So, now that we have the first of (hopefully) many great urban adventures, what is the verdict? I just downloaded this at work, and can't (naturally) read it page to page. My first impressions must therefore be the artwork, which unlike Pathfinder # 1 is great. Being the male that I am, the one thing that stuck out was the illustration of Seoni on page 18. Not only does her face show horror and fear, but she obviously have had time to cast the 0th level spell Enlarge Breasts :)
This adventure is the greatest thing since sliced bread, the wheel, and Raisin Bran. I love it! And no, I'm not someone's alias, so don't bother clicking on my avatar to see if I'm posting in disguise. Cuz I'm not. Really.
I agree...it's exhilaratingly good...makes me want to do naughty things with paint.
Makes me want to do naughty things with paint.
Yay!
...Can I join? :P
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Not only does her face show horror and fear, but she obviously have had time to cast the 0th level spell Enlarge Breasts :)
Yes, our Varisian sorceress is certainly quite well-endowed. I noticed that we're seeing a lot of Valeros and Seoni in the Pathfinder and GameMastery artwork... but virtually nothing of the other iconics so far. Is this intentional? Does Paizo's market research reveal that no one likes cat-suit ninja elves with creepy eyes and fully-clothed clerics?
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Does Paizo's market research reveal that no one likes cat-suit ninja elves with creepy eyes and fully-clothed clerics?Probably has to do with the nature of when the art orders have to be turned in. Alot of these modules were probably designed before Merisiel and Kyra's art were finished.
Ah, this is true. I hadn't thought of that.
Probably has to do with the nature of when the art orders have to be turned in. Alot of these modules were probably designed before Merisiel and Kyra's art were finished.
That is exactly the case. In fact, we didn't have the 2 new iconics to illustrate until we did the art orders for E1 and TC1, which don't come out for a couple months.
Which is why it was fortunate (in a way) that there is a rival party of adventurers in J1, it gave us some alternate protagonists to illustrate.
Gallery of Evil = Awesome adventure.
Logue + Greer in drag/female disguise = Not so awesome HeShes
:D
LOL.
Thanks for the first. As to the second, I happen to make a damn hot looking He-She :pEdit: Wait! Maybe that's not something to brag about. Ah, whatever.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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A question for Steve (and any other writers who've been published in a GameMastery Module): Do you guys have any say whatsoever on the art that gets put into the modules or do you just write the words and let Paizo's art people put all the pretty stuff in? Do they even consult you on different art styles and images that you would want to see or is it completely out of your hands? I'm just curious.
That is exactly the case. In fact, we didn't have the 2 new iconics to illustrate until we did the art orders for E1 and TC1, which don't come out for a couple months.
What does TC stand for?
What does TC stand for?
Why the GameMastery Treasure Chest of course :)
A question for Steve (and any other writers who've been published in a GameMastery Module): Do you guys have any say whatsoever on the art that gets put into the modules or do you just write the words and let Paizo's art people put all the pretty stuff in? Do they even consult you on different art styles and images that you would want to see or is it completely out of your hands? I'm just curious.
It's completely in Paizo's hands as far as I know. I've made suggestions for what might be a good piece of art when I've turned in my manuscripts before, but usually they already have something in mind. (Maybe my suggestions have just sucked since none of them have been used)
James Jacobs and Jeremy Walker have sent me sneak peaks of artwork on stuff I was working on, and I had some input on what would go into the backdrop article on Farshore (STAP), but that's about as involved as I've ever been.
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Do they even consult you on different art styles...?WE don't even get a vote on the art styles used. That's completely up to the art directors. We might occasionally put in a request (like my mantra of "Can we get Julie Dillon?") but the art directors frequently just ignore us. ;D
Hey, Mike, did you know that Julie Dillon is doing all 12 or so of the human subraces of Golarion for the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer? Remind me to show you the sketches on Tuesday.
They are awesome.
--Erik
Hey, Mike, did you know that Julie Dillon is doing all 12 or so of the human subraces of Golarion for the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer?
Julie Dillon? *squee!*
Can someone post a link for Julie Dillon's work or references to issues of Dragon, Dungeon, or any other stuff I might own that I can see some of her stuff in? The name is real familiar, but I'm not making any connections.
Ummm... I don't know what's in it for me. :)
Not another one... Do I have to send the Gninjitas and poo flingin' Savage Flyn Monkeys to Kentucky, too? Well, that's not too far from North Carolina.
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Well to be honest the blurb of text about it just didn't strike a cord with me. (YES, I meant cord not chord. So I like ropes and stuff big deal. ;) )
However I do enjoy a good joke and challenge. The Gninjitas and poo flingin' Savage Flyn Monkeys cracked me up. So I'll take the challenge and see what all the fuss is a about. (After payday)
Damnitall, it's a deal!
::Makes mental note to avoid KFC for a while just in case::
Julie Dillon? *squee!*
That onomatopoeia totally does not suit your avatar. The cake and cookies, too. You should have a Care Bear or something like that.
That onomatopoeia totally does not suit your avatar. The cake and cookies, too. You should have a Care Bear or something like that.
I tried them. Their work was unsatisfactory, I made pie of them. And I'm sure that even Iggwilv had her squee-filled moments - maybe when her darling little Iuz conquered her first kingdom. Or something.
So, now that we have the first of (hopefully) many great urban adventures, what is the verdict? I just downloaded this at work, and can't (naturally) read it page to page. My first impressions must therefore be the artwork, which unlike Pathfinder # 1 is great. Being the male that I am, the one thing that stuck out was the illustration of Seoni on page 18. Not only does her face show horror and fear, but she obviously have had time to cast the 0th level spell Enlarge Breasts :)
So all joking aside, anybody got any comments? Good, bad, indifferent?
Once Ive recieved mine Ill give you some feed back dude.
Much obliged :)
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Hey, Mike, did you know that Julie Dillon is doing all 12 or so of the human subraces of Golarion for the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer?I've seen the sketches. I don't think I remembered they were by Julie. :)
Julie Dillon? *squee!*My sentiments exactly. :D
Any luck getting a link to some of her art? If it makes Lilith /squee it's definitely got me curious :)
Julie's DeviantArt page
Julie's website
Recent images she's done for Paizo include Demodragon, the runehound and Escape from Meenlock Prison.
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Julie's DeviantArt page
Julie's websiteRecent images she's done for Paizo include Demodragon, the runehound and Escape from Meenlock Prison.
sweet :) thanks Lilith.
Julie's DeviantArt page
Julie's websiteRecent images she's done for Paizo include Demodragon, the runehound and Escape from Meenlock Prison.
Talent. Skills. Very nice.
Julie's DeviantArt page
Julie's websiteRecent images she's done for Paizo include Demodragon, the runehound and Escape from Meenlock Prison.
Ah, yes. I recognized "Rook" and "Demodragon" right away. She's great! Can't wait to see the new stuff for the Gazetteer Erik has been teasing us about.
Wow, "I Shall Face Damnation for You" blows me away. Awsome picture, awesome name.
So, now that we have the first of (hopefully) many great urban adventures, what is the verdict? I just downloaded this at work, and can't (naturally) read it page to page. My first impressions must therefore be the artwork, which unlike Pathfinder # 1 is great. Being the male that I am, the one thing that stuck out was the illustration of Seoni on page 18. Not only does her face show horror and fear, but she obviously have had time to cast the 0th level spell Enlarge Breasts :)So all joking aside, anybody got any comments? Good, bad, indifferent?
I dunno..
You and Nick Logue are doing a pretty good sales pitch on this module. I'm considering buying..
Watcher, very cool. Good to hear that it's having some effect ;) It sure beats having to threaten people with poo-flinging monkeys and gninjas sent to their homes.
Watcher, very cool. Good to hear that it's having some effect ;) It sure beats having to threaten people with poo-flinging monkeys and gninjas sent to their homes.
So instead you send Nick Logue with Page 18? ;) Or whatever page Seoni is illustrated on...
Watcher, very cool. Good to hear that it's having some effect ;) It sure beats having to threaten people with poo-flinging monkeys and gninjas sent to their homes.So instead you send Nick Logue with Page 18? ;) Or whatever page Seoni is illustrated on...
That illo is niiiiiiice!
That illo is niiiiiiice!
Who drew it Steve?
Steve, I refuse to buy your horrible module. In fact I will be sending this one back right after I have read it!
j/k. What I have read so far is pretty good.
Coolio! Looking forward to your scathing review ;)
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Ok, so I just finished reading this baby!
First off the art, maps and layout are great. I think this is an important aspect of published adventures, and its something Paizo generally delivers on.I also enjoyed the designer notes-side bars. It cool to have insight on what the writer was thinking when they wrote the adventure.
I thought the adventure itself was pretty good.It was a refreshing and inventive. It provides a number of ways to involve the PCs, and I personally like how the main opening hook leads the players to believe their going on a dungeon crawl and then send them on an urban mystery adventure.
I also enjoyed that the players are not only trying to solve this bizzare murder, but that they are also in a race to try and stop more mayhem from occuring. Sort of feels like a scene from the TV series 24.
The dinner party encounter looks like a very interesting and fun encounter. Its like a mini boss fight, and includes a number of diffrent encounters over a very short span of time. This has the advantages of hopefully hitting somthing entertaining for everyone.
I really liked some of the NPCs in this adventure. Most notibly, Ahseron Coyle-mostly for the potential he provides if used in a long term game.Darius Finch-I could see this guy being a nice reoccuring pain in the ass for the PCs, one of those minor villians player's love to hate but cant or wont kill outright. Imron Gauthfallow-seems like a well fleshed out and intelligent villian and has alot of potential as a reoccuring bad guy.
The appendix on the Ivy District was nifty and provides lots of cool adventure ideas.In a lot of ways it seems to be a mirror image of what Richard Petts Styes might have looked like before it sunk into depravity, and for DMs wanting to it would be fun to comvine the two as part of a large city to really emphasise each others diffrences.
The new monsters and items also where cool and suited to the unique nature of the adventure. The animator brush provided a nice explanation for the number of animated objects in the house and is much cooler than just saying that the players found a wand that does the same thing. The Id Portrait seems like one of those items that could continually keep comeing back to haunt the PCs or could lead them a a whole new adventure to discover its origins or to try nad destroy it.
Some random thoughts now.First if I have one negative thing to say about this adventure it would be that I found there to be alot of constructs.This sucks for the rogue, but really its just a nitpick and to be honest I thought you did a great job of putting in the number of fights with the varity of creatures that you did.As I read the adventure all I could think about was HP Lovecrafts "Pickman's Model". I love that story and many times I have wondered how to capture that and make an adventure out of it. Well you did and I applaude you for a great job!I guess the biggest thing that makes me happy with this adventure is the amount of ideas that it spawns for me. I can see creating a massive arc of adventures with just this one adventure.
So to close, Great job Steve and Paizo! This is an excellent product. To think that this is a third of the size of one issue of Pathfinder makes me very excited to begin reading that series as well.
Thanks for the good review, Savage_ScreenMonkey! Whew! I got a good one. Yay!
One of the things I've always loved about a good adventure is that it inspires you with ideas of your own. I try to pass that on in the stuff that I write, and it sounds like you "got it". Mission accomplished!
A comparison to Rich's stuff is just awesome to hear because I'm such a big fan of his. He had me at "The Devil Box".
Anyway, thank you for saying so many kind things and I hope you have a really fun time running this adventure whenever you end up getting the chance to to do it.
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Steve: I've only read the adventure background, synopsis, and part of the setting. So far it's pretty good. This is not a knock against you, but I would like to have a general idea of what is on the other side of the wall of the ivy district. :)
Anyway, the
That illo is niiiiiiice!Who drew it Steve?
Watcher, I forgot to answer you. Sorry. I don't know which one of the artists did that particular piece, but it's one of the following:
Jeff Carlisle, Vincent Dutrait, [somebody from] Imaginary Friends Studios, or Drew Pocza.Maybe somebody from Paizo who's in the know could tell us which one of these talented people is responsible for "The Quivering Breastseses of Fear" picture of Seoni.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Steve - I haven't gotten around to reading the module yet, and I've been meaning to do so before giving this comment, but I probably save it as airplane reading next week and wanted to post while this thread was relatively hot.
I have one small piece of constructive criticism. The Designer Notes are the first thing I read, and they really determine how quickly I will get to a module and tend to have the most valuable insight. The issue I had with yours is that a lot of them were about you, your gaming group, etc. Sometimes this was just a preface to a meaty piece of advice (like how to handle the dinner party) but other times I didn't see any connection to the adventure (the piece about you as the villian). I'd much rather see a discussion of why you chose a particular creature (e.g., an octopus) or the other considerations for designing a good encounter. I see those designer notes as an amazing opportunity to receive advice on how to set up a good encounter/adventure, and I felt that yours could have done more in that vein.