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Here's a question for you as a Dragon Age fan.
Is it possible these days to play someone who's awesome with a crossbow without drawing comparisons to Varric Tethras?
I just feel like the minute a character becomes popular, I can't make something that functions in a similar way without inadvertently mimicking them (this is why I asked the Winter Witch question earlier).
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I believe the intent of the question was in using the trait in a campaign that had nothing to do with Reign of Winter.I absolutely would. That's the whole point of the traits, after all, to encourage players to make characters who are more appropriate for the campaign.There IS an official trait from Reign of Winter's Player's Guide that implies it's possible, Failed Winter Witch Apprentice. It implies that the character didn't complete their training or join Irrisen's politics, but that certainly doesn't stop them once Reign of Winter begins, since getting involved in Irrisen's politics is kind of important to it. Would YOU allow it as a GM?
No no, I meant it in the context of Reign of Winter. The other APs don't really seem to have a way to fit a Winter Witch into their narrative, as far as I can tell from what I've read.
Creative Director
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Here's a question for you as a Dragon Age fan.
Is it possible these days to play someone who's awesome with a crossbow without drawing comparisons to Varric Tethras?
I just feel like the minute a character becomes popular, I can't make something that functions in a similar way without inadvertently mimicking them (this is why I asked the Winter Witch question earlier).
I don't have a problem with the idea that someone who becomes popular with something becomes the poster child for that thing. That's how fandom works. If it didn't work that way, I doubt Pathfinder would exist, frankly.
And for what it's worth, I can think of plenty of other cool crossbow users, ranging from more recent discoveries (the character of Dagmar from the movie Escape) to pop-culture icons like Darryl from the Walking Dead.
No no, I meant it in the context of Reign of Winter. The other APs don't really seem to have a way to fit a Winter Witch into their narrative, as far as I can tell from what I've read.
Um... winter witches don't all have to be from Irrisen. Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous also take place up in the frozen north and might be suitable APs.
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1) Are Dagon and Cthulhu actually allied? Their cults are called out as allies in Dagon's Bestiary 4 entry. I'm presuming that despite Cthulhu's current status, the two of them could communicate if they really want to.1) They are not particularly allied, but their cults are. They are not particularly enemies either, but they COULD talk if they wanted. A deity and its religion don't always share every quality.
On a more general note, are there cults (or even cultures!) that worship a pantheon that includes some combination of 'normal gods,' demon lords / empyreals / eldest / etc., and / or Old Ones / Elder Gods?
(Much as the Azlanti 'pantheon' included Zura, a demon lord.)
Would you be interested in watching a short video on how some lakes can, naturally without any man-made input, explode and wipe out everything within a 25 km radius?
Even though an exploding lake happens in real life, does it sound fantastical enough to fit in a fantasy world? Could you ever see yourself using this in a campaign?
Hi James,
Are there any Halflings that worship Asmodeus? How would that work? I mean, Cheliax treats them pretty badly, is that a reflection of Asmodeus' dislike of Halflings, or what? Would they be seen as traitors to their own race if they worshipped Asmodeus?
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Creative Director
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1) Are Dagon and Cthulhu actually allied? Their cults are called out as allies in Dagon's Bestiary 4 entry. I'm presuming that despite Cthulhu's current status, the two of them could communicate if they really want to.1) They are not particularly allied, but their cults are. They are not particularly enemies either, but they COULD talk if they wanted. A deity and its religion don't always share every quality.On a more general note, are there cults (or even cultures!) that worship a pantheon that includes some combination of 'normal gods,' demon lords / empyreals / eldest / etc., and / or Old Ones / Elder Gods?
(Much as the Azlanti 'pantheon' included Zura, a demon lord.)
Yes, there are.
Mr. J. - Can you tell us more of boggard/grippli relations? Both are swamp dwellers, both are amphibious humanoids who seem to have similar ancestry, and boggard is in the list of bonus languages for a higher intelligence grippli...so it can be assumed these folks interact frequently. What are their relationships like? How do boggards view grippli jn general? Compared to other humanoids? How do grippli view boggards in general? Compared to other humanoids?
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Creative Director
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Would you be interested in watching a short video on how some lakes can, naturally without any man-made input, explode and wipe out everything within a 25 km radius?
Even though an exploding lake happens in real life, does it sound fantastical enough to fit in a fantasy world? Could you ever see yourself using this in a campaign?
Anything that can happen in the real world can and should be able to happen in a fantasy world. If the real-world thing is outlandish and unexpected, that's even more awesome, because you can put something like that into an adventure and then do a sidebar or something to say "Hey... as wild as this sounds, it's a real thing!" That makes the adventure educational, which is cool.
I do this often in adventures I write. For example, in "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv," there's a super low tide that suddenly exposes the bed of a bay. There are places in the real world where this happens naturally, and the real world one that inspired that scene in Smuggler's Shiv is the Bay of Fundy.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
Are there any Halflings that worship Asmodeus? How would that work? I mean, Cheliax treats them pretty badly, is that a reflection of Asmodeus' dislike of Halflings, or what? Would they be seen as traitors to their own race if they worshipped Asmodeus?
There are ABSOLUTELY halflings who worship Asmodeus, both in Cheliax and outside of Cheliax.
Asmodeus doesn't dislike halflings any more than anyone else.
It's the nation of Cheliax who values halflings as slaves... and that's not because they hate halflings at all. It's because halflings take up half as much room and that means you don't have to devote as much space or resources to your slave barracks for halfling slaves.
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Creative Director
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Mr. J. - Can you tell us more of boggard/grippli relations? Both are swamp dwellers, both are amphibious humanoids who seem to have similar ancestry, and boggard is in the list of bonus languages for a higher intelligence grippli...so it can be assumed these folks interact frequently. What are their relationships like? How do boggards view grippli jn general? Compared to other humanoids? How do grippli view boggards in general? Compared to other humanoids?
Boggards would view grippli as food, and grippli would view boggards as boogeymen to be hidden from or fled from. There's not a lot of grippli in the Inner Sea Region, but there are plenty of boggards.
I know there can be many stories per region, but now that Iron Gods is over, is that The Story that you wanted to tell for Numeria? As in, was Unity always in mind when anything was written about the region?
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Creative Director
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I know there can be many stories per region, but now that Iron Gods is over, is that The Story that you wanted to tell for Numeria? As in, was Unity always in mind when anything was written about the region?
It's certainly the primary story I wanted to tell in Numeria, yes, but it's far from the ONLY story. And yes, I'd been sitting on the Iron Gods plot for several years; an investigation of the combination of faith and science was always the plot I wanted to explore in the Numeria AP, although I'm relatively sure that plot wasn't one that Erik originally had for the region when he first came up with the setting.
The VERY FIRST plot point I came up with for the AP was the idea of an android cleric, and I knew that I needed to ease the game into the idea, so that's the reason androids ended up in Inner Sea Bestiary back in 2012.
Is moving GenCon to July going to cause problems for Paizo's production schedule, or will it make things a bit easier?
Are there griffins who combine features of other birds of prey and/or big cats? For some reason I think a griffin with a falcon head would be pretty cute.
You mean like a Hieracosphinx?
I had to google "Seventh Accord Pathfinder" to figure out what you were talking about, so that should explain why I don't have any personal ideas about what they may have been. I wasn't directly involved in Chronicle of the Righteous—this is a better question for Wes (along with anything Tabris related). I have plans to do much more with it at this point, in any event, but that doesn't mean no one else here at Paizo does.Hi James,
Are you and the good folks at Paizo planning to release any more information/details about the Seventh Accord?
If not, do you have any personal ideas about what the Accord may have been? :)
Cool, thanks for the response!
Is moving GenCon to July going to cause problems for Paizo's production schedule, or will it make things a bit easier?It's gonna make it harder.
Are you going to have to shift your APs from February/August to January/July, or just try to get the August AP ready to launch early?
Hey, JJ!
1- How old was Irori when he ascended to godhood?
(I'm not asking for a precise answer, just what is the answer according to Golarion legends/mythology... I guess a better way to put it is "How old Irori's followers/priests believe he was when he ascended to godhood?")
2- Unrelated but... Who was your choice of romance in Dragon age - Inquisition?
Catfolk
I and another asked about them a page back. At least an update as to when we'll get some more background on them.
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Catfolk
I and another asked about them a page back. At least an update as to when we'll get some more background on them.
Answered here.
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So, what does the word "Golarion" mean in the language it originated from, other than being the name of the planet? Why was that word chosen to be the name of the planet? I mean within the campaign setting, of course -- I imagine you just picked it because it sounded cool.That's not something that anyone's put any thought into. I believe it was Erik who made up the word, so you'd have to ask him for more details, but I suspect a big part of it was that it sounded good.
There's not any underlying in-world etymology for it though, and making something up isn't something I really want to do for lots of reasons, not the least of which being I don't want to set a precedent that every nonsense word we invent needs to have centuries of in-world history or justification. The rate at which we invent new words simply doesn't allow us to spend that much time on each of them.
I doubt it, but will there ever be any deliberate attempt at creating any of the languages in the setting? A la, Tolkien's linguistic work being found throughout his fantasy novels, or even just a straight-up linguistics book series?
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Azlant, for the most part, I would think. Their human minions would variously see them as gods or overlords or heroes.I read that Storm Giants often own large estates, farmlands...etc, employ humans and elves for work and "take charge" and protect their lands. Plus they are CG.
So where in Golarion can you find Storm Giant enclaves?
And how is the relationship between them and the people who work for them?
Aka, how do Storm Giants fit into the world of Golarion? (And her sister planets.)
Hi James,
Sorry for bring up an old reply.
I'm planning to have the party I'm running a kingdom building campaign game for, visit the islands of Azlant in the future and I would like some information to help flesh out the location and what creatures and NPCs in the area.
1) Its said that the Mordant Spire elves patrol and guard the islands.
So what would the Mordant Spire elves relation be like with the/any storm giants that settled on the islands?
Do they trade, war, with each other?
2) The storm giants Organization entry states:
"Solitary or family (2–5 plus 1 sorcerer or cleric of 7th–10th level, 1–2 rocs, 2–6 griffons, and 2–8 sharks)"
Would the sorcerer be a fellow storm giant (CR 13 + 7-10 levels of Cleric/sorcerer/Oracle/etc) or would they more likely to be mortal servants?
2a) Do storm giants have mortal servants that serve them in a greater capacity then just farmers or worker for their estates? Like a butler, household wizard/cleric/spellcaster, or even as estate guards or bodyguards?
3) How does storm giant families treat their fellow storm giant families neighbours?
Aka, do they act more like ruling nobles of different estates?
4) If a storm giant is to... fall in love with a human or other mortal, would this be considered "inappropriate" in storm giant culture?
*This question might sound weird, but I'm planning for the storm giants to return as allies or be further involved in the campaign's story-line.
4a) How would a storm giant go about with a mortal lover? A ring of permanent alter-self? Giving the mortal lover a ring of alter self (modified for huge). Learn to shape change?
5) How does storm giants threat mortal adventurers who appear on their door step? Do they give guest rights? Or immediately ask the adventurers to leave the island?
6) What are storm giant's attitude towards the smaller races?
7) What does Azlant islands look like? Bare rocks? Magic plagued like the mana-wastes?
8) Are the islands ruled by storm giants different? Do they use their control weather abilities to make their estates livable? (able to grow crops and stuff)
9) If the giants do use their control weather abilities to make such islands livable, would this also means the abandonment, removal or death of the storm giant rule/family of an Azlant island doom the mortal servants who live on the estate? (No crops, foul weather returns?)
10) What is the weather and environment of the Azlant islands like?
11) Other then humans, elves, dwarfs and other similar sized races, what other intelligent races or creatures would likely be servants of storm giants?
Aka, what could the party expect to encounter on a storm giant estate?
Thanks in advance!
Hey James,
Does it bother you that some people continually ask inane and ridiculous questions in this thread?
Also, I know you aren't a "huge" football fan, but who is the biggest Seahawks fan in the office?
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Creative Director
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Are you going to have to shift your APs from February/August to January/July, or just try to get the August AP ready to launch early?Is moving GenCon to July going to cause problems for Paizo's production schedule, or will it make things a bit easier?It's gonna make it harder.
Nope.
Hell's Rebels is unlikely to be available for purchase at Gen Con. If we DO get some in early enough to do so... we still won't release it then, since that'll annoy all the subscribers and brick & mortar stores who have to wait another month to get the book.
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Creative Director
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Hey, JJ!
1- How old was Irori when he ascended to godhood?
(I'm not asking for a precise answer, just what is the answer according to Golarion legends/mythology... I guess a better way to put it is "How old Irori's followers/priests believe he was when he ascended to godhood?")
2- Unrelated but... Who was your choice of romance in Dragon age - Inquisition?
1) Unrevealed. There are stories of him figuring it out as a young man, and others saying he figured it out on the eve of his death from old age.
2) Sera!!!!!
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Creative Director
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Catfolk
I and another asked about them a page back. At least an update as to when we'll get some more background on them.
No plans to do much more with catfolk anytime soon. They're a native race to southern Garund, so if we do something with that continent, we might do a bit more with catfolk, but again... no plans for anything anytime soon.
Are you going to have to shift your APs from February/August to January/July, or just try to get the August AP ready to launch early?Is moving GenCon to July going to cause problems for Paizo's production schedule, or will it make things a bit easier?It's gonna make it harder.Nope.
Hell's Rebels is unlikely to be available for purchase at Gen Con. If we DO get some in early enough to do so... we still won't release it then, since that'll annoy all the subscribers and brick & mortar stores who have to wait another month to get the book.
Aw, that's a shame. :( I know having a GenCon release is typically seen as a big deal in the industry.
Hopefully you'll have Occult Adventures in hand and ready to go at least.
How many Rabbits have you seen give birth in your lifetime?
is that ridiculous and inane enough for you nilesr:-D
i'm pretty sure i can get inaner:D
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Creative Director
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I doubt it, but will there ever be any deliberate attempt at creating any of the languages in the setting? A la, Tolkien's linguistic work being found throughout his fantasy novels, or even just a straight-up linguistics book series?So, what does the word "Golarion" mean in the language it originated from, other than being the name of the planet? Why was that word chosen to be the name of the planet? I mean within the campaign setting, of course -- I imagine you just picked it because it sounded cool.That's not something that anyone's put any thought into. I believe it was Erik who made up the word, so you'd have to ask him for more details, but I suspect a big part of it was that it sounded good.
There's not any underlying in-world etymology for it though, and making something up isn't something I really want to do for lots of reasons, not the least of which being I don't want to set a precedent that every nonsense word we invent needs to have centuries of in-world history or justification. The rate at which we invent new words simply doesn't allow us to spend that much time on each of them.
Nope. We'll create (and have created) the alphabets for languages, but the idea of creating fully functional languages is a terrible idea for an RPG. Because then you have to edit artwork where those languages appear, and you can't correct errors in artwork with a word processor program; you have to send the art back to the artist or do photoshop manipulation, and that takes a LONG time, and the rate at which we publish our books means we don't have time to do so.
Furthermore, we've ALREADY illustrated lots of in-world writing and runes and the like, and as a result, any functional language we came up with would either be impossibly hard to create to make those in-print illustrations make sense, or would mean that folks who then go and "translate" the runes in those pictures would see that they're gibberish and that'd make us look like idiots who don't know how to spell in the language we invented.
Invented, fantasy languages work best for novels or movies, where either there's a single vision (generally) behind the whole thing who doesn't have to worry about other people getting it wrong, or where the budget for the project is immense enough that they CAN afford to hire folks and take the time needed to make sure the words are right.
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Creative Director
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1)Which of the core 20 god's Religions does choral music have a large part in?
2)Choral music among celestials seems common with angels and Archons but do Agathions and Azatas form Choirs among the celestial host?
3)Do other types of outsides form Choirs? if yes what type of outsiders besides celestials are Choirs common?
4)What would a Choir of Agathions look like?
1) Abadar, Asmodeus, Calistria, Desna, Erastil, Gorum, Iomedae, Irori, Lamashtu, Nethys, Pharasma, Rovagug, Sarenrae, Shelyn, Torag, Urgathoa, Zon-Kuthon.
2) It's mostly an angel thing.
3) Not really. Not with a capital "C" that is.
4) Like a bunch of agathions trying to be angels. They wouldn't.
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Creative Director
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1) Its said that the Mordant Spire elves patrol and guard the islands.
So what would the Mordant Spire elves relation be like with the/any storm giants that settled on the islands?
Do they trade, war, with each other?2) The storm giants Organization entry states:
"Solitary or family (2–5 plus 1 sorcerer or cleric of 7th–10th level, 1–2 rocs, 2–6 griffons, and 2–8 sharks)"Would the sorcerer be a fellow storm giant (CR 13 + 7-10 levels of Cleric/sorcerer/Oracle/etc) or would they more likely to be mortal servants?
2a) Do storm giants have mortal servants that serve them in a greater capacity then just farmers or worker for their estates? Like a butler, household wizard/cleric/spellcaster, or even as estate guards or bodyguards?
3) How does storm giant families treat their fellow storm giant families neighbours?
Aka, do they act more like ruling nobles of different estates?4) If a storm giant is to... fall in love with a human or other mortal, would this be considered "inappropriate" in storm giant culture?
*This question might sound weird, but I'm planning for the storm giants to return as allies or be further involved in the campaign's story-line.4a) How would a storm giant go about with a mortal lover? A ring of permanent alter-self? Giving the mortal lover a ring of alter self (modified for huge). Learn to shape change?
5) How does storm giants threat mortal adventurers who appear on their door step? Do they give guest rights? Or immediately ask the adventurers to leave the island?
6) What are storm giant's attitude towards the smaller races?
7) What does Azlant islands look like? Bare rocks? Magic plagued like the mana-wastes?
8) Are the islands ruled by storm giants different? Do they use their control weather abilities to make their estates livable? (able to grow crops and stuff)
9) If the giants do use their control weather abilities to make such islands livable, would this also means the abandonment, removal or death of the storm giant rule/family of an Azlant island doom the mortal servants who live on the estate? (No crops, foul weather returns?)
10) What is the weather and environment of the Azlant islands like?
11) Other then humans, elves, dwarfs and other similar sized races, what other intelligent races or creatures would likely be servants of storm giants?
Aka, what could the party expect to encounter on a storm giant estate?
First off... many of the answers below are going to be sparse. I try not to do design work or campaign canon expansion on this thread, since that work gets lost swiftly in the size of the thread, since for time-management I need to keep my design work to actual print products, and since I don't want to set a precedent that I'm here to do the fun work for all you GMs. ;-)
Furthermore, when someone picks a specific point of interest, say, storm giants, chances are VERY GOOD that, unless that point happens to match up with one of my own, you know more about the topic in Golarion than I do. I've not read everything we publish, after all. I've not read the chapter on storm giants in Giants Revisited, for example.
Those bits said... I'll answer as best as I can.
1) It'd be on a giant by giant basis. Some would be allies, some would not be.
2) The organization entries for monsters are the norm; they can deviate as often and however you wish to tell other stories. When they DO deviate, try to come up with a reason for the difference. The assumption is that the 1 sorcerer mentioned is a storm giant though. It'd be unlikely to be a non-giant servant (remember, giants are mortals too!).
3) They'd act like ruling nobles of different estates, yes; some ally, some fight, some ignore.
4) That would indeed be unusual and in most cases regarded as inappropriate or scandalous for storm giant culture in the norm.
5) It'd vary, but since the bulk of storm giants are chaotic good, they would likely welcome their little guests but have unpredictable emotional reactions to them. They would attack or deny those they suspect or knew to be thieves or evil.
6) There's too many smaller races to summarize. It varies.
7) I've always imagined them as looking like sea stacks. Most are small. Some are quite large, and are islands themselves with fully functional wildlands atop them. Many of them have exposed dungeons or caves on the sides.
8) Yes. Storm giants enjoy comfort.
9) It would if the normal weather patterns in the area are violent. Not always the case. More likely, the loss of the storm giant host would expose the servants to wild predators and monsters, of which there's a LOT more in Azlant than weird weather.
10) Windy and temperate.
11) Oversized magical beasts. Rocs and thunderbirds, for example. Maybe pet dragons.
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Creative Director
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1)Sometime ago i asked if you can use the Summon Monster spell for sexual gratification.You of course said yes now i want to ask do people on Golarion use summoning spells like Summon Monster for sexual gratification?.is it common in the setting?
2)On Golarion is magic used to increase sexual performance? like spells or Potions that create effects similar to viagra or increase sexual pleasure?
3)How do you feel about Summoners using there eidolons as sexual partners?
4)Are there magic brothels that conjure or summon extraplanar creatures for sexual services on Golarion? And in what Nations are such brothels most common or most likely to be found?
5)What are your views on sex and magic in the Golarion setting? Is sexuality in the pathfinder setting something you would like to explore in future?(if you could)
6)If you where to write a romance of the inner sea book(if you could) how would you handle the subject of sexuality?
1) It's not common at all. First of all, people being able to summon monsters isn't common. And among those who CAN summon monsters, the practice of using your summon monster spells as a harem is pretty rare. It's a practice that most folk would find scandalous or pitiful or weird or deviant.
2) It can. It's not something we talk about, since the subject tends to freak people out and offend folks in the real world.
3) If it's in character for the character, it can be an interesting personality trait. But that goes for anything any character does. It's not something that I've ever done with my characters, nor plan to, but it's a plot point (not with summoners) I've included at least once in an adventure I wrote (Porphyry House Horror) for Dungeon.
4) Yes, but again, you won't find us detailing them for you. Because it'd offend too many people.
5) Sex and magic HAS to have a robust and widespread presence in Golarion, because that's the way the human condition works. Just look at how sex and technology interacts in this world. The same goes for sex and magic in any fantasy setting. And it's not a topic we can ever really explore in print, I fear, due to the way America freaks out and overreacts to the subject.
6) Delicately and maturely and with respect.
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Hey James,
Does it bother you that some people continually ask inane and ridiculous questions in this thread?
Also, I know you aren't a "huge" football fan, but who is the biggest Seahawks fan in the office?
It doesn't bother me, no... but it does bother me if someone keeps asking the same question over and over and over despite the fact that I keep answering the question the same way. But they obviously are passionate about the question, so I keep my personal opinions to myself and do what I can to reply to them anyway.
Hmmm. I'd say it'd have to be either Jessica, Rob, Erik, or Jeff. Jeff and Rob both wore jerseys to work on Tuesday, but Jessica was a social media maniac on Sunday about the game. I think Erik's more a fan of football in general... but I could be wrong, and he might cut me for having written that.
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Creative Director
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Aw, that's a shame. :( I know having a GenCon release is typically seen as a big deal in the industry.
Hopefully you'll have Occult Adventures in hand and ready to go at least.
The plan is to have PLENTY to release at Gen Con, including Occult and the card game and some other stuff.
That said, since we have subscriptions, NOT having a release at Gen Con probably wouldn't hurt our sales much at all. The damage would be more of a gossipy industry read-between-the-lines type, as in "Paizo had no new releases for Gen Con, that must mean they're going out of business" or whatever.
It IS kinda lame that we won't be able to show off Hell's Rebels though, which means we won't really have much to talk to folks about it.
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Creative Director
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I know the dieties in the Inner Sea are usually depicted as more or less single. However there are a few exceptions like Dis having Erecura, and so on. My question is, would worshippers notice if their dieties started courting and then wed?
They would if the deities wanted them to. Not if they didn't.
Do you think it would have been funny for all the Iconics for Giantslayer to have been all small races?