Is Baba Yaga the first witch on Golarion? Was there no witch on Golarion before her arrival?
If you had to learn one field of physical labor, which would you choose, and why (if you don't mind).
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Hey James, you were one of the designers for Guide to Korvosa. I always wondered: why do Korvosans hate unions? It pops up rather frequently but I'm not entirely certain -why-.
Because that's the predominant political belief in the area; folks don't want to be beholden to a union and would rather be in charge of their own fate and not have to pay money to someone else for work they did. And certainly, Cheliax's corrupt influence in the past with using law to oppress folks may have had something to do with it.
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James, what civization lived the area that is now the inner sea?
Lots. Depends on the nation you're asking about. Check out pages 210–213 of the Inner Sea World Guide for more info.
ALTHOUGH now that I look at your question... it seems like you're asking what civilizations lived in the area that became the Inner Sea itself. In that case, the region was mostly nomadic tribes of humans and halflings and goblins and various monster races. There was no large, sprawling empire in the region before Earthfall.
Will we get stats for all the remaining Runelords in Return of the Runelords (aka Alaznist, Belimarius, Sorshen, Xanderghul, Zutha)?
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James, what civization lived the area that is now the inner sea?Lots. Depends on the nation you're asking about. Check out pages 210–213 of the Inner Sea World Guide for more info.
ALTHOUGH now that I look at your question... it seems like you're asking what civilizations lived in the area that became the Inner Sea itself. In that case, the region was mostly nomadic tribes of humans and halflings and goblins and various monster races. There was no large, sprawling empire in the region before Earthfall.
That's exactly what I was asking, sorry If I wasn't clear.
As a follow-up question, what was the extension of the elven lands pre-earthfall? Did they have a single, contiguous kingdom or several small ones?
It seems that people on Golarion tend to discriminate witches. But what separates them from wizards and sorcerers?
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As a follow-up question, what was the extension of the elven lands pre-earthfall? Did they have a single, contiguous kingdom or several small ones?
Several smaller ones. Kyonin existed before Earthfall, for example, but so did Mierani, a nation between Edasseril and Shalast and Bakrakhan. Others doubtless existed elsewhere. Elves have never been that into building enormous contiguous nations though. That's where the chaotic part of their alignment kicks in.
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It seems that people on Golarion tend to discriminate witches. But what separates them from wizards and sorcerers?
Whether or not any class is discriminated against depends entirely on the nation.
What separates witches from wizards and sorcerers is the fact that they tend to be more mystical and mysterious—they blur the line between a faith-based class and a science based class (wizards). And they gain their powers by prayer and study and meditation and ritual, not from an inborn "always had the power" way like sorcerers.
Elvanna used a device called the World Engine to imprison Baba Yaga. It was made by Nikola Tesla. I'm curious. Is the World Engine magical, and is Tesla a wizard?
Among the Pathfinder Tales, which stories are about Azlant, Thassilon, or Numeria?
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James, when you were first developing Golarion, did you have real-world inspirations for the different languages out there?
A few friends and I have been idly putting off a project (mainly for Play-by-Post gaming) to try and associate a real language for each one that appears in Pathfinder (Starfinder comes later lol) that we can find using Google Translate, so players can post something in, say, Skald...
"Norsk er veldig passende for dette, tror jeg!"
We decided that we're going to actually start working on this in the near future, and I had the thought to see if any of the Golarion (or other) languages had Earth inspirations that we could try and keep to!
Thanks very much, and because I don't think it gets said enough - thank you for all the amazing stories you and your team have produced for us to consume! :)
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James, when you were first developing Golarion, did you have real-world inspirations for the different languages out there?
A few friends and I have been idly putting off a project (mainly for Play-by-Post gaming) to try and associate a real language for each one that appears in Pathfinder (Starfinder comes later lol) that we can find using Google Translate, so players can post something in, say, Skald...
"Norsk er veldig passende for dette, tror jeg!"
** spoiler omitted **
We decided that we're going to actually start working on this in the near future, and I had the thought to see if any of the Golarion (or other) languages had Earth inspirations that we could try and keep to!
Thanks very much, and because I don't think it gets said enough - thank you for all the amazing stories you and your team have produced for us to consume! :)
Not really at all, because it's hard enough to get things all edited up in one real-world language, without worrying about having to have experts in a bunch of made-up languages. When we do make up words or phrases for fantasy languages, we do so rarely, and in those cases, those languages tend to suggest their own sounds and spellings.
Putting that much work into spoken languages is an INCREDIBLY difficult and time consuming process. In my opinion, when I'm prepping for a game or creating a setting, it's more interesting to spend the time you have creating the setting itself rather than doing a deep dive on made-up languages that, when utilized, will only make it more difficult to communicate with everyone at the table.
It's a different thing when making up a language for a story or a movie, but when it's for an interactive entertainment like an RPG, where the different players might not have the patience to learn a new language every few encounters... it just seems like a lot of work.
If you had to choose between one dessert for all time (you couldn't have any other) what one would you choose?
With the publication of Doomsday Dawn, it is confirmed that the countdown clocks in Osirion truly predicted the worldwide invasion by the Dominion of the Black. But several months ago, after I found out there will be no Dominion adventure path in 2018, I thought that the Dominion will not come to Golarion to harvest humans in 4718 AR because after Aroden's death no prophecy has come true. Which led me to this question. Is the countdown clock a prophecy? I think "The Dominion of the Black will come back in 4718 AR to harvest humans." would be a very proper prophecy.
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With the publication of Doomsday Dawn, it is confirmed that the countdown clocks in Osirion truly predicted the worldwide invasion by the Dominion of the Black. But several months ago, after I found out there will be no Dominion adventure path in 2018, I thought that the Dominion will not come to Golarion to harvest humans in 4718 AR because after Aroden's death no prophecy has come true. Which led me to this question. Is the countdown clock a prophecy? I think "The Dominion of the Black will come back in 4718 AR to harvest humans." would be a very proper prophecy.
It's not a prophecy. It's a timer. And until the adventure's actually out in a few weeks, it's kinda pointless to talk about it since the details aren't actually out yet.
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I've been reading planar adventures and thinking of a suitable planar campaign to run. How would the planes (and magic) be affected as an elemental plane is slowly siphoned of its essence until it vanishes?
That'd be entirely up to you. It could end up making an entire subschool or type of magic go away, for example, but something like that that fundamentally changes the expectations of the game rules MUST be told to the PCs in some way. It'd be lame to be a player in a game where the type of magic I chose to specialize in just stopped working.
This is the type of thing that is so significant, though, that it should define an entire CAMPAIGN SETTING, not just a campaign though... it's almost but not quite the same as saying one of the planes is just not in your particular setting.
As such, how it would affect the planes, magic, and the game is a question that I can't really answer in detail without creating a new setting. That can be a lot of fun for a GM, and if you're looking to brainstorm ideas I'd suggest asking elsewhere on the boards in the homebrew section or the like so you can get other GMs involved—I, alas, don't have the time to help brainstorm a new setting since all of those brain cells in my head are focused on my own upcoming campaign and on Golarion.
Hi James,
One thing I was sad to not find in Planar Adventures are flavor details on the metaphysics of how deities grant spells, similar to how the River of Souls was detailed.
Could you please share with us here how you envision spell-granting works?
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Hi James,
One thing I was sad to not find in Planar Adventures are flavor details on the metaphysics of how deities grant spells, similar to how the River of Souls was detailed.
Could you please share with us here how you envision spell-granting works?
I don't feel like there NEEDS to be rules for that.
Divine casters gain spells by praying for an hour. Deities don't need to take any actions to grant these spells. There is no "Metaphysics" behind it any more than just the fact that the act of prayer is what charges the magic, in the same way the act of studying a book does so for wizards or working with a familiar does for witches or a bard does by taking an hour to practice performance or a sorcerer simply just meditates to replenish magic or whatever.
Query:
If a hag mates with a Deep One or Deep One hybrid, is the resulting offspring a "normal" Changeling or a Deep One Hybrid?
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Query:
If a hag mates with a Deep One or Deep One hybrid, is the resulting offspring a "normal" Changeling or a Deep One Hybrid?
It's something brand new. If such a combination is even genetically possible, which it might not be. AKA: up to your GM.
ALTERNATELY: It's a changeling with the deep one hybrid template from Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos book.
Linguistics allows a character to create or detect forgeries and to decipher documents in unfamiliar languages. Is it also the skill you'd use to read a message written in code?
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Linguistics allows a character to create or detect forgeries and to decipher documents in unfamiliar languages. Is it also the skill you'd use to read a message written in code?
Absolutely. That is, after all, what a code is—an unfamiliar language.
What do you think the DC would be for a Deciphering a drunk doctor's script?
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What do you think the DC would be for a Deciphering a drunk doctor's script?
Somewhere between DC 11 and DC 41, I guess, depending on the level of the adventure the script shows up in and how important it is for the PCs to learn it in order to progress in the story.
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It's something brand new. If such a combination is even genetically possible, which it might not be. AKA: up to your GM.
ALTERNATELY: It's a changeling with the deep one hybrid template from Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos book.
As I am often the GM... I think you just sold me a Sandy Peterson book. CURSES! RIGHT in the wallet...
Do you have a favorite Clark Ashton Smith story? (I love "The Seven Geases" because it's both horrifying and hilarious)
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It's something brand new. If such a combination is even genetically possible, which it might not be. AKA: up to your GM.
ALTERNATELY: It's a changeling with the deep one hybrid template from Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos book.
As I am often the GM... I think you just sold me a Sandy Peterson book. CURSES! RIGHT in the wallet...
Do you have a favorite Clark Ashton Smith story? (I love "The Seven Geases" because it's both horrifying and hilarious)
Woo! It was a blast to work on the book; hope you enjoy it!
It's hard to pick a favorite CAS story for me, but I think "The Charnel God" would be the one.
James, when you were first developing Golarion, did you have real-world inspirations for the different languages out there?
A few friends and I have been idly putting off a project (mainly for Play-by-Post gaming) to try and associate a real language for each one that appears in Pathfinder (Starfinder comes later lol) that we can find using Google Translate, so players can post something in, say, Skald...
"Norsk er veldig passende for dette, tror jeg!"
** spoiler omitted **
We decided that we're going to actually start working on this in the near future, and I had the thought to see if any of the Golarion (or other) languages had Earth inspirations that we could try and keep to!
Thanks very much, and because I don't think it gets said enough - thank you for all the amazing stories you and your team have produced for us to consume! :)
Not really at all, because it's hard enough to get things all edited up in one real-world language, without worrying about having to have experts in a bunch of made-up languages. When we do make up words or phrases for fantasy languages, we do so rarely, and in those cases, those languages tend to suggest their own sounds and spellings.
Putting that much work into spoken languages is an INCREDIBLY difficult and time consuming process. In my opinion, when I'm prepping for a game or creating a setting, it's more interesting to spend the time you have creating the setting itself rather than doing a deep dive on made-up languages that, when utilized, will only make it more difficult to communicate with everyone at the table.
It's a different thing when making up a language for a story or a movie, but when it's for an interactive entertainment like an RPG, where the different players might not have the patience to learn a new language every few encounters... it just seems like a lot of work.
How would you feel about a single language created around syllable-like units?
The idea being that the language stays the same, but you can swap out different sound sets and different symbol sets to seriously affect the desired flavor and look, yet there is still only a single language that you actually need to worry about.
And being an actual language, woukd maintain the consistency and be recognizable as a language and not just random sounds smashed together.
(I ask, cause I'm working on such a language myself precisely for this purpose. At the table I'll be able to pull orc, elven, and draconic right out of nothing and have it always sound consistant.)
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How would you feel about a single language created around syllable-like units?
The idea being that the language stays the same, but you can swap out different sound sets and different symbol sets to seriously affect the desired flavor and look, yet there is still only a single language that you actually need to worry about.
And being an actual language, woukd maintain the consistency and be recognizable as a language and not just random sounds smashed together.
(I ask, cause I'm working on such a language myself precisely for this purpose. At the table I'll be able to pull orc, elven, and draconic right out of nothing and have it always sound consistant.)
That wouldn't change my opinion at all. I don't think completely new constructed languages like this really have a valuable role to play in an RPG; they're EXCELLENT at establishing verisimiltude in non-interactive stories, but they're just too complicated and crash gameplay in a game like Pathfinder.
If you can pull it off and keep it consistent, and your players enjoy it, then that's awesome, though.
It's hard enough to keep a table full of players' attention with ONE language though...
Which song do you think is better: War Pigs by Black Sabbath or Peace Sells by Megadeth?
Tell us about your favorite character you’ve created and played as a PC!
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Tell us about your favorite character you’ve created and played as a PC!
That'd be Shensen, who you can read all about in Pathfinder #100, in addition to a few other places. She's the character I played the longest, from about 2nd or 3rd level (she was a replacement PC for a human wizard who got killed early in a campaign) all the way up to about 18th level, when I had to leave the campaign due to personality clashes with another player, alas.
So if you don't listen to either group...what are some of your favorite bands/musical acts?
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So if you don't listen to either group...what are some of your favorite bands/musical acts?
I have pretty ecclectic taste in music. My top five performers/bands would be:
John Carpenter
Dead Can Dance/Lisa Gerrard
Pink Floyd
Nine Inch Nails
Franz Liszt
So if you don't listen to either group...what are some of your favorite bands/musical acts?I have pretty ecclectic taste in music. My top five performers/bands would be:
John Carpenter
Dead Can Dance/Lisa Gerrard
Pink Floyd
Nine Inch Nails
Franz Liszt
What are some of your other favorite artists, or bands.