Marcus Ewert's page

Any discussion of making an audiobook of this?
I bought the audio version of GODSRAIN (the novel) last week, and I have been enjoying it greatly!
Cheers!
(I love the old Adventure Path cd series as well! They were so good. British actors can do anything imho.)

Actually, now that I'm thinking about the audio Adventure Paths, can I buy them anew as mp3s or whatever? 'Cause I would totally listen to them again (and there were some entries I never got to) - and what even is a cd player at this point in history? Would showing a kid one stump them?

Yah! So excited for this! The first Tian Xia book was a masterful delight; I'm glad so many of the same great creators are back for round 2!

I don't have this awesome book yet- and I'm getting it no matter what - but please soothe my [human][for now] heart and let me know if we get in-world fiction in this book - just like we got to enjoy here on the site. Those characters - that crew - and their stories and disquisitions were the BEST.

If Shelyn dies, then, Nocticula can truly pull a "ALL YOUR ART ARE BELONG TO NOCTICULA" stance.

The laugh I luupft!

I'm just happy the pictured Leshy took the Slay comma Drag Queen feat.
With the versatile ancestry Fierce.

I love the idea of there being different colors of "Crying Kings"- and what even is a Crying King, I'm so intrigued!

Marcus Ewert wrote:

Are those svirfneblin or are they the-new-name-for-duergar ?

Those are drathnelar/deep gnomes.

Hryngar = replacements for duergar.

Drathnelar = replacements for svirfneblin.

At least as far as I can tell so far.

Thanks, pal!

Are those svirfneblin or are they the-new-name-for-duergar ?

If this doesn't become *at least* a 3-part adventure path, then why even tease us like this??? Cause I would play the schnitt outta this!!!

It looks like Safa's pronouns are they/them, and not she/her as some have posted...

It's funny, I was just re-reading the classic 1st ed. D&D module AGAINST THE CULT OF THE REPTILE GOD, and was struck by the presence of benign harvest goddess Merikka...

If I were running a Pathfinder campaign right now, I'd totally let Dyrani ascend! And then have Her church grow, with the PCs - a whole adventure path! Love the idea of Urgathoa as an antaganoist - and like Ghlaunder, and Mazzmezz, and some die-hard followers of Deskari...

I alwayyyyyyyyys love Tim Pratt's fiction - and the work he does for Paizo is always a thing of joy.

Marcus Ewert wrote:

Do the Outer Planes exist in Starfinder?

You know it! Pages 470–471 of the Core Rulebook give an overview.

Also, sweet world—though I think I'll pass on a visit.

Double thanks!

Do the Outer Planes exist in Starfinder?

'Cause if so, that big purple mouth is clearly the entrance to a Styxian log-flume ride straight to Abaddon...

Daemonic mountain eels have emerged from the Styx to spread that river's taint onto the dry land of this Material World planet.

Since the Styxmouth opened (about 40 years ago), the Hanakan and Verthani on the planet have incorporated Abaddon's foul values into every aspect of their culture/s. The two species meet in unholy crystal atheneums where "Accords of Betrayal" - damaging to *both* parties - are painstakingly devised.

The only functioning magic/technology on the planet now comes from devices with living hallajins imprisoned in the core.

Needless to say, the more excruciating the pain the hallajin endures, the more powerful the "battery."

[I know the proper adjective is 'StyGian' - but Charon orders me to spread destruction and fear, so...]

Two words: BRILL. YUNT.
I lurv!

Happy Halloween to you, O Pharasma!!

I immediately want to read the novel that would sprout from this, just like I felt the other day when I read Tim's story about Ishaani and the efreeti.

I loooove your writing in general, Tim, and your Golarion writing is an added parfait of perfection.

Tim Pratt writing for Paizo is always a great good thing.

Ah, Crystal!
I could read your writing all day long...

WANT
want want wanttety want

I for one will deffo be buying from *both* product lines at least initially. I may drop off on Starfinder after awhile, as I'm way more of a fantasy guy, but SF can count on me buying *at least* its first AP, in full. And if I go nuttsballs for Starfinder, I'll follow it to AP #2 and beyond... While still buying as much Pathfinder as I currently do.

I.e. - I will be an exemplar of Vic's Situation 3, above. Overlap.

Interesting sidenote?: i'm one of those happy Paizo customers (I'm sure there's more than just me) who doesn't even *play* RPGs anymore. I just love reading the good words and ogling the pretty pictures. I buy Paizo stuff purely to read (and gawk at).

OMG I can't even say how excited I am re reading about and seeing pictures of Starfinder iconics. I love all the Pathfinder iconic and I feel like they've only been getting better and better... their write-ups/back-stories I mean...

Indeed, even the Queen's accent itself seems to change a bit in less than 30 years: to my ears her 1984 speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSA-iuHXrps&nohtml5=False
sounds a bit less poncey than her 1957 one, above...

As to Ameeko vs. Amayko -
As a one time student of Japanese, that bothered me at first too.
On the other hand, a good friend of mine in the 2000s was named Mariko, and at first I persisted in calling her mah-ree-koh because that was 'right.' But eventually I stopped 'cause I sounded like boob because she herself always used "muh-REE-koh" though she knew that 'technically' that wasn't right. And everyone else said "muh-REE-koh" too - in America, that was her name. Though she had a few friends from childhood who'd call her "mah-ree" for short - i.e. with the 'correct' vowel sounds.

I now know another Mariko, the wonderful YA writer Mariko Tamaki, and she uses "muh-REE-koh" too come to think of it. Though I'm sure when either Mariko's in Japan, they'd totally roll with being addressed as "mah-ree-koh."

I think the other thing people tend to forget in discussions of correct pronunciation is how vastly different words are pronounced WITHIN THE SAME LANGUAGE in the real world.

"a-luu-MIN-ee-uhm" versus "uh-LOO-min-uhm" is just one obvious example, but even within the States alone the way vowels, especially, are voiced can vary dramatically. And then there are all the different regional accents in England, let alone Ireland, Scotland and Wales. And Australia. And New Zealand. And Canada. And the Caribbean. And what about countries like Nigeria? Etc etc etc... Even within one lifetime some styles of pronunciation die out (or arise). No one uses the old Hollywood "Mid-Atlantic" accent anymore, for instance. And my (heavily American) sense of things is that the precise accent of Queen Elizabeth and pre-50s BBC radio announcers has basically given up the ghost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBRP-o6Q85s

I'm sure it's been said on boards before, by many others, but one of my least fave Paizo names is The Darklands. It's so not evocative enough, imho. Also not very specific. I have to say, "Underdark" was really a good coinage. (Though obvi Paizo couldn't just rip that name off.) "Underdark" was mysterious and broody and menacing, in part because "Underdark" only barely works as a legitimate formation in English (at the very least, it's a an *unusual* formation - 'dark' without a 'the' in front of it is an adjective) so right off the bat, for English speakers, just grammatically the name conjures up "everything is going to be VERY different down there." * I love it. As one of my fave regions in any campaign setting, I wish Paizo's name for it was more unsettling & unique. (This is the not even a ding against Paizo because 1. I'm a total fanboi AND 2. I don't EXPECT to like everything in a setting, just like I don't expect everything in the real world to always be named or described with my sense of appropriate drama & poetry.)

I think it's the "lands" part of "Darklands" that really dulls the word. "Lands" to me implies something knowable, mappable. Makes everything too prosaic. It's too familiar. Also, I really do think any name for an underdark region has to include SOME reference to 'belowness.' 'Cause I hear the Darklands and I immediately think of surface-stuff: Mirkwood. The Badlands. The Land of Shadows. "Land" also conveys a broad expanse, where is one of the key things about underdarks is how twisted and cramped and claustrophobic they are. Even the biggest cities like Menzoberranzan or Zirnakeynin (sp?) feel super-tight and pressurized. No rolling plains of anything... No skies! No real weather... no spaciousness...

OMG this is a long post. Let's subtitle this "A Writer Avoiding His Real Writing for the Day"

* Please no one lecture me on how compound words are formed in English. I know how they're formed.

As a children's book writer myself (ahem!), and as someone who loves reading aloud to kids, one good thing to note is how *loving* the act of reading aloud/storytelling can be, IRL. If nothing else, you're spending time your time with someone, spending your time on them. It can create a space of great tenderness and closeness.

So, stereotypical evil drow would NOT be about that. Who's gonna waste their time on weak children? Why on earth would you try to create something rich for them? You wouldn't. Unless....

I believe that the tales the drow DO tell their children always have a horrid little twist at the end... aimed at the CHILD. A drow adult gets sadistic pleasure from lulling a child along with a gripping tale, but the end of the tale always ends up viciously skewering some particular aspect of that child's personality, for instance. (Or something else equally psychologically shattering.) The moral of the story: Don't ever let yourself be lulled!

By the way, need I say that I think doing this in the real world is deplorable? Terribly abusive. Utterly cruel. I.e., perfect for an evil and sadistic demon-worshipping race, alas. People weaker than you are mere victims and playthings. Alas.

I also think that this scenario probably happens: while one adult is telling the tots a riveting tale, another adult is sneaking into the kids' bedrooms and smashing all their possessions. "Ha ha, that'll learn ya."

A deaf iconic would be great, too. And I'm all for a Committee for Promoting Sakvroth Awareness.

Jus' sayin'.

Here's me spitballing a deaf iconic:

Let's say there's a relatively high occurrence of deafness in halflings. (Or the halflings of one specific region.) Due to brutal suppression of halfling culture in Cheliax, the indigenous sign language that Deaf AND hearing halflings developed together* was forcibly eradicated. (~A la all too many real world examples, like the efforts of settler boarding schools to stamp out Native American languages.)

And now the a-hole fascist Chelaxians have another reason to denigrate halflings: for their community 'harboring' so many 'disabled' members, and also for the hearing community 'enabling' their 'handicapped' members with a 'rude' language made of 'crude gestures and twitching.' (~This is how many many hearing people in the real world have responded to the languages Deaf people created on their own, alas.)

Anyway, one deaf halfling slave gets sold down into the Underdark when her new Chelaxian master discover that she's 'useless.' She ends up a slave in a drow city, where she sees Sakvroth being used all the time. She thinks about how amazing such a language could be, for use among her kin. (Not realizing that such a language existed not that long ago, but was harshly redacted out of existence by the Thrunies.)

This slave, let's call her Zace (no last name, she's a slave), eventually escapes from the drow, of course, and makes her way back to the surface world. The caves she emerges from have brought her to Andoran, birthplace of freedom! And Zace is now ready to bring (back) a sign language for use by her kin. "What a handy (ha ha) thing this will be to teach the Bellflower Network)..." she thinks...

Paizo folks, I'm happy to write Zace up- give me a jingle!

*(See Martha's Vineyard Sign Language for a great real world example! But there are actually many other instances of such a language, i.e., one utilized by both the Deaf and the hearing organically arising in communities with a high rate of deafness.)

TOTEZ exciting!

I shall watch these eagerly!

I could not love this anymore!
I LOVE that she's a dwarf! I LOVE that dwarves have a whole venerable, ancient tradition of the rivethun. I LOVE that she's a shaman! I LOVE her tuatara (which somehow I missed the very first time I read this, back when it was first published).

Last of all, I LOVE Wayne Reynold's character design!

Oh... and I LOVE how many awesome trans characters (including an Empyreal Lord or two!) that Paizo now has. A growing smorgasbord...

Yay yay yay to Crystal, Shardra, and Paizo! I wish I had a rivethun shaman I could go to (bearing a gift or two) and ask her advice on the year ahead...

I'm pretty sure it's a BUNGLE of goblins.
Or a FUMBLE.
Or a FREE-FOR-ALL.

But I think it's BUNGLE.

Or maybe the city is built around a flare-up of the Positive Energy Plane. What's coming through is raw (positive) power, which then is passed through 4 separate 'filters' or lenses- which renders the raw energy into each one of the 4 core Elements.

Am I totally thinking of this? http://www.amazon.com/Play-Doh-90020-Fun-Factory/dp/B004JMJKR4

Yes.

Earth Air Fire Water.
Chunks from each of the 4 core Elemental Planes combine together to make the city.

The Earth plane contributes the landmass itself - and minerals, metals, building stones, etc.
Elemental Fire powers the city and can also act as waste disposal as someone else said upthread.
Elemental Air contributes both the airy cushion the city floats on, as well as the weather-livability magic topside: breathable air (for higher altitudes), moderate temperatures, good climate for agriculture, etc.
Elemental Water provides the rivers and lakes and rain and drinking water, etc.

A bit torn from each plane, by long-ago mages.

Elemental factionalism could crop up, plus maybe many elementals from the 'home' planes HATE this city for its ancient planar thefts.

(A lot of this is basically what @Ciaran Barnes was saying...)

I don't believe in dice. I don't think they exist.
I have a LOT of trouble playing tabletop RPGs.

I only voted for two:

Treant's Crossing (!)
and
Gravepit Basin of Fallen Cersai (sorry if I'm butchering the name)

I only vote for stuff I'm head over heels for me: that's just me

good luck, everyone

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Levi Miles FTW!

So, if my calculations are correct, Hell's Rebels will be the 'gonzo' AP, following the more 'conservative/traditional' Giant Slayer one. Any ideas/hints as to what gonzo elements will be introduced in H.R.?

I'm loving the gonzo APs, myself…

Where are the two maps?

Am loving this series of sneak peaks, mind you…

~M

Zon-Kuthon - before he was all cray-cray and slice-happy - i.e., when he was Dou-Bral (sp?)
was not only around pre-Starfall, he was also actively present for the imprisonment of Rovagug. His contribution way back then was basically the last thing he did in helpful collaboration with the other gods, before he went out a'wandering and came back changed.

In one of the Mythic supplements, it states that Dou-Bral made some unique stitchings, if you will, into the 'flesh' of Golarion itself (via mythic monuments), to help seal shut Rovagug's prison. A foreshadowing of his later, creepier interest in bindings and clamps and piercings and other charming whatnot...

SO, SO JEALOUS

cannon fodder wrote:

F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

years and years of Bastardhall awesomeness, to be continued at Paizocon 2014.

So you're saying that you're announcing the Bastardhall AP in Paizocon? Sweet!

Maybe. Though it might be Paizocon 2020.

Hey, I'll take it!

Wonderful!
Very excited to read the whole of this.
I love planar stuff and long for ever more of it.
And Mr. Sutter has thrilled me several times over with both Distant Worlds and City of Strangers. I enjoyed the first Salim novel as well, and this one seems even more enticing.
Am happy, too, we're getting some gay male characters in this. We've come a long ways as a hobby since the days when I got charbroil flamed for starting a thread back on the WotC boards merely inquiring if there *were* any LGBT characters in Forgotten Realms canon. (Shout-out to Elaine Cunningham, btw, who defended my honor, as it were, on said board!)
(May I also take a moment to heartily commend Wes Schneider, and others, for bringing several awesome transgender characters into Golarion? Go, Paizo, go!)

Anyway- looking forward to this novel! Devils and psychopomps ahoy!

~Marcus

Thanks, Sara Marie!
When I saw the cheaper price yesterday, it was enough to move me past the deadly sin of Sloth, and into pro-active action-taking mode! (Seriously, you have no idea how crippled by laziness I can be. Who knows when I would have ever ordered the darn CD, much as I wanted it! Sometimes, that little extra discount is all it takes…)

If Rise of the Runelords does well, is there the thought of tackling other APs?

Regardless, I'm Über-excited for this series. Because:
1. Paizo so rarely disappoints
2. I love RotRL, (I love Golarion in general!), and
3. Brits do grrrreat audio-dramas, by and large.

I'm in. Will no doubt subscribe- though I already went ahead and purchased the first volume cause I'm just the eager to get my ears on it...

No one's started this yet? Ok, I guess I'll go...

One big vote for Robert Brookes' On Fertile Ground

Oh please.
This map is a LIE.
Mighty Razmir would never permit the Worldworld to encroach on His demesne!
Our Lord would send those demons packin' before you can say "participation mystique!"

I really hope I make it into the Top 32! I didn't submit an item, but I'm counting on the voters/judges/community to not be so prejudicial and elitist.

I too get an error message after clicking the vote button- and in the very first set I think at least one item is indeed one I saw last year... (have only tried to vote once)