Creative Director
|
What could possibly be improved on Event Horizon? I hate horror films and I still liked that movie.
The entire third act needs to be more extreme, and some of the goofier elements should be cut to keep the movie's grim themes. The movie itself was pretty famously gutted by the studio, resulting in a movie that failed to live up to the expectations it set in the first two thirds of the movie.
That said, as you say, you hate horror movies and still liked the movie, but as someone who loves horror movies all I can see in that movie its its missed potential and the cowardice of the studio.
And beyond that, while a LOT of the movie's aesthetics and set design were brilliant, the CGI has some spots that haven't aged well. Physical effects, be they makeup or prosthetics or stop-motion or whatever, tend to age MUCH better than CGI, which tends to look outdated and cheesy within a few years of release unless it's used masterfully well.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lizardfolk/Iruxi believe themselves to be descended from dinosaurs and seem friendly with dinosaurs. How do they see Saurians?
(Is Iruxi already plural? What's the singular term for it?)
Iruxi see saurians the same way humans see giants: as scary oversized people.
In my homebrew, where the word came from, iruxis is the plural form of the word. I don't recall off the top of my head how we treat it in Golarion.
Which of your various PCs over the years would you think best-suited to a Seven Samurai type scenario?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
But how is this possible? I mean, in medieval times almost no one could read. The fact that the world at large is as literate as you say means there is at least enough of a surplus of food and efficiency of labor to allow it. How did this come about?
Because Golarion isn't Earth's medieval age. Far from it. Golarion isn't meant to be a 100% accurate to Earth simulator. It's a game, not a real world, and as such we often make choices in detailing it that make it more fun to play as a game.
And having most NPCs being able to read means we can put in letters and diaries and journals and the like as clues or handouts for adventures, which is more fun that not.
It's a high fantasy setting, which means more than just "there's magic." In many ways, Golarion is more akin to the modern world than it is to medieval Europe, which would be a too-constrictive theme to stick to for every story we want to tell (not to mention there's an entire history and entire world beyond medieval Europe to take inspiration from).
It sounds like you might have more fun/be more comfortable with a setting of your own design that's more closely associated with a single area/historical period more closely aligned to Earth, which has never been and never will be what Golarion is going for. That's fine; Golarion can't and shouldn't be for everyone, and building your own setting is a huge part of the fun as a GM.
I was just confused about the whole "Golarion is more like the modern world" business. The prices and amenities/city descriptions in the CRB very much reflect a medieval Europe setting.
If you are talking about how Golarion seems to be strangely politically correct, then I ask why would it be that way? To paraphrase The Stand by Stephen King: The vast majority of that stuff only came about after we modernized and made life good enough to worry about that.
Again, widespread literacy not only implies that the average peasant is FAR from a "smelly ignorant serf", it also forms the basis for a ton of societal advancements.
What I am confused about is how all this happened in a primitive world with medieval farming yields and crude infrastructure. Please explain?
|
Creative Director
|
Which of your various PCs over the years would you think best-suited to a Seven Samurai type scenario?
While all of them were samurai (well... maybe technically NOT Toshiro's character, at the start at least), they all had very different skills and roles in the group. But that said, they were all pretty dang god with the sword, so I'd probably have to pick one of my full base attack characters.
Of my currently active characters, my halfling swashbuckler Kiku would probably fit in the best, but Shensen would work too in the role of the one who keeps everyone else's spirits up, even though...
|
Creative Director
|
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
I was just confused about the whole "Golarion is more like the modern world" business. The prices and amenities/city descriptions in the CRB very much reflect a medieval Europe setting.
If you are talking about how Golarion seems to be strangely politically correct, then I ask why would it be that way? To paraphrase The Stand by Stephen King: The vast majority of that stuff only came about after we modernized and made life good enough to worry about that.
Again, widespread literacy not only implies that the average peasant is FAR from a "smelly ignorant serf", it also forms the basis for a ton of societal advancements.
What I am confused about is how all this happened in a primitive world with medieval farming yields and crude infrastructure. Please explain?
Some parts of Golarion are more akin to medieval Europe, such as the use of coins and the descriptions for areas like Taldor or Cheliax. Others are more like the ancient world, such as Osirion, while some are closer to modern in some ways like Andoran, Alkenstar, or even futuristic like Numeria. You can not simply reduce all of Golarion to matching one specific earth period or location.
I wouldn't say Golarion is "politically correct", since that term has come to feel loaded and weaponized against people who try to promote fairness and diversity in a lot of ways. The game itself is meant to be something that ANYONE can have fun playing, and that means we really value presenting a game AND a world that is open and inclusive to as wide a range of people as possible. There's still racism and sexism and awful evil stuff like that in the world, but we present it today more in the form of world lore for villains. We need to be careful about how we present it in content that players use to build characters because there's plenty of awful people out there who will and have used rules to justify antagonistic builds for PCs that serve not to play the game but to disrupt the party and distress fellow players, particularly in organized play context.
Anyway, how did this all happen? Because of a combination of magic and a LOT longer historical period than Earth has. Keep in mind that recorded history for Golarion goes back several thousand more years than it does for Earth. The people of Golarion may not have widespread technology like we do on Earth, but they're several thousand years forward from us as far as time spent on their world without losing track of the mistakes of the past.
So, the presence of widespread magic (which allows storytellers to do pretty much whatever they want) and the much extended period of recorded history (which allows for civilizations and societies to look back on the past and do better in the future, at least in theory) is all the justification we need to present Golarion as the way it is.
Put another way, it's a fantasy setting meant to allow us on Earth a chance for some escapism into a setting where there's opportunity for adventure but also enough familiar touchstones that we don't have to learn an entire new world or become historians to enjoy it.
AKA: It's that way because that's the way we want it so we can tell the stories we want to tell.
What you're asking for, to be honest, is an entire set of volumes completely tracking the course of history for a world whose written historical record is about three times as long as Earth's. We can't possibly provide that for you as a company, and that means I absolutely cannot provide it to you on my own. Best I can do is to speak in generalities and, one story at a time, start filling things in.
So, the more Golarion products you read, the more that'll all start filling in, I guess. I don't have the time to give you an entire master-level history course on the setting; sorry.
I was just confused about the whole "Golarion is more like the modern world" business. The prices and amenities/city descriptions in the CRB very much reflect a medieval Europe setting.
If you are talking about how Golarion seems to be strangely politically correct, then I ask why would it be that way? To paraphrase The Stand by Stephen King: The vast majority of that stuff only came about after we modernized and made life good enough to worry about that.
Again, widespread literacy not only implies that the average peasant is FAR from a "smelly ignorant serf", it also forms the basis for a ton of societal advancements.
What I am confused about is how all this happened in a primitive world with medieval farming yields and crude infrastructure. Please explain?
Some parts of Golarion are more akin to medieval Europe, such as the use of coins and the descriptions for areas like Taldor or Cheliax. Others are more like the ancient world, such as Osirion, while some are closer to modern in some ways like Andoran, Alkenstar, or even futuristic like Numeria. You can not simply reduce all of Golarion to matching one specific earth period or location.
I wouldn't say Golarion is "politically correct", since that term has come to feel loaded and weaponized against people who try to promote fairness and diversity in a lot of ways. The game itself is meant to be something that ANYONE can have fun playing, and that means we really value presenting a game AND a world that is open and inclusive to as wide a range of people as possible. There's still racism and sexism and awful evil stuff like that in the world, but we present it today more in the form of world lore for villains. We need to be careful about how we present it in content that players use to build characters because there's plenty of awful people out there who will and have used rules to justify antagonistic builds for PCs that serve not to play the game but to disrupt the party and distress fellow players,...
I was of the notion that there is effectively nothing back from more than 1000 years that anybody (ie the common people, not sages in ivory towers) remembers due to all the apocalypses like Earthfall and co. Scrabbling to survive and slowly building up for 1000+ years does not lend itself to widespread literacy or the regaining of advanced agricultural practices. So again, how in a world where agricultural processes are such that everyone needs to work sunup to sundown farming and then the most advanced transit vehicles are carts as presented by the CRB and multiple APs are people able to be literate? I am not asking for a comprehensive history of Golarion, just a basic explanation on why, considering it wasn't addressed at all (heck, the printing press is considered a new invention at least by 1e and everybody was literate then).
On the topic of the "setting development": so you admit that it is more like the medieval world than anything else? Everywhere is divided up into its own pseudo world/theme park land like Medieval times where people didn't know of the world more than 30 min from their home village; likewise, I don't see much cultural exchange between countries either. Numeria isn't a "futuristic society" by any means (that would be if the denizens of Divinity managed to survive and make a colony), it is barbarian warlords with laser guns. Alkenstar makes sense at least, but it seems to me that it proves that tech is better for societal advancement than magic since it is the only place in the world not stagnant.
Finally, on the topic of political correctness, I find it hard to believe that Goblins are now PC races while orcs and gnolls are still relegated to the roles of "morally obligated/right-to-kill creatures."
|
Creative Director
|
| 12 people marked this as a favorite. |
I was of the notion that there is effectively nothing back from more than 1000 years that anybody (ie the common people, not sages in ivory towers) remembers due to all the apocalypses like Earthfall and co. Scrabbling to survive and slowly building up for 1000+ years does not lend itself to widespread literacy or the regaining of advanced agricultural practices. So again, how in a world where agricultural processes are such that everyone needs to work sunup to sundown farming and then the most advanced transit vehicles are carts as presented by the CRB and multiple APs are people able to be literate? I am not asking for a comprehensive history of Golarion, just a basic explanation on why, considering it wasn't addressed at all (heck, the printing press is considered a new invention at least by 1e and everybody was literate then).
On the topic of the "setting development": so you admit that it is more like the medieval world than anything else? Numeria isn't a "futuristic society" by any means (that would be if the denizens of Divinity managed to survive and make a colony), it is barbarian warlords with laser guns. Alkenstar makes sense at least, but it seems to me that it proves that tech is better for societal advancement than magic since it is the only place in the world not stagnant.
Finally, on the topic of political correctness, I find it hard to believe that Goblins are now PC races while orcs and gnolls are still relegated to the roles of "morally obligated/right-to-kill creatures."
I'm not interested in a debate on these topics. I feel like I've answered your questions already, and don't need to "justify" our creative choices for the game. Please keep further posts to single questions per post, and if you don't like my answers, I can't rephrase them a different way so that you'll like them.
And nothing in Pathifnder 2nd edition says orcs and gnolls are in special roles of "morally obligated/right to kill" at all. Both of those are also ancestries available for PCs, in fact, and ALL of these humanoid ancestries are more complex than "always evil." The fact that the goblin ancestry is in the core rulebook is more a nod toward how POPULAR they are than anything else.
There are other games and other settings from other companies out there to choose from, in any case. Maybe one of them is more to your liking?
I don't have the time or energy to try to convince you to like something you don't like, nor do I want to. Not everyone needs to or should find everything equally likable. That's part of what makes us all individuals.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
|
If you had the chance to travel in time, with a timeship and crew who knew the basics of how to time travel, had resources like period appropiate clothes and money, etc. would you do so?
If so, which fictional example of time travelers you'd prefer to adventure with, such as Doctor Who, Legends of Tomorrow, Timeless, etc.?
Finally, what would be your top time/location to visit?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
If you had the chance to travel in time, with a timeship and crew who knew the basics of how to time travel, had resources like period appropiate clothes and money, etc. would you do so?
If so, which fictional example of time travelers you'd prefer to adventure with, such as Doctor Who, Legends of Tomorrow, Timeless, etc.?
Finally, what would be your top time/location to visit?
I would. I'd prefer to adventure with Ash Williams (or maybe Bill and Ted), and would visit the Cretaceous Period to see some dinosaurs.
Are there any Toho Kaiju you think would particularly benefit from a Legendary/Monsterverse update?
|
I would. I'd prefer to adventure with Ash Williams (or maybe Bill and Ted), and would visit the Cretaceous Period to see some dinosaurs.If you had the chance to travel in time, with a timeship and crew who knew the basics of how to time travel, had resources like period appropiate clothes and money, etc. would you do so?
If so, which fictional example of time travelers you'd prefer to adventure with, such as Doctor Who, Legends of Tomorrow, Timeless, etc.?
Finally, what would be your top time/location to visit?
Any chance of a Dynamite comicbook crossover of Pathfinder and Ash Williams/Evil Dead?
It doesn't have to be using the Worldscape.
|
|
If folks would be interested in that, let us know. At this point, we have no comic book news of any type to share, much less crossovers.Any chance of a Dynamite comicbook crossover of Pathfinder and Ash Williams/Evil Dead?
It doesn't have to be using the Worldscape.
I thought the Red Sonja and Tarzan crossover comics were pretty cool. I would sell a non-vital organ to get an Evil Dead/Pathfinder crossover.
Who should we make noise to regarding this?
|
Creative Director
|
If folks would be interested in that, let us know. At this point, we have no comic book news of any type to share, much less crossovers.Any chance of a Dynamite comicbook crossover of Pathfinder and Ash Williams/Evil Dead?
It doesn't have to be using the Worldscape.
I thought the Red Sonja and Tarzan crossover comics were pretty cool. I would sell a non-vital organ to get an Evil Dead/Pathfinder crossover.
Who should we make noise to regarding this?
Dynamite Comics would be a good start, I suppose.
Hi there James,
It finally happened, after more than 15 years I've started a new campaign as a GM! Which brings me to you for an answer to this question:
What happens to a follower of The Rough Beast when brought before Pharasma?
Neutral or not I have a hard time believing that she would send souls to him or to the Outer Gods for that matter. Since the River of Souls is the bloodstream of Creation and Rovagug is the Enemy of all the gods, I can't think of a logical or even a mystical reason that would include the Destroyer in the divine deal. Same goes for the Outer Gods, why give them a single soul? They ARE, after all, the anti-thesis of the Divine; also I'm pretty sure they've got a way to collect their due, some sort of doorway to or from eternity perhaps? 😁
P.S. Even after a voyage of more than a thousand miles and showing signs of it, I can say that you sir were absolutely, positively, RIGHT about those apples! It made me wonder just how great it would be to take one from those directly off one of your pacific northwest trees and eat it right there and then. 🤤
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi there James,
It finally happened, after more than 15 years I've started a new campaign as a GM! Which brings me to you for an answer to this question:
What happens to a follower of The Rough Beast when brought before Pharasma?
Neutral or not I have a hard time believing that she would send souls to him or to the Outer Gods for that matter. Since the River of Souls is the bloodstream of Creation and Rovagug is the Enemy of all the gods, I can't think of a logical or even a mystical reason that would include the Destroyer in the divine deal. Same goes for the Outer Gods, why give them a single soul? They ARE, after all, the anti-thesis of the Divine; also I'm pretty sure they've got a way to collect their due, some sort of doorway to or from eternity perhaps?
P.S. Even after a voyage of more than a thousand miles and showing signs of it, I can say that you sir were absolutely, positively, RIGHT about those apples! It made me wonder just how great it would be to take one from those directly off one of your pacific northwest trees and eat it right there and then.
There's no "vengeance" or petty punishments to any creature's soul when they're judged. That's a huge part of how Pharasma plays out her neutral alignment, and is in fact a defining point in why that's the ONLY alignment a goddess like her could be and still do what she does.
In the specific case of a worshiper of Rovagug dying and going on to be judged, they're judged as anyone else, and will be sent on to the Dead Vault for punishment/reward.
Glad you enjoyed the apples! Eating one off a tree is pretty awesome, that's for sure.
|
Creative Director
|
Huh. Is info about Inteper Isle/Kellistron/Golden Disciples and Isle of Terror new to Druma campaign setting book or was that mentioned in earlier sources too? :O That was cool to learn(that Isle of Terror used to be home to more altruistic off-shoot of Kalistocrate religion xD)
I wasn't that involved in the creation of that book, but since I don't recognize several of those proper nouns I'm assuming that they were invented for that book. Druma got VERY little attention in our products until that point, after all.
|
Huh. Is info about Inteper Isle/Kellistron/Golden Disciples and Isle of Terror new to Druma campaign setting book or was that mentioned in earlier sources too? :O That was cool to learn(that Isle of Terror used to be home to more altruistic off-shoot of Kalistocrate religion xD)I wasn't that involved in the creation of that book, but since I don't recognize several of those proper nouns I'm assuming that they were invented for that book. Druma got VERY little attention in our products until that point, after all.
Ah, checked city of the golden death module and found this
"The Pathfinder Chronicles state that the City of Golden Death was once a thriving metropolis called Kestrillon, a shining beacon of magical research. Tar-Baphon himself led an army onto the island, conquered the city, and renamed the city Xin-Grafar after the Thassilonian style. He stored his wealth there, protecting it with a nefarious trap."
I can't find any mention of Inteper Isle or Golden Solidarity though so seems like Druma book was expanding on origin of name Kestrillon :O Are there other books I could read for further research on Isle of Terror lore?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Huh. Is info about Inteper Isle/Kellistron/Golden Disciples and Isle of Terror new to Druma campaign setting book or was that mentioned in earlier sources too? :O That was cool to learn(that Isle of Terror used to be home to more altruistic off-shoot of Kalistocrate religion xD)I wasn't that involved in the creation of that book, but since I don't recognize several of those proper nouns I'm assuming that they were invented for that book. Druma got VERY little attention in our products until that point, after all.Ah, checked city of the golden death module and found this
"The Pathfinder Chronicles state that the City of Golden Death was once a thriving metropolis called Kestrillon, a shining beacon of magical research. Tar-Baphon himself led an army onto the island, conquered the city, and renamed the city Xin-Grafar after the Thassilonian style. He stored his wealth there, protecting it with a nefarious trap."
I can't find any mention of Inteper Isle or Golden Solidarity though so seems like Druma book was expanding on origin of name Kestrillon :O Are there other books I could read for further research on Isle of Terror lore?
The City of Golden Death is mostly retconned; it was a mistake, I feel, to set a 5th level adventure at a site that should have been set aside for 20th level adventures. Furthermore, tying it so much to Thassilon is a bit much; it weakens the lore of Tar-Baphon and the Isle of Terror and complicates the lore of Thassilon in ways that aren't great for Thassilon stories. This is a good example of a module whose creation and publication happened when we were too overburdened with other projects and weren't able to give the adventure its proper creative direction (in fact, it had none as far as I recall).
Where information we published since then contradicts what we published in City of Golden Death, assume the newer information is correct.
We'll be doing a lot more with the Isle of Terror at some point in the future, I suspect, as we've been setting up Tar-Baphon as a big bad of the setting more and more. When we do, it'll replace the errors we made in doing a low level adventure set on one of the most dangerous locations in all of Avistan.
In any event, my strong preference is that the contents of "City of Golden Death" are mostly set aside and out of canon, alongside of Dragonfall (another module that didn't mesh with Golarion lore).
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wouldn't this be Lawful Neutral, since she is dedicated to doing these judgements in a consistent wau without exception?
Basically, it seems like she has a set of rules she follows in making hee judgements and doesn't break them, even if they aren't put into words. That is a defining characteristic of lawful behavior. So how can she be this lawful without being lawful alignment?
I don't see how it could be, since lawful neutral is lawful. A lawful neutral deity would be more prone to lash out against chaotic ones, and not be impartial.
Pharasma isn't about upholding laws. She's about being impartial in all things, law included. Her judgements aren't based on an existing list of judgments, but are tailored each and every time for each and every soul. A soul is judged against itself and its destiny and its own existence, not against something external to that.
|
|
Huh. Is info about Inteper Isle/Kellistron/Golden Disciples and Isle of Terror new to Druma campaign setting book or was that mentioned in earlier sources too? :O That was cool to learn(that Isle of Terror used to be home to more altruistic off-shoot of Kalistocrate religion xD)I wasn't that involved in the creation of that book, but since I don't recognize several of those proper nouns I'm assuming that they were invented for that book. Druma got VERY little attention in our products until that point, after all.Ah, checked city of the golden death module and found this
"The Pathfinder Chronicles state that the City of Golden Death was once a thriving metropolis called Kestrillon, a shining beacon of magical research. Tar-Baphon himself led an army onto the island, conquered the city, and renamed the city Xin-Grafar after the Thassilonian style. He stored his wealth there, protecting it with a nefarious trap."
I can't find any mention of Inteper Isle or Golden Solidarity though so seems like Druma book was expanding on origin of name Kestrillon :O Are there other books I could read for further research on Isle of Terror lore?
The City of Golden Death is mostly retconned; it was a mistake, I feel, to set a 5th level adventure at a site that should have been set aside for 20th level adventures. Furthermore, tying it so much to Thassilon is a bit much; it weakens the lore of Tar-Baphon and the Isle of Terror and complicates the lore of Thassilon in ways that aren't great for Thassilon stories. This is a good example of a module whose creation and publication happened when we were too overburdened with other projects and weren't able to give the adventure its proper creative direction (in fact, it had none as far as I recall).
Where information we published since then contradicts what we published in City of Golden Death, assume the newer information is correct.
We'll be doing a lot more with the Isle...
Well Tar-Babhon was somewhat inspired by Thassilonian stuff(or at least Cenotaph), but yeah I did get feeling that Kestrillon module describes is different from one Druma book describes. Either way I'm happy if there is further flavor for Kestrillon/Golden Solidarity stuff in future whenever players get chance to return to Isle of Terror :D I much like having more flavorful reason for all the gold rather than just "Tar-Babhon had lot of gold and was bored"
On sidenote, if name Xin-Grafar has chance of getting retconned, what would be the new name? Back to its in universe original name of Kestrillon or just "City of Golden Death"?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well Tar-Babhon was somewhat inspired by Thassilonian stuff(or at least Cenotaph), but yeah I did get feeling that Kestrillon module describes is different from one Druma book describes. Either way I'm happy if there is further flavor for Kestrillon/Golden Solidarity stuff in future whenever players get chance to return to Isle of Terror :D I much like having more flavorful reason for all the gold rather than just "Tar-Babhon had lot of gold and was bored"
On sidenote, if name Xin-Grafar has chance of getting retconned, what would be the new name? Back to its in universe original name of Kestrillon or just "City of Golden Death"?
Tar-Baphon being inspired by Zutha was sort of a kludge that came about after it became apparent that in the early days of the game, my work on the Adventure Paths and Erik/Jason's work on the campaign setting, both of which happened simultaneously during those first several months without a LOT of back and forth between us because we didn't have the luxury (keep in mind at this time we were also finishing up our work on the magazines) ended up with some pretty strong parallel design elements between Zutha being the "first and greatest lich" and Tar-baphon being the "first and greatest lich." We managed to iron those things out before much of it got into print, but it made sense, thematically, that the first of the two (Zutha) should somehow inform the second (Tar-Baphon).
As for the new name... dunno yet, but it wouldn't use the "Xin-" element. Easiest solution is to just all it Grafar, but another solution would be to scrub the idea of a "City of Golden Death" entirely and do something else on the isle. There's not much more I can say about the Isle at this point, though, but keep an eye on our stuff as we continue to publish more.
|
Creative Director
|
I noticed that in the 1st edition books for Pathfinder, the Golarian calendar was stated to have a leap year every 8 years, but in the 2nd edition Lost Omens World Guide, Golarian is said to have a leap year every 4 years.
Is this an intentional change?
Yes. The 8 year thing was an error.
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I don't see how it could be, since lawful neutral is lawful. A lawful neutral deity would be more prone to lash out against chaotic ones, and not be impartial.Pharasma isn't about upholding laws. She's about being impartial in all things, law included. Her judgements aren't based on an existing list of judgments, but are tailored each and every time for each and every soul. A soul is judged against itself and its destiny and its own existence, not against something external to that.
You're contradicting yourself, and also the book's concept of lawful. Lawful has nothing to do with following laws, and lashing out at perceived enemies is a chaotic thing, not a lawful thing. Alignment isn't teams, it is perspective.
So, why do you think Lawful would lash out at Chaotic?
More interestingly, why would you think lawful would inherently follow legalities? Is because the name ?
Because lawful and chaotic are opposed forces.
I'm not really interested in nor do I have the energy to get into an internet alignment debate, in any event.
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Here's a deep question, very unrelated question.
Communicating with people is complicated. Yet many aspects are instinctual and so subtle that most aren't consciously aware of these aspects. I am broken in this regard. From my perspective, I am metaphorically blind. You can describe sight to a blind person as being able to perceive things at a distance without actually touching them, a bit like sound but quiet. But you can't really convey color. A blind person can understand that you might perceive a balloon at a distance, but how can you convey to a blind person that one balloon is "yellow" and another is "green?" How do you make a blind person understand that the "yellow" balloon will be insulting and make people angry, while the "green" balloon will make them happy?
I feel like a blind person when it comes to social interaction. I can "touch" the balloons and know they are balloons, but knowing which one is going to make people angry, vs make them happy is something I can mot perceive. Some people tell me "you just have to learn," but you can't learn what can't perceive. A blind person will never understand color, and they can't learn to perceive color.
I make people hate me, without being able to see why they hate me. I'm very close to losing the only two people who care about me, and I have no one else. I don't understand what makes them angry. They don't believe it is possible for me to not understand. What can I do about this?
Communication is absolutely complicated, and I've gone much of my life having troubles with that myself in certain topics/areas. I can't provide you an answer beyond that, alas, but self-recognition about limitations is an important step. My only suggestion is perhaps to seek help from a therapist or a support group, even as I've not followed that advice for myself for my own issues. I hope you find your way through this, and I'm sorry I can't be of better help, and if anyone reading this DOES have helpful advice I hope they reach out to you to aid you.
In a high tech campaign, would you allow for "raw" skills (ie only skills without need for feats) to craft technology items? What about magic items?
I ask this question because SF eliminates all crafting feats but only because of the UPB tech. What if your game world has not developed this tech?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In a high tech campaign, would you allow for "raw" skills (ie only skills without need for feats) to craft technology items? What about magic items?
I ask this question because SF eliminates all crafting feats but only because of the UPB tech. What if your game world has not developed this tech?
I'd introduce a few new skills to support technology in a campaign. At the very minimum, a "Science" skill to stand in for how folks can investigate techological stuff (and to cover everything from physics to astronomy to chemistry and so on). I'd also be tempted to throw in a "Computers" skill if that was a big part of the setting, and a "Pilot" skill as well for driving vehicles.
I'd keep Crafting as is to cover the building of technological items though.
I'm not the person to talk to in order to get answers for Starfinder. That said, how one handles currency and wealth in a sci-fi game that's not a post-apocalyptic setting is tricky, since it doesn't make sense for people to hoard coins or bills, and things like 3D printers, teleporters, automation, and the like shift the way the world works.
In a science fiction setting without UPB type tech, you'd need to come up with something else to model that sort of thing, and would have to balance it toward ease of use (the UPB route) or something increasingly complicated that runs the real risk of being so fiddly that no one ever uses it. What you choose should be reflected by what feels right for the theme of the game, and as such there's no way to give a single answer.
I also try to avoid doing design/creative work in this thread, so I'm not going to start building up actual game content. That's something better suited to the various homebrew or GM discussion threads here, and they're topics I tend to stay out of since I need to keep forum posting and my actual job as a creative director and developer somewhat separate. If only for my own mental state of being.
ALL THAT SAID: To bring it back to your original question, I see powerful tech items serving the exact same role in an RPG as do magic items; they're fun toys/tools/devices/weapons/protections you use to make your character more effective. As such, the method used to craft magic items should be akin to those used to craft equally potent tech items. That's the approach I took with the 1st edition Technology Guide; all of the tech items in there were built using the same rules and guidelines you use in 1st edition to create and price and balance magic items, and they had their own crafting feats to go along with it.
If Drow are to become playable ancestries, will it be in the form of an elven heritage, or as a separate ancestry? Perhaps Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin could all be heritages released in a Darklands setting book, or would you rather see them done as their own ancestries?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
If Drow are to become playable ancestries, will it be in the form of an elven heritage, or as a separate ancestry? Perhaps Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin could all be heritages released in a Darklands setting book, or would you rather see them done as their own ancestries?
If it were up to me I'd present them as a Rare heritage that's well-supported with its own ancestry feats.
In a high tech campaign, would you allow for "raw" skills (ie only skills without need for feats) to craft technology items? What about magic items?
I ask this question because SF eliminates all crafting feats but only because of the UPB tech. What if your game world has not developed this tech?
I'd introduce a few new skills to support technology in a campaign. At the very minimum, a "Science" skill to stand in for how folks can investigate techological stuff (and to cover everything from physics to astronomy to chemistry and so on). I'd also be tempted to throw in a "Computers" skill if that was a big part of the setting, and a "Pilot" skill as well for driving vehicles.
I'd keep Crafting as is to cover the building of technological items though.
I'm not the person to talk to in order to get answers for Starfinder. That said, how one handles currency and wealth in a sci-fi game that's not a post-apocalyptic setting is tricky, since it doesn't make sense for people to hoard coins or bills, and things like 3D printers, teleporters, automation, and the like shift the way the world works.
In a science fiction setting without UPB type tech, you'd need to come up with something else to model that sort of thing, and would have to balance it toward ease of use (the UPB route) or something increasingly complicated that runs the real risk of being so fiddly that no one ever uses it. What you choose should be reflected by what feels right for the theme of the game, and as such there's no way to give a single answer.
I also try to avoid doing design/creative work in this thread, so I'm not going to start building up actual game content. That's something better suited to the various homebrew or GM discussion threads here, and they're topics I tend to stay out of since I need to keep forum posting and my actual job as a creative director and developer somewhat separate. If only for my own mental state of being.
ALL THAT SAID: To bring it back to your original question, I...
But the whole point of tech is that we KNOW it can be mass-made in a way that magic is kind of nebulous about. In such a sense, it doesn't make much sense to lock it behind a feat.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
But the whole point of tech is that we KNOW it can be mass-made in a way that magic is kind of nebulous about. In such a sense, it doesn't make much sense to lock it behind a feat.
This thread is for me to answer questions, not to argue about my answers. Please limit your posts here to questions for me. If an answer I give needs clarification, please ask for clarification. If an answer I give doesn't actually answer what you're asking, please say so and re-ask your question in a clearer way.
Looking at your reply and drawing from it an implied question... if I asked you to build me an iPhone from scratch, could you do it? Or would you need to learn how to do it first, and to secure other elements and components. Learning how to build something in the real world, be it the object in question or an object designed to build another object requires time spent studying, learning, and researching.
Pathfinder quantifies that time not by making your character play out years of classes in college or years of apprenticeship to a teacher, but by asking you to spend a feat to symbolize that time spent learning how to do that thing.
But the whole point of tech is that we KNOW it can be mass-made in a way that magic is kind of nebulous about. In such a sense, it doesn't make much sense to lock it behind a feat.This thread is for me to answer questions, not to argue about my answers. Please limit your posts here to questions for me. If an answer I give needs clarification, please ask for clarification. If an answer I give doesn't actually answer what you're asking, please say so and re-ask your question in a clearer way.
Looking at your reply and drawing from it an implied question... if I asked you to build me an iPhone from scratch, could you do it? Or would you need to learn how to do it first, and to secure other elements and components. Learning how to build something in the real world, be it the object in question or an object designed to build another object requires time spent studying, learning, and researching.
Pathfinder quantifies that time not by making your character play out years of classes in college or years of apprenticeship to a teacher, but by asking you to spend a feat to symbolize that time spent learning how to do that thing.
Ok, here's a question: wouldn't me spending the skill points to get ranks in a skill be symbolic of the "time spent studying, learning, and researching" it as well? I mean, you don't have a blacksmith take an item creation feat to do blacksmithing. And electronics is basically the blacksmithing of the future.
In essence, what divides the line between skill and feat?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ok, here's a question: wouldn't me spending the skill points to get ranks in a skill be symbolic of the "time spent studying, learning, and researching" it as well? I mean, you don't have a blacksmith take an item creation feat to do blacksmithing. And electronics is basically the blacksmithing of the future.
In essence, what divides the line between skill and feat?
Skills are limited categories that generally don't get increased in an edition; the ones we put at the start of a game are pretty much the ones we will have all the way through. We don't add new skills to the system as we go. Skills give you new die roles to make, but don't allow you to do anything and everything right off the bat.
Feats are kinda the opposite there; we can make new feats all the time. And using feats to enhance skills is a great way to allow for greater customization or to unlock things that not everyone should be able to do. Feats generally don't give you new die rolls to make, but enhance the ones you already have by granting bonuses or new options.
We don't want just anyone to be able to build magic items (or tech for that matter), so feats represent an extra step you have to go through. If you want to think of them representing real world methods of learning (which is awkward, since Pathfinder is a game that simplifies reality to a HUGE extent), then skills would represent a category while a feat would represent a specialty, I suppose.
In 2nd edition, this philosophy is even more elegant and obvious.
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.
To clarify on a point you raised on duplicating tech with magic, I though you said that it would be extremely difficult to replicate tech with magic, to the point where making a battery needs wish. Yet in this post you state that 'you can build the exact same thing as an iPhone with magic."
Could you please clarify your feelings on this point?
Ok, here's a question: wouldn't me spending the skill points to get ranks in a skill be symbolic of the "time spent studying, learning, and researching" it as well? I mean, you don't have a blacksmith take an item creation feat to do blacksmithing. And electronics is basically the blacksmithing of the future.
In essence, what divides the line between skill and feat?
Skills are limited categories that generally don't get increased in an edition; the ones we put at the start of a game are pretty much the ones we will have all the way through. We don't add new skills to the system as we go. Skills give you new die roles to make, but don't allow you to do anything and everything right off the bat.
Feats are kinda the opposite there; we can make new feats all the time. And using feats to enhance skills is a great way to allow for greater customization or to unlock things that not everyone should be able to do. Feats generally don't give you new die rolls to make, but enhance the ones you already have by granting bonuses or new options.
We don't want just anyone to be able to build magic items (or tech for that matter), so feats represent an extra step you have to go through. If you want to think of them representing real world methods of learning (which is awkward, since Pathfinder is a game that simplifies reality to a HUGE extent), then skills would represent a category while a feat would represent a specialty, I suppose.
In 2nd edition, this philosophy is even more elegant and obvious.
I still feel that this is awkward, where you have to be a certain "level" to craft something or qualify to craft something
For instance, how would you quantify the "level" of the first Ford Motorcars plant? What is the "item level" of a Ford Model T? If it is above level 1, how did you find that many 3rd level/5th level workers to make it?
Let me see if I can phrase this well enough to be understood...
I feel like there's a continuum of how you could interpret the relationship between RPG rules and the world/setting of the RPG, with one end of it being "the RPG rules define the 'laws of physics' of the world' and the other end of it being "the RPG rules only really apply to how the players interact with the world, while the world itself works more on narrative fiat". Where on this spectrum do you see yourself?