...
But going back to Androffa, you raised a point on how my observation on it was incorrect (ie "it was not a utopian space-faring nation before it got reset by gods at all"). What is the "correct" version?At the time they launched Divinity (about 10K years ago), that was their first ship capable of that sort of deep space travel. They'd had solar system travel for a bit, and magic existed in the world but it was hidden and occulted. It was about comparable, I guess, to what you might imagine Earth will be in a hundred years or so... somewhere between distopian and utopian, on the verge of great technological breakthroughs but also on the verge of a great magical apocalypse.
If I were to set it up as an RPG setting, it'd be a near-future occult/horror/sci-fi themed setting. Fast forward 10,000 years or so into present day Golarion, it's known as Droffa (instead of Androffa) and is a world with the same sort of adventure themes and opportunities as Golarion... although more R-rated when it comes to content, I guess. A dark fantasy setting pretty much.
But again, I've no plans to publish Droffa as a setting, or Androffa as a setting, and beyond what I've said here I'm not gonna say much more. Maybe at some point in the future when I'm retired or have moved on from Paizo I'll look at self-publishing it as my own setting.
So, out of pure curiosity, because of the nature of the place, is it like Numeria but the entire world or something more like this?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcem_tutbGc
What role did magic play in Androffa's "apocalypse" and/or development, if any? Because from the printed lore it seems that Androffa was a pretty good place before those damn gods decided to use magic to destroy the culmination of their society's accomplishments, as opposed to the highly magical empires of Golarion which collapsed on their own. In this view of the situation, are you trying to convey that magic is bad
Stepping away from Androffa, would you say there is a theme of technology being good and magic being bad overall in Pathfinder when it comes into play?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What's the difference between chemistry and alchemy? Aren't they both study of mixing ingredients to achieve desired outcomes?
On that note, technology is just tools so wouldn't magic items technically be technology?
And given the scientific method, and the prior science-like practices, just treat magic as one more law of the world amd be treated as any other natural law and explored alongside all other advancement rather than separated out?
To add on to this, very many of the objects under alchemy are so similar to tech items (like the light detector or tintertwigs) that my GM usually just says that alchemy is a subset of chemistry that takes the fantastical elements of the world into account through a scientific way.
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What are your favorite examples of real world mythology, monsters, magical lore, etc. which you wish you could include in Pathfinder but are too inappropriate?
Not gonna list them here since they're also inappropriate for the boards. I'll leave it to folks' imagination, but you can get a pretty good idea of the type of things by looking at what we've NOT done.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
What's the difference between chemistry and alchemy? Aren't they both study of mixing ingredients to achieve desired outcomes?
On that note, technology is just tools so wouldn't magic items technically be technology?
And given the scientific method, and the prior science-like practices, just treat magic as one more law of the world amd be treated as any other natural law and explored alongside all other advancement rather than separated out?
Chemsitry works via science, and is bound by the laws of thermodynamics and physics and biology and all of that. It's "real world" stuff, even if it's science-fiction themed.
Alchemy does not; it works via magic.
When technology starts to seem like magic depends on lots of factors, but for example if you showed an iPhone to an ancient Roman, they'd think you had magic. Doesn't change the fact that the iPhone is still magic.
And of course in a setting with magic, you can build the exact same thing as an iPhone with magic.
Technology (be it modern or futuristic or whatever) and magic are both tools we use to create make-believe worlds, and there's a lot of overlap. In the same way you can paint a beautiful sunset picture with acrylic paints and oil paints, that doesn't mean that acrylic paints are the same as oil paints, and some artists prefer to achieve some effects with acrylic paints instead of oil paints and vice-versa.
For me, whether or not a thing is magic or technological in a setting like Golarion is pretty much 100% down to my aesthetic preference as to what is more appropriate. Part of being a creative director is being paid to make those kind of decisions.
There's not a rule that says one thing has to be magic and one has to be technological.
|
Creative Director
|
To add on to this, very many of the objects under alchemy are so similar to tech items (like the light detector or tintertwigs) that my GM usually just says that alchemy is a subset of chemistry that takes the fantastical elements of the world into account through a scientific way.What's the difference between chemistry and alchemy? Aren't they both study of mixing ingredients to achieve desired outcomes?
On that note, technology is just tools so wouldn't magic items technically be technology?
And given the scientific method, and the prior science-like practices, just treat magic as one more law of the world amd be treated as any other natural law and explored alongside all other advancement rather than separated out?
That's fine, but it's not a question. Please avoid trying to turn this into a discussion thread; this is a thread to ask questions of me and get answers. If my answers spark further discussion, that's GREAT, but please start those further discussions in their own threads.
A little thought experiment: If a 20th century historian on medieval times were transported to a small town in Taldor, what would be the first thing that would make them realize: "wait a minute, this isn't medieval Europe"? (Barring nonhumans and magic).
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
A little thought experiment: If a 20th century historian on medieval times were transported to a small town in Taldor, what would be the first thing that would make them realize: "wait a minute, this isn't medieval Europe"? (Barring nonhumans and magic).
The fact that he wouldn't be able to speak the language, I guess.
"The aboleths are among the oldest of Golarion’s denizens, creatures that can trace back their presence in the deepest reaches of the world’s oceans to times far before humanity came to dwell upon the globe— or before even most deities themselves turned their attentions to this tiny sphere of water and stone.' -- From the first edition Pathfinder Bestiary
Are the allgothu native to Golarion? Are humans?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"The aboleths are among the oldest of Golarion’s denizens, creatures that can trace back their presence in the deepest reaches of the world’s oceans to times far before humanity came to dwell upon the globe— or before even most deities themselves turned their attentions to this tiny sphere of water and stone.' -- From the first edition Pathfinder Bestiary
Are the allgothu native to Golarion? Are humans?
Unrevealed. (This sort of thing is the type of information that I think is more potent and useful without having a "written in stone" answer. Whether or not it's true has no impact on the setting overall, and having a group find this out during play is a fun way for a GM to offer answers we do not.)
A little thought experiment: If a 20th century historian on medieval times were transported to a small town in Taldor, what would be the first thing that would make them realize: "wait a minute, this isn't medieval Europe"? (Barring nonhumans and magic).The fact that he wouldn't be able to speak the language, I guess.
I mean, I think he might just rationalize that as just another one of the 1000+ ur-languages floating around in the Middle Ages at that time. What would be something that would be undisputable proof?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I mean, I think he might just rationalize that as just another one of the 1000+ ur-languages floating around in the Middle Ages at that time. What would be something that would be undisputable proof?A little thought experiment: If a 20th century historian on medieval times were transported to a small town in Taldor, what would be the first thing that would make them realize: "wait a minute, this isn't medieval Europe"? (Barring nonhumans and magic).The fact that he wouldn't be able to speak the language, I guess.
I really don't know how to answer this question without you negating my answer by moving the proverbial goalposts. Sorry.
Maybe hearing the name of the nation? There's no such thing as a "Taldor" on Earth, after all. Assuming that he managed to figure out how to communicate in the first place, which I maintain would STILL be his first clue, since if this theoretical time traveling historian is worth their salt they'd also understand how language works enough to realize that the languages on Golarion have no Earthly equivalent.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not what I meant. I know we can easily separate these two because we can easily draw a line between real and imaginary physics, but the people in the game world would not, since to them they are all real physics. From their perspective, there isn't even a reason for it to affect aesthetics since that'd be more of a crafter decision, and that means you could dress up any item on a more sci-fi or fantasy styling without regard to the use of magic at all. More is that they could easily mix the two, such as using magic to heat metal causing it to expand and bend impacting another part to produce the peizo electric effect, as a rather useless example.
So, how do the people in-game/lore-wise distinguish them and why? For example, why would an alchemist completely ignore chemistry, and why would they see any difference?
In game, alchemy is the norm and chemistry isn't something that comes up as often. There's certainly a LOT of crossover between the two. I suspect if you a good alchemist, you'd make a pretty good chemist, and vice-versa.
But for the most part, NPCs in-world don't distinguish them at all, and tend to assume it's all alchemy.
|
"The aboleths are among the oldest of Golarion’s denizens, creatures that can trace back their presence in the deepest reaches of the world’s oceans to times far before humanity came to dwell upon the globe— or before even most deities themselves turned their attentions to this tiny sphere of water and stone.' -- From the first edition Pathfinder Bestiary
Are the allgothu native to Golarion? Are humans?
Alghollthu thing was actually revealed in Ruins of Azlant's ecology article for them.
Anyway, whose brain child is alghollthu lore anyway?
Not what I meant. I know we can easily separate these two because we can easily draw a line between real and imaginary physics, but the people in the game world would not, since to them they are all real physics. From their perspective, there isn't even a reason for it to affect aesthetics since that'd be more of a crafter decision, and that means you could dress up any item on a more sci-fi or fantasy styling without regard to the use of magic at all. More is that they could easily mix the two, such as using magic to heat metal causing it to expand and bend impacting another part to produce the peizo electric effect, as a rather useless example.
So, how do the people in-game/lore-wise distinguish them and why? For example, why would an alchemist completely ignore chemistry, and why would they see any difference?
In game, alchemy is the norm and chemistry isn't something that comes up as often. There's certainly a LOT of crossover between the two. I suspect if you a good alchemist, you'd make a pretty good chemist, and vice-versa.
But for the most part, NPCs in-world don't distinguish them at all, and tend to assume it's all alchemy.
But there (according to you) is still a differentiation. Where has this been shown in an AP or a module? Because I know I haven't seen any "chemical" items in the Tech Guide.
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
"The aboleths are among the oldest of Golarion’s denizens, creatures that can trace back their presence in the deepest reaches of the world’s oceans to times far before humanity came to dwell upon the globe— or before even most deities themselves turned their attentions to this tiny sphere of water and stone.' -- From the first edition Pathfinder Bestiary
Are the allgothu native to Golarion? Are humans?
Alghollthu thing was actually revealed in Ruins of Azlant's ecology article for them.
Anyway, whose brain child is alghollthu lore anyway?
I made up the name after Wes Schneider picked on me one too many times for spelling "although" wrong (as "althoguh") when my fingers outpaced my eyes on the keyboard. He'd see that common typo pop up and flag it when he was editing my words with a cute little "Ia Althoguh!"), pretending I was trying to sneak in some Great Old One summoning in my words.
The lore about these creatures, though, is a collaborative effort between myself, Wes, Adam Daigle, James Sutter, Erik Mona, and many more folks over the years.
And of course, aboleths themselves came about decades ago in D&D; first appearing in the adventure "Dwellers of the Forbidden City." We've renamed them in Pathfinder because that way we can reference the larger category of creatures (everything not an aboleth in this category was created by us, not by D&D writers) in non-OGL products we produce.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
But there (according to you) is still a differentiation. Where has this been shown in an AP or a module? Because I know I haven't seen any "chemical" items in the Tech Guide.
All of the pharmaceuticals in the Tech Guide are based on chemistry. So you have indeed seen chemical items in there. As such, the place you'd be most likely to see this differentiation is in Iron Gods, I suppose.
That said, since Pathfinder's in the fantasy genre and not the science-fiction genre, we've not done much at all with chemistry in game as things players can use. And since there's no "Science" skill or the like in the game, the rules themselves don't really support us doing much direct support for science-based PC options in Pathfinder.
If you want more chemical stuff, check out Starfinder.
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there some kind of qualifier that determines whether a creature gets the -folk title.
Like Girtablilu are referred to as Scorpionfolk, Ysoki are Ratfolk, Kitsune are Foxfolk. (Within their flavour text)
So could/would Tengu be referred to as 'Ravenfolk'?
Sure, I guess. But I wouldn't. In fact, I'd rather the "-folk" names for ancestries some day be regulated to tertiary roles in describing ancestries... or even get dropped entirely from the game.
The "-folk" portmanteau is not great. It's kinda reductionist and marginalizes the creature by speaking about them with a name that they didn't create for themselves. It'd be like aliens coming to Earth and calling humans "primatefolk" instead of humans. It's better to respect a culture by referring to them by the name they refer to themselves as, and as such in game, it's more interesting to give these ancestries their own names as well.
Where it gets complicated is when we pick up creatures from the OGL, so we often have to come up with variant names for them. But when something is generic (like ratfolk) or from mythology (like kitsune or tengu) there's much less of a need for this.
It's further complicated by the fact that for a fair amount of the first several years of us working on Pathfinder, we didn't really realize the value of not using "-folk" constructions instead of giving these ancestries actual names, so there's a legacy we built for ourselves in trying to self-correct. It's tough to do that in the middle of an edition cycle, but with the edition change that was a great place to start getting those names in print so that the baseline products will have that information.
As for why "-folk" and not "-man"? It's gender neutral.
|
Creative Director
|
| 10 people marked this as a favorite. |
As for why "-folk" and not "-man"? It's gender neutral.Did you know that "-man" is gender neutral? Man in general is gender neutral, it's just that the we only have a female gender and so the ungendered "man" has generally come to mean male, however, that change is still only situational and doesn't apply to "-man" as a word ending. For example, seaman, craftsman, midshipman, etc are all gender neutral.
Did you know this? Is there a reason to try to further making these gendered and complemented with a female versions rather than just leaving them as ungendered? (I know you are technically not doing that here with -folk, but it always bugs me when people start inventing things like "craftswomen." There's no such thing as equal but different. So I'm kinda curious on your thoughts.)
I do know that "-man" is regarded as gender neutral by many, but it's not by me. And since it's just as easy to use "-folk" instead, I do so. Don't underestimate the influence that centuries of patriarchy can have on the common conventions of language or the like.
If it bothers you to hear "craftswoman" then imagine how you'd feel as a woman being told that "craftsman" is the norm. Which is what women have had to deal with for centuries.
If we can equalize things up by making changes to the way we speak today, that'll make tomorrow a more equal place, and that's a goal I'd like to continue to pursue.
And there's ALWAYS other word choices you can make that completely dodge the gendering as well. Taking the several you list above, I prefer using these words instead:
Seaman turns into seafarer.
Craftsman turns into artisan.
Midshipman turns into sailor.
And so on.
|
|
Its that confusing thing of where etmology wise "man" was "human" and "werman" was male human and "wifman" female human. Then over time the gender neutral word for human become same as word for male human which is uh... Yeah patriarchy sucks. But yeah its kinda too late at this point to claim that "man is purely gender neutral word!" when people haven't been using it that way for thousand years by now. And way too late to try to go back to "human/wereman/woman" terminology.
Ah right, I almost forgot my question because I got distracted by that topic: What is about the maximum age of true dragons before they die of old age? Does it differ by type of true dragon they are?
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ah right, I almost forgot my question because I got distracted by that topic: What is about the maximum age of true dragons before they die of old age? Does it differ by type of true dragon they are?
Unrevealed, but I'd say that it's about the same and doesn't vary from dragon type to dragon type. It's at the very least well over a dozen centuries, but probably not more than 20 centuries. I don't know off the top of my head what the oldest dragon we've published in the setting is, but I do know Mengkare is 1,250 years old and isn't showing signs of dying of natural causes anytime soon.
|
Creative Director
|
With the coming of the new year, was wondering if you use a physical calendar, and if so, which kind both subject matter and format (monthly wall calendar, daily tear off calendar, etc.)?
I haven't used a physical calendar for a long time. In fact, the last time I remember using one regularly was a Far Side daily tear off calendar. Each of those pages had their own Far Side cartoon to go along with the day.
The last day I used that calendar was on 9/11. After the attack, I simply stopped using the calendar, and eventually threw it away without tearing off any more days, many months later. Can't remember if it was a year later exactly, but I do know I never used a physical calendar again.
Today, I use my iPhone's calendar and whatever calendar software is on whatever computer I happen to be using at the time.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
|
With the coming of the new year, was wondering if you use a physical calendar, and if so, which kind both subject matter and format (monthly wall calendar, daily tear off calendar, etc.)?I haven't used a physical calendar for a long time. In fact, the last time I remember using one regularly was a Far Side daily tear off calendar. Each of those pages had their own Far Side cartoon to go along with the day.
The last day I used that calendar was on 9/11. After the attack, I simply stopped using the calendar, and eventually threw it away without tearing off any more days, many months later. Can't remember if it was a year later exactly, but I do know I never used a physical calendar again.
Today, I use my iPhone's calendar and whatever calendar software is on whatever computer I happen to be using at the time.
Oh I hear you, I don't use a daily calendar to know what day it is, but specifically for the daily dose of humor or interesting trivia. Was shopping for a 2021 one after swearing off Dilbert in the future, and wondered if you had any good ones to suggest. Looks like I'll be going with Forgotten English Vanishing Vocabulary and Folklore one.
And as for a question, what do you think of the new comics from Gary Larson
But there (according to you) is still a differentiation. Where has this been shown in an AP or a module? Because I know I haven't seen any "chemical" items in the Tech Guide.All of the pharmaceuticals in the Tech Guide are based on chemistry. So you have indeed seen chemical items in there. As such, the place you'd be most likely to see this differentiation is in Iron Gods, I suppose.
That said, since Pathfinder's in the fantasy genre and not the science-fiction genre, we've not done much at all with chemistry in game as things players can use. And since there's no "Science" skill or the like in the game, the rules themselves don't really support us doing much direct support for science-based PC options in Pathfinder.
If you want more chemical stuff, check out Starfinder.
Could you thus treat "chemical items" as alchemy and do it with a craft alchemy check? (At least the ones that aren't actually just nanites).
|
Creative Director
|
And as for a question, what do you think of the new comics from Gary Larson
Haven't looked into them till just now. Seems like his sense of humor is still the same, which is a good thing!
|
Creative Director
|
Could you thus treat "chemical items" as alchemy and do it with a craft alchemy check? (At least the ones that aren't actually just nanites).But there (according to you) is still a differentiation. Where has this been shown in an AP or a module? Because I know I haven't seen any "chemical" items in the Tech Guide.All of the pharmaceuticals in the Tech Guide are based on chemistry. So you have indeed seen chemical items in there. As such, the place you'd be most likely to see this differentiation is in Iron Gods, I suppose.
That said, since Pathfinder's in the fantasy genre and not the science-fiction genre, we've not done much at all with chemistry in game as things players can use. And since there's no "Science" skill or the like in the game, the rules themselves don't really support us doing much direct support for science-based PC options in Pathfinder.
If you want more chemical stuff, check out Starfinder.
I wouldn't do that. If you do that, why even bother having nanites in the game? Just have alchemy.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi there James!
Hope you had a good Christmas and that you are in good health.
Speaking of which, I have recently done something I almost never do, I've bought American apples! So why did I buy those Washington State Organic Apples? Surely not out of any environmental concerns, hell I live in the greater Montréal area! Just the gas it took to bring these Premium quality Gala beauties to my kitchen counter is enough to offset any positive effect they have. Nope sir, I made this completely nonsensical purchase because of a gang of very fine folks I know a little about on the opposite side of the continent, so I've invested in your economy over my own! It's the season for these kind of things I suppose and in keeping with that I want to thank you for your time and thoughts this year and Iwish you a much better year in 2021.
Oh! Btw, how would you rate the apples from your little corner of the world?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Do Strix only have feathers on their wings?
I'm trying to physically differentiate between a Strix and a Harpy. I know Harpies have talons for hands and feet and Strix seem to be depicted with normal hands and paws for feet.
Strixes have feathers only on their wings, and they have more human-looking feet, and they have blue skin, and they're generally not nearly as evil and sadistic as a harpy. Strixes also have long pointed ears that tend to stick out sideways from their heads and more unusual eye colors (red, white), while harpies have human ears and eyes.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hi there James!
Hope you had a good Christmas and that you are in good health.
Speaking of which, I have recently done something I almost never do, I've bought American apples! So why did I buy those Washington State Organic Apples? Surely not out of any environmental concerns, hell I live in the greater Montréal area! Just the gas it took to bring these Premium quality Gala beauties to my kitchen counter is enough to offset any positive effect they have. Nope sir, I made this completely nonsensical purchase because of a gang of very fine folks I know a little about on the opposite side of the continent, so I've invested in your economy over my own! It's the season for these kind of things I suppose and in keeping with that I want to thank you for your time and thoughts this year and Iwish you a much better year in 2021.
Oh! Btw, how would you rate the apples from your little corner of the world?
Was a fine Christmas and I've avoided Covid so far (although I've put on way too much weight over the pandemic, so that part of my health isn't what I'd call "good" unfortunately).
YAY Washington Apples! I'd rate the apples from here as DELICIOUS.
And thank you for the kind words!
Are there any non-Paizo-affiliated content creators that cover Pathfinder/TTRPG content that you watch/listen to?
|
Creative Director
|
Are there any non-Paizo-affiliated content creators that cover Pathfinder/TTRPG content that you watch/listen to?
Not really. When I switch away from work to personal time I tend to watch other stuff entirely on Youtube, drawn from a combination of video games, wilderness exploration/camping, and most recently Watcher and the glories of the Professor.
Wingnut question to celebrate my computer getting fixed...
Do you have a favorite show that only got a single season?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Wingnut question to celebrate my computer getting fixed...
Do you have a favorite show that only got a single season?
Two recent HBO shows that sound like they're only gonna be a one season show would be "The Outsider" and "Watchmen", both of which only really needed one season to tell their story but both of which could have gone on to another season.
I think he did exactly that.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
What's been your favorite episode of Puppet History so far?
Hmmm... hard to choose, since the entertainment value is through the roof for all of them, but from a sheer "I didn't know that and I'm glad I do now" standpoint, the one about Hapshetsu, with the Musashi one coming in at a close second (even though I knew about his story).