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What would be some themes you'd like to see in the bestiaries?
Maybe primeval creatures in one, planetary creatures in another?It'd be best to tie it somehow to that year's other products, which can vary.
For Example; we did a lot of Asian myth monsters in the Bestiary we published the year Jade Regent came out. And we did a lot of mythic monsters the year we did Mythic Adventures.
Sooooo you should get to work on a Pellucidar style AP them, right?
And a question to the Creative Tyrannosaur...James, you've mentioned your love of Call of Cthulhu and your own Unspeakable Futures game. Are there any other non-Pathfinder RPG systems you're fond of... particularly those that scratch a different creative itch?
Yes.
Dread comes to mind immediately, as does Champions.
This makes you my favorite dinosaur ever.
You have three good-aligned fleshwarpers; one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic. How do their creations differ?
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Honestly, I'd recommend the Pendragon Role-Playing Game if you want to play King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. No RPG (not even Pathfinder) scratches every itch!How do I scratch my historically-based-rather-than-medieval-King-Arthur roleplaying itch, then?I'm still searching for a place on Golarion where I can get away with naming a character using Welsh naming conventions. The closest I can get is Mendev, as Horgus Gwern's last name, Gwern, is Welsh, but that's tenuous at best. I still imagine if I named a Mendevian character Bendigeidfran or Gwalchmei I'd get weird looks. Any advice on this front?Horgus's last name is Gwerm... with an "m". I named him that because it sounds kinda like "worm" and it thus helps to give him a slimy air that helps to set him up as a troublemaker to PCs even if that's not REALLY the case. Nothing to do with Welsh naming conventions at all.
My advice is that you are not going to find a location that'll fit your needs and liking, judging by what I've heard of your search over several posts, and that if you can't simply stretch or adjust the world's canon to do what you want it to do, you'll need to go with a different name.
Haladir, I think you're misinterpreting my question here. I'm not looking to play in ACTUAL Britain. I'm already doing that on these very boards.
I'm looking for a Welsh-like culture to play such a character IN Golarion. I'm less looking to play King Arthur than I am Arthur, Dux Bellorum, less Malory, more Monmouth. But the only human subset that seems to be in that vicinity is the Kellids, and most of the literature on Kellids puts them more in the Stone Age than the Iron Age.
That's what frustrates me. Everything's either too modern (like Lastwall and Mendev) or too primitive (Lands of the Linnorm Kings, Numeria, Lands of the Mammoth Lords). There isn't a middle ground this kind of character can occupy, and none of the other races have the kind of culture that this kind of character would resemble.
I mean, what's the alternative? Having a character actually named something like Gawain or Percival that carries all that cultural baggage and become the butt of Monty Python jokes for the entirety of the game?!
Creative Director
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You have three good-aligned fleshwarpers; one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic. How do their creations differ?
Alignment doesn't really impact fleshwarping much. I suppose the lawful one would look more symmetrical than the chaotic one. Maybe.
Rovagug aside, which 2 core deities would you say are most antagonistic to each other.
And which 2 core deities would you say are most friendly?
Honestly, I'd recommend the Pendragon Role-Playing Game if you want to play King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. No RPG (not even Pathfinder) scratches every itch!How do I scratch my historically-based-rather-than-medieval-King-Arthur roleplaying itch, then?I'm still searching for a place on Golarion where I can get away with naming a character using Welsh naming conventions. The closest I can get is Mendev, as Horgus Gwern's last name, Gwern, is Welsh, but that's tenuous at best. I still imagine if I named a Mendevian character Bendigeidfran or Gwalchmei I'd get weird looks. Any advice on this front?Horgus's last name is Gwerm... with an "m". I named him that because it sounds kinda like "worm" and it thus helps to give him a slimy air that helps to set him up as a troublemaker to PCs even if that's not REALLY the case. Nothing to do with Welsh naming conventions at all.
My advice is that you are not going to find a location that'll fit your needs and liking, judging by what I've heard of your search over several posts, and that if you can't simply stretch or adjust the world's canon to do what you want it to do, you'll need to go with a different name.
Haladir, I think you're misinterpreting my question here. I'm not looking to play in ACTUAL Britain. I'm already doing that on these very boards.
I'm looking for a Welsh-like culture to play such a character IN Golarion. I'm less looking to play King Arthur than I am Arthur, Dux Bellorum, less Malory, more Monmouth. But the only human subset that seems to be in that vicinity is the Kellids, and most of the literature on Kellids puts them more in the Stone Age than the Iron Age.
That's what frustrates me. Everything's either too modern (like Lastwall and Mendev) or too primitive (Lands of the Linnorm Kings, Numeria, Lands...
Guess you'll need to talk to your GM about adding custom content to your version of Golarion. If you don't want to break canon, maybe your PC can be from somewhere off the Inner Sea map. Or maybe from a custom River Kingdom. Or maybe your character's culture had been native to Sarkoris, and is now all-but-destroyed by the Worldwound (and carried on by but a few scattered families).
If you want to discuss this topic more, either PM me or start a new thread. We're thread-jacking the Creative Dinosaur, and that's never a good thing!
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Hi James!
I recently came into possession of a printed copy of Masks of Nyarlathotep and I've decided to adapt it (loosely, because rockets) into the core of my next Pathfinder campaign.
Some swaps are fairly easy. The Carlyle Expedition becomes a lost party of adventurers. Cairo, Egypt becomes Sothis, Osirion. Ill-fated globe-trotting writer Jackson Elias becomes an ill-fated globe trotting Pathfinder.
However, there are some substitutions that are a little harder so I thought I'd ask you for some suggestions since you A.) know more about Golarion than I do and B.) I believe you are familiar with the campaign in question:
1.) Absalom was my initial thought as a substitution for New York City. Can you think of anything better?
2.) Which city would you substitute for London? I was thinking Nisroch because it's dark, foggy, and has a severe wealthy/poor divide. But some of the chapter involves the English countryside and I'm not sure the rest of Nidal would work as well.
3.)The Mwangi Expanse is a reasonable stand-in for Africa. Is there any part of that region (or a different part of Garund) that would be a good stand-in for Nairobi, Kenya?
4.) Where on Tian Xia would you place a city like Shanghai?
5.) Australia. This one has me drawing a total blank. Any suggestions?
You have three good-aligned fleshwarpers; one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic. How do their creations differ?Alignment doesn't really impact fleshwarping much. I suppose the lawful one would look more symmetrical than the chaotic one. Maybe.
Lemme try a different approach. How would the silthilar in general, and their experiments in particular, be different if they were...
1. ...lawful good?
2. ...neutral good?
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Creative Director
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You have three good-aligned fleshwarpers; one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic. How do their creations differ?Alignment doesn't really impact fleshwarping much. I suppose the lawful one would look more symmetrical than the chaotic one. Maybe.Lemme try a different approach. How would the silthilar in general, and their experiments in particular, be different if they were...
1. ...lawful good?
2. ...neutral good?
Haven't thought about them in about a decade or so, so off the top of my head, I'm not sure. Frankly... I was never super satisfied with how they came out; the design challenge there was to design a good aberration, and my mind doesn't really think that way. In hindsight, I kinda wish I'd made the zeugalak the good aberration there...
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Creative Director
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Hi James!
I recently came into possession of a printed copy of Masks of Nyarlathotep and I've decided to adapt it (loosely, because rockets) into the core of my next Pathfinder campaign.
Some swaps are fairly easy. The Carlyle Expedition becomes a lost party of adventurers. Cairo, Egypt becomes Sothis, Osirion. Ill-fated globe-trotting writer Jackson Elias becomes an ill-fated globe trotting Pathfinder.
However, there are some substitutions that are a little harder so I thought I'd ask you for some suggestions since you A.) know more about Golarion than I do and B.) I believe you are familiar with the campaign in question:
1.) Absalom was my initial thought as a substitution for New York City. Can you think of anything better?
2.) Which city would you substitute for London? I was thinking Nisroch because it's dark, foggy, and has a severe wealthy/poor divide. But some of the chapter involves the English countryside and I'm not sure the rest of Nidal would work as well.
3.)The Mwangi Expanse is a reasonable stand-in for Africa. Is there any part of that region (or a different part of Garund) that would be a good stand-in for Nairobi, Kenya?
4.) Where on Tian Xia would you place a city like Shanghai?
5.) Australia. This one has me drawing a total blank. Any suggestions?
1) Absalom's a great choice.
2) Caliphas is the best choice for a London stand-in.
3) Sargava. It's even got the racial tension element there and the idea of an expedition of "Brits" makes sense.
4) I'd put that stuff into Goka.
5) Sarusan is the obvious choice for an Australia stand-in... but frankly, I think having that section send the PCs to Azlant is a MUCH better choice, since Sarusan is so far out of the way compared to the other locations.
And this is SUPER interesting, by the way. Makes me kinda wanna try it myself!
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Mr. James Jacobs,
1. Was Thron a unique creature or are there other spirit wolves?
2. What would Zon-Kuthon do if someone tried to use fleshwarping to if not restore Thron to his former self at least remove the kyton elements and make him into a being like he was?
3. How ticked off would he be if that someone succeeded?
4. How upset or confused would the professors at Lepinstadt University be if someone made themselves into an aberrant bloodrager via grafts and implants as part of their final project to graduate?
Haven't thought about them in about a decade or so, so off the top of my head, I'm not sure. Frankly... I was never super satisfied with how they came out; the design challenge there was to design a good aberration, and my mind doesn't really think that way.You have three good-aligned fleshwarpers; one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic. How do their creations differ?Alignment doesn't really impact fleshwarping much. I suppose the lawful one would look more symmetrical than the chaotic one. Maybe.Lemme try a different approach. How would the silthilar in general, and their experiments in particular, be different if they were...
1. ...lawful good?
2. ...neutral good?
1. How does your mind think (in this specific context)?
2. Why do you think the silthilar shouldn't have been good aligned?
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
1. Was Thron a unique creature or are there other spirit wolves?
2. What would Zon-Kuthon do if someone tried to use fleshwarping to if not restore Thron to his former self at least remove the kyton elements and make him into a being like he was?
3. How ticked off would he be if that someone succeeded?4. How upset or confused would the professors at Lepinstadt University be if someone made themselves into an aberrant bloodrager via grafts and implants as part of their final project to graduate?
1) Unrevealed, but likely unique.
2) Fleshwarping wouldn't work, first of all, unless it was particularly powerful, in which case Zon-Kuthon would react by having his church and kytons and what not seek to punish the one who attempted the change and/or reverse the effects.
3) Very.
4) FAIL! EXPULSION!!!!
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Creative Director
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Haven't thought about them in about a decade or so, so off the top of my head, I'm not sure. Frankly... I was never super satisfied with how they came out; the design challenge there was to design a good aberration, and my mind doesn't really think that way.You have three good-aligned fleshwarpers; one lawful, one neutral, and one chaotic. How do their creations differ?Alignment doesn't really impact fleshwarping much. I suppose the lawful one would look more symmetrical than the chaotic one. Maybe.Lemme try a different approach. How would the silthilar in general, and their experiments in particular, be different if they were...
1. ...lawful good?
2. ...neutral good?
1. How does your mind think (in this specific context)?
2. Why do you think the silthilar shouldn't have been good aligned?
1) Aberrations are, well, aberrant. Outside of the natural order of things in ways that are unsettling or disturbing, and I associate that with chaos and/or evil.
2) That's not what I said. I wish, in hindsight, that I'd made the zeugalak my good-aligned aberration for the book, because it's got a playful personality. That would have freed up my monster assignment to do something entirely different with the section about the silthilar, or to make them more traditional aberrations. As it stands, the fact that they're collective swarms AND that they have a fleshwarping theme already gives them some pretty unique and memorable flavor. Making them good is overkill. The zeugalak is really not all that complex a creature, and making it good instead would have made it even more interesting; by removing the silthiliar's good role and making them chaotic neutral or chaotic evil, they would STILL have been interesting. Basically, I'm saying I wish I'd spread out the interesting a bit more.
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Mr. James Jacobs,
1. Was Thron a unique creature or are there other spirit wolves?
2. What would Zon-Kuthon do if someone tried to use fleshwarping to if not restore Thron to his former self at least remove the kyton elements and make him into a being like he was?
3. How ticked off would he be if that someone succeeded?4. How upset or confused would the professors at Lepinstadt University be if someone made themselves into an aberrant bloodrager via grafts and implants as part of their final project to graduate?
1) Unrevealed, but likely unique.
2) Fleshwarping wouldn't work, first of all, unless it was particularly powerful, in which case Zon-Kuthon would react by having his church and kytons and what not seek to punish the one who attempted the change and/or reverse the effects.
3) Very.
4) FAIL! EXPULSION!!!!
Would Shelyn or Sarenrae or their priesthoods be willing to give chelter to the one who did?
Would there be any grounds to repeal the University's decision?
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
1. Was Thron a unique creature or are there other spirit wolves?
2. What would Zon-Kuthon do if someone tried to use fleshwarping to if not restore Thron to his former self at least remove the kyton elements and make him into a being like he was?
3. How ticked off would he be if that someone succeeded?4. How upset or confused would the professors at Lepinstadt University be if someone made themselves into an aberrant bloodrager via grafts and implants as part of their final project to graduate?
1) Unrevealed, but likely unique.
2) Fleshwarping wouldn't work, first of all, unless it was particularly powerful, in which case Zon-Kuthon would react by having his church and kytons and what not seek to punish the one who attempted the change and/or reverse the effects.
3) Very.
4) FAIL! EXPULSION!!!!
Would Shelyn or Sarenrae or their priesthoods be willing to give chelter to the one who did?
Would there be any grounds to repeal the University's decision?
Probably. They're fond of sheltering all sorts, though.
Yes. That's a great adventure hook, in fact.
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Creative Director
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Are the harbingers of Fate in the Occult Mysteries Campaign Setting book?
We talk a bit about them in there, yes. That's more or less all we'll have to say about them going forward, though. It's looking INCREASINGLY like they're a part of Golarion that we're just not going to be able to do much more with due to the timing of other things.
Do you have ideas in how not to make a paladin's smite ability not so dominate in a campaign? (like in WotR?)
There seems to be a tendency of watching the paladin walk up and smite things, then proceed to the next fight.
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Sooooo you should get to work on a Pellucidar style AP them, right?What would be some themes you'd like to see in the bestiaries?
Maybe primeval creatures in one, planetary creatures in another?It'd be best to tie it somehow to that year's other products, which can vary.
For Example; we did a lot of Asian myth monsters in the Bestiary we published the year Jade Regent came out. And we did a lot of mythic monsters the year we did Mythic Adventures.
Missed mine.
Also did you you donate any money so that Jason can get punched for children?
1. Do you ever find yourself having more fun designing games (drawing maps, statting NPCs, etc) than playing them?
2. What would a Cathedral devoted to all the empyreal lords be like? They're a diverse lot, and their faiths seem to value personal devotion more than number of followers.
Do you have ideas in how not to make a paladin's smite ability not so dominate in a campaign? (like in WotR?)
There seems to be a tendency of watching the paladin walk up and smite things, then proceed to the next fight.
Because they aren't Clerics, Druids, Oracles, Sorcerers, Witches and/or Wizards?
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2) Caliphas is the best choice for a London stand-in.
Caliphas! I never even considered that one. I love it. Plus, this solves the "English Countryside" problem.
5) Sarusan is the obvious choice for an Australia stand-in... but frankly, I think having that section send the PCs to Azlant is a MUCH better choice, since Sarusan is so far out of the way compared to the other locations.
Yeah ... I was thinking about Sarusan but there isn't really anything published about it yet. I'm not adverse to making something up, but I probably have enough on my plate adapting such a large adventure that I'd rather just milk the books I already own for material. Which makes Absalom, Caliphas, Sargava, and Goka perfect.
Azlant is something I never even considered. Probably because I forgot that it wasn't entirely underwater.
But ... now that you mention it ... I think the Celestial Lens at the Sun Temple Colony, re-purposed by a magical device crafted by Sir Aubrey Penhew, may just be a good replacement for the rocket (and it comes with handy cultists!) I'm also getting some horrible ideas for the poor, poor gnomes of Irrere....
I think you've sold me on the Azlant idea. See, this is why I asked.
And this is SUPER interesting, by the way. Makes me kinda wanna try it myself!
Thanks! I may start up a thread in the Conversions forum to keep track of my ideas/solicit suggestions as I go along.
One last question:
My general plan is to wait and start MoN after the PCs have gained a few levels. Maybe start it in the 3rd-5th level range. That will give me a chance to foreshadow some of the plot through rumors/background events and, more importantly, give the PCs a chance to make friends with Jackson Elias before his untimely demise.
Do you have any favorite creepy adventures (Call of Cthulhu or otherwise) you could recommend?
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Creative Director
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Do you have ideas in how not to make a paladin's smite ability not so dominate in a campaign? (like in WotR?)
There seems to be a tendency of watching the paladin walk up and smite things, then proceed to the next fight.
Best way to do that is to moderate how often you use evil creatures. A second best way is to limit the amount of times the party can rest in a day so that the paladin has to ration her smites. A third best way is to reduce the bonuses smite grants... but do that only after you tell the players!
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Creative Director
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Did you enjoy the half-dozen tweets about "Big is Beautiful" Lovecraftian quotes that I sent to you and Wes last month?
I didn't see them. I set up my twitter account years ago, posted 3 times or so, and haven't gone back. Sorry!
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Creative Director
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Sooooo you should get to work on a Pellucidar style AP them, right?What would be some themes you'd like to see in the bestiaries?
Maybe primeval creatures in one, planetary creatures in another?It'd be best to tie it somehow to that year's other products, which can vary.
For Example; we did a lot of Asian myth monsters in the Bestiary we published the year Jade Regent came out. And we did a lot of mythic monsters the year we did Mythic Adventures.
Missed mine.
Also did you you donate any money so that Jason can get punched for children?
Didn't miss it. Didn't really feel it needed an answer, since I interpreted it as rhetorical.
And I don't need to pay money to punch Jason. I know where he works!
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Creative Director
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1. Do you ever find yourself having more fun designing games (drawing maps, statting NPCs, etc) than playing them?
2. What would a Cathedral devoted to all the empyreal lords be like? They're a diverse lot, and their faiths seem to value personal devotion more than number of followers.
1) Sometimes... but not lately, since I design games a LOT more than I get to play them.
2) Sandpoint Cathedral, but with different art on the walls and different statues in the asiles.
That said, a pantheon temple is more interesting to me if it DOESN'T try to be for several dozen deities, but rather for a small group of 5 or 6.
Like Sandpoint's Cathedral.
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Creative Director
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Do you have any favorite creepy adventures (Call of Cthulhu or otherwise) you could recommend?
Four that come to mind:
Carrion Hill
Skinsaw Murders
Feast of Ravenmoor
And Madness Followed (Dungeon #134)
I've played a LOT of cool Cthulhu adventures, but I don't recall their titles off the top of my head... the ones I do recall are things like "Masks" or "Beyond the Mountains of Madness." The first adventure of "Shadows of Yog-Sothoth" might work quite well for you though.
Muls?There were once upon a time, but then Litigiouthrax, demon lord of Intellectual Property, brought them all back home to Athas.
I could have sworn Intellectual Property was the domain of an Archdevil.
Sometimes I find something new all the way back on page 1.
Nephthys and Nethys, any connection other than the name?
Can miracle grant inherent bonuses like wish?
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Creative Director
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Can miracle grant inherent bonuses like wish?
I allow it to do so in my games. So... yes! (It falls under the category of especially powerful miracles. And it should be something your deity approves of... some ability score increases might not be ones some deities approve of at the GM's option.