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Thanks again!
1.)Eox seems like a relatively sedate place, undead horrors not withstanding, but it seems odd to me that this planet of what basically seems like researchers routinely send out Tzitzimitl to other planets. Those things are like one step below Nightshades in terms of how maliciously destructive they are. Do the Eoxians actively hate living creatures?
2.) If the Eoxians genuinely wish for the destruction of life, why don't they attempt nightshade summoning? It could be easily accomplished on their benighted world and they could likely easily spread the horrific payload of nightwalker and nightwing across the solar system the same way they transport the Tzitzimitl.
3.) How the heck do you pronounce Tzitzimitl? Tuh-Zitsa-Mit-All?
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In other words... it's a relatively arbitrary choice that may not have initially said "druid" but after 30+ years of that tradition, in my opinion, they DO say druid.
Not quite so arbitrary. Sickles have been associated with druids since Pliny the Elder wrote about wrote about some of their rituals.
What's a good one-word way to describe a person who's uncertain about their identity and future, who feels aimless and lacks confidence in their ability to be a leader or hero?
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In other words... it's a relatively arbitrary choice that may not have initially said "druid" but after 30+ years of that tradition, in my opinion, they DO say druid.Not quite so arbitrary. Sickles have been associated with druids since Pliny the Elder wrote about wrote about some of their rituals.
What's a good one-word way to describe a person who's uncertain about their identity and future, who feels aimless and lacks confidence in their ability to be a leader or hero?
Sickles weren't part of 1st edition D&D though, and as such weren't weapons that anyone could be proficient in. That they were added to druids at a later date does make sense.
Aimless works. If you want a different one, desultory works as well.
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So areas of concern don't really do anything? that is disappointing.Do demigods have any control over the things in there Divine Portfolio?Yes. How they choose is unrevealed.And what about Mythic Characters with the Divine Source ability?
As a GM in a Mythic campaign I have mine players planning to take it for some of their PCs soon. Would you allow them to choose their Own Portfolio according to their domains, or what else?Mythic characters with Divine Source aren't yet demigods. They're quasi deities. And yes, I'd allow them to choose their own areas of concern (we don't actually use "portfolio" in that sense in Pathfinder, remember), but I'd say the GM has veto power and would suggest the player choose very specific narrow things. For example, rather than oceans and wind, I might suggest such a character choose waves and shoreline storms. Rather than cities and humans, perhaps just Korvosa and Korvosans (or whatever city the PC is about). Furthermore, most deities have 3 or 4 areas of concern, and I like the idea that a quasi deity only gets one or two.
In the end, areas of concern provide no one any set-in-stone game benefits; they're just flavor—a few words that allow an indication of a deity's personality and interests in a short format that fits on a table where we often don't have the wordcount or space to go into any more detail about that deity. Note that often domains and areas of concern somewhat match, but they don't HAVE to and, indeed, having some areas of concern and domains that seem off or even clash can make for very interesting mythologies.
They're areas that a deity has an interest in, and has influence over. There are no game mechanics for HOW the deity manipulates or influences those things though. It's left 100% to the GM's needs for the story, and as a sort of shorthand for what that deity (and their faith) is interested in. I suppose there IS at least one corner case that does impact game mechanics... the miracle spell. If you cast a miracle, it should probably be influenced by your deity's areas of interest, and if it it's in that area of interest, its effects should be stronger and more profound.
But as far as an actual game mechanic? Nope. Because we don't have game mechanics for deities.
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Thanks again!
1.)Eox seems like a relatively sedate place, undead horrors not withstanding, but it seems odd to me that this planet of what basically seems like researchers routinely send out Tzitzimitl to other planets. Those things are like one step below Nightshades in terms of how maliciously destructive they are. Do the Eoxians actively hate living creatures?
2.) If the Eoxians genuinely wish for the destruction of life, why don't they attempt nightshade summoning? It could be easily accomplished on their benighted world and they could likely easily spread the horrific payload of nightwalker and nightwing across the solar system the same way they transport the Tzitzimitl.
3.) How the heck do you pronounce Tzitzimitl? Tuh-Zitsa-Mit-All?
1) Yes. They're undead, and that's kinda one of the things that defines undeath—a hatred of the living.
2) Unrevealed, but I'm sure there's a reason. Possibly because they're simply not adept at conjuration spells. But also because having them do something different than a more well-known undead that's been part of the game for decades helps to not only make the Eoxians feel alien (which they are), but also helps to justify the existence of a new monster.
3) The tzitzimitl is from real-world mythology. I say "Sit sim it'll" when I say it out loud.
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Any plans to bring the Tibbit race into Pathfinder? (Dragon annual)None. The Tibbit is the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. It (and everything else in Dragon and Dungeon) are off limits to us, since almost all of that content is not open content.
Shucks.
I guess a Kitsune will have to do. I really wanted a small race for the shapeshifter changing into a small animal thing.
I let my players down last weekend. Normally I'm excited to play but for some reason I couldn't get hyped and was ill prepared for the game session. We're starting book four of Carrion Crown one that they and I have been really looking forward to due to it having a Lovecraftian feel, but after I stumbled and struggled with the first encounter I was thrown even further off my game and ended up calling the game early. Any good ways to combat GM fatigue/burnout? I really hated dropping the ball like I did.
Any plans to bring the Tibbit race into Pathfinder? (Dragon annual)None. The Tibbit is the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. It (and everything else in Dragon and Dungeon) are off limits to us, since almost all of that content is not open content.Shucks.
I guess a Kitsune will have to do. I really wanted a small race for the shapeshifter changing into a small animal thing.
TRUST ME. You bought up; you just don't know it yet. ;-)
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Creative Director
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Any plans to bring the Tibbit race into Pathfinder? (Dragon annual)None. The Tibbit is the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. It (and everything else in Dragon and Dungeon) are off limits to us, since almost all of that content is not open content.Shucks.
I guess a Kitsune will have to do. I really wanted a small race for the shapeshifter changing into a small animal thing.
Just becasue we can't update the tibbit doesn't mean you can't!
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I let my players down last weekend. Normally I'm excited to play but for some reason I couldn't get hyped and was ill prepared for the game session. We're starting book four of Carrion Crown one that they and I have been really looking forward to due to it having a Lovecraftian feel, but after I stumbled and struggled with the first encounter I was thrown even further off my game and ended up calling the game early. Any good ways to combat GM fatigue/burnout? I really hated dropping the ball like I did.
It's important to realize that some weeks you just aren't in the mood to GM, and don't be afraid of canceling the game that week. Instead, get the group together and play a different game. Often, that's enough to recharge the GM batteries for next time. If it's a recurring thing, you might want to consider putting your campaign on hiatus for a while and having another of your group do the GMing for a while so you can play the game.
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In other words... it's a relatively arbitrary choice that may not have initially said "druid" but after 30+ years of that tradition, in my opinion, they DO say druid.Not quite so arbitrary. Sickles have been associated with druids since Pliny the Elder wrote about wrote about some of their rituals.
What's a good one-word way to describe a person who's uncertain about their identity and future, who feels aimless and lacks confidence in their ability to be a leader or hero?
Sickles weren't part of 1st edition D&D though, and as such weren't weapons that anyone could be proficient in. That they were added to druids at a later date does make sense.
Aimless works. If you want a different one, desultory works as well.
...I learned a new word! Thanks, James! :)
If you could have Sir Christopher Lee provide the voice of a single character from Golarion, who would it be?
In other words... it's a relatively arbitrary choice that may not have initially said "druid" but after 30+ years of that tradition, in my opinion, they DO say druid.Not quite so arbitrary. Sickles have been associated with druids since Pliny the Elder wrote about wrote about some of their rituals.
What's a good one-word way to describe a person who's uncertain about their identity and future, who feels aimless and lacks confidence in their ability to be a leader or hero?
Sickles weren't part of 1st edition D&D though, and as such weren't weapons that anyone could be proficient in. That they were added to druids at a later date does make sense.
Aimless works. If you want a different one, desultory works as well.
I'd have gone with "normal human." ;)
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A few pages ago now, someone asked about multiple currencies. Your explanation (gp opts for simplicity over realism) makes a lot of sense. Having to convert Taldan Pounds to Andoran Dollars to Absalom Shillings would be a pain, and any hoard containing a mix would just be cruel.
I wanted to ask about a similar simplification, Common. I completely understand the value in limiting hurdles to communication that it provides, and I do appreciate Golarion's use of regional Commons (Taldane and Tien).
However, as I've adventured in Golarion, it seems to me like it unintentionally devalues human/PC race languages. Pretty much all of my characters put a point or two into Linguistics to pick up background-appropriate choices. In practice, though, it seems like there's not much occasion to use them, as virtually everyone who speaks Kelish or Elven, for example, also speaks Common. On the other hand, monster languages (Aklo, Undercommon, etc.), planar languages (Celestial, Ignan, etc.), and ancient languages (Ancient Osiriani, Thassilonian), seem like more "practical investments" of skill points, as many speakers of these don't know Common, as you're actually expanding the list of creatures you can communicate with.
For those who like to build worlds in their free time, do you have any advice for how to counteract that phenomenon?
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A few pages ago now, someone asked about multiple currencies. Your explanation (gp opts for simplicity over realism) makes a lot of sense. Having to convert Taldan Pounds to Andoran Dollars to Absalom Shillings would be a pain, and any hoard containing a mix would just be cruel.
I wanted to ask about a similar simplification, Common. I completely understand the value in limiting hurdles to communication that it provides, and I do appreciate Golarion's use of regional Commons (Taldane and Tien).
However, as I've adventured in Golarion, it seems to me like it unintentionally devalues human/PC race languages. Pretty much all of my characters put a point or two into Linguistics to pick up background-appropriate choices. In practice, though, it seems like there's not much occasion to use them, as virtually everyone who speaks Kelish or Elven, for example, also speaks Common. On the other hand, monster languages (Aklo, Undercommon, etc.), planar languages (Celestial, Ignan, etc.), and ancient languages (Ancient Osiriani, Thassilonian), seem like more "practical investments" of skill points, as many speakers of these don't know Common, as you're actually expanding the list of creatures you can communicate with.
For those who like to build worlds in their free time, do you have any advice for how to counteract that phenomenon?
Language simplification is even MORE important in an RPG. Because the players need to be able to communicate with each other and with most of the NPCs they encounter, otherwise the whole point of the story goes away.
If you want to build a world where language plays a more important role, my number one bit of advice is to DRASTICALLY limit the number of different languages and by extension the number of different races in your world.
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... 3.) How the heck do you pronounce Tzitzimitl? Tuh-Zitsa-Mit-All?3) The tzitzimitl is from real-world mythology. I say "Sit sim it'll" when I say it out loud.
Do you think SEE- SEE- meel is more accurate?
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Do you think SEE- SEE- meel is more accurate?... 3.) How the heck do you pronounce Tzitzimitl? Tuh-Zitsa-Mit-All?3) The tzitzimitl is from real-world mythology. I say "Sit sim it'll" when I say it out loud.
I do if you do, since you're much more knowledgeable than I am on this topic, and since I trust you more than the random internet suggestion I dug up after 2 minutes of googling!
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Tzizimitl where those female skeletal really scary Aztec deities or something right? Does Pathfinder use the Tzitzimimeh plural?
I'm asking that just because I find it funny when English speaking folks try to figure out how to pronounce non English words. Not that I have any clue how Nahuatl language pronunciation works...
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Okay if Taldor sounds like it has a British accent, then what type of accent do people from these countries have?
Andoran (If American, Which region?)
Cheliax
River Kingdoms
BrevoyAndoran; American (no strong accent in mind)
Cheliax: A mix between Itallian and British.
River Kingdoms: Varies; this region is a melting pot of cultures from around the region.
Brevoy: Faintly Russian/eastern European/German.
What place(s) would be likely to have an Irish accent? I figured the Lands of the Linnorm Kings would be a bit more Scottish-German. Maybe Nirmathas? Though that might imply Molthune has it too...
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Which culture or mythos currently lacking in Golarion would you push for the chance to drop it into the world somewhere?
When will we get "50 Shades of Alain?"
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Snickersimba, let James answer the questions, please, it's his thread after all.
And on that note, what are things that Shoanti families might cook or eat besides maxmax (pickled moose fat rolled in powdered sugar)? Trying to get a better idea of what the Shoanti diet is like.
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I do if you do, since you're much more knowledgeable than I am on this topic, and since I trust you more than the random internet suggestion I dug up after 2 minutes of googling!Do you think SEE- SEE- meel is more accurate?... 3.) How the heck do you pronounce Tzitzimitl? Tuh-Zitsa-Mit-All?3) The tzitzimitl is from real-world mythology. I say "Sit sim it'll" when I say it out loud.
I have unleashed a horrible thing on Mr. Jacobs! Pronunciation questions!
1.) Relating to your comment that hatred of the living is a trait of the undead, what's your Watsonian response to the various apocalypse scenarios posited frequently (Bodak-apocalypse, shadow-apocalypse, etc)? The doyleist one is obvious, we don't want the world devoured by shadows (unless that's the campaign).
2.) In Golarian, where do all the super-megafauna come from? Like the Colossal Spiders, Goliath Beetles, Slugs and the like? Are they just bigger versions of normal ones, or is there like a Latrodectus mactans titanicus genus out there somewhere?
3.) Pathfinder vampires and ghouls do not 'starve' to "death," correct?
4.) Who's the brainchild behind the Ecorche? I'd like to congratulate him for making my players fear for their skin.
5.) Speaking of the Ecorche, how do you typically use high CR low presence monsters (like say a Gashadokuru with its 6 intelligence) or colossal vermin?
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I have unleashed a horrible thing on Mr. Jacobs! Pronunciation questions!
1.) Relating to your comment that hatred of the living is a trait of the undead, what's your Watsonian response to the various apocalypse scenarios posited frequently (Bodak-apocalypse, shadow-apocalypse, etc)? The doyleist one is obvious, we don't want the world devoured by shadows (unless that's the campaign).
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4.) Who's the brainchild behind the Ecorche? I'd like to congratulate him for making my players fear for their skin.
5.) Speaking of the Ecorche, how do you typically use high CR low presence monsters (like say a Gashadokuru with its 6 intelligence) or colossal vermin?
I love the ecorche. I'm using it in an upcoming encounter in my campaign and am looking forward to see how the players deal with it. I'd like to thank that person as well.
Sorry, no questions yet, but I appreciate all the discussion in the thread. Thanks.
I had actually missed the question and answer regarding multiple currencies, but after I went back and read it... I would like to say that I really like that there are different canonical names for the various types of coins depending on region. A gold piece is a gold piece is a gold piece, but being able to describe a treasure hoard as containing crowns, measures, sails and even scarabs adds a bit of interest, since the coins came from all over the Inner Sea region.
Given their nature, would it be particularly odd for a dragon to become obsessed with collecting Thassilonian or Azlanti coins for their hoard, both of which must be fantastically rare to find in the modern era, and yet not intrinsically worth any more than coins of the same sort minted yesterday in Absalom?
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When will we get "50 Shades of Alain?"You mean like "Hi, I'm Alain, I have Dish TV. " "Hi, I'm Flunked out of my Cavalier Order Alain, and I have cable." ?
I was thinking more of a book about Alain writing 50 times he was both sexy and awesome (in his mind).
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Tzizimitl where those female skeletal really scary Aztec deities or something right? Does Pathfinder use the Tzitzimimeh plural?
I'm asking that just because I find it funny when English speaking folks try to figure out how to pronounce non English words. Not that I have any clue how Nahuatl language pronunciation works...
We often simplify plurals in our game by simply adding an "s" to the end to aid editing. But in cases where they're real world things, we also often try to honor those traditions. I don't recall off the top of my head what stance we took for this guy (I'm taking a day off work and don't have a copy super handy of the book we put it in).
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What place(s) would be likely to have an Irish accent? I figured the Lands of the Linnorm Kings would be a bit more Scottish-German. Maybe Nirmathas? Though that might imply Molthune has it too...Okay if Taldor sounds like it has a British accent, then what type of accent do people from these countries have?
Andoran (If American, Which region?)
Cheliax
River Kingdoms
BrevoyAndoran; American (no strong accent in mind)
Cheliax: A mix between Itallian and British.
River Kingdoms: Varies; this region is a melting pot of cultures from around the region.
Brevoy: Faintly Russian/eastern European/German.
There's not really an obvious one for that accent. Not ever culture gets representation in the Inner Sea, alas.
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Which culture or mythos currently lacking in Golarion would you push for the chance to drop it into the world somewhere?
I think we've only scratched the surface of Central/South American stuff, but I'm not sure when we'll get a chance to explore that more save for drips and drabs here and there in Bestiaries and the like. We'll see.
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Snickersimba, let James answer the questions, please, it's his thread after all.
And on that note, what are things that Shoanti families might cook or eat besides maxmax (pickled moose fat rolled in powdered sugar)? Trying to get a better idea of what the Shoanti diet is like.
I suppose looking at the historical diets of Native American cultures, particularly the southwest, is the best real-world comparison.
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1.) Relating to your comment that hatred of the living is a trait of the undead, what's your Watsonian response to the various apocalypse scenarios posited frequently (Bodak-apocalypse, shadow-apocalypse, etc)? The doyleist one is obvious, we don't want the world devoured by shadows (unless that's the campaign).
2.) In Golarian, where do all the super-megafauna come from? Like the Colossal Spiders, Goliath Beetles, Slugs and the like? Are they just bigger versions of normal ones, or is there like a Latrodectus mactans titanicus genus out there somewhere?
3.) Pathfinder vampires and ghouls do not 'starve' to "death," correct?
4.) Who's the brainchild behind the Ecorche? I'd like to congratulate him for making my players fear for their skin.
5.) Speaking of the Ecorche, how do you typically use high CR low presence monsters (like say a Gashadokuru with its 6 intelligence) or colossal vermin?
1) If we wanted a post-apocalyptic undead game, we would have done so. That's the main reason why you don't see that happen. The in-game reason is that while undead find it easy to transform the living into undead and enjoy it... undead aren't as mobile or expansionisitc as the living. Often they're bound to the area they died in, which is why hauntings happen, and why some locations have a reputation for being undead infested. Some undead, like bodaks, just aren't all that common in the first place on the Material Plane. Unintelligent undead that might have the ability to spread like a disease don't have the intelligence to do so beyond their own immediate vicinity. And many intelligent undead, particularly vampires, understand that they need the living. A world with no blood to drink is not a world where a vampire can exist. A world where there's nothing you can drain strength from is no world for a shadow. They also realize that attempts to cause an undead apocalypse tend to rile up the living and get them to kill more undead than they might otherwise would. There are, of course, incidents where localized undead uprisings occur; the 2nd Mummy's Mask adventure presents one as an example. But there's plenty of reasons such as those above that explain why it doesn't happen more often.
2) From ancient magic that increased their size and now they breed true.
3) No, but going without feeding does cause them discomfort; we talk about that a bit more in various other books, but I don't recall off the top of my head what exactly we've said. They DO want to feed and suffer if they don't but can't be destroyed by not feeding.
4) Wes was the one who came up with the monster... but he didn't make up the word. An ecorche is a real thing.
5) I generally use them in the same way I use low CR ones; as creatures in rooms for the PCs to fight while they're on their way to "story" encounters. Sometimes they're used as minions for more intelligent bad guys, in the same way a hunter uses hounds. And at times I use them against parties that are technically two loo level; a CR 12 giant spider versus a 5th level party makes for an entirely different sort of encounter, one more akin to the big bug movies of the 50s' where it's not so much a single encounter to defeat it but an entire adventure to stop the rampaging creature before it reaches the town, say.
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I had actually missed the question and answer regarding multiple currencies, but after I went back and read it... I would like to say that I really like that there are different canonical names for the various types of coins depending on region. A gold piece is a gold piece is a gold piece, but being able to describe a treasure hoard as containing crowns, measures, sails and even scarabs adds a bit of interest, since the coins came from all over the Inner Sea region.
Given their nature, would it be particularly odd for a dragon to become obsessed with collecting Thassilonian or Azlanti coins for their hoard, both of which must be fantastically rare to find in the modern era, and yet not intrinsically worth any more than coins of the same sort minted yesterday in Absalom?
Having in-world names for coins IS important, if only for us to use those names in our fiction or in in-game handouts. But being able to refer to them all as "pieces" is equally important, since that means we only have to define that once, not once every time we mention a coin.
I don't think it'd be that odd for a dragon to become an obsessed coin collector.
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Which paizonians designed which iconics (I know you made Merisiel and Wayne Reynolds made Crowe)???
Actually... Wayne is the one who designed them all. We'd offer a very plain and often generic art description to him, and then he's the one who designs their look and all of that. We might say, "The rogue iconic is a female elf with white hair, a rapier, and daggers; she worships Calistria, so include black and yellow in her art." And that's it.
Beyond that, when we come up with iconics, we initially come up with a name, an alignment, a race, a gender, a religion, and a homeland. And a class of course, since that's the whole point. "We" in that case is generally myself and Wes these days, but James Sutter and Erik Mona have been involved as well. Once we've got the races, genders, religions, alignments, and homelands worked out, we involve the entire editorial opperation in brainstorming giant lists of names, that Wes and myself and a few others help narrow down to the right names.
Often in this process, some of us start to identify with iconics. In those cases, we generally let that person have final call on the name. The swashbuckler's one I took under my wing, for example. The shaman's one Crystal Fraiser claimed. And so on. That person is usually the one who ends up writing the "meet the iconics" fiction for the character, but in all cases, I read and approve the final character background for each iconic.
So... that's a long answer to a short question. I can't recall "who wrote what Meet the Iconic" but anyone can just type in "Meet the Iconics" into our search window to bring them all up; they all have author bylines.
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Which paizonians designed which iconics (I know you made Merisiel and Wayne Reynolds made Crowe)???Actually... Wayne is the one who designed them all. We'd offer a very plain and often generic art description to him, and then he's the one who designs their look and all of that. We might say, "The rogue iconic is a female elf with white hair, a rapier, and daggers; she worships Calistria, so include black and yellow in her art." And that's it.
Beyond that, when we come up with iconics, we initially come up with a name, an alignment, a race, a gender, a religion, and a homeland. And a class of course, since that's the whole point. "We" in that case is generally myself and Wes these days, but James Sutter and Erik Mona have been involved as well. Once we've got the races, genders, religions, alignments, and homelands worked out, we involve the entire editorial opperation in brainstorming giant lists of names, that Wes and myself and a few others help narrow down to the right names.
Often in this process, some of us start to identify with iconics. In those cases, we generally let that person have final call on the name. The swashbuckler's one I took under my wing, for example. The shaman's one Crystal Fraiser claimed. And so on. That person is usually the one who ends up writing the "meet the iconics" fiction for the character, but in all cases, I read and approve the final character background for each iconic.
So... that's a long answer to a short question. I can't recall "who wrote what Meet the Iconic" but anyone can just type in "Meet the Iconics" into our search window to bring them all up; they all have author bylines.
Thanks