Creative Director
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Mr. Jacobs,
I've noticed sort of a growing trend that GMs seem less willing to take control and design and change a setting for themselves, break from cannon, or make rules decisions without "official" sanction. Is this my imagination or preconcieved notion or is it something you as designers have noticed as well. If so, why do you think that trend has happened?
*This is in no way a comment on any other poster, and wasn't aimed at anyone, or in any way in response to any previous question above*
I wouldn't say it's a growing trend, really. There's always been certain GMs who just didn't feel right changing canon or otherwise "breaking the rules" of a game setting. There's no one right way to play in a pre-built campaign setting, though, so however works best works best!
So, now that we have the three big Books of the Damned, what are the chances of ever seeing more made? Like... a Book specifically about Rakshasa? I know it's probably niche-y, but you guys would do an awesome job, for sure.
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Creative Director
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So, now that we have the three big Books of the Damned, what are the chances of ever seeing more made? Like... a Book specifically about Rakshasa? I know it's probably niche-y, but you guys would do an awesome job, for sure.
Chances of us some day doing another book of the damned thing are very high. Although not 100% high.
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Creative Director
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James,
Why do all gaming rules books (not just pathfinder) use the pronoun her predominately over the pronoun he? Even books that don't have female authors tend do this. Is there a reason why, or is it just an old gaming industry habit?
I'm not so sure they do, honestly. I think that it might be that the use of the feminine pronoun is just more noticable to someone more used to seeing masculine pronouns.
For Pathfinder products, we try to be relatively equal on whether we use the masculine or feminine pronouns. This gets tricky, though, when we talk about character classes, since in that case we default to using the appropriate pronoun for that class's iconic character. Thus, when we talk about sorcerers or rogues or clerics, we use "she," but when we talk about fighters or bards or wizards, we use "he."
Chances of us some day doing another book of the damned thing are very high. Although not 100% high.
And the chances of a "books of the blessed" series? Shoot, I'd even settle for a single book that covered angels, archons, azata, and agathion together. I love celestials and, while they're admittedly less useful to GMs because they're not often baddies, I would literally kill a baby goblin for a book on the celestials.
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Creative Director
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And the chances of a "books of the blessed" series? Shoot, I'd even settle for a single book that covered angels, archons, azata, and agathion together. I love celestials and, while they're admittedly less useful to GMs because they're not often baddies, I would literally kill a baby goblin for a book on the celestials.
Low. Because we don't have a "book of the blessed" in Golarion.
But a book that talks about good guy outsiders is something we've been talking about for a while. We just need to figure out the right timing and format and all. There'll be a LITTLE more info about some of the Empyreal lords and a brand new Azata in the upcoming Magniamr book in the meantime though.
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Fluff question:
Where do the Shackles Pirates get their rum? Is there sugar plantations in the Shackles/Sargava?
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Something I greatly enjoyed with Golarion is that there is no singularly 'good' nation, race or faction. Every group has at least as many negative attributes as positive, be it out and out racism, crushing religious oppression, expansionist agendas or worse. And the Gods aren't much better.
So something I was wondering about, is there a faction that you thought about introducing but thought it was too 'bright and happy' for Golarion, or conversely, 'way too grimdark'?
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I want to say I remember back when PF launched there was some discussion that a few parts of the world would be named, given a place in the world, but then left mostly undefined--kind of like GM's playgrounds in Golarion to prevent a lot of retconning if some book came out detailing the area.
Is that still (or was it ever) the plan? If so, where?
How long do you wait after 'the talk' before you spring a situation like this on unruly or disruptive players?
Do Alchemist's still get to add their INT bonus (as stated from Throw Anything) to Splash Weapons that don't splash?
For example the Grenadier's Alchemical Weapon ability to infuse an Alchemist Fire to a weapon but doesn't splash.
Alchemist Fire is a Splash Weapon by category but doesn't splash when used this way.
James,
Why do all gaming rules books (not just pathfinder) use the pronoun her predominately over the pronoun he? Even books that don't have female authors tend do this. Is there a reason why, or is it just an old gaming industry habit?
I'm not so sure they do, honestly. I think that it might be that the use of the feminine pronoun is just more noticable to someone more used to seeing masculine pronouns.
For Pathfinder products, we try to be relatively equal on whether we use the masculine or feminine pronouns. This gets tricky, though, when we talk about character classes, since in that case we default to using the appropriate pronoun for that class's iconic character. Thus, when we talk about sorcerers or rogues or clerics, we use "she," but when we talk about fighters or bards or wizards, we use "he."
ICE had a terrific book called Nightmares of Mine (by Kenneth Hite maybe?) which adopted the convention of using female pronouns for DMs and male pronouns for players. As the author noted, it's one of the few such conventions to potentially increase readability and clarity.
Mr. Jacobs,
I've noticed sort of a growing trend that GMs seem less willing to take control and design and change a setting for themselves, break from cannon, or make rules decisions without "official" sanction. Is this my imagination or preconcieved notion or is it something you as designers have noticed as well. If so, why do you think that trend has happened?
*This is in no way a comment on any other poster, and wasn't aimed at anyone, or in any way in response to any previous question above*
I've noticed that too, it's annoying. I tear apart Adventure paths and put them back together and not worry about what some book I've never read might tell me about it. If it's a different campaign in the same world then it's just a different reality with none of the prior events having taken place. Simple as that.
Oh hey! Question for James!
James... while we tend to gloss over the sex lives of our characters with maybe a few savory details, I wanted to know how do you deal with characters having intimate and active relationships. So how much do you include? (Yes, I own the naughty Book that ended Phil Foglio's career with Dragon Magizine.)
Ever have problems with something like that?
Were you "Jimmy Jacobs" when you were a kid?
-Tundra
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Creative Director
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Where do the Shackles Pirates get their rum? Is there sugar plantations in the Shackles/Sargava?
Good question! I don't know if we actually cover this in the upcoming AP or in Isles of the Shackles... but they'd have certainly have both local options (there in the Shackles) and others (like Sargava or Ilizmagorti or some of the cities on the west coast of the Mwangi Expanse).
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Creative Director
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So something I was wondering about, is there a faction that you thought about introducing but thought it was too 'bright and happy' for Golarion, or conversely, 'way too grimdark'?
There's been plenty of both. I (and other developers here) have had to cut/adjust/rewrite lots of stuff before it's "fit for print" about Golarion... to the extent that over the past 5 years, I really can't think of any specific examples.
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Creative Director
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I want to say I remember back when PF launched there was some discussion that a few parts of the world would be named, given a place in the world, but then left mostly undefined--kind of like GM's playgrounds in Golarion to prevent a lot of retconning if some book came out detailing the area.
Is that still (or was it ever) the plan? If so, where?
This was never the plan, actually.
There'll be some places on Golarion that we'll never develop or explore, but I won't know what those places are until we don't explore them... which, of course, means I can't say. EVERY location on Golarion is potential for us to detail and expand upon, be it in the form of an Adventure Path or a campaign setting book. The point of a published campaign setting is to provide this information for GMs, after all—a GM who wants to build his own setting can certianly use Golarion as inspiration or even take entire sections of the world and transplant them into his own setting... and a GM can certainly develop his own versions of places we haven't said much about yet (as long as he's comfortable with the fact that we may some day detail that area, at which point he'll need to decide whether he keeps his version, adopts ours, or blends them together).
But since I can't say what sorts of ideas we might have for Golarion 10 years or 50 years or 100 years from now, I'm not going to set aside a section that we'll NEVER develop. Forgotten Realms did that and then they ended up developing stuff in Sembia anyway, and I'd rather not follow those footsteps and just admit to myself that anyhwere in Golarion is a potential place for us to officially explore.
It makes sense that it would just be called the Moon. People living there might call it Somal, but how many Golarians even think anyone lives there? Not a lot of them, anyway.
Well, our moon has a name. Luna. It's not used much by most people, but alot of fiction uses it, from White Wolf's werewolves to even Mass Effect has a mission that takes place on "Luna" As I said though, the NPCs talking to you telling you about the mission say "Earth's moon" but when you mouseover the planet to actually land there, it's called Luna.
So, I'll be getting Distant Worlds soon (hopefully my order will process tomorrow), so can you tell me if I wanted to have a mishap send level 4-5 players to another planet, which ones would not totally kill them? Heh.
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Creative Director
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How long do you wait after 'the talk' before you spring a situation like this on unruly or disruptive players?
Depends. Could be a few days... could be RIGHT NOW ROLL FOR
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Creative Director
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Do Alchemist's still get to add their INT bonus (as stated from Throw Anything) to Splash Weapons that don't splash?
For example the Grenadier's Alchemical Weapon ability to infuse an Alchemist Fire to a weapon but doesn't splash.
Alchemist Fire is a Splash Weapon by category but doesn't splash when used this way.
They get to add their special damage bonus to the damage still but don't gain the actual attack roll bonus from Throw Anything.
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Creative Director
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James... while we tend to gloss over the sex lives of our characters with maybe a few savory details, I wanted to know how do you deal with characters having intimate and active relationships. So how much do you include? (Yes, I own the naughty Book that ended Phil Foglio's career with Dragon Magizine.)
Ever have problems with something like that?
Were you "Jimmy Jacobs" when you were a kid?
In games I run, I don't shy away from character sex lives. I don't roleplay out the juicy details, but I've had characters in games I've run get married and have kids. And in games I've played in, I've had characters I've played have sex and even get pregnant. But in both cases, the actual details of the deed itself gets glossed over in play.
Nope; because it doesn't get introduced into games where I'm not sure about everyone's comfort level with the topic.
Yes. Until I found out "Jimmy" was a nickname and then I demanded to be called "James" forevermore.
Someone mentioned it... and working at Paizo at the time you might know... did Phil Foglio leave Dragon cause of the "naughty book"? I thought his comic in the back of it was quite hilarious. How did it affect Dragon, or was that a joke?
now we need a character called Jimmy Rex, awaked T-Rex archivist, occultist and artist!
Why do I see him wearing a hawaian shirt, dark glasses indoors, and gold chains, drinking a Hurricane?
Would you donate to a reputable Kickstarter to raise money to clone a T-Rex?
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It makes sense that it would just be called the Moon. People living there might call it Somal, but how many Golarians even think anyone lives there? Not a lot of them, anyway.Well, our moon has a name. Luna. It's not used much by most people, but alot of fiction uses it, from White Wolf's werewolves to even Mass Effect has a mission that takes place on "Luna" As I said though, the NPCs talking to you telling you about the mission say "Earth's moon" but when you mouseover the planet to actually land there, it's called Luna.
Ummm... "Luna" is Latin-- means, "The Moon". Nothing more, nothing less... same as "Sol" is a Latin word, that means "the Sun". Oh, and "Terra"? Latin, for "Earth". Not such a useful reference, although some folks do use the Latin names, in order to distinguish them now that their English proper names have been used as generic names for other planet's satellites and other system's main stars as well.
However, back to our scheduled topics...
James, since we've already seen the example of Somal... how many other worlds/planets/satellites in the PF/Golarion universe have names drawn from myth, legend, and fact from our world?
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Where do the Shackles Pirates get their rum? Is there sugar plantations in the Shackles/Sargava?Good question! I don't know if we actually cover this in the upcoming AP or in Isles of the Shackles... but they'd have certainly have both local options (there in the Shackles) and others (like Sargava or Ilizmagorti or some of the cities on the west coast of the Mwangi Expanse).
James--
Where is sugar-cane (or its equivalent) grown in Golarion?
(in our world, it's grown in tropical and semi-tropical, highly humid environments-- like the Caribbean Islands, Hawai'i, and similar such locations... if the Shackles have similar weather and also grow sugar cane, that'd be the prime source for the rum...)
How long do you wait after 'the talk' before you spring a situation like this on unruly or disruptive players?Depends. Could be a few days... could be RIGHT NOW ROLL FOR
I soil myself because the T-Rex probably rolled a natural 20.
You've stated you have a great love of the Rogue Class, but if you had the chance to go back and tweak it yourself, what would you have added/altered to the Class from a Gamer point of view, rather than that of the Creative Director?
Are you now (or have you ever been) a Brony?
James, when writing up a fantasy analogue of Louisiana, how accurate should I be? Should I err on the side of popular myths or accuracy?
For example, the popular myth is that sticking pins in a voodoo doll is done to harm a person. Should I go with the popular myth, or the correct usage (which is to bless by pinning names and pictures to the doll)?
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Creative Director
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Someone mentioned it... and working at Paizo at the time you might know... did Phil Foglio leave Dragon cause of the "naughty book"? I thought his comic in the back of it was quite hilarious. How did it affect Dragon, or was that a joke?
I'm not sure... that was well before my time on the magazines.
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Creative Director
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Where is sugar-cane (or its equivalent) grown in Golarion?
(in our world, it's grown in tropical and semi-tropical, highly humid environments-- like the Caribbean Islands, Hawai'i, and similar such locations... if the Shackles have similar weather and also grow sugar cane, that'd be the prime source for the rum...)
The Shackles and Sargava and Mwangi Expanse and even Geb all sound good to me.
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Creative Director
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James, when writing up a fantasy analogue of Louisiana, how accurate should I be? Should I err on the side of popular myths or accuracy?
For example, the popular myth is that sticking pins in a voodoo doll is done to harm a person. Should I go with the popular myth, or the correct usage (which is to bless by pinning names and pictures to the doll)?
That depends on what you're trying to do and what your personal preferences are. I can't really answer that for you as a result.
Ummm... "Luna" is Latin-- means, "The Moon". Nothing more, nothing less... same as "Sol" is a Latin word, that means "the Sun". Oh, and "Terra"? Latin, for "Earth". Not such a useful reference, although some folks do use the Latin names, in order to distinguish them now that their English proper names have been used as generic names for other planet's satellites and other system's main stars as well.It makes sense that it would just be called the Moon. People living there might call it Somal, but how many Golarians even think anyone lives there? Not a lot of them, anyway.Well, our moon has a name. Luna. It's not used much by most people, but alot of fiction uses it, from White Wolf's werewolves to even Mass Effect has a mission that takes place on "Luna" As I said though, the NPCs talking to you telling you about the mission say "Earth's moon" but when you mouseover the planet to actually land there, it's called Luna.
"Luna" indeed means "moon" in Spanish and Italian, with close cognates in the other Romance languages. My point being that in any language, it's just the moon. You could name it Jeff, but most people would still just call it the moon. I'm guessing the typical Golarian doesn't know or care if people live there or what they might call it.
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Here there is a thread about sin magic and Thassilonian Specialists.
Some people think that that form of specialization stack with Arcane school specialization and that the wizard should get 3 extra specialization slots at each spell level.
Can you look the thread and give your position?
Are you now (or have you ever been) a Brony?Nope!
What´s a brony?
So JJ what would your rogue/ninja probably look like?
And how about some feats that support reach weapons?
Like negating soft cover bonus, or something like the chinese Ji or Ge, which you can use to slit peoples knees, so their movement is hampered.
Just like the monk feat.
... And while all Pathfinder barbarians DO rage... not all barbarians are technically berserkers. The word "barbarian" is more generalized than "berserker," and we much prefer to be as generalized as we can for base class names so that we don't unintentionally crimp or prevent character concepts from working...
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You mean like the paladin??
Note: I DO actually like the concept of the paladin, it's just, well, some people you see... Never mind. <sigh>
Ooh, question (since the above could be seen as more of a rhetorical question):
What do (or did) you think of Dino-Riders? (The show, the toys, the comics, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia??)
Thanks for answering.
--C.
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Are you now (or have you ever been) a Brony?Nope!
What´s a brony?
An adult male fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. There are kajillions of us.
...Plans must be laid to recruit James...
Been reading this thread for awhile now, and you've mentioned once or twice that you're a big fan of giving players rewards that are beyond just gold, or magic items.
My question is: what kind of rewards and what did they do to earn them? Special abilities (DR, skill bonuses, etc?) Please feel free to be as detailed as time, and patience, allows. I'm thinking of implementing this in my own games because, well, it seems awesome.
Are you now (or have you ever been) a Brony?Nope!What´s a brony?
An adult male fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. There are kajillions of us.
...Plans must be laid to recruit James...
Noted.
In the context of a fantasy analogue of Louisiana, would reskinning linnorms as giant magical alligator-like monsters be cool or overly cartoonish?