Creative Director
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Another question. So, you have stated that the APs don't canonically occur and change the setting. Would you ever introduce a major event to change the setting or do you want to keep Golarion/Pathfinder at the state of canon it is at now?
Only in the context of the AP itself, or in the case of the AP being a sequel to another AP, to that previous AP.
Now and then we'll have small bits in other lines that assume canon as well, but it's very rare. One example (and the only one I can think of over the past many years) is in Lost Cities of Golarion we present Xin-Shalast not as it exists in the Inner Sea World Guide but as it exists after Rise of the Runelords plays out... because we didn't just want to reprint the information from "Spires of Xin-Shalast" and because we wanted to experiment a little bit with doing something like that.
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Since Mythic Realms is getting very close now, as a tidbit, Old Mage Jatembe receives a "Wizard 20+" note in his Inner Sea Magic line. We know that he's coming in Mythic Realms and is a CR 24, but I'm curious: have his stats been revised in any way to give him levels in Magaambyan Arcanist rather than straight wizard?
He did, after all, practically invent the class, and Magaambya (along with its "Ancient Mwangi Magic") as well. It seems kind of reasonable to me that he'd have Magaambyan Arcanist levels, or at least something like Baba Yaga's "Queen of Witches" quality (possibly giving him access to all Sorc/Wiz and Druid spells, while she had all Sorc/Wiz and Witch spells).
You'll need to wait and see. The book's very close. Don't wanna spoil things.
But if you are the inventor of a prestige class you don't always have levels in that prestige class. Or other thing. Xin, for example, invented Thassilonian specialization, but he was not himself a Thassilonian specialist. He was a generalilst.
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That'd be the meteor that fell into that jungle in Tian Xia that's described in the Tian Xia book as the "here there be monsters" area, right?Already happened. Wait for Mythic Realms.Dear James Jacobs,
When will the aliens land upon Golarion, only to be whupped by the all-mighty Kaiju?
Book's only a few weeks away. All will be maid clear. In theory.
Book's only a few weeks away. All will be maid clear. In theory.That'd be the meteor that fell into that jungle in Tian Xia that's described in the Tian Xia book as the "here there be monsters" area, right?Already happened. Wait for Mythic Realms.Dear James Jacobs,
When will the aliens land upon Golarion, only to be whupped by the all-mighty Kaiju?
I think this was a Fruedian slip...notice the use of the word 'maid'...which in contect it should have been 'made'.
From this we can only conclude one thing....The aliens are already on Golarion and they are disguised as Maids. ;)
Humor aside...Now a question..
Who would be your dream team od players to play PF with? Who would be the GM?
I think I've seen your top 20 or so Mythos stories, but do you have a list of top 20 pieces of literature in general? If it's not on the top 20, where does A Song of Ice and Fire rank?
Do you recommend using fast, normal or slow xp progression when running old dungeon magazine AP's with Pathfinder rules, and why?
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Creative Director
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Do you recommend using fast, normal or slow xp progression when running old dungeon magazine AP's with Pathfinder rules, and why?
Fast. And even then it won't be fast enough, because those APs use D&D's experience progression, which works differently and gives out levels faster than Pathfinder does. So if you run one of those APs using Pathfinder, keep an eye on character levels and if they start falling behind, be prepared to throw in a few extra encounters or adventures.
Or just give out levels "by hand."
Who wrote the Citadel Vraid section in book Castles of Golarion?
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Creative Director
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I think I've seen your top 20 or so Mythos stories, but do you have a list of top 20 pieces of literature in general? If it's not on the top 20, where does A Song of Ice and Fire rank?
Hmmm... let's see...
My favorite literary works (and I'm gonna be loosy-goosy on what constitutes a literary work...), and in no particular order... and as they come into my head and stopping at 20 even though I might come up with something that should be on there later...
1) Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories
2) Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories
3) Robert E. Howard's Conan stories
4) Song of Ice and Fire (George Martin)
5) House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
6) The Dark Tower (Stephen King)
7) Nazareth Hill (Ramsey Campbell)
8) The Ceremonies (TED Klein)
9) Imagica (Clive Barker)
10) Pet Semetery (Stephen King)
11) The Descent (Jeff Long)
12) Repairman Jack seires (F. Paul Wilson)
13) Hyperion Cantos (Dan Simmons)
14) Lankmhar stories (Fritz Leiber)
15) The Terror (Dan Simmons)
16) The Stand (Stephen King)
17) The Willows (Algernon Blackwood)
18) The stories of Ambrose Bierce
19) Notebook Found in a Deserted House (Robert Bloch)
20) The Hungry Moon (Ramsey Campbell)
I could go one... but all of those in some way REALLY impressed me and helped to shape my writing style and interests.
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I'm not sure if this is really answerable or not, but:
Would we be seeing Iron Gods in 2014 if not for Rasputin Must Die!'s reception, or was it already in the cards?
Probably, but I would have had to roll higher on my Diplomacy check in presenting the idea to management.
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Do you think that today's generation of DMs are less likely to be willing to make their own decisions on running campaigns, especially AP's without some form of "official" sanction?Absolutely.
It is certainly true that there seem to be those who seem uncomfortable with taking off the training wheels, or with a GM taking control of their game and perhaps exploring something 'not canon' for a setting, and even go so far as to chastise others who aren't 'playing the game right' by introducing elements that weren't already built into the setting by the designers.
Pretty much any thread with undead, Hermea, Rahadoum, etc. in the title is going to attract posters who seem offended that a GM might do something that 'isn't official.'
Various setting developers, such as 989 Studios / Verant, with the original EverQuest, had a 'this is our world, our 'vision' and you just get to visit it' mentality. Others have more of a 'this is your world now' mindset.
Do you think of Golarion as more of a 'your world now' setting, or something that is more of a static 'vision' that might fly apart if tinkered with?
Short version. Where do you stand on 'The Author is Dead' philosophy, as it pertains to Golarion?
Should individual GMs (not PFS GMs, obviously!) be encouraged to tinker with 'setting assumptions,' or should they be scolded?
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Do you think of Golarion as more of a 'your world now' setting, or something that is more of a static 'vision' that might fly apart if tinkered with?
Short version. Where do you stand on 'The Author is Dead' philosophy, as it pertains to Golarion?
Should individual GMs (not PFS GMs, obviously!) be encouraged to tinker with 'setting assumptions,' or should they be scolded?
I view Golarion very much as "my world," or to be more precise, as "Paizo's world."
When a GM takes what we've created, the GM needs to decide if he wants to play our world, or if he wants to change things to make it his world. Both are completely viable options, but once a GM starts making enough changes to make the world his own, it's no longer the Golarion I know and thus no longer "My world."
If that make any sense?
Do you like Tolkien's works? If not, why?
I noticed that Lord of the Rings wasn't in your top 20.
Also, would you call yourself more of a horror fan than a fantasy fan?
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I view Golarion very much as "my world," or to be more precise, as "Paizo's world."
When a GM takes what we've created, the GM needs to decide if he wants to play our world, or if he wants to change things to make it his world. Both are completely viable options, but once a GM starts making enough changes to make the world his own, it's no longer the Golarion I know and thus no longer "My world."
If that make any sense?
Does indeed. I'm of two minds on the subject myself. Sometimes the most important part of creative writing is figuring out what needs to be cut or excluded, to focus on the parts that fit best with the theme and advance the storyline or whatever.
But with a shared world, where you've got a faux Egypt down south, and a gothic Ravenloft-y place up north, and a country dominated by devil-worshippers, and some Vikings, and a fantasy American revolution and another fantasy French Terror, a 'tight theme' is perhaps too much to hope for, and a certain amount of 'melting pot cantina' is perhaps inevitable.
And we all draw the lines of where it stops being tasty jambalaya and starts being indistinguishable flavorless mush in different places.
I do love how widely versatile the setting is, already. An adventure in Numeria is going to be 100% different than one in Osirion, or Absalom, or Varisia, or Ustalav, and if I don't want to deal with a particular theme in my own jambalaya (such as guns in my fantasy, or dinosaurs, or psionics), I can just steer away from Alkenstar, or populate my Mwangi expanse or Vudra with 100% less dinosaurs (Not that I would *ever* want to do that! It's just an example!) or psionics.
Whose idea was it to tie the disparate cultures together loosely through the Taldan 'Armies of Exploration' phase, and cementing the use of Taldan as a 'common tongue,' as a result?
Speaking of "my Golarion", I have to pretend Numeria doesn't exist... the entire area just gets swallowed up by Mendev and the River Kingdoms, with no trace of robots anywhere.
I realize there's some old adventure from the time that came before that inspired the region (to some extent), but it really does ruin my immersion. I mean, dungeons and dragons and space robots? What?
Haha--it's just as Set was saying--it's not the theme I'm interesting in (science fantasy is great, but I don't want it in my sword & sorcery).
Questions: Whose idea was it to include Numeria in the setting? Also, what's your opinion of it?
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There WILL be big robots in the AP. Just look at the opening illustration for Numeria in the Inner Sea World Guide for proof of that.
There WILL be powered armor in the adventure,
I saw your post on another thread James, I for one am excited about Iron Gods (just as I have been excited for Reign of Winter and now Wrath of the Righteous).
Paizo has always been mindful of our gaming roots, and I am sure the IG AP will be a worthy successor to the venerable 'Expedition to Barrier Peaks.'
That being said, just as Rasputin was mentioned in the original 1st Ed DMG, did you know that Powered Alloy/Energized/Inertia/Powered Scout/Battle Armor and Powered Attack/Assault Armor are mentioned in those pages as well? They can be found on page 114 of that book.
I believe those amors were AC -4 and AC -8 respectively, ACs which would make demon lords and ancient red dragons envious in that edition of the game.
Hey James, quick question: for the tengu's alternate racial trait 'glide', does the tengu automatically gain 'fly' as a class skill if they select this trait? I only ask because of this line...
Fly-You cannot take this skill without a natural means of flight or gliding.
I know that a race like Strix automatically gains fly as a class skill (for obvious reasons) but would the above statement apply for tengu's with the glide trait? Thanks again.
Also, ** spoiler omitted **Good question! My bet is on him being punished, frankly, and ending up in Hell or the Abyss.
Now how is that fair? The guy was LN, then went crazy and became CN after his utopian vision was corrupted.
On a related question, where did Father Tobyn (from all the way back in Burnt Offerings) end up?
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James,
With Mythic now out, do you see other uses for it's clip on meta-class framework for future products? Like for other optional subsystems such as army management/ranks, applying unique archtypes to existing classes with out needing to rebuild the whole class, etc?
Will we see the rest of the Iconics Mtyhiced up?
I think I've seen your top 20 or so Mythos stories, but do you have a list of top 20 pieces of literature in general? If it's not on the top 20, where does A Song of Ice and Fire rank?Hmmm... let's see...
12) Repairman Jack seires (F. Paul Wilson)
Sweet. I've been a fan of those since the Tomb first came out, and am finally getting around to reading The Dark at the End now. Good to see another Jack fan!
Which Jack book was your favorite - and is it the same as your favorite F Paul Wilson book?
James,
1.) How much trade on the west coast of Garund goes on to provide for piracy?
2.) what sort of look and feel do you think Sargava has?
-vyshan
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12) Repairman Jack seires (F. Paul Wilson)Sweet. I've been a fan of those since the Tomb first came out, and am finally getting around to reading The Dark at the End now. Good to see another Jack fan!
Which Jack book was your favorite - and is it the same as your favorite F Paul Wilson book?
Definitely interested in James' favorites as well (The Keep and The Tomb were both awesome!), and, the shuddersome follow-up, did you see the movie version of The Keep, and if so, what did you think of it?
The Tomb's rakoshi might make for an interesting d20 monster...
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Mr. Jacobs, with your current vision for psychic magic in mind, what are your feelings on biotics from the Mass Effect Series? Even though it is technically something entirely different than psionics, do you feel it could be tweaked to represent it?
I get the feeling for Psychic Magic that you want it to fill a different niche than Divine and Arcane Magic, like have some overlap, but when I play a 9/9 Psychic Magic user, it will feel as different from a Wizard as Wizard does from Cleric.
When you talk about Psychic Magic, you talk about wanting rules be there to facilitate your vision for their use in Golarion, it makes me very confident whatever system Paizo develops for it, I'll enjoy it.
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How's this for a paladin of Shelyn?
That looks perfect for a follower of Milani as well.
How's this for a paladin of Shelyn?
Looks a bit weak to me. Don't think STR should be a dump stat for a meele Paladin.
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Do you like Tolkien's works? If not, why?
I noticed that Lord of the Rings wasn't in your top 20.
Also, would you call yourself more of a horror fan than a fantasy fan?
I do like Tolkein's works, but he's kinda like George Lucas in that his REAL talent lies in world creation, not in storytelling. He's a VASTLY better storyteller than Lucas, but still... his novels' strengths lie in the details of his imagination, not his ability to tell a gripping tale. The lack of any real role for female characters and his often dry academic style really detracts from the experience of reading his stuff for me. I think that Peter Jackson's changes to the stories in his movies are mostly quite excellent improvements, in other words. Tolkien is probably in my top 100, but not in my top 50... purely talking about works that influenced me, again.
I'm very very very much more a horror fan than a fantasy fan.
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Speaking of "my Golarion", I have to pretend Numeria doesn't exist... the entire area just gets swallowed up by Mendev and the River Kingdoms, with no trace of robots anywhere.
I realize there's some old adventure from the time that came before that inspired the region (to some extent), but it really does ruin my immersion. I mean, dungeons and dragons and space robots? What?
Haha--it's just as Set was saying--it's not the theme I'm interesting in (science fantasy is great, but I don't want it in my sword & sorcery).
Questions: Whose idea was it to include Numeria in the setting? Also, what's your opinion of it?
I believe it was Erik's idea to include Numeria... but perhaps at my urging. Not sure. My opinion of Numeria is that I've been wanting to do an AP set there for several years, and finally get to do one next year with "Iron Gods." Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, it's primary inspiration for me, is one of my top 5 1st edition AD&D adventures. I really REALLY love Numeria.
I also understand that it's not for everyone. The reason we set the Inner Sea up the way we did is so that you CAN ignore a region in your game that doesn't mesh with your ideas and sensibilities without really impacting your version of the world. This does result in a setting that has some unrealistic regional/global politics and the like, but that's a small price to pay for having a world that embraces so many styles of games.
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Creative Director
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There WILL be big robots in the AP. Just look at the opening illustration for Numeria in the Inner Sea World Guide for proof of that.
There WILL be powered armor in the adventure,
I saw your post on another thread James, I for one am excited about Iron Gods (just as I have been excited for Reign of Winter and now Wrath of the Righteous).
Paizo has always been mindful of our gaming roots, and I am sure the IG AP will be a worthy successor to the venerable 'Expedition to Barrier Peaks.'
That being said, just as Rasputin was mentioned in the original 1st Ed DMG, did you know that Powered Alloy/Energized/Inertia/Powered Scout/Battle Armor and Powered Attack/Assault Armor are mentioned in those pages as well? They can be found on page 114 of that book.
I believe those amors were AC -4 and AC -8 respectively, ACs which would make demon lords and ancient red dragons envious in that edition of the game.
I do know that power armor and the like is mentioned in the 1E DMG. It's going to be equally powerful in Pathfinder. It's a technological artifact after all, and like all artifacts it has to be really tied in strongly to the storyline and/or be something you don't get until toward the end of the campaign but perhaps spent a lot of the campaign's length anticipating or working toward.
Do you ever use the "by hand," as you called it, level progression (handing out levels at appropriate places)? I have considered doing so in the past but have never actually done it. The one game I was a player in that used it, the issue was I was playing an artificer from Ebberon so the lack of experience points hurt.
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Hey James, quick question: for the tengu's alternate racial trait 'glide', does the tengu automatically gain 'fly' as a class skill if they select this trait? I only ask because of this line...
Fly-You cannot take this skill without a natural means of flight or gliding.I know that a race like Strix automatically gains fly as a class skill (for obvious reasons) but would the above statement apply for tengu's with the glide trait? Thanks again.
Frankly... I think that the limitation on who can take ranks in Fly is kinda silly. We don't do the same for Swim, after all. In my games, anyone can take ranks in Fly at any time. The skill doesn't grant the ability to fly, after all, so what's the harm if someone wants to spend some of their ranks on a skill they can't (and may never be able to) use?
Whether or not the tengu gains the ability to have Fly be a class skill or not if they take that glide trait... that's up to your GM. As written? No they don't.
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Also, ** spoiler omitted **Good question! My bet is on him being punished, frankly, and ending up in Hell or the Abyss.Now how is that fair? The guy was LN, then went crazy and became CN after his utopian vision was corrupted.
On a related question, where did Father Tobyn (from all the way back in Burnt Offerings) end up?
It's fair because his errors in judgement and his pride and his personal failings, despite some of his laudable qualities of "let's treat races equally" VERY overshadow his good features. He is, after all, the reason runelords exist. And he DID fail at being emperor. And he never did attempt to reconcile or recover or even try to fix the problems he caused. He's a tragic figure, and the fact that he ends up going to Hell (or wherever) is part of his tragic tale.
Father Tobyn could well have gone either way. While he was a pretty devout worshiper of Desna and an upstanding citizen, the way he treated Nualia is a pretty stark example of NOT following Desna's teachings. The fact that Nualia went on to fall from grace so far and cause so much pain would probably be enough to have him end up going to the Abyss or Abaddon or Hell. MAYBE if Desna was feeling apolagetic enough she might put in a request to Pharasma to let him try to work off his sins in some sort of purgatory type situation... but the way he treated Nualia was pretty callous and uncaring and cruel. I think he ended up in a bad place.
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James,
With Mythic now out, do you see other uses for it's clip on meta-class framework for future products? Like for other optional subsystems such as army management/ranks, applying unique archtypes to existing classes with out needing to rebuild the whole class, etc?
Will we see the rest of the Iconics Mtyhiced up?
Dunno... maybe? But probably not.
The other iconics will have some mythic versions coming soon, but I'm not quite yet happy with how they all look, so they're still in flux, I guess you would say.
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So all those +2 bonuses from our Aid Another actions helped out?Would we be seeing Iron Gods in 2014 if not for Rasputin Must Die!'s reception, or was it already in the cards?Probably, but I would have had to roll higher on my Diplomacy check in presenting the idea to management.
Yup!
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I think I've seen your top 20 or so Mythos stories, but do you have a list of top 20 pieces of literature in general? If it's not on the top 20, where does A Song of Ice and Fire rank?Hmmm... let's see...
12) Repairman Jack seires (F. Paul Wilson)
Sweet. I've been a fan of those since the Tomb first came out, and am finally getting around to reading The Dark at the End now. Good to see another Jack fan!
Which Jack book was your favorite - and is it the same as your favorite F Paul Wilson book?
Nightworld is hands down my favorite F. Paul Wilson book, and thus by extension my favorite Jack book. In fact, Nightworld is probably one of my top 10 books of all time.
The Tomb is probably my 2nd favorite Jack book; it's the first Wilson I read (thanks Grandma!). But I think The Keep is better than The Tomb.
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Creative Director
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James,
1.) How much trade on the west coast of Garund goes on to provide for piracy?
2.) what sort of look and feel do you think Sargava has?
-vyshan
1) Enough to justify the existence of the Shackles. AKA: Plenty.
2) See part 2 of Serpent's Skull and the Sargava Player's Companion. To a certain extent, I kinda feel like it's like British-occupied India but instead of India, it's Africa.
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12) Repairman Jack seires (F. Paul Wilson)Sweet. I've been a fan of those since the Tomb first came out, and am finally getting around to reading The Dark at the End now. Good to see another Jack fan!
Which Jack book was your favorite - and is it the same as your favorite F Paul Wilson book?
Definitely interested in James' favorites as well (The Keep and The Tomb were both awesome!), and, the shuddersome follow-up, did you see the movie version of The Keep, and if so, what did you think of it?
The Tomb's rakoshi might make for an interesting d20 monster...
The movie version of "The Keep" is the movie I want to see remade the most of pretty much all movies ever.
I saw the movie version of "The Keep" before I read the book, which is good. And there are some scenes from the movie that I think are INCREDIBLY effective, particularly the scene where Rasalom/Molaser in spirit form shoots up from the depths of the underworld to rise up slowly until it's a point of light that consumes the headlight of the nazi peeking into the vastness after that super long pullback shot. That single shot is one of my favorite shots in any movie ever. I also love the cast for the movie. But the change to the ending is maddening, and the longer the movie goes on, the more embarrassing the effects work seems to get.
I would call the movie version a Guilty Pleasure, and I think it's a testament to what bits of Wilson's writing made it into the movie, combined with some really great camerawork/directing, great cast, and the hypnotic score that the rest of the movie, which is really pretty terrible, actually manage to maintain my appreciation for it. I guess you could say that I like what the movie COULD have been so much that I'm willing to accept its terrible parts.
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Mr. Jacobs, with your current vision for psychic magic in mind, what are your feelings on biotics from the Mass Effect Series? Even though it is technically something entirely different than psionics, do you feel it could be tweaked to represent it?
I get the feeling for Psychic Magic that you want it to fill a different niche than Divine and Arcane Magic, like have some overlap, but when I play a 9/9 Psychic Magic user, it will feel as different from a Wizard as Wizard does from Cleric.
When you talk about Psychic Magic, you talk about wanting rules be there to facilitate your vision for their use in Golarion, it makes me very confident whatever system Paizo develops for it, I'll enjoy it.
I'm kinda done for the moment talking about Psychic Magic, actually, since it's so far in the future and it's not really something we've talked about here at Paizo that I'm gonna just let it cool down for a while.
Also, ** spoiler omitted **Good question! My bet is on him being punished, frankly, and ending up in Hell or the Abyss.Now how is that fair? The guy was LN, then went crazy and became CN after his utopian vision was corrupted.
On a related question, where did Father Tobyn (from all the way back in Burnt Offerings) end up?
It's fair because his errors in judgement and his pride and his personal failings, despite some of his laudable qualities of "let's treat races equally" VERY overshadow his good features. He is, after all, the reason runelords exist. And he DID fail at being emperor. And he never did attempt to reconcile or recover or even try to fix the problems he caused. He's a tragic figure, and the fact that he ends up going to Hell (or wherever) is part of his tragic tale.
Father Tobyn could well have gone either way. While he was a pretty devout worshiper of Desna and an upstanding citizen, the way he treated Nualia is a pretty stark example of NOT following Desna's teachings. The fact that Nualia went on to fall from grace so far and cause so much pain would probably be enough to have him end up going to the Abyss or Abaddon or Hell. MAYBE if Desna was feeling apolagetic enough she might put in a request to Pharasma to let him try to work off his sins in some sort of purgatory type situation... but the way he treated Nualia was pretty callous and uncaring and cruel. I think he ended up in a bad place.
People of Neutral alignment seem to end up in the Lower Planes a lot.
Out of all the Neutral NPCs in Pathfinder, how many share such a grisly fate?
Also, wouldn't these decisions spawn more fiends? Their souls are trapped IN THE LOWER PLANES, after all.