|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Has there been any discussion between Paizo and Reaper to perhaps have some of the allowed PFS races be represented in mini form? (Kitsune, Way Yang, Tengu, Nagagi)
Do you know if the races allowed be rotated to regional races that currant seasons seem to concentrate on? (Tien races for 6th season, for example)
Have you made your Core Character yet?
I think you've been asked about horror and vampire movies before so... What are your favorite werewolf/shifter type movies? Are there any?
Creative Director
|
Spoiler:Do you regret at all not having a mini-dungeon for Candlemere Tower in the Kingmaker campaign? There's certainly quite a bit going on in book 2, and there's a whole half-page dedicated to the site, but it so very much begs for more detail, and is (in my opinion) one of the more interesting undeveloped locations in the whole AP. On a further note, if cultists of one of the Great Old Ones were to take an interest in the site, apparently related to the Outer God Yog-Sothoth, which Great Old One would typically be most interested/active in advancing the cause of bringing Yog-Sothoth to Golarion?
Nope. Don't regret that in the slightest. I've had (and will continue to have) LOTS of opportunities to explore that type of content in Golarion, and I think it's really important to NOT detail every tiny little area. Some of my favorite parts of old adventures are things like that location; short mentions that have a few lines of text that are super inspiring and convinced me to go on to write my version of the location up as a personalized expansion to the area in play.
As for the question...
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
1) Has there been any discussion between Paizo and Reaper to perhaps have some of the allowed PFS races be represented in mini form? (Kitsune, Way Yang, Tengu, Nagagi)
2) Do you know if the races allowed be rotated to regional races that currant seasons seem to concentrate on? (Tien races for 6th season, for example)
3) Have you made your Core Character yet?
1) Not really. We pretty much let Reaper pick their own minis, as far as I know—that's more Mike Kenway and Erik Mona's job than mine, in any event. I think they prefer to make minis of specific and interesting NPCs for the most part.
2) There seems to be some words missing from this question. That said, I probably couldn't answer anyway, since I'm not all that involved in PFS at all save for approving the scenario outlines and helping with the meta plot. This is a better question for John or Mike, but you'll want to edit and rewrite for clarity first.
3) Nope. Nor have I yet made any PFS character at all. In fact... I'm not a big fan of org play as a player—the competitive nature and the fact that the party mix can change around on a whim and the lack of the GM's ability to adjust and change adventures to match the players' actions are all things that really bother me. I much prefer to play campaigns with the same group of stable players with a GM who's able to customize the game as needed. I do LOVE how much fun folks have with PFS and how passionate they are for the game... but the play style just isn't for me.
|
Creative Director
|
I think you've been asked about horror and vampire movies before so... What are your favorite werewolf/shifter type movies? Are there any?
Werewolves have, in my opinion, been one of the HARDEST classic monsters for movies to pull off without making bad movies. The original "Wolfman" is well made and I appreciate its influence, but the design of the wolfman has always felt a bit too human and underwhelming to me.
My favorite werewolf movies would be:
Dog Soldiers
Ginger Snaps
An American Werewolf in London
The Howling
Underworld (but that one more for Kate Beckinsale than anything else)
Late Phases
|
I think you've been asked about horror and vampire movies before so... What are your favorite werewolf/shifter type movies? Are there any?Werewolves have, in my opinion, been one of the HARDEST classic monsters for movies to pull off without making bad movies. The original "Wolfman" is well made and I appreciate its influence, but the design of the wolfman has always felt a bit too human and underwhelming to me.
My favorite werewolf movies would be:
Dog Soldiers
Ginger Snaps
An American Werewolf in London
The Howling
Underworld (but that one more for Kate Beckinsale than anything else)
Late Phases
In full agreement there, DS is probably my favourite werewolf movie.
Have you seen the remake of the Wolfman with Benecio del Toro?
James,
In your career, when you name things, have you ever given something such a tricky name because it just worked so well but you couldn't or it was never really meant to be actually pronounced? I became curious and amused if some writers do this when I sometimes hear people trying to pronounce certain names, watching their faces contort as they try to mentally sound out accented syllables. Maybe I'm just cruel.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Some questions concerning the divine.
1) Favourite real world mythology deity?
2) Least favourite real world mythology deity?
3) Favourite Great Old One?
4) Favourite Outer God?
5) Who would you rather pray to out of these three; Osiris, Zeus or Odin?
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks again! I'm back with more screwball questions.
1.) What's the first fictional character you think of when someone mentions certain classes?
A. Fighters?
B. Shamans?
C. Summoners?
D. Others?
2.) When I asked, you've stated you're think you're more narrativist in mindset (I'm more simulationist myself apparently), how do you deal with a player who starts intentionally or unintentionally calling attention to the strings of suspension of disbelief or capitalizing on them?
3.) There's a saying that God made men and John Colt made them equal, do you see it as a good or bad thing that a group of level 1-3 warriors armed with firearms can pose a threat to even higher level adventuring types, or in large organized groups a threat to things like dragons?
What's up with Droskar?
He is Neutral Evil, yet the majority of his worshippers are Duergar, who are as a group by and large Lawful Evil, and he lives in the Abyss, which is the apex of Chaotic Evil. That...that just seems weird to me.
Didn't you say the one-alignment-away worshippers of deities are the rarity, not the rule? And why isn't he chilling with the daemons in Abaddon instead of his private piece of chaos?
|
Creative Director
|
I think you've been asked about horror and vampire movies before so... What are your favorite werewolf/shifter type movies? Are there any?Werewolves have, in my opinion, been one of the HARDEST classic monsters for movies to pull off without making bad movies. The original "Wolfman" is well made and I appreciate its influence, but the design of the wolfman has always felt a bit too human and underwhelming to me.
My favorite werewolf movies would be:
Dog Soldiers
Ginger Snaps
An American Werewolf in London
The Howling
Underworld (but that one more for Kate Beckinsale than anything else)
Late PhasesIn full agreement there, DS is probably my favourite werewolf movie.
Have you seen the remake of the Wolfman with Benecio del Toro?
Best line in Dog Soldiers: "Sausages?"
Yeah, I saw that version of the Wolfman. I did not really like it. Too much CGI, not enough horror.
|
Creative Director
|
James,
In your career, when you name things, have you ever given something such a tricky name because it just worked so well but you couldn't or it was never really meant to be actually pronounced? I became curious and amused if some writers do this when I sometimes hear people trying to pronounce certain names, watching their faces contort as they try to mentally sound out accented syllables. Maybe I'm just cruel.
Not really. If something has a name that shouldn't be pronounced, it's better to be coy about it and instead name it something that CAN be pronounced. Like, "The Unknown Source" or "The Shambler from Within" or "The Rasping Prince" or the like. I do LOVE long, complex words. Things like Mediogalti and Yondabakari and the like are from my homebrew world, but once you say them, they sound like real words. A tangle of letters? Not so much.
but what do you think of Van Helsing:-)
probably not much i'm guessing (it is fun for a laugh tho:-p)
|
Creative Director
|
Some questions concerning the divine.
1) Favourite real world mythology deity?
2) Least favourite real world mythology deity?
3) Favourite Great Old One?
4) Favourite Outer God?
5) Who would you rather pray to out of these three; Osiris, Zeus or Odin?
1) Ishtar
2) Hmmm... dunno. Probably Thor, just because everyone else seems to like him so much.
3) Hastur.
4) Yog-Sothoth.
5) Osiris.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
1)What is the Keleshite Empire like?
2)How diverse are the humans of the Keleshite Empire?
3)How long would it take for a human to walk from one side of Erastil's Domain to the other side?
4)What does Iomedae think of Erastil?
1) Arabian Nights style stuff. We haven't said much more about it yet.
2) Pretty diverse. Keleshites are the most common, but there's all sorts of ethnicities there.
3) Longer than any human could live.
4) Allies, if a bit of a bumpkin.
|
Creative Director
|
Thanks again! I'm back with more screwball questions.
1.) What's the first fictional character you think of when someone mentions certain classes?
A. Fighters?
B. Shamans?
C. Summoners?
D. Others?2.) When I asked, you've stated you're think you're more narrativist in mindset (I'm more simulationist myself apparently), how do you deal with a player who starts intentionally or unintentionally calling attention to the strings of suspension of disbelief or capitalizing on them?
3.) There's a saying that God made men and John Colt made them equal, do you see it as a good or bad thing that a group of level 1-3 warriors armed with firearms can pose a threat to even higher level adventuring types, or in large organized groups a threat to things like dragons?
1a) Jon Snow
1b) Mako's character from the first Conan movie
1c) Nothing
1d) Ummm... other fictional characters! BATMAN!
2) By asking them out of character to please stop. Fortunately... I don't have many (or any) players who do this lots.
3) I think that firearms are a bit powerful, yeah. Mostly the touch attack thing combined with the x4 crit thing. But not THAT much more powerful.
|
Creative Director
|
What's up with Droskar?
He is Neutral Evil, yet the majority of his worshippers are Duergar, who are as a group by and large Lawful Evil, and he lives in the Abyss, which is the apex of Chaotic Evil. That...that just seems weird to me.
Didn't you say the one-alignment-away worshippers of deities are the rarity, not the rule? And why isn't he chilling with the daemons in Abaddon instead of his private piece of chaos?
Had I designed Droskar, I would have probably made him lawful evil and had him live in Hell. That all happened before I was Creative Director though... and so now he's a weird sort of exception that proves the rule, I guess.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James,
I noticed that the dinos in Jurassic World have no feathers, and that got me thinking:
When you think about dinosaurs, has your mental image of them been updated or you still imagine them the same as in your childhood?
Most of my mental dino images don't have lots of feathers. The smaller ones do, particularly the raptor types. But until I see some compelling new designs (and not jokey ones) I'll not really be revising my vision of the rest.
|
|
I think you've been asked about horror and vampire movies before so... What are your favorite werewolf/shifter type movies? Are there any?Werewolves have, in my opinion, been one of the HARDEST classic monsters for movies to pull off without making bad movies. The original "Wolfman" is well made and I appreciate its influence, but the design of the wolfman has always felt a bit too human and underwhelming to me.
My favorite werewolf movies would be:
Dog Soldiers
Ginger Snaps
An American Werewolf in London
The Howling
Underworld (but that one more for Kate Beckinsale than anything else)
Late PhasesIn full agreement there, DS is probably my favourite werewolf movie.
Have you seen the remake of the Wolfman with Benecio del Toro?
Best line in Dog Soldiers: "Sausages?"
Yeah, I saw that version of the Wolfman. I did not really like it. Too much CGI, not enough horror.
Hehehe, either that or: "I hope I give you the s~&@s!"
Contributor
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just noticed that Valeros bears a striking resemblance to Mad Mardigan from Willow (specifically thinking of the fight at Tir Asleen). Any intentional design behind this?
So, I introduced a pair of friends of mine from my local PFS lodge to the movie Willow for the first time tonight, and immediately Reyn started noticing similarities, especially once Mad Mardigan got the armor in Tir Asleen. Similar armor, two weapon fighting, long black hair, love of ladies and drinking...and Reyn's "final key" - Mad Mardigan was played by Val Kilmer....
Is my search fu weak, or did you never actually answer this one, James? :P
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Are you going to get one of these Godzilla toys?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Paizo Team, what method do you guys use to select which APs you are going to design and publish next? Do you plan to do APs in Taldor, Brevoy, Nex, Rahadoum and the Mana Wastes in the next two years?
No "Paizo team" here. Just me.
I'm the one in charge of the Adventure Path line though, and I generally have APs planned out for several years... I know the next 3 ones I'm doing, for example, and Rob, who handles the first AP of each year (I do the second one) knows what his next 2 are going to be.
How we decide what to do next is a combination of what we want to do, primarily, but also heavily influenced by what it sounds like customers want and what sorts of other products we have scheduled for that time... although usually... the AP we decide to do is the one that decides the other products.
We don't announce APs out that far, even if we do know what we'll be doing in the next several years. Things can change, but we also prefer to focus on what's happening now or in the VERY near future.
|
Creative Director
|
| 10 people marked this as a favorite. |
Just noticed that Valeros bears a striking resemblance to Mad Mardigan from Willow (specifically thinking of the fight at Tir Asleen). Any intentional design behind this?So, I introduced a pair of friends of mine from my local PFS lodge to the movie Willow for the first time tonight, and immediately Reyn started noticing similarities, especially once Mad Mardigan got the armor in Tir Asleen. Similar armor, two weapon fighting, long black hair, love of ladies and drinking...and Reyn's "final key" - Mad Mardigan was played by Val Kilmer....
Is my search fu weak, or did you never actually answer this one, James? :P
Valeros's resemblance to Mad Mardigan is 100% intentional. When we ordered the art, we asked Wayne to throw in a Mad Mardigan vibe, and he nailed it. His name's another fun easter egg, of course! :D
And I have indeed answered this several times before... but maybe not on this thread.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Are you going to get one of these Godzilla toys?
Hee! Didn't know about it before. Now? Perhaps!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Assuming this hasn't been asked before... Two questions.
1) Are there any more of Tabris' writings about the multiverse? Perhaps about the Law and Chaos elements of alignment, or even the True Neutral perhaps?
2) What character classes would you see having characters that devote their entire lives hunting down Tabris' writings? Arcanists? Investigators? Psychics perhaps?
|
1) So wait, how did undeath evil-ness work again? Something like, if undead is reanimated by negative energy it becomes evil, hence why that mummy in Dragon's demand is only non evil undead in pathfinder material?
I'm asking this since I'm curious of whether you can be evil undead without actually acting evil. I mean, from what I heard, that kaiju that was undead is evil aligned, yet it doesn't do anything besides destroying other undead. So does that mean its evilness is outside of its "choice" and it will be evil even if it never does anything particularly evil?
2) This leads to my second question, NPC Codex has "Cruel instructor" a level 9 LE bard. But description wise, it seems to be just really snobby strict teacher character from lot of school related fiction. I mean, yeah bullying and harassing anyone is evil, but LE brings to my mind either a tyrant or someone who follows the law no matter how evil it is, not someone whose "evil" deeds aren't really threatening...
Oh yeah, the question: Does "he never gives second chances and nitpicks every assignment" combined with arrogance really equal "LE"? What exactly is the line between evil and a neutral jerk?
Why are core races the only ones considered suitable for iconics?
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just noticed that Valeros bears a striking resemblance to Mad Mardigan from Willow (specifically thinking of the fight at Tir Asleen). Any intentional design behind this?So, I introduced a pair of friends of mine from my local PFS lodge to the movie Willow for the first time tonight, and immediately Reyn started noticing similarities, especially once Mad Mardigan got the armor in Tir Asleen. Similar armor, two weapon fighting, long black hair, love of ladies and drinking...and Reyn's "final key" - Mad Mardigan was played by Val Kilmer....
Is my search fu weak, or did you never actually answer this one, James? :P
Valeros's resemblance to Mad Mardigan is 100% intentional. When we ordered the art, we asked Wayne to throw in a Mad Mardigan vibe, and he nailed it. His name's another fun easter egg, of course! :D
And I have indeed answered this several times before... but maybe not on this thread.
Thanks James. Thus helps me as a GM and customer to understand this better. I hope we will see more in Garund and the exotic places.
For a boss fight finale in a low level campaign, would you ever have players face off with monstrous enemies that are their opposites
Such as
Huecuva vs Cleric
Ogre vs Fighter
Powerful (Chosen Enemy) vs Ranger
That sort of thing
JJ, what are some of the most creatively cruel things you've ever inflicted on the PCs in your games? Did they deserve what happened? :-)
|
Creative Director
|
Assuming this hasn't been asked before... Two questions.
1) Are there any more of Tabris' writings about the multiverse? Perhaps about the Law and Chaos elements of alignment, or even the True Neutral perhaps?
2) What character classes would you see having characters that devote their entire lives hunting down Tabris' writings? Arcanists? Investigators? Psychics perhaps?
1) Unrevealed. But I'm sure there are.
2) Any class could work; that type of character goal is seperate from class requirements, really, and while an "investigation themed" background does indeed suggest classes like bard or investigator or inquisitor... it can be a great character goal to give classes not normally associated with such activity as well.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Why are core races the only ones considered suitable for iconics?
Because the nature of an iconic is that he or she is there to be the "face" for a character class, and that means that as much as possible, when you look at the iconic, you should see what the class is, not what the race is. Remember, one point of the iconics is for us to use as references for artists; we can show them Merisiel and say "rogues dress similarly to this" and not have to go into details; most of the artists we use aren't gamers, and they don't know the different rules for what is and isn't appropriate for a character to look like.
And if we start using strange, unfamiliar, exotic races for those, then the very nature of those races being strange and unfamiliar erodes the iconic's role by imposing race stuff over the class stuff.
Furthermore... the core races are far and above the most common races on Golarion, and thus the most common PC races, and thus they SHOULD be the ones that end up becoming iconics, simply due to the law of averages.
Also... a big part of the draw to lots of folks about non-core races is the fact that they're more exotic and mysterious. Once we start using one for an iconic... that goes away.
|
Creative Director
|
1) So wait, how did undeath evil-ness work again? Something like, if undead is reanimated by negative energy it becomes evil, hence why that mummy in Dragon's demand is only non evil undead in pathfinder material?
I'm asking this since I'm curious of whether you can be evil undead without actually acting evil. I mean, from what I heard, that kaiju that was undead is evil aligned, yet it doesn't do anything besides destroying other undead. So does that mean its evilness is outside of its "choice" and it will be evil even if it never does anything particularly evil?
2) This leads to my second question, NPC Codex has "Cruel instructor" a level 9 LE bard. But description wise, it seems to be just really snobby strict teacher character from lot of school related fiction. I mean, yeah bullying and harassing anyone is evil, but LE brings to my mind either a tyrant or someone who follows the law no matter how evil it is, not someone whose "evil" deeds aren't really threatening...
Oh yeah, the question: Does "he never gives second chances and nitpicks every assignment" combined with arrogance really equal "LE"? What exactly is the line between evil and a neutral jerk?
1) The undead mummy in Dragon's Demand is not the only non-evil undead we've published. We've published several non-evil ghosts, for example; they're probably the MOST common non-evil undead. The simple fact is that the act of becoming undead is such an abomination to the laws of purity and life that it is fundamentally an evil act; that's how it just is in Golarion, same with how elf eyes don't show whites or how goblins have wide heads and hate dogs or how green dragons have rhino-style horns. It's one of the many world-design decisions we made to give Golarion its flavor. When we break that rule, it's for very specific reasons; the Dragon's Demand mummy lays those specific ones for that specific character out pretty detailed, I think.
2) As for the alignment of that bard... in a lot of cases, the alignments for the NPCs were chosen mostly to give a good spread of alignments, and in some cases, some authors/developers were simply better at writing characters to fit that alignment. If I had written that character's history I would have definitely taken a different, more LE approach to it.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For a boss fight finale in a low level campaign, would you ever have players face off with monstrous enemies that are their opposites
Such asHuecuva vs Cleric
Ogre vs Fighter
Powerful (Chosen Enemy) vs Ranger
That sort of thing
It depends entirely on the adventure's plot. I don't construct boss fights from a perspective of "what would be most fun to run in a fight." It's more "What makes for a cool story, and then now that I know that, who'd be a cool boss for the story's climax?"
|
Creative Director
|
| 14 people marked this as a favorite. |
JJ, what are some of the most creatively cruel things you've ever inflicted on the PCs in your games? Did they deserve what happened? :-)
Once made the PCs work for the evil wizard for a few sessions after his vampire minion TPKed them. Instead of killing them he geased them and then they had to go on bad guy missions for a while.
Once made a character end up selling his soul to a demon, and then had the player of that character develop that demon in print so he would realize just how doomed his poor character was. Hmm. I like that one best I think. Take THAT, Moreland!
Ignoring humans, are the other Core Races of the Inner Sea more populous than the Core Races of Tian Xia?
I know "What does X think of Y" questions are generally pretty boring, but I'm legitimately curious: How do the Asura feel about Razmir? It seems like they do the fake divinity thing all the time but an upstart trying to copy their mortal enemies would likely turn a few many-faced heads.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
How long do you and the company like to go between adventure module treatments of the same sort of thing? For instance, since you published No Response from Deepmar in 2012, how long would you typically want to go before you do another derro-themed adventure? (This is not, alas, an innocent question.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
1) When you critical hit someone with an owl, do you roll 2d4-4 (minimum 1) or 1d4-2 two times (minimum 2)?
2) Will we ever see a Grippli miniature? Well that's a bit open ended, will we see a Grippli miniature soon :D?
3) Do you have any friends out in that snow storm?
10th anniversary of Pathfinder in a couple of years, do you guys at Paizo have any plans yet? Maybe another Hardcover AP perhaps?
Who do you think was more badass, the Ancient Greeks or the Ancient Romans?
Assuming this hasn't been asked before... Two questions.
1) Are there any more of Tabris' writings about the multiverse? Perhaps about the Law and Chaos elements of alignment, or even the True Neutral perhaps?
2) What character classes would you see having characters that devote their entire lives hunting down Tabris' writings? Arcanists? Investigators? Psychics perhaps?
1) Unrevealed. But I'm sure there are.
2) Any class could work; that type of character goal is seperate from class requirements, really, and while an "investigation themed" background does indeed suggest classes like bard or investigator or inquisitor... it can be a great character goal to give classes not normally associated with such activity as well.
1) Cool beans, and I eagerly await for paizo to take my money for them.
2) Allow me to rephrase: What classes do you think would be most likely to hunting down Tabris' writings and make the most use of them? Emphasized the primary portion of my question.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So on Pathfinder wiki I found note on abomination dragons(metallic & chromatic hybrids), humour dragons, mineral dragons, thaumaturgic dragons and sin & virtue dragon. Apparently they were mentioned in 3.5 version of Fortress of Giants.
Are these something odd and old that isn't canon anymore? Out of curiosity, what were they supposed to be like before they were scrapped(if they were)?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hello James, I hope everything is going good for you.
Anyway I was wondering about the the auction of the Sun Orchid Elixir.
Is it general knowledge of who is making a bid and who wins the bid? Or is that all kept secret?
IE is it easy to find out who won last year? Who is making a bid this year etc.?