Creative Director
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Going off my earlier question: what is the limit of a gods' knowledge (apart from me as the DM deciding giving out certain information is bad for the game/plot/fun)?
Or put another way: how do gods perceive reality, which (if any) barriers exist for their senses to enter?
That, as with all things associated with the gods, is not covered by rules, and is instead 100% covered by the story creator—be it us or you as the GM.
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Creative Director
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I'm currently reading through Rise Of The Runelords (little late to the party) and one particular sentence stood out to me. In the part about the Ravenous Crypts of Gluttony it says (paraphrasing from the German book): "Zutha instructed his deputies in the runeforge to find a way to split his phylactery into three parts. [...] Should the PCs try to find out more about it, even magic like Commune or Contact Other Planes fail, as not even the gods know what happened to it."
I was pretty surprised by this and it got me thinking:
What was the reason to include this part? Was Zutha so powerful In-world that he was able to hide his phylactery even from the gods through magic?
Or was it mainly to prevent spoiling this information for later adventures like Return Of The Runelords?
(I know this is an incredibly specific question and I'm sorry, I'm just a sucker for details in this magnificent world you guys created :))
Artifacts, such as his three-part phylactery, break rules all the time. Having it be something that can't be found helps to give it weight in a world where so much magic is commonplace that it's sometimes difficult to make magical things seem MAGIC. But also, yes, it was intended to keep that story thread sequestered until we wanted to speak more about Zutha and his phylactery, which we have in detail now in the novel "Lord of Runes," in the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path, and elsewhere.
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Well hopefully I don't miss too much if Lorthact ever returns since I'm using him in my crimson throne post campaign.
BTW, speaking of post campaign stuff, are bonus article statblocks (like Chu Yeng's leader voidlord void yai oni) characters that might get featured in future aps?
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Creative Director
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BTW, speaking of post campaign stuff, are bonus article statblocks (like Chu Yeng's leader voidlord void yai oni) characters that might get featured in future aps?
Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what we're interested in exploring more of and what we think folks are excited to see more of.
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That, as with all things associated with the gods, is not covered by rules, and is instead 100% covered by the story creator—be it us or you as the GM.Going off my earlier question: what is the limit of a gods' knowledge (apart from me as the DM deciding giving out certain information is bad for the game/plot/fun)?
Or put another way: how do gods perceive reality, which (if any) barriers exist for their senses to enter?
Thank you for your answers!
I understand you don't want to nail down specifics.May I ask instead: what are general guidelines (not static rules) for what the core 20 know?
Edit: Or put differently: what would you say how far a deity's knowledge reaches roughly in many cases (exceptions allowed and expected)?
Like "they know most of what's going on in the inner sphere if nobody tries to hide it via magic", "some of them don't care about certain things like a human's love life, so some don't know that", "it's easier for Lamashtu to hide something from Desna then it is for the average mortal"?
I respect if you don't want to go into such detail!
But if you'd like to answer it'd make me happy to better understand the general workings of Golarion (not to be confused with the Pathfinder ruleset - I want to know more about the flavor, as it's my favourite part of PF).
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Creative Director
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That, as with all things associated with the gods, is not covered by rules, and is instead 100% covered by the story creator—be it us or you as the GM.Going off my earlier question: what is the limit of a gods' knowledge (apart from me as the DM deciding giving out certain information is bad for the game/plot/fun)?
Or put another way: how do gods perceive reality, which (if any) barriers exist for their senses to enter?
Thank you for your answers!
I understand you don't want to nail down specifics.
May I ask instead: what are general guidelines (not static rules) for what the core 20 know?
Edit: Or put differently: what would you say how far a deity's knowledge reaches roughly in many cases (exceptions allowed and expected)?Like "they know most of what's going on in the inner sphere if nobody tries to hide it via magic", "some of them don't care about certain things like a human's love life, so some don't know that", "it's easier for Lamashtu to hide something from Desna then it is for the average mortal"?
I respect if you don't want to go into such detail!
But if you'd like to answer it'd make me happy to better understand the general workings of Golarion (not to be confused with the Pathfinder ruleset - I want to know more about the flavor, as it's my favourite part of PF).
The general guidelines are "Does a deity knowing this make the story better? If so, then they know. If not, then they don't." Furthermore, revealing what they know in print is the same as revealing to everyone who reads a book, and thus takes it away from knowledge "only a god would know" to knowledge "everyone knows."
And so it's on a case by case basis, what they know and what we say they know.
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When you are starting work on a new Bestiary, do you being by outlining what kind of monsters you want (e.g. x at CR3, y at CR4, z Plant monsters, etc.) or do you begin by just designing monsters until the book if full?
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Creative Director
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When you are starting work on a new Bestiary, do you being by outlining what kind of monsters you want (e.g. x at CR3, y at CR4, z Plant monsters, etc.) or do you begin by just designing monsters until the book if full?
I start by outlining monsters I want (as in themes and story, not rules). Once I've got a list of monsters I want to see in the book, then I make an excel list and fill in the blanks where power levels and types and what makes sense to support adventures that come out at the same time or thereafter suggest.
About how far in advance do you plot Adventure Paths? As in, do you already have an idea of the next two or three APs Paizo will be producing, or do you only begin thinking of them when the previous one is finished?
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Creative Director
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You've indicated that Ezren is 52 years old, regardless of the year an adventure path is set. Do the other iconics also have a set age?
No. It's not that important to set that number in stone, really. Ezren might be 55 or 50 or 60, frankly. Since they aren't intended to "grow older" as the years go by, and since they need to be whatever age makes sense for what we're using them for, it's pretty much an aspect of the iconics that will never be locked down.
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Creative Director
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About how far in advance do you plot Adventure Paths? As in, do you already have an idea of the next two or three APs Paizo will be producing, or do you only begin thinking of them when the previous one is finished?
I've got lots of ideas for Adventure Paths at all times, but the actual working out of the details is a MUCH more involved process, requiring someone to sit down and create the 20,000 word or so outline for the campaign. That process generally starts about 15 months before the first part is due to hit stores, which means that we're just now starting to think about outlining the Adventure Path that will launch at Gen Con 2020.
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Question regarding Concordance of Rivals: The psychopomp usher Phlegyas, described on Page 16 of the book, is described as female in their statblock, but the actual paragraphs of text following that initially refer to Phlegyas using male pronouns before switching to female ones midpoint, approximately around the time Phlegyas' mortality ends and they become a psychopomp usher.
Was that done intentionally, meaning Phlegyas is a transwoman?
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Creative Director
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Question regarding Concordance of Rivals: The psychopomp usher Phlegyas, described on Page 16 of the book, is described as female in their statblock, but the actual paragraphs of text following that initially refer to Phlegyas using male pronouns before switching to female ones midpoint, approximately around the time Phlegyas' mortality ends and they become a psychopomp usher.
Was that done intentionally, meaning Phlegyas is a transwoman?
I wasn't involved in the writing or development of that book, so I have no idea if this is intentional or an error or what.
Representation of trans characters in a positive light in our products is VERY important to me. If the intention was to have a trans psychopomp usher (which is a great idea), we should have been more clear about that, I suppose. It certainly sounds like the intent was that as a mortal they were male and as a psychopomp they became female.
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Question regarding Concordance of Rivals: The psychopomp usher Phlegyas, described on Page 16 of the book, is described as female in their statblock, but the actual paragraphs of text following that initially refer to Phlegyas using male pronouns before switching to female ones midpoint, approximately around the time Phlegyas' mortality ends and they become a psychopomp usher.
Was that done intentionally, meaning Phlegyas is a transwoman?
I wasn't involved in the writing or development of that book, so I have no idea if this is intentional or an error or what.
Representation of trans characters in a positive light in our products is VERY important to me. If the intention was to have a trans psychopomp usher (which is a great idea), we should have been more clear about that, I suppose. It certainly sounds like the intent was that as a mortal they were male and as a psychopomp they became female.
DEFINITELY a great idea, and one I know I'M going to use should Phlegyas show up in a game I run. Thanks, James!
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Creative Director
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Come to think about it, aren't all souls in Pathfinder kind of genderfluid? I mean, I don't think reincarnation in pathfinder follows "male soul always reincarnates as male person" kind of logic, or am I wrong?
Pretty much. If you're gender 1 as a creature and you die and are reincarnated, you may be gender 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 34 or 492 or whatever.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Have you seen this about the newly discovered Simbakubwa?
Does this mean your preference for dire animals only including real world prehistoric animals now includes dire lions?
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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And on a related prehistorical creature note, have you heard about the 430M year ago ancestor of the sea cucumber with 45 tentacles named after Cthulhu?
I look forward to pathfinder stats on a creature that looks like that.
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Creative Director
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Have you seen this about the newly discovered Simbakubwa?
Does this mean your preference for dire animals only including real world prehistoric animals now includes dire lions?
I have seen it, and since it's not called a "dire lion" in real life, it won't be called one in Pathfinder if (WHEN) we stat it up. (And note that it's more like a primeval hyena than a primeval lion...)
Only dire wolves are dire.
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Creative Director
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And on a related prehistorical creature note, have you heard about the 430M year ago ancestor of the sea cucumber with 45 tentacles named after Cthulhu?
I look forward to pathfinder stats on a creature that looks like that.
Cool! Hadn't heard of this one.
James,
First off, I hope your holiday weekend was awesome, regardless of if you celebrate or not!
Secondly,
Any chance you know when Shraen, the city in the Black Desert named after House Shraen, was founded??
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Creative Director
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James,
First off, I hope your holiday weekend was awesome, regardless of if you celebrate or not!
Secondly,
Any chance you know when Shraen, the city in the Black Desert named after House Shraen, was founded??
Spent half the weekend working on looming Gen Con deadlines, but did get a chance to have brunch with some close friends so that was a win.
And no relation between the Shraens. Turns out, there's a limited number of five letter words you can make with the English language, so now and then when you make up new words you'll duplicate things.
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Creative Director
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James,
What are the chances of us seeing a Rakshasa driven adventure path? Outside of the Arkona family the most we see of them are as prisoners for stronger creatures or just random encounters within an adventure (path)
Somewhere between 1% and 99%. It's not one I am comfortable saying we will absolutely do, but it's also one that if we keep doing Adventure Paths forever we'll eventually do.
Are there any topics or enemy types you can say will absolutely appear in future adventure paths?
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Creative Director
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Are there any topics or enemy types you can say will absolutely appear in future adventure paths?
Not without revealing plots and themes about unannounced adventure paths that will either:
a) get me in trouble with management for accidentally announcing a product months or years before we intend to, or
b) inevitably create flawed expectations in you and others who read my reply when we DO get to the adventure path in question and due to changes in thinking we go with something different.
So, nope. This type of question—announcement of unannounced plans—is one I don't and can't and won't answer here. Sorry!
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Dear James,
Which five elements of Pathfinder setting (be it regions, ancestries, deities, story elements, ideas, notions) were, from your perspective, best received (commercially, critically, or a mix of both) by customers and critics?
And did reception of any of those surprise you?
If you don't mind, were there any that, for one reason or another, didn't resonate with audience in particular?
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Creative Director
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More so than Strange Aeons? Do you have an area to focus on, say like Aucturn?
I'd love to do an Adventure Path that's fully Lovecraftian in theme and then be the one to develop it and write for it.
I wrote the outline for Strange Aeons, but I wasn't able to write any of the adventures and I was taken off the development task for the entire Adventure Path to instead work on the hardcover Curse of the Crimson Throne.
I didn't say we haven't done a Lovecraftian one. I merely observed that I wasn't able to write for it or develop it.
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
Which five elements of Pathfinder setting (be it regions, ancestries, deities, story elements, ideas, notions) were, from your perspective, best received (commercially, critically, or a mix of both) by customers and critics?
And did reception of any of those surprise you?
If you don't mind, were there any that, for one reason or another, didn't resonate with audience in particular?
The fact that we're still doing Golarion stuff over a decade later is the surprise, to a certain extent, since when we started with "Rise of the Runelords" we had no idea if anyone would care enough to be able to finish that Adventure Path up in the first place.
There's other things that have surprised me, both in good ways and bad, but I'd rather not get into that because some of that stuff is best left in the past and I don't wanna dwell on it anymore.
Dear James Jacobs,
In your opinion does either the werewolf template/curse or the vampire curse/disease affect dragons? I know as the GM I can fiat this, but I'd like your insight.
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Creative Director
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Dear James Jacobs,
In your opinion does either the werewolf template/curse or the vampire curse/disease affect dragons? I know as the GM I can fiat this, but I'd like your insight.
A dragon with lycanthropy is goofy; this gives me no good ideas or inspiration to do anything with it, so I'd say nope, it won't affect dragons or ANY non-humanoid.
A vampire dragon is interesting. Vampirisim could afflict any living creature.
Based on some of the art we've seen and some hints we've gotten, Paizo is getting a little bolder about creating an "identity" for its monsters for the 2nd edition (GOOD).
What was the general process for picking things like the Hobgoblin update, or how kobolds are gonna look in 2nd edition? Was it a group brainstorm, or did individuals come up with ideas to bring to kick around?
How does the Paizo crew make use of product reviews? (and follow-up, what are the elements of a useful review?)
I know the Pharasman faith is does not look favorably on those who extend their lives through undeath, how do they feel/view those who avoid death for extended periods through other means like the Sun Orchid Elixir, infernal pacts, ect (this comes to mind based on the lore for Armag in the Kingmaker computer game)?
A vampire dragon is interesting. Vampirisim could afflict any living creature.
What kind of dragon would make the most interesting vampire?
What topic for an AP do you really want to do, but just hasn't worked out yet?I'd love to do an Adventure Path that's fully Lovecraftian in theme and then be the one to develop it and write for it.
What do you mean by fully Lovecraftian in theme?
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Creative Director
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Based on some of the art we've seen and some hints we've gotten, Paizo is getting a little bolder about creating an "identity" for its monsters for the 2nd edition (GOOD).
What was the general process for picking things like the Hobgoblin update, or how kobolds are gonna look in 2nd edition? Was it a group brainstorm, or did individuals come up with ideas to bring to kick around?
Small group brainstorm to generate ideas, then those ideas are sent to the artist to build off of, and then they do a few different looks and we pick the one we like best.
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Creative Director
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I know the Pharasman faith is does not look favorably on those who extend their lives through undeath, how do they feel/view those who avoid death for extended periods through other means like the Sun Orchid Elixir, infernal pacts, ect (this comes to mind based on the lore for Armag in the Kingmaker computer game)?
That's taken on a case by case basis, but things like extending life via sun orchid elixir doesn't disrupt or corrupt the flow of souls, so it's not in the same category as undeath. Plus, solutions like this are PRE death and not POST death, so you're still gonna die, they assume... just later, rather than sooner.
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Creative Director
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Gotcha. If you were to write one, what level tier do you enjoy writing the most?
I didn't say we haven't done a Lovecraftian one. I merely observed that I wasn't able to write for it or develop it.
Whatever one I didn't just do. I don't really have a favorite but I do get tired of writing the same level adventure multiple times.
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Creative Director
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What do you mean by fully Lovecraftian in theme?What topic for an AP do you really want to do, but just hasn't worked out yet?I'd love to do an Adventure Path that's fully Lovecraftian in theme and then be the one to develop it and write for it.
Strange Aeons is "fully Lovecraftian in theme."
I mean: An adventure path where Lovecraftian monsters are forefront, where cosmic horror is the primary tone, and where the main bad guys are Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, and their cults and minions.
Rather than something like Rise of the Runelords, Shattered Star, Return of The Runelords, Crimson Throne, etc. which have some Lovecraft monsters in there in places but don't have an overall theme of cosmic horror and don't have a big bad who's a Great Old One/whatever.
when you're writing an adventure, I understand balancing a single encounter to have a CR that is appropriate for the party, but how do you balance an entire dungeon with that in mind?
What I mean is what do you look at for the location to decide if the totality of the encounters are going to put the party in a position where they are unlikely to have sufficient resources to fight the boss at the end even if the CR for the individual encounters are level appropriate?
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Creative Director
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when you're writing an adventure, I understand balancing a single encounter to have a CR that is appropriate for the party, but how do you balance an entire dungeon with that in mind?
What I mean is what do you look at for the location to decide if the totality of the encounters are going to put the party in a position where they are unlikely to have sufficient resources to fight the boss at the end even if the CR for the individual encounters are level appropriate?
Practice, really. And by reading other adventures to teach oneself how to write adventures.
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(Help me build around Roderic’s Cove):
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Is Cabriem Maskyr’s place-of-origin or ethnicity published (first Overlord of Riddleport)? Is there anything on who this pirate was?
Before Gaston Cromarcky became current Overlord, was he a privateer for some nation or city state, or just an independent pirate?
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As always, Tremendous THANKS for taking the time!