Creative Director
|
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
This makes me wonder what your process for making monsters is. I make 3.x/pf1 monsters in less than two minutes (mostly fluff stuff. This is one of the things I consider to be a major benefit of the system is the ease of this) yet you imply there is significant work involved. So I'm curious, what is your process for making monsters?I don't understand how building content could be easier for something other than a d20 derivative. How is it pf2 is easier for you in this way?The rules are simpler and more elegant in 2nd edition. Compare how monsters are made between the two editions for the best example.
First; please use "flavor" or "lore" or some other word instead of "fluff"; the word fluff implies less important writing, and flavor is to me the most important part of a monster.
There's a big difference between a set of notes for a monster used in a casual game with friends and something intended to be an official publication.
Ever tried EVE Online? Science Fiction rather than fantasy, but still pretty good IMO.
Were the hosts of Heaven to have their way, would they conquer Golarion to uplift the world into an enlightened state? Like, suppose Heaven's own version of a Worldwound opened up in the heart of Cheliax. Would the church of Iomedae use that as a staging ground to purge evil from Golarion in much the same way demons and their cultists used the Worldwound in an attempt to corrupt Golarion? Or are good-aligned planes a bit more relaxed about spreading their influence?
Would Hell attempt the same thing as the demons of the Worldwound with their own rift, and if so, why hasn't this already happened in Cheliax, where the Church of Asmodeus controls everything?
Last question: since a multiverse seems to be a thing in Lost Omens, do any of the gods or powerful outsiders keep tabs or contacts on parallel realities? And do gods exist outside of a multiverse, or could there be, theoretically, infinite Pharasmas overseeing infinite realities?
|
Creative Director
|
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
First; please use "flavor" or "lore" or some other word instead of "fluff"; the word fluff implies less important writing, and flavor is to me the most important part of a monster.
There's a big difference between a set of notes for a monster used in a casual game with friends and something intended to be an official publication.
Given the simplicity of 3.x number scale, I don't see what you'd need to do beyond making sure you give it the right CR, which only presents an issue if you do something odd (like spiking offense and nerfing defense to make a glass cannon). Not including the stuff that you'd need to do anyway for any system (such as formatting and spellchecking) of course.
So what exactly is it you do that makes it such a chore?
The combination of making sure all the 1st edition numbers match up while also matching the expected number values so that folks who'll inevitably swoop in to "check my math" won't find evidence that I don't know how to design for the game I helped to create combined with the requirement that the new monster be unique and different enough from every other monster we've published so it's justified as a new monster combined with the tricky bit about making sure that it fits into the page and matches the art for starters.
EDIT: If it were even a tiny fraction as easy as you seem to imply, we wouldn't be able to sell any Bestiaries. Making monsters right is work.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Were the hosts of Heaven to have their way, would they conquer Golarion to uplift the world into an enlightened state? Like, suppose Heaven's own version of a Worldwound opened up in the heart of Cheliax. Would the church of Iomedae use that as a staging ground to purge evil from Golarion in much the same way demons and their cultists used the Worldwound in an attempt to corrupt Golarion? Or are good-aligned planes a bit more relaxed about spreading their influence?
Would Hell attempt the same thing as the demons of the Worldwound with their own rift, and if so, why hasn't this already happened in Cheliax, where the Church of Asmodeus controls everything?
Last question: since a multiverse seems to be a thing in Lost Omens, do any of the gods or powerful outsiders keep tabs or contacts on parallel realities? And do gods exist outside of a multiverse, or could there be, theoretically, infinite Pharasmas overseeing infinite realities?
No. Conquering a world to force it to comply is evil, not good, so Heaven wouldn't do it. Hell wouldn't try it because then Heaven would react and the end would be a scorched world situation where no one wins. No one "keeps tabs" on parallel realities, because that's too much to do for not a lot of gain—AKA that's not the game world we're interested in presenting.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
How do I get the image of a skeleton as a jovial, charming figure out of my head since that is decidedly NOT how they behave in Pathfinder? Instead of being scared by them I wanna party with them!
Watch movies with serious skeletons instead of "Nightmare Before Christmas" I guess?
Apart from movies like "Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" or "Jason and the Argonauts" off the top of my head, which present skeletons as bad-ass fighters not to be trifled with (Click here for youtube-flavored proof), I honestly can't think of many actual horror movies that feature skeletons as the villain.
The end of Terminator comes close; that's basically a metal skeleton.
There are scary skeleton elements in "Return of the Living Dead" but that movie's more a comedy than a horror movie (but a BRILLIANT comedy horror movie at that).
A better bet might be to play some video games that feature lots of skeleton fights. They show up often in RPGs, but for my money, the skeleton fights in the various Dark Souls games are the scariest.
What (if anything) does Nocticula think of Arazni?
What would Arueshalae and Nocticula think of each other now, given that they could have crossed paths during the Midnight Isles?
I am starting working on updating Second Darkness to P2 to run for my group. I really love the story and some of the set piece fights are the most memorable I have seen. It has been surprisingly easy, even with the jump up from 3.5. It really does stand the test of time.
For my question, most things are an easy 1 to 1 move, Spot and Search checks are Perception now, Survival is still survival, the CR 2 Imp is now a level 2 Imp etc. but the one thing that is new in P2 is the Occult skill. What kinds of things should I be looking for to have the skill check Occult instead of Arcana?
|
How do I get the image of a skeleton as a jovial, charming figure out of my head since that is decidedly NOT how they behave in Pathfinder? Instead of being scared by them I wanna party with them!Watch movies with serious skeletons instead of "Nightmare Before Christmas" I guess?
Apart from movies like "Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" or "Jason and the Argonauts" off the top of my head, which present skeletons as bad-ass fighters not to be trifled with (Click here for youtube-flavored proof), I honestly can't think of many actual horror movies that feature skeletons as the villain.
The end of Terminator comes close; that's basically a metal skeleton.
There are scary skeleton elements in "Return of the Living Dead" but that movie's more a comedy than a horror movie (but a BRILLIANT comedy horror movie at that).
A better bet might be to play some video games that feature lots of skeleton fights. They show up often in RPGs, but for my money, the skeleton fights in the various Dark Souls games are the scariest.
Thanks, James! Though I have seen "Jason and the Argonauts," and while the skeletons ARE good fighters, I find them impossible to take seriously when they open the fight with a shrill, silly-sounding scream. :P
And a question: there's no real way to depict a villain who's nominally of a good faith, but is self-righteous to the point that they're villainous in the Lost Omens setting, correct? Think guys like Frollo from Notre-Dame de Paris (both the original novel and the many film adaptations), The Chantry in the Dragon Age, or even Pathfinder's own examples like Prelate Hulrun in Kenabres, or the Fiercely Virginal Order of Blessed Exoneration from the original Kingmaker's 6-part Fiction "Prodigal Sons," etc.
Given that you have to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk" to receive power from a deity, becoming so self-righteous that you're doing terrible things in the name of your faith would results in power loss, which seems like it's a pretty big wake-up call. You've also stated in the Philosophies of Golarion vid that you're not a fan of the trope of someone believing they're receiving power from a good god when in actuality they're getting it from an evil deity who's decieving them, as it's too much of a "cheap gotcha." So what's a GM to do if they want a villain who believes they doing righteous stuff and smiting the wicked in a community, but is so fanatical or hypocritical that PCs have to intervene to prevent innocents from being burned at stakes or executed as heretics?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I am starting working on updating Second Darkness to P2 to run for my group. I really love the story and some of the set piece fights are the most memorable I have seen. It has been surprisingly easy, even with the jump up from 3.5. It really does stand the test of time.
For my question, most things are an easy 1 to 1 move, Spot and Search checks are Perception now, Survival is still survival, the CR 2 Imp is now a level 2 Imp etc. but the one thing that is new in P2 is the Occult skill. What kinds of things should I be looking for to have the skill check Occult instead of Arcana?
Occult should play off of things like aberrations, Lovecraftian stuff, spooky aliens such as the Dominion of the Black, anything that's got anything to do with numbers and codes, psionic or psychic stuff, anything bard related, and stuff that generally has a spooky theme to it. Look also at the monsters in the bestiary and note which ones have occult spells instead of arcane spells.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
And a question: there's no real way to depict a villain who's nominally of a good faith, but is self-righteous to the point that they're villainous in the Lost Omens setting, correct? Think guys like Frollo from Notre-Dame de Paris (both the original novel and the many film adaptations), The Chantry in the Dragon Age, or even Pathfinder's own examples like Prelate Hulrun in Kenabres, or the Fiercely Virginal Order of Blessed Exoneration from the original Kingmaker's 6-part Fiction "Prodigal Sons," etc.
Given that you have to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk" to receive power from a deity, becoming so self-righteous that you're doing terrible things in the name of your faith would results in power loss, which seems like it's a pretty big wake-up call. You've also stated in the Philosophies of Golarion vid that you're not a fan of the trope of someone believing they're receiving power from a good god when in actuality they're getting it from an evil deity who's decieving them, as it's too much of a "cheap gotcha." So what's a GM to do if they want a villain who believes they doing righteous stuff and smiting the wicked in a community, but is so fanatical or hypocritical that PCs have to intervene to prevent innocents from being burned at stakes or executed as heretics?
You can absolutely do villains who are nominally of a good faith but also self-righteous and toxic to that faith. It's best not to do so with a cleric or champion since the loss of powers is a tell, but ANY class works well as a religious class in that regard. The whole point of a character like this is that they're misinterpreting or misunderstanding or abusing the faith, either knowingly or not, and as such it's just not appropriate to build such an NPC as a cleric or champion.
Try building this character as a sorcerer with a divine bloodline instead of a cleric, or as a monk or fighter instead of a paladin.
Alternately, you can go with a deity like Abadar. His clerics make for great vilians in this regard if the deviate too close to "Protect the government and city and not the individual." Hardline Abadar clerics can end up feeling very much like the modern corporate CEO who is worried more about the bottom line or the shareholders rather than the employees or the locals. Not quite the same as a misguided person of faith, but to PCs who expect a cleric of a non-evil deity to always want to help them it can have a similar effect of setting up the cleric as an antagonist.
You can also adjust how things work in your game if you're the GM. You can set it up so clerics CAN be tricked by their deities in the way you want, but take care at not abusing the trust any PC who worships a deity might have. Personally, if I were in a game where I found out the deity my character was worshiping was a sham or, worse, was taking advantage of me, I'd be frustrated and annoyed to the point that I'd never play with that GM ever again.
|
I'm going to be playing a changeling cleric of Nocticula in an upcoming campaign that's set before she makes her full transition from demon lord to deity (or, at least, before she reveals herself as such). Other than the fact that, to almost everyone at this point, she's considered to be incredibly evil, what are some things you think it would be good to keep in mind for me as a player?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hello mr Jacobs,
Have you ever watched epic rap battles of history?
Do you have a faovrite Guillermo Del Toro film?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm going to be playing a changeling cleric of Nocticula in an upcoming campaign that's set before she makes her full transition from demon lord to deity (or, at least, before she reveals herself as such). Other than the fact that, to almost everyone at this point, she's considered to be incredibly evil, what are some things you think it would be good to keep in mind for me as a player?
That you're going to be viewed, in-world, as a heretic and should expect to have clashes with actual clerics of Nocticula who are afraid of you and wanna kill you.
But there's been worshipers of Nocticula as the Redeemer Queen in-world for many years already, and even before 2nd edition those worshipers counted clerics among them who got spells.
My advice would be to keep in mind that what she's presented as being in 2nd edition is still very much accurate from the viewpoint of a 1st edition heretic worshiper; you just won't have a lot of in-world support or understanding or patience from NPCs.
|
Creative Director
|
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
Are there specific areas in the Pathfinder universe where certain skymetals come from in large quantities or where they were created, or is there something in their nature of them being meteorites that causes them to form?
Yup, but we haven't revealed where. My take is that they get hurled into space when planets or starts explode and then eventually land on other planets though. I like to think adamantium is the most common on Golarion 'cause it's stuff left over from when the deities built the cage to imprison Rovagug; what us mortals value as a rare powerful or is basically slag from an ancient forge.
|
Are there specific areas in the Pathfinder universe where certain skymetals come from in large quantities or where they were created, or is there something in their nature of them being meteorites that causes them to form?Yup, but we haven't revealed where. My take is that they get hurled into space when planets or starts explode and then eventually land on other planets though. I like to think adamantium is the most common on Golarion 'cause it's stuff left over from when the deities built the cage to imprison Rovagug; what us mortals value as a rare powerful or is basically slag from an ancient forge.
Ooooo, I had suspected something like that, nice to see similar thoughts :3
Do you have a favored Skymetal?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Are there specific areas in the Pathfinder universe where certain skymetals come from in large quantities or where they were created, or is there something in their nature of them being meteorites that causes them to form?Yup, but we haven't revealed where. My take is that they get hurled into space when planets or starts explode and then eventually land on other planets though. I like to think adamantium is the most common on Golarion 'cause it's stuff left over from when the deities built the cage to imprison Rovagug; what us mortals value as a rare powerful or is basically slag from an ancient forge.Ooooo, I had suspected something like that, nice to see similar thoughts :3
Do you have a favored Skymetal?
Noqual. It's the one I invented first, back in my homebrew 30 years ago or so, and as such the one I'm the most proud of.
Theodore Roosevelt or Sir Winston Churchill?
|
|
Is it irresponsible to roleplay characters smoking, whether a pesh hookah or Taldan cigar in Pathfinder or a fancy e-cig machine or a hyperleaf joint in Starfinder? Part of me feels like it perpetuates the "smoking r cool" image that tobacco companies have used to prey on young people for decades (especially as in an RPG a character smoking is a deliberate choice on the part of the person roleplaying them), but part of me also feels like the average player or GM doesn't want to pause the game for a "drugs r bad" message in the style of an after-school special or stepping on a player's roleplaying by having an NPC say "Hey PC, could you please not smoke in here?".
|
|
Noqual. It's the one I invented first, back in my homebrew 30 years ago or so, and as such the one I'm the most proud of.Are there specific areas in the Pathfinder universe where certain skymetals come from in large quantities or where they were created, or is there something in their nature of them being meteorites that causes them to form?Yup, but we haven't revealed where. My take is that they get hurled into space when planets or starts explode and then eventually land on other planets though. I like to think adamantium is the most common on Golarion 'cause it's stuff left over from when the deities built the cage to imprison Rovagug; what us mortals value as a rare powerful or is basically slag from an ancient forge.Ooooo, I had suspected something like that, nice to see similar thoughts :3
Do you have a favored Skymetal?
Nice.
What other Skymetals did you create?
If the Golden Girls were transported to Golarion, which deities would they worship?
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it irresponsible to roleplay characters smoking, whether a pesh hookah or Taldan cigar in Pathfinder or a fancy e-cig machine or a hyperleaf joint in Starfinder? Part of me feels like it perpetuates the "smoking r cool" image that tobacco companies have used to prey on young people for decades (especially as in an RPG a character smoking is a deliberate choice on the part of the person roleplaying them), but part of me also feels like the average player or GM doesn't want to pause the game for a "drugs r bad" message in the style of an after-school special or stepping on a player's roleplaying by having an NPC say "Hey PC, could you please not smoke in here?".
It's only irresponsible if you use that character to try to get others hooked on smoking in the real life.
As with all potentially objectionable content, though, it's best to be familiar with your other players and GM's preferences, and if even one of them finds anything you do objectionable (be it smoking in character, being too violent, being too vulgar, using too many puns, playing a character that breaks verisimilitude, playing a character that clashes with the theme of the campaign, etc.) you should strongly consider changing/altering the objectionable element and putting that thing on the back burner for use in a different game with a different group.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Noqual. It's the one I invented first, back in my homebrew 30 years ago or so, and as such the one I'm the most proud of.Are there specific areas in the Pathfinder universe where certain skymetals come from in large quantities or where they were created, or is there something in their nature of them being meteorites that causes them to form?Yup, but we haven't revealed where. My take is that they get hurled into space when planets or starts explode and then eventually land on other planets though. I like to think adamantium is the most common on Golarion 'cause it's stuff left over from when the deities built the cage to imprison Rovagug; what us mortals value as a rare powerful or is basically slag from an ancient forge.Ooooo, I had suspected something like that, nice to see similar thoughts :3
Do you have a favored Skymetal?
Nice.
What other Skymetals did you create?
None of them. Admantium is mythological, and James Sutter made up the others, including the original spelling of horichalcum, which we reverted to the mythological word of orichalcum but kept its new Pathfinder properties.
Hello mr Jacobs,
Have you ever watched epic rap battles of history?
I have not.
The Fiend Fantastic wrote:Theodore Roosevelt or Sir Winston Churchill?
No preference.
May i present to you, Theodore Roosevelt vs Sir Winston Churchill, in a verbal duel of leaders.
...............................That completely aside,
With Nocticula changing from evil to her current position, do you think it plausible other deities/demigods change a moral course in the distant future?
Mr. James Jacobs,
Which deity would be the closest to a "God(dess) of Sass"?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Thankies for answering :3
Back to Noqual, what was its genesis?
I wanted an unusual weird material that could be mixed into walls to hamper teleportation and passwall type effects, and explained it via the use of noqual to block those effects. Sort of a mechanical way to duplicate something like dimensional lock, which the game didn't have at the time back in the 2nd edition D&D days. And from there it became a type of metal that could make antimagic-themed things, particularly as an element used to lace golems to explain their high resistance to magic.
|
|
I wanted an unusual weird material that could be mixed into walls to hamper teleportation and passwall type effects, and explained it via the use of noqual to block those effects. Sort of a mechanical way to duplicate something like dimensional lock, which the game didn't have at the time back in the 2nd edition D&D days. And from there it became a type of metal that could make antimagic-themed things, particularly as an element used to lace golems to explain their high resistance to magic.Thankies for answering :3
Back to Noqual, what was its genesis?
Cool.
Was Mithril at any point on the table to become a sky metal?