Creative Director
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Could this be why our favorite Chelaxian faction leader had has her faction's goal, prolonging the conflict in the Worldwound?ISG says once the Worldwound is dealt with, Iomedae wants to send the crusaders after the devils of Infernal Cheliax. How will the Order of the Godclaw (and the other Hellknight orders) react to this?Good question! They'd likely end up having a schism and losing their Iomedae members, or the Iomedae members would convert, or the entire organizaiton would go rogue and they'd lose the Asmodeus members, or something along those lines. They would not emerge unscathed in the end.
No.
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I noticed in Occult Mysteries that there is a book called the Secrets of the Dreaming Dark. Is this inspired by the Dreaming Dark from the Eberron universe?No.
Then was the naming pure coincidence or are they perhaps inspired by the same source? What was Pathfinder's inspiritation for the book and its name?
Something that's been bothering me...
There is no "sleeping" condition but there are several effects that cause a creature to sleep. Now, in general, should all sleep effects follow the rules of the sleep spell, in that slapping or wounding a sleeping creature wakes them up? Or, would some sleep effects be harder to break?
Examples: the sleep poison of a pseudodragon or a homunculus (extraordinary abilities) and the sleep arrow effect of a pixie (supernatural).
They would be pretty weak effects if they can be removed so easily, but perhaps that's intentional. Otherwise, they could be pretty deadly in certain situations.
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No.Could this be why our favorite Chelaxian faction leader had has her faction's goal, prolonging the conflict in the Worldwound?ISG says once the Worldwound is dealt with, Iomedae wants to send the crusaders after the devils of Infernal Cheliax. How will the Order of the Godclaw (and the other Hellknight orders) react to this?Good question! They'd likely end up having a schism and losing their Iomedae members, or the Iomedae members would convert, or the entire organizaiton would go rogue and they'd lose the Asmodeus members, or something along those lines. They would not emerge unscathed in the end.
What Chelaxian faction leader?
Would you be interested in a fantasy setting where almost all the named characters were women?Yes. It'd be a breath of fresh air to see a setting like this, frankly. Or a setting where all of the main characters were women.
Then would you be interested in giving this a look?
Oh, and I looked at Rat Queens on TV Tropes. Has that comic had any influence on Merisiel's personality?
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Huh, does this mean that before the earthfall there where much bigger wildernesses than there are in the modern Golarion?James, before the earthfall, what countries where around Kyonin?There were none. It was unsettled, uncivilized wilderness around Kyonin before Earthfall.
No. It means that before the Age of Destiny began, that large civilizations were very rare. The physical size of the region was more or less the same (more land before Earthfall, of course), but there weren't nations there yet with a few exceptions; Kyonin being one.
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Creative Director
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Then was the naming pure coincidence or are they perhaps inspired by the same source? What was Pathfinder's inspiritation for the book and its name?I noticed in Occult Mysteries that there is a book called the Secrets of the Dreaming Dark. Is this inspired by the Dreaming Dark from the Eberron universe?No.
It's most likely parallel design. Turns out, when you combine decades of game design with specific words, you'll have duplicates and parallel design.
The inspiration for the "Dreaming Dark" title was a combination of the Dark Tapestry and the fact that the great old ones and outer gods who are so strongly associated with that region are also strongly associated with dreams.
In other words, both the designer of the book for Pathfinder and the element in Eberron were likely both drawing inspiration from Lovecraft, who utilizes themes of dreams and darkness a LOT in his writing.
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Something that's been bothering me...
There is no "sleeping" condition but there are several effects that cause a creature to sleep. Now, in general, should all sleep effects follow the rules of the sleep spell, in that slapping or wounding a sleeping creature wakes them up? Or, would some sleep effects be harder to break?
Examples: the sleep poison of a pseudodragon or a homunculus (extraordinary abilities) and the sleep arrow effect of a pixie (supernatural).
They would be pretty weak effects if they can be removed so easily, but perhaps that's intentional. Otherwise, they could be pretty deadly in certain situations.
Sleep is indeed a pretty weak effect since it can be removed easily. You'll note that things that generally cause sleep, like pseudodragons and homunculs and a pixie are low CR foes. The fact that their special attacks are relatively easy to fix even without spells is entirely by design.
Does chocolate exist on Golarion and where can it be found ?
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Creative Director
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What Chelaxian faction leader?No.Could this be why our favorite Chelaxian faction leader had has her faction's goal, prolonging the conflict in the Worldwound?ISG says once the Worldwound is dealt with, Iomedae wants to send the crusaders after the devils of Infernal Cheliax. How will the Order of the Godclaw (and the other Hellknight orders) react to this?Good question! They'd likely end up having a schism and losing their Iomedae members, or the Iomedae members would convert, or the entire organizaiton would go rogue and they'd lose the Asmodeus members, or something along those lines. They would not emerge unscathed in the end.
I'm assuming that was a PFS question, and I'm not familiar enough with PFS and their faction leaders to remember her name without having to go look it up.
But it's important to remember this—PFS is reactive to what we do in the campaign setting, and its elements build off of what we create. PFS is one possible incarnation/subset of a Golarion, alongside of all the home games running out there. It's not intended to be, itself, a primary source of baseline canon.
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Would you be interested in a fantasy setting where almost all the named characters were women?Yes. It'd be a breath of fresh air to see a setting like this, frankly. Or a setting where all of the main characters were women.Then would you be interested in giving this a look?
Oh, and I looked at Rat Queens on TV Tropes. Has that comic had any influence on Merisiel's personality?
Interesting! Thanks for the link!
I had Merisiel's personality more or less worked out back around the time we started the Adventure Paths several years ago—she and her personality predate Rat Queens by quite a lot. That said, her personality and Betty's personality are REALLY pretty awesomely close. It could be that some of Merisiel's personality influenced Rat Queens... but I doubt that (as much as the idea that something I've created might have somehow influenced something as awesome as Rat Queens kinda makes me giggle in pride and delight... I don't think the creators of Rat Queens know much about Merisiel... I guess I could be wrong...). More likely, the iconic "feisty stabby flirty rogue" archetype, which has been out there for a long time, simply landed in these two characters.
Then was the naming pure coincidence or are they perhaps inspired by the same source? What was Pathfinder's inspiritation for the book and its name?I noticed in Occult Mysteries that there is a book called the Secrets of the Dreaming Dark. Is this inspired by the Dreaming Dark from the Eberron universe?No.It's most likely parallel design. Turns out, when you combine decades of game design with specific words, you'll have duplicates and parallel design.
The inspiration for the "Dreaming Dark" title was a combination of the Dark Tapestry and the fact that the great old ones and outer gods who are so strongly associated with that region are also strongly associated with dreams.
In other words, both the designer of the book for Pathfinder and the element in Eberron were likely both drawing inspiration from Lovecraft, who utilizes themes of dreams and darkness a LOT in his writing.
Yeah, sorry, I wasn't trying to imply you ripped off Eberron. Rather, I really love Eberron and the Dreaming Dark and I thought it was cool to see a nod to that. One thing that really felt compelling to me in Lovecraft's work was his Dreamlands. I always loved that and my favorite of his books is The Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath.
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1) Do you include any level of technology in your fantasy games? (Guns, airships etc.) If so, at what level?
2) Is there a chance of seeing a feat tree or ranger fighting style for dual-wielding a gun and blade (published in official Paizo product, that is)?
3) Is there a possibility of a gun-wielding archetype for magus, where pistol replaces the blade?
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Yeah, sorry, I wasn't trying to imply you ripped off Eberron. Rather, I really love Eberron and the Dreaming Dark and I thought it was cool to see a nod to that. One thing that really felt compelling to me in Lovecraft's work was his Dreamlands. I always loved that and my favorite of his books is The Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath.Then was the naming pure coincidence or are they perhaps inspired by the same source? What was Pathfinder's inspiritation for the book and its name?I noticed in Occult Mysteries that there is a book called the Secrets of the Dreaming Dark. Is this inspired by the Dreaming Dark from the Eberron universe?No.It's most likely parallel design. Turns out, when you combine decades of game design with specific words, you'll have duplicates and parallel design.
The inspiration for the "Dreaming Dark" title was a combination of the Dark Tapestry and the fact that the great old ones and outer gods who are so strongly associated with that region are also strongly associated with dreams.
In other words, both the designer of the book for Pathfinder and the element in Eberron were likely both drawing inspiration from Lovecraft, who utilizes themes of dreams and darkness a LOT in his writing.
No worries!
I'm actually not really all that up on Eberron lore. I was a bit more back in the Dungeon days a decade or so ago, but I was never a big fan of the setting and once we switched away from the magazines over to Pathfinder, I pretty much let all my Eberron lore atrophy, so I only vaguely remember what the Dreaming Dark was now...
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The faction leader with all the good parties of course, Zarta Dralneen, who was nearly a victim of Chelaxian's backstabbing politics. (aren't all politics backstabbing?). The Season 5 goal of the Chelaxian faction was to prolong the battle in the world wound in order to weaken the nations traditional enemies, i.e. the Andorans and the Silver Crusade, and the Iomedan type folk, hence my question. Not so much to make them lose, but to temper their enthusiasm for any post-Crusade action against Cheliax and it's patron.
And there ya go. As far as I know, she has no interaction/association with the Order of the God Claw, in any event.
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Creative Director
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1) Do you include any level of technology in your fantasy games? (Guns, airships etc.) If so, at what level?
2) Is there a chance of seeing a feat tree or ranger fighting style for dual-wielding a gun and blade (published in official Paizo product, that is)?
3) Is there a possibility of a gun-wielding archetype for magus, where pistol replaces the blade?
1) Yes. My fantasy games are pretty much exactly where Golarion's are at. That's no coincidence, since a fair amount of Golarion and its world construction philosophies are from my homebrew setting. So... Guns, yes. Airships, not so much. Lasers and robots? Yes, in certain parts of the world.
2) Anything's got a chance. I don't generally work on the player option line of products though—but if I wanted to put an NPC who used that style and was a ranger, I could see designing it for that NPCs. Anything's possible.
3) Same as #2 above.
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Ok I have a few specific design questions.
It seems that at paizo you have different "departments" that develop different lines of products. Is this so? Do you have an AP "department, player companion "department"' campaign setting "department", etc?
If so, how are things approved to go into print and determined to fit well in the setting?
1) Which musical traditions in the Inner Sea region are most likely to have lyrics?
2) Would you consider Norgorber to be a god of cheating (as in fixing sports matches)?
3) Does magical healing remove Lichtenberg figures?
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James! Who initially designed the gunslinger? I think it was one of the more innovative things to come out of paizo and I think the whole grit thing really works with what it is trying to reproduce so I was just curious. Also who did summoner? It is one of my favorites because I always wanted to be able to play say a succubus as a PC and this gets me as close as anything.(even though I realize it is probably the class many are real disappointed with) Anyways I hope you find a bit of fun during your days. Good luck and thanks for being cool.
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Creative Director
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Ok I have a few specific design questions.
It seems that at paizo you have different "departments" that develop different lines of products. Is this so? Do you have an AP "department, player companion "department"' campaign setting "department", etc?
If so, how are things approved to go into print and determined to fit well in the setting?
It is indeed. We have 3 developers (myself, Rob, and Adam) devoted to the Adventure Path line. The other lines each have 1 developer (Mark on the Campaign Setting, Patrick on the Player Companions, Owen on the modules, and John on the PFS scenarios). The rulebook line has the design team pretty much focused on them. Those divisions shift and change as time goes on, of course, but in an overly simplified view... those are the "departments" for our RPG books.
The editors pretty much touch ALL of the stuff we do. And Wes and myself have a lot of cross line work as well.
The process of what books we make is a decision that ends up being made by myself, Wes, and Erik for the most part. We often involve the people working on specific lines to pitch ideas and offer suggestions, and they're really good at coming up with great ideas for their books, but the final decision is more or less made by me, Erik, and Wes (and Jason, once the rulebooks are in the equation). And of those four, it's Erik who gets the final call.
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Creative Director
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1) Which musical traditions in the Inner Sea region are most likely to have lyrics?
2) Would you consider Norgorber to be a god of cheating (as in fixing sports matches)?
3) Does magical healing remove Lichtenberg figures?
1) Anything that can be performed via a Perform (song) check. That feels like a cop-out, sorta... but the question seems super vague.
2) Not particularly. He certainly does cheat and lie and often expects his worshipers to do so, but he's not really a "god of cheating." That role is probably shared by Baalzebul and Shax as the archdevil and demon lord of lies.
3) If they appear on a living creature yes. Magical healing generally removes all scars.
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Creative Director
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James! Who initially designed the gunslinger? I think it was one of the more innovative things to come out of paizo and I think the whole grit thing really works with what it is trying to reproduce so I was just curious. Also who did summoner? It is one of my favorites because I always wanted to be able to play say a succubus as a PC and this gets me as close as anything.(even though I realize it is probably the class many are real disappointed with) Anyways I hope you find a bit of fun during your days. Good luck and thanks for being cool.
I wrote the first draft of the gunslinger—I adapted it from the gunslinger class I designed for my homebrew Unspeakable Futures game. Stephan Radney MacFarland then took that draft and developed it into the gunslinger folks know today from Ultimate Combat—the big thing he added was the whole grit/deed mechanic, but he improved and adjusted the whole thing. (My original draft was a lot more focused on pistol fighting and acting like the classic Clint Eastwood hero).
The summoner was, I believe, designed by Jason.
The summoner was, I believe, designed by Jason.
Wow and considering he admitted it to being broken at the paizocon banquet shows how even developers are human. :)
though James isn't human, he eats them for lunch. All hail the King of Dinosaurs!
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In the Item card deck for Iron Gods, there is a card labeled Heavy Weapon, Which volume of the AP will we see that in? what is it? what does it do?
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Creative Director
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1) What are three of your favorite monsters that are both neutral (lawful neutral and chaotic neutral count too) and sapient (ie, not animals, vermin, etc.)?
2) What are three of your favorite inhabitants of the underdark that aren't drow (or driders), duergar, or svirfneblin?
3) If you could have the powers of the first five levels of any Pathfinder class in real life, which class would you pick and why?
1) Hmmm... I'll list the first three favorites who come to mind and cut it off there: yithian (LN), colour out of space (CN), and the kaiju (King Mogaru!!!!).
2) Intellect devourers, urdefhans, and seugathis.
3) Druid. Because that would give me the ability to cure disease, and you can't tell me that wouldn't rock. Being able to heal wounds would be nice as well, of course. But so would being able to talk to animals and being able to turn INTO an animal and fly around or swim around or whateves. Plus, I'd have a pet dinosaur!
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Creative Director
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In the Item card deck for Iron Gods, there is a card labeled Heavy Weapon, Which volume of the AP will we see that in? what is it? what does it do?
Heavy Weapon is a classification of weapon, similar to "Firearm."
There are several heavy weapons in the Tech Guide and in Iron Gods. A classic example of a heavy weapon would be a rocket launcher. A hopefully soon-to-be classic heavy weapon would be the vortex gun.
In the Item card deck for Iron Gods, there is a card labeled Heavy Weapon, Which volume of the AP will we see that in? what is it? what does it do?Heavy Weapon is a classification of weapon, similar to "Firearm."
There are several heavy weapons in the Tech Guide and in Iron Gods. A classic example of a heavy weapon would be a rocket launcher. A hopefully soon-to-be classic heavy weapon would be the vortex gun.
Which one is that in particular?
The summoner was, I believe, designed by Jason.Wow and considering he admitted it to being broken at the paizocon banquet shows how even developers are human. :)
though James isn't human, he eats them for lunch. All hail the King of Dinosaurs!
Jason also isn't a human either. He's a half-dragon Minotaur with a really nice Gauntlet that absolutely hasn't punched him in the face yet.
James, as I sit outside in Alaska with a fire burning designing some encounters, I have to wonder: What is your favorite 'outdoorsy' activity? I mean, what does the King Lizard like you do when he decides to go outside and have an adventure?
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What Chelaxian faction leader?No.Could this be why our favorite Chelaxian faction leader had has her faction's goal, prolonging the conflict in the Worldwound?ISG says once the Worldwound is dealt with, Iomedae wants to send the crusaders after the devils of Infernal Cheliax. How will the Order of the Godclaw (and the other Hellknight orders) react to this?Good question! They'd likely end up having a schism and losing their Iomedae members, or the Iomedae members would convert, or the entire organizaiton would go rogue and they'd lose the Asmodeus members, or something along those lines. They would not emerge unscathed in the end.I'm assuming that was a PFS question, and I'm not familiar enough with PFS and their faction leaders to remember her name without having to go look it up.
But it's important to remember this—PFS is reactive to what we do in the campaign setting, and its elements build off of what we create. PFS is one possible incarnation/subset of a Golarion, alongside of all the home games running out there. It's not intended to be, itself, a primary source of baseline canon.
PFS is one of the reasons I'm so frustrated trying to wrap my head around canon. So much seems to happen in it that trying to establish a headcanon as close to the true Golarion as possible seems nigh impossible. I mean, apparently they killed Krune, saved some noble family from shadows or vampires or whatnot, won a magic tapestry from the Ruby Phoenix Tournament that lets them teleport anywhere, and gave the Ruby Prince a wasting disease that's made him ban the Pathfinders from Osirion out of spite!
I feel locked out of the loop because I don't have time in my schedule to join a regular PFS group and experience these things. It'd be different if PFS was done independently, but since its materials ARE published by Paizo, it's canon by default, isn't it? I thought that's how canon worked: Everything released as official stuff from the creators is part of it, like the EU books for Star Wars, or the Silmarillion and the Book of Lost Tales for Tolkien.
What Chelaxian faction leader?No.Could this be why our favorite Chelaxian faction leader had has her faction's goal, prolonging the conflict in the Worldwound?ISG says once the Worldwound is dealt with, Iomedae wants to send the crusaders after the devils of Infernal Cheliax. How will the Order of the Godclaw (and the other Hellknight orders) react to this?Good question! They'd likely end up having a schism and losing their Iomedae members, or the Iomedae members would convert, or the entire organizaiton would go rogue and they'd lose the Asmodeus members, or something along those lines. They would not emerge unscathed in the end.I'm assuming that was a PFS question, and I'm not familiar enough with PFS and their faction leaders to remember her name without having to go look it up.
But it's important to remember this—PFS is reactive to what we do in the campaign setting, and its elements build off of what we create. PFS is one possible incarnation/subset of a Golarion, alongside of all the home games running out there. It's not intended to be, itself, a primary source of baseline canon.
PFS is one of the reasons I'm so frustrated trying to wrap my head around canon. So much seems to happen in it that trying to establish a headcanon as close to the true Golarion as possible seems nigh impossible. I mean, apparently they killed Krune, saved some noble family from shadows or vampires or whatnot, won a magic tapestry from the Ruby Phoenix Tournament that lets them teleport anywhere, and gave the Ruby Prince a wasting disease that's made him ban the Pathfinders from Osirion out of spite!
I feel locked out of the loop because I don't have time in my schedule to join a regular PFS group and experience these things. It'd be different if PFS was done independently, but since its materials ARE published by...
To my knowledge, with Disney's purchase of Star Wars, all of the EU is now 'non-canon' and instead is, basically, alternate interpretations of the universe. Some of the events may have happened, but the book about the event may not necessarily be canon anymore. Though any further books published by Disney will be considered canon as they have a department dedicated to 'keeping the canon consist' in further installments. The only thing considered canon as of now is the 6 movies and the Animated Clone Wars series. Everything else is, basically, fanon until Disney makes it canon.
James, if you had the opportunity, would you wear a Merisiel Onesie for pajamas?
Would you ever wear a onesie as an adult?
More serious, what is your favorite secret revealed about Golarion at this point?
What about your favorite easter egg hidden in Paizo products?
What is your favorite easter egg/reference that you've ever found in game/book/movie etc?
Glad you like it! :) Here’s some characters you might be interested in:
Marisa Kirisame: Think of everything fun about CN and you get her, complete with kleptomania and energy blasts.
Nue Houjuu: Arueshalae's missing twin sister, except she’s not a succubus…or even a nue...
Miko Toyosatomimi: Transsexual machine politician with a retinue right out of Game of Thrones.
Look interesting?
Speaking of looks, ZUN’s art style isn’t putting you off, is it?
Okay, perhaps an odd question, but... given the availability of a vast array of foods, animals, etc. that weren't available in Europe/Asia/Africa until after the Columbian Exchange, is it likely that the Azlanti were responsible for a similar Arcadian Exchange on Golarion? Or did those foods and animals all just happen to develop in Avistan, Casmaron, Garund and Tian Xia?
I'm just here, what do you think of me just being over here. In the corner. Glaring menacingly. Waiting. Watching. Contemplating the meaning of life.Can't answer that since you forgot to include a question mark, and as a result, it's not technically a question.
Ok, here's a question mark; "?", now what do you think
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Creative Director
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Which one is that in particular?In the Item card deck for Iron Gods, there is a card labeled Heavy Weapon, Which volume of the AP will we see that in? what is it? what does it do?Heavy Weapon is a classification of weapon, similar to "Firearm."
There are several heavy weapons in the Tech Guide and in Iron Gods. A classic example of a heavy weapon would be a rocket launcher. A hopefully soon-to-be classic heavy weapon would be the vortex gun.
Vortex guns are a type of heavy weapon from the Technology Guide. No art of them has been previewed yet, and they are not in the Iron Gods Item Cards.
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James, as I sit outside in Alaska with a fire burning designing some encounters, I have to wonder: What is your favorite 'outdoorsy' activity? I mean, what does the King Lizard like you do when he decides to go outside and have an adventure?
I'd like to get back into fishing, but it's SO COMPLICATED with the rules and regulations and all that, so in the meantime, I guess I'll say hiking. Which is fishing without the fish, I suppose.
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There are several heavy weapons in the Tech Guide and in Iron Gods. A classic example of a heavy weapon would be a rocket launcher. A hopefully soon-to-be classic heavy weapon would be the vortex gun.Would the vortex gun be something along the lines of a "black hole gun" that you see in some sci-fi?
Oh, and will there be anything approximating the BFG from Doom?
Nope.
Sort of.
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PFS is one of the reasons I'm so frustrated trying to wrap my head around canon. So much seems to happen in it that trying to establish a headcanon as close to the true Golarion as possible seems nigh impossible. I mean, apparently they killed Krune, saved some noble family from shadows or vampires or whatnot, won a magic tapestry from the Ruby Phoenix Tournament that lets them teleport anywhere, and gave the Ruby Prince a wasting disease that's made him ban the Pathfinders from Osirion out of spite!
I feel locked out of the loop because I don't have time in my schedule to join a regular PFS group and experience these things. It'd be different if PFS was done independently, but since its materials ARE published by Paizo, it's canon by default, isn't it? I thought that's how canon worked: Everything released as official stuff from the creators is part of it, like the EU books for Star Wars, or the Silmarillion and the Book of Lost Tales for Tolkien.
If you can accept the fact that PFS is its own microcosm of self-contained canon for itself that isn't necessarily part of the world's canon (in the same way that none of the APs are part of the world's canon until they occur), that should hopefully help.
If a random person off the street wanted to know what's canon in Golarion TODAY, he could pick up the Inner Sea World Guide, read it, and go from there. We do not immediately add the adventures (be they Adventure Paths or PFS or anything in between) to the world, since there is NO WAY AT ALL to determine which one group who plays through the events gets to be the one who sets the adventure's result in stone. That ONLY COUNTS for the game it's played in itself.
Sure... there is other information in adventures that expands on existing canon and the like but the plots as they play out in play with characters changing the face of the world (like killing Krune) do not occur until you, the GM, want them to.
So if you want to know all the information... though... your only real choice is to read every single thing we publish. That's not something I think one person can easily do. I know I can't do it. I've not even gotten CLOSE to reading everything we publish.
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James, if you had the opportunity, would you wear a Merisiel Onesie for pajamas?
Would you ever wear a onesie as an adult?
More serious, what is your favorite secret revealed about Golarion at this point?
What about your favorite easter egg hidden in Paizo products?
What is your favorite easter egg/reference that you've ever found in game/book/movie etc?
Maybe.
Maybe.
I guess the Nocticula thing.
Sandpoint's rivers.
The Yellow Sign/King in Yellow stuff in "True Detective,' although that might be too much a core element of the show to qualify as an easter egg...