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1. Which would be more likely to come first: a Dragon Empires-style guide to Southern Garund or a Dragon Empires-style guide to Arcadia?
2. Parts of the Darklands are, per Darklands Revisited, several miles underground; are there portions of Nar-Voth, Sekamina, or any Vaults of Orv under the surface world's oceans?
2a. In particular, is the Sightless Sea located under an ocean?3. Which nation does Her Infernal Majestrix feel most threatened by? Not which one she trusts least — which one does she feel is the biggest threat to her power or her life?
1) Both, at this point, are so unlikely that it's kinda pointless to even guess, frankly.
2) The Sightless Sea is located under the Arcadian Ocean. So... yes to both! Only Orv is deep enough to be under an ocean.
3) None! She knows no fear! Although she DOES keep an eye on that Andoran outfit, since they're so goody two-shoes...
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How can gobbling one goodberry per day then spending the rest of the day drinking wine, listening to music, dancing and having wild sex ever get boring real fast? I mean sure, some might gain the affliction of growing a conscience and go out to kill some monsters or do some extreme sports, but I'm pretty sure it's a solid model on the long run. :PThere aren't enough druids even in an elven society to feed everyone daily with goodberries, and beyond that, eating goodberries every day would get old and boring REAL fast.
It's not the rest of the stuff that would be boring, it's the "all I ever eat is a berry every day" part that'd get boring. Don't believe me? Try eating the same food for a year. When I was on the Ideal Protein diet, I ended up losing about 160 or so pounds, but I more or less had to eat the same food every day for about 18 months. Sure, there was more variety than a Goodberry every day, but over the course of 18 months, there wasn't NEARLY enough variety. Not only did eating food start to get boring, but as it turns out, I couldn't actually go out to eat with friends either. There's more to eating than survival, and eating only one berry a day is just survival. That works fine if you're in a dire situation, or trying to lose weight (which is a dire situation when you were as overweight as I was), but when you're doing fine in a healthy society, variety of food is as important as anything else to mental health and happiness.
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So I kinda decided on time limits sort of a thing. If players for some reason(they probably won't, but in case they do) wait over a month or so before doing anything about Thistletop, Nualia will figure out ritual during Lamashtan. Since that is apporiate month and I figured out that is apporiate time it would take her.
Thing is though, anniversary edition says that Swallowtail festival is on Autumnal Equinox which is 23 September(Rova on Golarion). But other sources (mainly the pathfinder wikipedia) says that Swallowtail Release(which is done during festival) is scheduled on first day of fall, so September 1st. Which is right day for Swallowtail Festival to start?
It doesn't really matter much, but I like keeping myself busy with time passing as weird as that sounds.. It feels like time is actually passing when I keep track on the month and season.
...Speaking of that, doesn't that mean Rise of the Runelords starts in fall and its soon winter? What is autumn and winter like in Varisia? Does it snow or get cold at all? Or is it green around year type of climate?
Time limits and countdowns are really tricky to do in an RPG, because they can end up being unfairly punitive to the PCs or can frustrate the players to the point where they give up on the campaign. At the same time, there SHOULD be verisimilitude; if the PCs attack a site and then retreat and don't try again for a month, they SHOULD find that the enemies at said site have adapted and changed and reinforced.
The Swallowtail Festival is on the Autumnal Equinox; that's what it says in the adventure, and what it says in the Inner Sea World Guide. For matters regarding canon, you should pretty much ALWAYS default to information in the Inner Sea World Guide. The wiki, while a great resource, should not be your ONLY resource. It should be a starting point, because the Wiki doesn't follow the same level of quality-control that we put our own books through, and errors can creep in there and stay for a long time, as you've noted with the incorrect day for the Swallowtail Festival.
Rise of the Runelords starts in the fall, yes, and as it progresses, the fact that there are rising storms and bad weather implies that it heads into winter. Seasons in Varisia are a lot like they are in Washington state, but with more coastal fog. Autumn is a mix of sunny beautiful days and rain, while winter tends to be hit with strong rainstorms and windstorms. It's green year-round. Snow can happen, but it's rare in the lowlands and usually only persists for a few days or a week at most when it does happen.
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Hi James,
Like you, I'm a long-time, ardent fan of aboleths (their socioculture, their tactical niche, their potential for mega-villainry). I recently did a search on aboleth threads here at Paizo ... and I saw a bunch of posts from you back in 2013 confirming that you were involved in a project to emphasize and showcase aboleths in an upcoming Pathfinder project.
My questions to you are:
1. Did that aboleth project get published since 2013? If so, what is it?
2. What is your favorite Paizo product that involves aboleths?----
Thanks, James!
1) Inner Sea Bestiary came out in 2012, so that's probably not what it was... but the last Shattered Star volume was in 2013, so that might be what I was hinting at. There IS a major aboleth story I intend to tell some day that is still quite a ways out though.
2) Into the Darklands is probably my favorite so far, in part due to nostalgia at the product, but in part because that was where I was first able to start putting a specific Golarion spin on them that was a little different than the spin I gave them in D&D's "Lords of Madness."
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when you're doing fine in a healthy society, variety of food is as important as anything else to mental health and happiness.
That is an amazing answer. Follow up: being CG or CN as a society, how would you rate individual chefs in Golarion's elven society? (in terms of skills, creativity, etc.)
Especially due to their ties to other planets, do they have access to 'ancient gardens' full of herbs, spices, fruits/veggies from other planets that are kept as a guarded secret?
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when you're doing fine in a healthy society, variety of food is as important as anything else to mental health and happiness.That is an amazing answer. Follow up: being CG or CN as a society, how would you rate individual chefs in Golarion's elven society? (in terms of skills, creativity, etc.)
Especially due to their ties to other planets, do they have access to 'ancient gardens' full of herbs, spices, fruits/veggies from other planets that are kept as a guarded secret?
Elven cuisine is well known throughout the Inner Sea for being delicious and beautiful to look at, along with their wine. They're better at vegeterian dishes than carnivore dishes, and better at poultry and seafood than red meat. They do indeed have access to strange and obscure spices and fruits and the like, and there is some secrecy to some of it, but no more so than dwarves are secretive about their ales and beer or halflings are secretive about their pastries and sweets.
Being CG or CN has nothing to do with it.
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Elven cuisine is well known throughout the Inner Sea for being delicious and beautiful to look at, along with their wine. They're better at vegeterian dishes than carnivore dishes, and better at poultry and seafood than red meat. They do indeed have access to strange and obscure spices and fruits and the like, and there is some secrecy to some of it, but no more so than dwarves are secretive about their ales and beer or halflings are secretive about their pastries and sweets.
Hmm... I'm hungry. Outside of Kyonin, where can I find an elven chef in Golarion?
Can the elves of Kyonin build new aiudara/elf gates, or are the currently existing ones "lost technology" magic that they can use and maintain but have forgotten how to replace if they're damaged or compromised?They can, but it takes a lot of resources and time and talent. They know HOW to build them, but whether or not they currently have the resources or the people with the skills is unrevealed, and in fact it's very likely that they don't at this time.
I would imagine that it's like the United States today and the ability to launch a manned moon landing. We did it in the past, we have extensive records on how we did it, and we COULD re-create the Apollo Project if we wanted to. But we don't currently have any functional Apollo Project equipment, NASA doesn't have the requisite budget to build it, and all of the actual engineers who built the original Saturn V rockets and Lunar Modules are either dead or long-since retired. (Hey, it's been more than 40 years!)
On a completely unrelated note, have you read The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle?
From what I've read, it's a retelling of H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Horror of Red Hook" from the perspective of an African-American character... and a commentary on both Lovecraft's inherent racism and the racism still prevalent in today. (I haven't read it yet, but I just ordered it for my Kindle!)
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Elven cuisine is well known throughout the Inner Sea for being delicious and beautiful to look at, along with their wine. They're better at vegeterian dishes than carnivore dishes, and better at poultry and seafood than red meat. They do indeed have access to strange and obscure spices and fruits and the like, and there is some secrecy to some of it, but no more so than dwarves are secretive about their ales and beer or halflings are secretive about their pastries and sweets.Hmm... I'm hungry. Outside of Kyonin, where can I find an elven chef in Golarion?
Anywhere. Although you're not guaranteed one anywhere. They can show up in cosmopolitan areas like Absalom or tiny little villages in the boonies.
So I am currently running Wrath of the righteous and it is going very well. And I should be able to finish it up by 2017. But I am already looking ahead to gather resources (extra miniatures and more dwarven forge terrain) for the next campaign. The only 2 published adventures paths that are not able to be run are Rise of the Runelords (run by a group member in another Game, and of course the one I am running. What do you suggest should be my next campaign James? (my group likes both roleplay and combat).
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On a completely unrelated note, have you read The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle?From what I've read, it's a retelling of H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Horror of Red Hook" from the perspective of an African-American character... and a commentary on both Lovecraft's inherent racism and the racism still prevalent in today. (I haven't read it yet, but I just ordered it for my Kindle!)
I've heard of it but haven't read it.
As for Red Hook... it's one of my least favorite Lovecraft stories, and not only because of the racism (but that's a big part)... it's just not that great overall. Knowing the situation Lovecraft was in when he wrote it helps to understand why the book is what it is, of course... IIRC (and I'm sure I'm getting some of the details wrong since I'm going mostly from memory of reading various biographies and letters he wrote) he'd had all of his clothing and suits stolen out of his room (leaving him with only the clothes he had on while he slept), which not only was a serious financial hit but more or less helped sustain his inability to get and hold down a job. At the same time, he was living for the first time away from home in Red Hook in New York in a marriage that was falling apart due to financial strains (his wife was forced to take a job in Chicago, I believe, which left him all alone in the city). It's kind of no wonder to a certain extent that the end result was some sub-standard and particularly angry writing. Not trying to make an excuse for him, but context matters... "Red Hook" is, I believe, as much a hate-letter to New York as it is racism.
Have you ever seen the show Super Size Me? It's a Brit food show and they recently did a program where the presenters lived on the Edwardian diet for a week. By the time they were done, one of them was already showing the first signs of gout, or as Jon Stewart called it... "The Disease of Kings".
Apparantly Edwardian nobles lived on a diet that exceeded 5 thousand calories a day and the names for all the meals matched all those extra hobbit meals such as elevensies.
Would immunity to disease protect one from gout? Would disease curing magic fix it?
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So I am currently running Wrath of the righteous and it is going very well. And I should be able to finish it up by 2017. But I am already looking ahead to gather resources (extra miniatures and more dwarven forge terrain) for the next campaign. The only 2 published adventures paths that are not able to be run are Rise of the Runelords (run by a group member in another Game, and of course the one I am running. What do you suggest should be my next campaign James? (my group likes both roleplay and combat).
Hell's Rebels.
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Have you ever seen the show Super Size Me? It's a Brit food show and they recently did a program where the presenters lived on the Edwardian diet for a week. By the time they were done, one of them was already showing the first signs of gout, or as Jon Stewart called it... "The Disease of Kings".
Apparantly Edwardian nobles lived on a diet that exceeded 5 thousand calories a day and the names for all the meals matched all those extra hobbit meals such as elevensies.
Would immunity to disease protect one from gout? Would disease curing magic fix it?
I have heard about it but haven't seen it.
Gout is a disease, so yes, immunity to disease would prevent it, and disease curing magic would fix it.
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If I'm looking for names that'd fit in Brevoy, should I look more towards Russian, Polish or Hungarian? The few Brevic names we've seen have a very Slavic feel to them, at least as far as I can tell.
Keep looking at that Slavic feel. It's probably best to skew more toward Russian I suppose, since Polish and Hungarian starts to veer more toward Varisian naming conventions.
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If I'm looking for names that'd fit in Brevoy, should I look more towards Russian, Polish or Hungarian? The few Brevic names we've seen have a very Slavic feel to them, at least as far as I can tell.Keep looking at that Slavic feel. It's probably best to skew more toward Russian I suppose, since Polish and Hungarian starts to veer more toward Varisian naming conventions.
I see! Thanks for the tip! :)
What made Deadpool an awesome movie, in your opinion? I went to it and felt it was merely okay. Am I just jaded?
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What made Deadpool an awesome movie, in your opinion? I went to it and felt it was merely okay. Am I just jaded?
A lot of things worked together to make it an awesome movie. Here are ten.
2) That the action was staged in a way that was easy to comprehend.
3) The in-jokes and breaking of the fourth wall.
4) The fact that it was rated R and thus allowed for a different type of superhero story to be told.
5) The way that it treated cancer as the only thing in the movie that wasn't funny and was actually really pretty touching and insightful in how cancer affects lives.
6) That it showed Hollywood that R-rated movies can be moneymakers.
7) That it rewarded some passionate artists and actors by being so successful.
8) The way they did the opening credits with no actual names was remarkable and fun and NEW... something I've never seen a movie do before. Being able to see a movie do something entirely new is refreshing!
9) Ryan Reynolds did an INCREDIBLE job with the character.
10) The Stan Lee cameo was priceless!
Which gods are allies and which are enemies of Daikitsu?
What are the Dragon Empires deities' opinions of Iomedae and would they accept her? Please post what each deity's opinion of her is (except for those who are worshiped already in the Inner Sea).
Would the people of Tian Xia accept Iomedae or would the people see her as too extreme?
Does campaigning in Andoran resemble how it is done here in the US?
Will there be an Andoran campaign?
What would the people of Andoran think of our political candidates?
Saw The Witch again- and had the entire theater to myself. Sad as that is for the movie's long-term prospects in this town, it was a wonderful little private showing.
So.
With that bit of gloating out of the way...
Can you recommend any other good horror movies which make use of taking out one of the more obvious hero choices good an early before getting to weaker members of the cast?
The only example which jumps to mind for me is Alien's handling of Captain Dallas.
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Which gods are allies and which are enemies of Daikitsu?
What are the Dragon Empires deities' opinions of Iomedae and would they accept her? Please post what each deity's opinion of her is (except for those who are worshiped already in the Inner Sea).
Would the people of Tian Xia accept Iomedae or would the people see her as too extreme?
Does campaigning in Andoran resemble how it is done here in the US?
Will there be an Andoran campaign?
What would the people of Andoran think of our political candidates?
Dunno... haven't really put much thought into Daikitsu much at all.
They don't have much of an opinion on Iomedae; she's not really that active at all in Tian Xia and thus they tend to think of her faith as a "distant cult" or the like. Not gonna post "what each deity's opinion is of her" because I don't have the time or energy to do so, and I don't like putting that much brand-new in-world canonical design work into a sprawling thread like this where it'll just get forgotten or misremembered.
It would depend entirely on the people. Tian Xia has a HUGE RANGE of cultures in it. Asking "Wold the people of Tian Xia accept Iomedae" is kind of like asking "Would the people of the USA accept Iomedae." Some would, some would not.
No.
Maybe some day, but not anytime soon.
Depends on the candidate, and depends on the person from Andoran.
The best way to be a "nature-worship" paladin in Golarion would be to be a paladin of Erastil, right?
Erastilians aren't nature worshippers. Their thing is communities, mainly on the agricultural side.
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Saw The Witch again- and had the entire theater to myself. Sad as that is for the movie's long-term prospects in this town, it was a wonderful little private showing.
So.
With that bit of gloating out of the way...
Spoiler:In a happier tale, Caleb would have made a pretty clear hero choice- good-hearted, never sharp with anyone in the family, personally brave, trying to do the right thing so everybody else is okay, with only a couple of notable failings... he's arguably the strongest of the family except perhaps Thomasin (jury's out for me on her exact degree of fortitude, but she's definitely no wimp).
Can you recommend any other good horror movies which make use of taking out one of the more obvious hero choices good an early before getting to weaker members of the cast?The only example which jumps to mind for me is Alien's handling of Captain Dallas.
If you mean "Can I suggest horror movies that set up one character as the hero/main character only to get rid of that character at some point before the movie ends so that the focus shifts to other characters in the movie and makes THEM the "hero" of the film?" then yes... there are LOTS of examples. Here are a few that come to mind.
2) You're Next
3) Scream
4) Evil Dead (although it's hard to believe today, given how folks remember things!)
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The best way to be a "nature-worship" paladin in Golarion would be to be a paladin of Erastil, right?Erastilians aren't nature worshippers. Their thing is communities, mainly on the agricultural side.
Not what he was asking (or who). Paladins generaly do NOT worship nature, because nature is not lawful nor good, and as such it's not really a great thing for a paladin to focus on. In fact, it's a pretty non-standard and weird choice for a paladin..
The "best way" he was asking for is indeed Erastil; you wouldn't be a "nature worshiper" but you WOULD be a paladin who is at home in the wilderness and rural areas. Remember, Erastil is as much a god of community and agriculture as he is of hunting. 40% of the domains he grants are nature-themed domains (animal and plant).
There are plenty of Erastil worshipers who are, in effect, rugged trappers or hunters who live in the woods. And some of them are likely paladins who use their hunting skills to support communities or defend them from dangers as needed. But such a paladin would NOT put nature above good or law.
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So if I REALLY want to play a purifier of demon-tainted wildlands and enforcer of the natural order...it's go Druid or go home?
Druid.
Or ranger.Or cleric.
Or witch.
Or sorcerer.
Or barbarian.
Or wizard.
And so on. Most classes can do well with the "enforcer of the natural order" theme, provided their beliefs don't preclude them from accepting all facets of nature... many of which are NOT lawful and NOT good. Nature in the game is all and none of that, which is why it's classified as neutral. Not a good fit for a paladin, but a not terrible fit for pretty much any other class, since ONLY the paladin (and antipaladin, by extension) can't be at least a little neutral.
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Two questions, because unfortunately i don't have enough time to catch up 1200 pages:
1: would you consider the templars in dragon age a good example of the breadth of personalities one might find on a paladin order? I found the vast gulf of difference between alistairs irreverance, Ser Gregors hardline and cullen going from zealot outrage to calmed suspicion to realist between the three games to be a good example to show my players how lawful good might not equate to lawful nice or lawful stupid.
2. Where the hell can I find a miniature that I could use as a lamia matriarch that is about the right size with good detail level worth painting? I'm actually not a fan of the Xanesha mini for the purposes of the campaigns i am running/in.
Forgive me, for I have played warhammer, and am horrendously picky about minis.
1) No, because a lot of what the Templars end up doing is not good and possibly evil; they are very much a "shades of gray" group at best. If I were building them in Pathfiner, fighter or MAYBE inquisitor is a better fit. I absolutely do NOT see the templars of Dragon Age to be lawful good. Lawful netural with a skew toward lawful evil but allowing for the odd "fly in the ointment" who was lawful good, maybe.
2) If you're not fond of the one we've done, I can't really help you. I don't have an exhaustive mind catalog of all the minis that have been produced over the past several decades. You might want to ask around elsewhere on the boards. Or, I don't know, use ours but repaint it? If it's the actual sculpt or pose you don't like, try modding a lillend or a marilith?
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Are surnames a common practice among the elves? If so, where would be good places to look for elven surnames that aren't just ripping off Tolkien?
What's a good way to create halfling surnames that aren't just ripping off Tolkien?
The best place to go to for names is "ground zero"—the race entries in Inner Sea World Guide. We talk a bit about how all the major races and ethnicites do their names, and give lots of examples. You can look at those examples and use them as starting points.
Elves don't normally have surnames. There are exceptions, of course; the big two that come to mind being drow and the Forlorn, who often adopt a made-up surname so they fit in more with the other races they live among.
And since halflings owe SO MUCH of their genesis to Tolkien, more so than elves and dwarves even, I don't think it's a particularly good idea to NOT use Tolkien as a starting point for their names. That said, for Pathfinder, we tend to use short names for our halflings... names with no more than two syllables with some exceptions.
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Is Andosana a Varisian-sounding name then, that Shalelu's parents made up?
And I mean using Tolkien as a starting point. I just don't want to keep saying "No I'm not THAT Proudfoot."
Andosana is indeed a Varisian sounding name. Shalelu's family has a fair amount of Varisian influence in it after all.
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1) No, because a lot of what the Templars end up doing is not good and possibly evil; they are very much a "shades of gray" group at best. If I were building them in Pathfiner, fighter or MAYBE inquisitor is a better fit. I absolutely do NOT see the templars of Dragon Age to be lawful good. Lawful netural with a skew toward lawful evil but allowing for the odd "fly in the ointment" who was lawful good, maybe.
Is there a game/movie/legend you would point to as a good representation? I'll fully admit I was thinking of specific templars when I was writing and definitely could have worded the question better in retrospect. Are there any standout characters or figures you would point at and say "stereotypical paladin?"
Specifying "paladin of iomedae" or shelyn or what have you helps if you have examples.
Specifically golarion style examples, as part of my problem with the class is everyone sees them through adifferent lens. Some folks love em, some hate the concept. To me it is a difficult one to pull off for most players. I can't play a paladin to save my own life, so it's hard to explain to players who show interest in the class without resorting to the extremist descriptions.
Part of why I'm trying to pin examples down is when I run a game NPC paladins tend to wind up being more background noise when they should be potential potent allies or at least an obstacle when my group that I'm GMing for slips from heroic to brutally pragmatic on occasion, and there needsto be a potential for consequences that have meaning when choosing that route.
Superman's the one who immediately comes to mind for a stereotypical paladin. Folks often also cite certain knights of the round table as well, but even they tend to be pretty squirrelly when you get into the depths of their stories.
Paladin is hands down, no contest, my least favorite class. It's too restrictive for my tastes from a roleplaying viewpoint.
There are some great examples of paladins in our adventure paths now and then. Irabeth and Galfrey from Wrath of the Righteous, for example. There's gonna be a LOT of them (albeit presented as foes) in Hell's Vengeance.
Elves don't normally have surnames. There are exceptions, of course; the big two that come to mind being drow and the Forlorn, who often adopt a made-up surname so they fit in more with the other races they live among.
Doesn't the queen of Kyonin, described in Elves of Golarion have a surname? Or is that a 3.5 holdover?
Mr. James Jacobs,
I know I have asked these before but I forget:
Which of the APs wold you like to see turned into a mini series?
Also, would you want the starring Party to be composed of Iconics or new characters?
Question you've probably already fielded, but what the heck:
What are your top five favorite Lovecraft stories?
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Since you have that whole dry-erase, wet-erase, permanent marker surface thing down, are you ever gonna try character sheets with that material?
Unlikely. Character sheets are too complex, and the notes need to be more permanent and not so prone to wiping off, AND need to be recorded in finer tipped pens.
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Doesn't the queen of Kyonin, described in Elves of Golarion have a surname? Or is that a 3.5 holdover?
Elves don't normally have surnames. There are exceptions, of course; the big two that come to mind being drow and the Forlorn, who often adopt a made-up surname so they fit in more with the other races they live among.
She does indeed have a surname. That's why I said "don't normally have surnames." For matters of royalty, lineages are important.
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Mr. James Jacobs,
I know I have asked these before but I forget:
Which of the APs wold you like to see turned into a mini series?
Also, would you want the starring Party to be composed of Iconics or new characters?
All of them!
And absolutely composed of iconics. They're our PCs, after all!
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Question you've probably already fielded, but what the heck:
What are your top five favorite Lovecraft stories?
In order, from best on down...
At the Mountains of Madness
The Colour Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Haunter of the Dark (this last one's tough... beyond the upper four, over a dozen of Lovecraft's stories start to be equal favorites)
Did you read Bloom County back in the day, did you like it?