Creative Director
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Of the Paizo games you've ran, which PC death was the most memorable for you? (And please, do tell us about it!)
The one where I killed off Erik's character in a Call of Cthulhu game. The party was facing a serpentfolk with a potent death ray gun thingy that the party took to thereafter calling a "moon gun." In any event... It's pretty much an auto kill weapon if you don't dodge it. I rolled 1d6 to determine which of the PCs got targeted... rolled Erik's... and he failed to dodge.
He did not take it well, but the rest of the group got the message that I was ready to kill my boss's character and I'm pretty sure that put some fear in them.
Lake Mungo
!
Easily one of my favorite ghost movies of all time...
In that vein... have you seen a fairly recent Canadian ghost flick called Haunter? If so, what did you make of it?
Kind of the flip side of that, which BBEG do you find most frustrating? Personal/in-game reasons fine by me.Nyrissa, but not becasue of her. Because the customer base had indicated they wanted a sandbox adventure where the players could make their own way and that didn't have a strong looming threat of a bad guy/gal urging them along a specific, single story line to defeat him/her, but as it turns out, folks really DO want that.
It was frustrating to give people what they asked for only to have them (still) complain about us giving it to them, in other words.
Which is too bad, Nyrissa is very much my favorite BBEG in all the adventure paths. In the Kingmaker game I'm running I was able to build her up and as the PCs are entering book 6, they both hate and fear her for what she's done to their fledgling kingdom of Ravenguard.
James, how do you handle symbol traps (e.g. symbol of death) at your table?
The symbol spells state that they are activated when someone looks at them. I can understand how someone might disable the trap by averting their eyes. However, I'm having a hard time justifying how anyone would be able to initially notice a symbol without activating it.
One of mine players, after a debate with me, came to conclusion that Geb didn't transform invading army from Holomog with just one wish (maybe with dozen or more of them, or with a unique spell that he invented, or with an artefact). I'm inclined to dissagree, but I hope you can shed some light on this.
Did Geb just wave his hand, and all those soldiers instantly became stone statues by use of a single wish spell or not?
And while I'm on the Geb theme:
1. What is his CR?
2. In his undead state, is he interested, even a bit, in the world outside his country?
3. Is he stagnant or is he still able to learn and develope new things (lets say, in preparation for sudden return of Nex)?
4. Is he fully aware that he is dead, and a ghost? Is he frustrated by his condition?
5. Does he want to finally die and move to his afterlife?
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Creative Director
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Lake Mungo!
Easily one of my favorite ghost movies of all time...
In that vein... have you seen a fairly recent Canadian ghost flick called Haunter? If so, what did you make of it?
I did see it. Had kinda high hopes for it, since Cube and Splice are great movies, but it was a bit underwhelming for me, alas.
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Creative Director
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Hello James. How legitimate of a claim do you think Noleski Surtova has to the throne in Brevoy? If you had to defend his claim against the Aldori, what sort of argument would you make? For that matter, what sort of claim (if any) do you think the Aldori have? Thank you, in advance!
Off the top of my head, I can't say. It's sorta something that could go either way, and we leave it that way on purpose so we don't wall off potential future story lines we might or might not want to pursue. In your game, feel free to pursue any of the potentials. I'm not gonna take a side here and now because doing so gives that too much weight.
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Creative Director
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James, how do you handle symbol traps (e.g. symbol of death) at your table?
The symbol spells state that they are activated when someone looks at them. I can understand how someone might disable the trap by averting their eyes. However, I'm having a hard time justifying how anyone would be able to initially notice a symbol without activating it.
It's all in the context. If the group is generally cautious and has a rogue who always has a habit of looking for traps or, even better, has an ability that lets her check for traps at all times, then I'll be more lenient and allow for Perception checks to notice the trap. If the group has a history of being careless or has no dedicated trap spotter or someone specifically does something that specifically means they trigger the symbol, it goes off.
Context matters.
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Creative Director
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One of mine players, after a debate with me, came to conclusion that Geb didn't transform invading army from Holomog with just one wish (maybe with dozen or more of them, or with a unique spell that he invented, or with an artefact). I'm inclined to dissagree, but I hope you can shed some light on this.
Did Geb just wave his hand, and all those soldiers instantly became stone statues by use of a single wish spell or not?And while I'm on the Geb theme:
1. What is his CR?
2. In his undead state, is he interested, even a bit, in the world outside his country?
3. Is he stagnant or is he still able to learn and develope new things (lets say, in preparation for sudden return of Nex)?
4. Is he fully aware that he is dead, and a ghost? Is he frustrated by his condition?
5. Does he want to finally die and move to his afterlife?
1) We haven't yet statted Geb up, but he's above CR 20 (at the very least, he's a human ghost necromancer 20).
2) He is indeed, but not in a "conquer the world" sort of way.
3) He can still learn and develop new things, yes, but is not as active as he once was; Arazni is increasingly the one who does most of the work in the nation.
4) He knows he's a ghost and that does not frustrate him.
5) Nope. If he did, chances are good that he would have at some point over the past several thousand years, after all...
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Creative Director
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Hi James
On Golarion, what is the source(s) of magic True Bards draw upon?
Do some Bards also use spellbooks? Are there Bardic Colleges?
There's no such thing as a "true bard" in Pathfinder or on Golarion. They're just bards.
We don't say where magic comes from for any class. Bards use magic by being able to manipulate it through performance and art and inborn knack for manipulating the energy.
There are "bardic colleges" but they're not called that. Academies/schools like the Kintargo Opera House exist throughout the inner sea region; see Inner Sea Magic for more info.
Didn't mark one question in my previous post:
Did Geb just wave his hand, and all those soldiers, from Field of Maidens, instantly became stone statues by use of a single wish spell?
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Creative Director
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Didn't mark one question in my previous post:
Did Geb just wave his hand, and all those soldiers, from Field of Maidens, instantly became stone statues by use of a single wish spell?
Unrevealed. Part of the mystery of Geb's power and his mystique and the fear factor is that he did this and no one really knows how.
What were some of the most memorable, not necessarily favorite, pre-3.x modules to you? Most underrated?First five that come to mind as most memorable:
Queen of the Spiders
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Ravenloft
Tomb of Horrors
Castle AmberMost underrated: Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure was fantastic! :)
Were you involved in the equally great Dungeon magazine follow up module? It was 3E, but still very well done.
I would still love to know the lore and stuff behind the book in MFA...
==Aelryinth
Any truth to the fact that you are in fact a Mythic Bard? Cuz that is what I heard, I think from Tom Rex.
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Creative Director
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What were some of the most memorable, not necessarily favorite, pre-3.x modules to you? Most underrated?First five that come to mind as most memorable:
Queen of the Spiders
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Ravenloft
Tomb of Horrors
Castle AmberMost underrated: Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure
Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure was fantastic! :)
Were you involved in the equally great Dungeon magazine follow up module? It was 3E, but still very well done.
I would still love to know the lore and stuff behind the book in MFA...
==Aelryinth
I was very much involved in the Maure Castle elements in Dungeon. I wrote large chunks of it and developed the whole thing, and worked with Rob Kuntz to get the next two levels into Dungeon later on as well.
so, did you learn anything from Rob Kuntz about the book being guarded by the unique demon from the original adventure? Love to learn some old lore of the Greyhawk world. A mysterious demi plane and some other stuff from what I recall...
==Aelryinth
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Creative Director
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so, did you learn anything from Rob Kuntz about the book being guarded by the unique demon from the original adventure? Love to learn some old lore of the Greyhawk world. A mysterious demi plane and some other stuff from what I recall...
==Aelryinth
A fair amount, yup! The thing that sticks in mind is that the demon in question, Kerzit, earned his name as a mash-up of the phrase "curse it!" :-P
I did see it. Had kinda high hopes for it, since Cube and Splice are great movies, but it was a bit underwhelming for me, alas.
See, I love it, but I suspect a bit of Pontypool love bleeding over underpins that...
Top five ghost movies?
Why is it so hard to make a good fantasy movie? Seems like a genre that easily should translate to film, but seems like there's a huge dropoff between the big-budget big names and that next Solomon Kane kind of tier.
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Creative Director
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I did see it. Had kinda high hopes for it, since Cube and Splice are great movies, but it was a bit underwhelming for me, alas.See, I love it, but I suspect a bit of Pontypool love bleeding over underpins that...
Top five ghost movies?
Hmmmmmmmm...
Lake Mungo
The Ring
The Innkeepers
The Shining
The Devil's Backbone
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Creative Director
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Are there any named mythic dragons in the inner sea that you can think of off hand?Is Daralathyxl(red dragon, great wyrm, and unofficial 6th King of the 5 King mountains) mythic?No.
Nope. Not off hand. They are pretty incredibly rare. Kazavon's probably the closest, and even he wasn't mythic. Pretty close though.
So we know Lamashtu became a god (in part) by stealing the divinity of Curchanus. As far as I know, the details have never been revealed. Is this one where you know the answer but just haven't told any one yet or is it more of a "we'll figure it out once we decide we need to"?
or you could tell...
What videogames would you recommend to while away the summer? (I've already determined I'll start my second ME run, so what else?)
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Creative Director
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Why is it so hard to make a good fantasy movie? Seems like a genre that easily should translate to film, but seems like there's a huge dropoff between the big-budget big names and that next Solomon Kane kind of tier.
Because they require more skills to pull off than other movies. A good fantasy movie needs all the things that make a contemporary drama good (writing, acting, directing, editing, etc.) but they also need to have believable special effects that are up to the scope of the story, which makes things more expensive and complex. In a lot of cases, studios don't want to spend more money, so they shift some of those resources away from things like writing and directing and cast and all that to support the effects, and unfortunately, that results in mediocrity across the board more often than not.
Furthermore, fantasy movies are set in new worlds. As such, they have to spend precious moments of their film establishing the world to the new viewer in a way that doesn't overwhelm them with information but lets them know what they need to know to enjoy the story, all in an entertaining way.
That all said, I think that there are a LOT of excellent fantasy movies out there, particularly if you count superhero movies as fantasy, which I do. If you're speaking specifically about D&D style sword and sorcery... there's still a fair amount of them out there these days as opposed to the 90s...
Love me some Skyrim.
Have you played it?
If so, Werewolf or Vampire Lord?
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Creative Director
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So we know Lamashtu became a god (in part) by stealing the divinity of Curchanus. As far as I know, the details have never been revealed. Is this one where you know the answer but just haven't told any one yet or is it more of a "we'll figure it out once we decide we need to"?
or you could tell...
Details of what? How she became a goddess? There's not much more to figure out, really, since we don't have rules for how to become a full deity or cover what a deity can do. It's strictly in the realm of story-telling. Which also means that it doesn't work the same way for every god-to-be.
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Creative Director
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What videogames would you recommend to while away the summer? (I've already determined I'll start my second ME run, so what else?)
Dark Souls 3 is only a week or two away, and I fully imagine putting well over a hundred hours into that one. If that game's not your cup of tea, then I'd recommend Fallout IV or Pillars of Eternity or perhaps the new Dragonspear Baldur's Gate expansion. If none of those work for you, our tastes in video games are too off for my recommendations to be of much use to you. ;P
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What's a good set of names to look at for Nirmathi surnames? At the moment I only know of two: Nirmath and Gavrik, and I'm not sure that's a broad enough sample size to extrapolate from...
Nirmathas is basically "Robin Hood land" so any name that looks like it'd fit in with Robin Hood stories should work fine. Or barring that... any "generic fantasy sounding name" works.
llNirmathas is basically "Robin Hood land"...
That's exactly how I described Nirmathas to my party in the campaign I just started.
I recently developed a 'headcanon' for why Goblins hate writing so much and think it steals words from your mind. In a game, my character and a few others got hit with a symbol of insanity and nearly killed each other. It got me thinking, "what if the reason goblins in Golarion hate writing is because Sorshen's empire was smack dab in the middle of Goblin central?"
Basically, the idea is that Enchanters in Thassilon used symbols a lot to defend their lairs from pests like goblins and, as such, they began to fear and hate writing.
Any truth to this headcanon?
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Creative Director
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llNirmathas is basically "Robin Hood land"...That's exactly how I described Nirmathas to my party in the campaign I just started.
I recently developed a 'headcanon' for why Goblins hate writing so much and think it steals words from your mind. In a game, my character and a few others got hit with a symbol of insanity and nearly killed each other. It got me thinking, "what if the reason goblins in Golarion hate writing is because Sorshen's empire was smack dab in the middle of Goblin central?"
Basically, the idea is that Enchanters in Thassilon used symbols a lot to defend their lairs from pests like goblins and, as such, they began to fear and hate writing.
Any truth to this headcanon?
Headcanon only requires what's in your head to be true. What's in my head has no bearing on it.
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Hey James, I just rediscovered the 3.5 book Lords of Madness in my closet after about ten years. It was amazing to read through it again, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that you worked on it as well! I hadn't realized how much that book had influenced me over the years, it must have planted something in my subconscious. Anyway, my question is, in general terms, would the information about the Aboleths in that book still fit Golarion? Mostly regarding their biology, breeding habits, culture, and so forth.
James, what is the Great Question alluded to in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series, to which The Answer is 42?
(Note, the books never actually say, so I'm not, you know, just quizzing you on some inane trivia or anything.)
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Contributor—Canadian Maplecakes
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8) Amygdala9) Cathedral ward
10) First time seeing an amygdala
I just want to necro this. Because I'm currently fighting the Chalice Dungeon version of this, and every time it murders me, I think of how much James loves it.
Thus, mathematically, James loves seeing me suffer.
Seriously, it's a great fight, and most of my deaths are entirely hubris-related. WAY better than my previous boss battle, The Camera monster (Loran Darkbeast).
No.I have no opinion on Undertale; don't play it or know anything about it.The game's page has a summary, as does TV Tropes, but I wrote up another one.
The plot of Undertale is that monsters were exiled underground a thousand years ago after losing a battle with humans. In the present day, a child (the PC) explores Mt. Ebott and falls down a hole into the underground, where the monsters presently live.
The combat is turn-based RPG style, except the monster's attacks are a dodging minigame, and you're heavily encouraged to end the fight peacefully. Monsters are people too, and often quite the characters.
There's also the infamous Flirt command, which combined with the child's appearance brings to mind a G-rated Arshea.
So, interested?
You really should reconsider and try it. I can honestly say virtually nothing but praise for that game. It's a few hours long at most and everything from the story to the characters to the music is incredible. I promise that you will enjoy it.
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Creative Director
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Hey James, I just rediscovered the 3.5 book Lords of Madness in my closet after about ten years. It was amazing to read through it again, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that you worked on it as well! I hadn't realized how much that book had influenced me over the years, it must have planted something in my subconscious. Anyway, my question is, in general terms, would the information about the Aboleths in that book still fit Golarion? Mostly regarding their biology, breeding habits, culture, and so forth.
The aboleth information in that book (which I wrote) works pretty well for aboleths in Golarion, particularly as far as biology and breeding habits and physical stuff. The social stuff is a bit tougher fit, but not THAT tough.
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Creative Director
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James, what is the Great Question alluded to in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series, to which The Answer is 42?
(Note, the books never actually say, so I'm not, you know, just quizzing you on some inane trivia or anything.)
No worries, I've deliberately chosen not to read those books so all I know about what you're asking is that there seems to be a "The answer to the meaning of life is 42" floating around the internet. I've always assumed that was a direct quote from Hitchhiker's Guide books, but I guess it's not. Huh.
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Creative Director
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You really should reconsider and try it. I can honestly say virtually nothing but praise for that game. It's a few hours long at most and everything from the story to the characters to the music is incredible. I promise that you will enjoy it.No.I have no opinion on Undertale; don't play it or know anything about it.The game's page has a summary, as does TV Tropes, but I wrote up another one.
The plot of Undertale is that monsters were exiled underground a thousand years ago after losing a battle with humans. In the present day, a child (the PC) explores Mt. Ebott and falls down a hole into the underground, where the monsters presently live.
The combat is turn-based RPG style, except the monster's attacks are a dodging minigame, and you're heavily encouraged to end the fight peacefully. Monsters are people too, and often quite the characters.
There's also the infamous Flirt command, which combined with the child's appearance brings to mind a G-rated Arshea.
So, interested?
I've already got too many video games vying for my attention, and adding more to the mix only makes me have to make more hard choices about which ones to play and, ultimately, means I'm spending less time writing, which also sucks. I'm glad it's a fun game, and appreciate that folks want me to play it, but me not playing it isn't going to make it less fun for you, nor is it going to make the game a commercial failure or anything like that.
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As far as I know we've never illustrated one. I've always assumed it looks like a mobile orrery sorta.Hey James,
Has anyone, anywhere, done a proper build of what the lantern archon gestalt should look like when joined together? If not, how would one go about writing it up?
Sorry, I should have been more specific. By "build", I meant stated out. There seems to be some discrepancies in the community regarding just how close to a large air elemental's stats they truly are.