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Hmm, okay, I was thinking about antipaladin for Nualia since that would make give both melee fighting ability and powers derived from her goddess and so get rid of need for fighter level..
What about replacing her fighter level with divine scion level? Would that work okay?
...BTW, now that I think about how much Nualia as Vrock makes sense(and I could swear I asked about that long time ago), why does book suggest making her half fiend or succubus anyway if she escapes? I never understood why the book says "or maybe as succubus" ._.;
Come to think about it, if Nualia does escape, is there any way for her to actually complete the ritual? I mean, okay, it would be possible if PCs leave Malfeshnekor alive and she comes back, free him and then burn the village, but if they kill the barghest, Nualia's quest has failed and Lamasthu would probably be disappointed. Would she have completely lost her chance to become demon or would she get second change/quest to do so? And is there anyway for her to complete the ritual without destroying the sandpoint?
BTW, is Jubilex still in pathfinder? I can't find mention of him in any real life mythology, but he is apparently D&D demon lord and he seems to be canon in Golarion since he is mentioned in Rotl anniversary edition? Is he in category like Orcus where he does exist in the setting, but he won't be used much in comparison to pathfinder original demon lords?
And finally, I doubt this would ever happen naturally since Nualia is pretty far gone, but what would exactly happen if she would actually get redeemed? I'd imagine Lamashtu would be at least annoyed at her groomed pawn being turned back to good instead of dying as evil, but what would happen to Nualia herself? I'd guess her demonic talon would start rejecting her, but would Lamashtu's taint in her get erased or remain with her?
Go ahead and do what you want with Nualia in your game. In mine, and as printed, she's a cleric/fighter.
The book says something different because I had a different idea four years ago, pretty much, than I do today.
There's always other ways to complete the ritual if she escapes; what exactly is required can vary depending on the story you want to tell.
Jubilex is in Pathfinder, thanks to his stats and name being in the Tome of Horrors, but we haven't done much with him yet beyond what I wrote about him in Book of Fiends II. He has no real-life mythological source; he was created by Gygax for D&D. He's not in the same category as Orcus... but we just haven't done much with him yet.
If Nualia were redeemed, that'd also depend on the story you want to tell... but I'd have her keep the demon talon and turn it good but keep it ugly, since having an ugly feature mar her beauty fits into her story.
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What's your favorite Shensen story? (That is, a moment when Shensen, as your character, truly shined, either through battle, interaction, or just roleplay with other party members.)
Probably the point at which she managed, after several levels and over a year of real-time, to take over an enclave of Red Wizards of Thay via seduction/diplomacy and managed to turn the whole operation secretly to chaotic good/Eilistraee pursuits; she was in the process of expanding outward, to eventually undermine all of Thay from within, but the campaign sorta fell apart before things could go that far... in no small part because another player sabotaged all the work I'd been doing by burning the enclave down on a whim.
Is that because of the character backstory? I'm not familiar with the character (never played, GMed, or read RotRL), but did you conceive of her as having previously been a straight fighter who was initiated into worship and clerical service of Lamashtu at a particular time in her life?
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Is that because of the character backstory? I'm not familiar with the character (never played, GMed, or read RotRL), but did you conceive of her as having previously been a straight fighter who was initiated into worship and clerical service of Lamashtu at a particular time in her life?
Not so much backstory as it is preference on how to build the character.
The game offers a LOT of ways to build a "combat-focused worshiper of Lamashtu." I chose cleric/fighter. To a certain extent, this is like arguing that I should have painted a picture of a red apple using scarlet paint instead of crimson paint, and I don't really see the point of continuing the discussion.
I have a question that probably doesn't relate to much but is a PF question:
If you had to go back and revise an adventure path, using what's available now, which one would get the most revisions?
I only ask because some times I see characters like Dovan from Kingmaker and think he would be better at being a swashbuckler than just a plain rogue.
You feel that CG worshipers of creepy CN deities (Groetus, Bokrug) are bad ideas because the alignment (CG) doesn't fit with the gods. Do you feel that logic fits for paladins of LG and NG sex deities (Lymnieris, Arshea) as well? (I hope not.)
Something tell me Ms Nymph, that paladins and CG worshippers aren't in the same boat since sex deities aren't always bad.
Groetus and Bokrug...kind of are.
Contributor
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We started publishing the Divine Obedience boons for deities in the AP deity articles with the ones appearing in Iron Gods; Brigh was the first to get that update. We've updated Milani (who already got an article without the boons in Reign of Winter) in the Hell's Rebels player's guide. We'll continue to update those all as we go forward; stay tuned!
Does this mean you'll be publishing boons for deities that received AP articles (but that weren't in Inner Sea Gods)?
I understand if you can't officially confirm that or offer details right now, but consider me a very strong supporter of the idea; I'd love some boons for Baphomet and Deskari for my villains to use.
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We started publishing the Divine Obedience boons for deities in the AP deity articles with the ones appearing in Iron Gods; Brigh was the first to get that update. We've updated Milani (who already got an article without the boons in Reign of Winter) in the Hell's Rebels player's guide. We'll continue to update those all as we go forward; stay tuned!Does this mean you'll be publishing boons for deities that received AP articles (but that weren't in Inner Sea Gods)?
I understand if you can't officially confirm that or offer details right now, but consider me a very strong supporter of the idea; I'd love some boons for Baphomet and Deskari for my villains to use.
And boons for my followers of Szuriel to use pretty, pretty plz!
Who is your favourite Horseman?
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Do you have any movies/books/comics whatever other form of media that you keep in mind for what not to do when writing. Basically, touchstones for "if your doing it this way, you know your screwing up?"
Or something you've read/collected/watched because of a morbid fascination with the train wreck of an acting job/plot etc?
Do you have any of your own work where you think to yourself "I'm not going there again?"
We started publishing the Divine Obedience boons for deities in the AP deity articles with the ones appearing in Iron Gods; Brigh was the first to get that update. We've updated Milani (who already got an article without the boons in Reign of Winter) in the Hell's Rebels player's guide. We'll continue to update those all as we go forward; stay tuned!Does this mean you'll be publishing boons for deities that received AP articles (but that weren't in Inner Sea Gods)?
I understand if you can't officially confirm that or offer details right now, but consider me a very strong supporter of the idea; I'd love some boons for Baphomet and Deskari for my villains to use.
Demon lords have boons in their book of the damned volume. They're also on Archives of Nethys.
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Contributor
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Demon lords have boons in their book of the damned volume. They're also on Archives of Nethys.We started publishing the Divine Obedience boons for deities in the AP deity articles with the ones appearing in Iron Gods; Brigh was the first to get that update. We've updated Milani (who already got an article without the boons in Reign of Winter) in the Hell's Rebels player's guide. We'll continue to update those all as we go forward; stay tuned!Does this mean you'll be publishing boons for deities that received AP articles (but that weren't in Inner Sea Gods)?
I understand if you can't officially confirm that or offer details right now, but consider me a very strong supporter of the idea; I'd love some boons for Baphomet and Deskari for my villains to use.
I'm aware of these things, as I own Book of the Damned II: Lords of Chaos. They aren't the same, however, as they don't interact with the three prestige classes in Inner Sea Gods.
In any case, Mr. Jacobs has requested that only questions for him be posted in this thread. ^_^
Mr. Jacobs: did you contribute anything to Inner Sea Races? I just read my subscriber PDF, and it's excellent.
Would I be in for an ugly copyright suite if I made a webcomic about my group's adventures in Wrath of the Righteous?
Hi James
What is the prevalence of mixed race relationships in golarion amongst the non genetically compatable races, humans dwarves halfling a and gnomes. How often do they happen and how are they received by the general populace. And would that change from country to county, would say varisia be more open minded than say mendev? Also which f these races are more prone to seek a relationship outside of there race? Which combinations are more common and which are almost unheard of?
I wouldn't call it min/maxing at all. It's just inappropriate story is all; it doesn't give you a particular rules benefit to be a CG worshiper of a great old one at all, since those clerics aren't inherently more powerful than any other deity you could choose... it's just disruptive to the game because it breaks the world flavor in much the same way playing a thri-kreen ranger named Davey Cricket would, or a pudgy halfling thief named Frodo Bilbo would. It's disrespectful to all the work the creators and authors and GMs put into the game to make a PC that deliberately breaks verisimilitude.
Anyway, yeah. It's a pet peeve of mine, as if one...
Yes I see what you mean, it is most definitely a slap in the face!!
I like playing Chaotic Neutral players for exactly the reason you described... freedom!
GMs strangely dont seem so keen on them. I've had a couple say "So basically you'll just go round doing whatever you like!".... but thats really not how I approach them. That in my mind is more Chaotic Evil, since an evil player is more than capable of performing "good" deeds if it serves a higher purpose down the line.
I play them as someone that it striving for balance but achieves this by accepting that in life there are times for acting like a saint and times for acting like a sinner..... and always making sure the overall equation is balanced!
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Creative Director
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I have a question that probably doesn't relate to much but is a PF question:
If you had to go back and revise an adventure path, using what's available now, which one would get the most revisions?
I only ask because some times I see characters like Dovan from Kingmaker and think he would be better at being a swashbuckler than just a plain rogue.
Second Darkness, in that it needs another adventure inserted in between parts 2 and 3, and needs the first half of part 5 to be entirely rewritten to present elves in the right way.
When I revise Adventure Paths (I've done so twice so far—Shackled City and Rise of the Runelords), I tend to take a very hands-off approach when it comes to changing things that are already in print. I kept Nualia as a cleric/fighter, for example, and didn't turn her into an antipaladin. And I wouldn't change Dovan into a swashbuckler. Because that, to me, reeks of fixing something that isn't broken.
Why do you think giants are on the summon nature's ally lists? Been trying to figure that one out logically for a few weeks.
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Creative Director
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You feel that CG worshipers of creepy CN deities (Groetus, Bokrug) are bad ideas because the alignment (CG) doesn't fit with the gods. Do you feel that logic fits for paladins of LG and NG sex deities (Lymnieris, Arshea) as well? (I hope not.)
I feel that for some deities, the "creep" from their alignment among their worshipers is less appropriate.
For Gorum and Calistria, I see them having PLENTY of chaotic good and chaotic evil worshipers, even while most of their worshipers WOULD match their alignment. Same goes for Besmara and Sivanha.
Groetus and Bokrug are two that I don't really see having that same level of diversity.
As for paladins and sex... I don't think that is a factor at all. The idea of sex being bad and something that holy people should avoid is not a believe I happen to follow, and it's not the assumption for holy people in Golarion. There might be one or two unusual exceptions here and there, but the idea that a deity might be all about sex does NOT mean that he or she can't have paladins. The ONLY thing that makes it impossible for a deity to have paladins is if the deity's alignment is something OTHER than LG, LN, or NG.
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Creative Director
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James, is Taldor an allegory for The United States?Wasn't that supposed to be Andoran, or Galt?
Andoran is the closest allegory for the United States, but even then it's not an EXACT analogy.
Taldor is more like the "generic Eurocentric fantasyland" for us.
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Creative Director
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in no small part because another player sabotaged all the work I'd been doing by burning the enclave down on a whim.wut?
We had a player join the group very late in the campaign who was disruptive and obnoxious and basically undid a lot of the hard work I'd put in to building things up. The GM was very much a "I'll let the players do what they want" open-minded GM, and I have always been a "I am not here to do PvP stuff," so when that happened, I pretty much quietly just quit the campaign.
And come to think of it... that might be a HUGE reason why Shensen is my favorite... because unlike Rowyn or Ruvagog or other characters I've played for that long... they had story arcs that had satisfying conclusions when the campaign game to an end.
For Shensen, there was no satisfying conclusion. It's like having a favorite TV show get cancelled when it was obvious that the writers and creators had 2 or 3 more seasons AT LEAST of content to provide, and you'd already been invested by watching for 6 or 7 seasons already.
Shensen never really had that chance, which is pretty frustrating.
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Creative Director
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We started publishing the Divine Obedience boons for deities in the AP deity articles with the ones appearing in Iron Gods; Brigh was the first to get that update. We've updated Milani (who already got an article without the boons in Reign of Winter) in the Hell's Rebels player's guide. We'll continue to update those all as we go forward; stay tuned!Does this mean you'll be publishing boons for deities that received AP articles (but that weren't in Inner Sea Gods)?
I understand if you can't officially confirm that or offer details right now, but consider me a very strong supporter of the idea; I'd love some boons for Baphomet and Deskari for my villains to use.
If we do an article about a deity in Pathfinder AP, that article will include boons. Whether or not that deity got mentioned in Inner Sea Gods.
Baphomet and Deskari, being demon lords, already HAVE their baseline boons—check out Lords of Chaos, Book of the Damned II, which is where I built up the idea of divine boons in the first place based on some initial ideas from Green Ronin's Book of Fiends.
If we revisit that book, then ALL the demon lords (for example) would get all three categories of boons.
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Creative Director
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We started publishing the Divine Obedience boons for deities in the AP deity articles with the ones appearing in Iron Gods; Brigh was the first to get that update. We've updated Milani (who already got an article without the boons in Reign of Winter) in the Hell's Rebels player's guide. We'll continue to update those all as we go forward; stay tuned!Does this mean you'll be publishing boons for deities that received AP articles (but that weren't in Inner Sea Gods)?
I understand if you can't officially confirm that or offer details right now, but consider me a very strong supporter of the idea; I'd love some boons for Baphomet and Deskari for my villains to use.
And boons for my followers of Szuriel to use pretty, pretty plz!
Who is your favourite Horseman?
No plans to do anything with Szuriel boons anytime soon.
My favorite Horseman is Charon, no contest.
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Creative Director
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Do you have any movies/books/comics whatever other form of media that you keep in mind for what not to do when writing. Basically, touchstones for "if your doing it this way, you know your screwing up?"
Or something you've read/collected/watched because of a morbid fascination with the train wreck of an acting job/plot etc?
Do you have any of your own work where you think to yourself "I'm not going there again?"
I do, but I'm not gonna call them out in public, because I'm not really fond of badmouthing other people's creative work in public.
As for my own work? Not really, with the exception of not wanting to ever write an 8 page adventure ever again...
in no small part because another player sabotaged all the work I'd been doing by burning the enclave down on a whim.wut?We had a player join the group very late in the campaign who was disruptive and obnoxious and basically undid a lot of the hard work I'd put in to building things up. The GM was very much a "I'll let the players do what they want" open-minded GM, and I have always been a "I am not here to do PvP stuff," so when that happened, I pretty much quietly just quit the campaign.
And come to think of it... that might be a HUGE reason why Shensen is my favorite... because unlike Rowyn or Ruvagog or other characters I've played for that long... they had story arcs that had satisfying conclusions when the campaign game to an end.
For Shensen, there was no satisfying conclusion. It's like having a favorite TV show get cancelled when it was obvious that the writers and creators had 2 or 3 more seasons AT LEAST of content to provide, and you'd already been invested by watching for 6 or 7 seasons already.
Shensen never really had that chance, which is pretty frustrating.
hello mr jacob
my question today is unrelated to pathfinder, i'd just like to know if there really is a 10 season show that does not get run into the ground by poor writing after such a long run?|
Creative Director
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Mr. Jacobs: did you contribute anything to Inner Sea Races? I just read my subscriber PDF, and it's excellent.
Glad you liked it!
My main direct contribution to Inner Sea Gods was the big table in the Appendix that summarized all the deities. I was the one who finalized all the sacred animals and sacred colors for them, and came up with symbols for the ones who up to that point hadn't had symbols detailed.
I'm also the reason the heralds are in the book—early in the book's outlining, some folks were very adamant that the CR 15 monsters should NOT be in the book because they felt that they weren't a useful way to use the book's pages. I managed to somehow make it happen, but only at the cost of cutting almost all of the heralds' flavor text so that each one could have a less powerful new monster option as well. I do like the fact that there's 20 new monsters in the book alongside the 20 reprints, but I still kinda regret losing all that cool flavor text for the heralds. Fortunately... that text is still out there in the original articles! Whew!
I didn't actually write any of the words in the book or do any of the development, but a large number of the deities in the book were invented by me for my home campaign over the course of the past 30 years.
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Would I be in for an ugly copyright suite if I made a webcomic about my group's adventures in Wrath of the Righteous?
You could be, yes. You'll want to make sure you follow the rules of the community use content stuff, which (among other things) means that you can't charge any money for your web comic (which I think does include not having ads on the site or selling anything associated with it).
If it's 100% a fan fiction type work, then you MIGHT be okay... but if you ever want to do anything with your webcomic to make money off of it in any way, you have to avoid using any of our content.
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Creative Director
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Hi James
What is the prevalence of mixed race relationships in golarion amongst the non genetically compatable races, humans dwarves halfling a and gnomes. How often do they happen and how are they received by the general populace. And would that change from country to county, would say varisia be more open minded than say mendev? Also which f these races are more prone to seek a relationship outside of there race? Which combinations are more common and which are almost unheard of?
It varies entirely by region and by race, and going into the details of it would fill an entire book.
Obviously, elf + human and orc + human are the most common, since half-elves and half-orcs are core races.
Beyond that... it's up to you. I more or less take the approach of "anything is possible" since I don't want to close off future story ideas.
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Are there any Dhampir NPCs that are fleshed out in Pathfinder? Whether allies or enemies of the party, I'm interested in learning how you guy go about Dhampirs as characters.
Not that I know of. We may have done one in Carrion Crown, but I'm not all that familiar with that AP. Wes Schneider would know more—I'm sure he's put a few of them in his stuff here and there.
Right then. Thanks, I wasn't planning on doing any of that "plastering ads on every availble surface," stuff. I just wanted to make something fun for the community to read.
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GMs strangely dont seem so keen on them. I've had a couple say "So basically you'll just go round doing whatever you like!".... but thats really not how I approach them. That in my mind is more Chaotic Evil, since an evil player is more than capable of performing "good" deeds if it serves a higher purpose down the line.
I play them as someone that it striving for balance but achieves this by accepting that in life there are times for acting like a saint and times for acting like a sinner..... and always making sure the overall equation is balanced!
That depends entirely on the GM. I actually quite enjoy CN PCs in games I run. There's certainly an internet expectation/cliche or whatever that players of CN characters do so because they think that lets them do whatever they want... but that's less of a problem with the alignment and more a problem with a player who is just playing the game in order to ruin it for the others—this is the SAME personality type who plays a paladin and uses the paladin code as permission from the rules to disrupt the rest of the game for the GM and other players.
Anyway... let's keep it to questions!
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Creative Director
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Why do you think giants are on the summon nature's ally lists? Been trying to figure that one out logically for a few weeks.
I don't think... I know why they're on the lists, as I was there to help make that decision.
They're on the list because the animal type gets VERY sparse once you get above CR 8, and options like elementals do as well. Giants fill a high CR niche for the higher level summon spells, and ALSO fill in a much-needed missing thematic thing—they're not animals or weird elemental stuff. They help to widen the scope of the game. In a perfect world, there would have been a lot more fey creatures and plant creatures on the list, but the baseline game simply doesn't have the support for that many fey or plant creatures, particularly at higher CR where the giants live.
Giants are thus on the list to fill in holes. But furthermore, they all have strong links to the natural world, be it links to elements (stone giants, fire giants), terrain (hill giants), and weather (cloud giants, storm giants).
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Creative Director
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hello mr jacob
my question today is unrelated to pathfinder, i'd just like to know if there really is a 10 season show that does not get run into the ground by poor writing after such a long run?
The Simpsons was still going QUITE strong by season 10.
Family Guy is another good example.
Both of those have had ups and downs along the way, of course.
I'm not a fan of Dr. Who... but that's probably the best example, if what I'm hearing from the world's various Dr. Who fans is to be trusted.
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Creative Director
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Have ya played the Trespasser DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition yet? Sera gets some adorable moments, both in and out of romance. ;)
I just finished it last night. Delightful DLC, and hands down the BEST of the 3 DLCs for Dragon Age. I love what it suggested is coming next for the Dragon Age franchise too. And yes indeed, Sera continued to be completely adorable.
"Because fighting is better with candy."
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Have ya played the Trespasser DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition yet? Sera gets some adorable moments, both in and out of romance. ;)I just finished it last night. Delightful DLC, and hands down the BEST of the 3 DLCs for Dragon Age. I love what it suggested is coming next for the Dragon Age franchise too. And yes indeed, Sera continued to be completely adorable.
"Because fighting is better with candy."
The minute I saw Sera's cutscenes I thought "Okay, James Jacobs is gonna have a field day with this!" :D
Do elves raise chickens, or are they more likely to prefer hunting things like turkeys and pheasants?
Right then. Thanks, I wasn't planning on doing any of that "plastering ads on every availble surface," stuff. I just wanted to make something fun for the community to read.
You can find the Community Use Policy here.
It's worth checking, as there are some "usage requirements" as well as permissions.
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in no small part because another player sabotaged all the work I'd been doing by burning the enclave down on a whim.wut?We had a player join the group very late in the campaign who was disruptive and obnoxious and basically undid a lot of the hard work I'd put in to building things up. The GM was very much a "I'll let the players do what they want" open-minded GM, and I have always been a "I am not here to do PvP stuff," so when that happened, I pretty much quietly just quit the campaign.
And come to think of it... that might be a HUGE reason why Shensen is my favorite... because unlike Rowyn or Ruvagog or other characters I've played for that long... they had story arcs that had satisfying conclusions when the campaign game to an end.
For Shensen, there was no satisfying conclusion. It's like having a favorite TV show get cancelled when it was obvious that the writers and creators had 2 or 3 more seasons AT LEAST of content to provide, and you'd already been invested by watching for 6 or 7 seasons already.
Shensen never really had that chance, which is pretty frustrating.
:(
Well at least she's making a comeback for Hell's Rebels right?
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Creative Director
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Um... I think you misread my question. ^_^Mr. Jacobs: did you contribute anything to Inner Sea ? I just read my subscriber PDF, and it's excellent.Glad you liked it!
(Inner Sea Gods-related stuff...)
I did. My answer still stands for Inner Sea Gods, of course.
For Inner Sea Races, I did a very light development pass on the book after Jessica did a very strong one and fixed and improved a LOT of content; the sidebars we previewed a few weeks ago were all her idea for an addition, for example.
I also worked a bit on getting the Heritages to fit on the page right and to make sure that the right bits of errata got in.
I didn't have as much time as I wanted to look over the rules section, alas... I would have LOVED to add a bunch more non-teamwork feats to the book, but there just wasn't time for me to address that.
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in no small part because another player sabotaged all the work I'd been doing by burning the enclave down on a whim.wut?We had a player join the group very late in the campaign who was disruptive and obnoxious and basically undid a lot of the hard work I'd put in to building things up. The GM was very much a "I'll let the players do what they want" open-minded GM, and I have always been a "I am not here to do PvP stuff," so when that happened, I pretty much quietly just quit the campaign.
And come to think of it... that might be a HUGE reason why Shensen is my favorite... because unlike Rowyn or Ruvagog or other characters I've played for that long... they had story arcs that had satisfying conclusions when the campaign game to an end.
For Shensen, there was no satisfying conclusion. It's like having a favorite TV show get cancelled when it was obvious that the writers and creators had 2 or 3 more seasons AT LEAST of content to provide, and you'd already been invested by watching for 6 or 7 seasons already.
Shensen never really had that chance, which is pretty frustrating.
:(
Well at least she's making a comeback for Hell's Rebels right?
Yup!
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Do elves raise chickens, or are they more likely to prefer hunting things like turkeys and pheasants?I don't see chickens and their filth and stupidity being a good mix with the grace and style of elves at all.
They hunt the birds they eat.
I take it you don't like chickens, then. Touchy subject?