1. The white-haired creatures on the cover of ultimate combat, are those yetis?
2. What would a golarian (golarionian?) goblin tribe think of a dwarf that turned into a werewolf and proceeded to eat their leader?
3. Do monkey goblins have any sort of affiliation with a type of animal, the way regular goblins have with wolves?
4. Are different goblinoid types genetically compatible with each other?
5. If so, what would the offspring of a goblin and hobgoblin be like? Physically and behaviourally?
6. I read somewhere that if a player wants a squirrel familiar (a non-flying one) they should use the statistics of a rat. I'm unfortunately not sure where exactly. But unless i remember completely wrong my question is this: Don't you think monkey statistics fit much better?
Where in Golarion would I find Bananas?Mwangi Expanse & Sargava, for the most part, but also in the Shackles. And anywhere they export. (One more thing for the pirates of the shackles to pirate, for those who complain that there's nothing for them to do.)
Yessir, the bananas were all taken by those darned pirates!
Hey James,
1) Are we going to see Story feats from the upcoming Ultimate Campaign see use in Adventure Paths? Just from what I heard they seem perfect with the design of APs.
2) Could any of the Runelords be redeejmed to good...or even to not being evil? Or are they too far gone towards evil?
3) I and my group just started a Skulls and Shackles game. We have play 3 4hr to 5hr sessions and we are on only day five. But we are having a blast just RPing getting to know each other and the various NPCs on boards the ship. Even though it is slow paced...it is great fun. How you ever had a similair RPing experience?
4) Who is the most misunderstood person on Golarion?
5) Is there any plans on exploring where the space ship that crashed in Numeria came from? If not...what is the likelyhood that it would be explored in the future?
6) When...if the next edition of Pathfinder comes out is Pazio going to update Golarion or start fresh with a new world?
What was some of the thought process and math formulas behind the values of the cohort levels for certain monsters? I'm trying to figure out what to set an awakened animal as for this? Thanks.
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Can you give us any insight on what the Young Character rules are going to look like? Are we talking new age categories, just a few mods, or something entirely different?
If I remember correctly, it's about 2 pages of content. It's not all that complex; basically something akin to the aging rules from the core rulebook only a step in the other direction, with some advice and the like on how to utilize the rule sin your game.
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Creative Director
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1. The white-haired creatures on the cover of ultimate combat, are those yetis?
2. What would a golarian (golarionian?) goblin tribe think of a dwarf that turned into a werewolf and proceeded to eat their leader?
3. Do monkey goblins have any sort of affiliation with a type of animal, the way regular goblins have with wolves?
4. Are different goblinoid types genetically compatible with each other?
5. If so, what would the offspring of a goblin and hobgoblin be like? Physically and behaviourally?
6. I read somewhere that if a player wants a squirrel familiar (a non-flying one) they should use the statistics of a rat. I'm unfortunately not sure where exactly. But unless i remember completely wrong my question is this: Don't you think monkey statistics fit much better?
1) Yes. They're less hairy than yetis probably should be, but they still look cool!
2) They'd freak out and either gang up in an attempt to kill it or all freak out and run away. Kinda the same way that a human village would react to a weredwarf wolf.
3) Regular goblins have a bigger affiliation with goblin dogs than wolves... but yes, monkey goblins do. With monkeys and, probably, with dinosaurs. Particularly velociraptors and deinonychuses.
4) Compatible as in can they interbreed? Yes. Compatible as in would they get along if put in a room together? Probably.
5) Goblins and hobgoblins can't mate. If they could, I'd say that there's an equal chance of the child basically being a slightly taller goblin or a slightly shorter hobgoblin.
6) No. Squirrels are VERY close to rats. They're not close to monkeys at all.
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Creative Director
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1) Are we going to see Story feats from the upcoming Ultimate Campaign see use in Adventure Paths? Just from what I heard they seem perfect with the design of APs.
2) Could any of the Runelords be redeejmed to good...or even to not being evil? Or are they too far gone towards evil?
3) I and my group just started a Skulls and Shackles game. We have play 3 4hr to 5hr sessions and we are on only day five. But we are having a blast just RPing getting to know each other and the various NPCs on boards the ship. Even though it is slow paced...it is great fun. How you ever had a similair RPing experience?
4) Who is the most misunderstood person on Golarion?
5) Is there any plans on exploring where the space ship that crashed in Numeria came from? If not...what is the likelyhood that it would be explored in the future?
6) When...if the next edition of Pathfinder comes out is Pazio going to update Golarion or start fresh with a new world?
1) Story feats would indeed be a cool addition to an Adventure Path. They weren't ready in time for incorporation into Reign of Winter, but I'll consider adding them to Wrath of the Righteous. That said... we're generally trying to NOT overload work on Player's Guides these days, so no promises.
2) Yes, but that's as much a plot for an adventure path as anything else.
3) Often. In fact, our Skull & Shackles game went the same way for the first several sessions. The adventure is designed exactly for that type of game play. I wouldn't call a game that's fun "slow-paced" in any event.
4) That's... a strange question. Hmmm. I'm honestly not sure. At this point, probably Eando Kline.
5) Yes. Chances of us exploring more stuff about Numeria some time in the future are about 99.3%.
6) Well, Golarion has ALREADY gone through an edition change. When we switched from 3.5 D&D to Pathfinder, we essentially published the Inner Sea World Guide hardcover as the Pathfinder update from the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting hardcover. The Inner Sea World Guide expanded on the previous book, abandoned some rules concepts and world flavor in some places, and added more rules concepts and world flavor in other places. But generally did so in ways that did not render Golarion supplements and adventures published for 3.5 obsolete. If and when we move on to a new version of Pathfinder, I'll be pushing hard for Golarion to do the same thing as it did last time. Move forward a few years, fix what didn't work, add new stuff, and keep the world essentially the same. We MIGHT advance the timeline to account for previous Adventure Paths and modules... but since doing so kinda "outdates and obsoletes" a lot of stuff that's still in print and makes it seem like those games are no longer options to run, we might not. One thing I can pretty much say with about 100% certainty is that as long as we're publishing Pathifnder, we're not gonna abandon Golarion. We'll just keep expanding it.
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Creative Director
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Are there Coca plants in Golarion?
If so, has anyone used it to produce Cocaine?
Also, if it exists, where would one find it?
Yes, but cocaine hasn't really taken Golarion by storm yet. It exists, but other drugs like flayleaf, shiver, opium, pesh, demonblood, qat, and the like (some of which are from the real world, some of which are close approximations of real world drugs, and some of which are completely fantastical drugs) are more common.
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Creative Director
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James,
In Thornkeep's Enigma Vaults, in The Grand Vault, the identity 'C5h "Dominion of the Black Pod"' is left vague.
Were you deliberately giving GMs an opportunity to drop a facehugger from Alien into the game?
If you'd like. That or the monster from "The Thing."
But if you want to use something from a Bestiary... use a neh-thalggu from Bestiary 2 (page 197).
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Creative Director
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What was some of the thought process and math formulas behind the values of the cohort levels for certain monsters? I'm trying to figure out what to set an awakened animal as for this? Thanks.
You'd have to ask Jason for that answer. My guess... it was mostly a game of looking at the monster and arbitrarily setting its effective level at a number that seemed right for the types of things that monster brings to the table if it were in EVERY FIGHT ON THE PC'S SIDE as opposed to ONE FIGHT AS AN ENEMY.
I mean... for example... commune 1/day is a pretty minor ability for a monster you encounter in a dungeon and fight and kill in 3 to 7 rounds. But if that monster is your friend and travels with you, it's suddenly really good.
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Creative Director
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ALSO! Taking advantage of the thread for a brief moment here to announce that I'm once again resurrecting my blog, Bigfoot Country. At this point, it's mostly gonna be me just talking now and then about monsters and doing movie/book/video game reviews... but I'm certainly keeping the door open for other content as well. The blog's under the Pathfinder community use policy, so it could absolutely contain game content now and then if folks are interested... If so... let me know as comments on the blog.
I now return this thread back on topic.
Ask questions!
Lovecraft only mentions Hastur a few times in his writings; it was Ambrose Bierce who really got into tying Hastur into the mythos.
I think you meant August Derleth.
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Yessir, the bananas were all taken by those darned pirates!Where in Golarion would I find Bananas?Mwangi Expanse & Sargava, for the most part, but also in the Shackles. And anywhere they export. (One more thing for the pirates of the shackles to pirate, for those who complain that there's nothing for them to do.)
Okay, now I'm thinking there needs to be a race of piratical Crocodile-people, preferably with a grudge against the Vanaras and domesticated Giant Bees and vultures, just for that scenario. Any chance in hell of that happening?
And speaking of races, any chance for a Lawful, Chaotic and both Aeon and Psychopomp-flavored Neutral equivalents to the Aasimar and Tieflings?
Seeing that you have restarted your blog and have mentioned liking found footage movies, have you seen the found footage anthology "V/H/S"?
Some of the stories are quite good (although at least one is pretty damn horrible, and the douchebaggery of some of the characters in stories can be kind of hard to get through)
Also, on a completely different tack, have you seen the movie Lovely Molly? If so what did you think?
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Creative Director
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1) Okay, now I'm thinking there needs to be a race of piratical Crocodile-people, preferably with a grudge against the Vanaras and domesticated Giant Bees and vultures, just for that scenario. Any chance in hell of that happening?
2) And speaking of races, any chance for a Lawful, Chaotic and both Aeon and Psychopomp-flavored Neutral equivalents to the Aasimar and Tieflings?
1) No... not really much of a chance of that happening at all.
2) Maybe some day, but that's not really high on the to-do list. Not everything needs to be planarly and alignmantly balanced.
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Seeing that you have restarted your blog and have mentioned liking found footage movies, have you seen the found footage anthology "V/H/S"?
Some of the stories are quite good (although at least one is pretty damn horrible, and the douchebaggery of some of the characters in stories can be kind of hard to get through)
Also, on a completely different tack, have you seen the movie Lovely Molly? If so what did you think?
I saw "V/H/S" last year at SIFF, where it was, in fact, my favorite movie of the film festival, beating out "Thale" for that honor by a few points. Excellent movie, and I'm very much looking forward to "S-V/H/S" which I hope will be at SIFF this year.
I've seen "Lovely Molly" as well. And that movie was REALLY REALLY good. The penultimate scene is giving me goosebumps even as I write this. Excellent and VERY creepy movie that keeps you guessing about what's really going on up to that penultimate scene.
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Hmm Something I was thinkering about was the Serithtial sword and its Zon-Kuthon Bane property (bane vs. followers of Zon-Kuthon for those wondering), is a Faction/Religion Bane property something that could be added to other weapons or is it too strong for normal weapons and resides solely in the artifact category? I've been on the edge of whether your ok with this sorta "rule" question but since its so steeped in Golarion and its occupants I figured I'd give it a shot.
James, I've read on the forums that you're a big horror fan. I am, too, and I'm looking for new books to read. Who are your favorite authors, and what are your favorite books? Hopefully I haven't read them yet :)
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Creative Director
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Hmm Something I was thinkering about was the Serithtial sword and its Zon-Kuthon Bane property (bane vs. followers of Zon-Kuthon for those wondering), is a Faction/Religion Bane property something that could be added to other weapons or is it too strong for normal weapons and resides solely in the artifact category? I've been on the edge of whether your ok with this sorta "rule" question but since its so steeped in Golarion and its occupants I figured I'd give it a shot.
The tricky part about making a weapon bane against a faction is that REALLY limits the points at which the weapon is useful in most games, but in games featuring that faction, it can be overpowering. Technically, there's no reason this type of quality should cost any more than normal bane. A "red mantis bane" weapon or a "pathfiner bane" weapon could be pretty cool... but moreso even than a normal bane weapon would be tricky in cases where the attacker doesn't actually know the target's affiliation.
It's a cool concept, but it's one the GM should handle with care and one that should probably NOT be something that PCs can create weapons of.
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Hmm Something I was thinkering about was the Serithtial sword and its Zon-Kuthon Bane property (bane vs. followers of Zon-Kuthon for those wondering), is a Faction/Religion Bane property something that could be added to other weapons or is it too strong for normal weapons and resides solely in the artifact category? I've been on the edge of whether your ok with this sorta "rule" question but since its so steeped in Golarion and its occupants I figured I'd give it a shot.The tricky part about making a weapon bane against a faction is that REALLY limits the points at which the weapon is useful in most games, but in games featuring that faction, it can be overpowering. Technically, there's no reason this type of quality should cost any more than normal bane. A "red mantis bane" weapon or a "pathfiner bane" weapon could be pretty cool... but moreso even than a normal bane weapon would be tricky in cases where the attacker doesn't actually know the target's affiliation.
It's a cool concept, but it's one the GM should handle with care and one that should probably NOT be something that PCs can create weapons of.
True for the pcs, but say having a wizard creating these things starting an arms race between various factions.... hehe thankies for the aanswer
Also, on a completely different tack, have you seen the movie Lovely Molly? If so what did you think?
I saw "V/H/S" last year at SIFF, where it was, in fact, my favorite movie of the film festival, beating out "Thale" for that honor by a few points. Excellent movie, and I'm very much looking forward to "S-V/H/S" which I hope will be at SIFF this year.
I've seen "Lovely Molly" as well. And that movie was REALLY REALLY good. The penultimate scene is giving me goosebumps even as I write this. Excellent and VERY creepy movie that keeps you guessing about what's really going on up to that penultimate scene.
Yeah...that ending blew me away...Easily the English language horror movie I have seen in the last year.
Thank you for answering our questions.
It's truly awesome that you have this forum open to our questions.
I highly respect you opinion and you have helped stop many arguments.
I'll try not to treat you like a question answering automaton.
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...alignmantly....
Not content with just making up cool stories, you've now started on individual words. :)
1) What does the Samsaran language sound like?
2) Am I correct in thinking that Tien sounds like Mandarin Chinese? If not, what does it sound like?
3) Am I correct in thinking that Minkaien sounds like Japanese? If not, what does it sound like?
4) Does Ancient Azlanti sound like any language that was known on Earth?
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Creative Director
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Thank you for answering our questions.
It's truly awesome that you have this forum open to our questions.
I highly respect you opinion and you have helped stop many arguments.
I'll try not to treat you like a question answering automaton.
(whirrrr... click!)
Very Good.
(bzzzzzz)
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Creative Director
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1) What does the Samsaran language sound like?
2) Am I correct in thinking that Tien sounds like Mandarin Chinese? If not, what does it sound like?
3) Am I correct in thinking that Minkaien sounds like Japanese? If not, what does it sound like?
4) Does Ancient Azlanti sound like any language that was known on Earth?
1) Japanese but more musical and lyrical.
2) Yes.
3) Yes.
4) Probably not.
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Creative Director
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Where in Golarion (or at least where in the Inner Sea region) might one find weapons approximating the 3E/3.5e Gnomish Quickrazor (Races of Stone) or Sleeve Blade (Complete Scoundrel)?
For reference, they're basically weapons you attach to your forearm under the clothing and can be quickly drawn for a slice-and-dice on a target, then sheathed again (think Assassin's Creed hidden blades, if you've played it). I'd imagine that thieves and assassins would find them quite useful, since they can be easily concealed and have at least the same functionality as daggers. I'm sure somebody in Golarion must have had the idea at some point.
If they do exist, are they the signature weapon of any particular individual or group?
(Merisiel would probably want several of them, if she could and if her dagger/stabbing fixation is anything to go by!)
Also, I was poking through some Thassilonian stuff and noticed/remembered the Thassilonian "Sin Magic" with reference to the use of Thassilonian runes (Pathfinder #5). The Rune of the Mistress, Rune of Obedience, Rune of the Lord's Palanquin, and so on and so forth. The article states that it was one of the greatest achievements of the Runelords of Thassilon. What I'm wondering is if they did this before or after they put Xin "six feet under" (so to speak). Would Xin have been aware of the concepts and usages such runes could be put to, and have potentially devised some of them himself (or even some unique runes different from the ones that have been published, or artifact-level runes?) before the corruption of the "Seven Virtues" into the "Seven Sins" and his downfall?
You can place those items wherever you want—I'm not familiar with the weapons enough to offer advice. I certianly would NOT associate fast Wolverine-style/Enzio-style wrist blades with gnomes At All. If anything those weapons seem better suited for the Red Mantis assassins, but they already have their signature weapons... so maybe some of the assassins and scoundrels in Daggermark? They shouldn't really be a signature weapon of an existing group, in any case, since existing groups already HAVE their signature weapons assigned, if they have such a thing.
Merisiel probably wouldn't want them, in any event. She uses her rapier for the up-close stabbing. Daggers are all about throwing at folks—she's got Quick Draw, so she can already draw as many daggers as she needs. She's got the stabbing tool element pretty much covered.
Xin would probably have been aware of the runes usages, but the older he got, the more distracted he became by other things. He was a busy guy, and part of the cause of his downfall was not paying attention to things going on beyond his immediate spheres of interest.
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Also, you mentioned that at one point or another Sorshen seduced and betrayed all the Runelords. Do you mean just the other six who were around at the time of Earthfall, or literally ALL the other Runelords?
I'm not ready to reveal exactly what I meant there. Not yet.
Suffice to say, one of the big ways Sorshen became as powerful as she was and one of the ways she stayed in power for the entire run was by seducing and sabotaging competition, be it for her own title, or for her allies and enemies in other Thassilonian nations.
Any chance of Pazio releasing soucebooks to help people run campaigns in Golarion during it's past?
Also is there time travel in Golarion?
@John: The new book Artifacts and Legends that came out a few months ago features a time-traveling artifact known as the Scepter of Ages that allows its bearer to travel through history.
Also, the book The Great Beyond has a section on the plane of time!
Beyond that, I'd be super interested to see a Time Travel related book (or especially an entire Adventure Path!)
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Is there any chance of ever getting a quote from a lead designer on how wielding large bastard swords work? No offence to you James but a lot of people read your rulings and fall back on the "he's not a designer" argument to discount your ruling and having an actual designer quote to point to can put the nail in the coffin of this debate and we can stop seeing it pop up every month.
Not if you only post that question here.
Post it over in the rules boards and the chances of getting a quote from a lead designer improve.
And while I don't have the word "designer" in my name... In fact, I've designed a HELL of a lot of content for Pathfinder. Including large portions of our rulebooks.
But if you're just looking for the response of someone with the word "designer" in their title... yeah. You'll need to post that question elsewhere.
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Creative Director
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Any chance of Pazio releasing soucebooks to help people run campaigns in Golarion during it's past?
Also is there time travel in Golarion?
What you're essentially asking is for us to release an entire new campaign setting. One that would need a replacement to the Inner Sea World Guide, and that would probably render the vast majority of our supplements and all of our adventures obsolete and unusable.
As such, since doing so is essentially releasing a new campaign setting, the chances of us doing something like this anytime soon are very slim... about equal to us doing an entirely different game that's a sci-fi game set on Mars or an espionage game set in modern day Earth.
We HAVE had some time-travel elements and the like appear before in a few of our adventures... Pathfinder #15 probably has the largest amount of that, but there are drops of time travel in Rise of the Runelords and in Shattered Star. And the aforementioned books (Artifacts & Legends, The Great Beyond) do have a bit more info about time travel as well.
Hi James,
I'm thinking about dropping a side-quest into Legacy of Fire.
Do you know of any adventure modules (Pathfinder or otherwise, preferably with maps) that could serve as the adventure site? Something with the Pactmaster "feel" to it?
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Just to be clear I respect your rulings and consider your rulings to be official responses from Paizo. The problem is that this question gets asked almost twice monthly on the rules forum and in fact there were two separate threads about this issue on the front page just today and no designer has ever weighed in as far as I know. You have made your ruling about it and I thought that would be the end of that but as you say, you don't have the word "designer" in your title so many of people who are arguing opposed to your ruling do not accept it. I guess that answers my question though, I guess i'll just have to deal with the constant arguing about bastard swords or just avoid all threads with bastard sword in the title.
Also, thank you for taking the time out of your day to answer all of our questions. It is much appreciated and you have helped end many an argument between me and my friends.
Well...
Our iconic barbarian, Amiri, does precisely this. She wields a Large bastard sword in one hand, and she does so by taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat to use the weapon in one hand. Essentially, that lets her wield the weapon in one hand in the exact same way that a Medium character would wield ANY Large Medium weapon, like a Large longsword or a Large scimitar.
So... the fact that one of our iconic characters does this, and has done so for 5 years, means that it needs to be something that our game lets you do. Whether or not folks out there think you can or can't...
... you can.
Because one of our Iconics does it. And I'm not interested in interpreting the rules in any way that makes one of our iconic characters a rulesbreaker.
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Hi James,
I'm thinking about dropping a side-quest into Legacy of Fire.
** spoiler omitted **
Do you know of any adventure modules (Pathfinder or otherwise, preferably with maps) that could serve as the adventure site? Something with the Pactmaster "feel" to it?
We've actually been deliberately pretty vague about the Pactmasters. The fact that they're aliens makes them even more complex to merely "swap in" an adventure for them. If I were doing this, I'd actually build an entire adventure from scratch to do the job, since the Pactmasters are such unusual and unique elements of Katapesh, I'd want an adventure featuring the infiltration of one of their hideouts to do them justice.
We've actually been deliberately pretty vague about the Pactmasters. The fact that they're aliens makes them even more complex to merely "swap in" an adventure for them. If I were doing this, I'd actually build an entire adventure from scratch to do the job, since the Pactmasters are such unusual and unique elements of Katapesh, I'd want an adventure featuring the infiltration of one of their hideouts to do them justice.Hi James,
I'm thinking about dropping a side-quest into Legacy of Fire.
** spoiler omitted **
Do you know of any adventure modules (Pathfinder or otherwise, preferably with maps) that could serve as the adventure site? Something with the Pactmaster "feel" to it?
How about a more generic "rob the vault" module to which I can add my own take on mercantile aliens?
I accidentally "hid" this thread. This is my favorite thread and that makes me sad. I now have to search to find the thread every time just to see your inestimable saurian wisdom. My question is, how do I unhide the thread?
Daemyn, PM me with your question and I'll check around.
I accidentally "hid" this thread. This is my favorite thread and that makes me sad. I now have to search to find the thread every time just to see your inestimable saurian wisdom. My question is, how do I unhide the thread?
IANJJ, but this is general boardhelp, so:
1) Go here
2) Find the link group (on the same line as the heading "Off-Topic Discussions") that says "Add New Thread | Focus | Show ∅"
3) Click on "Show ∅"
4) Go down to the >>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<< thread.
5) You know the ∅ at the far right under the "Last Post" column you used to hide the thread? Hit it now to unhide.
Hey james just checked out your blog..pretty sweet..looking forward to more posts