Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Who is involved in that process?
The Licensing folks, Mark Moreland, and Blake Davis, as far as I know. I don't have insights into who decides what content goes onto the site, but if you're concerned that there's missing content, chances are good it's missing because of a lack of time to get it live rather than us not wanting it online.
Off the top of your head, how does Intelligence map out to RL IQ scores? Because I have heard of some people claiming that since the DnD settings are so poor and primitive, a 25 INT is like 80 on the RL IQ scale.
Obviously, this is a bit far-fetched, but I am curious as to how you would map it.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Off the top of your head, how does Intelligence map out to RL IQ scores? Because I have heard of some people claiming that since the DnD settings are so poor and primitive, a 25 INT is like 80 on the RL IQ scale.
Obviously, this is a bit far-fetched, but I am curious as to how you would map it.
The idea that they map to real world IQ scores is, as far as I know, apocryphal. It MAY have been a thing back in 1st edition AD&D. I've never heard the idea that "D&D settings are poor and primitive and thus a 25 INT is 80 on the RL IQ scale" because that's ridiculous. There are PLENTY of super-intelligent examples of people historically who are smarter than plenty of modern folks. Don't conflate technological advances with Intelligence. There's plenty of modern examples of stupidity and plenty of historical examples of vast intelligence.
In any event, it isn't a thing in Pathfinder. You could guesstimate, I guess, by saying that an Intelligence of 10 is equal to the average on a real-world IQ scale, and then maybe an Intelligence of 22 or so (which is more or less the maximum a human can get in Pathfinder without supernatural shenanigans at 20th level) is equal to whatever the real-world highest IQ score is, and then map out the values between 10 and 22 to determine how it maps.
Personally, I wouldn't bother mapping that out, though, since I'm comfortable just knowing that 10 is average for a human and 22 is the normal maximum. It's for Pathfinder, after all, not the real world. Those scales don't need to (and shouldn't) be interchangeable.
Hey James! Time for another Kaladurnae question. (Yes, I'm the Kaladurnae girlfriend from here.)
I've had a lot of fun playing shabti Kaladurnae (although we house ruled him as a "runebody" rather than an Osiriani thing) and making him my own throughout Rise of the Runelords and beyond. I love him dearly.
Shenanigans include:
-Making him a worshipper of Yog-Sothoth due to a miscommunication about character creation in Rise vs Return of the Runelords
-Partial amnesia that justified throwing him back down to a lv 1 wizard
-Redemption arc from evil to neutral
-Him taking over Xin-Shalast post-Karzoug
-Having a vacation home in Kaer Maga
The last bullet point is why I'm here to pick your brain! Considering the official canon timeline in Return of the Runelords, Kaladurnae died before the OG runelord crew
Did you have any particular idea or reason in mind for why he died so soon when you wrote the runelords' timeline?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hey James! Time for another Kaladurnae question. (Yes, I'm the Kaladurnae girlfriend from here.)
I've had a lot of fun playing shabti Kaladurnae (although we house ruled him as a "runebody" rather than an Osiriani thing) and making him my own throughout Rise of the Runelords and beyond. I love him dearly.
Shenanigans include:
-Making him a worshipper of Yog-Sothoth due to a miscommunication about character creation in Rise vs Return of the Runelords
-Partial amnesia that justified throwing him back down to a lv 1 wizard
-Redemption arc from evil to neutral
-Him taking over Xin-Shalast post-Karzoug
-Having a vacation home in Kaer Maga
** spoiler omitted **The last bullet point is why I'm here to pick your brain! Considering the official canon timeline in Return of the Runelords, Kaladurnae died before the OG runelord crew ** spoiler omitted **
Did you have any particular idea or reason in mind for why he died so soon when you wrote the runelords' timeline?
So, I had no agenda or plot for Kaladurnae whatosever other than the role they played in Return of the Runelords; they were pretty much there only to fill that specific role and all the lore about Kaladurnae was created to support that role. The only idea or reason in mind for why he died when he did was because I wanted there to be a runelord death there, so I invented Kaladurnae and slapped him into the timeline. He was CREATED for that story beat, in other words.
When I created the runelord timeline, it was like putting a puzzle together in fitting the various things we've said in print over the dozen or so years we were talking about runelords, and in several cases, I had to invent brand new runelords simply to fill up years to get the right number in the past to justify the position of the ones who had published timeline events. While at the same time trying to keep the total number of runelords that were active over those many centuries to a relatively manageable list (I kind of arbitrarily set 50 as my soft target for that number). Others had to die at specific times to tie into other significant Thassilonian events, such as Azlant's attack on the nation.
All of which is to say that you've got a lot of room to do stuff with Kaladurnae at your game table with relatively little fear that we'll come back at some point and publish conflicting lore about them. (And even if we do, that shouldn't counteract your game's lore—you get to say what is and isn't fact in that case.)
How old would a dragon have to be for it to be at risk of dying of old age?
Reading Blood of the Moon,
It provides each Full Moon with a name, but what's the name of the Full Moon between the 25th of Kuthona and 4th of Abadius? That's the only one not listed.
As in, what's the name for a 13th Full Moon. I can't edit the old post anymore.
What would you say is Golarion's current level of technological development? How does magic factor into this?
|
Creative Director
|
Reading Blood of the Moon,
It provides each Full Moon with a name, but what's the name of the Full Moon between the 25th of Kuthona and 4th of Abadius? That's the only one not listed.
As far as I know that's the only point where we ever gave names to those, so that's it. I wasn't directly involved in that text, so I don't have any insight into what may or may not have been included. So... feel free to use what we published as inspiration to come up with new names of your own!
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What would you say is Golarion's current level of technological development? How does magic factor into this?
I would say it is what it is as presented in the books we publish. It doesn't really map to real-world technological eras, since it's impacted by magic and also impacted by our imaginations in that we put in things we think will be cool without worrying about the possibility of it not mapping perfectly to real-world technological advancements.
It also depends on the region. In the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, the tech level is not far advanced from the early iron age. In nearby Numeria, the tech level is deep sci-fi with lasers and robots and spaceships. There's not one global tech level that the entire planet abides by.
In short, it depends on where you are and what sort of game your GM wants to run.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What would you say is Golarion's current level of technological development? How does magic factor into this?I would say it is what it is as presented in the books we publish. It doesn't really map to real-world technological eras, since it's impacted by magic and also impacted by our imaginations in that we put in things we think will be cool without worrying about the possibility of it not mapping perfectly to real-world technological advancements.
It also depends on the region. In the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, the tech level is not far advanced from the early iron age. In nearby Numeria, the tech level is deep sci-fi with lasers and robots and spaceships. There's not one global tech level that the entire planet abides by.
In short, it depends on where you are and what sort of game your GM wants to run.
So, for example, would you say that the hypothetical "average" city/town area with the ordinary resources of such a place (crops, magic, etc.) would be at about an Victorian/Edwardian era of development? Basically early-mid Industrial era standard of living because of extenuating circumstances (such as magic) improving the value of work? (With smaller towns being more "wild west" than the "civilization" of the larger cities, like 1889 London vs Deadwood).
This is mostly because "Medieval Squalor/The Dung Ages" syndrome (most well-documented by Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court) where every little convenience like glass or matches or soap is not present and every 10 min in a city forces you to make a save vs the Black Plague is not fun to the vast majority of players either.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So, for example, would you say that the hypothetical "average" city/town area with the ordinary resources of such a place (crops, magic, etc.) would be at about an Victorian/Edwardian era of development? Basically early-mid Industrial era standard of living because of extenuating circumstances (such as magic) improving the value of work? (With smaller towns being more "wild west" than the "civilization" of the larger cities, like 1889 London vs Deadwood).
This is mostly because "Medieval Squalor/The Dung Ages" syndrome (most well-documented by Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court) where every little convenience like glass or matches or soap is not present and every 10 min in a city forces you to make a save vs the Black Plague is not fun to the vast majority of players either.
That'd all work, pretty much. As seen in the many, many adventures we've published—those hundreds of published adventures being the best example of the world's tech level. Golarion was never intended to map precisely to what you call the "Dung Ages" at all. As I've said earlier... it allows for a GM to play in a wide range of different "eras" of inspiration, depending on what part of the setting you set your game in. If you wanna run something in the "Dung Age" you can do so—I suggest checking out Galt or maybe Molthune/Nirmathas for that sort of game.
It's easier to talk about a hypothetical "average" city/town when you do so in the context of one of the 45 or so nations in the Inner Sea Region. By design, the region as a whole covers pretty much everything from caveman-times on up to the late 18th/early 19th century, with a fair number of purely fantasy options thrown in, so that a GM can choose a nation that best suits their preference.
Am I correct that so far, 22 first edition rulebooks and 2 APs (Rise Of The Runelords Anniversary Edition and Curse Of The Crimson Throne) have been published in pocket editions?
My current campaign features some hugely impactful contracts between several nations. The mortals will use the help of lawful outsiders to set up the contracts and make sure that everything is "legal".
I have a group of evil people, who of course will bring devils with them (easy choice) as arbiters and to support them.
The good people will probably bring archons with them.
Who would you say are a good species of outsiders to be brought in by the lawful neutral people? I thought I remembered you say inevitables are a relict from D&D, but I might be wrong. So, would it be axiomites or something else?
|
Creative Director
|
Am I correct that so far, 22 first edition rulebooks and 2 APs (Rise Of The Runelords Anniversary Edition and Curse Of The Crimson Throne) have been published in pocket editions?
Most of them have, yes. I'm not sure which ones exactly got that treatment, since all that happens elsewhere in the company and my interaction with the process is to do a quick check on the look of the file before it ships to the printer and then it's off my radar, though.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My current campaign features some hugely impactful contracts between several nations. The mortals will use the help of lawful outsiders to set up the contracts and make sure that everything is "legal".
I have a group of evil people, who of course will bring devils with them (easy choice) as arbiters and to support them.
The good people will probably bring archons with them.Who would you say are a good species of outsiders to be brought in by the lawful neutral people? I thought I remembered you say inevitables are a relict from D&D, but I might be wrong. So, would it be axiomites or something else?
Aeons. They're the "iconic lawful neutral outsider category" in Pathfinder now.
Note that in 2nd edition, both axiomites and inevitables are subcategorized as aeons.
So, for example, would you say that the hypothetical "average" city/town area with the ordinary resources of such a place (crops, magic, etc.) would be at about an Victorian/Edwardian era of development? Basically early-mid Industrial era standard of living because of extenuating circumstances (such as magic) improving the value of work? (With smaller towns being more "wild west" than the "civilization" of the larger cities, like 1889 London vs Deadwood).
This is mostly because "Medieval Squalor/The Dung Ages" syndrome (most well-documented by Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court) where every little convenience like glass or matches or soap is not present and every 10 min in a city forces you to make a save vs the Black Plague is not fun to the vast majority of players either.
That'd all work, pretty much. As seen in the many, many adventures we've published—those hundreds of published adventures being the best example of the world's tech level. Golarion was never intended to map precisely to what you call the "Dung Ages" at all. As I've said earlier... it allows for a GM to play in a wide range of different "eras" of inspiration, depending on what part of the setting you set your game in. If you wanna run something in the "Dung Age" you can do so—I suggest checking out Galt or maybe Molthune/Nirmathas for that sort of game.
It's easier to talk about a hypothetical "average" city/town when you do so in the context of one of the 45 or so nations in the Inner Sea Region. By design, the region as a whole covers pretty much everything from caveman-times on up to the late 18th/early 19th century, with a fair number of purely fantasy options thrown in, so that a GM can choose a nation that best suits their preference.
A purely hypothetical question: how far do you think Golarion is from an Industrial Age/Post-Industrial Age?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A purely hypothetical question: how far do you think Golarion is from an Industrial Age/Post-Industrial Age?
Far enough that it won't happen as long as I'm the Creative Director. I'd be more interested in building an entire new game for that sort of setting rather than change Golarion to be that setting.
A purely hypothetical question: how far do you think Golarion is from an Industrial Age/Post-Industrial Age?Far enough that it won't happen as long as I'm the Creative Director. I'd be more interested in building an entire new game for that sort of setting rather than change Golarion to be that setting.
It seems to me, however, that Golarion has already developed many of the technologies that would contribute to such a process, most notably the steam engine and the various "mad scientist materials" that are the foundation of scientific research, to say nothing of the magical things that could aid in this.
In any case, correct me if I'm wrong: Is the main point of why Golarion is "the way it is" to enable the players to come from a small farming village and travel to the big city, steal some printing presses and start a revolution, then flee to the undead wild west, spend the next [x] months shooting at wights with revolvers while riding bareback, then crusading into demon-infested lands armed with flaming swords and laser pistols, then commandeering a galleon to battle a cannon-armed steamboat with ballistae and fireballs, before repairing a starship and flying it into your personal manufactory demiplane?
Just a final observation. :)
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
It seems to me, however, that Golarion has already developed many of the technologies that would contribute to such a process, most notably the steam engine and the various "mad scientist materials" that are the foundation of scientific research, to say nothing of the magical things that could aid in this.
In any case, correct me if I'm wrong: Is the main point of why Golarion is "the way it is" to enable the players to come from a small farming village and travel to the big city, steal some printing presses and start a revolution, then flee to the undead wild west, spend the next [x] months shooting at wights with revolvers while riding bareback, then crusading into demon-infested lands armed with flaming swords and laser pistols, then commandeering a galleon to battle a cannon-armed steamboat with ballistae and fireballs, before repairing a starship and flying it into your personal manufactory demiplane?
Just a final observation. :)
That's not the main point of Golarion, but if that's a story you want to tell, Golarion certainly is set up for you to make that the plot of a campaign.
Think of Golarion as a buffet where you can build your dinner plate from dozens of options of types of food. You don't have to stack your plate with teriyaki and peanut butter sandwiches and fried eggs and mashed potatoes and pizza and tacos and pumpkin pie and raspberries and piroskies and olives and rice and salmon. You can if you want, sure, but isn't it better to split that into a bunch of different meals (AKA a bunch of different adventures or campaigns) then try to eat it all at once?
If I were building a world for one GM, I would have not bothered to build in so many variables. I'd build the best world for that one GM. That's not Golarion. It's built for ALL the potential Pathfinder GMs, and they all have different tastes.
|
So in fun "what if" thought experiment, in alternate universe where D&D halflings would have retained name "hobbit"(aka name had been public domain as well), do you think PF Hobbits would have had different lore from PF Halflings?
(I'm curious about how much do you think name "Halfling" inspired PF Halfling's lore about having been enslaved for so long that their origins, original language and name had been forgotten)
It seems to me, however, that Golarion has already developed many of the technologies that would contribute to such a process, most notably the steam engine and the various "mad scientist materials" that are the foundation of scientific research, to say nothing of the magical things that could aid in this.
In any case, correct me if I'm wrong: Is the main point of why Golarion is "the way it is" to enable the players to come from a small farming village and travel to the big city, steal some printing presses and start a revolution, then flee to the undead wild west, spend the next [x] months shooting at wights with revolvers while riding bareback, then crusading into demon-infested lands armed with flaming swords and laser pistols, then commandeering a galleon to battle a cannon-armed steamboat with ballistae and fireballs, before repairing a starship and flying it into your personal manufactory demiplane?
Just a final observation. :)
That's not the main point of Golarion, but if that's a story you want to tell, Golarion certainly is set up for you to make that the plot of a campaign.
Think of Golarion as a buffet where you can build your dinner plate from dozens of options of types of food. You don't have to stack your plate with teriyaki and peanut butter sandwiches and fried eggs and mashed potatoes and pizza and tacos and pumpkin pie and raspberries and piroskies and olives and rice and salmon. You can if you want, sure, but isn't it better to split that into a bunch of different meals (AKA a bunch of different adventures or campaigns) then try to eat it all at once?
If I were building a world for one GM, I would have not bothered to build in so many variables. I'd build the best world for that one GM. That's not Golarion. It's built for ALL the potential Pathfinder GMs, and they all have different tastes.
But isn't the opposite extreme being all the "zones" so to speak being segregated to the point it doesn't feel so like a world as a bunch of different settings divided up like a theme park? Sort of like Numeria being really close to Mendev, and yet none of the NPCs in WotR being like some quirky techslinger paladin from Numeria come to help the crusade?
Where in the world would you choose to live were finances not a consideration? Now and in retirement, if different.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So in fun "what if" thought experiment, in alternate universe where D&D halflings would have retained name "hobbit"(aka name had been public domain as well), do you think PF Hobbits would have had different lore from PF Halflings?
(I'm curious about how much do you think name "Halfling" inspired PF Halfling's lore about having been enslaved for so long that their origins, original language and name had been forgotten)
Yes, because if you are allowed to use the word hobbit you should make your game a Lord of the Rings game and go all-in to Tolkien's hobbit lore.
It's not meant to imply that the halfling's lost ancestral name is hobbit. That's not the case at all. We have a word for their ancestry, but I'm not sure off the top of my head we've yet revealed it in print. It's not "hobbit" though.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
But isn't the opposite extreme being all the "zones" so to speak being segregated to the point it doesn't feel so like a world as a bunch of different settings divided up like a theme park? Sort of like Numeria being really close to Mendev, and yet none of the NPCs in WotR being like some quirky techslinger paladin from Numeria come to help the crusade?
That's why we aim to hit somewhere in the middle of both extremes, and I feel we've done a great job there. If you want your Golarion to skew toward one end of those two hyperbolic extremes, then go for it, but that's not the expectation or the purpose of the setting.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Where in the world would you choose to live were finances not a consideration? Now and in retirement, if different.
If finances weren't a consideration then where I'd live would be the same whether I'm working or retired, since if they weren't a consideration I'd work for myself writing or designing games, not for a company.
In which case I'd want to live somewhere remote in the wilderness that had a solid internet service and relatively easy access to modern necessities such as emergency services or the like. If finances weren't a consideration, of course, I could pay an internet provider to build me that connection, and I'd have a helicopter to come and go from my home as needed.
All that considered, it'd be somewhere on the Northern California Coast, I guess.
How is the Kingmaker project going? Is that still eating up your full 8 hours each day?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
How does magic factor into the "macro" (kingdom-level) level of Golarion? For example, I remember 3.X's Stronghold Builder's Guide saying that castles are faster to build in DnD-verse becasue whenever possible, you are hiring casters to cast wall of stone and the like whenever possible. There was even a little table showing the logistics of this.
Other examples could be binding lantern archons to cast continual flame or the "everflowing spring" building.
|
Creative Director
|
How is the Kingmaker project going? Is that still eating up your full 8 hours each day?
It's slow and agonizing and hard to focus on these days, to be honest. I'm taking 2 weeks off starting on Monday and hopefully that will help me get my headspace back into a more positive place. It's not eating up my full 8 hours each day because some of those hours can't be sacrificed to this book—I still need to do my duties as Creative Director (which is a full time job of its own that does NOT include developing text), which includes meetings, outline approvals, Twitch streams, and such. So it'd be more accurate to say it's eating up about 5 hours a day, which means I'm spending 3 hours a day doing a job I'm supposedly paid to be working 8 hours a day at.
It's not ideal.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Speaking of Kingmaker, did the Cursed Monarch chapter result in you having to figure out level 26+ creatures or is the final boss of CRPG in level 21-25 range? :O (though for all I know that part of the final chapter of crpg didn't get adapted xD)
The adventure ends with the PCs at 20th level, so the final boss is level 24.
|
Creative Director
|
How does magic factor into the "macro" (kingdom-level) level of Golarion? For example, I remember 3.X's Stronghold Builder's Guide saying that castles are faster to build in DnD-verse becasue whenever possible, you are hiring casters to cast wall of stone and the like whenever possible. There was even a little table showing the logistics of this.
Other examples could be binding lantern archons to cast continual flame or the "everflowing spring" building.
We haven't addressed that at all in 2nd edition. We address it significantly in 1st edition, particularly in Ultimate Campaign. I'm not gonna copy-paste that chapter from that book here. If you like the way Stronghold Builder's Guide presented this information, use it. The game's close enough in theme and feel to D&D that it should work fine.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
At one point a few years ago I read through the original Dungeon Masters Guide. Gygax really had a thing for tables and random generation using dice. He also ranged widely on topics covered. Thinking about it again recently, he wrote a ton of game stuff in just a few short years - MM, PHB, DMG, modules, other stuff - and he did it with out the Internet and using a manual typewriter.
This seems impressive to me but you're far more the expert than I'll ever be. So, as a writer, editor and game developer, is what Gygax published in the mid-to-late '70s impressive?
It's absolutely impressive! And while it's worth remembering he didn't do it alone—he had lots of help from folks like Dave Arneson and Robert Kuntz and others, but still. Staggeringly impressive.
|
What can be said of the relationship between Sarenrae and Tsukiyo? If Sarenrae is the official 'Sun Goddess' of the setting, can the same be said of Tsukiyo as the official/premier divine personification of the Moon? Is Desna 'The Stars' in the same manner? Alternatively, is there a more 'Occidental' Moon-God Sarenrae would more likely be 'partnered' with in the minds of star-priests (and a corresponding 'Oriental' Sun-Goddess)? Within the setting, is there an objectively correct answer to "Which deity out of all those with such claims is actually Up There being The Sun/The Moon"?
As someone who's not usually a fan of Lawful-anything, Tsukiyo is easily one of my favorites as LG deities go.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What can be said of the relationship between Sarenrae and Tsukiyo? If Sarenrae is the official 'Sun Goddess' of the setting, can the same be said of Tsukiyo as the official/premier divine personification of the Moon? Is Desna 'The Stars' in the same manner? Alternatively, is there a more 'Occidental' Moon-God Sarenrae would more likely be 'partnered' with in the minds of star-priests (and a corresponding 'Oriental' Sun-Goddess)? Within the setting, is there an objectively correct answer to "Which deity out of all those with such claims is actually Up There being The Sun/The Moon"?
As someone who's not usually a fan of Lawful-anything, Tsukiyo is easily one of my favorites as LG deities go.
There's multiple sun deities. Beyond Sarenrae, the demon lord Nurgal comes to mind, for example, as do some deities in the Mwangi expanse or Shizuru in Tian Xia. They aren't actually physical manifestations of the sun, but they represent it. And it's more of a thing in Starfiner than Pathfinder, but if you worship Sarenrae and travel to different planets, she's still your goddess of the sun that you see in the sky on whatever planet you're on.
No deity is actually up there being "the sun" or "the moon" in that regard unless we specifically say so—as in the case of Groetus actually being "the mooon" that sits in the sky above the Boneyard.
The sun that shines on Golarion is a star, made from science—a constantly exploding ball of fire.
As for Sarenrae's relationship with Tsukiyo... it's not really there. They know of each other but don't interact much. She's more into Desna as far as the sun and stars go (and as far as being into someone goes, for that matter).
Did you feel as if some of the items from 1e were overpriced a la this article?: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20070302a
For one, I could not imagine buying a rod of metal and mineral detection when locate object arguably did its job better, nor buying a cowardly crouching cloak when the cloak of resistance existed. And why was the elixir of sex shift so expensive when arguably it should have been much lower since it didn't even give the normal transmutation disguise check bonus?
Also, do you sometimes wish that the Unchained rules had just been reprinted into the 5th printing or so of the CRB as RAW?
|
Creative Director
|
Did you feel as if some of the items from 1e were overpriced a la this article?: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20070302a
For one, I could not imagine buying a rod of metal and mineral detection when locate object arguably did its job better, nor buying a cowardly crouching cloak when the cloak of resistance existed. And why was the elixir of sex shift so expensive when arguably it should have been much lower since it didn't even give the normal transmutation disguise check bonus?
Also, do you sometimes wish that the Unchained rules had just been reprinted into the 5th printing or so of the CRB as RAW?
The nature of something like that ensures that no matter who you are, some items will feel overpriced while others will fee under-priced as far as RPG item prices go. And that'll change from campaign to campaign.
As for the Unchained rules, no. The whole point of those was to be experimental and give more options, not to replace core rules. When we wanted to update and address the rules and make them better, we did a new edition of the game instead.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Did you feel as if some of the items from 1e were overpriced a la this article?: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20070302a
For one, I could not imagine buying a rod of metal and mineral detection when locate object arguably did its job better, nor buying a cowardly crouching cloak when the cloak of resistance existed. And why was the elixir of sex shift so expensive when arguably it should have been much lower since it didn't even give the normal transmutation disguise check bonus?
Also, do you sometimes wish that the Unchained rules had just been reprinted into the 5th printing or so of the CRB as RAW?
The nature of something like that ensures that no matter who you are, some items will feel overpriced while others will fee under-priced as far as RPG item prices go. And that'll change from campaign to campaign.
As for the Unchained rules, no. The whole point of those was to be experimental and give more options, not to replace core rules. When we wanted to update and address the rules and make them better, we did a new edition of the game instead.
Hmm. Well, color me disappointed. I feel if unchained had been made "official" it would have brought in the best of both worlds: the joy-bringing crunch of 3.5 with the newer insights of a different experienced company.
On another note: I realized lately that runes of 2e are probably the direct precursor to weapon fusions/armor upgrades in SF. Was this intentional or no? That is, the parallels between SF and P2E?
What dictates (most specifically with undead) whether an ability is primarily occult or divine? e.g. poltergeists’ abilities are basically all of the occult tradition, whereas a ghost or a vampire seem to all be of the divine tradition; why is that?
Similarly, is there a particular reason for the connection between undead and divine/religion (like using Religion to Recall Knowledge about undead)?
Also…
as in the case of Groetus actually being "the mooon" that sits in the sky above the Boneyard.
I have no idea if the third “o” was intentional or not, but it was really funny to me!
|
Creative Director
|
On another note: I realized lately that runes of 2e are probably the direct precursor to weapon fusions/armor upgrades in SF. Was this intentional or no? That is, the parallels between SF and P2E?
As far as I know, no, not intentional, but the notion of being able to transfer magical or technological bonuses from one thing to another is good for the game.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
What dictates (most specifically with undead) whether an ability is primarily occult or divine? e.g. poltergeists’ abilities are basically all of the occult tradition, whereas a ghost or a vampire seem to all be of the divine tradition; why is that?
Similarly, is there a particular reason for the connection between undead and divine/religion (like using Religion to Recall Knowledge about undead)?
On one hand we try to spread around those traditions, but for the most part it's generally up to the author's preference on what sort of "horror" the undead feels like it's exuding, thematically.
Also…
as in the case of Groetus actually being "the mooon" that sits in the sky above the Boneyard.I have no idea if the third “o” was intentional or not, but it was really funny to me!
Intentioonal!
What are your thoughts on economics? That is to say, can prices for common items fluctuate from place to place (like a book of tindertwigs being 10+ gp in a tiny hamlet in the Land of the Linnorm kings or Mwangi Expanse vs being 2 sp in Magnimar or Korvosa)? What is the overall effect of magic on the economy? For example, I could see decanters of endless waters set to the salt water function pump out near-modern day levels of salt if properly utilized, thus having a major effect on the value of salt as a trade good.