Glowing Gourd

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Organized Play Member. 40 posts. 1 review. No lists. No wishlists.


Grand Lodge

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Leon Aquilla wrote:

I believe it's been explained that the places where the PDF is provided gratis are boutique outfits. They certainly don't have near the level of output that Paizo does.

All the places I can think of off the top of my head (Modiphius, Free League) all maybe produce 1-2 books in a product line in a year.

That being said, you do get the PDF gratis, if you pre-order from them.

You seem to have confused "explanation" with "excuse". This only really works if you define "99% of every game company that isn't Paizo or WotC" as "boutique" (which, in terms of volume, they are), and even then, that's even LESS of an excuse since those shops do much less volume and can less afford to do what they do and Paizo doesn't.

There's really no excuse for not including a PDF with any hardcover purchased directly from the publisher. Not doing so is greed, pure and simple. If there's some hidden cost inherent in PDFs that is on top of the cost of producing the book (and is more than fractions of a cent when distributed across all copies of the PDF sold and/or gratis with a book purchase), I'm all ears. (Spoiler, there's not.)

Grand Lodge

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And can someone explain this?

Chapter 2 spoilers:
The party has to go from Gattlebee’s house to the brewery (per the text, near Ironside) to the saloon. All of these are on one side of the river. Yet the action centers on a bridge they “must” cross on the route. This is bugging me because it says to give the map to the players so they can plan but if I do so they will simply think I’m racy when I say they have to cross at The Bottleneck (or anywhere else). Hoping someone has a better answer.

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Trying to make sense of the map on page 18. From references in the text it seems the scale is off. I think it’s a 10’ squares map. Anyone else?

(The range of the thing at B3 and the given size of the thing at B5 in particular make me think this)

Grand Lodge

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Calliope T wrote:


I can answer the first one! When I worked briefly at Paizo in CS, I made $15 an hour. That was higher than the starting amount I believe based on experience. In any case, I had a wonderful time working under Sara's guidance and with my fellow CS folks. I would not consider working under anyone else's leadership of the CS department, that much I am certain of.

Also obligatory, discuss your wages amongst your coworkers, an injury to one is an injury to all. <3

Thank you. That tracks with what I've been told. And knowing the Seattle area, I know that's nowhere NEAR a living wage.

Grand Lodge

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Jeff, can you speak to the truth or falsehood of any of the following, which have been corroborated by multiple former employees:

1) Warehouse and CS staff, at least, making well below a living wage for Seattle, at approx. $30k/year?

2) Allegations that despite a handful of BIPoC doing the work to create the diversity blog, Tonya and Aaron claimed credit for it when it was well-received?

3) Paizo barring employees from attending conventions in a personal capacity if they were not there representing Paizo, thus preventing people from making important industry connections on their own dime?

I'm appalled by this "statement". I have, for YEARS, trusted Paizo to be the inclusive, diverse game company that you put yourselves forth as being. I am dismayed to know that that is in spite of management, not led by it.

You need to resign. Tonya needs to resign. Then, Paizo can start regaining our trust.

Grand Lodge

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Is it too soon to ask questions about Secrets of Magic rules here?

I’ve already seen some lively discussion around this issue, but it doesn’t look like there has been any official ruling (that I have seen).

The summoner’s sigil “will shine through clothing, appear over cloaks, and remain unaffected by obfuscating magic.”

What counts as “obfuscating magic”? Specifically, will it remain visible if the summoner/eidolon is invisible? Can you see it if the summoner is hiding inside a barrel? (Absurd example intended.)

It would seem that the most reasonable interpretation would be “if you can see the summoner you can see the sigil”, which means it wouldn’t be seen behind walls, inside boxes, or went invisible. But “obfuscating magic” is vague enough and I’ve seen enough good arguments on both sides of the question that I wanted to post it here.

Grand Lodge

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I haven't seen if this was posted elsewhere in the thread, but does anyone else have an issue with the bookmarks in their PDF stopping at the start of Chapter 1?

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Studied musical theater performance. Now I'm a data analyst by day, a pub quiz host by night, and a Pathfinder 2e Podcast Host by weekend.

Grand Lodge

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David knott 242 wrote:
jmspencer wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:


I am betting that there won't be any new backgrounds, on the basis that 11th level is a bit late for picking a new background.
Not if you're creating a character at 11th level as I would bet most groups end up doing for this AP.

Most groups? I doubt that.

But in any case, the premise of the adventure has to be broad enough to make most character types of the proper level playable in it, and most likely the PCs are NOT expected to be native to the location where the tournament is being held. It would be a bit weird to have the PCs specifically built for an adventure that doesn't begin until they reach 11th level, which many (I won't say most) adventurers never do.

However, I could imagine providing some 11th level general feats for characters who reached 11th level just before starting on this adventure (or who were specifically built for it).

Well, we're just going to disagree. My experience says that most groups would rather make 11th level characters to run a shorter campaign from 11 up than play 1-10 before getting into it. I don't see how that's "a bit weird" at all. Character creation isn't where their adventuring career starts, it's just when the part of their story played out at the table kicks off.

And I think the 6 new backgrounds in the PG bear that out.

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I'm hoping mine ends up shipping before the weekend, mainly as I'm running an Actual Play podcast with three classes out of the APG based on the playtest and I want to let my players know if there are changes they need to apply. So... *fingers crossed*