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are you involved in writing the playtest/final version of the APG?
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are you involved in writing the playtest/final version of the APG?
I helped to focus in on the four class choices and my recommendation for the new iconic ended up being the one we went with...
...but beyond that, no. I have no writing or design in the Advanced Player's Guide, on account I've been neck deep in Bestiary 2 for the past few months.
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Will Feiya still be the Iconic Witch?
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Will Feiya still be the Iconic Witch?We'll reveal the iconics soon, once the playtest goes live in a few weeks or less, but until then, it's not my place to revelal which one of the four is changed.
It was either Bulmahn or Seifter (pretty sure it was the former) that publicly stated that Feiya is safe :3
~~~
What's the most non-standard Succubus you've ever made?
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What's the most non-standard Succubus you've ever made?
Arushalae.
(She appeared in an adventure I didn't actually write, but the design of her character, her role, and her themes were created by me and I did a VERY heavy devleopment pass on her on the author's text... one of those elements that pops up now and then that I probalby should have just designed on the clock rather than hire someone to write it. I've done that before... sent an author more words in the outline for the assignment describing what needs to be done with the assignment than what the actual asignment's wordcount was. My best so far at this was the information I provided to the author who wrote Ilvarandin's entry in Lost Cities...)
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With Paizo's design goal with P2 to move certain elements and designs further away from WotC so y'all can have your distinct own, why has the opposite been done with Lovecraft's stuff, furthering incorporating Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth into the setting?
Because Lovecraft himself fostered a culture of sharing.
Lovecraft was, for example, amazingly generous and free with his work. He encouraged his contemporaries and friends to use his inventions in his work, which is why you see Lovecraftian creatures and names and books show up in stories by those he corresponded with, such as Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, and Fritz Leiber. He returned the favor by periodically mentioning their creations in his work as well. The theory he held to was that by sharing concepts and names like this, writers of weird tales could build up their own completely invented mythology to make it feel like it exists OUTSIDE of the text itself. If you weren't aware of this behind-the-scenes sharing of ideas, you might expect to see mention of these concepts in a story written by Lovecraft, but then when you see them pop up in a Conan story, that gives you pause. It makes you wonder if, perhaps, there's more to it than just one author's work. And as it continues and grows, it only expands the footprint and power fo the mythology.
Which is why you have some folks thinking that the Necronomicon is real, for example.
This spirit of sharing has only grown over the years, and today you see contemporary authors including Lovecraft stuff in their own words—Stephen King does it often, for example, but it pops up in comics (Hellboy or Locke & Key or Batman), movies (The Fog), video games (Bloodborne) and more that don't have any overt Lovecraft elements going on in there. People are still building on the mythos and expanding it, and so doing so in an RPG only follows in the footsteps of a tradition that's coming up in a few years of being 100 years old. Heck, even D&D does this even though they don't do so with proper nouns... mind flayers for example are pretty blatantly Lovecraft inspired.
TL;DR: D&D monsters serve a corporate goal and work best when building a brand, but Lovecraft always intended for his monsters to be bigger than any one person's work.
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You may have answered this before, but which Lovecraft story do you find most frightening?
For me it is The Whisperer in Darkness.
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How long ago was Iomedae's holy book, The Acts of Iomedae, written after her ascension to godhood? Did she dictate any of it to her faithful or is it mostly a secondhand account of stuff she did?
I haven't really put any thought personally into this at all, but off the top of my head it would likely have started as her words but over the years interpretations and adjustments by the faithful as the text was copied and rewritten and reinterpreted have refined or adjusted the text. The world changes after all, and what seems like wisdom in year one might well become awful advice in year 101.
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Something I'm curious about with 2E-"era" Magaambya, is in 1E I recall Magaambya being explicitly Good aligned, giving Good abilities/spells to casters not even normally associated with that like Wizards and Druids. Yet in 2E, I don't see anything involving that Good aspect, or any Good requirement like in 1E. There is potential Divine spell access, beyond the primary Arcane/Primal fusion aspect, but that would allow for Evil just as much as Good. Were you involved in this change at all? Is this specifically intended to allow non-Good aspect of Magaambya, or did the Good aspect just happen to not being as emphasized, yet can still be understood as core aspect of Magaambya?
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Something I'm curious about with 2E-"era" Magaambya, is in 1E I recall Magaambya being explicitly Good aligned, giving Good abilities/spells to casters not even normally associated with that like Wizards and Druids. Yet in 2E, I don't see anything involving that Good aspect, or any Good requirement like in 1E. There is potential Divine spell access, beyond the primary Arcane/Primal fusion aspect, but that would allow for Evil just as much as Good. Were you involved in this change at all? Is this specifically intended to allow non-Good aspect of Magaambya, or did the Good aspect just happen to not being as emphasized, yet can still be understood as core aspect of Magaambya?
It's still an overall good-aligned organization. We'll have more to say about the Magaambya in time, but the goal is for it to be mostly good guys. Doesn't mean there can't be bad things going on in there, or sinister undersides here and there, but it's not going to turn into a "shades of gray" organization like so many others in the game.
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OK thanks, I just realized that and didn't know how much importance to read into it. I guess not everything you did with Magaambya in 1E had literal Good requirement, but it seemed like major part of it, at the least. And yeah, I like "Grey" as much as anything, but not everywhere all the time.
I always thought Magaambya as Good organization felt like it had interesting potential in setting, so continuing that in 2E seems right course. Maybe in future distinguishing full Good-required from Neutral aspects of it might be interesting, not getting bogged down in "sinister" "dark" tropes, but making it not a 'cartoon good' organization either.
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OK thanks, I just realized that and didn't know how much importance to read into it. I guess not everything you did with Magaambya in 1E had literal Good requirement, but it seemed like major part of it, at the least. And yeah, I like "Grey" as much as anything, but not everywhere all the time.
I always thought Magaambya as Good organization felt like it had interesting potential in setting, so continuing that in 2E seems right course. Maybe in future distinguishing full Good-required from Neutral aspects of it might be interesting, not getting bogged down in "sinister" "dark" tropes, but making it not a 'cartoon good' organization either.
Please don't forget to include questions in all posts, please!
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If we want to advocate for a Windsong Testaments-style book that is mostly lore/mythology, is there a particular person/persons it would be most effective to direct that toward, or should we prod Paizo social media accounts on a regular basis?
Cause I'm loving these and I want more of them. Particularly in hardcover.
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If we want to advocate for a Windsong Testaments-style book that is mostly lore/mythology, is there a particular person/persons it would be most effective to direct that toward, or should we prod Paizo social media accounts on a regular basis?
Cause I'm loving these and I want more of them. Particularly in hardcover.
Erik and Lisa would be the best ones to chat up there; let them know there's a market for lore/mythology books!
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Erik and Lisa would be the best ones to chat up there; let them know there's a market for lore/mythology books!If we want to advocate for a Windsong Testaments-style book that is mostly lore/mythology, is there a particular person/persons it would be most effective to direct that toward, or should we prod Paizo social media accounts on a regular basis?
Cause I'm loving these and I want more of them. Particularly in hardcover.
On it!
Do you have a favourite psychopomp usher?
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Erik and Lisa would be the best ones to chat up there; let them know there's a market for lore/mythology books!If we want to advocate for a Windsong Testaments-style book that is mostly lore/mythology, is there a particular person/persons it would be most effective to direct that toward, or should we prod Paizo social media accounts on a regular basis?
Cause I'm loving these and I want more of them. Particularly in hardcover.
On it!
Do you have a favourite psychopomp usher?
Some are fun, but I don't have one that's so much a favorite that I can remember their name and spell it right.
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Trying to guess upcoming new Iconic identity :-), I was reminded that 1E era Quinn (Investigator) was cast as "Garundi" ethnicity, apparently relating to his physical appearance in "racial" sense... But otherwise his backstory and characterization seems to be entirely Galtian or Taldan, with not really any specific mentions of any Garundi culture AFAIK, although I could be wrong on that (in which case this is dumb example).
Do you think in 2E era he would be considered ethnically "Taldan", affirming language-culture definition of ethnicity that 2E seems to have settled on, getting away from essentialist-racial definitions?
So he (or somebody like him) would qualify for and not be excluded from Taldan cultural feats appropriate to his surrounding culture, not herded into Garundi cultural feats premised on partaking of society modeled on crypto-Egypt or north African...? Certainly it's possible some Garundi families and communities might perpetuate that shared culture even in foreign land, but I don't believe that should be "obligatory" just based on hereditary appearance, using culture-language centric paradigm of ethnicity...?
EDIT: Or a parallel, more disturbing example, might be Linxia the Evil Hellknight Iconic, also cast as Garundi in 1E era. In 2E, would she possibly have Chelish/Taldane ethnicity distinct from own Garundi family despite shared direct heredity? ...Just curious about confirming the differences in 2E vs 1E paradigm in more ambiguous cases like these.
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Trying to guess upcoming new Iconic identity :-), I was reminded that 1E era Quinn (Investigator) was cast as "Garundi" ethnicity, apparently relating to his physical appearance in "racial" sense... But otherwise his backstory and characterization seems to be entirely Galtian or Taldan, with not really any specific mentions of any Garundi culture AFAIK, although I could be wrong on that (in which case this is dumb example).
Do you think in 2E era he would be considered ethnically "Taldan", affirming language-culture definition of ethnicity that 2E seems to have settled on, getting away from essentialist-racial definitions?
So he (or somebody like him) would qualify for and not be excluded from Taldan cultural feats appropriate to his surrounding culture, not herded into Garundi cultural feats premised on partaking of society modeled on crypto-Egypt or north African...? Certainly it's possible some Garundi families and communities might perpetuate that shared culture even in foreign land, but I don't believe that should be "obligatory" just based on hereditary appearance, using culture-language centric paradigm of ethnicity...?
EDIT: Or a parallel, more disturbing example, might be Linxia the Evil Hellknight Iconic, also cast as Garundi in 1E era. In 2E, would she possibly have Chelish/Taldane ethnicity distinct from own Garundi family despite shared direct heredity? ...Just curious about confirming the differences in 2E vs 1E paradigm in more ambiguous cases like these.
Quinn's ancestry is human. His ethnicity is Garundi. His nationality is Taldan. Those are three different things.
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Hey James!
I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot, but the Windsong Testaments that you have been doing lately are an absolute blast. As someone who’s really into the setting, it’s so amazing to here such in depth in world stories and legends.
On that same note, I was surprised the most recent Testament about Pharasma and the Cycle didn’t include any mention of Groetus that I picked up on. I was wondering, when and how exactly did he crop up, if not at the very beginning? As someone so involved with the cycle of the universe, I would have expected him to have been there since the start.
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How do you cope with the time weirdness between different planes when writing setting and story stuff? I imagine it could lead to some interesting headaches if you aren't careful. (I am referring to the planar traits where time flows slower or faster or even erratically or not at all on different planes).
I did notice while looking it over that there aren't options for time flowing in reverse, which I imagine is very deliberate.
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Hey James!
I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot, but the Windsong Testaments that you have been doing lately are an absolute blast. As someone who’s really into the setting, it’s so amazing to here such in depth in world stories and legends.
On that same note, I was surprised the most recent Testament about Pharasma and the Cycle didn’t include any mention of Groetus that I picked up on. I was wondering, when and how exactly did he crop up, if not at the very beginning? As someone so involved with the cycle of the universe, I would have expected him to have been there since the start.
Glad you're enjoying the Windsong Testaments! I've been wanting to not only write mythologies for the core pantheon but wanting to write fiction for Pathfinder for YEARS, and each time something seemed to get in the way of that, so I'm thankful to finally have the chance to get some fiction out there and I'm delighted folks are enjoying the snippets.
Groetus wasn't one of the first eight deities, since until there are worlds populated by people afraid of the end of the world, he doesn't really have a purpose. When and how he shows up is something that maybe we'll explore later.
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How do you cope with the time weirdness between different planes when writing setting and story stuff? I imagine it could lead to some interesting headaches if you aren't careful. (I am referring to the planar traits where time flows slower or faster or even erratically or not at all on different planes).
I did notice while looking it over that there aren't options for time flowing in reverse, which I imagine is very deliberate.
By treading carefully, and not doing many adventures where time is crazy like that. You'll note that those sorts of planes are VERY rare for this precise reason. The last Rise of the Runelords adventure goes to one of them though so you could check that one out for an example of how we handle it.
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Hey James!
I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot, but the Windsong Testaments that you have been doing lately are an absolute blast. As someone who’s really into the setting, it’s so amazing to here such in depth in world stories and legends.
On that same note, I was surprised the most recent Testament about Pharasma and the Cycle didn’t include any mention of Groetus that I picked up on. I was wondering, when and how exactly did he crop up, if not at the very beginning? As someone so involved with the cycle of the universe, I would have expected him to have been there since the start.
Glad you're enjoying the Windsong Testaments! I've been wanting to not only write mythologies for the core pantheon but wanting to write fiction for Pathfinder for YEARS, and each time something seemed to get in the way of that, so I'm thankful to finally have the chance to get some fiction out there and I'm delighted folks are enjoying the snippets.
Groetus wasn't one of the first eight deities, since until there are worlds populated by people afraid of the end of the world, he doesn't really have a purpose. When and how he shows up is something that maybe we'll explore later.
Who were those first eight deities?
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Who were those first eight deities?Hey James!
I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot, but the Windsong Testaments that you have been doing lately are an absolute blast. As someone who’s really into the setting, it’s so amazing to here such in depth in world stories and legends.
On that same note, I was surprised the most recent Testament about Pharasma and the Cycle didn’t include any mention of Groetus that I picked up on. I was wondering, when and how exactly did he crop up, if not at the very beginning? As someone so involved with the cycle of the universe, I would have expected him to have been there since the start.
Glad you're enjoying the Windsong Testaments! I've been wanting to not only write mythologies for the core pantheon but wanting to write fiction for Pathfinder for YEARS, and each time something seemed to get in the way of that, so I'm thankful to finally have the chance to get some fiction out there and I'm delighted folks are enjoying the snippets.
Groetus wasn't one of the first eight deities, since until there are worlds populated by people afraid of the end of the world, he doesn't really have a purpose. When and how he shows up is something that maybe we'll explore later.
Check out the recent blog post for the list.
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As far as the first 8, were they "born" divine beings or did that come later due to longevity? One of the popular theories was that Desna was )or is) a lovecraftian creature, like a great old one, that is good instead of inscrutable and evil. Does the fact that Desna is in the original 8 preclude her from also being a great old one?
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As far as the first 8, were they "born" divine beings or did that come later due to longevity? One of the popular theories was that Desna was )or is) a lovecraftian creature, like a great old one, that is good instead of inscrutable and evil. Does the fact that Desna is in the original 8 preclude her from also being a great old one?
They were divine beings from the start. Desna wasn't humanoid in shape originally (she was more akin to a giant divine space moth but that's an oversimplification), but she wasn't a Lovecraftian creature nor a Great Old One. That's pretty much a fan theory that, as far as I can tell, came about because of her association with space and her original non-human form.
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Were the creatures (presences?) beyond the great beyond that changed D0u-Bral into Zon-Kuthon present at the beginning? are they part of the cycle of time?
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Were the creatures (presences?) beyond the great beyond that changed D0u-Bral into Zon-Kuthon present at the beginning? are they part of the cycle of time?
That part is still unrevealed, I think. I DO know what changed him, but I can't recall if I've said so in print or out loud yet...
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I know Golarion is not earth, but I enjoy, and find the strong inspirations from earth incredibly compelling and useful for getting a measure of this fantasy world, which I have come to love quite a lot.
However; there are two obscure places mentioned only quite briefly, that I just cannot quite grasp the real world parallells of; those being Iobaria (my best guess for there being some irish influence?) and Kaladay (no clue). Any insights into even small inspirations from earth for these two?
Iobaria's closest analog is Russia, I guess, while I believe Kaladay is akin to Mongolia... I THINK. Also though... not every place on Golarion is intended to map directly to Earth analogs.
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Thank you very much for answering Mr. Jacobs. I have a final nation question if I may ask: Bachuan, with its explicit communism, is obviously a potentially sensitive topic for a game company to cover, though obviously not impossible.
I was wondering if it's one of those settings that is largely there for DMS to do with what they will, like Sarusan, or if you think it might be possible to ham it up a little, adding some magic and wonders, to perhaps visit the nation in a published adventure at some distant point?
It's one of those things that every game table will have a different tolerance for. If we set an adventure there, we'll make decisions on how to handle things at that time, but they will need to keep whatever the current political climate is at the time in mind as well.
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I generally start by trying to do Low Chaos, but then end up High Chaos.I finally got around to playing Dishonored 2, and I'm having difficulty trying to get a Low Chaos playthrough.
What did you aim for on your playthrough(s)?
Is there an area of Golarion that you would like to see fleshed out more?
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Is there an area of Golarion that you would like to see fleshed out more?I generally start by trying to do Low Chaos, but then end up High Chaos.I finally got around to playing Dishonored 2, and I'm having difficulty trying to get a Low Chaos playthrough.
What did you aim for on your playthrough(s)?
The southwest corner of Ravounel is where I'm setting my current office game, and I'm eager to have my players explore it more so that I can discover more about the region organically in the process of running a sandbox campaign set there. But that's not something that'll likely ever be published, so I can mention that without worrying about spoiling upcoming products.
For places to explore IN print... I'm excited to see Absalom finally get some time in the spotlight. But beyond that, I'm not gonna say, since the regions I'm eager to see explored are ones we're already working on exploring or potentially covering in unannounced products over the next few years.
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Desna and Shelyn are two of my favorite deities in basically any fictional pantheon, but it feels like Desna has gotten a lot more time in the spotlight, so to speak, especially compared to Shelyn. I know she doesn't really pick fights in the world as much as others, but is it likely/possible we'll get more content focusing on Shelyn in the future?
PS redeemed Nocticula is also climbing up the ranks for me, really looking forward to whatever you've got for us on her in Gods and Magic.
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Desna and Shelyn are two of my favorite deities in basically any fictional pantheon, but it feels like Desna has gotten a lot more time in the spotlight, so to speak, especially compared to Shelyn. I know she doesn't really pick fights in the world as much as others, but is it likely/possible we'll get more content focusing on Shelyn in the future?
PS redeemed Nocticula is also climbing up the ranks for me, really looking forward to whatever you've got for us on her in Gods and Magic.
Desna is about 15 years OLDER than Shelyn, for one thing. Desna was one of the first deities I invented for my homebrew setting back in the late '80s, when I was frustrated that there were no outer space deities that fit the bill for me to borrow from Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, and as such she's got literal decades more development time than does Shelyn, who was invented whole-cloth for Golarion when we created the setting during the first Adventure Path, Rise of the Runelords.
As such, Desna retains a special place in my heart among the deities, so when I do content for the game I do tend to focus on her more than other deities out of personal preference. But there IS more coming about Shelyn. I doubt she'll ever "catch up" to Desna though, as far as published content is concerned.
As for Nocticula, her entry in Gods and Magic is about half the size of the one in Pathfinder #144, so that's probably the best place to go for the current info on her. The Gods and Magic entry skews more toward how she interfaces with the new rules, so there's not nearly as much flavor for her in that book than in #144. But I'd love to do more Nocticula stuff going forward, so there's that as well.