Creative Director
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James, do you have any history with ElfQuest?
Ever read the comics/ graphic novels? Ever play the roleplaying game? Ever hang out in Poughkeepsie, NY?
I red the hell out of ElfQuest as a kid. I never did get a chance to play the RPG, alas, but still kinda want to. I've never been to New York.
And, fans of ElfQuest might notice that one of my characters and now an NPC in Golarion is somewhat named after a character from ElfQuest...
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Poughkeepsie (home of WaRP Graphics) is just a little north of where I live.
The graphic novels were one of my favorite things when I was a kid. Later in life, I started coloring comics professionally, and always looked through the ElfQuest books for inspiration, even though the hand painted color Wendy did was beyond my skills. The closest I got to working for them was coloring stuff that had been penciled and inked by a guy who drew some of the later (~early 90's) ElfQuest. Not working on ElfQuest directly (or at least trying) is one of my biggest regrets as a colorist.
Has anyone from Paizo ever contacted the Pini's about some sort of collaboration?
Also, do you remember when the Elfquest characters were stated up for AD&D in the olde Dragon magazine?
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Creative Director
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Has anyone from Paizo ever contacted the Pini's about some sort of collaboration?
Also, do you remember when the Elfquest characters were stated up for AD&D in the olde Dragon magazine?
Nope to both. The Elfquest Dragon article must have been before issue #81, which is where I started my subscription.
Jim Butchers inspiration for the Codex Alera series "came from a bet Jim was challenged to by a member of the Del Rey Online Writer’s Workshop. The challenger bet that Jim could not write a good story based on a lame idea, and Jim countered that he could do it using two lame ideas of the challenger’s choosing. The “lame” ideas given were “Lost Roman Legion", and “Pokémon”."
Where do you go looking for ideas? If you get stuck for inspiration what do you do to stoke the creative fires?
1. Why do the elves in Dragon Age and The Witcher appeal to you?
2. I want to create a variant transformation spell, but with not potion component required, and no canceling out of spellcasting. What level should it be? 8th? 9th?
Dragon Magazine issue 66 The article starts on page 12 of the magazine (page 14 of the PDF).
I couldn't believe they didn't choose ranger for Cutter, but then I remembered elves couldn't be rangers in AD&D. I was also surprised that they choose dwarves to represent the trolls, but when I thought about it, the Elf Quest elves are probably closer to halflings then classic high elves, so medium creatures for the dwarfs also makes sense.
EDIT: Wow! Classic monsters, spells, specialization, and a thieves cant dictionary... That is an amazing issue of Dragon.
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Creative Director
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1. Why do the elves in Dragon Age and The Witcher appeal to you?
2. I want to create a variant transformation spell, but with not potion component required, and no canceling out of spellcasting. What level should it be? 8th? 9th?
1) Because they're not Tolkien elves.
2) I wouldn't allow such a spell in my games. The point of the spell is to allow a wizard to "switch" to a fighter, not to get the fighter stuff for free. And anyway, if you're fighting, you're not spellcasting anyway, so what's the point of a spell like this? No thanks.
I'm running a sandbox exploration game in Varisia - are there certain types of monsters and animals that are more common in that land?
Is the region supposed to mirror a region of our world, when it comes to the fauna, or is a region that reliably contains mostly everything?
Thanks for your time.
-Nearyn
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Creative Director
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1. Why do the elves in Dragon Age and The Witcher appeal to you?
2. I want to create a variant transformation spell, but with not potion component required, and no canceling out of spellcasting. What level should it be? 8th? 9th?
1) Because they're not Tolkien elves.
2) I wouldn't allow such a spell in my games. The point of the spell is to allow a wizard to "switch" to a fighter, not to get the fighter stuff for free. And anyway, if you're fighting, you're not spellcasting anyway, so what's the point of a spell like this? No thanks.
Could it also be that what the poster wants, is already covered in the Mythic version of the spell?
You once mentioned that as a mortal Aroden was pretty big on doing the swordy thing as a single classed wizard. Did he go as far as using the Transformation spell?
I have no idea. I'm not familiar with the mythic version of the spell off the top of my head.
That'd make sense for him to have used that spell, yeah? (And while I should say that I prefer to think of him as a single-classed wizard... Erik may well overrule that. Turns out, being the boss has advantages!)
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Creative Director
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I'm running a sandbox exploration game in Varisia - are there certain types of monsters and animals that are more common in that land?
Is the region supposed to mirror a region of our world, when it comes to the fauna, or is a region that reliably contains mostly everything?
Thanks for your time.
-Nearyn
There absolutely are... and we've set several APs in Varisia, so looking through the adventures for Shattered Star, Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, the first half of Second Darkness, and adventures like The Brinewall Legacy, Academy of Secrets, Feast of Ravenmoor, and so on are great resources to check for what monsters are common. There's not a separate list, alas, but the wandering monster lists in Rise of the Runelords come close.
It's not supposed to be an exact mirror region to our world for fauna, but the closest analogue would be the pacific northwest of the USA, I suppose. Although... there are aligators in Varisia, so that's obviously not an exact science.
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James, could Pazio do an interactive atlas for all of Golarian? James Pazio could make some extra money by putting out a lexicon for Word of
of Golarian words I would pay at least $20 for it.
I was just looking at the map for Cheliax and noticed that Kintarago is not in a very defensible position it looks like it can be easily Blockaded by sea by the Chelish Navy and the army could be landed just north of Kintargo and lay Siege to it. Are the major Chelish cities Walled?
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Creative Director
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James, could Pazio do an interactive atlas for all of Golarian? James Pazio could make some extra money by putting out a lexicon for Word of
of Golarian words I would pay at least $20 for it.I was just looking at the map for Cheliax and noticed that Kintarago is not in a very defensible position it looks like it can be easily Blockaded by sea by the Chelish Navy and the army could be landed just north of Kintargo and lay Siege to it. Are the major Chelish cities Walled?
Ooooh... at LEAST $20?
Something like an interactive atlas would cost more than 20 bucks, I suspect. And not only because generating additional maps would cost A LOT. But because the expertiese to build an electronic product like that isn't a core strength of the editorial and art department (we do books, mostly), I have no idea if we have the bandwidth or resources to do something like that in the first place. AKA: I have no idea, but I suspect it'd cost more than 20 bucks if we DID do it. After all... that's not much more than what we charge for a single flip mat or map folio...
As for Kintargo, turns out that the six-part Hell's Rebels Adventure Path is quite a bit about how to defend the city and protect it from land, sea, and magic. There are other reasons why a siege of the Silver City isn't in the cards though... you'll need to wait for the Hell's Rebels AND Hell's Vengeance APs to be out to learn more about that though.
Most of the major cities in the Inner Sea are walled, including Chelaix.
The 2011, 2012, and 2013 bundles of Atlas Kelestia add up to just under $150. These are very detailed interactive maps, but they don't begin to cover all of Kelestia's equivalent of Golarian's Inner Sea region.
Scenario:
A party is attacking a robot. Said robot has Hardness 10, ER Electricity 20, and a force field with 10 remaining hit points. Said robot, being a robot, also has Electricity Vulnerability. The party wizard throws a lightning bolt at it for 60 points of damage (pre-vulnerability), robot fails its reflex save.
My question:
In what order do the robot's vulnerability and various resistances apply, and which of said resistances do and do not stack?
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Creative Director
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Scenario:
A party is attacking a robot. Said robot has Hardness 10, ER Electricity 20, and a force field with 10 remaining hit points. Said robot, being a robot, also has Electricity Vulnerability. The party wizard throws a lightning bolt at it for 60 points of damage (pre-vulnerability), robot fails its reflex save.
My question:
In what order do the robot's vulnerability and various resistances apply, and which of said resistances do and do not stack?
You need to determine the total amount of damage the robot WOULD take before applying hardness and electricity resistance. So once the damage is determined, first thing you do is apply the vulnerability effect to get the total damage. Hardness and resistance kick in after that.
1. I believe I saw mentioned somewhere (here?) that there weren't any plans for mythic rules related to the occult rules. Correct?
2. Based on the (possibly incorrect) assumption that there will not be, what is your opinion on a straight cross-over for archmage from arcane spells to psychic spells for its abilities which are limited to arcane abilities?
Note: I'm asking these questions because I was playing around with some concepts and having difficulty choosing a mythic path whose path named ability (archamage arcana, champion's strike, etc.) was worthwhile for a psychic. Many would be completely useless and others only tangentially useful. Choosing the tiered abilities is a lot easier.
Thanks again in advance
My invisible wizard cast a spell while not moving in that round what's his DC to be spoted DC20 or DC40?
James,
Lovecraft was right! How long have you known?
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Creative Director
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1. I believe I saw mentioned somewhere (here?) that there weren't any plans for mythic rules related to the occult rules. Correct?
2. Based on the (possibly incorrect) assumption that there will not be, what is your opinion on a straight cross-over for archmage from arcane spells to psychic spells for its abilities which are limited to arcane abilities?
Note: I'm asking these questions because I was playing around with some concepts and having difficulty choosing a mythic path whose path named ability (archamage arcana, champion's strike, etc.) was worthwhile for a psychic. Many would be completely useless and others only tangentially useful. Choosing the tiered abilities is a lot easier.
Thanks again in advance
1) Correct. No plans at this point.
2) I think that's fine, OR using the Hierophant that way. Since psychic magic is as much divine as it is arcane, AKA neither, so either path is equally not bad. Trickster's a good choice as well.
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Creative Director
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James,
Lovecraft was right! How long have you known?
Saw that article a few days ago. Ha.
You need to determine the total amount of damage the robot WOULD take before applying hardness and electricity resistance. So once the damage is determined, first thing you do is apply the vulnerability effect to get the total damage. Hardness and resistance kick in after that.Scenario:
A party is attacking a robot. Said robot has Hardness 10, ER Electricity 20, and a force field with 10 remaining hit points. Said robot, being a robot, also has Electricity Vulnerability. The party wizard throws a lightning bolt at it for 60 points of damage (pre-vulnerability), robot fails its reflex save.
My question:
In what order do the robot's vulnerability and various resistances apply, and which of said resistances do and do not stack?
You are aware that this is the opposite of an answer you gave before, right? :) (Using fire at that time). Vulnerability only applies if you actually take the damage!
==Aelryinth
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James,
Are there any examples of a creature using the new Monster Codex simple class creature templates? I'm wondering how you'd write it in the stat block. Normally you'd see something like "troll fighter X", but would you go "fighter troll", "fighter creature troll", "troll fighter creature", or something completely different?
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Creative Director
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You need to determine the total amount of damage the robot WOULD take before applying hardness and electricity resistance. So once the damage is determined, first thing you do is apply the vulnerability effect to get the total damage. Hardness and resistance kick in after that.Scenario:
A party is attacking a robot. Said robot has Hardness 10, ER Electricity 20, and a force field with 10 remaining hit points. Said robot, being a robot, also has Electricity Vulnerability. The party wizard throws a lightning bolt at it for 60 points of damage (pre-vulnerability), robot fails its reflex save.
My question:
In what order do the robot's vulnerability and various resistances apply, and which of said resistances do and do not stack?
You are aware that this is the opposite of an answer you gave before, right? :) (Using fire at that time). Vulnerability only applies if you actually take the damage!
==Aelryinth
Guess that's why folks should ask rule questions in the rules forum. Or perhaps search the site for questions that may already have been answered before asking them over, because as it turns out, I don't keep track of everything I say on this thread. Thanks for pointing out my self-contradiction and giving me further evidence that I shouldn't be answering rules questions here, I guess.
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Creative Director
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James,
Are there any examples of a creature using the new Monster Codex simple class creature templates? I'm wondering how you'd write it in the stat block. Normally you'd see something like "troll fighter X", but would you go "fighter troll", "fighter creature troll", "troll fighter creature", or something completely different?
First time I used one of those templates was in Valley of the Brain Collectors, but if you're only using these templates in your game, it really doesn't matter at ALL how you write it as long as YOU can understand it.
If you're writing for us for print, you should be asking this question of your developer, not me.
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James,
Are there any examples of a creature using the new Monster Codex simple class creature templates? I'm wondering how you'd write it in the stat block. Normally you'd see something like "troll fighter X", but would you go "fighter troll", "fighter creature troll", "troll fighter creature", or something completely different?
First time I used one of those templates was in Valley of the Brain Collectors, but if you're only using these templates in your game, it really doesn't matter at ALL how you write it as long as YOU can understand it.
If you're writing for us for print, you should be asking this question of your developer, not me.
More for myself, but perfectionist OCD kicks in if it's not "accurate" to how it should be.
I'll have a look over the AP to see if I can find it.
Guess that's why folks should ask rule questions in the rules forum. Or perhaps search the site for questions that may already have been answered before asking them over, because as it turns out, I don't keep track of everything I say on this thread. Thanks for pointing out my self-contradiction and giving me further evidence that I shouldn't be answering rules questions here, I guess.You need to determine the total amount of damage the robot WOULD take before applying hardness and electricity resistance. So once the damage is determined, first thing you do is apply the vulnerability effect to get the total damage. Hardness and resistance kick in after that.Scenario:
A party is attacking a robot. Said robot has Hardness 10, ER Electricity 20, and a force field with 10 remaining hit points. Said robot, being a robot, also has Electricity Vulnerability. The party wizard throws a lightning bolt at it for 60 points of damage (pre-vulnerability), robot fails its reflex save.
My question:
In what order do the robot's vulnerability and various resistances apply, and which of said resistances do and do not stack?
You are aware that this is the opposite of an answer you gave before, right? :) (Using fire at that time). Vulnerability only applies if you actually take the damage!
==Aelryinth
So I should open a thread in the Rules Questions forum instead of asking followup questions? :)
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Creative Director
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So I should open a thread in the Rules Questions forum instead of asking followup questions? :)Guess that's why folks should ask rule questions in the rules forum. Or perhaps search the site for questions that may already have been answered before asking them over, because as it turns out, I don't keep track of everything I say on this thread. Thanks for pointing out my self-contradiction and giving me further evidence that I shouldn't be answering rules questions here, I guess.You need to determine the total amount of damage the robot WOULD take before applying hardness and electricity resistance. So once the damage is determined, first thing you do is apply the vulnerability effect to get the total damage. Hardness and resistance kick in after that.Scenario:
A party is attacking a robot. Said robot has Hardness 10, ER Electricity 20, and a force field with 10 remaining hit points. Said robot, being a robot, also has Electricity Vulnerability. The party wizard throws a lightning bolt at it for 60 points of damage (pre-vulnerability), robot fails its reflex save.
My question:
In what order do the robot's vulnerability and various resistances apply, and which of said resistances do and do not stack?
You are aware that this is the opposite of an answer you gave before, right? :) (Using fire at that time). Vulnerability only applies if you actually take the damage!
==Aelryinth
Yes.
Is diet wild cherry Pepsi still your favorite soda?
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Creative Director
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Is diet wild cherry Pepsi still your favorite soda?
Nope. I pretty much don't drink soda at all any more these days.
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Is diet wild cherry Pepsi still your favorite soda?Nope. I pretty much don't drink soda at all any more these days.
Speaking of drinks you like Raspberry-anything pretty much, what about Blue Raspberry flavoured stuff?
Have you ever drank Isopures?
Do samsarans traditionally have family names?
I can only find one samsaran NPC named in print, Gyaltho Tulku, ruler of Zi Ha, and Tulka's a Tibetan title.
So I have no idea what the general trend is.
Do you like Shiki? And can be a good source of inspiration for a Module (or an AP)?
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Creative Director
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Is diet wild cherry Pepsi still your favorite soda?Nope. I pretty much don't drink soda at all any more these days.Speaking of drinks you like Raspberry-anything pretty much, what about Blue Raspberry flavoured stuff?
Have you ever drank Isopures?
Blue Raspberry? As in the flavor they make candy and slushies out of? As in the nasty chemical flavored faux-raspberry flavor? Eeeew... gross. No thanks.
I've never tried isopures.
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Creative Director
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Do samsarans traditionally have family names?
I can only find one samsaran NPC named in print, Gyaltho Tulku, ruler of Zi Ha, and Tulka's a Tibetan title.
So I have no idea what the general trend is.
That's not something we've had the chance to go into yet, alas. My preference is that they DO have family names... but they don't get them from their parents, since actual samsarans don't really have parents in a biological sense. How they gain them is not something I've worked out yet... and I'm not sure when I will be able to... or if I'll even be the one who gets to do that.
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Creative Director
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Do you like Shiki? And can be a good source of inspiration for a Module (or an AP)?
I assume you're talking about an anime/manga and not a restaraunt? Haven't read/been to either.
But regardless... if something inspires you, it's a good source of inspiration for an adventure. Whether or not it inspires anyone else.
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Creative Director
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Out of curiosity, both as a DM and as a player, do you have a preference towards rolling, using point buy, or predetermined arrays for ability scores?
If you were reincarnated in real life as per the spell reincarnate, using the table, what result would you like to get the most? And which would you dread the most?
What are the top three cryptids you like, and what do you like about them?
I prefer rolling as a player, and using standard array or point buy for NPCs.
Elf would be best, dwarf would be worse than worst.
Bigfoot (because he's local), Ogopogo (because he's sorta local, and because he hasn't had the rug ripped out from under him by having a famous picture revealed as a hoax), and mokele-mbembe (because I hope there's still dinosaurs out there).
Do you like Shiki? And can be a good source of inspiration for a Module (or an AP)?I assume you're talking about an anime/manga and not a restaraunt? Haven't read/been to either.
But regardless... if something inspires you, it's a good source of inspiration for an adventure. Whether or not it inspires anyone else.
Uooope, my mistake! Yes, Shiki is an horror manga/anime: a Japanese village is threatened by the vampires, and this undeads gradually replace the original citizien (obviously, they be kidnapping and killin by the Shiki). Creepy. Beautiful. And sad, very sad.
So, uh, a Shiki Module/AP can be a good idea? Maybe in Ustalav, or Varisia, a little settlrment can be threatened by the vampires... and the PCs are the only hope!
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Creative Director
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Do you like Shiki? And can be a good source of inspiration for a Module (or an AP)?I assume you're talking about an anime/manga and not a restaraunt? Haven't read/been to either.
But regardless... if something inspires you, it's a good source of inspiration for an adventure. Whether or not it inspires anyone else.
Uooope, my mistake! Yes, Shiki is an horror manga/anime: a Japanese village is threatened by the vampires, and this undeads gradually replace the original citizien (obviously, they be kidnapping and killin by the Shiki). Creepy. Beautiful. And sad, very sad.
So, uh, a Shiki Module/AP can be a good idea? Maybe in Ustalav, or Varisia, a little settlrment can be threatened by the vampires... and the PCs are the only hope!
Sure!
All right, 2nd question: do you know the campaign setting Plotus of Monte Cook? Do you like it? Maybe one day Paizo can release a PF conversion of this setting?
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All right, 2nd question: do you know the campaign setting Plotus of Monte Cook? Do you like it? Maybe one day Paizo can release a PF conversion of this setting?
Related... Hawkins is working in conversions of the Arcana Evolved rules to pathfinder.
Do samsarans traditionally have family names?That's not something we've had the chance to go into yet, alas. My preference is that they DO have family names... but they don't get them from their parents, since actual samsarans don't really have parents in a biological sense. How they gain them is not something I've worked out yet... and I'm not sure when I will be able to... or if I'll even be the one who gets to do that.
Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 11 talks about this. It says they don't have family names, but they often retain the names of some of their prior incarnations instead.
Actually... Hell's Rebels is one that I've wanted to do for many years. I'm VERY passionate about it... the chance to do an AP about my favorite alignment fighting back and WINNING against Thrune? Yes please! I've actually been dropping hints about Kintargo and this AP in various products for sevearal years now. It's really great to finally be able to do something about it!
Any hints as to where/what these prior hints may have been? :D
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Creative Director
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All right, 2nd question: do you know the campaign setting Plotus of Monte Cook? Do you like it? Maybe one day Paizo can release a PF conversion of this setting?
I do quite like it; it's an excellent book. That said... a PF conversion is very unlikely. First of all, it's Monte's book, so he'd be the one to say yes or no. Secondly, converting a book that big would be a MONSTROUS undertaking... one that would probably take both our companies a LOT of work to pull off, and would need to have several products delayed to make room, and then the final book would likely cost well over 200 bucks in the end. Maybe more. It was over a hundred bucks when it came out nearly a decade ago, and things like this have gotten a lot more expensive to produce since then...
So... I feel safe saying that a Pathfinder conversion of Ptolus will never happen. Fortunately, it's for 3.5, so it shouldn't be a big deal to run as-is.
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Creative Director
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Hey James.
-Preface to Question: I've been working on an Aucturn/Dominion of the Black/Night Herald campaign for, oh, a year or two now. It was originally Old Cults, but the Night Herald info in Occult Mysteries was too good to pass up. Anyway, I've been detailing the Night Heralds in my campaign like the old school Forgotten Realms Black Network, Red Wizards, etc., where I come up with a brief description of all their activities in particular regions. I don't know if I'll actually ever run this campaign, but it's been a fun project.
-Actual Question: Very approximately, how many actual Night Heralds would you estimate are active in the Inner Sea? I know you don't like putting exact numbers to things like this, so if it'd be easier to answer... how large are the Night Heralds relative to, say, the Hellknights, Aspis Consortium, or some other established group?
(For what it's worth, I currently have about 600 cultists; mostly active in Numeria, Ustalav, Osirion, and the Sodden Lands, as per Occult Mysteries.)
Thanks!
I have no idea how many Night Heralds are active. It's not something I've put any thought into, and I don't want to just guess at it. The RIGHT answer is "Whatever works best for your home game." It's always better to make those decisions yourself, rather than wait for Paizo to do it for you. Because if you make the decisions yourself, it's more YOUR game than ours, and you don't have to wait for something we may never get around to doing.
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Creative Director
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Do samsarans traditionally have family names?That's not something we've had the chance to go into yet, alas. My preference is that they DO have family names... but they don't get them from their parents, since actual samsarans don't really have parents in a biological sense. How they gain them is not something I've worked out yet... and I'm not sure when I will be able to... or if I'll even be the one who gets to do that.Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 11 talks about this. It says they don't have family names, but they often retain the names of some of their prior incarnations instead.
Actually... Hell's Rebels is one that I've wanted to do for many years. I'm VERY passionate about it... the chance to do an AP about my favorite alignment fighting back and WINNING against Thrune? Yes please! I've actually been dropping hints about Kintargo and this AP in various products for sevearal years now. It's really great to finally be able to do something about it!Any hints as to where/what these prior hints may have been? :D
There ya go, regarding names. Best to go to the primary source for questions.
As for prior hints... there were a few in the NPC Guide where I statted up Shensen the first time. A few others here and there in various Adventure Paths I've worked on, maybe one in Magnimar... not sure where they all were, but I've been working up to do something in Kintargo for half a decade, if not more.