Creative Director
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Q: Would you describe the various teams / lead individuals at Paizo and how they work (i.e., what falls under them)?There's a LOT of different teams at Paizo. Limiting it specifically to the ones who make the product and leaving out the ones who make sure the product can be made...
** spoiler omitted **...
AWESOME! Thank you very much.
Q: I feel like a n00b, but what is "Operation Banjo Thug"? What is its purpose? Who leads it?
I'm not sure anyone's ever talked about Operation Banjo Thug outside of Paizo.
It's a band that James and James formed to do a single performance of one song. I did the spoken word half, Sutter did the guitar half. The song went on for about 5 minutes, and ended up having a really cool story and some creepy elements, and it really werided out the only witness, Wes.
Operation Banjo Thug never did a repeat performance.
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Creative Director
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Is it possible to have a neutral or chaotic evil character that plays well with others?
I tend to see CE as Joker-level psychopathy, and NE as just "I'm going to ruin your life any way I can, lulz."
It's absolutely possible. Look at drow society; they have huge cities that have a lot of cooperation necessary in order to exist or even be built, but they're all chaotic evil.
Of course... they only play well with others as long as those others can help them or serve a purpose that would be diminished if they weren't playing well.
Speaking of Drow, if one was "stolen" at birth and raised in a different society, could he/she end up with a different alignment?
Yes.
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Creative Director
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Does that mean I'm not Top 10 material?
Me?
That one guy that who you rolling dice to answer questions? Who asked you to write a haiku about Baba Yaga (which turned out to be a Jacobian Prophecy about Reign of Winter)? That guy who asked you to determine the bone structure of his favorite fantasy race just yesterday?
That's gotta be at LEAST Top 32 material!
Haven't actually ranked the questions in order of weirdness, and this thread's too big to ever even consider doing something like that, so who can ever say where you're ranked?
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Creative Director
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My research into the dark underbelly of the internet (also known as "the entire internet") revealed two references to this phenomenon known as "Operation Banjo Thug." I will leave it for James to answer the original question, but my investigation left me with more questions than answers...James, what was the interview about??? I must know!
Hmm...I guess that's actually the exact same number of questions as answers.
Huh... now I wanna know what two references you found!
And the interview was actually ME interviewing an agency to replace my coworkers with more compliant and respectful and subservient models.
I had high hopes. It backfired.
Haven't actually ranked the questions in order of weirdness, and this thread's too big to ever even consider doing something like that, so who can ever say where you're ranked?Does that mean I'm not Top 10 material?
Me?
That one guy that who you rolling dice to answer questions? Who asked you to write a haiku about Baba Yaga (which turned out to be a Jacobian Prophecy about Reign of Winter)? That guy who asked you to determine the bone structure of his favorite fantasy race just yesterday?
That's gotta be at LEAST Top 32 material!
In my mind, I will be #11, then!
How difficult would it be to force or trick a creature to swallow something? I don't even know what kind of check that would be. I thought of a creative use for the Talisman of Pure Good and was wondering how feasible it would be to pull off...
I wanna force feed the Talisman of Pure Good to Baphomet which, assuming a Demon Lord counts as an evil divine spellcaster, would caused 8d6 points of damage per round to him.
My research into the dark underbelly of the internet (also known as "the entire internet") revealed two references to this phenomenon known as "Operation Banjo Thug." I will leave it for James to answer the original question, but my investigation left me with more questions than answers...James, what was the interview about??? I must know!
Hmm...I guess that's actually the exact same number of questions as answers.
Huh... now I wanna know what two references you found!
And the interview was actually ME interviewing an agency to replace my coworkers with more compliant and respectful and subservient models.
I had high hopes. It backfired.
Ha! Awesome.
Actually, there have been more than two mentions of Operation Banjo Thug as I delve deeper (I should probably stop): here (near the very bottom of the post), here (first paragraph), here (end of Young Master Sutter's entry :P), and here (in the middle, probably easier to search for it). There might be more in the void somewhere...
The details are still somewhat vague, and while I'd love to hear more about it, they will probably have to remain that way so that Wes can't confirm it really happened and thus can retain his tenuous hold on sanity.
Plus, it's pretty awesome just imagining it :D
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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My research into the dark underbelly of the internet (also known as "the entire internet") revealed two references to this phenomenon known as "Operation Banjo Thug." I will leave it for James to answer the original question, but my investigation left me with more questions than answers...James, what was the interview about??? I must know!
Hmm...I guess that's actually the exact same number of questions as answers.
Huh... now I wanna know what two references you found!
And the interview was actually ME interviewing an agency to replace my coworkers with more compliant and respectful and subservient models.
I had high hopes. It backfired.
Did this inevitably lead to the rise of the current HR?
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Most text seems to implicate that Sarenrae's merciful and redemptive nature is generally her true nature, with her purifying destructive aspect something done sparingly and only when no other option is present.
Why is it, then, that her wrathful aspect is viewed by the Kelish, the first people to worship her, to be her true personality? It would seem to me that her first faithful would be the ones most familiar with her true temperament and personality, and yet it's among her nation of origin where she seems to be the most misunderstood. What's up with that?
So tonight I held the last session of a game I've been running for the better part of a year; the party ended up at level 9.
Final reward I gave them was the opportunity to draw from a harrow deck of many things. One player drew The Tyrant, which reads as follows;
The character gains the one-time ability to issue a single command to any creature in the multiverse and have the order obeyed. The target is affected as if by the spell dominate monster, and even orders for the target to kill itself are followed. Any creature targeted by this effect knows that it is acting against its will, and knows the identity and location of the character. Immortal creatures cannot effectively kill themselves, and the act only causes them considerable but fleeting pain. Additionally, creatures with the ability to grant such boons typically also possess the power to revoke them, and do so as soon as the command releases them. The GM ultimately decides what this command can accomplish. The character may use this card's effect whenever he wishes, but may only use it once.
He used that card to command Asmodeus to release Rovagug from his prison.
About ten minutes later, the last person to draw also drew the Tyrant and used it to command Rovagug to go back into his cage long enough for Asmodeus to lock him back up.
So, were this to happen, about how much damage would Rovagug manage to inflict in that period of time?
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Creative Director
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How difficult would it be to force or trick a creature to swallow something? I don't even know what kind of check that would be. I thought of a creative use for the Talisman of Pure Good and was wondering how feasible it would be to pull off...
I wanna force feed the Talisman of Pure Good to Baphomet which, assuming a Demon Lord counts as an evil divine spellcaster, would caused 8d6 points of damage per round to him.
Bluff check, if the creature is smart.
Let it bite you, if the creature has swallow whole.
OR Grapple the creature and use a Dirty Trick combat maneuver... maybe 2 or 3 of them (one to get the thing in the monster's mouth and 1 to get it to swallow).
Force feeding a talisman of pure good to a creature is a creative stunt to pull, though.
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Creative Director
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Did this inevitably lead to the rise of the current HR?
My research into the dark underbelly of the internet (also known as "the entire internet") revealed two references to this phenomenon known as "Operation Banjo Thug." I will leave it for James to answer the original question, but my investigation left me with more questions than answers...James, what was the interview about??? I must know!
Hmm...I guess that's actually the exact same number of questions as answers.
Huh... now I wanna know what two references you found!
And the interview was actually ME interviewing an agency to replace my coworkers with more compliant and respectful and subservient models.
I had high hopes. It backfired.
HR? I'm not sure what you mean. I assume you're talking about the Hobo Riots of aught seven?
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Creative Director
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Had a question about angels. For the types of angels, how come we don't see any that fit the standard choir designation? Like Seraphim or Cherubs? Or even some outside of the choir designation, like the Watchers (Grigori)?I suspect because they're not trying to run the same road that Steve Jackson is with In Nominee.
Nope.
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Creative Director
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Most text seems to implicate that Sarenrae's merciful and redemptive nature is generally her true nature, with her purifying destructive aspect something done sparingly and only when no other option is present.
Why is it, then, that her wrathful aspect is viewed by the Kelish, the first people to worship her, to be her true personality? It would seem to me that her first faithful would be the ones most familiar with her true temperament and personality, and yet it's among her nation of origin where she seems to be the most misunderstood. What's up with that?
Because there's corruption and misunderstanding in her church in Kelesh. Who caused and spread that corruption and misunderstanding, how it's spread so far, and what's to be done about it is all part of an AP I'd like to do some day. NOTE: Qadira is NOT Sarenrae's nation of origin. That would be regions to the east. The warmongering Sarenite faction is mostly a Qadira thing.
(The real world answer is that some of our writers completely misunderstood the whole point of Sarenrae and messed it up, and the mistake snuck through development and editing and got into print, all at a time where I was focused more on the AP and not so much on the Campaign Setting Line. This is one of the things that more or less had some reorganizations that saw me taking on a more overarching creative director position along with some reorganizations in house. I've been trying to minimize it ever since... grrrrrr... but it DOES set up a cool plotline I suppose...)
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Creative Director
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So tonight I held the last session of a game I've been running for the better part of a year; the party ended up at level 9.
Final reward I gave them was the opportunity to draw from a harrow deck of many things. One player drew The Tyrant, which reads as follows;
The character gains the one-time ability to issue a single command to any creature in the multiverse and have the order obeyed. The target is affected as if by the spell dominate monster, and even orders for the target to kill itself are followed. Any creature targeted by this effect knows that it is acting against its will, and knows the identity and location of the character. Immortal creatures cannot effectively kill themselves, and the act only causes them considerable but fleeting pain. Additionally, creatures with the ability to grant such boons typically also possess the power to revoke them, and do so as soon as the command releases them. The GM ultimately decides what this command can accomplish. The character may use this card's effect whenever he wishes, but may only use it once.He used that card to command Asmodeus to release Rovagug from his prison.
About ten minutes later, the last person to draw also drew the Tyrant and used it to command Rovagug to go back into his cage long enough for Asmodeus to lock him back up.
So, were this to happen, about how much damage would Rovagug manage to inflict in that period of time?
As much as you want. If it were my game, It'd be enough for the next game to be a post-apocalyptic one. Assuming I'd let Asmodeus let Rovagug out... and assuming Asmodeus even has that option.
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Creative Director
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A design question about golarion. What was the thought process behind having a place like last wall next to a place like ustalav?
Paladins gravitate to where evil is most powerful, so they can stand against it. We put the Whispering Tyrant in Ustalav because that's the most logical place to put the world's scariest lich, and we put Lastwall right next door because once the Knights of Ozem defeated him... they're too good at their job to just wander away. They're in it for the whole duration.
As much as you want. If it were my game, It'd be enough for the next game to be a post-apocalyptic one. Assuming I'd let Asmodeus let Rovagug out... and assuming Asmodeus even has that option.So tonight I held the last session of a game I've been running for the better part of a year; the party ended up at level 9.
Final reward I gave them was the opportunity to draw from a harrow deck of many things. One player drew The Tyrant, which reads as follows;
The character gains the one-time ability to issue a single command to any creature in the multiverse and have the order obeyed. The target is affected as if by the spell dominate monster, and even orders for the target to kill itself are followed. Any creature targeted by this effect knows that it is acting against its will, and knows the identity and location of the character. Immortal creatures cannot effectively kill themselves, and the act only causes them considerable but fleeting pain. Additionally, creatures with the ability to grant such boons typically also possess the power to revoke them, and do so as soon as the command releases them. The GM ultimately decides what this command can accomplish. The character may use this card's effect whenever he wishes, but may only use it once.He used that card to command Asmodeus to release Rovagug from his prison.
About ten minutes later, the last person to draw also drew the Tyrant and used it to command Rovagug to go back into his cage long enough for Asmodeus to lock him back up.
So, were this to happen, about how much damage would Rovagug manage to inflict in that period of time?
I had contemplated a hard "no", but generally when deities are exempt, the text will note that deities are exempt.
I also took the "Asmodeus holds the key to Rovagug's prison and taunts him with it" myth at face value. Because that's always struck me as something Asmodeus would do. I've also always assumed that was Asmodeus' ultimate trump card; should at the end of everything all his plans and plots be thwarted, he can always let Rovagug loose as a final middle finger to the universe.
Mr. James Jacobs,
After looking at the Beyond the Campaign map for WotR I had a thought: if the players failed and the world wound encompassed all of Golarion, what nations or city states would hold out and which ones would work as normal or join in?
Hello, James Jacobs!
1) In the upcoming Inner Sea Gods, will we see any of the planar allies from the adventure path deity articles illustrated or statted up?
1a) Specifically Phoenix Tail, the avoral bard servant of Shelyn?
2) My cleric characters often take Eldritch Heritage (arcane) to get a familiar animal sacred to their faith (for example, a cleric of Shelyn with a thrush familiar flavored as a songbird, or a cleric of Pharasma with the same thrush flavored as a whippoorwill). In Besmara's article, her clerics can give up a domain to gain a nautical-themed familiar. Do clerics with familiars seem balanced and/or flavorful to you?
3) Way back in Pathfinder #7, Varisian sorcerers and faithful of Desna are said to take thrushes and giant butterflies (described as having the same stats as a thrush) as familiars. You said you'd likely prefer to make custom stats for giant butterflies/moths, and that they'd give a +3 to fly/stealth checks respectively. With the thrush being Diminutive size and having a Str score of 1, they probably wouldn't be too far off from a giant butterfly/moth. Do you think we'll get to see giant butterflies/moths as familiar options in the future?
4) The evangelist cleric archetype, despite the name, seems to be well-suited for clerics of Shelyn (as they gain Perform as a class skill, bardic music, can spontaneously cast several enchantment spells, etc.) Would you say it's a common archetype among her priests?
5) I was considering creating a lesser phoenix-like songbird that could be taken as an Improved Familiar. For example, Neutral Good, 3d10 HD, Small-size, Magical Beast (Fire), with a limited self-resurrection (1/year), ability to cast cure light wounds, and a minor shroud of flame, reminiscent of it's greater cousin. Inspiration comes partly from Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix. Following my clerics with familiars trend, the bird could be sacred to Sarenrae or Shelyn's faith. Do you think such a creature likely to exist? And if so, would it be sacred to Sarenrae, Shelyn, or both?
6) Do marriages ever occur between celestials and mortals?
Sorry if my questions are long-winded, I try to make things as clear as I can! Thank you for taking the time to read through and answer them. I just find it really neat to be able to bounce around ideas and get the opinion of the Creative Director on various topics!
How difficult would it be to force or trick a creature to swallow something? I don't even know what kind of check that would be. I thought of a creative use for the Talisman of Pure Good and was wondering how feasible it would be to pull off...
I wanna force feed the Talisman of Pure Good to Baphomet which, assuming a Demon Lord counts as an evil divine spellcaster, would caused 8d6 points of damage per round to him.
Bluff check, if the creature is smart.
Let it bite you, if the creature has swallow whole.
OR Grapple the creature and use a Dirty Trick combat maneuver... maybe 2 or 3 of them (one to get the thing in the monster's mouth and 1 to get it to swallow).
Force feeding a talisman of pure good to a creature is a creative stunt to pull, though.
At that level, Polymorph Any Object with a True Form contingency could help.
Is there any way to justify evil PCs in Wrath of the Righteous? The only thing that I can imagine even coming close is a qlippoth-spawn tiefling, and that only because qlippoths want demons extinct.
Should you ever do another Mythic AP, could it please, please, pretty-please be about kaiju and the Valashmai Jungle? I'll send you a light-up Godzilla action figure.
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Most text seems to implicate that Sarenrae's merciful and redemptive nature is generally her true nature, with her purifying destructive aspect something done sparingly and only when no other option is present.
Why is it, then, that her wrathful aspect is viewed by the Kelish, the first people to worship her, to be her true personality? It would seem to me that her first faithful would be the ones most familiar with her true temperament and personality, and yet it's among her nation of origin where she seems to be the most misunderstood. What's up with that?
Because there's corruption and misunderstanding in her church in Kelesh. Who caused and spread that corruption and misunderstanding, how it's spread so far, and what's to be done about it is all part of an AP I'd like to do some day. NOTE: Qadira is NOT Sarenrae's nation of origin. That would be regions to the east. The warmongering Sarenite faction is mostly a Qadira thing.
(The real world answer is that some of our writers completely misunderstood the whole point of Sarenrae and messed it up, and the mistake snuck through development and editing and got into print, all at a time where I was focused more on the AP and not so much on the Campaign Setting Line. This is one of the things that more or less had some reorganizations that saw me taking on a more overarching creative director position along with some reorganizations in house. I've been trying to minimize it ever since... grrrrrr... but it DOES set up a cool plotline I suppose...)
So...Qadira doesn't speak for the whole of the Padishah Empire, then, is what you're saying?
That makes sense. Perhaps there WERE these issues in the Empire at large in the past (during when the Shadowstaff was created), but the rest of the Empire's grown out of them by this point. That'd make an interesting contrast, right? Now I'm imagining Qadira as the "backwater frontier" of Kelish that other Kelishites look on as kind of embarassing, especially since they're the face of the Empire in the Inner Sea!
What are Charon's relations with the other Horsemen and evil gods? Which ones would he consider allies? Enemies?
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
After looking at the Beyond the Campaign map for WotR I had a thought: if the players failed and the world wound encompassed all of Golarion, what nations or city states would hold out and which ones would work as normal or join in?
None would work as normal.
I suspect Tanglebriar would join in, but it's not really a nation.
I doubt any would "join in" as well.
Ones that would hold out would be the ones that have the magic combo of being distant and powerful.
I'm not gonna spoil anything about what the words that accompany that map are about though! It's almost here, after all!
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Creative Director
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Hello, James Jacobs!
1) In the upcoming Inner Sea Gods, will we see any of the planar allies from the adventure path deity articles illustrated or statted up?
1a) Specifically Phoenix Tail, the avoral bard servant of Shelyn?
2) My cleric characters often take Eldritch Heritage (arcane) to get a familiar animal sacred to their faith (for example, a cleric of Shelyn with a thrush familiar flavored as a songbird, or a cleric of Pharasma with the same thrush flavored as a whippoorwill). In Besmara's article, her clerics can give up a domain to gain a nautical-themed familiar. Do clerics with familiars seem balanced and/or flavorful to you?
3) Way back in Pathfinder #7, Varisian sorcerers and faithful of Desna are said to take thrushes and giant butterflies (described as having the same stats as a thrush) as familiars. You said you'd likely prefer to make custom stats for giant butterflies/moths, and that they'd give a +3 to fly/stealth checks respectively. With the thrush being Diminutive size and having a Str score of 1, they probably wouldn't be too far off from a giant butterfly/moth. Do you think we'll get to see giant butterflies/moths as familiar options in the future?
4) The evangelist cleric archetype, despite the name, seems to be well-suited for clerics of Shelyn (as they gain Perform as a class skill, bardic music, can spontaneously cast several enchantment spells, etc.) Would you say it's a common archetype among her priests?
5) I was considering creating a lesser phoenix-like songbird that could be taken as an Improved Familiar. For example, Neutral Good, 3d10 HD, Small-size, Magical Beast (Fire), with a limited self-resurrection (1/year), ability to cast cure light wounds, and a minor shroud of flame, reminiscent of it's greater cousin. Inspiration comes partly from Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix. Following my clerics with familiars trend, the bird could be sacred to Sarenrae or Shelyn's faith. Do you think such a creature likely to exist? And if so, would it be sacred to Sarenrae, Shelyn, or both?
6) Do marriages ever occur between celestials and mortals?
1) Yes.
1a) You'll have to wait a bit longer to see which ones.
2) Clerics with familiars seem weird to me. That's kinda the point and flavor of the witch.
3) I doubt it.
4) Nope. I wouldn't say archetypes are common at all, frankly... they're meant to be exceptions to the norm for NPCs. And since there's only ever like 4 to 6 or so PCs in any one game at a time, then that hardly counts for common anything.
5) Sure! I'd make a minor phoenix sacred to Sarenrae, due to its association with the sun, fire, rebirth, and healing. Not so much Shelyn.
6) Yes.
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Creative Director
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At that level, Polymorph Any Object with a True Form contingency could help.How difficult would it be to force or trick a creature to swallow something? I don't even know what kind of check that would be. I thought of a creative use for the Talisman of Pure Good and was wondering how feasible it would be to pull off...
I wanna force feed the Talisman of Pure Good to Baphomet which, assuming a Demon Lord counts as an evil divine spellcaster, would caused 8d6 points of damage per round to him.
Bluff check, if the creature is smart.
Let it bite you, if the creature has swallow whole.
OR Grapple the creature and use a Dirty Trick combat maneuver... maybe 2 or 3 of them (one to get the thing in the monster's mouth and 1 to get it to swallow).
Force feeding a talisman of pure good to a creature is a creative stunt to pull, though.
Nope. Polymorph any Object specifically does NOT work on magic items. We should have probably renamed it to polymorph any nonmagical object I guess... ;P
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Creative Director
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James, are human babies born true neutral?Yes. Because human babies, like animals, aren't yet smart enough to know how to be anything else.How about other player races?
And how psychopaths and sociopaths?
Depends on the race, but that's the case for pretty much ALL humanoids.
And there are always exceptions to the rule. Some babies, particularly in a world soaked in magic, can be born evil or good or whatever.
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Creative Director
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Is there any way to justify evil PCs in Wrath of the Righteous? The only thing that I can imagine even coming close is a qlippoth-spawn tiefling, and that only because qlippoths want demons extinct.
The only real requirement for the AP is that the PCs want to defeat the Worldwound. The AP assumes you want to do so by joining forces with the crusaders, and we intentionally made the crusaders have plenty of non good and even some evil parts.
So... as long as your group can work together and accepts the evil PCs, and as long as the GM doesn't mind possibly rewriting/reworking some of the adventure or roleplaying out the evil PCs' eventual acceptance by the crusaders as a "work with the lesser evil" situation... the answer is "of course!"
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Creative Director
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Should you ever do another Mythic AP, could it please, please, pretty-please be about kaiju and the Valashmai Jungle? I'll send you a light-up Godzilla action figure.
Turns out I've loved kaiju since I saw Godzilla bout 35 years ago, and Valashmai Jungle is from my homebrew setting and is itself about 25 years old. I'm a huge fan of both. Make of that what you will.
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Creative Director
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So...Qadira doesn't speak for the whole of the Padishah Empire, then, is what you're saying?
That makes sense. Perhaps there WERE these issues in the Empire at large in the past (during when the Shadowstaff was created), but the rest of the Empire's grown out of them by this point. That'd make an interesting contrast, right? Now I'm imagining Qadira as the "backwater frontier" of Kelish that other Kelishites look on as kind of...
Yes. I'm also saying that the warmongering Sarenites don't speak even for the whole of Qadira. They're just the loudest.
If Golarion were the internet, and Qadira a website... the warmongers would be forum trolls. Loud and difficult to ignore and very influential and capable of getting folks worked up... but not the majority.
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Creative Director
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What are Charon's relations with the other Horsemen and evil gods? Which ones would he consider allies? Enemies?
Check out Book of the Damned III. I've not read it yet, alas, but I suspect the answers you seek are there.
If I were to answer years ago before that book was written, I'd say Charon is the toughest of the 4, and sees them all as possible allies or enemies, but is more interested in doing his own thing on the Styx. Whether or not that philosophy is in BotD III... I dunno.
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Creative Director
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1)Do the worshipers and celestial servants of a god treat a goding of that god differently
2)Do the worshipers and celestial servants of a god treat a (mortal herald) of that god differently
1) Worshipers treat the god as a god; they adore and respect it. Celestial servants treat the god as a boss. They can adore and respect it, but they might also resent it or love it or want to replace it or hate it and so on.
2) Worshipers treat the heralds as the mouth of their deity; something to be respected and followed and called upon for aid. Servants treat it as a high-ranking member in their organization; not the boss, but certainly something like a manager or captain.
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Creative Director
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A group of questions about Planar Binding, ranked from simple to less simple.
1) Once you have called a creature with a Planar Binding spell, it can try to escape various ways. If it succeeds, does it return to its plane of origin? Or is it released, uncontrolled, on the Prime Material Plane? (The presence of lots of imps in Korvosa strongly suggests the latter, but just checking.)
2) To compel service from the creature, you make an opposed Charisma check. "The check is assigned a bonus of +0 to +6 based on the nature of the service and the reward." Is this a bonus applied to the creature's check, or to the caster's? We've been assuming it's the caster's, but the language is not completely clear.
3) Can you cast spells (other than spells like Agonize and Binding, which are clearly designed for the purpose) at an outsider captive in a circle? Some players have been throwing repeated debuffs (Enervation, Bestow Curse, Mind Fog) at captive outsiders in an attempt to reduce their opposed Cha saves. My take on that is that it would break the circle: "The creature is immediately released if anything disturbs the diagram - even a straw laid across it." (This one actually has a big impact on play -- in game terms, if permitted, it's a cheap'n'easy way to get around paying for those offerings and sacrifices to improve your Cha check.)
4) The Efreeti Gambit: the Efreeti can give you three wishes as a SLA! But the Efreeti, a CR 8 creature, is relatively easy to call and bind -- a 10th level caster with the right feats has a better than even chance of pulling it off. If the caster wins the opposed Cha check, can he simply play King Solomon and demand the three wishes? That would be three ninth level spells (and 75,000 worth of material components) in return for a single 5th level spell, a couple of lower level spells and 20 minutes of work. What do you say?
5) The Succubus Trick: This came up on the boards recently. You conjure up a succubus and compel a Profane Gift from her. Then you hit her with Flesh to Stone. Assuming you succeed, under the RAW a petrified creature is treated as "unconscious" rather than dead. You stick the succubus statue in a basement closet and walk off whistling with your spiffy new +2 stat bonus. Nasty, but seemingly legal under RAW. What do you think?
1) If it escapes, it gets loose in your world. The spell doesn't send them back unless they complete their task to your satisfaction. This is one of the most common ways outsiders end up running free on the Material Plane, in fact.
2) The better the reward you offer, the bigger the bonus you get to your (the caster's) Charisma check. It's easier to convince the daemon to work for you if you offer it a virgin's soul than if you offer it a bag of skittles.
3) You can cast any spell you want at the outsider in the circle, but those that create physical effects that cross the circle would let the monster out. What entails "breaking the circle" is left to the GM, but you could certainly argue that the beam of black energy from a ray like enervation counts, or even the faint mist produced by mind fog. That said... casting spells on the target to make them more compliant is what this type of thing is all about. I'd probably say that if you do this... you're adopting a forceful approach and that would negate any Charisma bonuses you'd get... if you were a REAL jerk... you'd even take penalties. It's a balancing game—do what you can to reduce the monster's checks and defenses while not giving it rage and frustration as leverage.
4) The efreeti remains the one who grants the wish, and he'll do everything he can to twist the nature of the wish or make it have the least powerful effect possible. We talk a lot and provide a lot of examples of this in the Legacy of Fire AP. Every wish you make with an efreeti puts you one step closer to an unintended disaster; all of those stories about wishes going wrong, like "The Monkey's Paw," are required reading for GMs who have PCs who want to use efreeti (or things like glabrezus or anything like that) for wishes.
5) Nasty but legal. That type of stunt works perfectly fine. It also would make you chaotic evil, I'd say, right off the bat. At the very least, you'd get a reputation among demons eventually and they might come hunting you down... and if someone manages to get your succubus statue back and fixes her... well... of ALL the demons, succubi are the ones most likely to be personal friends with vengeful demons way above your power level.
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So...Qadira doesn't speak for the whole of the Padishah Empire, then, is what you're saying?
That makes sense. Perhaps there WERE these issues in the Empire at large in the past (during when the Shadowstaff was created), but the rest of the Empire's grown out of them by this point. That'd make an interesting contrast, right? Now I'm imagining Qadira as the "backwater frontier" of Kelish that other Kelishites look on as kind of...
Yes. I'm also saying that the warmongering Sarenites don't speak even for the whole of Qadira. They're just the loudest.
If Golarion were the internet, and Qadira a website... the warmongers would be forum trolls. Loud and difficult to ignore and very influential and capable of getting folks worked up... but not the majority.
...With the catch being that the forum's moderator is on the trolls' side (referencing that the Satrap is all but BEGGING to go to war with Taldor, but can't get permission from the Emperor to do so).
Can ya tell I just bought the Qadira book?
Is it possible for a Golarion person to be sinful without being Evil?
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Creative Director
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Is it possible for a Golarion person to be sinful without being Evil?
Absolutely. In fact, in the case of the seven deadly sins, most of them (sloth, lust, gluttony, envy, greed, and even pride) don't necessarily result in you performing evil acts. Wrath is the big exception here. What IS evil is when you cause pain and suffering in order to appease your sin.
That, of course, is a better topic for philosophers. But from raw game terms... it's absolutely possible to be sinful in Golarion without being evil. I'd say that pretty much the majority of the world is sinful (PCs especially!) in some way. It's all about excess and intent and overindulgence and more.
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As Merisiel's creator and biggest fan, I imagine you're a fan of elves.
Why, in your opinion, do you think elves get such a bum rap in RPG-playing circles? I've heard rumors that some people who've GMed the Second Darkness AP have seen their players derail it by instead of stopping the drow, trying to hijack their ritual and use it to destroy Kyonin themselves to give a giant middle finger to the elves they hate so much.
What's wrong with the elves that players would think they should be disrespected and fought even if they're on the same side. Is it because they view them as pompous and condescending? That's the only thing I can imagine. How is that a crime?
Will the Iron Gods in the Numeria AP get a religion article?
You mentioned in another thread that the Star Mount was a human ship. Would the decedents(assuming there were any survivors) of the extraterrestrial humans still maintain a separate culture from the local Kellid tribes or have they all been absorbed over the millennia?
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1) Will we ever see more material about places outside the main (Mwangi to Irrisen) Inner Sea area? Casmaron? Arcadia? Tian-Xia? Other planets?
2) Anything that will be *primarily* about those areas, rather than side notes in primarily Inner Sea material? Like the latter half of Jade Regent, or Dragon Empires Primer, or something of that sort?
3) Anything that is already being planned/worked on? Or is everything just a nebulous "someday but not in current plans"?
4) If there's anything non- Inner Sea being currently planned/worked on, but not yet announced, can you give a clue which product line we'll see something in? Tales? Adventure Path? Campaign Setting? Player Companion?
5) Do you think that "Inner Sea" has become such a recognized brand in itself that it actively discourages material about regions outside?
6) What do you think are the biggest occurrences in the Inner Sea that are Good on the surface, but have some major ethical dilemmas deeper underneath?
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Creative Director
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As Merisiel's creator and biggest fan, I imagine you're a fan of elves.
Why, in your opinion, do you think elves get such a bum rap in RPG-playing circles? I've heard rumors that some people who've GMed the Second Darkness AP have seen their players derail it by instead of stopping the drow, trying to hijack their ritual and use it to destroy Kyonin themselves to give a giant middle finger to the elves they hate so much.
What's wrong with the elves that players would think they should be disrespected and fought even if they're on the same side. Is it because they view them as pompous and condescending? That's the only thing I can imagine. How is that a crime?
I don't think they get a bum rap in RPG circles any more than humans, halflings, gnomes, orcs, or dwarves do.
I do know that I think we failed in presenting the elves in Second Darkness as good guys who you can sympathize with; we skewed way too close to the classic (cliched) Tolkeineske elf who's all haughty and aloof. That was never the intent. Golarion elves are supposed to be more like artists than they are isolationists.
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Creative Director
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Will the Iron Gods in the Numeria AP get a religion article?
You mentioned in another thread that the Star Mount was a human ship. Would the decedents(assuming there were any survivors) of the extraterrestrial humans still maintain a separate culture from the local Kellid tribes or have they all been absorbed over the millennia?
Yes. There'll be 2 deity articles in the Iron Gods AP.
As for how the surviving descendants of the ship intermingled with Numeria... that's actually something of a plot point I'm not ready to spoil.
Where did humans originate from, if they're on so many planets? Will that ever be revealed?
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Creative Director
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1) Will we ever see more material about places outside the main (Mwangi to Irrisen) Inner Sea area? Casmaron? Arcadia? Tian-Xia? Other planets?
2) Anything that will be *primarily* about those areas, rather than side notes in primarily Inner Sea material? Like the latter half of Jade Regent, or Dragon Empires Primer, or something of that sort?
3) Anything that is already being planned/worked on? Or is everything just a nebulous "someday but not in current plans"?
4) If there's anything non- Inner Sea being currently planned/worked on, but not yet announced, can you give a clue which product line we'll see something in? Tales? Adventure Path? Campaign Setting? Player Companion?
5) Do you think that "Inner Sea" has become such a recognized brand in itself that it actively discourages material about regions outside?
6) What do you think are the biggest occurrences in the Inner Sea that are Good on the surface, but have some major ethical dilemmas deeper underneath?
1) Yes.
2) Yup.
3) We wouldn't say if we were; we don't announce things in that manner. You'll need to wait for the normal product announcement to find out.
4) Not more than I have already. Keeping things secret is not only part of building anticipation, but it also is important for competition with other game creators and publishers.
5) Nope. Not in the slightest.
6) The three that come to mind first would be Andoran's fledgling diplomacy, the advent of the Mendevian crusade, and the Cult of the Dawnflower.