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And, as a bonus, one of the related videos discusses "penultimate", where we get to find out if there's such a thing as a "penult" and the word for "third from the last".
I just favorited that video. I haven't seen it so much in the last year or so, but the misuse of that word was driving my nuts awhile back.
Mr. Jacobs, what written/spoken language errors bug you the most? For me it's the misuse of penultimate and referencing a 'mute' point. They both tend to make my brain bleed. :(
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How would I run Ravenloft using Pathfinder Rules? Check out "Rule of Fear" and the Carrion Crown Adventure Path—that's how! :)
Every time you mention carrion crown, you make me want it that little bit more....
Would playing in a PbP count as far as your contractual message board participation, or just be purely for fun?
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You have stated that you would do some archetypes as alternate classes if you did them now, such as the shaman druids and the totem barbarians. What other archetypes? Is there a possibility that some of the archetypes that become really popular get upgraded to alternate classes?
With infinite amounts of room... all of them, to be honest. It's a lot more visually appealing to me to see something like a swashbuckler or any of the other archetypes presented with all of their abilities all sorted onto a class progression table.
It's pretty much 100% formatting issue, to be honest. While things like the totem barbarians and the shaman druids WOULD have been nice to set up like an alternate class... that would have taken up a LOT more room, not only because we would have to present the full class progression table but because we'd need character illustrations of them. As a general rule, we won't illustrate every archetype with a character... but we WILL illustrate every alternate class with a character.
Also appealing to me is the simple fact that since presenting an archetype in the alternate class format takes up a lot more room, that means we'll be doing FEWER of them, and that means that the ones we DO do will be more interesting... in theory.
For now, though, we want to get a big pile of archetypes out there in the APG, and that meant using the more space-friendly format.
By the time Ultimate Combat will be out, we'll have a HELL of a lot of archetypes to pick from, so we can start experimenting with formatting. Plus... we really REALLY wanted iconics for the samurai, the ninja, and the gunslinger.
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How come in the vending machines at my work all of the fragile, breakable foods like potato chips are stored at the top, so they break into dust when they fall, but all of the more durable foods like candy bars and gum at kept mere inches from the bottom?
Also, will the Paizocon banquet be vegetarian friendly?
Because the vending machine gods are fickle and have a cruel sense of humor.
Paizo has vegetarians on staff, so I sure HOPE the banquet will be vegetarian friendly. There'll certainly be some vegetarian options; there have been the last few years.
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Darn, I was hoping for some new method of slow torture to throughly punish the individual in question. I thought you were the "Master of all things Demonic"?
Why does everyone assume that us demons aren't subtle in our evils and chaos? Chaos does NOT mean "always blatant in the mayhem."
(returns to quietly plotting entropic events)
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Mr. Jacobs, what written/spoken language errors bug you the most? For me it's the misuse of penultimate and referencing a 'mute' point. They both tend to make my brain bleed. :(
I could fill an internet with those, but here's a few highlights:
Misuse of the word "decimate."
Improper apostrophes, particularly with its and it's.
Passive voice.
Spelling "Treerazer" as "Treerazor."
Leaving the "s" off of the end of my last name.
Common gamer mispronunciations of words: necromancer, archetype, bestiary, and magus all come to mind.
Mispronunciations of Golarion proper nouns, particularly Varisia, Aroden, and Sarenrae.
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How would I run Ravenloft using Pathfinder Rules? Check out "Rule of Fear" and the Carrion Crown Adventure Path—that's how! :)Every time you mention carrion crown, you make me want it that little bit more....
Would playing in a PbP count as far as your contractual message board participation, or just be purely for fun?
It would be purely for fun.
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James, given that you're the lord and master of all things demonic for Pathfinder, will there ever be a specific set of stats for an Incubus, perhaps in Bestiary 3, or do you think that they don't need their own and GMs should just use the Succubus stats?
Green Ronin's "Book of Fiends" has stats for an incubus already. It's in 3.5, of course. I suspect that the chances of us stating up our own version of an incubus at some point is close to 100% though.
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Is there any form of music that will make your head 'splode? Besides of course, Slim Whitman?
Country western music does that pretty frequently, as do songs from musicals in the context of them being IN the musical. I have no problem with songs from musicals when I'm just listening to the music.
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James,
How common are "traditional" demi-gods in Golarion, and by that, I mean, half-god/half-mortal children?
Not that common, although since those things are a GREAT topic for adventures and novels, the perception might be skewed. Traditional demi-gods would dovetail very nicely into epic rules, though, and until we have those sorted out, don't expect much info in the way of demigods of Golarion.
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Who do goblin clerics who want access to the Air domain turn to for divine spells? According to the table at the back of Lords of Chaos, whilst three of the four 'barghest hero gods' cover Earth, Fire, and Water, the fourth one's too busy with Law, Evil, War, and Strength to cover Air as well.
For the most part, they don't. Goblins aren't really interested in fairness of representaiton of the four elements. If a goblin wants to be a cleric who has access to the Air domain, he has to worship a non-goblin deity. And I doubt any goblin wants access to the Air domain that badly, especially when the other three domains are so much more useful to goblins.
The only other abyssal entities I see listed who grant access to the Air domain are Areshkagal and Pazuzu. I assume (since goblins are sort of tied in with Lamashtu) that any goblin who worships Pazuzu is asking for an up close and personal encounter with some fire and some very sharp knives; so that leaves Areshkagal?
Goblins are very very unlikely to worship demon lords beyond Lamashtu. Note that the barghest hero gods are NOT demon lords; they're just super-powerful barghests who happen to live on the Abyss. Remember, goblins are generally neutral evil, and that doesn't mesh well with chaotic evil demons. Nor does it mean that goblins worship the Horsemen; most goblins don't even know what Horsemen are and if you asked one for his opinion on horsemen he'd assume you were talking about humans who ride horses and he'd probably attack you for riling up his anger.
In short, 99.99934% of goblins don't care about the Air domain. And those that do would probably be particularly weird, even for goblins.
Hmm. Areshkagal as patron of what passes for sophisticated arts and the 'intellectual elite' of goblinkind? And do goblins who worship her get called 'airheads' by their fellow goblins? :D
Intellectually elite goblin clerics (of which there's probably less than a dozen on the entire planet) who don't worship the goblin hero gods (which would further cut that number down even more significantly) won't really naturally cleave to demon lords at all. They'd probably end up worshiping one of the core 20 deities, based on their alignment and personality.
Areshkagal, in addition, doesn't match the goblin themes at all. Very few demon lords do, to be honest.
Mr. Jacobs, what written/spoken language errors bug you the most? For me it's the misuse of penultimate and referencing a 'mute' point. They both tend to make my brain bleed. :(I could fill an internet with those, but here's a few highlights:
Misuse of the word "decimate."
Improper apostrophes, particularly with its and it's.
Passive voice.
Spelling "Treerazer" as "Treerazor."
Leaving the "s" off of the end of my last name.
Common gamer mispronunciations of words: necromancer, archetype, bestiary, and magus all come to mind.
Mispronunciations of Golarion proper nouns, particularly Varisia, Aroden, and Sarenrae.
For those of us who have never heard the words said previously and/or have a hearing impairment, is there an actual pronunciation chart for some of these common words in Golarion?
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By the time Ultimate Combat will be out, we'll have a HELL of a lot of archetypes to pick from, so we can start experimenting with formatting. Plus... we really REALLY wanted iconics for the samurai, the ninja, and the gunslinger.
Gunslinger ... that reminds me; my mini-painter missus saw this mini and thought of you. Ultimate character mini?
For those of us who have never heard the words said previously and/or have a hearing impairment, is there an actual pronunciation chart for some of these common words in Golarion?
There's sort of one in the "old" Campaign Setting. Not that much help if English isn't your first language, though.
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For those of us who have never heard the words said previously and/or have a hearing impairment, is there an actual pronunciation chart for some of these common words in Golarion?There's sort of one in the "old" Campaign Setting. Not that much help if English isn't your first language, though.
What would be really cool would be an audio file of Paizonians pronouncing Golarion words. It's nice to be able to put a voice to the posts.
For those of us who have never heard the words said previously and/or have a hearing impairment, is there an actual pronunciation chart for some of these common words in Golarion?There's sort of one in the "old" Campaign Setting. Not that much help if English isn't your first language, though.
I happen to have the book right next to me as I'm composing this. Appendix B. Thanks! =)
I want to know how on earth you miss-pronounce necromancer!
'neek' versus 'neck' (or to expand, neck-her- with a silent o) versus 'nech'
I just this morning found a copy of "The slayers guide to female gamers" And I am wondering if you've read it as well by any chance? And if so, what did you think?
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Creative Director
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For those of us who have never heard the words said previously and/or have a hearing impairment, is there an actual pronunciation chart for some of these common words in Golarion?Mr. Jacobs, what written/spoken language errors bug you the most? For me it's the misuse of penultimate and referencing a 'mute' point. They both tend to make my brain bleed. :(I could fill an internet with those, but here's a few highlights:
Misuse of the word "decimate."
Improper apostrophes, particularly with its and it's.
Passive voice.
Spelling "Treerazer" as "Treerazor."
Leaving the "s" off of the end of my last name.
Common gamer mispronunciations of words: necromancer, archetype, bestiary, and magus all come to mind.
Mispronunciations of Golarion proper nouns, particularly Varisia, Aroden, and Sarenrae.
There's a pronunciation chart at the end of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting. Not sure it did much good, though, with folks still saying things the way they want. The chart does NOT make a return appearance in the upcoming Inner Sea World Guide.
In the end, though, it's not really a problem unless you come to work at Paizo, at which point I'll be happy to correct the pronunciations for free! :-)
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Gunslinger ... that reminds me; my mini-painter missus saw this mini and thought of you. Ultimate character mini?
By the time Ultimate Combat will be out, we'll have a HELL of a lot of archetypes to pick from, so we can start experimenting with formatting. Plus... we really REALLY wanted iconics for the samurai, the ninja, and the gunslinger.
That is indeed an awesome mini. I approve!
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Have you seaan "Season of the Witch" yet? If so, what did you think? If not, I highly recommend it.
I haven't seen it yet. And you're the first person I've heard to have anything nice to say about it: it had a 1% rating at Rottentomatos.com when it opened, which is a fantastically low score. It's just now up to 4%. Very few movies score that poorly there... I kind of want to see it just to see how actually bad it is, but I don't want to see it if it's just going to make me embarrassed for Ron Perlman.
I kind of want to see it just to see how actually bad it is, but I don't want to see it if it's just going to make me embarrassed for Ron Perlman.
My friend at the FLGS the other night mentioned that he had seen this movie. When we asked if it was any good, he said, "Ron Perlman was great."
To whit the FLGS owner said, "well, duh, but that doesn't answer the question."
;)
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Personally I thought it was pretty good, but I spent a lot of times thinking about it in game terms. My guess is that most critics are not gamers so they watch it with different eyes than I did. I mean a movie that has fiendish wolves, demons and witches, undead priests, and the like can't be all bad. The twist at the end is pretty good too because it is one you do not see coming unless someone spoils it for you.
First I watched Season of the Witch not sure why it got so low of a score, Not saying it was great but I enjoyed it and Ron Perlman was the best part of the movie.
2nd could Paizo do mp3 of Pronunciations, maybe fans could record and post them somewhere,some Planescape fans did something like that it was pretty cool. I would do it but I am the worst.
James, looking at the big old map of Golarion from the blog, I am wondering something. I know that the Jade Regent AP is still a ways off, but from the distance involved, is this going to be another AP where, intentionally, the AP could take a good amount of time from beginning to completion, like Kingmaker did? It just looks like that's a really long trek from Varisia to Tien Xia.
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I kind of want to see it just to see how actually bad it is, but I don't want to see it if it's just going to make me embarrassed for Ron Perlman.My friend at the FLGS the other night mentioned that he had seen this movie. When we asked if it was any good, he said, "Ron Perlman was great."
To whit the FLGS owner said, "well, duh, but that doesn't answer the question."
;)
Ron Perlman was great, and Nick Cage was Nick Cage, so take that into consideration. However, the supporting cast is great and the story is a good one. Plus it was worth it to here the coeds gasp when they saw the doctors wearing the masks like the Plaugebringers in CotCT wear. That made me chuckle.
I have to admit, I decided to pronounce it "var EE zha" early on even though I know it is "van RIZZY ah". I just think the former sounds more authentic and sort of gypsy-like. Does this mean you hate me now?
Nick Cage was Nick Cage, so take that into consideration.
Ironically, after our friend said Ron Pearlman was great, the next question was, "was Nick Cage Nick Cage?" ;)
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Nick Cage was Nick Cage, so take that into consideration.Ironically, after our friend said Ron Pearlman was great, the next question was, "was Nick Cage Nick Cage?" ;)
Personally I like Nick Cage as an actor, but there are only certain roles that he can pull off successfully. The character he plays in Season of the Witch is a decent character for him, particularly since Ron Pearlman manages to get in several digs at his expense.
Personally I like Nick Cage as an actor, but there are only certain roles that he can pull off successfully. The character he plays in Season of the Witch is a decent character for him, particularly since Ron Pearlman manages to get in several digs at his expense.Nick Cage was Nick Cage, so take that into consideration.Ironically, after our friend said Ron Pearlman was great, the next question was, "was Nick Cage Nick Cage?" ;)
it will take an AWFUL lot of something awesome for me to forgive Nick Cage for Ghost Rider. However, since there's an apparent sequel on the way with him back in the lead, i do not think such forgiveness is possible.
James have you seen any of the trailers for Suckerpunch?? it looks really cool
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One last thing about Season of the Witch and it is not likely to make James any more inclined to see it, but here goes. Anyone who plays a dwarf should see the movie, because Ron Pearlman plays the perfect dwarf in this movie, even though his character is a human in this movie. For example, one of his classic lines in the film is "you know, this is not bad as far as dungeons go. We've stayed in worse places."
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James, looking at the big old map of Golarion from the blog, I am wondering something. I know that the Jade Regent AP is still a ways off, but from the distance involved, is this going to be another AP where, intentionally, the AP could take a good amount of time from beginning to completion, like Kingmaker did? It just looks like that's a really long trek from Varisia to Tien Xia.
It is indeed a long trek. Not sure HOW long, yet, but months would probably be accurate.
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It will take an AWFUL lot of something awesome for me to forgive Nick Cage for Ghost Rider. However, since there's an apparent sequel on the way with him back in the lead, i do not think such forgiveness is possible.
James have you seen any of the trailers for Suckerpunch?? it looks really cool
For me, "Knowing" and "Kick Ass" undid pretty much all of Nick Cage's bad movies in the recent past ("Wicker Man" and "Ghost Rider," I'm looking at YOU!). So I'm a bit hesitant to inflict some demerits on him again. That said... I do like plague doctors...
I've seen the trailers for Sucker Punch, yeah... and it DOES look cool, BUT!
As I've mentioned upthread, I really REALLY hate the cliche of "this fantasy movie is all imaginary/takes place in a story set in the real world." I'm really getting a vibe like that from Sucker Punch. If the whole fantasy world in Sucker Punch is only a hallucination or dream, that's gonna disappoint me.
The director has already done something I thought was impossible; he made a remake of Dawn of the Dead, my favorite zombie movie, that not only didn't annoy me but was actually quite good. And while I wasn't a fan of "300" (it felt like it was trying too hard), I did like "Watchmen" (although some of the changes from the comic annoyed me) well enough. I'm really eager to see what he does with an idea that's NOT a remake or an adaptation, frankly, so I'm really looking forward to Sucker Punch for that reason. Also, hot tough girls + dragons + robot samurais + Scott Glenn is a really compelling combo.
But still... that whole "This isn't real; it's all imaginary" element could very easily be a deal breaker.
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Assume a game like Pathfinder. Can a game like Pathfinder survive in a manner similar to Call of Cthulhu? By that, I mean, very minimal changes between editions, with new editions having only a handful of rules and some wording clarifications?
Do more complicated d20 based games require serious revisions after several years in order to sell enough product and generate enough interest to keep the game going?
I'm not just talking about making sure there are a lot of years between editions, but that the game itself has a very stable baseline with very little actually changing over time.
I think Pathifnder CAN survive minimal edition changes. And when we do a new edition, I really hope the changes ARE as minimal as possible. I'd hate to lose the ability to use PFRGP 1st editon, 3.5, and 3.0 material with the ease it can be used now. Even worse would be to change the game so fundamentally that you couldn't even use 1st or 2nd edition D&D content.
The game's been out for close to 3 years now, so the advent of a new edition isn't as far away as it used to be, that's for sure. It's 3 years closer, after all.
Now, that said... there are some elements that I'd LOVE to see get revised or rebuilt somehow, particularly in a way that makes higher level play easier. Removing iterative attacks and giving fighters and their ilk some different mechanic to fill in for that loss (and thus removing the idea of a "full round action") is probably my biggest hope for the next edition.
I also hope that when we do a new edition, it's needed. When 3rd edition came along, that was certainly the case. And in hindsight, comparing 3rd edition to 3.5, I even think 3.5 was needed. It had some changes, yeah, but the game remained compatible with 3.0 enough that you could use content between the editions.
We'll see!
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One last thing about Season of the Witch and it is not likely to make James any more inclined to see it, but here goes. Anyone who plays a dwarf should see the movie, because Ron Pearlman plays the perfect dwarf in this movie, even though his character is a human in this movie. For example, one of his classic lines in the film is "you know, this is not bad as far as dungeons go. We've stayed in worse places."
See... I don't mind it when a human character acts in that way at all. Because I know that humans can also be portrayed in other ways. Also? Ron Perlman is an AWESOME actor. Most folks who play dwarves in games I've seen are not.
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Why do you think scifi trpgs don't sell as well as fantasy trpgs?
Because the core element of an RPG that makes it fun is the collection of gear, powers, and skills for your PC, as far as most players are concerned. Most players don't really care as much about the story (those who do, in my experience, are not only players; they're also GMs) NEARLY as much as they do as they care about leveling up their character, adding stuff to the character sheet, and just getting better. Science fiction games often don't have a very robust element of "Kill the monster, take its stuff" in them, and that just simply does not appeal to as wide a range of folks.
And another reason: Science fiction has no real-world historical basis. It has to create all of its world content from scratch. A fantasy game does not; you go into a fantasy game with, at the very least, a frame of mind for the world as it existed in history books. It's easier to put yourself into a world that is similar to the one you're in today, because so many of the world's elements (gold pieces, swords, knights, castles, crossbows, dungeons, dragons, ghosts, demons) are things that you already know about from life or from myth. For a science fiction game, you have to make up new things for those roles more often than not, and that makes it progressively tougher to imagine a character in. Certainly not IMPOSSIBLE... but tougher.
And one more reason: because D&D is a fantasy game. It was the first RPG, and it did what it did VERY WELL. People often consider D&D vanilla; I've certainly heard folks call Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms or Golarion vanilla before. But know what? Vanilla's the most popular flavor of ice cream.