Good morning - I would like to cancel my AP subscription while I am moving and between jobs. I'll be back soon - thanks!
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Nope. But that improper apostrophe comes close! ;-P Haha! And this is why you're not chaotic good. And that's great.
Taking it back to October: what tropes do you think fantasy settings (in general and specifically Golarion) are missing out on? How was Carolina Death Crawl? In theory UPS is delivering Bully Pulpit's Shab-al-Hiri Roach before the day is up. I'm not entirely sure what to expect.
Have you checked out Universalis? Also on that UPS truck. Seems like a collaborative world-building game of some kind. Enough to tempt my curiosity, at any rate. Was just checking out your 2012 Wrap-Up & 2013 Ambitions entry on Erratic Episodes - looking forward to the next installment of that! And to Kingdom Death! One day!
Exactly! The band might as well be an adventuring party of skalds and fey bloodragers, for crying out loud.
That's great - thank you!
howdy - I just tried to place an order (for the items currently in my cart) and received the following message on the 'Place Your Order' page: This order cannot be processed because an appropriate shipping rate cannot be found. I knew $0.00 shipping was too good to be true. Thanks in advance for any assistance.
can you use Summon Monster spells for sex-related things Did you just win this thread?
Of course, there aren't really grafts in Pathfinder at the moment...This is mostly true, but Book of the Damned vol 2 has some fun stuff on demonic implants. You could pretty easily use that as a foundation for a bunch of cool kyton stuff. I got inordinately interested in this a while back and might direct you towards additionally checking out '#30 Fleshgrafts' from Rite Publishing and 'The Mad Doctor's Formulary' from Legendary Games. That, and maybe listen to some Genitorturers records.
I am about to start playing skulls and shackles in my real-life group, and I was considering an emberkin aasimar dawnflower dervish as a character. In your real-life group? Are you implying that you have an in-game game? That after your PC survived Reign of Winter he got together with Valaros and the gang to play Second Darkness? I think my brain is melting out of my ears.
Thanks Sara!
Could you please move all three of my pending orders (2669543, 2669551, & 2695953) to my sidecart? Thanks!
5)Will we ever see a bard archetype that focuses on art instead of music? stuff like painting, sculpting, drawing that can be used in interesting ways like paintings as pocket dimensions, animating paper, stone, ceramics, creating a wall of paint, etc..5) Art isn't really a performance—it's a craft, and while the idea of a bard that focuses more on "bardic craft" than "bardic performance" is interesting... I don't believe there are plans to explore that anytime soon. A while back I spent some time thinking about this, specifically about an origami magic dude - the conclusion I came to at the time was that even if it was going to be artistic and bardic in theme, the alchemist felt like the best chassis to build an archetype like that on top of. That said, I may not have the same thing in mind that you do - if it's about the media (manipulating paper, stone, etc), I think you've got an artsy transmuter on your hands.
But mythic isn't simply about powerful, right? For instance, I can totally buy Captain America as having some mythic Marshal or Guardian juju, despite being a lot closer to Hawkeye than to Thor on the powerhouse scale. Conversely, Ironman strikes me as very very powerful but not necessarily mythic (as a warrior, that is - Tony Stark as a mythic tinker of some kind sounds pretty great). All that said, I don't think low-level mythic examples get much better than "dumb teenage Hercules".
of late I've been playing an Orc Antipaladin in a side game once a month and I have noticed a disturbing trend. In supplement books that are not hardcover, there are almost no antipaladin spells. FYI, next Deep Magic stretch goal: Doom Magic of the Anti-Paladins.
I visited the Menil Museum in Houston this weekend and saw a sculpture from central Africa that could be a fine start of a Kyton lord.I absolutely LOVE the Menil! It's the best! I think the Witnesses room (items owned and collected by the surrealists, dominated by the amazing German wildman) is my favorite museum thing ever. When we walked in the Rothko Chapel there was a dude doing some awesome martial arts katas until a stuffy docent shut him down.
I visited the Menil Museum in Houston this weekend and saw a sculpture from central Africa that could be a fine start of a Kyton lord.
hi Wes - Thanks for taking the time to answer questions here. Can you say anything about how The Guide to the River Kingdoms ended up with an entry by China Mieville? It was a very pleasant surprise to see his name on that book and Outsea certainly did not disappoint.
Sexy Souls: This says that Belial has more than a wandering eye. He is attracted to pretty things and looks for more to entertain himself with. He knows no gender or sexuality being of infinitely malleable form. He knows no taboo, being beyond morality. He's also ageless, and that means bored, so he's already tried everything once and is always looking for something new. So when you're wondering what might serve him, what might catch his attention, and what he might covet and savor, keep all of that in mind. I'm imagining that a relatively boring Saturday night for Belial might involve lazing around and ordering kytons to do kyton stuff to each other.
I like to think that the psychopomps' is the ultimate expression of practical, I-just-work-here neutrality, which provides a lot of room for interesting nuance. For instance, I have a feeling that many of them are extremely funny.
It occurs to me that the most apt PF successor to the modrons might actually be the aeons. Obviously they're different in alignment and agenda, but seem very similar in alien inscrutability, uni-mind tendencies, and rare turns towards rogue-ness. I presume that the aeons don't appear in TGB simply because they didn't exist at the time, but do you have any feelings or thoughts on these enigmas?
Formians as lawful exemplars is both from 2e and 3e. In 2e there more Formians dwelling in the LN/LG plane of Arcadia. This is true, though I've always thought of the exemplar races as being associated with the primary alignment planes in 2e, not the interstitial ones. I considered them a mortal race that had taken well to Arcadia, but were not "of it" in the sense that the demons were of the Abyss and the archons were of Mount Celestia. Sorry, I don't mean to drive this into the ground. For whatever it's worth, I think the inevitables fill the niche I'm interested in, in terms of coming in many different and interesting flavors all across the power spectrum. And it seems like a no-brainer that there are unique CR 20+ inevitables out there, tangling with Infernal Dukes and whatnot.
Modrons are copyrighted. And James Jacobs hates copyrighted things! It's not about the modrons at all! Kidding, kidding. That part was just pointless speculation (confirmed in the 'Ask JJ' thread). While I do think that formians totally pale in comparison to modrons, that's an issue for me to take up with D&D developers of the early 2000s. When I said that they were bummers compared to the alternatives, I meant angels, devils, kytons, asuras, etc etc.
Why do the axiomites look like elves every time? From The Great Beyond I thought that it was just one of their forms, but later in Death's Heretic and Shattered Star again elves? At least with the CG outsiders the alignment was right.They don't. They can take the form of any mortal race (presumably they often appear as they did in life, prior to dying, being sent to Axis by Pharasma, and choosing to become an Axiomite). I like to imagine that while axiomites do come from mortal souls, there isn't a 1-to-1 correspondence of mortal to axiomite. New axiomites are created from one soul's worth of Godmind soulstuff, though it's not a discrete mortal soul. I realize this fully contradicts the description in TGB, but it feels like a natural extension of their deeper origins as arising from the fundamental mathematics of the cosmos. (I also happen to like the sparkly elf look and I suppose my scenario probably makes all axiomites virtually identical.) And since I'm looking at TGB, I just noticed that formians "form both from adopted mortal souls and, like terrestrial insects, from their queens’ eggs." I never kept up with 3.x lore very well, but I gather the above follows from the axing of the modrons in favor of the formians as lawful exemplars at some point in there? Are formians made from exceptionally LN souls that aren't claimed by a power? I suppose their relentless uniformity is kind of the point, but as a legit soul-made outsider race they're kind of a bummer compared to the alternatives. Is there something about the awesomeness of ant-centaurs that I'm missing? I have a hunch that James Jacobs does not like modrons and that makes me sad.
hi Todd - It was nice to learn that you've been involved with Golarion planar stuff since the start. What if you were given free reign to develop the planes of a fantasy campaign setting, with the only guideline being that it be a radical departure from the D&D family tree of cosmologies? Alternately, are there planar things and themes that you'd like to explore but simply haven't ever really fit with any of the published settings with which you've worked? And if you haven't seen it, you may get a kick out of this: Ponyland reimagined as a Sigil-accessible prime over on Planewalker: http://www.planewalker.com/forum/log-x-the-primes#comment-62247
Looks like Rite Publishing is also in the patronage game:
I think Zombie Sky Press is about finished with their It Came From the Stars kickstarter/patronage project. I'm sure the next installment in The Weird Cycle will follow a similar model, so maybe keep an eye on that.
Thank you! This totally made my day, no joke. In hindsight I did completely miss the RPGSS mark, but am oddly happy there was enough there to elicit such a passionate response. (Wish I could read the original!)
Deathwalker's Maiden Thank you for the kind words and thoughtful comments. You have some very good questions that I didn't adequately address (or even think about in a few cases). It's funny, I'd originally imagined this item as a full-body iron maiden from which the zombie half would emerge (hence the name), and then became very taken with the image of a lumbering (and potentially blind) zombie getting all hulk-smash with its head fully enclosed in this black iron contraption. A visual I still love, but of course this isn't a mind's eye freakshow contest...
Another first-time participant here - I can speculate some issues with my submission, but would certainly be happy to hear any comments from others in this thread. Pricing certainly felt complicated in terms of duration and frequency of use. And best case it's clearly more of a slightly gonzo plot device item than a practical magical tool. Ah, hindsight. Deathwalker's Maiden
Successfully putting the maiden on as a standard action allows the wearer to become a pair of undead beings. The wearer's new ghostly form takes on the incorporeal condition. The wearer's physical body, now a near-mindless undead, may not use feats, skills, or spells, but gains a +3 to Strength. If the two forms are not within line-of-sight contact, the physical form is treated as blinded. Both forms detect as undead and have all undead racial traits. The maiden may be used once per week for up to 10 rounds. Following use, the user should be treated as dazed for one round. If the ghost is destroyed or the zombie is reduced to 20 or fewer hit points, the maiden falls off as the ghost form instantly rejoins the physical form. The former wearer will be treated as dazed for 1d4 rounds. Standard penalties for reduction lower than 0 hit points apply. While donning the maiden is in fact harmless, its fearsome appearance and magical aura inspire great fear in novice users. First-time users must make a Will save with a -4 penalty to successfully put on and use the item. A prospective user failing this save may not try again that day. Users must continue making Will saves on their second and third uses, with penalties of -2 and 0, respectively. Construction
Wow, I am a bit stunned I did not make it even to the top 89. I think RPG Superstar just isn't the way for me to break in. What do you mean? Maybe you made the top 93 or the top 102. As Clark said, the top 89 is all the items with a positive vote count...plus a few more. It's not a magic number. Don't be discouraged. That said, no reason to put all your breaking-in eggs in one Superstar basket, either.
Did anyone see the Lonely Man's Party Starter? I remember this great name! What did it do?
Some of the negative and uninterested comments about Rasputin remind me of a moment I had listening to a seminar recording from one or two Paizocons ago. James and others were teasing Distant Worlds and in explaining the universe of Golarian, he casually remarked that Earth was, in fact, out there somewhere. I was kind of taken aback at that. It certainly did not sit well. I didn't really think about it again until this AP reared its head and I realized something - my aversion to James' remark was really my own world-building feelings talking. But Golarion isn't my world and this adventure frankly sounds like a lot of fun. Brandon could write the shoe-shopping part of an outlet mall AP and it would be great. And once this AP is done, the gaming group can move on and consider their visit to Russia to be a wild lark that never actually happened if they so choose (like a non-canon Marvel/DC crossover or something). I don't mean to assign motivations to anyone - none of this is to say that there aren't substantive reasons for being disinclined towards this module. But for those who find it rubbing them the wrong way for difficult-to-define, not-my-thing reasons (as I did for a time), it doesn't have to mean so much. Maybe it's just a fun thing.
And they don't request to be notified if they were DQ'ed. Their subconscious might eat away at a mountain of self-doubts, but they endure and see it through, trusting in the process that's been proven effective for 5 years in a row. Alternately: What would Merisiel do? She would be cool, that's what she would do.
Ha! This is the best. I will be daydreaming of this parody song. I wish more people knew what it's means.
You know this is only how the voting is going to work for this round, right?
Hmmm. Joke item. Managed to slip past reporting. Reporting how? I believe joke items are perfectly within the rules - they're just most likely bad. I've cheerfully voted for a (mechanically sound) joke item already, because the alternative was sufficiently dull.
Not to mention, combat bards exist(ed) in the real world. What do you think a drumline would be? Absolutely. There are so many great examples. But few of them are fighting while music-making, which is where the PF bard gets a bit puzzling (and basically unworkable for those with musical instruments in mind). Perhaps bards are more like musical theater actors - not musicians per se, but possessing great musicality as but one part of a larger performative package. (That is, Neil Patrick Harris = bard. Jimmy Page = weird magus archetype or something.)
hello James - If you ever feel like you aren't getting enough odd looks from strangers, try perusing the Books of the Damned on an airplane. That will that care of that. On this same trip I also read Death's Heretic and really enjoyed the visits to Axis and the Boneyard - do you see any additional planar sourcebooks on the horizon?
hello James Jacobs! Somewhere earlier in this thread you described PF as being, by your estimation, in the middle of its life cycle. Thinking about D&D, it's kind of interesting how the life cycles of the editions have interacted with the canon of the various campaign settings (the most dramatic maybe being 2e's grand unification of everything with PS and SJ and the subsequent un-unification thereof). But PF is one set of game mechanics and one world (as are most games, I think - the D&D campaign world / edition tangle is probably more of a weird exception). Do you foresee being finished with Golarion several years down the line? Or would you be happy to see it continuing into future version of the game mechanics? Alternately, is the question of whether 'Unspeakable Futures' takes place in the Golarionverse even interesting?
I just took a look at caltrops, which turn out to have the closest mechanic I've seen to what I had in mind. Many thanks for the tip.
Imagine several totally obvious bear traps or other non-hidden location traps in a perfectly well-lit room. Then the room swarms with enemies and it's battle time. Even if we're going to leave the traps on the map and presume that the characters retain a decent idea of where they are, it still seems as if there should be more chance of setting one off in the heat of battle, right? Does it make any sense to try and model these mechanically as traps or do they become a custom battlefield obstruction of some kind? My first thought would be: If someone if attacked within x feet of the trap, or attacks someone within x feet of the trap, they should make a reflex save to see if they have set it off (and if it is set off, another save for damage). Thanks for any thoughts. |