Dear Doctor James,
Is it OK to cry when Ole Yeller dies?
Not that I did. My friend did.
- Sensitive in the suburbs
Golarion is an object, and thus doesn't have a Constitution score.
Ah. So no Gaia Theory for Golarion, eh?
A couple of serious questions, which may or may not have already been answered elsewhere.
1) I've been reading "Heart of the Jungle" and am wondering where the Equator is located relative to the Mwangi Expanse.
2) Will we see development of the Southern Hemisphere? Seems like southern hemispheres always get screwed over in game worlds.
You ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?
Say you had 10 bucks on a Friday night, would you spend it on a monster dagwood sammich or a pint of SoCo? What would you do with the change?
How much would you pay for a 'Detective Comics' #37 in Fine condition?
Did you ever read 'Milk and Cheese' comix?
If you had a chance to design a new non-fantasy setting (I was going to say sci-fi, but why limit creativity?) what would it be like?
Why people sometimes call you 'Doctor James' or 'Doctor Jacobs' ?
Momma?
Will you be in the chat room tonight?
Who's your favorite Jacobian? ::Adjusts lace color::
Who's your favorite Jacobian? ::Adjusts lace color::
I'm here!
my coworkers don't believe I know a talking T-Rex and that said amazing creature distracted me while at work today. How do I convince them that you are real??
Which server? I'm on Earthen Ring myself. I wouldn't ask you which character any more than I'd reveal it myself. I'm big on maintaining the MMORG/Real Life firewall. :)Have you enjoyed your sudden bout of fame?Gives me something to do while I decide among the following to spend my lazy Sunday afternoon:
1) More World of Warcraft
If you were on this person's server and on the opposing faction would you gank them?
Hmmm... that's a very good question. It would be something with awesome creepy violin music, that's for sure. Like maybe the theme from "The Red Violin," which is a GREAT soundtrack, and also the first Google hit when I search for "awesome creepy violin music."music has come up a few time, what do you listen to? and how much longer before you tell us all to shut up?What is Tyralandi's theme song... were she to have one?
Cool movie. Cool CANADIAN movie.
What's your most memorable homoerotic experience?
What's your most memorable homoerotic experience?
Would it upset you if you read an erotic fanfic by this guy staring you?
Does anyone ever expect me?
But what if the Elder Sign is removed by, say... cultists?
Creative Director
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How do you think it happens when otherwise (or potentially) good movies have those ‘what were they thinking?’ moments? Things that anyone with any amount of intelligence or taste could have told the movie makers ‘this is stupid’ or ‘this doesn’t make any sense’ or ‘this is a gaping plot hole’. How do these things make it to the screen when we are talking about huge budgets?
Looking at how easy it is for an Adventure Path to have a continuity error or a "what were they thinking" element, and then upscaling that by a couple hundred times, I can easilly see how things like that happen. I suspect that the primary cause is when there's not one central visionary in charge of the movie. Things designed by committees tend to suck.
What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?
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How do you think it happens when otherwise (or potentially) good movies have those ‘what were they thinking?’ moments? Things that anyone with any amount of intelligence or taste could have told the movie makers ‘this is stupid’ or ‘this doesn’t make any sense’ or ‘this is a gaping plot hole’. How do these things make it to the screen when we are talking about huge budgets?Looking at how easy it is for an Adventure Path to have a continuity error or a "what were they thinking" element, and then upscaling that by a couple hundred times, I can easilly see how things like that happen. I suspect that the primary cause is when there's not one central visionary in charge of the movie. Things designed by committees tend to suck.
Except when the central visionary is George Lucas and the movie is the Star wars prequels, in which case they suck anyway. Presumably because George’s vision has lapsed over the years and everyone’s too scared to tell him.
Does anyone ever expect me?Hey, you're late.
The Spanish Inquisitor is never late!
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Creative Director
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Is there any chance you guys will do something along the lines of Against the Slave Lords or Temple of Elemental Evil?
I know the small (36 page) and APs are the standard adventure formats but have you guys considered making a fight-heavy 3-4 part mod (more slaver vs. Crypt -which I thought was great BTW) series or a large single one-off module/crawl? In this case "large" being 96 pages give or take. Maybe a mega module set in the Worldwound?
There's absolutely a chance. I think Slave Lords has some GREAT potential to inspire an AP. Temple of Elemental Evil, which is mostly just a ginormous dungeon, not so much. Although the Homlett/Moathouse element certainly inspired both Sandpoint and Darkmoon Vale.
And make sure to check out Serpent's Skull; it's all about being inspired by "Dwellers of the Forbidden City." And a bit of "Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" and "Descent Into the Depths of the Earth" as well.
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Creative Director
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Following Kingmaker being about PCs building a literal empire, what if Jade Regent is aimed at a business empire or continents spanning organisation? The PCs travel to Minkai to establish a base/branch there, and then they could wander around Minkai establishing other trading posts, etc, in other places. If you make it more about shifting alliances and resources in strategic places it might be sufficiently different from Kingmaker not to be just a rerun.
Jade Regent is going to mostly be about some HEAVY NPC interaction and travel. It's not going to have much kingdom building at all.
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Creative Director
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How far ahead of publishing does Paizo (ideally) have the outline and theme of an AP? Do the authors of each part start writing about the same time, or is that staggered?
We generally try to get an AP outlined 9 months before the first part is available in stores, and generally have the authors all start writing at the same time, about 6 months before the first part is in stores. The author deadlines are staggered, of course, so if you write the last one, you have more time to write it, but that also helps because the higher level ones are harder to write.
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Creative Director
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Does not computer....Alien was released in the 80s was it not? Should that not make the first one a three way tie too?Best 80's movie villain?Tie between the Queen Alien from "Aliens" and Thulsa Doom from "Conan."
Best all time movie villain?Three way tie between the Alien from "Alien," Norman Bates, and Pazuzu from "The Exorcist."
Alien was released in 1979.
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Creative Director
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Out of all of the Role Playing systems you have played who is the:
Best villian? Nyarlathotep.
Most Badass Dragon? Dragotha.Coolest NPC? Iggwilv.
Most Powerful Wizard? Iggwilv.
Most interesting God? Wee-Jas, tied with Eilistraee.
Nastiest Demon? Malcanthet (in a good way), Zuggtmoy (in a bad way).
Best Monster? Froghemoth, from S3.
Most fun adventure? "Queen of the Spiders," tied with "Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure."
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Creative Director
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After following your recommendation and watching Human Centipede, I feel like I am going to puke. Why recommend something so sick without giving a headsup like Don't watch this it is even more sick and twisted than you'd think? Seriously though I don't consider my self weak-stomach when it comes to horror movies, but that one was seriously disturbing.. nice house the doctor had though..
"Human Centipede" is a really powerful movie. It leaves a mark on you after you watch it. Movies that do the job (in the case of horror movies; movies that horrify) are always worth watching.
AND: Heads-up. "Human Centipede" is very very disturbing.
What city or kingdom of Golarion that may not get developed by Paizo any time soon would you LOVE to see fan-developed?
Re: Human Centipede...
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Creative Director
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1) Assuming you owned them, what was your favorite game on the Atari and what was your favorite on the original Nintendo?
and
2) Do you smell like a man, man?
1) Atari: All those games disappointed me on one level or another. I can't think of one other than Missile Command, I guess. Nintendo: Never owned it, so none.
2) I'm on a horse.
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Creative Director
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Doctor Jacobs, is The Human Centipede in fact 100% medically accurate as the tag-line suggests?
I'm no expert, so I can't say for sure. I do know that, according to what I've read, that the director recruited the aid of an actual doctor to make sure the science of what happened in the movie was as realistic as possible. And given how the movie's events wind up... it feels pretty HORRIFICALLY realistic and plausible.
WARNING: This movie will hurt your soul. Beware.
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Creative Director
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Do you prefer Robert E Howards Horror/cthulhuesque stories or his Conan stories?
Is there any chance of Eric Mona Publishing The Sowers of the Thunder?
Who do you prefer of Howards female characters?
"Dark Agnes" de Chastillon
Bêlit
Valeria of the Red Brotherhood
Red Sonya of Rogatino (the proper Red Sonya)
I prefer Howard's Conan stories... although "Pigeons from Hell" is on my top 10 best horror stories list.
There is, I suppose, a very SLIGHT chance of publishing that, but I doubt it.
Of Howard's female characters, my favorite is probably Belit.
re: Human Centipede....
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Creative Director
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There's this thing called the internet... It's like I never learn to just stick with the Mothman Prophecies type of horror flicks which I like, when I don't really like the overly macabre ones such as Hills have Eyes, Hills run Red and Saw. And I'd say plotwise, Hills have Eyes and Hills run Red are better than Saw. I wonder how some people can keep on watching basicly the same sick torture movie over and over just with a new number. Why is that James? oh and btw James, Mothman Prophecies or Human Centipede?
The reason movies like Saw keep getting made is that they know exactly how much money they cost to make and exactly how much money they make as a general rule. The movie doesn't have to be good. It'll make its money.
As far as that genre goes (and I wouldn't put Human Centipede in the "TORTURE PORN" category), "Frontier[s]" and "Martyrs" are probably my current favorites. WARNING: Both of those movies are SUPER VIOLENT.
That said, I do also quite enjoy the subtle horror movies quite a lot. I wasn't a big fan of "The Mothman Prophecies" though because it didn't do the book justice. The book is INCREDIBLE.
I like "Human Centipede" a LOT more than the movie version of "Mothman Prophecies."
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Creative Director
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1. What would be the state of Paizo today if 4E were never released and Dragon and Dungeon were still intact with Paizo?
Paizo would be a lot smaller company and wouldn't be nearly as successful. It'd probably still exist; we quite enjoyed working on Dragon and Dungeon and playing with 30 some years of legacy and tradition. But the fact is that Paizo's become a MUCH healthier company doing its own thing with Pathfinder.
2. When WotC publishes the 4E version of Greyhawk what impact do you think this will have on you personally and on Paizo professionally? Since I assume a significant number of PFRPG players are Greyhawk enthusiasts and I know several Paizo staff members are Greyhawk aficionados I believe there will be some personal and professional impact.
I think it will have close to zero impact. I also think it'll never happen.
They published a 4th edition Demonomicon that built on some elements of things I worked on for several years during 3rd edition, ignored others, and drastically changed even more. But that's their choice to make; they own the intellectual property, and what they do with it is up to them. That's not something that really involves Paizo or myself at all, so the impact would be zero if they relaunched Greyhawk.
At least, it'd be zero on all professional counts. I'm not going to comment on my personal reactions to the 4E Demonomicon or the possibility of a 4E Greyhawk.