Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Do we know when the next theme will be announced? I was interested in the last one, but noticed a bit late. I'm betting I could scrap together something other players would like to see if I get a jump on it next time.
As is tradition, we will announce the theme and the Call for Submissions for the next issue upon the release of the current issue. For #10, that is the release of #9 at PaizoCon on July 5th. Likely, I will be feeling patriotic and stuff, so the PDF may be released on the 4th.
I am thinking about the theme right now. Lots of choices, but I'll turn this around and make a discussion of it:
What do YOU, the fans, want to see as a theme?
Here are my basic guidelines:
1) A theme that Paizo has developed pretty well, but has still left a lot of possibilities open for more detail. This could be a place (city, country, region, geographical feature). The Darklands, and Lands of the Linnorm Kings are great examples. They each had sourcebooks, and Inner Sea Guide sections, and even some use in the APs. But, they left so much more open to fan-based creativity.
2) The theme should supplement Paizo material as much as possible. This piggybacks off of #1. Whatever theme we pick, the fan-created content should be able to be used as a supplement to whatever Paizo product used that area or place (so #7 content would help with extra material for Skull and Shackles, or pretty much anything on the coasts).
3) Also related to #1, the theme CANNOT develop an area that Paizo has not yet. This is largely because we do not want an issue that eventually contradicts whatever Paizo ends up doing. So, as much as I'd love to see Numeria stuff, or Outer Worlds, or Arcadia....we need to let Paizo show it to us first, and THEN we can play with it some more.
Being friends with many of the folks at Paizo also allows me to run potential ideas for a theme past them first. It help to identify possible conflicts, and usually gets them excited to see what the fans will come up with on a given theme.
So, any potential ideas that Pathfinder fans would like Wayfinder to try next? (I saw the Great Beyond mentioned...which sounds intriguing....)
Wrath of the Righteous related stuff, just in time for use for those who wait to get the entire AP in their paws before running it.
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DISTANT WOR- oh
...
GREAT BEYOND! :D
Re reads post even more closelier again, and more minutelely again-n. Nope. Seems fine.
DISTANT WORLDS!!! C'mon - between Inner Sea Bestiary's androids, Distant Worlds, a novel and par of an adventure that dealt with Numeria and parts of Reign of Winter being extra-terrestrial/extra-Golarion - we wouldn't necessarily step on too many toes... ;p
Ok ok I also vote THE GREAT BEYOND then. Seems like there's lots of room for creation there.
OR:
THE FIRST WORLD!!!! Yessssssss!!!!
P.S. IOBARIAN COLONY IN SARUSAN!!!!! Kidding....
Wrath of the Righteous related stuff, just in time for use for those who wait to get the entire AP in their paws before running it.
+666 to this as well. Piggy back like fiends!!! Would make for some cool art and some nice space to get our evil on. Like Darklands wasn't enuff. Srsly though, I think there is enough to differentiate the two thematically, just the double run of darkness might weep out and corrupt our mortal souls...
1) Mwangi Expanse
2) World Wound + Mendev
3) Tien Xia
4) River Kingdoms
Ruyan.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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My suggestions are as follows:
1) Crusaders of Mendev / Worldwound / Mendev / Demons: If we supplement an ongoing AP with additional information it could be really excellent. James Jacobs has already said that Mendev itself will receive some (but not much) detailing when Wrath of the Righteous comes out, same with the Crusaders themselves and -- most notably -- the Knights of Ozem will only have token information. Those all seem like ripe areas for further development.
2) Tian-Xia / Asian Thematics: While Jade Regent was a good long while ago, 3PP publishers are adding a lot of JR support as of late. Jim Groves is presently working on one such project that expands the caravan encounters/NPCs, so I think a Wayfinder full of alternate Tian-Xia information could be great and interesting.
3) Black-Powder Wayfinder: Firearms have a rich history, and with the 5th book of Reign of Winter introducing rules fo rmodern-day firearms, a Mana-Wastes/Alkenstar/Guns issue might also be good. More detailed firearms, gun-based monsters/encounters, rules for mutants, firearm prestige classes, etc.
4) Thassilon: James Jacobs has said there are not any huge plans to go back and visit what Thassilon itself was like or what life under the Runelords entailed in great detail. Runelord themed monsters, prestige classes, gazetters and the like could be interesting, especially for GMs interested in using the Scepter of Ages from the recent Artifacts and Legends to revisit Thassilon.
5) Time Travel: It's currently a non-issue with Pathfinder. Now I'm not talking about introducing Chronomancy or anything like that, but expanding on what has already been said about time travel. Introduce different (and conflicting) possible "rules" that a GM could use to introduce time travel elements into their Golarion campaigns. Magic useful for time travel. Inevitables/Aeons that protect the timestream from interlopers, monsters that prey on temporally displaced PCs, more info on the Plane of Time from the Great Beyond book.
Those're my two cents!
Gods & Deities?
Divine Classes?
The Great Cleric?
I'm siding with First World and Thassilon, although if we want a more contemporary setting, my vote is Ustalav (horror issue) or Andoran (our beloved 'Murka expy is well fleshed-out, but underutilized for modules aside from Falcon's Hollow).
Ustalav, Thassilon, or Worldwound/Abyss please!
First World or Mwangi would be great choices too...
Mmm...Ustalav...creepy goodness.
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hmmm ... Wrath of the Righteous should start coming out around PaizoCon time (if I am calculating properly), which means the additional material Paizo would be putting out would not be out by the deadline for submissions more than likely, which could pose an issue with conflict between the submitted material and what comes out. I like the idea myself, but it may be better suited for #11 IMO.
First World could be interesting. It could use some additional material to be sure and I'm sure folks in this community could come up with some great stuff.
Thassilon could be cool as well, what with two APs tied to those who ruled it.
Ustalav would make for a good issue as well ... or a horror themed issue (which could encompass Ustalav, Leng and other Lovecraftian creepiness, Irrisen's White Witches and the like) and it would be out a few months before Halloween ... hmmm ...
Just my two CP ...
Bardess: Oooh, I agree. The Mwangi Expanse would be nice too. So much (literal) room for development :)
Personally, I love the idea of the Mwangi Expanse or Thassilon.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Wayfinder #4 was Mwangi Expanse, actually.....
And for #5, we did the Harrowed Lands (Varisa, Belken Hold, and Ustalav), and Ustalav was a pretty fair amount of that issue....
The Great Beyond...oof. That's perhaps a bit TOO large at theme. Any one of those planes could be its very own issue, really. So, we'd need to focus on a THEME within the Great Beyond setting itself. Planes of (insert Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, Neutral).
And zylphryx is correct...doing a theme tied to the Wrath of the Righteous AP just as it's getting started is troublesome. Keep in mind, the theme needs to address something Paizo has done/completed/finished. Timing a theme to coincide with an AP...well, it's not DONE, is it? We tried something like that with #6 Lands of the Linnorm Kings, with the Jade Regent AP just out, and the LotLK supplement due out in August. Problem was that the supplement was delayed, and didn't come out until AFTER our Call for Submissions closed. Oops.
First World...hmmmmm. Promising.
Tian-Xia. Also promising.
Any interest in the desert nations? Katapesh, Qadira, Osirion?
WotR will be half-out and all-written by then. Don't you have an inside line on the APs these days? ;)
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Katapesh, Qadira, Osirion?
Mummies! And pesh magic! And magical pesh mummies!
Kaer Maga, maybe?
Osiron might be fun too - time to go somewhere warm, after the Linnorm kings, the cold cold seas, and the underground caves of the Darklands.
I'd love me some Katapesh or Osirion stuff.
I just got my hands on the (almost) complete works of Lovecraft, so I'm going to have to resist putting things that cannot be unseen in whatever topic is chosen. Don't get me wrong - I really liked seeing the Seamaw (especially the art) in #8. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to find a really strong tie (excuse) with the chosen subject.
I can't help but think that demons might be a decent subject. The fan material could sort of tie in to the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous AP without directly connecting to it. When our crusaders start heading into the maw of evil, I'm sure a lot of GMs are going to start thumbing through Princes of Darkness looking for cool new fiends to assault their players with. Although we'd probably have to wade through an awful lot of humanoids with animal parts slapped on and pieces of armor grafted in, there could be some real gems there.
I'm not sure how well a gunpowder issue would go over. Plenty of people could enjoy it for cannons and whatnot, but we just had a sea-faring issue and gunslingers are one of the more controversial parts of the game. People who don't like guns in their fantasy wouldn't really have much to look forward to in such an issue.
On the other hand, I LOVE Mana Wastes / Alkenstar and such. Hmmm ... The Lands of Warped Magic has a lot of potential ... and you could put your firearms material in there without it coloring the entire issue.
I feel kinda iffy about writing for Thassilon. I get the impression that there's lots of scraps of material about Thassilon out there in many different places, which would make it hard to research for. But Thassilon will always be interesting, so it can't be a bad choice either.
As much as I'd like to see more love for Dark Ones, we're probably already getting some of that in this issue.
I do like Kaer Maga though. I love the secrets City of Strangers left behind. I really enjoyed the time I spent in Kaer Maga in one of the APs, and it's part of why I want to play another of the APs. It's a never-ending trove of play material.
Osirion and Qadira are mysteries to me. I've read less about them than perhaps any other published area, but they do look fun and I could have fun reading a Wayfinder about them.
Unless we're working with areas as a rule, perhaps we shouldn't blind ourselves to anything other than places. Subjects like "Burns Hotter than Flames" might spark the imaginations of some writers (I know I've had some compelling thoughts on running a campaign on the elemental plane of fire, for example).
A Weapons of War issue could be filled with new magic items; different grades of quality for nonmagical items; new systems for improving magic items; biographies on people or races that enchant; weal or woes for intelligent magic items; new uses of Knowledge (engineering; and creatures such as diabolical orc warmachines that may menace players on the battlefield.
...isn't there already an Osirion wayfinder?
I believe so. There was certainly an issue featuring a pharoah-like figure on the front...and I know I helped write some fiction along with Trevor Gulliver and Jonathan McAnulty for it, which involved a group of adventurers exploring some ancient pyramids. How far the Osirion-theme extended beyond that, I don't recall.
...why not a Geb or Nex issue?
I think Wayfinder is best served to take at least some of its lead from what Paizo has done. Thus, until they set the stage with a bit more Geb/Nex action (in terms of product releases), it'd be a bit premature to just start carpet-bombing fan-made content into that arena. It's the same reason I might be hesitant to recommend Wrath of the Righteous material until that AP (and its support products) has had time to fully take root in the collective conscious of the Paizo fans.
So, if I have any recommendations, I think they'd fall along the lines of these Lucky Seven:
1. First World (surprise!)
2. Andoran (with a return to Darkmoon Vale kind of vibe)
3. River Kingdoms (with some Kingmaker-enhancing ideas)
4. Tian Xia (with more Far East goodness)
5. Distant Worlds (but restrict it primarily to stuff affecting Golarion)
6. Qadira (with some slight leanings to include Vudra/Jalmeray or Legacy of Fire-themed stuff, too)
7. Absalom (with stuff to round out the City at the Center of the World--but stay away from the Starstone!)
I believe so. There was certainly an issue featuring a pharoah-like figure on the front...and I know I helped write some fiction along with Trevor Gulliver and Jonathan McAnulty for it, which involved a group of adventurers exploring some ancient pyramids. How far the Osirion-theme extended beyond that, I don't recall.
That would be issue #1, I believe. Being the first issue I don't think it actually had a set theme and the articles and stories were very diverse. The dawnflower dervish was in that issue, my story and one other were set in Korvosa as was Crystal Frasier's brilliantly creepy piece on the Old Lady of the River, there was an article on Darkmoon Vale, a story set in Irrisen...that issue really spanned Golarion.
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Osirion could be cool ... raiding pyramids, the giant scarab carapace in Sothis, deserts and oases(sp?), crowded markets of unusual things, long lost knowledge found once more, etc.
A "rivals" issue could be cool as well, focusing on Taldor/Qadira, Cheliax/Andoran, Pathfinder Society/Aspis Consortium, etc.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Yes, #1 had a fair amount of Osirion in it, but it didn't really have the theme...it was just the area of most interest at the time, I think.
Part of MY preference for it is that it IS #10. A return to some of the themes presented in #1 would be cool. Perhaps even a return to the same characters, as well.....
The other part of my preference is that I'm currently playing through James Jacobs's Necropolis campaign, and he's Pathfinderized the whole thing. The game setting in Osirion is so rich and wonderous, I can't help but think what we could do with a whole issue focusing on that.
Qadira and Katapesh....I mean, come on! A whole issue of Golarion's Arabian Nights?
However, I've always wanted to return to Darkmoon Vale, and we didn't really get there at all with #7. It would be fun to do so.
Tian-Xia...well, the time is about right for that. Paizo's done a lot, and 3PPs are embracing it pretty well now. Question is...do the fans have any new ideas to share?
Really, it comes down to picking a theme that truly inspires fans, enough so to get them to write and submit their ideas as articles to Wayfinder for #10. So, you can say you'd like to see the next issue deal with the First World....but are you going to WRITE something about the First World for us??
That's the key....what theme will generate the most and best ARTICLES.
I will admit that I have less material prepared for the First World than Kaer Maga as of right now, but that's by virtue of having had an arc of my home game in Kaer Maga, whereas the First World arc I have planned is a month off. That said, you have no IDEA of the First World side trek prospects I'm already drooling over. Checkerboard boss battle where the PCs have to move like chess pieces? A verdant, roiling hillside that acts like an ocean for some mechanics and ground for another and upon which the PCs have a naval battle? Killer gnomes playing the world's most sadistic version of Hide and Go Seek? The (First) World is my oyster.
Oh sod it - I'll start outlining and writing an article right now in case it goes Osirion/Katapesh. I've failed to submit to enough issues as it is.
Witch patrons? Witch hexes? A wildblooded satyr bloodline? If the First World is chosen, I have all these ready!
Yes, #1 had a fair amount of Osirion in it, but it didn't really have the theme...it was just the area of most interest at the time, I think.
Part of MY preference for it is that it IS #10. A return to some of the themes presented in #1 would be cool. Perhaps even a return to the same characters, as well.....
The other part of my preference is that I'm currently playing through James Jacobs's Necropolis campaign, and he's Pathfinderized the whole thing. The game setting in Osirion is so rich and wonderous, I can't help but think what we could do with a whole issue focusing on that.
Qadira and Katapesh....I mean, come on! A whole issue of Golarion's Arabian Nights?
In that case, I amend my support for Qadira to include both Osirion and Katapesh. Roll all three of those together into a single issue and call it a "theme" and I'll certainly pitch something for it. Of course, if this goes First World you know I'll contribute to that, as well. My Top 3...
1. Osirion/Katapesh/Qadira
2. First World
3. Andoran/Darkmoon Vale
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You could roll Osirion, Katapesh and Qadira together and make it "The Lands of Fire" issue.
That would be a topic that I'd be interested in contributing to.
Gary McBride
Today is the last day for the Throne of Night kickstarter!
I'd vote for Distant Worlds, personally. Lots of stuff to mine there, and it's an area that will be touched on again in Reign of Winter, adding a little more to official canon.
I've got a class to submit for a planar-themed Wayfinder, thus the interest in tying in to demons/those who fight them for #10 or #11.
Hrm, actually, I have two - the second may well fit in with a "Lands of Fire" quite nicely.
As a tangent, how about an organisational type of issue - maybe targetting the Pathfinders themselves (guess who just got a complete Sherlock Holmes novels boxed set! :P)
You could have an article about the founding of a new remote waystation, the inner politics of the founding site, investigative tools that only a Pathfinder would have access to, famous cases/reports, famous and infamous NPCs who rose through the ranks, mini mission one shots to drop in on your party, and so on.
Might be nice to revisit some of those old 3.5 releases and use them as a basis for bringing them up to current by way of the community possibly?
Wacky ideas I know, but sometimes they just sort of pop into my brain for no apparent reason.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Ideas I have for Tian-Xia, off the top of my head:
1) Racial variant rules for Kitsunes based around different schools of magic. Necromancy-themed kitsune, Evocation-themed kitsune, etc. Perhaps also a Kitsune ecology article regarding their society and interaction with the empire of Jininn in the Forest of Spirits. Possibly also Kitsune wizard archetypes based around the old Wu-Jen model.
2) A Tengu Blademaster prestige class, working much in the way how the Winter Witch prestige class expands on the powers of an archetype.
3) A bard archetype centered around the concept of Noh-masks, where the bard's performance ability/powers are dependent on the mask they wear.
4) A weal/woe article with a half sovereign dragon kuwa oni, turned from a dark path by the sorceress Hao-Jin and struggling to become a good creature (but everyone has bad days, right?)
5) Martial Arts of the Dragon Empires: Six new style feat trees based on the heritage of combat styles passed down through the non-human races of Tian-Xia.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
But honestly I could probably do just as much on Osirion too. Whichever way you go, Tim, I'll be excited. Tian-Xia is just at the top of my list.
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My Top Picks:
1) Alkenstar--The Land of Guns. Let's talk all about Pathfinder Guns. :D
2) Cheliax--Because we can never stop talking about Cheliax.
3) River Kingdoms--I swear Paizo is moving that direction already, so let's just write more about it.
4) Numeria!!! -- Why? Why the heck not?
Regardless, this time, I plan to submit something to Wayfinder. It looks like loads of fun.
I'm all for First world or River kingdoms. Kingmaker's my jam.
1.) Katapesh (the campaign books is one of my favorites)
2.) Kaer Maga (the campaign book is my favorite!)
3.) Iobaria
I'm hoping that with school soon being out the way, I'll have the free time to submit something again.
