Creative Director
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Hey James,
just one question this time. I'll ask a second and a third one later (feels chaotic).
Are genies outsiders in a sense that a mortal soul after death can turn into one?
Like a worshipper of Lysianassa sent to the Plane of Water and instead of reincarnating as a water elemental it is "rewarded" to become a marid.
First of all... "outsider" as a game term is not part of 2nd edition. I wish we had kept it as a term, or come up with a replacement, but we don't have a term for "all creatures from planes other than the Material Plane" anymore. (In part because that category of monster was so overwhelmingly everywhere, since we had to use it every time we did something from somewhere other than the material plane, that it sort of ended up being an "insider" because it was the most common monster type, which clashed against the whole point of the concept.)
That said, yes, genies are that. A mortal who worships Lysianassa and is sent to the Plane of Water becomes a petitioner on that plane, and in time that petitioner might be transformed into a marid.
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How is the alignment of a nation defined? For example, why Rahadoum is Lawful Neutral but Andoran is Neutral Good? Bonus question: Why Qadira, a nation with Sarenrae as patron, is only Neutral?
It's defined in an ad-hoc way. Basically, in the case of the Inner Sea, I decided based on my own gut feeling what those alignments should be.
When you apply an alignment to a nation, it's not much more than a two-letter way to give a lot of basic information about the region. A nation's alignment is also not so much the "most common" alignment of a region, but the alignment of the people in positions of power and the alignment of that nation's most "patriotic" citizens.
That's why, for example, Cheliax is lawful evil, even though the bulk of its citizens are not lawful evil.
For Rahadoum, I chose lawful neutral for two reasons: Lawful, because they have a very structured society based on a specific set of rules, and neutral, because that represents the freedom of choice to pursue any sort of morality. I also chose lawful neutral because that set them up as not an obvious "enemy" nation, but also prevented them from being something Paizo was trying to say "this is good behavior." Because suppressing and imprisoning and being awful to any group of people for any reason is not good guy behavior. I almost went with lawful evil, in fact, because of the oppression of individual choice, but in the end lawful neutral worked better at making the nation into something that's more complicated in play.
Andoran is neutral good becasue they do a fair bit of rebellion and are more independent than other nations but still have a very organized government (neutral), and good because they focus so much of their nation's resources on fighting the evils of slavery, diabolism, and the like.
Qadira is neutral because it's a nation that's focused mostly on making money and expanding its own power. The fact that Sarenrae is the primary religion there is reflected in the neutral part, but the fact that Sarenrae is not a "state religion" for Qadira is why the nation isn't also neutral good. (I personally think that this was one of our biggest errors in the early days—if we wanted Qadira to be a more focused on power and mercantilism and expansion, we should NOT have made Sarenrae so important to that nation; the fact that we did ended up with us publishing my least favorite part of Golarion, to be honest—the whole Cult of the Dawnflower stuff. Gross.)
Hey James,
just one question this time. I'll ask a second and a third one later (feels chaotic).
Are genies outsiders in a sense that a mortal soul after death can turn into one?
Like a worshipper of Lysianassa sent to the Plane of Water and instead of reincarnating as a water elemental it is "rewarded" to become a marid.First of all... "outsider" as a game term is not part of 2nd edition. I wish we had kept it as a term, or come up with a replacement, but we don't have a term for "all creatures from planes other than the Material Plane" anymore. (In part because that category of monster was so overwhelmingly everywhere, since we had to use it every time we did something from somewhere other than the material plane, that it sort of ended up being an "insider" because it was the most common monster type, which clashed against the whole point of the concept.)
That said, yes, genies are that. A mortal who worships Lysianassa and is sent to the Plane of Water becomes a petitioner on that plane, and in time that petitioner might be transformed into a marid.
Thanks for the clarification and the answer, I'm really happy about the latter (always thought marids are only born to genie parents)!
This brings me to the next one (as proposed): can a deity send a follower to another plane of existence and also turn it into another kind of "creature" than it's usual to the specific deity?
Let's look at two examples: Dispater is a lawful evil archdevil, but also allows lawful neutral souls to worship him. So, you said before, that Erecura sends the goodly souls of her flock to other planes. Can Dispater do it too, and as an evil divinity, will he do such a thing? Like allow these souls to be reincarnated in Axis as aeons? I'm just curious, because Dispater specifically seems to be that kind of evil guy, who plays a long game, and bolsters his resources on another planes of existence apart from the infernal hierarchy.
Another example in line with my first question: sticking to Lysianassa, can she turn a worshiper into a nereid? She is not a fey creature, and only shares the water trait with said follower.
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Part of that realization might require her escaping the toxic culture of Rahadoum first, though.
I've noticed you kinda have it in for that nation (you stated in the Paizocon chat you wanted to "blow it up" like what happened with Lastwall), which has unfortunate implications since it's the only one that's openly atheistic. Especially in a type of setting where they haven't been historically treated very well. As an example, in D&D 2e all atheists got sucked into Asmodeus's body no matter what. When I asked the author he he just did it for horror. Certainly real-world horror, to be sure. Even in Pathfinder, I recall an earlier supplement stating that atheists were buried alive in the afterlife.
I don't go for arresting theists either, and not just because I'm dating one, or that I'd be a casual Arshean in Golarion. And while I don't consider Sarenrae evil I do think Kassi has a point; gods do tend to be negligent. (Also, angels in literature tend to have violent tempers. Even Arshea, to an extent, given the vengeful reason for their favored weapon. Maybe it's a biological thing?)
To phrase this all in the form of a question, how do we reconcile all this?
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This brings me to the next one (as proposed): can a deity send a follower to another plane of existence and also turn it into another kind of "creature" than it's usual to the specific deity?
The only thing keeping a deity from doing something is the story the writer wants to tell. We deliberately don't quantify deities in rules as a result. So yes, a deity could do this.
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Part of that realization might require her escaping the toxic culture of Rahadoum first, though.I've noticed you kinda have it in for that nation (you stated in the Paizocon chat you wanted to "blow it up" like what happened with Lastwall), which has unfortunate implications since it's the only one that's openly atheistic. Especially in a type of setting where they haven't been historically treated very well. As an example, in D&D 2e all atheists got sucked into Asmodeus's body no matter what. When I asked the author he he just did it for horror. Certainly real-world horror, to be sure. Even in Pathfinder, I recall an earlier supplement stating that atheists were buried alive in the afterlife.
I don't go for arresting theists either, and not just because I'm dating one, or that I'd be a casual Arshean in Golarion. And while I don't consider Sarenrae evil I do think Kassi has a point; gods do tend to be negligent. (Also, angels in literature tend to have violent tempers. Even Arshea, to an extent, given the vengeful reason for their favored weapon. Maybe it's a biological thing?)
To phrase this all in the form of a question, how do we reconcile all this?
By having more atheistic characters, groups, and nations in the setting that aren't defined by their intolerance. We have a really wide range of religious groups in the setting ranging from intolerance to acceptance, but we don't have nearly as many for atheists.
As someone who is NOT an atheist, I cant help but to look at the way Rahadoum is set up as hostile, and want to push back against it. It's not that I'm hostile against atheists. It's that I'm hostile against oppressors and tyrants and bullies.
I don't think gods tend to be negligent any more than they tend to be supportive. The gods of Pathifnder are meant to be humanistic in a lot of ways, including having some of them be awful and some of them be supportive.
It's easy to focus on the awful and ignore the good in the world. Humanity does that all the time.
The fact that we as "intelligent" beings have such a long history of being unable to find entertainment in non-hostile stories is something we just all have to live with.
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I guess the 1st edition D&D kobold design that had them looking like scaly dogs was in my head more, so it was sort of a case of imagining what a tiny little yappy dog would sound like if it could talk.
That's how the Baldur's Gate video game depicted them. Upright scaly canines that growled and barked (while shooting arrows at you!).
Kingmaker being the 6-part adventure path that is the basis for the Pathfinder 1st Edition video game? Are there any plans for you to have a live play stream as well? I'd be interested in watching something like that :)
Bonus question -- is Payton still with Paizo? I loved his portrayal of Lorn Barnes...
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What exactly is it that designers, developers, and editors do in putting together a product? More generally, can you provide or point us to a general outline of the process of producing say an AP, from concept to publication? I'm not looking for an in-depth description; even so I realize answering may be more than you want to do here, so feel free to tell me to sod off. :-)
Is positive/negative energy visible, and if so what does it look like?
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Kingmaker being the 6-part adventure path that is the basis for the Pathfinder 1st Edition video game? Are there any plans for you to have a live play stream as well? I'd be interested in watching something like that :)
Bonus question -- is Payton still with Paizo? I loved his portrayal of Lorn Barnes...
No plans to do a live play of Kingmaker, And Payton left Paizo back at the start of the year.
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What exactly is it that designers, developers, and editors do in putting together a product? More generally, can you provide or point us to a general outline of the process of producing say an AP, from concept to publication? I'm not looking for an in-depth description; even so I realize answering may be more than you want to do here, so feel free to tell me to sod off. :-)
For an Adventure Path, the developer comes up with the plot, then once it's approved by management, the developer writes an extensive outline (these usually come in at around 20,000 words), then hires the authors for each part and works with the author until the text is done. The developer then reads, edits, revises, and often rewrites as needed to bring the text up to Paizo's publication standards, to make the rules work, to make the lore work, and to make it all fit with the other 6 parts. More often than not, at this point, the developer has to redraw some or all of the author's map turnovers, unfortunately. The developer then creates an art brief for the whole thing, and a map brief as well. The text is then handed over to edit for them to do the first edit pass. At this time, someone on the design team looks over any new player-facing rules or other complex rules elements to help fix any design gaps that may have slipped through the cracks during development. The words then go to Art and are laid out. Once the words are laid out, the developer goes BACK into the document to copy fit the words. This could mean cutting stuff if there's too many words for the book's page count, or it could mean adding new stuff if there's not enough words. Finaly, the laid out book goes back to Edit for them to do several more edit passes, and when they're done, the finished book is looked over one last time by the developer, a designer, an editor, the creative director, and the publisher. Once they all approve, the book is off to the printer. The last step is someone from art and the creative director look over the digital printer proofs as a last-minute check to ensure no printing errors. And then about 3 months later, barring unexpected customs issues or sunken cargo ships, the book is in our warehouse and on store shelves to be sold.
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Is positive/negative energy visible, and if so what does it look like?
I've always seen positive energy as if the area around it is suddenly super-saturated with color and brightness, and negative energy as looking like the negative image of whatever you see beyond it, but usually you can't actually see the energy, just its immediate effects.
Of course, it could also manifest as lightning or an aurora like radiance or glowing disks or whatever. All the forms that energy takes, these two can take.
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Not sure if you're the right one to ask... but normally (as in, if it wasn't for the pandemic), in terms of Paizo staff, who would go to the overseas conventions (i.e. PaizoCon Europe and South Pacific)? Planning to attend PaizoCon South Pacific next year, assuming it's safe to travel again.
In terms of the live play -- didn't have to be Kingmaker. Was just wondering if you had a stream.
Does Jason normally kill your character during office games? :)
Whoa, that's a lot! :-)
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What is the demonym of a person from Absalom? (And what would the pronunciation be, if necessary?)
Absalomian?
Absalomi?
Absalite?
....Kortosi? Kortosian?
As always, MANY Thanks in advance!
Dunno off the top of my head, but I suspect a book coming out later this year will nail that down.
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Not sure if you're the right one to ask... but normally (as in, if it wasn't for the pandemic), in terms of Paizo staff, who would go to the overseas conventions (i.e. PaizoCon Europe and South Pacific)? Planning to attend PaizoCon South Pacific next year, assuming it's safe to travel again.
In terms of the live play -- didn't have to be Kingmaker. Was just wondering if you had a stream.
Does Jason normally kill your character during office games? :)
Who goes to overseas conventions depends on the convention, who's busy, what the focus of our presence there is, and more.
No streams at this point, nor are any planned with my involvement.
Yes.
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Whoa, that's a lot! :-)
** spoiler omitted **
It is indeed a lot. Which is why we start working on an Adventure Path well over a hear in advance of it being published.
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Just curious -- what characters do you normally play? Any particular favorite (apart from Shensen) :)
Yes.
I prefer chaotic good or chaotic neutral flamboyent whimsical tricksy characters. Humans, elves, half-elves, and tieflings are my favorite ancestries. As for classes: bard, cleric, rogue, and swashbuckler.
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Do you have any advice on how to create good character names without using a name generator?
I've got:
Female Goblin Bard
Male Goblin Alchemist (brother of the Bard above)
Human ClericWhat names could you suggest for this bunch? :)
Read lots of genre fiction for starters. That'll start filling your brain up with various character names. Read lots of RPG adventures and lore books too, since those will do the same exact thing. Don't be afraid to draw from real world names too, and just mix and match a few characters here and there to adjust things. Or spell words backwards and then do the same so that they can be pronounced. And last but certainly not least, study the language and how words are put together so that you can build new names that follow the normal rules of language without looking like you mashed a keyboard.
And then just practice, practice, practice.
That's the method I used, and I still go to name generators all the time. I also keep a page of fun sounding names in my journal so that when I need a name fast, I can go there, pick one, and then mark it as used.
That said, I'll have to pass on naming the above characters. Not only because I have nothing to go on for their names but because it's always so much better to have a name you came up with yourself for your character.
Have you played Biomutant yet?
In 1E, if you're a human with 30ft movement speed and you perform a Bull Rush as a Standard Action and somehow defeat their CMB by 30, are you allowed to move with the target up to 30ft?
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In 1E, if you're a human with 30ft movement speed and you perform a Bull Rush as a Standard Action and somehow defeat their CMB by 30, are you allowed to move with the target up to 30ft?
Only if you have that much movement to keep up. Bull rush doesn't grant bonus movement.
...You can move with the target if you wish but you must have the available movement to do so...
In 1E, if you're a human with 30ft movement speed and you perform a Bull Rush as a Standard Action and somehow defeat their CMB by 30, are you allowed to move with the target up to 30ft?
Only if you have that much movement to keep up. Bull rush doesn't grant bonus movement.
...You can move with the target if you wish but you must have the available movement to do so...
Right, I agree Bull Rush doesn't grant bonus movement, but rather uses up your "available movement", so one more clarifying question if you don't mind: if you haven't used a Move Action or a 5ft step yet, your "available movement" would be considered 30ft for that Bull Rush as a Standard, or even 40ft for a Barbarian (CMB roll willing), if I understand that correctly?
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Right, I agree Bull Rush doesn't grant bonus movement, but rather uses up your "available movement", so one more clarifying question if you don't mind: if you haven't used a Move Action or a 5ft step yet, your "available movement" would be considered 30ft for that Bull Rush as a Standard, or even 40ft for a Barbarian (CMB roll willing), if I understand that correctly?
Whatever your speed is is what your available movement is.
Right, I agree Bull Rush doesn't grant bonus movement, but rather uses up your "available movement", so one more clarifying question if you don't mind: if you haven't used a Move Action or a 5ft step yet, your "available movement" would be considered 30ft for that Bull Rush as a Standard, or even 40ft for a Barbarian (CMB roll willing), if I understand that correctly?Whatever your speed is is what your available movement is.
Awesome, tyvm :)
Right, I agree Bull Rush doesn't grant bonus movement, but rather uses up your "available movement", so one more clarifying question if you don't mind: if you haven't used a Move Action or a 5ft step yet, your "available movement" would be considered 30ft for that Bull Rush as a Standard, or even 40ft for a Barbarian (CMB roll willing), if I understand that correctly?Whatever your speed is is what your available movement is.
Just for absolute clarity sake, since a debate in another thread over this topic has been going in endless circles.
Are you required to use you’re move action to move in order to follow during a bull rush? Or can you standard action bull rush, follow your target as part of the bull rush, and still use your move action for another purpose?
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Right, I agree Bull Rush doesn't grant bonus movement, but rather uses up your "available movement", so one more clarifying question if you don't mind: if you haven't used a Move Action or a 5ft step yet, your "available movement" would be considered 30ft for that Bull Rush as a Standard, or even 40ft for a Barbarian (CMB roll willing), if I understand that correctly?Whatever your speed is is what your available movement is.Just for absolute clarity sake, since a debate in another thread over this topic has been going in endless circles.
Are you required to use you’re move action to move in order to follow during a bull rush? Or can you standard action bull rush, follow your target as part of the bull rush, and still use your move action for another purpose?
So... if a debate has been going in endless circles, there's no way that me throwing in on that debate is gonna get any resolution. That's why I generally don't answer rules questions here, because regardless of my answer, some folks won't like it and/or will interpret rules different. The GM should be the final arbiter of how a rule works at their table, and in a case where it's an online argument, that sort of solution will never happen.
There's no such thing as "absolute clarity" as far as game rules are concerned in forum discussions, unfortunately. If you're looking for a solution for your table, use your own judgement, answers provided by myself or other Paizo staff, and answers and observations taken from whatever threads about the subject you're looking at.
I've already answered this question a few times, in other words. Answering it one more time worded slightly different won't make much of a difference, it seems.
But, for what it's worth: Bull Rush is a standard action or part of a charge. If you're doing it as part of a charge, your movement is part of that. If you're doing it as a standard action, then you can move with your target as part of that standard action, as long as you have the available movement to do so. A separate move aciton doesn't even enter the picture.
If your speed is 30 feet, you can move up to 30 feet to follow your bull rushed victim. Doesn't matter if you have or haven't already moved 30 feet with a separate move action, since bull rush ONLY uses the standard action or your charge action.
Further questions for further clarification on this will likely just result in me being frustrated and suggesting your table switch to 2nd edition, where the action economy is easier to use in play.
I hope this answer helps a few folks resolve the question, but I really don't think it'll resolve any existing debates.
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Hey James, sorry to bother you, but are you able to say whether the Timeless Body and Timeless Nature feats allow 14th-level druids and monks to no longer die of old age? The PF2 CRB doesn't go into details about what non-mechanical effects you do and don't get from the abilities; I just figured that's in part because PF2 doesn't have aging penalties and roll-d%-year-of-expiration tables to make you an exception to, and in part because copy-fitting to page space is a cruel mistress.
This cheap immortality would be so weird to me when my understanding of Lost Omens canon is that obviation of the natural life cycle requires sacrificing everything—in liches' case, hundreds of innocent lives and their own immortal souls; in the cases of the world's most powerful kings like Razmir, waging wars and desperately outbidding billions of gold for Thuvia's ludicriously expensive and coveted secret sun orchid elixir. Exclusively alchemists and wizards have the ability to spend their entire 20th=level capstone on immortality, but yeah that sounds simply impossible for a 14th level ability, considering the greater number of 14th-level druids and monks that have come and gone over the millennia of Golarion's history.
It outright stops the aging; that's what it pretty much says. At those levels, if you take those class feats, you won't die of old age. Doesn't save you from getting killed from violence or disease or being thrown into a volcano or anything else like that, and the longer you live, the more opportunities you'll have for that sort of accident or fate to happen, so even though you don't die of old age, you're gonna go at some point.
In any event, the impact of druids and monks who get that high level and decide to make those choices is hardly going to make a dent in sun orchid elixir sales. It's not "cheap immortality" at all, in other words, but "well earned and powerful immortality gained by becoming a legendary druid or a legendary monk." It's MEANT to be bad-ass, not meant to lessen the need for non-druid and non-monks to want to seek methods of immortality.
Have you played Biomutant yet?Nope. No real desire to, after seeing it get mediocre reviews.
It's actually a lot better than the reviews give it credit for. It's actually a lot of fun and can be surprisingly dark.
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It's actually a lot better than the reviews give it credit for. It's actually a lot of fun and can be surprisingly dark.Have you played Biomutant yet?Nope. No real desire to, after seeing it get mediocre reviews.
By "reviews" I include "watching game play and hearing feedback from a youtuber whose game opinions I trust." Also, I've got plenty of other games to play. Days Gone has been the main focus of my gaming lately, and if I ever get a PS5, I've had Demons' Souls sitting on my coffee table since Christmas.
In any event, let's keep posts to me here in the form of questions, please. ;-)
Hello James
Greetings from Argentina
First of all, I'd like to thank you for creating and cultivating a space like this.
I discovered Pathfinder not long ago, through the cRPG, and have been reading quite a bit about the setting, lore, etc. I like how inclusive
and diverse it is, how maturely it handles some topics, the messages it tries to convey, I love the First World, etc.
I've also been reading your answers for a while, and was pleasantly surprised while discovering the kind of person you are.
Now, regarding my question:
After finishing the cRPG, I decided to fluff the kingdom.
While reading about Milani, I thought she would be a good fit as a patron deity for it.
The kingdom tries to be more equal (economically speaking) than Andoran, and more lax on laws, but more stable politically without deviating from the CG
alignment (so less freedom in a sense, for example, ban on all evil religions, a ceiling for those who want to accumulate wealth/power).
For context, The Queen is CG, "married" Nyrissa (so 2 Queens). Harmony with nature is extremely important. Fey (good/neutral, are also citizens). Taxes are low, merchants only taxed on luxury goods. No nobility. You can't have a business if you don't live in the settlement, are limited to how many. People free to do as they see fit as long as they don't harm others, etc.
The reasons the Queen thinks Milani would be a good fit are:
1) If people believe in Milani's ideals, then they would call her out if she'd become more authoritarian and behaved in a way that would lead to
common people being opressed. They would also know their rights and rebel against officials and people who would try to abuse their power.
2) She thinks that crimes should be judged by the community. So each town would have their own sets of laws and ideas about acceptable and
unacceptable behaviour. She thinks that, when people gather to judge crimes, a cleric of Erastil and another one of Milani should be present,
to guide people and make sure communities don't devolve into something unfair or evil. So, while not themselves judges, they would have the right
to not let a judgement pass if it doesn't allign with their deities and kingdom ideals. She chose those deities because both care about communities, Good, but
at the same time are opposed on the law - chaos axis. So Erastil would protect the environment, teach people to care about nature and see behaviour
that disregards nature as bad/amoral, while Milani would understand the "chaotic" behaviour Erastil is against, and be a counterweight to some of
Erastil's values that would be "unfair" if imposed to the people (gender roles, for example).
3) Giving the church a safe space where it is strong would help to spread those ideals without the State being directly involved.
So, the question is: Would Milani's church accept these roles in a Kingdom? Receive funding to build temples, have responsibilities in guiding a community and a kingdom at peace, etc.
A priori I don't see why not, but maybe her domains/subdomains (Liberation, Revolution, Riot) would imply she would prefer another kind of government (more like anarchy/communism, as they are academically defined. I know in PF anarchy is violence and chaos :( ).
I also read, in one of your answers, that in your personal setting Milani fills a role that Cayden fills in the official setting. If you'd like to expand on this, I'd be thankful, as I really like Milani (and Desna btw) and I don't think there's enough material about her. In fact I wouldn't mind her role, in my headcannon, overlaping or replacing Cayden's.
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So, the question is: Would Milani's church accept these roles in a Kingdom? Receive funding to build temples, have responsibilities in guiding a community and a kingdom at peace, etc.
A priori I don't see why not, but maybe her domains/subdomains (Liberation, Revolution, Riot) would imply she would prefer another kind of government (more like anarchy/communism, as they are academically defined. I know in PF anarchy is violence and chaos :( ).
I also read, in one of your answers, that in your personal setting Milani fills a role that Cayden fills in the official setting. If you'd like to expand on this, I'd be thankful, as I really like Milani (and Desna btw) and I don't think there's enough material about her. In fact I wouldn't mind her role, in my headcannon, overlaping or replacing Cayden's.
While Milani is a goddess of uprisings, don't forget that's only a third of the story; she's also a goddess of devotion and hope. Her faith would absolutely accept roles in a kingdom that doesn't clash against freedom and equality and the like. She's as good as she is chaotic, and her faith won't constantly push for political discord when it's not needed.
And I misspoke when I compared her to Cayden Cailian; she's much more like Shelyn. In my setting, she's a bard deity, in other words; a patron of song and dance and art. She'll still fight back against injustice, but she's neutral good in my setting and so a bit less quick to start up crusades and more laid back.
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What happens when casting planar binding to call extraplanar who was meeting someone at that time? Especially others who were in meetings.
The conjured creature is yanked away from wherever it's at and put before the conjurer. It's rude.
For planar ally, when a deity chooses who goes, it's less rude because it's more voluntary. But planar binding is kind of the same as abduction.
Given the abstract concept of alignment damage it can be a bit hard to visualize for me personally, do you have an idea how it feels to be hit by good, evil, lawful or chaotic damage?
Why does Erastil send suicidal followers to hell? Isn't damning people to Avernus an act that's considered evil, especially if such acts can happen out of depression?
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Given the abstract concept of alignment damage it can be a bit hard to visualize for me personally, do you have an idea how it feels to be hit by good, evil, lawful or chaotic damage?
Good: Pain caused by guilt and shame for your evil deeds.
Evil: Pain caused by your body feeling as if it were being tortured.
Lawful: Pain caused by muscle cramps that prevent you from moving.
Chaotic: Pain caused by your body simply falling apart or transforming.
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I don't understand this. Do people find it difficult to dump the flavor and write their own?
I mean, sure, I can imagine that others might not find it as simple to do as me, maybe they might have to spend a minute or so making adjustments, but the idea that something can't be used because the flavor references a different settings is far beyond my comprehension.
Do professionals at paizo consider this an actual task requiring effort to change the flavor for homebrew settings?
Part of it is stubbornness. A gamer version of a Star Wars fan refusing to watch Star Trek, perhaps. There's also a bit of passive aggressiveness in there too; a gamer who enjoys a certain setting might complain about a company "wasting time" building stuff for other settings because they feel entitled to have that company produce content for their favored setting. Lack of imagination might be in there, or ignorance–both of which might make someone think that an adventure set in a different setting simply can't be adapted to their favorite one. And pride too—a LOT of GMs are so proud of their settings that the idea of allowing content from another setting into their game bothers them. Those are my guesses, at least. I've never looked at adventures this way, and have even adapted adventures from entire other systems into my campaigns. I don't see much of a difference there from taking inspiration from movies or books to create adventures, honestly.
Adapting any adventure to a homebrew setting is work, and the more different your setting is from the adventure, the more work that it becomes, but to me, that type of work—adapting other campaign setting material to your home brew—is a lot of fun, and it can end up creating brand new content that you never would have considered for your setting.
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Why does Erastil send suicidal followers to hell? Isn't damning people to Avernus an act that's considered evil, especially if such acts can happen out of depression?
He doesn't. None of the deities send souls anywhere. That's Pharasma's job, and is part of the soul judgment process she does. That's also why she's neutral; she doesn't favor one fate over the other, and judges each soul on their own merits against their own lies.
Pharasma is also capable of wisdom in her decisions. If a soul of an Erastil worshiper who commits suicide from depression stands before her... she'll weigh ALL factors of that soul's life before deciding. Suicide doesn't automatically mean you're "going to hell" in Pathfinder, and if we published something like that, it was a mistake that we should fix.
It's not uncommon for an individual author to let their own personal religious and philosophical beliefs color their writing. Part of a developer's job when we devlop an author's text is to ride the line between preserving the author's voice and changing what they wrote so that the published text represents Paizo's voice in presenting Golarion. (We didn't do a particularly great job moderating Paizo's voice for the deities around the time most of us were distracted by the overwhelming task of getting the RPG off the ground, for example, such as articles that appeared on deities in the Council of Thieves or Kingmaker Adventure Paths.) If we HAVE published something that says "If you worship Erastil and commit suicide, Erastil sends your soul to hell," then please let me know so I can make sure we don't make that mistake again—there's TWO mistakes there, in fact. You don't go to hell if you kill yourself, and Pharasma's the one that sends souls to their afterlife, not any other deity.
I just received my PDF of a certain book. Outside of this, are we likely to see Tchekuth again?
When someone dies, how does its soul find its way to the beginning of its journey on the river of souls?
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I just received my PDF of a certain book. Outside of this, are we likely to see Tchekuth again?
If I have anything to say about it, yes. He's one of the villains I've had in my homebrew for decades and haven't yet "sold" him off to an RPG company... this adventure seemed a good time for him to make that transition.
Also, cool that folks are finally able to check the adventure out, after it got stuck in customs or whatever it was for several months. I hope it doesn't get forgotten or missed in the overwhelming flood of product we've got coming out all at once!