Creative Director
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will Goblins of Golarion have an explanation for all the strange costumes they seem to wear?
Probably.
THAT SAID: If you're referring to the outfits that the goblins in the GameMastery Guide are wearing, the explanation is that we needed some artwork to spruce up some parts of the book that weren't actually talking about in-game stuff but actual game play stuff. It's really difficult to illustrate, say, a section that talks about player types or talks about what kind of snacks to bring to the table. One thing we very consciously DID NOT WANT was the cliched and lame illustration of a group of gamers sitting around a table with thought balloons over their heads that show their characters in similar poses sitting around a tavern table. That illustration's been done a thousand times, and it always looks lame to me.
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
I have a good friend who "can't" watch any film "with singing in it".
How should I best deal with this abhorrent personality quirk?
Regards
Nev
You should listen to your friend. He/she's speaking wisdom.
Musicals are the lowest form of entertainment.
Now... SOMETIMES, singing in films is okay. Bearable even.
But full-fledged musicals? Worse than fire cancer.
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Creative Director
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So... How old will you be on Jan. 9th, 2011?At exactly 2:42 PM on said date I'll be 39.Sweet. Happy preemptive birthday by one hour, forty eight minutes.
I guess that's two hours longer for you. :P
Yup. About 3 hours, 10 minutes away now. I'll probably be celebrating by sitting at my desk at Paizo, statting up a monster for an upcoming bestiary.
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Yup. About 3 hours, 10 minutes away now. I'll probably be celebrating by sitting at my desk at Paizo, statting up a monster for an upcoming bestiary.So... How old will you be on Jan. 9th, 2011?At exactly 2:42 PM on said date I'll be 39.Sweet. Happy preemptive birthday by one hour, forty eight minutes.
I guess that's two hours longer for you. :P
Sounds like a good birthday to me!
(PS sorry to hear about your PVP experiences. Head of Vecna comes to mind too.) :\
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You should listen to your friend. He/she's speaking wisdom.Musicals are the lowest form of entertainment.
Now... SOMETIMES, singing in films is okay. Bearable even.
But full-fledged musicals? Worse than fire cancer.
I was hoping you wouldn't (but kind of thought you may) say that.
I can only pity the both of you.
After having said that, have you seen the first three of Baz Luhrmann's films? Or This...
You should listen to your friend. He/she's speaking wisdom.Musicals are the lowest form of entertainment.
Now... SOMETIMES, singing in films is okay. Bearable even.
But full-fledged musicals? Worse than fire cancer.
I was hoping you wouldn't (but kind of thought you may) say that.
I can only pity the both of you.
After having said that, have you seen the first three of Baz Luhrmann's films? Or This...
I used to live in Erskineville, where they filmed the drag show at the beginning of the movie and where Priscilla (the bus)leaves from. The Imperial (Impi to the locals) hotel is a real Pub and does actually have drag shows its a lot of fun. I saw them doing some of the filming - exterior shots.
They also shot Erskineville kings (oddly enough) in Erskineville - it was one of Hughs last movies before he became Wolverine.
EDIT: BTW there is an article on io9 about defending your house with a robot Triceratops and another on Polish Godzilla movie posters.
My 3 week Holiday ends today....I have to go back to work, save up leave and money for next Christmas.
Happy Birthday.
So, tell, which monster are you working on right now ? ;)
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After having said that, have you seen the first three of Baz Luhrmann's films? Or This...
Haven't. Won't. No thanks. Nothing against drag at all. Everything against musicals.
Not all movies are for all people. Being someone who thinks "The Human Centipede" is one of the best movies of 2010, I'm pretty familiar with this fact.
Not at all. Got distracted by another project.Happy Birthday.
So, tell, which monster are you working on right now ? ;)
Is it TV Tropes? J/k
James, what so secret about Project Trinity?
I am sure this may well have been brought up before on many other boards and on other threads, and I actually understand why it was done so mechanically but I want you to discuss why the Paladin class lost the Protection from Evil ability which was part of the older versions of the class.
And even if the Paladin lost the other benefits from Protection from Evil, why not still keep the AC bonus against evil and summoned creatures and keep it as part of Aura of Good?
Again, I see why it may have been done mechanically but did this not take away some of the original Paladin's 'feel'.
(advanced) Happy Year of the Rabbit
Happy B day JJ......
As a gift - a question:
Why is a Duck?
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Creative Director
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James, what so secret about Project Trinity?
Partially because we don't reveal projects that early, and partially because I enjoy tormenting folks like that.
I am sure this may well have been brought up before on many other boards and on other threads, and I actually understand why it was done so mechanically but I want you to discuss why the Paladin class lost the Protection from Evil ability which was part of the older versions of the class.
And even if the Paladin lost the other benefits from Protection from Evil, why not still keep the AC bonus against evil and summoned creatures and keep it as part of Aura of Good?
Again, I see why it may have been done mechanically but did this not take away some of the original Paladin's 'feel'.
Protection from evil is a pretty powerful effect. It effectively shuts down all summon monster and summon nature's ally spells, for one, and it pretty much shuts down mental control. The only reason the spell exists as a 1st level spell is because it has a super short duration, and even then, I kind of feel like it's a bit TOO powerful.
In any case, giving paladins that ability is too much. It'd be like giving a class immunity to sneak attack damage, or immunity to arrows. Summoners, conjurers, and druids rely a heck of a lot on summoned monsters, for example, and giving a paladin the ability to ignore one of their key powers is just not cool.
And besides... paladins are more than bad-ass enough as they are. I've seen them in play. They don't NEED anything else.
James, what so secret about Project Trinity?Partially because we don't reveal projects that early, and partially because I enjoy tormenting folks like that.
Project Trinity.... hmmmm so you are travelling back in time to July 16, 1945 to test an implosion design plutonium device at the White Sands Proving Ground. I wonder is that to create a race of invincible mutant dinosaurs....?
Happy B day JJ......
As a gift - a question:
Why is a Duck?
For the fury of the silver aria.
Not the answer I expected........but not the wrong answer either.
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Creative Director
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It's tough, but I suspect it's probably lotus pollen harvested from the southernmost slopes of Mount Voormithadreth just before the fourth uprising of the weeping dead.Speaking of Voormithadreth, where's Hyperborea on Golarion?
It's not; Hyperborea is on Earth. As fun as Voormithadreth is to type.
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What needs to happen in order for Paizo to print Unspeakable Future?
What are your preferences considering that particular product? One huge tome with campaign setting info, rules and monsters, or several books?
Not sure, but right now, splitting our resources and, potentially, our audience, by effectively producing two divergent game settings would not be good. Which means that Unspeakable Futures might be best as a 3rd Party Publisher release, so that it's not under Paizo and thus not a game Paizo would need to support. And since I'm not interested in shopping UF around to other publishers anytime soon... it's sort of a catch-22.
What "needs to happen," basically, is that we at Paizo need to decide what we want to do about games beyond the fantasy setting of Golarion... and if we DO want to go beyond Golarion with a new setting... we need to decide what game to go on with. UF would not be a shoe-in, that's for sure. As much as I'd like it to be. ;-)
My preferences for the product would be to present it as one huge tome that builds upon the core Pathfinder rules. Take the Golarion Campaign Setting, the APG, and the Bestiary, smoosh them together, and cut stuff until you're at 320 to 400 words and that'll do.
Fantasy Flight Games seems to be doing very well with having several RPGs in print at the same time. They are doing Warhammer 3rd Ed and 3 Warhammer 40k RPGs. So, why would it be difficult for Paizo to do the same?
Perhaps if you devote one of your yearly HC slots to some new stuf, like UF or perhaps Ptolus converted to Pathfinder you could gain new customers?
Fantasy Flight Games seems to be doing very well with having several RPGs in print at the same time. They are doing Warhammer 3rd Ed and 3 Warhammer 40k RPGs. So, why would it be difficult for Paizo to do the same?Perhaps if you devote one of your yearly HC slots to some new stuf, like UF or perhaps Ptolus converted to Pathfinder you could gain new customers?
Fantasy Flight's a lot larger than Paizo.
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Fantasy Flight's a lot larger than Paizo.
Fantasy Flight Games seems to be doing very well with having several RPGs in print at the same time. They are doing Warhammer 3rd Ed and 3 Warhammer 40k RPGs. So, why would it be difficult for Paizo to do the same?Perhaps if you devote one of your yearly HC slots to some new stuf, like UF or perhaps Ptolus converted to Pathfinder you could gain new customers?
Is it? I really have no idea. I always wondered how Paizo stands in the terms of company power/wealth/influence compared to others in the RPG field, but I thought that nobody from Paizo would answer that kind of question.
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Creative Director
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Fantasy Flight Games seems to be doing very well with having several RPGs in print at the same time. They are doing Warhammer 3rd Ed and 3 Warhammer 40k RPGs. So, why would it be difficult for Paizo to do the same?
Perhaps if you devote one of your yearly HC slots to some new stuf, like UF or perhaps Ptolus converted to Pathfinder you could gain new customers?
Because the way Paizo does business is different than FFG. For one, we do monthly subscriptions, so we're a lot more enslaved to a schedule. But for more, our philosophy is that a huge element of Pathfinder's success is the fact that we're supporting the Pathfinder rules with a HUGE amount of Golarion material—about 200 pages a month on average.
If we were to make a new RPG, we'd want to do the same amount of support for it, and that's a lot of manpower that we don't have handy at this time.
Great story Mr Jacobs, thanks’ for sharing.
Who would you say was your biggest fictional hero, and who would you say is your biggest factual hero?
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Creative Director
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Who would you say was your biggest fictional hero, and who would you say is your biggest factual hero?
Biggest fictional hero: Repairman Jack
Biggest factual hero: Hypatia
Well now, since you were up to answering that one I'll throw you one with a little more punch.
What is the most desirable quality in a woman, and what is the least desirable one?
Actually, since it says ANY and ALL, why don't we up the ante a little?
Answer the Same two questions, but answer in three, once from your point of view, then from MY point of view and finally from a general unbiased point of view.
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Creative Director
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Well now, since you were up to answering that one I'll throw you one with a little more punch.
What is the most desirable quality in a woman, and what is the least desirable one?Actually, since it says ANY and ALL, why don't we up the ante a little?
Answer the Same two questions, but answer in three, once from your point of view, then from MY point of view and finally from a general unbiased point of view.
There is no single most desirable or least desirable quality, since that changes from person to person, and it's certainly not my place to say what is and isn't a good quality for anyone but myself. And furthermore, it depends what kind of goal you're talking about—I'd desire different qualities in a woman depending on if she was gonna be a girlfriend or a mother or a coworker or an employee or a friend or a business contact... and frankly, those qualities would probably be identical if we were talking about guys.
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...asked questions about Trollheim...
Linnorm Kings who are badass tend to hold their thrones for a long time. Killing Linnorms is work best suited to hale, younger, high-level adventurers after all (aka the types of heroes that are also often PC material), and linnorm killing is VERY rare. There's not a lot of throne changing in the Linnorm Kingdoms, and when one dies without a new king being ready to take the throne (a very common occurrence), that throne does indeed stay empty for a long time. There's more than a single king running any region, of course, so those regions that go without kings can still function, usually with regents or councils or whatever, but until a new king kills or defeats a linnorm, the throne stays empty.
We'll be talking quite a bit more about the Linnorm Kingdoms later this year, since we've got an adventure path installment that takes place there.
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On a more serious note, have you ever used the Scarred Lands setting and if so, what did you think of it?
I own the monster books and a few of the supplements, but I've never really looked into the setting that much. The art style is a turn off for me for one, so it's difficult for me to get into it. And furthermore, it's gotta be a really kick-ass setting for me to notice it and carve out time I normally spend on my other settings of preference (at the time, Greyhawk and my homebrew world).
I don't really have much of an opinion of Scarred Lands as a result.
There is no single most desirable or least desirable quality, since that changes from person to person, and it's certainly not my place to say what is and isn't a good quality for anyone but myself. And furthermore, it depends what kind of goal you're talking about—I'd desire different qualities in a woman depending on if she was gonna be a girlfriend or a mother or a coworker or an employee or a friend or a business contact... and frankly, those qualities would probably be identical if we were talking about guys.Well now, since you were up to answering that one I'll throw you one with a little more punch.
What is the most desirable quality in a woman, and what is the least desirable one?Actually, since it says ANY and ALL, why don't we up the ante a little?
Answer the Same two questions, but answer in three, once from your point of view, then from MY point of view and finally from a general unbiased point of view.
White Hair, duh.
James,
How awesome am I for telling several customers at work today that the reason I was handing out free cans of Coca-Cola was because yesterday was "James' Birthday", which while not out right saying it, was referring to you??
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...asked questions about Trollheim...Linnorm Kings who are badass tend to hold their thrones for a long time. Killing Linnorms is work best suited to hale, younger, high-level adventurers after all (aka the types of heroes that are also often PC material), and linnorm killing is VERY rare. There's not a lot of throne changing in the Linnorm Kingdoms, and when one dies without a new king being ready to take the throne (a very common occurrence), that throne does indeed stay empty for a long time. There's more than a single king running any region, of course, so those regions that go without kings can still function, usually with regents or councils or whatever, but until a new king kills or defeats a linnorm, the throne stays empty.
We'll be talking quite a bit more about the Linnorm Kingdoms later this year, since we've got an adventure path installment that takes place there.
Damn I knew you would get more money out of me.
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On what basis do lesser officials get assigned posts then? Do kings appoint them or are there contests/challenges to fill those too? Or do traditions and methods vary from city to city?
That's not something we've really covered or that I'm all that prepared to talk about. I suspect it lies with traditions that vary from city to city, with the default being something akin to a hereditary type progression.
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Biggest factual hero: HypatiaI suppose you know agora.
I do. Saw it at the Seattle Film Festival, and it's 100% responsible for why Hypatia is my current real-world hero.
No questions, just a belated Very Happy Birthday. :)