Are you introducing any new former PCs in the Sandpoint book or Return Of The Runelords.
How many Vancaskerkins can our intrepid adventurers expect talk down from their Really Bad Idea in Return Of The Runelords, roughly.
What are your favorite kind of maps to draw.
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Two kinda linked questions that occurred to me while looking at my Pathfinder shelf...
A, Is it safe to assume that the announcement of the new version of Pathfinder puts the kibosh on any more Collected Edition hardbacks of the early adventure paths (like Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne were reprinted)?
B, Was there a reason that some of the ancillary materials included in the individual Pathfinder AP issues don't appear to have been included in those hardbacks? For a quick example, the articles on Abadar and "large-scale urban disasters such as famines and plagues" from PF #8 don't seem to appear in the CoCT hardback.
A: I'm not answering questions about 2nd edition in this thread at this time.
B: Because those materials have either been reprinted elsewhere (for example, the Abadar and all the deity articles now live in Inner Sea Gods) or because the material was incorporated in other ways into the book in a more streamlined manner to make room for other content.
B - Fair enough.
A was actually meant to be more of a 1st edition question - I've been impressed by the two collected editions released thus far, and was hoping we'd see more of them as time went by.
If a 1st edition question can't be answered without implying information about 2nd edition, it's also a 2nd edition question.
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Any recommendations for a Conan collection for someone new to that setting to get started with?
Hmmm... Haven't read Conan for a long time so I'm a little rusty, but... I'd probably start with this one.
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Following on from an earlier question - any tips, hints or guidelines for people looking to design their own maps but who don't have cartography experience?
Copy maps. Grab a stack of graph paper, an adventure with maps you think look neat, and copy them out by hand. And keep practicing. Get a graph paper notebook and just doodle maps in it when you get the chance.
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Interesting.
I'm still working my way through the thread - now somewhere in 2011 - and I've come across a comment from you on the subject of archetypes. In response to a question as to whether archetypes had made the original classes obsolete, you said:
I don't think so. Do you?
Does anyone else? (I'm actually curious—I think that there IS a point where there's "enough" archetypes, just as 3.5 reached a point where there were enough prestige classes... I don't think we're there yet, but by the time Ultimate Combat is out, we'll be close.)
I'm curious - given there's been roughly seven years of material released since then, including many archetypes, what's your current position on the question of "Are there too many archetypes?"
I personally do think so. I'm pretty bored with archetypes at this point. With feats and spells and stuff too. With character options overall. But that's probably because I skew more toward the GM side of things and the world-creation and adventure-creation side of things, and I've ALWAYS been more interested in creating and reading books that are adventures or world building products rather than character options. I don't mind adding in new character options now and then as needed or suggested by the topic of the book or adventure, and I do understand that character option heavy books sell better... but I prefer adventures and world books still.
Which is in part why I asked "Do you? Does anyone else?"
The game is NOT just for me. It can't be, since I don't buy this stuff, because i make it and get it for free. The game HAS to be for you, because then you want it and buy it and that helps me and my fellow employees earn money to buy food and pay rent so that we can continue to live in the area and work on making more products for you to enjoy, after all. And so what the customer wants is a huge driver for what we produce. Not the only one—what we WANT to do plays into it, and that's why we produce more than just character option book after character option book.
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Of the nations of the Inner Sea, which list is shorter: countries where slavery is legal, or countries where slavery is illegal?
Bonus question: can you list the countries on the shorter list?
The countries where slavery is illegal is shorter, and no I won't list them, since that would require sifting through all 40-some nations and I don't have time to do that right now.
That said, you can use the national alignments as a guide. If a nation is lawful evil, slavery is almost assuredly legal there. If the nation is neutral evil or chaotic evil, slavery is probably legal there.
If the nation is lawful neutral, slavery MIGHT be legal there but if it is, it's highly regulated and controversial. A neutral nation would be similar to a lawful neutral one but even less likely to have slavery, while a chaotic neutral one would be more likely and not be regulated. And slavery in a non-evil but non-good nation is an indication that the nation is slipping toward evil.
Good nations do not have legal slavery; if such exists, it's in a seedy, gross, evil market sort of way.
Do any of the nations distinguish criminal and debt slavery from discriminatory slavery, and allow one or both of the former but not the latter? Or does everyone just consider slavery of all types to always be one and the same thing?
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Do any of the nations distinguish criminal and debt slavery from discriminatory slavery, and allow one or both of the former but not the latter? Or does everyone just consider slavery of all types to always be one and the same thing?
It's really difficult for me to address questions about slavery in Golarion without me thinking someone's trying to game the alignment system, so I think I'll just say "Ask your GM."
I really like how y'all have started hard-baking Golarion as the assumed campaign setting into the hardcover rules books. Is this likely to continue in the next edition?
Do you see any value in a system being casually simulationist?
What about the ability for check results to have an objective meaning beyond simply pass/fail/crit/fumble?
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How big is the list of future APs you'd like to make?
How many are set in Varisia?
There's not so much a written list as much as a potential list in my mind, and that pretty much is an inexhaustible list. AKA: bigger than anything one could write down. Some of those ideas are of course set in Varisia, but I can't say how many.
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What repeated typo do you find most amusing - or most depressing - when reading posts on the forum, James?
A couple of examples that amuse me would be the classic rouge vs. rogue, or moral vs. morale.
Typos don't bother me, frankly. I understand why they happen. What bothers me is folks using words inappropriately—decimate comes to mind. And folks who use acronyms too much in their posts.
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Do you see any value in a system being casually simulationist?
What about the ability for check results to have an objective meaning beyond simply pass/fail/crit/fumble?
It's got value as long as it remains fun and doesn't do one of the following:
1) It bogs down play and makes you end up wrestling with minutiae rather than telling a story, or...
2) It enables and encourages pedantry and wordplay among folks online who use the excuse for "simulation" to promote their real-world racisim/homophobia/misogyny/other prejudices, or for folks to mistake or misunderstand or confuse the fact that we talk about something potentially triggering as us saying "This is a value we have in real life."
It's the latter of those two that ends up with me often not wanting to get into details about the simulationist portions of the game. The economy of the slave trade comes immediately to mind.
To paraphrase Roger Ebert's 4 star review of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead: "Writing about depravity and being depraved are two different things."
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I know you said you're bored with archetypes and options in general at this point, but do know that we do appreciate all the archetypes and options provided thus far, especially those that are anchored in the setting like the Pure Legion stuff, and the Red Mantis / Hellknight / Gray Maidens / Eagle Knight stuff from Adventurer's Guide. This stuff is going to sustain campaigns for years to come.
I'm trying to think which part of Golarion could further be explored in that regard - can you give us a highlight of the upcoming 2018/2019 products that will further expand on certain parts of the Golarion world?
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I'm trying to think which part of Golarion could further be explored in that regard - can you give us a highlight of the upcoming 2018/2019 products that will further expand on certain parts of the Golarion world?
I can't really, since this is not the place where I spill the beans on products we haven't yet announced, and ones that HAVE been announced are already, well, announced, so anyone can see what's being highlighted there.
Dear James Jacobs,
This is a two part question so forgive me for making two questions:
Will there be a Bestiary 7 and will it have Kaiju?
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Dear James Jacobs,
This is a two part question so forgive me for making two questions:
Will there be a Bestiary 7 and will it have Kaiju?
We haven't yet announced a Bestiary 7, and this thread is not the place I make announcements or talk about books that may or may not ever happen.
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Are there any archetypes you've been involved with personally for the remaining 1E products?
The dozen appearing in Planar Adventures. I came up with most of them, gave the designers direction on all of them, and developed all of them with some help from John Compton.
This is the description of the Cyclops Helm item.
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This helm is made from the husk of a cyclops’s shrunken head, and grants a limited version of that creature’s flash of insight ability. Once per day as an immediate action, the wearer can choose the result of the die roll instead of rolling her next attack roll, saving throw, skill check, or ability check.
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Is it really possible that an object that costs so little (5.600 mo), can make 20 natural?
Considering certain builds on critical hits, the special ability of weapons, vorpal, and considering the automatic success on saves?
So I asked myself if it was possible that I misunderstood. I went to look for the written rules.
Now. Considering the definition of 20 natural.
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A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a hit. A natural 20 is also a Critical Threat—a possible critical hit.
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I would like to know if the 20 is considered "natural" only if the die is actually roll and not if there are abilities with which to decide the result. Such as the item mentioned above.
I ask because the sentence in brackets "(the d20 comes up 20)" makes me think that only in the case of a rolling die and with a consequent result of 20 is to be considered a natural 20.
Concluding, only if the die was physically rolled and the result was 20 then we would talk about a natural 20?
Or even the 20 obtained with the Cyclops Helm item is a natural 20?
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Creative Director
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...asked rules questions about the cyclops helm...
I don't answer rules questions here, and I"m not sure where you're getting the Cyclops Helm from in the first place, to be honest—we've published a LOT of books over the years.
In any event, please ask your rules questions in the rules forums or in the product thread, where folks can click the FAQ button and where the design team will see the question and where others can see the result of the question or provide their own advice.
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Are there any dice that you feel could do with some more love?
What's your favourite dice outside of the standard polyhedral set?
Nope. I don't really have "favorites" among dice, really, although I do like dice. I don't have a favorite outside of the standard set. Within the standard set I think I like the d10 the best, since it's got the most versatility.
Do you see any value in a system being casually simulationist?
What about the ability for check results to have an objective meaning beyond simply pass/fail/crit/fumble?
It's got value as long as it remains fun and doesn't do one of the following:
1) It bogs down play and makes you end up wrestling with minutiae rather than telling a story, or...
2) It enables and encourages pedantry and wordplay among folks online who use the excuse for "simulation" to promote their real-world racisim/homophobia/misogyny/other prejudices, or for folks to mistake or misunderstand or confuse the fact that we talk about something potentially triggering as us saying "This is a value we have in real life."
It's the latter of those two that ends up with me often not wanting to get into details about the simulationist portions of the game. The economy of the slave trade comes immediately to mind.
To paraphrase Roger Ebert's 4 star review of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead: "Writing about depravity and being depraved are two different things."
I am refering to mechanics, not flavor. For example, jump check DCs and carry capacity having a relationship to what people can actually do. In d20, jump DCs pretty well match real world capabilities, well 3.5 "simplified" but it is still only 5' off the mark on both the average and olympic level.
But it is those types of simulation things I would like to know about, do you value that sort of simulationism?
(honestly, flavor stuff like racism and slavery are not simulation in my opinion)
Nope. I don't really have "favorites" among dice, really, although I do like dice. I don't have a favorite outside of the standard set. Within the standard set I think I like the d10 the best, since it's got the most versatility.Are there any dice that you feel could do with some more love?
What's your favourite dice outside of the standard polyhedral set?
I don't understand this, how can a d10 have more versatility?
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Do you see any value in a system being casually simulationist?
What about the ability for check results to have an objective meaning beyond simply pass/fail/crit/fumble?
It's got value as long as it remains fun and doesn't do one of the following:
1) It bogs down play and makes you end up wrestling with minutiae rather than telling a story, or...
2) It enables and encourages pedantry and wordplay among folks online who use the excuse for "simulation" to promote their real-world racisim/homophobia/misogyny/other prejudices, or for folks to mistake or misunderstand or confuse the fact that we talk about something potentially triggering as us saying "This is a value we have in real life."
It's the latter of those two that ends up with me often not wanting to get into details about the simulationist portions of the game. The economy of the slave trade comes immediately to mind.
To paraphrase Roger Ebert's 4 star review of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead: "Writing about depravity and being depraved are two different things."
I am refering to mechanics, not flavor. For example, jump check DCs and carry capacity having a relationship to what people can actually do. In d20, jump DCs pretty well match real world capabilities, well 3.5 "simplified" but it is still only 5' off the mark on both the average and olympic level.
But it is those types of simulation things I would like to know about, do you value that sort of simulationism?
(honestly, flavor stuff like racism and slavery are not simulation in my opinion)
In those terms, yes, I value that sort of simulationism.
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I don't understand this, how can a d10 have more versatility?Nope. I don't really have "favorites" among dice, really, although I do like dice. I don't have a favorite outside of the standard set. Within the standard set I think I like the d10 the best, since it's got the most versatility.Are there any dice that you feel could do with some more love?
What's your favourite dice outside of the standard polyhedral set?
Because the number system we use is a base 10 system, which means that you can use d10s for all sorts of things.
Because you can use d10s to generate numbers between 1 and 10, or 1 and 100, or 1 and 1000, etc.
Because you can use d10s to generate numbers between 1 and 20.
Because you can use d10s to generate numbers between 1 and 5.
Because a d10 maps pretty well to ten different "notches" in a percentage-based system even if you DON'T use the d% method.
Because they look neat.
Dear James Jacobs,
Is Cosmo's favorite die a d13?
I remember reading somewhere that the Paizo logo is supposed to be a golem, is this true? If yes, what kind of golem is a Paizo Golem? If no, what is it then?
Dear James,
Arazni is a truly powerful queen, gifted with mythical might and supernatural power befitting the quasi-deific place she holds over the nation of Geb. She has few if any known equals on Golarion...
So my question is, if there was a group of individuals-- fools by every definition but heroes of their own story, who decided to push for war with the nation of Geb against the rest of the inner sea, how might Arazni respond?
Send living diplomats? Intimidation? Mohrg Assassins?