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Favored Terrains (Ranger):
Underground (caves and dungeons)
Urban (buildings, streets, and sewers)Ruined Structures on the ground is Underground or Urban ?
A ruined structure is whatever terrain it's in. If the ruined structure is in a city then it's urban terrain. If it's in a cave, it's underground. If it's in the woods, it's Forest. Etc.
Ruined structures are in terrains; they're not terrains themselves.
Hi James，I know you are busy with the Kingmaker Project and might feel a little exhausted facing such a colossal undertaking, but please hold on a little longer. Many people like me are grateful to you for giving our favourite Adventure Path new life. Thank you!
What I want to know is whether Annamede Belavarah plays a more significant role in the new edition of Kingmaker? I love her performance in the CRPG and wonder if she can win a illustration for herself this time.(Okay I admit I just want to learn more about the Pitax’s first beauty~ •ᴗ• )
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What I want to know is whether Annamede Belavarah plays a more significant role in the new edition of Kingmaker? I love her performance in the CRPG and wonder if she can win a illustration for herself this time.(Okay I admit I just want to learn more about the Pitax’s first beauty~ •ᴗ• )
She absolutely does play a more significant role in the new edition of Kingmaker.
One thing that I do want to say, though, is that while we picked up a lot of ideas and plots and characters and the like from the video game, the way these things play out in the upcoming revision are different from the video game's presentation. In some cases, close to 99% different. What makes a fun video game experience doesn't always translate into a fun tabletop experience, after all, and some of the larger implications of events in Kingmaker need to change when they are part of an entire campaign setting rather than only enclosed in a single game that doesn't have to worry about how things that play out in that game might impact a living setting beyond the boundaries of the game itself.
The good news there is that, being an adaption rather than a literal translation, elements from the computer game that we ran with for the revised game will have new and potentially unexpected plot twists and developments for people who played the computer game. There's a lot of new stuff in the revised edition to surprise anyone who's familiar with Kingmaker in any of its previous incarnations, in other words.
Two questions about Northern Garund for you:
-What would you center a campaign set in Thuvia on? I'm struggling to think of ways to make it the star of the show.
-Why does Osirion revere the gods of Egypt, and not an original fantasy pantheon?
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Two questions about Northern Garund for you:
-What would you center a campaign set in Thuvia on? I'm struggling to think of ways to make it the star of the show.
-Why does Osirion revere the gods of Egypt, and not an original fantasy pantheon?
-Just off the top of my head, some sort of clash between the Sun Orchid Elixir and divs, with Ahriman being the big bad.
-Because some folks at Paizo really like those deities and pushed to include them as part of Osirion's history. Wasn't my choice, but neither was I opposed to it enough to push back against it. Including those deities is a way to appeal to gamers who are interested in that history, be it from real world or the fact that these deities also had a strong presence in the Forgotten Realms.
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Speaking of Wrin Sivinxi, I realized that I was not consistent in my pronunciation of her name to my players, bringing some confusion. How do you pronounce it? Having it coming from you might help me stay consistent. :P Thanks!
Wrin sounds like "rinse" but with the "se" lopped off.
Sivinxi is sih-VINKS-ee.
What's your favorite, Achtang, vanilla or pulp?
Also, Victorian, 20s or modern day?
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What's your favorite, Achtang, vanilla or pulp?
Also, Victorian, 20s or modern day?
I have no idea what you're asking in that first question.
As for the second, modern day.
OH WAIT. You're asking about Call of Cthulhu, yes? Not fruit ice creams or what era I'd prefer to live in? In that case:
Vanilla and 20s. Although modern day is a VERY close second there, since I do appreciate being able to run games where the baseline world itself is equally familiar to all players so the focus of what's weird stays to the actual weird, and not the fact that playing a game set 100 years in the past is itself a little weird.
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But if you’re playing a modern game you are playing in the 20s :3
What are some visual aesthetics you appreciate in certain fantasy settings, like how certain houses are built or whatnot.
HA, Fair enough. Although I've yet to actually play a game of CoC since the pandemic started, alas. ;(
As for visual aesthetics I appreciate? I like them to be true to the setting they're in, if that makes sense. The thing I appreciate the most is when a fantasy setting that doesn't include real-world religions avoids putting real-world religious symbols into that setting. Particularly when there's not crosses on gravestones or monasteries/cathedrals built in the shape of a cross. Those are two things that have crept into Golarion more often than I prefer, alas, but we've gotten pretty good about keeping crosses off of gravestones, at least.
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*nods*
What about foods?
Not a fan of including foods in settings that reference real world names. Things like "french fries" or "canadian bacon" or "american cheese" for example. Also not a fan of foods that feel anachronistic to a fantasy setting, like nachos, unless they're renamed something that's not anachronistic... but at the same time I get frustrated when settings make up new names for food and then provide no description of what the food is.
Something like "tickleberry pie" is fine since, while I don't know what a tickleberry is, I know what "tickle" and "berry" are. Something like "tlonkurd pie" is no good, unless the setting has established previously or simultaneously what the hell a tlonkurd is.
Something like "tickleberry pie" is fine since, while I don't know what a tickleberry is, I know what "tickle" and "berry" are. Something like "tlonkurd pie" is no good, unless the setting has established previously or simultaneously what the hell a tlonkurd is.
And now I desperatly want to taste some tickleberry pie.
And perhaps you just made a typo with tlonkurd and meant klonturd?
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Something like "tickleberry pie" is fine since, while I don't know what a tickleberry is, I know what "tickle" and "berry" are. Something like "tlonkurd pie" is no good, unless the setting has established previously or simultaneously what the hell a tlonkurd is.And now I desperatly want to taste some tickleberry pie.
And perhaps you just made a typo with tlonkurd and meant klonturd?
No typo at all. And implying that I suggested folks eat klonturd pies is scandalous! FOR SHAME!
Tickleberries taste like vanilla-infused dandlefruit, for what it's worth.
Can outsiders leave ghosts, or is that solely a mortal thing?
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Can outsiders leave ghosts, or is that solely a mortal thing?
Anything with a soul can leave a ghost behind. The fact that what we called outsiders in 1st edition have bodies and souls that are combined into one whole doesn't change the fact that they still have souls. It does make it less common for an outsider to leave behind a ghost or any other undead creature (as you can see in the past decade-plus of our adventures, which skew heavy toward undead from non-outsider creatures), but it doesn't make it impossible.
In fact, I specifically pushed for us to remove the connections ghosts have to the Ethereal Plane when we built the Pathfinder RPG so that not only can you have ghosts show up on planes that are far distant from the Ethereal, but in order to make it possible for demon ghosts or the like should we ever want to do something there.
Awesome, thanks! Are there any examples of such a ghost in print that you can recall?
What's your opinion on Trail of Cthulhu?
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What's your opinion on Trail of Cthulhu?
I've got a copy on my shelf in arm's reach to the left as I type this...
...but I've never played it, and some of the way it was marketed as "this is the PROPER way to build an investigative Lovecraftian RPG" felt a bit disingenuous and disrespectful. Left a sour taste in my mouth a bit, which I have to admit is in part why I've not gone out of my way to try the game out yet.
Hi James,
I find it interesting that there are such stark differences to Norgorber's faith (Skinshaw, Reaper of Reputation, etc etc).
Anyway, I was wondering if, due to these differences, internal disputes within the faith of Norgorber is more common than the in-fighting that occurs with other religions?
Actually, would Norgorber even care much if a follower of one aspect killed a follower of another?
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Hi James,
I find it interesting that there are such stark differences to Norgorber's faith (Skinshaw, Reaper of Reputation, etc etc).
Anyway, I was wondering if, due to these differences, internal disputes within the faith of Norgorber is more common than the in-fighting that occurs with other religions?
Actually, would Norgorber even care much if a follower of one aspect killed a follower of another?
Norgorber wouldn't care, since a follower who got themselves killed is just getting weeded out by their betters.
That said, there's not a lot of internal disputes in the faith.
Could you clarify the differences between ghosts and phantoms for me? I'm not quite getting what it is that makes one undead and the other not.
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Could you clarify the differences between ghosts and phantoms for me? I'm not quite getting what it is that makes one undead and the other not.
Ghosts form when a living creature dies in such emotional uproar and anguish and torment and frustration and etc. that their soul stays behind and becomes undead.
Phantoms are souls that have moved on but haven't been judged yet, but that have been coaxed back to serve as an ally.
Ghosts exist because they're alone. Phantoms exist because they're not.
Could you clarify the differences between ghosts and phantoms for me? I'm not quite getting what it is that makes one undead and the other not.Ghosts form when a living creature dies in such emotional uproar and anguish and torment and frustration and etc. that their soul stays behind and becomes undead.
Phantoms are souls that have moved on but haven't been judged yet, but that have been coaxed back to serve as an ally.
Ghosts exist because they're alone. Phantoms exist because they're not.
So it's the fact that they were coaxed back that protects them from being undead, or the lack of negative emotion, or both?
Is there an afterlife for outsiders who die in their plane of existence (e.g. demons killed or consumed by other demons in Abyss)?
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Is there an afterlife for outsiders who die in their plane of existence (e.g. demons killed or consumed by other demons in Abyss)?
Nope. They can still be brought back to life of course, or become undead, but barring those developments, dead outsiders eventually decay into quintessence that makes up the outer planes and is in turn eventually eroded back into the positive energy plane. But that process isn't one where consciousness of any type is in play.
I suppose that given time, being "recycled and reborn" would make mortal life on the Material Plane the afterlife of a demon or angel, although by that point the soul involved has been 100% taken apart and rebuilt and is a new thing.
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Is Nyarlathotep unique in that he has multiple worshippable aspects or can other deities also do that?
Nyarlathotep in 1E has Black Pharaoh, Faceless Sphinx and Haunter of the Dark.
in 2E he has Crawling Chaos and Haunter in the Dark.
It's unusual but not unique. Norgorber, for example, has four aspects.
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It's unusual but not unique. Norgorber, for example, has four aspects.Is Nyarlathotep unique in that he has multiple worshippable aspects or can other deities also do that?
Nyarlathotep in 1E has Black Pharaoh, Faceless Sphinx and Haunter of the Dark.
in 2E he has Crawling Chaos and Haunter in the Dark.
But Norgorber grants the same gifts regardless of what aspect you worship, whereas Nyarlathotep grants different domains and favored weapons.
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But Norgorber grants the same gifts regardless of what aspect you worship, whereas Nyarlathotep grants different domains and favored weapons.It's unusual but not unique. Norgorber, for example, has four aspects.Is Nyarlathotep unique in that he has multiple worshippable aspects or can other deities also do that?
Nyarlathotep in 1E has Black Pharaoh, Faceless Sphinx and Haunter of the Dark.
in 2E he has Crawling Chaos and Haunter in the Dark.
Remember to keep posts here to questions, please.
And the question wasn't "are there other deities who grant different domains, but are there deities who have multiple aspects."
As far as I know off the top of my head, Nyarlathotep's the only one who does that.
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Hi James I’m a huge fan of you and Paizo’s work and just decided to join the forums after reading them for a while. I’ve had something bugging me about pathfinder kingmaker lately and I’m curious if you know the answer to it. Sorry if it’s been asked before but now that the cult of the dawnflower has been retconned out does that change any of the companion backstories in pathfinder kingmaker I know that Kanerah and Kalikke and to a lesser extent Tristan all mention them at some point would that just be a canon difference between the games and the tabletop or is there potentially a new explanation in the kingmaker hardcover?
It doesn't change the backstories in the computer game, because I can't go in and code things and time travel.
But when I went in and developed the companions for the upcoming hardcover Kingmaker Companion Guide I made a fair number of adjustments to all of their backstories to mesh better with the setting as a whole, yes.
Just as Owlcat took some liberties and some creative choices with how they presented the world in their computer game, I've taken the same liberties and choices in adapting content from the computer game to print. Not everything that works for a computer game works for a tabletop game, after all, and I wasn't able to comb through the literally millions of words of dialogue and text in the computer game, so had to trust Owlcat to get it mostly right as far as canon is concerned. They did a GREAT job, but there are things that I would have done differently, and in creating the new 2E Kingmaker, I have done differently.
AKA: Just as players of the original Kingmaker found surprises and differences waiting them in the computer game, players of the computer game will find surprises and differences if they play or read the 2nd edition version of the Adventure Path.
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Thank you for the response I’m really excited to see your take on the companions I was especially partial to Harrim and Jaethal so it’ll be interesting to see how they were changed to fit the tabletop game better. Was there any companion you found particularly interesting?
Alas, both Harrim and Jaethal didn't get unlocked in the crowdfunding, so they aren't fully supported in the book. There's a little bit about them, and some ways that they can interact with the kingdom building and camping rules and have a few spells and stuff to share with the PCs if they befriend them, but the crowdfunding effort only unlocked full stats and support and side quests for: Amiri, Ekundayo, Jubilost, Linzi, Nok-Nok, Tristian, and Valerie.
In the computer game, I think Jaethal was my favorite.
As a GM, how long does it usually take for you to write a full-fledged Adventure Path for your private rpg sessions? Or you don't and you mostly improvise as the sessions go on?
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As a GM, how long does it usually take for you to write a full-fledged Adventure Path for your private rpg sessions? Or you don't and you mostly improvise as the sessions go on?
I don't write them out these days. I'll usually start with a big stack of maps and gather up a bunch of adventures and/or maps and generate an outline for potential storylines.
Do you happen to know if there are any novels or short stories that mention Milani and her freedom fighters?
As someone newer to the lore and a little clueless; would you mind filling me in on the Cult of the Dawnflower thing? I’ve seen it come up in a few recent conversations.
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As someone newer to the lore and a little clueless; would you mind filling me in on the Cult of the Dawnflower thing? I’ve seen it come up in a few recent conversations.
It's something that someone put into the setting that was completely inappropriate for a neutral good goddess of sun and redemption to be involved with, and worse, cast Saraenrae and her worshipers into a cliched, borderline-racist caricature of the "jihadist crusaders" who were fighting against the people of Taldor. The person who did this hasn't worked at Paizo in a long time, and our process for approvals is much tighter now, so not just anything gets published.
I wish it'd never been published, in fact, and with the edition change we've hopefully been able to leave it in the past.
As someone newer to the lore and a little clueless; would you mind filling me in on the Cult of the Dawnflower thing? I’ve seen it come up in a few recent conversations.It's something that someone put into the setting that was completely inappropriate for a neutral good goddess of sun and redemption to be involved with, and worse, cast Saraenrae and her worshipers into a cliched, borderline-racist caricature of the "jihadist crusaders" who were fighting against the people of Taldor. The person who did this hasn't worked at Paizo in a long time, and our process for approvals is much tighter now, so not just anything gets published.
I wish it'd never been published, in fact, and with the edition change we've hopefully been able to leave it in the past.
Thank you for the explanation!
In your years of playing and GMing, particularly the latter, how often have you seen players do something completely unexpected? How hard was it to handle? I assume less often and easier to handle now than in the early years, but is that assumption correct?
Sorry, three questions, but at least they're short. :-)
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In your years of playing and GMing, particularly the latter, how often have you seen players do something completely unexpected? How hard was it to handle? I assume less often and easier to handle now than in the early years, but is that assumption correct?
Sorry, three questions, but at least they're short. :-)
All the time. That's what players are good at. It's easier to handle these things today than when I started GMing decades ago, of course.
I'd say I see it happen once every 1d4+1 sessions, I suppose?
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- 1. Is Avigwyr Media Azata? I made Technology Azata before checking that.
- 2. Is there any official content that inspired by their Homebrew contents?
Click or tap question if you don't know what I meant.
Starfinder is a separate game, with a different creative director in charge of it. They both draw from the same common source of lore, but they take that lore in different directions.
When you make new content for your homebrew games, the great part of that is that YOU get to decide what's canon for your setting. You get to pick and choose what parts of published materials are part of your game, and what you make up. That sort of decision isn't one I'm comfortable making for you, nor should I be.
