Creative Director
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That's exactly how I feel right now. That all your stuff is just SO COOL AND FUN that I can't decide what to do first! I love you folks and all the hard, inspired work you do! :)
And for a question: does "Witness" or "The Witness" sound like a cool name for an android? I'm not sure if putting the "The" on the front is too cheesy.
I kind of feel like both names are a little silly, and make me think of the Harrison Ford movie.
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You mention from time to time adventure paths that have not been well received (You mentioned above A Song of Silver and I think previously Wrath of the Righteous). Can you tell me the 4 or 5 adventure paths that have done quite well with the fan base?There's a huge difference between "not well received" (which was the case of Wrath, since folks were disappointed or overwhelmed or underwhelmed with the Mythic rules as they combined with high-level play) and "not often reviewed/talked about" (which is what's happened with "A Song of Silver.")
What I've heard about "Hell's Rebels" and "Song of Silver" is VERY encouraging; folks are really liking the AP, but the fact that folks are more vocal when they're disappointed is what's discouraging. A thousand folks might love an AP, but if only the ten who hate it rant about it online, then our perception and emotional response here is based only on the 10 folks who bother to talk about it.
From what I can tell at this point, the five most popular Adventure Paths are (in no particular order):
Hell's Rebels
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Reign of Winter
Kingmaker
Out of curiosity, which ones of those have you developed, mr Jacobs?
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Creative Director
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Out of curiosity, which ones of those have you developed, mr Jacobs?You mention from time to time adventure paths that have not been well received (You mentioned above A Song of Silver and I think previously Wrath of the Righteous). Can you tell me the 4 or 5 adventure paths that have done quite well with the fan base?There's a huge difference between "not well received" (which was the case of Wrath, since folks were disappointed or overwhelmed or underwhelmed with the Mythic rules as they combined with high-level play) and "not often reviewed/talked about" (which is what's happened with "A Song of Silver.")
What I've heard about "Hell's Rebels" and "Song of Silver" is VERY encouraging; folks are really liking the AP, but the fact that folks are more vocal when they're disappointed is what's discouraging. A thousand folks might love an AP, but if only the ten who hate it rant about it online, then our perception and emotional response here is based only on the 10 folks who bother to talk about it.
From what I can tell at this point, the five most popular Adventure Paths are (in no particular order):
Hell's Rebels
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Reign of Winter
Kingmaker
All except Reign of Winter.
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Creative Director
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Thank You James and Paizo Staff for making my family's "game night" something memorable every week!
I introduced my wife and 5 children (12-also GMs, 10, 8; and the 6 and 5 year old watching/rolling goblin attack dice) to PF a little over a year ago. We game weekly, alternating between my home-brew and my son running RotRL. I can say for our family, it is the most enjoyable indoor time we spend together every week. The rest of the week, the kids talk about their PCs, PCs they want to run, and the 10 and 8 are creating story ideas they want to GM when they're older. I'm amazed how well they RP between funny, very serious and how just like adults....they never do what I thought the PCs would do. I'm sure they'll be lifelong gamers.
Question:
Have you gamed with children? What was your impression?
I have indeed. Both as a kid myself back in 5th grade on up, and as an adult. Kids are fun to game with because they're better than most adults at coming up with creative solutions to problems in game.
What's the latest non-Core class you've played?
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I know you didn't author the book Distant Shores but maybe you can answer this question. What did you, as a company learn from it in regards to the other continent's and countries that people would be interested in being developed, and can we hope to see anything developed about those continent's and countries in the near future? (I understand that you can't reveal anything big on the forum so you can be as vague as you like for the last part of the question.)
Also what was you favorite place that was talked about in the book? (I just want to note that mine was Aelyosos.)
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Creative Director
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What's the latest non-Core class you've played?
Hmmm. Do prestige classes count? Currently, I'm playing a fighter/sentinel in Mummy's Mask. In Hell's Vengeance I'm playing a bard. In the last two campaigns I played in, I played a rogue and a cleric.
AKA: I generally don't play non-core classes. I played a halfling swashbuckler for a one-shot playtest game ages back when we were doing an internal playtest of the Advanced Class Guide several years ago, so I guess that would be the last non-core class I've played.
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Creative Director
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I know you didn't author the book Distant Shores but maybe you can answer this question. What did you, as a company learn from it in regards to the other continent's and countries that people would be interested in being developed, and can we hope to see anything developed about those continent's and countries in the near future? (I understand that you can't reveal anything big on the forum so you can be as vague as you like for the last part of the question.)
Also what was you favorite place that was talked about in the book? (I just want to note that mine was Aelyosos.)
We learned what we already kind of knew, that the appetite for information beyond the Inner Sea is there, but it's not focused in any one area, so more or less ANYTHING we do outside of the Inner Sea will likely be as equally well-anticipated as any other are. AKA: you get no hints!
My favorite area in the book is Holomog, but that's because it's a region from my homebrew that I've been wanting to develop and build into the campaign setting for many, many years. Alas, I didn't get to write the section, due to time conflicts and constraints, but Crystal did a damn fine job. The published version of Holomog is much more HER creation than mine.
James, I see you've listed
Hell's Rebels
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Reign of Winter
Kingmaker
as popular/raved about AP's. Could I perhaps do a bit of raving about Iron Gods, I'm about 1/2 way finished GMing the AP and its been a blast. I love the inclusion of technology and the themes of Numeria.
My question:
Are you excited about Starfinder and will you play it?
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Creative Director
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James, I see you've listed
Hell's Rebels
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Reign of Winter
Kingmakeras popular/raved about AP's. Could I perhaps do a bit of raving about Iron Gods, I'm about 1/2 way finished GMing the AP and its been a blast. I love the inclusion of technology and the themes of Numeria.
My question:
Are you excited about Starfinder and will you play it?
Iron Gods is certainly one that lots of folks enjoy. I almost listed it instead of Reign of Winter, in fact, but defaulted to Reign since it's had a little bit longer to gather fans. At the very least, Iron Gods would be #6. Perhaps even above Hell's Rebels or Reign of Winter.
As for Starfinder... I'm equal parts excited and terrified. Excited to see us do something outside of the Pathfinder genre, and terrified at how much work it's gonna be and at how tough it's gonna be to pull off. Most of that terror is for my co-workers' sanity, of course... at this point, I'm actually not really involved in Starfinder at all, so I'm in a weird sort of place where the big thing that worries me the most about Starfinder is how it might impact Pathfinder, both in terms of Paizo's resources and in terms of campaign impact. Whether or not I'll play it will depend on whether or not I've time to play it, but I certainly HOPE to be able to play it.
That said, being on the inside at Paizo but being pretty much OUTSIDE of Starfinder has me with a weird sort of self-conscious identity crisis combined with jealousy about not being able to work on it, which I'm trying not to let fester into bitterness... so it's all in all a weird situation that I've not yet fully sorted out in my head.
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Who designed the Witch spell list, and do you know what lines they were thinking along? I'm not complaining (at all - my Witch is my flagship Pathfindier Society character, and I love him dearly), it's just a weird list for "witches," as opposed to, for example, Green Ronin's 3.0 Witch (itself inspired by a wonderful stretch of text from the 3.0 Dungeon Master's Guide) which hewed very closely to the archetype of the European fairy tale witch.
James,
Flipped through my just arrived copy of Inner Sea Faiths, and I *love* that Apsu has a 'platinum dragon' servitor. Who came up with such a brilliant idea?!
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Creative Director
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James,
Flipped through my just arrived copy of Inner Sea Faiths, and I *love* that Apsu has a 'platinum dragon' servitor. Who came up with such a brilliant idea?!
Not sure. Wasn't me. I actually think that's kind of annoying, in fact, considering I've been trying all this time to distance Pathfinder from D&D's most iconic dragon deities, mostly on the Tiamat side. It's frustrating that someone decided to sneak in more of that stuff. I guess our writers won't learn the lesson until something big sneaks in and WotC sues Paizo into the dirt. Hopefully I'll have retired by then.
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Creative Director
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Who designed the Witch spell list, and do you know what lines they were thinking along? I'm not complaining (at all - my Witch is my flagship Pathfindier Society character, and I love him dearly), it's just a weird list for "witches," as opposed to, for example, Green Ronin's 3.0 Witch (itself inspired by a wonderful stretch of text from the 3.0 Dungeon Master's Guide) which hewed very closely to the archetype of the European fairy tale witch.
The witch spell list was designed by Jason, as far as I know. You'd have to ask him what he was thinking.
How often do PCs use poison in the games you've played? How effective was it?
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Do you think the "mainstreaming" of gaming has had any deleterious effects on it? In particular, do you think things have changed for the worse somehow in the past decade (2006-2016, pretty specifically)? If so, how serious are they, and what can be done about them?
I'm trying to sort out what's "just me" and my personal experiences that don't necessarily have any impact on the grander scale, from what really is a larger trend.
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Creative Director
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How often do PCs use poison in the games you've played? How effective was it?
Not that often. Poison is more effective the longer a character is "on-screen," along with most forms of ability damage/drain; it's very much meant to be a tool against PCs and not so much a tool FOR PCs really.
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Creative Director
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Do you think the "mainstreaming" of gaming has had any deleterious effects on it? In particular, do you think things have changed for the worse somehow in the past decade (2006-2016, pretty specifically)? If so, how serious are they, and what can be done about them?
I'm trying to sort out what's "just me" and my personal experiences that don't necessarily have any impact on the grander scale, from what really is a larger trend.
Yes; the worst thing that's happened to gaming, in part due to mainstreaming, is that so many gamers have become the hobby's own worst enemies. I almost prefer the early 80s Satanic Panic and MADD element where people who didn't understand the game demonized it to the way certain gamers, particularly certain white male gamers, treat anyone else like they're threats or demonize them or ruin lives. I never felt like getting out of gaming due to folks crusading against the game as being a "tool of the devil," but things like Gamergate do.
I suppose part of being more popular and more widespread means that there's more of everything, including the most terrible of what people have to offer, but it's still depressing and ruinous to see it happening in the gaming industry.
I think it's a VERY serious threat to the industry, and is to a certain extent a reflection of the narrow-minded sexism/racism/hatemongering that we see in so many other areas political and religious these days. What can be done about them? Stand up and protect those who are being targeted and harassed and help support equal rights and make the internet a safe place for everyone!
It's a tough fight; the internet's a big place. But here on these forums is a great place to start. The fact that some of Paizo's own employees don't feel safe or comfortable enough to post on our own forums is an unfortunate truth of how destructive some of the haters out there are, and the best way we have to fight that sort of bile is to stand up for those they're harassing. Just sitting idly by and thinking someone else will fix it is NOT ENOUGH. The good person who does nothing in the presence of evil is themselves allowing evil to win, after all.
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The thing that needs to be pointed out most because of that is that (as you mention) it IS the Johnny-come-latelies who are mostly doing that, whreas the "old guard" in gaming has always been the "avante-garde," since the fantasy geek mentality is by nature directly at odds with the bigot mentality, which is why it's very upsetting when the media talks about GamerGate as though it's the same "old boys club scared of change and inclusivity" narrative that can be seen elsewhere, when in this case it's the other way around: Archaic bigotries is seeping into gaming as it enters the ever-backwards mainstream, yet sometimes it seems to be be treated like it's the font itself.
Once again, blame the weak and strange for normal people's sins, right (that's where we can actually see echoes of the Satanic Panic era in this)?
Oh, and of course there's only ONE type of "gamer," right? Once upon a time, maybe; not anymore.
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Excellent post. This bit:
The fact that some of Paizo's own employees don't feel safe or comfortable enough to post on our own forums is an unfortunate truth of how destructive some of the haters out there are...
Is shameful and embarrassing.
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Creative Director
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Excellent post. This bit:
The fact that some of Paizo's own employees don't feel safe or comfortable enough to post on our own forums is an unfortunate truth of how destructive some of the haters out there are...Is shameful and embarrassing.
That's putting it lightly.
I know that I've started to mostly just post here to this thread with increasing frequency because I'm less and less willing to fight with some of our supposed "fans".
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Creative Director
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The thing that needs to be pointed out most because of that is that (as you mention) it IS the Johnny-come-latelies who are mostly doing that, whreas the "old guard" in gaming has always been the "avante-garde," since the fantasy geek mentality is by nature directly at odds with the bigot mentality, which is why it's very upsetting when the media talks about GamerGate as though it's the same "old boys club scared of change and inclusivity" narrative that can be seen elsewhere, when in this case it's the other way around: Archaic bigotries is seeping into gaming as it enters the ever-backwards mainstream, yet sometimes it seems to be be treated like it's the font itself.
Once again, blame the weak and strange for normal people's sins, right (that's where we can actually see echoes of the Satanic Panic era in this)?
Oh, and of course there's only ONE type of "gamer," right? Once upon a time, maybe; not anymore.
Actually, I've seen this terrible behavior among the "old guard" as well, and when it comes from that sector, be they older fans or even some of the older designers and authors for the industry, that's the MOST damaging and depressing. It really hurts to see someone you've idolized and admired for years or even decades post something hateful.
And there's never been ONE type of gamer. My first group back in 5th grade in 1981 or thereabouts was 3 guys and 2 girls. Women being into games is not new. It's been that way from the start, as has the destructive shameful "men-only" mentality. It's just that now, with the internet, the toxic viewpoints are much easier to infect and infest and disseminate. Makes it more important than ever to stand up for those who are targeted by hate. And more devastating to have that hate come from someone you didn't expect.
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Creative Director
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That is shocking, alright; and I thought I took a fair amount of crap on here - what am I not seeing that's even worse? I don't see any particular racism/sexism/genderism/nationalism/creedism on here that doesn't get modswatted almost immediately.
Well, if you're a white straight man (and I'm not saying you are), it's shamefully and astoundingly easy to miss the bulk of it. As a mostly straight white man myself, I thought I was clued in to how bad it was for women in particular but the more I listened and educated myself from listening, the more I realized just how sheltered I was from all this inequality and hatred simply because I look like a white guy.
The best way to fix this is to listen to those who are the target of such hate, to trust them and accept that what they're saying is real, and to support them as needed. This does NOT mean swooping in and trying to make it all about you—I can certainly understand the urge for men to fall into the "not all guys" defense, but that doesn't help the situation.
Listen instead of talking. That's the first real step to understanding.
What's the latest non-Core class you've played?Hmmm. Do prestige classes count? Currently, I'm playing a fighter/sentinel in Mummy's Mask. In Hell's Vengeance I'm playing a bard. In the last two campaigns I played in, I played a rogue and a cleric.
AKA: I generally don't play non-core classes. I played a halfling swashbuckler for a one-shot playtest game ages back when we were doing an internal playtest of the Advanced Class Guide several years ago, so I guess that would be the last non-core class I've played.
Did you enjoy the swashbuckler?
James, how do you pronounce Ymeri? Is the Y like my or yellow? Personally I think it sounds better when it is the I sound.
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Creative Director
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Did you enjoy the swashbuckler?What's the latest non-Core class you've played?Hmmm. Do prestige classes count? Currently, I'm playing a fighter/sentinel in Mummy's Mask. In Hell's Vengeance I'm playing a bard. In the last two campaigns I played in, I played a rogue and a cleric.
AKA: I generally don't play non-core classes. I played a halfling swashbuckler for a one-shot playtest game ages back when we were doing an internal playtest of the Advanced Class Guide several years ago, so I guess that would be the last non-core class I've played.
OH WAIT! I played a swashbuckler in a lunchetime Dark Souls II game for several months... that's what I was thinking about. And yes, I very much did enjoy playing that swashbuckler. It was a really cool take on a mobile fighter who gets a lot of attacks in while retaining the ability to move around the battlefield—a really fun type of character that replaces the temptation to stand still for a full attack with the temptation to move around a lot, provoke attacks of opportunity, and play VERY tactically. Sort of like playing a rogue is, but rather than using tactics to make one big attack a round for big damage, it's more like making several attacks a round for less damage. Good stuff!
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I know this isn't a question. But I just want to say I have been a fan of paizo since Dungeon and Dragon magazine. And I support all you paizo staffers fully. I'm sorry you deal with that sort of harassment which is really really uncool in my books. James you've been a champ in this thread and your role as creative director. Don't let the bastards get you down. Your too good an asset to the industry to let that happen.
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Creative Director
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James, would a adventuring priest of Abadar use the title of Banker? And do priests of Cayden Cailean use some kind of title?
All faiths have titles for various ranks, and we've been pretty slapdash on putting those in print. An adventuring priest of Abadar would indeed use the title "Banker" if he or she were mid level. We haven't revealed many titles for Cayden Cailean yet, and I'm not gonna make them up here where they'll be remembered randomly.
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James, would a adventuring priest of Abadar use the title of Banker? And do priests of Cayden Cailean use some kind of title?All faiths have titles for various ranks, and we've been pretty slapdash on putting those in print. An adventuring priest of Abadar would indeed use the title "Banker" if he or she were mid level. We haven't revealed many titles for Cayden Cailean yet, and I'm not gonna make them up here where they'll be remembered randomly.
Do you want to eventually nail down this titles in print?
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Creative Director
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Do you want to eventually nail down this titles in print?James, would a adventuring priest of Abadar use the title of Banker? And do priests of Cayden Cailean use some kind of title?All faiths have titles for various ranks, and we've been pretty slapdash on putting those in print. An adventuring priest of Abadar would indeed use the title "Banker" if he or she were mid level. We haven't revealed many titles for Cayden Cailean yet, and I'm not gonna make them up here where they'll be remembered randomly.
yes... But I don't know where. We SHOULD have done it in Inner Sea Gods and Inner Sea Faiths. To a certain extent, I feel almost as if the ship has sailed and we missed our chance. Dunno where or when or how it makes sense to get the info out now. It's something that's been bothering me for a few years now, in fact.
Have you considered putting the priestly titles into a Paizo blog post? Not as much of a to-do as fitting it into a book, but still accessible to fans.
Of course... blogs are free, and awesome as you guys are, you don't put out material for your health...
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Creative Director
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Have you considered putting the priestly titles into a Paizo blog post? Not as much of a to-do as fitting it into a book, but still accessible to fans.
Of course... blogs are free, and awesome as you guys are, you don't put out material for your health...
Not a fan of putting such load-bearing information on something as ephemeral and transitory as a blog post.
Contributor
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Excellent post. This bit:
The fact that some of Paizo's own employees don't feel safe or comfortable enough to post on our own forums is an unfortunate truth of how destructive some of the haters out there are...Is shameful and embarrassing.That's putting it lightly.
I know that I've started to mostly just post here to this thread with increasing frequency because I'm less and less willing to fight with some of our supposed "fans".
I've seen what you're talking about. :(
For what it's worth, I'm always glad to see you post in a thread.
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I thought 100th volume's bonus npc statblock list was awesome, but I'm unable to read the adventure itself since I don't want to be spoiled if I get chance to play Hell's Rebels one day <_<
On the whole people saying hateful things thing... I'm more angered about people in youtube cashing on the whole "anti social justice/progessiveness/political correctness/whatever they call it" thing than the famous/idolized people doing that. In case of "famous" people, it probably says more about the enviroment where they grew up, kinda like "racist old war veteran grandpa" scenario that some people apparently have, in case of the former, it kinda seems like they are leeching on the hate wagon since most of them seem to make videos where the point is picking apart other videos and being just plain rude about it. People who make off their living on spreading hate is just plain disgusting.
Anyway, I've noticed kinda weird thing where some of D&D and Pathfinder fans can rant for a really long time about what they don't like the system, yet they are still willing to play it(even if they aren't willing to gm it with due to "massive amount of prepatation" and "calculating modifiers" or whatever). Whats up with that? .-. It just sounds so contradictionary to me, I mean, I don't feel like "Its because its easiest to find group for D&D/Pathfinder" applies in this case because those people are often also unwilling to play anything new as well and quite lot of them engage in behaviour they dislike. I just don't understand why people are so contradictionary... Seriously, what the heck is up with that?
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....
The best way to fix this is to listen to those who are the target of such hate, to trust them and accept that what they're saying is real, and to support them as needed. This does NOT mean swooping in and trying to make it all about you—I can certainly understand the urge for men to fall into the "not all guys" defense, but that doesn't help the situation.
Listen instead of talking. That's the first real step to understanding.
How do I support the targets of such hate?
What would the next step be?
I'm at a loss how to combat toxicity in a thread for example without unintentionally adding to it.
In a game/Golarion related question:
I have trouble wrapping my head around the rate at which longerlived races mature. I guess that is not strange because humans don't have that perspective. Living longer as an adult is easier to imagine, for me, than taking a 100 years+ to become an adult.
Is a ten-year-old elf still in diapers?
Can a five-year-old dwarf even talk?
What is the relative level of maturity between an 80-year old elf and one that is a 110?
Is their age proportional to a human, i.e. divide 110 by 18 and then you have a rough estimate, or is it more 'alien' than that compared to human nature?
I believe I remember you stating that generally elves don't use surnames and half-elves either follow suit or adopt a surname based on local ones. Am I remembering that correctly?Correct.
As a follow-up question: When would half-elves use names listed as half-elf names? I would imagine that most of them would use human or elven names according to where they were raised. Everything I have seen written about Golarion half-elves says that they have not yet developed their own culture, even in places like Erages where they are the overwhelming majority. So who would use half-elven names?