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I trust the day finds you in better spirits?
I’ve a question dilemma in regards to Jade Regent, specifically the Brinewall section?!

Spoiler:
Long story shot, I’ve used Brinewall as the source of an adventure side trek, rather than following it as part of the Jade Regent storyline. The group have cleared the Keep, of all the enemies bar Rokuro Kaijitsu (wraith), after finally defeating nindenzago in a tough and close fight, half the party retreated to rest and recover, while the other half decided, with both keys to the vault, to proceed with looting it. I played up Rokuro as a more defensive spirit, that would only attack if they tried to enter the secret chamber. The party failing provoking Rokuro, then got into a fight, I left Rokuro as written, though I changed his CHA drain back to con, as the three who got into the combat, had low cha scores, and I was feeling a little more generous. The party all 7th level, versus a standard CR wraith, then made lots of errors, and provoked many AoO, before they tried a tactical rout, I had Rokuro chase them to the stairs, and halt his pursuit, returning to guard the chamber, but 2 of the three had fallen to his attacks, the third fleeing back to the resting group, abandoned their friends to the wraith.

My dilemma is, would Rokuro, slay the fallen adventurers to create spawn, or do you think, the small measure and nature of his being/damnation, would allow them to lie where they fell, no longer interested in the neutralised threat?
Any advice?

p.s My players loved Brinewall especially Kikonu who I hammed up, they did not fall for Zaoibe ploy, turning on her as soon as possible, she escaped to warn Kikonu.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Kalindlara wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:

Excellent post. This bit:

Quote:
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.

Thanks! That's worth a LOT! Always delightful to hear positivity! :)


James Jacobs wrote:
I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:
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.

Being a white is hardly protection though. Aside from delivering pizzas to very racist anti-white neighborhoods, I am autistic, which means me and writing don't get along. I also enjoy healthy debates as long as they don't devolve into petty namecalling or other trash talk, but it still hurts when you get dismissed as being a mere troll seeking to anger others rather than someone trying to make a valid argument (and just being horrible at the explanation). Worse when the conversation moves on and they still ignore you even when you give a helpful suggestion to a problem they were asking advice about or otherwise say something that isn't even a debate. Worse still when they tell others to ignore you.

It seriously isn't just physical features or sexual orientation issues that are the problem. I think those are just various branches of the same thing.

"what they don't like the system, yet they are still willing to play it"

As one who does play d20 despite hating classes and a few other things (looking at you not-really-vancian and inflexible magic system), it is a problem finding players to try my custom system that tries to fix those things, and I usually end up playing d20 simply because want to just play for once instead of fighting to convince someone to play, or even critique something not published.

James, if you could change something about the mechanics of pathfinder, or just use regular houserules, what would they be?

Do you ever play other systems? If so, which ones do you like and why?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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CorvusMask wrote:
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?

I honestly don't know what's up with that. If a game only frustrates and annoys you... don't play it. Games are supposed to be fun!

Actaully, there's two reasons I can think of why folks do this:

1) Some people actually enjoy complaining and self-destruction and thus get a kick out of badmouthing things. Making fun of or deriding the game and/or its creators is more fun to them than the game itself.

2) Or it's a case of gamers wanting to game, but not having anyone local to play the game of their choice, and thus they're "forced" to play a game they don't enjoy, since that's the only game anyone plays in their circle.

In both the above cases, the person is being destructive on two levels—they're undermining the passion and joy of the game creators, and they're ruining the game experience for the other folks at their table. Both great reasons for that person to find another hobby.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Snowsarn wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

....

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.

That's a good question. If the answer was easy and obvious, it would have been solved long ago.

My preferred method to combat such toxicity is to openly support and bolster those who need it and deserve it, and if I see toxicity, I try NOT to engage the bile-spewer, since that just feeds the trolls. Instead, I flag the post and/or alert the board moderators that there's a troll who needs to be banned or blocked or whatever.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Snowsarn wrote:

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?

Long lived races are indeed weird, and I honestly think that it's not really worth the questions it raises to have such weirdness in races. Sure, it's great flavor, but the questions and contradictions it brings to light cause more problems than the flavor is worth in my opinion. Since the baseline game doesn't really care too much about the implications of things like this, the reasons tend to be sidelined into supplementary books that folks don't have as immediate access to.

My preference is to basically assume that all races mature to child level at about the same rate—by 5 to 6 years old, all of the core races are about the same, and that's when they slow down, essentially spending a LONG time in the tweens and teen years, but not so much as infants or toddlers. Why don't those races get more done with their lives during those tween and teen years? Same reason most human tweens and teens don't; they're still figuring out who they are, but they do it less efficiently and more deliberately (slowly) than do humans.

That said, I'm not a fan of those answers.

Personally? I think it'd be better for all the core races to mature to adults at more or less the same rate, but then have races like dwarves and gnomes and elves simply live longer. That would solve a LOT of the problems the long-lived race stuff causes, especially since age categories almost never end up mattering in most games and theres very few aging effects in the game; the advantage of having a longer life span is pretty much nothing as far as game balance is concerned.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

David knott 242 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
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?

Becasue some half-elves identify as half-elves, not as humans or not as elves. And half-elves absolutely have a culture–not one as widespread and ancient as elves or dwarves or even humans, but they do have a culture. There's plenty of info about it in Inner Sea Races.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Earthbeard wrote:

I trust the day finds you in better spirits?

I’ve a question dilemma in regards to Jade Regent, specifically the Brinewall section?!

Spoiler:
Long story shot, I’ve used Brinewall as the source of an adventure side trek, rather than following it as part of the Jade Regent storyline. The group have cleared the Keep, of all the enemies bar Rokuro Kaijitsu (wraith), after finally defeating nindenzago in a tough and close fight, half the party retreated to rest and recover, while the other half decided, with both keys to the vault, to proceed with looting it. I played up Rokuro as a more defensive spirit, that would only attack if they tried to enter the secret chamber. The party failing provoking Rokuro, then got into a fight, I left Rokuro as written, though I changed his CHA drain back to con, as the three who got into the combat, had low cha scores, and I was feeling a little more generous. The party all 7th level, versus a standard CR wraith, then made lots of errors, and provoked many AoO, before they tried a tactical rout, I had Rokuro chase them to the stairs, and halt his pursuit, returning to guard the chamber, but 2 of the three had fallen to his attacks, the third fleeing back to the resting group, abandoned their friends to the wraith.
My dilemma is, would Rokuro, slay the fallen adventurers to create spawn, or do you think, the small measure and nature of his being/damnation, would allow them to lie where they fell, no longer interested in the neutralised threat?
Any advice?

p.s My players loved Brinewall especially Kikonu who I hammed up, they did not fall for Zaoibe ploy, turning on her as soon as possible, she escaped to warn Kikonu.

So far the day's pretty good, but that's mostly because I'm just starting it and still riding high on a lovely dinner with friends from the night before! :-)

As for your Brinewall question...

Spoiler:
Rokuro would indeed create spawn; this is a case where terrible party choices (split the party when the group is low in resources AND be foolhardy in not fleeing an obviously dangerous encounter sooner than later) would logically result in significant bad things. By not having Rokuro do what undead do, you run a very real risk of "defanging" undead in your players' eyes, and then next time they'll be even more careless about undead and you'll either need to eventually show them just how dangerous undead are or give up on having undead ever be scary at your game table with that group (even beyond this campaign) again.

That said, you also probably don't want to kill off PCs.

If your players are okay with their characters being killed, though, go for it and let them build replacement characters or even take up playing some of the allied NPCs.

Another option is to have allies come in and save the fallen PCs at the last minute. Maybe some of the NPCs the PCs have made friends with come in to rescue the fallen PCs at the last minute, dragging them to safety outside of Rokuro's range, but if you do this, I recommend having one or more of those NPCs end up taking the hit and getting turned into undead.

One thing I often do for games is to use hero points, plot twist cards, harrow cards, or other rubrics that the players can use in tight spots like this. Allowing a player to use a rare resource like a plot twist card to escape a fate is MUCH better than you the GM going "soft" on them and not following through with the obvious results of getting killed by a wraith.


About long lived races,

Is there any reason in particular that being an adult needs to be tied so tightly with physical maturity?

For example, in Mass Effect, Liara is well over a century, and certainly physically mature enough to live as an adult, and even have doctorate degrees, yet is often discounted as barely more than a child by others of her race.

Drowtales does do the slow growth thing, Ariel taking about twice as long as a human to physically mature, yet in the story she must mature in her behavior far faster than a human does (at least by modern standards).

Have you read Drowtales and what do you think of it?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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TheAlicornSage wrote:

Being a white is hardly protection though. Aside from delivering pizzas to very racist anti-white neighborhoods, I am autistic, which means me and writing don't get along. I also enjoy healthy debates as long as they don't devolve into petty namecalling or other trash talk, but it still hurts when you get dismissed as being a mere troll seeking to anger others rather than someone trying to make a valid argument (and just being horrible at the explanation). Worse when the conversation moves on and they still ignore you even when you give a helpful suggestion to a problem they were asking advice about or otherwise say something that isn't even a debate. Worse still when they tell others to ignore you.

It seriously isn't just physical features or sexual orientation issues that are the problem. I think those are just various branches of the same thing.

"what they don't like the system, yet they are still willing to play it"

As one who does play d20 despite hating classes and a few other things (looking at you not-really-vancian and inflexible magic system), it is a problem finding players to try my custom system that tries to fix those things, and I usually end up playing d20 simply because want to just play for once instead of fighting to convince someone to play, or even critique something not published.

James, if you could change something about the mechanics of pathfinder, or just use regular houserules, what would they be?

Do you ever play other systems? If so, which ones do you like and why?

With upmost respect, I get that, but folks who deflect the situation and turn it around to make the problem about themselves or changing the subject are not helping the situation. Think of it from the reverse—if you were in a situation where you saw a large group of people hating on and tormenting someone who was diabetic, and someone else came along and said something to the effect of "It's tough for me too, because I have a different condition that makes life hard for me." Doesn't help the diabetic who's being attacked. When someone is being attacked, the right thing to do isn't to deflect things and seek pity or aid for yourself, but to step in and help the person being attacked, regardless of your own situation. Because doing so means that the person being attacked is supported, feels safe and welcome, and therefore is in a MUCH stronger position to come to the aid of someone else who's being attacked.

As for using "regular houserules..." Well, as it works out, being one of the people who wrote and publishes Pathfinder, the rules you see actually ARE the "regular houserules" I would prefer to play with. The game is what it is in part because it's the game that I and my coworkers here at Paizo want. I CAN change the mechanics—because I help create them. And me even talking about "changing the game" is more destructive than helpful, because due to my position in the company, I can't really idly muse on that kind of topic without setting off false alarms that "Paizo is building a new edition" or something like that.

That said, the upcoming Starfinder game WILL represent an evolution of our game design theory; it's a new game, after all, and one that we're building after spending a few decades already learning and working with the d20 system. I'm not one of the ones working on Starfinder though, so I can't even really comment from that angle on how I'd change things.

I do play other systems—and that's important to do when you're in the game industry, because games constantly improve and evolve. My favorite other system to play is Call of Cthulhu. I've also played 5th edition D&D, Dread, Mythender, and a few other indie games lately, and have bought (But not yet played) games like Numinera, the Strange, Shadowrun 5th, and several others.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

TheAlicornSage wrote:

About long lived races,

Is there any reason in particular that being an adult needs to be tied so tightly with physical maturity?

For example, in Mass Effect, Liara is well over a century, and certainly physically mature enough to live as an adult, and even have doctorate degrees, yet is often discounted as barely more than a child by others of her race.

Drowtales does do the slow growth thing, Ariel taking about twice as long as a human to physically mature, yet in the story she must mature in her behavior far faster than a human does (at least by modern standards).

Have you read Drowtales and what do you think of it?

There's no reason in particular that being an adult needs to be tied to physical maturity, other than the weird creepyness that arises when you have entities with child bodies but adult minds when it comes to sexuality (a topic that often comes up in vampire movies, like "Let the Right One In" or "Near Dark"). I do love how Mass Effect handled the question.

We COULD have done something similar with Pathfinder, but Paizo's choice to focus more on the rules in the rulebooks rather than enhance that with world content means that exploring such implications of aging simply can't be done in the core rules, and has to be addressed in setting books, which reach a fraction of the eyes the world-neutral rulebooks do. Perhaps the answer is that we shouldn't separate the rulebooks from the world so strictly. That's my preference, but that's not the world we have at this time.

I've never heard of Drowtales.


if you (James Jacobs) had a song describing yourself like the pcs in we be goblins what would your song be?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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wabbitking wrote:
if you (James Jacobs) had a song describing yourself like the pcs in we be goblins what would your song be?

It'd be too awezome to repeat! (AKA: Poetry isn't super easy to create, and I don't have the energy to come up with a goblin song about me at this moment.)

Project Manager

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Thank you, James. <3

Liberty's Edge Developer

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James Jacobs wrote:
With upmost respect, I get that, but folks who deflect the situation and turn it around to make the problem about themselves or changing the subject are not helping the situation. Think of it from the reverse—if you were in a situation where you saw a large group of people hating on and tormenting someone who was diabetic, and someone else came along and said something to the effect of "It's tough for me too, because I have a different condition that makes life hard for me." Doesn't help the diabetic who's being attacked. When someone is being attacked, the right thing to do isn't to deflect things and seek pity or aid for yourself, but to step in and help the person being attacked, regardless of your own situation. Because doing so means that the person being attacked is supported, feels safe and welcome, and therefore is in a MUCH stronger position to come to the aid of someone else who's being attacked.

Thank you, James <3

Silver Crusade System Administrator

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James Jacobs wrote:
Actually, I've seen this terrible behavior among the "old guard" as well...

Thank you so much. Seriously. It is sometimes hard for us to express this without getting yelled at. I've personally had some of the old guard ruin my day and it's really frustrating. But it's nice to have such great allies out there. Again, thank you. <3

Liberty's Edge

James,
was Iomedae married? did she leave any offspring in Golarion?


Paladinosaur wrote:

James,

was Iomedae married? did she leave any offspring in Golarion?

Same question about Irori, Nethys, Norgorber, and Caiden Cailean.

Adventure Card Game Designer

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James Jacobs wrote:
With upmost respect, I get that, but folks who deflect the situation and turn it around to make the problem about themselves or changing the subject are not helping the situation. Think of it from the reverse—if you were in a situation where you saw a large group of people hating on and tormenting someone who was diabetic, and someone else came along and said something to the effect of "It's tough for me too, because I have a different condition that makes life hard for me." Doesn't help the diabetic who's being attacked. When someone is being attacked, the right thing to do isn't to deflect things and seek pity or aid for yourself, but to step in and help the person being attacked, regardless of your own situation. Because doing so means that the person being attacked is supported, feels safe and welcome, and therefore is in a MUCH stronger position to come to the aid of someone else who's being attacked.

Just jumping in quickly to thank James for being an excellent human/lizard hybrid and colleague.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Paladinosaur wrote:

James,

was Iomedae married? did she leave any offspring in Golarion?

Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

thegreenteagamer wrote:
Paladinosaur wrote:

James,

was Iomedae married? did she leave any offspring in Golarion?
Same question about Irori, Nethys, Norgorber, and Caiden Cailean.

All nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aww! AND: Thank you back at ya Jessica, Crystal, Lissa, and Tanis, for being so damn awesome and inspiring and brave and kick-ass in the first place!


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James Jacobs wrote:
Aww! AND: Thank you back at ya Jessica, Crystal, Lissa, and Tanis, for being so damn awesome and inspiring and brave and kick-ass in the first place!

You have more than just co workers on your side James. And I agree all the above people are awesome.

Silver Crusade

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Well this thread just took couple more levels in awesome.

Not only do I agree wholeheartedly but it's reasons like this that I love and respect Paizo and it's staff so much.


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I'm sorry the haters are so vocal, James. Rest assured that hordes of others are "silent" because we're busy enjoying paizo's great products!

Now a question so as not to cheat the thread: is there any chance of a Brevoy-focused product coming out in the reasonably-near future?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

TMP wrote:
Now a question so as not to cheat the thread: is there any chance of a Brevoy-focused product coming out in the reasonably-near future?

Assuming you mean "this year" by "reasonably near future," then absolutely not.

If instead you mean "Within the next few years," the answer increases to probably not.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Who would be the best dev to ask about the literary themes and ideas explored in Giantslayer, beyond the simmering racial tension in Trunau that's really only discussed in Battle of Bloodmarch Hill and advancing through the various tiers of giants in combat encounters?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Who would be the best dev to ask about the literary themes and ideas explored in Giantslayer, beyond the simmering racial tension in Trunau that's really only discussed in Battle of Bloodmarch Hill and advancing through the various tiers of giants in combat encounters?

Rob was the developer of Giantslayer.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Who would be the best dev to ask about the literary themes and ideas explored in Giantslayer, beyond the simmering racial tension in Trunau that's really only discussed in Battle of Bloodmarch Hill and advancing through the various tiers of giants in combat encounters?
Rob was the developer of Giantslayer.

Thanks! Some miscellaneous questions:

Do you think, with the formula the Adventure Paths tend to follow (the PCs are first level and just starting their adventuring careers) makes it difficult for an adventure path to tell a "We're getting the old team back together!" or "return from retirement" story like The Blues Brothers or Overwatch?

If I were to start my own thread for identifying weapons I find in media and figuring out what their closest Pathfinder equivalent would be, what subforum would be the best place to put it: Advice? Rules Questions? Pathfinder General Discussion?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Some of the weigh-ins here reinforce what Our Tyrant Lizard King said earlier... there are Paizo staffers posted above who I don't think I've seen post before- or at least not since leaving the boards for reasons of my own a few years ago and then stumbling back.

This saddens and angers me.

I'm reasonably "old-guard" in terms of my time with this hobby. I recall being subject to bullying and plenty of social awkwardness because I liked to "pretend to be an elf" back in the day.

So the fact that a group I nominally identify with has taken to loudly and vocally behaving like an overflowing sewer of the exact kind of <redacted> I used to take in Junior High leaves me in a state best described as "baffled fury."

Do you have any pointers for channeling said "baffled fury" in a useful direction?


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Hey James,

Hope you have a safe and happy weekend. In the spirit of 'letting people know' I thought I'd chime in that I've been in the hobby for 20 years and you are a singular inspiration to the reason I'm now 4 books ('books' as they'd have been printed) into rotrl as a GM. The excitement about how you run your games and frankly the answers to rule questions are what actually made me excited to give it a shot.

Up until that point I had never read answers from anyone who espoused a 'Figure out what's more fun and go with that as an answer' philosophy as to how to play the game. So thank you - not just for an awesome product - but for being awesome. I have played 1st, 2nd, 3rd, (skipped 3.5 oddly), shadowrun (back in 91 - no idea what version), GURPS, RIFTS, TMNT, etc. etc. - rules are rules - the game is always fun when it's about the ideas.

To keep the post legal - do you prefer 'clicky' keyboards, 'soft touch' or 'chiclet' (like a laptop) - myself I prefer soft touch.


Quote:


With upmost respect, I get that, but folks who deflect the situation and turn it around to make the problem about themselves or changing the subject are not helping the situation. Think of it from the reverse—if you were in a situation where you saw a large group of people hating on and tormenting someone who was diabetic, and someone else came along and said something to the effect of "It's tough for me too, because I have a different condition that makes life hard for me." Doesn't help the diabetic who's being attacked. When someone is being attacked, the right thing to do isn't to deflect things and seek pity or aid for yourself, but to step in and help the person being attacked, regardless of your own situation. Because doing so means that the person being attacked is supported, feels safe and welcome, and therefore is in a MUCH stronger position to come to the aid of someone else who's being attacked.

I wasn't seeking to deflect things onto me and seek pity. I was trying to expand on it. It is common to see people defend against the major things like racism, gender, and sexual orientation, but rare to see even a mention of similar problems based on less obvious things (I think bronies and orientation are the only non-visual hate/discrimination aspects discussed at all, as far as I am aware).

I mentioned my personal experiences only because those are the examples I had at hand that I know best (for obvious reasons I should hope). I could also cite the Derpy issue, if desired, but probably a little late at this point.

TLDR, I think all those things are one issue (not including the ones learning it directly from parents) expressed in various ways that have latched onto different things, and therefore solutions based on teaching awareness and equality won't be effective solutions if the actual cause is more instinctual and deeper than racism/gender/orientation/etc.


Hey Mr. Jacobs, back in 2011 you said that paladins in Golarion don't need deities, but in Ultimate Intrigue, the grey paladin's alignment description says they "must still worship a lawful good, lawful neutral or neutral good deity." Did that stance get reversed and I just can't find reference to it, or did someone screw that wording up?


Quote:
As for using "regular houserules..." Well, as it works out, being one of the people who wrote and publishes Pathfinder, the rules you see actually ARE the "regular houserules" I would prefer to play with. The game is what it is in part because it's the game that I and my coworkers here at Paizo want. I CAN change the mechanics—because I help create them. And me even talking about "changing the game" is more destructive than helpful, because due to my position in the company, I can't really idly muse on that kind of topic without setting off false alarms that "Paizo is building a new edition" or something like that.

That is sad, I'd expect a game designer to be the best source. Any more general advice for such design you might part with?

Quote:
I've never heard of Drowtales.

0.0

It is an amazing graphic novel/webcomic.

http://drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=4192

I do warn though, that while the main comic is sfw, though clearly written for adult audiences, there is a fanservice area with nsfw (most behind a paywall except samples, seems to be one of the money making ventures for the artists) among lots of other stuff, so be careful exploring at work.


James Jacobs wrote:


1) Nope. Never was. We looked at the 100th volume of Pathfinder as the big milestone; not so much a "10th AP" really. And alas, the reception volume #100 got was kind of lukewarm overall, which was disappointing...

One person may not make much of a difference, but I loved Pathfinder #100, and I subscribed at the beginning of Hell's Rebels in no small part because I wanted to get #100.


Hi there James I was wondering which of the Gods do you find most engaging and fun to right/read about. I imagine you've answered this at some point before in this thread; however, its now 1261 pages long O.o so searching through it is a little daunting but I'm given to understanding one has to ask question in this thread in order to not 'cheat the thread'. Hence the unoriginal question.

I personally enjoy our Lady of the Boneyard (obviously).

Now onto my ulterior motive. I'd like to say how wonderful it is that you and other writers bother to engage with your fans on the forums in the way you do. It's certainly an asset to the game and it would be a terrible shame if you guys felt the forums were too inhospitable a place for you visit anymore. Thought I'd let you know given the insecurities about Staff posting on these forums has been voiced recently.

Suddenly I've been struck with curiosity over why you seemingly infrequently play none base classes, an inference I made based on the fact you mentioned earlier the last time you played a none base class it was a during play testing a Swashbuckler. I myself must admit I'm a bit biased towards the core/base classes having only ever theorycrafted one Hybrid (a shield focused brawler who was basically captain America, I blame a mild infatuation with Chris Evans.) Although I must admit the occult adventures classes have very much tickled my fancy. Particularly the spiritualist.

Oh bother now I've thought of another question O.o Is one supposed to make a separate post for each question in this forum? <.> cause I'm braking the rules most shamefully if so.
Onto question number 3, do you intend to release some Mythic paths for the occult Adventures classes, of course one could do a homebrew conversion of the caster paths to work with Psychic casting rather than Arcane or divine. But for certain classes (particularly the Kineticist) this isn't very satisfactory and having exactly 0 path choices that enhance blasts is a bit disheartening.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Who would be the best dev to ask about the literary themes and ideas explored in Giantslayer, beyond the simmering racial tension in Trunau that's really only discussed in Battle of Bloodmarch Hill and advancing through the various tiers of giants in combat encounters?
Rob was the developer of Giantslayer.

Thanks! Some miscellaneous questions:

Do you think, with the formula the Adventure Paths tend to follow (the PCs are first level and just starting their adventuring careers) makes it difficult for an adventure path to tell a "We're getting the old team back together!" or "return from retirement" story like The Blues Brothers or Overwatch?

If I were to start my own thread for identifying weapons I find in media and figuring out what their closest Pathfinder equivalent would be, what subforum would be the best place to put it: Advice? Rules Questions? Pathfinder General Discussion?

The fact that in order to "get the team back together" implies that you were once a team to begin with, and thus had prior adventures, means that you'd likely have to be higher level than 1st AND would have had to have abandoned your previous group to go your separate ways and then have a good reason to come back together. Those are two things that the game play style of Pathfinder have trouble with, espeically since, in game, it's VERY difficult to split up a gaming group, run their characters on solo adventures or as part of other separate groups for a few sessions, and then pull them back together. That's something that works better at a GM's table rather than in a published adventure, I think. THAT SAID, I could see doing a high-level one shot adventure for 18th or 19th or 20th level that's all about getting a group of retired AP survivors back together for one more adventure... but that would need to cover some themes that lots of game groups might not be comfortable with, such as playing older characters who aren't maximized as best as possible, or having to make assumptions about what they did in their down time, and so on. It's a complicated matter. Not every story element is right for a team-based RPG.

As for a weapon ID thread, Hmm. I'd probably put it in the advice subforum.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Cole Deschain wrote:

Some of the weigh-ins here reinforce what Our Tyrant Lizard King said earlier... there are Paizo staffers posted above who I don't think I've seen post before- or at least not since leaving the boards for reasons of my own a few years ago and then stumbling back.

This saddens and angers me.

I'm reasonably "old-guard" in terms of my time with this hobby. I recall being subject to bullying and plenty of social awkwardness because I liked to "pretend to be an elf" back in the day.

So the fact that a group I nominally identify with has taken to loudly and vocally behaving like an overflowing sewer of the exact kind of <redacted> I used to take in Junior High leaves me in a state best described as "baffled fury."

Do you have any pointers for channeling said "baffled fury" in a useful direction?

There are indeed several employees here at Paizo who don't feel comfortable posting to the boards, and some in some cases who USED to feel comfortable but don't any more. And indeed, that's pretty depressing. I personally feel that the best solution is to have a bit more empowerment here to a staff of moderators or the like, but that would also likely result in some folks who hang out here getting angry as well. Personally, I'd not mind AT ALL seeing the mean people get angry and leave our boards; I think that trolls are destructive enough that no amount of money they might spend on Paizo products is worth keeping them around.

In the meantime, the best way folks can help "channel their fury" about the topic in a useful direction is to support and encourage and bolster those who you see are the target of hate and to NOT engage the trolls. Instead, tag them with a flag. Don't "feed" them by engaging them. Spend your time talking about fun stuff, being positive, and let the moderaters take care of the trolls by banning them or removing posts as needed, but keep in mind that we don't have a HUGE staff of moderators and sometimes it takes a bit for action to happen.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Ckorik wrote:

Hey James,

Hope you have a safe and happy weekend. In the spirit of 'letting people know' I thought I'd chime in that I've been in the hobby for 20 years and you are a singular inspiration to the reason I'm now 4 books ('books' as they'd have been printed) into rotrl as a GM. The excitement about how you run your games and frankly the answers to rule questions are what actually made me excited to give it a shot.

Up until that point I had never read answers from anyone who espoused a 'Figure out what's more fun and go with that as an answer' philosophy as to how to play the game. So thank you - not just for an awesome product - but for being awesome. I have played 1st, 2nd, 3rd, (skipped 3.5 oddly), shadowrun (back in 91 - no idea what version), GURPS, RIFTS, TMNT, etc. etc. - rules are rules - the game is always fun when it's about the ideas.

To keep the post legal - do you prefer 'clicky' keyboards, 'soft touch' or 'chiclet' (like a laptop) - myself I prefer soft touch.

Thanks! Was gonna go on an adventure today but decided instead to stay home and try to take it easy and refocus my head space, since a lot of the internet negativity that I saw after getting back from the vacation was pretty gross... after 6 days of being away from the industry it was a bit disenheartening to see things hadn't gotten better on their own.

So... sucked to not go on a reptile museum/brunch/hike adventure, but taking it easy and recharging seems to be working, so I THINK it was the right choice for me.

AND: Thanks again for the positivity and kind words! :-)

I prefer clicky keyboards. Probalby because I'm old school and learned to type on an actual, non-electric typewriter. I like the feedback of the click to let me know that I've pushed hard enough to register the key and so I can move on. I type at 80 some words a minute (last time I checked several years ago, I assume I'm faster now), so it's easy for me to be ahead of my keystrokes in word composition. Not hearing or feeling the click slows me down.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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TheAlicornSage wrote:
Quote:


With upmost respect, I get that, but folks who deflect the situation and turn it around to make the problem about themselves or changing the subject are not helping the situation. Think of it from the reverse—if you were in a situation where you saw a large group of people hating on and tormenting someone who was diabetic, and someone else came along and said something to the effect of "It's tough for me too, because I have a different condition that makes life hard for me." Doesn't help the diabetic who's being attacked. When someone is being attacked, the right thing to do isn't to deflect things and seek pity or aid for yourself, but to step in and help the person being attacked, regardless of your own situation. Because doing so means that the person being attacked is supported, feels safe and welcome, and therefore is in a MUCH stronger position to come to the aid of someone else who's being attacked.

I wasn't seeking to deflect things onto me and seek pity. I was trying to expand on it. It is common to see people defend against the major things like racism, gender, and sexual orientation, but rare to see even a mention of similar problems based on less obvious things (I think bronies and orientation are the only non-visual hate/discrimination aspects discussed at all, as far as I am aware).

I mentioned my personal experiences only because those are the examples I had at hand that I know best (for obvious reasons I should hope). I could also cite the Derpy issue, if desired, but probably a little late at this point.

TLDR, I think all those things are one issue (not including the ones learning it directly from parents) expressed in various ways that have latched onto different things, and therefore solutions based on teaching awareness and equality won't be effective solutions if the actual cause is more instinctual and deeper than racism/gender/orientation/etc.

Solving one problem does not mean ignoring another problem, but trying to solve another problem often means ignoring the first problem. In any event, let's move on, since continuing to try to derail things like this is exactly what my previous reply was advising folks to not do. Further posts in this thread along this line will be ignored by me.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

FedoraFerret wrote:
Hey Mr. Jacobs, back in 2011 you said that paladins in Golarion don't need deities, but in Ultimate Intrigue, the grey paladin's alignment description says they "must still worship a lawful good, lawful neutral or neutral good deity." Did that stance get reversed and I just can't find reference to it, or did someone screw that wording up?

The gray paladin is not "all paladins." It's a subset, and as it works out, a subset that must worship a lawful good, lawful neutral, or neutral good deity. The wording is a bit loosy-goosy, but nothing in there should be taken as "All paladins must worship deities." Just "MOST paladins should worship deities," if anything.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Ckorik wrote:

Hey James,

Hope you have a safe and happy weekend. In the spirit of 'letting people know' I thought I'd chime in that I've been in the hobby for 20 years and you are a singular inspiration to the reason I'm now 4 books ('books' as they'd have been printed) into rotrl as a GM. The excitement about how you run your games and frankly the answers to rule questions are what actually made me excited to give it a shot.

Up until that point I had never read answers from anyone who espoused a 'Figure out what's more fun and go with that as an answer' philosophy as to how to play the game. So thank you - not just for an awesome product - but for being awesome. I have played 1st, 2nd, 3rd, (skipped 3.5 oddly), shadowrun (back in 91 - no idea what version), GURPS, RIFTS, TMNT, etc. etc. - rules are rules - the game is always fun when it's about the ideas.

To keep the post legal - do you prefer 'clicky' keyboards, 'soft touch' or 'chiclet' (like a laptop) - myself I prefer soft touch.

Thanks! Was gonna go on an adventure today but decided instead to stay home and try to take it easy and refocus my head space, since a lot of the internet negativity that I saw after getting back from the vacation was pretty gross... after 6 days of being away from the industry it was a bit disenheartening to see things hadn't gotten better on their own.

So... sucked to not go on a reptile museum/brunch/hike adventure, but taking it easy and recharging seems to be working, so I THINK it was the right choice for me.

AND: Thanks again for the positivity and kind words! :-)

I prefer clicky keyboards. Probalby because I'm old school and learned to type on an actual, non-electric typewriter. I like the feedback of the click to let me know that I've pushed hard enough to register the key and so I can move on. I type at 80 some words a minute (last time I checked several years ago, I assume I'm faster now), so it's easy for me to be ahead of my keystrokes in word composition. Not hearing or...

I bought a Razer keyboard specifically for this, it has a very satisfying click ^w^

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
TheAlicornSage wrote:
Quote:
As for using "regular houserules..." Well, as it works out, being one of the people who wrote and publishes Pathfinder, the rules you see actually ARE the "regular houserules" I would prefer to play with. The game is what it is in part because it's the game that I and my coworkers here at Paizo want. I CAN change the mechanics—because I help create them. And me even talking about "changing the game" is more destructive than helpful, because due to my position in the company, I can't really idly muse on that kind of topic without setting off false alarms that "Paizo is building a new edition" or something like that.
That is sad, I'd expect a game designer to be the best source. Any more general advice for such design you might part with?

Nothing sad about it at all. Being able to see my preferred rules published is pretty neat!

There IS something frustrating about it though, and that is that as a highly visible Paizo employee, I do have to be VERY careful about what I say. I've made jokes before on these boards or have spoken perhaps a bit too frankly on topics, and there's always folks out there who take those things the wrong way, and it only takes one of the hundreds of thousands of gamers out there to take offense or misunderstand and post something or complain or otherwise do something that comes back to bite me in the ass or the like.

Being a game designer is super awesome; it's great to be able to work in a job that you love. But it's got some very significant downsides to it over and above the typical downsides to most jobs as a result. Fortunately, the upsides are so UP that they overshadow the downsides. for the most part! :P

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


1) Nope. Never was. We looked at the 100th volume of Pathfinder as the big milestone; not so much a "10th AP" really. And alas, the reception volume #100 got was kind of lukewarm overall, which was disappointing...
One person may not make much of a difference, but I loved Pathfinder #100, and I subscribed at the beginning of Hell's Rebels in no small part because I wanted to get #100.

One person very much DOES make a difference. Thanks! :D

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Chromantic Durgon <3 wrote:

Hi there James I was wondering which of the Gods do you find most engaging and fun to right/read about. I imagine you've answered this at some point before in this thread; however, its now 1261 pages long O.o so searching through it is a little daunting but I'm given to understanding one has to ask question in this thread in order to not 'cheat the thread'. Hence the unoriginal question.

I personally enjoy our Lady of the Boneyard (obviously).

Now onto my ulterior motive. I'd like to say how wonderful it is that you and other writers bother to engage with your fans on the forums in the way you do. It's certainly an asset to the game and it would be a terrible shame if you guys felt the forums were too inhospitable a place for you visit anymore. Thought I'd let you know given the insecurities about Staff posting on these forums has been voiced recently.

Suddenly I've been struck with curiosity over why you seemingly infrequently play none base classes, an inference I made based on the fact you mentioned earlier the last time you played a none base class it was a during play testing a Swashbuckler. I myself must admit I'm a bit biased towards the core/base classes having only ever theorycrafted one Hybrid (a shield focused brawler who was basically captain America, I blame a mild infatuation with Chris Evans.) Although I must admit the occult adventures classes have very much tickled my fancy. Particularly the spiritualist.

Oh bother now I've thought of another question O.o Is one supposed to make a separate post for each question in this forum? <.> cause I'm braking the rules most shamefully if so.
Onto question number 3, do you intend to release some Mythic paths for the occult Adventures classes, of course one could do a homebrew conversion of the caster paths to work with Psychic casting rather than Arcane or divine. But for certain classes (particularly the Kineticist) this isn't very satisfactory and having exactly 0 path choices that enhance blasts is a bit disheartening.

My favorites to read and write about are the chaotic gods, and the gods who are a little bit rebellious and/or buck tradition to do something different. The way we have a female sun deity, for example, or deities like Desna or Milani or Nocticula or Calistria who in certain ways are rebels against the status quo and aren't perfect and make mistakes but do their best to be true to their nature anyway.

AND thanks for the kind words! The amount of support that's been welling up here is very very very much appreciated! :D

I prefer base classes, and I prefer humans or very human-similar races (elves and tieflings and half elves mostly when not playing a human) because I prefer my touchstone into the world to be well-established and familiar. I don't want the rules to distract me. I don't want the flavor to distract me. I want to focus in on my character's personality without having to keep track of new options that aren't familiar, or dealing with things like how an exotic and out-of-place character might fit into an adventure. The most interesting things to me about my characters are how they think, and how they interact and grow relatinoships with other PCs and NPCs. The exotic stuff is MUCH more interesting to me when it's on other characters, be they PCs or NPCs.

I suppose it helps that in my day job, I'm building ALL SORTS of weird exotic characters every single week, so the itch to build things like blue dragon eldritch knights or half-succubus mythic witches isn't so much there when I sit down to build a PC.

No need for separate posts for questions unless your post gets too long... but your original post is about the upper limit there! :P As a general rule, once you're over 15 to 20 sentences, time for a new post.

No plans to do any new mythic content for Occult adventures at this time. That's an area where you'll need to either rely on house rules or 3rd party books. In fact, one of the primary reasons why we went with an open game system is because we knew we could never publish all the books customers would want, and by having open rules, there's more books and more options out there than we could ever do on our own.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


1) Nope. Never was. We looked at the 100th volume of Pathfinder as the big milestone; not so much a "10th AP" really. And alas, the reception volume #100 got was kind of lukewarm overall, which was disappointing...
One person may not make much of a difference, but I loved Pathfinder #100, and I subscribed at the beginning of Hell's Rebels in no small part because I wanted to get #100.
One person very much DOES make a difference. Thanks! :D

As a player of Hell's Rebels rather than a GM I only skimmed the books rather than read them thoroughly but I did greatly enjoy all the supplementary material in 100. I haven't written a review for it since I haven't gotten a chance to play it though >_<

Which I suspect is why there isn't a lot of reviews atm, people are waiting to run/play through it before doing so.

It is tied with Reign of Winter for my favourite AP though ^w^

Silver Crusade Contributor

Another thing that might be slowing down play of Hell's Rebels (and thus reviews) is the people waiting to run both Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance together. (This is the case for me, at least.)

Would you like to see the Improved/Greater Spring Attack feats return someday? (Whether or not that's legally possible is a separate matter.)

Thank you! ^_^

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kalindlara wrote:

Another thing that might be slowing down play of Hell's Rebels (and thus reviews) is the people waiting to run both Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance together. (This is the case for me, at least.)

Would you like to see the Improved/Greater Spring Attack feats return someday? (Whether or not that's legally possible is a separate matter.)

Thank you! ^_^

I'm either not familiar with or have forgotten what the Improoved/Greater Spring Attack feats did, but I can guess they worked similar to two-weapon fighting in that they granted more iterative attacks? Whether or not it's legal is indeed kinda hazy, as is whether or not it's ethical to do so even if it IS legal, as is whether or not they're good ideas in the first place. I kinda think that they're not.


I have some sorcerer questions
1 will their be anymore wildblooded bloodlines for sorcerers?
2 will their be any wild/primal magic archtype for sorcerers like the one for wizards anytime soon?
3 when will their be a adventure where the villain is a awakened tyrannosaurs who goes by the alias Jaumes Jacobes(may or may not me a sorcerer)?


Is there any way I can make the paizo employees feel appreciated? I do have a box of inspirational writing swag for some of the development team I am going to send. That might help but anything else?

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