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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide (OGL)
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Rule Your World!

Players may be the heroes of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but whole worlds rest on the Game Master's shoulders. Fortunately for GMs, the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is here to back you up. Packed with invaluable hints and information, this book contains everything you need to take your game to the next level, from advice on the nuts and bolts of running a session to the greater mysteries of crafting engaging worlds and storylines. Whether you've run one game or a thousand, this book has page after page of secrets to make you sharper, faster, and more creative, while always staying one step ahead of your players.

The 320-page Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide includes:

  • Tips and tricks for preparing and running a better game, suitable for beginning GMs and battle-hardened veterans.
  • Step-by-step walkthroughs for creating campaign worlds, cities, cosmologies, feudal systems, and alternate dimensions.
  • Difficult player types, and how to handle them gracefully.
  • New rules for subsystems like hauntings, chase scenes, fortune-telling, gambling games, mysteries, and insanity.
  • Charts to help you generate everything from interesting NPCs and fantastic treasures to instant encounters in any terrain.
  • Advanced topics such as PC death, game-breaking rules, overpowered parties, solo campaigns, and derailed storylines.
  • Sample NPC statistics for dozens of common adventuring situations, such as cultists, guardsmen, barmaids, and pirates.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-217-3

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Last Updated - 1/22/2014

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Essential for New GMs, Handy for Veterans

5/5 —

Published back in 2009, the GameMastery Guide was one of the early hardcover books released for Pathfinder. I think it's an overlooked gem, as I crack it open before and during sessions as often as any book other than the Core Rulebook. Weighing in at a hefty 320 pages, the GameMastery Guide has advice on the usual topics that new GMs need help with, but it also contains so much more, like little new rules subsystems, a gallery of pre-made NPCs, all sorts of random tables, tracking sheets, etc. It's a very handy compilation of material specifically designed for Pathfinder, and I'd recommend it as an early purchase for any GM getting into the game.

We have to start with a shout-out to that awesome cover, featuring Runelord Karzoug seated on his throne. I'm partial, since I'm running a certain AP at the moment, but artist Wayne Reynolds knocked it out of the park there. There's no way the interior artwork could be as good, and it's true that many of the interstitial drawings are recycled from other products or are forgettable placeholders. However, the artwork accompanying the NPC gallery is solid and fits the feel of Golarion. If I were using letter ratings, the cover art would get an A+ and the interior art and layout would get a C+.

The book is divided into 9 chapters, with multiple appendices and indices.

Chapter 1, "Getting Started", is stuff that experienced GMs will have seen a thousand times before, but that new GMs will appreciate. It covers stuff like a gaming glossary, how to deal with sensitive topics, how to find players and set aside a place to play, developing house rules, etc. It's standard advice, and if I had to quibble with anything it's that the section is so focussed on catering to players' desires that it leaves out a crucial consideration: the GM needs to have fun too! I did like the idea of creating a custom player's guide before each new campaign, and that's something I'll probably do in the future.

Chapter 2, "Running the Game", talks about preparation, presentation (music, handouts, lighting, etc.), building encounters and adventures, and how to handle in-game problems (PCs missing a clue, getting too much treasure, etc.). Again, it's all solid advice (though I don't agree with customising encounters for PC abilities, as that holds the risk of undermining the very advantages they've worked to gain). I think the best bit in the chapter is the "Game Changers" section, with talks about how to handle problems specific to Pathfinder: spells involving invisibility, teleportation, lie/evil detection, flying, auguries, and more. These spells can dramatically change the game and wreck certain types of plots if a GM isn't careful. The section ends with some good tables: fifty different adventure plots, twenty plot twists, and a bunch of macguffins. Good material if you're creating your own adventures and get stuck in the brainstorming.

Chapter 3, "Player Characters," talks about handling metagaming, introducing new players into the game, handling treasure and character death, whether to allow evil PCs, and different types of common players like the "One-Trick Pony" and the "Rules Lawyer". It's a good and useful discussion, as experienced GMs will encounter these various player types sooner or later and knowing what to look out for and handle them is important if groups are going to persist in the long-run. I think what the chapter is missing is the frank advice that some players just aren't right for some groups, some groups are dysfunctional and need to disband, and that the GM (unfortunately) often has to make the hard calls. It's a responsibility that goes beyond preparing and running adventures, since real people, real relationships, and real emotions can be involved. I'd rank the chapter as average.

Chapter 4, "Nonplayer Characters," goes into the basics of giving NPCs personalities and roles in the game. I especially liked the section on traps a GM needs to avoid when running NPCs (such as making them too intrusive, too decisive, too good at combat, etc.). The section introduces a new concept of "NPC Boons," which are special little plot or mechanical advantages that NPCs of different types can give to PCs. We'll see this concept more in the NPC Gallery at the end of the book, but the idea would be that, for example, befriending a local tracker would give the PCs a +2 on Survival checks in the area for one month, or that buying a drink for a down-on-his-luck nobleman could result in a primer on local politics and a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nobility) in the city. Etc. It's a nice way to quantify and reward PCs for good role-playing and encourage those players who are only in it for the bottom line to have more patience with what may at first seem like irrelevant asides. After some fairly mundane advice on villains, the chapter concludes with a great collection of tables: NPC backgrounds, goals, physical characteristics, personality characteristics (some of these are hilarious and memorable, and I wish players were as creative!), occupations, secrets and rewards, and even the surely-delightful "Random Adventuring Party Name Generator". If you want to be cool, join the "Reputable Pearly Kraken Monster-Slayers in the Shadow of Angels"!

Chapter 5, "Rewards," contains an insightful discussion of why rewards manner and the different ways they can be conceptualised and allocated. It goes through the difference between steady small rewards versus occasional big ones, intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards, and how different players value different things (e.g., is it all about the gold, or is getting on a first-name basis with the barmaid better?). It even gets into little details, such as exactly when XP can be awarded (I forget that some groups do it after every single encounter, while others only do it during true in-game downtime). There's some good advice on how to handle spell research and magic item crafting that makes it clear the whole process needs to be treated more as an art than a mechanical formula. This chapter has a *lot* of random item and random magic item tables, which is really useful when you need to see what a little shop in a small town happens to have in stock, or what that NPC wizard you weren't expecting the PCs to rob from has in his satchel.

Chapter 6, "Creating a World," is for GMs who do something I've never really done in Pathfinder (though I have in science fiction settings): create a brand new campaign setting. It has a nice process of answering a set list of questions to gradually firm up the details of the new world and to simplify (to some degree) the difficulty of conceptualising everything all at once. The geography advice is probably over-ambitious, but the concepts are explained really well. The chapter goes through different types of societies and different technological levels. It's not a chapter I'll use, but it's very good for homebrew GMs.

Chapter 7, "Adventures," has tips for running stories in different environments (dungeons, the wilderness, etc.). It has particularly good advice on dungeons, with a useful key to map symbols that I should use more often. Again, there's a ton of great tables to stimulate creativity, including random tables on where dungeons can be found, what type they are, what's in different rooms, and several random monster encounter tables (which I wouldn't actually roll on, as they have the common problem of spreading CRs from as low as 1 to as high as 13 in the same table!). The chapter has a section on planes and planar traits, which is an important reference for later products that make specific use of the mechanics presented here. Similarly, it has a section on stat blocks for settlements (used in most Pathfinder products) that is quite important in determining what's for sale in a community, the highest-level of spellcaster available, etc. I use the settlement rules a lot, and although I think they're sometimes a bit cumbersome in play, they're important in making sure that a hamlet "acts" differently than a metropolis. This chapter is packed with a lot of other material, including a two-page rules-set for ship combat (it seems worth trying), lots of random tables for ships and sailors, and, one of my favourite things, random tables for tavern names and unique traits. There's a lot here that I'm going to photocopy and keep with my GM screen to help me quickly come up with more flavourful interludes when I'm running games.

Chapter 8, "Advanced Topics," introduces several new little rules sub-systems: chases (elegant, but not completely satisfying), natural disasters, drugs and addiction (happens too quickly and needs a slower progression of effects), fortune-telling (too general), gambling (done well), haunts (one of the best innovations of Pathfinder, great for story-telling), hazards (mostly supernatural ones, but very clever), and sanity/madness (too simplistic, but not bad for just 2 pages). Some of these sub-systems, like chases and haunts, are seen in a lot of other Paizo products, so having the rules on how to run them is really useful. Other topics touched on in this chapter have been developed in far more detail elsewhere, and may be of more limited usefulness. Still, there's enough of enduring value to make the material here worth reading.

Chapter 9, "NPC Gallery", is one of those things every Pathfinder GM needs: full stats (and even pictures and descriptions) for NPCs encountered on short notice: bandits to spice up overland travel, city guards for when the "Chaotic Stupid" PC gets too obnoxious, the bard intended purely as tavern-dressing that the PCs are surprisingly interested in, the shopkeep they want to try to bluff for a discount, etc. There are dozens and dozens of great NPCs here, both low-level "townsfolk" and high-level threats, and all are fully fleshed out with gear and boons (from Chapter 4). In addition, there's really good advice on how to swap out a feat here or a weapon there to create different variations on the stock NPC. I've used this chapter a lot (as have many PFS scenarios). The later publication of the NPC Codex and Villain Codex makes this section slightly less crucial, but I still get a lot of use out of it.

Apart from indices and an appendix (on recommend reading and films), the book ends with a miscellany of tracking sheets--a Campaign Sheet, a Settlement Sheet (something I should actually use, now that I think of it), an NPC Sheet, and a Basic Rules Cheat Sheet (that I'm going to start handing out to new players to ease their transition into the game).

From the chapter summaries above, you can tell the book is just chock-full of useful advice and resources for running the game. Although essential for new GMs, even experienced ones will still find a lot here to make the book worth buying and reading.

Right Next To The Core Rulebook On My Shelf!

5/5 —

This product was amazing. I was blown away by the advice given to create a world and how to deal with several issues that have come up in recent gaming sessions. The crunchy side of the book was OK, but I really haven't had any need to pull out those rules and use them in my games. I overall really enjoyed this product, and can't wait to see what comes next!

The Essential Tome of GM'ing

5/5 —

This pearl of GM manuals should be found from every already practising or aspiring-to-be GM's collection. Yes, it's that great, even for folks who don't run Pathfinder. Well written, easy to understand, beautiful to look at... not to mention a well of inspiration it also achieves to be. It's a near perfect package of knowledge how to run smooth, richer, better RPG campaign. Sure, there are chunks of system specific stuff inside, but the most important bits of knowledge of how to run your game are universal and will fit in any system and game table. For juniors, it is essential. For the vets, well, if you're already good at what you're doing, you can always be better, and perhaps you're not perfect and can learn at least one useful new trick out of it.

Great addition

4/5 —

Read the book cover to cover. Although most of it is repetition for old-time gm's I like the style, flavour and content of the book. It's pure inspiration and also a few goodies that are easily put to work: chases, hazards, haunts - now tried out with success in my current campaign.

A bit to many references to the Core Rulebook annoys a bit.

As a veteran GM thus book left me pining for alot more

3/5 —

Honestly this book is not at all needed if you have any GM experience at all. Has some good world creation tips but otherwise feels overly simplistic. My opinion would change greatly on this book if I was new to gaming however.

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Sovereign Court
drkfathr1 wrote:
After having a couple of days now to peruse the pdf, I have to say, as a 20 year + DM, experienced with all the previous editions of the game, this has got to be one of the best, if not THE best DM/GM Guides I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

I'm completely with you. I started playing in 1978 or so and this has to be the greatest GM work I've bought. Strangely, I still love the quirks and tables in Ed.1 DMG by Gary Gygax, but that text was a little idiosyncratic and ad hoc. I don't possess a library of Rulebooks to rival Lisa's but its not inconsiderable either. I just hope Paizo brings out more GM oriented guides like this.

Well done everyone at Paizo - or as we sometimes say in Blighty "Jolly good show all round chaps (and chapesses)".
Sovereign Court
James Jacobs wrote:
AnthonyRoberson wrote:

The only dissapointment that I have had so far with the book (unless I have missed it somehow) is there is nothing that addresses the biggest problem I had with 3.5 - handling high level characters. I would have liked to see any of the following topics addressed:

- balancing/running high level encounters
- tips for running smooth encounters/combats with high level NPCs
- challenging high level PCs, with a focus on how to deal with particular high level spells and magic items

I've been pushing for us to publish a "Guide to High Level Play" for a while now. And I do wish we'd had a larger portion of that in the GameMastery Guide, but we decided it'd be better to skew this book toward more broad game support. After all... the VAST majority of those who play RPGs don't play super high level, and this is only our third book.

I'll keep pushing for some sort of "Guide to High Level Play" though. Whether or not that manifests as a big giant hardcover rulebook or something smaller... can't really say yet.

I think that high level play is such a different axiom for players and GMs that it deserves its own text. Personally I would prefer publications built from the bottom up because I rarely run games where players really want to push beyond 20th level.

I have played high level games but they are so much different in flavor and feel that I've had groups that have just said "Let's start out a new game at 1st level".

Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking high level play. I possess the 3.5 Ed. Epic Level Handbook and it is rather useful, but I know that being a player the challenges are fresher in role playing terms when you're early to mid-level in advancement. Just my take.
Sovereign Court
Ross Byers wrote:
Sharoth wrote:
Wasn't the Anti-Paladin suppost to be in the Gamemastery Guide?
No, but there is a picture of Seelah as an Anti-Paladin in the section on evil characters.

Yes. Very bad taste that ;) I was hoping it wasn't Seelah. I hope she was just doing the pose as a fundraiser for the destitute children's home. LOL.

The old lessons and suggestions on the art of Game Mastering can not be covered often enough. While many hints and tips found in this tome have been found elsewhere, from printings of various rulebooks before, I find that these are all essential pieces that one needs to be reminded of. Then of course there are new suggestions and details included that really round out this text and make it that much more important.

This is a priceless book that should be on the shelves of every Game Master's library. Thank you again, Paizo, for the great service you provide to the gaming hobby!
Sovereign Court
Throrgir Mardyn wrote:

The old lessons and suggestions on the art of Game Mastering can not be covered often enough. While many hints and tips found in this tome have been found elsewhere, from printings of various rulebooks before, I find that these are all essential pieces that one needs to be reminded of. Then of course there are new suggestions and details included that really round out this text and make it that much more important.

This is a priceless book that should be on the shelves of every Game Master's library. Thank you again, Paizo, for the great service you provide to the gaming hobby!

I hear ya!

Scarab Sages
Ravenmantle wrote:
Aye. It's pretty clear to me that what's in the product description is what's in the book. No more, no less. It seems to me that some of the reviewers haven't actually read the blurb on the product page.

Aw, come on now! you can't expect people to go around reading advertisements now, Can you? That's just crazy talk!

Edit: And I hope my attempt at being funny doesn't offend anyone.
Sovereign Court
Aberzombie wrote:
Ravenmantle wrote:
Aye. It's pretty clear to me that what's in the product description is what's in the book. No more, no less. It seems to me that some of the reviewers haven't actually read the blurb on the product page.

Aw, come on now! you can't expect people to go around reading advertisements now, Can you? That's just crazy talk!

Edit: And I hope my attempt at being funny doesn't offend anyone.

Ouch! I'm soo offended! ;)

Scarab Sages
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Ravenmantle wrote:
Aye. It's pretty clear to me that what's in the product description is what's in the book. No more, no less. It seems to me that some of the reviewers haven't actually read the blurb on the product page.

Aw, come on now! you can't expect people to go around reading advertisements now, Can you? That's just crazy talk!

Edit: And I hope my attempt at being funny doesn't offend anyone.

Ouch! I'm soo offended! ;)

I'm very sorry if my mention of "crazy talk" hit so close to home.

Sovereign Court
Aberzombie wrote:
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Ravenmantle wrote:
Aye. It's pretty clear to me that what's in the product description is what's in the book. No more, no less. It seems to me that some of the reviewers haven't actually read the blurb on the product page.

Aw, come on now! you can't expect people to go around reading advertisements now, Can you? That's just crazy talk!

Edit: And I hope my attempt at being funny doesn't offend anyone.

Ouch! I'm soo offended! ;)
I'm very sorry if my mention of "crazy talk" hit so close to home.

Wibble wubble...

Scarab Sages
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Ravenmantle wrote:
Aye. It's pretty clear to me that what's in the product description is what's in the book. No more, no less. It seems to me that some of the reviewers haven't actually read the blurb on the product page.

Aw, come on now! you can't expect people to go around reading advertisements now, Can you? That's just crazy talk!

Edit: And I hope my attempt at being funny doesn't offend anyone.

Ouch! I'm soo offended! ;)
I'm very sorry if my mention of "crazy talk" hit so close to home.
Wibble wubble...

No way dude! It's "Doodle doodle dee! Wubba, wubba, wubba". At least, that's the way Downtown Julie Brown used to say it.

Sovereign Court
Aberzombie wrote:
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Ravenmantle wrote:
Aye. It's pretty clear to me that what's in the product description is what's in the book. No more, no less. It seems to me that some of the reviewers haven't actually read the blurb on the product page.

Aw, come on now! you can't expect people to go around reading advertisements now, Can you? That's just crazy talk!

Edit: And I hope my attempt at being funny doesn't offend anyone.

Ouch! I'm soo offended! ;)
I'm very sorry if my mention of "crazy talk" hit so close to home.
Wibble wubble...
No way dude! It's "Doodle doodle dee! Wubba, wubba, wubba. At least, that's the way Downtown Julie Brown used to say it.

LMAO! I guess I sit corrected!

Scarab Sages
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
LMAO! I guess I sit corrected!

That's the way I see it. Who the hell would wants to stand corrected anyway? Might as well sit and be comfortable.

Sovereign Court
Aberzombie wrote:
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
LMAO! I guess I sit corrected!
That's the way I see it. Who the hell would wants to stand corrected anyway? Might as well sit and be comfortable.

Eggsactly. :)

Grand Lodge

... wibley wobley timey wimey?

.....
Dark Archive

Alright, that's it! No Paizonian has sent me a copy, so you've forced my hand -- I shall strike all Paizo staffers with the Epic Curse known only as 'The Transmogrification into SKR'! May all your hair fall off and henceforth baldness prevail!
Asgetrion wrote:
Alright, that's it! No Paizonian has sent me a copy, so you've forced my hand -- I shall strike all Paizo staffers with the Epic Curse known only as 'The Transmogrification into SKR'! May all your hair fall off and henceforth baldness prevail!

I just have to point out that that was the 666 post in this thread, Asgetrion. You have impeccable timing . . . ;)

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
KnightErrantJR wrote:
I just have to point out that that was the 666 post in this thread, Asgetrion. You have impeccable timing . . . ;)

Or Infernal timing?

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
Loopy wrote:
I can't read this fast enough! I want to use all these ideas. The NPCs alone are worth the price of the book! THANK YOU for that!!!!

There are another 28 NPC stat blocks weeping on the cutting room floor, looking longingly over at the art department space that took their place with the fabulous illo's for each spread. Who knows, they may someday see the light of day in another product.

And yes to the previous poster - it is rather amusing that the typical militiaman is not by a long stretch the toughest cat on the block. Remember: True authority derives from the consent of the governed, not the exercise of force!
Andrew Betts wrote:
... wibley wobley timey wimey?

my favorite episode ever!

Grand Lodge
Arnwolf wrote:
Andrew Betts wrote:
... wibley wobley timey wimey?
my favorite episode ever!

The new finale is approaching my favourite, but that is discussion for a different thread!

Dark Archive
Joe Wells wrote:
KnightErrantJR wrote:
I just have to point out that that was the 666 post in this thread, Asgetrion. You have impeccable timing . . . ;)
Or Infernal timing?

'Twas the Divine Will of the Most Holy Asmodeus, for am I not His 666th Favored Son? ;)

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC

Has anyone out there looked at the Toolbox book from AEG?

I'm always looking for sourcebooks when I'm at places like, say, Origins, and ran across this one.

Since my GMG showed up when I was at Origins, I have not had time to compare them, but it seems like there's some synergy there.
Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
Joe Wells wrote:
KnightErrantJR wrote:
I just have to point out that that was the 666 post in this thread, Asgetrion. You have impeccable timing . . . ;)
Or Infernal timing?

wouldn't that be abyssal timing?

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Matthew Morris wrote:
Joe Wells wrote:
KnightErrantJR wrote:
I just have to point out that that was the 666 post in this thread, Asgetrion. You have impeccable timing . . . ;)
Or Infernal timing?
wouldn't that be abyssal timing?

Or abysmal?

Liberty's Edge

Got my book yesterday. I agree with the others here that this is very well done. Some of the info has been in print before but I feel this is THE GM how too book for any system.

Way to go, Paizo.
gbonehead wrote:

Has anyone out there looked at the Toolbox book from AEG?

I'm always looking for sourcebooks when I'm at places like, say, Origins, and ran across this one.

Since my GMG showed up when I was at Origins, I have not had time to compare them, but it seems like there's some synergy there.

Yes, but I prefer Ultimate Toolbox, its like 10 times more content and its "generic" in application rather than aimed at 3E like Toolbox is. Same company, and I believe the same people. I am pretty sure at least Jim Pinto was involved in both books.

Ultimate Toolbox is written by the same people as Toolbox. UT has much more content, and does not have the encounter tables. I have both and use UT in my game preparation.

Just my 2 cp.
Dark Archive
Matthew Morris wrote:
Joe Wells wrote:
KnightErrantJR wrote:
I just have to point out that that was the 666 post in this thread, Asgetrion. You have impeccable timing . . . ;)
Or Infernal timing?
wouldn't that be abyssal timing?

Absolutely not! By all the devil-haunted hells, my timing has NOTHING to do with any of those vile demons or their playing ground!

Your words offend me... I feel tempted to curse you with baldness as well! ;P

Is there an errata thread yet?

Table 7-42
1 squire directs you to page 270 [Prisoner]
1d4 Noble Scions directs you to page 290 [Wanderer]
etc.
etc
repeat / rinse

Some major problems in the whole table.

Looking through the others on Pages 212-213, there are many page errors.

Yes in Paizo Products it is titled Errata/Typos in the GMG.

Does anyone know if the forms (The Campaign Sheet and the Settlment Sheet) in the Game Mastery Guide will be made available for download. Those would be handy for those of us who did not buy the PDF.

-Weylin
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Lest it be forgotten somewhere down the road, I'd like to emphasize the brilliance of providing such a good price on the PDF version of this book. I flipped through the book in my game store and decided to pass on it, but chose to purchase the PDF in order to print out the NPC stats and useful tables. Now that I have a chance to sit down and read it through instead of just skimming it, I'm much more interested in paying for the hardcover.

This is the second time I've been baited by an inexpensive PDF and then decided that I wanted to buy the hardcover book, with the first time being the Core Rulebook itself.
Liberty's Edge
silverhair2008 wrote:
Yes in Paizo Products it is titled Errata/Typos in the GMG.

I can't seem to find it. Link?

Here.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32
Weylin Stormcrowe 798 wrote:

Does anyone know if the forms (The Campaign Sheet and the Settlment Sheet) in the Game Mastery Guide will be made available for download. Those would be handy for those of us who did not buy the PDF.

-Weylin

These are now available as a free download. The link is at the bottom of the product description.

Nice.

Thanks!
Scarab Sages

any hint on when this wonder might arrive in the UK?
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
caribet wrote:
any hint on when this wonder might arrive in the UK?

Copies destined for Europe generally go to our European distributors' shipping consolidators on the East Coast, and we have no insight into or control over what happens once they're there. All I can tell you is that we shipped them a while ago, so... any day now?

Ross Byers wrote:
Weylin Stormcrowe 798 wrote:

Does anyone know if the forms (The Campaign Sheet and the Settlment Sheet) in the Game Mastery Guide will be made available for download. Those would be handy for those of us who did not buy the PDF.

-Weylin

These are now available as a free download. The link is at the bottom of the product description.

Thanks, Ross. My game master will love having these.

caribet wrote:
any hint on when this wonder might arrive in the UK?

My copy got dispatched today by The Book Depository (based in the UK).

Dark Archive
Vic Wertz wrote:
caribet wrote:
any hint on when this wonder might arrive in the UK?
Copies destined for Europe generally go to our European distributors' shipping consolidators on the East Coast, and we have no insight into or control over what happens once they're there. All I can tell you is that we shipped them a while ago, so... any day now?

For what it's worth, I received my copy today, courtesy of the Danish postal service.

I saw the book and I love it. So very magnificent, especially the parts about hauntings and NPC stats!

But I do have one question about the list of recommended films in back:

What exactly makes The Legend of Boggy Creek a D&D/Pathfinder-ish movie? Mind you, I own a copy and I like it, it makes just about any SyFy Original movie look like tripe in comparison... but for the life of me I can't see what makes this low-key cryptid film 'right' for the game.

Just curious about this.
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Ross Byers wrote:
Sharoth wrote:
Wasn't the Anti-Paladin suppost to be in the Gamemastery Guide?
No, but there is a picture of Seelah as an Anti-Paladin in the section on evil characters.
Yes. Very bad taste that ;) I was hoping it wasn't Seelah. I hope she was just doing the pose as a fundraiser for the destitute children's home. LOL.

It was her evil twin from a Mirror of Opposition, or whatever they're called these days.

Paizo Employee Creative Director
Eric Hinkle wrote:

What exactly makes The Legend of Boggy Creek a D&D/Pathfinder-ish movie? Mind you, I own a copy and I like it, it makes just about any SyFy Original movie look like tripe in comparison... but for the life of me I can't see what makes this low-key cryptid film 'right' for the game.

Just curious about this.

So, the list of movies that inspired Pathfinder are just that—movies that actually inspired US at Paizo to do things the way we do in Pathfinder and in Golarion. The Legend of Boggy Creek is one such movie for me—not the sequel that ended up on MST3K, but the original movie from the 70s that was a sort of mockumentary about the Boggy Creak monster (which is a swamp version of Bigfoot said to live in Arkansas).

This movie terrified me as a kid, partially because it felt real to me (due to the fact it was set up like a documentary—a genre of movie I still love to this day), and partially because I grew up in Northern California where Bigfoot lives. Basically, it ties in to cryptozoology, and the idea that in the modern day, there might be monsters living among us be they hairy giants, mothmen, sea serpents, lake monsters, or whatever. Cryptozoology is a HUGE influence on Pathfinder—we've statted up versions of bigfoot type creatures, lake monsters, chupacabras, mothman, the Jersy (Sandpoint) devil, and on and on and on. In a big way, my interest in this subject was formulated by The Legend of Boggy Creek and movies like it from the 70's (I would have put In Search Of... in that appendix as well if it wasn't limited just to movies). Had I never seen The Legend of Boggy Creek, there's a pretty good chance that the presence of cryptozoological elements like what I mention above would NOT have appeared in our bestiaries.

And for further proof, check out the map of Sandpoint. There, to the south, where Schooner Gulch Road (itself a road from just down the road from where I grew up) crosses the swamp, you'll see a river.

Yup: Boggy Creek has actually been in Golarion since Pathfinder #1.

The GMG..does exactly what it says on the tin
James Jacobs wrote:

So, the list of movies that inspired Pathfinder are just that—movies that actually inspired US at Paizo to do things the way we do in Pathfinder and in Golarion. The Legend of Boggy Creek is one such movie for me—not the sequel that ended up on MST3K, but the original movie from the 70s that was a sort of mockumentary about the Boggy Creak monster (which is a swamp version of Bigfoot said to live in Arkansas).

This movie terrified me as a kid, partially because it felt real to me (due to the fact it was set up like a documentary—a genre of movie I still love to this day), and partially because I grew up in Northern California where Bigfoot lives. Basically, it ties in to cryptozoology, and the idea that in the modern day, there might be monsters living among us be they hairy giants, mothmen, sea serpents, lake monsters, or whatever. Cryptozoology is a HUGE influence on Pathfinder—we've statted up versions of bigfoot type creatures, lake monsters, chupacabras, mothman, the Jersy (Sandpoint) devil, and on and on and on. In a big way, my interest in this subject was formulated by The Legend of Boggy Creek and movies like it from the 70's (I would have put In Search Of... in that appendix as well if it wasn't limited just to movies). Had I never seen The Legend of Boggy Creek, there's a pretty good chance that the presence of cryptozoological elements like what I mention above would NOT have appeared in our bestiaries.

And for further proof, check out the map of Sandpoint. There, to the south, where Schooner Gulch Road (itself a road from just down the road from where I grew up) crosses the swamp, you'll see a river.

Yup: Boggy Creek...

Okay, thanks for the explanation. And I do have to agree on the scariness of it; for once someone had a small budget and actually used it wisely in that film.

BTW, talking about crypto-critter films from the 70's, did you ever see one titled The Mysterious Monsters? I saw it as a kid, and it scared me blind, especially the bit about the ghostly decapitated head rolling though the halls of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness.
Scarab Sages
James Jacobs wrote:
Cryptozoology is a HUGE influence on Pathfinder.

It's how they find their freelancers!

Snorter wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Cryptozoology is a HUGE influence on Pathfinder.
It's how they find their freelancers!

Oy!

Sovereign Court

My God, Carruthers!
It...it speaks!

Alfred! Fetch the elephant gun!
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