Creative Director
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Holy crap. So, I'm guessing that Starfinder was that mysterious secret project that you've been alluding to for quite some time?
Alright, I'm finished with Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I have a few questions about your personal experience with the game:
Spoiler:1. Did you recruit the mages or Templars. If you recruited the mages, did you conscript them or let them run free? (Free mages for me.)2. Who were your two best buds in the game? (Varric and Dorian for me.)
3. If you romanced anybody, who did you romance? (Sera for me.)
4. When you judged people, were you generally merciful or ruthless? (An even mix for me, when people were genuinely trying to do good, I gave them an ironic punishment, when people were evil bastards I executed them.)
5. Which NPC did you like the most? (Probably Sera for me.)
6. Which NPC did you hate the most? (I hate Vivienne so much!)
7. Did you leave Hawke or Stroud behind? (I left Stroud behind, I couldn't do that to Varric.)
8. What personality did your Inquisitor have? (Snarky with diplomatic flavors for me, and she let a bit of her funny guise down whenever she talked with her friends and expressed how much she felt each loss and death.)
9. What about your Inquisitor's class and race?
10. Are you as excited as I am that the next Dragon Age will probably be set in Tevinter?
Nope... I'm really not working on Starfinder at all. It's not my project and isn't the one I've been alluding to for "quite some time." That was the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover. I've some other stuff coming up but it's still in flux and may or may not ever happen.
Responses to your Dragon Age questions:
2) Sera and Dorian.
3) Sera
4) Generally merciful.
5) Sera
6) Solas
7) I left Stroud behind.
8) Snarky and stabby.
9) Elf dagger rogue.
10) Dunno, but I'm pretty excited about it!
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Creative Director
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And thanks for the compliment! Keeping the weight off is kinda harder than losing it in the first place I'm finding. :-PSwitching to diet soda (since Mt. Dew was at least 50% responsible for my weight and diabetes), and then to zero calorie Arizona tea (can't live without my caffeine!) has made all the difference for me.
Since losing weight, have you found that your thinking seems clearer? I have no idea if it's a silly notion in my head, but I feel like I've sort of woken up from a decade of sleepwalking, and everything is less fuzzy and distant than it was.
And, a totally different question, have you read Maplecroft, by Cherie Priest? It's not spoiling anything you won't see on the cover to say that it's a Lovecraftian story with Lizzie Borden as protagonist, which is all sorts of whacky, and totally works.
I've been off soda of pretty much any form for a few years now, and if I drink tea, it's brewed tea; I never did like the taste of the Arizona teas at all.
I haven't really noticed "clearer thinking." More energy, though, yes!
I've never heard of Maplecroft.
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Creative Director
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James, please describe the new Starfinder Campaign and rule set in 13 words.
Go!
Have you play tested Starfinder personally? What is (or hope for) first race and class?
Starfinder isn't a campaign, but a new game; ask Rob McCreary about it.
The game isn't anywhere close to being ready for playtesting at this point though, and I'm not sure I'll be involved in the playtesting either.
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Creative Director
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In fact, [Laori Vaus] has both tattoos AND piercings. We just won't ever illustrate them.I was going to ask why Paizo would ever pay anyone to illustrate Laori again at all, since as I recalled you said after the RotRL Anniversary edition came out that you probably wouldn't be doing revised hardcover editions of the other three OGL APs because of how much it disrupted the schedule for other product releases... but now I see on the front page that either I remembered wrong or you changed your minds, as the hardcover of CotCT will be hitting shelves in September -- YAY!
So instead I'll just ask this: do you realize that by saying that Laori has tattoos and piercings in places that won't ever be uncovered in an official illustration, you're waving catnip under the noses of the various fan artists who apply Rule 34 of the Internet to the Pathfinder iconics and major NPCs?
After the RotRL hardcover came out, we at that time had no plans to do another AP hardcover. Obviously, that changed, along with the fact that in that time that passed we hired several new developers so that there's more folks to handle the increased workload of a new project like a Curse hardcover.
And I 100% absolutely realize that. It is, in fact, why I said it. And I believe that Rule 34 may have already answered that question a few years ago.
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Creative Director
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James, is the act of commanding undead as inherently evil as creating them?What would necromancer need to do in order to not lose his good aligment?Same thing anyone would need to do in order to not lose their good alignment—they should avoid performing evil acts. Since you ask in particular about necromancers, the MAIN thing the necromancer should avoid is the creation or control of undead. If the necromancer focuses instead on using those powers to combat undead, that works.
Yes.
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In fact, [Laori Vaus] has both tattoos AND piercings. We just won't ever illustrate them.I was going to ask why Paizo would ever pay anyone to illustrate Laori again at all, since as I recalled you said after the RotRL Anniversary edition came out that you probably wouldn't be doing revised hardcover editions of the other three OGL APs because of how much it disrupted the schedule for other product releases... but now I see on the front page that either I remembered wrong or you changed your minds, as the hardcover of CotCT will be hitting shelves in September -- YAY!
So instead I'll just ask this: do you realize that by saying that Laori has tattoos and piercings in places that won't ever be uncovered in an official illustration, you're waving catnip under the noses of the various fan artists who apply Rule 34 of the Internet to the Pathfinder iconics and major NPCs?
After the RotRL hardcover came out, we at that time had no plans to do another AP hardcover. Obviously, that changed, along with the fact that in that time that passed we hired several new developers so that there's more folks to handle the increased workload of a new project like a Curse hardcover.
And I 100% absolutely realize that. It is, in fact, why I said it. And I believe that Rule 34 may have already answered that question a few years ago.
I cannot favourite and respect this response enough. ^w^
We're having a bit of a chat about creature Types and sub-Types. Other than the raw basics presented, is there anything resembling an actual design philosophy or 'spirit of...' guidelines involved?
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Creative Director
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We're having a bit of a chat about creature Types and sub-Types. Other than the raw basics presented, is there anything resembling an actual design philosophy or 'spirit of...' guidelines involved?
When I design monsters, I try to give them types and subtypes that both make sense and fill gaps in the monster selection.
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Creative Director
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Did the sales of Technology Guide play a part in deciding to do Starfinder?
I thought you were interested in Starfinderish themes (Numeria, Technology Guide, Iron Gods)? Why no Starfinder for James Jacobs?
I'd like to think that the Technology Guide's success helped Paizo decide to do Starfinder. I quite enjoyed writing it, and it was very gratifying to see my work in designing tech stuff for the game be, by most accounts, well-received. Iron Gods was an AP I'd been waiting to do for a long, long time, and I am also quite proud of it and love how it turned out.
Hi James
1) I've just Amazon'd a copy of 'The Call of Cthulu' as my intro into the world of Lovecraft and I'm really looking forward to a good read!.... What would you recommend as a follow up?
2) I hear there is going to be a Mythos Cultist cleric archetype in the forthcoming 'Horror Adventures'..... if I was to ask really nicely would you give me any juicy tit bits, as I think it sounds like a great idea!
3) Will the forthcoming 'Strange Aeons' AP have obediences/PrC info for the Great Old Ones and/or Outer Gods?
Yes.James, is the act of commanding undead as inherently evil as creating them?What would necromancer need to do in order to not lose his good aligment?Same thing anyone would need to do in order to not lose their good alignment—they should avoid performing evil acts. Since you ask in particular about necromancers, the MAIN thing the necromancer should avoid is the creation or control of undead. If the necromancer focuses instead on using those powers to combat undead, that works.
Even commanding them to jump off a cliff or enter sunlight (if they're weak to that sort of thing)?
Huh. It seems that your run was very close to mine.
Was Aroden's faith still strong in Taldor up until his death? I know that the head of the church moved to Cheliax, but I am assuming that his church was still a major player in Taldor, up until his death.
What's the best way to combat Stupid Evil tendencies for players of evil characters?
While the worst offenders are chaotic evil, all three evil alignments tend to have problems with that.
I'd like to think that the Technology Guide's success helped Paizo decide to do Starfinder. I quite enjoyed writing it, and it was very gratifying to see my work in designing tech stuff for the game be, by most accounts, well-received. Iron Gods was an AP I'd been waiting to do for a long, long time, and I am also quite proud of it and love how it turned out.Did the sales of Technology Guide play a part in deciding to do Starfinder?
I thought you were interested in Starfinderish themes (Numeria, Technology Guide, Iron Gods)? Why no Starfinder for James Jacobs?
I've been GMing Iron Gods for my local group and I can add my name to the list of those who are very much enjoying it. Your hard work and creativity is much appreciated here.
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Creative Director
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Hi James
1) I've just Amazon'd a copy of 'The Call of Cthulu' as my intro into the world of Lovecraft and I'm really looking forward to a good read!.... What would you recommend as a follow up?
2) I hear there is going to be a Mythos Cultist cleric archetype in the forthcoming 'Horror Adventures'..... if I was to ask really nicely would you give me any juicy tit bits, as I think it sounds like a great idea!
3) Will the forthcoming 'Strange Aeons' AP have obediences/PrC info for the Great Old Ones and/or Outer Gods?
1) I'd suggest waiting until you read that book first before buying another—Lovecraft's popular, but he's not for everyone.
2) I wasn't involved in the creation of that book—I can confirm there is an Elder Mythos cultist and a few more Elder Mythos options in Horror Adventures, but I can't give you any infos about them, in part because those aren't my infos to tease, but also because I'm not super familiar with what they actually are.
3) It will have those for the two deities we cover in large articles—Hastur and Xhamen-Dor. We don't have room to do that info for the other 18 Great Old Ones and Outer Gods we discuss in the first volume's Elder Mythos article, alas.
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Creative Director
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What is the origin of doppelgangers on Golarion? Given their adaptability, were they once humans? And how long have they existed? Did they ever have their own civilization, or have they always hidden themselves in the civilizations of others? Strictly speaking, they couldn't have disguised themselves as serpentfolk (since those are monstrous humanoids), nor as cyclopses (since they're Large), or did past doppelgangers adapt to posing as these when they were more prominent? They could have disguised themselves as troglodytes, too...presuming they even existed back in those days, of course.
Their origins, as far as I'm aware, have not yet been explored. AKA For now, that's open season for GMs to play with without fear of being "wrong" when compared to canon. (Of course, even if we HAD printed info, the GM's version is never "wrong" when compared to canon.)
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Creative Director
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Even commanding them to jump off a cliff or enter sunlight (if they're weak to that sort of thing)?Yes.James, is the act of commanding undead as inherently evil as creating them?What would necromancer need to do in order to not lose his good aligment?Same thing anyone would need to do in order to not lose their good alignment—they should avoid performing evil acts. Since you ask in particular about necromancers, the MAIN thing the necromancer should avoid is the creation or control of undead. If the necromancer focuses instead on using those powers to combat undead, that works.
Yes. It's not as evil as commanding them to make more undead out of living creatures, but it's still evil to command undead. You're unlikely to shift to evil alignment for doing this, but a truly good character would find other ways to deal with the undead in question if at all possible.
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Creative Director
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Was Aroden's faith still strong in Taldor up until his death? I know that the head of the church moved to Cheliax, but I am assuming that his church was still a major player in Taldor, up until his death.
It wasn't all that strong, no; it was on a long slow decline there... but STILL stronger than many other faiths.
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Creative Director
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What's the best way to combat Stupid Evil tendencies for players of evil characters?
While the worst offenders are chaotic evil, all three evil alignments tend to have problems with that.
I find that this is more a problem with players, not characters; alignment isn't an issue. The best way to combat people playing disruptive characters in a game is to chat with them about HOW they're being disruptive and working on ways to change their play style to be more in sync with the game and the other players. If the player in question isn't interested or isn't capable of playing nice with the game and the other players, the best way to deal with it is for the player to leave the game. That's a hard call to make and it can stress friendships, but not as much as keeping a toxic presence in a game that's otherwise enjoyable for a larger number of friends can stress those friendships.
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Creative Director
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I've been GMing Iron Gods for my local group and I can add my name to the list of those who are very much enjoying it. Your hard work and creativity is much appreciated here.I'd like to think that the Technology Guide's success helped Paizo decide to do Starfinder. I quite enjoyed writing it, and it was very gratifying to see my work in designing tech stuff for the game be, by most accounts, well-received. Iron Gods was an AP I'd been waiting to do for a long, long time, and I am also quite proud of it and love how it turned out.Did the sales of Technology Guide play a part in deciding to do Starfinder?
I thought you were interested in Starfinderish themes (Numeria, Technology Guide, Iron Gods)? Why no Starfinder for James Jacobs?
Thank you. That's particularly nice to hear. :)
Thank you. That's particularly nice to hear. :)I've been GMing Iron Gods for my local group and I can add my name to the list of those who are very much enjoying it. Your hard work and creativity is much appreciated here.I'd like to think that the Technology Guide's success helped Paizo decide to do Starfinder. I quite enjoyed writing it, and it was very gratifying to see my work in designing tech stuff for the game be, by most accounts, well-received. Iron Gods was an AP I'd been waiting to do for a long, long time, and I am also quite proud of it and love how it turned out.Did the sales of Technology Guide play a part in deciding to do Starfinder?
I thought you were interested in Starfinderish themes (Numeria, Technology Guide, Iron Gods)? Why no Starfinder for James Jacobs?
Let me chime in on this too. Iron Gods frickin rocks!
1) I'd suggest waiting until you read that book first before buying another—Lovecraft's popular, but he's not for everyone.2) I wasn't involved in the creation of that book—I can confirm there is an Elder Mythos cultist and a few more Elder Mythos options in Horror Adventures, but I can't give you any infos about them, in part because those aren't my infos to tease, but also because I'm not super familiar with what they actually are.
3) It will have those for the two deities we cover in large articles—Hastur and Xhamen-Dor. We don't have room to do that info for the other 18 Great Old Ones and Outer Gods we discuss in the first volume's Elder Mythos article, alas.
OK cool thanks for the advice... is it possible that during the entire 6 book publication for Strange Aeons that we'll get any more obedience stuff for any of the other Great Old Ones/Outer Gods? Or is it just Hastur and Xhamen-Dor in the first one and nothing in any of the others?
I've created Ymir as a kaiju for my original campaign setting.
Do you think it's better for him to be humanoid (cold, giant, kaiju) or monstrous humanoid (cold, kaiju)?
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Creative Director
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OK cool thanks for the advice... is it possible that during the entire 6 book publication for Strange Aeons that we'll get any more obedience stuff for any of the other Great Old Ones/Outer Gods? Or is it just Hastur and Xhamen-Dor in the first one and nothing in any of the others?
1) I'd suggest waiting until you read that book first before buying another—Lovecraft's popular, but he's not for everyone.2) I wasn't involved in the creation of that book—I can confirm there is an Elder Mythos cultist and a few more Elder Mythos options in Horror Adventures, but I can't give you any infos about them, in part because those aren't my infos to tease, but also because I'm not super familiar with what they actually are.
3) It will have those for the two deities we cover in large articles—Hastur and Xhamen-Dor. We don't have room to do that info for the other 18 Great Old Ones and Outer Gods we discuss in the first volume's Elder Mythos article, alas.
Nope; just Hastur and Xhamen-Dor. And those are skewed a lot more toward NPC options. If folks really like Strange Aeons and the Lovecraftian elements, maybe some day we might respond by doing more stuff about the Elder Mythos though, of course!
When I design monsters, I try to give them types and subtypes that both make sense and fill gaps in the monster selection.
Awesomely un-enlightening, but brutally correct on the cosmic scale. I fully understand both points as to where you're coming from in overall game terms, but was hoping for some cosmic thoughts, I guess. Thanks for you point of view and your quick response.
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Creative Director
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When I design monsters, I try to give them types and subtypes that both make sense and fill gaps in the monster selection.Awesomely un-enlightening, but brutally correct on the cosmic scale. I fully understand both points as to where you're coming from in overall game terms, but was hoping for some cosmic thoughts, I guess. Thanks for you point of view and your quick response.
It wasn't intended to be enlightening, and I have no magical cosmic thoughts about it. Maybe you'll have better luck asking your vaguely-worded question elsewhere on these boards though.
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I'm running Lords of Rust at the moment and two thing keeps bugging me:
*what do the inhabitants of Scrapwall eat? Dinvaya and other clerics who can cast Create Food and Water are probably okay, but what about the rest?
*why isn't the place absolutely crawling with Rust Monsters? It's basically 'food mountain' for them and they've potentially had thousands of years to breed, so I'd naively expect more than a handful of them.
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Creative Director
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I'm running Lords of Rust at the moment and two thing keeps bugging me:
*what do the inhabitants of Scrapwall eat? Dinvaya and other clerics who can cast Create Food and Water are probably okay, but what about the rest?
*why isn't the place absolutely crawling with Rust Monsters? It's basically 'food mountain' for them and they've potentially had thousands of years to breed, so I'd naively expect more than a handful of them.
They scavenge for food, mostly. Some of the monsters on the "Scrapwall Encounter" list on page 83 of the adventure list some creatures that can provide food, but it's what's not listed there that most folks hunt—scavenger birds and rats being the most common source of animal meat they can hunt. Raiding is the primary source of food though—either raids against river traffic or raids against regional tribes. And they get this raid food not only by stealing other people's supplies or raiding their homes or farms, but also by eating the prisoners they capture. There's a fair bit of cannibalisim too, of course. And there's a fair amount of feast or famine effect as well—scraps to eat for days and then a big kill or catch equals gorging on food.
The place isn't crawling with them because if it were, there'd be nothing there for them to eat—there are a few of them lurking about, but the scavengers keep them well under control so they don't eat their homes up, more or less.
What do you think is the most brokenly overpowered race?
I'm honestly undecided between the drow noble and the trox. Sure, drow nobles are notoriously powerful... but they don't have an effective +8 Strength at first level.
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Creative Director
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What do you think is the most brokenly overpowered race?
I'm honestly undecided between the drow noble and the trox. Sure, drow nobles are notoriously powerful... but they don't have an effective +8 Strength at first level.
I don't consider the drow noble or the trox as player character appropriate races. The drow noble was created to give GMs a cool bad NPC race to use against players as villains, and the trox were created more or less as an experiment to stress-test the race building rules to show their versatility.
Among the core player races, I think the most overpowered one is dwarf.
If you're going to take ALL of the zero HD races into account and want to know which one I think has the most potential to be "broken" (I hate that term) then I'd probably say that'd be the kasatha. Troxes are a close second; being large and having reach is cool, but that's somewhat balanced by the fact that you're easier to flank and have penalties to size and attacks. Having four arms is pretty huge.
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How, in your opinion as a GM, would you address a player's desire to convert from one faith to another if they have levels in a class like paladin or oracle, which don't require you to follow a specific deity like a cleric or warpriest does?
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Creative Director
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Is there anything you're surprised hasn't been asked yet in this thread? Is there anything in particular you've been just waiting for someone to ask you about Pathfinder or Golarion? Eg. some obscure tidbit of knowledge you think is cool but everyone seems to overlook.
Yes, but it's no fun if I tell you all what questions to ask!
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Creative Director
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How, in your opinion as a GM, would you address a player's desire to convert from one faith to another if they have levels in a class like paladin or oracle, which don't require you to follow a specific deity like a cleric or warpriest does?
Spoiler:Specifically, I was interested in playing a paladin of Iomedae in Iron Gods who converts to worship Casandalee after the PCs make her a demigod, helping her get her new chuch started by proselytizing to Numerians about her role in ending the Technic League's tyranny and doing paladin things in her name instead of Iomedae's. Would I temporarily lose class features until Casandalee's position among the gods is secure? How would any Iomedaeans I encounter react? It's easy to understand their reaction if someone falls from good to evil, but not so clear when they're switching from one good deity to another.
Converting from one deity to another when you are a divine spellcaster works the same as for a cleric, regardless of whether or not your class HAS to worship a deity.
In the case of your specific spoilered question...
Do you find you dislike conventions less than you used to? More? The same as ever?
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Thank you! Some other questions:
Is the title of Black Sovereign a uniquely Numerian thing, or would we see similar titles in other Kellid nations (of which there really aren't many)?
Do unicorns ONLY work with pure-hearted women, or would they be willing to with a pure-hearted man or non-binary person?
After the RotRL hardcover came out, we at that time had no plans to do another AP hardcover. Obviously, that changed, along with the fact that in that time that passed we hired several new developers so that there's more folks to handle the increased workload of a new project like a Curse hardcover.
Do you think you might eventually do hardcover versions of Second Darkness and/or Legacy of Fire as well?
On an unrelated note, H. P. Lovecraft placed R'lyeh at Earth's Oceanic pole of inaccessibility, as you mentioned a few years back on a thread about R'lyeh's location in the Golarion universe. Have you ever given any thought to Golarion's poles of inaccessibility, and what points of interest might be found there?
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Creative Director
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Thank you! Some other questions:
Is the title of Black Sovereign a uniquely Numerian thing, or would we see similar titles in other Kellid nations (of which there really aren't many)?
Do unicorns ONLY work with pure-hearted women, or would they be willing to with a pure-hearted man or non-binary person?
Black Sovereign is uniquely Numerian.
Unicorns "work" with any pure-hearted character.
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Creative Director
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After the RotRL hardcover came out, we at that time had no plans to do another AP hardcover. Obviously, that changed, along with the fact that in that time that passed we hired several new developers so that there's more folks to handle the increased workload of a new project like a Curse hardcover.Do you think you might eventually do hardcover versions of Second Darkness and/or Legacy of Fire as well?
On an unrelated note, H. P. Lovecraft placed R'lyeh at Earth's Oceanic pole of inaccessibility, as you mentioned a few years back on a thread about R'lyeh's location in the Golarion universe. Have you ever given any thought to Golarion's poles of inaccessibility, and what points of interest might be found there?
Honestly I have no idea if we'll ever do another hardcover AP, and if we do, which one we'll do will depend on the state of the company and industry and much much more at the time we decide to do it. Which won't be for a few years, if then. Don't hold your breath for those, is what I'm saying.
The concept of a pole of inaccessibility is too cool to NOT put something neat there... but I have no real idea where they are yet since we don't actually have a map of the world that's accurate for that kind of thing.