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The announcement that we're going to get a boat-load (heh) of new characters in tandem with the arrival of Skull & Shackles in these class decks is pretty exciting. Hawkmoon & I have been engaging in a bit of speculation about which characters are going to make it in. It looks like these guys are all part of the PFSRD open license thing, so they're listed here:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/core/index.html
Looking through these, I can see why they didn't do a druid deck - all these named druid NPCs are crazy people who attack anybody that comes close. I'm a bit bummed that the paladins aren't making the cut, but maybe they want to wait until there's some mounted combat of some sort in the game.
My guesses for the seven chosen classes are...
BARDS
Meliski Traundor - a drunken, gambling, brawling dwarf. Bit of a toss-up between him and Takina Berzan...also a dwarf, and I doubt they'd do both.
Palos Kendrosi - an elf bard who's a swordsman bard...he might even have the stealth skill.
I'm wondering if Rhortia Mooldon, a female half-orc bard might be the last one...but am not sure.
CLERICS
Oreidesme Eisbrin - a female cleric of iomedae.
Eggal Torkelson - male halfling cleric of cayden cailean
Not really sure about the third one...a lot of the clerics listed would fall along the evil axis. Would they include such characters in these decks?
FIGHTERS
Vika Beliskar - a female, half-elf fighter who's big into blacksmithing (e.g., crafting). Warrior with the craft skill who has a bonus to acquiring weapons & armor? Now that would be cool.
Rogar Talgast - a male dwarf fighter. Here's to hoping that one of his role cards is patterned after the Dwarven Defender prestige class.
RANGERS
Pialoosa - a female halfling ranger that is the captain of her own pirate ship...gee...I wonder if this one has any chance at all of being released alongside the pirate-themed Skull & Shackles set?
Alec Renatus - male human ranger, hunts for justice. Cool.
ROGUES
Besides Olenjack, it's tough to say. Most of these NPCs are male, and I wonder if they're going to try to balance out the male / females in each deck. Roscolian - a male half-elf stealth-sniper, and Skanrak, a male half-orc who's good against magic-users, sound like good candidates...
SORCERERS
Valendron Oparal - a male elf sorcerer aligned with the air element (lightning, etc.).
Amaryllis Hollendock - a female halfling who seems like she's a friendly sort
WIZARDS
Mandar Tamarice - some female elven jungle wizard with a monkey familiar. ook ook.
Miet Silvervein - a female gnome illusionist. There has got to be a gnome wizard in this bunch, and this is the only named one I saw.
Who are your favorites? Any that you're rooting for? What do you hope to see in the new characters? Have to admit that Palos Kendrosi is the big one I'm hoping to see, with Vika Beliskar being a close second.
We'll do a druid deck eventually. We just wanted to match the RotR base set in round 1.
They only need one fighter. The best fighter.
Flenta Casalina.
Fighter who wants to be a wizard, but never could get the hang of magic. Uses a lot of magic items and scrolls to pretend that she is a wizard.
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We'll do a druid deck eventually. We just wanted to match the RotR base set in round 1.
I am really hoping for the Savage Plant Sage half-orc dude, although I'm sure he'd have to be given a name and all.
Also - both Edal (Sea Captain) or that "Sail Master" druid package look awesome for Skull & Shackles...hope one of those comes out at some point, even if after the full set is released.
Hey Mike, Vic, Tanis... how about some teases since the boards have been so quiet lately. Just a little morsel... I just need a little hit, that's all, I've got it under control, seriously... for real I do...
Alright RPG familiar players... name that dwarf!!!
I was originally like "what about the Barbarian class" except that's from the Add-On deck (not the RotRL base). I think they'll probably get the add-on deck/S&S deck/S&S add-on deck characters before they do the other classes.
Hm, there was a female dwarf ranger in the rival guide with nice artwork...
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Yeahhhh! Now we're cooking with spoilers and hints, even a treasure hunt for the female dwarf ranger! I will have to see if we can check with the person in our group that has the Pathfinder books and see if we can find it.
I hope they dribble out more info...lots of weeks yet to come between now and release, but not so many that all characters would even be revealed by then at a rate of one per week...
That's what I'm talking about, we've got a ridiculous amount of content coming and I'm super excited. So let's run with this tidbit and hope we can pry some more info out in the coming weeks!
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I'm with you on the fist-bump... and blow it up.
The answer is probably "can't say at this time", but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask:
What is the human/non human breakdown among the character cards? I think that the iconics tend to be slightly more than 50% human vs non-humans, and just about 100% core races. Is that going to be about the same, or will there be more/less variety?
(After hearing that there would be another Dwarf option for the ranger, I got curious).
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Well, the avatar gallery here has two female dwarven rangers. One of them is from the NPC Codex and the other is one Matrena Goldthorpe Unless the new ranger isn't included in the avatar gallery, we've found our match.
Nice... can we get confirmation on "our", with our meaning 3Doubloons, research?
The promo S&S character is a Goblin (non-core race)
Well, since the core characters are modeled after the iconics (which, for the core classes I believe are based on the D&D iconics) and those are already fixed there's not much room to maneuver.
Races for iconics:
Half-Orc: Inquisitor
Gnome: Druid, Summoner
Halfling: Bard
Half-Elf: Gunslinger, Magus
Elf: Alchemist, Rogue
Dwarf: Ranger
The rest are human (of various ethnicities). The variety in human ethnicities in Golarion mean that there's going to be less representation amongst nonhuman races (it's unclear whether there's ethnic variation in nonhuman races).
NPC Codex allows more room to maneuver, as well as the Advanced Class Guide.
Chief Technical Officer
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The avatar gallery only represents a small portion of the art we can draw from, and is not necessarily representative of character gender or race distribution in our artwork.
I will tell you that among the 7 decks due in August, about a third of the characters are human. They are all core races (meaning dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, or human).
The avatar gallery only represents a small portion of the art we can draw from, and is not necessarily representative of character gender or race distribution in our artwork.
I will tell you that among the 7 decks due in August, about a third of the characters are human. They are all core races (meaning dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, or human).
Cool, thanks for the update!
Assuming PACG continues to have success and be published, is non-core races something we could reasonably hope to see over time, or are there some issues preventing that?
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Chief Technical Officer
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Nothing prevents it—indeed, see Ranzak.
But in the world of Golarion, non-core intelligent races are a minority in most civilized areas—in the "average" city, they collectively total less than 1% of the population—and that's going to be reflected in the mix of playable characters for the card game.
So for non-core intelligent races as characters for our decks, would it be likely to be event promos ala Race Boons in the RPG? That would be cool if so, but I'd be slightly curious how that would work for different classes.
They only need one fighter. The best fighter.
Flenta Casalina.
Fighter who wants to be a wizard, but never could get the hang of magic. Uses a lot of magic items and scrolls to pretend that she is a wizard.
*whistles innocently*
*looks at her forum icon*
*wanders off*
I wasn't gonna say nothin'.
Plus we crafted a number of the characters and roles from scratch, based on Tanis's clever designs. Even today, as the clock was winding down on the class decks, we were riffing off interesting new backstories for characters that came tripping out of our skulls. Given all the options this world presents to us, it really is a great game to work on.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Turns out there are a few more exceptions. We filled out the cleric deck from the book Inner Sea Gods.
My girlfriend and I were flipping through the NPC codex speculating, and our reaction was "wow that's a lot of obviously evil clerics." We were wondering if we were getting some shadier characters.
I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways. I like a character with interesting motivations, as well. I do not know how you convey that in this space, but I think that it could give some more dimension to the characters.
I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways. I like a character with interesting motivations, as well. I do not know how you convey that in this space, but I think that it could give some more dimension to the characters.
I was totally thinking that this morning. I would love to see some personal motivations on some of their characters within their powers and whatnot.
I was thinking of how you would design within the context of a fully cooperative game without it becoming overbearing and ridiculously annoying for those that are playing true to form coop, but I would love to see some characters rewarded for being a little more selfish than selfless. I'd just love to have that type of variety introduced... something to really, really make the different characters play differently on a more obvious level. I think that kind of design would also lend a lot more to the inherent narrative of the game.
If its not something we see in S&S and the class decks, it is certainly something I would like to see explored at some point, if for no other reason than for varieties sake.
Follow up to my previous post and without giving information that won't be divulged as of yet, can we expect anything in regards to to characters that have a really different kinda self motivated feel? I'm really interested in any information whatsoever that we may be able to glean from any comments, especially with so much content upcoming.
I mean, so far we have a wizard who has turned his back on the Gods, a cleric that really does not like the unead, a druid that clearly works best with animals by her side, etc... I am very intrigued by how much design space there is out there without the classes beginning to feel very "samey" and where that design space will be found.
I was thinking of how you would design within the context of a fully cooperative game without it becoming overbearing and ridiculously annoying for those that are playing true to form coop, but I would love to see some characters rewarded for being a little more selfish than selfless. I'd just love to have that type of variety introduced... something to really, really make the different characters play differently on a more obvious level. I think that kind of design would also lend a lot more to the inherent narrative of the game.
If its not something we see in S&S and the class decks, it is certainly something I would like to see explored at some point, if for no other reason than for varieties sake.
I like this idea. Wondering how best it could be implemented. How about bonuses for acquiring boons, but restrictions on trading cards with other characters?
I also think it would be interesting to see more impact of the alignment of the various deities - having just read Dark Waters Rising, I now find it very odd to see Kyra with a blessing of Lamashtu. Would there be a way to note the alignments of characters, and introduce bonuses / penalties for blessings from deities which do/ don't match
I think that alignment is a really good way to introduce some things, but we already have that on characters, because they can add a d12 instead of the normal die, or recharge a blessing when they use it. I think a more interesting way to do it, would be to give them a d4 instead of the normal die if they use a blessing or are blessed. This could even be on the same power, so that if they use a Blessing of X, add a d12 instead of the normal die, but if you use Blessing of Y, then add a d4 instead of the normal die.
Another interesting concept, would be to make it so that a 'selfish' character might not be able to give up cards when rebuilding decks. For instance, if you have a thief type character, when rebuilding decks, they can't let other characters take any cards over their limit, but instead can turn in 3 of any type to draw a random card of the same type from the box, and banish the rest. That could be a very cool mechanic, and it could be card type specific. So a magic caster with spells, a thief with items, or a fighter with weapons.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways. I like a character with interesting motivations, as well. I do not know how you convey that in this space, but I think that it could give some more dimension to the characters.I was totally thinking that this morning. I would love to see some personal motivations on some of their characters within their powers and whatnot.
I was thinking of how you would design within the context of a fully cooperative game without it becoming overbearing and ridiculously annoying for those that are playing true to form coop, but I would love to see some characters rewarded for being a little more selfish than selfless. I'd just love to have that type of variety introduced... something to really, really make the different characters play differently on a more obvious level. I think that kind of design would also lend a lot more to the inherent narrative of the game.
If its not something we see in S&S and the class decks, it is certainly something I would like to see explored at some point, if for no other reason than for varieties sake.
You don't even have to wait for the class decks to see that explored.
I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways.
Oh, there's some shadiness.
I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways.Oh, there's some shadiness.
That's wicked good news. While the initial set of 11 in RotR did vary in their levels of cooperativeness, they do work well with each other for the most part. I'm, as always, very anxious to see where the design of an additional 40 characters goes (counting each different version of the iconics as a different character).
It will be interesting to see how I'm going to play the shadier characters within my parties as I play almost entirely solo, but I think that will help to further immerse me into my own personal story and experience.
You don't even have to wait for the class decks to see that explored.I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways. I like a character with interesting motivations, as well. I do not know how you convey that in this space, but I think that it could give some more dimension to the characters.I was totally thinking that this morning. I would love to see some personal motivations on some of their characters within their powers and whatnot.
I was thinking of how you would design within the context of a fully cooperative game without it becoming overbearing and ridiculously annoying for those that are playing true to form coop, but I would love to see some characters rewarded for being a little more selfish than selfless. I'd just love to have that type of variety introduced... something to really, really make the different characters play differently on a more obvious level. I think that kind of design would also lend a lot more to the inherent narrative of the game.
If its not something we see in S&S and the class decks, it is certainly something I would like to see explored at some point, if for no other reason than for varieties sake.
We know that he is a scavenger and picks his stuff last, but I don't think that we know how that really affects gameplay, do we? We have yet to see his character card, or the special rules card that you need to play him. So, you could enlighten us...
We know that he is a scavenger and picks his stuff last, but I don't think that we know how that really affects gameplay, do we? We have yet to see his character card, or the special rules card that you need to play him. So, you could enlighten us...You don't even have to wait for the class decks to see that explored.I could definitely go for more characters that aren't so pious. I think that most rogues should be a little shadier, anyways. I like a character with interesting motivations, as well. I do not know how you convey that in this space, but I think that it could give some more dimension to the characters.I was totally thinking that this morning. I would love to see some personal motivations on some of their characters within their powers and whatnot.
I was thinking of how you would design within the context of a fully cooperative game without it becoming overbearing and ridiculously annoying for those that are playing true to form coop, but I would love to see some characters rewarded for being a little more selfish than selfless. I'd just love to have that type of variety introduced... something to really, really make the different characters play differently on a more obvious level. I think that kind of design would also lend a lot more to the inherent narrative of the game.
If its not something we see in S&S and the class decks, it is certainly something I would like to see explored at some point, if for no other reason than for varieties sake.
It isn't much, but if you go to this post and follow it to the Facebook post, and then read the comments, there is a hint of something Ranzak can do.
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Chief Technical Officer
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We know that he is a scavenger and picks his stuff last, but I don't think that we know how that really affects gameplay, do we? We have yet to see his character card, or the special rules card that you need to play him. So, you could enlighten us...
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Chief Technical Officer
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While the initial set of 11 in RotR did vary in their levels of cooperativeness, they do work well with each other for the most part. I'm, as always, very anxious to see where the design of an additional 40 characters goes (counting each different version of the iconics as a different character).
It will be interesting to see how I'm going to play the shadier characters within my parties as I play almost entirely solo, but I think that will help to further immerse me into my own personal story and experience.
I will note that even though "more shadiness" is in the works, nothing is changing the fact that it's a cooperative game.
We know that he is a scavenger and picks his stuff last, but I don't think that we know how that really affects gameplay, do we? We have yet to see his character card, or the special rules card that you need to play him. So, you could enlighten us...** spoiler omitted **
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It will be interesting to see how I'm going to play the shadier characters within my parties as I play almost entirely solo, but I think that will help to further immerse me into my own personal story and experience.I will note that even though "more shadiness" is in the works, nothing is changing the fact that it's a cooperative game.
Divvying up boons is definitely the most competitive aspect of the game. When it comes time to decide who gets what at the end of a scenario, the gloves come off and it's time to make yet another attempt to pry Poog of Zarongel from Hawkmoon's Ezren.
OK, maybe that last part doesn't happen at everyone's table. But at the very least, the gloves come off. Maybe some day, we'll see a character who can help me in my quest to get good cards from Hawkmoon.
I gave you Yap last night! Why can't Lem be happy with that?
I will note that even though "more shadiness" is in the works, nothing is changing the fact that it's a cooperative game.While the initial set of 11 in RotR did vary in their levels of cooperativeness, they do work well with each other for the most part. I'm, as always, very anxious to see where the design of an additional 40 characters goes (counting each different version of the iconics as a different character).
It will be interesting to see how I'm going to play the shadier characters within my parties as I play almost entirely solo, but I think that will help to further immerse me into my own personal story and experience.
I wouldn't expect the co-op aspect to change, nor would I want it to, just noting that any variety and levels of vagueness to different character's motivations will be a very welcome sight :)
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My wishlist for the various images used in the class decks:
Bard:
Con-Artist (female 1/2 elf)
Courtesan (female human)
Rival Explorer (male 1/2 orc)
Cleric:
Shadow Cleric (elf, female)
Sacred Guardian (male gnome)
Fire Cleric (human male)
Fighter:
Traitorous Brigand (1/2 orc male)
Arcane Pretender 9female halfing)
Scheming Fencer (female human)
Ranger:
Swampwalker (1/2 elf male) (also the picture has a shark in it. Perfect for Skull and Shackles)
Pirate queen (halfling female)
Bounty Hunter (human male)
Rogue (only gets 2)
Cutpurse (male human)
Guild initiate (halfling rogue)
Sorcerer:
either Bramble sorcerer or Strom Sorcerer (male 1/2 elf or elf)
Trickster mage (male gnome)
Fey Enchantress (female elf)
or Lucky Mage (halfling female)
Wizard:
Jungle Wizard or Seductive Enchanter(elf female)
Cave Wizard (dwarf male)
Toothy transmuter or Tribal Seer (1/2 orc male or female)
This list was to stay away from race/sex combos already presented, and to give a variety of different "flavors" to how a clss could be played.
We know that he is a scavenger and picks his stuff last, but I don't think that we know how that really affects gameplay, do we? We have yet to see his character card, or the special rules card that you need to play him. So, you could enlighten us...** spoiler omitted **
Just to a few lucky people.
Hi Mike, Vic, Hawk and others...
Now the one thing you have to discuss with Erik Mona is how to make sure all those nice new characters are produced in Pathfinder prepainted miniatures before we start playing with them in PACG.
The one really nice thing with RotR is that we had all 11 minis as well as most of the monsters already on the shelves. Really make the game fun to actually move your mini over the locations towards the Ogres and Stone Giants.
So Lirianne or Feiya do exist as minis, but many others do not if I'm not mistaken (Oloch, Jirielle...). Can you lobby a bit with the guy on the other side of the corridor ?
It's a little harder for me to offer him a beer all the way from France.... :-)