Neil Spicer's page

Hi, Ben...the short answer is no. As authors for these adventures, we often paint in broad brush strokes, particularly with side NPC references. Only a small part of our word count goes towards that kind of stuff, and we intentionally leave a lot of it undefined so that GMs are free to adapt and adjust that extra material however they want as their campaigns progress. Many such NPCs never get used in any meaningful way (for some GMs and their players), whereas others become very meaningful due to PC interaction with them...and there's no way for us to anticipate how anyone's campaign will necessarily play out in that regard. So, we leave it undefined...and that's really just gray area where you can create your own answers to enhance and react to the story your game table is experiencing.

Hope that helps,
--Neil

Just wanted to add my voice of congratulations to Jim. You've been a wonderful part of the gaming industry all the way back to your unwavering support of TSR's Alternity and Star*Drive communities when they were sunsetting. I remember you won everyone's respect right away...and many times since. Best wishes to you, Jeff, and Paizo.

Hey, James...what kind of character are you playing in your monthly Legendary Planet game? Any interesting encounters/experiences with it yet?

I'm already back. That was a week ago. :)

A Few Ideas:

FYI, I’m on vacation in the NC mountains thru this Saturday. Posting has been limited and will continue to be so until then.

Wayfinder is published at the same time PaizoCon starts (whether in-person or virtual) and it's made available here on the Paizo site as a free download whether you're attending the convention or not. Presumably, if you want to attend this year's PaizoCon (including any online "party" for the Wayfinder release if it's hosted on their Discord channels), you'd want to purchase a badge for the entire convention (though, Paizo is making some free badges available where others have donated to provide them to anyone who can't afford it). If I got any of that wrong, I'm sure someone official will come along and correct me. :)

Alright, I'm putting together a multiclass Half-Elf Envoy/Mystic with a Xenoarchaeologist theme and the Healer connection. Basically, the ultimate support character and jack-of-all-trades.

I've been looking back thru the rules for Envoys and Mystics and I think I may go for a multiclass that hits both roles for us. So, I'd forego the Technomancer (and Mechanic) options. You could tackle either of those, and I'll take the captain's chair, if you like? Or, if you're sold on doing an Envoy or Mystic, I could just do multiclass Technomancer/Mechanic, instead. Let me know which you prefer and I'll go the other direction.

If we go with this collection of heroes, we seem to be severely lacking in the applied healing/support role. So, I could probably turn my half-elf technomancer into a mystic with a multiclass dip into envoy to round things out.

I'll head over to the "just for fun" crew.

Checking in...here for the fun of it all!

I'll maintain the two character concepts I proposed previously:
1) Dwarf Bounty Hunter Mechanic (with a combat drone)
-- or --
2) Half-Elf Scholar Technomancer

If others show up and really want to occupy either of those roles, I'm willing to shift and play something different, though. I'm more of a "round out the party with the best fit" kind of guy anyway.

Recap so far:

Archpaladin Zousha -- Dromada Envoy (possibly with the Starfinder Data Jockey archetype)
‘Eκάτη -- Nuar Mechanic
Brother_Guiness -- Android Ace Pilot Soldier
Buckshot Bob -- Spacefarer Mystic (Star Shaman, race uncertain)
Gimry -- Ysoki Solarian
JackHaus -- Shirren Solarian
NSpicer -- Dwarf Bounty Hunter Mechanic (with a combat drone) or Half-Elf Scholar Technomancer
Therenger -- Human (featherlight) Spacefarer Vanguard
Kirill.Storm -- Ifrit Envoy or Gray Technomancer

No one has expressed interest in running an Operative yet, so that might be an available role. Same goes for a Soldier, Solarion, Biohacker, and Witchwarper.

Dotting in with interest. I don't have a preference between playing for Starfinder credit or not. I've got two different character concepts I'm currently tossing around. Both are classes I haven't had a chance to experience in Starfinder yet. So, I'd like to give one of them a go.

1) Dwarf (Bounty Hunter, Guard, or Mercenary) Mechanic - Uses a combat drone to aid in the reconnaissance and capture of fugitives, criminals, and sometimes trophy specimens or lost artifacts. Originally from one of the dwarven city-sized Star Citadel ships, but relocated to live with his cousin on Absalom Station several years ago. More recently, he joined the Starfinder Society's Acquisitive (or possibly Exo-Guardian) faction for an opportunity to more broadly advertise his services and take advantage of their stockpile of resources. He's also developing contacts with the dwarven clans and guilds on Absalom Station to further refine his skills with weapons, armor, and drones.

2) Half-Elf (Scholar) Technomancer - Born on Castrovel as the daughter of a visiting xenoarchaeologist and a native elf. Initially raised by her single elven mother, but after coming of age and mastering her fledgling technomancy skills, she sought to travel the Pact Worlds like her father. Eventually, she tracked him down on Absalom Station and learned he worked for the Starfinder Society. Under his sponsorship, she's joined their Second Seeker faction with a major thirst for exploration, magitech, and lost lore. Her primary interest lies in helping the ancient elves of Castrovel determine the cause of the Gap and how it affected their memories.

Hey, James! Best wishes, and I hope you're hanging in there! :)

If you had a "Mount Rushmore" of Top 5 art pieces done for Paizo/Pathfinder (in terms of character art, not cover backgrounds), what would you select for it?

Hey, ST...I wish I could help you out. As one of the authors for that AP (the last chapter), I've often wished I could run it as a play-by-post, but I truly don't have the time to do it justice. I'm playing in a couple of games online, but running something takes a lot more effort to keep it going...and I'd hate to start something only to have it fall apart and disappoint everyone. That said, if someone does agree to run it, I might be willing to play alongside you (keeping player knowledge separate from character knowledge, of course).

Two potential choices off the top of my head:

1) Have Radvir join the witches and seek their assistance in enacting revenge upon the PCs. While the witches may not be his strongest allies, they have been working together. In the course of moving against the PCs, you'll have opportunities to drop additional clues that lead them back to the witches themselves. And you can add Radvir to the final location as another defender/obstacle.

2) Have Radvir ramp up the drug trade, continuing to addict more vampire spawn, leveraging a new army to create disarray among the vampire nobility. Then, look for ways where he can somehow implicate the PCs (or Ramoska) in the creation and distribution of the drug itself, implying they duped Luvick in order to free Ramoska as part of a complete takeover of the ruling vampires.

Mine is my first and last name at AOL. (yes...I'm that old) :)

P.S. Looks like your Halloween "bounty" just became available.

I'll definitely run some more games. My Bounty is officially out tomorrow, and I definitely want to run it. Just not quite sure when my schedule will allow. Hopefully post-election.

Interesting. And just in time for Halloween... :)

Thanks, Jacob. I downloaded the chronicle so I'd have the PDF copy. Not sure what to do with it. Are we expected to print these off and take them to future in-person games, or just hang onto them as a historical record indicating what boons we earned, etc.?

Setting that aside, this was a fun game. Probably the best PFS game I've done, because I can get in character a lot more easily via Play-by-Post more than in-person. And I feel like I can do more character development that way than the organized play events at conventions and such.

If you run another game in the future, be sure to let me know. I'd enjoy continuing with Elien a bit longer. :)

Hey, Jacob! I've got an interest in submitting, since I've been thinking I might get more active in PFS2 as an easier way to play remotely these days. But, how would this game be run as part of the Gameday event? Is it still just a traditional play-by-post or will it involve more of a virtual tabletop videoconference kind of thing? I don't have a PF2 character created for PFS yet, but if it works like traditional play-by-post, I'd like to create one and give organized play a try again.

I've got an interest in experiencing this AP, as well. It's one of the few I haven't played or GM'ed before, and I had no hand in its creation. Also, one of my other games ended recently, so I've got some extra time on my hands to join another one now.

Ideally, I'd like to run a human wizard with the instructor archetype...which would give him an apprentice using the commoner NPC class as a cohort. So, essentially, it's two characters in one and I'd post separately as both of them. If that sounds agreeable, would it be okay if I assign a campaign trait to each character? If so, I think I can weave their backgrounds together in a way that works even better for the campaign.

Which Forsaken is Veilisandri’s patron?

I'm pretty sure it's Husk. Veilisandri uses the Owb Prophet entry on pg. 62 in the bestiary appendix, which has silence as an at-will spell-like ability, as well as immunity to bleed, disease, mind-affecting effects, and poison. All of those abilities are included in the Owb Prophet...which means other Owb Prophets would have slightly different statistics than the example provided.

...are you allowed to tell us what you are working on now? Also, now that no new edition 1 APs are being published, are you working on v2 APs?

Freelancing Response:

I agree with Adam. Monster entries do test contestants on a larger mix of crunch and flavor capabilities than you can normally get in the magic item round. You get a lot more words. There are a lot more rules elements potentially in play. And, there's a lot more opportunity to showcase your creativity, both in the monster concept, as well as its origin/habitat/ecology. It also foreshadows how well these contestants can envision new monsters from an adventure-writing perspective...i.e., what kind of adventure seeds or scenarios where they might feature. So, it's a good microcosm for evaluation. A bit longer than a magic item and a lot shorter than a full-blown adventure proposal or encounter location.

Also, for those who might be disappointed by the single round of competition, I did ask one of the organizers about it, and they indicated they're starting small for now, but it may expand to include more rounds the next time they do it. And, if so, Jacob and I have both offered to lend a hand if we have time.

Hey there, Neil! Good to hear from you! Things have been pretty crazy lately, with the one-two punch of coronavirus and Kingmaker fighting for dominance of king of stress mountain in my mind!

I can imagine...on both fronts. According to the news, it seems like Washington state is ground zero for the US-based cases. :(

...I'm assuming you've heard that we're doing a giant Kingmaker compilation, in other words.

I have indeed. I wish I could have pitched in to help Jason on it (especially Chapter 4), but alas, the day-job is still quite crazy these days...not to mention the homefront with my kids.

Follow-up question: I was reading thru the new Lost Omens World Guide the other day, and I enjoyed the changes introduced by the assumed completion of various Adventure Paths. Did you have a favorite among those various outcomes, and what they might mean for future campaign plots?

Hey, James...hope you're well. I still follow along here from time to time, and in the interest of asking a question to keep things flowing, what's new with Paizo (that you can talk about) which I might not have heard (especially since I won't be at PaizoCon again)?

I was happy to see this announced, and now funded! As the author for Chapter 2: Sword of Valor, I can't wait to see how some of those mass combat scenes play out...especially in Drezen. :)

10-4. I'll have something to you in the next couple of days. My oldest daughter is having surgery today to have her wisdom teeth out. Once we have that behind us, I'll start working up the character. Thanks for having me in the game, and apologies to the Emerald Duke. Perhaps if we lose another player down the road, there'll be another opportunity? Best wishes and happy holidays.

Hey, Squirrel Ninja...

I might have an interest, assuming you're open to the idea of the actual author of Book 1 playing alongside everyone. FYI, I've taken a sabbatical from writing for Paizo these past few years due to family obligations at home, but I was an avid play-by-post gamer prior to RPG Superstar and recently joined a couple of other games here on the boards. Since you're running Snows of Summer, I've been lurking along with your game for the past couple of weeks, so I'm already caught up on what's happened so far.

If you're comfortable with including me, I believe a cleric of Sarenrae with the Sun domain seems especially in order for your group. That should cover the healing angle and bring a bit of sunshine to melt the snow and ice ahead. Or, my personal preference would be a witch with a healing-oriented patron and the ley line guardian archetype. That would probably work better for the storyline, and I could take the Failed Winter Witch Apprentice campaign trait. Either way, I'll be sure to keep my in-game knowledge limited to what the character would know. Let me know your thoughts and I can put together a full character concept while I'm home for holidays.

...I think there's a good chance we'll make a PF2 version of The Assimilation Strain, as it certainly can stand on its own. We'll see about the rest of the series. It's *A LOT*.

Go big or go home? ;)

@Neil: There'll be a LOT of Legendary Planet hitting sites!

::big thumbs up::

Thanks for the review, Thilo. It's good to see you back in action! Be well!

Cool! It's a compelling story told across multiple worlds thru the "voices" of some of the best AP authors we could amass. If you give it a go, please post some reviews of the individual adventures when you can. And thanks for supporting Legendary Games!

Will have a pf2e version of this ready soon?

That's a question for Jason. I know we have PF1, 5e, and Starfinder versions, but I'm not sure he's gone down the PF2 route yet.

Is there a non-divine caster source of water in part 1?

I'm not sure I quite understand the question. Are you asking if there's a mundane source of water in the jagladine prison? If so, yes. Water is a key building block of life. The Jagladine are masters of manipulating and experimenting upon various lifeforms. They deal in diseases and poisons, all of which often rely upon water as an incubator or source of dilution. So, the various storerooms...the klaven vats...and the laboratories...would all almost certainly have containers of water available. Resourceful PCs would just need to locate them if they want to make use of them.

Sorry, folks. Life got a little crazy these past few days (weeks?) at the office. Been working overtime. In other news, I'm interviewing for a different position. So, hopefully, that'll help. In the meantime, I'm overdue for some escapism and gaming is just the right outlet for it.

Sorry, folks. Life got a little crazy these past few days at the office. Been working overtime. In other news, I'm interviewing for a different position. So, hopefully, that'll help. In the meantime, I'm overdue for some escapism and gaming is just the right outlet for it.

Any indication of how long have the PCs been out of it at the start? Hours? Days? Weeks? Facial hair growth, and unwinding of pocket watches should give some measure.

We purposefully left that undefined, so it's up to each GM according to the game they're going to run. If the prequel adventure The Assimilation Strain is run prior to this one, some GMs may want more elapsed time to have occurred...i.e., days, weeks, etc.. Or, if you're jumping straight into To Words Unknown without the prequel, it could be just a few hours.

Hey, Joana...

I'd like to submit for your game, as well. Part of getting up to speed on the new edition of the game should be playing the actual game, so that's my ultimate goal. And, given my work schedule and home activities with my family, a play-by-post game is more my speed than a face-to-face tabletop group right now. Generally speaking, I also prefer the enhanced roleplaying/storytelling capability inherent in the play-by-post format. My ABC concept would be:

Jonagher Winnt
NG Male elf rogue
Ancestry: Elf (seer elf)
Background: Reputation Seeker
Class: Rogue (with some possible multiclass into Wizard down the road)

Background:

It's up to each individual GM on how they want to approach starting wealth and firearm availability.

Lashunta (Korasha) Mechanic (exocortex)

Android Technomancer
Human Soldier (Starfinder Forerunner)
Halfling Mystic (Star Shaman)

FYI, the lashunta mechanic is a recent addition to the team after we arrived on Castrovel, which means the rest of us are the only members of the team to go through the Drift Rock together.

The android technomancer is our arcane support and hacker, though the lashunta mechanic has some hacking skills, too. She's been crafted to outwardly appear as an elf and has some history with her drow makers before joining the android abolitionist front.

The halfling mystic (star shaman) is our pilot, divine caster, and healer.

And I'm playing the Akitonian human soldier in an attempt to be a well-rounded "tank" for the party. :)

Zam (the vacated character/role) is also a native lashunta envoy from Castrovel, but she joined the Starfinders on Absalom Station with the rest of us when we started the campaign. We all unanimously voted her our captain after we acquired the Sunrise Maiden and she's been the diplomatic "face" for the party all along.

In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose. I guess I'll do what I can to help explain some of the motivations a good character might feel when rationalizing their opposition to Khalfani Zuberi:

Now, that's a lot of plot points to unpack (and try to make available to the PCs via a 4-game series of PFS). But, inklings of that backstory do need to leak out over the course of the finale...whether provided by the Followers of Almaut, Venture-Captain Norden Balentiir, the manifested ghosts of the three concubines, or even the sphinx Sekhmanu. That information should then go a long way in helping good-aligned PCs better understand who they're facing, what his history is, and the kind of danger he poses to the Inner Sea should he be fully restored to unleash his evil on the region again.

But that's just my two cents,
--Neil

Were you involved in the Aetheric Heroes set?

No. I've produced every Heroes product except Aetheric Heroes (done by Robert Brookes, I believe) and Winter Heroes (done by Liz Courts). And I had some assistance on the write-ups for the character backgrounds in Planetary Heroes for our Legendary Planet AP (but I compiled the stat-blocks and general conceptual details).

Awesome! As I was saying, it's an OCD thing for me, to compile lists and see what got lots of representation and what 'classic' races and classes didn't get as much. (Lots of humans and clerics and rogues. Very few barbarians and surprisingly few fighters, monks, wizards, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, etc.)

I've been making a conscious decision on these products to revisit some of the under-served classes (particularly fighers and wizards), but many of them are still in the design stage, so no one's seen them yet. :)

For instance, across the 6 unfinished Heroes products I have in varying stages of planning/completion, there's a: wizard (instructor), fighter (mobile fighter), ranger (trophy hunter), paladin (holy guide), wizard (spell sage), fighter (high guardian), and wizard (arcane physician) in the works. So, there was a fair bit of new design choices (especially via archetypes) among some of those under-represented classes. And, generally speaking, I always shoot for 2 arcane, 2 divine, 2 martial, and 2 skill/support classes in each set. That's a formula I'll never abandon, because it's what creates a well-rounded, mix-and-match party for each AP. And, among the divine classes, I pretty much always reach for at least one cleric for the higher healing output and channel energy capability, because most parties need that given the known lethality of some of the adventures.

As for the racial mix, that's always the toughest call I make when producing these sets. I shoot for 3-4 humans in every batch, and then 4-5 non-humans, and I only include the races that have good story-hooks for the specific AP rather than trying to force a dwarf, halfling, or gnome just for the sake of having one. I'll fit them in where I can, but only if it makes sense. In addition, with the Advanced Race Guide available, I try to have at least 1-2 of the non-human races include something a little more rare (e.g., oreads, sylphs, ifrits, or even a goblin?!) to show how they can fit into such an AP even better than some of the more traditional ones. But, no matter how you slice it, there's only so much room in each set...and the most important thing is to make sure they synergize with the AP and each other.

I love how imaginative they've been...and how the various NPCs all have connections or narrative ties to each other, it really gives them a neat spark of life.

I think that's what sets the Heroes product line apart from just a set of routine, pregenerated characters. To elevate them, they need individual story hooks to the AP, but also to one another because that helps the players get into character much more swiftly when there are integrated backgrounds and motivations. I believe Endzeitgeist picked up on that quicker than anyone in one of his reviews. They're not just standalone characters. You can select 4-5 of the 8 and create an actual adventuring party that already has reasons for being together built into them. And, there are enough hooks in their backstories and future potential to let them play off one another (in a roleplaying sense) as they experience the AP together. That's always been the goal. And that's what inspires me when I do these things. I just wish I had more time to do them...and that they were better money-makers for Legendary Games to incent us to keep going.

Need more barbarians and rangers!

The Runebound Heroes set includes both a human barbarian (with the titan mauler archetype) AND a dwarven ranger (with the trapper archetype)!

There's an oread, an undine and a slyph, where's mah ifrit! :)

I have another set of characters called Wishful Heroes that I was designing for a certain desert-themed/extraplanar AP from the pre-Pathfinder days that includes not one, but TWO ifrits...a brother and sister tandem born as twins...one a rogue and the other a wishcrafting sorceror. There's also another sylph...this time a wizard (with the wind listener archetype).

What has happened to Neil Spicer's pregen character series?

If it helps at all, I have a selection I was working on for Runebound Heroes that's closest to completion, but as Jason said, I've been turning down work for quite sometime now, simply because my day-job and home-life schedules don't really allow much time for it, especially if it's something that requires a hard deadline. The Heroes product line is about the only one that I can work on as I find time, but they're not exactly the highest return-on-investment work for Legendary Games these days.

I figured that a set for Starfinder, or perhaps Age of Ashes might also be very helpful.

I did start brainstorming one for Starfinder's Dead Suns AP, but haven't made a lot of progress with it.

Sadly, there's nothing in the hopper for Age of Ashes...

Another option would be for Kenabres to send reinforcements along the same path the PCs took...either because survivors from the ford alerted them to the need, or the crusader leadership in Kenabres has been scrying the PCs to keep tabs on them, or just because they thought it was good tactical sense to send another group of raw recruits to reinforce the citadel once it was retaken.

Additionally, you could have another beleaguered force of crusaders that got trapped behind enemy lines retreating towards Drezen, fully believing they'll be forced to make a last stand there, only to discover the PCs and the remnants of their troops, and then throw their support behind the cause to retake Drezen.

Or, you could have an up-to-now neutral third party arrive who's been monitoring the battle, and upon seeing the PCs nearly defeated, decide to intervene in an attempt to tip the scales back in their favor. This could be a clan of snow elves from further north, a ragtag tribe of Kellid survivalists with a heritage hearkening back to ancient Sarkoris, or even a legion of dwarves tunneling up from the Darklands to retake the ancient citadel of Drezen which their ancestors helped build during the First Crusade.

Basically, you've got lots of options for more troops to rally to the PCs' cause. The primary goal is to make it suitably epic when it seems like all is lost. Best of luck with your campaign.

I'd like the arc and freebooter armor if that's cool with everyone.

I don't really have any requests for gear at this time. If there's stuff any of think Tylur should wield or carry, just let me know.

Side Note: Maybe we should visit the Starfinders first before we buy stuff to see what they need us to do next?

I endorse this plan of action! :)