RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Have you seen the Devastated Dreams Kickstarter? Its an indy PC psychological horror PC game about the fears of being an expectant parent game based on horrible monsters from Filipino folklore. Seems like something up your ally (and you can back at the early bird level for only $10).
Creative Director
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Nifty. Does it do anything different for the deity in particular? Or is being part of a pantheon just another way to get worshipers?Not really. It mostly just decides whether or not you can be a cleric or not.The feat Polytheistic Blessing from Tombs of Golarian got me thinking a bit. Generally, are gods okay with being worshiped in a pantheon? The main one that I am asking about is Urgathoa in particular, if that narrows it down a bit. Does being worshiped in a pantheon change much for a deity in particular?
We don't have rules for how deities work, or how they "process" devotional energy and faith, if they even do.
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Creative Director
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Have you seen the Devastated Dreams Kickstarter? Its an indy PC psychological horror PC game about the fears of being an expectant parent game based on horrible monsters from Filipino folklore. Seems like something up your ally (and you can back at the early bird level for only $10).
Huh... interesting.
I'm pretty picky these days on Kickstarter things though.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Have you seen the Devastated Dreams Kickstarter? Its an indy PC psychological horror PC game about the fears of being an expectant parent game based on horrible monsters from Filipino folklore. Seems like something up your ally (and you can back at the early bird level for only $10).Huh... interesting.
I'm pretty picky these days on Kickstarter things though.
The demo's available for free download for a zero risk chance to decide about backing.
Out of the three main fiends (Devil, Daemon, Demon), which ones are having the upper hand in the current timeline of Golarion?
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
How long before we can expect a Pathfinder Society Module titled "The Phantom of Oppara"?
Forever. I loathe silly puns like that, particularly in titles. It makes it look like the publisher isn't taking their game serious at best, and at worst it makes it look like the publisher is making fun of the game and thus making fun of those who write for it and those who play it.
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Creative Director
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Out of the three main fiends (Devil, Daemon, Demon), which ones are having the upper hand in the current timeline of Golarion?
The upper hand?
That's a bit vague.
No way for me to answer, since I have no idea what that upper hand is reaching for.
I assume you're asking about interplanar domination, and the answer would be None, since none of those fiends are really trying as a race to dominate the planes. They've got other goals.
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Dear James,
How long before we can expect a Pathfinder Society Module titled "The Phantom of Oppara"?
Forever. I loathe silly puns like that, particularly in titles. It makes it look like the publisher isn't taking their game serious at best, and at worst it makes it look like the publisher is making fun of the game and thus making fun of those who write for it and those who play it.
While I don't think that's necessarily the case, I certainly respect your hardcore-dness (I'm capable of enjoying references like that, but they have to be tasteful rather than trashy, which is the boundary of self-disrespect the transgression of which I consider the point at which World of Warcraft pointlessly jumped the shark).
How would you stat The Phantom (to be specific, Andrew Lloyd Webber's - to be more specific, the badass stage Phantom and definitely NOT Gerard Butler's crappy-swordfighter-with-a-face-rash)?
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Dear James,
How long before we can expect a Pathfinder Society Module titled "The Phantom of Oppara"?
Forever. I loathe silly puns like that, particularly in titles. It makes it look like the publisher isn't taking their game serious at best, and at worst it makes it look like the publisher is making fun of the game and thus making fun of those who write for it and those who play it.
James, is You Only Die Twice not such a silly pun? Or did it just slip through? (The title clearly comes from the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice.)
This is not to say, "Haha, you guys have already done that!" More to say, "It isn't really that bad." That particular scenario was extremely fun, very popular, and the name is nicely fitting the storyline.
More to the point, how would you title a scenario which is an homage to Phantom of the Opera without it being punny? (Actually, many operas would make good frames for PFS scenarios because of their short storylines.) Would something like Phantom of the Nightshade (where it takes place in Westcrown's Nightshade theater) be less abhorrent to you?
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
How long before we can expect a Pathfinder Society Module titled "The Phantom of Oppara"?
Forever. I loathe silly puns like that, particularly in titles. It makes it look like the publisher isn't taking their game serious at best, and at worst it makes it look like the publisher is making fun of the game and thus making fun of those who write for it and those who play it.
While I don't think that's necessarily the case, I certainly respect your hardcore-dness (I'm capable of enjoying references like that, but they have to be tasteful rather than trashy, which is the boundary of self-disrespect the transgression of which I consider the point at which World of Warcraft pointlessly jumped the shark).
How would you stat The Phantom (to be specific, Andrew Lloyd Webber's - to be more specific, the badass stage Phantom and definitely NOT Gerard Butler's crappy-swordfighter-with-a-face-rash)?
An in-world pun that can exist and make sense in continuity to characters in the world is fine. I've yet to see a pun that relies on out of world knowledge that I'd consider fun in a game, frankly. As a gamer before I got into the industry, it always annoyed, depressed, and ashamed me to see designers I otherwise respected doing this. I'd rather not do that to any Pathfinder readers or players if I can help it.
As for statting up the Phantom, he's obviously a bard.
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
How long before we can expect a Pathfinder Society Module titled "The Phantom of Oppara"?
Forever. I loathe silly puns like that, particularly in titles. It makes it look like the publisher isn't taking their game serious at best, and at worst it makes it look like the publisher is making fun of the game and thus making fun of those who write for it and those who play it.
James, is You Only Die Twice not such a silly pun? Or did it just slip through? (The title clearly comes from the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice.)
This is not to say, "Haha, you guys have already done that!" More to say, "It isn't really that bad." That particular scenario was extremely fun, very popular, and the name is nicely fitting the storyline.
More to the point, how would you title a scenario which is an homage to Phantom of the Opera without it being punny? (Actually, many operas would make good frames for PFS scenarios because of their short storylines.) Would something like Phantom of the Nightshade (where it takes place in Westcrown's Nightshade theater) be less abhorrent to you?
No; that's more of an easter egg than a pun.
A pun woudl be if that adventure was about sheep or something like that, and if we called it "Ewe Only Die Twice." Or if it was about a lunatic who dyes his murder victims blue after killing them, and then calling it "You Only Dye Twice."
In fact, both of those are good examples of in-world pun titles that, while I think they're silly and their resulting adventures are kinda goofy sounding, would not to me feel like the designer was making fun of the game.
In any event... "You Only Die Twice" is not a pun, and therefore does not bother me. In fact, I've named PLENTY of adventures after real-world stories or titles. "The Infernal Syndrome" was inspired by "The China Syndrome" for example, and "A History of Ashes" was inspired by "A History of Violence," and so on. We actually do titles in this way a LOT.
An adventure that builds upon the Phantom of the Opera could have any number of titles that aren't puns. First off, though, I would set such an adventure in a city like Kintargo or somewhere known for its operas that was NOT Oppara, simply because no matter what that adventure got titled, that is still a goofy pun.
Some titles for such an adventure that just popped into my head could be:
"An Aria at Midnight"
"Specter of the Stage"
"The Moonlight Masque"
And so on.
In fact, while there's not actually an opera in Pathfinder #99's "Dance of the Damned," that one takes place in an opera house in part. And Pathfinder #26's "The Sixfold Trial" takes place during a play (also not an opera). So taking those examples in hand, one of the OBVIOUS ways to title such an adventure is to give the adventure the same title as the actual opera performed during the adventure.
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You mean like Karcau in Ustalav? I think Wes dropped hints of a Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque entity in his write-up of the place.
On the subject of half-elves, it's mentioned that half-elves of Garundi and Mwangi stock are rare with the exception of places near the various tribes of Ekujae elves.
Where exactly would there be Ekujae who could intermingle with Garundi? My impression was the Ekujae confined themselves exclusively to the Mwangi Expanse, which isn't a Garundi homeland like Osirion, Thuvia, Katapesh and Rahadoum are. I'm confused.
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Thanks for that response, James. It was illuminating.
This talk of operas and such has me wondering:
It seems to me that the Inner Sea region of Golarion—notably Absolom, Cheliax, Andoran, Taldor, and to a lesser extent, Varisia—is in the early stages of an Age of Enlightenment, and the dominant artistic style is probably closest to Baroque. Am I anywhere close? If not, can you tell us more about the state of philosophy and art in the Inner Sea?
Also: An Aria at Midnight is an excellent title. I want to play that scenario! :)
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Creative Director
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You mean like Karcau in Ustalav? I think Wes dropped hints of a Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque entity in his write-up of the place.
On the subject of half-elves, it's mentioned that half-elves of Garundi and Mwangi stock are rare with the exception of places near the various tribes of Ekujae elves.
Where exactly would there be Ekujae who could intermingle with Garundi? My impression was the Ekujae confined themselves exclusively to the Mwangi Expanse, which isn't a Garundi homeland like Osirion, Thuvia, Katapesh and Rahadoum are. I'm confused.
Karcau would be a PERFECT place to do a "Phantom" style adventure, yeah.
They're not rare, just less common. Theyr'e focused mostly on the west coast of Gaurnd.
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You mean like Karcau in Ustalav? I think Wes dropped hints of a Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque entity in his write-up of the place.
On the subject of half-elves, it's mentioned that half-elves of Garundi and Mwangi stock are rare with the exception of places near the various tribes of Ekujae elves.
Where exactly would there be Ekujae who could intermingle with Garundi? My impression was the Ekujae confined themselves exclusively to the Mwangi Expanse, which isn't a Garundi homeland like Osirion, Thuvia, Katapesh and Rahadoum are. I'm confused.
Karcau would be a PERFECT place to do a "Phantom" style adventure, yeah.
They're not rare, just less common. Theyr'e focused mostly on the west coast of Gaurnd.
So Sargava and Sodden Lands?
How do shotel swords work? I've seen some images (like this one) that depict it with the tip facing forward like an oversized sickle, and others (like this one) that show it with the tip facing the wielder, like a scimitar with a very pronounced curve or a smoothed out khopesh. Which is more accurate?
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What if...
Must admit that I do enjoy the idea of Karzoug winning and reforming Thassilon, by taking over Varisia. Would like to even use it, as an If kind of scenario, so mostly had a few questions, If Karzoug wins and reform Thassilon, should we expect the rise of new runelords, if so, are they any current spellcasters in Golarion who would become the new runelords or Karzoug would be the sole ruler?
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Creative Director
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Thanks for that response, James. It was illuminating.
This talk of operas and such has me wondering:
It seems to me that the Inner Sea region of Golarion—notably Absolom, Cheliax, Andoran, Taldor, and to a lesser extent, Varisia—is in the early stages of an Age of Enlightenment, and the dominant artistic style is probably closest to Baroque. Am I anywhere close? If not, can you tell us more about the state of philosophy and art in the Inner Sea?Also: An Aria at Midnight is an excellent title. I want to play that scenario! :)
That's pretty spot on. Things are actually kinda dark and frightening in the world during the Age of Lost Omens; not only were there dead gods and enormous storms and demonic invasions at the onset of the age 100 or so years ago, but there's so many more needs for adventurers these days that things need art and entertainment more than ever.
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Creative Director
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What if...
** spoiler omitted **
If Karzoug did indeed win and "relaunched" Thassilon... he'd strive to make himself the only runelord. They were not allies, the seven runelords, and that carries over to today; they'd build their own nation and probably seek to destroy the other runelords or at the very least ensure they never woke back up.
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James, I am running a game of Rise of the Runelords. I'm going to spoiler my questions because one of my players frequents this thread.
Alternatively, I was thinking of changing the ancient blue dragon in Xin-Shalast to an ancient gold dragon who has been enthralled by Karzoug and driven to insanity, possibly through waters of Lamashtu. This gold dragon will be the source of that PC's bloodline, allowing her the opportunity of redeeming her draconic ancestor. My question in this case: what might this redemption look like?
Still trying to decide between these two approaches.
Thanks! :)
Hi James,
I'm sure you've read and/or played the Alice in Wonderland themed 1st Edition adventures. Did you enjoy it?
Thanks!
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I've seen the Lon Chaney version and the Claude Rains version.I was thinking he might also be a Mesmerist or Sorcerer.
Have you seen the awesome stage Phantom and not just the crappy 2004 movie? That's the important part. :)
Classics!
Have we thanked you recently for all your hark work and this thread?
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Question on the outcome of these 2 events if you were the GM.
Event 1
Character fall into a pool of lave and scrambles out as quickly as possible.
Event 2
Character uses a move action to walk into a pool of lava until they are submerged, then uses a his standard action to move out of the pool.
In both events the character was only in the pool of lava for 1 round.
Said characters have 100 hp.
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Creative Director
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James, I am running a game of Rise of the Runelords. I'm going to spoiler my questions because one of my players frequents this thread.
Spoiler:One of the PCs is a female shoanti dragon disciple with the gold dragon bloodline. Based on that character's story, I am adding a gold dragon NPC into the adventure. My plan is to have him use his change shape ability when interacting with the party. My question is two-fold: First, when he uses change shape, does he need to don clothing (or armor) or does he transform into a fully clad human? Second, if he dons armor or clothing while polymorphed, what happens to it when the change shape ability ends?Alternatively, I was thinking of changing the ancient blue dragon in Xin-Shalast to an ancient gold dragon who has been enthralled by Karzoug and driven to insanity, possibly through waters of Lamashtu. This gold dragon will be the source of that PC's bloodline, allowing her the opportunity of redeeming her draconic ancestor. My question in this case: what might this redemption look like?
Still trying to decide between these two approaches.
Thanks! :)
Others, like me, would say that's one of the LIBERATING parts of the game, though, since that allows the GM to customize things to their game as they wish.
SO let's apply some thought. Obviously the dragon isn't going to wear human clothes and has an entirely different shape, so the FIRST time the dragon changes into a human, the resulting shape will be naked. The disguised dragon needs to put on clothes and armor and all that.
We COULD say that when the dragon reverts to its true form its armor and clothes and gear merges, like it does when someone assumes a new form, but the problem there is that suddenly becomes a weird way to dispose of things, since your true form is not something that ever "ends" or can be dispelled. What happens to the world if you can get rid of any object by just wearing or holding it while shapechanged and when you go back to your real form it "merges" with you? You can't get that object back until the shapchanged person decides to go into the previous form that had it. What if that person dies? Do the items merged with their body emerge then? If they do, shouldn't that person still radiate transmutation magic? Even if the spell effect has expired?
That's kinda just the tip of the iceberg and it points me in the direction of saying items only merge with a new form if you're going INTO the new form, not reverting to a true form.
Therefore, the dragon would likely be naked each time it assumed human form, and when it went back to dragon form, the items it was wearing would either "fall off" or, if you were feeling destructive and the items were being worn, would become destroyed.
As for redeeming a gold dragon... that should be the theme of an adventure. An evil gold dragon is ALREADY unusual enough that dealing with it should be an adventure... redeeming an evil one is a rare version of a rare adventure, so it should be a Big Deal. In this case, I'd have the PCs start hearing about the dragon when they fight Mokmurian; they might learn hints about it in the library or by talking with Longfang who might revel that Mokmurian sometimes meets with his master's minion... a gold dragon with red eyes (or whatever other physical cue you want to give the gold to show it's evil). They could learn more in Runeforge, and then I'd replace the big blue in the last adventure with the evil gold. I'd make the assumption that the PCs would fight and kill the gold, but allow for the possibility of redemption... and would tie the KEY to that redemption to a runeforged weapon. Preferably one utilized by the Shoanti dragon disciple. And since redemption is tough... it'd require a sacrifice; the dragon disciple should sacrifice the weapon in the dragon's presence, preferably in lieu of delivering the fatal blow with the weapon, showing the dragon that there's hope for a new life. And that'd be just the first step for the dragon... the rest of its redemption probably should either be put off for a post-Runelords game or perhaps have the dragon realize its errors and do something like fly the PCs up to the top of the spire of Avarice and then have it sacrifice itself against some new addition you put up there... or maybe its sacrifice turns off the occlusion field or something...
ANYway... time for the next question. Hope that wall of text helps!
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
I'm sure you've read and/or played the Alice in Wonderland themed 1st Edition adventures. Did you enjoy it?
Thanks!
I ran both for my sister back in the day and very much enjoyed them. Enough that I wrote up some "return" encounters to those adventures for "Return to the Ruins of Greyhawk."
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Creative Director
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I've seen the Lon Chaney version and the Claude Rains version.I was thinking he might also be a Mesmerist or Sorcerer.
Have you seen the awesome stage Phantom and not just the crappy 2004 movie? That's the important part. :)
Classics!
Have we thanked you recently for all your hark work and this thread?
You have not; thanks!
Assuming, of course, that "hark" is a typo of "hard" and not "hack." ;-P
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Creative Director
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Will the medium ever receive spirits (abilities or whatever the favored terminology is) for each of the harrow cards?
The rules that were written for that version of the medium are ... extensive. Currently, they'd fill up an entire 64 page book more or less on their own... and when you add art and the like, even that size of a book might not be big enough.
I'd like to think there's a way to make them work, perhaps with a lot of simplification that trims the rules and keeps the flavor, but that's a writing tact that the design team doesn't seem to favor.
At this point... it's not looking like there's really a publication line that we do that could accommodate the rules with ease, with the POSSIBLE exception of the campaign setting, and having an entire 64 page book be dominated by one variant option for one class (and not even one that a lot of people use, compared to the dozens of others that have been around for years and probably deserve their own 64 page books more), and using a book line that is generally NOT about player character support means that it's a tricky and weird and awkward thing at best.
Maybe some day, but we have to figure it out first. Don't expect it anytime soon.
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Creative Director
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Question on the outcome of these 2 events if you were the GM.
Event 1
Character fall into a pool of lave and scrambles out as quickly as possible.Event 2
Character uses a move action to walk into a pool of lava until they are submerged, then uses a his standard action to move out of the pool.In both events the character was only in the pool of lava for 1 round.
Said characters have 100 hp.
Snarky response from funny typo...
The character, despite falling into a pool of bathwater described awkwardly as a "lave" (why not just say they fell into a "wash" or a "scrub?" I guess it's okay to go this route since we've already done the same with "shower" and no one cares...) becomes only slightly cleaner, as opposed to entirely clean, had they remained bathing in the lave for the proper amount of time.Serious response now...
Event 1
The character takes the 20d6 fire damage* which may or may not kill them. Probably not, since average damage is 70, and they have 100 hp. Assuming exiting from the lava is relatively easy (I assume by crawling out), they'd take half damage for 1d3 rounds after exiting the lava. If "As quickly as possible" translates into multiple rounds, they'd take the 20d6 damage each round they remain immersed. In the end, they'd probably die if they didn't have some sort of fire resistance.
Event 2
Same as event 1. If the character's only in the lava for 1 round... you take 20d6 on that one round and then 10d6 for the next 1d3 rounds.
Rules for lava appear on page 444 of the Core Rulebook.
*Yeah, I know the rules don't come out and say lava deals fire damage... but come on. Anyone who points this out will earn 1 Obnoxious Rulesmonger point from me.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
Thanks for answering questions like this!
I'm a GM running Wrath of the Righteous for my friends, we just got down with Sword of Valor, and one of my pc's had a particularly bad time with the final boss of that AP. We are now on the downtime of the next AP, and that character has understandably become obsessed with what happened, so he wants to make a magic item that keeps him under the effects of a protection from evil spell at all times. I'm planning at making the item about the same cost as a cloak of resistance +3. Does that seem reasonable? My thoughts were that its more like a +4 cloak, but reduced a step cause it only works against evil.
A constant protection from evil spell is really pretty powerful, and as such I'd cost it high. For a campaign like Wrath, where that spell effect would be active pretty much EVERY SECOND... I'd cost it even higher. And frankly, I'd probably not allow it in the game at all, and instead would make it into an item that allows you to cast the spell on yourself, spell-in-a-can style, a limited number of times per day.
Alternately, an item that automatically casts the spell on you once per day and is triggered when you become mind-controlled might be the way to go; this version would give you protection from the first such attempt in the day but not the 2nd or following attempts for the day In this case, I'd cost it out similarly to a quickened version of protection from evil; or about 90,000 gp.
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Question on the outcome of these 2 events if you were the GM.
Event 1
Character fall into a pool of lave and scrambles out as quickly as possible.Event 2
Character uses a move action to walk into a pool of lava until they are submerged, then uses a his standard action to move out of the pool.In both events the character was only in the pool of lava for 1 round.
Said characters have 100 hp.
Snarky response from funny typo...
The character, despite falling into a pool of bathwater described awkwardly as a "lave" (why not just say they fell into a "wash" or a "scrub?" I guess it's okay to go this route since we've already done the same with "shower" and no one cares...) becomes only slightly cleaner, as opposed to entirely clean, had they remained bathing in the lave for the proper amount of time.Serious response now...
Event 1
The character takes the 20d6 fire damage* which may or may not kill them. Probably not, since average damage is 70, and they have 100 hp. Assuming exiting from the lava is relatively easy (I assume by crawling out), they'd take half damage for 1d3 rounds after exiting the lava. If "As quickly as possible" translates into multiple rounds, they'd take the 20d6 damage each round they remain immersed. In the end, they'd probably die if they didn't have some sort of fire resistance.Event 2
Same as event 1. If the character's only in the lava for 1 round... you take 20d6 on that one round and then 10d6 for the next 1d3 rounds.Rules for lava appear on page 444 of the Core Rulebook.
*Yeah, I know the rules don't come out and say lava deals fire damage... but come on. Anyone who points this out will earn 1 Obnoxious Rulesmonger point from me.
Thank you for the response and I agree that fire damage works good for lava. What people tend to forget is the possibility of continuing damage, I hadn't thought of it.
Any chance of some sort of agreement with WotC (if that's required) of PDF releases of all the old magazines? I'd like PDFs, for example, of Savage Tide.
Also, what about the big book treatment for Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, and Legacy of Fire?
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Hey James,
I was looking at the spells Greater Teleport and Interplanetary Teleport.
GT: "This spell functions like teleport, except that there is no range limit"
IT: "This spell functions as teleport, except there is truly no range limit "
What's the difference between "no range límit" and "truly no range limit"?
