Creative Director
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Do you have any GM horror stories to share? I just had the worst RP session ever. It was bad enough that I'm taking a break from active RPing to work on some homebrew stuff I had planned. I got burned out pretty bad by my players.
Eew... that's too bad.
I do have some GM horror stories. I don't want to go into too much detail (I believe I've posted them to this thread already, in fact), but one that comes quickly to mind was the game where one player character (a barbarian) mocked another player's character (a psionicist) so hard that the psionicist's player started crying and I had to cancel the session and work things out with the players. Lame.
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Will do. And if you see me not answer a question... chances are good it wasn't framed properly as a question...
James Jacobs IS Alex Trebek!
Seriously, could we all do a little Jeopardy! hum-a-long? Maybe in honor of the fact that JJ doesn't like musicals?!
How can you not like Rocky Horror? Singin in the Rain? Yentl? Ok, maybe not that last one...
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Creative Director
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Have you played any games with the Heroes & Monsters set yet? If so, how much more awesome was the game because of their presence? And was the black dragon involved?
I have! The ogre showed up in a game last Thursday, for example. And I've seen all the first four iconics in play as minis as well. It's pretty nifty!
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Creative Director
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** spoiler omitted **And a follow-up question: Any chance we'll see updates for one or more of the prestige classes from 3.5 Pathfinder sources, such as the Brightness Seeker in Elves of Golarion, or the Chevalier from the Cayden Cailean deity-article, anytime soon?
Neither of those anytime soon, but others? Yup!
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Creative Director
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Ugh. Dervish Dancer + Fighter = full move + full attack every round. So much for having to make choices. I appreciate the flavor of the class, but MAN is it the epitome of high-power 3.5e classes. Well, not counting some of the druid ones.
Turns out, being a powerful class is pretty compelling. That said, it IS the flavor of the class that I like. In fact, the sheer amount of attacks you make is trouble not only from the game balance standpoint, but from game PLAY. You take a LONG time on your turns, which is robbing from your fellow players' game play time in the session, which sucks.
Still... I like the classs.
I think what Golden-Esque means is "compared to the hundreds of archetypes, prestige classes are relatively unsupported."
It would be nice to see the balance tip just a little bit the other way. Archetypes are cool for character creation. For character concept work after initial creation, not so much.
What I'd like to see are more prestige classes that are focused like the Golarion-specific ones are, but that are not tied so intimately to Golarion.
I've seen plenty of archetypes :)
Folks, overall (not just at Paizo), were Fed Up with prestige classes. The bloat of prestige classes in 3rd edition was significant—at first, people loved them, so WotC went over the top producing more and more and more and eventually, people got tired of them. As a result, we deliberately avoided doing many prestige classes with Pathfinder, and folks have mostly applauded that decision. Now, though, I see the same thing happening with archetypes, and folks are now asking for prestige classes. Which is fun.
They're really different methods of achieving the same thing—specific character specialization. I actually prefer the prestige class method of character specialization, since prestige classes are more flexible than archetypes, but both are interesting, and going forward you'll see us produce more of both—but for the most part NOT in the hardcover rulebook lines quite as much. The Player's Companions and the Campaign Setting line and the Adventure Path support articles are where they'll be showing up more often in the future... but not a lot. We'll see!
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Creative Director
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Now,
in your interpretation of the rules, does combat expertise (and fighting defensively in general) qualify as an ability that "requires patience or concentration"? or not?In other words can it be used while in rage?
thank you.
Combat Expertise can be used while raging. In fact, that's a really good option, since your AC is so low while raging, it seems.
Unless your GM rules otherwise, of course.
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Creative Director
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In Bestiary 2 it mentions that when the Titans grew jealous of the adulation the gods received from mortals, they began a crusade to destroy mortal life. Is this true for Golarion as well?
Yes.
In 99.99994% of cases, what we write about monsters in a hardcover Bestiary applies to the monsters in Golarion, because that's where we'll be using our own rules. So we want the flavor text in the Bestiaries to match what's going on in Golarion. The fact that we keep our rulebooks world-neutral is actually INCREDIBLY frustrating to me whenever it comes time to generate flavor text... I can understand the reasons why we do the rulebooks world-neutral, of course, but it still frustrates me.
But yeah. In this case, the flavor text for titans in Bestiary 2 is 100% accurate for Golarion.
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Creative Director
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Oh and as for a question, do you have any suggestions on how to deal with a type of player that makes a character as a set of numbers even when you had them, for example, the Carrion Crown Player's Guide? They find the campaign trait that will give them the best mechanic benefit and take that. Then, when in the campaign they don't care what Lorrimar wants... They want to do their own thing. Then, when you can't on the fly modify the adventure because they decided it'd be more fun go to the Alkenstar instead of Lepistadt, either Pathfinder writes bad adventures, or else I am a bad GM? Pretty much at this point I'm not playing with him anymore, but... I was wondering what you'd think. Ever had a player like that?
Depends how much of a friend that player is in real life. If the player's a good friend, then I would just take my lumps and hope that there's other players in the group who ARE interested in the game setting and plot, and I would hope that "Mr. Numbers" is patient while parts of the game that revolve more around story unfold.
If, on the other hand, the player's being willfully obtuse and trying to play a character that deliberately doesn't fit well into the AP, I'd do one of the following:
1) Talk with the group about changing APs to one that EVERYONE wants to play.
2) Ask the obtuse player to grow up and play along—"Everyone else wants to play Carrion Crown, so why are you trying to ruin that experience for them?"
Hopefully, I'd know that type of player's personality before hand, and if I wanted to run a game where he'd be antagonistic, I just wouldn't invite him in the first place.
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Creative Director
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James,
I'm looking to make a character who makes a conscious decision to fight when the need arises; i.e., once he decides that he must fight, he "turns on the mojo" and thrashes the bad guy, then reverts back to his "normal" self.What classes/abilities/etc can help capture this idea? Here's what I've found so far:
• Urban Barbarian's controlled rage (regular rage doesn't feel right - this isn't supposed to be a loss of control)
• Dawnflower Dervish's battle dance
• Guide Ranger's focus ability
• Cavalier's challenge
• Paladin's smite (though that feels a bit off, being more magical)What others are there? Which ones do you like best, and why? Which ones would fit well together thematically (for multiclassing)? Which ones do you think would clash/should never be possessed by the same character?
Honestly... ALL classes support this type of character concept to a certain degree. But the one that I immediately thought of when you described the character, honestly, was the barbarian. Augment it with "controlled rage" if you want, but I would just talk to my GM and get permission to just change flavor text so that when your character rages, he gets all cold and calculating and SERIOUS than he does frothing mad.
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Creative Director
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Have you ever read Nightwatch or anything else by Sergei Lukyanenko? If not I woul heartly recommend it, especially since I concur wit every writer on your list (aside from Stephen King who is kind of hit (Dark Tower, It, The Stnad, Rose Madders)or miss for me.
I have not read it. And the movie it's inspired is unlikely to compel me to read it, alas...
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Creative Director
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James hates good aligned monsters.
I, on the other hand, love them.
I guess I don't see how it could be considered a 'joke'.
It was sarcasm over the fact that we've had conversations about whether things such as orcs and undead should be universally evil more than once. I know how he feels about it, and I was trying to razz him a bit. I wasn't being serious.
Okay. Leaving now.
One of the requirements about posting on a gaming board when you work in the industry is that you need to have REALLY thick skin.
Nothing you've done has really annoyed me, Kelsey—there ARE folks on these boards who annoy me, but you're not one of them. Although it DOES look like you might have annoyed some of the other posters to this thread.
Which means that the requirement of having thick skin isn't something limited to game designers—it's handy to have for ANYONE who wants to post and read and take part in messageboard communities.
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Creative Director
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Topic I meant to ask about back when Feiya's back story was posted -
Can only changelings make the transition from humanoid woman to full blown hag? Or can any humanoid woman make the transition, assuming the application of sufficient ritual, trauma, and ritual trauma?
Only changelings, for the most part.
ANYONE can become ANYTHING with the right rituals/circumstances/backstory though.
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Creative Director
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What's Calistra's views on werewolves?
Also, a thanks of appreciation for removing some of the cumbersome bits of 3.5's lycanthropy. Like the Change Shape skill and the clause where you change every time you take damage. Pathfinder's version of the curse feels much less controllable from the player's POV and the charisma penalty fits.
Calistria is probably not super keen on werewolves, since they're pretty bestial and primal and feral. She's a lot more cultured than the typical werewolf, and since werewolves tend to do things that arouse the need for revenge... I suspect her priesthood ends up hunting them down a LOT.
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Creative Director
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How can you not like Rocky Horror? Singin in the Rain? Yentl? Ok, maybe not that last one...
It's actually relatively easy to not like those movies, in my experience. ESPECIALLY in the face of those that have particularly crusading or obsessive fans...
Super-passionate fans are not a great way to encourage the idly curious.
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Have you ever read Nightwatch or anything else by Sergei Lukyanenko? If not I woul heartly recommend it, especially since I concur wit every writer on your list (aside from Stephen King who is kind of hit (Dark Tower, It, The Stnad, Rose Madders)or miss for me.I have not read it. And the movie it's inspired is unlikely to compel me to read it, alas...
Fair enough, although I must say the movie is about as faithful an adaption of the book (or better of the first chapter) as the movie It is of the King novel...
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Creative Director
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Fair enough, although I must say the movie is about as faithful an adaption of the book (or better of the first chapter) as the movie It is of the King novel...Have you ever read Nightwatch or anything else by Sergei Lukyanenko? If not I woul heartly recommend it, especially since I concur wit every writer on your list (aside from Stephen King who is kind of hit (Dark Tower, It, The Stnad, Rose Madders)or miss for me.I have not read it. And the movie it's inspired is unlikely to compel me to read it, alas...
As in... not a very faithful adaption at all, with no budget in a format that limits its capacity to actually be faithful in the first place?
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Wow this is a huge thread. Question. Do you need a vacation and how do you stay sane? lol its cool that you answer all these questions.I could definitely use a vacation. And who says I'm staying sane?
He is already making a big assumption thinking that someone working in the RPG field is sane of mind.
So, are you getting more insane working for Paizo or you are somewhat stable?
;)
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Creative Director
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Wow this is a huge thread. Question. Do you need a vacation and how do you stay sane? lol its cool that you answer all these questions.I could definitely use a vacation. And who says I'm staying sane?He is already making a big assumption thinking that someone working in the RPG field is sane of mind.
So, are you getting more insane working for Paizo or you are somewhat stable?
;)
My vote would probably be "more insane."
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#2 - Do you ever help to design Prestige Classes? If so, could you name one that you particularly enjoyed writing?#3 - What is your favorite Pathfinder Prestige Class? How about 3.5 Prestige Classes?
2) Often. The Harrower is one of the ones I'm the most proud of helping to design, but I also am quite proud of the Red Mantis assassin (even though it's been plagued by typos over the various years).
3) Pathfinder: Red Mantis assassin. 3.5: Dervish dancer.
I know it is late for that, but you have ever considered making the Mantis assassins divine spellcasters?
With their link to the mantis god it would have enhanced the differences from the 3.x assassin.|
Creative Director
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#2 - Do you ever help to design Prestige Classes? If so, could you name one that you particularly enjoyed writing?#3 - What is your favorite Pathfinder Prestige Class? How about 3.5 Prestige Classes?
2) Often. The Harrower is one of the ones I'm the most proud of helping to design, but I also am quite proud of the Red Mantis assassin (even though it's been plagued by typos over the various years).
3) Pathfinder: Red Mantis assassin. 3.5: Dervish dancer.
I know it is late for that, but you have ever considered making the Mantis assassins divine spellcasters?
With their link to the mantis god it would have enhanced the differences from the 3.x assassin.
I'm honestly not all that interested in enhancing the differences between the Red Mantis assassin and the 3rd edition assassin, first of all.
Secondly... I really want the prestige class and the organization's priests to be different. A divine spellcaster among the Red Mantis is and should be a cleric, not a prestige class.
Third and final, the majority of the spells that I wanted the Red Mantis assassin to have access to were more arcane in theme than divine.
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4) I would hardly call it "relatively unsupported." We do a fair number of prestige classes, actually—most of them show up in the non-rulebook lines is all.Well Mr. Jacobs, I'm said to say that my budget and love for dabbling in my home grown campaign setting have left my shelves relatively bare of the Golarion-line products (Rivers Run Red is the exception because of its Kingdom Building rules). I also don't have much use for Golarion products because none of the three campaigns I play in are set in Golarion (I used my own setting when I GM, another two friends use theirs, and my fourth group uses 3.5 Forgotten Realms).
I agree with you when you say that interesting Prestige Classes are tied to their world, but as a world builder, it's nice to see some of those with settings-neutral elements because sometimes those elements make great expansion ideas for your own worlds; for example, I love the lore behind Complete Adventure's Daggerspell Monastery and implemented it because of how the Prestige Classes presented its lore. Paizo does an amazing job at supporting their own world, but you don't do as stellar in helping others make their own worlds, though the GameMastery Guide and the race building rules in the Advanced Race Guide are both excellent starts.
As one final note, I've had a lot of people tell me "Oh, why not just adapt the Golarion prestige classes to your game?" My response is typically that the Golarion classes are so specific in their lore that I either need to drastically alter the class in order to make it fit well or simply force a part of Golarion into a place it doesn't really belong to; it ends up doing the exact opposite of your beliefs on Prestige Classes when I have to force a class that has no real bearing or history into my world. From this perspective; my biased perspective as a Core Line consumer, Prestige Classes kind of are under supported.
But yeah, that's kind of why I was asking for some tips and advice for making my own Prestige Classes....
There are several Golarion prestige classes that can be easily adapted to a new world.
The Harrower is one of them, for example. It can be adapted to any world with gypsies (that is really a derogatory term in the American language? I don't mean to offend anyone, but Romani is a language and a ethnic group, while gipsy include a lifestyle).I must say that I like a lot prestige class with a strong link with the setting. When they lack it the effect is that the player taking them will be more interested in the mechanicals gains than in the function of the prestige class in the society.
I have seen a bit too much of "I take a level of this, two level of that" in the 3.X and don't want to see it repeated in Pathfinder.
I don't really use Golarion, but let's say I was willing to consider giving it a try. I happen to like noir a great deal. Where in Golarion would I want to adventure if I wanted something with a heavy noir feel?
Well, my mind has been thoroughly blown by the announcement of Pathfinder Online! May I ask what your involvement has been thus far, and to what extent you expect to be involved as the game develops? How are you feeling about the project generally? Do you have any particular hopes and/or fears about an MMO set in the world that you've crafted so lovingly?
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Creative Director
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I don't really use Golarion, but let's say I was willing to consider giving it a try. I happen to like noir a great deal. Where in Golarion would I want to adventure if I wanted something with a heavy noir feel?
Depends on what you mean by "noir." If you mean, "gritty dark crime drama," then there's plenty of locations that would work. Ustalav is probably the best nomination for it, though—even though Ustalav's MUCH more of a gothic horror setting, it would adapt well to the gritty dark crime drama.
But frankly, most of our cities would work for this type of game. We've done several adventures with gritty crime themes, at least. Skinsaw Murders, for example, or Hangman's Noose.
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How big is this "Something is coming" announcement? Or is Vic just trying to get people worked up for Christmas?As you can now see... the "Something is coming" announcement is pretty enormous. As in: one of the biggest things Paizo's attempted.
Yes, a big announcement.
I am a bit ambivalent on that, on one side of the coin it can be an awesome game, on the other it cam move resource away from the pen and paper Pathfinder.They would need your simulacron to manage the game setting for Goblinworks.
Aargh, frustration, why we can't have a perfect world where developing the game for one medium will not incur the risk to leave another behind?
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Creative Director
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Well, my mind has been thoroughly blown by the announcement of Pathfinder Online! May I ask what your involvement has been thus far, and to what extent you expect to be involved as the game develops? How are you feeling about the project generally? Do you have any particular hopes and/or fears about an MMO set in the world that you've crafted so lovingly?
My involvement has mostly been in the category of informing the team of what the best choices would be for plots and story lines and all that from a Golarion standpoint. I'm not sure at this point what my involvement in the developing game is going to be—my guess would be as one of the final approvals who gets to sign off on things.
As for my feeling about the project? Super super super nervous and excited. I'm a huge fan of certain types of MMO games (PVE), and I really hate other types (PVP) but I understand that lots of folks have the exact opposite take—I'm just hoping that this game will appeal to BOTH types of gamer.
So really... it's the gameplay element that makes me nervous. I'm pretty confident that the way Golarion will be treated in the game will be fine.
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Creative Director
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Yes, a big announcement.
I am a bit ambivalent on that, on one side of the coin it can be an awesome game, on the other it cam move resource away from the pen and paper Pathfinder.They would need your simulacron to manage the game setting for Goblinworks.
Aargh, frustration, why we can't have a perfect world where developing the game for one medium will not incur the risk to leave another behind?
It will indeed move resources away from pen and paper Pathfinder... to about the same extent that doing pre-painted plastic miniatures has moved resources away from pen and paper Pathfinder. In that this is a licensed product—it's not something that Paizo is doing. An entirely different team is going to be doing the majority of the work. Those of us at Paizo who do the pen and paper game aren't going anywhere and will continue producing stuff for it just as we have been.
I've been involved with the MMO for many, many months already, and it hasn't slowed down production of the game yet. And I don't expect my involvement will be increasing.
If I remember correctly, the goddess Milani was one of the deities brought over to Golarion from your homebrew world. Firstly, thank you! Maybe my favourite deity from any setting. Secondly, I'm really interested as to why and how the goddess ended up as she did (e.g. her holy symbol, her minor deity status, and so on); any insights you can offer into her creation? This curiosity really extends to all of the Golarion deities, but that might make for a somewhat over-ambitious question...
I'm also aware that you usually single out Desna as your favourite deity. Any particular reason for this?
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Creative Director
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If I remember correctly, the goddess Milani was one of the deities brought over to Golarion from your homebrew world. Firstly, thank you! Maybe my favourite deity from any setting. Secondly, I'm really interested as to why and how the goddess ended up as she did (e.g. her holy symbol, her minor deity status, and so on); any insights you can offer into her creation? This curiosity really extends to all of the Golarion deities, but that might make for a somewhat over-ambitious question...
I'm also aware that you usually single out Desna as your favourite deity. Any particular reason for this?
Milani is indeed one of the deities from my homebrew. Glad you like her! I don't really have much more to say about her beyond what ended up in the Inner Sea World Guide and Gods & Magic—she never ended up playing a particularly big role in my homebrew and as such never got more detailed info. Unlike others, some of whom I have pages and pages of material that may or may not sync up with how those deities exist today in Golarion, since I haven't given any of those writeups to Sean to incorporate into his deity articles.
As for why I like Desna... partially because she was one of the very first deities I created for my homebrew game, but also because she's probably the deity I'd most likely end up worshiping if I were someone from Golarion anyway, since she more or less personifies the type of character I usually end up playing in Pathfinder/D&D.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Honestly... ALL classes support this type of character concept to a certain degree. But the one that I immediately thought of when you described the character, honestly, was the barbarian. Augment it with "controlled rage" if you want, but I would just talk to my GM and get permission to just change flavor text so that when your character rages, he gets all cold and calculating and SERIOUS than he does frothing mad.James,
I'm looking to make a character who makes a conscious decision to fight when the need arises; i.e., once he decides that he must fight, he "turns on the mojo" and thrashes the bad guy, then reverts back to his "normal" self.What classes/abilities/etc can help capture this idea? Here's what I've found so far:
• Urban Barbarian's controlled rage (regular rage doesn't feel right - this isn't supposed to be a loss of control)
• Dawnflower Dervish's battle dance
• Guide Ranger's focus ability
• Cavalier's challenge
• Paladin's smite (though that feels a bit off, being more magical)What others are there? Which ones do you like best, and why? Which ones would fit well together thematically (for multiclassing)? Which ones do you think would clash/should never be possessed by the same character?
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was the only one capable of picturing it as anything besides "BLOOD DEATH AND VENGEANCE!!!"
For the purpose of overcoming DR, what damage type does the spell boneshatter deal?
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For the purpose of overcoming DR, what damage type does the spell boneshatter deal?Where is this spell from?
Osirion, Land of Pharoahs, p. 26. Also here
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As in... not a very faithful adaption at all, with no budget in a format that limits its capacity to actually be faithful in the first place?Fair enough, although I must say the movie is about as faithful an adaption of the book (or better of the first chapter) as the movie It is of the King novel...Have you ever read Nightwatch or anything else by Sergei Lukyanenko? If not I woul heartly recommend it, especially since I concur wit every writer on your list (aside from Stephen King who is kind of hit (Dark Tower, It, The Stnad, Rose Madders)or miss for me.I have not read it. And the movie it's inspired is unlikely to compel me to read it, alas...
Well, I do not know about its budgest, other than that: exactly.
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Creative Director
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For the purpose of overcoming DR, what damage type does the spell boneshatter deal?Where is this spell from?Osirion, Land of Pharoahs, p. 26. Also here
Ah, right.
Boneshatter inflicts non-typed damage. It bypasses all forms of DR and energy resistance as a result.
There are several Golarion prestige classes that can be easily adapted to a new world.
The Harrower is one of them, for example. It can be adapted to any world with gypsies (that is really a derogatory term in the American language? I don't mean to offend anyone, but Romani is a language and a ethnic group, while gipsy include a lifestyle).
I must say that I like a lot prestige class with a strong link with the setting. When they lack it the effect is that the player taking them will be more interested in the mechanicals gains than in the function of the prestige class in the society.
I have seen a bit too much of "I take a level of this, two level of that" in the 3.X and don't want to see it repeated in Pathfinder.
For every Harrower in the Companions line that exists, there's two or three Hellknights or Shackles Pirates.
To be honest, I don't understand the philosophy of "Prestige Classes absolutely have to be married to a campaign setting in order to be interesting" when there are easily 50 Archetypes in the Core Line with no devote connection to Golarion's history. It's a double standard, especially now that Golarion Archetypes are being printed in the Companion Line.
Also, I don't agree with your views on looking at Prestige Classes as mechanical gains. After all, that's how people look at Archtypes too, and to me, a Prestige Class is simply a more flexible archetype; it something that a character has to work for over the course of their career instead of a choice that is made early on. It's also very easy to multiclass in ways where you splash abilities from multiple classes to make a strong character (this is predominately viable with melee classes, as spellcasters seem to be designed to be as unmulticlass friendly as possible).
I like it when people can make strong builds out of multiclassing because it gives a sense of a unique character build. Right now, people are content to stay on a single leveling track and since There's an Archetype for That (TM), there is little difference in character builds outside of one or two feats and maybe skills chosen.
What's Calistra's views on werewolves?
Is it bad that I misread this as 'What is Calistra's views on werewhores?'? D:
If I remember correctly, the goddess Milani was one of the deities brought over to Golarion from your homebrew world. Firstly, thank you! Maybe my favourite deity from any setting.Milani is indeed one of the deities from my homebrew. Glad you like her! I don't really have much more to say about her beyond what ended up in the Inner Sea World Guide and Gods & Magic—she never ended up playing a particularly big role in my homebrew and as such never got more detailed info.
Random note: out of the last four Pathfinder campaigns I've played in, involving 18 PCs, five of them have worshipped Milani. She seems very over-represented. Maybe it's just the folks I play with.
A question: James, in The Hungry Storm a large number of foes are listed simply as references to statblocks in the GameMastery Guide. Can we expect this to continue as a trend in the future?
In Bestiary 2 it mentions that when the Titans grew jealous of the adulation the gods received from mortals, they began a crusade to destroy mortal life. Is this true for Golarion as well?Yes.
In 99.99994% of cases, what we write about monsters in a hardcover Bestiary applies to the monsters in Golarion, because that's where we'll be using our own rules. So we want the flavor text in the Bestiaries to match what's going on in Golarion. The fact that we keep our rulebooks world-neutral is actually INCREDIBLY frustrating to me whenever it comes time to generate flavor text... I can understand the reasons why we do the rulebooks world-neutral, of course, but it still frustrates me.
But yeah. In this case, the flavor text for titans in Bestiary 2 is 100% accurate for Golarion.
I think overall you do a good job of balancing the neutrality with the world-specific in your hardcovers. I think to some extent we players prefer some flavor text and any flavor text you write I think is going to end up biased to some world or another. Do you bias your elf descriptions to Tolkien? How about to actual legend? You have to make that kind of choice or else leave out flavor text, so Pathfinder's choice is Golarion.
That's why when you add new stuff for clerics, it's ok with me (not just cause I like Golarion) for you to put a few lines with how that new stuff fits in Golarion. In that sense, I see it the same way I saw D&D 3.0 where Greyhawk was the "default" then if you played something else, it had all the details needed to easily convert (what little was necessary). Extended explanation on why Jezelda has the Fur domain doesn't belong in a non-Golarion hardcore rulebook, but mentioning her name in a list of deities that have that domain at the beginning of the description of the domain? IMO, sure.
For the Runelords Anniversary Hardcover: Are any of the Sins of the Saviors maps changing? I know you said something about adding a map for the Festering Maze (which is phenomenal), but...
Overall I'd say book 5 has the weakest maps in Runelords. Most of them are workable, but the Ravenous Crypts in particular are difficult to use (in VTT or on the table) and contain lots of empty, bland rooms. I dread running it. Are these kinds of things subject to change in the hardcover?
Even if they aren't, what would you do to improve on that section of the adventure (since I'll likely be re-mapping it long before the hardcover comes out)?
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Creative Director
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A question: James, in The Hungry Storm a large number of foes are listed simply as references to statblocks in the GameMastery Guide. Can we expect this to continue as a trend in the future?
Do you want this trend to continue?
Given that the alternatives would either be reprinting full statblocks (and thus having less actual adventure ) or cutting encounters with NPCs (and thus having less actual adventure).
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Creative Director
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For the Runelords Anniversary Hardcover: Are any of the Sins of the Saviors maps changing? I know you said something about adding a map for the Festering Maze (which is phenomenal), but...
Overall I'd say book 5 has the weakest maps in Runelords. Most of them are workable, but the Ravenous Crypts in particular are difficult to use (in VTT or on the table) and contain lots of empty, bland rooms. I dread running it. Are these kinds of things subject to change in the hardcover?
Even if they aren't, what would you do to improve on that section of the adventure (since I'll likely be re-mapping it long before the hardcover comes out)?
Yes... the map for the Ravenous Crypts of Gluttony is changing so that it's simpler, has no empty rooms, and follows the grid more normally. No other maps in that adventure are changing, though.