James, back to Androffa.
You're playing your cards close to your chest on this, and I'm just curious why. There's a lot of people curious about what happened to Androffa...are you covering this as part of the final part of the AP, planning to touch on this in some other product, or just don't want to tell us?
We would like to hear the final fate of this incredibly advanced society itself, or at least know if you're going to tell us elsewhere. Telling us it's way past Unmentionable Futures tells us that it suffered a monstrous crash right there, and then you hinted it was even worse.
Inquiring minds wish to know! I can see one of the new Iron Gods being curious about the world of its creation, so if this is all covered in part 6 of the Iron Gods, that's fine, I'm patient.
==Aelryinth
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I feel like I just committed a writing sin. While roleplaying here on the forums for Rise of the Runelords, I just had my dwarf wizard expo-dump about the trauma she experienced watching her master get murdered by a rival. Some writing guides I've been reading since have said that trauma victims/survivors don't act like that, and it can take them months or even years before they're ready to open up about their experiences, and they certainly don't open up to a bunch of locals she only met about two days ago. This traumatic experience is part of her core characterization, why she's obsessed with becoming more powerful, why she's in Sandpoint instead of Riddleport, and why she cynically believes most people will cut you down and twist the knife just to watch you suffer if you let them. And I feel like I blew it because I basically revealed all that within the first hundred posts. Now what do I do? How do I pace her character development? How do I show the impact the event had on her when she apparently was able to talk about it to a bunch of complete strangers less than two weeks after she witnessed the murder of her teacher?
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5) I'm not really sure we need more playable races. I'm actually quite happy with the core races, plus aasimars, tieflings, and tengus. I don't really need any more.No love for changelings and the elemental-blooded?
Not from me, really. I kinda like changelings, I guess, but just not that interested in the elemental blooded races as PC options.
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1) I recently pointed out that my experience in the Pathfinder game really hasn't reflected the numerous DPR threads and Class Balance arguments I see in sections of these Forums? Do you have any idea how many people do or don't see this issue?
2) Any idea why the experiences are so disparate for players and GMs?
On a related topic, but less inflammatory I guess.
3) when it comes to making calls on spells and certain actions that players may try, how do you go about making a decision as a DM? Is there a fixed process or just a git thing or something in between? (eg someone tries to make a Simulacrum of the Tarrasque as it seems the rules can let them according to their reading of it)
4) Are you fairly permissive of player actions and try to come up with creative in game or campaign based consequences to keep some control, or are you more in the vein of saying some things just aren't allowed?
5)Divinations spells have the potential to derail a game I've been told. While I've never seen it happen, a number of others have informed me it can happen. How do you go about handling that situation, or divination in general actually?
I'm aware the first two questions are something you might not want to answer in case its buying into some sort of flame war. Thought I'd ask to see if you some sort of answer for me, but feel free to ignore them if you want.
Cheers
1) No idea. THe DPR threads are really not that interesting to me. They've got a place in MMOs, but I don't really think they're that useful for tabletop games, which in my experience are about a LOT more than just doing damage. There's story and stuff.
2) I suspect that players/GMs who come to the tabletop game from a background of MMOs are the ones more interested in DPR stuff, bu that's just a guess.
3) I make the call on the spot, depending on what's best for the story, what preserves internal game logic, and whether or not it'll be fun for everyone (GM and players alike).
4) Yes, I'm quite permissive when players think creatively or take bold risks. Less so when they try to use well established loopholes or make assumptions about how spells are supposed to work or are trying to use the RAW as a bludgeon to get their way.
5) By making sure that the games I run assume that the PCs will use divinations. By being flexible on how the clues are handed out; if the adventure says the PCs have to talk to the mayor but they instead use a divination spell, I'm okay with them skipping the mayor talk and letting the divination help... OR I just use the results of the divination spell to point them at the mayor.
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James, I hope this question has not been asked before. But do constructs have souls, how about intelligent constructs? If they do have souls are they powered by positive energy, negative energy or neither?
Most constructs don't have souls. Intelligent constructs MIGHT have a soul, or they might not; depends on the situation. Robots, for example, are intelligent constructs but they don't have souls.
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James, back to Androffa.
You're playing your cards close to your chest on this, and I'm just curious why. There's a lot of people curious about what happened to Androffa...are you covering this as part of the final part of the AP, planning to touch on this in some other product, or just don't want to tell us?
We would like to hear the final fate of this incredibly advanced society itself, or at least know if you're going to tell us elsewhere. Telling us it's way past Unmentionable Futures tells us that it suffered a monstrous crash right there, and then you hinted it was even worse.
Inquiring minds wish to know! I can see one of the new Iron Gods being curious about the world of its creation, so if this is all covered in part 6 of the Iron Gods, that's fine, I'm patient.
==Aelryinth
Because the Iron Gods AP isn't about Androffa. It's about Golarion and Silver Mount and all taht. I don't want to distract folks too much from that. I pull the curtain back a little bit in the foreword for Pathfinder #90 about Androffa, and once that's out, I'll chat more about it, but for now, I don't want folks getting distracted by information that's irrelevant and doesn't play a role in the AP at all. Expectation management and all that.
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I feel like I just committed a writing sin. While roleplaying here on the forums for Rise of the Runelords, I just had my dwarf wizard expo-dump about the trauma she experienced watching her master get murdered by a rival. Some writing guides I've been reading since have said that trauma victims/survivors don't act like that, and it can take them months or even years before they're ready to open up about their experiences, and they certainly don't open up to a bunch of locals she only met about two days ago. This traumatic experience is part of her core characterization, why she's obsessed with becoming more powerful, why she's in Sandpoint instead of Riddleport, and why she cynically believes most people will cut you down and twist the knife just to watch you suffer if you let them. And I feel like I blew it because I basically revealed all that within the first hundred posts. Now what do I do? How do I pace her character development? How do I show the impact the event had on her when she apparently was able to talk about it to a bunch of complete strangers less than two weeks after she witnessed the murder of her teacher?
By setting it up that the character had already essentially come to terms with the trauma and going forward with a new goal, perhaps? It's a bit to late to go back now, but the fact that you spilled the beans on that character building element so soon means that it's probably best to focus on something new... maybe something that has yet to develop in the posts. Or maybe you'll luck out and one of the other players will be intrigued enough by your post to help build off of it.
PCs (and NPCs) usually don't have the benefit of hundreds of pages focused on them, like novels, and (hopefully) they are sharing the spotlight with other characters who are equally as important. Also, considering many gaming groups can only afford to play a few hours at a time and only once or twice a week, trying to be subtle has the risk of the character's personality never being acknowledged or even noticed.
I personally like to take 2~3 strong personality traits and focus more on them, leaving the subtleties as bonus "easter eggs" for myself, but given that you're certainly far more experienced in creating and developing characters than I'll ever be, I'd love to hear your advice.
What is your advice to make a character's personality shine in RPGs?
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Thanks for answering James, good advice for me as DM.
Question time.
When I DM I too go for internal consistency. More importantly, I try hard to keep motivations of monsters, outsiders and deities in mind for things like how they'd react to charm, or bindings or summonings or even getting petered by divinations.
Can you describe some of the considerate you use in your games for this idea?
To further explain -
I once had a charmed fighter effectively tackle the wizard responsible to the ground and try to protect him from the fight between the fighters actual allies and the wizards allies. He treated the wizard as a friend in danger because HD was right in the midst of his enemies and vulnerable.
My grouped lived it since it gave an insight to the motivations of the enemy and contributed to story but still provided a unique challenge.
I reckon it wouldn't work in some groups.
Just wondering if you do similar things, and if so what type?
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PCs (and NPCs) usually don't have the benefit of hundreds of pages focused on them, like novels, and (hopefully) they are sharing the spotlight with other characters who are equally as important. Also, considering many gaming groups can only afford to play a few hours at a time and only once or twice a week, trying to be subtle has the risk of the character's personality never being acknowledged or even noticed.
I personally like to take 2~3 strong personality traits and focus more on them, leaving the subtleties as bonus "easter eggs" for myself, but given that you're certainly far more experienced in creating and developing characters than I'll ever be, I'd love to hear your advice.
What is your advice to make a character's personality shine in RPGs?
For an NPC, I generally try to narrow down on one unique or unusual quirk. It might be an accent... might be a wheezing sound he makes when he talks... might be a fondness for cheese, might be a terrible mustache that he things is awesome... might be a tendency to blink while she talks... might be bragging about her pet stirge... something memorable. If the NPC lasts longer than one encounter, I'll sometimes add to that. For significant NPCs, I generally write up a full description like you get in a Pathfinder AP so I know their whole story and can react dynamically to however the PCs approach the character.
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Thanks for answering James, good advice for me as DM.
Question time.
When I DM I too go for internal consistency. More importantly, I try hard to keep motivations of monsters, outsiders and deities in mind for things like how they'd react to charm, or bindings or summonings or even getting petered by divinations.
Can you describe some of the considerate you use in your games for this idea?
To further explain -
I once had a charmed fighter effectively tackle the wizard responsible to the ground and try to protect him from the fight between the fighters actual allies and the wizards allies. He treated the wizard as a friend in danger because HD was right in the midst of his enemies and vulnerable.
My grouped lived it since it gave an insight to the motivations of the enemy and contributed to story but still provided a unique challenge.
I reckon it wouldn't work in some groups.
Just wondering if you do similar things, and if so what type?
Sometimes, yeah. It really depends on the situation, though, but I usually know a little bit at least about an NPC's story, and when they get charmed, that's a GREAT opportunity to let the PCs see those elements. I really like to ad-lib things like this though, so I don't really do a specific "type" I guess. It really depends on the situation as I said above.
What is your advice to make a character's personality shine in RPGs?For an NPC, I generally try to narrow down on one unique or unusual quirk. It might be an accent... might be a wheezing sound he makes when he talks... might be a fondness for cheese, might be a terrible mustache that he things is awesome... might be a tendency to blink while she talks... might be bragging about her pet stirge... something memorable. If the NPC lasts longer than one encounter, I'll sometimes add to that. For significant NPCs, I generally write up a full description like you get in a Pathfinder AP so I know their whole story and can react dynamically to however the PCs approach the character.
And as a player, how would you do it for your PC?
Not from me, really. I kinda like changelings, I guess, but just not that interested in the elemental blooded races as PC options.5) I'm not really sure we need more playable races. I'm actually quite happy with the core races, plus aasimars, tieflings, and tengus. I don't really need any more.No love for changelings and the elemental-blooded?
Is that to say you could simply never see yourself playing one, or that you would actively discourage if not outright ban anyone who joined a game you were running from playing an elemental blooded race? Or any race not under the "core races plus aasimars, tieflings, and tengu" umbrella, for that matter?
Also a page or so back you said that half-dragon was your least favorite template; care to elaborate as to why?
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HI James, I have a product request for next year. Could Pazio do an Iconics Codex like the NPC codex. I think it would be a great product tie in with with the iconic mini sets that are being released next year.
I also asked Mark about in his questions thread in one of my pester Mark rules posts.
Pazio has great customer service from all of its staff.
Have you played or ran Mummy's Mask. I playing in it right now and having great fun.
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And as a player, how would you do it for your PC?What is your advice to make a character's personality shine in RPGs?For an NPC, I generally try to narrow down on one unique or unusual quirk. It might be an accent... might be a wheezing sound he makes when he talks... might be a fondness for cheese, might be a terrible mustache that he things is awesome... might be a tendency to blink while she talks... might be bragging about her pet stirge... something memorable. If the NPC lasts longer than one encounter, I'll sometimes add to that. For significant NPCs, I generally write up a full description like you get in a Pathfinder AP so I know their whole story and can react dynamically to however the PCs approach the character.
By writing up a pretty detailed history of the character to build off of, and then reacting to the other player characters in ways that build my own character's personality. So... it depends on the types of characters the others play. Often I'll try to work out a pre-conneciton with another player; in one game, I'm another PC's sibling. In another I share the same love of the wilderness/desert as another character. Often I'll roll on a table of personality quirks a few times to pick something unusual; got one once that was "fear of graveyards," so I decided my character fell into a grave as a child and was terrorized by rats and lost her pinky finger to the ordeal. But then she was all mysterious about HOW she lost it and the other players were intrigued.
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1 What do you say to someone who thinks Rogues are overpowered? (yes these people exist)
2 What do you say to someone who thinks Rogues are underpowered?
3 What do you think of the class?
4 If you could redesign/change it what would you do? (looking for ideas for home-game use.)
Thanks in Advance.
1) Nothing.
2) Also nothing. I tend not to get into these types of discussions, since I have found that no one is ever looking to be persuaded out of their opinion, only to argue it. Not really something I'm interested in taking part in.
3) I love it. It's one of my favorite classes, because it requires some fun tactics to make it work plus all those skills make for excellent role-playing opportunities.
4) I'd let them sneak attack in low light for one thing, but aside from that I probably wouldn't do much. There's a redesign coming in Unchained though... but I don't have anything to do with that.
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Well you've given us the new mega expanded version of Journey to the Barrier Peaks, you seem to be hinting at least at a Gamma World or worse setting for Androffa. Will you complete the unholy trinity by giving us an expy of Metamorphosis Alpha on perhaps a sister ship of Destiny flying out of control somewhere out there in the Dark Tapestry?
Androffa didn't turn into Gamma World, so there's no need to have the Warden out there as well. ;-)
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Is that to say you could simply never see yourself playing one, or that you would actively discourage if not outright ban anyone who joined a game you were running from playing an elemental blooded race? Or any race not under the "core races plus aasimars, tieflings, and tengu" umbrella, for that matter?
Also a page or so back you said that half-dragon was your least favorite template; care to elaborate as to why?
I'd probably never play one. If someone in my game wanted to play one, I'd consider it if I felt the reason was story based and not number-crunching based, and then I'd likely let the others in the party up their race points using the race builder so that everyone was on even footing as needed.
Half-dragons were way-overused, and whatever the reasoning was behind the initial concept, the result was that all those half-dragons that showed up all over made dragons look super horny/rapey/obsessed with humping anything and everything, which was NOT the way I felt that dragons should be portrayed. I'm okay with the template used IN MODERATION with things that are already dragon-similar, which is why the sample one is a half-basilisk (helps that the dracolisk has decades of tradition backing it up).
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HI James, I have a product request for next year. Could Pazio do an Iconics Codex like the NPC codex. I think it would be a great product tie in with with the iconic mini sets that are being released next year.
I also asked Mark about in his questions thread in one of my pester Mark rules posts.
Pazio has great customer service from all of its staff.
Have you played or ran Mummy's Mask. I playing in it right now and having great fun.
I'm playing it, yes. We're about halfway through the first book. Next session is Friday.
Mr. James Jacobs,
Say someone took your blood and used it as the key component to fleshwarp a new creature. Your blood was required to give the creature the capacity for reason, faith, and love. Assuming this creature was non hostile and seeking to know you. How would you quantify your relationship to the creature?
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Mr. James Jacobs,
Say someone took your blood and used it as the key component to fleshwarp a new creature. Your blood was required to give the creature the capacity for reason, faith, and love. Assuming this creature was non hostile and seeking to know you. How would you quantify your relationship to the creature?
Creeped out and frightened by it, but assuming it wasn't trying to cause trouble... I'd give it a chance!
Creeped out and frightened by it, but assuming it wasn't trying to cause trouble... I'd give it a chance!Mr. James Jacobs,
Say someone took your blood and used it as the key component to fleshwarp a new creature. Your blood was required to give the creature the capacity for reason, faith, and love. Assuming this creature was non hostile and seeking to know you. How would you quantify your relationship to the creature?
Can it call you Father?
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Can it call you Father?Creeped out and frightened by it, but assuming it wasn't trying to cause trouble... I'd give it a chance!Mr. James Jacobs,
Say someone took your blood and used it as the key component to fleshwarp a new creature. Your blood was required to give the creature the capacity for reason, faith, and love. Assuming this creature was non hostile and seeking to know you. How would you quantify your relationship to the creature?
It can not.
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Hey again,
I'll try to get this one typed up without my iPad auto correcting words into a sentence so it all sounds like gibberish.
Righto, I haven't read all the APs yet, so not sure if this is a silly question.
1) are you thinking an AP involving aboleths and their plans for the world is ever in the works? They tend to have that creepy tentacle Cthulhu thing going on that you like, so was wondering if they're on your hit list of big bad guys to explore.
2) lots of the adventure paths seem to be environment themed, a bit like the Star Wars movies in fact. Is there an environment you're excited to explore but haven't got to yet. Like the giant red trees of North America, or the Great Plains of Africa or something completely unique to your own imagination?
3) again, not having read all the adventure paths this next one may have already been done. Do you have a dinosaur AP in the works. I'm talking Jurassic Park, King Kong style, where they are one of the major themes and threats in the path? I love dinosaurs and this would rock my world.
When you were designing Sandpoint, how did you make it both a pleasant place to live while still having lots of adventure hooks?
Mr. Jacobs,
If a medusa, or other creature with a gaze attack, became a witch would her familiar be at risk from the gaze attack?
In giving class levels to a dragon NPC, could they be sorcerer levels of a different Draconic bloodline? Because I feel making that young Black Dragon suddenly breathe fire or frost would just be an EEeevil surprise to pull on a party.
I'm curious--are changelings capable of having children? Or do they have to be transformed into hags first?
I'm curious--are changelings capable of having children? Or do they have to be transformed into hags first?
From a few months back in this thread:
1. Are changelings capable of having children? (Or can they not become mothers unless they "mature" into hags?)
2. If a changeling *can* have children, are those children also changelings?
1) Yes, they can have children. Unless we have said otherwise in some book somewhere, of course... I'm not 100% up to speed on what we've published for them yet. And assuming so, then...
2) Yes.
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Hey again,
I'll try to get this one typed up without my iPad auto correcting words into a sentence so it all sounds like gibberish.
Righto, I haven't read all the APs yet, so not sure if this is a silly question.
1) are you thinking an AP involving aboleths and their plans for the world is ever in the works? They tend to have that creepy tentacle Cthulhu thing going on that you like, so was wondering if they're on your hit list of big bad guys to explore.
2) lots of the adventure paths seem to be environment themed, a bit like the Star Wars movies in fact. Is there an environment you're excited to explore but haven't got to yet. Like the giant red trees of North America, or the Great Plains of Africa or something completely unique to your own imagination?
3) again, not having read all the adventure paths this next one may have already been done. Do you have a dinosaur AP in the works. I'm talking Jurassic Park, King Kong style, where they are one of the major themes and threats in the path? I love dinosaurs and this would rock my world.
1) An aboleth-themed AP is very much something I'd like to some day do. Whether or not that's the same as one being "in the works," I'm not gonna say.
2) Having grown up among those giant redwood trees, I'd love to do an adventure set there, although there's some of those along the Lost Coast so they're actually already featured in a small way. I'd love to do more underwater stuff eventually.
3) Nope. No dinosaur AP in the works, but you'll see dinosaurs show up now and then.
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When you were designing Sandpoint, how did you make it both a pleasant place to live while still having lots of adventure hooks?
Practice, I guess. I've been designing adventure locations for decades. Plus, by drawing upon my memories of my home town, Point Arena, drew upon the real for the "pleasant place to live" and the way the terrain and architecture and locations triggered my imagination as for possible adventure sites. Being an imaginative kid growing up in a small rural town, you come up with a LOT of "what if a monster lived there" ideas.
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In giving class levels to a dragon NPC, could they be sorcerer levels of a different Draconic bloodline? Because I feel making that young Black Dragon suddenly breathe fire or frost would just be an EEeevil surprise to pull on a party.
Absolutely. In fact, giving a dragon draconic bloodline, similar to giving a demon the abyssal bloodline or a devil the infernal bloodline or a nymph the fey bloodline ends up with a lot of non-stacking subpar choices.
For these creatures, I tend to default to bloodlines that don't have a strong physical presence; things like arcane or destined or the like for creatures like that, since the creature is already unusual looking for a sorcerer and I don't necessarily want to overcomplicate it.
Ah. Thanks for bringing up the reply--I haven't been checking this thread as closely as I thought.
1- Do you use background music in your gaming sessions? If yes, which kind of music? And how do you control it?
e.g.: Some people prefer absolute silence, while others like their favorite band blasting in the background. I personally prefer to limit it to instrumental music at low volume, and avoid famous/iconic songs to prevent players from getting distracted by it in a "Hey, this is that song from scene X from movie Y" sort of way.
2- Have you ever played Left 4 Dead 2? If yes, do you think the special infected would make cool additions to Pathfinder's Bestiary?
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1- Do you use background music in your gaming sessions? If yes, which kind of music? And how do you control it?
e.g.: Some people prefer absolute silence, while others like their favorite band blasting in the background. I personally prefer to limit it to instrumental music at low volume, and avoid famous/iconic songs to prevent players from getting distracted by it in a "Hey, this is that song from scene X from movie Y" sort of way.
2- Have you ever played Left 4 Dead 2? If yes, do you think the special infected would make cool additions to Pathfinder's Bestiary?
1) I usually don't, but when I do, I generally go with using movie soundtracks from movies that are similar to the adventure's themes. I use a bluetooth speaker synced to my iPhone or iPad.
2) I played it for a little bit. And the infected dead are already kind of in there as plague zombies.
Well... I actually can't believe I asked the question about music in gaming sesisons but forgot to ask this...
1- What kind of music do you like?
2- What are 3 of your favorite bands?