Lead Designer
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My girlfriend tells me that recent evidence in geological study suggests that triceratops are really just juvenile torosaurus. If that pans out, will the bestiary entry be changed?
No... In a book with dragons and demons, I think we can have some room for some sorta fictional dinosaurs.
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I'm glad you're doing this thread sir.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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1. Do you think the classes are currently well balanced (if it is even a concern to you), or would you like to make some further changes to class balance?1. Depends heavily on what you mean by balanced. In terms of combat effectiveness, no, they are not, nor were they designed to be. We understand that each class has a niche to fill and sometimes that means better advantages in one area of play over another. A lot of folks get really hung up over combat effectiveness, and for them, there are certainly some classes that rise above the rest. That is ok. I can live with that so long as we are also providing a bounty of options for players that are more interested in other parts of the game.
The best part of the thread so far.
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2. Hmm... tricky. I dont want to play favorites, but there are a lot of folks on our design and development teams that have some great ideas and work really hard to bring those to fruition. I think I will leave it at that.I'll ask a tough one, since the message boards are always clogged with class A verse class B threads.
A tougher one.
2. Out of your coworkers, who inspires you the most?
WEAK.
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Lead Designer
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WEAK.2. Hmm... tricky. I dont want to play favorites, but there are a lot of folks on our design and development teams that have some great ideas and work really hard to bring those to fruition. I think I will leave it at that.I'll ask a tough one, since the message boards are always clogged with class A verse class B threads.
A tougher one.
2. Out of your coworkers, who inspires you the most?
Well... fine Wes... its you.. happy now!!
Why do archivist bards retain the countersong bardic performance? It seems quite out of flavour, and also requires a Perform (keyboard, percussion, wind, string, or sing) skill check - not the first choices for an archivist. It feels as though this is one of the core bard abilities that really should have been replaced for this archetype.
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WEAK.2. Hmm... tricky. I dont want to play favorites, but there are a lot of folks on our design and development teams that have some great ideas and work really hard to bring those to fruition. I think I will leave it at that.I'll ask a tough one, since the message boards are always clogged with class A verse class B threads.
A tougher one.
2. Out of your coworkers, who inspires you the most?
Clearly an invitation for an " Ask *Wes* all your questions here!" thread.
Dear Mr. Bulmahn,
Could you please describe your job responsibilities at Paizo in the form of the Up Goer Five Challenge?
Thank you!
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Lead Designer
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Dear Mr. Bulmahn,
Could you please describe your job responsibilities at Paizo in the form of the Up Goer Five Challenge?
Thank you!
I make games for people to play using dice, paper, and their mind.
Hi Jason. My 10 year old daughter Naomi would like to say hello to all the people at paizo
Naomi would like to know when you started playing dungeons and dragons? She is well happy with the greetings Jason. Thanks
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So which iconic is secretly into furies.
Spelled like that, I'm going to take a wild guess with Seltyiel.
Now if you meant Furries that's something completely different ;)
A few months ago you linked a picture of your campaign notebook, which you said was an especially ordered architect's notebook. It had lines on one side and blank paper for sketching on the other. Any change you could give me the link where I could purchase one of those?
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Lead Designer
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Jason,
I read that you used to work in architecture.
If you had an unlimited budget, how would you go about designing a villain's lair. Please describe your ideal.
Assume that all permits are granted, skilled labor is available and no zoning issues are raised.
I've always wanted a castle with a moat... and a dungeon.. and a secret game room behind a sliding bookcase... and a huge, two-story library...
Just sayin...
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Lead Designer
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A few months ago you linked a picture of your campaign notebook, which you said was an especially ordered architect's notebook. It had lines on one side and blank paper for sketching on the other. Any change you could give me the link where I could purchase one of those?
The notebook is a bienfang notesketch. They are kinda tricky to find. I tend to order them online from a place like this one...
http://www.dickblick.com/products/bienfang-notesketch/
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Lead Designer
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Jason, now that you are a 3rd party publisher, how important do you think art is for the success of products?
Very.
Art is important for any project. It helps the reader visualize the words on the page and fires up the imagination...
Now I just need to get an art budget so that I dont have to keep drawing all the art myself.
:)
A few months ago you linked a picture of your campaign notebook, which you said was an especially ordered architect's notebook. It had lines on one side and blank paper for sketching on the other. Any change you could give me the link where I could purchase one of those?The notebook is a bienfang notesketch. They are kinda tricky to find. I tend to order them online from a place like this one...
http://www.dickblick.com/products/bienfang-notesketch/
Oh wow! And here I was expecting them to be ridiculously priced. Thanks, Jason!
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Lead Designer
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Oh wow! And here I was expecting them to be ridiculously priced. Thanks, Jason!A few months ago you linked a picture of your campaign notebook, which you said was an especially ordered architect's notebook. It had lines on one side and blank paper for sketching on the other. Any change you could give me the link where I could purchase one of those?The notebook is a bienfang notesketch. They are kinda tricky to find. I tend to order them online from a place like this one...
http://www.dickblick.com/products/bienfang-notesketch/
Nope.. they are cheap and awesome!
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Lead Designer
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This may have been asked, but how technical do you get with figuring out rules mechanics stuff?
Do you have like a lot excel sheets with formulas to figure out statistical probabilities and to compare things?
How much time do you devote to going over the different angles of something trying to figure out how to "break it" so you know that its balanced?
On a related note, how much time do you devote to language to make sure something is consistent with other rules and its clear so it can't be interpreted incorrectly or abusively?edit: and can you give us a little insight into that process(es) as well?
Well, I do have extensive statistical spreadsheets for a number of game elements, but most of that was laid down with the core rules and has not needed much tweaking over the years. Most of our current work is just a matter of comparison to existing standards to check balance and compatibility.
Language, on the other hand, can be a constant struggle, looking for the right way to phrase a rules element so that it is interpreted correctly and does not drive our editors to drink.. too much anyway.
The power balance of a dragonrider is really my big concern. Dragons are just too good to be in the hands of players unless you are looking at really high level play. Its a tricky widget... a trope of fantasy, but hard to pull off in a balanced way.
Have you considered it as a Paladin/Summoner PrC? The dragon is the mount eidolon? The summon monster ability is a little off concept, but I am sure you could whip-up an archetype to get rid of that to go along with this concept.
A while ago during the monk modification blog post, you mentioned that you guys would be taking small steps and see how they go "because in the past, we got burned due to making drastic changes". While it's totally understandable if you don't want to, what were those drastic changes?
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Lead Designer
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A while ago during the monk modification blog post, you mentioned that you guys would be taking small steps and see how they go "because in the past, we got burned due to making drastic changes". While it's totally understandable if you don't want to, what were those drastic changes?
Well, during the early stages of the game, I made some rather big changes to how skills and some elements of combat worked and they did not go over very well. After the game went live, there have been far fewer of these, but I learned that its better to work in incremental steps to minimize the disruption to the rules set as a whole.
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A while ago during the monk modification blog post, you mentioned that you guys would be taking small steps and see how they go "because in the past, we got burned due to making drastic changes". While it's totally understandable if you don't want to, what were those drastic changes?Well, during the early stages of the game, I made some rather big changes to how skills and some elements of combat worked and they did not go over very well. After the game went live, there have been far fewer of these, but I learned that its better to work in incremental steps to minimize the disruption to the rules set as a whole.
If one of the big changes you are referring to was combining Spot, Search, and Listen into Pecerption let me say that it went over very well with everyone I know, much appreciated and thankies :3
Can I recommend Monster Focus: Owlbears next?
That's why you make a lot of it to work with!
Do you think you guys will ever use non-in-house 3rd party material that aren't monsters or templates in your products? Well, I guess non-ToHC PF 3rd party stuff.
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Lead Designer
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Do you think you guys will ever use non-in-house 3rd party material that aren't monsters or templates in your products? Well, I guess non-ToHC PF 3rd party stuff.
Hard to say. We are not opposed to it, if that is what you mean, but there is a very large amount of material out there, so picking up pieces to use can be tricky.
Of course.. I've offered all of my material up for anyone here in the office to use, but as of yet, I got no takers :)
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Lead Designer
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If one of the big changes you are referring to was combining Spot, Search, and Listen into Pecerption let me say that it went over very well with everyone I know, much appreciated and thankies :3
Actually, at the same time that change was made, I greatly simplified the skill system itself, which was presented in the Alpha version of the rules. It did not go over very well for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which being that it broke a lot of elements of verisimilitude. I am much happy with the system we ended up with, but that is often how the process works. The only difference is that today, much of it happens behind the curtain.
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Lord Jason,
When will we see the All Minotaur Adventure Path?
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Lord Jason,
When will we see the All Minotaur Adventure Path?
As soon as my conquest of the world is complete! Should be next Tuesday if all goes according to plan, otherwise it may take a little bit longer...