Creative Director
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Another question the black blade magus has in the progression listing enchantment is this a perminate enchantment bonus on yhe blade or is that just a tracker for the black blade strike?
Would applying the intelligent weapon modifiers to upgrade the stats of the weapon be a good and fair way for player to customize the blade to meet their idea of companion.
Paying the cost to up the intelligence, wisdom, and charasma
Or add more senses and communications. But limit access to other powers .
Ofcourse the ego goes up and would add to the gaming experience.
It would be a how much do you think you can handle.
That's a good question for the rules boards for FAQ.
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What do you think of this image? Fitting for him?
Poor Tyrian! He can't catch a break in ANY world!
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That's one way to look at it. Another way is to say that one cleric is more experienced (aka higher level) than the other. And another way is to say that one cleric is simply more favored by her deity than the other.Is it right to read this in my head like it's Vincent Vega talking to Mia Wallace about a foot massage?
If that's a way of saying my writing reminds you of Quenten Tarrantino's writing, I'll absolutely take that as a compliment! :-)
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You've said before that the Great Beyond has enough space for multiple cosmologies (e.g. Great Wheel, Great Tree, and so on). If, in these multiple cosmologies, Nocticula and Malcanthet were to encounter one another, in the inevitable power struggle that would ensue, who do you think would be most likely to wind up on top?50/50 chance of either. And a 50/50 chance that either would deliberately "throw" that fight, probably.Why one of them would throw the fight?
Because the use of the phrase "wind up on top" when referring to a fight between succubi queens does not imply a fight to the death, but rather a "fight" of an entirely different nature.
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What is the most epic thing any of your characters or your player's characters have said?
When one of the bad guys in the campaign did something terrible to one of my character's friends, she basically said about the villain:
"I'm going to destroy you so utterly that there won't be enough left of you even in our memories to inspire campfire tales."
Or something like that. I don't remember exactly how I phrased it, but it was at the end of a pretty effective tirade. Effective enough that the GM gave me a permanent bonus on all rolls made against that enemy for the rest of the campaign, saying that the gods heard my threat and were impressed enough to make it a deity-powerd vow.
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1. If you were going to build a Bard inspired by Ronnie James Dio, what sort of spells, bardic performances, and class archetype would he use?
2. If you were going to introduce elemntals that combined very different elements (Like, say, earth and fire or lightning and ice) in the manner of 4e's combi-elementals, how would you justify it fluff-wise? Insane wizard? Creations of Haagenti?
3. How would you design more PC friendly versions/relatives of the Mongrelfolk, Clockwork Servants, Tanuki, Thriae Soldiers, and Brethedans? I ask because I think those races seem like they could be pretty well suited for PC use fluffwise and concept-wise with some tweaking.
4. Where did the idea for the Vemerak come from?
5. Have you ever played Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden? It's a freeware parody of JRPGs, and it is completely and utterly bonkers in the best possible way.
6. In order of most likely to least likely, which of the Tiefling sub-races introduced in Blood of Fiends are the most and least likely to turn out good (or at least antiheroic)?
7. Is it possible for a Qlipoth-spawned Tiefling to end up good? And has it ever happened in Golarion's history?
8. Do Golarion's kodama do that weird little head-shake-y thing like the ones in Princess Mononoke?
1) I wouldn't, since I don' really know enough about Ronnie James Dio other than to know his styles and music and all that are too anachronistic for my tastes to be proper inspiration for a Golarion character.
2) First off... "combined" elementals aren't a 4E thing. Paraelementals and quasi elementals have been around since 1st edition AD&D. And I consider the magma, lightning, ice, and mud elementals in Bestiary 2 to be this exact type of thing.
3) I probably wouldn't, because I prefer PC races to be more human than anything else. If I had to, though, I'd use the Advanced Race Guide to start, drop the race's HD entirely, and then see where I was at.
4) My brain, after it had steeped in horror/monster movie lore for a few decades.
5) I haven't.
6) They're all equally likely to be good aligned.
7) Yes to both.
8) I would be morbidly disappointed if they did not!
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What is the most epic thing any of your characters or your player's characters have said?When one of the bad guys in the campaign did something terrible to one of my character's friends, she basically said about the villain:
"I'm going to destroy you so utterly that there won't be enough left of you even in our memories to inspire campfire tales."
Or something like that. I don't remember exactly how I phrased it, but it was at the end of a pretty effective tirade. Effective enough that the GM gave me a permanent bonus on all rolls made against that enemy for the rest of the campaign, saying that the gods heard my threat and were impressed enough to make it a deity-powerd vow.
That'll do it :3
Will we ever have a book of "myths" about the Gods? so we can actually get an idea what they are about. currently they have very little personality. So far the only real story, i can find, and a very well written one at that, is the battle of asmodeus and his brother and sarenae. That story gives more insight into asmoedeous than any piece or write up that has been written about him, that i have seen. can we look foward to or expect more stories like that?
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Will we ever have a book of "myths" about the Gods? so we can actually get an idea what they are about. currently they have very little personality. So far the only real story, i can find, and a very well written one at that, is the battle of asmodeus and his brother and sarenae. That story gives more insight into asmoedeous than any piece or write up that has been written about him, that i have seen. can we look foward to or expect more stories like that?
We've been running a series of 6 to 10 page articles about the deities of Golarion in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths since volume #2 about 6 years ago. So far we've covered all the core 20 deities as well as several other minor deities. These articles appear 2 to 3 times per Adventure Path.
I have a question about Oracles and 'Divinity' (in Golarion)
Would it be a plausible path for Oracles who continue past 20th level, or with Mythic levels,
to progressively become more like Deities, or at least Demi-Gods?
Based on their connection to Domains (in slightly different form) which isn't under the control of any one God per se,
it seems like they are good candidates for this, to the point that at high level they could grant Domain Powers to their followers like other Gods/ Demi-Gods...?
I mean, I know that ANY being can become a God, either thru the Starstone or other extra-ordinary means,
but it seems like Oracles are already tied into the universal Deific reality of Domain Magic...???
We've been running a series of 6 to 10 page articles about the deities of Golarion in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths since volume #2 about 6 years ago. So far we've covered all the core 20 deities as well as several other minor deities. These articles appear 2 to 3 times per Adventure Path.Will we ever have a book of "myths" about the Gods? so we can actually get an idea what they are about. currently they have very little personality. So far the only real story, i can find, and a very well written one at that, is the battle of asmodeus and his brother and sarenae. That story gives more insight into asmoedeous than any piece or write up that has been written about him, that i have seen. can we look foward to or expect more stories like that?
is there a possiblity that these will be conslidated? i don't read the ap's because i don't want to be spoiled, when i eventually play them. prehaps a consolidated players companion book or even campaign setting book. I can't imagine people would stop buying the Ap's even if they knew these short articles would be consolidated.
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I have a question about Oracles and 'Divinity' (in Golarion)
Would it be a plausible path for Oracles who continue past 20th level, or with Mythic levels,
to progressively become more like Deities, or at least Demi-Gods?
Based on their connection to Domains (in slightly different form) which isn't under the control of any one God per se,
it seems like they are good candidates for this, to the point that at high level they could grant Domain Powers to their followers like other Gods/ Demi-Gods...?
I mean, I know that ANY being can become a God, either thru the Starstone or other extra-ordinary means,
but it seems like Oracles are already tied into the universal Deific reality of Domain Magic...???
That's plausable for all classes, not just oracles. That's a big part of what Mythic Adventures is about too.
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is there a possiblity that these will be conslidated? i don't read the ap's because i don't want to be spoiled, when i eventually play them. prehaps a consolidated players companion book or even campaign setting book. I can't imagine people would stop buying the Ap's even if they knew these short articles would be consolidated.We've been running a series of 6 to 10 page articles about the deities of Golarion in the Pathfinder Adventure Paths since volume #2 about 6 years ago. So far we've covered all the core 20 deities as well as several other minor deities. These articles appear 2 to 3 times per Adventure Path.Will we ever have a book of "myths" about the Gods? so we can actually get an idea what they are about. currently they have very little personality. So far the only real story, i can find, and a very well written one at that, is the battle of asmodeus and his brother and sarenae. That story gives more insight into asmoedeous than any piece or write up that has been written about him, that i have seen. can we look foward to or expect more stories like that?
There's certainly a possibility... but not as a player's companion, which is locked in at 32 pages. And frankly... we already did that—the three "Faiths of..." player companions are precisely the result of repurposing much of the info in those articles, trimming it SIGNIFICANTLY, and then presenting the info for players.
And while I understand the desire not to be spoiled... the articles themselves are self-contained in each volume and do not contain major spoilers (and in most cases don't even contain minor spoilers) for the adventure in that volume. So if you wanted to read about a specific deity, you should be perfectly safe doing so.
Of the dungeons from Dungeons of Golarion, which would you most like to fully expand? I would assume Hollow Mountain would be one.
Speaking of deities, do people in Golarion tend to worship one specifically, or do you get people who worship a number of them?
1. What goods does Korvosa export?
2. What goods did Eurythnia export?
3. Besides slaves, what goods would a planar city want?
4. Why didn't runelords pull out and commodify the souls of their subjects?
5. What crops does Avistan not have much of yet?
6. What would Sorshen do with the Mushfens? Establish some sort of swamp agriculture or write it off as useless except for the ruins?
7. If Sorshen likes beauty, why would she want to watch facial scarification? Wouldn't she consider that wasteful?
8. Is it possible to create juju zombies with bodies just as supple as a humanoid's?
9. If erodaemons take the form of what the target most desires, what would one turn into for Sorshen?
10. Why would Sorshen consider her inability to cast transmutation spells a strength?
So James, I've heard you like Game of Thrones so I've got a question for you. Where in Golarion might one probably find an ethnic group like the Dothraki? Or are there any ethnic groups in Golarion that are similar enough to Dothraki that one might be able to make a Dothraki-like character?
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1. What goods does Korvosa export?
2. What goods did Eurythnia export?
3. Besides slaves, what goods would a planar city want?
4. Why didn't runelords pull out and commodify the souls of their subjects?
5. What crops does Avistan not have much of yet?
6. What would Sorshen do with the Mushfens? Establish some sort of swamp agriculture or write it off as useless except for the ruins?
7. If Sorshen likes beauty, why would she want to watch facial scarification? Wouldn't she consider that wasteful?
8. Is it possible to create juju zombies with bodies just as supple as a humanoid's?
9. If erodaemons take the form of what the target most desires, what would one turn into for Sorshen?
10. Why would Sorshen consider her inability to cast transmutation spells a strength?
1) Fish, agricultural goods, horses, and luxuries.
2) Slaves, enchantment magic, and drugs.
3) Anything and everything. The planes are all about possibilities.
4) Because that's a pretty wasteful use of subjects, and it's high level magic that's expensive to cast a lot.
5) Tea, I suppose? Gumbo? Kale? Cocoa? To be honest... I tend to be pretty bored by import/export stuff in a fantasy setting. I'm more interested in the stories and tend to leave the mundane stuff until I need it and invent it then.
6) She wouldn't be a fan of swamps because they're gross and uncomfortable. She'd drain the Mushfens or otherwise fix them to restore her proper lands.
7) Where do we say that she wantd to watch facial scarification? Just off the top of my head, it DOES sound like a kind of punishment she'd prefer to mete out to those who displeased her.
8) Gentle repose is good for keeping zombie lovers quite supple. Which is, I assume, what you're asking about.
9) Her greatest desire. Which isn't public knowledge.
10) Because she would consider herself already as good as she can get, physically; she doesn't need those transmutation crutches to rule her nation.
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Do the gods take a dim view to "gaming" the afterlife system (for example, sacrificing yourself to save everyone not because you are a good person or think it is the right thing to do, but because you know/think it will lead to a cushy afterlife).
What punishments could be expected?
Suicide in order to enjoy a good afterlife is a good way to end up not getting a good afterlife as a general rule. There's a reason many societies consider suicide a sin. If you're doing it for honorable reasons, such as sepuku or the like, it's not a problem.
AKA: Pharasma knows the reasons you do things better than you do, and she's not going to be tricked.
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So James, I've heard you like Game of Thrones so I've got a question for you. Where in Golarion might one probably find an ethnic group like the Dothraki? Or are there any ethnic groups in Golarion that are similar enough to Dothraki that one might be able to make a Dothraki-like character?
Probably northeastern Casmaron. Maybe Arcadia.
If you would add Echidna to a bestiary/pathfinder product, what would she be?
A: A mythic unique creature.
B: Medusa and Minotaur style creature, unique in greek myth but common in Golarion.
C: A mythic common creature, so still mythic but not unique.
D: Other
James,
I know you can't comment on stat blocks, etc (for legal reasons) but how about backgrounds? My character in our RotRL campaign gains Leadership at 7th (Rogue 3/Lore-warden 2/Noble Scion 2); I gain a pseudo-dragon cohort (base cohort 4/ranger 1/rogue 1). Please provide any constructive criticism you can offer on her background.
Kuthona Seventh is a pseudo-dragon from Korvosa, growing up in the Shingles area of the city where she served as a familiar to a reclusive wizard. She kept her master's tower free of the ever present imps (Imp-Slayer Feat) within the city and cloakers/stirges (Monster Hunter trait) so commonly found within the Shingles area. She is very quick and maneuverable within the air (Acrobat archetype), many times attacking from stealth and moving on (Scout archetype) before her imp or cloaker enemies can counter. Since leaving Korvosa, she has used her naturally gifted stealth skills, particularly within forested regions, to great effect, leading to earning her living as a scout (both Guide and Narmathi Irregular archetypes, concentrating on forest terrain and Profession: Scout).
Kuthona has kept almost all of her scout payments, having them converted into gemstones (pretty to look at and not dirty like cash); her most prized possession, however, is her magical Belt of Tumbling she was gifted by her former wizard master. She wears fine silk handkerchiefs of many colors in the Varisian style (gaudy enough to be considered an entertainer's outfit).
Kuthona, when not adventuring, enjoys gourmet foods and fine wines/liquors. She has learned to identify many fine vintages by taste and knows their value, as well as the value of the common gemstones she has been payed with (Appraise skill). She knows many languages, including Infernal (from her time dealing with imps) and Sylvan (dealing with fey as she escorted her charges through her woodland journeys) and has learned how to activate magical items (Use Magic Device) and identify spell-casting (Spellcraft) from her time serving as a familiar.
Kuthona is named for the Korvosan holiday celebrating pseudo-dragons, which occurs on the 7th of the month of Kuthona. She prefers to be called Seven until she gets to know you and she considers you a dear friend, in which case she will permit you to call her, and secretly prefers, Kuthona.
Kingmaker question. The AP says that the hexes are 12 miles across. Is that from opposite corners, or is that from opposite sides? Thanks.
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10) Because she would consider herself already as good as she can get, physically; she doesn't need those transmutation crutches to rule her nation.For that reason, wouldn't she also have disdained the use of Illusion magic in several respects?
No. Illusion magic is not oppositional to the Thassilonian school of lust. It's a handy tool for trickery... and in fact is one of the two most closely aligned schools of magic to enchantment. Sorshen was a big fan of illusions.
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If you would add Echidna to a bestiary/pathfinder product, what would she be?
A: A mythic unique creature.
B: Medusa and Minotaur style creature, unique in greek myth but common in Golarion.
C: A mythic common creature, so still mythic but not unique.
D: Other
Not everything needs to be mythic, mythic, mythic.
I'd likely stat her up as a plain old but powerful monster. So, B. But not "common on Golarion." I wouldn't even say medusas and minotaurs were anything close to "common" on Golarion.
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James,
I know you can't comment on stat blocks, etc (for legal reasons) but how about backgrounds?
Backgrounds are actually even MORE of a problem to comment on, actually. With rules, I could, in theory, point out hard facts to support my reaction. With backgrounds, it's purely my opinion and that's subjective. With a rule, I might say, "Your new feat is broken because it's twice as good as Power Attack," and that's pretty cut and dry. With a background, I might say, "Your background is riddled with cliches, and I don't like dwarves being raised by elves and trained to be gunslingers," or something like that, and that's just my opinion and as such is far more likely to devolve into a complicated set of defenses and rebuttals that, since I'm not paying you to write it, I wouldn't feel comfortable saying "do this and not that" and, furthermore, should be using that energy to work with authrors I AM paying to produce content for Paizo.
And none of that touches on the slippery slope of copyright, intellectual property, plagarisim, and the like. If I read your background, comment, then we part ways and 2 years later I come up with something similar and publish it even though I've completely forgotten about the conversation we had years before... that starts to open up all sorts of complicated legal problems. THAT'S the main reason I avoid commenting on and reading writing samples... and it's why most professional writers do the same. And in this case, it's much MORE of a problem with non-rules content, since rules can be covered in some ways by things like the OGL and the like, whereas fiction is not.
I'm not saying that you or anyone else is looking to set up a trap to catch me years down the road in a lawsuit. Not at all. I'm just saying that I'd rather not risk having a situation like that happen at all in the first place.
So... sorry I can't provide any feedback; my suggestion is to look for feedback from other folk here on the boards—there's lots of talented and creative folks out there!
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I (in addition to the other questions I have further up the page) have a follow-up question to some things I asked about a few weeks back regarding the magic of prophecy, and how it was essentially destroyed with the death of Aroden (i.e. prophecies don't work and the future is murky).
How do the Norns figure into this? From Lands of the Linnorm Kings, though:
"These powerful entities [the Norns] can be encountered throughout the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, and often appear before those destined for great acts of heroism or vile deeds of villainy to issues prophecies or warnings - prognostications that have an eerie tendency to be accurate, even in the modern age where prophecy is dead."
The Bestiary 3 says that Norns "hold in their hands the physical manifestation of fate and destiny in the form of golden thread" and when the strands of fate are twisted they step in.
Even though prophecy is supposedly dead or at least inaccurate enough to make predictions faulty at best, the Norns still seem to have a connection with destiny, fate and so on that allows them to make what sound like uncannily accurate predictions of the future. How are they able to do this, exactly? Do they have a connection with fate that even deities might lack? Is it something to do with the First World link that the Norns apparently have as Fae?
On a different tack, Elder Jinushigami (the oldest and most powerful kami) have dominion over fairly large aspects of nature. Does the Eye of Abendego have such a kami watching over it, and if so, what is its name? Is it stronger or weaker than others, or is it perhaps even mythic? Or are kami limited to Tian Xia?
We have a LOT more to say about norns in the upcoming Fey Revisited.
And remember... Prophecy is only a tiny part of the idea of fate and destiny. It's a specific part that has been abused and over used in fantasy fiction, and it's kind of a lazy story construction element. It's like writing your novel outline into your novel as an actual character.
But you can still have things associated with fate and destiny without a prophecy that essentially totally outlines and spoils your story's plot in a few sentences.
Thanks, I understand completely. Appreciate all the time you spend on the boards also!
1. Do you play any superhero rpgs?
2. Who is your favorite Marvel/DC/ and other comic character?
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How would the gods react to a mortal casual worshiper of multiple gods? Is this the most common form of worship in Golarion? How would it change if the worship was towards evil gods?
The gods are capable of handing a lot more input than a mortal. That's part of what makes them gods.
They handle each worshiper's faith and react to it as the situation merits; you can't say "they always do this in a case of a faith of X or Y level," since it varies by deity, by worshiper, and by countless other events going on at the time.
AKA: Until we publish rules for how gods work, I can't really answer that question without setting myself up for contradiction in the future.
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For intelligent weapon s are the Ability score chart 15-22 and the Base Magic item value chart a linear progression chart? Or is it a cumulative?Aren't "linear" and "cumulative" the same thing?Sorry a better way of saying it would it be treated like the magic weapon creation were you pay the difference of the old level to the new level and take the new EGO modifier or would you add the new modifier on top of the old one?
Example
You raise the INT from 13 to a 14
Do you add 1 or 2 EGO point(s)?From what i see in the books like class level, magic armor/weapon you do not add all the previous bonus on top of the old one you replace it with the hight of the two.
OH! Ah; yah, that makes much more sense; thanks for rephrasing! ;-)
You pay the difference. You don't add all the modifiers together—the tables work the same way as class level tables.
What do you think of this image? Fitting for him?Poor Tyrian! He can't catch a break in ANY world!
I wouldn't say that...
He is married to Sansa Stark after all.
So what is the difference between a developer and a designer in the context of a tabletop RPG?
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How do you come up with names for characters and creatures that aren't using already established naming conventions or using words that best describe them?
Case in point: Zuggtmoy... where in the flying F@#$ity F@#$ did that come from?
Also : Cyth-V’sug, Socothbenoth, (insert any lovecraft mythos name here)
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So what is the difference between a developer and a designer in the context of a tabletop RPG?
A designer is the same thing as the writer/author of a product; they create content.
A developer is more like a combination between an author and an editor—they take what a designer builds and adjust the language to fit the rules, the setting, and the English language. They help transition the text between the original manuscript and editing.
To compare roles to a movie—the designer would be either the screenwriter (in the case of a writer of adventures or flavor content) or the inventor of the cameras and other tools used to film the movie (in the case of the rules designer). The developer would be the director of the movie, but also at times has to jump in to design rules or edit as well. The developer is also sort of a "playtester" in that he makes sure the rules and story play right.
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How do you come up with names for characters and creatures that aren't using already established naming conventions or using words that best describe them?
Case in point: Zuggtmoy... where in the flying F@#$ity F@#$ did that come from?
Also : Cyth-V’sug, Socothbenoth, (insert any lovecraft mythos name here)
I use all sorts of methods of coming up with names. There's a LOT of online name generators that can help. Spelling words backwards and jumbling the letters works. Just making up random words can work. And it helps to know a lot about how words are simply constructed and how the language is built–you can use all sorts of word "parts" to combine to make new words for names. I do all these things, and often generate dozens at once and record them in a notebook for later use.
Would the technic league consider an android pc to be thier property?
I get Leadership next level and my GM is letting me build my cohort now for introduction. My party has an Oracle of Life, a Bladebound Magus, and myself (Samurai / Fighter. The Oracle is healing and divination-based, the magus is like a damage dealing deathtrap, and I'm focused on Charisma-based combat (demoralize and feinting) with some trip love for extra awesomeness.
What do you think I should make for our fourth member? The GM is letting the cohort adventure with us to round out our APL. Obvious weaknesses in our group include full spellcasting and skills.
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How do you come up with names for characters and creatures that aren't using already established naming conventions or using words that best describe them?
Case in point: Zuggtmoy... where in the flying F@#$ity F@#$ did that come from?
Also : Cyth-V’sug, Socothbenoth, (insert any lovecraft mythos name here)
I use all sorts of methods of coming up with names. There's a LOT of online name generators that can help. Spelling words backwards and jumbling the letters works. Just making up random words can work. And it helps to know a lot about how words are simply constructed and how the language is built–you can use all sorts of word "parts" to combine to make new words for names. I do all these things, and often generate dozens at once and record them in a notebook for later use.
Thankies for answer, that actually helps :3
Wait
... Does that mean there's a big James Jacobs Namenomicon somewhere ?
James, in Golarion there are two Stat arrays for NPC's.
Standard
Heroic.
What % of the general population fit into either?
What % are PCs?