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My actual question I came into this thread to ask:
The Ghost Rider Archetype in Occult Adventures doesn't provide the mount with Tricks (as it uses Phantom progression), but the Cavalier/Mount do get the Link ability as a Spiritualist would. Does having that Link allow the Cavalier to not need Tricks or Handle Animal checks to get their Phantom Mount to perform a task, since they have telepathic communication going?
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Were there ever any plans for an AP after Savage Tide?
What has been your favorite moment in CoC so far?
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Mr. Jacobs,
I'm running a group of mostly new players through Rise of the Runelords, and one of my new players is very intesrested in Erylium's prayer book dedicated to Lamashtu, partially because I mispoke and told him it was a bestiary. What types of monsters would likely be in it?
Thank you
Heh... you're kinda on your own there, honestly. But really, keep in mind that Lamashtu is the mother of monsters, and so ANY monster could be in a Lamashtu-themed bestiary. Alternately, if it contained all chaotic evil outsiders, that'd work too.
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Three questions about androids and android forges:
1): Do androids love?
2): For androids, empathy is a feat, not an alternate racial trait. Why?
3): "Androids are created (in) strange, alien forges (...) hidden in strange ruins in Numeria", truly a Holy Grail for androids for sure, and in the Iron Gods AP the characters are destined to find a forge or two...
Unfortunately I can't find the stats for these technological artifacts (rate of production, energy consumption, etc.), do you have suggestions?
1) They can, if they gain the ability to have emotions and gain morale effects. Otherwise, no, they can't actually love. They can fake it pretty well though.
2) Because feats are more versatile; you can pick up a feat multiple times as you gain levels. Alternate racial traits are things you have to choose at the start of the game and you have to give something up. By making this a feat, you don't have to make the hard choice of what you're giving up, and you can decide to gain the ability at some point later than 1st level.
3) They're specifically NOT statted up. How fast they produce androids is left vague, so each GM can adjust that total to his/her preference for the game they run.
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Tyralandi was indeed a name I borrowed from myself, only unlike the case of Shensen, it was a character I first made up for an adventure (Porphyry House Horror) that I then later used for a character (in Erik Mona's Age of Worms game).
Oh my god I had forgotten about that little gem from Dungeon Magazine until now. I think I still have a copy in a box at home. That thing made me a bit ill to read, even as a teenager.
...I mean, I was totally over 18 when I got that. Yep.
HA!
Yeah... that was a fun one to write; Chris asked me if I'd be interested in writing the Book of Vile Darknes adventure tie-in and I said "YES ABSOLUTELY!!!!" I asked him how over the top I could go, and he basically said "Do anything you want. We'll make the call on what's too far." Not everything I came up with for the adventure made it in, of course, but what DID get in there was a pleasant surprise to me. Good times.
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My actual question I came into this thread to ask:
The Ghost Rider Archetype in Occult Adventures doesn't provide the mount with Tricks (as it uses Phantom progression), but the Cavalier/Mount do get the Link ability as a Spiritualist would. Does having that Link allow the Cavalier to not need Tricks or Handle Animal checks to get their Phantom Mount to perform a task, since they have telepathic communication going?
Dunno. Haven't looked at word one of that archetype. This is a question for the rules team, in any event, and should be asked in the Occult Adventures thread so it can be tagged for an FAQ and all that.
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Were there ever any plans for an AP after Savage Tide?
Absolutely. We generally had the next AP ready to go at about the halfway point through a current AP, more or less, and started brainstorming the follow-up to Savage Tide, as it turns out, a few months before we learned that we were losing the D&D license.
We called that AP by a code name: "Genie War." It went back into the hopper for a while after we switched to Pathfinder, since it was a pretty non-standard adventure idea. We wanted to lead Pathfinder AP with a familiar and classic story, so we went with Rise of the Runelords. We followed that up with another pretty familiar story with Curse of the Crimson Throne, and in Second Darkness decided to mine the nostalgia factor of drow to continue to convince folks that while we weren't doing D&D anymore, we WERE still doing that type of game.
So, by the time we got to the fourth AP, we felt safe and comfortable enough to start getting experimental again, and Genie War came back out of the hopper and went into production, eventually coming out as the much better-titled "Legacy of Fire."
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What has been your favorite moment in CoC so far?
I assume you're asking about "Call of Cthulhu"?
I've been playing the game for over 30 years, so I have a LOT of favorite moments. One of my latest, though, was running a game of my own design for Paizocon called "Prodigy of Death" and the group was SPOT ON awesome. They managed to "win" after a set of almost impossible dodge rolls, and survived a 1d100 san loss (I rolled a 2 on that d100) and managed to stop a particularly vile Great Old One from doing something bad... and then the way I managed to end it even creeped ME out. Good times.
Oh. And killing Erik's character with a serpentfolk death ray was awesome too, but mostly for how he reacted (and still reacts) to it.
Isn't there going to be a CoC office game going on soon?
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Creative Director
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Isn't there going to be a CoC office game going on soon?
There are in fact two that I'm running.
I've been running "Masks of Nyarlathotep" VERY intermittently on Sundays here for several folks in the office + a few significant others... but haven't had a chance to run that one often at all. It happens, on average, once or twice a year... and we haven't had a chance to play it this year at all yet. :-(
The other is in better shape. Every other Thursday evening I run Horror on the Orient Express for Erik, Jessica, Jason, Wes, Tim, and Rob. We're only 2 sessions in, and I foolishly started it near the start of the convention season so I've not been able to run it for a while now... it was SUPPOSED to happen again tonight, but PAX kicked it to the side. Thankfully, I think PAX is the last disruptive convention of the year, and we should be able to get back on the train in 2 weeks.
If you were going to port Shackled City to Golarion, where would you set it? My initial inclination is to put it around Sargava or the coastal Mwangi Expanse somewhere - maybe in the Kaava Lands, with Bloodcove serving as the Sasserine equivalent.
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The other is in better shape. Every other Thursday evening I run Horror on the Orient Express for Erik, Jessica, Jason, Wes, Tim, and Rob. We're only 2 sessions in, and I foolishly started it near the start of the convention season so I've not been able to run it for a while now... it was SUPPOSED to happen again tonight, but PAX kicked it to the side. Thankfully, I think PAX is the last disruptive convention of the year, and we should be able to get back on the train in 2 weeks.
Sorry to hear that your Orient Express campaign was derailed.
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Creative Director
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If you were going to port Shackled City to Golarion, where would you set it? My initial inclination is to put it around Sargava or the coastal Mwangi Expanse somewhere - maybe in the Kaava Lands, with Bloodcove serving as the Sasserine equivalent.
It'd be on the mainland of the Shackles; there's not a lot going on there right now, so it's a ripe area for importing.
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In the event of porting Shackled City to Golarion, who would Cauldron be a colony of? Cheliax?
I'd retain its association with Sasserine and NOT have it be tied to Cheliax. It'd be more interesting if it had ties to one of the lost nations of the Sodden Lands and now that those lands are sodden, they're free cities or whatever.
How much would Desna like to visit this place?
How much would Desna like to visit this place?
Or maybe that IS Desna?
Question: Knowing you're a big Stephen King fan, have you read his "Full Dark, no Stars" short story book? (Well, short for a Stephen King story, anyway.) If so, what did you think? I've just finished it, and a couple of the stories have really affected me, particularly Big Driver and A Good Marriage. Both sensitive and horrifying situations handled incredibly well, I thought. I'd recommend it if you've not read it!
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Creative Director
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How much would Desna like to visit this place?
She's been there. OR... that's her!
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Creative Director
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Question: Knowing you're a big Stephen King fan, have you read his "Full Dark, no Stars" short story book? (Well, short for a Stephen King story, anyway.) If so, what did you think? I've just finished it, and a couple of the stories have really affected me, particularly Big Driver and A Good Marriage. Both sensitive and horrifying situations handled incredibly well, I thought. I'd recommend it if you've not read it!
I have indeed read that. VERY grim and intense stuff. I've always felt that he's an EXCELLENT novelist, but he's even better in the shorter fiction format. Very much looking forward to the next collation this November!
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Question: Knowing you're a big Stephen King fan, have you read his "Full Dark, no Stars" short story book? (Well, short for a Stephen King story, anyway.) If so, what did you think? I've just finished it, and a couple of the stories have really affected me, particularly Big Driver and A Good Marriage. Both sensitive and horrifying situations handled incredibly well, I thought. I'd recommend it if you've not read it!I have indeed read that. VERY grim and intense stuff. I've always felt that he's an EXCELLENT novelist, but he's even better in the shorter fiction format. Very much looking forward to the next collation this November!
On that note, do you have a favorite Stephen King short story? My own is a tie between Jerusalem's Lot and Strawberry Spring.
What is the best part of living in Washington?
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Creative Director
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On that note, do you have a favorite Stephen King short story? My own is a tie between Jerusalem's Lot and Strawberry Spring.Question: Knowing you're a big Stephen King fan, have you read his "Full Dark, no Stars" short story book? (Well, short for a Stephen King story, anyway.) If so, what did you think? I've just finished it, and a couple of the stories have really affected me, particularly Big Driver and A Good Marriage. Both sensitive and horrifying situations handled incredibly well, I thought. I'd recommend it if you've not read it!I have indeed read that. VERY grim and intense stuff. I've always felt that he's an EXCELLENT novelist, but he's even better in the shorter fiction format. Very much looking forward to the next collation this November!
The Mist is hands down my favorite Stephen King story of ANY length. It's a bit long, and I suppose technically it counts as a novella. If you were to use that pedantry to make me pick a "LEGITIMATE" short story as a favorite, it'd be a tie between Jerusalem's Lot, Gramma, and Survivor Type.
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As a T-Rex do you have a healthy dread of lawn flamingos as this one should have?
I do not.
As a T-Rex do you have a healthy dread of lawn flamingos as this one should have?I do not.
Hm. How do we fix that? (wanders, mumbling, through his spell book looking for a "plague of lawn flamingos" spell)
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Asking more for your opinion as a GM than as Creative Director:
1. After the end of the AP, would Serithtial be willing to let its wielder remain in Korvosa and serve as his/her blade, or would it urge its wielder to begin questing for the other pieces of Kazavon to try and destroy them, meaning if the wielder had other plans the best course would be to pass Serithtial on to a new wielder?
2. If a PC in possession of Mandraivus' celestial half-plate armor (described in Skeletons of Scarwall as bearing Lastwall iconography) were to take it to a smith and say "Hey, can you replace the Lastwall images here with Korvosan ones, please?" would this act (in your opinion) be disrespectful to Mandraivus' memory? I know there wouldn't really be any mechanical responses, but I'm wondering if a knightly PC should be made to feel guilty about it.
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Hm. How do we fix that? (wanders, mumbling, through his spell book looking for a "plague of lawn flamingos" spell)As a T-Rex do you have a healthy dread of lawn flamingos as this one should have?I do not.
You don't. It's not something a T-Rex wants.
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Spoiler:1. After the end of the AP, would Serithtial be willing to let its wielder remain in Korvosa and serve as his/her blade, or would it urge its wielder to begin questing for the other pieces of Kazavon to try and destroy them, meaning if the wielder had other plans the best course would be to pass Serithtial on to a new wielder?2. If a PC in possession of Mandraivus' celestial half-plate armor (described in Skeletons of Scarwall as bearing Lastwall iconography) were to take it to a smith and say "Hey, can you replace the Lastwall images here with Korvosan ones, please?" would this act (in your opinion) be disrespectful to Mandraivus' memory? I know there wouldn't really be any mechanical responses, but I'm wondering if a knightly PC should be made to feel guilty about it.
2) It would be disrespectful, yes.
Do you know what caused the Eye of Abendigo (besides the death or Aroden)? What is sustaining it? Was the geography of the region (besides becoming "sodden) significantly changed by the Eye?
You have said that although you outlined Strange Aeons, you are not Developing it. What exactly goes into the Post-outline development of an AP?
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Do you know what caused the Eye of Abendigo (besides the death or Aroden)? What is sustaining it? Was the geography of the region (besides becoming "sodden) significantly changed by the Eye?
Yes, I do know. Haven't revealed that yet. Not sure we ever will.
The coastline of the Sodden Lands changed pretty significantly due to flooding, and most of the terrain turned from plains to swamps. The other nearby regions were high enough above sea level that the changes were relatively minor on a geographic scale.
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You have said that although you outlined Strange Aeons, you are not Developing it. What exactly goes into the Post-outline development of an AP?
Most of the work, including the art order and map order (which often requires the developer to redraw map turnovers—a lot of adventure writers aren't all that great at maps, alas).
The bulk of that work, though, is going through the author's turnover word by word and enhancing everything. Making sure the rules are right. Making sure the lore is right. Making sure the language is right. Making sure ties to other adventures are right. Making sure the "voice" of the adventure matches the other five adventures. And in a lot of cases, actually rewording and rewriting portions. Actually ADDING content in many cases. In the average adventure, I"d say that about 50% of the words are actually the developer's words. There are cases where that number is lower, but there are times when the developer ends up rewriting huge swaths of the adventure.
Contributor
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You have said that although you outlined Strange Aeons, you are not Developing it. What exactly goes into the Post-outline development of an AP?Most of the work, including the art order and map order (which often requires the developer to redraw map turnovers—a lot of adventure writers aren't all that great at maps, alas).
The bulk of that work, though, is going through the author's turnover word by word and enhancing everything. Making sure the rules are right. Making sure the lore is right. Making sure the language is right. Making sure ties to other adventures are right. Making sure the "voice" of the adventure matches the other five adventures. And in a lot of cases, actually rewording and rewriting portions. Actually ADDING content in many cases. In the average adventure, I"d say that about 50% of the words are actually the developer's words. There are cases where that number is lower, but there are times when the developer ends up rewriting huge swaths of the adventure.
If you receive the first draft quickly enough, do you ever send it back to the author for some of those things?
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Creative Director
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If you receive the first draft quickly enough, do you ever send it back to the author for some of those things?You have said that although you outlined Strange Aeons, you are not Developing it. What exactly goes into the Post-outline development of an AP?Most of the work, including the art order and map order (which often requires the developer to redraw map turnovers—a lot of adventure writers aren't all that great at maps, alas).
The bulk of that work, though, is going through the author's turnover word by word and enhancing everything. Making sure the rules are right. Making sure the lore is right. Making sure the language is right. Making sure ties to other adventures are right. Making sure the "voice" of the adventure matches the other five adventures. And in a lot of cases, actually rewording and rewriting portions. Actually ADDING content in many cases. In the average adventure, I"d say that about 50% of the words are actually the developer's words. There are cases where that number is lower, but there are times when the developer ends up rewriting huge swaths of the adventure.
Some times, yes.
Other times, we don't have the luxury of looking into the first draft in great detail, and/or the problems don't manifest until we get in there and the time it would take to fix it ourselves is MUCH less than the time it'd take to explain to the author how to fix it and then wait and then hope the author fixes it right. In these cases, it's almost always more efficient to fix it ourselves, send it on to editing/layout, and then get that feedback to the author for his/her next assignment.
And some times it's apparent that the author simply doesn't have the right skill set to do an adventure at all, in which case we'll generally fix and/or rewrite the adventure ourselves and then either find non-adventure work for the author in the future or simply not use the author in the future.
In all cases, we do pay the author for the work they do for us, regardless of how much work we do to make it fit for print. The only exception there is in the unfortunate case that the author simply fails to provide ANY usable words or ideas at all, forcing us to write from scratch at the last minute. That's happened a few times before, but thankfully not that often... and that's the main reason why, these days, we only assign Adventure Paths to authors we've worked with plenty on other products.
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Are good outsiders ever concubines? Are there any examples published so far?
Anything could in theory be a concubine. Can't think of any specific examples in print off the top of my head re: good outsider concubines though. But we've published at this point a LOT MORE than I've ever (or ever can) read.
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Do you find it easier to work with functional but un-artistic maps or pretty but perhaps not the most "re-drawable"?Most of the work, including the art order and map order (which often requires the developer to redraw map turnovers—a lot of adventure writers aren't all that great at maps, alas).
I find that functional maps tend to be artistic, frankly. It's certainly possible to OVERdo the art and make maps that are too florid or complex, and too cluttered. Too much information, in other words. But to me? A "functional" map is artistic. A non-functional map is something I have to redraw, and is thus not artistic.
Are there any adventures or source material for The Precipice District in Absalom -- other than "Hangman's Noose" & "Black Waters"?
(Or The Inner Sea Guide?)
I don't think so but I'm hoping there are maybe one or two more PFS Scenarios in old Beldrin's Bluff; that's the one source (PFS) that I have lots of material but haven't read much of it. The Scenarios just sit idly in My Downloads.
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Are there any adventures or source material for The Precipice District in Absalom -- other than "Hangman's Noose" & "Black Waters"?
(Or The Inner Sea Guide?)I don't think so but I'm hoping there are maybe one or two more PFS Scenarios in old Beldrin's Bluff; that's the one source (PFS) that I have lots of material but haven't read much of it. The Scenarios just sit idly in My Downloads.
Not that I'm aware of. We've published about 300,502,420 PFS scenarios though so there could be another one in there, I guess. I am not that familiar with them; might be worth posting that question to the PFS boards.
G'day JJ
Are there plans to add more custom Pathfinder Prestige classes? I mean don't get us wrong base classes and the archetype system is awesome but there's a character building itch that only working towards those specialty super classes can scratch. I would definitely love to see more of them both general use ones and campaign setting specific ones (like in Paths of Prestige).
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Hey James, by canon, is there a distinction in Golarion between divine magic and arcane magic, such that, for instance, a bard would be unable to use a wand or scroll of cure light wounds if it were created by a cleric?
My home group has two campaigns going on right now, both in Golarion. (One is Rise of the Runelords and the other is Iron Gods). For our home games, we use the same ruling as above from PFS. But the question really is about campaign setting canon.
Follow-up question: Is there anything that you can think of that is canon in the campaign setting of Golarion—as published—that is remarkably different than the way things work in your home game? (I'm asking about narrative differences, not mechanical rules changes.)
Thanks!
So you've described the daily life of a Paizo developer. What is the daily life like for a Paizo creative director?
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Creative Director
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G'day JJ
Are there plans to add more custom Pathfinder Prestige classes? I mean don't get us wrong base classes and the archetype system is awesome but there's a character building itch that only working towards those specialty super classes can scratch. I would definitely love to see more of them both general use ones and campaign setting specific ones (like in Paths of Prestige).
When and if the time is right we'll add more prestige classes, I guess. It's not something we intend to do big books on anytime soon, but neither are they something we've deliberately said "never again" to.