Jim Rudnick's page

What part of Golarion (preferably the Inner Sea region) would your 18th or higher-level character want to go explore and learn about?

I love this question, thank you!

I'd like to see content for defeating Razmir and providing redemption to the people of the theocracy of Razmiran.

I assume you're planning to run WotR; have you started yt?

Thanks for the post. I've been considering running WotR at some point (not immediately), but also considering using Mythic rules to run other published material with just two PCs and no stand-in NPCs.

welcome to my review of Wrath of the Righteous and the applicable parts of Mythic Adventures.

I've read this post several times. I greatly appreciate the comments that magnuskn has written regarding Mythic play and the Wrath of the Righteous AP both here and elsewhere.

I'm curious about any thoughts on the Mythic Solutions material from Legendary Games and if those rules adjustments work. Thank you!

[IC] The beginning of our path… ...

This a positive, active, and engaging community. I recommend it.

Pasha Cassius Ardolin wrote:

First of all Props to all the writers. this is going to be a fantastic game. Anyone who worked on Fort inevitable deserves a medal and a raise.

Rich Baker wrote the Fort Inevitable section while he was working at Goblinworks on the MMO. He unfortunately doesn't work for us any longer, having left to start his own game company.

-Lisa

I'm guessing that Rich was a key resource in the development of the "Forest Stronghold" chapter of Thornkeep. The work on that town is brilliant as well. :)

I'm so excited for Emerald Spire, Alpha Enrollment, and Paizocon. I also can't believe how fast this past year has gone by.

Best regards to all of the Goblins!

Cheers,
Jim

I've never had Braums, but Tillamook ice cream measures up well against Blue Bell. It's not the same, but it's good.

Espresso Madness flavor... Yum!

Congratulations, Owen! :)

Alpha will probably not start until the very end of April. There will be no NDA.

Woot! :)

Cheapy,

Thank you for your efforts on this. Your dev tracking list is well done and extremely helpful!

Cheers,
Jim

Thanks for keeping us informed of the development plans! :)

Understood, thank you! :)

Thank you to Paizo and all involved; Ultimate Campaign is a superb product.

I posted a quick UCamp Kingdom Building question regarding settlement consumption over in the rules sub-forum.

Question

Unless I missed it somewhere, the new UCamp text regarding Consumption seems somewhat different and potentially less explicit than the Kingmaker text.

Is settlement contribution to overall kingdom consumption still equal to 1BP per district?

Thank you!

The new rules on Investment are potentially helpful as a tool to reward Kingdom ruling PCs. If the PCs use their noble influence to gain access to and steer business to the best investments in the nation, a GM could reward their royal charter investments with slightly lower risk and potentially higher returns than other investments of a similar kind.

Jason and Legendary Games Team,

Well done and thank you for this product! I am particularly happy with the optional rules for taxes, recruitment, and manpower.

Cheers,
Jim

Have the new kingdom rules changed the calculation of consumption for settlements/city districts?

Is the Consumption cost for settlements still one consumption point per district or is it calculated another way?

I can’t find explicit text in UCamp that states exactly how consumption is impacted by settlements. If anyone else has found this, please point it out to me. I’m left wondering with the new rules if consumption is 1BP per settlement or 1BP per district.

New UCamp Consumption:

Your kingdom’s Consumption is equal to its Size, modified by settlements and terrain improvements (such as Farms and Fisheries).

Old Kingmaker Consumption:

A kingdom’s Consumption is equal to its size plus the number of city districts it contains plus adjustments for Edicts minus 2 per farmland.

Thank you!

The recent Goblinworks blog regarding design of hexes reminded me of a pair of articles written by an EVE Online player regarding similar design issues.

• part-one-income-and-industry

• art-two-sovereignty
  

I hope everyone on the Goblinworks team is doing well and wish Ryan all the best at PAX East.

Cheers,
Jim

Boy, so many people actually wanting to work in customer service. Even if it's Paizo, I'd still cut off my left arm than to do that again.

Although I understand where you are coming from, I like customer service.

• I like being helpful and useful. It’s a nice boost to be able to help people and solve problems. Being helpful makes me happy.
  
• I like being in contact with a wide range of people. Customer Service provides an opportunity to connect with all sorts of people that I’m not likely to encounter on my own. This nudge out of my comfort zone and routine bubble of the mundane is healthy growth.
  
• I enjoy the pace of activity. It’s fast, active, and fun to be busy.
  
• The work plays to my strengths – I’m a polite, diplomatic, and generally upbeat communicator. It’s nice to be in a role where these characteristics really make a difference to the success of my work.

Other people have mentioned this, but I'd like to add my +1 comment to the
Wild Arcana and Inspired Spell abilities. These abilities are so much fun and make Pathfinder spellcasters play like the great magic wielders found in classic fantasy literature. Nicely done!

It's not clear to me from the playtest docs what makes a magic item "mythic" and therefore require the Mythic Crafter feat.

Suggestion

For a mythic feat or path ability, I’d like to see a feature similar to the Eclectic Training/Esoteric Training found in the Magic School’s chapter of the Inner Sea Magic supplement. (page 22)

The ability to increase your full caster level with spells known and spells cast per day is strong (and potentially overpowered) in a regular game.

For a mythic game, this ability might be appropriately powered and good fun. This feature might add additional support in the mythic rules for running campaigns with less than four PCs.

Perhaps making the Dual Path feat a prerequisite for this new ability would make sense.

Just a thought, Cheers

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

In an upcoming sourcebook, we're going to write additional material for the magic item crafting rules, further explaining and clarifying the nuances of how this works.

Hi Sean, would you please let us know which sourcebook product to look for this content? I want to make sure that I pick this one up. Thanks

Sean mentioned to me last GenCon he would be creating this thread and the clarifications would be in the upcoming Ultimate Campaign. Now, that was over 5 months ago, so it could have changed.

However, as the description in Ultimate Campaign says this:

Quote:

A complete system for tracking what your character does between adventures, from opening a tavern to crafting a powerful magic item.

I am guessing that we will see the clarifications in this book.

Would it be possible for the Paizo staff to confirm Hobburn’s remark? Is the Ultimate Campaign the correct sourcebook referenced in Sean's original post for this thread? Thank you

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Expect some FAQs in January to clear up the "what can I use the +5 DC rule for?" questions.

Are things still on track to see these FAQs in January? Thanks again!

Would it be possible for us to have an update on this FAQ? Thank you

Design, Alignment, Player Factions

I’m glad to see thoughtful and proactive design being done to manage and minimize grief while preserving meaningful pvp. Player conflict will fuel and drive the great stories played out in the sandbox.

I’d like to share a preference to see alignment play a minimal role in the mechanics that shape player organizations – chartered companies, settlements, kingdoms.

Here’s why -> I don’t want to find that I have limited my game play choices by initial character creation. For example, I create a lawful character only to find that the players that I have most fun working with have established chaotic communities thus limiting my interaction with them.

At the outset of the game, I don’t know who I’m going to want to group with and perhaps overtime my choices for player communities may change. Furthermore, I may very well want to try different approaches to the game that best fit a variety of alignments (perhaps operating as bounty hunter one season and a bandit another).

I’d rather not be forced into using multiple characters when the time-based skill system provides incentive for growing skills on a small number of toons over a long time instead of encouraging a plethora of alts for every occassion. In EVE, I’ve used several different toons for different purposes but still find the concept of a “main” character important. In essence, I don’t want my PO main(s) to be hamstrung from exploring all aspects of the gameplay with whomever I want to group up with by alignment restrictions.

I do like the concept of seeing Pathfinder alignment an element of flavorful game design but I hope it doesn’t provide substantial mechanical restrictions on my gameplay.

In any case, the design team should keep up the great work and thanks for the opportunity to participate in the crowdforging process.

Cheers,
Jim

Expect some FAQs in January to clear up the "what can I use the +5 DC rule for?" questions.

Are things still on track to see these FAQs in January? Thanks again!

In an upcoming sourcebook, we're going to write additional material for the magic item crafting rules, further explaining and clarifying the nuances of how this works.

Hi Sean, would you please let us know which sourcebook product to look for this content? I want to make sure that I pick this one up. Thanks

Thank you to the Paizo staff for your active and professional moderation of the messageboards. The work that you do to keep these forums civil and grief free is very much appreciated. It is one of the reasons that I feel like a welcome guest each time I visit these boards. Well Done!

+1 concern

This has been an intermittent but increasing issue over the past few months. Catastrophic success, code, or capacity – whatever the root cause is, I hope it is resolved soon.

Such good news! :)

I'm super happy for all of the folks at Goblinworks and Paizo. Congratulations!

Dakcenturi wrote:

Any Eve players that might be able to spread the word in the Eve community?

The best place to broadcast the word in EVE at the moment is this non-official news site http://themittani.com/.

I've gone ahead and submitted a lead to this outlet, but I don't know if they'll pick up the story.

If Goblinworks is interested, I recommend they follow up with the site directly and perhaps send them a fully formed press release or better yet send them a fully written story.

That site tends to have its articles written by player-writers who are paid in ISK (in-game currency), but if one of their freelance authors doesn't come forward their staff writers may not take the time to write something up for themselves.

Any Eve players that might be able to spread the word in the Eve community?

Yes, I've done some of that with the colleagues in my old but still active EVE corp and their current alliance and coalition. The response has been limited but positive. Loosely paraphrased responses were along the lines of "Hey, that looks cool, but the game's release looks pretty far off. So, Jim,... can you make the fleet op tonight?"

The best place to broadcast the word in EVE at the moment is this non-official news site run by Goonswarm's leadership. This site is part of their well orchestrated meta-game propaganda machine http://themittani.com/. Despite that fact that the Goons run this news site for their own purposes, it is a site followed daily by EVE's most active players. Seriously, an article there will be read by thirty to forty thousand hardcore MMO players within a day or two.

I have mixed feelings about using that site as an outlet. The grief-master Goons are the last players in EVE that I would like to see moving into Pathfinder Online, but on the other hand if it means success for the Kickstarter than it would be worth catching their attention.

I think Eve caps the population at 2500 per system.

Most EVE zones run on virtual hosts enabling one server to host many zones. Zones with commonly heavy loads and zones expecting heavy loads temporarily are put on dedicated servers.

It may no longer be true, but my understanding was that EVE's legacy server software and database design made it difficult for CCP Games to deploy a single zone across multiple servers that would enable scaling for much higher zone density.

Hopefully, Goblinworks will not have this same limitation.

Notes:
- please correct me, if you have current knowledge of the EVE's zone-limit scaling issues.
- EVE remains a pioneering leader in engineering overall world density.

Although adding new supporters is a great way for us to reach the Kickstarter goal, at this time it may be important for the existing community of backers to increase our average pledge levels across the board.

For anyone who has some only tabletop friends that might be on the wall about the MMO. I made a post about the benefits of backing if for nothing else other then the PnP rewards here:

Pathfinder SuperDungeon - My Plea

Nicely done, Dakcenturi!

@All - The Kickstarter is going well. Let's keep it up. Please continue to market Pathfinder Online to your contacts. Crowdforging is all about us - the community.

Bonuses added recently to the Kickstarter pledge levels now seem to include additional free subscription months or free subscription for the duration of the early enrollment period. These are very substantial additions to the Kickstarter rewards.

Ryan & Mark -- Thank you for the Blog post and for sharing the background context regarding the middleware engine. Cheers!

Thanks for the responses in this thread.

I'm adding this note to bump the thread and continue to encourage everyone to do what they can to help win funding for the Kickstarter.

For everyone already actively campaigning for Pathfinder Online, nicely done and thank you!

Expect some FAQs in January to clear up the "what can I use the +5 DC rule for?" questions.

Thank you, Sean! FAQs on magic item creation will be most welcome. Thanks again for the work on this thread.

Now is the time to encourage your friends, family, guild mates, corp/alliance mates, or other colleagues to back the Kickstarter.

Please consider working your contacts and doing what you can for the kickstarter.

Please consider increasing your pledge level or acquiring addons to your pledge.

Over 5000 of us have already pledged. We can do this. Let’s get this Kickstarter fully funded!

:)

Best regards,
Jim

Question for Mark:

First off, I understand this Goblinworks message from the Kickstarter comments:

Goblinworks Inc. on November 27

@Paul-Henri Lampe and @Jeromy French (and others I'm sure!)

I'm writing this response on a Mac. I just got back from lunch where I watched the KS on my iPad, while txting my wife about it on my iPhone. I'm about as hard-core a Mac guy as its possible to be.

Trust me when I say that I'm praying to God to tell Jesus to ask Santa to remind Steve Jobs that I want all the software we're using to make the game to have Macintosh options. But to be completely transparent, I don't know that to be the case now, and I can't accurately project that it will be the case when we go to Beta or even into Release.

It would be less than honest for us to commit to a Mac version at this juncture. I am hopeful that we'll be able to determine if and when we will be able to do that, and it would be great if we could reach that level of comfort during this KS. But it may simply be beyond our ability to accurately estimate time, budget, or complications until the game is much further along in development.

I was wondering if you expect that the demo PO client to run on MacOS in a Windows emulator tool such as CrossOver?

Does the middleware vendor have other clients using utilities like this with any success?

I'm only asking with the hopes of seeing a barrier removed for some of the prospective Kickstarter supporters that may be holding back due to OS issues.

Cheers,
Jim

Hey guys

I do archery.

Oh Snap! Lead Developer is an archer. *Savvy players everywhere immediately begin plotting archery based iWIN strategies* :)

Camlo Alban, I appreciate and agree with your original post. I'm curious if you have examples to recommend where this has been handled well in other games? For reference, what are your thoughts on how these issues where handled in Dragonage Origins? Cheers

One thing EVE has is the character bazaar, where you can legally sell a character (just the character, no items allowed on it if I remember correctly) for in-game currency (ISK, i.e. gold in Pathfinder). The transfer itself costs 2 PLEX (the meta-currency, 1 PLEX = 1 month playtime) or actual dollars\Euros\etc. payable by the seller.

Note that the character has to have been played (or at least, trained) by someone, and EVE allows only one training character at a time per account. So characters you can buy won't be more skilled than is possible in-game at any given moment in time. And while having skills helps (in EVE) to unlock access to gear, even characters who're only 1-2 months "old" can assist in taking down the biggest ships around when flewn correctly. Or win at playing the markets.

I hope this feature isn't delivered in PO. I think the character bazaar has contributed to the less positive aspects of the EVE community.

Anonymity is bad for the game culture. WoW's deployment of cross-realm features and dungeon/raid finder functions delivered a similarly detrimental effect. They allowed people to be anonymous jerks and not suffer the consequences of a bad reputation. These features damaged the particular communities that had developed in each realm in Classic WoW.

The time-based skill training system and role of plex-like transactions in PO are all good with me. It's the ability to buy and sell characters that I object to bringing into PO.

I think you are confusing your kickstarter money with actual investorship. Goblinworks is not a public company and while people may have given them money through kickstarter, that money did not buy you anything other than what was and is promised on the kickstarter page.

Respectfully, No. I'm quite clear on the distinction between Kickstarter support and financial investment in GW.

GW has indicated that they recently received investment of "sufficient resources to continue to operate the team in its current configuration, plus a few more staff members, for as long as necessary to achieve our development goals and to release the game."

This was an obtuse announcement of start-up funding.

In the period 1995-2000, I was directly involved in raising investment capital for several start-up companies from both angel investors and venture capital firms in the Northwest. I can't imagine that it is an easy task for GW in this investment climate.

The way in which GW has framed the Kickstarter to speed up development has already drawn a connection between the support they receive from Kickstarter with their support from investors. My suggestion was to more overtly market their success with financiers as a means to help motivate the broader community to get involved in the Kickstarter.

With start-ups, it is not uncommon to market success with one layer of funding to help secure additional layers of funding but crowdsourcing is new phenomenon.

The recent press is all about the Kickstarter. The GW and Paizo principals know their business. Perhaps they have chosen not to encourage a greater focus on the investment backing cognitively. That's all cool. My original post was just a suggestion. In hindsight, it may not have been helpful.

Let's do what we can to help encourage our friends and social networks to support the Kickstarter.

This article is interesting broad discussion of why EvE produces 1) Emergent stories 2) Resounding player-interaction*

EVE Evolved: Sandboxes make the best stories

AvenaOats, your post and link to that massively article make the point far better than I did. Well done!

I (sorta) know the EVE PVP model but I personally don't believe it will translate that well for a game that's selling point is trying to let us "be the Storyteller".

My long-time experience with the EVE sandbox is the opposite of your observation. Player conquest of the outer (null sec) regions drives the player generated content and produces strong story lines by the players.

Rivalries are intense and conflict breeds story. Writers will tell you that without conflict a story is empty.

This is why PvP is critical to a sandbox game's success. Players create more robust and dynamic conflict than the developers would given their limited resources. Mindcraft is a good sandbox without PvP but remains storyless - a virtual lego environment (although still great low budget game software).

I've linked to a thread I drafted from an EVE PvP encounter that was just one story among many others during my time in EVE's player wars.

I'm not particularly fond of of PvP just for the sake of it, or for dominating other players with my twitch skills, but I really appreciate the creative intensity found in EVE's player wars. When you PvP in EVE's nullsec for the purpose of conquest or defending one's own territory, it carries some weight and meaning.

I think some folks envision the Pathfinder Online PvP to be as empty as the WoW battlegrounds. I believe it will an engaging, story-driven, story-generating activity that will capture our hearts.

Jim, I'm not sure if you've seen this. I just found it on my Facebook wall...

PCGamer.com - Pathfinder Online’s second Kickstarter seeks to fast-track player-run kingdoms and more

Yes, thanks for linking this. I've also seen publication of the Kickstarter at other sites such as massively. It's good to see the coverage and a pleasure to watch the Kickstarter numbers climb.

Enclosed here is a link to a page with numerous examples of funding announcement press releases similar to what I am suggesting. Although the the information that you've noted is good, my recommendation is for a more formal announcement (not a blog or Kickstarter update) including the identity of the investors and the amount they have committed. If I've failed to adequately convey my suggestion at this point, I think I'll refrain from further attempts. :)

All the best,
Jim

In what ways did you find these posts insufficient?

Hi Nihimon, those are good communications with a core message to announce the second Kickstarter.

My suggestion is that a separate press release be published specifically dedicated to sharing the great news regarding the investment they have received and some additional details on the nature of the investment. Their success regarding the investment has been underplayed. Highlighting this win may make the transition from Kickstarter #1 to Kickstarter #2 easier for some.

Sharing the additional details regarding the investment may help instill a sense of shared burden for the game's development. To-date, the stakeholder community has not publicly included financiers other than Paizo and the company's insiders. It would be nice to welcome the financiers to this community and be at peace knowing that our Kickstarter contributions are matched or exceeded by the burden carried by these new partners.

This suggestion is meant to be genuinely helpful and is not intended as a criticism. Personally, I like the crowdforging opportunity to participate.

Congratulations to the Goblinworks team on completion of the Pathfinder Online Technology Demo. For the work of just a few months, the video shared with the Kickstarter backers shows solid progress on development and clearly achieved the goals outlined for the project.

Congratulations again regarding the amazing news in Kickstarter Project Update #37 that “Following the successful completion of the Technology Demo we entered into long term agreements with backers to arrange financing to put the game into production.” Outstanding success! Well done.:)

With the recent announcement of the second Kickstarter, I’ve noticed some mixed reactions in the community including concern from some of the Goblin Squad members who have already demonstrated prior support for Pathfinder Online.

My observation is that the transition from “we’re waiting to see the results of the Technology Demo” to “we’re being asked to pony up additional funds in a second Kickstarter” may seem somewhat sudden.

I suspect that mixing the great news regarding the funding with the release of the demo video has downplayed the struggle and achievement of Goblinworks to win investment support. The success of securing financing in the current investment climate is an astounding achievement. Sizable early stage investments are particularly hard to win here in the Pacific Northwest.

I’m somewhat surprised that a more detailed communication or press release regarding the funding hasn’t been shared yet on the Goblinworks site. Such an announcement may help the community through this transition and the realization that we are sharing the financial burden for rapid development with investors willing to risk big money.

Who are the new investors? How much have they committed to the company? Have they acquired a controlling interest in the company? Is their investment conditional? Some angels prefer anonymity but most start-ups benefit from revealing this sort of information to their stakeholders.

I have added my pledge to the second Kickstarter. The people at Goblinworks and Paizo have earned good faith. The transparency with which they have operated thus far has been exceptional. This remains a project that I am happy to support.

I've added a full product review in more detail.

The Thornkeep pdf is just stunning! One-hundred pages of remarkably thoughtful content.