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What part of Golarion would you most like to expand on (presuming you had nothing to do for a while and could put all your effort into whatever you felt like)?
Are the comics going to continue to be written by Paizo staffers going forward?
Which is your favorite deity of Golarion?
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Any chance of a rabbit prince mini? I would pre-order it now!
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Who is your favorite comic book hero?
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Have you seen Deadwood yet?
Publisher, Chief Creative Officer
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What part of Golarion would you most like to expand on (presuming you had nothing to do for a while and could put all your effort into whatever you felt like)?
1. Absalom
2. Nex
3. Azlant
Are the comics going to continue to be written by Paizo staffers going forward?
They will be for Hollow Mountain and the series after that. Beyond that, we've not determined.
How do you think we are doing?
Which is your favorite deity of Golarion?
Aroden.
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Any chance of a rabbit prince mini? I would pre-order it now!
Interesting. Probably not, for a long time.
I like the idea of doing a Harrow-based set, and that would include a rabbit prince mini, but that's pretty esoteric. I expect such a set would end the line in a blaze of glory.
Barring that, I've sometimes dreamed of doing a Jabberwock/Bandersnatch two-pack, and that impossible dream has just been modified with the addition of a rabbit prince figure to go with them.
So many more useful figures to make first.
I'm afraid that the more esoteric choices are not tremendously appreciated by the market in general. For every guy who was like "Wahoo, a rabbit guy!" there would be a hundred who would complain that we don't even have stats for rabbit people in the game, and that it was a "waste" of a slot.
I'd be fun to do a Kickstarter for a "Prove Us Wrong" set of impossible-to-justify figures, but I don't think that's something that could ever really happen.
That's why I really like the Dungeon Crawler Classics line, but I sadly suspect a rabbit person is pretty low on his priority list too.
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What part of Golarion would you most like to expand on (presuming you had nothing to do for a while and could put all your effort into whatever you felt like)?1. Absalom
2. Nex
3. Azlant
Are the comics going to continue to be written by Paizo staffers going forward?They will be for Hollow Mountain and the series after that. Beyond that, we've not determined.
How do you think we are doing?
Which is your favorite deity of Golarion?Aroden.
Can't wait for the Aroden article. :)
Fingers crossed that mythical spare time arrives soon. Is it too soon to begin clamoring for an Absalom boxed set?
I think the comics are great - I really liked Origins and I'm looking forward to Hollow Mountain and no doubt the series beyond that which you accidentally neglected to name... I think you've collectively improved since Goblins (which I also enjoyed, although that's been my least favorite).
I never read comics until Pathfinder. It's been a real discovery for me - they read very differently from books (which I don't really have much time for, as a general rule).
Is Hollow Mountain a return to a more serial approach?
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Who is your favorite comic book hero?
Probably the Jack Knight Starman DC published in the 1990s. He was created by James Robinson and Tony Harris in the wake of the "Zero Hour" event, and the series was a highlight of a period that saw a lot of creative highlights (and a huge majority of garbage). Even with Harris's amazing art, Starman was a writer-driven comic, with a very specific point of view and a strong sense of the hero's inner voice, motives, and values.
It didn't hurt that the series tied into the original Starman and through him the Justice Society of America, my favorite sub-section of the DC universe. Robinson and Harris rooted the series in their own original "gem" city, Opal City, which was so strongly developed that it became a character itself, very much like Gotham with an art-deco/50s design sensibility.
Most of all, Starman was a "father and son" narrative, which I have a particular weakness for. Jack's relationship to his father (and, via brilliant annual ghost sequences, his dead brother) was the cornerstone of the book, and the subsequent drama made him really appealing.
Harris left the book about halfway through, and Robinson had Jack give up his Cosmic Staff at the end of his run, so the character seldom/never appears in continuity anymore. I read this as creator-to-creator respect for a job well done. Starman was so superlative that subsequent writers barely even use Opal City, or any of the book's supporting characters, because no one wants to XXXX it up.
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1) What's your favorite outsider race with its own unique subtype? (Like kyton, angel, daemon, genie, etc.)
Wow. That's a very difficult question to answer, because I like so many of them.
Fifteen years ago my answer most certainly would have been demons, as you can tell by looking at my creative output at the beginning of my writing career. Heck, my first official TSR credit was as a creative consultant on a Planescape book called "Faces of the Abyss," where I helped the design team navigate the existing official D&D lore on demons to bring the Planescape line a little more in line with classic D&D. Around the same time I wrote about a dozen Living City adventures for the RPGA, many of which were either set on the Abyss or heavily featured demons. The first article I ever had published in an official D&D magazine, Polyhedron, was about magic items associated with demon lords. My first RPG book, Green Ronin's "Armies of the Abyss," was all about demons. One of my biggest D&D credits was "Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss," where I wrote the Abyss chapter (among other things). As editor I did a ton with demons in both Dragon and Dungeon magazines.
So, really, I've kind of said everything I need to say about demons. Used them up, so to speak. Creatively speaking, they're in safe hands with James Jacobs. All is well in demon land.
These days I guess I am most interested in aeons and a new class we're introducing in Bestiary 5 called manasaputras, which are based off of the Theosophical Society cult in the late 19th century (and to a muuuuuuuch lesser extend ancient Indian mythology). I didn't write these creatures in Bestiary 5, but I did about a year of research to figure out what they were all about and how to appropriately adapt them for a fantasy RPG. They tie in pretty heavily to the Esoteric Planes section of "Occult Adventures" that I DID write, and I helped to develop them a bit.
Aeons built the multiverse, and manasaputras guide the spiritual development of mortals who dwell within it. They are the reincarnated spirits of survivors from a previous incarnation of the multiverse, or the reincarnated spirits of natives of this one on the path through the various manasaputra types to the highest expressions of spiritual enlightenment.
These days I like the mysteries and the lesser-developed ones. The fact that very few people like aeons makes me want to polish them up and make them better.
2) What are three of your favorite outsiders that don't have their own unique subtype? (Hound of Tindalos, Cerberi, Shining Child, etc.)
Jyoti. I think they're really interesting. I used one in my Emerald Spire level and had a great time roleplaying a creature from the Positive Energy plane. The Esoteric Planes section of Occult Adventures dealt a lot with the Positive Energy Plane as a source for life energy in the multiverse, so I like the challenge of figuring out how a creature that basically looks like a bird-person would exist in such a realm (and, I guess, why). I'm very obsessed with the Energy Planes these days.
Next I guess I'd say valkyrie, because I love nordic themes and I think it's cool that we have them in the game. Lots of potential for development there. I don't know that the execution is super fun or anything, but I like that they're there and it'd be fun to do more with them.
I guess I put norns in the same category, so I'm going to claim them as the last one.
But I gotta say, I just went over the list and there weren't exactly a ton of contenders. I think we've done a good job expanding previously unique creatures into whole subtypes, so there aren't that many of these. Maybe we need more?
3) Is there anything in particular from 3.5 that wasn't covered by the Open Gaming License you wish you could have brought to Pathfinder?
Not really.
I've completely cut the cord in that regard. I don't even miss mind flayers anymore.
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I think you missed this one. ^_^
How do you feel about kytons, anyway? (I know that Mr. Schneider is behind most of Pathfinder's kyton content.)
I think it's great. I love the references, and the takes on the various types. I think it's one of the strongest bits of development we've added to something that started as a pretty one-dimensional concept.
Contributor
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I think you missed this one. ^_^
How do you feel about kytons, anyway? (I know that Mr. Schneider is behind most of Pathfinder's kyton content.)I think it's great. I love the references, and the takes on the various types. I think it's one of the strongest bits of development we've added to something that started as a pretty one-dimensional concept.
Awesome! (I'm working on the kyton content for a huge Kickstarter project, so it's something I think about a lot.)
Thank you! ^_^
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I don't know if you've read Occult Origins yet, but I have a question concerning the Reliquarian Occultist Archetype. Since the power comes from the relics they wield, is it possible to choose Aroden as your deity? It even gives Aroden a Sacred Implement.
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Does it pay to bribe the Dev team to get what you want published?
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If you were still working on Dragon and Dungeon magazine and you had your way, what would have been your plan to expand on Greyhawk? Did you have any ideas for where to go after Genie War?
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Which is your favourite Doctor Who serial?
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I think you missed this one. ^_^
How do you feel about kytons, anyway? (I know that Mr. Schneider is behind most of Pathfinder's kyton content.)I think it's great. I love the references, and the takes on the various types. I think it's one of the strongest bits of development we've added to something that started as a pretty one-dimensional concept.
Did Pinhead and the Cenobites have influence with how the Kytons have developed?
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Have you ever 'run out of steam' as a DM but felt obligated to keep going (not due to personality clashes or anything - the players are still into it, but you've just got a better idea for a campaign or have begun to get bored with the old one)?
Any tips for how to recapture the motivation/inspiration when a game begins to be a drag rather than a pleasure?
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Is it too soon to begin clamoring for an Absalom boxed set?
It's never too soon to start clamoring for anything, from my point of view. :)
I think the comics are great - I really liked Origins and I'm looking forward to Hollow Mountain and no doubt the series beyond that which you accidentally neglected to name... I think you've collectively improved since Goblins (which I also enjoyed, although that's been my least favorite).
That's great to hear. It's a new medium for all of us (as creators, of course we've all been reading comics forever), so it's fun to feel like there's something new to learn with each new script. I know all three of us greatly enjoy and appreciate the opportunity.
Really glad to hear that you're liking them.
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Is it too soon to begin clamoring for an Absalom boxed set?It's never too soon to start clamoring for anything, from my point of view. :)
I want the "early Christmas" feel that all those uneconomical TSR boxed sets used to give me - made even more uneconomical nowadays by Paizo's production values, I suspect.
Absalom is crying out for a more in depth treatment. It's one of the few campaign sourcebooks which I found disappointing - not because it wasn't good, but because there wasn't enough of it and it felt like 64 pages really couldn't do it justice. I'd also love to have a Wootten ink-and-parchment style map of Absalom.
Consider this a mild, opening clamor. I can get more demanding, if it will help.. :)
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The manasaputras are something I am looking forward to from Bestiary 5, thanks to that little snippet from the Esoteric Planes, which, incidentally, was one of my favorite parts of the whole book, so kudos!
Thank you! I've been noodling with a lot of ideas and concepts that went into Occult Adventures for a long, long time--since maybe as early as second edition D&D. "Psionics" never really worked for me, and I always thought that an occult "reskin" of the idea of mental magic opened the door for a lot of cool storytelling possibilities.
The Energy Planes always struck me as kind of the lamest and least usable element of the existing cosmology (also going way, way back), so I wanted to put a marker on that section to make sure I had a chance to make them a little bit more interesting.
1) What's some of the more interesting pieces of trivia you learned while researching for Occult Adventures?
During the research period and writing of Occult Adventures, I became completely obsessed with the Theosophical Society cult, and now have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of their organization, history, and beliefs (at least for an outsider).
One of the most interesting sidelines of the cult, to me, comes in the early 20th century, a couple of decades after the death of the Society's founder, H. P. Blavatsky. Blavatsky's successor in the mainline Society (there were by this point already several offshoot organizations) was a woman named Annie Besant, and Besant's most influential guru was a mystic named C. W. Leadbeater. Leadbeater's codification, explanation, and extrapolation of Blavatsky's cosmology in a series of books with titles like "The Astral Plane" and "The Devachanic Plane" heavily informed (though likely indirectly) Gary Gygax's conception of places like the Astral Plane and Ethereal Plane he incorporated into the original AD&D cosmology, so long ago. (The monadic deva, for example, is a theosophical concept, as is the solar angel).
Anyway, every good cult needs a mystic with claims of some sort of great power or esoteric insight. While Besant was a skilled writer, orator, and leader, she did not herself claim highly developed psychic powers, at least in comparison to others like Blavatsky or Leadbeater (or a similarly fascinating woman named Katherine Tingley, who at the time ran the biggest American offshoot of the Theosophical Society from a giant commune in southern California). So Besant ended up confiding in Leadbeater and trusting him to an outrageous degree, overlooking multiple charges of inappropriate sexual conduct with young boys because his occult insight (i.e. charlatanism) was so important to the organization and to her personally. Her defense of Leadbeater caused another great rift in the Society, with co-counder Henry Steel Olcott personally voting to ban Leadbeater from the Society, and a bunch of American and British sections breaking away from the mainline Theosophical Society, which was now based at Adyar, India.
About a decade later, Besant found a way to bring Leadbeater back (she frankly needed him), and once again CWL was publishing books about the secret prehistory of humanity, as revealed to him via psychic consultation with the Akashic Record. Leadbeater was the Akashic Record master. His visions focused primarily on the previous incarnations of prominent Theosophists. The Society grew more and more obsessed with reincarnation after the move of their headquarters to India, and Leadbeater's work is emblematic of the apex of this influence. Monthly columns in "The Theosophist" recounted past lives, giving "star names" to the souls of key theosophists like Orion, Sirius, Selene, and hey, even Mona.
At this time, Leadbeater was living with Besant in the headquarters compound in Adyar. One day, while taking a midmorning stroll along the riverside beach, Leadbeater beheld the most beautiful sight he had ever seen: the dripping, nubile, taut young body of a young Indian boy named Jiddu Krishnamurti.
No, I'm sorry. The _AURA_ of young Jiddu Krishnamurti, which Leadbeater later described as "the most wonderful aura I had ever seen, without a particle of selfishness in it." It was definitely the aura that so attracted Leadbeater's attention. The fact that he had constantly surrounded himself with young Indian or Asian boys, keeping them as special occult students and even sometimes sleeping in the same bed as them probably didn't enter into it.
Anyway, Leadbeater was so transfixed by the 14-year-old Krishnamurti's aura that he convinced Besant that the youth could only be the vessel for a great "World Teacher" spirit that would soon emerge and lead the world's intellectual and spiritual development. This concept is known as the "Maitreya," and works hand-in-hand with the Theosophical cosmology of souls on the path of evolution and development from lesser forms to otherworldy intelligences designed to nurture the development of humanity toward enlightenment. (This Celestial Hierarchy goes by a number of names in Theosophical occult teachings, one of which being the manasaputra, which is how I brought them into Pathfinder). So similar to prophecies of the reincarnation of Jesus is the Maitreya/World Teacher theology that the Theosophical Society and aligned organizations began to publish books with titles like "The Coming of the New Christ."
The idea, basically, was that Krishnamurti was not yet the World Teacher, but that he would become inhabited by that spirit at some point. The top level of the Adyar Theosophical Society became almost single-mindedly focused on developing Krishnamurti as an appropriate vessel for this spirit. Members of the society earnestly believed that they were on the precipice of a New Age.
As Besant and Leadbeater toured Krishnamurti around the world, having him speak (particularly to Theosophical youth organizations) on issues of morality and occultism and further spreading his legend. Tales of his travels and speeches appeared regularly in "The Theosophist," often accompanied by florid descriptions of Krishnamurti's past lives in a Leadbeater-penned series originally entitled "Rents in the Veil of Time," but which ultimately became known as "The Lives of Alcyone," citing Krishnamurti's own star name, and focusing solely on him as the primary character. Allegedly mental transcriptions and descriptions of Akashic Records observed by Leadbeater while projecting his consciousness into the Astral Plane, these accounts read like someone's Pathfinder campaign notes, replete with corrupt nobles, descriptions of eldritch ancient civilizations, cities, and rituals, and even, every once in a while, with monsters. They're pretty awesome, and no doubt helped the increase the popularity of the Coming World Teacher. ("Behold," many Krishnamurti book covers say, "he comes quickly."
All of this, of course, drove further rents not just in the veil of time, but in the Theosophical Society itself, with more chapters spinning off into their own side-branch organizations (some of which still exist). As a complete aside, some of these organizations focused on the Masters of Ancient Wisdom, the esoteric "Great White Brotherhood" of secretive immortal sages and scholars who first introduced the key concepts of Theosophy to H. P. Blavatsky. These organizations developed, in the mid-20th century, in the the "Ascended Masters" branch of the New Age movement, with prominent branches including Elizabeth Claire Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant and the "I AM Activity," which swears itself to the Ascended Master St. Germain, one of my personal obsessions and favorite quasi-historical figures.
But back to Leadbeater and Krishnamurti. The Lives of Alcyone grew more and more popular, and soon not-so-prominent Theosophists were paying money to get their own star names, which Leadbeater worked into his monthly column as minor characters. A Theosophist might know that he was really the wife of Krishnamurti's father in ancient Chaldea, for example, and one's closeness in past lives to Alcyone was seen as a measure of status within the Society. While there were certainly skeptics, I cannot emphasize enough how much people believed this stuff.
Anyway, as the 1910s and 1920s went by, a major problem started to develop. Jiddu Krishnamurti just wasn't that into it. Over time he became sullen and unsure of himself in his cause. The death of his beloved brother Nitya in 1925 shook his faith in Theosophy itself. In 1929, at a national convention dedicated to his cult of personality and organized by the leaders of the Theosophical Society, Jiddu Krishnamurti, the World Teacher, finally gave the great religious message he had been born and groomed to deliver:
"I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. ... This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies."
That message is, to put it lightly, un-Theosophical, and sent shocks through the convention that reverberated in Theosophical lodges all over the world. Krishnamurti dissolved the convention, dissolved the "Order of the Star in the East" that existed to serve him, and basically tore down the idea of organized religion in general, which, probably more than anything else, essentially destroyed the Theosophical Society. The group exists here and there, but ever since this event it has been fading in popularity. You just can't botch a second coming of Christ.
So, to answer your question, THAT's my favorite piece of trivia that I discovered while researching "Occult Adventures." I love the idea that the great religious secret that it took hundreds of thousands of years and numerous almost-perfectly enlightened reincarnations to deliver to us is: "This is all B.S."
2) Do you have a favorite of the six new classes from Occult Adventures? If so, why?
I really like most of them, but I think my personal favorite at the moment is the mesmerist. I wrote Meligaster's "Meet the Iconics" story, and I've been enjoying writing the character in the Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain comic. I haven't had a chance to play any of the classes yet, but mesmerist is a strong contender for my next character.
3) What genres of literature are you particularly fond of, and why?
I'm a big pulp magazine collector, so my favorite stuff tends to be early 20th century science fiction, fantasy, and adventure. I'm more interested in the genres earlier in their development, before they became too codified. I tend to prefer fantasy from before J.R.R. Tolkien, so I focus on authors like Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, Henry Kuttner, Clark Ashton Smith, and Leigh Brackett. A lot of those authors also wrote horror or science fiction.
Surprise: I like fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
I've recently been reading some late 19th century and early 20th century occult fiction. Most of it is pretty boring, but the language is quite advanced and somewhat florid, which is another characteristic of authors I enjoy, as exemplified by authors like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, A. Merritt (one of my absolute favorites), William Hope Hodgson, and even more recently Jack Vance, Matthew Huges, and even China Mieville.
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I don't know if you've read Occult Origins yet, but I have a question concerning the Reliquarian Occultist Archetype. Since the power comes from the relics they wield, is it possible to choose Aroden as your deity? It even gives Aroden a Sacred Implement.
I just gave my home copy of Occult Origins to a friend last night, so I need a little more time to get back to this one.
I'll give the archetype a close look later this week. Basically, if something is tapping into a divine power source to fuel it, that won't work for Aroden, because such a divine power source no longer exists. But that's more my philosophical take on it. A full analysis will follow shortly.
Remind me if I don't get to it soon, please.
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If you were still working on Dragon and Dungeon magazine and you had your way, what would have been your plan to expand on Greyhawk? Did you have any ideas for where to go after Genie War?
That's a good question. I suspect I would have continued with the popular Demonomicon of Iggwilv and Core Beliefs series. I suspect future Adventure Paths would have been set in the "core world," and that would have influenced future development between both magazines in the same way that Age of Worms and Savage Tide influenced both magazines.
We got the bad news about the magazine fairly early in the development of Savage Tide, as I recall, which left us little time to daydream about what might come after. I don't have a great answer to this question because there wasn't much of a plan beyond what actually came out. Once we knew the magazines were doomed we focused on wrapping things up spectacularly and then began work almost immediately on Pathfinder, since we didn't exactly want to fire everyone the day after we sent off the last D&D magazine.
I do recall that my work on Age of Worms and especially Maure Castle made me quite interested in the Seekers organization. I think some of those half-conceived daydreams eventually went into the conception of the Pathfinder Society in-world organization, the subject of the article I wrote in Pathfinder #1, which came out at about the time you're mentioning.
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The manasaputras are something I am looking forward to from Bestiary 5, thanks to that little snippet from the Esoteric Planes, which, incidentally, was one of my favorite parts of the whole book, so kudos!Thank you! I've been noodling with a lot of ideas and concepts that went into Occult Adventures for a long, long time--since maybe as early as second edition D&D. "Psionics" never really worked for me, and I always thought that an occult "reskin" of the idea of mental magic opened the door for a lot of cool storytelling possibilities.
The Energy Planes always struck me as kind of the lamest and least usable element of the existing cosmology (also going way, way back), so I wanted to put a marker on that section to make sure I had a chance to make them a little bit more interesting.
I just wanted to second Luthorne. The Esoteric Planes section in OA is one of my favorite parts as well. And I am also eagerly waiting to read more about the Manasaputras.
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Which is your favourite Doctor Who serial?
Ha ha ha.
WAY too difficult.
Allow me to do it this way:
ONE: The Dalek Master Plan*
TWO: The War Games
THREE: Inferno
FOUR: City of Death
FIVE: Earthshock**
SIX: The One Doctor***
SEVEN: Battlefield****
EIGHT: Chimes at Midnight*****
NINE: Dalek
TEN: Blink
ELEVEN: Day of the Doctor******
TWELVE: Mummy on the Orient Express*******
* Incomplete, impression based on reconstructions and existing episodes. "An Unearthly Child" is my favorite episode from the Hartnell era, but the rest of that serial is terrible, so I didn't list it. Runners up include The Daleks, The Aztecs, The Edge of Destruction, Marco Polo, The Crusade, and the War Machines. I really like a lot of episodes in this era.
** Or maybe Enlightenment. I liked the Fifth Doctor era a lot more as a kid than I do as an adult. Now I can see that the rot really began to set in in Tom Baker's last season, and while I can watch and enjoy nearly all of Five's episodes, it has a lot of foreshadowing of the decline to come.
*** Look, there are no truly good Colin Baker episodes. I find them all appalling for one reason or another. He had zero good companions, and the worst writing and production values the program ever had. The poor guy never had a chance. Even his Patrick Troughton team-up is terrible. So I picked "The One Doctor," one of my favorite Big Finish audio dramas. Other great ones include Ish, The Holy Terror (with Frobisher!), The Marian Conspiracy... so many. Colin Baker is delightful in audio. Literally any of the 30 or so audio adventures of his I've heard, some of which are not awesome, are better than any of his actual episodes. Poor guy.
**** Maybe? Look, I am not a Sylvester McCoy guy. The show was waaaaay too much a pantomime in this era for my tastes, and the much-lauded "Cartmel Master Plan" reads to me like fanfic that I am glad never happened, even if some of the early set-up was more interesting than what came before. I like Ace as a companion, but Seven is my least favorite Doctor. He doesn't really even work for me in audio.
***** Another audio. In this case, there's not much to choose from in TV. McGann is sometimes great in audio, and sometimes he seems bored out of his skull. This is his best story, and maybe Big Finish's masterpiece in their entire range. A fantastic episode filled with "timey-wimey" goodness.
****** If I'm not allowed to pick a multi-Doctor story, I guess I'll go with "Let's Kill Hitler." The Smith era is also one of my least favorites, for numerous reasons. Plenty of good episodes, but in my view very very few excellent ones. Day of the Doctor was one of the best episodes in the history of the series, though, so credit where credit is due.
******* So far!
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The dungeon dressing pieces have clearly proved popular in the PF Battles line. I'm not interested in them, but they're not prevalent enough to make me unsubscribe and it's easy enough to find people who want them. However, the opportunity cost bothers me - in that they could be half a dozen new, rare monsters.
It seems to me, from a distance, that splitting them off to their own line (a la something like the iconic heroes line, although I'd still imagine them packaged blindly) is an "obvious" way to let people tailor their minis purchases to what suits them - especially if the dungeon dressing pieces could have their own rarities (with tables more common than cauldrons and so forth). I really struggle to find a loser in that scenario - presuming furniture pieces are as popular as they appear. It would also help mitigate the problem of some needing out-of-the-ordinary 'reprints' to meet demand for multiple copies (of tables, for example). However, the fact it isn't being done that way makes me suspect there is some customer cohort who would lose out.
I presume it isn't your decision to make, but you probably have insight into it. Can you explain why it's preferable to dilute the brand in that way and to include dungeon dressing in with figures, rather than the way it is "usually" done* (where dungeon dressing bits are bundled separately)?
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I don't know if you've read Occult Origins yet, but I have a question concerning the Reliquarian Occultist Archetype. Since the power comes from the relics they wield, is it possible to choose Aroden as your deity? It even gives Aroden a Sacred Implement.I just gave my home copy of Occult Origins to a friend last night, so I need a little more time to get back to this one.
I'll give the archetype a close look later this week. Basically, if something is tapping into a divine power source to fuel it, that won't work for Aroden, because such a divine power source no longer exists. But that's more my philosophical take on it. A full analysis will follow shortly.
Remind me if I don't get to it soon, please.
BUMP, cause you told me to
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Just read first part of hollow mountain and was just wondering if what was briefly mentioned there about Aroden was going to be brought up and expanded upon in the article on him for issue #100 of the Ap (Also kind of curious if where Harsk and Amiri have gone to will be expanded upon really hoping its to recruit Lini and co.)
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EM,
Just curious. I haven't done any deep research into the matter, but is Scientology/Dianetics connected in any way with any of the research you did for the Occult book?
Because the alternate history I've heard of espoused by Scientology bears a great deal of resemblance to what you related. I wonder if it's even an offshoot of the earlier cults you talked about.
==Aelryinth
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Have you got a favourite Motown act?
And on a similar theme: Which song is best - Reach Out I'll Be There, Bernadette, or Standing in the Shadows of Love?
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What about a Laori Vaus mini?Almost certainly not.
Art is subjective, and all, and I don't mean any offense to the folks involved, but the illustrations of this character we have published have been among my absolute least favorite renditions of any character in a Pathfinder book.
So unless we had some reason to re-illustrate her, and unless that illustration took a decidedly different approach than "cute girl in a razor-blade catsuit," there is a precisely 0% chance that I would want to make a mini of her.
Sorry!
Since she's getting new artwork....
Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseple asepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleasepleaselease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crossposted in AMA threads: it's a Paizopaloozaganza!
Erik.
Eeeeeeerrrrriiiiiiiic.
Super-serious series of questions*:
*
If you could have different super-powers, what would they be and why?
(Assume corollary powers required to make a given power work are part of it; i.e. Since you'd need super tensile strength/durability to, you know, not-die when you made use of your super-strength power, you get them both when you say "super strength" as a singular option.)
Why?
If, instead, you could be a gestalt of super heroes, who would you gestalt to be yourself? Why? Which comic universe would you run around in? Would you prefer to be in that one, or this one?
On the other hand: BAM! You just gained levels in a Pathfinder class (or classes)! Which class(es) do you pick, and why? Incidentally, if you could spontaneously switch races, would you? And if so, to which?
Similarly, you won the super-lottery, and gained mythic tiers! of 'em! (And you gain class levels to match; please feel free to change your previous answer if this does so for some reason.) What path do you take? (Alternate option: substitute a single tier for a simple mythic template.)
Yet another query: you monster. Specifically, you (or less) monster! Which are you?! ... and would this have been your first choice? If not, which would be?
But the wheels of fate-time have spun again, and your everything has been transposed into that of someone else! You've just become a prepublished NPC from an official source! Which prepublished NPC is it?
What campaign setting do you run around in? Why?
As a final thing: blend any and/or all of the above questions into a single ginormous question: an optional blend of a prepublished NPC, monster, and some superheroes all walk into a bar... and out comes you, as a gestalt of those guys, the race you choose, some extra superpowers, and have extra class levels and mythic tiers on top! What are you?! (Other than "awesome" - naturally.)
Equipment is a non-issue (like adjunct super-powers; what you need to do <X> is assumed). Also note that any significant others can be brought with you.
"Official" and "Pre-published" are loose terms, but general expect something that has a solid publishing company and identifiable map/world/conceits behind it (like WotC for Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Dark Sun, Greyhawk, etc; or Green Ronin for Blue Rose, but not "True20"; or Paizo for Golarion, or the Maelstrom, or the upcoming Starfinder; but not "the Bestiaries" or "the Planes" or things like that - basically things that people can find and nerd out about with you). Similarly, if it has a solid AP out for it, that, too, is acceptable (like Legendary Planet; or any of Paizo's APs). It should probably be a d20 variant, but it can be whatever you like of those many variants (True20, Blue Rose, Paizo, 3.5, 3rd; etc.). That said, if a Homebrew or otherwise "weak" entry just needs to be there due to compelling reasons... okay. Similarly other systems. Let us know why! Computer and video game translations of such (Neverwinter Nights and/or expansions/sequels; PFO; etc) are acceptable as interpretations as well.
Similarly, for comics, it needs to be superheroes that people can reasonsonably be expected to come across - "that one I made up with my cousin as a kid" is an awesome answer, and worth noting and why, but prrrrooooobabaly isn't the best choice, unless it's just so powerful that you've GOT to. In which case: sure, but bring us along for the ride! Related, the super need not come from one of the "big two" in comics, so long as the people and world is both recognizes me and accessible - choosing The Incredibles world is valid (and awesome), as is Spawn (blech); you're not just limited to Marvel or DC. Similarly "standard" powers need not apply - so long as it is clearly communicable, it's fine (even if all the field specifics aren't clear, that's okay - knowing you're powered by our yellow star is fine; you don't need to know this, but it's acceptable if you do).
Finally, presume you have the basics necessary for a happy life. Your spouse, best friend, and so on, can all be considered to "come with you" (should they choose to do so) wherever it is that you go.
Oh, and one more thing: if you lived through a Legend of Zelda (as one of the Links); which would it be, and why?
Thanks! Enjoy!
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Woah, last comment here was over a year ago.
Also, how come there isn't a Pathfinder Comics subforum?
How has your experience been writing Worldscape?
Will Pathfinder Comics material be Society Legal?
How come Green Martians and White Martians don't have Barsoomian as a starting language, but John Carter can speak it as a language?
And lastly, but maybe the most important question I can possibly ask. Will there be an Worldscape: Evil Dead?
Erik!
Would you please tell me everything there is to know about the Peacock Spirit?
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Dear Erik,
May I please use your name in a tastefully named theme-park for a character background in Starfinder?
I was thinking Monaland, but Monaville or even Monarionland might work too?
Was going to do 'Golarionland', but that seems to be not the sort of thing that'd be good for a themepark with the entire world missing.
I can't even comprehend the amount of free time I had back then!
I know that feeling well too.
"Youth Free time is wasted on the young."
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Did Pinhead and the Cenobites have influence with how the Kytons have developed?
Near as I can tell, this is the oldest unanswered question in the thread.
The truth is that I didn't have much to do with the kytons, so this question is probably better posed to Wes Schneider or James Jacobs than to me.
Conceptually, there are connections. We all like the Hellraiser movies (or perhaps it's better to say we all like the _idea_ of the Hellraiser movies, if not the actual execution).
Once we expanded these guys from the single chain devil of 3.0 to a full-on evil outsider race, I'm pretty sure that the cenobites were one of the main wellsprings of inspiration for them, but beyond that I'm afraid I don't have any details.
Scandalously, I don't think I've ever used a single kyton in any of my Pathfinder games, though we did fight a few in Jason Bulmahn's weekly Monday night game. Not being super familiar with their abilities made those encounters extra scary for me!
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Have you ever 'run out of steam' as a DM but felt obligated to keep going (not due to personality clashes or anything - the players are still into it, but you've just got a better idea for a campaign or have begun to get bored with the old one)?
I abandon campaigns so frequently that I've lately begun to make it a feature, rather than a flaw. My Kings of Absalom game, which I've run for several different groups, is more of a series of interlinked events rather than a continuous ongoing campaign. That gives us a chance to game together for several weeks without setting up a sense that it's something we're going to be doing together forever. Even so, I've fallen off the wagon a bit in terms of circling back to reunite the groups for the third round of the campaign, so even the pros peter out from time to time.
Any tips for how to recapture the motivation/inspiration when a game begins to be a drag rather than a pleasure?
It's been a while since I tried this, but most of my gaming is from my own notes or off the top of my head. Sometimes when things along those lines peter out, my tactic is to try running a "packaged" adventure instead.
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Hi Erik, i hope you´re well!
1.)Will the 10-headed Hydra in the Pathfinder Battles Set 14 "Jungle of Despair" be of HUGE or GARGANTUAN size?
2.)So i guess that means Pathfinder Battles Set 15 will have the "Huge Earth & Huge Water Elemental" as case incentives?
3.)How many of these creatures are in PFB: JoD:
-Assassin Vine (L)
-small dragons (s)
-Eel (s)
-Monkey (s)
-Rat (s)
-Toad (s)
-Viper (s)
-Weasel (s)
-Cat (s)
-Mohrg (m)
-Nymph (m)
-Octopus (s)
-Giant Octopus (L)
-Squid (m)
-Wolverine (m)
-Yellow Musk Creeper (m)
Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions in here.
Cheers, Marco