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Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cubed wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Cubed wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Cubed wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Secane wrote:

Not sure if this has been asked before.

But would we ever see an Adventure Path or Module, where the goal is to free the "Good" Elemental Lords?

Would/Are the "Good" Elemental Lords even possible to be set free at all?

No. Because the "good" elemental lords are dead, not imprisoned. They were murdered LONG ago by the evil ones.
Did you change your mind on this?
I didn't... but others made the decision moot for me by developing the storyline in a different way.
So which developer is bringing back Aroden?
Let's keep questions to honest questions, not snarky ones.
Unfortunately, I'm serious. I thought that you had absolute control of this type of thing.

I don't have "absolutely control" over this type of thing.

Aroden is not coming back, in any event.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Not sure what your asking re: curry pairing. Something to drink with it? Something to make out of it? And I'm confused by the shift from "soda and snack food" to "curry" which is more in the category of meal in my brain than soda or snack...

Asking about a drink pairing, because for years, my go-to kneejerk choice when I had a curry was a Coke.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Cole Deschain wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Not sure what your asking re: curry pairing. Something to drink with it? Something to make out of it? And I'm confused by the shift from "soda and snack food" to "curry" which is more in the category of meal in my brain than soda or snack...
Asking about a drink pairing, because for years, my go-to kneejerk choice when I had a curry was a Coke.

Ah; gotcha.

If you're looking to lose weight, I suggest pairing water with as many meals as possible. It can be zero-calorie flavored water (I'm a big fan of the lemon-raspberry sparkling water sold at Whole Foods), but plain old water works just as well.

I used to drink a lot of soda, and then shifted to diet soda before pretty much cutting ALL soda out. Today, if I drink a pepsi or coke (including diet) it tastes way too sugary and kinda nasty.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:

There's some Ashava stuff in the Magnimar book. She's my favorite Empyreal Lord, but I've not yet had a chance or place to have her faith play a larger role yet other than the Magnimar book which was sort of her intro to the setting. Wes invented her name in the article he did on Magnimar in Pathfinder #2 but there's not a lot of info about her there.

Ooooh... that's cool, Ashava is one of my favourites too! Add me to the list of people that would like to see more of her!

Questions:

1) I'm assuming since you were Bestiary 6's developer, you didn't write the Great Old Ones yourself, correct?
2) Which of the GOOs ended up as your favourite?
3) Which of the Eldest in B6 is your favourite?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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FallenDabus wrote:

1) I'm assuming since you were Bestiary 6's developer, you didn't write the Great Old Ones yourself, correct?

2) Which of the GOOs ended up as your favourite?
3) Which of the Eldest in B6 is your favourite?

1) I was the primary/lead developer for Bestiary 6, but I also wrote a fair amount of the monsters in Bestiary 6, including all of the Great Old Ones.

2) I'm the most pleased with Tawil at'Umr, I think. Althoguh even now I'm still going back and forth on whether I should have listed it's name the way Lovecraft wrote it originally... :-/

3) Sounds like you're trying to trick me into confirming or denying that there are Eldest in Bestiary 6. Since I've already revealed all of the demigod categories that appear in B6 (archdevil, Horsman of the Apocalypse, Great Old One, and Empyreal lord), I'm okay with confirming that there are no Eldest in Bestiary 6.

Silver Crusade Contributor

As it's been established in Hell's Rebels that you can't develop your own work... are you at liberty to disclose who developed your monsters?


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
FallenDabus wrote:

1) I'm assuming since you were Bestiary 6's developer, you didn't write the Great Old Ones yourself, correct?

2) Which of the GOOs ended up as your favourite?
3) Which of the Eldest in B6 is your favourite?

1) I was the primary/lead developer for Bestiary 6, but I also wrote a fair amount of the monsters in Bestiary 6, including all of the Great Old Ones.

2) I'm the most pleased with Tawil at'Umr, I think. Althoguh even now I'm still going back and forth on whether I should have listed it's name the way Lovecraft wrote it originally... :-/

3) Sounds like you're trying to trick me into confirming or denying that there are Eldest in Bestiary 6. Since I've already revealed all of the demigod categories that appear in B6 (archdevil, Horsman of the Apocalypse, Great Old One, and Empyreal lord), I'm okay with confirming that there are no Eldest in Bestiary 6.

Ah, sorry, I actually though they were confirmed fairly early on! Completely my mistake, no tricks up these sleeves.

Penance questions:
1) Who is your favourite Pathfinder Diety outside of the core 20?
2) Who is your favourite demon lord from D&D?

Thanks as always!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Kalindlara wrote:
As it's been established in Hell's Rebels that you can't develop your own work... are you at liberty to disclose who developed your monsters?

Actually, you CAN develop your own work, it's just not something we do often. For adventures in particular, it's very helpful to have a fresh set of eyes to look over something you wrote, but for something that's far less complicated, such as a monster, development of your own work is a lot easier. Especially since the tools for monster creation are among the most well-presented and organized tools we have (see the appendixes to the Bestiaries for the details).

In any event, I developed the monsters I wrote for Bestiary 6. Which in this case, is the same as writing them, since my process for developing a monster is to, in effect, rebuild the monster from ground up, using the author's original turnover as a starting point.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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FallenDabus wrote:

Penance questions:

1) Who is your favourite Pathfinder Diety outside of the core 20?
2) Who is your favourite demon lord from D&D?

Thanks as always!

1) Nocticula. Oh, wait, you asked for a deity, not a demigod. So until I can get Nocticula promoted, my current favorite non-core deity in the Pathfinder game is probably Yog-Sothoth. BUT if you're asking which deity that I created for the setting rather than borrowed from elsewhere is my favorite, I guess then I'd have to go with Achaekek, or Ghlaunder, or Groetus, or Milani, or Sivanah, or Zyphus.

2) Demogorgon.


The text of greater teleport says "must have at least a reliable description of the place" I'm teleporting. How precise is that? How easily can I travel to new places with the spell?

Also, would "the area around whoever I'm scrying" be precise enough?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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AlgaeNymph wrote:

The text of greater teleport says "must have at least a reliable description of the place" I'm teleporting. How precise is that? How easily can I travel to new places with the spell?

Also, would "the area around whoever I'm scrying" be precise enough?

Up to your GM, frankly.

In my game, having someone else who's spent time in a location and then takes a few minutes describing the location in detail is enough to let you try to teleport to it. Likewise, reading a description of a place that's detailed enough will let you do the same.

The "area around whoever I'm scrying" is also up to the GM's preference, but my STRONG preference there (and the one I enforce in games I run and would like, some day, to see us put in print as errata or clarification or the like) is NOT enough. Since scrying 's description specifically says in the 1st sentence "you can observe a creature" and not "the creature and its surroundings" AND since the spell can be resisted with a saving throw, that tells me that the effect is linked to a creature, not a location. The fact that it lets you see a small area around the creature is not enough to know what that area is. A glimpse of someone standing in a woodland tells you only they're in woods—not that they're in Churlwood or the River Kingdoms or Mirkwood or the Black Forest of Germany or somewhere on Skull Island or whatever, for example. This more or less shuts down the "scry and fry" tactic from both sides (GM and player) which is good for the game's fun.


James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:


You've compared Magnimar and Kintargo to San Francisco before, something this San Franciscian finds interesting. What exactly does "like San Francisco" mean to you?
San Francisco is one of my favorite cities. I've always admired its topography, its iconic bridges, its liberal bent, the variety of its food, and its diversity. And so there's a big bridge in Magnimar, and it's very diverse, and it's quite the opposite of more traditional/conservative Korvosa.

This clue to your political views intrigues me. By the way, have you ever been to the off-topic threads on these forums?

EDIT: The political ones, I mean.


James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:

The text of greater teleport says "must have at least a reliable description of the place" I'm teleporting. How precise is that? How easily can I travel to new places with the spell?

Also, would "the area around whoever I'm scrying" be precise enough?

Up to your GM, frankly.

In my game, having someone else who's spent time in a location and then takes a few minutes describing the location in detail is enough to let you try to teleport to it. Likewise, reading a description of a place that's detailed enough will let you do the same.

The "area around whoever I'm scrying" is also up to the GM's preference, but my STRONG preference there (and the one I enforce in games I run and would like, some day, to see us put in print as errata or clarification or the like) is NOT enough. [...] This more or less shuts down the "scry and fry" tactic from both sides (GM and player) which is good for the game's fun.

I figured as much.

Hm... So why couldn't a wizard demand a scryed being describe their location?

But back to traveling via greater teleport. Would something specific-yet-broad (e.g., "the main port in the Rampore Islands") be precise enough?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sam the silver dragon wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:


You've compared Magnimar and Kintargo to San Francisco before, something this San Franciscian finds interesting. What exactly does "like San Francisco" mean to you?
San Francisco is one of my favorite cities. I've always admired its topography, its iconic bridges, its liberal bent, the variety of its food, and its diversity. And so there's a big bridge in Magnimar, and it's very diverse, and it's quite the opposite of more traditional/conservative Korvosa.

This clue to your political views intrigues me. By the way, have you ever been to the off-topic threads on these forums?

EDIT: The political ones, I mean.

No.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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AlgaeNymph wrote:

Hm... So why couldn't a wizard demand a scryed being describe their location?

But back to traveling via greater teleport. Would something specific-yet-broad (e.g., "the main port in the Rampore Islands") be precise enough?

Because the 25 word reply for demand isn't detailed enough.

BUT NOW that I actually read the rules for teleport... you have to have seen the place to teleport to it. No amount of description, verbal or otherwise, will allow you to teleport to a location you've never seen. The point of teleport is to make a shortcut to a location you've been to, NOT to bypass the first journey to a location.

Greater teleport removes the requirement that you must have seen the location, but to teleport to an unseen location via greater teleport you must have the reliable description we've been talking about. "The main port in the Rampore Islands' is hardly a reliable description of a location. It's barely even a name. Won't work. You need a description, one that requries far more than 25 words to convey.

If you want me to tell you what to do in your game, I'd suggest that said description would need to be so detailed that it would either need to be 900 words of descriptive text (that's about as many words as are on a published page of a Paizo book that has no art on the page) or a detailed map of the location with 300 words of explanatory notes.


What happens in your games if the caster is given a very detailed, but unbeknownst to them, factually inaccurate description? (Presumably it doesn't work, but would the caster know why?)

I suppose the broader question is how much information do you give out when a spell fails? Can the caster tell the difference between casting a scry spell on a target hidden from divination magic versus one who isn't hidden but who makes their save?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Steve Geddes wrote:

What happens in your games if the caster is given a very detailed, but unbeknownst to them, factually inaccurate description? (Presumably it doesn't work, but would the caster know why?)

I suppose the broader question is how much information do you give out when a spell fails? Can the caster tell the difference between casting a scry spell on a target hidden from divination magic versus one who isn't hidden but who makes their save?

As described in the description for greater teleport, the caster reappears where they started from. The greater teleport spell is used, but they don't go anywhere.

And when a spell fails, it depends 100% on the circumstance and my preference for how much info to give out will make the game/story more interesting for all involved, perhaps adjusted by GM fiat depending on the result of the PC's Intelligence score or a skill check result.


Cheers.


Hi James
I have a question about slavery in kintargo. I know slavery in kintargo is legal because it's legal in Cheliax. And since the bellflower network has a presence in the city there must be some slaves. How prevalent is it in the city? Who would own slaves? Would the evil Thrune supporting nobility own slaves?One of my PCs was looking into hiring a hireling to maintain his private residence in the city and had the idea of buying and freeing a slave and then employing said person if they wished. How much do slaves in cheliax cost? Are there even places in the city to buy slaves? I know halfling and tieflings are the most common slaves in cheleiax , what other races can be bought as slaves in cheliax? How much would a slave cost for a player to purchase? Would a freed slave have to worry about slave catchers and being put back into slavery?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Alundrell wrote:

Hi James

I have a question about slavery in kintargo. I know slavery in kintargo is legal because it's legal in Cheliax. And since the bellflower network has a presence in the city there must be some slaves. How prevalent is it in the city? Who would own slaves? Would the evil Thrune supporting nobility own slaves?One of my PCs was looking into hiring a hireling to maintain his private residence in the city and had the idea of buying and freeing a slave and then employing said person if they wished. How much do slaves in cheliax cost? Are there even places in the city to buy slaves? I know halfling and tieflings are the most common slaves in cheleiax , what other races can be bought as slaves in cheliax? How much would a slave cost for a player to purchase? Would a freed slave have to worry about slave catchers and being put back into slavery?

While slavery is technically legal in Kintargo, it's not something that the majority of those who live there support or like. Most of those who live in Kintargo came there to get away from Thrune and diabolisim, after all, which is why the whole plot of Hell's Rebels even happens.

There's a Bellflower presence in the city for 2 reasons. First, because there ARE still slaves there, they're just not paraded out in the open. But second and more important, Kintargo serves as a place where escaped slaves can try to reach without risking crossing a Chelish border, and/or where slaves of a visiting noble from another city have a chance to catch a glimpse of a better life and perhaps escape.

The few slaves that are enslaved in Kintargo are kept by the relatively few pro-Thrune nobles and rich folk, and they generally either keep them out of public sight or treat them more like serving staff rather than slaves.

Who would own slaves, you ask? Evil NPCs. Slavery is fundamentally and unquestionably an evil act, and a PC who wants to buy and own slaves is an evil PC. I do NOT recommend allowing slaver PCs to be played in Hell's Rebels; that's even more disruptive than playing a demon worshiper in that game, since slavers are part of the whole problem the heroes of Hell's Rebels are trying to solve (even a demon worshiper can be counted on somewhat to help want to fight against a lawful evil regime, after all).

If you want to allow PCs to buy and own slaves, you FIRST need to make sure that everyone at your game table is comfortable with that. If even ONE PERSON is not, you absolutely should abandon the concept and keep slavers as evil NPC villains. You should do this even if you're running an evil campaign, like Hell's Vengeance.

I'm not gonna tell you how much slaves cost, in any event, because that's best left as background material that doesn't need to be quantified because it should only be evil NPCs who own slaves.

If you want to allow player characters to buy and keep slaves in your game, that's your choice (and HOPEFULLY one all of your players are okay with), and as part of your choice, you need to do your own work in setting prices.

I'm absolutely NOT INTERESTED in helping ANYONE run a game with PCs who are slavers.


James Jacobs wrote:
Alundrell wrote:

Hi James

I have a question about slavery in kintargo. I know slavery in kintargo is legal because it's legal in Cheliax. And since the bellflower network has a presence in the city there must be some slaves. How prevalent is it in the city? Who would own slaves? Would the evil Thrune supporting nobility own slaves?One of my PCs was looking into hiring a hireling to maintain his private residence in the city and had the idea of buying and freeing a slave and then employing said person if they wished. How much do slaves in cheliax cost? Are there even places in the city to buy slaves? I know halfling and tieflings are the most common slaves in cheleiax , what other races can be bought as slaves in cheliax? How much would a slave cost for a player to purchase? Would a freed slave have to worry about slave catchers and being put back into slavery?

While slavery is technically legal in Kintargo, it's not something that the majority of those who live there support or like. Most of those who live in Kintargo came there to get away from Thrune and diabolisim, after all, which is why the whole plot of Hell's Rebels even happens.

There's a Bellflower presence in the city for 2 reasons. First, because there ARE still slaves there, they're just not paraded out in the open. But second and more important, Kintargo serves as a place where escaped slaves can try to reach without risking crossing a Chelish border, and/or where slaves of a visiting noble from another city have a chance to catch a glimpse of a better life and perhaps escape.

The few slaves that are enslaved in Kintargo are kept by the relatively few pro-Thrune nobles and rich folk, and they generally either keep them out of public sight or treat them more like serving staff rather than slaves.

Who would own slaves, you ask? Evil NPCs. Slavery is fundamentally and unquestionably an evil act, and a PC who wants to buy and own slaves is an evil PC. I do NOT recommend allowing slaver PCs to be played in Hell's Rebels;...

I think I may not have explained my question well enough, let me clarify.

The PC doesn't want to keep the slave, he is planing on doing what several wealthy northerners did in the 1800s. He is a lawful character so just violently attacking slave Traders and freeing them isn't what he wants however for his character purchasing a slave and then setting them free is a way he can accomplish freeing the slave within chelish laws. His family are kintargan nobles who are anti Thrune and most of there servant staff are former slaves. However it seems like there really isn't anywhere he could go in the city to do that and he would need to travel to another city where there are more prolific slave market

I wouldn't want to run a game where my players were slavers either :)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Alundrell wrote:
The PC doesn't want to keep the slave, he is planing on doing what several wealthy northerners did in the 1800s. He is a lawful character so just violently attacking slave Traders and freeing them isn't what he wants however for his character purchasing a slave and then setting them free is a way he can accomplish freeing the slave within chelish laws. His family are kintargan nobles who are anti Thrune and most of there servant staff are former slaves. However it seems like there really isn't anywhere he could go in the city to do that and he would need to travel to another city where there are more prolific slave market

That's irrelevant to the fact that I'm not interested in creating rules for slave ownership and prices.

And in fact, the whole "I'm not evil, I'm lawful, and so owning slaves where it's legal should be fine" argument is, in itself, morally repugnant to me.

FAR too many gamers on this site and elsewhere use this argument to hide behind a facade to try to "game the system" or whatever, but none of that changes, in my mind, the concept that slavery is evil. It's a part of Golarion because it's an (unfortunate) fact of life and it enables an excellent plot point for evil bad guys whom the PCs should then defeat, but it's not something I'm interested AT ALL in quantifying as a PC facing rule. To the extent I'm not interested in quantifying it as a GM facing rule here, since too many players will take that as permission to be jerks.

Do what you want in your games, I guess. I have zero interest in pursuing this topic further in this thread.


Fair enough didn't mean to cause problems or strike a cord. As always thanks for the info!

Shadow Lodge Contributor

Would you be willing to share more about the planet Androffa? Even though I finished playing in Iron Gods several months ago, I am currently running two concurrent groups through it. Add in the early wondering about Starfinder and I found myself revisiting your words in that AP about Androffa's gods and state - I'd love to hear/learn more about that world's history if you're ever interested in sharing it! :)

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Are you excited for Beamdog's upcoming Enhanced Edition of the venerable Planescape: Torment?

If a Chelish noble wanted to send their kid to a wizard school, would the Acadamae in Korvosa or the Egorian Academy of the Magical Arts be considered more prestigious? Which might a prospective student find more terrifying to attend?

If you had to associate the four elements (fire, water, earth and air) with the four season, which would you associate with which?


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
CanisDirus wrote:
Would you be willing to share more about the planet Androffa? Even though I finished playing in Iron Gods several months ago, I am currently running two concurrent groups through it. Add in the early wondering about Starfinder and I found myself revisiting your words in that AP about Androffa's gods and state - I'd love to hear/learn more about that world's history if you're ever interested in sharing it! :)

I'm not James, but he did respond to a similar question about a month ago. Link!

On Topic:
What are some of your favorite roles to play as a character?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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CanisDirus wrote:
Would you be willing to share more about the planet Androffa? Even though I finished playing in Iron Gods several months ago, I am currently running two concurrent groups through it. Add in the early wondering about Starfinder and I found myself revisiting your words in that AP about Androffa's gods and state - I'd love to hear/learn more about that world's history if you're ever interested in sharing it! :)

Nope; what I've said about Androffa is all I really want to say about it, other than this:

"Modern" Androffa (aka the version of the world that exists in the same current timeline as Golarion) is now known simply as Droffa, and it's pretty much the same type of world as Golarion. Since this is my long-running homebrew from which I exported a lot of content to build Golarion, the more I say about Droffa, the goofier and weirder things get.

In a way, if you want to know more about Droffa, just read up on regions of Golarion that I helped create, I suppose.

I'm not involved with Starfinder, really, so I can't help much there, but I have made repeated requests of the Starfinder team to NOT include Androffa in that game. That is, more or less, my only real input into that game.

If you want to expand more on Androffa in your home game... you can do anything you want with it without fear of being "contradicted" by something we publish.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Are you excited for Beamdog's upcoming Enhanced Edition of the venerable Planescape: Torment?

If a Chelish noble wanted to send their kid to a wizard school, would the Acadamae in Korvosa or the Egorian Academy of the Magical Arts be considered more prestigious? Which might a prospective student find more terrifying to attend?

If you had to associate the four elements (fire, water, earth and air) with the four season, which would you associate with which?

I've actually known this game was coming for a loooong time, so my excitement has long since transitioned into anticipation. I haven't bought it yet, though... got way too much else going on. I'll probably grab it later this week and install it so that when I am ready to play it, it'll be there. Likely as a game I play when I go on vacation later in the year around the 4th of July, since I'll be able to bring my laptop but not my Xbox or PS4 for entertainment...

Egorian Academy would be not only more prestigious, but less embarasing than sending your kid to a backwater barely-civilized city of upstarts.

Spring: Earth (the season for growing and when the ground comes out after the snows)
Summer: Fire (it's hot!)
Autumn: Air (blustery storms coming in blowing leaves off trees)
Winter: Water (so much rain!)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

TrinitysEnd wrote:
CanisDirus wrote:
Would you be willing to share more about the planet Androffa? Even though I finished playing in Iron Gods several months ago, I am currently running two concurrent groups through it. Add in the early wondering about Starfinder and I found myself revisiting your words in that AP about Androffa's gods and state - I'd love to hear/learn more about that world's history if you're ever interested in sharing it! :)

I'm not James, but he did respond to a similar question about a month ago. Link!

On Topic:
What are some of your favorite roles to play as a character?

Since I don't read ahead and I answer questions in order, when folks answer for me, it tends to end up looking weird. Furthermore, what I write on these boards on one day may not be the same response I want to write ten or 100 or 1,000 days later. The internet is forever, but humans often change their mind.

In this case, my reply remains the same as my previous one, but please don't help like that. It can cause confusion, and it's not in the spirit of the thread anyway. I don't mind answering questions more than once, so folks don't need to feel the urge to answer for me or get worked up if someone asks something they already think they know the answer to.

My favorite roles to play as character are those that are support roles, but also roles that are plucky and sometimes foolish and fun to hang out with.

Lantern Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4

James Jacobs wrote:
CanisDirus wrote:
Would you be willing to share more about the planet Androffa? Even though I finished playing in Iron Gods several months ago, I am currently running two concurrent groups through it. Add in the early wondering about Starfinder and I found myself revisiting your words in that AP about Androffa's gods and state - I'd love to hear/learn more about that world's history if you're ever interested in sharing it! :)

Nope; what I've said about Androffa is all I really want to say about it, other than this:

"Modern" Androffa (aka the version of the world that exists in the same current timeline as Golarion) is now known simply as Droffa, and it's pretty much the same type of world as Golarion. Since this is my long-running homebrew from which I exported a lot of content to build Golarion, the more I say about Droffa, the goofier and weirder things get.

In a way, if you want to know more about Droffa, just read up on regions of Golarion that I helped create, I suppose.

I'm not involved with Starfinder, really, so I can't help much there, but I have made repeated requests of the Starfinder team to NOT include Androffa in that game. That is, more or less, my only real input into that game.

If you want to expand more on Androffa in your home game... you can do anything you want with it without fear of being "contradicted" by something we publish.

James, as a world builder I'm always curious to learn other creatives' motivations and relational for their own story choices. Since you were instrumental in getting Androffa mentioned in Golarion lore--choosing it as the origin source of the crashed Divinity--why did you also choose to have Androffa/Droffa be based on a home brew world that was used as inspiration for Golarion?

Wouldn't it have been more interesting, and opened up the potential for development in the future (including Starfinder), if it was instead something new? I only wonder why this choice was made because it seems clear the primary reason we won't really ever see more Androffa content is because "the more I say about Droffa, the goofier and weirder things get."

Very curious to hear your thoughts and insight :)

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
...but I have made repeated requests of the Starfinder team to NOT include Androffa in that game.

Why would you need to make repeated requests? Are they considering putting Androffa in Starfinder?

Also, isn't Androffa in another galaxy. Wouldn't detailing other galaxies drastically increase the scope of Starfinder?

I'd think one galaxy with 100 billion stars would be plenty of space to work on. (assuming Golarion's galaxy is the same size as ours)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Robert Brookes wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
CanisDirus wrote:
Would you be willing to share more about the planet Androffa? Even though I finished playing in Iron Gods several months ago, I am currently running two concurrent groups through it. Add in the early wondering about Starfinder and I found myself revisiting your words in that AP about Androffa's gods and state - I'd love to hear/learn more about that world's history if you're ever interested in sharing it! :)

Nope; what I've said about Androffa is all I really want to say about it, other than this:

"Modern" Androffa (aka the version of the world that exists in the same current timeline as Golarion) is now known simply as Droffa, and it's pretty much the same type of world as Golarion. Since this is my long-running homebrew from which I exported a lot of content to build Golarion, the more I say about Droffa, the goofier and weirder things get.

In a way, if you want to know more about Droffa, just read up on regions of Golarion that I helped create, I suppose.

I'm not involved with Starfinder, really, so I can't help much there, but I have made repeated requests of the Starfinder team to NOT include Androffa in that game. That is, more or less, my only real input into that game.

If you want to expand more on Androffa in your home game... you can do anything you want with it without fear of being "contradicted" by something we publish.

James, as a world builder I'm always curious to learn other creatives' motivations and relational for their own story choices. Since you were instrumental in getting Androffa mentioned in Golarion lore--choosing it as the origin source of the crashed Divinity--why did you also choose to have Androffa/Droffa be based on a home brew world that was used as inspiration for Golarion?

Wouldn't it have been more interesting, and opened up the potential for development in the future (including Starfinder), if it was instead something new? I only wonder why this choice was made because it seems clear the primary reason we won't really ever see more Androffa content is because "the more I say about Droffa, the goofier and weirder things get."

Very curious to hear your thoughts and insight :)

The initial idea behind making the Divinity come from Androffa was twofold:

1) It explains in my head why there are so many similarities between my homebrew and Golarion, and...
2) It was intended to be a "blank slate" for GMs to use as they wish to develop in their games without fear of us contradicting them in the future.

I felt that point 2 above was safe, in that we SHOULDN'T build more aobut Androffa because in my head, that would make a world that looks just like Golarion that, instead of having an "Earthfall" event that reset the previous civilization had a "Wrath of the Gods" event instead.

At this point, if I WERE to officially "sell" the rest of my homebrew to Paizo and use it to develop a modern Androffa, the result would need to have significant sections changed anyway since I've already exported so much of that world to Golarion anyway.

In hindsight, I wish I'd just made up a new word for the Divinity's home world, frankly. All of the rest of the backstory of Iron Gods (including Divinity itself) was 100% made up for Golarion and not something from my homebrew.

As for Starfinder, the part of the setting that appeals to me the most is the fact that it's NEW stuff, not stuff that's already part of Golarion. So, no, from my perspective, it wouldn't be more interesting to put Androffa in Starfinder.

In any event, me not saying more about Androffa in print isn't robbing you of content you deserve. The amount of material we'll publish is the same whether or not I do more with Androffa.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Atrocious wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
...but I have made repeated requests of the Starfinder team to NOT include Androffa in that game.

Why would you need to make repeated requests? Are they considering putting Androffa in Starfinder?

Also, isn't Androffa in another galaxy. Wouldn't detailing other galaxies drastically increase the scope of Starfinder?

I'd think one galaxy with 100 billion stars would be plenty of space to work on. (assuming Golarion's galaxy is the same size as ours)

If I said nothing and they did I'd be frustrated, so I said something.

As you point out, galaxies have billions of stars. And there are billions of galaxies. There are indeed plenty of stars to develop systems for, and me saying "Please leave Androffa out," is no different than us not putting the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk or content from Mass Effect or LV-426 or Middle Earth or any number of other intellectual properties that we don't have permission to work with.

In this case, the "intellectual property" of Androffa as a word and as a planet that once had a high-tech society on it is now owned by Paizo, because I "sold" it to Paizo. If the Starfinder team wanted, they could absolutely do more with Androffa in Starfinder... as could folks working on Pathfinder as well. I would not be able to sue them or have any other legal recourse to fall back on. I would hope that if someone else here at Paizo really wanted to do more with Androffa that they'd talk to me first, but that's not a requirement. Someone could just do that in Starfinder and say "tough it out, Jacobs." I'd hope they wouldn't, and by making my request I am trying to avoid that potential awkwardness down the road.


So what movies have you seen lately and what did you think of them?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Have you seen Kong: Skull Island yet? If so, what'd you think?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
So what movies have you seen lately and what did you think of them?

Kong: Skull Island: Excellent, with the best post-credits scene ever of any movie.

Life: Best Alien hommage movie ever. Very intense, and very refreshing to see an R-rated horror movie that had a decent budget to do some great special effects work.

Evidence: Mediocre found-footage film that had a cool twist in the middle that it kinda wasted.

Savageland: One of the most distubing and unsettling movies I've seen in quite a long time; GREAT movie.

The Mechanic Resurrected: Or whatever it was called. Jason Statham does Jason Statham stuff. Entertaining as long as it went on, I guess.

The Belko Experiment: Quite entertaining, overall, with a few missteps here and there that didn't ruin the movie.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Squeakmaan wrote:
Have you seen Kong: Skull Island yet? If so, what'd you think?

See above. :-P


James Jacobs wrote:

Savageland: One of the most distubing and unsettling movies I've seen in quite a long time; GREAT movie.

Is this the one that's presented documentary style about an immigrant photographer who happens to be a lone survivor of a massacre and is accused of the crime? If so I saw that at a horror film festival a couple of years back and really struck a cord with me. Wonderful film.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

How would you say Kong: Skull Island compared with the 2014 Godzilla movie that is apparently part of he same universe? I can't remember if you opinion on the Godzilla movie was one of approval or if disappointment...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Triphoppenskip wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

Savageland: One of the most distubing and unsettling movies I've seen in quite a long time; GREAT movie.

Is this the one that's presented documentary style about an immigrant photographer who happens to be a lone survivor of a massacre and is accused of the crime? If so I saw that at a horror film festival a couple of years back and really struck a cord with me. Wonderful film.

That's the one! Incredible movie that, given the current political climate, has an unanticipated-by-the-filmmakers extra level of unease tacked on.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
How would you say Kong: Skull Island compared with the 2014 Godzilla movie that is apparently part of he same universe? I can't remember if you opinion on the Godzilla movie was one of approval or if disappointment...

Loved the 2014 Godzilla movie. Saw it twice on opening day, in fact. That movie is legions better than Kong: Skull Island, and Kong is great movie.

The only nitpick I have about Godzilla (2014) is that I wish that the roles of the husband and wife characters were swapped. It would have been a MUCH better move had she been the bomb expert and he had been the nurse... and not only due to the diversity that would create, but because she's such a better actor than he was.


Mr. James Jacobs,

If you were to build a character based off of Yog-Sothoth in his "I am the gate and the key" aspect how would you spec him?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

If you were to build a character based off of Yog-Sothoth in his "I am the gate and the key" aspect how would you spec him?

As in, stats for an avatar of Yog-Sothoth? See the upcoming Bestiary 6.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

catfolk clawblades are they still usable with feats that work with natural weapons or not like feral combat training, cause i've heard it both ways and seen so much discussion about it

Silver Crusade

Have you beaten The Ringed City yet?

If so what did you think of the ending?

Any favourite moments?

Favourite boss?


Do you have a favorite moment from Kong?

Mine's probably the

Spoiler:
bamboo spider!
Very unexpected and cool. :D

Also, for that end credits scene, which are you looking forward to most?
My favorite's

Spoiler:
Mothra, in large part because it's the friendliest and most defensive of the group; very atypical for a kaiju


Hi~ Mr. James Jacobs, I have some weird questions about four hand race(such as Kasatha or Shobhad) with Multiweapon Fighting feat.

1). Can kasatha wield two two-handed melee weapons, like two greatswords, and use two-weapon fighting?

2). Can kasatha wield one two-handed melee weapon and two one-handed melee weapons, like one greatsword and two short swords, and use multiweapon fighting?

In a Bow Nomad(kasatha ranger archetype)'s Twin Bows ability, it can let kasatha simultaneously wield two bows and use two-weapon fighting. According to this ability, normal kasatha can't wield two bows, am I right?

So it can be inferred to that kasatha can't wield two two-handed melee Weapons?

Thanks you!

Multiweapon Fighting::
This multi-armed creature is skilled at making attacks with multiple weapons.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, three or more hands.

Benefit: Penalties for fighting with multiple weapons are reduced by –2 with the primary hand and by –6 with off hands.

Normal: A creature without this feat takes a –6 penalty on attacks made with its primary hand and a –10 penalty on attacks made with all of its off hands. (It has one primary hand, and all the others are off hands.) See Two-Weapon Fighting.

Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for creatures with more than two arms.

Multi-Armed::
A kasatha has four arms. One hand is considered its primary hand; all others are considered off hands. It can use any of its hands for other purposes that require free hands.

Bow Nomad::
Twin Bows (Ex)
At 1st level, a bow nomad can simultaneously wield a combination of two of any of the following ranged weapons: shortbow, longbow, and their composite versions. When a bow nomad makes a full attack with two bows, two-weapon penalties apply and can be offset with Two-Weapon Fighting feats. Since bows aren't light weapons, a bow nomad with Two-Weapon Fighting takes a –4 penalty on attacks with each of her bows. Extra attacks from other sources, such as those granted by Manyshot or Rapid Shot, can be applied to only one of the wielded bows per round.
This ability replaces wild empathy.

Bow Nomad link

Paizo Employee Creative Director

serithal wrote:
catfolk clawblades are they still usable with feats that work with natural weapons or not like feral combat training, cause i've heard it both ways and seen so much discussion about it

Rules questions need to be asked in the proper rules forum/product forum.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ziegfeld wrote:

Hi~ Mr. James Jacobs, I have some weird questions about four hand race(such as Kasatha or Shobhad) with Multiweapon Fighting feat.

1). Can kasatha wield two two-handed melee weapons, like two greatswords, and use two-weapon fighting?

2). Can kasatha wield one two-handed melee weapon and two one-handed melee weapons, like one greatsword and two short swords, and use multiweapon fighting?

In a Bow Nomad(kasatha ranger archetype)'s Twin Bows ability, it can let kasatha simultaneously wield two bows and use two-weapon fighting. According to this ability, normal kasatha can't wield two bows, am I right?

So it can be inferred to that kasatha can't wield two two-handed melee Weapons?

Thanks you!

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

Rues questions need to be asked in the proper rules forum/product forum.

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