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You made it to page two and I haven't even gotten to do an alias barrage, kudos!
Have you played in Skull and Shackles, if so what was your character.
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What Pathfinder Society characters do you have and what are your favorite ones?
I have *one*, Imet-Toth, an Osirion Warpriest. I played him a few times at Gen Con.
He is, therefore, my favorite. :)
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What's the most creative thing you've seen someone do in a game? (Actually playing it, not producing material)
Larry Dixon (professional artist and writer) destroyed a roc by very carefully using create water to alter the aerodynamics of its wings.
...
The lesson to be learned here is don't try to impress the guy who provided the photos for WetA to produce cgi eagles for the Lord of the Rings with areal combat scenarios.
In a different game I ran for him, I did a zombie apocalypse scenario where characters had access to things that were in the room we were playing the game in.
The characters were in a plain that crashed in Sebring, FL.
...
Larry, having been involved in professional racing, had something like a dozen maps and guides to Sebring in THAT room. And the weaponry to get everyone to a warehouse stronghold.
GMing a game for Larry is really stepping into the pro leagues. :)
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Sounds like GMing for Larry is a league unto it's own. :-D
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What's next for Freeport? If you can tell us that is.
We have two things coming up soon. The first is the Return to Freeport series of adventures, which have some very familiar names among the authors. The other is a series of short pdfs called Short Cuts, which are Pathfinder compatible, and generally built off the World of Freeport.
It's exciting stuff!
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Have you played in Skull and Shackles, if so what was your character.
I have not and, given that I had to study it pretty closely when developing Plunder & Peril, I suspect I'm not going to get the chance.
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Sounds like GMing for Larry is a league unto it's own. :-D
It's special. If anyone is out near where he dwells and runs into him, I heartily recommend the experience.
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Similar to my previous question, what's the most creative and memorable character you've seen at a gaming table? (PC or NPC - doesn't matter.)
Wow, that's *tough*. I have games with many amazing people, who have had fascinating and wonderful characters, and we've played in a LOT of games over the decades.
A few leap to mind, but there are dozens more:
Tallek and Alaina, 2nd ed D&D paladins who went very different directions in campaigns that ran over a decade of real-world time, and more than that in campaign time, covering their youth as young squires until then were lords in their own right. I was always fascinated how DIFFERENT they were, despite both being solid LG characters. Alaina got emotional, frustrated, angry, and often felt she was fighting her own human nature, but never even came close to faltering. Tallek was calm, rational, careful, forethoughtful, but still deeply (if quietly) compassionate, and yet also extremely cold once her concluding a person could not be redeemed without unacceptable risk to others.
Deathstalker, a superhero who had powers much like wolverine, but had an attitude closer to Spider-Man. He was somehow the "Friendly Neighborhood Scorpion" and managed to pull off a character concept I wouldn't have believed made any sense.
Darius, a gnome rat-catcher who was famous for coming up with bizarre and dangerous plans that, no matter how unlikely the roll he needed to pull it off, always somehow panned out (and were always announced with "So, this is what I want to do... )
Anuska, a rogue/assassin who, through sheer sneakiness and planning, managed to keep pace in utility, problem-solving, and damage dealing in a campaign with numerous potent optimized spellcasters.
Lt. Liberty, a Captain America pastiche who was played simultaneously in a WWII game and a 1990s campaign as the older version who had been frozen in ice and thawed out.
Miss Peach, a halfling graduate of the Brittonian Academy of Magic who one partook in the destruction of an enemy Ship of the Line by having a cavalier charge the enemy ship (by having the cleric cast water walk on the cavalier's steed), targeting and killing (with the cavalier's firearm-enhanced aid) the enemy ship's Chief Spellcasting Officer, and then summoning fire elementals in every window, crook, and lance-inflicted hole she could until one found the powder room.
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Wow, cool thread! Owen's a very cool and interesting guy! I used to work with him quite a lot back in the Super Genius days, and I learned loads from him about the RPG industry etc.
Ask good questions here and you'll get some great answers!!! :)
Thanks Marc!
Yep we produced some fine, and still fairly popular, products.
More general question(s):
Which pen and paper rpg systems have you played?
Which pen and paper rpg settings have you played?
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Owen, you've mentioned the Dresden Files as a reading choice earlier in the thread - time for a couple of questions spinning off from that.
Fair enough!
- Have you played the Dresden Files RPG at all? If so, as what sort of character?
No, though I have played RPGs WITH Jim Butcher... does that count?
Not having played Dresdin Files isn't from lack of interest, but from lack of time. It became an option just as my career really tramped up. I still manage to squeeze in some Pathfinder because I think you should always play the RPG you write for, but I haven't managed much outside that.
- Have you had a chance to read "The Aeronaut's Windlass" by the same author yet?
No I haven't gotten into Jim's "The Cinder Spires" stuff yet, but I am looking forward to doing so at some point.
- The modern magic-user genre seems to be a growth area at present. Are there any other similar series that you've been reading recently?
That kinda depends on how you want to define "recently"
I have read Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde material (which significantly predates Dresden) many times over the years, I'm a big fan of it and all the Serrated Edge series.
I've picked up the first Mick Oberon book by Ari Marmell (who is also a gamer and an rpg designer), and expect I'll get the rest once I have some spare time.
I picked up the first Mercy Thompson book (by Patricia Briggs), and I'm on the fence about whether I'll read more of the series or not.
I've read several Allie Beckstrom books (by Devon Monk), and enjoyed them, but at some point I stopped keeping up and haven't yet felt an urge to go back.
And of course there's a lot of anime and TV that falls within the limits of that genre.
- While not a setting that (currently) fits with Golarion, could you see a setting book that fits with the concepts within those sort of books within the Pathfinder engine?
Sure.
I even wrote a campaign tool kit designed for fans of urban fantasy - Anachronistic Adventures(Available in print here, if you prefer).
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More general question(s):
Which pen and paper rpg systems have you played?
Oh goodness, I am sure to miss a few. In no particular order and as I am able tor ecall:
Pathfinder, Star Wars (WEG, d20, RCR, and Saga), Ghostbusters, Dungeons & Dragons (basic, AD&D 1st + 2nd ed, 3rd ed, 4th ed), Champions/Hero/Danger International/Justice Inc (in a few editions and mach-ups), Aftermath, Morrow Project, Vampire (1st ed), Werewolf (1st ed), Kindred of the East, Paladium RPG + Rifts + After the Bomb + Robotech + Beyond the Supernatural (well, we tried a few times, but most campaigns in Paladium systems lasted 2 sessions), Deadlands (1st and d20), Amazing Engine, Our Last Best Hope, Ars Magica, DragonStar, L5R (1st ed), Call of Cthulhu/BRP (a couple of editions, but I'm honestly not sure which), Cthulhu Live (1st), IFGS (LARP), d20 Modern, Bunnies and Burrows, KILLER, Dread, Mekton, Gamma World (1st, 2nd, maybe 3rd, Alternity, d20), Mutant Chronicles, Mutazoids (3rd ed(, Alternity, Traveller, Space Opera, Star Frontiers, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Metamorphosis Alpha, Amber Diceless Roleplaying, Arcana Unearthed, Mutants & Masterminds (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), DreamPark the Roleplaying Game, Teenagers from Outer Space, GURPS, Big Eyes Small Mouth, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun (1st), Buck Rogers XXVC, Top Secret, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Earthdawn, Castle Flakenstein, Pendragon, Chill, Dogs in the Vineyard, DragonRaid,The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Rolemaster (1st and one other edition), MERP, Hollow Earth Expedition, Space 1889, Supernatural RPG, Living Steel, Tunnels and Trolls (mostly solo adventures), Macho Women With Guns (original and d20), and Marvel (Saga and FASERIP).I know I missed a bunch... and where does Arduin Grimoire go, RPG or setting?
Which pen and paper rpg settings have you played?
Same provisos as above, and noting that I didn't always do it in the rule system the setting was designed for:
Forgotten Realms, Grayhawk, Eberron, Golarions, Star Wars, Ravenloft, Deadlands, Al Qadim, RIFTS, Robotech, Morrow Project, Gamma World, Dark Matter, Star*Drive, Star Frontiers, Metamorphosis Alpha, Kromosone, For Faerie, Queen, and Country, Bughunters, Tabloid!, Amber, L5R, The Diamond Throne, Dark Sun, Shadowrun, Castle Flakenstein, Dragonlance, Earthdawn, Shattered Lands, Fading Suns, MERP, Space 1889, and Talislanta.And again, I know I missed a bunch.
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Which Cons are you planning on going to this year?
Right now, just PaizoCon.
I've been fighting consistent poor health since moving to Seattle. On top of that, even time I go to an out-of-state con, I got terrible Con crud that wiped me out for 1-2 weeks. And I had a fairly serious scare that landed me in the ER at the beginning of this year.
So, as much as it leaves me with a heavy heart, I have decided to have a light con schedule, skip even Gen Con, and take a year off to see if I can't recuperate more fully.
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1) What is your biggest regret in the gaming industry?
2) What RPG would you bring back from the dead, if you could. Personally I have but one, Twilight 2k, what would be yours?
3) If you could work on any current RPG, what would it be?
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1) What is your biggest regret in the gaming industry?
My biggest regret is that I didn't realize earlier in my career that I could help other people get into and enjoy success and satisfaction within the industry, especially those who are not well served by the system that embraced me with such ease.
2) What RPG would you bring back from the dead, if you could. Personally I have but one, Twilight 2k, what would be yours?
Gamma World. I *love* Gamma World.
3) If you could work on any current RPG, what would it be?
Pathfinder!
What, doesn't count?
Okay, then Fantasy AGE!
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Pancakes or Waffles?
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Who would you pick to be at an "All-star" table for a game run for you?
Who would you pick to be your GM?
Lastly: Would you play a "crowd-sourced" character at a convention for charity with a live internet audience?
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What's the most horrific combination of monster type and subtype(s) you can think of?
Magical Beast (asura*, augmented, chaotic**, elemental*, evil**, godspawn, good**, great old one, kaiju, lawful**, mythic, rakshasa, shape changer)
*Unlike most outsider subtypes, the azure and elemental subtypes doesn't specify they're just for outsiders.
**No rule I know of forbids being opposed sliognments as subtypes. Yes, it means all alignment effects impact it at their worst, but the SR likely handles that,
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Opposed natural alignments probably isn't something that's meant to happen.
*Stamp of approval*
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Who would you pick to be at an "All-star" table for a game run for you?
Myself, Stan!, Rob Schwalb, Crystal Frasier, Shanna Germain, Monte Cook, Chris Pramas, Nicole Lindroos.
Who would you pick to be your GM?
Rob Schwalb.
Lastly: Would you play a "crowd-sourced" character at a convention for charity with a live internet audience?
Absolutely!
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You sir are one brave m&~%##~*##$$.Who would you pick to be your GM?Rob Schwalb.I've done it before!
For a Thieves World game, with Chris Pramas and Lynn Abbey.
There was only one curb stomping, and of the three, Rob isn't the one who scared me...
Someone scarier than Rob? I disbelieve.
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Someone scarier than Rob? I disbelieve.You sir are one brave m&~%##~*##$$.Who would you pick to be your GM?Rob Schwalb.I've done it before!
For a Thieves World game, with Chris Pramas and Lynn Abbey.
There was only one curb stomping, and of the three, Rob isn't the one who scared me...
Every played a game with a PC prophet, played by the woman who writes the licensed world you're playing in? :D
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Prophet "I see giant robots appearing in the world soon"
GM
Prophet
GM NPC "the prophet is never wrong!"
Pretty much!
Though she's a professional fiction writer so it was all... creepier. And more believable.
...
And wouldn't stand up as a threat in court...
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Which Cons are you planning on going to this year?Right now, just PaizoCon.
I've been fighting consistent poor health since moving to Seattle. On top of that, even time I go to an out-of-state con, I got terrible Con crud that wiped me out for 1-2 weeks. And I had a fairly serious scare that landed me in the ER at the beginning of this year.
So, as much as it leaves me with a heavy heart, I have decided to have a light con schedule, skip even Gen Con, and take a year off to see if I can't recuperate more fully.
I wish you all the best, Owen as you seem to be a real great human being.
Get well soon!PS: Watch the video "Roland i feel you" from "get well soon" on youtube, it's great. :-)
Which Cons are you planning on going to this year?Right now, just PaizoCon.
I've been fighting consistent poor health since moving to Seattle. On top of that, even time I go to an out-of-state con, I got terrible Con crud that wiped me out for 1-2 weeks. And I had a fairly serious scare that landed me in the ER at the beginning of this year.
So, as much as it leaves me with a heavy heart, I have decided to have a light con schedule, skip even Gen Con, and take a year off to see if I can't recuperate more fully.
I wish you all the best, Owen as you seem to be a real great human being.
Get well soon!
PS: Watch the video "Roland i feel you" from "get well soon" on youtube, it's great. :-)
There we go!
Disclaimer: I've not yet watched the video, only found it and linked it. :D
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Owen on a production point of view, is what are the pros and cons of having secrets in a published setting that are not available to the public as suppose to a setting with all the secrets published somewhere?
The simple answer is, once there are no secrets left, there's nothing left to publish.
Yes, I realize that's not what you meant and it's not entirely fair - not everything we haven't told you yet is a "secret."
But even looking at it in the way people who ask the question intend, it's still kind of true. many groups don't want their Golarion campaigns to actually violate official canon. they are okay making up new stuff, but don;t want official sourcebooks to say "up" and have the GM say "down."
For those groups, having things like who wrote the Harbinger's book, what the deal is with the Clockwork Cathedral, what caused the Eye of Abdendego, where's Nex, and, yes, who killed Aroden and how, it like a basket of giant plot hooks. These are areas the GM is free to play with to create their own campaign story, without contradicting anything we say.
And yes, we may cover some of those someday. But no campaign lasts for ever, so a lot of home games dealing with Nex will be done if/when we ever revealed what happened to the Archmage.
And, of course, we introduce new secrets to replace old ones.
Further, our secrets tend to be things no one seems to know, which means NOT having that information doesn't conflict with the GM's ability to run a campaign world. Since it's knowledge know to few if any mortals, a GM can just tell players no one knows when they ask, and it's no different than the real world, where people on the ground simply don't have a bird's eye view of history or current events.
Of course you have to reveal a LOT of things, or there isn't a framework
for a GM to build on. But I think you always want a noteworthy number of known unknowns.
RPG Superstar 2015
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Now that you've survived Horrendous Wound, which of the many horribly debilitating things do you think has given you the most off the way, crazy cakes, creative insights? HW, sleep deprivation, the flu, ConCrud, or something else that we haven't seen in recent history but you have experienced?
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Now that you've survived Horrendous Wound, which of the many horribly debilitating things do you think has given you the most off the way, crazy cakes, creative insights? HW, sleep deprivation, the flu, ConCrud, or something else that we haven't seen in recent history but you have experienced?
I think the Hateful Wound's combination of painkillers. multiple antibiotics, AND sleep deprivation clearly gave me the biggest bizarre-out-of-the-box-idea boost.
It remains to be seen how many of those I can capitalize on in a useful way...
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Now that you've survived Horrendous Wound, which of the many horribly debilitating things do you think has given you the most off the way, crazy cakes, creative insights? HW, sleep deprivation, the flu, ConCrud, or something else that we haven't seen in recent history but you have experienced?I think the Hateful Wound's combination of painkillers. multiple antibiotics, AND sleep deprivation clearly gave me the biggest bizarre-out-of-the-box-idea boost.
It remains to be seen how many of those I can capitalize on in a useful way...
Altered states of mind are certainly interesting.
I noticed a very big departure from my usual thoughts and a surge of new ideas after I had gone 48 hours without sleeping.
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Altered states of mind are certainly interesting.
I noticed a very big departure from my usual thoughts and a surge of new ideas after I had gone 48 hours without sleeping.
Yeah, I suffer from insomnia, and have on occasion gone 50+ hours without notable sleep (due to the existence of micro sleep and the fact I wasn't hooked up to monitors I actually can't say I didn't get *any* sleep during that time).
Friends and colleagues can apparently tell when I have going 30+ hours without sleep, due to how the tone of my Facebook and Twitter posts change.
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Altered states of mind are certainly interesting.
I noticed a very big departure from my usual thoughts and a surge of new ideas after I had gone 48 hours without sleeping.
Yeah, I suffer from insomnia, and have on occasion gone 50+ hours without notable sleep (due to the existence of micro sleep and the fact I wasn't hooked up to monitors I actually can't say I didn't get *any* sleep during that time).
Friends and colleagues can apparently tell when I have going 30+ hours without sleep, due to how the tone of my Facebook and Twitter posts change.
Ouch, sorry Owen.
"What did I post last night?" Has become a common thing for men since I've deleted the habit of waking up in the middle of the night to reply to certain things.
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Altered states of mind are certainly interesting.
I noticed a very big departure from my usual thoughts and a surge of new ideas after I had gone 48 hours without sleeping.
Yeah, I suffer from insomnia, and have on occasion gone 50+ hours without notable sleep (due to the existence of micro sleep and the fact I wasn't hooked up to monitors I actually can't say I didn't get *any* sleep during that time).
Friends and colleagues can apparently tell when I have going 30+ hours without sleep, due to how the tone of my Facebook and Twitter posts change.
Ouch, sorry Owen.
"What did I post last night?" Has become a common thing for men since I've deleted the habit of waking up in the middle of the night to reply to certain things.
... the above being a prime example.
"Has become a common thing for me since I've started the habit of waking up in the middle of the night to reply to certain things."
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This isn't like one of those phone-things where you pay by the minute for real estate tips is it?Why, would you pay me by the minute for real estate tips?
Yes.