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Theres a market. Its whether paizo thinks its worth it.

3rd parties put out adventures. Hell i have been buying traveller adventures to mine for ideas and convert. Not including grabbing alternity, spelljammer, dragonstar. And star frontier ones.

APs are good, but straight jackets at times

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I have it. I enjoy it quite a bit. Its got more then a few creatures i would definately use.

I like it better then alien 3 from piazo

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Katina Davis wrote:
Announced for August! Product image and description are not final and may be subject to change.

Sounds alot like the Beserker stories by saberhagen....

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BlMageJosh wrote:

There's an amazing AP called The Age of Worms that ran in Dungeon magazine in 2005 that was amazing. I ran about a quarter of it when it came out, but we never got to finish it. Flash forward and with the exception of 2 players I've still got the same core group. I would really like to finish it so I'm thinking of mashing the two APs together into one galactic hot mess.

The AoW AP in a nutshell has an ancient demi god get locked away just as he ascends into godhood, and the heroes are attempting to thwart his return. Super short synopsis: Age of Worms develops from a small town of Diamond Lake, leads to intrigue in the Free City, and then on to a mysterious cult that serves as a front to bring about the events leading up to the Age of Worms. As the players encounter the various architects of the plot, they uncover the nature of the coming age, and battle the ultimate masterminds behind it. In the end, they face off against the two primary antagonists: Dragotha, a powerful undead dragon, and his master, Kyuss. It's called the Age of Worms because Kyuss makes these little green worms that can turn both living and undead into powerful undead.

I'm thinking of making Kyuss an early made android of the First Ones called One Hundred One, making the Stellar Degenerator the prison of One Hundred One. I'm thinking of turning the worms into something like a living computer code, and when they infest someone use the Cybernetic Zombie Template from the Alien Archive. For the cult I was going to leave them as Cult of the Devourer, just have this part as a splinter faction that has learned of One Hundred One and how he wants to wipe everything away because the First Ones did not obtain perfection. Haven't decided what to do with the undead dragon yet. The Corpse Fleet, not sure how I would work them in. Maybe keep their role the same, as a competing faction against the Cult trying to release the trapped god who would make more undead?

Anyway thought I would throw this idea out and see what you folks thought of it.

that sounds pretty awesome so far. Curious to see where it goes with wind dukes, rod of 7 parts or a few other creature worm that walks....

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Metaphysician wrote:
That doesn't mean you "can't", it means you choose not to. Different things.

Wont because i dislike pdfs. Cant because i have neither computer, tablet or kindle.

But irregardless, 10 pdf is worthless to me

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jimthegray wrote:


or you can buy it for 10 bucks

Dont do PDFs. I need paper products. So no, not really.

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Star Dragon Caith wrote:
The reviews seem to indicate that there is a lack of content, and that much of the work is left to the DM. Is this accurate? Should I temper my expectations when comparing to the (thrilling success that was the) original PF Bestiary?

Honestly its ptetty thin and underwhelming, especially the monster selection given. Nothing like bestiarys at all.

The appendix in the back, creating monsters and templates, seems pretty useful.

But not sure its worth the $40 price tag. If this is going to be the offerings for products for starfinder, i might have to rethink the game.

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Rough eta on the product?

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Colette Brunel wrote:

That is not what the book says, Rysky. What the book does say is, "the game assumes that in typical settlements you can find and purchase anything with an item level no greater than your character level + 1, and at major settlements items up to your character level + 2. The GM can restrict access to some items (even those of an appropriate level) or make items of a higher level available for purchase (possibly at a greatly increased price or in return for a favor done for the seller)."

"Appropriate level" is level + 1, or level + 2 in larger settlements. The book is quite clear about this.

Actually no. You are leaving out the critical part that says "no greater than."

Which means the top end is level + 1. It could be just level.

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Duiker wrote:


Yes, but there's also a signaling problem. I was very excited about being a charter subscriber for Starfinder when I assumed it would be an AP of the same basic length and parameters as Pathfinder. But to find out that it's 64 pages every other month instead of 96 every month? That signals that they do not have faith

As someone who owns more the a few APs, im glad its shorter. Most of whats after the adventure i didnt care too much about. The short stories in 6 parts are worthless too me.

As long as the adventure length is roughly the same, and they can put a planet or ship or couple alien life forms at the end, im good.

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Drovnar Strongbrew wrote:

This may at 1st glance sound like a negative comment but it's not really. More of a generation issue perhaps. Back in the day running a game was a creative outlet, stories were written, maps were drawn, minis were painted & character development was worked out with the DM. Now prefix adventures are hastily read, low quality prepainted plastic minis are purchased in bulk & power gamers can dig through a rediculous number of options till they select for themselves the perfect game breaking combo.

What would be the point of reskinning Starfinder if the overwhelming majority of lazy & unimaginative players AND GMs want to be spoon fed their setting by Paizo? Put up your lonely flyer advertising your Home brew game at a Convention or FLGS Game night and you'll be Lucky to get a few divergent souls. Yet the place will be filled to bursting with scores of loud Starfinder Society tables. Paizo wove the setting into the Core Rulebook from the start and presented that's how Starfinder is played...& so 99.8% of the fan boy & fan girl culture follows suit. Observe closely & see if this is what comes to pass.

It might well be a generation thing. Older school gamer i would rather tinker and tell a story that i eant rather then the story paizo wants. It doesnt matter what everyone else wants. Only what i and the group does.

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mcbraggart wrote:
I'm going to mod in the old TSR Star Frontiers races. I love the Dralasites and my group is older so they will get the references.

Same, but a bit farther. In fact tge plan is to run a modifies versiom of ctash on volturnus and volturnus planet of mystery as a staring point.

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Going to break out sone old star frontiers material and see about adapting it.

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Not really the best idea for this ap, to play a hobgoblin. Besides mistrust, vilified, and many other things, you might get knifed if your sleep. Seriously. You want to play the same race that just bur n ed their hones and killed or enslaved their loved ones, no matter ho good a paladin you could be, you are still a hobgoblin.

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"John wrote:


Mostly I was trying to convey that the Plane of Fire chapter is very nicely done, such that even someone who doesn't think that fire is an exciting element might reconsider that stance after reading this book.

It's not that fire isn't exciting, it's tgat fire is overdone in comparison to the other three planes- there are 4 different city of Brass done. Fire was the main opponent in temple of elemental evil. And so on.......folks have wanted more ofvthe other planes.

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Starship Captain Yesterday wrote:
You didn't list Iron Gods as one that caught your attention. How is that even possible.

Some folks dont like tech mixed with their fantasy game. Iron Gods has no interest for me either......if I wanted them mixed together, I'd pull out my shadowrun books......

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SMNGRM wrote:


The problem is that I don't see much love for it when I'm reading forums for reviews. Is there something inherently wrong with the AP, is it because it's still relatively new, or is it backlash for traditional fantasy after Paizo did something so out there with Iron Gods?

Besides many of the other items that folks have already said in this thread about items in giantslayer.....the answer is yes, actually. There is a segment that does feel that way. To quote another person in this very forum:

"It's the most boring Paizo AP to date. I mean, it's not badly written or with structural problems, but it just doesn't have a single theme, NPC, location or idea which grabbed me. It feels like if after Iron Gods Paizo decided to put out a super turbo conservative AP to placate the grognards and compete with WotC in the field of traditional adventures."

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thejeff wrote:
Truthfully, it should be CHEAPER to just hire a hireling or go leadership to do whatever you neeed done and let him pay his own expenses.

Cheaper doesnt mean better. Depends on his plans- hiring someone is great, but they may not know the ins and outs of slave markets, processing and various other items- such as who, how many guards and various items.

I can see an argument for it, short term. Long term no. Depends on what his plans are. But its really a sit down with your DM and discuss ideas and see whats what.

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Quote:
I had some hope for PF early on because their original business model was adventures & settings. I am however not surprised that a 3.5 clone took the route it did.

The funny part is everyone can agree 3.5 had bloat......yet pathfinder which has produced more products it's being argued does not have bloat.

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Redbeard the Scruffy wrote:
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Redbeard the Scruffy wrote:
Further, If you have players that are that stubborn, the problem isn't the system.
Who said the system was the problem?

Fair enough.

You really should try to expand your circle then, man. Aside from earlier, I've never seen you lose your s*it over something like that. Sounds like you have severely toxic players.

Do they even know you're...you...on here? Can they read this and just don't care?

That's easy to say in your experience but you should note that in many cases it's not that easy or simply to just do so. When I lived in NY ( that is the state, NOT the city ) I had to drive an hour minimum, to even FIND other gamers. Much less find more.

It's never as simple as your experiences make out.

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captain yesterday wrote:
I don't see how that's a problem.

It becomes a problem because of the break neck rate of release. And combine tgat with the sheer amount of products out there and rules in each, there is no way to check how rules interact with each other or how the stack....into things that become broken combos. Which, depending on your table, may not be welcome bu the DM or outshine other players.

Don't forget that early pathfinder was advertised as 3.5 cranked to 11. Pathdinderdefinately delivers that with the bloat....for good or for ill.

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Forever Slayer wrote:


So who's forcing people to buy all those books out there? You don't need anything outside of core to play the game so why give out and keep others from having the options they want when all you have to do is limit what you buy?

Given Paizo's business strategy has a strong emphasis on a subscription model, I'd hazard to say them. Its paizo that is, while not forcing, heavily encouraging buying them all. And once you start people buying all the products, then they will want to use them what they have bought.

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Rise of the Runelords

then

Kingmaker
Legacy of Fire

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Kalindlara wrote:


I guarantee you that even if - and that's a big if - they do another Anniversary Edition, it won't be any of these. The only one that even has a shot is Legacy of Fire, and it's in line behind Curse of the Crimson Throne and Second Darkness (and possibly Kingmaker) for updating. That's in addition to JonGarrett's point up above.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news in this regard, I suppose. ^_^

I'd argue that the only other one likely to be done is Kingmaker, as it was the second most popular one after RotR.

The other 3 really arent really in the running.

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Misroi wrote:
Fair enough, carmachu. The more appropriate thing for me to have said would be "Paizo is writing for the largest audience they can." The subset that has issues with sexual violence in their fiction is larger than the subset that doesn't, so they try to write to please as many people as possible.

"Writing for the largest audience they can" is debatable given some of their moves and writing changes the last couple years. While I'll grant you that subset, the AP is dealing with orcs, half orcs and a community under constant war in a border region. It didnt have to get spelled out like book of erotic fantasy, but some acknowelegement of such would have been appropriate. I mean, their ok with murdering the children in the AP (hope knives) but not the reality of half orcs. Pretty sure that if you polled the same subset that has sexual violence, they would have the same issue with killing children in case things turned south.

It could have been handled in similar fashion as hope knives.

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Misroi wrote:
I think the problem is that some posters on this thread are expecting Paizo to go to places that they don't feel comfortable going on a mass basis. To them I must reply: Paizo is not writing for your group; they're writing for all groups.

The corollary is that if you're writing for all groups, you're really not writing for any groups then. You really cant please all people.

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Auxmaulous wrote:


I stopped buying APs some time back due to the declining quality in writing, overall challenge of the adventures combined with the increasing message push, but I got suckered back in with Iron Gods (Faux Expedition to the Barrier Peaks - was not even a homage to S3). I should have known better - live and learn. I didn't buy into Giantslayer because I learned my lesson with the bait and switch homage routine they pulled with IG and that was enough for me.

The only thing you really can do is communicate your concerns to other gamers and to vote with your wallet. The staff at Paizo will tell you the same because truth be told - they really don't care what you think (and have said so on numerous occasions).

This. I agree with you and the OP and much of what you said is true.

There's a reason I'm an EX-charter subscriber. The current Paizo is nothing like the paizo I signed up with in 2008.

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Gorbacz wrote:
It's the most boring Paizo AP to date. I mean, it's not badly written or with structural problems, but it just doesn't have a single theme, NPC, location or idea which grabbed me. It feels like if after Iron Gods Paizo decided to put out a super turbo conservative AP to placate the grognards and compete with WotC in the field of traditional adventures.

What, paizo capitalizing on the release of 5th to entice folks to buy their product by harkening back to days of old, of a module that was a classic?

Thats kinda a big fat duh. Yes thats exactly what they did. I think it was even mentioned somewhere, enworld I think, that that was the line of thinking of making it.

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UnArcaneElection wrote:
Cleric is powerful and hard to mess up, but is boring.

It's only as boring as you let it be. I've never had my clerics ever bore me.

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Insain Dragoon wrote:
So Golarian is like the 40th Millennium. It's a snapshot in time before big events start happening.

Your example is terrible because 40k has been SO static for over 20 years that they've gone nowhere so much they've turned to the hours heresy....which is more popular in many respects.

I get Jacobs point but sooner or later the static feeling gets old.

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Its still pending after almost a week. Can you tell me whats going on with it?

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roguerouge wrote:


I'm surprised that Shattered Star didn't appeal to you then. Collecting pieces of an artifact is pretty old-school. Mummy's Mask seemed pretty old school too, as even flying castles date back to Dragonlance. Ah well, to each their own definition of traditional.

Mummy's mask wasnt that old school. I have no interest in egyptian themed parts of paizo's world.

Shattered star was ok. But the end BBG was too wacky, as were some other items. I might pick it up eventually and adapt parts of it for my own ends. It reminds me of the old Rod of Seven parts adventure.....but wackier in places.

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spectrevk wrote:

Looking through a few threads, it seems like Giantslayer, much like Iron Gods, has been a bit of a divisive issue. I count myself on the "Iron Gods" side of that equation, and I've been considering canceling my sub for Giantslayer, but before I do so, I want to be sure that I've given it a fair shake.

I consider myself a pretty open-minded guy; I enjoy 'traditional' dungeon crawling as much as anyone, but I also like to spice things up a bit with new ideas.

I'm on the other side of the fence. I've long since canceled my subscriptions because piazo has gone on "wacky" encounter design and adventures. (among other reasons) SO this will be the first paizo product I buy in a long time.

I like traditional adventures. But that might just be the old player in me. So giants, orcs and dragons sound like fun.

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So stock answers that you've been giving everyone?

It be nice to have real answers. Or expectations that it be delayed way past the usual time amount with some kind of disclaimer, when you guys posted the sale, rather then what we've been given.

Its rather poor customer service.

EDIT: So on further review, yes cancel the order.

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Its been 8 days, seems unusually high hold time waiting for the order.

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thejeff wrote:


) I like playing something current with robust module support.

Finding players might be more difficult. Or not. I don't know.

Finding players isn't nearly as hard as it once was. The power of the internet usually means you can track down players in your community isn't nearly as hard to find folks. Especially if you go to forums that support your edition ideals.

And module support isn't always as needed as necessary. You can convert items from other editions. Even paizo's module support for pathfinder is spotty, not really regular(unless you like APs)

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Matt Thomason wrote:
Hitdice wrote:

Thatcher's Bloody Britain!!

*sigh*

Thanks Carmachu, I stand corrected; I suppose I just demonstrated that I'm not the most loyal Paizo customer out there, didn't I?

Heh. To be fair, they only just changed, due to doubling the size of the Pathfinder Modules books and moving to one every second month. It was easy to miss :)

I also have to add that those prices mean nothing at all to me, without page counts included.

Lets not forget also moving away from drop and play, and turned into mini-AP type adventures well. The prices don't bother me at all as much as their no longer adventures that I can plug into gaps.

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Sissyl wrote:
Book of erotic fantasy was rather okay. The horribad parts of it were the illustrations. There was so much that was oh so much worse. People act as if bad quality is some kind of threat. It never was. Nothing prevented anyone from reading reviews of books before buying them.

True. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a glut o rally bad products out durng OGL.....with some absolute shining stars like say Ptolus.

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ShinHakkaider wrote:

You know the Book of Erotic Fantasy is everyone's whipping boy when it comes to talking about the OGL. But I'll take 100 of those if in the end I still wound up with a BOOK OF THE RIGHTEOUS, or a MUTANTS and MASTERMINDS or a SPYCRAFT or PTOLUS or the BOOKS OF ELDRICH MIGHT and the rest of the Malhavoc or Green Ronin or Goodman Games or Necromancer games offerings.

If you really want to talk about a company's product that was bad, FAST FORWARD GAMES.

Well yes, it is. And its bad. But yes pick any of the may other BAD products out there. It might be the whipping boy, but its not the only really bad product out there....

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Hitdice wrote:
Sorta-related-almost-kinda also, despite my willingness to pay for the Next/5e core rulebooks, I was rather surprised to see that WotC sells their new adventure pdfs for $17.99 whereas Paizo's are $9.99. What's funny is, I was willing to pay $25(-ish) for Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legacy of the Crystal Shard, so I guess that's what a dead tree copy and single adventure DM screen are worth to me, or something.

I suggest that you relook at paizo's again. Paizo's adventures have changed PDF prices. The old ones are $9.99. The newer PDF's are $17.99, same as WOTC.

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8yvy?Pathfinder-Module-The-Dragons-Demand

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Don't think its that troubling. Sounds much more reasonable then the debacle of the OGL/GSL process back in 4e days. He's not promising a license is coming, materials son, keeping folks hanging on but nothing forthcoming.

Its a slower, reasonable approach. Quality is a problem with OGL. OGl had great freedom, and openness, but lets be honest, there was a ton of crap produced as well. And no one wants to see anther book o erotic fantasy again....

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thejeff wrote:

]Arguing that WotC's behavior isn't greedy or that Paizo's is, are both valid arguments. Right or wrong, you can describe the behavior and make your case.

Claiming that it's hypocrisy to accuse one and not the other as long as their both in the business of making a profit and selling RPGs seems wrong to me. Aren't there, at least theoretically, greedy and not greedy ways of going about it?

THB greedy is good. It means if you make a profit,you ca domor. No profit, no expansion. I have to agree with the second part....which is why I chimed into the thread. Listen to folks reasons why paizo makes money, as per early in the thread, just strikes me was wrong as well.

Both wish profit- Paizo and WOTC. To think otherwise is foolish. As to your last question? No not really. Both wish profit by putting out products. Whether charging more or by producting many many products, its a matter of opinion which is greedy and which isn't.

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Matt Thomason wrote:


From my perspective, they appear to have fairly similar prices for their products. Greed would be asking for more money. Releasing a book doesn't force anyone to buy it. At the end of the day they're both putting out products in order to make money to keep their business going.

Again, its perspective. For you. many products at reasonable prices is ok, as its asking for more money is greedy. For me, many many products even at a reasonable price could be construed as greedy, as its the splat effect milkig more money with more products(not only, campaign, players, AP, module...but tales, miniatures, pawns, cards, etc...)

Just a matter of opinion. Its all how you dress it up, just like earlier in the thread.

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thejeff wrote:

Interesting that they chose to outsource the first big adventure. Not sure what that means in the long run. Or what it means for their business plan.

Hopefully it doesn't mean they'll do the opposite of Paizo and concentrate on pumping out more rules while letting 3PP do the adventures and settings. That's a recipe for quick bloat. Unless they're skimming enough from the 3PP to cover not doing it themselves.

Nothing against Kobold of course. Everything I've heard says they do good work and this has to be huge for them.

Well lets be honest. WOTC is pretty much not that good at adventure writing...with very few excptions(RHoD was great). So for the first adventure for a new edition I can easily see why they would turn to outside sources for it. Anyone that remembers 4e launch and the first adventure(shadowfell keep? wasn't it) remembers how it wasn't that good. Advanture needs to shine the first out of the gate.

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thejeff wrote:
memorax wrote:
We will just have to agree to disagree Bill. When two companies both in the business of making a profit and sell RPGs. I think it is consumer hypocrisy to accuse one of greed and and not the other. Haters gonna hate for any and every reason.

"Consumer hypocrisy"?

Does that apply to all businesses competing in the same field? Differences in behavior, ownership or business plans between the companies can give no reason to consider one more greedy than another?

Depends. when one dresses up "greedy" as paying their bills and paying employses....how is it any different.

It depends on points of view. I've seen ones posting WOTC marketin the new edition as greedy, but some how paizo is not? A flip sie view could be, paizo is just as greedy, look at all the products paizo is pushing, how much splat paizo releases.....how I that not greedy in another's opinion, any different from WOTC? Dressing it up as how it was characterized earlier in the thread doesn't make it any different.

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Auxmaulous wrote:
Anti-Paizo Mini-Rant, spoilerd for the sensitive

*snip*

Thank you for that. That pretty much sums up the "jump the shark" comment I made earlier, and why I dropped all my subscriptions a while back. I didn't feel like arguing with s or mods. I've seen too many devolve once dissenting opinions of anything that someone doesn't like.

I just vote with my wallet. FGG looks good as does a few others.

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shallowsoul wrote:

Now of course if you are able to play multiple games and you are able, and want, to play both then you are lucky. Some of us don't have that luxury and have to decide which game they will run. I am planning on buying the books but I think my group and I will continue with Pathfinder while maybe playing a game of D&D every now and then in the future.

How about you?

I'm going to pick up the books and see. It looks promising, unlike what I saw coming out with 4e. And while I like the core pathfinder game, in many ways its jumped the shark with me, and I no longer subscribe as I was once a charter subscriber. paizo of today isnt the same paizo of 5-6 years ago, for me.

So looks promising, and since I'd be DMing, I'll give it a shot.

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thejeff wrote:
Except when those other people dictating what he can do are the publishers who keep his books from getting to you in the first place, because "black people don't write SF" or "people don't want to read about black heroes" or whatever other nonsense.

EXCEPT its not the publIShers AS PER YOUR EXAMPLE. It was other people of color. SO try again, or get a better quote:

Quote:

I can’t tell you how many times I was told, with great vehemence and hostility, that there was no chance of me having a career in SFF — by other people of color. Yeine, the protagonist of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, was almost a white man because I listened to some of what these people were saying.]/quote]

He didn't say publisher at all in that example.

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Tinkergoth wrote:

Carmachu: Really? You don't see any relevance from this?:

N. K. Jemisin wrote:
I can’t tell you how many times I was told, with great vehemence and hostility, that there was no chance of me having a career in SFF — by other people of color. Yeine, the protagonist of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, was almost a white man because I listened to some of what these people were saying. (Imagine if I’d listened to all of it.)

No actually, I don't. Listening to anyone pulling you down is foolish. If the story of yeine is good, I'll read it, whether he or she is white, black or whatever. Letting other people dictate what you can do is HIS problem, not mine.

Most people want to be entertained. If you can do that people will buy it.

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Inner Heru wrote:
carmachu wrote:
I'd hazard most people who want to read good stories don't wonder what color the skin the author is. I don't care, I only want a good tale.

I'd add that I think you are right on the first point. Most don't wonder, they assume they are white. It's a safe assumption too because it's what we have been told and shown from cartoon to HIStory.

On your second point at times I envy that freedom.

I'd doubt anyone know the race of e author when they pick up the book, unless its a more well known sci-fi or fantasy author- for me say david drake.

What do you do? You pick up the book and read the back. if it tickles your fancy, you buy it. If not, you put it back and try the next one. Most people on the board don't go "oh its a black/white/female author, not buying the cool story."

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