Creative Director
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I just got Lords of Chaos yesterday. Since you were the author, if I don't like it, can I sacrifice you to Nocticula??
Is that a promise? :)
Also, who created the glyphs on the inside front cover?? some of them are really badass, and would be great tattoos.
They were created by Jeff Carlisle—we originally had him create a large number of runes like this for Second Darkness, where we used the runes as the basis for the drow alphabet. But Jeff gave us far more runes than we needed for an alphabet, so some of them got turned into sigils for the noble houses, and a large swath of them got set aside to serve as the symbols for demon lords.
The particular symbols we associated with the demon lords were NOT created for those demon lords. That said, it was weirdly easy for me to match the symbols to each demon lord—in most cases, the symbols really look appropriate for the demon lord in question... and sometimes, the flavor text I wrote for the demon even builds off of the shape of their symbol in some ways.
Had I the time, I could probably write a paragraph about what each symbol symbolizes for each demon lord, in fact. And it's kind of hard to resist that temptation...
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Creative Director
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If you think He is bad ass then I guess you think it is a bit of a waste of talent to have him in a movie and not give him a line for the entire time like they did in one of the Dracula movies?
Nah. He's been in enough cool movies that a mere cameo is awesome. No worries!
Who do you think would win in an elocution contest between Christopher Lee, Patrick Steward and Michael Caine?
Probably Michael Caine.
Did you EVER believe in Santa claus?
Sure! Enough to be frightened TERRIBLY by him. I mean... I'm supposed to think that a big giant red man shooting down your chimney is a GOOD thing? Always had a feeling that he had something to hide...
Of all fictional good guys you've ever encountered, which is the one you'd want to bring into the world if you could make one into reality?
Hmm... that's a tough one. I'm tempted to say Superman, because as boring as he is he could probably do the world a lot of good.
Nah. And it's "Unspeakable Futures," for the record... ;)are you tired of talking about "unspoken futures"?
which by the way thanks for telling use about it, I am pretty excited about even the possibility of this happen.
thanks for the correction and the spoilers
In Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth," he tells a story about a race of fishlike humanoids called the Deep Ones who intermingle with humans, creating a hybrid race of human/fish-man creatures. Those guys are deep one hybrids.
D'oh! I saw Mairkurion's response prior to yours and I told myself I lost points from the obvious reference. *shakes head in shame*
"Unspeakable Futures" is set on Earth. Which is NOT in Golarion's solar system or even in its galaxy... although it IS in Golarion's Universe. There's not really any link between "Unspeakable Futures" and Golarion, nor do I really want there to be a link between the two. And it's really hard to motivate myself to work on a vanity project with no publication date when I have plenty of other projects, like "Jade Regent" to name just one, that DO have publication dates. Put another way, if I don't do anything with "Unspeakable Futures" for another year, no one is financially hurt. If I don't do anything with "Jade Regent" for even a week, heads start rolling.
It was just wishful thinking on my part. We're realistic what pays the bills, but there are some of us that also recognizes a demand for a setting as you described. Or at least have a glimmer of hope that some of those ideas slip into Golarion's universe in some fashion. ;-)
It's a shame to see that this mini will make its debut in February 2011 ... but if memory serves me correctly, his corresponding PrC will not have a PF compatible conversion in the new Inner Sea World Guide. Any chance of it turning up elsewhere or perhaps as a web extra?The Low Templar is indeed in the Inner Sea World Guide.
It's the Shackles Pirate prestige class that got cut, on account of it being FAR to specialized in nature.
{wipes brow} Thanks for the clarification. :)
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Do you plan to have Paizo publish Unspeakable Futures? If so, might this be the first indication that Paizo will on rare occasions publish non-Golarion RPG products? (I'm excluding the Pathfinder RPG line, because while it's technically not Golarion-based, it definitely counts as supporting the setting.)
So building on that, is there a fictional BAD guy you'd like to make real? I mean hey, we are talking theory here after all.
Ever played The Sims?
What do you think about R.A Salvatore as an author?
Would you rather have a gun or a sword? Any gun or any sword.
How do you think the world would look today if gunpowder was never invented?
Is it ok to admire someone for having one quality you like even thought the person is in all other ways a terrible bastard?
What can we, as loyal Paizonians, do to bring about Unspeakable Future?
For starters, we continue to keep talking about it. =)
You know, I wasn't gonna say anything. :PWhat can we, as loyal Paizonians, do to bring about Unspeakable Future?For starters, we continue to keep talking about it. =)
It's spoken about in another thread somewhere on the messageboards, but I think if a base skeleton could be put together of a skill set, classes, feats, etc. at a minimum and has Paizo's blessings, it would provide the appropriate framework for OGL / Open Content as 'ground zero' for others to build from with their own settings that may not necessarily be based in the typical fantasy tropes. Even if Paizo may not want to fully launch head first due to lack of interest and/or lack of resources (fiscally or headcount) to commit to this, it could be easily done with a simple framework such as a 'beta PDF' released, but with the caveat that it will not have as the usual immediate support for feedback, but that there will be interested eyes following up on those comments to see whether or not it would be worth pursuing in the future. And in addition, an extension of the online SRD that displays such.
It should have some consideration, IMHO. I see it as a win-win when it brings more to the hobby, more settings, and more people having to come back to Paizo to pick up the core Pathfinder rules along with any other supplements (such as Ultimate Combat when there's a gunslinger class to build from that'd fit well in other setting tropes).
Yeah, I'm sure there's those that will cry BLOAT or SPLAT, but I ignore those haters. They don't have to buy the products; especially if those settings aren't necessarily Paizo's.
EDIT: But I really REALLY do like J.J.'s setting. :)
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My three FAVORITE video games of all time, though, would be (in order) Baldur's Gate 2, Fallout 2, and Planescape: Torment. RPGs with powerful storylines and cool NPCs are the best. You can see a lot of the groundwork laid by these games reflected in my most recent three favorite game franchises: Dragon Age, Fallout, and Mass Effect. A fair amount of the game design and plot design of all of these games has pretty much invaded and cultivated my own game/plot development philosophy, and you can see a lot of that, in turn, reflected in the Adventure Paths.
Huh. I think that Bioware or Black Isle touched ALL of your top games. That's nifty as it seems we have very similar tastes.
Who was your favorite character from BG 2, Fallout 2 and Planescape?
a.) What are your ten favourite dinosaurs?
b.) Are we ever going to see a Carnotaurus statted up?
c.) Have you ran Souls for Smuggler's Shiv yet? If so any suggestions on what to do if a character dies?
d.) Do you know of any cool stuff for Alchemists coming up?
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Creative Director
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Do you plan to have Paizo publish Unspeakable Futures? If so, might this be the first indication that Paizo will on rare occasions publish non-Golarion RPG products? (I'm excluding the Pathfinder RPG line, because while it's technically not Golarion-based, it definitely counts as supporting the setting.)
I have not talked to Paizo about publishing "Unspeakable Futures." If it's an indication of anything, it's merely that Paizo's creative director is interested in post-apocalyptic gaming, which means that there's a better chance than zero of us doing a non-Golarion product.
But the fact that most science fiction games have done poorly, and the fact that our current philosophy would encourage us to do a complete line of support for a new game (we barely have enough people to keep an Adventure Path, module, Player's Companion, and Campaign Setting line going for ONE setting... let alone two) means that it'll probably be some time before we make any sort of decision like: "It's time to print a new setting/game."
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Creative Director
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So building on that, is there a fictional BAD guy you'd like to make real? I mean hey, we are talking theory here after all.
Nah; the world has enough bad guys already.
Ever played The Sims?
Nope.
What do you think about R.A Salvatore as an author?
His initial trilogy ("The Crystal Shard" and the rest) was and probably remains the most entertaining Forgotten Realms books I've read. I've not read any of his books for a bit over a decade, though, so at this point all I really think of him as a fond memory, I suppose. (And no, I didn't stop reading him from anger at his popularity, as seems to be the case for a vocal subset of gamer—I just tend to skew my reading toward horror, not fantasy.)
Would you rather have a gun or a sword? Any gun or any sword.
A sword, because a sword is a better decoration, and I'm not really into using weapons to go kill things.
How do you think the world would look today if gunpowder was never invented?
Steampunk!!!!! With ornithopters in the skies and hot corset-wearing dominatrix cops armed with metal crossbows on the streets.
Is it ok to admire someone for having one quality you like even thought the person is in all other ways a terrible bastard?
There's BOUND to be someone with the same quality out there who's not a bastard.
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Creative Director
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My three FAVORITE video games of all time, though, would be (in order) Baldur's Gate 2, Fallout 2, and Planescape: Torment. RPGs with powerful storylines and cool NPCs are the best. You can see a lot of the groundwork laid by these games reflected in my most recent three favorite game franchises: Dragon Age, Fallout, and Mass Effect. A fair amount of the game design and plot design of all of these games has pretty much invaded and cultivated my own game/plot development philosophy, and you can see a lot of that, in turn, reflected in the Adventure Paths.Huh. I think that Bioware or Black Isle touched ALL of your top games. That's nifty as it seems we have very similar tastes.
Who was your favorite character from BG 2, Fallout 2 and Planescape?
Yup. Bioware/Black Isle is pretty much responsible for the vast majority of the games I love. Even ones now published by other companies (such as Fallout).
Favorite Characters:
BG 2: Jaheria
Fallout 2: Dogmeat
Planescape: Annah
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Creative Director
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a.) What are your ten favourite dinosaurs?
b.) Are we ever going to see a Carnotaurus statted up?
c.) Have you ran Souls for Smuggler's Shiv yet? If so any suggestions on what to do if a character dies?
d.) Do you know of any cool stuff for Alchemists coming up?
A: (Limiting the results to actual dinosars) Tyrannosaurus, deinonychus, velociraptor, allosaurus, ceratosaurus, styracosaurus, spinosaurus, teratosaurus, giganotosaurus, and baryonyx.
B: Maybe some day!
C: I have; I ran it to playtest it, then kept on running the adventure path afterwards. My suggestions for character death is for the PCs to find the scroll of raise dead that's hidden on the island—that's why I put it there. Beyond that, though, I'd either fudge things at the last minute in some way to let the other PCs save the dying PC at the last minute, or I'd let the player take over one of the NPCs and let him re-build that NPC however he wants, or I'd just let the player make a new character and introduce that character as either a cannibal victim or a new shipwreck victim. In the playtest, I did have 1 character death—the PC got killed by...
D: I do. I can't say anything about it yet though.
BG 2: Jaheria
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Creative Director
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Ok James, I have my own theories but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. What is "The Lady of Pain" in "Planescape" setting? She's powerful enough to ban deities from "Sigil" and apparently not a deity.
She's a plot character direct from the core of the edition of the game that was the most infatuated with pet NPCs.
Not that that's always a bad thing, mind you. The Lady of Pain is a really cool character. We actually talked about her in the last issue of Dragon Magazine in the "Unsolved Mysteries of D&D" article. My take is that she's a manifestation of pain itself, similar to the Endless of "Sandman" fame.
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Creative Director
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Which do you think would make a scarier Santa, a Zombie Santa or a Robot Santa? For the purpose of the question we would assume the Zombie Santa eats the brains of naughty children while the robot Santa would use a flamethrower.
Haha, you really like Steam punk don't you? Maybe you know if there is some kind of rpg or novel that involves steam powered nazi Cyborgs? I can't remember if it is something I saw or something I imagined myself.
What do you look at first on a hot woman? You are allowed to say eyes or smile or whatnot.
Name three things you would absolutely have to include in a end of campaign villain?
Zombie Santa is scarier than Robot Santa, but NORMAL Santa is scarier than both.
Steampunk is a really interesting looking setting is all. Mostly because it's something that has, relatively speaking, only had its surface scratched by RPGs, novels, and movies. There's a lot of new stuff still waiting to be realized in that genre.
Probably her smile.
Awesome appearance, awesome lair, awesome name.
just watched Masters of Horror "dreams in witch house" not to bad, I need to reread the story but for hour long movie it was not to bad. Do you know of any other H.P. Lovecraft based movies that are worth watching?
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just watched Masters of Horror "dreams in witch house" not to bad, I need to reread the story but for hour long movie it was not to bad. Do you know of any other H.P. Lovecraft based movies that are worth watching?
Best I've seen is The Call of Cthulhu (2005).
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Creative Director
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just watched Masters of Horror "dreams in witch house" not to bad, I need to reread the story but for hour long movie it was not to bad. Do you know of any other H.P. Lovecraft based movies that are worth watching?
Limiting it to only actual Lovecraft adaptions (if I didn't I'd nominate "Alien" and "The Thing" as the best), I'd say check out this version of "Call of Cthulhu."
Beyond that, Stuart Gordon (who did the aforementioned "Dreams in the Witch House") also directed three even better adaptions: "Re-Animator," "From Beyond," and "Dagon." All three of those are quite good, with "Re-Animator" being significantly good. They're all pretty high on the gore/sex meter, though, so watcher beware!
I also quite enjoyed Dan "Alien" O'Bannon's take on "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward," filmed as "The Resurrected."
The holy grail at this time, though, is the upcoming version of "At the Mountains of Madness," directed by Guillarmo del Toro and produced by James Cameron.
I also quite enjoyed Dan "Alien" O'Bannon's take on "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward," filmed as "The Resurrected."
Mr. O'Bannon (may he rest in peace) and I are from the same VERY small town in southern Missouri. He hung out with many of the fathers of my first gaming group (we are all 2nd generation nerds).
Dan's family owned a small tract of land called Odd Acres. It was one of those roadside attraction type places on old Highway 60 that had a building where water would run up hill and all that mess.
After the O'Bannons left my family bought the land and still owns pieces of it today. The locals down there still call it Odd Acres, though very few know why.
Ct' HULU! Ra! Ra!
Jaheira?! Really? Why?
I play BGII way too much (there is just something incredibly soothing about backstabbing the crap out of illithids and watching their pixelated remains go flying all over my screen) but I hardly ever use Jaheira even though she does have good summons.
I usually rock out with an eviltastic core party (Viconia + Korgan + Edwin) because the designers made the evil characters the most effective and the funniest.
Especially Edwin. Edwin is a sexy sexy man.
...uh... going away now.
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Creative Director
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I also quite enjoyed Dan "Alien" O'Bannon's take on "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward," filmed as "The Resurrected."
Mr. O'Bannon (may he rest in peace) and I are from the same VERY small town in southern Missouri. He hung out with many of the fathers of my first gaming group (we are all 2nd generation nerds).
Dan's family owned a small tract of land called Odd Acres. It was one of those roadside attraction type places on old Highway 60 that had a building where water would run up hill and all that mess.
After the O'Bannons left my family bought the land and still owns pieces of it today. The locals down there still call it Odd Acres, though very few know why.
Woah! Cool! I've always been a big fan of Dan O'Bannon; he wrote my favorite movie, after all. I'm still holding out hope that his cut of "The Resurrected" will someday get released, and in widescreen—the currently available DVD of the movie, as far as I know, is a pan and scan version of the studio cut.
Anyway, count me jealous of you! :-)
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Creative Director
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Would you say that H.P Lovecraft was the best horror author you've ever read?
I'd say he's the best AUTHOR i've ever read. He's hands down easily my favorite writer.
Since we've established that Clint Eastwood, Michael Caine and Christopher Lee are all awesome, which one takes the gold?
Clint Eastwood. Christopher Lee gets the silver, and Michael Caine gets the bronze (he got a LOT of minus points for Jaws IV, even if it DID help him with a house payment).
Who is the best illustrator you've ever worked with?
I can't name just one. I can name my favorites, though: Eva Widermann, Wayne Reynolds, Steve Prescott, Ben Wootten, Kierian Yanner, Carolina Eade, and Tyler Walpole for starters.
What do you yourself think is the minimal time needed to construct an adventure that is good enough to print? A timeframe that you believe is absolutely necessary for it to be decent.
Decent does not equal good enough to print. And length certainly plays a HUGE role. And "constructing" means more than writing; it means playtesting, development, art, cartography, layout, and editing as well. Taking a single 32 page module as a guide though... I'd say 6 to 9 months. Could probably knock that down to 2 to 3 months if everyone involved ONLY worked on the module, I suppose.
Ever participated in a LARP?
Yup. Not really all that much to my liking.
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Creative Director
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Jaheira?! Really? Why?
Because she was a druid for one (at the time, my favorite class). And because she was one of the familiar faces from BG1. And because her personality had a REALLY cool character arc with her growing to come to terms with her husband's death and finding a new life. And because of the three romance interests, she was the least annoying or least frightening. And because the art for her in BG2 was super sexy. And while the evil characters were certainly fun... Jaheira's dialogue was also really cool and fun.
Vicconia is probably my second favorite, with Minsc coming in at third. Aerie is pretty cool too, though. Korgan was a dwarf, and therefore he always got sent to the back of the party and ignored, and Edwin was too close to my main character's powers to keep around.
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James have you seen the cthulhusaurus Rex yet? And what do you think of it? And can we get it statted out in pathfinder?
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Creative Director
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James have you seen the cthulhusaurus Rex yet? And what do you think of it? And can we get it statted out in pathfinder?
I have seen it. It is cool. If someone wants to stat it up elsewhere on these boards... neat! We've got no plans right now to stat them up in Pathfinder, though... stating up creatures based on other artists' Intellectual Property is sketchy.
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I'm running a homebrew campaign set in and around Magnimar.
I had a few questions that i can't seem to find the answer to in the article in Pathfinder #2:
How does one become a member of the Council of Ushers? are they elected positions?
How are new Lord-Mayors chosen when the previous one dies/steps down/whatever?
same thing with the Justice Court, are they appointed by the Council of Ushers or the Lord-Mayor. Are justices elected?
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Creative Director
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How does one become a member of the Council of Ushers? are they elected positions? How are new Lord-Mayors chosen when the previous one dies/steps down/whatever?
same thing with the Justice Court, are they appointed by the Council of Ushers or the Lord-Mayor. Are justices elected?
These elements aren't covered in much detail, but it's important to remember that Magnimar is relatively liberal in its philosophies. Voting and democratic processes are popular here. It's likely that one becomes a member of the Council by popular demand, although political corruption can still play a part.
But for the most part, you can assume that elections (sometimes limited to the nobility, guild leaders, or even to government officials themselves) play a big part in determining leaders of Magnimar. Full elections where everyone in the city gets a vote are pretty rare, though.
James,
Will we ever see a Pathfinder Companion: Aboleth of Golarion?
Nope. Never.
Player Companions are for players. Aboleths are for GMs.
Does that mean we'll see them in "Evil Masterminds Revisited" or "Classic Aberrations Revisited"?
Is NASCAR a sport?
Of course not!
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Creative Director
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What is the most terrifying form of evil to you personally? (e.g. Intelligent evil which plots, unthinking evil which is more of a force of nature, evil which does evil for the sake of evil)
Rape is up there pretty high, as is child abuse, but I think genocide's the apex of evil as far as I can imagine.
