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What are the chances we will see either a Casmaron gazetteer, or a Southern Garund Gazetteer anytime soon?
Creative Director
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What does the word Archon (the celestials) mean?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon
Moreover, where did the name "Azata" come from? I looked it up and all I could find as a moth genus and the Arizona Athletic Trainer's Association.
Oh, and here's a big question: Hell makes a lot of sense as a Lawful Evil plane. It has one dictator sitting at the top of a vast hierarchy, from the Archdevils down to the Infernal Dukes, and to the Pit Fiends to standard devils. It is an ordered, regimented, and structured plane.
But why doesn't Heaven have a single ruler? Iomedae's only been there for a little while, Erastil isn't quite leader material, and Torag is mainly in charge of the dwarves. I suppose it wouldn't be symmetrical with Hell, where there's one "Archoneus" ruling all of Heaven with 7 Archarchons in charge of each slope of the mountain. But Heaven seems to have a defined lack of organization.
Hmm...now I'm wondering what an Archon equivalent of Asmodeus would be like. The closest thing I can imagine is Mitra from Way of the Wicked.
Azata comes from the word "Yazata." We dropped the "Y" to both make it fit in well with all the other good outsider races starting with an "A" and to distance it a bit from the real-world word.
Because parallelism is boring. If Heaven were just an exact opposite of Hell, that'd be kinda dull. The differences between the two, including the fact that Hell's got a top tier devil while Heaven doesn't have a top tier archon is intentional.
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D&D Next's Lead Designer talked about the Bard class in their next edition this week. One of the most interesting notes was that the Bard was upgraded to a full spellcasting class: they basically turned it into the beguiler of D&D Next. What are your thoughts on this?
shrug
I like our bard better.
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Creative Director
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MMO? I thought Elder Scrolls was a single player game... and console/PC only.Interesting. But my MMO time is about to be eaten alive by Elder Scrolls.I know you're a fan of Mac Gaming so this might be of interest.
The Star Trek Online Mac Beta has ended. The Mac client is now live.
These are the requirements:
Mac Minimum System Requirements:
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4GB+
Hard Disk: 10GB Free Disk Space
Graphic Display: Intel HD3000 / Nvidia 9600M / AMD HD2600 with 256MB+ VRAM
Network: Broadband Internet Connection Required
There's a MMO Elder Scrolls coming out very soon; for PC/Mac, for Playstation, and for Xbox.
Hey James, I came across this neat fanart of the Skinsaw Man, and I thought you might get a kick out of it :)
What does the word Archon (the celestials) mean?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon
Moreover, where did the name "Azata" come from? I looked it up and all I could find as a moth genus and the Arizona Athletic Trainer's Association.
Oh, and here's a big question: Hell makes a lot of sense as a Lawful Evil plane. It has one dictator sitting at the top of a vast hierarchy, from the Archdevils down to the Infernal Dukes, and to the Pit Fiends to standard devils. It is an ordered, regimented, and structured plane.
But why doesn't Heaven have a single ruler? Iomedae's only been there for a little while, Erastil isn't quite leader material, and Torag is mainly in charge of the dwarves. I suppose it wouldn't be symmetrical with Hell, where there's one "Archoneus" ruling all of Heaven with 7 Archarchons in charge of each slope of the mountain. But Heaven seems to have a defined lack of organization.
Hmm...now I'm wondering what an Archon equivalent of Asmodeus would be like. The closest thing I can imagine is Mitra from Way of the Wicked.
Azata comes from the word "Yazata." We dropped the "Y" to both make it fit in well with all the other good outsider races starting with an "A" and to distance it a bit from the real-world word.
Because parallelism is boring. If Heaven were just an exact opposite of Hell, that'd be kinda dull. The differences between the two, including the fact that Hell's got a top tier devil while Heaven doesn't have a top tier archon is intentional.
Oh, Yazatas from Zoroastrianism. Cool.
I understand that you're not aiming for parallelism, but if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Heaven is a whole lot weaker then the Nine Hells?
I understand that you're not aiming for parallelism, but if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Heaven is a whole lot weaker then the Nine Hells?
Why would it be?
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There are religious scientists?1)James Sutter said arcane magic (in regards to wizards) is science. So are there any religious wizards?
2)Does Erastil have any worshipers on Garund?
1) There are absolutely religious wizards, just as there are religious scientists.
2) Yes.
Of course there are! I attend church with several... including two evolutionary biologists, a theoretical physicist, a geologist, a biochemist, two psychologists, and a physician. (Why, yes, I do live in a college town.)
The notion that scientist = atheist is bunk.
(Sorry for jumping in on JJ's thread... this is a pet peeve.)
1. Other than Orlovsky potentially allying with Garess and Medvyed against Surtova if they get sick of the usurpers, what do the allegiances between Houses in Brevoy look like?
2. There's a lot of talk about being on the edge of civil war and friction between Issia and Rostland, but which Houses are Issian and which are Rostlander?
3. Are the rebellious folk in Restov tied to any Houses or are they on their own?
I understand that you're not aiming for parallelism, but if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Heaven is a whole lot weaker then the Nine Hells?Why would it be?
Well...I dunno. Let me put it this way: who would lead the forces of Heaven if Hell went to war with them?
Well...I dunno. Let me put it this way: who would lead the forces of Heaven if Hell went to war with them?I understand that you're not aiming for parallelism, but if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Heaven is a whole lot weaker then the Nine Hells?Why would it be?
Looking at Chronicles of the Righteous, the answer looks to be Arqueros, the Golden Bulwark, an archon lord of protection who commands the fortress known as the Prime Vallatien, which is explicitly Heaven's first line of defense against fiendish invasion.
No one lord rules in Heaven; rather all, stand up to shoulder the task that they are best suited for. Arqueros volunteered to handle defense eons ago, and has never been bested.
I suspect that if you tossed a few hundred archons who'd never met before into a battlefield, they'd work out a chain of command within a few seconds, and adjust the chain as needed as the situation evolved without any rancor.
Hell has the best army that mortals can manage to emulate. Heaven's army may possess a selfless perfection that mortals can't manage.
Sorry about that.
Questions for Mr. Jacobs!
1) Would I be correct in thinking that Arazni was neutral good before her death? I'm presuming that Arazni's Protection and Nobility domains predate her conversion into a lich.
2) Would I be correct in thinking that Milani was initially neutral good, and shifted to chaotic good after Aroden died and she ascended?
3) Did Aroden have a bias towards having good aligned women as his saints and heralds?
4) It is fairly unusual that Aroden's most significant servants (Iomadae, Arazni, and Milani) didn't actually match his alignment? You'd indicated before that followers a step off from their god were semi-heretics - not totally on message, but close enough to still be compatible.
5) Switching gears - Have the elves of Kyonin actually killed Treerazer before? You'd pointed out before that since Treerazer's a native outsider, it's actually pretty easy for him to come back from death. I'm bemused at the notion of Treerazer having a clone of himself and having his cultists keep stashes of resurrection or true resurrection scrolls.
6) What the heck happens if, while Treerazer is dead, a cleric of Treerazer invokes a miracle to resurrect Treerazer?
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Creative Director
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There are religious scientists?1)James Sutter said arcane magic (in regards to wizards) is science. So are there any religious wizards?
2)Does Erastil have any worshipers on Garund?
1) There are absolutely religious wizards, just as there are religious scientists.
2) Yes.
Absolutely.
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Creative Director
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Hey James, I came across this neat fanart of the Skinsaw Man, and I thought you might get a kick out of it :)
AAAAHAHH!!!!
Excellent; thanks!
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So...how would Sarkorians view and interpret Iomedae, especially in light of her pseudo-role as the goddess that leads the charge to save and protect what's left of their home? I have an idea for a Sarkorian paladin brewing in my head and I'm wondering how he'd reconcile venerating Iomedae with his culture's druidic roots as the founders of the Green Faith.For the most part, they are pro-Iomedae, although religion in Sarkoris was really scattershot with a lot of different local beliefs, so their reaction to ANY faith is gonna be different depending on where you are.
I understand that, Iomedae's probably the only god who gave a damn about them after the Worldwound burst open. I was more asking how an individual PC might blend worshiping an ecclesiastical god/goddess while still respecting the shamanistic religion of their ancestors. Apart from Erastil and Gozreh, who are nature gods and thus fit right in with things like the Green Faith or Shoanti totemism, many gods seem to fit better in more populous, settled areas, and where their faiths go, cathedrals and heirarchies follow that are antithetical to the old ways. How does someone straddling those two worlds reconcile the different beliefs, or is such a thing impossible? You mentioned before in this thread that a Shoanti wouldn't venerate Sarenrae AND the totems at the same time. I'm a big fan of playing "straddling the line between ancient traditions and modern beliefs" kinds of characters, like many modern depictions of King Arthur have been, but I'm uncertain how to approach such characters from the standpoint of worship, especially if they take a divine caster class like a paladin or inquisitor.
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Well...I dunno. Let me put it this way: who would lead the forces of Heaven if Hell went to war with them?I understand that you're not aiming for parallelism, but if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Heaven is a whole lot weaker then the Nine Hells?Why would it be?
Depends on the story you wanted to tell... but I suspect there would be multiple cooperating allied armies on Heaven's side.
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1. Other than Orlovsky potentially allying with Garess and Medvyed against Surtova if they get sick of the usurpers, what do the allegiances between Houses in Brevoy look like?
2. There's a lot of talk about being on the edge of civil war and friction between Issia and Rostland, but which Houses are Issian and which are Rostlander?
3. Are the rebellious folk in Restov tied to any Houses or are they on their own?
1) Beyond what we've said in the Inner Sea World Guide and the Brevoy article in Kingmaker #1... I can't say off the top of my head.
2) IIRC, all the houses are Issian and Rostland is all things like the Swordlords. It's been FOREVER since I've had my head in Brevoy though.
3) On their own for the most part.
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1) Would I be correct in thinking that Arazni was neutral good before her death? I'm presuming that Arazni's Protection and Nobility domains predate her conversion into a lich.
2) Would I be correct in thinking that Milani was initially neutral good, and shifted to chaotic good after Aroden died and she ascended?
3) Did Aroden have a bias towards having good aligned women as his saints and heralds?
4) It is fairly unusual that Aroden's most significant servants (Iomadae, Arazni, and Milani) didn't actually match his alignment? You'd indicated before that followers a step off from their god were semi-heretics - not totally on message, but close enough to still be compatible.
5) Switching gears - Have the elves of Kyonin actually killed Treerazer before? You'd pointed out before that since Treerazer's a native outsider, it's actually pretty easy for him to come back from death. I'm bemused at the notion of Treerazer having a clone of himself and having his cultists keep stashes of resurrection or true resurrection scrolls.
6) What the heck happens if, while Treerazer is dead, a cleric of Treerazer invokes a miracle to resurrect Treerazer?
1) I'm not sure we've revealed her alignment before her fall. She was likely lawful good though. She worshiped Aroden, after all...
2) Perhaps. Again, we haven't really said... she was either neutral good or chaotic good though, I suspect.
3) Nope.
4) Not really. Aroden actually had a LOT of servants. Those ones you mention get remembered more primarily due to several of them being closely associated with the Shining Crusade. His other minions weren't as famous, nor as good.
5) They have not killed him yet.
6) Treerazer comes back to life. You can still cast spells you've prepared when your deity is dead; you just can't prepare new ones.
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I understand that, Iomedae's probably the only god who gave a damn about them after the Worldwound burst open. I was more asking how an individual PC might blend worshiping an ecclesiastical god/goddess while still respecting the shamanistic religion of their ancestors. Apart from Erastil and Gozreh, who are nature gods and thus fit right in with things like the Green Faith or Shoanti totemism, many gods seem to fit better in more populous, settled areas, and where their faiths go, cathedrals and heirarchies follow that are antithetical to the old ways. How does someone straddling those two worlds reconcile the different beliefs, or is such a thing impossible? You mentioned before in this thread that a Shoanti wouldn't venerate Sarenrae AND the totems at the same time. I'm a big fan of playing "straddling the line between ancient traditions and modern beliefs" kinds of characters, like many modern depictions of King Arthur have been, but I'm uncertain how to approach such characters from the standpoint of worship, especially if they take a divine caster class like a paladin or inquisitor.
Nope; plenty of other deities were concerned at the Worldwound... from Desna and Torag down to demigods like Milani and Pulura (who's center of worship was almost at Worldwound Ground Zero).
You should check out Lost Kingdoms for more info about Sarkoris's complex faith traditions in any event. They're too complicated to really go into detail on a late night on the messageboards! :P
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I understand that, Iomedae's probably the only god who gave a damn about them after the Worldwound burst open. I was more asking how an individual PC might blend worshiping an ecclesiastical god/goddess while still respecting the shamanistic religion of their ancestors. Apart from Erastil and Gozreh, who are nature gods and thus fit right in with things like the Green Faith or Shoanti totemism, many gods seem to fit better in more populous, settled areas, and where their faiths go, cathedrals and heirarchies follow that are antithetical to the old ways. How does someone straddling those two worlds reconcile the different beliefs, or is such a thing impossible? You mentioned before in this thread that a Shoanti wouldn't venerate Sarenrae AND the totems at the same time. I'm a big fan of playing "straddling the line between ancient traditions and modern beliefs" kinds of characters, like many modern depictions of King Arthur have been, but I'm uncertain how to approach such characters from the standpoint of worship, especially if they take a divine caster class like a paladin or inquisitor.Nope; plenty of other deities were concerned at the Worldwound... from Desna and Torag down to demigods like Milani and Pulura (who's center of worship was almost at Worldwound Ground Zero).
You should check out Lost Kingdoms for more info about Sarkoris's complex faith traditions in any event. They're too complicated to really go into detail on a late night on the messageboards! :P
Yes, but of those deities only Torag would have paladins...and his favored weapon isn't a sword.
Well...I dunno. Let me put it this way: who would lead the forces of Heaven if Hell went to war with them?I understand that you're not aiming for parallelism, but if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Heaven is a whole lot weaker then the Nine Hells?Why would it be?
Zhangar had a good answer: just because Heaven is decentralized doesn't make it weak.
But I'll answer that Torag is the God of Military Strategy and he lives in Heaven.
If you could what 1 question would you ask:
1. H. P. Lovecraft
2. Bram Stoker:
3. August Derleth
4. Michael Crichton
5. Gary Gygax
Wow.... TOUGH QUESTION!!!
1) H. P. Lovcraft: What stories out there did you ghost write but didn't take any credit for?
2) Bram Stoker: Dunno... haven't actually read enough of his work to know what I don't know.
3) August Derleth: Can I have your permission to include some of your mythos content in Golarion?
4) Michael Crichton: Dunno... Can you autograph my copy of Jurassic Park?
5) Gary Gygax: Can you tell me all about Castle Greyhawk?
Sorry James, I try not to just post comments instead of questions, but I just had to address Rysky. I just wanted to say that this was a really cool question!
My group recently began playing Call of Cthulhu. I now have The Masks of Nyarlathotep, Shadows of Yog Sothoth, and am expecting Horror on the Orient Express from the kickstarter a while back. Anything else I should look into?
James,
Have you had a chance to check out/play the 13th Age RPG yet?
1) What did you think?
2) What do you think about its Icon system?
3) If you were going to adopt Golarion for use with the Icon system, which Icons would you choose?
4) If Golarion/the Inner Sea is too big and would have too many icons, how would you adapt Varisia?
James,
Thank you for the Ramsey Campbell recommendations! I ordered both (one on Kindle, and one in book form) and am really enjoying them! (Thanks too for the Repairman Jack recommendation. I ended up really enjoying the first book.)
On to a question.
Do you have a favorite R. Campbell story?
Thanks, and T-minus 5 months to Iron Gods book one….
Hi, James. I'm prepping a new semi-homebrew campaign set in Korvosa, so I've been poring over Guide to Korvosa to look for existing plot elements to incorporate.
One idea I was thinking about was a cult of deluded Arodenites that were unwittingly worshiping something that only pretended to be Aroden. (Yes, I stole that idea from Mike Kimmel's RPGSS 2014 final round submission...)
I found something in the Korvosa book along those lines that I wanted to ask about.
According to the book, the crumbling Temple of Aroden in Old Korvosa is still tended to by a "pitiful trio of clerics" who are still holding out for Aroden's return. (Guide to Korvosa, p. 30)
Aroden died a century ago... are these clerics human? Wouldn't they be 120 years old or something by now? Or, are these worshipers who came of age after Aroden's death, but are still holding out for a miracle?
Or is this a plot element that has been retconned (or at least de-emphasized) in the six years since the book was published?
Thanks!
Or, are these worshipers who came of age after Aroden's death, but are still holding out for a miracle?
This was my assumption.
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Creative Director
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My group recently began playing Call of Cthulhu. I now have The Masks of Nyarlathotep, Shadows of Yog Sothoth, and am expecting Horror on the Orient Express from the kickstarter a while back. Anything else I should look into?
I'm hesitant to say go buy more until you're sure you love the game... but "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is hands down my favorite CoC adventure ever.
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Creative Director
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James,
Have you had a chance to check out/play the 13th Age RPG yet?
1) What did you think?
2) What do you think about its Icon system?
3) If you were going to adopt Golarion for use with the Icon system, which Icons would you choose?
4) If Golarion/the Inner Sea is too big and would have too many icons, how would you adapt Varisia?
1) Haven't had a chance to look into it in depth yet.
2) See #1 above. Dunno.
3) Dunno.
4) Dunno.
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Creative Director
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James,
Thank you for the Ramsey Campbell recommendations! I ordered both (one on Kindle, and one in book form) and am really enjoying them! (Thanks too for the Repairman Jack recommendation. I ended up really enjoying the first book.)
On to a question.
Do you have a favorite R. Campbell story?
Thanks, and T-minus 5 months to Iron Gods book one….
My favorite novel by him would be a tie between Nazareth Hill, The Hungry Moon, The Face that must Die, and The Last Revelation of Gla'aki.
My favorite short story by him would be a tie between Makintosh Willy, The Tugging, or The Inhabitant of the Lake... but a LOT of his short fiction is really good. Those three are the first 3 that came to my head.
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Creative Director
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Hi, James. I'm prepping a new semi-homebrew campaign set in Korvosa, so I've been poring over Guide to Korvosa to look for existing plot elements to incorporate.
One idea I was thinking about was a cult of deluded Arodenites that were unwittingly worshiping something that only pretended to be Aroden. (Yes, I stole that idea from Mike Kimmel's RPGSS 2014 final round submission...)
I found something in the Korvosa book along those lines that I wanted to ask about.
According to the book, the crumbling Temple of Aroden in Old Korvosa is still tended to by a "pitiful trio of clerics" who are still holding out for Aroden's return. (Guide to Korvosa, p. 30)
Aroden died a century ago... are these clerics human? Wouldn't they be 120 years old or something by now? Or, are these worshipers who came of age after Aroden's death, but are still holding out for a miracle?
Or is this a plot element that has been retconned (or at least de-emphasized) in the six years since the book was published?
Thanks!
That element is something we've since downplayed, especially since Aroden was the god of humans and as such it's weird for someone other than a human to worship him, almost as weird as there being a 100+ year old human still alive.
So, do with it what you will... we're not going back there.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
Does the first level spell 'Hydraulic Push' allow you to bull rush a target in any direction (since it effects the square and is not directional)?Thanks,
M
The flavor and visuals the spell brings up in my head would say that you can only bull rush a target in one direction; you target one creature or object (not a square) within range, and then the spell bull rushes that creature or object in the direction you determine.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
With Many shot + paladins smite, would one apply a paladins smite to both the arrows on the first shot?
Also, btw, while I have you here... It is really amazing that you respond to so many posts and thank you very much.
-M
Paladin smite is plenty good already. Especially when it's at range and thus minimizes the retaliation opportunities.
The first and most powerful smite should ONLY EVER apply to one projectile, but beyond that, smite applies to each attack as appropriate.
Some witch-related questions, if I may. :)
1. I'm statting up a high-ranking Old Cults witch. This makes me end up with a character with 30+ Intelligence that worships Shub-Niggurath, which somehow seems paradoxical. To your mind, what would the mind of someone like that be like? Someone like Hannibal Lecter of the recent series who is very cerebral about their savagery and their impulses? Or completely different?
2. There's a witch grand hex called Summon Spirit. Is this based on the biblical Witch of Endor calling up the ghost of a dead prophet to advise King Saul?
3. How would you advise a GM to handle that hex, based on how it was intended to work? It says you can summon the ghost of a humanoid with up to 18 HD, similar to a planar binding. But which ghosts are eligible? Just ghosts you currently know about haunting somewhere, or can you look through graveyards or old records to find particular historical people who has skills or knowledge you need, Joseph Curwen-style?
4. If the latter, what if the souls have been judged? Are you somehow summoning some augmented version of their petitioner forms?
5. If not possible with the judged, how often, on average, would trying to summon a particular person fail, and how far back into history can one go before it becomes unrealistic to get the ghosts? Max True Resurrection time limit for the hex user?
6. Should this hex require access to grave or body parts, in your opinion?
Thank you so much for your time, your perspectives, and your creativity as evidenced through your work! :)
Interesting. But my MMO time is about to be eaten alive by Elder Scrolls.
Another beta weekend coming up!! Have you preordered? I'm on the fence.
James,
Thank you for the Ramsey Campbell recommendations! I ordered both (one on Kindle, and one in book form) and am really enjoying them! (Thanks too for the Repairman Jack recommendation. I ended up really enjoying the first book.)
On to a question.
Do you have a favorite R. Campbell story?
Thanks, and T-minus 5 months to Iron Gods book one….
My favorite novel by him would be a tie between Nazareth Hill, The Hungry Moon, The Face that must Die, and The Last Revelation of Gla'aki.
My favorite short story by him would be a tie between Makintosh Willy, The Tugging, or The Inhabitant of the Lake... but a LOT of his short fiction is really good. Those three are the first 3 that came to my head.
So you'd recommend Last Revelation of Gla'aki then? Glad to hear its one of his best. I haven't had a chance to read it yet - I'm so far behind on my reading that I haven't read anything written past 2012 yet. Trying to catch up but it's slow.
By the way, excellent answer to my last question (about hard to find books), very interesting. Now, I think it's safe to say you're a book collector and obviously you buy a lot of stuff involved in creative mediums (video games, movies, music, TTRPGs, etc.), but do you collect anything that would fall outside the "standard" sphere of gamer/artist culture (e.g. model trains)? If not, is there a hobby or collector habit you'd some day want to get into?
For me, it's model rockets (particularly the Estes ones). I've gotten away from it for the past decade or so but I'm trying to get back into it.