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Do you want Kelsey MacAilbert to stop making aliases in order to ask you questions?
Do you want Kelsey MacAilbert to stop making aliases in order to ask you questions?
I lol'd.
Anyway...
James,
In our campaigns we usually have something goofy happening to unwind after a long period of tension.
So my question is, are your campaigns serious with a touch of silly, or silly with a touch of serious or all darn serious?
If your answer is "All serious" then I ask, Why so serious?
-Tundra
Creative Director
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James. I read through City of Seven Spears last night. It seems to me that the city itself ends up being generally a massacre or a long series of assassinations. There seems to be few ways to peacefully form an alliance. And generally the exploration of the city is a little sparse. But the AP sort of implies that these things should be part of the story.
Have I somehow completely missed something here?
I mostly am asking here as you are in the writing credits!!
City of Seven Spears is intended to be a HUGE sandbox. How long the PCs take exploring the city and having encounters in it is up to them and the GM—they don't have to explore the whole place before you start the next adventure, and in fact, if they stumble into any of the dungeons from the next adventure before finishing "Seven Spears," that's fine. In a way, parts 3 and 4 of Serpent's Skull are meant to be one giant sandbox adventure.
That said...
I'm running "Serpent's Skull" for my own group, and they're in the middle of "City of Seven Spears" right now. I've made quite a few changes to the way things pan out in order to vary things, but it did take some extra work—
1) I added a lengthy underground complex that led into the city that was a boggard nest under the aboleth's control... the PCs ended up entering the city from the south.
2) I ran the attack on the troglodyte district as a huge assault, with the PCs attacking the central ziggurat and then enduring several waves of monsters in order to defeat them and gain control.
3) The vegypygmy district ended up being a diplomatic mission, with the vegepygmies sending the PCs up to kill both the greenhag (this was a short, 8 room dungeon crawl through her manor in which the PCs fought several plant monsters), and then sent the PCs up into the charau-ka district to assassinate the leader of that zone. They did good on the first one, but the second one they got caught and it developed into another mass assault like on the troglodytes.
4) Going forward, I'm gonna be adding another complex for the PCs to explore on the central island, and I'm gonna have the human district hire the PCs to take care of the spooky vampire thing, and the boggard district is gonna invade their campsite with help from an enemy faction.
5) I've gathered ALL of the dungeons in Part 4 into one big megadungeon that is Savith's Crypt. At some point, Juliver'll stagger out of it and the PCs will start a delve down into it that'll eventually lead to Ilvarandin.
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Creative Director
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1)If you are subscriber and there is an item you do not want, you have to cancel your subscription to not get it, correct?
2)Seen any movies lately? if so did you like them?
3)What is the weirdest thing you have ever seen a person do in game? out of game?
4)What is the scariest animal you have ever encountered in the wild?
5)Have you ever been to the circus? if so what is the weirdest one you have been too?
6)Top five favorite tv shows you are currently watching?
7)Is the next revisited book after the giants one going to be monster based? if so then will it be something other then undead or evil outsider related?
1) Yup.
2) Most recent movie I saw in the theater was "The Grey." I quite liked it. I'm going to see "The Woman in Black" tonight. Just came down from a long binge of writing (the Magnimar book!) and haven't had much time to see many other movies lately as a result...
3) During a game: Eat cottage cheese with lots of cinnamon poured onto it. Not during a game: too many to choose from, but seeing a homeless man hold downtown Seattle's traffic "hostage" by standing on the street corner down at the base of the building I worked in with a katana on his shoulder that he'd wave at anyone who came close and it took the better part of the day for the city's combined fireman and police force to deal with (they took so long because they didn't want to overly hurt the guy) has to be pretty high up on the list.
4) Probably a tie between a wild boar and a blue shark. I've been CLOSE to encountering a mountain lion a few times (a friend of mine saw one lounging on the picnic table in our front yard when he arrived for a game one night, but the lion was gone by the time I found out).
5) Yes, but only once. It was a pretty generic standard circus. I was a kid at the time so I can't recall many details.
6) From shows on Netflix/Tivo I'm currently in the middle of watching: Alcatraz, Archer, Hell on Wheels, The Walking Dead, and Fringe. The two I'm really anticipating getting into are The River and Game of Thrones's 2nd season.
7) Yes; and in fact with the exception of "Classic Treasures," ALL of the revisited books are monster based. The next one after "Giants Revisited" will not have undead OR evil outsiders. It WILL be on a subject I've wanted to do for a long, long time.
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Creative Director
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James, do you like the Eldritch Knight?
Ever played an Eldritch Knight?
Ever made a BBEG that you love very, very dearly?
Ever qualified for Eldritch Knight without any levels of Fighter or Wizard?
Do you like the idea of a Ranger/Witch (Gravewalker archetype)/Eldritch Knight lich who fights with a scythe as a BBEG?
Do you like Libris Mortis?
Do you like the stitched flesh familiar feat (It's like a flesh golem, but a kitty!) from Libris Mortis?
Do you like the idea of letting the above lich have a familiar instead of the poppet Gravewalkers normally get so that she can take the stitched flesh familiar feat?
Is it bad for me, as a GM, to treat this BBEG as a character?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes (the BBEG for Curse of the Crimson Throne is probably still my favorite that I've come up with)
Yup.
Yup.
Yup.
Yup.
Sure!
Only if that tricks you into favoritism and bending/breaking the rules if the PCs fairly defeat that character by allowing the BBEG to survive or escape.
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Creative Director
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So my question is, are your campaigns serious with a touch of silly, or silly with a touch of serious or all darn serious?
If your answer is "All serious" then I ask, Why so serious?
My campaigns ALWAYS have touches of silly or whimsy in them. A good example of my sense of humor is Pathfinder #1, in fact, in the adventure "Burnt Offerings" and the writeup for Sandpoint. Both have a lot of spooky, grim parts... but they ALSO both have a lot of funny stuff.
7) Yes; and in fact with the exception of "Classic Treasures," ALL of the revisited books are monster based. The next one after "Giants Revisited" will not have undead OR evil outsiders. It WILL be on a subject I've wanted to do for a long, long time.
When will that one be announced?
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Creative Director
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7) Yes; and in fact with the exception of "Classic Treasures," ALL of the revisited books are monster based. The next one after "Giants Revisited" will not have undead OR evil outsiders. It WILL be on a subject I've wanted to do for a long, long time.When will that one be announced?
My guess: in about 4 months. Maybe 5. By Paizo Con for sure.
I think you might have missed this question because I asked it between two longer paragraphs, one a comment on your answer to my previous question, and the other my own answer to one part of the question. I'll try not to do that again, or at least to put the question in bold next time. Anyway, what are your favorite core prestige class and your favorite prestige class from any other publication? What were the most game-breaking and the just plain silliest PrCs you can recall seeing in print?
A whole bunch of interesting stuff on Serpent Skull
Wow. Thanks for the background, I had no idea. Also thanks for some ideas how to fill the holes, I intend to fill out explore/roleplay/slay paths for all parts of the city.
I also agree with your foreword sentiment. I do not like the sandbox/railroad terms. I prefer to call it Event driven story and Character driven story.
... said quite a bit about serpent's skull...
I ran all of serpent's skull for a group. My experiences differ greatly. The vegypygmy's only speak vegypygmy so the party didn't talk to them. The Hag watched the party butcher quite a bit of stuff right outside her window (a random encounter) so she came clean with them and didn't commit suicide via party and became an ally. The best part of that entire AP was "Suddenly Spiders!".
It's very interesting to me how everyone has their different experiences going in and out of that AP. I also changed the Vaults of Madness to have different forms of madness for each vault. Honestly I was disappointed with Vaults of Madness as it was 6 dungeon crawls with the same conditions in each.
Anyway, Do you like hearing how other GM's have managed to run things James?
I also have a question I'd like to ask but it might be upsetting to some. Can I send you a PM for that?
-Tundra
I couldn't find this anywhere else, so thought I'd ask here. For the purposes of the Magus class and its one-handed weapon "requirement" for casting, would a lance used while mounted (can be used one-handed) be considered a one-handed weapon allowing its use in spellstrike and spell combat?No. A lance is a 2 handed weapon. AKA: The magus's class abilities only care about the base classification of the weapon, not weird corner cases.
Makes me a bit of a sad panda but thanks for the response!! Vastly appreciate it.
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Creative Director
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I think you might have missed this question because I asked it between two longer paragraphs, one a comment on your answer to my previous question, and the other my own answer to one part of the question. I'll try not to do that again, or at least to put the question in bold next time. Anyway, what are your favorite core prestige class and your favorite prestige class from any other publication? What were the most game-breaking and the just plain silliest PrCs you can recall seeing in print?
There's something to be said for not writing long replies to my replies if you actually have a question you'd like me not to miss because I tend to only skim long replies to my replies. ;-)
Favorite core prestige classes: assassin (because it works so very well with so many monsters) and duelists (because I like buckling swash).
Favorite non-core prestige classes: Red mantis assassin, harrower, inner sea pirate.
The Dervish Dancer from 3.5 D&D was, to me, a perfect idea for a class (again, it let me buckle some swash)... but at the highest level, you were not only moving all over the fight but you were making a RIDICULOUS number of attacks. Whether or not that meant you were overpowered or not was, in my opinion, irrelevant in light of the fact that your turn would end up taking as long as everyone else's turn at the table combined. It actually broke the FLOW of the game, not just the rules, by making your turn last for so long that everyone else (GM included) lost track of what was going on in the combat.
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Creative Director
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Anyway, Do you like hearing how other GM's have managed to run things James?
I also have a question I'd like to ask but it might be upsetting to some. Can I send you a PM for that?
I do. Not in this thread, necessarily, since this thread is for "asking questions" and not "chatting about games." :-P But I do like hearing about how GMs make Adventure Paths their own.
And by all means PM me. I'll make sure to actually check my PMs, in fact. Which I haven't done so yet... hmmm...
1)So James did you go see "The Woman in Black"? if so what did you think?
2)Is there any revisited books planned that are not monster related?
3)What are your favorite classes, as a DM, to make into villians?
4)Are there any old movies you would actually like to see remade?
5)Any TV shows you liked but felt they ended too soon?
I've been trying to figure out what lies to the east of the Tors of Levenies but can't seem to place it. I originally thought it to be more north and beside Iobaria but have since reconsidered.
I'm not real sure where the windswept wastes fit into this either.
So, what is to the east of the Tors of Levenies and also to the east of Galt? Where are these in relation to the Windswept Wastes?
Thanks in advance.
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Creative Director
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1)So James did you go see "The Woman in Black"? if so what did you think?
2)Is there any revisited books planned that are not monster related?
3)What are your favorite classes, as a DM, to make into villians?
4)Are there any old movies you would actually like to see remade?
5)Any TV shows you liked but felt they ended too soon?
1) I'll be going to see it tonight at 7:30 if all goes according to plan.
2) Nope. We did one so far—Classic Treasures, but I think I like that series better when they're about monsters.
3) Ones that the player characters don't expect to be able to ruin them.
4) Yes. Lots. The three Quatermass movies, for example—great writing and great acting but the effects haven't aged well, and since those movies were SO influential on modern stuff like X-Files and the like, the stories themselves have aged REMARKABLY well.
5) Lots. But none more so than Carnivale.
James,
Have you ever tried to play a game over a VTT (i.e. like MapTools)?
SIDE QUESTION: I think I have the means to run Warhammer 3E on MapTools, and was curious if you'd ever like to just play an introductory game for kicks? See what the game is like, and have a Maptools experience at the same time. If so, there's no pressure to do it any time soon. I'm thinking some "to be determined point in the future".
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Creative Director
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I've been trying to figure out what lies to the east of the Tors of Levenies but can't seem to place it. I originally thought it to be more north and beside Iobaria but have since reconsidered.
I'm not real sure where the windswept wastes fit into this either.
So, what is to the east of the Tors of Levenies and also to the east of Galt? Where are these in relation to the Windswept Wastes?
Thanks in advance.
All we've done so far about Iobaria is summarized in the gazetteer we published in Pathfinder #33. That doesn't really extend all the way south to be adjacent to Galt, if I remember correctly...
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Creative Director
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James,
Have you ever tried to play a game over a VTT (i.e. like MapTools)?
SIDE QUESTION: I think I have the means to run Warhammer 3E on MapTools, and was curious if you'd ever like to just play an introductory game for kicks? See what the game is like, and have a Maptools experience at the same time. If so, there's no pressure to do it any time soon. I'm thinking some "to be determined point in the future".
I've always wanted to, but never had the opportunity to try.
Does Maptools run on a Mac? If not, then I can't.
I would like to try though—if you ever get it up and running let me know!
I've always wanted to, but never had the opportunity to try.
Does Maptools run on a Mac? If not, then I can't.
I would like to try though—if you ever get it up and running let me know!
MapTools runs on a Mac. Its Java based for exactly that reason.
;)
I have to take care of a few things (freelance wise), and re-read the WH3E rules... but we'll do it. I bet you'll get slammed with people wanting to run Pathfinder for you now!
All we've done so far about Iobaria is summarized in the gazetteer we published in Pathfinder #33. That doesn't really extend all the way south to be adjacent to Galt, if I remember correctly...I've been trying to figure out what lies to the east of the Tors of Levenies but can't seem to place it. I originally thought it to be more north and beside Iobaria but have since reconsidered.
I'm not real sure where the windswept wastes fit into this either.
So, what is to the east of the Tors of Levenies and also to the east of Galt? Where are these in relation to the Windswept Wastes?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks
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All we've done so far about Iobaria is summarized in the gazetteer we published in Pathfinder #33. That doesn't really extend all the way south to be adjacent to Galt, if I remember correctly...I've been trying to figure out what lies to the east of the Tors of Levenies but can't seem to place it. I originally thought it to be more north and beside Iobaria but have since reconsidered.
I'm not real sure where the windswept wastes fit into this either.
So, what is to the east of the Tors of Levenies and also to the east of Galt? Where are these in relation to the Windswept Wastes?
Thanks in advance.
@The Thing from Beyond the Edge
If you haven't seen it here is the Iobaria map and timeline. Beautiful.Questions:
1) We will see more player friendly factions? Factions that a player can join, with better rules to use them in a typical game?
I am using factions in my Kingmaker game, all the players are associated with the Sworlord faction and some of the rewards for the missions and kingdom development are prestige points with that faction.
Then some of them have joined a faction on individual basis.
A ranger that is a follower of Erastil is linked to his church fation, he get prestige for the Erastil related missions and whe the kindrom build Erastil related structures.
Another ranger (it is a 6 man game) is a member of the Pathfinders. He don't get directly missions from venture captains but he try to find things about the history of the area where he live, try to uncover ancient mysteries and so on.
It is a bit harder to tailor factions for the other guys, so I would like to see more player friendly factions in print.
One of my problems is that most academical factions, like the mage schools, don't work well for a character that has left the school.
2) Related to the ranger linked to the pathfinder above.
One of the adventure I want to add to kingmaker is Tomb of the iron medusa. It will not be difficult to put it in a secluded corner of the Stolen land as the adventure lore is that it was secluded in a hidden location.
Looking the Human of Golarion supplement I see that the Taldans have expanded up to the Brevory area, but under the Taldan history I see that they have sent their army of expansion to the west side of the Lake Encarthan, not the east side. So it was some form of secondary expansion, people of Taldane descent but not part of the empire?
3) There is a list of the Taldan emperors somewhere, even an incomplete one?
4) We will see some expansion out of the east side of the map of the Inner sea?
James. Do you find the party eliminating a BBEG in 2-3 rounds to be anti-climatic? It happened to me with regularity when using the Pathfinder rules. At least without going to extraordinary lengths tactically. In my head the fights went much longer!!
What good BBEG let's the party fight him alone!
:-)
The Dervish Dancer was the class the Forgotten Realms design team used when they statted up Drizzt Do'Urden for 3e to give him the ability to double-wield scimitars; some might say the association with that iconic ubermunchkin alone makes it a broken class. (Of course, a Pathfinder build for Drizzt would just need to relabel Twinkle and Icingdeath as sawtooth sabres and give him the Exotic Weapon Proficiency with them.)
Are you familiar with the Swashbuckler core class from Tome of Secrets and/or the Mariner core class from the 3.5 Dragonlance setting? If so, what did you think of (either one of) them as swashbuckler builds?
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Creative Director
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1) We will see more player friendly factions? Factions that a player can join, with better rules to use them in a typical game?
2) Related to the ranger linked to the pathfinder above.
One of the adventure I want to add to kingmaker is Tomb of the iron medusa. It will not be difficult to put it in a secluded corner of the Stolen land as the adventure lore is that it was secluded in a hidden location.
Looking the Human of Golarion supplement I see that the Taldans have expanded up to the Brevory area, but under the Taldan history I see that they have sent their army of expansion to the west side of the Lake Encarthan, not the east side. So it was some form of secondary expansion, people of Taldane descent but not part of the empire?3) There is a list of the Taldan emperors somewhere, even an incomplete one?
4) We will see some expansion out of the east side of the map of the Inner sea?
1) Now and then, yes... but not often. We've got a lot of factions already, and new ones that get invented need to be created not merely to create a new faction, but to give options to an in-world organization that deserves that attention in that way.
2) The Taldan expansion into the Brevoy region was not part of an Army of Exploration. That expansion was much slower and more recent than the Armies' expansions.
3) Nope.
4) Some day, yes. In the form of a Casmaron gazetteer. Not anytime soon. Gotta recharge my continental gazetteer mojo for a lot longer before I feel up to doing another one of those...
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Creative Director
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James. Do you find the party eliminating a BBEG in 2-3 rounds to be anti-climatic? It happened to me with regularity when using the Pathfinder rules. At least without going to extraordinary lengths tactically. In my head the fights went much longer!!
Not really. Especially since in high level games, rounds are complex and can take time. A 2-3 round encounter could take an hour if things are particularly complex, and that doesn't seem anticlimactic to me at all.
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Creative Director
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Are you familiar with the Swashbuckler core class from Tome of Secrets and/or the Mariner core class from the 3.5 Dragonlance setting? If so, what did you think of (either one of) them as swashbuckler builds?
Vaguely. Can't remember much about them so I suspect they didn't impress me...
I cannot speak for James, but I do seem to recall him saying he hasn't had much time to read 3rd party stuff. He spends all day writing first party stuff :) My opinion on the swashbuckler is that it's a bit boring, feature wise. And the fact that they have 1) weapon training, 2) full BAB, 3) 3/4ths Sneak Attack, and 4) they get a stacking crit-range enhancement is a bit disconcerting. With a kukri, critting on a 12-20, with 3/4ths Sneak Attack.
Does an eidolon gain or lose weight if it is over- or under-fed?
My guess: in about 4 months. Maybe 5. By Paizo Con for sure.7) Yes; and in fact with the exception of "Classic Treasures," ALL of the revisited books are monster based. The next one after "Giants Revisited" will not have undead OR evil outsiders. It WILL be on a subject I've wanted to do for a long, long time.When will that one be announced?
Classic Ponies Revisited?
Classic Gamers Revisited?Classic Asian Monsters Revisited?
Classic Movie Monsters Revisited?
Any of these?
Are there any products that deal with the plane of shadows or any other plane than the common ones? I don't necessarily mean small dimensions like in Realm of the Fellnight Queen.
I'm mostly wondering about the plane of shadows.
My guess: in about 4 months. Maybe 5. By Paizo Con for sure.7) Yes; and in fact with the exception of "Classic Treasures," ALL of the revisited books are monster based. The next one after "Giants Revisited" will not have undead OR evil outsiders. It WILL be on a subject I've wanted to do for a long, long time.When will that one be announced?Classic Ponies Revisited?
Classic Gamers Revisited?
Classic Asian Monsters Revisited?
Classic Movie Monsters Revisited?Any of these?
I'm kinda hoping my suggestion of a "New Dragons Introduced" (but with a snappier title) has found some fertile soil in the Paizo editorial pit.
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Creative Director
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My guess: in about 4 months. Maybe 5. By Paizo Con for sure.7) Yes; and in fact with the exception of "Classic Treasures," ALL of the revisited books are monster based. The next one after "Giants Revisited" will not have undead OR evil outsiders. It WILL be on a subject I've wanted to do for a long, long time.When will that one be announced?Classic Ponies Revisited?
Classic Gamers Revisited?
Classic Asian Monsters Revisited?
Classic Movie Monsters Revisited?Any of these?
Nope.
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Creative Director
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Are there any products that deal with the plane of shadows or any other plane than the common ones? I don't necessarily mean small dimensions like in Realm of the Fellnight Queen.
I'm mostly wondering about the plane of shadows.
Other than "The Great Beyond" and the "Inner Sea World Guide," not a lot yet. The upcoming adventure, "The Midnight Mirror," has a fair amount of shadow stuff in it, as does "Inner Sea Magic" now that I think of it.
1)So did you get to the 7:30 showing of "The Woman in Black" as planned?
2)Have you seen "Earth vs the flying saucers", "20 million miles to earth", "Mysterious Island","The First men in the moon", or "It came from beneath the sea"?
3)What level would you want a party to be to explore the positive energy plane? The first world?
4)Have you gotten to "Sucker Punch" yet?
5)If there is anything about the creature types and/or subtypes you would change, what would it be?
How do you feel about a DM allowing players to play old characters without taking the stat penalties and bonuses associated with old age?
Usually I let my players do this, and claim their characters were stronger when they were younger. This obviously works best if the old character doesn't currently have any physical stats at 18+
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Other than "The Great Beyond" and the "Inner Sea World Guide," not a lot yet. The upcoming adventure, "The Midnight Mirror," has a fair amount of shadow stuff in it, as does "Inner Sea Magic" now that I think of it.Are there any products that deal with the plane of shadows or any other plane than the common ones? I don't necessarily mean small dimensions like in Realm of the Fellnight Queen.
I'm mostly wondering about the plane of shadows.
You may also wish to check out Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows.
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Is the advertised Project Manager position what you were talking about on the subject of getting the APs etc on a better footing, or is there more stuff to come?
On the shadow plane stuff, there are also a couple of AP issues that features the Plane of Shadows but generally it's because an extradimensional bit is needed...
Which APs were those? I think I skipped over Plague of Shadows for some reason. I just found this, which also happens to be written by one of my favorite designers...huh.
James, is there much currently written about the first world, and why the gnomes left? If not, will there be?
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1)So did you get to the 7:30 showing of "The Woman in Black" as planned?
2)Have you seen "Earth vs the flying saucers", "20 million miles to earth", "Mysterious Island","The First men in the moon", or "It came from beneath the sea"?
3)What level would you want a party to be to explore the positive energy plane? The first world?
4)Have you gotten to "Sucker Punch" yet?
5)If there is anything about the creature types and/or subtypes you would change, what would it be?
1) I did! It was a delightful movie!
2) Yes to all. Love them all.
3) Positive Energy—very high. Above 15th level. The first world, mid to high—above 10th level.
4) Nope. It's been sitting at "the next disc" for a few weeks.
5) I would make "Vermin" a subtype of "Animal," in the same way we made giants a subtype of humanoids or elementals a subtype of outsider.
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Creative Director
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How do you feel about a DM allowing players to play old characters without taking the stat penalties and bonuses associated with old age?
Usually I let my players do this, and claim their characters were stronger when they were younger. This obviously works best if the old character doesn't currently have any physical stats at 18+
I'm fine with it, as long as it's universally applied across all characters.
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Creative Director
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Is the advertised Project Manager position what you were talking about on the subject of getting the APs etc on a better footing, or is there more stuff to come?
In that getting a project manager in here would free up a SIGNIFICANT amount of Wes's time (by which I mean dozens of hours a week), yes. It's one of the things I was talking about. What Wes can bring to the AP and our other lines is something that very few other people can bring, and the fact that he's not focused more on THOSE elements makes me very very sad. And that the new Project Manager will let Wes get back to that stuff makes me very very happy.
But it's not the specific thing I was talking about.
There is more to come.
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Creative Director
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James, is there much currently written about the first world, and why the gnomes left? If not, will there be?
Right now, the go-to place for First World stuff is Pathfinder #36. Not only is a significant portion of that adventure set in the First World, but it's got a very robust gazetteer about the First World and several monsters from there as well.
James, I'm guessing you're referring to Kingmaker 6 of 6?
Looks pretty sweet.