Creative Director
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James,
If I recall correctly, today is the release for the new Godzilla on DVD/Bluray/etc.
Will you own it before you even get to work?
I advance ordered it from Amazon. And it actually just showed up on my desk while I was writing the response to the previous question but before I read this one. Ha.
Why do so many monster races worship demon lords instead of proper deities? (Or, inversely, why are so many monster gods 'mere' demon lords? Why is Flauros the demon lord or fire, instead of a CE elemental lord, or simply God the Salamanders?)
In The Great Beyond: Guide to the Multiverse, it's mentioned that among those trying to claim Aroden's domain there are several dragons; specifically both chromatic and metallic dragons.
As this particular chronicle predates the creation of primal, imperial, and outer dragons, would it be safe to say that some of these dragons are also vying for control of Aroden's domain?
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Creative Director
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Why do so many monster races worship demon lords instead of proper deities? (Or, inversely, why are so many monster gods 'mere' demon lords? Why is Flauros the demon lord or fire, instead of a CE elemental lord, or simply God the Salamanders?)
Because there's a HUGE number of demon lords out there, so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy to a certain extent. More demon lords = more worshipers overall.
Why are there so many demon lords? It's always been that way in the game. And the fact that I like them the best of the various types of demigods certainly helps their proliferation.
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Creative Director
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In The Great Beyond: Guide to the Multiverse, it's mentioned that among those trying to claim Aroden's domain there are several dragons; specifically both chromatic and metallic dragons.
As this particular chronicle predates the creation of primal, imperial, and outer dragons, would it be safe to say that some of these dragons are also vying for control of Aroden's domain?
Yes.
For control of the realm he once ruled, NOT for anything associated with his divinity. Dragons don't care about some dead god of humanity. They just want his stuff he left behind after he died.
In The Great Beyond: Guide to the Multiverse, it's mentioned that among those trying to claim Aroden's domain there are several dragons; specifically both chromatic and metallic dragons.
As this particular chronicle predates the creation of primal, imperial, and outer dragons, would it be safe to say that some of these dragons are also vying for control of Aroden's domain?
Yes.
For control of the realm he once ruled, NOT for anything associated with his divinity. Dragons don't care about some dead god of humanity. They just want his stuff he left behind after he died.
Ah, excellent. Thank you.
Fire Affinity: Ifrit sorcerers with the elemental (fire) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. Ifrit spellcasters with the Fire domain use their domain powers and spells at +1 caster level.
Now that the ACG is out, I'm curious: Does Fire Affinity apply to bloodragers with the fire elemental bloodline as well?
Also, in which upcoming products can we look forward to seeing more bloodrager bloodlines? How many will be released this year?
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Creative Director
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Will there be a noir AP?? Because I have been waiting for one
No plans to do so at this time, although "noir" means a lot and I'm not really sure what you're actually asking for. An adventure path that's focused on cynicism and investigation? An adventure path with moody black and white art? Something else?
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Creative Director
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Fire Affinity: Ifrit sorcerers with the elemental (fire) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. Ifrit spellcasters with the Fire domain use their domain powers and spells at +1 caster level.Now that the ACG is out, I'm curious: Does Fire Affinity apply to bloodragers with the fire elemental bloodline as well?
Also, in which upcoming products can we look forward to seeing more bloodrager bloodlines? How many will be released this year?
THe first question needs to be asked in the rules forum.
There will likely be more bloodrager bloodlines and other things for the new classes... but not as much as there ever was or will be for barbarians. As we get more and more classes out there, the amount of time and space we have to devote to specific boons for each one diminishes, and that won't be an equal diminishing across the board... we'll still focus mostly on supporting the core classes, because they're core classes. So... yes. There'll be things like new bloodrager bloodlines... but not a lot and not often.
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Will there be a noir AP?? Because I have been waiting for oneNo plans to do so at this time, although "noir" means a lot and I'm not really sure what you're actually asking for. An adventure path that's focused on cynicism and investigation? An adventure path with moody black and white art? Something else?
One that is Focused on investigation, a steampunk AP would rock too
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Creative Director
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One that is Focused on investigation, a steampunk AP would rock tooWill there be a noir AP?? Because I have been waiting for oneNo plans to do so at this time, although "noir" means a lot and I'm not really sure what you're actually asking for. An adventure path that's focused on cynicism and investigation? An adventure path with moody black and white art? Something else?
Ah... neither of those is what I'd call "noir." Thanks for clarifying.
Hell's Rebels will have a bit of investigation, but not a lot. I do hope to eventually do an AP with more investigation stuff... but for now, there's just isolated examples in APs such as part 3 of Mummy's Mask.
No plans to do steampunk. That's not a genre that's really supported by Golarion at this time.
Hello James;
As the volume of published material for the Golarion setting grows, do you find it harder to remember what particular facts have and have not been published?
Do you have to research setting materials at times to make sure what is going to be in a new book matches what has come before it?
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What, in your opinion, is the greater danger in Numeria, the things that lurk in the Divinity's wreckage or the Technic League that covets them?
It's clear that Golarion's humans have a wide range of skin tone. But what about the other races? Are there elves of color (besides drow, who are a whole other problematic thing entirely)? Are orcs ONLY green?
Is it just me, or are a LOT of the coolest magic weapons in the books bastard swords?
Are there any villains in the APs or stuff motivated primarily by spite? Like, if you ask them why they're doing their evil scheme they'll basically respond with "f@$# you, that's why!"
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Creative Director
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Hello James;
As the volume of published material for the Golarion setting grows, do you find it harder to remember what particular facts have and have not been published?
Do you have to research setting materials at times to make sure what is going to be in a new book matches what has come before it?
Absolutely. I'm hoping we can get to a point soon where someone on staff can serve as a continuity expert, but until then... it just means that the research we need to do to prepare our book outlines grows more and more important. I do have access to each and every product we've published in PDF so I can search them for key words pretty easily, but it still takes time and in some cases requires extensive reading and note-taking. Preparation for Iron Gods, the Technology Guide, and the Numeria book, for example, required reading a few novels and keeping entire databases of notes in addition to scouring all our printed material for references to Numeria and tech and the like.
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Creative Director
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What, in your opinion, is the greater danger in Numeria, the things that lurk in the Divinity's wreckage or the Technic League that covets them?
It's clear that Golarion's humans have a wide range of skin tone. But what about the other races? Are there elves of color (besides drow, who are a whole other problematic thing entirely)? Are orcs ONLY green?
Is it just me, or are a LOT of the coolest magic weapons in the books bastard swords?
Are there any villains in the APs or stuff motivated primarily by spite? Like, if you ask them why they're doing their evil scheme they'll basically respond with "f@$# you, that's why!"
Absolutely the things that lurk in the wreckage. The Technic League might be the method by which those dangers are set loose, but they don't control them any more than anyone else. Iron Gods #6 will provide an entire adventure's worth of examples.
All core races have as wide a range of skin tones as humans. Non-core races do not necessarily; most orcs are green skinned. This is by design. We want all the core races to appeal to as many real-world players as possible, but at the same time don't want to cast a monster race that's presented as something evil or savage or undesirable as being of a skin tone that matches a real-world ethnicity. I would hope for obvious reasons.
I think it's just you. There's plenty of cool magic weapons out there that aren't bastard swords.
Not really... we generally prefer villains to have more complex motivations than just "I want to be a bad guy."
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could we please have pathfinder megabloks? Please? Also, eventually you guys should make some OFFICAL psionic stuff, just comb through it and rebalance it, organize it and make it into one solid class. Also, as fun as fantasty is, I think seeing merishiel in a modern setting would be both hiliarous and interesting. Simply put, I just like the writers behind paizo, I think a few different genres might help keep them from accidentally going stale and writing HARAGGAHGHAHJHGDRAGONSAHDGAFJHDGWIZARDAHFGGHDJHSWORDSUFHSHJKHDSFB
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What, in your opinion, is the greater danger in Numeria, the things that lurk in the Divinity's wreckage or the Technic League that covets them?
It's clear that Golarion's humans have a wide range of skin tone. But what about the other races? Are there elves of color (besides drow, who are a whole other problematic thing entirely)? Are orcs ONLY green?
Is it just me, or are a LOT of the coolest magic weapons in the books bastard swords?
Are there any villains in the APs or stuff motivated primarily by spite? Like, if you ask them why they're doing their evil scheme they'll basically respond with "f@$# you, that's why!"
Absolutely the things that lurk in the wreckage. The Technic League might be the method by which those dangers are set loose, but they don't control them any more than anyone else. Iron Gods #6 will provide an entire adventure's worth of examples.
All core races have as wide a range of skin tones as humans. Non-core races do not necessarily; most orcs are green skinned. This is by design. We want all the core races to appeal to as many real-world players as possible, but at the same time don't want to cast a monster race that's presented as something evil or savage or undesirable as being of a skin tone that matches a real-world ethnicity. I would hope for obvious reasons.
I think it's just you. There's plenty of cool magic weapons out there that aren't bastard swords.
Not really... we generally prefer villains to have more complex motivations than just "I want to be a bad guy."
Although that last one is kinda the Daemon's schtick.
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Creative Director
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could we please have pathfinder megabloks? Please? Also, eventually you guys should make some OFFICAL psionic stuff, just comb through it and rebalance it, organize it and make it into one solid class. Also, as fun as fantasty is, I think seeing merishiel in a modern setting would be both hiliarous and interesting. Simply put, I just like the writers behind paizo, I think a few different genres might help keep them from accidentally going stale and writing HARAGGAHGHAHJHGDRAGONSAHDGAFJHDGWIZARDAHFGGHDJHSWORDSUFHSHJKHDSFB
Megabloks? Don't know what those are.
Our "official" take on "psionic stuff" is coming next year in Occult Adventures and the rules for psychic magic. A playtest for it is coming soon. It is NOT intended to replace the psionic rules Dreamscared updated from D&D but to be a parallel track to those rules.
I'm not really worried about Golarion going stale anytime soon.
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Creative Director
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Although that last one is kinda the Daemon's schtick.
Not really. Daemons have a reason to be bad. They're hungry. That's more than just "we wanna be mean just cause we wanna be mean."
In any event... we've not yet done an AP where daemons are the main bad guy anyway. Perhaps some day...
1)Well other then Agyra and Lord Varklops, do any of the Kaiju mentioned in B4 have more then one head?
2)Are any of them actually quadrupeds? or have a serpent-like limbless body?
3)If you could no longer get Wayne Reynolds to do the cover art for the next hardcover book, which artists would be your top 5 choices?
4)Have you guys established a planned page count for Inner Sea Races or Occult Adventures? If so can you say what they are?
5)Will Inner Sea Races be part of the campaign setting line?
6)Do you have a clear idea of what all the unstated Kaiju will look like that have mentioned so far?
7)Are there any creatures mentioned in past books that you might think of making them Kaiju now that the rules exist?
8)Do any Kaiju have only one eye or no eyes at all?
9)Will there be an announcement of when the Occult Adventures playtest will begin or will you guys surprise at the last minute?
10)What movies have you seen?
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Creative Director
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1)Well other then Agyra and Lord Varklops, do any of the Kaiju mentioned in B4 have more then one head?
2)Are any of them actually quadrupeds? or have a serpent-like limbless body?
3)If you could no longer get Wayne Reynolds to do the cover art for the next hardcover book, which artists would be your top 5 choices?
4)Have you guys established a planned page count for Inner Sea Races or Occult Adventures? If so can you say what they are?
5)Will Inner Sea Races be part of the campaign setting line?
6)Do you have a clear idea of what all the unstated Kaiju will look like that have mentioned so far?
7)Are there any creatures mentioned in past books that you might think of making them Kaiju now that the rules exist?
8)Do any Kaiju have only one eye or no eyes at all?
9)Will there be an announcement of when the Occult Adventures playtest will begin or will you guys surprise at the last minute?
10)What movies have you seen?
1) Undecided at this time. Perhaps.
2) Yes, there are a lot of body shapes. Zimivra is a serpent. Queen Vorgozen is a blob type thing. Cimurlian is a quadruped. More might exist.
3) Keeping in mind that I'm not the one who makes those choices... I'd pick Steve Prescott, Eva Widermann, Ben Wootten, Lars Grant-West, and Warren Mahy.... although ask me again in a day or an hour and that list might change.
4) Yes, we established that months and months ago. And while there's only like a 1% chance it'll change... there's still a chance, and so I'm not ready to reveal publicly those page counts.
5) Yes. That's part of the point of the book. Just like Inner Sea Gods.
6) Some more than others, but for the most part I have at least vague ideas for all of them. A few I have very clear ideas.
7) No. Not interested in retconning existing creatures into kaiju.
8) Yes.
9) It will be soon, but we don't want to announce it before we know it's ready. Which, I suppose, means it'll be a surprise at the last minute. Or at least the last week.
10) ummmmm... I assume you mean "recently." I haven't actually seen any recently since the last time I did an update to my recent movies seen. Been too busy.
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megabloks are kinda like lego, just they have figures that can actually grip a sword or gun, they already have done some CoD and halo stuff, they look really pretty too, the newest update to there sets has added a barebones skeleton like minifigure! I like the idea of having like a basic body and just bits and bobs of armor to attach to the body. So you could have a fighter wearing custom armor or a mage in custom robes, stuff like that. Plus, it solves the need for handmade figurines
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Creative Director
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megabloks are kinda like lego, just they have figures that can actually grip a sword or gun, they already have done some CoD and halo stuff, they look really pretty too, the newest update to there sets has added a barebones skeleton like minifigure! I like the idea of having like a basic body and just bits and bobs of armor to attach to the body. So you could have a fighter wearing custom armor or a mage in custom robes, stuff like that. Plus, it solves the need for handmade figurines
Oh. No plans to do megabloks that I know of then.
Hello James;
As the volume of published material for the Golarion setting grows, do you find it harder to remember what particular facts have and have not been published?
Do you have to research setting materials at times to make sure what is going to be in a new book matches what has come before it?
Absolutely. I'm hoping we can get to a point soon where someone on staff can serve as a continuity expert, but until then... it just means that the research we need to do to prepare our book outlines grows more and more important. I do have access to each and every product we've published in PDF so I can search them for key words pretty easily, but it still takes time and in some cases requires extensive reading and note-taking. Preparation for Iron Gods, the Technology Guide, and the Numeria book, for example, required reading a few novels and keeping entire databases of notes in addition to scouring all our printed material for references to Numeria and tech and the like.
When that time comes let me know, I love reading all your works and would be happy to look through all previous material for continuity when needed. :)
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Creative Director
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Soon...Although that last one is kinda the Daemon's schtick.Not really. Daemons have a reason to be bad. They're hungry. That's more than just "we wanna be mean just cause we wanna be mean."
In any event... we've not yet done an AP where daemons are the main bad guy anyway. Perhaps some day...
Nah... I wouldn't use the word soon here.
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Creative Director
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When that time comes let me know, I love reading all your works and would be happy to look through all previous material for continuity when needed. :)Hello James;
As the volume of published material for the Golarion setting grows, do you find it harder to remember what particular facts have and have not been published?
Do you have to research setting materials at times to make sure what is going to be in a new book matches what has come before it?
Absolutely. I'm hoping we can get to a point soon where someone on staff can serve as a continuity expert, but until then... it just means that the research we need to do to prepare our book outlines grows more and more important. I do have access to each and every product we've published in PDF so I can search them for key words pretty easily, but it still takes time and in some cases requires extensive reading and note-taking. Preparation for Iron Gods, the Technology Guide, and the Numeria book, for example, required reading a few novels and keeping entire databases of notes in addition to scouring all our printed material for references to Numeria and tech and the like.
Thing is, we kinda hired Mark Moreland for this specific job, but then kept him busy doing PFS stuff or development duties. In theory, in time, we already have the perfect person for this job. We just need to get to a point where he can finally do the job we hired him to do, and part of that is the long slog toward conquering our schedule problems.
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Soon...Although that last one is kinda the Daemon's schtick.Not really. Daemons have a reason to be bad. They're hungry. That's more than just "we wanna be mean just cause we wanna be mean."
In any event... we've not yet done an AP where daemons are the main bad guy anyway. Perhaps some day...
Nah... I wouldn't use the word soon here.
"Before you know it"?
The Inspired magic weapon ability says only applies to the Investigators starting weapons proficiency, is it possible to allow the weapon quality to be applied to other weapons since the ability's effect isn't based on weapon type? Such as a longsword or Bastard Sword?
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Creative Director
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The Inspired magic weapon ability says only applies to the Investigators starting weapons proficiency, is it possible to allow the weapon quality to be applied to other weapons since the ability's effect isn't based on weapon type? Such as a longsword or Bastard Sword?
Dunno; tis a great question for the rules board and an FAQ.
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1) (You really don't have to answer this one.) I was looking through the Gen con paizo blog post, when I saw a pic of you... ah... well... did you slimmed down?
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2) PFS in-game lore: What is the relationship of the various factions of the Pathfinder Society to each other and the society itself?
I'm asking this as I was running the Weapon in the Rift scenario recently and I notice that it is written that Ollysta Zadrian the faction leader of the Silver Crusaders have "left the Society" to "start" her own faction. This is reflected in the King of Chaos(?) book as well?
This got me puzzled, as I always thought that the various factions are part of the society itself. That they are like interest groups within an organization.
But the wording in the scenario suggests that factions are completely separated from the society...?
Could you clarify/elaborate on this?
3) I recently saw the article on Occult Adventures and the new psychic classes. After passing the message along to my fellow players/GMs, a couple gave replies that are quite negative about this news.
Namely they seem to bemoan Pathfinder walking the same path as 3.5 and that new products are like an endless pit of doom...
Do you ever worry that consumers may get buyers fatigue?
Are there steps taken to pace the amount of products released?
4) Is it possible for a Kaiju to be a spaceship as well? Or have a species or civilization living on/within it?
5) Do any Kaiju has ties to the outer gods?
6) With the release of Iron Gods and other books that talk about the material universe, like the Golarion's solar system, is there ideals to take space travel further and include a "Spelljammer" type adventure path or books that expand on space travel?
7) Is there even active space travel in the Golarion universe?
8) Are there any place/plane in Golarion that a god cannot grant spells to her followers? (Like a anti-divine communication zone)
9) I just read that demon lords that died end up in a place in the abyss. Do Gods that died have a similar "final resting place" for their essence or their corpses?
10) What advice/s would you give someone going to gencon for the first time?
Thanks for any answers to the above!
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Associate Publisher
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Another kick at the Dragon Empires cat...
Certain deities from the Core Rulebook show up as worshipped in the Dragon Empires. Examples include Abadar, Irori, and Pharasma as such deities.
Was Aroden worshipped in the Dragon Empires at any point? Since he was the God of Humanity, it would make sense in a humano-centric empire like Lung Wa, but has never been talked about. The counterpoint, would be that Aroden spent a lot of time in the Inner Sea region, and maybe wasn't involved with the Tien people at all.
Just curious :)
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Just got the Emerald Spire book, and I was curious.
Were the floors written separately by each writer and then strung together as part of the dungeon, but with little rhyme or reason to what you'd encounter on each floor save that they got tougher? Or did you guys collaborate while writing your floors to ensure the dungeon didn't seem patchwork from a narrative perspective. And speaking of that, if that's the case, what would you say the themes and narrative ideas of the Emerald Spire are?
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Creative Director
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| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
1) (You really don't have to answer this one.) I was looking through the Gen con paizo blog post, when I saw a pic of you... ah... well... did you slimmed down?
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2) PFS in-game lore: What is the relationship of the various factions of the Pathfinder Society to each other and the society itself?
I'm asking this as I was running the Weapon in the Rift scenario recently and I notice that it is written that Ollysta Zadrian the faction leader of the Silver Crusaders have "left the Society" to "start" her own faction. This is reflected in the King of Chaos(?) book as well?
This got me puzzled, as I always thought that the various factions are part of the society itself. That they are like interest groups within an organization.
But the wording in the scenario suggests that factions are completely separated from the society...?Could you clarify/elaborate on this?
3) I recently saw the article on Occult Adventures and the new psychic classes. After passing the message along to my fellow players/GMs, a couple gave replies that are quite negative about this news.
Namely they seem to bemoan Pathfinder walking the same path as 3.5 and that new products are like an endless pit of doom...Do you ever worry that consumers may get buyers fatigue?
Are there steps taken to pace the amount of products released?4) Is it possible for a Kaiju to be a spaceship as well? Or have a species or civilization living on/within it?
5) Do any Kaiju has ties to the outer gods?
6) With the release of Iron Gods and other books that talk about the material universe, like the Golarion's solar system, is there ideals to take space travel further and include a "Spelljammer" type adventure path or books that expand on space travel?
7) Is there even active space travel in the Golarion universe?
8) Are there any place/plane in Golarion that a god cannot grant spells to her followers? (Like a anti-divine communication zone)
9) I just read that demon lords that died end up in a place in the abyss. Do Gods that died have a similar "final resting place" for their essence or their corpses?
10) What advice/s would you give someone going to gencon for the first time?
1) Yup. I was down 180 pounds at the lowest point in the year-long diet, and am now in the maintain your weight stage. Gen con season saw me put a few dozen pounds back on due to the difficulty in eating healthy while at conventions or while working super long hours to prepare for or recover from the same, but yeah. Lost a lot of weight.
2) Beyond saying that they have various relationships of competition and support that can vary from season to season, I can't say much... I'm actually not all that much involved in PFS aside from high-level story advice and approving scenario outlines. The factions aren't all an official part of the Society, though... most of them are just allied to the Pathfinders. This is because we realize that not everyone in PFS wants to play a Pathfinder.
3) Consumers getting buyer's fatigue is indeed a concern for us. We watch our sales and reviews and messageboards and all the rest, and as of this point, the overall momentum for Pathifnder is still on an upward trend here. Personally, I'm more excited about Occult Adventures than I have been for a while for a player-focused book... perhaps more than EVER since this one isn't just a shotgun-approach to Lots of New Concepts... but is in fact a pretty tightly focused theme of concepts. Which also means that if you don't want this theme (occultisim and psychic stuff and mysterious spooky paranormal elements) in your game... it's an easy book to pass on.
4) I suppose, although that starts to really push the kaiju into a realm where the rules simply don't work. Theoretically yes... in world flavor yes... rules wise? I wouldn't do it.
5) Not at this time, and probably not ever. Kaiju and Lovecraft are similar in some ways, but in many more ways their themes are VERY different and I"m not sure I like the taste when they mix.
6) No plans at this point. We've spent too much time and energy on Golarion, and the setting is too popular, for us to do something that significantly abandons it at this point int ime.
7) Yes, there absolutely is. See Iron Gods or Doom Comes to Dust Pawn for examples.
8) No. Similarly, there's no place on Golarion where a fighter can't make attack rolls, nor is there a place where rogues can't make skill checks. Regions that completely bar a class's abilities are not good game design. Even an area like the Mana Wastes allows spellcasters to play, for example.
9) Some do, some don't. And demon lords actually go to one of two places... most go to the Rift of Repose, but those slain by Nocticula go to the Midnight Isles instead.
10) Don't try to do everything. Take a shower every day and wear a new set of clothes every day. Don't stay up all night—get at least 8 hours of sleep every day. Drink lots of water. Don't schedule every hour ahead of time; leave yourself open time to just explore and relax. Go with friends!
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Creative Director
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Another kick at the Dragon Empires cat...
Certain deities from the Core Rulebook show up as worshipped in the Dragon Empires. Examples include Abadar, Irori, and Pharasma as such deities.
Was Aroden worshipped in the Dragon Empires at any point? Since he was the God of Humanity, it would make sense in a humano-centric empire like Lung Wa, but has never been talked about. The counterpoint, would be that Aroden spent a lot of time in the Inner Sea region, and maybe wasn't involved with the Tien people at all.
Just curious :)
He was not.
He was the god of Humanity in the Inner Sea Region. Had he lived longer than he did, he might have branched out, but no... he wasn't well known at all in regions outside of Avistan or north Garund.
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Creative Director
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Just got the Emerald Spire book, and I was curious.
Were the floors written separately by each writer and then strung together as part of the dungeon, but with little rhyme or reason to what you'd encounter on each floor save that they got tougher? Or did you guys collaborate while writing your floors to ensure the dungeon didn't seem patchwork from a narrative perspective. And speaking of that, if that's the case, what would you say the themes and narrative ideas of the Emerald Spire are?
Every dungeon level in Emerald Spire was written by a separate author, but they were all managed by Rich Baker, who worked with each author to ensure that each level worked well within the whole. Rich then went in and developed the entire adventure to make sure it felt like a cohesive whole. Then Logan Bonner did the same after Rich.
The adventure authors had VERY little interaction with each other. Those of us who are at Paizo did do some back and forth with each other... but the out-of-house authors were all pretty much left to their own devices to make their levels as recognizably theirs as they wanted.
I'd say the narrative idea of the Emerald Spire is that it's a layer cake of denizens who built up on the foundations of previous denizens over and over and over, so it's a dungeon where you see one thing, scratch away that thing and reveal a new thing. It's also kind of a time capsule... the deeper you go, the more into Golarion's past you delve.
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Just got the Emerald Spire book, and I was curious.
Were the floors written separately by each writer and then strung together as part of the dungeon, but with little rhyme or reason to what you'd encounter on each floor save that they got tougher? Or did you guys collaborate while writing your floors to ensure the dungeon didn't seem patchwork from a narrative perspective. And speaking of that, if that's the case, what would you say the themes and narrative ideas of the Emerald Spire are?
Every dungeon level in Emerald Spire was written by a separate author, but they were all managed by Rich Baker, who worked with each author to ensure that each level worked well within the whole. Rich then went in and developed the entire adventure to make sure it felt like a cohesive whole. Then Logan Bonner did the same after Rich.
The adventure authors had VERY little interaction with each other. Those of us who are at Paizo did do some back and forth with each other... but the out-of-house authors were all pretty much left to their own devices to make their levels as recognizably theirs as they wanted.
I'd say the narrative idea of the Emerald Spire is that it's a layer cake of denizens who built up on the foundations of previous denizens over and over and over, so it's a dungeon where you see one thing, scratch away that thing and reveal a new thing. It's also kind of a time capsule... the deeper you go, the more into Golarion's past you delve.
So to make a character that fits the best with the module's narrative, an archaeologist sort of character would make the most sense?
Are we ever going to get a Player Companion for Galt?
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Creative Director
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So to make a character that fits the best with the module's narrative, an archaeologist sort of character would make the most sense?Just got the Emerald Spire book, and I was curious.
Were the floors written separately by each writer and then strung together as part of the dungeon, but with little rhyme or reason to what you'd encounter on each floor save that they got tougher? Or did you guys collaborate while writing your floors to ensure the dungeon didn't seem patchwork from a narrative perspective. And speaking of that, if that's the case, what would you say the themes and narrative ideas of the Emerald Spire are?
Every dungeon level in Emerald Spire was written by a separate author, but they were all managed by Rich Baker, who worked with each author to ensure that each level worked well within the whole. Rich then went in and developed the entire adventure to make sure it felt like a cohesive whole. Then Logan Bonner did the same after Rich.
The adventure authors had VERY little interaction with each other. Those of us who are at Paizo did do some back and forth with each other... but the out-of-house authors were all pretty much left to their own devices to make their levels as recognizably theirs as they wanted.
I'd say the narrative idea of the Emerald Spire is that it's a layer cake of denizens who built up on the foundations of previous denizens over and over and over, so it's a dungeon where you see one thing, scratch away that thing and reveal a new thing. It's also kind of a time capsule... the deeper you go, the more into Golarion's past you delve.
That's certainly one good choice but by no means the only one.