Creative Director
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As well-loved as the Iconics are, do you think it’s better not to set their escapades into stone (and thus into Golarion canon) in novels so that they can continue be showing in art unhindered by whatever should befall them in print?Absolutely; the more of their adventures and personalities get set in stone, the more difficult it is to use them in art. It's better for us to have an idea internally about their personalities and adventures so we can keep a handle on things when we order art—I'm really not interested in setting things up so that someone can point to some obscure bit of Merisiel fiction where it's established that she's allergic to garlic and then some day we show a picture of her eating garlic. That's unnecessary complication.Only if you care.
There's no particular reason the game art and the novels would have to be in strict continuity with each other, especially considering the iconics only feature in the art and not in the actual storylines. Just have the art be the art, and the novels be the novels.
And hey... no piece of Merisiel fiction would ever be "obscure..."
First of all, I do care. If I didn't, my answer would have been different.
And second of all, we have plenty of fans who do as well, and they'd invariably see something that slipped through the cracks and then I'd be frustrated and angry.
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Creative Director
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+1. Would Wayne be willing to do an image of such a scene?Under what conditions is Harsk happy?With a fresh pot of tea boiling on an open campfire after a good brisk day of giantslaying.
If we paid him to do it, yes. But there's a bazillion other better things for him to paint before we get to this one.
1. Would you rather work on The Stand or The Dark Tower as a project?
2. What is currently on your Netflix queue?
3. Do you own a Wii?
4. Why do the forums sometimes eat my posts?
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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If the information from your posts in this thread were used to program the AI of a James Jacobs lifelike android:
How long before any of your co-workers would notice that James was acting strange (or stranger than normal)?
What event would trigger it's inevitable override of it's safety protocols and cause it to go on a human killing frenzy?
Who would be the first person to be killed in such an event?
What would the android's master plan to eradicate the human infection of the Earth?
1. What do I tell a Player who wants a Dire Badger as his Paladin mount?
2. Would it be wrong for me to ensure that every time he calls his mount he gets mauled by said mount?
3. Why is the grass green?
4. Did you know that Stephen King once equated himself to the Big Mac?
I think Joela has an unhealthy obsession with the Iconics. As a sort of Doctor, what do you proscribe to cure him/her/it??
I noticed three of the PF Companions are $9.99/6.99 then the rest are $10.99/7.99. Was this purely due to the economy, some sinister plan on Paizo's part, or something else?
Favorite Core Spell?? Favorite non-core spell??
What is your favourite module of the Old D&D B series and what made it so good?
Wow with the amount of time you dedicate to the game what keeps you from becoming jaded and burnt out?
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Creative Director
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Have big would the Paizo staff have to grow to fulfill EVERYONE'S wish here on the boards (e.g., ALL the countries surrounding the Inner Sea, exploring Arcadia, Vundra, Bestiary 3, Ultimate Combat, psionics, Epic level rules, Basic Set, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game II, etc.) so the finished products will be ready by, hmmm, 2011 Paizocon? This includes cloning you....
...at least twice.
I suspect that an increase in staff of about 204 would probably do it.
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Creative Director
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Is there a way to simulate the PFS faction conflict among PCs without having PvP (and thus antagonizing the players)?
Not in the Pathfinder Society, since there's always plenty of folks who would take things too far. It's best to just simply not allow it at all. That's just not the type of OP campaign we want to run.
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Creative Director
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Who came up with the ideas of the base iconics? Were there any that didn't make it? If so, why not?
Myself, Erik Mona, Sean Glenn (our art director at the time), if I remember correctly, came up with the original list. Funny enough, I just found that list in my files earlier today. Originally, our ranger was going to be a human Garundi female archer type, but I think we switched to a dwarf because, as much as I hate to admit it... if we didn't do a dwarf iconic there would have been some sort of uprising. So we made our ranger into a dwarf and gave him a crossbow and a tea kettle.
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Creative Director
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Opinion of the Ravenloft campaign setting?
I love parts of it and hate others. I really REALLY love the horror aspect and the incredible detail of the domains, but I hate the concept of the mists that come in as read-aloud text and force PCs into this dimension. In my experience, that only makes the players frustrated and annoyed. It's much better to run Ravenloft adventures not in a "Domain of Dread" but just as regular but horror-themed adventures in a "normal" campaign.
Also not a fan of how so much of the read-aloud text in Ravenloft adventures is so overly dramatic or even corny.
You're a handsome devil. What's your name?
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Creative Director
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1. Would you rather work on The Stand or The Dark Tower as a project?
2. What is currently on your Netflix queue?
3. Do you own a Wii?
4. Why do the forums sometimes eat my posts?
1) The Dark Tower, since that includes the Stand as a sub-campaign within it's context.
2) About 82 movies. Which is actually a little low; it's usually around 100. OH! I have 33 in my instant queue, so that puts me WELL over 100.
The 3 movies I have on my coffee table from Netflix right now:
"The Informant!"
"9"
"My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done"
3) I do. I almost NEVER play games on it though. Almost all of my gaming is via the Xbox360, the PS3, or my Mac.
4) Because the forums are sometimes hungry.
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Creative Director
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If the information from your posts in this thread were used to program the AI of a James Jacobs lifelike android:
How long before any of your co-workers would notice that James was acting strange (or stranger than normal)?
What event would trigger it's inevitable override of it's safety protocols and cause it to go on a human killing frenzy?
Who would be the first person to be killed in such an event?
What would the android's master plan to eradicate the human infection of the Earth?
Probably 2 to 3 weeks.
Too many posts about tiny insignificant typos or insignificant stat block errors.
First victim? That'd depend who was closest to my office. If the attack went north, Erik. South, Wes. East, Chris. West? Some dude at the post office hub.
The android's master plan will not be revealed here. You fragile fleshy bioforms would take advantage.
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Creative Director
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Is this why you hate the platypus?
I didn't hate the platypus before... but now I do! GRRRRR.
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Creative Director
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The iconics are relaxing in a bar when orcs come rampaging in. The iconics get initiative. What is their standard reaction (e.g., Ezren casts Mage Armor, Seelah pulls out her sword and takes a ready action, Harsk burps, Merisiel finishes her meal first, etc.)?
Valeros: Kill-crazy rampage for the desecration of the bar. No orc survives.
The rest: Watch in stunned and shocked awe at the carnage. Merisiel giggles a little.
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Creative Director
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1. What do I tell a Player who wants a Dire Badger as his Paladin mount?
2. Would it be wrong for me to ensure that every time he calls his mount he gets mauled by said mount?
3. Why is the grass green?
4. Did you know that Stephen King once equated himself to the Big Mac?
1) Wait for Bestiary 2, then have at it.
2) No. It would be correct.
3) Because the leprechauns drank too much and puked on it.
4) Yup! I would not agree, though; he's too modest. He's a talented writer who really knows what he's doing. Anyone who doesn't think so needs to read his book, "On Writing."
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Creative Director
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Is Lini's snow leopard her first animal companion? What is Lini's favorite and/or most used wildshape form?
Yup! (In pre-Pathfinder days, she had a hawk, I think, at 1st level since she couldn't have a snow leopard at that level; but those days are gone and erased from the record!)
Her favorite wildshape form is probably some sort of bird. Or maybe a fox.
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Creative Director
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Was the Paizo staff unanimous when the company made the decision to produce the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game instead of wait for the GSL and produce material for DnD? If now, what were some of the dissenting opinions?
The people who get to make decisions about that kind of thing (who are NOT the entire staff... not by a LONG shot) were unanimous, especially as it became clear that the GSL wasn't going to be as open as the OGL. Only if the GSL was MORE open than the OGL would we have considered going the 4E route, I suspect. And in retrospect, looking at where we are now compared to where we were then... I'm glad we made the Pathfinder choice!
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Creative Director
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What is your favourite module of the Old D&D B series and what made it so good?
B4: The Lost City
What made it so good was that it was a HUGE dungeon complex, but beyond that, there was an entire awesome campaign setting under it that had some really cool Lovecraft/Clark Ashton Smith/Robert E. Howard feeling stuff going on. Zargon lives!
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Was the Paizo staff unanimous when the company made the decision to produce the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game instead of wait for the GSL and produce material for DnD? If now, what were some of the dissenting opinions?The people who get to make decisions about that kind of thing (who are NOT the entire staff... not by a LONG shot) were unanimous, especially as it became clear that the GSL wasn't going to be as open as the OGL. Only if the GSL was MORE open than the OGL would we have considered going the 4E route, I suspect. And in retrospect, looking at where we are now compared to where we were then... I'm glad we made the Pathfinder choice!
+1! Talk about a leap of faith!