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The current year appears to be 4720 AR. When was Valeros born?
We've never said, and since the iconics are to a certain extent ageless (they don't change appearance except between editions, and event then) locking them into a birth date is sort of self-defeating.
Have you ever played in the Athas/Dark Sun setting? If so, what did you think about it?
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Hey James, thanks for answering my question about monitor outsiders!
I’ve been thinking about (re-)reading some Dragonlance books soon-ish, and thinking about Krynn made me curious about the draconic cultures of Golarion. My biggest question is: What are the naming conventions of the True Dragons of Golarion? i.e. Do dragon parents name their children? If so, how do they come up with names? Taking the names of some iconic dragons from Dragons Revisited and other sources for example: Mengkare (Gold), Terendelev (Silver), Daralathyxl (Red) — do these names mean anything in Draconic?
Dragon culture on Golarion is intentionally kind of 180º from Dragonlance (and maybe 90º from Forgotten Realms). We wanted our dragon game to feel different than D&D's dragon game, so for Golarion, dragons are mostly solitary creatures who play the role of end-boss monsters or mysterious patrons/manipulators or powerful but solitary allies. Dragons in Golarion don't really have "societies" like they do in most D&D settings.
Naming conventions for dragons we use are to give them names that would sound impressive when spoken by a 60-foot-long monster, but specifically avoiding the trap that so many Forgotten Realms dragons fell into, by rolling your knuckles across the keyboard to come up with a 20 character name that's tough to spell and say. :-P
Dragons name their children, yes, but we've never attributed any Draconic meanings to their names. Instead, as they get older, many dragons choose to adopt "nicknames" that are not nonsense words but are meanings, particularly if they want to use those names to strike fear or respect or intrigue into humanity. The dragons Longtooth (whose given dragon name escapes me at the moment, and who we might NEVER have given a dragon name for) and Freezemaw (Arkrhyst) are two examples that come to mind from Rise of the Runelords.
Then there's a dragon like the one from "The Dragon's Demand" who has a birth name he hates so he stole the name of a tougher long-dead dragon for his own.
It's really a case-by-case basis, naming dragons, choosing names that work best for the context of the story we're telling.
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Have you ever played in the Athas/Dark Sun setting? If so, what did you think about it?
I have! Not nearly as much as I wanted to. I love that setting, for the most part, although there are parts of it at the time that I thought were goofy, and parts of it today that I feel are a bit problematic, but that's no different than any massive fantasy world.
My favorite Dark Sun character was a human dual-class fighter/wizard named Gunthor, because I started out as a fighter and rolled something like an 18 (95) Strength, so when he switched to wizard, he was a really swol spellcaster. The campaign ended, alas, before we got more than a few adventures into it; the last thing Gunthor fought was a giant ant lion.
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Thanks! I’ll be sure to check out The Dragon’s Demand. In-universe speaking though, can you conjecture (or maybe in other words, make up ;)) how draconic parents come up with names for their children? Do they re-use old names for famous dragons (which in turn come from gods-know-where), other beings of great power, locations, etc? Based on what you have said, I realize that dragons don’t necessarily follow some sort of traditions, but I’d love to hear some examples :) Sorry if this is too specific :p I’m just a bit obsessed over what might inspire a name in a race as ancient and powerful (and prideful) as dragons.
I try to avoid doing creative work or the like in this thread, since that energy is better suited toward going into products rather than get buried in this enormous thread, sorry!
I'd suggest checking out the dragon article we just published in Age of Ashes (I believe it was in part 4) for the most up-to-date lore about dragons, though.
The easiest place to find example dragon names would be in the sidebars on the dragon entries in the Bestiaries.
James are/were you involved in the forthcoming Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder 2e conversion at all?
Was the Inner Sea created by Earthfall?
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Did humanity have a single point of origin on Golarion?
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Is the art style for Absalom in Agents of Edgewatch (strong Victorian/post Victorian elements) the finalized style guide for Absalom or able to change for future adventures? For example, could the same are look more Renaissance or medieval in art to support a different theme?
Nope. We deliberately went for a somewhat closer to modern art style in Agents of Edgewatch (and I think maybe went a bit TOO far in some illustrations) as something of an experiment to give that Adventure Path its own thematic look.
Have you ever played Mount&Blade-Warband?
Does medieval RPG/Tactical Combat/Trade Sim/Political Sim/Sandbox sound attractive? (Quest from catching bandits to rescue maidens or noble sons to bring caravans to distant cities; lead your merc company ag. bandits or noblelords;build ironworks, breweries and velvet manufacturies; swear fealty to a king, promote revolution for a contender to a throne or found your own kingdom; do everything and all of the above - you can even marry)
... a bit like kingmaker ...
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Does medieval RPG/Tactical Combat/Trade Sim/Political Sim/Sandbox sound attractive? (Quest from catching bandits to rescue maidens or noble sons to bring caravans to distant cities; lead your merc company ag. bandits or noblelords;build ironworks, breweries and velvet manufacturies; swear fealty to a king, promote revolution for a contender to a throne or found your own kingdom; do everything and all of the above - you can even marry)
... a bit like kingmaker ...
In the context of Mount and Blade, no, it does not.
Hi JJ!
Listen, you said (paraphrasing here) you don't much like the way elves are presented in Second Darkness - that they're more LN there than the CG they should be in PF (and that they clearly are from reading the latest Paizo products IMO). Right?
Not asking you a creative effort nor to stake out a territory that might come back and bite Paizo in the ass for future developments, but if you feel like coming up with some hints about how to make Second Darkness elves more Pathfinder-elven without having to rewrite the whole campaign... like, the Council of Winter, would you change their motivations or MO? Would they affect people (and Telandia) differently? Telandia's court - would it be less politicking spy-movie? Does the transformation of the main villain even make sense to you?
Again, please don't feel you have to make an effort to answer this by squeezing your creative juices - just some suggestions on how to make the elves a bit more Pathfinder-y would go a long way! (If you feel like!)
Thank you as always and take care! Huuugs! =)
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Hi JJ!
Listen, you said (paraphrasing here) you don't much like the way elves are presented in Second Darkness - that they're more LN there than the CG they should be in PF (and that they clearly are from reading the latest Paizo products IMO). Right?
Not asking you a creative effort nor to stake out a territory that might come back and bite Paizo in the ass for future developments, but if you feel like coming up with some hints about how to make Second Darkness elves more Pathfinder-elven without having to rewrite the whole campaign... like, the Council of Winter, would you change their motivations or MO? Would they affect people (and Telandia) differently? Telandia's court - would it be less politicking spy-movie? Does the transformation of the main villain even make sense to you?
Again, please don't feel you have to make an effort to answer this by squeezing your creative juices - just some suggestions on how to make the elves a bit more Pathfinder-y would go a long way! (If you feel like!)
Thank you as always and take care! Huuugs! =)
I don't feel like it; sorry. How to adjust and revise Second Darkness has been a constant buzz in the back of my head for over a decade now. The two primary ways I'd try to fix it would be to insert a transition adventure between parts 2 and 3 that would ease the PCs more elegantly out of Riddleport and start to lay the foundations for elves being allies. Originally, we skipped a level there and said, "GMs: Here's your chance to make up an adventure of your own!" and that went over like the proverbial lead balloon. Then I'd pretty much have to rewrite book 5, so that it was more half-and half political shenanigans with a lot more helpful elves in the first half, and a much smaller dungeon crawl in the last half sharing space with an aiudara exploration bit.
All that work would amount to a few months of writing and revising.
The transformation of the main villian absolutely makes sense, but I'd also like to recast that so that she turns lavender instead of black to fit with the 2nd edition drow look.
I don't feel like it; sorry. How to adjust and revise Second Darkness has been a constant buzz in the back of my head for over a decade now. The two primary ways I'd try to fix it would be to insert a transition adventure between parts 2 and 3 that would ease the PCs more elegantly out of Riddleport and start to lay the foundations for elves being allies. Originally, we skipped a level there and said, "GMs: Here's your chance to make up an adventure of your own!" and that went over like the proverbial lead balloon. Then I'd pretty much have to rewrite book 5, so that it was more half-and half political shenanigans with a lot more helpful elves in the first half, and a much smaller dungeon crawl in the last half sharing space with an aiudara exploration bit.
All that work would amount to a few months of writing and revising.
The transformation of the main villian absolutely makes sense, but I'd also like to recast that so that so that she turns lavender instead of black to fit with the 2nd edition drow look.
Dammit, J, you said you didn't feel like it but you gave me a lot of good stuff in your answer! Thank you, that's exactly the kind of stuff I was interested in! Thank you so much!
An easy one now (I hope!): what is your favourite musical genre(s) and/or band(s), artist(s), album(s)?
Genre: Movie/video game soundtrack.
Band: Dead Can Dance.
Artist: John Carpenter.
Album: Seven and the Ragged Tiger.
I love OSTs too! And Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China and Into the Mouth of Madness are fantastic (the latter is one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen, a masterpiece). Dead Can Dance sound really interesting. As for Duran Duran I love Ordinary World, personally - I think maybe I'm too young to really appreciate their older stuff?
Anyways! Another question about PF came to mind - you said you like Wayne Reynold's rendition of Ameiko, right? (I *love* Wayne!) - what's the story with her white strands of hair, does she bleach them or did they lose their color because of a wound, or stress, idk?
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Anyways! Another question about PF came to mind - you said you like Wayne Reynold's rendition of Ameiko, right? (I *love* Wayne!) - what's the story with her white strands of hair, does she bleach them or did they lose their color because of a wound, or stress, idk?
Her white strands of hair are a fashion statement. If not bleach, then an alchemical analog or maybe even a long-lasting prestidigitation effect. It's hardly a game breaking thing to allow prestidigitation to give you a flourish like that without having to re-cast it over and over and over.
Does Paizo keep an internal list of benchmark spells/feats/etc for balance purposes in design? Like say X Focus spell is the strongest level 1 focus spell, so don't design something stronger than it.
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Hey James, Sorry to bring up a previously answered question, but it's caused a bit of stir in the rules forum, so I just thought I would get a bit of clarity.
Hey James,
Is there any chance we can get some semi-official feedback on the topic of: Are Magical Staffs (Eg, Staff of Fire) considered "Specific Magic Weapons" for the purposes of applying Potency Runes to them such as the Shifting, Flaming, or Wounding Runes?
The PF2 forums have multiple threads about if one or more of these work, how they work, and if it's intended as possible in the first place which speaks to the ambiguity of the rules in question.
From the Core Rules:
Staves are also staff weapons (page 280), included in their Price. They can be etched with runes as normal for a staff. This doesn't alter any of their spellcasting abilities.So... yes.
Themetricsystem intended to ask if all "named staffs" (Staff of Abjuration, Staff of Conjuration, Staff of Divination, etc) counted as Specific Magic Weapons, or just those called out as Specific Magic Weapons like the Scrollstaff?
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Does Paizo keep an internal list of benchmark spells/feats/etc for balance purposes in design? Like say X Focus spell is the strongest level 1 focus spell, so don't design something stronger than it.
We have a LOT of internal design documents, yes. Not just for spells and feats, but for everything.
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Hey James, Sorry to bring up a previously answered question, but it's caused a bit of stir in the rules forum, so I just thought I would get a bit of clarity.
Themetricsystem intended to ask if all "named staffs" (Staff of Abjuration, Staff of Conjuration, Staff of Divination, etc) counted as Specific Magic Weapons, or just those called out as Specific Magic Weapons like the Scrollstaff?Hey James,
Is there any chance we can get some semi-official feedback on the topic of: Are Magical Staffs (Eg, Staff of Fire) considered "Specific Magic Weapons" for the purposes of applying Potency Runes to them such as the Shifting, Flaming, or Wounding Runes?
The PF2 forums have multiple threads about if one or more of these work, how they work, and if it's intended as possible in the first place which speaks to the ambiguity of the rules in question.
From the Core Rules:
Staves are also staff weapons (page 280), included in their Price. They can be etched with runes as normal for a staff. This doesn't alter any of their spellcasting abilities.So... yes.
This is why I tend to try to avoid answering rules questions. When I answer rules questions, the end result just seems to be louder arguments. And eventually ends up with folks accusing me or Paizo of "not having their house in order" or not knowing the rules to their own games.
So... I apologize for answering a rules question earlier. The right person to go to for how staves work in your game is your GM. If you play in the Pathfinder Society and you can't get an answer you prefer, do something else with your character other than play with a magic staff as a weapon, I guess.
Anyways! Another question about PF came to mind - you said you like Wayne Reynold's rendition of Ameiko, right? (I *love* Wayne!) - what's the story with her white strands of hair, does she bleach them or did they lose their color because of a wound, or stress, idk?Her white strands of hair are a fashion statement. If not bleach, then an alchemical analog or maybe even a long-lasting prestidigitation effect. It's hardly a game breaking thing to allow prestidigitation to give you a flourish like that without having to re-cast it over and over and over.
On the subject of cosmetic magic, is there a variant of humanoid form allowing for customizable detail and lasting for more than 10 minutes?
I have a question about Shackled City that has called my curiosity for a long time now. In Zenith Trajectory (Chapter 4 for the HC), the group visits the Underdark/Darklands to rescue Zenith from Bhal-Hamatugn.
But instead of a Darklands trip adventure we are presented with a wilderness trip that ends at Bhal-Hamatugn with an encounter table binding the wilderness and temple sections being the only Darklands reference.
Having the Malachite Fortress and the Darklands black demon iron keys found there (M11), I decided to move Crazy Jared and Gotrrod to the Darklands and make the trip to Bhal-Hamatugn start at the Malachite Fortress when I ran this adventure in these boards. Having some abducted citizens never found in Kazmojen's Bazaar I even introduced a duergar side-quest to save some of the missing citizens.
I am curious to know, considering the black demon iron keys in the first adventure and the tunnel to the Darklands at Malachite Fortress map, was Zenith Trajectory planned to be a Darklands trip and only later converted to a wilderness trip? Do you know or have any hypothesis on why this was made a wilderness trip?
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On the subject of cosmetic magic, is there a variant of humanoid form allowing for customizable detail and lasting for more than 10 minutes?Anyways! Another question about PF came to mind - you said you like Wayne Reynold's rendition of Ameiko, right? (I *love* Wayne!) - what's the story with her white strands of hair, does she bleach them or did they lose their color because of a wound, or stress, idk?Her white strands of hair are a fashion statement. If not bleach, then an alchemical analog or maybe even a long-lasting prestidigitation effect. It's hardly a game breaking thing to allow prestidigitation to give you a flourish like that without having to re-cast it over and over and over.
Not yet.
I had to invent a ritual to do just this though for Kingmaker. It'll likely be over a year before that sees print. Maybe we'll put it up sometime between now and this time next year as a preview.
For now, if you want something like that in your home game, it's easy enough to simply homebrew a heightened version of humanoid form as you wish.
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I have a question about Shackled City that has called my curiosity for a long time now. In Zenith Trajectory (Chapter 4 for the HC), the group visits the Underdark/Darklands to rescue Zenith from Bhal-Hamatugn.
But instead of a Darklands trip adventure we are presented with a wilderness trip that ends at Bhal-Hamatugn with an encounter table binding the wilderness and temple sections being the only Darklands reference.
Having the Malachite Fortress and the Darklands black demon iron keys found there (M11), I decided to move Crazy Jared and Gotrrod to the Darklands and make the trip to Bhal-Hamatugn start at the Malachite Fortress when I ran this adventure in these boards. Having some abducted citizens never found in Kazmojen's Bazaar I even introduced a duergar side-quest to save some of the missing citizens.
I am curious to know, considering the black demon iron keys in the first adventure and the tunnel to the Darklands at Malachite Fortress map, was Zenith Trajectory planned to be a Darklands trip and only later converted to a wilderness trip? Do you know or have any hypothesis on why this was made a wilderness trip?
1: It's the Underdark in Shackled City, since that Adventure Path is set in Greyhawk, the setting the Underdark was originally invented for.
2: Nope. There was no planning at all for Shackled City. We didn't start outlining Adventure Paths until the second one, Age of Worms. For Shackled City, it was an exquisite corpse style thing, where an author wrote an adventure, then turned it over to the magazine who then started working on it. At the same time, they sent that adventure over to the next author in line, who read the one before and then came up with the next adventure pretty much on their own. And so it went for most of Shackled City. When I took over as associate editor for the magazine we were shipping the issue with part three of Shackled City off to the printer, but after that I took an increasing role in developing, adjusting, and rewriting adventures in Shackled City to start to fit together more as a cohesive whole, but overall, the whole thing was a patchwork adventure created by authors who talked to each other but didn't have a roadmap. That's why the gaps between volumes varied (sometimes, authors missed deadlines and thus forced us to delay the next part), and why the overall metaplot feels disjointed in places (such as having the "climax" of the adventure path take place before it was over).
3: Zenith Trajectory was the third one published (originally, Drakthar's Way didn't appear in print—it was a bonus adventure we added for the hardcover), and as such it was the one going to the printer the week I started, so I didn't have any hand in developing or editing it. My guess is that the author chose to focus on the overland adventure part to start filling in lore and encounters for the overland map that I created for the adventure right before his. There was NO overland indication of the region around Cauldron until after the 1st adventure was written and I created the region surrounding it. If we were doing this fresh today, then the Cauldron hinterlands would be detailed alongside the first adventure (that's what we did in the first volume of Rise of the Runelords... and Age of Worms and Savage Tide before that), but in Shackled City that was never part of the plan. So the first time someone other than me had a chance to explore the hinterlands, it was in Zenith Trajectory.
TL;DR That adventure was just before my time at Paizo started, but my guess is that the writer wanted to or was asked to explore the surroundings of Cauldron rather than what was below Cauldron.
Thanks a lot for the answer! That explains a lot and clears up my curiosity.
I have to say that despite it took some effort to bind the gaps and foreshadow the enemies and themes to make it organic and cohesive, it was worth and totally memorable. I do agree the last chapters are less appealing to me but the characters are so involved with Adimarchus dreams of madness that I am hopeful we will run it whole.
What adventure or RP experience was most influential on you in becoming a creator?
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What adventure or RP experience was most influential on you in becoming a creator?
My first RP experience, probably. Back in 5th grade in the early 80s, my teacher split the class up into several different groups of 4–5 students and had us all create characters for a D&D campaign he ran during lunch recess. He'd do one encounter at a time, and then someone in that group had to write up that encounter as a short story before he'd run the next encounter for that group. And since we were all exploring the same dungeon looking for the same stolen magic sword, it was a sort of race to see which group would make it to the end first.
As it played out, that group was my group, and I was the one who managed to make it back to the king with the stolen magic sword. The whole experience was enough to make me fall in love with D&D, and I picked up a copy of the Beginner Box (pre-red box) as a reward from a card-selling catalog... and by the time I started 6th grade, I was creating my own campaign setting, starting with an adventure called "The Curse of Sekamina Cave" (which was about a monster called Yamasoth who was cursing the kingdom by turning people into monsters).
I had a similar experience with a teacher in 6th grade, but we played a Revolutionary War miniatures game in class. My class was upset when I killed General Washington with some artillery.
Have you ever played any war games?
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Have you ever played any war games?
Now and then, but never seriously enough to consider myself a war gamer. I much prefer the story-based side of things rather than the mass combat side of things.
EDIT: And by "story side" I mean "games that focus on individual characters and tell their individual stories. Something like Kingmaker, Ironfang Invasion, Wrath of the Righteous, or War For The Crown are all great examples of war stories focused on individual characters rather than armies and nations.
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Is there a god of atheists in Golarion?
Just a joke.
I'm still going to answer: No... but there's a DEMIGOD of atheists.
Check out Phlegyas in Concordance of Rivals.
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Hi James, I hope you are well.
Are there any (or could there be any) dhampir clerics of Sarenrae?
Related, if a human cleric of Sarenrae contracted vampirism, and she somehow managed to resist turning away from goodness (which I realize, a priori, means finding a way to avoid the need to drink blood), is it possible for her to retain her powers and spells as a worshipper of Sarenrae?
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Hi James, I hope you are well.
Are there any (or could there be any) dhampir clerics of Sarenrae?
Related, if a human cleric of Sarenrae contracted vampirism, and she somehow managed to resist turning away from goodness (which I realize, a priori, means finding a way to avoid the need to drink blood), is it possible for her to retain her powers and spells as a worshipper of Sarenrae?
Sure!
It'd be super difficult for a vampire cleric to stick to her faith, what with the whole "worship the thing that'll kill you" about how sunlight blasts vampires.
An idea like that would need an extra talented writer to pull it off though. And even then, not sure it's a great idea...
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I'm curious, as I keep working on my close reading of the Nidal book. Do you remember how Nidal, Ridwan, and Nisroch came into their names? On a meta- level, I mean; why did the designers choose those names for those places?
I didn't invent any of those names, but I suspect there was no deeper meaning or plot other than that they wanted something that sounded kinda creepy. The "Ni-" prefix maybe evokes the word "night" which is a big theme there, but that's probably a coincidence.
MOST of the names we create for Golarion that are made-up nonsense words tend to have no deeper meaning, though.
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I'm curious, as I keep working on my close reading of the Nidal book. Do you remember how Nidal, Ridwan, and Nisroch came into their names? On a meta- level, I mean; why did the designers choose those names for those places?I didn't invent any of those names, but I suspect there was no deeper meaning or plot other than that they wanted something that sounded kinda creepy. The "Ni-" prefix maybe evokes the word "night" which is a big theme there, but that's probably a coincidence.
MOST of the names we create for Golarion that are made-up nonsense words tend to have no deeper meaning, though.
Do you know who might have invented them? And if that person has an AMA thread?
I only ask because they're real-world words with deeper meanings. "Nidal" is Arabic for "struggle" and is in at least one Palestinian organization's name iirc (the ANO; Abu Nidal Organization, or Father of Struggle Organization), "Ridwan" is both the angel who guards the gates of Paradise and the holiday celebrating Baha'u'llah's announcement that he was a Divine Manifestation, and Nisroch is the (mistaken) name of the god King Sennacherib was worshiping when he was assassinated in the Bible and a demon in Paradise Lost who said the demons would lose because they felt pain and the angels didn't.
I'm curious about the intentions and thoughts behind those choices. Partially, I admit, because Nidal is one of the Designated Enemies of the setting (despite my interest in the more complex and nuanced picture laced throughout their setting book ~ I mean, it's also a land of truly devoted and loving parents and ancient knowledge carefully preserved for ten millennia, which is twice as long or so as Earth's recorded history) and that leaves me slightly uncomfortable with the two Arabic words used in it.
I do love what they say about Nidalese language, phonetics, and etymology though.
I don't know off the top of my head; sorry.