Creative Director
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You should know the people involved though... they were the authors of Yamara, Dragon Magazine's own Heroic Hafling.I never saw that, nope.In that theme did you ever see Aetherco's Continuum?, where the basic premise is that players are part of a society whose members can travel time at will. It even incorporates a system of temporal combat.Chronomancy - bad idea or worst idea?A very interesting and compelling and interesting idea... but only if you're building an entire campaign setting where the focus is traveling through time.
I know of Yamara, of course, but that strip predates my involvement in the magazine on a professional basis.
Is there any question you haven't been asked yet but would like to answer anyway?
One thing that strikes me as different about Golarion is the vastness of its timeline. Ten thousand years or so from the fall of tha events in Rise of the Lords, Taldor has been in a 700 year decline, small compared to its 4000 years or so on top. What was the thought in making Golarion's timeline so long?
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Creative Director
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One thing that strikes me as different about Golarion is the vastness of its timeline. Ten thousand years or so from the fall of tha events in Rise of the Lords, Taldor has been in a 700 year decline, small compared to its 4000 years or so on top. What was the thought in making Golarion's timeline so long?
The thought was that, at the start of building the campaign setting, we didn't want to constrain ourselves. We hit the ground running with the campaign setting, and were already designing adventures a year before we had the exact details of the world pinned down. We were a bit worried about making a timeline that was too short and thus wouldn't leave us any wiggle room to grow and build historical events into the setting a year or ten years down the road, in effect. Furthermore, Erik wanted Azlant to have some analogs with Atlantis, I believe, and setting its destruction to about 10,000 years ago syncs up with certain real-world myths about when Atlantis sunk compared to the modern day.
It DOES create a somewhat outlandish amount of time for certain events, and I'm not 100% happy with that, but it is what it is.
If I had a time machine, I would have probably left Azlant and Thassilon's fall at 10,000 years ago, but would have had the Age of Darkness last until Year Zero, and then would have compressed the events of the Age of Anguish, Destiny, and Enthronement into the years from 1 to 4606.
But I don't have a time machine, and while our current timeline is vast, that DOES add to the otherworldly or fantastic feel to the setting, which is not a bad thing in and of itself. Furthermore, with elves being available as PCs, we kind of DO need a longer timeline than Earth's because that way player character elves (or dwarves or gnomes for that matter), who live on longer time scales than humans, aren't even more awkward.
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Creative Director
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James are there any fencing schools in Taldore or Cheliax. What types of fencing do they teach? I am interested in both one handed styles of fencing and fencing with weapons in both hands.
Nothing particularly of unusual note in Cheliax, but Taldor has all the rondelero stuff; falcata fighting and the like.
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Who do I thank for Distant Shores? It delights and frustrates me at the same time. On the one hand, the new doru spear is everything I wanted in a weapon (now I can play soldiery types WITHOUT the Phalanx Fighter archetype!) but now dissecting Golarion's cultural evolution is even more difficult (did Iblydos' Greco-Roman culture come from its original cyclops founders? I thought Ghol-Gan was more Mayan what with the ziggurats and all, and if not where DID that culture come from?)
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Creative Director
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Who do I thank for Distant Shores? It delights and frustrates me at the same time. On the one hand, the new doru spear is everything I wanted in a weapon (now I can play soldiery types WITHOUT the Phalanx Fighter archetype!) but now dissecting Golarion's cultural evolution is even more difficult (did Iblydos' Greco-Roman culture come from its original cyclops founders? I thought Ghol-Gan was more Mayan what with the ziggurats and all, and if not where DID that culture come from?)
I actually had very little to do with Distant Shores, apart from taking part in some of the original brainstorm sessions and providing some advice here and there. I was originally going to write the Holomog city—Holomog is a region exported from my homebrew setting, after all, but I had to back out due to work on "A Song of Silver" instead. Crystal did a great job with it from my initial notes—she's on of two authors I was willing to trust taking over for me (the other being Jessica), given the nature of the region's themes and all that.
Wes Schneider's the one to thank though—it was largely from him, I believe, that the original idea came.
As for "dissecting Golarion's cultural evolution," I'm afraid that the more we publish, the more complicated that's going to get, as we add more and more voices and authors to the mix over the years to come.
And keep in mind, just as humanity in the real world has LOTS of different cultural backgrounds, so can cyclopes. There may well BE no significant link between those of Ghol-Gan and those of Iblydos and those of Iobaria, any more than there's a link between the cultural development of Nepal and New Zealand and Florida and Norway.
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How am I supposed to shoehorn characters based on Dark Age and Antiquity soldiers and historical figures into the setting, then? :P
Seriously, to count the number of times I've seen a cool-looking unit in a Total War game and gone "OOH! I wanna play as one of THOSE in Golarion too!" you'd need an extra hand. Maybe a foot too.
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Creative Director
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How am I supposed to shoehorn characters based on Dark Age and Antiquity soldiers and historical figures into the setting, then? :P
Seriously, to count the number of times I've seen a cool-looking unit in a Total War game and gone "OOH! I wanna play as one of THOSE in Golarion too!" you'd need an extra hand. Maybe a foot too.
With a shoehorn; that's what they're for. Getting things that don't quite fit to fit.
Or honestly? Maybe Golarion's just not the right setting for the characters you want to play; there's a LOT of settings out there to choose from. Obviously I'd prefer it if folks use Golarion, or at least adapt it to their use (but from what I've learned, you want to keep all canon canon and don't want to adapt), but everyone in the end should play the game they want. It's supposed to be fun, after all!
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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How am I supposed to shoehorn characters based on Dark Age and Antiquity soldiers and historical figures into the setting, then? :PWith a shoehorn; that's what they're for. Getting things that don't quite fit to fit.
IANJ, but it is entirely possible to play most ancient units on Golarion. I don't feel much shoehorning is needed at all, I just try to figure out which culture best would fit the unit I want to play as.
I played a hoplite in Molthune for a game. He served Spravilost, a bronze dragon, and wore magical bronze gear. I have a Mordant Spire elf in PFS that fights as a retiarus.
James, do the hobgoblins of Kaoling fight in large unit formations? Or anywhere else? I know they are normally portrayed as leaders for goblinoid armies, but wondering how they organized units consisting wholly of hobgoblins?
Would you hazard a guess at the ballpark % of the Molthune army containing hobgoblins? Do hobgoblins there get the chance to become leaders? How far up a Molthune army's leadership chain could a hobgoblin achieve status?
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Creative Director
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James, do the hobgoblins of Kaoling fight in large unit formations? Or anywhere else? I know they are normally portrayed as leaders for goblinoid armies, but wondering how they organized units consisting wholly of hobgoblins?
Would you hazard a guess at the ballpark % of the Molthune army containing hobgoblins? Do hobgoblins there get the chance to become leaders? How far up a Molthune army's leadership chain could a hobgoblin achieve status?
Hobgoblins do indeed fight in large unit formations. Although not so much in actual play, since we don't really have a robust set of mass combat rules.
Hobgoblin units in Molthune are not the rule, and a lot of them are off the books, so it's unclear as to a percentage. I'd say less than 5% if I had to guess. A hobgoblin can command a hobgoblin legion, but cannot hold a position of leadership in the real army. They're pretty much just mercenaries as far as Molthune is concerned.
What about an upcoming Adventure Path for EVIL characters?!
Please, do this!!!
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Creative Director
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1) Which planes do you think would be most suitable for low level PCs to wind up stranded on without being ludicrously outmatched?
2) Which planes do you like most overall, the outer planes or the inner planes?
3) If you wanted to do a game with an asian setting (possibly in Tian Xia), do you think a location like makai would work better as a transitive plane or a demiplane? Or would your preference be to have it as a geographic location on the material plane like Shenmen or the Forest of Spirits?
1) The Material Plane.
2) The Material Plane (inner planes) and the Abyss (outer planes).
3) Do you mean Minkai? And yes, if you're going to do an Asian setting game... set it in an Asia analogue like Tian Xia, not another plane entirely. Where in Tian Xia depends on what flavor of adventure you want.
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Creative Director
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Ah, sorry, should have been specific...'makai' is a Japanese concept that means the 'demon world', a dimension or other world where yokai and monsters dwell, but isn't an afterlife like the concept of 'hell'. Kind of in some ways similar to a fey realm, where the rules may be different and sometimes someone who knows what they're doing can cross over in certain places from the real world/material plane, and sometimes people can even do so by accident at the right time and in the right place...or the wrong time and the wrong place, more realistically. It's very interconnected with the real world, generally...3) If you wanted to do a game with an asian setting (possibly in Tian Xia), do you think a location like makai would work better as a transitive plane or a demiplane? Or would your preference be to have it as a geographic location on the material plane like Shenmen or the Forest of Spirits?3) Do you mean Minkai? And yes, if you're going to do an Asian setting game... set it in an Asia analogue like Tian Xia, not another plane entirely. Where in Tian Xia depends on what flavor of adventure you want.
Ah; in that case, I'd still play in Tian Xia and not on another plane. Shenmen is absolutely the best place fro something like this.
Do you know of any Lovecraftian monsters associated with hive minds?
So in Pathfinder how fecund are Goblins?
a) How many children does a typical goblin female have?
b) How long does it take for a goblin take to reach maturity?
Only asking for ideas on if you put down most of a goblin tribe how long before they are a threat again.
Once the art and stuff is done what software does Paizo use to cook up the final books?
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Creative Director
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Do you know of any Lovecraftian monsters associated with hive minds?
Lovecraft never really included a concept of a "hive mind" in his stories. Ramsey Campbell's shans might work, I suppose... but that said, the mythos is infinitely adaptable. Just add your own hivemind monster into the mix and you're good to go.
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Creative Director
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So in Pathfinder how fecund are Goblins?
a) How many children does a typical goblin female have?
b) How long does it take for a goblin take to reach maturity?
Only asking for ideas on if you put down most of a goblin tribe how long before they are a threat again.
I suspect I covered this in Classic Monsters Revisited... off the top of my head I don't know, but I'd say that if you wipe out a goblin tribe it'll require a new goblin tribe to move into the old territory. They don't just "spontaneously" regrow.
Contributor
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So in Pathfinder how fecund are Goblins?
a) How many children does a typical goblin female have?
b) How long does it take for a goblin take to reach maturity?
Only asking for ideas on if you put down most of a goblin tribe how long before they are a threat again.I suspect I covered this in Classic Monsters Revisited... off the top of my head I don't know, but I'd say that if you wipe out a goblin tribe it'll require a new goblin tribe to move into the old territory. They don't just "spontaneously" regrow.
I believe that Inner Sea Races has the answers to these questions, if that helps.
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Once the art and stuff is done what software does Paizo use to cook up the final books?We use Microsof Word, Microsoft Excel, Hero Lab, InDesign, and Photoshop.
Hero Lab helps in book design?!
Herolabs helps them with the formatting for Pc, NPC and Monster stat blocks, which is a huge time suck otherwise.
Any romantic interests at this time, JJ?
==Aelryinth
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Back again with another question about deities :-)
When Aroden died, it had incredible ramifications for Golarion. Did it has ramifications for other planets as well?
As well, how widespread are the deities of the Inner Sea on an inter-solar/inter-galactic scale? I think I read that some of the main deities are worshiped on the other planets in Golarian's system, but would, say, Pharasma, be worshiped on the planet that the Numerian Starships are from? Or are the deities we read about more localized to Golarian's neck of the Material Plane?
The main thing that brought this question to my mind is book 5 of Reign of Winter, where Earth makes an appearance.
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Creative Director
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What's the computer model and monitor you do your professional work on? And do you use a color profiling system like Gretag?Once the art and stuff is done what software does Paizo use to cook up the final books?We use Microsof Word, Microsoft Excel, Hero Lab, InDesign, and Photoshop.
At work I use a Mac Mini. It's hardly a powerhouse. At home I've got a 2011 iMac that I'm starting to consider upgrading.
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Creative Director
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Hero Lab helps in book design?!Once the art and stuff is done what software does Paizo use to cook up the final books?We use Microsof Word, Microsoft Excel, Hero Lab, InDesign, and Photoshop.
We've started using it to build stat blocks, so yeah, it helps in designing books with stats in them.
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Creative Director
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Back again with another question about deities :-)
When Aroden died, it had incredible ramifications for Golarion. Did it has ramifications for other planets as well?
As well, how widespread are the deities of the Inner Sea on an inter-solar/inter-galactic scale? I think I read that some of the main deities are worshiped on the other planets in Golarian's system, but would, say, Pharasma, be worshiped on the planet that the Numerian Starships are from? Or are the deities we read about more localized to Golarian's neck of the Material Plane?
** spoiler omitted **
Aroden was pretty much limited to Golarion.
Some of the Inner Sea deities are worshiped on other worlds... some to a greater extent, some lesser. There's a LOT of crossover between Golarion's deities and Androffa's (where the starship is from), since Androffa is my own campaign setting (although it's now known as Droffa, after 10,000 years or so have passed).
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James, would be expensive for Pazio to publish its books in the Ibooks format? Would it be possible for Pazio to put the tilte of the book first in the PDF instead of the Pazio number for the PDF. I have to change every book title when I use Good Reader to read the PDF's I buy.
What PDF viewer do you use?
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Creative Director
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James, would be expensive for Pazio to publish its books in the Ibooks format? Would it be possible for Pazio to put the tilte of the book first in the PDF instead of the Pazio number for the PDF. I have to change every book title when I use Good Reader to read the PDF's I buy.
What PDF viewer do you use?
Part of the reason we haven't done much with iBooks is, under my understanding, that Apple takes too big of a cut from the profits for us to want to do so. Now that we've a deal with Tor, that may change some day, since Tor has a lot more clout and connections.
As for putting the title of the book first instead of the Paizo number... I don't know who you'd need to talk to about that but Customer Service would be a good start.
I use Adobe Reader or Preview.
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I use a lot of art for my characters. I found a total of 2 female half orc arcane casters which looked like they grew up in human society rather than stripperific half clothed society. I've found no hot snake chick eidolons (didn't really expect this, but it's fun to mention) but the point is, I have a hard time finding fantasy art that goes against stereotypes.
Aasimer Paladins are easy to find. Human Barbarians, piece of cake? Half orc (preferably librarian) arcanists, gnome barbarians, elven druids, not so much.
Is there a chance you could include a few more unstereotyped or opposite stereotyped characters/art/minis?
If you were fired tomorrow, what would you do?
If you were to include another RW pantheon into Golorian in total, like you did with the Egyptian?
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Creative Director
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I use a lot of art for my characters. I found a total of 2 female half orc arcane casters which looked like they grew up in human society rather than stripperific half clothed society. I've found no hot snake chick eidolons (didn't really expect this, but it's fun to mention) but the point is, I have a hard time finding fantasy art that goes against stereotypes.
Aasimer Paladins are easy to find. Human Barbarians, piece of cake? Half orc (preferably librarian) arcanists, gnome barbarians, elven druids, not so much.
Is there a chance you could include a few more unstereotyped or opposite stereotyped characters/art/minis?
If you were fired tomorrow, what would you do?
If you were to include another RW pantheon into Golorian in total, like you did with the Egyptian?
The number of combinations of different types of characters that are possible in the game are infinite, and the more specific you get combined with the less human you get, the more likely it is that you won't find the exact art you're looking for with ease. We at Paizo DO try to keep to diverse art that avoids blatant sexisim (not 100% of the time, though), and depending on the artist we hire, that job is easier or harder. We'll continue to inclde more "unstereotyped" art in our books with every single book—and being in a position to see ALL the art we produce for books AND for cards, I'm pretty confident we have a really wide range of said art. Inner Sea Races is a particular trove of new character art—I assume you've checked that out? And we publish a dozen or so new characters each month alone in the Player Companion, and usually about another dozen or so each month in the Adventure Paths. There's a LOT of art out there, is what I'm saying, with more coming every month.
If I were fired tomorrow, I'd probably move back to California and either drop out of the game industry entirely to take a stab at fiction writing or I'd take a stab at doing my own games.
As for another real world pantheon? I'd probably go with Central American/Aztec/Mayan, casting a wide net to include a host of different real world cultures to build an amalgam of diverse deities.
I noticed that as publishing progressed, the number of stripperific outfits for female characters *cough*Seoni*cough* decreased significantly. Was there any particular event that started this change?
Are there any thoughts on doing an Australian style continent? Or does Goloran have an Australian equivalency?
HI James
Do you feel that evil characters are capable of Ellington love for someone else, or being in love with someone else? Also do you think falling in love could be a big milestone in the path of redemption for an evil person?
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Creative Director
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I noticed that as publishing progressed, the number of stripperific outfits for female characters *cough*Seoni*cough* decreased significantly. Was there any particular event that started this change?
"Stripperific" outfits are a part of the world, but as in this world, they're not the ONLY option for women to wear.
As Pathfinder has become more and more popular, it's become more and more important for us to lead by example and do our best to portray a wide range of outfit styles—both for men AND for women... but bucking the sexism trends of the genre have also become quite important for Paizo as well. There wasn't any one particular event that "started" this change... and in fact, as you saw with the next two covers that immediately followed Seoni's debut on Pathfinder 2, we had a mostly armored rogue on #3, and a fully armored cleric on #4, so it was always the plan to have a diverse range of characters and appearances. It wasn't so much a "change" at all as it was the plan all along.