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Well I guess this is chance to check on this: Is gremlins reproducing by budding canon nowadays or was that another of those outdated info in campaign setting books? Gremlins in adventures at least don't seem to acknowledge that they can breed asexually.
On complete sidenote, are followers of Damerrich out of place in Inner Sea, or do you think they would fit pretty much anywhere? I was considering whether Cheliax, Lastwall(pre gravelands) or Galt would be good fit..
The verdict is out on gremlins. Thing is... when folks add elements to a monster's biology that wildly deviates from the norm for creatures of their type (budding for non-plant creatures, for example), it's generally best to get that information out there as soon as possible and with as much buy-in from the creative director and the developers at Paizo as possible. For me, gremlins reproducing by budding feels a LITTLE too close to how things worked in a certain movie called "Gremlins." It's one thing to put an homage or easter egg into a game based on a popular movie, but it's dangerously easy to go from homage/easter egg to something that's potentially legally actionable from an intellectual property standpoint. Had there been real-world lore about gremlins budding, that'd be one thing, but since that's pretty much, as far as I know, taken from the movie "Gremlins" I'd rather not preserve that in the game, both out of respect for the movie and to avoid infringement on intellectual properties of corporations with much larger legal teams than Paizo's.
(Keeping an eye on easter eggs like this in freelancer turnovers is one of the more complex parts of a developer's job. We've stopped using some freelancers before after problems with them putting easter eggs that verge into lawsuit potential before. I'd rather just avoid them overall.)
On the side note (and going forward, please limit the questions to one per post), since I had to Google who Damerrich was, that's a good hint that their faith is pretty obscure on Golarion. They aren't out of place int he Inner Sea, but they ARE pretty uncommon. The good news there is that since their groups would thus be rather small, they'd fit in pretty well anywhere since, to date, they haven't been large or active enough to make much of an impression.
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Mr Jacobs, can you settle a debate for my group? Was the content of Carrion Crown created via a fan contest, with the winner suggesting ideas which the official writers then turned into an adventure path?
It was not. We've never done a contest that allowed fan created content to determine the plot of an Adventure Path. (If it had been, we would have at least mentioned that somewhere in the foreword of the first volume.)
Carrion Crown's original plot was created by Wes Schneider with some assistance from me and James Sutter.
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Are there any plans to do a book exploring the areas of Nex, Geb, and the Mana Wastes? Even with the small bit we've gotten of it over the years it's one of my favorite regions in Pathfinder and it kind of surprises me it doesn't have a book similar to Rule of Fear or the upcoming one about Absalom.
As a general rule, I can't answer the "are there plans for a book" question in this thread, since that's kinda the same as spilling the beans on trade secrets or sidestepping the process we have in place to announce new products. If I did spill beans on unannounced products here... I'm pretty sure either this thread would get locked down, I'd get fired, or both.
Instead, if someone is eager to see us do a book on a specific subject, let us know via the messageboards or at conventions.
One thing to keep in mind about the books we publish is that they're just as much driven by what we think customers might want as they are by what WE at Paizo want to do. Rule of Fear came to be because Wes Schneider, the editor in chief at Paizo at the time, was super passionate about Ustalav, and as that region's creator, he was eager to write that book. And when we have in-house writers who are eager to write for us, we generally make sure they get to do that, because the combination of being a staff writer and having a lot of passion for a project tends to result in books that are not only very easy to develop and edit, but also generally turn out to be pretty popular.
And that's why we haven't done much with Nex yet, in particular. That region was created by Erik Mona, and he's super passionate about it, but he's also one of the busiest folks at Paizo and he's simply never had the time to write that book. And I know in my bones that a book written by someone else about Nex wouldn't be as good as what would come from Erik. And so that subject for a book has been waiting in the proverbial wings all this time.
Hi James, I really enjoyed your Kingmaker twitch stream the other day. That was my first time seeing the turn-based mod for the game.
I asked a question very late, but it was missed because it was near the end of the stream, so I'll ask again here.
I'm playing book four of Return of the Runelords. My PC is a varisian bard from Korvosa who has taken on a bit of a people's revolutionary stance against the Runelords (for the most part, no spoilers).
My question is what do the general Varisians think of the Return of the Runelods. I know book three spells out Korvosa's response, but I was curious as to the attitudes of other factions or groups that may feel differently.
Since we're running the adventure path using Mythic Adventures, my PC has become a herald of Shelyn and I'd like to start thinking more about where he sees his place in the bigger picture.
Thanks for your time. Wishing you all the best with Paizocon Online and beyond!
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Hi James, I really enjoyed your Kingmaker twitch stream the other day. That was my first time seeing the turn-based mod for the game.
I asked a question very late, but it was missed because it was near the end of the stream, so I'll ask again here.
I'm playing book four of Return of the Runelords. My PC is a varisian bard from Korvosa who has taken on a bit of a people's revolutionary stance against the Runelords (for the most part, no spoilers).
My question is what do the general Varisians think of the Return of the Runelods. I know book three spells out Korvosa's response, but I was curious as to the attitudes of other factions or groups that may feel differently.
Since we're running the adventure path using Mythic Adventures, my PC has become a herald of Shelyn and I'd like to start thinking more about where he sees his place in the bigger picture.
Thanks for your time. Wishing you all the best with Paizocon Online and beyond!
Cool; glad you're enjoying the Kingmaker streams!
In general, the people of Varisia are fearful and worried about the Runelords. They've seen one of them come back and cause a lot of problems with Karzoug, then sent a new group of heroes on a specific quest to gain an artifact to protect them from future runelord mayhem. They're fearful enough, in other words, to trigger an entire Adventure Path just out of that fear. Even after Return of the Runelords ends (no spoilers) the people of the region will continue to regard runelords as "regional boogymen."
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the format of our adventures don't really allow for us to say things like "THIS INFORMATION CORRECTS INFORMATION WE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED").What is it about the format that stops you from doing that? It sounds as if it would be useful.
We prefer the adventures to serve as adventures rather than stealth errata. If we took up a stance of dropping in official corrections and errata into everything we published, it'd become too complicated to keep track of and set unrealistic expectations to readers and just overall be too frustrating for all of us in the long run. A classic example of the proverbial cure being worse than the disease.
Where would be a good place to add Cauldron to Golarion?The mainland reaches of the Shackles.
Where would Sasserine be placed (originally I would have expected to Sargava/Vidrian to fill that role, but somehow it wouldn't fit).
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Where would Sasserine be placed (originally I would have expected to Sargava/Vidrian to fill that role, but somehow it wouldn't fit).Where would be a good place to add Cauldron to Golarion?The mainland reaches of the Shackles.
Pretty close to Cauldron. I'd probably put it on the Shackles mainland as well.
The rights for Sasserine and Cauldron still belong to WotC?
Hi James!
I'm really enjoying watching you all in Band of Bravos, and it makes me wonder, do you have any tips on how to make a memorable and fun character to play as?
Is the Copper Dragon Tyraxalan (Dragons Revisited, p33) still alive?
Is his main function on Golarion now-a-days to justify the creation of Copper Dragon Blooded Sorcerers for Cheliax based adventures?
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Hi James!
I'm really enjoying watching you all in Band of Bravos, and it makes me wonder, do you have any tips on how to make a memorable and fun character to play as?
Thanks! It's fun to actually get to play the game as a change from making it! :)
As for how to make memorable and fun characters... I only hope that folks enjoy seeing Shensen in action. She's certainly memorable and fun to me (which is why I keep going back to play her in various campaigns). As for how to make memorable and fun characters... the best method I've found is to consume characters non-stop. Read stories. Watch movies. Play video games. Game with others and immerse yourself in what they do with their characters. And keep creating, be it characters in stories or ones you play in games. Take risks! Try things outside of your comfort zone. Do your best in games to make the OTHER players shine and make their characters the stars, cause they'll give back to you!
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Is the Copper Dragon Tyraxalan (Dragons Revisited, p33) still alive?
Is his main function on Golarion now-a-days to justify the creation of Copper Dragon Blooded Sorcerers for Cheliax based adventures?
As far as I know, yes. We generally don't create characters intending to kill them off quietly. ;-P
I can't say what his main function is though; I didn't write him and wasn't super involved in that book's creation. But I can say that one creature is not enough to be single justification for the creation of an entire type of sorcerer. One source, sure, but very far from the only one.
My apologies if you've answered this before;
Are there any non-DnD systems with aspects you admire or might even wish to incorporate into the game? It could be mechanics, settings, or even monsters/enemies/NPC archetypes.
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My apologies if you've answered this before;
Are there any non-DnD systems with aspects you admire or might even wish to incorporate into the game? It could be mechanics, settings, or even monsters/enemies/NPC archetypes.
Call of Cthulhu. I admire it's simplicity; if you understand how percentages work, you know how to play the game pretty much.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Hi James!
I'm really enjoying watching you all in Band of Bravos, and it makes me wonder, do you have any tips on how to make a memorable and fun character to play as?
Thanks! It's fun to actually get to play the game as a change from making it! :)
As for how to make memorable and fun characters... I only hope that folks enjoy seeing Shensen in action. She's certainly memorable and fun to me (which is why I keep going back to play her in various campaigns). As for how to make memorable and fun characters... the best method I've found is to consume characters non-stop. Read stories. Watch movies. Play video games. Game with others and immerse yourself in what they do with their characters. And keep creating, be it characters in stories or ones you play in games. Take risks! Try things outside of your comfort zone. Do your best in games to make the OTHER players shine and make their characters the stars, cause they'll give back to you!
James, wondering if you can expand a bit on this advice. Is it self-contradictory to on one hand say how you make memorable and fun characters by going back to Shensen in multiple campaigns, and then go on to say take risks, try things outside your comfort zone, etc?
Is this just a case of different methods work best for different people, or do you see this as a synthesis of both being simultaneously possible and if so, how do you keep Shensen fresh while still going back to her repeatedly?
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Hi James!
I'm really enjoying watching you all in Band of Bravos, and it makes me wonder, do you have any tips on how to make a memorable and fun character to play as?
Thanks! It's fun to actually get to play the game as a change from making it! :)
As for how to make memorable and fun characters... I only hope that folks enjoy seeing Shensen in action. She's certainly memorable and fun to me (which is why I keep going back to play her in various campaigns). As for how to make memorable and fun characters... the best method I've found is to consume characters non-stop. Read stories. Watch movies. Play video games. Game with others and immerse yourself in what they do with their characters. And keep creating, be it characters in stories or ones you play in games. Take risks! Try things outside of your comfort zone. Do your best in games to make the OTHER players shine and make their characters the stars, cause they'll give back to you!
James, wondering if you can expand a bit on this advice. Is it self-contradictory to on one hand say how you make memorable and fun characters by going back to Shensen in multiple campaigns, and then go on to say take risks, try things outside your comfort zone, etc?
Is this just a case of different methods work best for different people, or do you see this as a synthesis of both being simultaneously possible and if so, how do you keep Shensen fresh while still going back to her repeatedly?
I was a very different person when I started playing Shensen 20 years ago. Shensen certainly wasn't the first female PC I played, but she was the first bisexual PC I played, and that helped me make some pretty key self-realizations about my own bisexuality. So... I'd say stepping out of my comfort zone to play a woman character in a campaign that ran a few years before that was one thing... and then going on after that campaign came to an end to play a bisexual character was another case.
At this point, Shensen is more of a comfort than something new to me. In this case, playing in public in front of the internet on a virtual tabletop is me stepping out of my comfort zone—before Band of Bravos, my VTT experience was pretty much zero, and my experience at playing a character in front of anything more than a few dozen people was nil. Playing a character in a public venue that goes on to live "forever" on youtube? That's a first for me. Playing Shensen in this situation is what helps me not panic and freak out; it's a comfort to play Shensen in such a weird and strange new way to me and was a big part of how I convinced myself that I wanted to do this in the first place.
AKA: There's a LOT of ways to step out of your comfort zone and explore new characters. But also, you don't have to do that every single time you play. Sometimes, it's fun to simply relax while gaming.
As for how I keep Shensen "fresh," that plays out in the rules. This is the first time I've played her in 2nd Edition, and for some time I was really challenged with how to do a bard who fights with a Scimitar. I found a way, in part because of my needling the design team to put in a few ways for players to be able to pick up "off-brand" weapons for builds. Her personality's more or less the same (if toned down to be more PG13 and less R), but there's new things too that come out of using different rules to try to approximate familiar character traits.
All right, this is potentially a fairly difficult question due to what it might imply about future products, so you are free to wave it off, but... given the current chatter around serpentfolk and the like-
Is there any ancestry that was not playable in first edition that you would like to see as playable in second?
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All right, this is potentially a fairly difficult question due to what it might imply about future products, so you are free to wave it off, but... given the current chatter around serpentfolk and the like-
Is there any ancestry that was not playable in first edition that you would like to see as playable in second?
Lizardfolk. Already done, though. Beyond that, not really, because my personal preference is to play elves or humans or half-elves or halflings or tieflings as a player. I don't personally have much of an urge to play somehting else, perhaps because I GM a lot and get that itch scratched via that method, but also because I like to play characters I can identify with, and the less human they are, the less into the character I am.
And yes, this ties into my former comment about playing outside of your comfort zone or trying new things. I have played PCs who are less human and more monstrous; Torak the awakened deinonchus comes to mind. But I didn't have a lot of fun playing that character; it was hard for me to get into Torak's "head space".
Sometimes, playing out of your comfort zones tells you what you don't enjoy; it doesn't always result in something you DO enjoy, and that's just as viable to learn.
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I feel like this has been asked before, but what is it with Norgorber and his very powerful followers having glowing left eyes?
I need to stat out the Forever Man for my game (magnimar dude) and I am wondering what the fun little glowing eye bit is.
Sorry if this has been asked, but I did search and didn't seem to find anything.
It's a thematic physical affectation we often use when illustrating his worshipers and him to help subtly tie them all with the same themes, but doesn't have an in-world explanation. Yet.
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Do good gods desire to stop the disintegration of quintessence or is the process "good?"
Similarly, do any good gods desire to oppose Yog-Sothoth? Or does Yog-Sothoth get a pass for being at the start of existence?
Not universally, no. The disintegration of quintessence is not associated with an alignment, any more than the process of erosion is. Some gods (and their faiths) might try to work to slow it; this is a recurring theme among certain aeons (primarily innevitables, but any of them who fight against proteans), but it's not something that good deities see as an evil to fight against.
Same for Yog-Sothoth. He's a chaotic force, not an evil or good one, and as such he's mostly opposed by lawful deities. The vast majority of his worshipers are evil, though, and most good faiths oppose those faiths, but that's different than gods opposing gods.
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What do serpentfolk call themselves? Catfolk are amurren, lizardfolk iruxi, ratfolk ysoki.
Sekmin. (Although they are only very rarely called that today.)
Sekmins are further split into the zyss (the ones who retain their magic and intellect) and the aapoph (the ones who are mutated and degenerated).
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What kind of lumber, in the main, does Andoran produce?
As in, "What kind of trees grow in Andoran"? I feel like we likely mentioned this before in an older book like "Guide to Darkmoon Vale" or one of the other adventures that focuses on the Lumber Consortium there, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
I can't really say off the top of my head as a result, but it's probably something analogous to what you'd find in southern Europe.
What kind of lumber, in the main, does Andoran produce?As in, "What kind of trees grow in Andoran"? I feel like we likely mentioned this before in an older book like "Guide to Darkmoon Vale" or one of the other adventures that focuses on the Lumber Consortium there, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
I can't really say off the top of my head as a result, but it's probably something analogous to what you'd find in southern Europe.
in the articles on pathfinderwiki about Darkmoon Vale and Falcons Hollow Darkwood is mentioned as one kind of lumber found there ...
for more info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_forests,_woodlands,_and_scrub
What was your inspiration for Norgorber?
There's a character in a manga I read that has a bunch of similarities including a mask that's strikingly similar to the holy symbol, and love of human experimentation for the sake of knowledge. So I'm wondering if you and the writer of that manga had similar sources of inspiration.
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So I kinda wonder, if Nualia had been redeemed, which non evil god would probably appeal to her most based on her experiences? I'd assume she'd probably wouldn't be able to tolerate Desna just because of association with her father
Depends entirely on the story and method, and not having any god appeal to her is absolutely an option.
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What was your inspiration for Norgorber?
There's a character in a manga I read that has a bunch of similarities including a mask that's strikingly similar to the holy symbol, and love of human experimentation for the sake of knowledge. So I'm wondering if you and the writer of that manga had similar sources of inspiration.
The two biggest inspirations for Norgorber was Ramsey Campbell's novel, "The Face That Must Die" and several short stories by Robert Chambers, notably "The Repairer of Reputations." Beyond that, the tradition of thieves and thieves' guilds in D&D, which was itself SIGNIFICANTLY inspired from Fritz Leiber's stories set in Lankhmar, was an influence.
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What kind of lumber, in the main, does Andoran produce?As in, "What kind of trees grow in Andoran"? I feel like we likely mentioned this before in an older book like "Guide to Darkmoon Vale" or one of the other adventures that focuses on the Lumber Consortium there, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
I can't really say off the top of my head as a result, but it's probably something analogous to what you'd find in southern Europe.
in the articles on pathfinderwiki about Darkmoon Vale and Falcons Hollow Darkwood is mentioned as one kind of lumber found there ...
for more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_forests,_woodlands,_and_scrub
AH, of course darkwood is mentioned... but that doesn't help too much since that's a fantasy thing and not a real-world touchstone (further, it's a D&D OGL term, which makes it difficult/awkward to use in non game products like novels, which is the main reason we've been trying to limit or rename D&D stuff in Pathfinder).
That said, thanks for the links, but at the same time let's keep this thread to questions for me; if you provide a link or a clarification like that, please drop in a question as well. Doesn't even have to be about the same topic you're clarifying or even about Pathfinder.
How do you guys decide if you are going to use new or old art for a Bestiary monster that is reprint? Have you ever gotten new art for monster but decided to use the old art for whatever reason?
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How do you guys decide if you are going to use new or old art for a Bestiary monster that is reprint? Have you ever gotten new art for monster but decided to use the old art for whatever reason?
We aren't using any art reprinted from 1st edition except in emergencies, as in a case where an artist fails to get us an illustration and we're shipping the book to the printer the next day and we can't, for whatever reason, add text to fill the gap left by the missing art.
If you're asking "how do we decide if we want to keep a monster's look from 1st edition or to try something new and redesign it's look in 2nd edition?" then the answer there is simply a matter of opinion. Part of being a creative director and an art director is that who you're working for has hired you for your taste in art and story; in effect, they're paying you for your personal opinions, which (in theory) champion the goals of the company you're hired to work for.
And so it's just a "This could look better, let's fix it" call we make on a case by case basis.
The two biggest inspirations for Norgorber was Ramsey Campbell's novel, "The Face That Must Die" and several short stories by Robert Chambers, notably "The Repairer of Reputations." Beyond that, the tradition of thieves and thieves' guilds in D&D, which was itself SIGNIFICANTLY inspired from Fritz Leiber's stories set in Lankhmar, was an influence.What was your inspiration for Norgorber?
There's a character in a manga I read that has a bunch of similarities including a mask that's strikingly similar to the holy symbol, and love of human experimentation for the sake of knowledge. So I'm wondering if you and the writer of that manga had similar sources of inspiration.
What about specifically the holy symbol/mask design? The line down the middle and only showing one eye. Is that inspired by anything in particular or an original creation?
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What about specifically the holy symbol/mask design? The line down the middle and only showing one eye. Is that inspired by anything in particular or an original creation?
That's mostly from my imagination, somewhat inspired by a combination of Ningauble and Sheelba from the Fritz Leiber stories (although not directly, because Norgorbor has neither 7 eyes or 0 eyes, of course).
Sorry I didn't word my question correctly, when you guys were doing 1st ed and took monsters from APs and other sources when doing a hardcover bestiary. So my last question(s) but with this information.
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Sorry I didn't word my question correctly, when you guys were doing 1st ed and took monsters from APs and other sources when doing a hardcover bestiary. So my last question(s) but with this information.
Sort of the same answer—we looked at the options and went with our favorites, influenced significantly by what we felt our customers would expect/demand, and what we felt was most important to have available four our adventures for the first year the game was in print, but also with an eye toward putting some of our own creations in the front and center of the game rather than relying upon other companies' creations.
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Why does Norgorber have a known gender if all other information about him is witheld (or actively suppressed by him)?
Not all other information about him is withheld or suppressed; that's hyperbole.
You can be a god of secrets and still have some things out in the open.
If we went for a full on "EVERYTHING about this deity is secret" then we wouldn't be able to say anything at all about them. We did that for [NAME IS SECRET] and as a result, no one knows or cares about that one, and it has had no impact on our setting at all, so all the work we may or may not have put into that thing is wasted. ;-P