Creative Director
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You've inspired me to finally look into getting some Lovecraft injected into my system. I'm hunting for some kind of compilation of his stories that would cover the best, if not all of his writings. What would you recommend?
The best convergence between cost and completeness at this point is the Library of America edition, I suspect. Has all of his major/best stories in one book.
But there's a LOT of options on how to buy his stories these days. These are the best ones, in my opinion, so any compilation that has most or all of these stories will do you right.
The Colour out of Space
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dunwich Horror
The Shadow Out of Time
At the Mountains of Madness*
Dreams in the Witch House
Whisperer in the Darkness
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Call of Cthulhu
The Haunter in the Dark
The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward*
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath*
*This is a novella, not a short story, and as such aren't always found in anthologies.
Of those all, At the Mountains of Madness is my favorite.
Of those all, The Dunwich Horror is probably the most "mainstream." And as such, probably the best one to start with.
Also? I'm jealous of you being able to experience these stories for the first time. And I hope you like them! :)
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Creative Director
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If you were to GM a PRPG game that had an Aztec/Mayan "feel" to it, where in Golarion would you start your PCs?
The western Mwangi Expanse, along the border with the Shackles and the Sodden Lands.
Actually, I'd probably set it entirely in the Shackles. Cause, you know, pirates.
ACTUALLY, I would just run Serpent's Skull. That AP is loaded with ziggurats and opportunities for human sacrifice.
Now, all that said, Arcadia's a good bet too.
in your opinion, what are the chances of ever seeing the maure castle story finished?
With the upcoming inclusion of the Gunslinger is there a plan to move the time line forward for setting or will the inclusion of black powder be the responsibility of GMs like myself :)
Since the rules for firearms are already written in the Inner Sea World Guide, I'm not sure why you'd need to more the time line forward...
Is there any information about the shadow magic mentioned in the Campaign Setting entry on Nidal and Plague of Shadow in any announced product?
You've inspired me to finally look into getting some Lovecraft injected into my system. I'm hunting for some kind of compilation of his stories that would cover the best, if not all of his writings. What would you recommend?
I'm going through a similar situation. All this Lovecraft stuff on the board, mostly from James, has been fascinating me. Luckily, I happen to work at Barnes & Noble and we JUST got in a brand new, pretty nice looking leatherbound edition of the COMPLETE fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.
James' list above has helped me to figure out where to start. I think it's about time I cracked this thing open.
Edit: Oh, and the pricepoint is pretty good too, given the aesthetics and the completeness.
Do you own a sweet bookstand?
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I'm going through a similar situation. All this Lovecraft stuff on the board, mostly from James, has been fascinating me. Luckily, I happen to work at Barnes & Noble and we JUST got in a brand new, pretty nice looking leatherbound edition of the COMPLETE fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.
I have the first edition of that book, but that one looks nice. Hopefully better edited this time. At that price, I might upgrade to it. At $18 you can't beat it. It's not quite fully complete, as it lacks his 'revisions'. Lovecraft's revisions tended to range from full collaboration to straight up ghostwriting, so they really should be considered part of his full body of work. Still, with this tome, The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft, and The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, you'll have pretty much everything the man wrote that's worth reading.
Is it correct that every corporeal creature in PFRPG is affected by critical hits, even golems? Or have I overlooked something?
Is there an eye like an eye of the storm of the eye of ambendengo. Is it stable? So something really powerful could be stuck there. Are there aquatic merfolk that travel underwater to get ship that wreck themselves off the eye of the Abendengo. Would these shipwrecks if they existed make a good adventure site?
Is it correct that every corporeal creature in PFRPG is affected by critical hits, even golems? Or have I overlooked something?Sorry for answering this for you James.
In the PRD, looking at the Creature Types, only Oozes, Elementals, Swarms, and Incorporeal creatures are immune to critical hits.
Its found in a weird place, but animated objects are also immune. Its in the PRD under "attacking an object" (Im not making that up, either. Ill link it as soon as i find it again)
EDIT- found it. Scroll down to attacking an object and read the entire immunities section
Double EDIT- Ive house-ruled that only animated objects made of a homogeneous substance are immune, as I think that's more in line with the spirit of the rules, tho. (animated boulder=immmune/ animated suit of armor=not immune)
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Creative Director
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If you were to write up a macahuitl, what would it's "stats" be (simple/martial/exotic, handedness, damage, critical)?
We did this already in Adventurer's Armory, although we call the weapon by a different name (terbutje). Martial one-handed melee weapon, basically is completely identical to a longsword, stats wise, but if you roll a natural 1 when attacking with it, it becomes broken (or destroyed if it's already broken).
As for the macahuitl itself... we statted THOSE up back in either Dragon or Dungeon to support the Savage Tide adventure path, but I don't recall exactly where we did that now.
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Creative Director
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in your opinion, what are the chances of ever seeing the maure castle story finished?
Zero. Wizards doesn't seem interested in it, and they own the rights, 100%.
Rob Kuntz has been working on more levels for it, I hear, but I'm not sure how he can legally release that stuff to the public, which is a damn shame.
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Creative Director
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With the upcoming inclusion of the Gunslinger is there a plan to move the time line forward for setting or will the inclusion of black powder be the responsibility of GMs like myself :)
Nope.
It's because we thought that the idea of a gunslinger would make for a cool class that hasn't been done for this kind of game, and would thus be a great opportunity for us to flex our design chops and further make Pathfinder its own game.
Golarion itself isn't "moving forward in timeline" at all, nor are gunslingers going to be a significant part of the world. There's just not enough guns in the world to make them a good fit for the world. They could work well as PCs (given the GM's permission, of course, since they're an awkward fit for Golarion), but that only reinforces their rarity, since PCs are the rarest creatures in a game world. Even though there's tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands of players playing characters in Golarion, for any one game, it's only THEIR party that actually exists in that version of Golarion, after all. That makes PCs (and by definition, PC gunslingers) rarer than the spawn of Rovagug.
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Creative Director
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Is there an eye like an eye of the storm of the eye of ambendengo. Is it stable? So something really powerful could be stuck there. Are there aquatic merfolk that travel underwater to get ship that wreck themselves off the eye of the Abendengo. Would these shipwrecks if they existed make a good adventure site?
There is indeed an eye in that storm. Which is sort of why it's called the "EYE of Abendego."
As for what's going on in there exactly... we haven't yet said. We're VERY likely to explore the Eye of Abendego someday, though. I have a pretty solid idea about what caused it to form, what's in it, what's in the center, and what's below it, in any case, but now isn't the time to reveal all that juicy info.
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Creative Director
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Is it correct that every corporeal creature in PFRPG is affected by critical hits, even golems? Or have I overlooked something?Sorry for answering this for you James.
In the PRD, looking at the Creature Types, only Oozes, Elementals, Swarms, and Incorporeal creatures are immune to critical hits.
Its found in a weird place, but animated objects are also immune. Its in the PRD under "attacking an object" (Im not making that up, either. Ill link it as soon as i find it again)
EDIT- found it. Scroll down to attacking an object and read the entire immunities section
Double EDIT- Ive house-ruled that only animated objects made of a homogeneous substance are immune, as I think that's more in line with the spirit of the rules, tho. (animated boulder=immmune/ animated suit of armor=not immune)
That's a really unfortunate error, and a classic example of monster rules being covered in the Core Rulebook when they shouldn't have been covered at all.
The animated object stat block says nothing about them being immune to critical hits, and it shouldn't, because they aren't.
I suspect that unfortunate bit stuck in the Core Rulebook due to a fragment being accidentally left in the rules from 3.5, when all constructs were immune to critical hits.
Is it correct that every corporeal creature in PFRPG is affected by critical hits, even golems? Or have I overlooked something?Sorry for answering this for you James.
In the PRD, looking at the Creature Types, only Oozes, Elementals, Swarms, and Incorporeal creatures are immune to critical hits.
Its found in a weird place, but animated objects are also immune. Its in the PRD under "attacking an object" (Im not making that up, either. Ill link it as soon as i find it again)
EDIT- found it. Scroll down to attacking an object and read the entire immunities section
Double EDIT- Ive house-ruled that only animated objects made of a homogeneous substance are immune, as I think that's more in line with the spirit of the rules, tho. (animated boulder=immmune/ animated suit of armor=not immune)
That's a really unfortunate error, and a classic example of monster rules being covered in the Core Rulebook when they shouldn't have been covered at all.
The animated object stat block says nothing about them being immune to critical hits, and it shouldn't, because they aren't.
I suspect that unfortunate bit stuck in the Core Rulebook due to a fragment being accidentally left in the rules from 3.5, when all constructs were immune to critical hits.
I always wondered why animated objects were immune to crits. It makes sense now. Thanks.
in your opinion, what are the chances of ever seeing the maure castle story finished?Zero. Wizards doesn't seem interested in it, and they own the rights, 100%.
Rob Kuntz has been working on more levels for it, I hear, but I'm not sure how he can legally release that stuff to the public, which is a damn shame.
What do you use to represent characters/monsters in your own game? (plastic figs, tokens, nothing) You've mentioned you don't like miniatures games...does that mean you don't like to use minis, period, or you don't like specific miniatures games like Warhammer?
Also, have you met and how do you deal with people who still think our games are devil worship?
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Creative Director
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What do you use to represent characters/monsters in your own game? (plastic figs, tokens, nothing) You've mentioned you don't like miniatures games...does that mean you don't like to use minis, period, or you don't like specific miniatures games like Warhammer?
Also, have you met and how do you deal with people who still think our games are devil worship?
I don't like miniatures games because I like story and roleplaying, and minis games don't have that because they're not roleplaying games. You can certainly ADD roleplay elements to a minis game... but you can add roleplay elements to checkers. Doesn't make checkers an RPG.
I vastly prefer to use minis to represent characters and monsters in my games. I use a variety of battlemap solutions, from the big vinyl battle-maps to tactiles to our own flip mats and map packs. The vast majority of the minis I use in play are D&D minis—they vary quite wildly from crappy to pretty good in paint job quality, but I don't care about that in game, since they're viewed at a distance where it's hard to tell bad paint jobs from good. For player characters and key NPC Bad Guys I much prefer to use hand-painted metal minis, though.
I've met very few people who think RPGs are devil worship. I treat them the same way I treat most close-minded intolerant folk (be they homophobes, misogynists, racists, zealots, obsessive politickers, or just jerks)—by avoiding them. In cases where I can't avoid them, I avoid whatever topic might set them off (since I'm not friends with these types of folks, I can gloss over the intolerances). In cases where I can't avoid them and can't avoid the topic that sets them off, I call them out on their close-minded intolerance as best I can, in the same way I might react to a racist or homophobe misogynist or whatever. Fortunately, I've not had to deal with many "Your game is devil worship" folks at all.
Do you own a sweet bookstand?Nope. I could use a few, though. They'd have to be pretty sturdy or big though for the books I'd want to display.
Bible-dictionary stands then.
I highly recommend obtaining some. They have saved me much neck-strain, triggers has hidden benefits in the other aspects of life.
Have Paizo made any poll on "what are your favorite levels to play"?
If yes: what did people answer?
If no, have you, as a very active person on the Messageboards, any view on what most players (and game masters) think?
What are your favorite levels to play?
Is there a plan in the works as far as exotic locations and thier effects on casting magic. i.e. Underwater, Vacum, Underground, and extraplanar locations?
There are rules for differnt in the gmg here. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/planarAdventures.html
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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What section of rules do you wish was expanded upon?
Which do you prefer on your cooked admixture of baking powder, eggs, flour, and buttermilk?
(multiple choice is allowed)
A. tree sap
B. bee regurgitation
C. fruit preserves
D. churned milk
E. Other __________
Or do you prefer unborn chicken fetuses and pork bellies for breakfast? I like the later myself.
Is the Paizo golem actually the Sasquatch in disguise under the witness protection program?
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Creative Director
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Have Paizo made any poll on "what are your favorite levels to play"?
If yes: what did people answer?If no, have you, as a very active person on the Messageboards, any view on what most players (and game masters) think?
What are your favorite levels to play?
We haven't... because we know the answer. 7th level.
The OVERWHELMING majority of adventures I saw proposed for Dungeon Magazine were 7th level, or essentially averaged to 7th level. That trend continues to this very day, although we solicit a lot fewer adventures... but we see it popping up an awful lot.
Why is that? A combination of things, I think. Here's three:
1) The vast majority of the game's monsters, especially the CLASSIC ones, are CR 7–10, which makes them great bad guys for 7th level adventures.
2) It's at the point where characters really start feeling powerful but before folks start getting nervous about how complicated they are.
3) I suspect that given most game play habits, 7th level might be the point where the average campaign starts to drift, either due to a loss of interest by the players or GM, folks moving away, folks getting distracted by other games, or whatever.
I actually don't really have a favorite level to play, really. That said, I DO like playing high level, especially after reaching high level organically after starting a character at 1st level. Perhaps because that's harder to achieve than it is lower levels, I have a greater desire normally to play higher level adventures?
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Creative Director
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will we ever see the return of the swarm-shifter?
The swarm shifter itself is closed content; we can't update it specifically because it's not legal for us to do so. That said, we've done plenty of similar things over the years. Some that come to mind:
Pathfinder #8. The nosferatu vampire. Instead of going gaseous, it can turn into a swarm.
OR
The spell swarm skin from Advanced Player's Guide.
OR
The Desna-worshiping prestige class from Pathfinder #2.
OR
The worm that walks template from Bestiary 2.
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Creative Director
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Is there a plan in the works as far as exotic locations and thier effects on casting magic. i.e. Underwater, Vacum, Underground, and extraplanar locations?
What Doctor_Wu said. But also, whenever we do weird locations in an adventure, we put rules in that adventure as well. We actually do this quite often.
Would a big hardcover book that collects rules for all sorts of adventure locations (including exotic ones) be cool? I think it might be. Would it sell enough copies to justify being a hardcover? I'm not sure.
Indiana Jones. No contest whatsoever.Not sure if this is on here or not, but:
** spoiler omitted **
Harrison Ford agrees. He said he never saw Han Solo living to a ripe old age because he figured he'd do something dumb enough to get himself killed.
What did you think of the Hellbred race from Fiendish Codex II?
Not sure if this is on here or not, but:Rick DeckardSpoiler:Han Solo or Indiana Jones?
Indiana Jones. No contest whatsoever.
We may need a recount after July 29th; Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde is looking to be a very strong contender for Most Bad-Ass Ford.
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Creative Director
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What did you think of the Hellbred race from Fiendish Codex II?
I actually haven't read Fiendish Codex II. I've glanced through it... enough to see enough design choices that didn't really interest me. That, combined with the fact that I'm just naturally more interested in demons than I am devils means that I don't really have a well-informed opinion about the Hellbred.
Here's my uninformed opinion, though.
1) They have a silly name. "Hellbred" sounds too much like "Hell Bread."
2) They're unnecessary. We already have tieflings and half fiends, after all. If the only point of the Hellbred was to make a player character friendly race... then that too annoys me, since I'm of the opinion that too many player character race choices makes settings into circuses.
What did you think of the Hellbred race from Fiendish Codex II?I actually haven't read Fiendish Codex II. I've glanced through it... enough to see enough design choices that didn't really interest me. That, combined with the fact that I'm just naturally more interested in demons than I am devils means that I don't really have a well-informed opinion about the Hellbred.
Here's my uninformed opinion, though.
1) They have a silly name. "Hellbred" sounds too much like "Hell Bread."
2) They're unnecessary. We already have tieflings and half fiends, after all. If the only point of the Hellbred was to make a player character friendly race... then that too annoys me, since I'm of the opinion that too many player character race choices makes settings into circuses.
Whenever I dine on Fiendish Chicken I like it served on fresh Hell Bread.