mark kay's page

If I might respectfully hazard some guesses...

Druma seems pretty Switzerland coded, what with the mountains and the banking and the neutrality. Mind you, the PoK's influence means that Druma doesn't focus on fostering positive international relations the way that Switzerland does. The Prophets also don't enjoy many popular Swiss foods (maybe fondue, but chocolate would be hell on their outfits and rosti is out), but there is a counterculture that would love them.

Galt is, or rather was, Revolutionary France, and is now due for an examination because the Terror is over. I admit I wonder if we'll get Notpoleon and/or Nosephine. However, while Taldor is basically a take on the Byzantine Empire, there's also a commonality with France. Both are...

Honestly the Byzantine empire influences feel mostly scraped off Taldor at this point (which I find something of a bummer, as someone who was into that whole part of it). They've felt mostly superficial as it goes, barring the Ulfen Guard obviously, unless there was some resurgent emphasis on such things in 2e that I've otherwise missed.

CorvusMask wrote:

Is this on a sale right now? :O I'm wondering if I've limited time to buy this cheaper or if I'm not in hurry...

The sale is on through the whole month of July. It's not here at Paizo, just because it takes *so long* to get things managed on the store side here (and because print books sold here already get only a 50% consignment fee), but you can definitely get a copy at the Legendary Games webstore.

I was looking to ask. I saw that the Aethera adventure is releasing this week. Would things like the Intrigue Manual still be happening? Or a rules conversion to Starfinder (which would hopefully include things like the Aetheric Knights?)?

Ah okay, had just been wondering. Thank you for the reply.

mark kay wrote:

Quote:

A) Going to be presented as much more France-during-Louis XIV than Byzantine,

That's.. honestly severely disappointing to hear, Taldor's byzantine flavour was one of the things that interested me about the nation/this AP. It's somewhat rare in fantasy to get riffs off the Byzantine Empire, it helped make it feel distinct.

It's kind of enough to put me off the AP really, and the upcoming Taldor setting book, if that's the case.

That is not the case. There will certainly be elements of the Sun King's reign, especially in the opulence and style of the ultra upper class. In many other ways, Taldor will remain heavily influenced by Byzantium, and in some areas will become even more clearly inspired by this rich source of material from real-world history.

If I can take the liberty to read into W.E. Ray's comment, it seems he might have been latching onto our mention of Louis XIV because it fit so well with his version of Taldor. And while elements of the campaign and CS book will gel very well with a focus on this type of setting, it isn't going to be at the exclusion of other inspirations.

Awesome. And back onto my to buy list it all goes.

Also, thanks for the timely reply on this, that itself is pretty neat.

To each is own I guess but I'm pretty tired of hearing this, especially considering how Gondor from the Lord of the Rings was explicitly stated by Tolkien himself to be an analogue for Byzantium (Arnor was supposed to be the stand in for the Western Roman Empire btw).

Yeah, I've read that too, but in execution Gondor didn't much resemble it at all, so it's an odd thing to sweepingly dismiss out of hand anyone who expresses that opinion about the genre over.

So, it was just mentioned in the Taldor AP thread that the notion is to slide away from any particularly Byzantine empire themed elements to Taldor over portraying it as akin to France under the Sun King. Wondering now if that's going to be the case for the campaign setting book as well. That's kind of a bummer for my part if so. I really liked all the resonance with the later era of the Eastern Roman Empire.

A) Going to be presented as much more France-during-Louis XIV than Byzantine,

That's.. honestly severely disappointing to hear, Taldor's byzantine flavour was one of the things that interested me about the nation/this AP. It's somewhat rare in fantasy to get riffs off the Byzantine Empire, it helped make it feel distinct.

It's kind of enough to put me off the AP really, and the upcoming Taldor setting book, if that's the case.

Difficult to view a dude who seems to be on the side of Golarion's Reign of Terror as any sort of heroic, for my own part. Mileage may vary and all that.

The premise itself and the promise of something higher level were already pretty engaging, yeah (I really like that scale of gaming, but there's not a lot of formal support for making it go as a gm I find), but knowing it will be an avenue for use of the mythic rules ontop of that kicks it into a must have for me (um, no pressure or anything though!)

mark kay wrote:

Does this one still have the freeing Nethus related adventure in it?

No, it does not. That is a standalone that I am still finishing. I want it to be mythic, do I am awaiting the final rules on that.

That's actually incredibly cool to hear, I'm looking forward to it now moreso than I was before (and I'd been looking forward to it like crazy).