Would illiteracy be worth a free trait? I've got a barbarian concept here that doesn't work as well with the whole reading thing and the player was wondering if giving up reading and writing is worth anything.
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Another question,
I have tried a few times to run games with to groups "competing" against each other. They seemed to be ok, but we were much younger then so pretty much anything we tried seemed fun.
Have you ever run things like this?(two groups simultaneously in the same situation but possibly opposing each other)
Would Paizo publish this type of thing? (Possibly as a special PFS scenario I reckon)
Any advice oon how to run something like that? (I have some advice I could offer but would rather hear from a master of the gmae first.)
Cheers
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Will I get the job in interviewed for last Friday (the interview lasted a little over an hour, so I have a good feeling, but hate to jinx myself)?
How did you get into the RPG industry?
What's the quickest, legal way for someone who is pretty well broke to get their hands on $1 million? How long would this take? Would they have any self respect remaining afterward?
If a halfling and a human mated would the offspring be a quarterling?
And on that subject, why is it that humans are the only ones who seems to be able to have inter-species offspring? Why no half-dwarfs, or half-gnomes?
What is the best show on TV today? And are you psyched about the upcoming The Walking Dead series on AMC (starts on Halloween night)?
Creative Director
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A question for james now as well I guess, Do read any web comics such as Order of the stick or the Goblins one I posted above James?
They never fail to make me laugh with their take on DnD and adding the rules as every day talk. I highly recomend them if you get the chance or inclination.
Cheers
I'm not a fan of Order of the Stick; the art style grates on my nerves.
I do read some web comics though; two favorites include Dinosaur Comics (surprise!) and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
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Creative Director
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Will I get the job in interviewed for last Friday (the interview lasted a little over an hour, so I have a good feeling, but hate to jinx myself)?
How did you get into the RPG industry?
What's the quickest, legal way for someone who is pretty well broke to get their hands on $1 million? How long would this take? Would they have any self respect remaining afterward?
If a halfling and a human mated would the offspring be a quarterling?
And on that subject, why is it that humans are the only ones who seems to be able to have inter-species offspring? Why no half-dwarfs, or half-gnomes?
What is the best show on TV today? And are you psyched about the upcoming The Walking Dead series on AMC (starts on Halloween night)?
My magic 8 ball is in the shop, so I can't say.
The short version of how I got into the RPG industry was by writing for Dungeon Magazine and Dragon Magazine enough to impress the company, then moving to Seattle and joining a D&D game run by WotC employees to get to know them, and then going to work at WotC as a temp and eventually as a full-time employee, and getting to know the designers, and then working on hardcover books and not screwing up deadlines while giving good text turnovers, and applying for RPG designer or editor positions all the time.
If I knew a quick, legal way to get my hands on a million bucks... I'd likely have a lot more than that. My only guess: luck (as in, win the lottery).
Nope; the result would be a sore halfling and/or an unsatisfied human.
Because humans are the horniest ones, and no one wants to sleep with a dwarf anyway.
Best TV show on today is a tie between Bordwalk Empire and Mythbusters. Although Fringe is looking pretty good (I just started watching it). Deadliest Catch is also great. The Walking Dead looks like it's going to be VERY cool.
Now... running two groups that play in the same campaign and sometimes team up? That can be really fun. The key is that the two groups should not be enemies or competitors, really.
When we were younger, my friend ran a Greyhawk campaign, and I ran a Forgotten Realms campaign. When he transitioned to Planescape and I used Spelljammer, we each cameoed characters from each other's campaigns as NPCs in our games.
Currently one of my friends is running two Champions games on different nights with different groups, but they are sharing the same "setting." One group destroyed the internet, and the other team has had to deal with the fallout of this action. Another friend of ours has run with this, setting his Champions game in the same setting as the other two campaigns.
Unfortunately I'm not in that one, but its been fun to watch unfold.
Ever read the Dresden Files?
If no... would you if you knew THIS happens?
Would illiteracy be worth a free trait? I've got a barbarian concept here that doesn't work as well with the whole reading thing and the player was wondering if giving up reading and writing is worth anything.Try this: ** spoiler omitted **
Cool, thanks.
What is your weakness? >.>
If you didn't close threads that had devolved into pointless back and forth insults, how long would they continue?
Would Tom Rex and an M1A1 Abrams result in Dino Tank?
That... wow.
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Creative Director
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Ever read the Dresden Files?
If no... would you if you knew THIS happens?
I have not. And no, that doesn't change things for me. I've got plenty of reading material already.
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I have not. And no, that doesn't change things for me. I've got plenty of reading material already.Ever read the Dresden Files?
If no... would you if you knew THIS happens?
What are you reading? And what's next on your list?
(And how is it that you have time to read?)
Is there a possibility for a Moria-like adventure path? Descent into long lost dwarven kingdom, trapped balor at the end of AP? Stuff like that?
That wasn't a Balor, it was more like a Pit Fiend.
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Creative Director
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I have not. And no, that doesn't change things for me. I've got plenty of reading material already.Ever read the Dresden Files?
If no... would you if you knew THIS happens?
What are you reading? And what's next on your list?
(And how is it that you have time to read?)
The fact that I don't have a lot of time to read... and more to the point, that my day job involves a LOT of reading so it's harder to get into the "reading for pleasure" mindset... does kind of annoy me.
That said, I just finished reading F. Paul Wilson's newest book, "Fatal Error." Which was REALLY good. And after that I picked up a short story collection of Lovecraftian tails by Stephen Mark Rainey (I think that's his name...) but I also have several other partially finished books I wanna get back to, including "The Passage," "Black Hills," a Ramsey Campbell short story collection, and lots of other books... including the new Stephen King novella collection that'll be out soon, and a book I just ordered from PS Publishing that's an S. T. Joshi edited anthology of new Lovecraftian fiction called "Black Wings."
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Creative Director
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Can the Hide in Plain Sight ability of a shadowdancer be used during melee?
What is your most memorable gaming experience?
Zombies or vampires?
Monkeys or sharks?
Stout or Pale Ale?
Yes.
When I made a friend fall backwards out of his seat because I described something so unexpected and funny that he toppled backwards in a fit of laughter.
Sharks.
Stout.
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Would Tom Rex and an M1A1 Abrams result in Dino Tank?
It might also result in Dino MIGHT!
I'm going to a special hell for that...
What's your most epic in game PC experience? This does NOT have to involve epic levels??
For example mine would be when my Necromancer with a str of like 14 out grappled a Warforged Titan with a much much higher str due to rolling more Nat 20s than the DM.
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Creative Director
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Do any Golarian cultures practice ransoming nobles captured in warfare? If so, how closely do you imagine it paralleling the real-world history of it?
We haven't specifically said that this practice is endemic to any one specific region, but I suspect it happens relatively often in the Linnorm Kingdoms, Taldor, Galt, and MAYBE in the drow cities.
As for how closely it parallels real-world history... as closely as the GM wants.
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Creative Director
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What's your most epic in game PC experience? This does NOT have to involve epic levels??
For example mine would be when my Necromancer with a str of like 14 out grappled a Warforged Titan with a much much higher str due to rolling more Nat 20s than the DM.
Three characters come to mind:
Ruvagog: A druid who reached about 25th level or so in Jim Butler's campaign; we left off that campaign when the party was on some sort of strange extraplanar/cursed island inhabited by crazed storm giants who were outfitted with powerful technological weapons, if I remember correctly.
Rowyn tai'Tesseril: A cleric who reached about 19th level in Julia Martin's campaign based on Diane Duane's "Middle Kingdoms." Rowyn was a rod mistress, which was a type of cleric who could spontaneously cast spells and do all sorts of crazy powerful raw manipulations of magic. She once shapechanged into the tarrasque and ate a balor that proceeded to explode in her stomach but that didn't kill her. She also got knocked up by an angel and spent several adventures while being increasingly pregnant. Both relatively epic achievements.
Shensen: A bard/fighter/derivsh type character in Jason Nelson's campaign based on the Forgotten Realms but with some significant changes. She's probably my most favorite of all the characters I've played; she ended up around 20th level before I had to drop out of the campaign for various reasons. She converted a Thayan wizard-merchant to the worship of Eilistraee and, when she got everything going at once, could do like a dozen attacks in a single round. She got "transplanted" into Golarion in the NPC Guide.
Rowyn tai'Tesseril... Shensen...
i've noticed some repetition in the names in your games and adventures.
i've seen "tesseril" as an npc in "the razing of redshore" in dungeon magazine #92, as the last name of a drow in the shackled city adventure path, and as part of the last name of a character you played.
i've also seen "shensen" as the first name of the aforementioned drow in the shackled city adventure path and as the first name of a character you played.
and i've seen the last name "scrimm" used as the last name of an npc in "the razing of redshore" and as the last name of a character you played.
so i guess my question is this: why don't you come up with more original names rather than reusing the same ones?? ;-)
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Creative Director
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Rowyn tai'Tesseril... Shensen...i've noticed some repetition in the names in your games and adventures.
i've seen "tesseril" as an npc in "the razing of redshore" in dungeon magazine #92, as the last name of a drow in the shackled city adventure path, and as part of the last name of a character you played.
i've also seen "shensen" as the first name of the aforementioned drow in the shackled city adventure path and as the first name of a character you played.
and i've seen the last name "scrimm" used as the last name of an npc in "the razing of redshore" and as the last name of a character you played.
so i guess my question is this: why don't you come up with more original names rather than reusing the same ones?? ;-)
Two reasons.
1) Dropping personal easter eggs and my own characters into print here and there is one of the perks of working on RPGs. It's a tradition as old as the game itself. Mordenkainen was Gygax's character, for example.
2) I have to come up with thousands of names. THOUSANDS of them. Even though I try not to recycle them, the parts of my brain that are built to generate "fantasy names" tend to skew toward certain combinations of words and sounds. On top of that, recycling names with slight variations here and there is kind of the same as the fact that I have some words that I just like more than others and thus use more often than others. This happens with all writers, more or less.
In any event, if I were to list all of the names I've invented over the course of the last decade of working in the industry (including re-naming NPCs and locations and stuff in adventures or books I'm developing and editing, because a shocking number of RPG writers have a hard time coming up with names that are good)... the ones that I've "recycled" would be VASTLY in the minority.
Two reasons.
it's great answers like these that are the reason i attend the church of james jacobs on sundays.
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1) what is the most evil, hedius, horrifing act that you'll let throw into the APs and other paizo products (ei were is the line drawn?)
2) of the paizo staff that play pathfinder together who is the one that tends to make the other players and/or GM cring the most?
3) how do you think it would play out if the icons (as made) meet the party of a paizo staff game?
I haven't asked any questions for a while, did you miss me?
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Creative Director
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1) what is the most evil, hedius, horrifing act that you'll let throw into the APs and other paizo products (ei were is the line drawn?)
2) of the paizo staff that play pathfinder together who is the one that tends to make the other players and/or GM cring the most?
3) how do you think it would play out if the icons (as made) meet the party of a paizo staff game?
1: See Pathfinder #3: "Hook Mountain Massacre."
2: I'd like to think I make folks cringe plenty.3: The iconics are not meant to be numbercrunched, but a fair number of us here at Paizo DO numbercrunch our PCs... so I'd like to say we'd kick the Iconics' asses.
Have you guys actively sought out the original adventure writers like Douglas Niles, David "Zeb" Cook, and Jeff Grubb (my list would be bigger but sadly a few of original guys are no longer with us) for freelance work?
If you could pick any of the original adventure writers who would be on your list?
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Creative Director
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Have you guys actively sought out the original adventure writers like Douglas Niles, David "Zeb" Cook, and Jeff Grubb (my list would be bigger but sadly a few of original guys are no longer with us) for freelance work?
If you could pick any of the original adventure writers who would be on your list?
A lot of the "original adventure writers" are either retired from the industry, aren't interested in gaming anymore, are more invested in their own projects, or aren't up on the rules. We do periodically approach folks like Jeff Grubb to do stuff for us, though, be it adventure writing or fiction or whatever.
The first module I bought (I got my mum to buy for me) and dungeon mastered was B5 Horror on the Hill.
I don't know if it is nostalgia but I think B5 is probably one of the most under rated of the modules of that period.
Do you have any favourite modules that other people don't unusually rate as highly?
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I'm not overly big on categorising people, but the GM's guide in 4th edition has a nice little overview on styles of player and what they want out of a game.
What is it that drives you when you play? (eg in case my quesion isn't overly clear - problem solver etc)
Do you prefer to play or DM, or is it a mix of both that keeps your cravings sated. (I like to play, but always end up craving to DM as well.)
Cheers
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Creative Director
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The first module I bought (I got my mum to buy for me) and dungeon mastered was B5 Horror on the Hill.
I don't know if it is nostalgia but I think B5 is probably one of the most under rated of the modules of that period.
Do you have any favourite modules that other people don't unusually rate as highly?
"Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure" is one of my favorites... perhaps my #1 favorite, in fact. It doesn't get mentioned all that often in the "my top 5" lists though.
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Creative Director
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I'm not overly big on categorising people, but the GM's guide in 4th edition has a nice little overview on styles of player and what they want out of a game.
What is it that drives you when you play? (eg in case my quesion isn't overly clear - problem solver etc)
Do you prefer to play or DM, or is it a mix of both that keeps your cravings sated. (I like to play, but always end up craving to DM as well.)
Cheers
I prefer both; each has its own attractions. What drives me when I play is roleplaying and the tactical element of combat.
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3) how do you think it would play out if the icons (as made) meet the party of a paizo staff game?
3: The iconics are not meant to be numbercrunched, but a fair number of us here at Paizo DO numbercrunch our PCs... so I'd like to say we'd kick the Iconics' asses.
Ok, when I first saw this question I misread it, so I'll restate it as I first read it:
How do you think it would play out if the icons meet the paizo staff ?
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Creative Director
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3) how do you think it would play out if the icons (as made) meet the party of a paizo staff game?
3: The iconics are not meant to be numbercrunched, but a fair number of us here at Paizo DO numbercrunch our PCs... so I'd like to say we'd kick the Iconics' asses.Ok, when I first saw this question I misread it, so I'll restate it as I first read it:
How do you think it would play out if the icons meet the paizo staff ?
Mmmm... Merisiel... (swoon)