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This is actually one of my favorite things about the otherwise difficult system that is alignment. I love to play up the fact that "evil" is an accepted part of society.non-subjective standards of good and evil......do not exist. Coriat did summon "Jeff" a few posts ago so here I am. A Paladin serves law and goodness. Depending on the particulars of their code, "law" might be defined as immutable or natural rights, or religious dictates, or carefully thought-out philosophy. We tend to think of revolutions or law-breaking and non-lawful, but it is clear that, for example, the American revolution and the emancipation and suffrage movements were based on notions of "higher law" or justice that trumped unjust or wicked laws. A Paladin doesn't "fall" if they support an alteration in society that seems, to their code and faith, a closer adherence to justice and order than one that promotes cruelty or arbitrary hierarchy. While it's interesting to consider the RP or narrative potential of a paladin serving an amoral or tyrannical state, inevitably, such stories either involve burn-out and surrender or rebellion on some level.
I wanted to let you know I'm really looking forward to Iron Gods. I think breaking out of the box of pure high fantasy is a great thing and entirely in the spirit of the history of the game. It took a while to get to this sort of AP but I'm sure it will be amazing. I wish I had I chance to tell you that at PaizoCon, honestly. Also, I think moving the Con to Memorial Day is an excellent idea. It makes the summer better for you and your colleagues, I'd imagine. Oh. Question: 1. Do you agree? PS. Thank you to Paizo for still keeping it on a holiday weekend for all the parental gamer units, out there. Though hopefully it doesn't conflict with any of the Star Wars movies. 1bis. Also, what do you think of the reports of At the Mountains of Madness possibly being PG-13?
I think picking a Herald is the first order of business (you know, a manager). Cayden picked one of his besties, and I bet that's how many new gods roll.
In Bastards of Golarion there are no half-elves subtypes with Vudrani as the human part. Are you saving them for the upcoming Inner Sea Guide to the Mystic Isle of Jalmeray? Yeah, the old Pathfinder Campaign Setting book (pre-ISWG) did describe psychic/psionic half-elves in Vudra. But the vidyadharas of Jain/Hindu myth are a lot like high elves, though they do dwell on top of mountains. They function kind of like the Sidhe in Irish myth, with access to mysterious technology, magic, and are virtually immortal. They are also probably CG ("doers of good and devoted to joy" - can't think of better description of that alignment, actually), though they are pacifists in Jain stories. What do you think, James, do they sound like a good elf race or a race unto themselves?
I leave Sunday morning (alas). But say hi! Have fun! Steer clear of wolfoids!
Buddhists technically believed (they're not very dogmatic about this) in gods, but didn't necessarily worship them. They were just another sort of powerful being, some of whom are enlightened, while others are suffering from samsara just like most people. If it helps to imagine the Rahadoumi as non-theolatrists in that sense, who hold that people have souls, and that gods exist, it might be a useful analogy.
Are the articles bullshiznit? Did Huntsman really hand out 2,000 free apartments to the homeless? Reducing Utah homelessness by 70something%? And are there (or were there) really only 3,000 homeless people in Utah? Seems kinda wacky, there's 5,000 in NH, I read; but then again, I seem to remember Wanda Sykes on The Chris Rock Show telling me back in the day that nobody actually lives out there except for rocks and coyotes. Entirely new question with a twist: how sizable, do you... Keep in mind a lot of the fundamentalist Mormons are in other parts of the US - nearby - like Arizona or Idaho.
Rats. Why is it that all the deities with the most "Celtic" trappings (Pulura, who's described as a powerful faith in Sarkoris, the most Celtic nation according to you; Tolc, an explicitly northerly being, Sarkoris being a northern nation; Cernunnos, Ogma, Connla, all taken from actual Celtic mythology) are all chaotic?Because of the consonance between the words "Celtic" and "Chaotic." Or perhaps because of a strong literary-cultural inclination by the English to think of we Celts as savages or resistant to domination ("rebel" Scots, "turbulent" Welsh, and "wild" Irish). (Actually, the Celts have been described as culturally individualist and egalitarian since the ancient Romans). Not that I mind much (speaking for me-self).
I have a 178 pp. mega adventure I wrote for Pathfinder called "Monkshood" I am looking to have published (earlier arrangements fell through); I'll have the manuscript in my man bag. If anyone is looking to fill a future gap in their publishing schedule, or would like to chat about freelancing projects, please seek me out (though I will be button-holing as many likely people as I can find as well...). -Jeff
You realise, of course, that given the synergy between the timeline on Earth and Golarion, that soon (within a decade) you will be able to create a 1920s Cthulhu Mythos game that also crosses over...? Though, I have to ask, how does the Dreamlands interact with Golarion. Does it exist? Is it the Plane of Dreams? Can one travel from Earth's Dreamlands to Golarion's Plane of Dream?
Thankfully the walls are inside their head.From what I've seen, they put up psychological/societal walls to keep people from leaving.The Bible Belt still exists? What they do, put up walls to keep outsiders from coming in?Saying "Don't worry, they'll grow out of that straight phase." to obnoxious parents down here in the Bible Belt never gets old.It's just a fad. We'll be back to arranged marriages in no time.And then, everyone can be happy again, knowing their parents will take care of that whole deciding on who they should marry. This chaotic, unpredictable mess is simply intolerable. Sometimes those are the worst sort of walls. You can't see them. Sometimes you're not even aware of them.
I like the idea of converting the levels based on the old D&D characters. Re Kay/Keu/Cei, that's true. He's also quick with his tongue (Diplomacy/Intimidation), deceptive, and more skill-focused than say, Lancelot. He has maxed out Profession (steward). Lancelot's skills, for example, are probably limited to Ride, Performance (poetry), Heal, and perhaps Knowledge (faerie). He's too unworldly to worry about Knowledge (nobility) or Diplomacy. Perceval's pretty similar - Ride, Heal, um... Knowledge (religion)? We can compare that to Gauvain (who is arguably much more intelligent), who is an accomplished Diplomat, has Sense Motive, Knowledge (nobility), Performance (harp), and Perception.
In one of the earlier chapters, Arthur, Kay, and two other knights take on five kings who from the context are all formidable warriors. True, though in the Grail Quest, Lancelot and Perceval do fight demons and fiends. I think most of the major heroes also single-handedly defend castles, survive what should be mortal wounds, and kill colossal giants and dragons singlehandedly. Lancelot fights two giants at the same time and wins. This sort of thing is specifically a "top-tier" knights kind of thing. The Grail Quest romances is where you see a lot of things like what are effectively Anti-paladins, demonic avatars, fantastic monsters, etc., and in a sense is closer to Culhwch ac Olwen than Geoffrey of Monmouth. I think we're talking CR 17 at least. But most of the minor characters are probably CR 6 or less. There's a huge gap. Guinevere, by the way, is possibly low-level but with multiple mythic tiers. Morgan is capable of binding all of the heroes with her magic -whatever their level -Lancelot is only saved because of his ring that protects him from enchantment. So she is probably in the top tier as well (along with Merlin and Nimue). But the Arthurian spell list is going to be different in some respects from the PF one. There is a 3.5 "Arthurian" list in Rituals & Relics: Excalibur (that Kirth recommended (and I do too)) that you could use as a starting point.
While I ponder what to do with this project, I'm putting it on hold. I'll figure out whether I redo it with no mythic and significantly lower CR or keep chugging along. I'm not so much discouraged, because I'm grateful for critiques. It's more like I don't feel like doing the project right now, not until I figure out how to even continue it. As I've said before, this has been a beneficial learning experience, if anything. These characters are mythic. They needn't be high-level, at least a lot of them, but they are definitely mythic. They are not gritty and they are not realistic. Arthur is credited with killing 960 men in a single charge at the Battle of Badon.
Welsh giants are Colossal, not Huge, in general, however. Cei was Arthur's right-hand man. But, yes, in general, in the romances, his role is to get beat up and take on things he can't handle. Definitely brave, and also smart, but full of himself.
Are you saying only real choice makes something good or evil, otherwise its just a neutral sentient robot regardless of whether it is one dedicated to atrocities or to manifest blessings? Evil in a mythological sense is a personification or abstract of moral harm, but it extends, to a large degree, to all the "evils" of the world, including natural calamities. The notion of demons/devils and angels choosing good or evil is a metaphor for our own choices (they signify themselves human capacities and hence are doomed to exemplify what they are), but the Calvinist notion of the impossibility of free will thereby extending to humankind is really out of place in an RPG. Demons and Angels are reflections of ourselves, inextricably linked to our own free will, but I think may be said to be crystallised in the moment of the decision/act, unlike ourselves. The Fairies - Fatae - are the mythical True Neutral entities, in that they represent destiny, fate, obligation, the restraint on free will. They're all facing us, mirroring us, born from our stories. They have freedom or unfreedom in relation to our own notions of these ideas. I'd argue that all these groups can choose different paths but specifically through the intervention or influence of humans/humanoids, who impart their own flexibility. But they can't originate their redemption or fall. In Milton, for example, the precipitating act in Lucifer's fall is the creation of humanity/freewill.
Are you saying only real choice makes something good or evil, otherwise its just a neutral sentient robot regardless of whether it is one dedicated to atrocities or to manifest blessings? I think Mikaze is noting the philosophical/religious connection between the idea of free will and good and evil. Neutrality in that tradition is the act of not choosing, or abdication of the moral decision. Now, a lot of things pragmatically can't be boiled down into good or evil, particularly at first. In medieval legend, the elves and fairies, of course, exist in that in-between state of not making the choice (to be loyal to God or rebel with the Devil, in Christian terms). They have - interestingly enough - a certain devotion to literalism, formulae, oaths - the escape clauses from making conscious choice - in folklore.
We should keep in mind that romance and family (not always the same thing) are probably the #1 by a mile reasons for real adventuring, and for people doing stuff in fiction in general. Ironically, most gamers are unwilling to have romance or love be a primary motivation for their character's actions... hence, I think, the murder-hobo archetype. It's kind of odd. Tolkien's Hobbit and LotR have other motivations driving the characters as well, but ultimately come down to platonic and compassionate love anyway. My quasi-India setting puts it front and centre because the literature of South Asia does, but in fact, European literature does the same. However, I suspect if we can get this written, it won't come out till next February.
One of my homelands has legalized gay marriage. Now I just have to sit back and patiently wait for Hell to freeze over. That's how I'll know that Florida has legalized gay marriage as well. It's always been weird to me that places as vibrant and liminal as South Florida and Louisiana can be or still are bigoted. I mean, the land itself says "there is no either/or."
Well, Merlin does teleport an entire army. (Teleportation Circle (level 9) with multiple metamagic feats?)
I think he's level 20. Tristan/Tristram regularly cuts armoured knights and horses in half - presumably he has a 18 Str, but even with his hand and a half sword, which he wields one-handed, that requires a lot of crits. Lancelot fought two dragons simultaneously, and most of the other knights can hold as many as 5-6 ordinary knights off (say level 3-6) single-handedly. There's a specific order to the martial skill of the knights that is referenced in the romances. It goes, more or less, like this (Arthur's not even on the list - he's simply a good knight, not an excellent one. He's mainly an excellent king): Malory ranks them as: Lancelot, Tristram, Bors, Perceval, Pelleas, Marhaus, and Gawain, followed by everyone else. Marhaus is Li Morholt, the Irish champion slain by Tristram, and Pelleas is a minor character, the father of Guivret le Petit, the dwarf king, and lover in Malory of Nimue. Obviously individual ability varies as characters are different ages. But there's a certain pre determinism here - Lancelot doesn't exactly receive a standard military education, but he is the best knight from the onset.
I haven't read it, but yay, female character without massive breasts! You've made me proud, Paizo! On the other hand, she would do well in the Parisian winter.
Perceval gets lost in the woods (and on the roads)... a lot - it's a motif of the verse Grail romances that's almost a joke. He pretty much only knows his way around his native country. Survival +10 may be generous. He also carries javelins as his missile weapon - he killed the Red Knight with one. I'd give him a Heal skill, for thematic reasons, and because he sometimes aids wounded strangers.
Are some of nyarlathotep's avatars low enough in power level to be statted? Specifically I was wondering about the Bloody Tongue.Absolutely... although a lot of the avatars gamers are familiar with aren't ones we can stat up, since they were invented for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. We'd have to get special permission and a license to stat them up... which isn't impossible. We've done this before, with things like the dark young of Shub-Niggurath, but we can't make those rules open content... so we kinda shy away from doing that too much. We could certainly make up new avatars for him, but that's kinda missing the point as well. There's not as much nostalgic weight to that type of creation. Wouldn't he have some unique avatars specific to Golarion?
Actually, the earliest forms of the Alexander legend place the Amazon Queen in Kashmir or thereabouts, which - interestingly enough - is also the location of the Kingdom of Women in both Chinese (the Journey to the West features this locale) and Indian legend (Strirajya). The Ladakh region adjoining Kashmir has a tradition of polyandry and female autonomy, though it is not a matriarchy. The "Queen Mother" of Meroe seems to have been confused with the Indian queen; in part this is because in the tradition of "wonder tales" all matriarchies/matrilocal societies are rolled up into one. Maybe the men writing them couldn't imagine that multiple and distant societies would have the same notions of female equality? As to the "Amazons" of Garund, we may connect them as an idea to the all-woman royal guard of Dahomey.
Mary Firth seems the very model of a realistic adventurer of any gender. Or perhaps a priest of Cayden Cailean, anyway.
One version of the Sleeping Beauty tale had the required kiss be... uhmmm... more than a kiss. Where would that end up on the sexual assault scale? This is true and it was rape. (Giambattista Basile's version is the earliest, and it was rewritten by Perrault and the Grimms.) She also becomes pregnant while still asleep, and the children are prepared for eating. It's a nightmare, not a fairy tale. You'll note, like in the Clever Woman folktale motif (India has a lot of these), the king forgets about her. I think the sleeping was in part (and perversely) to take away Talia's consent, so she would remain innocent in some degree while still the king's lover. But that doesn't excuse it.
How about renaming jotunn to to olbshim - giant (spelling adjusted for pronunciation simplified for English speaking people, a bit more accurate would be obljeem with j like French j in Jean)? Jotunn is quite explicitly Nordic term. And Hibou is French, though an awesome word. The Slavic word for owl is Sova. (not sofa, but So-Vah).
Okay. I was just saying that i have approved it. The only interesting thing missing is that the Orishas really like gifts and offerings. If Paizo do a Mwangi pantheon, they could take a lot of ideas from the Yoruba and make gods that don't overlap with existing gods and can be great companions for Gozreh. Like a Volcano god/godess, the trickster nature, the tides, the undersea, the smoke, resourcefullness etc...Actually i quite like the idea of Gozreh being a african themed god. The way it make business it's very orisha-like. I will enforce this thinking in my campaing. The Wendo fit this trope rather well. They may not be "gods" but they are certainly mighty outsiders. Perhaps Gozreh is an ascended Wendo?
I would also like some Pedro Pascal (although it's hard to say how much of that is his accent).I DO agree that also we need more Idris Elbas and Michael Fassbenders, as well :DDDDDoesn't appeal to me, though. A bunch of it is his swagger and smile, too.
Absolutely. I would nominate Mordiggian, a creation of Clark Ashton Smith, since Mordiggian is closely associated with necromancy and is known as the Charnel God. Not James, but Mordiggian's followers are not really evil. In CoC, his ghouls consume the already dead, but do not kill to make food, at least in the orthodox cult ("merely the usual and expected mode of mortuary disposal"- CAS, The Charnel God).
Word of God says consider all the iconics to be ambidextrous, because artwork will likely get flipped to make such things inconsistent anyway. I think ambidexterity is highly appropriate for swashbuckling... Inigo: I admit it: you are better than I am!
In Wales, there was a ring of impenetrable forest around the lower slopes and narrow valleys of the hills - later violently cleared by the Saesneg and the Ffrainc (the Dean is a survivor). The upper slopes were bare and subject to herding and the coasts were inhabited by Norse-Welsh. I recall there being medieval forests in the Leinster mountains... But bogs are a major part of any Insular Celtic landscape.
Hmm. Vanara Vishkanya Elf Catfolk Dhampir (of the Golarion in print races) If I got to play anything from my own setting: Vidyadhari might replace Elf. Runner-ups: Changelings, Grippli, Skinwalker If I went beyond CR 1/3: I would love to play a Sphinx, {D]apsara, Rakshasa, Weretiger, Half-Jinni, or Moon Naga.
Um. Not very convinced of that. Certainly the women lured away by handsome fellows of the Aos Si in Irish legend were often convinced to leave, though usually for casual sex (Irish women being more empowered to sleep with others even if they didn't necessarily leave their families). Of course there are strong similarities that have been noted between Dracula and the folkloric Irish beings, given Stoke was Irish. However, outside of Eire: In India, the stranger/seducer is often a god (Siva or Vishnu) who appears to a female disciple (who is revealed to herself to be a minor avatar of the god's consort). The male counterparts to the apsaras were the gandharvas, who also seduced women alone in the country. Travelling yogis and of course buddhist monks in Asian legend and folklore are often itinerant seducers, like the friars of medieval Europe. These types don't seduce as an expression of male gaze; they represent an expression of female desire that is not constrained by what are often arranged marriages.
Hmm. The name Naderi even sounds like Sanskrit. Keeping in mind the afterlife and rebirth, perhaps she is worshipped by lovers separated by arranged marriages, with the idea that suicide > reunion, even as lesser beings. (In South Asian legend, partners are reborn again and again in proximity, but do not always end up married. If they aren't - they will probably fall in love anyway). It is true that prophecies on a grander scale have been failing since the death of Aroden. What if... the marriage divinations of Vudra have also been going wrong since then. The golden age of going to the priestess for the name of your bride/groom/partner and finding a good match has fallen apart, though the tradition still stands among conservative families. But the truth is, the auguries are faked. This could be a major cause of social disorder and adventures...
Gurdle > probably you mean "Girdle" Regardless, a good conversion, I think (particularly of the Green Knight Gawain, who is my favourite). More random Arthurian "facts": Amlawdd, or Hamlet (Amlawdd is the Welsh form of the name) is Igerna's father, and hence Arthur (and Morgan and Morgawse and Elaine's) grandfather. This is an old Welsh tradition, probably based on a mingling of Viking and Welsh stories. The Grail legend has been plausibly connected to "graal" legends from Catalonia and Leon/Galicia by French scholars in the past few decades, which explains the strong emphasis on Spain (and the reconquista) in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. The same research has identified Percival with the Frankish Crusader Rotrou du Perche. I have an interesting theory about the interrelationship of the Nibelungen legends (in Frankish and Visigothic tradition) and the Breton Arthurian stories I am developing in a book I've been working on for a while.
Ancient or Classical India was less gender caste-stratified (or properly, jati-stratified - varna or caste is a pretty much modern invention), particularly when the Kama Sutra was written, than medieval or modern India. If I were working on Vudra, I'd have some significant variation in caste structure, from free and easy (CG) to rigid and probably LE. But if we assume that Vudra is like Jalmeray (which is fairly stratified), keep in mind that Hindu law (as a parallel) understood a wide variety of legal marriages and relationships, and while the higher castes would use arranged marriage (and Shelyn would be invoked to create marital understanding and love - post-wedding), as would certain jatis that followed strict exogamy or endogamic rules, there should be still room for love-matches and star-crossed lovers in Vudra, if it reflects any amount of South Asian folklore and pop culture. Arranged marriages made by means of divinations - as they are in India today - would be fairly accurate in Vudra, since divination magic is more reliable in Golarion. So not so bad... Also, Apsaras (or "dapsaras") are pretty much the poster children of dangerous infatuations and rebirth-reunions, so those elements should go with them in Vudra. So I personally hope the entanglements of both friendship-love (the goal of arranged marriages in India) and romantic-love (the theme of many many stories) are both present in Vudra. I think Shelyn would be OK with both.
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