RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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With this talk about kitsunes and werefoxes I can't help but ask this question: Can a Kitsune contract Lycantrhopy from a Werefox, and if he could would he look any different in 'hybrid' form?
Rofl, when you start giving Lycantrhopy to animal races things just get weird. Tengu Werebat! Rar!
Edit: Now I'm totally envisioning a campaign scenario where a kitsune community becomes violent on full moons, but they can't figure out why because they don't look any different during their rampages XD
Over the weekend, I was in a game and upon hearing the description of a young owlbear, my first thought was that it was a werebear tengu!
My question is about the Age of Worms AP.
I am playing a human wizard, as my back story would it be game breaking to be the son of either Allustan or Elligos. It gives me a great way to be introduced and those are the two main wizard NPC's that the DM mentioned I could learn from.
It should not be an issue or disrupt the plotline unless your GM changes things in such a way that it becomes an issue. I think it can be interesting...
I ran the adventure, but I don't want to give any spoilers out.
5)What was Zon-Kuthon a god of, before he visited the dark tapestry and become Zon-Kuthon? What was his domains?5) We haven't revealed that—that's a campaign secret not quite on par with "How did Aroden die?"
Is that information no longer correct? Or did you forget that it was written up? Before I looked up that info my wild, almost certainly inaccurate, guess was going to be that Zon-Kuthon was actually Aroden.
Over the weekend, I was in a game and upon hearing the description of a young owlbear, my first thought was that it was a werebear tengu!
Oh no XD
Actually, this does bring up a question: will the Lycantrhope hybrid form of an animal race have obvious traits from the base race? (such as in the owlbear = werebear tengu example).
Creative Director
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Well, does Alkenstar have pike and firearm tactics as a common method of warfare? Does it have flamboyant mercenary bands?
Flamboyant mercenary bands can show up anywhere.
As for their common tactics of warfare—Alkenstar's primary "war targets" would be the mutant gnolls of the Mana Wastes and the giant tribes to the west—both non-traditional foes that likely require non-traditional fighting methods. Furthermore, since the "pike" isn't currently in the rules, chances of pikes showing up as significant weaponry in a Golarion region are slim.
Coffee? Tea?
You don't think the flamboyant pike, shot, and cannon mercenaries and 16th century style politics would be an awesome backdrop for a game, Justin? I'm thinking I may have to homebrew it someday if it fits Alkenstar.
Nope that was a question for James. So once again.
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Creative Director
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So my trip to Seattle last week was very successful, and it looks like I'll be moving there in the next month or two. Since I don't know anyone personally who lives there:
1) do you have any general advice to someone moving to Seattle?
2) do you have any recommended neighborhoods or suburbs to look to buy a home in if I'll be working near downtown?
3) Other than Paizocon, what other gaming related places and events should I check out in the Seattle area?
1) If you don't have a car, the closer to downtown that you first move will make it much easier to get around via the bus system.
2) If you're working near downtown, Queen Anne and Capital Hill are both pretty convenient neighborhoods to look into... but the folks I've talked to who have lived there have had mixed reviews of it. Several folks at Paizo live in the Ballard area and have rave reviews about living there.
3) Norwescon is a big event. The Sci-Fi museum's a pretty geek-friendly place. And the fact that there's lots of game companies (tabletop AND computer) in the area means that the entire region is VERY gaming friendly. If you move to Ballard, there's an INCREDIBLE game store there named Card Kingdom... I'd say it's probably the best game store in the entire region.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I've lived in 3 areas up here. When I first moved to the region, I lived in north Seattle in the Greenwood neighborhood—very nice neighborhood, felt pretty safe and had lots of nearby entertainments and shopping. I then moved down to Renton, and that was not as nice—got my apartment burgled once and quite often had nearby domestic disputes flare up. And commuting to and from Renton is hellish. I currently live in Redmond—of the three places I've lived, it's BY FAR the nicest. It's quiet, safe, has a great mix of urban and wilderness areas in close proximity, but is close enough to Bellevue and Seattle that (on a normal day without traffic) it's never more than a half-hour drive to get where you need to go—be that a sporting event, a trip to the big city, skiing, boating, or whatever.
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Creative Director
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With this talk about kitsunes and werefoxes I can't help but ask this question: Can a Kitsune contract Lycantrhopy from a Werefox, and if he could would he look any different in 'hybrid' form?
Rofl, when you start giving Lycantrhopy to animal races things just get weird. Tengu Werebat! Rar!
Edit: Now I'm totally envisioning a campaign scenario where a kitsune community becomes violent on full moons, but they can't figure out why because they don't look any different during their rampages XD
Yup, a kitsune can indeed contract lycantrhopy from a werefox... although from a game-design viewpoint, I would say that this is kinda like putting a big layer of peanut butter on a peanut butter sandwich—more is not always better.
In my opinion... Lycantrhopy is at its best, from a story viewpoint, when it afflicts humans. The more different the base humanoid is from human, the less interested I get.
1) Is Count Varian Jeggare related to the Jeggares mention in the Guide to Korvosa?
2) How big is the Jeggare Clan?
3) Are they all gentlemen explorers?
Well, does Alkenstar have pike and firearm tactics as a common method of warfare? Does it have flamboyant mercenary bands?Flamboyant mercenary bands can show up anywhere.
As for their common tactics of warfare—Alkenstar's primary "war targets" would be the mutant gnolls of the Mana Wastes and the giant tribes to the west—both non-traditional foes that likely require non-traditional fighting methods. Furthermore, since the "pike" isn't currently in the rules, chances of pikes showing up as significant weaponry in a Golarion region are slim.
Pikes are in the rules. You just call them longspears for some reason. Though, I guess if you wanted to be really accurate, you could up reach to 15 feet.
Still, thanks for answering my question.
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5)What was Zon-Kuthon a god of, before he visited the dark tapestry and become Zon-Kuthon? What was his domains?5) We haven't revealed that—that's a campaign secret not quite on par with "How did Aroden die?"** spoiler omitted **
Is that information no longer correct? Or did you forget that it was written up? Before I looked up that info my wild, almost certainly inaccurate, guess was going to be that Zon-Kuthon was actually Aroden.
That information is still correct... but we didn't reveal his domains or much more about him—I sort of fixated on the last part of the question, I guess.
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Creative Director
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Over the weekend, I was in a game and upon hearing the description of a young owlbear, my first thought was that it was a werebear tengu!Oh no XD
Actually, this does bring up a question: will the Lycantrhope hybrid form of an animal race have obvious traits from the base race? (such as in the owlbear = werebear tengu example).
If it doesn't have obvious traits from the base race, why is it a lycanthrope in the first place?
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Creative Director
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You don't think the flamboyant pike, shot, and cannon mercenaries and 16th century style politics would be an awesome backdrop for a game, Justin? I'm thinking I may have to homebrew it someday if it fits Alkenstar.Nope that was a question for James. So once again.
?
I thought that by not answering that one I was clear... but I guess not:
I answer questions here. A single punctuation mark is not a question.
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Creative Director
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Well, does Alkenstar have pike and firearm tactics as a common method of warfare? Does it have flamboyant mercenary bands?Flamboyant mercenary bands can show up anywhere.
As for their common tactics of warfare—Alkenstar's primary "war targets" would be the mutant gnolls of the Mana Wastes and the giant tribes to the west—both non-traditional foes that likely require non-traditional fighting methods. Furthermore, since the "pike" isn't currently in the rules, chances of pikes showing up as significant weaponry in a Golarion region are slim.
Pikes are in the rules. You just call them longspears for some reason. Though, I guess if you wanted to be really accurate, you could up reach to 15 feet.
Still, thanks for answering my question.
In a game where conjurer and sorcerer mean SIGNIFICANTLY different things, or where the words priest and cleric cannot be used as synonyms, or where a fighter and a warrior are quite different... let's just say those of us who work day in and day out on the game quickly learn that you can't use real-world synonyms for things. Or if you do, you have to be very careful.
If I said in anything we printed that an NPC was wielding a pike but then listed the stats for it using a longspear—that would be perfectly fine in representing a "pike-wielding character" but would cause quite the tempest in a teapot on these boards.
Alas, that also makes it really difficult to stat up a pike, since really... it ISN'T that different from a longspear.
Well, does Alkenstar have pike and firearm tactics as a common method of warfare? Does it have flamboyant mercenary bands?Flamboyant mercenary bands can show up anywhere.
As for their common tactics of warfare—Alkenstar's primary "war targets" would be the mutant gnolls of the Mana Wastes and the giant tribes to the west—both non-traditional foes that likely require non-traditional fighting methods. Furthermore, since the "pike" isn't currently in the rules, chances of pikes showing up as significant weaponry in a Golarion region are slim.
Pikes are in the rules. You just call them longspears for some reason. Though, I guess if you wanted to be really accurate, you could up reach to 15 feet.
Still, thanks for answering my question.
In a game where conjurer and sorcerer mean SIGNIFICANTLY different things, or where the words priest and cleric cannot be used as synonyms, or where a fighter and a warrior are quite different... let's just say those of us who work day in and day out on the game quickly learn that you can't use real-world synonyms for things. Or if you do, you have to be very careful.
If I said in anything we printed that an NPC was wielding a pike but then listed the stats for it using a longspear—that would be perfectly fine in representing a "pike-wielding character" but would cause quite the tempest in a teapot on these boards.
Alas, that also makes it really difficult to stat up a pike, since really... it ISN'T that different from a longspear.
Just type the words "A pike is identical to a longspear" or "A pike is treated as a longspear with a 15 foot reach) when the pike pops up. Then you've explained how pikes work in game.
Why do you think it would cause a tempest on the boards?
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Creative Director
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Just type the words "A pike is identical to a longspear" or "A pike is treated as a longspear with a 15 foot reach) when the pike pops up. Then you've explained how pikes work in game.
Why do you think it would cause a tempest on the boards?
Because of the way I've seen similar topics erupt.
And honestly, typing "a pike is identical to a longspear" inside of one NPC's stat block in some random adventure is just setting us a trap, since a day or a week or a month or a year or a decade later someone on another team who hasn't closely read that encounter will make up a pike and suddenly we've got a rules contradiction.
We can't prevent ALL rules contradiction, but we can minimize them by resisting the urge to do things like nail down what a pike is in a non-intuitive location.
Zoe these people would have a fit if you don't use the right words, especially in the rules forum.
PS:I have to admit that sometimes I am a part of "these people".
There would have to be a statement in the character's statblock "treat as longspear". You can't just put an item in the game(an AP or module) in official products if it does not exist in a published rulebook.
ninja'd by James
One of my players wants to play a Drunken Master so I looked up the effects of Alcohol for him and we found the description in the Game Mastery guide:
Just like drugs, alcohol can be abused and have significant negative effects. In general, a character can consume a number of alcoholic beverages equal to 1 plus double his Constitution modifier before being sickened for 1 hour equal to the number of drinks above this maximum. Particularly exotic or strong forms of alcohol might be treated as normal drugs. Those who regularly abuse alcohol might eventually develop a moderate addiction.
This really just describes the effects of Alcohol poisoning.
There are several rules that refer to intoxication but I can't seem to find what intoxication should do.
He really wants the drinks to have an effect on him.
You don't think the flamboyant pike, shot, and cannon mercenaries and 16th century style politics would be an awesome backdrop for a game, Justin? I'm thinking I may have to homebrew it someday if it fits Alkenstar.Nope that was a question for James. So once again.
?
I thought that by not answering that one I was clear... but I guess not:
I answer questions here. A single punctuation mark is not a question.
And here I thought for sure you would take the opportunity to come up with a good insult response.
Is there chocolate in Golarion?
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Is there chocolate in Golarion?
The people of Golarion have enough problems. Why would you deny them chocolate?
1)Who developed the the planets, other then Golarion?
2)If the Lashunta are very interested in knowledge, do they have any type of technology?
3)What kind or kinds of knowledge(history, science, magic, other cultures, etc.) interest them?
4)How are Catfolk look at/treated in Garund?
5)Do male Lashunta have antanea?
6)Have you seen Underworld Awakening yet? if so did you like it?
7)Did you finally get aroud to watching Sucker Punch? if so what did you think?
8)What are the genders of the Runelords? Did they have a master/leader(8th member) in the beginnig?
9)Since we have a Pestilence sorcerer bloodline, what the odds of getting War, Famine, and Death as well?
10)Will Paizo have any major product anouncements before july?
Hey James,
around when will you have a decent idea of how successful the current Tian Xia books have been for you to know if more is a good business decision?
Six months? a year or two? less? more?
Dear James Jacobs,
Do you use random encounter tables in your games? If so, how do you spread the CRs of the encounters? Mostly in a -1 to +3 range like in the book, or are you the guy who would through a drastically lower / higher CR encounter at your PCs as well that the party is supposed to blast through / flee for their pathetic lives from?
To a certain extent, all game design is "use your judgement" and "compare your creation to existing similar creations." For monsters and magic items we can get a little bit more technical with things like the pricing estimate chart or Table 1–1 in the Bestiary... but spells are among the HARDEST things to design for the game since they're used far more often than monsters or magic items... and since they're much more in the hands of players than GMs.
And in part because things like the magic item guidelines can leverage the judgment used in creating spells by using spell level as a pricing guideline. (Which suggests another spell design guideline; if you notice your spell tends to result in unbalanced magic items, you might want to take a closer look at the spell.)
Hmm. Speaking of spell judgment — James, what do you consider your biggest mistake in spell design that actually made it to print? Or are there no spells you regret?
Is there chocolate in Golarion?The people of Golarion have enough problems. Why would you deny them chocolate?
Sugar's pretty hard/expensive to grow/process. Is chocolate without sugar a consolation?
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Creative Director
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I know coffee exists in Golarion (a bit of flavour text in Event 4 of Broken Moon has the steward at the hunting lodge serve some to the PCs) but is it just the original form of coffee or has the espresso process (forcing near-boiling water under-pressure through the coffee) been discovered yet? I imagine some of the more advanced societies in Golarion could've built manual espresso machines by now.
No espresso on Golarion. Alas.
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Creative Director
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Hey James,
around when will you have a decent idea of how successful the current Tian Xia books have been for you to know if more is a good business decision?Six months? a year or two? less? more?
That's more of an Erik or a Lisa question. They probably have a good preliminary idea already in fact.
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Creative Director
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1)Who developed the the planets, other then Golarion?
2)If the Lashunta are very interested in knowledge, do they have any type of technology?
3)What kind or kinds of knowledge(history, science, magic, other cultures, etc.) interest them?
4)How are Catfolk look at/treated in Garund?
5)Do male Lashunta have antanea?
6)Have you seen Underworld Awakening yet? if so did you like it?
7)Did you finally get aroud to watching Sucker Punch? if so what did you think?
8)What are the genders of the Runelords? Did they have a master/leader(8th member) in the beginnig?
9)Since we have a Pestilence sorcerer bloodline, what the odds of getting War, Famine, and Death as well?
10)Will Paizo have any major product anouncements before july?
1) I don't understand your use of the word "developed," unless you're asking who developed the book?
2) I'm not sure; that's probably covered in Distant Worlds to a certain extent.
3) See #2 above.
4) Depends on who's doing the looking and treating.
5) See #2 above, but I suspect they do.
6) Haven't seen it yet. I hope to next week; this week's free time is mostly taken up by writing.
7) Haven't gotten it yet. It's in the mail on its way here from Netflix though.
8) The "Master" was Emperor Xin. He wasn't a runelord, though. The genders are, going from the most powerful to least powerful: Male, Female, Female, Male, Male, Female, Male.
9) Pretty poor. The only reason we have a pestilence bloodline is because I wanted one for a character in the penultimate Council of Thieves AP.
10) Depends on your definition of "major."
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Creative Director
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Dear James Jacobs,
Do you use random encounter tables in your games? If so, how do you spread the CRs of the encounters? Mostly in a -1 to +3 range like in the book, or are you the guy who would through a drastically lower / higher CR encounter at your PCs as well that the party is supposed to blast through / flee for their pathetic lives from?
I absolutely do. Look at the encounter tables we publish in an AP on the first page of an AP bestiary to see the type of tables I prefer to use. I'm not a big fan of letting a wandering encounter TPK a party though, so if I roll up something I know has a good chance of causing one I just reroll.
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Creative Director
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Hmm. Speaking of spell judgment — James, what do you consider your biggest mistake in spell design that actually made it to print? Or are there no spells you regret?
I've probably had over a hundred spells in print... enough that I can't remember them all. A lot of them ended up getting into the Spell Compendium, and I seem to recall ONE of them being a favorite "THAT'S BROKEN" one for folks to harp on... of course, whether or not it's broken because of something I designed in it or because of something a developer or editor did to it... I can't say. Especially because I can't remember what spell it was...
And I've certainly designed my fair share of spells with big mistakes... but that's what developers and editors are for! Catching them before they see print!
Well "major" could mean a hardcover book or when several softcover books are announced. Since the next Hardcover will more than likely be announced around july or august I would go with the other for that question.
What are the runelord names in order from greatest to least and what sin are they?
I mean who designed the planets and there themes, environments, inhabbitants, etc,?
Also Roger Corman is producing a movie coming out this year called "Attack of the 50ft Cheerleader".
Finally got my mini case today (stupid inclement weather in Seattle).
Very nice mini's. The plastic seems much more rigid than the WoTC minis (not a flame war, observation). I really like the fact the Frost Giant had optional weapons. :)
I am a tiny bit curious, with only 40 minis, and 7 of them large, it seems like there was a dearth of PC type minis (4 goblins, 2 orcs, lizardfolk, vampire, animals, etc), and most of those were human (1 half orc, one elf, one half-elf, 5 humans, 1 gnome). All in all, it seems like there was a bit of halfling hate going on, since there wasn't a single halfling figure.
I was curious if you could share some insight into how the mini's were picked? Again, I love them (especially the black dragon!), but just curious.
Also, is the large spider supposed to have a mishappen mandible, or did I just get a factory oops? :) Love the medium sized spider by the way, I think it and the wolf are two of the best mini's I've seen. Super detailed.
If it doesn't have obvious traits from the base race, why is it a lycanthrope in the first place?
Yea, I know XD I have just been unsure what 'level' the obvious traits would go down to. Like, does the hybrid form just keep the basic humanoid shape of the infected, or would a lycanthrope tengu keep things like feathers or his beak? Usually shifting into a hybrid form involves growing fur and bigger muscles, not losing things like feathers or fox tails. However, if they don't loose a lot of these things, it might be hard to tell that they're even supposed to be a lycanthrope.
And yea, I know that it is generally best to stick to humans getting lycantheropy, but you know that these situations will come up at some point just randomly through combat dice rolls now that we have more people playing 'animal' races ;)
What are the Horsemen of the Apocalypse's respective holy symbols?
Alternatively, which books can I look into to find that information?
James,
If a Kitsune got infected with Were-orc lycanthropy, would it become some crazy fox/orc on the full moon or would it become a fox/orc when some other event occurs? Just wondering in case a Kitsune gets bitten by a Wereorc Bear.
Also, do you mind the occasional absurd question?
Oh! Serious question, Do you play console games like Soul Caliber? The new one is out today and I'm thrilled about this.
-Tundra
8) The "Master" was Emperor Xin. He wasn't a runelord, though. The genders are, going from the most powerful to least powerful: Male, Female, Female, Male, Male, Female, Male.
Interesting.
Would you mind telling me if I'm on the right track, going in the same order?
Also, was Xin more powerful than any of his empire's later runelords?
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Creative Director
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Well "major" could mean a hardcover book or when several softcover books are announced. Since the next Hardcover will more than likely be announced around july or august I would go with the other for that question.
What are the runelord names in order from greatest to least and what sin are they?
I mean who designed the planets and there themes, environments, inhabbitants, etc,?
Also Roger Corman is producing a movie coming out this year called "Attack of the 50ft Cheerleader".
Then July, at Paizocon, will likely be the point at which we make our next big stack of major announcements. We could announce something earlier though, and we certainly will in the case of smaller books now and then.
Runelords: Xanderghul (pride), Sorshen (lust), Alaznist (wrath), Karzoug (greed), Zutha (gluttony), Belimarius (envy), and Krune (sloth).
James Sutter.
Ha!
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Creative Director
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I am a tiny bit curious, with only 40 minis, and 7 of them large, it seems like there was a dearth of PC type minis (4 goblins, 2 orcs, lizardfolk, vampire, animals, etc), and most of those were human (1 half orc, one elf, one half-elf, 5 humans, 1 gnome). All in all, it seems like there was a bit of halfling hate going on, since there wasn't a single halfling figure.
I was curious if you could share some insight into how the mini's were picked? Again, I love them (especially the black dragon!), but just curious.
Also, is the large spider supposed to have a mishappen mandible, or did I just get a factory oops? :) Love the medium sized spider by the way, I think it and the wolf are two of the best mini's I've seen. Super detailed.
You answered your own question: there's a "dearth" of PC type minis because so far we've only released like 44—don't forget the four iconics!
And there's no gnome/halfling hate–it's simply the fact that small minis are a lot harder to paint due to their size.
For this first set, the minis were actually originally intended to be a Mage Knight expansion, but when Paizo and Wizkids joined forces, the set got ret-conned into a Pathfinder set. Most of the existing sculpts were abandoned and redone. But we wanted a good sampling of all sorts of minis in the set, and that included lots of monsters.
As we do more and more sets, the options will (obviously) improve for PC choices. In fact, there's quite a few of them in the upcoming Runelords set, which focuses on the NPCs and monsters of that adventure path (so, unfortunately for gnome and halfling fans... not much to look forward to there either).
Dunno about the large spider mini.
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Creative Director
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James,
If a Kitsune got infected with Were-orc lycanthropy, would it become some crazy fox/orc on the full moon or would it become a fox/orc when some other event occurs? Just wondering in case a Kitsune gets bitten by a Wereorc Bear.
Also, do you mind the occasional absurd question?
Oh! Serious question, Do you play console games like Soul Caliber? The new one is out today and I'm thrilled about this.
-Tundra
Not possible; lycanthropy can only infect a humanoid with an animal. Orc is not an animal. A kitsune bitten by a werebear orc would become a werebear and wouldn't inherit ANY orc traits at all.
Nope, I answered the previous question, after all! ;-P
I play LOTS of console games, but I prefer RPGs, first-person shooters, and stealth-type games. Don't play many fighting games at all except when I'm visiting friends an one of those games is on.
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Creative Director
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Would you mind telling me if I'm on the right track, going in the same order?** spoiler omitted **
Also, was Xin more powerful than any of his empire's later runelords?
I listed the actual names a few posts up... you were kinda close, I guess!
At the time of his death, Xin was not more powerful than all of the current runelords. He was somewhere in the middle.
Well, poo, I thought you were going to be all secret-y about it. :P
Edit: Actually, Xin being in the middle puts him at about the same power as Karzoug... how interesting.