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Are there any obscure fantasy or horror books you like that you think should be more well known?
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Are there any obscure fantasy or horror books you like that you think should be more well known?
Ramsey Campbell's "Ryre the Swordsman" stories! He only wrote a few of them and they've never been published in a big mass market sort of way as far as I know, but his take on fantasy is very much in keeping with my sensibilities–very gritty and dark and horrific. Of course, Ramsey Campbell being one of my favorite ever authors maybe kinda is the reason why... I didn't discover his Ryre stories until well after I'd already become a huge fan of his horror writing.
There's a fair amount of other potential choices for "obscure horror" but I'm so deep in the genre that I don't know what would be counted as obscure. John Langan? He's awesome, for example, but I wouldn't call him "obscure." Jeremy Robert Johnson maybe? His short stories are amazing!
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Is there something about the half-orc heritage that makes it challenging to develop iconics of that heritage, moreso than other ancestries?
Would Calistria have a problem if you ate wasp larvae?
What would Acavna's sacred animal and sacred colors (if any) be?
Similar question but for Shimye-Migalla?
Does she/they even have a sacred animal? Is it half "oops all animals" or "butterflies" or something else as this aspect?
Related (as Shimye-Migalla is one of my [admittedly many] favorites):
- is Shimye-Migalla a wrongful interpretation of the character(s) in question?
- is Gozreh a wrongful interpretation of the character(s) in question?
We know that Gozreh is often presented as two, and we're generally told that Shimye-Migalla is "Desna and the water aspect of Gozreh" but... it makes me curious as to how, exactly, accurate "we" (as folks reading teh book) are about Gozreh in general and the nature of their janniform elements (similar to Shimye-Migalla). We know there are wrongful or incorrect interpretations of divinities, so it's interesting to see where that holds true and where that holds false.
EDIT: for a better wording I hope?
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Hello James!
Was the starstone inspired at any level by the pulp classic "Quest for the Starstone" (Image in link NSFW) with Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith? Paizo did publish this a while ago.
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Related (as Shimye-Migalla is one of my [admittedly many] favorites):
- is Shimye-Migalla a wrongful interpretation of the character(s) in question?
- is Gozreh a wrongful interpretation of the character(s) in question?
We know that Gozreh is often presented as two, and we're generally told that Shimye-Migalla is "Desna and the water aspect of Gozreh" but... it makes me curious as to how, exactly, accurate "we" (as folks reading teh book) are about Gozreh in general and the nature of their janniform elements (similar to Shimye-Migalla). We know there are wrongful or incorrect interpretations of divinities, so it's interesting to see where that holds true and where that holds false.
EDIT: for a better wording I hope?
Shimye-Migalla was created early in Pathfinder when we didn't have a creative director oversight, and the whole idea that two deities could "fuse" into one while still being separate deities elsewhere isn't something that I want to happen in Pathfinder. It's a pantheon, in other words, composed of Desna and Gozreh, but it is NOT its own entity. My take on those who think otherwise is that it's in-world ignorance of Taldans who don't understand how the pantheon worked and made things up.
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Hello James!
Was the starstone inspired at any level by the pulp classic "Quest for the Starstone" (Image in link NSFW) with Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith? Paizo did publish this a while ago.
I believe so, yes.
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Hey James,
Hope you've been well. Got a couple of 1e design questions.
1) Is there an official list for PF1 monster's roles vs the newer classes (magus, warpriest, inquisitor, kineticist, vigilante, etc)? Everything I've found references the Core classes. If so, where would I be able to find that?
2) Is there any official math for making items with 1/week abilities like with the Banded Mail of Luck or the Figurines of Wondrous Power?
Thanks for your time.
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Hey James,
Hope you've been well. Got a couple of 1e design questions.
1) Is there an official list for PF1 monster's roles vs the newer classes (magus, warpriest, inquisitor, kineticist, vigilante, etc)? Everything I've found references the Core classes. If so, where would I be able to find that?
2) Is there any official math for making items with 1/week abilities like with the Banded Mail of Luck or the Figurines of Wondrous Power?
Thanks for your time.
1) Not that I know of.
2) Nope. Compare the new item to existing items and make a judgement call on cost.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thank you!
Are there any plans to develop the Test of the Starstone in PF2?
Like, I understand the whole "it's different every type" thing, but I was wondering if something like a future AP might explore it.
In PF1 we have Wrath of the Righteous allowing mythic PCs to (effectively) attain minor divinity if they so-choose as well as the mythic rules from Mythic Realms, but the test itself was (clearly) never fully developed, probably because of its individual nature.
... which sounds like a great opportunity for an adventure path?! Eh? Eh?! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh...??
:V
(Sorry, you guys are just generally so good at making APs that I wanna see what you'd do with it.)
XD
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Thank you!
Are there any plans to develop the Test of the Starstone in PF2?
Like, I understand the whole "it's different every type" thing, but I was wondering if something like a future AP might explore it.
In PF1 we have Wrath of the Righteous allowing mythic PCs to (effectively) attain minor divinity if they so-choose as well as the mythic rules from Mythic Realms, but the test itself was (clearly) never fully developed, probably because of its individual nature.
... which sounds like a great opportunity for an adventure path?! Eh? Eh?! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh...??
:V
(Sorry, you guys are just generally so good at making APs that I wanna see what you'd do with it.)
XD
The whole point of the Test of the Starstone is to set up a big something we do with it some day. We haven't announced exactly what those plans are though, so you'll just have to wait and see.
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Have you ever done an adventure with one PC? If so, what did you think of the experience?
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Have you ever done an adventure with one PC? If so, what did you think of the experience?
Many times, both as a GM and as a player. It changes the dynamic significantly, and results in something MUCH more like a novel where there's a main character—you can make a much more tailored story for the one PC and the whole campaign can be about them, which lets you tell much different types of stories. You have to tone down or remove incapacitation effects, of course, or run some NPC allies along with the PC, but otherwise it can be quite fun and rewarding. I've run games like this for my sister back in high school, and with/for a roommate after moving to Seattle after college. It's quite fun, but in a different way than when you play with a group.
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Nice! Have any favorite stories from a solo campaign?
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Nice! Have any favorite stories from a solo campaign?
Hmmm... it's been a long time since I played them (about 20 years for the ones I played with my roommate after moving to Seattle, and almost 35 since gaming with my sister), but yeah, there's some quite fond memories.
In fact, going all the way back to the games I ran for my sister... I ran the ENTIRE Dragonlance series (a dozen adventures long!) for her, where I ran all of the other characters like Raistlin and Tasslehoff and Lauranna and the like as NPCs to accompany her character. It was weird playing that out before all three of the novels were published, since different characters died and survived in the campaign than did in the novels.
My sister also got to play in the first ever campaign I set in my homebrew, where she played an elven explorer who more or less circumnavigated the continent and got into adventures all along the way. A lot of recognizable names got invented for that campaign—places like Belkzen, Sekamina, Holomog, Goka, etc. Alas, I no longer have that first map of my continent—it went through a lot of revisions over the decades, but I do still have the numerous later incarnations of the campaign setting map around here somewhere. But yeah... good memories indeed!
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Why did you give the Azlantis such an affinity for Ioun Stones? Out of all the classic D&D treasures, why did you decide to make them so especially significant in your setting?
I didn't, personally. That was Erik Mona. The ioun stone originally came from Jack Vance's stories, and he's one of Erik's favorite authors. My understanding is that Jack Vance gave Gygax verbal permission to use ioun stones and other elements from his stories in D&D, but there was never an official licensing agreement. But since Vance is one of Erik's favorite authors, he wanted to play around with merging some of Vance's work with his own (Erik's the one who invented Azlant and Aroden and all that).
So... it's not so much that it's a classic D&D treasure, but that it's a classic literary treasure whose creation occurred well before D&D's creation.
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Question in encounter design using broken promises as a specific example....
I keep imagining first round the wizard trying cataclysm and then the final opponent uses redirect energy reaction...
Are 2e end boss fights designed for the players to easily survive that scenario to communicate that this is the ability? or is 2e design meant to seriously encourage researching this pre-battle?
A lot of recent video games use death on boss fights to communicate information. How do you like to communicate that information in RPGs?
Death during boss fights is an awful design goal for a game that doesn't allow you to reload the game after a failed attempt.
Pathfinder is absolutely built with the assumption that by the time you get to the big battles, the PCs should have either done some research into how to handle the boss, or the adventure itself should have prepared them for the battle. If the PCs aren't doing Recall Knowledge checks or researching enemies, or if the adventures try to surprise the PCs with things they'd never have any way of knowing, that's a potential flaw in game play.
My personal preference in these cases is to drop clues into the story of the adventure, be they things the PCs encounter along the way, or bonus tidbits that I introduce to them when they roll Recall Knowledge checks. When an encounter is playing out in a way that makes it obvious the players have no idea how to handle things, I'll give them a free chance to Recall Knowledge about the situation to help them out, since their characters have more in-world experience with the world they live in than the players do, and as such would know when to try to Recall Knowledge in cases where the player may just forget that's an option or not want to "waste" that action when they could use that action on something more dramatic, like an attack (even though such attacks might be the WORST thing that they could choose to do at the time).
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Hi JJ! =D
Something that came to me while reading Sandpoint - Light of the Lost Coast (everyone stop reading if your GM is having you adventure there!):
If you could answer me this it would be really helpful in portraying her, I think!
Btw, loving the latest Q&A about your original campaign, Jack Vance, communicating info for boss fights... Playing that campaign with your sister must have been a blast! And a lot of locations you originally came up with made it in the official setting - that must be pretty nice!
Please don't work yourself too hard with all the products Paizo's working on atm (most of all Kingmaker!).
Thank you and big hugs! ^____^
R-
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Hi JJ! =D
Something that came to me while reading Sandpoint - Light of the Lost Coast (everyone stop reading if your GM is having you adventure there!):
** spoiler omitted **
If you could answer me this it would be really helpful in portraying her, I think!
Btw, loving the latest Q&A about your original campaign, Jack Vance, communicating info for boss fights... Playing that campaign with your sister must have been a blast! And a lot of locations you originally came up with made it in the official setting - that must be pretty nice!
Please don't work yourself too hard with all the products Paizo's working on atm (most of all Kingmaker!).
Thank you and big hugs! ^____^
R-
It's because that character is genderfluid and it's no big deal.
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Hey James! Ok i have an interesting question. When a powerful demon is defeated on the material plane, it is banished and cant come back for 100 years. Now does that mean they are locked in the abyss for that 100 years or can they travel to other planes besides the material?
As well what would happen if a demon were to be somehow convinced to throw it's very nature aside and change it's alignment to be something else?
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As creative director, how much input do you usually have in the rule book line compared to say the Lost Omens line?
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Hey James! Ok i have an interesting question. When a powerful demon is defeated on the material plane, it is banished and cant come back for 100 years. Now does that mean they are locked in the abyss for that 100 years or can they travel to other planes besides the material?
As well what would happen if a demon were to be somehow convinced to throw it's very nature aside and change it's alignment to be something else?
That's how it worked in earlier versions of D&D, but not how it works on Pathfinder as far as I know. A summoned creature only exists as long as the summon effect lasts (and it vanishes if killed), while a creature that's actually conjured from an other plane (such as a demon from the Abyss) via a ritual like planar ally or the like is dead if they're killed, regardless of what plane they're on.
Demon lords who have an Abyssal realm have the Abyssal resurrection defense, which allows them to be restored to life after death in their realm once per year. They're not trapped anywhere, and can still function exactly as before, but most of them choose to hunker down in their realm and wait the 100 years for their Abyssal resurrection to recharge before going back out.
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As creative director, how much input do you usually have in the rule book line compared to say the Lost Omens line?
That's kinda one of my job duties—provide input on all of the Pathfinder stuff.
My input on that line is equal to Jason's, and exceeded pretty much only by Erik, the publisher.
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Are you excited about the Magaambya AP being announced?
No, because I've known this book was in the works for well over a year.
It's not so much "excitement" at it being announced as it is relief that we can now actually talk about it and don't have to play coy about it. It's pretty frustrating to have to sit quietly and say nothing as month after month goes by with people complaining about us not doing things when, in fact, we've been doing those things behind the scenes longer than they've been complaining about them not being done, if that makes sense.
Also relieved that we were able to keep it secret long enough to make the announcement in the right way, rather than have it leak and have the internet immediately start assuming the worst.
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It's because that character is genderfluid and it's no big deal.
Thanks J, thought so but wanted to make sure with the author himself ;)
So changing subject: when you use a spell like summon animal you effectively create a short-lived animal to help you out and then it disappears, same thing with celestials, fiends, even dragons?
It's certainly much more practical for a spell with a brief casting time and it's good that the ritual for Planar Ally is more involved and actually calls an already existing being. I guess my question is, the creature you summon with the spell is still a living creature, not completely artificial, with feelings and sentience and whatnot, right? So if you send them to die it's on you, I would say? What is the canon and what's your pov on the moral implications?
(Btw hadn't got the memo re: the Mwangi Expanse AP announcement, positively thrilled here!!)
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It's because that character is genderfluid and it's no big deal.Thanks J, thought so but wanted to make sure with the author himself ;)
So changing subject: when you use a spell like summon animal you effectively create a short-lived animal to help you out and then it disappears, same thing with celestials, fiends, even dragons?
It's certainly much more practical for a spell with a brief casting time and it's good that the ritual for Planar Ally is more involved and actually calls an already existing being. I guess my question is, the creature you summon with the spell is still a living creature, not completely artificial, with feelings and sentience and whatnot, right? So if you send them to die it's on you, I would say? What is the canon and what's your pov on the moral implications?
(Btw hadn't got the memo re: the Mwangi Expanse AP announcement, positively thrilled here!!)
Yes, when you summon ANY creatue, it's basically creating a "platonic ideal" of that thing, summoning it out of the raw power of magic to serve you. This way, a druid who casts summon animal isn't plucking animals out of some distant wilderness to die in a fight that's not theirs, for example.
Same thing with everything else. Not only does this help longer term things like planar ally feel different, but it removes the problematic element of how summon spells are typically employed—in a way that, if they summoned real creatures, would make them unpleasant for good aligned characters to use.
The creature you summon doesn't have a soul. The whole point of these spells is that you summon something that doesn't exist until you cast the spell, and stops existing once the spell is over. You can cast summon monster to get generic advice, for example, by asking them to make Recall Knowledge checks, but you can't summon a specific creature to ask them about a specific topic.
If you send a summoned creature in to die... it's on you, but that creature would have ended its existence once the summon spell effect ends anyway, so from where I'm sitting, there's no moral implication at all, UNLESS you as the summoner are taking particular delight and joy in the idea of summoning something just to torture them or taunt them with the idea that they only exist at your whim. But that's not a problem with summon spells as much as it is with a sadistic summoner.
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Where/when was this Maagayamba AP announced?
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Did you find last night's episode of Lovecraft Country squicky, as I did?
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Did you find last night's episode of Lovecraft Country squicky, as I did?
No, but I've got a really high tolerance for gore. My bigger concern about the show is how rushed/disjointed the narrative/characters seem in some cases, which in hindshight is perhaps what prevented me from being hooked by the novel. Was also incredibly disappointed/frustrated by last week's episode ending.
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Btw thank you JJ and Paizo for Vudra, from the bottom of my heart! Even just an article at the end of an adventure is awesome to me, honestly.
Hey... do you think it would be possible to get similar treatments of other regions in Golarion further on? So that we start getting some details before you all are ready to come out with full books, y'know...
Southern Garund comes to mind. Also many places in Arcadia, Casmaron and if you guys feel like, Sarusan... wouldn't it be cool?...
(Not that you gotta write them all down in the next few months of course! XD ).
Oh and thank you so much for your answers re: summon spells, JJ! ^___^
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That means in a relatively short time you got to see two continent maps put together (Mwangi and Vudra) along with a full world map. How did that feel?Are you excited about the Magaambya AP being announced?No, because I've known this book was in the works for well over a year.
It's not so much "excitement" at it being announced as it is relief that we can now actually talk about it and don't have to play coy about it. It's pretty frustrating to have to sit quietly and say nothing as month after month goes by with people complaining about us not doing things when, in fact, we've been doing those things behind the scenes longer than they've been complaining about them not being done, if that makes sense.
Also relieved that we were able to keep it secret long enough to make the announcement in the right way, rather than have it leak and have the internet immediately start assuming the worst.
It absolutely does not mean that whatsoever. Mwangi and Vudra are regions in a continent, but are a small part of each of their continents. We've got a LONG way to go before we can do full detailed continent maps of Garund or Casmaron.
It does feel good to explore new parts of the world... in theory. I've been so deep in Kingmaker all year that I've not really had much of a chance to do anything but watch and approve outlines from afar. I haven't read the Vudra stuff yet. Fortunately I get to put Kingmaker on pause for a week and finally get a chance to do a Creative Director pass on the Mwangi Book starting this week.
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Btw thank you JJ and Paizo for Vudra, from the bottom of my heart! Even just an article at the end of an adventure is awesome to me, honestly.
Hey... do you think it would be possible to get similar treatments of other regions in Golarion further on? So that we start getting some details before you all are ready to come out with full books, y'know...
Southern Garund comes to mind. Also many places in Arcadia, Casmaron and if you guys feel like, Sarusan... wouldn't it be cool?...
(Not that you gotta write them all down in the next few months of course! XD ).
Oh and thank you so much for your answers re: summon spells, JJ! ^___^
Thank Patrick and Ron for the Vudra stuff. I wasn't involved in that other than to say "Yes that's a good idea" or to give some map feedback on the continent (Rivers flow together, not apart; Geography determines national borders, etc.)
We did it for Vudra, though, so there's nothing physical or mental preventing us from doing stuff like that for other parts of the world—provided there's a larger reason to do so. I suspect the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path will have some more stuff along those lines for parts of Tian Xia we've not done much with, for example.
But we've got so much going on that if it's going to happen, it needs to be justified alongside of other things we're doing. I'm not a fan of just dropping a rando article about Droon or whatever into an Adventure Path that has nothing to do with Droon, for example.
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Sooooo Droon Adventure path after SoT? :3
Not everything I type in this thread is a secret hint as to what we're doing next. In fact, very little of it is.
We haven't announced what's after Strength of Thousands, and probably won't be saying anything about that topic for another 6 months. The whole point of spreading out announcements is to give them each time to sink in without distraction.
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what is the basic premise for Strength or Thousands?
Also, a bit sillier question: do you all consider the acronym for the AP when selecting a title? Like you changed the name b/c it would have had an acronym for another already published AP.
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what is the basic premise for Strength or Thousands?
Also, a bit sillier question: do you all consider the acronym for the AP when selecting a title? Like you changed the name b/c it would have had an acronym for another already published AP.
We do consider the acronyms. We avoid using them in house and never publish them, though, and I try to avoid EVER using them, even in things as transitory as chat rooms or messageboard posts. But still, people do favor the acronym on the internet, so every time we come up with a title for something, one of the many things I try to do as part of my job is to acronym the title to make sure it doesn't turn into something that would distract or send the wrong message. And I do admit that now and then I deliberately double up on an established acronym as a (maybe not subtle anymore) push back against lazy writing to try to force people into using full titles. Having the same acronym as a previous Adventure Path has NEVER factored. See "Rise of the Runelords/Return of the Runelords" or "Serpent's Skull/Skull & Shackles/Shattered Star" for proof!
As for the basic premise of Strength of Thousands, I'm not gonna say here because that's not really my story to tease. Nor is it the time to do so. We'll have a lot more to say about it later on, for sure.
