Creative Director
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Wow! That's really interesting to me. Music and concerts have been such a HUGE part of my life so I find it interesting to hear that.
Do you mind if I ask the follow up? Why not? Just never had the desire? Not into big crowds? Not a live music fan? Opportunity just never presented itself?
1) I'm somewhat demophobic. Conventions are really kinda hard for me to deal with as a result, as are parties. The thought of a concert with thousands of yelling people mashing together kinda makes me sick to my stomach.
2) My favorite types of music are generally not the types that play in concerts. I could see myself going to a classical music concert, I suppose.
3) I like to LISTEN to music, not strain to hear it over a dull roar of shrieks. Again, a classical music concert might work well for me.
4) I grew up in Point Arena, California. Population of about 400. Closest fast food franchise was an hour's drive away. Pretty secluded area, and not one that really engenders an urge to go see concerts with friends... since concerts are usually a few hours' drive away.
The most terrible creature alive: A T-Rex wielding a shark.With those puny forelimbs, it can't even roll dice. Now it could wield the shark with it's mouth, but that would be both redundant and silly.
EATEN!
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Dear James Jacobs,
If A divided by Zero equals NOT A, and we apply this rule to PI=Circumference divided by Diameter, C is unrelated to /C except at superposition.
THen I applied the Idea that the Mass of Any Field is directly proportional to its Diameter at a given potential Energy. As the mass of the field reduces, so does it's diameter and energy is radiated as Kinetic Energy. WHen field Mass is reduced to Zero its Diameter is zero and Pi is unrelated to circumference except at superposition.
So in the end a String is a field of zero diameter?
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Creative Director
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EATEN!The most terrible creature alive: A T-Rex wielding a shark.With those puny forelimbs, it can't even roll dice. Now it could wield the shark with it's mouth, but that would be both redundant and silly.
You'll need to make a new avatar if you want more questions answered by me. I can't hear this one anymore over the rumbling sounds of saurian digestion.
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Creative Director
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+1. Though I'd vote Ezren for the same reason.Who'd win in a fight between Valeros and Ezren?Valeros.
Because I like him better.
I might have one day. But then Josh Frost played Ezren in a game I was in, and he roleplayed him with such a disagreeable loud shrill voice and with such an obnoxious personality that I now really dislike the character. Josh doesn't help the fact by using Ezren for his avatar, constantly reminding me of his shrill, ear-splitting, intolerant of Merisiel's brilliance role-playing.
And thus, Valeros wins. At any and all levels. He just kicks Ezren's cane aside and the old dude falls down and breaks his hip and that's that.
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Dear James Jacobs,
If A divided by Zero equals NOT A, and we apply this rule to PI=Circumference divided by Diameter, C is unrelated to /C except at superposition.
THen I applied the Idea that the Mass of Any Field is directly proportional to its Diameter at a given potential Energy. As the mass of the field reduces, so does it's diameter and energy is radiated as Kinetic Energy. WHen field Mass is reduced to Zero its Diameter is zero and Pi is unrelated to circumference except at superposition.
So in the end a String is a field of zero diameter?
Isn't anything divided by zero undefined, not simply "not A"?
Also, if mass and diameter are both zero, doesn't an object cease to exist?
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Creative Director
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Dear James Jacobs,
If A divided by Zero equals NOT A, and we apply this rule to PI=Circumference divided by Diameter, C is unrelated to /C except at superposition.
THen I applied the Idea that the Mass of Any Field is directly proportional to its Diameter at a given potential Energy. As the mass of the field reduces, so does it's diameter and energy is radiated as Kinetic Energy. WHen field Mass is reduced to Zero its Diameter is zero and Pi is unrelated to circumference except at superposition.
So in the end a String is a field of zero diameter?
No. String is something you use to fly a kite with, and kites can be quite big.
??? Is this one of the few "forbidden" questions James won't/can't answer?Will you do us all a favor and not answer the question about who would win between Valeros and Ezren?
Seriously, you guys are bad.
Not that I'm aware of, but I personally am sick of seeing this argument come up. Mainly because it is a circular argument and there are a biljillion different factors that could sway the fight in either direction. The major flaw for this argument is that it requires players to fight each other which should not happen in a majority of games. So right away the basic premise of the argument is faulty. To make matters worse, people are so polarized on the issue that no consensus would ever come to be.
Lastly, I do not want to see this awesome thread devolve into some baseless argument about fictional characters and who would win in some ridiculous set up where they would have to fight each other.
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+1. Though I'd vote Ezren for the same reason.Who'd win in a fight between Valeros and Ezren?Valeros.
Because I like him better.
I might have one day. But then Josh Frost played Ezren in a game I was in, and he roleplayed him with such a disagreeable loud shrill voice and with such an obnoxious personality that I now really dislike the character. Josh doesn't help the fact by using Ezren for his avatar, constantly reminding me of his shrill, ear-splitting, intolerant of Merisiel's brilliance role-playing.
And thus, Valeros wins. At any and all levels. He just kicks Ezren's cane aside and the old dude falls down and breaks his hip and that's that.
Actually, I'm not sure Ezren's such a physically frail dude after that one image of them all in the spa. Damn! Ezren works out!
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??? Is this one of the few "forbidden" questions James won't/can't answer?Will you do us all a favor and not answer the question about who would win between Valeros and Ezren?
Seriously, you guys are bad.
Not that I'm aware of, but I personally am sick of seeing this argument come up. Mainly because it is a circular argument and there are a biljillion different factors that could sway the fight in either direction. The major flaw for this argument is that it requires players to fight each other which should not happen in a majority of games. So right away the basic premise of the argument is faulty. To make matters worse, people are so polarized on the issue that no consensus would ever come to be.
Lastly, I do not want to see this awesome thread devolve into some baseless argument about fictional characters and who would win in some ridiculous set up where they would have to fight each other.
I asked that question because they're two of my favorite Pathfinder iconics. If it ultimately came to sheer power, Lini would beat both of them (of course)
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Dear James Jacobs,
If A divided by Zero equals NOT A, and we apply this rule to PI=Circumference divided by Diameter, C is unrelated to /C except at superposition.
THen I applied the Idea that the Mass of Any Field is directly proportional to its Diameter at a given potential Energy. As the mass of the field reduces, so does it's diameter and energy is radiated as Kinetic Energy. WHen field Mass is reduced to Zero its Diameter is zero and Pi is unrelated to circumference except at superposition.
So in the end a String is a field of zero diameter?
Isn't anything divided by zero undefined, not simply "not A"?
Also, if mass and diameter are both zero, doesn't an object cease to exist?
Um...They are not Zero in every Universe?
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I might have one day. But then Josh Frost played Ezren in a game I was in, and he roleplayed him with such a disagreeable loud shrill voice and with such an obnoxious personality that I now really dislike the character. Josh doesn't help the fact by using Ezren for his avatar, constantly reminding me of his shrill, ear-splitting, intolerant of Merisiel's brilliance role-playing.
Do particular players run specific iconics? Or does the staff select different ones at the games?
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No. String is something you use to fly a kite with, and kites can be quite big.Dear James Jacobs,
If A divided by Zero equals NOT A, and we apply this rule to PI=Circumference divided by Diameter, C is unrelated to /C except at superposition.
THen I applied the Idea that the Mass of Any Field is directly proportional to its Diameter at a given potential Energy. As the mass of the field reduces, so does it's diameter and energy is radiated as Kinetic Energy. WHen field Mass is reduced to Zero its Diameter is zero and Pi is unrelated to circumference except at superposition.
So in the end a String is a field of zero diameter?
Is the String Cotton or Wool?
I asked that question because they're two of my favorite Pathfinder iconics. If it ultimately came to sheer power, Lini would beat both of them (of course)
Isn't Lini the Gnome Druid?
Dear James Jacobs,
If A divided by Zero equals NOT A, and we apply this rule to PI=Circumference divided by Diameter, C is unrelated to /C except at superposition.
THen I applied the Idea that the Mass of Any Field is directly proportional to its Diameter at a given potential Energy. As the mass of the field reduces, so does it's diameter and energy is radiated as Kinetic Energy. WHen field Mass is reduced to Zero its Diameter is zero and Pi is unrelated to circumference except at superposition.
So in the end a String is a field of zero diameter?
Isn't anything divided by zero undefined, not simply "not A"?
Also, if mass and diameter are both zero, doesn't an object cease to exist?
Nope zero divided by zero is infinite.
do baby orcs have souls?
Sorry couldn't resist. :D
Mairkurian made me do it!
So how many Goblin Ninjas will I need to send in to Paizo to retrieve as many unreleased PDFs as possible and would there be anything left of Paizo's offices?
If someone asks if we're gods, do we have to say yes?
If someone asks if we're gods, do we have to say yes?
What if we say we are Demon Lords instead?
What is the best large spider to scare Jason with? Have you tested this with a variety of different spider species?
Also, when cooking bronto ribs and thighs/drumsticks: dry rub or wet sauce?
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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James,
Why does Pathfinder use alignments?
Put in more general terms, are there any aspects of 3rd Edition / 3.5 that the Pathfinder design team kept for "backwards compatability" but which, with hindsight, would have made a better game with more dramatic changes?
Also, have you gotten any impression as to what kind of 3.5 fans most appreciates the changes that went into the Pathfinder ruleset?
If someone asks if we're gods, do we have to say yes?
Thankfully, I don't need to worry about this. the answer is right there for all to see.
James,
who came up with the idea of Archtypes in the APG?? that person needs to be sent a massive plate of cookies, a small semi full of money, and several car fulls of naked women(or if it was a lass, naked, buff men)
James,
Which do you think is more badass: Aircraft Carrier or Submarine?
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Wow, finally finished catching up on this thread. Thanks for making it the most amusing thing I've read on the internet for many years.
As for some of my questions:
Are you familiar with the Smithee Awards?
If not, you should check them out.
Earlier, when you said you preferred turn based computer RPGs, and used Baldur's Gate as an example, did you actually mean the Gold Box SSI D&D games, which are actually turn based?
Do you feel that true turn based computer RPGs can no longer be commercially viable (Civiliztion shows that turn based strategies still are.)
What's the fastest you've ever driven a vehicle?
What new TV show(s) for the 2010-2011 season are you most looking forward to? Both public TV and cable?
What's the funniest movie you've seen in the last few years?
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Creative Director
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Dear JJ,
If the population of Sandpoint is kidnapped by Dopplegangers who live in a floating Web Ball, who moves in to take their Place? At What rate do ships visit the Coastal Community?
You're dividing by zero again. AKA: this would never happen.
If it DID happen, though, the people of Sandpoint would be replaced by well-mannered ghouls and their slavering hounds. Ships would no longer visit town.
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Creative Director
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Do particular players run specific iconics? Or does the staff select different ones at the games?
I might have one day. But then Josh Frost played Ezren in a game I was in, and he roleplayed him with such a disagreeable loud shrill voice and with such an obnoxious personality that I now really dislike the character. Josh doesn't help the fact by using Ezren for his avatar, constantly reminding me of his shrill, ear-splitting, intolerant of Merisiel's brilliance role-playing.
This was actually for Jason's playtest of his adventure, "Crypt of the Everflame." Several of us played through it using iconics. Josh chose Ezren, and the rest is history.
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Creative Director
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What is the best large spider to scare Jason with? Have you tested this with a variety of different spider species?
Also, when cooking bronto ribs and thighs/drumsticks: dry rub or wet sauce?
Any spider that is visible works fine. The bigger the better. If he can hear the spider's footsteps or see its shadow, you're doing good.
Wet sauce.
do baby orcs have souls?
Sorry couldn't resist. :D
Mairkurion made me do it!
Yes, but they were eaten by paladins who immediately fell. And of course, it's always great to see my power acknowledged.
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Creative Director
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James,
Why does Pathfinder use alignments?
Put in more general terms, are there any aspects of 3rd Edition / 3.5 that the Pathfinder design team kept for "backwards compatability" but which, with hindsight, would have made a better game with more dramatic changes?
Also, have you gotten any impression as to what kind of 3.5 fans most appreciates the changes that went into the Pathfinder ruleset?
Because we at Paizo happen to be quite fond of alignments.
1) They're one part of the game that has become a part of popular culture, to the extent that you sometimes see them mentioned out of context of gaming. Like in episodes of the Simpsons, for example. Abandoning something that's penetrated that deeply into the zeitgeist of popular culture is kind of foolish.
2) They're VERY useful ways to summarize people, locations, monsters, items, and effects using a pair of words, or even a pair of letters. It's easier for me to say: "This necromancer is chaotic evil" than it is to say "This necromancer loathes society and wants to kill lots of innocents." When your'e talking about things like stat blocks, it's a godsend to be able to summarize a creature's basic personality with two letters.
3) Alignments give us another descriptor that we can attach effects to. Weapons like unholy swords, spells like holy word, and the way damage reduction works for many outsiders more or less requires alignment rules of some sort.
4) The entire multiverse is built off of the nine alignments. If we ditch alignments, we would have essentially had to rebuild how demons, angels, devils, and all the other outsider races work from the ground up. And since that's both a lot of work AND since we at Paizo are very fond of how the multiverse is modeled after the alignments (which is why our model is so similar to the Great Wheel model of the multiverse from 1st edition, and why that model stuck with the game for decades), ditching alignments would be a poor choice.
5) Alignments help with diversified character creation. Every time I've played a d20 type game where alignment's been thrown out, the players end up effectively playing self-centered paranoid jerks who have no real reason to stick to different ethos or personalities. That might be because I play with lunatics, but when I play with these same gamers USING alignment, they end up creating more well-rounded characters that can interact with the society in the context of the game without being sociopaths. Again, this may just be how my jackals... I mean players... play the game, but even discounting this reason, points 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 above are more than enough to keep alignment as a core part of the game.
AS FOR YOUR OTHER QUESTIONS...
The thing I wanted to boot the most was iterative attacks. I would love to see the Vital Strike chain of feats basically replace them. Iterative attacks slow the game down a lot, and are a big part of why higher level play bogs down players have too many attacks with too many different maths to do. By limiting PCs with weapons to one attack (MAYBE two if you have dual weapons) per round, but by effectively letting the weapon damage increase, you speed up play but, over the long run, allow weapons to more or less average out to do the same amount of damage as if they were doing multiple different attacks at lower dice ranges.
I think the change from 3.5 that fans are the most delighted with could be any number of things, but I suspect that pretty high on the list would be the unification of combat maneuver rules, the simplification of how skill ranks work, or being able to cast cantrips all day long. MAYBE the removal of all XP costs from magic item crafting. Those are all certainly huge changes that I myself enjoy.
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Creative Director
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Who came up with the idea of Archtypes in the APG?? that person needs to be sent a massive plate of cookies, a small semi full of money, and several car fulls of naked women(or if it was a lass, naked, buff men)
Jason did the most work on the current incarnation, but it's hard to say who exactly came up with the concept since it's basically just an evolution of similar rules that have existed for some time in 3.5 in the form of alternate class abilities. We used these same rules in the first version of our Campaign Setting hardcover, and did a LOT of them in the pages of Dragon and Dungeon magazine over the years.
Submarine. Because Lovecraft wrote a story about submarines and not about aircraft carriers, and because "Das Boot" and "Below" are better movies than "The Final Countdown" or "Pearl Harbor."James,
Which do you think is more badass: Aircraft Carrier or Submarine?
Wow. This answer makes a heck of a lot of sense. I wish it had been tied into the alignments answer. Reason 6?
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Creative Director
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Are you familiar with the Smithee Awards?
Nope. Not yet, at least...
Earlier, when you said you preferred turn based computer RPGs, and used Baldur's Gate as an example, did you actually mean the Gold Box SSI D&D games, which are actually turn based?
The Gold Box games are pretty cool too. But the Baldur's Gate games were also turn based. In fact, most of Bioware's games can be played in a turn-based format. With the more recent ones, the AI for friendly NPCs has become so good that it's not nearly as important to be able to micromanage every single character, though. But Baldur's Gate worked quite well using the turn-based options to pause each round of combat at the end of a round so you could issue the next round's orders.
Do you feel that true turn based computer RPGs can no longer be commercially viable (Civiliztion shows that turn based strategies still are.)
Until some company does one that kicks ass again, yes. Things like this go in cycles.
What's the fastest you've ever driven a vehicle?
Probably about 90 mph. Not on purpose, of course! And not for long!
What new TV show(s) for the 2010-2011 season are you most looking forward to? Both public TV and cable?
A Song of Ice and Fire
Boardwalk EmpireThe Walking Dead
Mythbusters
Deadliest Catch
What's the funniest movie you've seen in the last few years?
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
I had a friend (rest your soul, bro) who worked on a nuclear sub; he and his buddies sent in a layout to the old Twilight 2000 game for a nuclear sub....after the Intel guys said it was okay and told them what exactly all they couldn't send in for reasons of national security.
James, just for saying's sake,....if sales and logistics weren't an issue, what would your ultimate AP look like? Is there anything you would want to do but couldn't because of the bottom line of it all?
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Creative Director
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James, just for saying's sake,....if sales and logistics weren't an issue, what would your ultimate AP look like? Is there anything you would want to do but couldn't because of the bottom line of it all?
The ULTIMATE AP would come in a box. A big box. It would have tactical scale full-color maps for every location, minis for every monster and NPC, stats for every monster and NPC in a big 3-ring binder, poster maps, movie-prop quality handouts, a customized GM screen, a DVD of music commissioned specifically for the AP to serve as a soundtrack, a DVD containing professional-grade CGI renditions and movies of key locations to show PCs when they reach key areas, full color art in every book, multiple books each detailing one adventure, and it would take characters from 1st to 20th level with enough side trek and expansion material alone to take characters from 1st to 20th level.
I'm sure I could think of more things too.