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Paizo Employee Creative Director

Itchy wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

Alas... we can't sign things through the internets. Technology isn't there yet.

If you want any book signed by the Paizo staff, the BEST way to accomplish that is to attend Paizocon or Gen Con; those are the two conventions pretty much all of Paizo attends, and we're always eager and willing to sign books at those events.

You could sign it before it leaves the warehouse...

It didn't hurt to ask. I wish that I could attend one of the cons. They are just not high enough on the priority list to spend the kind of money that they require. Family comes first. Maybe in a few years when I get my kids into playing, then we will go to Paizocon...

The amount of product we ship out of the warehouse is enormous. It's far more than just our own products, first of all. The procedure to ship products from the warehouse also have to happen almost assembly-line, so in order to "sign it before it leaves the warehouse," we'd either have to:

1) Have everyone needed sign the book before hand, and then make sure that book gets handed over to the warehouse staff and sent to the right person.

or

2) Have everyone in Paizo drop what they're doing as soon as the name comes up in the shipping, file us all into the warehouse, and have us stand in line to sign the book.

Neither option is very doable, alas. More to the point... if we do this once... we should do it MORE than once. It's not fair for one person to get this exceptional level of preferential treatment while denying that treatment to thousands and thousands and thousands of other customers. Doing something like this for one person would disrupt workflow for a couple of minutes per person required to sign. Doing something like this for everyone who wanted it (which would be everyone, I assume) would probably shut down our product lines because we'd never be able to work on them.

Sorry it's not a service we can offer. :-(


James Jacobs wrote:
Kavren Stark wrote:

It occurs to me that if you were to start GMing net-based VTT campaign, you'd probably have hundreds if not thousands of players lining up for a seat at the virtual table. You could have a charity auction or raffle for gamers wanting in on that campaign.

Probably true. Certainly when I announce I'm running a game here at Paizo, the table fills up fast and that's just drawing from people who happen to be at work that day.

If I were to do a VTT game, though, it'd be invite-only from friends or perhaps freelancers. An open invitation would be madness.

If this were undertaken for a good cause, you could count on me to be your techie assistant GM. I've done that before.

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
Itchy wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

Alas... we can't sign things through the internets. Technology isn't there yet.

If you want any book signed by the Paizo staff, the BEST way to accomplish that is to attend Paizocon or Gen Con; those are the two conventions pretty much all of Paizo attends, and we're always eager and willing to sign books at those events.

You could sign it before it leaves the warehouse...

It didn't hurt to ask. I wish that I could attend one of the cons. They are just not high enough on the priority list to spend the kind of money that they require. Family comes first. Maybe in a few years when I get my kids into playing, then we will go to Paizocon...

The amount of product we ship out of the warehouse is enormous. It's far more than just our own products, first of all. The procedure to ship products from the warehouse also have to happen almost assembly-line, so in order to "sign it before it leaves the warehouse," we'd either have to:

1) Have everyone needed sign the book before hand, and then make sure that book gets handed over to the warehouse staff and sent to the right person.

or

2) Have everyone in Paizo drop what they're doing as soon as the name comes up in the shipping, file us all into the warehouse, and have us stand in line to sign the book.

Neither option is very doable, alas. More to the point... if we do this once... we should do it MORE than once. It's not fair for one person to get this exceptional level of preferential treatment while denying that treatment to thousands and thousands and thousands of other customers. Doing something like this for one person would disrupt workflow for a couple of minutes per person required to sign. Doing something like this for everyone who wanted it (which would be everyone, I assume) would probably shut down our product lines because we'd never be able to work on them.

Sorry it's not a service we can offer. :-(

or... we could mail you the book back asking for signatures no?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ulgulanoth wrote:

or... we could mail you the book back asking for signatures no?

I'd really rather not open that Pandora's Box of complications. It's too easy for one person sending a book to get autographed to transform into LOTS of people sending several books in a month for autographs. The disruption to workflow to whatever poor Paizo employee ends up being the one to carry the book around and make sure it gets signatures and then make sure it gets shipped back out once something like this starts up is not insignificant.

So it's a case of, "Nope... don't wanna do it for one person since that would mean doing the same for everyone who wants it, and we don't have capacity to handle even a small fraction of that volume of requests."


what is your favorite holiday on Golarion?


A.P.P.L.E. wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:
I have Bestiary 3 questions. What is a foo lion? What is a foo dog? What is an animal lord? Can I take a kangaroo as an animal companion? Can I use one as a mount?
Foo creatures are from Asian mythology; they're basically animal spirits in the flesh. Animal lords are powerful outsider guardians who guard and protect various species of animals. You can indeed have a kangaroo animal companion, but you can't use it as a mount because that's cartoonish.
I can't wait to buy my copy of the book. I want it so bad.

I saw my dad trying to run through our house with a box that looked like it had an emblem suspiciously similar to a golem on it. I have tried tearing apart the trash for further evidence, but I have seen nothing.

If he actually managed to get me a copy, then Best. Christmas. Ever.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

How crazy would I have to be to allow a 4th level Shadow Dancer to take the Dimensional Agility feats? Would you allow it? Can you see anything game-breaking about it?

Shadow Jump (Su) wrote:


At 4th level, a shadowdancer gains the ability to travel between shadows as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some dim light. A shadowdancer can jump up to a total of 40 feet each day in this way; this may be a single jump of 40 feet or four jumps of 10 feet each. Every two levels higher than 4th, the distance a shadowdancer can jump each day doubles (80 feet at 6th, 160 feet at 8th, and 320 feet at 10th). This amount can be split among many jumps, but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment.
Dimensional Agility wrote:


Teleportation does not faze you.

Prerequisites: Ability to use the abundant step class feature or cast dimension door.

Benefit: After using abundant step or casting dimension door, you can take any actions you still have remaining on your turn. You also gain a +4 bonus on Concentration checks when casting teleportation spells.


Have you ever used Monte Cook's World of Darkness? I was thinking of using it to build vampires, werecreatures, and evil outsiders for my players to fight. It's character construction method allows a lot of power customization and it's D20 level based, so I should be able to balance it for Pathfinder, and it's high level of power customization would make each monster I make with it unique, which will make encounters more interesting.

Dark Archive

Hi James! First off, kudos on replying to so many questions!

Ultimate Magic, page 114-115 wrote:


This modification allows the construct to be worn like armor by its creator. So long as the creator wears it, the construct performs no independent actions, remaining under the control of the creator, ...

Would it be possible to elaborate what this part entails?

Is the creator/operator able to use the construct's special abilities, movement types(or speed), extra limbs, weapons, etc that are part of the construct, or feats?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

doctor_wu wrote:
what is your favorite holiday on Golarion?

Swallowtail Festival. It's the first and the best!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Golden-Esque wrote:

How crazy would I have to be to allow a 4th level Shadow Dancer to take the Dimensional Agility feats? Would you allow it? Can you see anything game-breaking about it?

Shadow Jump (Su) wrote:


At 4th level, a shadowdancer gains the ability to travel between shadows as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some dim light. A shadowdancer can jump up to a total of 40 feet each day in this way; this may be a single jump of 40 feet or four jumps of 10 feet each. Every two levels higher than 4th, the distance a shadowdancer can jump each day doubles (80 feet at 6th, 160 feet at 8th, and 320 feet at 10th). This amount can be split among many jumps, but each one, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment.
Dimensional Agility wrote:


Teleportation does not faze you.

Prerequisites: Ability to use the abundant step class feature or cast dimension door.

Benefit: After using abundant step or casting dimension door, you can take any actions you still have remaining on your turn. You also gain a +4 bonus on Concentration checks when casting teleportation spells.

I think that would be fine. Shadow Jump is more or less identical in use to abundant step or dimension door, so letting Dimensional Agility work with it is cool.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Shawn Murphy wrote:

Hi James! First off, kudos on replying to so many questions!

Ultimate Magic, page 114-115 wrote:


This modification allows the construct to be worn like armor by its creator. So long as the creator wears it, the construct performs no independent actions, remaining under the control of the creator, ...

Would it be possible to elaborate what this part entails?

Is the creator/operator able to use the construct's special abilities, movement types(or speed), extra limbs, weapons, etc that are part of the construct, or feats?

If it's part of the construct, you should be able to use it. Essentially... you're replacing your own actions with those of the construct you're wearing. I don't see a big problem with that.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

A.P.P.L.E. wrote:
Have you ever used Monte Cook's World of Darkness? I was thinking of using it to build vampires, werecreatures, and evil outsiders for my players to fight. It's character construction method allows a lot of power customization and it's D20 level based, so I should be able to balance it for Pathfinder, and it's high level of power customization would make each monster I make with it unique, which will make encounters more interesting.

I have not. I've actually never used ANY incarnation of World of Darkness, with the exception of the Vampire computer game that came out 6 years or so ago.


Why is the four mirror mail a full third of the cost chainmail? It's even a third of the cost of Lamellar steel. Why is it this way, because it basically means that there's no reason to buy chainmail or lamellar steel.


James Jacobs wrote:
A.P.P.L.E. wrote:
Have you ever used Monte Cook's World of Darkness? I was thinking of using it to build vampires, werecreatures, and evil outsiders for my players to fight. It's character construction method allows a lot of power customization and it's D20 level based, so I should be able to balance it for Pathfinder, and it's high level of power customization would make each monster I make with it unique, which will make encounters more interesting.
I have not. I've actually never used ANY incarnation of World of Darkness, with the exception of the Vampire computer game that came out 6 years or so ago.

Basically, MCWOD gives each monster it's own class, and lets them pick from a variety of new abilities as they level up. I want to use this to make vampires, because a system that lets me make every vampire unique would make fighting them more fun, as it's uncertain what an individual vampire is capable of doing. Same with evil outsiders and MCWOD's demon class. I could make a whole slew of unique demons for my PCs to fight.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

"McWod" makes me think of something entirely different than Vampires, first of all...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Tarma wrote:

Why is the four mirror mail a full third of the cost chainmail? It's even a third of the cost of Lamellar steel. Why is it this way, because it basically means that there's no reason to buy chainmail or lamellar steel.

My guess would be that might be an error. My second guess would be that four mirror mail and chainmail aren't always availalbe in the same region for sale, so you don't always have the option to buy one over the other.

For actual for-real answers, though... that's a Jason Bulmahn/Design Team question.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

A.P.P.L.E. wrote:
Basically, MCWOD gives each monster it's own class, and lets them pick from a variety of new abilities as they level up. I want to use this to make vampires, because a system that lets me make every vampire unique would make fighting them more fun, as it's uncertain what an individual vampire is capable of doing. Same with evil outsiders and MCWOD's demon class. I could make a whole slew of unique demons for my PCs to fight.

Calling it McWod aside... that's a fun system to design with, but I've always disliked such an open-ended system for character design. Not only does it make it difficult to maintain any sense of baseline for a group, but it also makes it really difficult to build balanced encounters ahead of time. I've not seen a point-based build system yet that a dedicated gamer can't abuse.

For a GM, it sounds like a handy, cool tool, though.


Thanks for the response James!


James Jacobs wrote:
A.P.P.L.E. wrote:
Basically, MCWOD gives each monster it's own class, and lets them pick from a variety of new abilities as they level up. I want to use this to make vampires, because a system that lets me make every vampire unique would make fighting them more fun, as it's uncertain what an individual vampire is capable of doing. Same with evil outsiders and MCWOD's demon class. I could make a whole slew of unique demons for my PCs to fight.

Calling it McWod aside... that's a fun system to design with, but I've always disliked such an open-ended system for character design. Not only does it make it difficult to maintain any sense of baseline for a group, but it also makes it really difficult to build balanced encounters ahead of time. I've not seen a point-based build system yet that a dedicated gamer can't abuse.

For a GM, it sounds like a handy, cool tool, though.

MCWOD isn't point based. It treats powers like rogue talents or fighter bonus feats.

That's why it sounds like a great GM tool to me. It's basically D20 classes for vampires, demons, and werewolves, and while it didn't make a good WOD RPG, it should make an excellent monster building tool for Pathfinder. Being able to quickly create unique vampires and evil outsiders would be so great, and setting CRs with this system looks to be a breeze. I can even multiclass into Pathfinder classes for even more variety of power. My players are going to have to be a bit more careful with demons, daemons, devils, and vampires in the future, because they just got a giant bag full of new tricks.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Tarma wrote:
Thanks for the response James!

No prob!

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
ulgulanoth wrote:
is the paizo christmas filled with dinosaurs, goblins and madness beyond the stars?
In my office, yes.

Not unlike this, or this I am sure.

:)

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
nightflier wrote:

3) The four principle Chaos Gods in Warhammer are:

Khorne-Bloodlust/War/Death
Tzeentch-Change/Fate/Mutation
Nurgle-Plague/Despair/Disease
Slaanesh-Lust/Pleasure/Excess

Which would be their equivalent Demon Lords/Princes in D&D/Pathfinder?

3)I'm not all that familiar with the deities, so just going by your supplied lists of characteristics:

Khorne: Kostchtchie
Tzeentch: Haagenti
Nurgle: Cyth-V'sug
Slaanesh: Either Nocticula or Socothbenoth

And what if you add the demon princes and lords from earlier editions James, would you consider other names for that list?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

baron arem heshvaun wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
nightflier wrote:

3) The four principle Chaos Gods in Warhammer are:

Khorne-Bloodlust/War/Death
Tzeentch-Change/Fate/Mutation
Nurgle-Plague/Despair/Disease
Slaanesh-Lust/Pleasure/Excess

Which would be their equivalent Demon Lords/Princes in D&D/Pathfinder?

3)I'm not all that familiar with the deities, so just going by your supplied lists of characteristics:

Khorne: Kostchtchie
Tzeentch: Haagenti
Nurgle: Cyth-V'sug
Slaanesh: Either Nocticula or Socothbenoth
And what if you add the demon princes and lords from earlier editions James, would you consider other names for that list?

If you're talking about D&D demon lords, I'd suggest:

Khorne: Kostchtchie
Tzeentch: Baphomet or perhaps Pale Night or Dwiergus
Nurgle: Juiblex
Slaanesh: Malcanthet or Socothbenoth or Graz'zt


James Jacobs wrote:
doctor_wu wrote:
what is your favorite holiday on Golarion?
Swallowtail Festival. It's the first and the best!

Except when a bunch of torch-slinging goblins decide to crash the party. Or perhaps especially when that happens -- having the first combat encounter come to you, in the middle of a friendly town, instead of the characters getting together to go out looking for trouble, was a really nifty way to open that adventure path.

So, a question: can you recall any other adventures that have the same kind of hook as "Burnt Offerings?" (I.e. start with an attack on the PCs while they're minding their own business in a civilized area.)


James Jacobs wrote:
Sorry it's not a service we can offer. :-(

I didn't seriously expect that you could after the first no. I am planning to take the kids to Paizocon when they are old enough (assuming that they want to go). I'll get it signed then!

What is your favorite part of The Red Hand of Doom and/or favorite villian/NPC/BBEG/Monster in the same?

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Regarding the signed book questions, could Paizo take a limited number, say 100, have them all signed, and then list them as a separate (and more expensive) item - so there could be a Rise of the Runelords HC for normal price, and then a RotR HC (Signed) for normal price +$20 or something?

Contributor

How do you, if at all, consider something "canon" to Golarion? Based on Lost Cities of Golarion, it seems Xin-Shalast follows RotRL continuity. Was that just so Xin-Shalast could be added and be given an appropriate timeframe for the book or is that where Golarion lies in the line of events?

Basically, has any AP or module made its way into Golarion officialy?


IANJ, of course, but it looks to me as though APs are integrated into Golarion's continuity the way the various Star Wars computer games are integrated into the Expanded Universe continuity. That is, the continuity assumes the best-case outcome for the events of each AP, in which the PCs triumphed before the BBEG could do anything that would have any consequences that would have to be taken into account in the World Guide, such as restoring the kingdom of Shalast, destroying the population of Korvosa, bringing down a second Starfall, unleashing a spawn of Rovagug upon the world, establishing direct diabolic rule over Westcrown, turning the stolen lands into a barren desert, resurrecting the dead god of the serpentfolk, or freeing the Whispering Tyrant from his prison.

Dark Archive

I'm wondering do Kitsune in there normal form have hair on top of there heads or does that disapear when they are in that form?

Silver Crusade

"IANJ"... I think I have a new favorite acronym.


James, we have a really big plastic Christmas tree this year, and the cat is downright obsessed with it. She keeps sniffing it and rubbing up against it. Why is she so obsessed with a plastic tree?


Celestial Healer wrote:
"IANJ"... I think I have a new favorite acronym.

It took me several weeks of lurking to figure out what that meant.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Dal Selpher wrote:
Celestial Healer wrote:
"IANJ"... I think I have a new favorite acronym.
It took me several weeks of lurking to figure out what that meant.

then you're way ahead of me...


I Am Not James?

Or maybe Introverted Angelic iNtuitive Judging, if the celestial one likes it.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I am not Johnjacobheimerschmitz.

Clearly.

Contributor

Indeed, a nice jest!

Ye olde laughing out loud.


If you cast a Still magic missle while holding a metamagic rod in each hand, can you use both metamagic rods on the spell?

Silver Crusade

Treppa wrote:

I Am Not James?

Or maybe Introverted Angelic iNtuitive Judging, if the celestial one likes it.

Ooh, I like it! It's like my own personality profile.

Except I don't judge.

I'm too busy being delicious.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

A.P.P.L.E. wrote:
James, we have a really big plastic Christmas tree this year, and the cat is downright obsessed with it. She keeps sniffing it and rubbing up against it. Why is she so obsessed with a plastic tree?

IANJ, but one of my cats loves the tree, even though it's fake. He's more interested in the hanging ornaments that bounce around when he bats at them, as well as the branches, which he'll spend hours hitting with his paws so they shake and bounce back and forth. My other two cats seem to not care one way or another about the tree itself, but they like laying under the tree in the nice enclosed space between it and the floor (they get annoyed though when that space gets filled with gifts.)


Celestial Healer wrote:
I'm too busy being delicious.

Oh are you?

::looks for necessary items:: salt... pepper... bright red apple...


Kelpie Questions:

1) Which Kelpie art do you like better, the kelp lady in Racing to Ruin or the strange undead-horse-minotaur in Bestiary 2?

2) Why is the Kelpie such a weak creature in the Bestiary?

Kelpies are always one of my favorite creatures, I was disappointed with the Bestiary version, sad they didn't put the Raging-To-Ruin artwork into the bestiary, its a much better (still too weak tho) version.


Do you read webcomics? If so, which ones are your favorites? If not, do you know of anyone who does?

/hoping to find mspa fans on the paizo team


As long as I'm asking about old adventures, here are a couple more:

• What is/are your favorite adventure module(s) from original D&D, if you played any of the published modules for that game?

• What is/are your favorite adventure module(s) from the first edition of AD&D?

• Similar, but not quite the same question: if you had the rights to adapt and update any module or modules you wanted to from the aforementioned ancestors of Pathfinder to the PFRPG system and set them in Golarion, which ones, if any, would you choose?

These are not entirely idle questions, as I have copies of the majority of the modules TSR ever published for D&D and AD&D 1e, and I'm thinking about trying to convert some of them to run for the gaming group I'm putting together. Any suggestions you have for ones you think would fit especially well into PFRPG and Golarion would be welcome.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

JoelF847 wrote:
Regarding the signed book questions, could Paizo take a limited number, say 100, have them all signed, and then list them as a separate (and more expensive) item - so there could be a Rise of the Runelords HC for normal price, and then a RotR HC (Signed) for normal price +$20 or something?

We did something very much like that with all proceeds going to support Red Cross tsunami relief. I don't recall how many we did, but even at $150, we sold out in a few months.

Similar things may again happen.... someday.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Vic Wertz wrote:
JoelF847 wrote:
Regarding the signed book questions, could Paizo take a limited number, say 100, have them all signed, and then list them as a separate (and more expensive) item - so there could be a Rise of the Runelords HC for normal price, and then a RotR HC (Signed) for normal price +$20 or something?

We did something very much like that with all proceeds going to support Red Cross tsunami relief. I don't recall how many we did, but even at $150, we sold out in a few months.

Similar things may again happen.... someday.

...aaand, it turns out the warehouse guys did inventory today, and discovered a small stack of these. Less than a dozen, so don't delay!


This is the wrong thread for this but I don't feel like creating one just for it.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Joyus Yule, and so forth and so on to all the great staff at Paizo. I know you guys are takeing off some much needed time for relaxation with your familes and friends and I wish you all the very best of times.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kavren Stark wrote:
So, a question: can you recall any other adventures that have the same kind of hook as "Burnt Offerings?" (I.e. start with an attack on the PCs while they're minding their own business in a civilized area.)

Spoilering to avoid revealing too much about adventures folks might not want to know that much about...

Spoiler:
Realm of the Fellnight Queen does this. Council of Thieves' first adventure SORT of does this. I'm sure I could come up with others both before and after Burnt Offerings that start like this.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Itchy wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Sorry it's not a service we can offer. :-(

I didn't seriously expect that you could after the first no. I am planning to take the kids to Paizocon when they are old enough (assuming that they want to go). I'll get it signed then!

What is your favorite part of The Red Hand of Doom and/or favorite villian/NPC/BBEG/Monster in the same?

I can't remember her name... but the sexy hobgoblin bard in the sphinx turned out pretty cool. And the lich ended up nice as well. Probably a tie between the two of them.

My favorite part, though... probably the attack on Brindol. Although I was pretty pleased with the contents of the hag's room in the final dungeon as well...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

JoelF847 wrote:
Regarding the signed book questions, could Paizo take a limited number, say 100, have them all signed, and then list them as a separate (and more expensive) item - so there could be a Rise of the Runelords HC for normal price, and then a RotR HC (Signed) for normal price +$20 or something?

We've done similar things before, for charity reasons and the like. But the idea of artificially inflating the price of some books just by having us sign names in them and then selling them for more for extra Paizo profit seems a little shady to me...

It's one thing if someone e-bays a signed Pathifnder book, but it's quite another if we just do that right here on the store.

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