And in your opinion, what's the most productive way of spending your time?
Have you ever had such a stroke of luck that you just ended up completely flabbergasted? Let’s say any luck, good or bad.
Since you mentioned that Greyhawk was your favourite pre pathfinder setting, do you have any favourite character from there?
We've talked about actors before, here is one I am not personally much acquainted with, Lee Marvin, I've only seen him in the first two Dirty dozen movies, I liked him in them, but is he a good actor in general?
Do great rules devs make great adventure writers?
Does a great adventure writer make a great GM?
Who is the best "all-rounder" you have had as a GM?
Who is the GM that has blown your socks off with pacing, atmosphere and the ability to keep everybody at the table riveted to the game?
When you are kicking off a campaign as a GM, how involved do you get in the character making process.
Do you suggest a broad theme and let the players evolve their characters from there?
Alternatively do you attempt to establish a "group template" and i.e the characters are members of a Noble house, institution, military unit and so on. Using the "template" to help the players build a cohesive party before the game begins?
Creative Director
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And in your opinion, what's the most productive way of spending your time?
Doing something that entertains someone else—creating art, in other words. Be that painting or music or writing or whatever.
Have you ever had such a stroke of luck that you just ended up completely flabbergasted? Let’s say any luck, good or bad.
Plenty of times. Ranging from not dying from a blood clot in my leg several years ago to getting Pathfinder #1 out in time for Gen Con to not having to pay any money at all to fix my car after it got rear-ended last September.
Since you mentioned that Greyhawk was your favourite pre pathfinder setting, do you have any favourite character from there?
Eclavdra, the drow mastermind from The GDQ series of adventures.
We've talked about actors before, here is one I am not personally much acquainted with, Lee Marvin, I've only seen him in the first two Dirty dozen movies, I liked him in them, but is he a good actor in general?
He was certainly in enough movies to make me think so... although his movies have never really intersected with movies I like that I know of, so I can't really offer an opinion about him.
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Creative Director
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Hey, James, sorry if you've answered this before, but you've talked about H.P. Lovecraft several times as inspiration and all-around good reading. I've never read any of his work before, but my interest is piqued. Where would you recommend starting? Which book would you begin with?
There's a LOT of his books out there these days, but I'd go with something like the Library of America edition. It's big, but it has most of his best stories all in one place, and Amazon's got it for a pretty good price.
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Creative Director
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If I left a pile of tator tots out all night and then reheated them the next morning, could I expect to get food poisoning?
You still interested in my spiders? I got a giant web outside my screen door sitting right at face-height for no good reason.
You checked the tater tots for spider eggs before eating them, I hope?
And face height is a great place for a spider web! Easier to show off!
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Creative Director
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Do great rules devs make great adventure writers?
Not always. In fact, a lot of great rules designers I've worked with tend to get too into the rules part of the game and fail to make the story worth playing. In many cases, the mindset that makes a great rules designer doesn't work well with a great adventure writer, and vice versa. It's VERY rare to see someone who excels at both.
Does a great adventure writer make a great GM?
In my experience, yes.
Who is the best "all-rounder" you have had as a GM?
Erik Mona.
Who is the GM that has blown your socks off with pacing, atmosphere and the ability to keep everybody at the table riveted to the game?
Erik Mona. Rob McCreary and Jason Bulmahn do great jobs as well, and Jim Butler's a great GM as well. I've never had the honor of having Monte Cook as a GM, but I hear he's great at it. And Nick Logue is an INCREDIBLE GM, provided you don't really care too much about a GM who pretty much ignores all the rules and might never even roll a die the entire session...
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Creative Director
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When you are kicking off a campaign as a GM, how involved do you get in the character making process.
Do you suggest a broad theme and let the players evolve their characters from there?
Alternatively do you attempt to establish a "group template" and i.e the characters are members of a Noble house, institution, military unit and so on. Using the "template" to help the players build a cohesive party before the game begins?
I generally provide the players with a document similar to what we build with the Player's Guides to our Adventure Paths. I encourage the players to build characters who have connections to each other, and usually tell them that there's a few restrictions, like "You have to all play humans" or "You have to all create citizens of this town," or whatever. I never just say "Make whatever characters you want," because that's a great way to get a group that's little more than a freak show of malcontents who'd rather kill each other than adventure together.
When it comes to actors, what would you say is the biggest accomplishment they can achieve? We talked about Clint Eastwood being able to direct himself without looking self-absorbed, but there must be a few others as well right?
Which crime would you say is the worst a normal person can commit? So not genocide or anything like that.
Do you prefer to dress in comfortable clothing or stylish clothing?
Is there some kind of occupation you don't think we really need in today’s society?
Do you have any house rules, that help weave some flair and individuality into the characters..?
We for example use "traits" that may affect a situation in a major way once per session. Our Paladin of Abadar has the trait of "know this city like the back of my hand" (Along with a hefty knowledge local)during a chase he may invoke his one use of the trait to create a shortcut that would put him closer to his target, Or our fighter has "Swashbucklers luck" where he can add into the story a chandelier to swing on or a fast moving carriage to jump on to.
Doing that kind of thing requires some maturity as it can be abused... When I am GMing I like it as it adds a challenge makes me improvise a lot more.
Speaking of improv and gaming, after listening to a some "Story focused" RPG podcasts there appears to be a great dislike for random wandering monsters. Wandering monsters are seen as unrealistic and that every encounter should be planned to maximise the story...
I disagree I think wandering monsters are a great way to change directions and improvise something different rather than rigidly sticking to story. Where do you stand?
Thanks for answering questions... it is very cool that you guys at Paizo are so approachable.
The Alchemist introduced a new ´Alchemy´ bonus type.
Are we going to see that bonus type used for other elixirs, etc,
available to other characters, i.e. outside the Mutagen class feature?
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Creative Director
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The Alchemist introduced a new ´Alchemy´ bonus type.
Are we going to see that bonus type used for other elixirs, etc,
available to other characters, i.e. outside the Mutagen class feature?
Unlikely. Introducing new bonus types is too disruptive to balance.
And alchemy bonuses have actually been in the game for a while; they just never really got used until the alchemist came along.
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Creative Director
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When it comes to actors, what would you say is the biggest accomplishment they can achieve? We talked about Clint Eastwood being able to direct himself without looking self-absorbed, but there must be a few others as well right?
Not many. None that I can really think of off the top of my head, although I could probably come up with a few if I thought more about it.
Which crime would you say is the worst a normal person can commit? So not genocide or anything like that.
That's not a question that can be answered. A "normal" person wouldn't commit "the worst crime."
Do you prefer to dress in comfortable clothing or stylish clothing?
Comfortable.
Is there some kind of occupation you don't think we really need in today’s society?
While there are some that I wish weren't needed, I think society does pretty good at phasing out occupations that aren't needed anymore. Not a lot of Betamax Repairmen around anymore, for example.
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Creative Director
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Do you have any house rules, that help weave some flair and individuality into the characters..?
We for example use "traits" that may affect a situation in a major way once per session. Our Paladin of Abadar has the trait of "know this city like the back of my hand" (Along with a hefty knowledge local)during a chase he may invoke his one use of the trait to create a shortcut that would put him closer to his target, Or our fighter has "Swashbucklers luck" where he can add into the story a chandelier to swing on or a fast moving carriage to jump on to.
Doing that kind of thing requires some maturity as it can be abused... When I am GMing I like it as it adds a challenge makes me improvise a lot more.
Speaking of improv and gaming, after listening to a some "Story focused" RPG podcasts there appears to be a great dislike for random wandering monsters. Wandering monsters are seen as unrealistic and that every encounter should be planned to maximise the story...
I disagree I think wandering monsters are a great way to change directions and improvise something different rather than rigidly sticking to story. Where do you stand?
Thanks for answering questions... it is very cool that you guys at Paizo are so approachable.
The trait system that I designed for the Adventure Paths (and that eventually ended up in the Advanced Player's Guide) were originally my house rules for rewarding players for building characters with cool backgrounds... although the version that saw print was much expanded from the version I used in my home games.
As for random/wandering monsters... I sort of agree that they can be unrealistic. But they can also be VERY useful tools to liven up a dull bit of game play, or as a method to make a region feel "alive" and dynamic. The method by which a specific GM approaches wandering monsters is, in my opinion, best left to each GM. Which is why in Adventure Paths we generally opt for providing the wandering monster tables (usually in that volume's bestiary) but don't really nail down how often you have to roll on those tables.
Personally, I quite like random encounters. Not only is it really fun as a GM to not know everything about the story ahead of time, but some of the most memorable encounters I've run have been wandering monsters. I really enjoy rolling up a random monster and then tailoring whatever I roll up to fit the situation. Done properly, the PCs should never really know if an encounter was pre-planned or a random one, of course...
Is there some kind of occupation you don't think we really need in today’s society?While there are some that I wish weren't needed, I think society does pretty good at phasing out occupations that aren't needed anymore. Not a lot of Betamax Repairmen around anymore, for example.
I also do Laserdisc!
I also do Laserdisc!Is there some kind of occupation you don't think we really need in today’s society?While there are some that I wish weren't needed, I think society does pretty good at phasing out occupations that aren't needed anymore. Not a lot of Betamax Repairmen around anymore, for example.
Do you do 8-track, 45's, 78's, and crystal sets?
Have you heard of the Slender Man? Do you have any thoughts on it?
I have a question- what was the concept the sprung the Obyriths- or rather the Qlippoth? I know you came up with both (or at least you were a driving force behind both) and I like them just fine, but what was the line of thinking that led to "Okay so there is a type of outsider for every alignment, but for Chaotic Evil, we should have a second one".
Was it that you felt that demons didn't have the right "ancient evil" vibe?
Did you just want to develop it all on you own without worry of past baggage?
Tell me more about the Chaotic evil outsiders!
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Creative Director
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Have you heard of the Slender Man? Do you have any thoughts on it?
Variants of it, yeah. It's good solid brain food for the horrors!
Any tips on how to deal with a neighbour that swipe your paper every morning?
Not James, but better qualified to answer this question.
You call the company responsible for distributing your morning paper (in Sweden, you should be able to find the phone number somewhere in the paper, but I can't say anything about the rest of the world), and together with them decide on an alternative place on your premises for the newspaper to delivered.
Of course, if you don't mind getting up early you can always talk to the paperboy about it when he arrives with the newspaper.
Will Jade Regent be better than the Forgotten Realms AD&D 2nd Edition "Empires" Mini Campaign by Troy Denning, that was set in the "Oriental" part of the Realms? I think it´s the best campaign adventure ever... by now. :)
James,
I am a very good, descriptive and detail oriented writer, but I struggle with actual conversations between people. Do you have any advice to get better at this?
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Creative Director
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James,
I am a very good, descriptive and detail oriented writer, but I struggle with actual conversations between people. Do you have any advice to get better at this?
Drama classes, debate clubs, and speech classes are all great ways to get better at actual conversations. But so is avoiding conversations and requiring all interactions to be via email and not phone. :-)
James, I am making plans to attend next years paizocon. However my husband, who is not a gamer, plans to make the trip to Seattle with me. So do you have any suggestions what a Ornithologist (specifically focused on Seabirds) could do in Seattle while I am at Paizocon?
Not James, but:
The Burke Museum here
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Creative Director
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James, I am making plans to attend next years paizocon. However my husband, who is not a gamer, plans to make the trip to Seattle with me. So do you have any suggestions what a Ornithologist (specifically focused on Seabirds) could do in Seattle while I am at Paizocon?
What Jeff said. There's also the Woodland Park Zoo; they have a fair amount of cool bird stuff there. And also the Seattle Aquarium, too!
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Creative Director
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James Jacobs, what are your thoughts on adding wisdom modifiers to the initiative formula? Do you see anything game breaking about it that I'm missing?
Wisdom already plays a role in going first. It's the Perception skill. You make a Perception check to notice trouble brewing, and if you are really good at Perception (or if you have a good Wisdom) you have a better chance to notice that trouble.
But actually reacting to trouble once you see it has more to do with your physical agility and reflexes—that's all Dexterity.
Allowing someone to modify their Initiative with their Wisdom is sort of like double-dipping. It also has the weird side effect of making clerics faster at reacting to trouble than rogues, which is weird.
Question about serpent-folk...
The article on Ilmurea left some... conceptions. Probably misconceptions influenced by the, ah, second half of my forum alias but possibly not.
How do serpent-folk treat their favored slaves? If a human were as willing as the serpent-folk would demand, how would the human be treated? What are the methods a serpent-folk would use to break an unruly and unwilling slave? Basically, what exactly awaits the common humans if my players fail Serpent's Skull?
Other than just putting them in the arena and bringing out the summoned lions. 'Cause that's kind of a final solution and nets you a meal, not a slave.
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Creative Director
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Question about serpent-folk...
The article on Ilmurea left some... conceptions. Probably misconceptions influenced by the, ah, second half of my forum alias but possibly not.
How do serpent-folk treat their favored slaves? If a human were as willing as the serpent-folk would demand, how would the human be treated? What are the methods a serpent-folk would use to break an unruly and unwilling slave? Basically, what exactly awaits the common humans if my players fail Serpent's Skull?
Other than just putting them in the arena and bringing out the summoned lions. 'Cause that's kind of a final solution and nets you a meal, not a slave.
Serpentfolk would almost exclusively use magic to break their slaves. They can cast things like dominate person, after all. When a slave's not worth training or breaking, they just leave them in their cells till dinner time or whatever.
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I know you went to college, and can only assume you graduated (High opinion of you etc.) If you don't mind my asking, what is your degree in?
I have a BA in English (creative writing emphasis) from the University of California at Davis, with a minor in medieval studies. More or less a degree tailor made to serve me well in the job I eventually ended up here at Paizo at.
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Creative Director
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What's the appeal of "torture porn" (e.g., A Serbian Film)?
What's the appeal of westerns? Of musicals? Of romantic comedies? They evoke emotional responses. In the case of horror, and the subgenre of "torture porn" (a name that I actually kind of don't like, since it's got so much negative connotations), the appeal is the rush of adrenaline from fear and terror. In a lot of the more extreme horror movies, there's also an element of testing one's limits for how much you can endure... to see if you can stomach what the movie's creators thought up.
But all of that doesn't mean anything if the movie's poorly made. And when a movie is WELL made, it's just pure entertainment, whatever the genre.
I haven't seen "A Serbian Film," so I can't comment on that. In the case of "Martyrs," though, the part that I found really compelling was...
Now, that all said... "The Passion of the Christ" qualifies as torture porn as well. It's also the all-time most successful R-rated movie, box-office wise. And it's about something more than the torture, whether or not you like the movie itself (I, personally, did not).
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Creative Director
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In a lot of the more extreme horror movies, there's also an element of testing one's limits for how much you can endure... to see if you can stomach what the movie's creators thought up.Sounds kinda like a roller-coaster ^_^
Or rock climbing. Or playing football. Or doing anything that gets the blood pumping.
Is there much chance of a big hard-cover guide to the Darklands - in the style of the Innersea Guide...?
I loved the Darklands book but I wanted more....
Will there be future APs set in the Darklands?
Also will there be 64 pagers or APs based on the planets of the Golarion solar system?
If not soon one of my requests for Golarion day is a rundown on your Ideas for Akiton.
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Creative Director
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Is there much chance of a big hard-cover guide to the Darklands - in the style of the Innersea Guide...?
I loved the Darklands book but I wanted more....
Will there be future APs set in the Darklands?
Also will there be 64 pagers or APs based on the planets of the Golarion solar system?
If not soon one of my requests for Golarion day is a rundown on your Ideas for Akiton.
While there's not a big chance of a big hardcover Darklands book at all... we DO go back there now and then. The Second Darkness AP has a lot of Darklands stuff in it, and there's actually a fair amount of Darklands stuff in Serpent's Skull. And we'll periodically go back to the Darklands again as well; I'm a big fan of the region, after all!
No plans at this point for an AP set on other planets, but we will be doing something with them some day.
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Quite a few posts back you used the saying "tow the line" in terms of folk aligning with one of the pfs factions.
I always thought it was "toe the line". Interestingly, the simple application of a homophone completely changes the thought it provookes in my head.
I thought the saying had something to do with the tradition of stepping up to a line when starting a boxing match or fencing match. In other words, being willing to fight for ones beliefs.
My father uses it as an alternative to "step into line", or follow his orders :)
Your version sounds more nautical to me.
Do you which one is correct? Better yet, do you know the origin of the saying?
I only ask since it is a saying I use quite frequently and since reading your particular use of it it has niggled at me.
I could of course just google the answer, but since this is the source of my interest, I thought I'd check here first.
Cheers
I just picked up a pdf of The Armitage Files, for Pelgrane's Trail of Cthulhu system. It's essentially a pile of sequential handouts (which are really well done), a concept, a big pile of characters (each of which can be sinister, normal, or helpful), and no overarching plot. The whole thing is supposed to be improvised. In a mystery game. Awesome idea, or kind of a cheat so they don't have to think up how the world ends?
(Although the boards on yog-sothoth.com have plenty of good ideas for an overarching plot.)
Haha, man you can be contrary, ok, how about "Whats the worst crime A person with normal resources can commit.", so not a dictator like Stalin for example, but your avarage person on the streets kind of guy.
I see you point tho, it was a bit of an impossible statment if you analyzed the wording I used.
Proper use of language seems to be important to you?
Speaking of languages, what do you think about the idea of the Elcors in Mass effect? I loved the comercial about Elcor Hamlet. "Insincere endorsment. You have not experienced hamlet until you have seen him through the eyes of Elcor"
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Creative Director
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Quite a few posts back you used the saying "tow the line" in terms of folk aligning with one of the pfs factions.
I always thought it was "toe the line". Interestingly, the simple application of a homophone completely changes the thought it provookes in my head.
Toe the line is indeed the correct version of the saying.
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Creative Director
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I just picked up a pdf of The Armitage Files, for Pelgrane's Trail of Cthulhu system. It's essentially a pile of sequential handouts (which are really well done), a concept, a big pile of characters (each of which can be sinister, normal, or helpful), and no overarching plot. The whole thing is supposed to be improvised. In a mystery game. Awesome idea, or kind of a cheat so they don't have to think up how the world ends?
(Although the boards on yog-sothoth.com have plenty of good ideas for an overarching plot.)
The point of the game is supposed to be an improvised game, yeah? In which case it's not a cheat at all.
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Creative Director
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Haha, man you can be contrary, ok, how about "Whats the worst crime A person with normal resources can commit.", so not a dictator like Stalin for example, but your avarage person on the streets kind of guy.
I see you point tho, it was a bit of an impossible statment if you analyzed the wording I used.
It's still not a question I can answer. It's in the same category of "what's the highest number?" because someone can ALWAYS list a higher number. I like to think of myself as a pretty imaginative person, and I watch a HELL of a lot of horror movies and read a HELL of a lot of horror stories, so I'm confident I can come up with a really horrific and heinous crime that'll make most of the readers of this thread not only uncomfortable but angry. And what would be the ultimate point? Someone could just come up with a worse crime, and then suddenly the thread turns into "name the worst thing you can imagine." As interesting as that thread topic might be to me, it's not an appropriate thread for these boards. I've already indicated upthread that rape's pretty much at the top of the list, so let's just leave it at that.
Proper use of language seems to be important to you?
Very. I went to college for several years because of it, and I now get paid to make sure it works right in Paizo products. And furthermore, online, in chat rooms or messageboards or MMORPGs or whatever, folks generally don't hear you and almost never see you—all they have to build their opinion of you is your words. And if you can't write, that's the text equivalent of being a hideously ugly, rude, foul-smelling cretin.
Speaking of languages, what do you think about the idea of the Elcors in Mass effect? I loved the comercial about Elcor Hamlet. "Insincere endorsment. You have not experienced hamlet until you have seen him through the eyes of Elcor"
HA! That bit was pretty funny. Mass effect, overall, is really really really nifty. My only real complaint about the game is that the inventory management system is WAY too simplified. I like being able to fiddle with my equipment and have those choices have greater effects on my character's stats and appearance.
Haha, man you can be contrary, ok, how about "Whats the worst crime A person with normal resources can commit.", so not a dictator like Stalin for example, but your avarage person on the streets kind of guy.
I see you point tho, it was a bit of an impossible statment if you analyzed the wording I used.It's still not a question I can answer. It's in the same category of "what's the highest number?" because someone can ALWAYS list a higher number. I like to think of myself as a pretty imaginative person, and I watch a HELL of a lot of horror movies and read a HELL of a lot of horror stories, so I'm confident I can come up with a really horrific and heinous crime that'll make most of the readers of this thread not only uncomfortable but angry. And what would be the ultimate point? Someone could just come up with a worse crime, and then suddenly the thread turns into "name the worst thing you can imagine." As interesting as that thread topic might be to me, it's not an appropriate thread for these boards. I've already indicated upthread that rape's pretty much at the top of the list, so let's just leave it at that.
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Speaking of languages, what do you think about the idea of the Elcors in Mass effect? I loved the comercial about Elcor Hamlet. "Insincere endorsment. You have not experienced hamlet until you have seen him through the eyes of Elcor"
If you've never played it, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel have an assassin droid named HK-47 who has a similar quality to his idiom. It's actually even more funny (in a darkly funny way) in my opinion. Some examples:
Commentary: That's the way to tell the meatbags master! Charging weapons, just in case. This should be fun!
Statement: Just a simple droid here, ma'am. Nothing to see. Move along.
Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope. Not many meatbags could make such a shot, and strangely enough, not many meatbags would derive love from it. Yet for me, love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose... against statistically long odds.
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Speaking of languages, what do you think about the idea of the Elcors in Mass effect? I loved the comercial about Elcor Hamlet. "Insincere endorsment. You have not experienced hamlet until you have seen him through the eyes of Elcor"
And then I found THIS one:
Revan: Whoa, slow down there. Yes, I did purchase you...HK-47: Explanation: Then you qualify as my master and I must refer to you as such. The legal requirements for models of my type are very specific, master.
Revan: What legal requirements do you mean?
HK-47: Answer: Simply that the distinction between 'killer' and 'killee' be a clear one. I cannot kill of my own volition, naturally.
Revan: I don't think 'killee' is a word.
HK-47: Expletive: Damn it, master, I am an assassination droid... not a dictionary!
Was Gil Scott-Heron getting an (I think it was) Brit-award for best newcomer last year a case of glorious absurdity or just someone taking the rules for that particular award way too literally?