Meraki's page

Thanks for all the cool Cobyslarni lore, Kendra! It's definitely my favorite school of the bunch

Thank you! I'd love to hear what folks do with it in games (and the rest of the schools, too)!

theLegend76 wrote:

Evan Tarlton wrote:

Any interesting developments with the Empyreal Lords?

Skimming through the book I don't see anything on Tanagaar, not even listed in the Empyreal Lords at the end. So I'm assuming he just was overlooked.

That's true...but we finally have 2E deity information for Kelinahat (She of Ebon Wings). They are very different Empyreal Lords, but overlap mechanically. (And for some reason really do seem to steal writeups from each other.)

I can finally remake my 1e Paladin/Ninja of Kelinahat.

"Kelinahat writeup" is the best thing I've read all day. <3

QUINN. Buddy. Please figure this out. But not too soon, because I would read a whole book of this.

Finally, all my crackpot tinfoil hat theories perfectly sensible headcanons about the Gap can be written in an official Paizo product!

Totally agree with everyone describing the reactions to Desna's death as haunting, though I think my favorite part is this:

"but after a particularly vivid dream (involving my being back in one of Lorminos’s classes and asked to deliver a talk about a research paper I had somehow forgotten to do), my anxiety briefly took hold."

We've all been there, Yivali. T_T

Wayfinder was my very first TTRPG publication, and I don't know if I'd have gotten started in freelancing without it. I always loved submitting (and later helping edit/proofread) and reading the issues, seeing what everyone had come up with. It's sad to see it go.

Thanks to Tim and everyone else who kept Wayfinder going over the years. It's been a great run.

I laughed out loud at “Just admit you like each other, already!” Truly, the enemies to lovers long game. (Though perhaps not that long to a cultivator!) :D

Great to see the very cool work you're all doing! And Pelogos sounds really neat; I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for that.

Welcome and welcome back, all! And Simone, I love the Lirael reference for your dog. :-)

I think a good example of the Calistrian idea of revenge is Inigo Montoya. Revenge is a clear focus of his character; it drives him throughout the story, and he doesn't give up until he obtains it. But it doesn't occupy his every waking moment. He's shown to have friendly relationships with people, to banter, to have a sense of humor, to have compassion for others. He's not chasing down the six-fingered man 24/7 and seething in a corner about how much he wants revenge. He's always on the lookout, but he also doesn't let it stop him from doing other things in the meantime.

I think Calistria would approve. :-)

I love the flavor of the Reveler in Lost Glee, though +1 for leaning more into the general entertainer-focused vibes than evil clowns specifically. I think that'd help make it a little less niche as well as avoid tripping up people with a Nope reaction to clowns.

While I appreciate that the 3-part APs allow for a wider range of stories whose scope doesn't fit a 6-part AP, I'd be sad to see the 6-parters disappear. I like spending a lot of time with my characters, getting to know them and seeing them grow, and there's just not as much time to do that with a 3-part AP. My current plan is to chain some together for a "full" campaign (if not 1-20, at least 1-mid-teens), but that could be tricky with some of the more strongly themed ones.

Add me to the list of those who'd ADORE more Numeria! (My chainsaw-wielding bloodrager from my Iron Gods game says hello.) :-)

So many great contributors to a fantastic book! Jessica that Euphoric Loop is a great addition for charms. And if y'all don't stop by Materials Changes when in Absalom, you're making a mistake!

Kendra the alchemical foods are a delight. We need some mundane recipes to simulate I think!

Yvonne the fulus are amazing, and really add some great roleplaying opportunities! I hope people learn more about their true cultural place in the real world.

I could go on and on, but thank you all!

Ha, I actually considered trying to put a recipe sidebar in my turnover...then I remembered that my cooking skills only extend to following a recipe, not making one. :-)

But maybe an Infinite project for someone more culinarily-inclined?

Wayfinder got me my start in TTRPG writing; my first published TTRPG credits were a couple articles in Wayfinder #14. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that I wouldn't have the freelance career I do without Wayfinder, so while I totally understand the decision, I'm bummed at the end of an era. I've loved working on the Wayfinders I've been involved in, both as a writer and editor.

Thanks for all your hard work over the years, Tim, and for giving me and so many other freelancers their start. You really have changed people's lives and shaped this community into what it is today, and I wish you the absolute best.

Personally, the APs with a bunch of well-rounded, interesting NPCs are always my favorites. Paths like WftC, Hell's Rebels, Jade Regent, and CotCT are more memorable to me because of their NPC cast. Maybe it's just that my groups tend to love social RP, but it definitely increases investment in the game for us to have a bunch of NPC friends (and sometimes love interests!) hanging out with the PCs. Sometimes the party even makes friends that the campaign didn't expect us to make!

It makes the campaign feel more like a story and less like it's happening in a table vacuum, imo.

silversarcasm wrote:

Oooooooh im so excited, i was talking recently about how excited I was a certain story thread form legends was brought up again in Impossible Lands and now it seems we're getting a whole ap about it? Lets gooooo

Am sad to see its not a 6 parter though, hope they havent been completely abandoned!

If folks want us to do more 6-part Adventure Paths... PLEASE let us know! The 3 part ones seem to be engaging people more and allow for more stories to be told in a year, and I'm hoping that we'll be able to settle into a rhythum that allows for more frequent higher level 3 part arcs, but if people do still want 6 part ones... we need to know. (And that includes seeing evidence in sales and reviews and the like for parts 4–6 of those Adventure Paths, not just requests at the front end.)

Hopefully this isn't derailing too much, but since it was brought up...count me in the camp that'd love more 6-part APs. I like to run/play long campaigns, and chaining together 3-parters in a way that thematically makes sense can be tricky. (And, as others have pointed out, there are currently more lower-level ones than higher-level.)

This does look very cool, though! Dwarves haven't been something I've been super interested in historically, but I have every confidence this and the Highhelm book are about to change my mind. :-)

Me: Surely, it'll be easy to pick some favorite deities!
[Later]
Me, stumbling around, juggling more holy symbols than Benny from The Mummmy: Too...many....

Of the core deities, Desna's probably my favorite. The fact that she's benevolent but also Deeply Weird and kind of eldritch and aloof in some ways is very cool.

Milani's a classic favorite of mine too; I love the "freedom and revolution" angle" but also that she's a relatively new goddess trying to adapt, like Iomedae's less rules-oriented younger sister.

I've also got a fondness for most of the Eldest, but especially the Lost Prince and Count Ranalc as the most mysterious among them. The Lost Prince's dichotomy of offering comfort to the lost and depressed while (seemingly) remaining so himself has a delightfully tragic flair to it, and the whole mystery surrounding Ranalc and his fate is fascinating to me.

I wouldn't want to worship Vildeis myself, but she fascinates me. I played a warpriest of hers in 1E who eventually ended up losing her connection because she was starting to actually find happiness (I portrayed Vildeis revoking her powers as basically an act of mercy, an "I've taken you as far as you can, poor mortal, now be free" kind of thing.)

Kelinahat hasn't appeared in PF2 yet as far as I know, and all that was detailed about her in 1E was a tiny stub: "Kelinahat is an archon empyreal lord of spies, stealth, and the gathering of intelligence who is also known as She of Ebon Wings. Her followers use guile, subterfuge, and shadow magic to break into evil bastions and return with valuable information." I love the concept of a good-aligned deity of spies, since normally that ends up in more neutral or even evil territory. (Shh I like spies what)

And then there's Grandmother Spider and Besmara and Ydajisk and---

...okay, I should probably stop. :-)

Bummed that the pawns are going away, I always relied on them for our games. :-( I don't really have the time to mess around trying to make my own, unfortunately, so I guess I'll just be using the ones I already have as stand-ins.

It was great to read everyone else's stories!

(I forgot to put my pronouns in because I wrote the post in a rush after almost forgetting the deadline. ^^; But I go by she/her if anyone is curious!)

Thank you for these powerful words, Maggie. The Paizo community is lucky to have you on board.

This looks awesome! Lot of great names on that list.

That's good to know! Might want to strike our scorpion pals from the running for now, then - though their Maftet buddies feel like they could be playable someday.

As someone who wrote PC maftets for Wayfinder back in the 1E days and ran one through the whole of a Shattered Star campaign, I'll beat the drums for playable maftets any day! ;-)

Glad to hear action's been taken, and I hope that all those who use hate speech on the boards will receive similar treatment as incidents are reported.

Tonya Woldridge wrote:

I am deeply sorry that Tender doesn't feel safe here and am sorry to see them go. We are working with our Director of People and Culture to find classes/seminars so we can educate ourselves regarding dog whistles and other forms of problematic content. While we do welcome diverse views on our forums, we are taking active steps to remove the hate. Consider this an appeal to all our community members to help us keep an eye out. We only have so many hours and unfortunately, miss things on the forums. If you do see problematic content, please flag it. If it is active hate speech or attacking behaviors, we ask you to send an email to customer.service@paizo.com with the subject line Intolerance.
In regards to the list mentioned above, it is now gone and will not be back on our forums. Any form of targeted hate such as this list is against community guidelines and will be handled as such. In this case, we took moderation steps so that the user won't be able to attack community members again.

A good first step that could have been taken months ago to be educated about dog whistles and similar problematic posts would have been to actually read, listen to, and act on the endless concerns raised by the very people experienced with this who called out the problematic posts time and time again, but those posts, and their posters were allowed to remain and continue... and continue, and continue. Whilst finding education is a great move at this point it's far too late for so many people who have been driven off these forums by the tacit acceptance of bigotry.

Any public venue for discussion will trend towards it's lowest common denominator if moderation is not appropriate as more and more good people leave and the bad actors flourish without any repercussions.

100% this. A community that lets transphobic rhetoric slide is not a community that's welcoming to trans people, and I find it incredibly saddening that these sorts of behaviors have been allowed to continue for so long (apparently even through numerous reports from the people targeted). Whether the indication that the user was banned was in error or whether they were banned and then un-banned is the case, neither is particularly reassuring. And this is clearly a problem that extends past just one user; this one just seems to be a particularly egregious example.

The best time to act on this would have been immediately when this was reported, but the next best time is now. It might be too late for the OP (though I hope not, and I hope the forums can become a place they feel welcome again), but Paizo's trans fans, creators, and staff deserve a place free from hate speech and attacks on their existence.

I love this and would absolutely buy ten more books like it. :D I can never get enough lore.

What a cool blog! Happy Year of the Tiger! :-)

I like Nidal a lot, less for the torture stuff and more because the concept of a culture around for that long, preserving itself through a direct deal with a deity, is fascinating to me. It's noted in places that they have historical archives dated back further than any currently extant societies, and that's super cool. And I like the shadowy (pun intended, always intend your puns) atmosphere of the place.

Sarkoris is also really neat, given their old culture and their attempts now to reclaim their homeland. I'd love to see more of it.

We haven't (yet) seen a whole lot of Alkenstar, but I love weird west stuff, so I'm looking forward to that AP!

Kaer Maga, for just how off-the-wall it is. It's a bunch of cities within a city, which is cool.

The new Mwangi Expanse book has bumped it way up on my list, too. Plenty of needed updates and some really interesting cities to hang out in!

I have...a lot of favorites. :-)

keftiu wrote:

As for the rest, I’d love some peeks into historical eras. One I’ve floated in the past (and had shot down by James Jacobs, sadly) was an adventure or AP set pretty immediately after Earthfall, dealing with survival in the harsh, sunless world - with an excuse to show the rise of early Nidal as a potential feature.

An Ancient Adventures book is one I've been pitching for a while now, as I love playing with (and playing in) Golarion's past. I'd love to see that come to pass.

...if this ever happens, you know where to find me. ;-)

As far as other areas I'd love to see explored, my current wish list:
- The Golden Road could use an update/more fleshing out, and I feel like there are a lot of cool things that could be done with it.
- Also hopping on the Arcadia train, as everything I've seen of it has only piqued my curiosity more.
- I'd also love a Casmaron book (or more than one book) about the Keleshite Empire or Vudra. They haven't gotten a whole lot of page count so far, and I'd love to know more about them.
- This is probably a long shot, but I'd sell a kidney for a Shory book. They keep getting tantalizing tidbits in other books, and a deep dive on their cities would be really cool.

Funnily enough, that's exactly why Anastasia isn't queen in my table's version of Golarion. :-) They asked her what she'd prefer to do, and she was like "actually, I'd like to just kinda be a person without having to rule anything." So per the end of our RoW game, she was hanging out with her time-shifted twin sister (hey, what's one more historical liberty?), Baba Yaga's been replaced by "Mama Odette" (one of the PCs) and another PC and his Jadwiga boyfriend are ruling Irrisen.

Now I'm thinking "Stasian tech" in our Golarion is because she's become a scientist and is working to popularize it. :-)

I mostly lurk on the forums these days and am not that active, but I love this thread, so I'm jumping in! :-) In addition to the excellent shout-outs already in here, I want to spotlight a few more people whom I've had the pleasure of working with over the last few years:

Jenny Jarzabski is an incredibly creative, fun person with a knack for taking off-the-wall adventure premises and making them work, whether as a writer or a dev. Not everyone could have pulled off managing something like "time-travel linked GenCon special," but she and Thursty pulled it off admirably.

Speaking of Thurston Hillman, he's always someone I look forward to working with. He cares deeply about his co-workers, the freelancers he works with, and the game, and it shows. I also understand, although I've never been fortunate enough to be in a game of his as of yet, that he's a top-notch GM with a knack for making his players cry in the best way possible. ;-)

Michael Sayre has been mentioned before, but in addition to being a talented designer, he's handled the whole upheaval in the past few months admirably. Without getting into specifics, he's been a class act throughout all this, and I want to express my appreciation for that. Michael, you're always great to work with.

Likewise, Mark Seifter has also been mentioned, but I'd like to second the comments about his forum presence being consistently helpful and positive--even when others aren't returning the favor. And, as someone who can barely multiply, his math knowledge awes and alarms me. :-) Like the others I've mentioned above, I always look forward to seeing an email in my inbox from him.

Jessica Catalan joined Paizo at a tumultuous time, and it can't have been easy starting the new job in the midst of everything. In spite of that, I'm sure she's been hard at work, and I can't wait to see what she's cooking up next! Jessica, it was awesome to work with you on the specials this year!

Jason Tondro is witty, fearless, and one of the most principled people I've ever met, and his Twitter (@doctorcomics) is a delight to follow. He's been incredibly helpful in getting information about United Paizo Workers and the union's formation out to the community at large, both on Twitter and in his many, many interviews. Seriously, when does this man sleep? :-)

John Compton is a great dev and a genuinely nice guy who's always been an advocate both for his co-workers and for freelancers. He also seems to have a wry sense of humor which I'm always fond of spotting on any mutual Discords we end up on.

Finally, Andrew White has written probably the best description of a Starfinder adventure--and the adventure itself--of all time, in talking about the Great Grav-Train Robbery. I read this tweet to my game group a couple weeks ago and they were instantly sold. Tech doesn't always get the attention of devs or editors, but it's definitely a vital part of the company!

Devs, editors, customer service, everyone I've worked with: if I didn't name you individually, you are also awesome! I just only have so much time on my lunch break. ^^;

I'm delighted to hear this news! Congratulations to my colleagues and friends at Paizo! This is a big good-faith step showing that the leadership is willing to take their concerns seriously, and while the issues raised won't be solved overnight, the workers now have a solid mechanism with which to do so.

Well done, Paizo staff, on all your hard work, and well done, my fellow freelancers, in standing with them! And thanks to the community at large for being so broadly supportive.

I wholeheartedly support the employees' efforts to unionize, and I stand behind the awesome people at Paizo whom I've worked with 100%. I hope that the execs swiftly recognize the union to make the process as smooth as possible and that the staff can get a working environment that's safe, supportive, equitable...and as conducive as possible to making great games!

Children can often derail an adventure by doing things a rational adult wouldn't.

To be fair...players can often derail an adventure by doing things a rational adult wouldn't. ;-)

Super excited for this path!

VerBeeker wrote:

I read Zo!’s lines in Handsome Jack’s voice.

I've always mentally heard Tim Curry's voice.

Personally I read that in Varrick's voice from Legend of Korra.

Thank you all for sharing your stories and your perspectives. These are such important things to hear, especially now.

I hope that we can make a world where bigotry is drowned out by acceptance and love, and that everyone can feel free to be their true selves without fear. We need to be active allies to the trans people in our community (and everywhere!) and hearing what they have to say is an important part of that.

Okay, time to pack it in; no monsters will ever surpass these. This blog has won monster-building, folks. :-)

I've been lucky enough to work with some of the women in both parts of this blog, and although my schedule was a bit too packed at the moment to submit a snippet myself, I just want to say that I appreciate the care and attention Paizo's shown over the years to representing us not just in their products, but in staff and freelancers as well. It really does make a difference to see yourself in something. I hope it makes an impact on the younger or teenage girls who pick up a Pathfinder or Starfinder book, to let them know that they're welcome here too!

Kendra Leigh Speedling wrote:

Congratulations to both of you!

Congratulations to you on that fancy contributor tag! Well earned, Kendra!

Why thank you! :-)

Congratulations to both of you!

Inner Sea Taverns has rules for some tavern games. It's a 1E book, but the games should still work regardless of edition.

Postal/courier AP: Aw yeah!

Library AP: *insert Kermit flailing gif* That would be a contender for my favorite AP ever. (Especially if I got to write for it. *cough*)

ZomB wrote:

scary harpy wrote:

Should I ask if the Inner Sea has public libraries here or start a new thread?

PFS scenario Echoes of the Overwatched visits Forae Logos in Absalom, one of the largest libraries in the world.

Good to know. Thanks.

I asked because I thought most medieval libraries were private...and nothing like we think of public libraries today (so I wouldn't expect a section dedicated to children's literature...or magazines).

Now back to the topic: adventures in postal service.

(Brilliant post, Old_Man_Robot. LOL!)

Public libraries as we currently define them are actually a pretty recent development, only dating back to the 19th century or so (at least in Britain & America, not sure about elsewhere). They were actually pretty controversial at first because of bias against "the rabble" being able to study and learn things like the wealthy elite.

Medieval libraries were private, owned by individuals, the Church, or universities, and literacy wasn't anywhere near as widespread as it seems to be on Golarion. We can assume that libraries are probably more common on Golarion since there are more people who could make use of them, although whether or not they'd be what we understand as "public" probably depends on the library.

A postal service/courier service would probably be pretty popular for much the same reason: more people writing letters to each other (unless they're rich enough to afford magical communication). The mail was delivered several time a day in Regency England...big cities in Golarion probably have communication networks that function at least that frequently.

James Jacobs wrote:

I 100% agree witht he use of the word "Lycanthrope". It should not be the word for all werecreatures; that's why we changed it from lycanthrope in 1st edition to werecreature in 2nd.

The only place we talk about lycanthropy in the book is in a single sidebar on page 291, and it's in the context of "Many scholars..." When you see us attribute in-world lore like this, the intent is to frame that lore in a potentially unreliable narrator. Some scholars are wrong, and those who apply the word "lycanthropy" to all werecreatures are not correct (as the sidebar notes) yet they still do so. In the same way we in this world use words like "Kleenex" for facial tissues, "band-aid" for adhesive bandages, or "D&D" for fantasy-based RPGs (couldn't resist that one! :P).

The whole point of the sidebar was to enable the use of the word "lycanthrope" in the game, if only as an often-misused term, so that readers who look back at other 1st edition products aren't potentially confused, and because the word itself is a really neat word and I didn't want it to get completely excised from the game.

As for using real-world words... look at it this way. When we publish books like this, we're translating the words to English (or Italian or Spanish or whatever) so all of us at Paizo can edit them and so all of you out there can read them. None of us can speak or read Taldane or any other made-up language from Golarion, so we don't publish in that language. If we did, words like "lycanthrope" and "tyrannosaurs" would be spelled differently and with a different alphabet and would sound different... as would words like "wizard" or "cat" or "the." :-P

Tolkien did it, so why not Paizo ;-)

Spiders Tolkein, who tried to avoid his day job in favor of writing and created over 10,000 conlangs per year, was an outlier and should not have been counted. ;-)

Just to add I would be more than happy to be charged for subscription orders in usual time frames and wait for shipment when the warehouse is back up and running. Appreciate Erik's post earlier that this is a decision for later but just wanted to put that out here.

Same here. Some people may well be okay with this, especially if they still get PDFs on schedule, so maybe that could be an option?

I can't say I didn't see it coming, but I'm still bummed. Keeping everyone safe is more important, though.

Now to see if the airlines will refund my tickets...

I'm very excited for the [redacted] lil critter I did in here!

Yeah, setting books are usually my absolute favorites, so I'm looking forward to this!

My own personal headcanon (which really has no basis in anything other than me thinking it's neat) is that the end/refresh cycle of the multiverse has been interrupted as of Starfinder times for some reason--perhaps even due to the activities of a bunch of strong mortal heroes! The Gap is due to an incomplete reset that brought back most things from the previous iteration, but certain things are altered or "set back." No one remembers what happened during the Gap because the resulting multiverse is pretty much a reconstruction of the previous one, with some differences, and that period of time was it resetting.

I highly doubt this is actually the case in canon, but *shrugs*. Canon for my table!

I assumed OP was looking into self-publishing things from his setting. (Upon re-reading the question, that might not be correct.) If you're just doing stuff for your players in a personal game, you can do what you like. Personal games don't have OGL restrictions.

If you're intending to make your work publicly available for free, that falls under the Community Use Policy. Basically, you can reference Paizo IP as long as you aren't charging anyone for it. That's how things like Wayfinder operate.

The OGL is for commercial use, when you're making something to sell to people.

I had a lot of fun working on my sections for this book, and I'm looking forward to its release! There's a lot of cool stuff in here that I think will appeal to people with a variety of tastes in things that interest them about starships.

-Kendra

** spoiler omitted **

Hmm, that's a good question...but one I don't have the answer to. I wrote it as the

I'm not sure if that was a deliberate change made in development or not. But it does seem unusual.

-Kendra