I had no problem with Prince Caspian, but I hear you on That Hideous Strength! In fact I seem to recall wondering how it even connected with Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra... and honestly, since the "trilogy" didn't have the same plot throughout I'd recommend anyone interested just read the first two.
For Prince Caspian, I'll just say as my excuse that I was young and into reading more "accessible" stuff like Hardy Boys (the whole original 60-book series), everything written by J.R.R. Tol... ki... en, er, well and The Complete,... Unabridged... Works of William... Shake...spear. Okay, look, I don't know why the first chapter defeated me!
But, yeah, That Hideous Strength seemed to have virtually no connection to the rest of the trilogy, and was so plodding! I'll still need to finish it one day, though.
(For my wife, it seems that she had a similar experience with Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. I've never read it, myself, but sadly, to this day, she's leery about Bradbury works because of that experience.)
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It'll take longer than 5 minutes, but the next installment of Kings of Absalom should give you a good idea of my take on the matter. :)
You're setting it up that tengu rode the Starstone to Golarion, aren't you? :P
What is the Kings of Absalom thing you are talking about?
It's Erik super deep continuity personal/convention game. I'll let him go into it deeper if he wants.
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NO. NO. NO.
You're thinking about this all wrong. Stop thinking in terms of scarcity. You've already done scarcity, with the ARG. Now is the time to start thinking in terms of .
How many of the ARG's "featured" races were covered in Goblins of Golarian? I don't remember reading anything about hobgoblins. How many critters in Orcs of Golarian? I've read complaints that there wasn't enough for half-orcs. Blood of Fiends, Blood of Angels, Blood of the Night -- you already know that what I say is true.
Embrace it. Go all out; make a love paean to a single race. Say everything that you can think of to say about it, and then some.
If you can't come up with 32 pages of PURE AWESOMENESS about Tengu, then why the eff were they one of the first PFS race boons? Why were they the only "featured" race on the cover of the ARG (aside from the obviously NPC kobolds)? And why would you bother writing anything about them at all -- in any Player Companion -- if they couldn't even inspire a mere 32 pages of content that people would get excited about.
The same kind of questions can be asked about any other "featured" race. I'm not saying this because I'm for or against tengu; Serpent's Skull took me from "indifferent" to "mildly interested". I'm saying this because I'm against doing a half-assed job. You've already squeezed what you could for those races into a limited space; there's no point in doing that again. All that's left now is to go all-out for the ones that are cool enough to warrant such a treatment.
<re-reads the thread> Ah, there it is. But no, it was a hypothetical. But fine, I will make my own proposals, just in case they go forward with what I think is a bad idea.
Theoretically, what would make a product interesting to both players and GMs at the same time? What do they have in common? The kind of campaign. The kind of terrain, society, or other circumstances. If you go forward with three-pers, then I'd recommend making it different. Not "Blood of..", since they wouldn't all be the same blood. Maybe "..Adventures":
Sky Adventures
Gathlain
Strix
Wyvaran
flying mounts, animal companions* and constructs
in-the-air civilizations, combat, magic, and equipment
Sea Adventures
Gillmen
Merfolk
Undines
swimming/waterbreathing mounts, animal companions* and constructs
underwater civilizations, combat, magic, and equipment
Okay, that's starting to get boring. There's only one more like it, I promise! Then I'll make a new post for my other ideas. (Maybe one or two more "..Adventures".)
Cave Adventures
Duergar
Kobolds
Svirfneblin
[why not drow? because they have enough of a following for it to be a standing joke. go big or go home.]
burrowing/climbing mounts, animal companions* and constructs
underground civilizations, combat, magic, and equipment
Why were they the only "featured" race on the cover of the ARG (aside from the obviously NPC kobolds)?
But... I *like* kobolds! Why do they have to be obviously NPC?
Personally, though, I think that, as they appeared in the same book as the dhampir, and have a lot in common with aasimars and tieflings, the next ones to get a race book should be sylphs, undines, oreads, and ifrits. And maybe fetchlings.
I'm not done yet. I just like the number three.
Catfolk
Kitsune
Ratfolk
[how to find clothes that accommodate tails? something about misunderstood rogue guilds and anti-discrimination leagues? i don't know, someone who actually likes these races is going to have to pipe up here. as for why not vanaras: because they're really cool and deserve better.]
Elves of the Evernight
Drider
Drow
Drow Nobles
drow society, culture, magic, and equipment
[fwiw, that name for the world below comes from Into the Darklands, so I think that it's totally fair to use.]
Shadow Adventures
Fetchlings
Nidalese
Wayangs
the civilizations, combat, magic, and equipment of Nidal and the Shadow Plane
I might be done. We'll see. Either way, I retract the above Heroes With Tails and the below Heroes With Toxins. There are fundamental problems with that way of doing it.
Gripplis
Nagaji
Vishkanyas
[see, the problem with organizing them by creature type instead of adventure type is that then what do you do for the rest of the book? same problem as Heroes With Tails. so I'll try a different way of ordering things.]
Heroes of Exoticism
Samsarans
Sulis
Vishkanyas
how to turn your uniqueness into a benefit for various social situations, from arrest to seduction to royal audiences
how to blend in when you really need to, I guess? surprise me with something better
Arboreal Adventures
Gripplis
Omestans
Vanaras
the kind of stuff that people who live in or among trees might need
Heroes of Cunning
Changeling
Kitsune
Ratfolk
[i'm starting to get bored again. i know that i chose the races correctly. someone else figure out what they'd all want.]
Aaand that's as far as I'm going to go. I left quite a few "featured" races out of any triad; but maybe that's because at least some of them would have a constituency for a book of their own.
the vishankyas...... oh thats just cute Paizo, I applaud you there
That's all you, man! :)
It's "vishkanya" and comes from the sanskrit Visha Kanya, meaning roughly "poison girl."
If you've seen the movie Ninja Scroll, you've got a hint of the source material.
Though I would LOVE to have them in a book!
<re-reads the thread> Ah, there it is. But no, it was a hypothetical. But fine, I will make my own proposals, just in case they go forward with what I think is a bad idea.
It's all hypothetical for right now. While I can see us leaning towards doing sets of three, I could also see us doing some other AWESOME IDEA. So if you've got an AWESOME IDEA (in addition to what you've posted), lets hear it! :)
"Blood of the sewers
The Wayyangs
The Chagelings
The FEtchlings???
Why in the nine hells did you put us in the sewer?
Check out Rite Publishing's In The Company of Tengu (PFRPG) PDF
What will likely happen is we'll keep plugging away with the "Blood of" series for a bit longer (I've got two more in the works already) and see if it has any logical next steps.
Going OT a bit here, but I have just three words for you:
Blood of Serpents.
(Serpentfolk, Nagaji, Vishkanya, etc.)
so how does this look as a unofficial fanbase line up??
one book " Blood of the crow, or the Flocks of Golarion or whatever"
two book "The fur of golarion"
three book " Blood ofthe Elements"
four book "Blood of the sewers
Five book "Blood of the sea and land"
six book "Blood of outcasts"
I would buy every one of these books. Especially the first two :D
In my opinion, if there are any races that need to be fleshed out more in golarion, they are the Tengu, Kitsune, and Ratfolk. They just have so much personality behind them that it hurts that we know almost nothing about them.
The kitsune in particular could use a ton of fleshing out. There's an unbelievable amount of legend behind that race that Paizo hasn't even started to tap.