Monte Cook's page

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I hope you like the rest of the story.

And I agree about the art. It's great!

Simple monster templates may be my single most favorite addition in Pathfinder. I look forward to checking this out.

I think Monte could be an evil genius. He has the facial expression down. So he's got that going for him...which is nice.

I've been working on that. Turns out, it's not a feat, it's a skill. You have to put a lot of ranks into it to get good.

This is a very cool idea for a product!

Dryder, I replied to you via email, and I hope that answers your question. If there's any other issues, just let me know.

Thanks for your interest, and to the rest of you, thanks for the kind words.

Maybe Paizocon 3 is in your future too?

I think I can say right now that I would certainly come!

Oh, and here's some more of my thoughts on PaizoCon:

http://montecook.livejournal.com/197166.html

Thanks to Lisa, Vic, Josh, Erik, and the whole Paizo crew for having Sue and I come to PaizoCon. We had a great time meeting and hanging out with everyone there. The gift bags at the con were the coolest I've ever seen, the banquet was a blast, and the fanzine was amazing.

If there's anyone who didn't hear about it, the discount code "Paizo" will get you a free preview week and a special discount rate at my new project www.dungeonaday.com as my way of saying thank you to all of you for letting me be a part of your weekend.

Take care!

What more information do you want than what I wrote?

This weekend I briefly stepped into the role of a judge for RPG Superstar. It was a difficult task, because the eight finalists in Round 4 were all excellent. It wasn't a matter of dividing the good from the bad, it was a matter of dividing the good from the good. Kind of like drawing a line between everyone that would get a B+ from those that would get an A-.

I really enjoyed judging the contest, and hope that the finalists, even those that don't advance, find encouragement rather than discouragement. Lots of talent and imagination here!

And good luck to all those that do advance to the final round. Have fun!

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 7. It's a decent lair, but I wanted just a bit more out of it. Good, but not recommended.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 7.5. It's really good, but for me, just not quite as good as four of the others. Unfortunately not recommended.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 8. Recommended.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 6. Flavorful, but sadly, not recommended.

It seems a bit odd to select both of the lairs done with the same villain, but there you go. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 8. Recommended.

I found the beginning jarring, because it reads like a full adventure rather than just a lair, as it gives a situation and plot that seem beyond the scope of this round. That's a pretty minor quibble, though.

That said, I found this to be a very fun and original lair. The huge arm is creepy and weird and the DM has the details he needs to use it in a session (with the arm, and with the other aspects of the lair). That's one of the most important things I look for in this kind of material--does the DM have the information he needs, and is he armed to deal with what the players might try.

I also like how the lair is set up so that the tension builds, and I like how the arm ties everything together.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 9.5. I think it's my favorite of the lairs. Recommended.

It's rough when you do a lair for the same villain as someone else, because naturally you go head-to-head with that entry before you're ever compared to the others, and it seems hard as a judge to do anything but choose one or the other. And this lair for Rustin isn't as imaginative as the other one.

There are interesting encounters here (and a nice mix too), but I would like to have seen more aspects of the lair affect those encounters. I also think you do interesting things with tweaking standard versions of monsters (appropriate for a carnival).

I do like that the DM has some help in determining how these encounters work together, but there were times I felt it needed more. For example, the building that is really a series of wagons is fun, but as a DM I would wonder how hard it would be for a group of PCs to bust out of a wagon, and unfortunately the text doesn't tell me. Overall, in fact, areas 1 and 2 seem much better developed than 3, which is unfortunate since 3 is the more out-of-the ordinary.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 6. Decent, but sadly, not recommended.

I like that the PCs will have two different options for getting into this lair and the rules for making it through the forest are interesting.

I also like that you felt free to change monsters (like the vampire vines and the cricket boy) as needed.

Nice combination of creatures and environment to make interesting encounters. I wish there was some information about how the inhabitants interact. These encounters are going to logically bleed into each other.

There are places where the DM might need more information. More on NPC tactics and just a bit here and there to fully flesh out the encounters. You should put the stats for a creature the first time it shows up (the icosatuplets).

Overall, a nice lair with a unique feel. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this a 8. Recommended.

This is an interesting, very focused entry. The lair is smaller than some of the others, but that’s allowed you to give a lot more detail. I like that choice. That said, it does seem like this entry could have used a bit more… something. Perhaps more instances where the location influences encounters, either with special situations, unique locations for fights, or environmental conditions that change the way an encounter plays.

Also, most of the encounters are considerably weaker than the villain. I worry that the PCs will be a bit bored by them.

I like that each encounter gives us the details behind why things are the way they are, sharing more insight into the villain behind it all.

Overall, nice details and very interesting use of creatures.

It’s interesting to come into the middle of the contest and kind of learn as I go. This is one of two lairs for the same villain, and it’s both similar and different in interesting ways.

The map is really cool. Area C2 is a great place for a really fun, climactic encounter with the moving bridge.

There are a lot of nice little details throughout. I like the peephole in area P3, for example. The animated sword chandelier is cool (although likely little challenge for the PCs involved in this, I’m guessing).

There’s not going to be a lot for a wizard to do in many of these encounters, and the rogue has no one to sneak attack. Just something to keep in mind when putting together something like this—everyone should have something to do. It would be cool, for example, to have more devices for a rogue to disable among the strange constructs.

I would worry that some of the encounters here will be so easy for the PCs (like the soulbound dolls) that it’s kind of a waste of time to have to deal with them.

Imaginative and cool.

The summon monster VI trap in 3a should tell me what monster appears and should give me some tactics it will use.

I was glad to see the harpy encounter because so many golem encounters are going to have the players running rogues, wizards, and sorcerers wanting to go home. (That said, given the nature of the villain, they should be expecting it.)

It’s dangerous to put comments in read-aloud text that assume the PCs have been in other rooms, like in area 8, where you state, “Several identical, and by now familiar, statues stand in formation near the center of the south wall.” The reason this is dangerous is that at this level, it’s fairly likely that the PCs will use stone shape, passwall, teleport, or some other means to get inside. Any room of this place could be their first room.

You do a good job of providing the DM with the details needed to use this in a game (door stats, passwords, etc.)

I like the commentary of how Hecataeus uses each chamber. This lair really utilizes and expounds upon the nature of its villain. Which is always good.

This is cool. At first I wasn’t crazy about the map, because I didn’t understand what I was looking at in each room (a key would have been nice). And even after I figured out that those were chandeliers and whatnot, I still can’t help but point out that beds are rarely 10 feet long (the beds on the upper floor could never have fit up the stairs you’ve shown us). This is a very minor quibble, though, and why sometimes in a design, less is more.

I’ve got some rules problems with the Understudies. You list them all as CR 1, when they’re all 3rd level.

I like the attention to detail you’ve provided with the various NPCs’ relationships and how they react to various situations.

I think that if the PCs encounter Sharina in area A2, but Gha’zali is watching from the balcony right above, this should probably be presented as the same encounter.

The DM would probably appreciate knowing how much of an action (move, standard, full-round) it is to use a weighted rope to get up to the catwalk. I’m guessing full round (you’d have to cut or untie the rope, right?).

Overall, though, this seems like it would be a fun encounter/set of encounters using this villain.

This is a cool and flavorful place, but I almost wonder if you've bit off more than you can chew here, trying to detail the entire place with the word limitations you have. If I was going to run this as a DM, I'm left with more questions than I normally like to have using published game material. These include:

1. Do the jackals in area 1 attack the PCs? (My preference, since they're no challenge at all, would be to have area 1 be flavor only, but you've given it a CR, which implies that there will be a fight.) And does the perpetual shadow actually affect visibility?

2. Are the demons here friends of Vashkar? I assume so, but there’s very little explanation for why two major-class demons are just hanging out here. To me, Nalfeshnee aren’t throw-away monsters, and have a lot of various tricks up their sleeves and it’s a shame to have to present them in about 12 lines of text.

3. Room 3 is a cool encounter, although for PCs that can take on Vashkar, it’s probably pretty easy. I like the bowl. A minor rules quibble: you can’t have a vampire rakshasa. You can only apply the vampire template to a humanoid or monstrous humanoid. That said, this is the kind of rule I can see ignoring for flavor’s sake and it seems as though you were handed this concept from someone else (this is the danger of bringing in a new judge in the middle things, I guess).

4. The idol in area 6 is cool, but I’m not sure there’s enough info here to run it properly. What’s its initiative? What spells effects does it like to use?

5. Do these creatures all stay in their rooms, even if they hear combat? Vashkar, for example, could harass intruders pretty well throughout the whole lair.

Lastly, I think some of the save DCs are probably really easy for anyone that could beard Vashkar in his lair.

So, overall, I love the flavor of this place, I just think it might have been too much to try to do in this format. Knowing how much you can properly detail in a set amount of words in an assignment is an important skill for a writer to have.

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the kind words in this thread. I hope you enjoy the CBoXM. And I hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship with Paizo Publishing. These guys rock!

And as long as I've got your attention for a second, I'll add that you might want to keep an eye on montecook.com over the next few weeks for some more cool announcments.

Thanks again!