me. I don't mind the change at all... though it's going to take me ages to re-train my brain to use a different term.
Might be worth assembling an outline with notes for what you are looking for. A number of freelancers do hang out on the boards here (I have done a bit over the years myself).
Yeah, I've got someone for my initial project now, and I'm planning to do the rest of the things I have in mind (for the moment, anyway) relatively piecemeal while I figure out the rest of what I need. Thank you for the advice!
Since I just learned that I accidentally used the vendor-side link for the series, here's the correct one. No wonder it worked for me, but not other people: Beesong Chronicles
Hi Ben, I don't know that there is any specific place right now. I think most folks put out open calls on Twitter (I used to look at Paizo much more for open calls -- there was a sticky thread -- but that eventually stopped being used very often).
(I think 10 cents per word is generally considered a very fair rate.)
Alas, I don't use Twitter or Facebook at all, don't even have accounts. I remembered the old sticky thread, though. Alas, from the (relative) lack of responses, I suspect I won't get many options here, so I might look on reddit (which I don't have an account for, but am willing to make). Thank you for the response!
I wasn't sure where to put this, so my apologies if it's the wrong spot.
Where would be the best place to look for freelancers to write some PF2 content for me? Potentially for publication, but I'm not set on that just yet. I'm currently basing my assumptions on paying in the neighborhood of $0.10/word USD, but I'm well aware that I don't know what the standard pay currently is, and based that on some research I did over the past week.
If you're curious on why I'm doing this, some background below.
I'm a self-published fantasy author. While I've written some for both Pathfinder 1e and 2e, and gotten an adventure and compendium of magical items published for PF1 before, I've come to a realization, writing my books and RPG content draws from the same creative well. Unfortunately, this means that while I have started plenty of RPG content, actually finishing it takes a lot more energy than I can usually focus on it. I make a comfortable living (not amazing, but comfortable) writing my novels, and those have to take priority.
Yet at the same time, I'd love to have some of my settings turned into RPG material I could use, and maybe even publish it so my readers and others could use them. Which is why I decided that it could be worth hiring freelancers to write the material for me. In this case, I'm planning to start with an Ancestry from my Beesong Chronicles series called the apis (bee-people, mostly female), and if it works out well to see about expanding from there. The idea of a gazetteer for a small adventuring area, a few rules for the LitRPG setting to give it a bit more of that flavor, and possibly even an adventure are all things I'm considering. I have other material I'd like to have created as well, but... baby steps. I have to start somewhere.
So yeah. If you know where I should go to contact freelancers, or are one yourself, I'd love to hear from you! You can PM me if you'd prefer not to post publicly.
As a self-published author: It depends on the type of writer you are. Some people are full seat of the pants creatives that plan nothing in advance, which I would put as Performance. Other writers use formulas, heavy outlines, and lots of planning, which I'd put as crafting. Still others are the types who watch others and write down their thoughts on society, which I would consider Society (shocking, right?).
A specific Lore would also be a good choice, but I think that each skill has good arguments for it. It's just a matter of which you think works best, and that your GM will accept.
My wife works for a network team, and has dealt with phone systems a lot. This sort of thing isn't as easy as you might think if you haven't engineered for it and don't have the hardware/licensing to do it, which I suspect Paizo doesn't. I wouldn't expect them to answer calls from home anytime soon.
I've played in a group with two goblins in PF2. One of them is a pyromaniac sorcerer who's CN, and really wants to burn captives, but doesn't when people object. The other was a (relatively) erudite goblin alchemist who rebuilt as a melee bard. Both also play up a lot of goblin tendencies (like not bathing, eating trash, and things like that). It wasn't a bad experience, but I also didn't enjoy it a lot.
As a GM, goblins are flat-out banned at my tables. So are all of the Lost Omens: Character Guide ancestries, at least unless I have a campaign that specifically fits them (like if I convert SS from PF1, I'd almost certainly allow lizardfolk). While I fully accept that some people like playing goblins or hobgoblins, not at my table. It is not something I would enjoy. Of course, I'd make an exception if I were converting the setting of Magic Lost, Trouble Found to Pathfinder 2, but that would necessitate a lot of changes to the goblin ancestry to convert anyway.
Hence why I am unsurprised your perspective and experience are different from Beth's.
And which is why I wasn't even addressing the print side of things. I feel really bad for all of the big publishing companies right now. Their situation is terrible. But I'm not going to sit here and let them claim that a market that appears to be doing fine just collapsed.
Ebooks are a little bit down for me, but not enormously, and audiobooks haven't really changed. For me, my income from different sources is the inverse of TOR's. Ebooks, Audiobooks, Paperbacks. If anything, I make the paperbacks because a handful of people want them. Most people buy my books in ebook or audio format, and when I say most, I mean 95+%, if not more.
The situation sucks. I'm fine, but I know plenty of people who aren't.
Crap, but my print sales have always been crap. If I sell 10 print copies across 15+ titles in a month, that's surprisingly good for the month. I'm an indie, pure and simple, and produce everything myself except for the audio. That I hire an audiobook narrator for.
But that's beside the point. I was replying that her experiences are not universal, specifically regarding audiobooks. Saying 'sales of audiobooks collapsed 3 weeks ago' is exaggerating. It's certainly possible that's what happened to TOR's audio sales, but not mine, and I haven't seen commentary that this is the case among independent authors I associate with. We're far more concerned about the fact that Audible just cut the number of promotional codes we get for a title in half with zero warning, after tripling the amount of time it takes audiobook titles to go live.
Also, Beth Meacham's experiences are not universal. I publish my own audiobooks through Audible, and my sales are currently stronger than they were at this time last year.
Going off the minimum rate that the Science Fiction Writers of America require for membership, $0.06 a word, and the standard of 250 words/page, a 300 page novel would require paying the author $4,500, before accounting for formatting, cover art, advertising, or book production. I know of a few ghostwriters that charge as low as $0.03 or $0.02, but the first advice I found when googling it was much higher, suggesting that the ghostwriter should be paid about $15,000 for a 300 page book. Now add the costs for the editors, graphic artists, and everything else. I can easily see the costs for a novel being over $10,000, but I can't say for sure, since I've never hired a ghostwriter.
Now, I'm a self-published author. That means I don't have the same breadth of audience, and my niche is rather small (High Fantasy Lesbian Romance), so I can't compare things quite the same, but... my most successful book grossed about $40,000 in three years. My least successful book has grossed about $6,000 in 18 months.
For me that's a good profit margin. My costs are low because I do most of the editing and formatting myself. I'd say my costs (with editing and covers) for a book are around $1,500/novel. But the costs for Paizo are likely very different.
Nope, the writer doesn't know that. But yes, if it's a Severe 2 encounter, that means it's Severe for a level 2 party.
My group must have missed a fair amount of xp, too, since we were over 300 xp short of leveling when we started running into the encounters exclusively listed as '<descriptor> 2', which is another reason to not put flat xp amounts in the book for encounters. Not every group approaches an adventure the same way, so if you manage to skip things and survive, the higher XP allows the party to catch up somewhat, which is a relief to me.
Fantastic. Thanks. though the lazy man in me still wishes they'd just put the numbers in that bax instead of a tag to look up! ;)
The problem there is that the amount of xp is based on the PC level. For instance, I'm in a Plaguestone game at the moment, and we're level 1, but just hit a Severe 2 encounter, which is an Extreme encounter for level 1. So instead of 120 xp, we got 160. If we survive the next Severe 2 encounter (the GM told us we were going to hit it), we'll reach level 2, finally.
What would you think of converting Starfinder classes and weapons for use in Pathfinder 2nd Edition? I just like the way math interacts in PF2 better, and have been idly considering converting stuff.
And I just got another page saying this site was down for scheduled maintenance again. I thought that was done with? I haven't seen that in several days.
It's possible this was a caching issue, but we'll take a look on our end.
For what it's worth, yesterday I cleared my cache and all my cookies, and then in the evening (I think about 9 PM MST or so) the Pathfinder Playtest General Discussion form didn't load and gave me that page.
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not sure on the time, but it was several hours after clearing the cache and cookies, and I'd been to pages across the forums, including the one affected, without that happening.
I read the adventure the other day, and personally, there's no chance that I'd ever run or play it. That's primarily due to personal preferences, however. Baseline, I hate puzzles and the like with a burning passion. That was a strike against it for me, and I'm not a huge fan of survival horror to begin with. I'll give a bit more info about what I dislike in spoilers, but it's going to be fairly general.
Spoiler:
So, personally, I found the entire Tooth Fairy bit to be jarring, and I don't really like the overall reaction of the psychopomp in charge (I can't remember her name off-hand). Maybe it makes sense in-setting, but it just feels wrong to me. I like the setup until the characters get to trying to return to reality, mind you.
A far bigger problem, IMO, is the lack of any real ability for the characters to get new equipment in the first volume. I may have just missed it, but an archer isn't going to have any opportunity to get more arrows until after level 5? This aspect of the story concerns me quite a bit.
My other concerns are with the later volumes, as described in the back of the book's summary. The 'scripted failure' of the characters with Vigil bothers me, as does the fact that the characters pave the way for Azranai to confront the big bad, only to apparently fail and get sent to Arcadia... it's too many scripted failures for me to be happy with.
Now, all that being said? I'm going to get the remaining volumes, mostly because I want to have all of the AP, but also so I have additional stat blocks and the like to steal. But as it stands I cannot see myself ever inflicting this on myself or others.
How do you think Sorshen would react to a character with the Accidental Clone campaign trait and who also worships the Redeemer Queen? I'm suspecting it's highly likely that I'll have one in my group, possibly even a cleric of the Redeemer Queen.
Like the fact that Second Darkness didn't have any beds in the elven village.
I have seen this rumor on the boards before and have no idea where it came from. There are absolutely beds in elven residences in Second Darkness. They're on the map of the PCs' lodgings in Iadara on p. 12 of A Memory of Darkness, and the drow in Endless Night are explicitly said to sleep in bedrooms. (Beds are depicted in the servant's quarters in the map of House Vonnarc on p. 20, and Alicavniss "sleeps in her den in Tower Solacas" (p. 23) which contains "a huge, ornate bed" (p. 37).)
I said the elven village. I'm specifically talking about Crying Leaf in The Armageddon Echo, which has, I quote, 'The building to which the PCs are assigned contains three chambers: a central room, a simple bathroom, and a meditation room containing eight woven reed mats for resting.' and 'There are no beds in Crying Leaf, since the elves do not sleep. There are simple reed mats in nearly every home to facilitate their daily meditations.'
These were not fixed at the time, but were fixed in subsequent books. It has been explicitly called out as an error.
You might note that lots of parts of Elves of Golarian have changed over time. If you look at newer material, they backed off on a lot of things. In fact, it's been said that the book perpetuated several issues (like elves being xenophobic, and them having issues with dwarves) which they didn't want in the setting.
I have the book. I consider it a suggestion, not canon, because it has outdated elements they didn't have time or energy to fix at the time. Like the fact that Second Darkness didn't have any beds in the elven village.
That was in 3.5 D&D, which was lifted from Forgotten Realms as I recall. Paizo removed that in the shift to Pathfinder, though I don't remember the full reasoning. Personally, I prefer them sleeping, so I'm okay with it.
I set things up to start the Starfinder AP subscription with The Reach of Empire toward the beginning of August, (Order 4806830) but today my Pathfinder AP shipped without the order taking effect. Could you look into what caused this, please?
I can't say how glad I am to see this in the light of day. I hope people enjoy the items, and am in awe of the work that was put into getting it published.
Just got my items a little bit ago (Utah, here), and aside from one of those little plastic hanger-things getting stuck to the dead center of Doomsday Dawn's cover, it's in pretty good shape.
While I can't say I was happy to have the books delayed, I know things like this happen
In the game master section on DCs, they actually talk about some checks possibly requiring certain proficiencies to even attempt, and give examples of which would be the most common. They do state that you should be wary of making the requirements too high for a level, though (i.e. not putting Master on a level 6 or lower check, or Legendary on a level 14 or lower). Also, if I remember right, there were some mentions of snares only being able to be seen if the opponent had certain a perception proficiency, but I don't remember exactly where.
I haven't even opened the books yet (working), but unless there're a lot of good-aligned creatures in the Bestiary, it might be that the summon monster tables don't have them because there simply aren't many good-aligned creatures available.
Let's take a gnome blacksmith fighter - gnomes love to dabble in many different interests. How many of her discretionary ability score bonuses have to be put in Intelligence for her to multiclass into wizard, or Wisdom for cleric? Not least the ancestral bonus that has to go into Strength to make her competent at fighting. And she had to make all of those choices just right at 1st level, or wait for an ability boost that comes every five levels and hope it's enough.
Let's actually do the test and find out.
Ancestry - -2 Str/+2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Cha
Background - +2 Str, +2 {Int/Wis}
Class - +2 Str (assumed)
So after ABC, we have 14 Str, 10 Dex, 12 Con, 12 Int or Wis, 12 Cha. The concept is available at level 5.
Can you really get +4 to an ability score at 5th level? (16 is still the printed target number, after all.)
And this still requires forethought and at-creation character design. Even if you're going in planning for it, it's something you can't do until 6th level at the earliest... for many campaigns, that's a huge chunk of time.
The numbers Cyoni included didn't add the 4 attributes that get +2, so I think that's what they were getting at.
So does this open up the possibility that you are a dwarf with the half-orc ancestry feat? Or an Elf aasimar, etc?
Fortunately, answered in the blog. ^^
Totally missed that sentence!
Yeah, I hear you there. I've missed things which people have pointed out in previous blogs. This blog kind of excites me about the possibilities, personally. ^^
During social encounters, you represent balance and a reasoned approach to problems, looking for solutions that not only are best for the natural world, but also allow the creatures within it to live in harmony and peace. You often propose compromises that allow both sides to gain what they truly need, even if they can't have all that they desire.
OMG, for reals? I thought this had died a (richly-deserved!) death with AD&D >.<
These are some ideas of how you might play a druid, or what people might think of you, just a kickstart Jason (in this case) or whoever was working on the class chassis wrote up to get your creative juices flowing.
Ok, fair enough - but I have some awful memories of players saying 'that's the way my character has to play this situation' or - worse - DMs saying 'that's the way your character has to play this situation.'
I just really, really hope it's made clear that these are just suggestions, and that it is appropriate (nay, encouraged) for players to go in other directions.
I think that this line should do that:
blog wrote:
Players of druid characters might approach gameplay in the following ways:
Both of the other bits on Roleplaying are prefaced with 'likely' and 'probably', too.
So exploration mode works like a dial? you're looking for traps or you're looking for ambushes or you're looking for tracks and the rogue can do 2 at once?
When I was playing at PaizoCon, they told us to pick the primary activity we wanted to be doing in Exploration Mode. The rogue could be 'searching' for free due to a feat they had, so also was able to Sneak at the same time. Valeros was standing guard (me, which allowed me to have my shield readied in the opening round of combat), while most of the others were searching. I suspect you can take feats that allow you to maintain multiple activities in exploration mode if you want to, but we were only playing first level characters.
Sounds very granular.
*shrugs*
*shrugs*
See, I can do it, too...
I was trying to share my experiences and give context based on trying the playtest. I suppose I won't do that anymore.
So exploration mode works like a dial? you're looking for traps or you're looking for ambushes or you're looking for tracks and the rogue can do 2 at once?
When I was playing at PaizoCon, they told us to pick the primary activity we wanted to be doing in Exploration Mode. The rogue could be 'searching' for free due to a feat they had, so also was able to Sneak at the same time. Valeros was standing guard (me, which allowed me to have my shield readied in the opening round of combat), while most of the others were searching. I suspect you can take feats that allow you to maintain multiple activities in exploration mode if you want to, but we were only playing first level characters.
Sounds very granular.
*shrugs*
Searching was looking for about anything from ambushes to clues to traps, so it made a lot of sense. I believe the GM went over about a half-dozen common options for Exploration mode, but I only remember four. Standing Guard (not its name, just how I think of it), Sneaking, Searching, and Magically Searching (Detect magic is closer to an instantaneous sonar pulse now, so it's the mage casting it repeatedly to search for magic).
So exploration mode works like a dial? you're looking for traps or you're looking for ambushes or you're looking for tracks and the rogue can do 2 at once?
When I was playing at PaizoCon, they told us to pick the primary activity we wanted to be doing in Exploration Mode. The rogue could be 'searching' for free due to a feat they had, so also was able to Sneak at the same time. Valeros was standing guard (me, which allowed me to have my shield readied in the opening round of combat), while most of the others were searching. I suspect you can take feats that allow you to maintain multiple activities in exploration mode if you want to, but we were only playing first level characters.
I was at PaizoCon and saw the symbols twice, and they're pretty distinct from one another. The full symbol is a diamond, but it's split into sections.
The action symbol is the full diamond, and additional diamonds that overlap indicate how many actions it takes.
Reactions, as I recall, are hollow diamonds, they aren't solid.
Free actions are just the top and bottom of the diamond, the entire middle is empty.
I don't like symbols, but it seemed pretty decent compared to every other system of them I've seen. I was very skeptical of the symbols myself, and find all the ones in Starfinder useless and unintuitive, personally.
I also have to admit I'm curious how firearms are going to be handled in the new Pathfinder. That's another thing that has been kept close to the vest.
If I were to actually suggest one modification, it would be to include a Point Blank Range for crossbows so they act similarly to guns in regards to touch armor class - maybe have heavy crossbows use touch AC for ranges of 30 feet or less, and light crossbows for ranges of 15 feet or less. Given crossbows take time to reload that would allow them to be a one-shot weapon in this regard...
If I remember correctly some devs have stated they actually want to move away from firearms, further away then PF 1e already is.
In their first podcast about 2e, Erik Mona said that he wanted guns to have a more focused playtest. There was also a matter of how many people hate guns in their fantasy (I'm one of them, I'll freely admit... unless I'm running a pirate campaign), but it was more a question of getting the base system correct before adding more exotic options.
Exotic options included both summoners and kineticists, as I recall.
Blog: Your monk could take Monastic Weaponry at 1st level, letting him use his unarmed attack proficiencies, as well as any monk abilities that normally work with unarmed attacks, with simple and martial monk weapons.
This does not say Monks aren't proficient with any weapons. It just lets them use Flurry of Blows with the weapons.
Alas, you missed this line earlier in the blog:
blog wrote:
Monks aren't trained in any weapons, but they are trained in all unarmed attacks.
I must say that I have no problem with monastic training, I just wish monks were proficient with at least simple monk weapons from the beginning.
Yeah, I don't remember how much damage it did one-handed. I didn't get the chance to play Ezren, and no one ever used the staff in-play. I saw the crossbow a couple of times, but mostly I saw burning hands, magic missile, and acid splash.
My friend who was playing Ezren also said that if the staff was wielded in both hands, it dealt 1d8 damage rather than 1d6, but since he didn't have a strength bonus we don't know if it increases damage from multiple hands, either.
After how many times he hit the rest of us with acid splash splash damage, I really haven't any sympathy for the old man.
If he'd done that to us, I'd agree with you! Fortunately for my group, he was far more conscientious about spell targeting. Still took 11 damage from the fall.
