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Michael, did you play D&D 3ed? Did you play with the original Incarnum system? If yes, is there any memorable moment using it?
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Michael, did you play D&D 3ed? Did you play with the original Incarnum system? If yes, is there any memorable moment using it?
Very much so, yes! A lot of my Magic of Incarnum homebrew actually became the foundation for Akashic Mysteries. The 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting is also to this day one of my favorite campaign setting books of all time (much better than either the 4e or 5e variants, IMO, especially since the 5E one used so much recycled art and articles).
I actually had a whole notebook for using Magic of Incarnum with Eberron, including things like Incarnum being really common amongst kalashtar and shifters, with kalashtar favoring the incarnate class and shifters favoring the totemist class.
Eventually we wanted to do a big aquatic campaign and I learned about Cerulean Seas from Alluria Publishing, and I was so impressed by that book that we switched over to Pathfinder and I started immediately converting Incarnum over to be the primary power source for a bunch of the aquatic races where spellbooks didn't make much sense and their lore or history meant psionics wasn't a good fit.
The rest is pretty much history there; I pitched Arcforge to Dreamscarred Press, they didn't want it at the time but did want some incarnum-inspired stuff so I wrote Akashic Mysteries, Legendary Games ultimately published Arcforge and Matt Daley took over that line entirely after the first two books, and I wrote a bunch of stuff for several other publishers (Amora Games, Lost Spheres Publishing, Rogue Genius Games, Drop Dead Studios, etc.) and then started work here at Paizo as a developer and just kind of kept writing. Today I assign almost as many of my ideas to other people as I actually get to write myself, but living the dream is living the dream and all that.
Hmmm.... I kind of wandered from the point there, so let me tell you about my favorite 3.5 session that included Magic of Incarnum. I'd been GMing a game for my then-girlfriend (now my wife) and several of her coworkers for about a year and it was the last night we were all going to get to play together before Morgan and I moved out of Alaska. Morgan was playing a lurk (a psionic rogue with a variable sneak attack that actually inspired the enigmas I wrote for the eclipse class), and the other PCs were a duskling totemist, a gnome crusader, a shifter swordsage, and an aasimar druid. The enemies were a cabal of necromancers who had been the villains moving things in the background throughout the campaign.
Since I knew that this was going to be our last game, I wanted to use every type of necromancer I could get my hands on: wizard (necromancer), true necromancer, dread necromancer, a necromancer cleric build, and a necrocarnate from MoI. It was an absolutely epic fight with the true necromancer flying above the battlefield on an undead wyvern while controlling shock troops and raining down ice storms, the necrocarnate's frost giant necrocarnum zombie thrashing folks left and right, and the dread necromancer commanding its ogre minions to grab the party frontliners and march into lava pits with them.
Two things ultimately turned the tide and allowed the party to win: First, the swordsage failed the first saving throw against a baleful polymorph spell and turned into a squirrel but succeeded on the Will saving throw, and suddenly I had the squirrel of doom to contend with as this tiny creature whose damage hadn't meaningfully changed at all was suddenly scampering about the battlefield obliterating zombies while benefiting from a size boost to AC and accuracy. Second, Morgan's lurk managed to tag the true necromancer with a death urge power right as he was flying over a pit of lava, leading him to leap off of his wyvern and plummet to a fiery death. This also meant no one was controlling the zombie legion he'd been commanding anymore, so the enemies ranks quickly crumbled and the party managed to scrape out a victory, with the final necromancer falling as the totemist nailed him with a spray of manticore spikes. Still one of the top 5 sessions I've ever been privileged to participate in.
HOLY SNAP THAT'S AWESOME!
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What was the inspiration for the original 3 akashic classes? Were they made to reimagine the classes in MoI? Or were they made with the idea to make an akashic warrior, wizard and expert? Oh, and why did you embrace the middle-east flavor?
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What was the inspiration for the original 3 akashic classes? Were they made to reimagine the classes in MoI? Or were they made with the idea to make an akashic warrior, wizard and expert? Oh, and why did you embrace the middle-east flavor?
So, my original homebrew class was the soulforge, and it eventually became the basis for the vizier. When Andreas and I started talking about this project, one of the points of discussion was that Magic of Incarnum is not part of the OGL; whatever we did would need to be something where the mechanics were familiar to fans of Magic of Incarnum but where we didn't recycle a single word or flavor concept from MoI. This led into some discussions about other types of lore we were familiar with and which had some resonance with some of the basic ideas of the system, and Andreas and I both agreed that something touching on the Akashic Records (which Paizo hadn't done anything with at that point in time) was a smart idea.
Since the lore around the Akashic Records was derived from sanskrit, the Torah, and the Bible, and since I had a lot of background studying and interacting with the cultures and religions of the Middle East, this felt like the right territory to take the product in, though I tried to use a pretty light touch and not reference or mimic any specific real-world cultures or religions beyond the Akashic Records themselves.
The vizier as the akashic "wizard" and the guru as the skilled akashic character bridging some conceptual ground between the inquisitor and the monk felt like really natural choices, while the daevic was actually something where the mechanics started coming in first and the flavor became the answer to how to fill in the blanks around the initial chassis.
Having used Magic of Incarnum a lot, I knew that people who loved the system loved the totemist for its ability to generate natural weapons and monster-like attacks, and that conceptually the soulborn was widely considered to be a complete failure since it's soulmelds were on such a slow track that it was basically worse than a paladin buying into the system with feats. Knowing the history of those two classes and wanting to make sure we had a proper akashic knight as the third part of the lineup, I decided that one of the things I wanted was something that blended paladin and druid with its own inspirations that were tied to the theme of the book. This led Andreas and I into a discussion about the daevas from Zoroastrian lore and how they might be a good fit for this (which is also why the bestiary section with all the daeva is called "False Gods"!) and I hammered out the rest of the mechanics from there.
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Sorry for the flurry of questions...
What about akashic trinity classes? I know I and some other clamored for an akashic rogue and you previewed the vedist-now-radiant, and you just mentioned the lurk. And the zodiac? Also, are there akashic "iconics"? If yes, name/race/class? (Please)
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Sorry for the flurry of questions...
What about akashic trinity classes? I know I and some other clamored for an akashic rogue and you previewed the vedist-now-radiant, and you just mentioned the lurk. And the zodiac? Also, are there akashic "iconics"? If yes, name/race/class? (Please)
The Akashic Trinity classes started with the nexus. Christen wanted a warlock-y akashic character with planar powers for City of 7 Seraphs, and we brainstormed the class over the space of about an hour. I'd written the initial draft like a week later, I believe? And along the way I'd found a bunch of ideas that either didn't quite match the flavor of the nexus or were outside of the word count Christen contracted for the class.
As I was working on the nexus, I looked at some other classes I'd been writing off and on for awhile, particularly the vedist, an akashic healer, and the shadewalker, which wasn't akashic at all but was inspired by a combination of the lurk and the shadowcaster from 3.5. I started spinning some of the excess nexus stuff over onto those two chassis and ended up with the radiant and the eclipse, which I then pitched to Christen in a message that was something like "Hey, so I know you only asked for the nexus, but since we've got a planar knight, would you be interested in adding an akashic healer and an akashic rogue to the lineup? The healer is a bit light themed and the rogue is very darkness themed, so that'd give you the light, the dark, and the nexus as your three akashic elements for the setting." Christen responded with something like "Well, when you put it like that, I guess I don't have much choice. What's the word count so I can send you contracts?"
The zodiac was something that I came up with while I was doing some development on the Akashic Trinity classes where I started asking myself what was left to do in the akashic system. I had my akashic wizards (vizier), paladins (daevic), monkuisitors (guru), cleric/druids (radiant), rogues (eclipse), and magus/warlocks (nexus), so what was the system really asking for? My brain was immediately like "fighters and summoners, and they should be the same class. Also, they should maybe do the binder thing." I then reached out to Christen one more time and asked "So, uhm, if I wrote an akashic binder/fighter/summoner that was tied to constellations, would you buy it?" To which Christen responded something like "I actually really want to make the constellations more of a thing in my campaign setting, so while the particulars of your question terrify me, you have earned my trust, and yes I want that. What's your projected word count so I can send you a contract?"
The rest is pretty much history.
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Wow! So There is someone more addicted than us, to the point that he pays you to write more stuff LOL!
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Wow! So There is someone more addicted than us, to the point that he pays you to write more stuff LOL!
I think it is fair to say that both Christen and I are contenders for the title of #1 akashic fan, though working on this 5E conversion has introduced me to some more people who also have a passion for the system (something something daevics of publishing).
I've always said, if you're going to write something, it should be something you're excited about. 3 of my 5 favorite classes were classes I wrote and I'm pretty good with that. If I didn't love my own work then it wasn't getting the care and attention it deserved :)
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Are there akashic "iconics"? If yes, name/race/class? (Please)
Last question... this week LOL
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So, any ball park for when we might see Akashic make it's way to 2e? Incarnum was one of my favorite 3.5 books, and while I didn't play much pathfinder 1e, I've gazed longingly at your work from the 5e side of the fence. Now that I'm making the switch to 5e, I'm chomping at the bit to work Akashic magic into my games.
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So, any ball park for when we might see Akashic make it's way to 2e? Incarnum was one of my favorite 3.5 books, and while I didn't play much pathfinder 1e, I've gazed longingly at your work from the 5e side of the fence. Now that I'm making the switch to 5e, I'm chomping at the bit to work Akashic magic into my games.
I don't have a hard date yet, but I've already written the first draft of the PF2 akashic rules and the first class I want to bring over to PF2. So, it's coming.
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After re-reading some of my reviews, I noted that, rules-as-written, Nexus can only channel their blasts through weapon-like veils. So, that bars weapon constelation forms, right? Or can it be ruled that constelation weapon forms count as weapon-like veils?
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After re-reading some of my reviews, I noted that, rules-as-written, Nexus can only channel their blasts through weapon-like veils. So, that bars weapon constelation forms, right? Or can it be ruled that constelation weapon forms count as weapon-like veils?
By default the nexus cannot channel their planar detonation through a constellation. It's actually something I'd probably charge a feat or make an archetype for since constellations scale differently than weapon-like veils. A weapon-like veil requires essence to scale it up with enhancements and effects, while constellations have some auto-scaling enhancements, so the balance between the two is different.
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I thought as much... although you already pay for the constellation weapon by taking a feat. But you are correct, since amateur astrologist makes it so you can call on the constellation as a zodiac if your character level.
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Hey Michael, what is your preferred genre and sub-genre? As in fantasy or sci-fi, horror, wuxia, cyberpunk, space opera etc., in literature, cinema/TV, and RPGs?
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What is a project you would like to do for Erutaki and Varki in Golarion?
I remember when someone asked you this you said to come back after Second Edition...it's second edition now, are there any projects you'd like to do about these?
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What is a project you would like to do for Erutaki and Varki in Golarion?I remember when someone asked you this you said to come back after Second Edition...it's second edition now, are there any projects you'd like to do about these?
You'll see my boy Nankou, the Varki Linnorm King, in the upcoming Lost Omens: Legends, and we've already started pulling the Varki into the "active screen time" of the setting with adventures like Tarnbreaker's Trail. James Jacobs and I were talking about some other plans in store for the Varki a couple weeks ago, and I've got a bunch of prospective indigenous authors I'm currently screening for some other stories I'd like to tell.
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Hey Michael, what is your preferred genre and sub-genre? As in fantasy or sci-fi, horror, wuxia, cyberpunk, space opera etc., in literature, cinema/TV, and RPGs?
TTRPGs: Fantasy with a dose of sci-fi. Starfinder, Numenera, Star Wars, etc. are all very interesting to me, though these tend to be about 20% more sci-fi and 20% less fantasy than my ideal mix.
TV/cinema: Thrillers, fantasy, wuxia, and sitcoms. I like psychological horror, but gorefests don't really do much for me.
Literature: I can and do read damn near anything, though I have a preference for "junkfood fantasy" like Salvatore's Do'Urden novels when I'm just looking to relax, or urban fantasy like the The Dresden Files or the Mercy Thompson novels.
though I have a preference for "junkfood fantasy" like Salvatore's Do'Urden novels when I'm just looking to relax,
Have you read Kemp's stuff (especially with Erevis Cale), or Greenwood's non-FR stuff? If so, what do you think?
Of the non-Paizo IPs, what are some of your favorite game settings?
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though I have a preference for "junkfood fantasy" like Salvatore's Do'Urden novels when I'm just looking to relax,Have you read Kemp's stuff (especially with Erevis Cale), or Greenwood's non-FR stuff? If so, what do you think?
Of the non-Paizo IPs, what are some of your favorite game settings?
Yup, I'm a big fan of Kemp's work (not just the Erevis Cale stories, which I really enjoyed, but also the Egil and Nix books and Star Wars stories). I feel like Greenwood's non-FR novels tend to be more hit and miss for my preferences, though I haven't really read much of his work since the Niflheim books about a decade ago?
Non-Paizo game settings....
I'll always enjoy Star Wars, though my wife will likely always enjoy it more.
The World of Warcraft d20 materials put out for Swords and Sorcery like two decades ago was one of my favorite TTRPGs for a long time, mechanically, but I rarely played in the canon setting because I had players who were real voracious consumers of the MMORPG content and that made it hard to GM without finding ways to deviate from the established canon.
Numenera, Gods of the Fall, and Predation, all for Cypher System, are great settings and I really enjoy them.
Eberron was kind of my "first love" in TTRPGs; not the first setting I ever played in, but the first one where I was like "whoa, this game was made for me." I still play in Eberron or use Eberron components all the time in my home games, regardless of the rule system I'm actually using.
I always enjoyed the old Al-Qadim modules, almost as much as I enjoyed anything using Planescape.
I love the Shining Force and Phantasy Star video game franchises, and I've totally used their lore, setting, and characters as inspiration for my home games.
Oh, and I have a massive binder of notes and homebrew materials I wrote for my Saga-Frontier-inspired campaign. Saga Frontier might just be my all-time favorite video game.
Forgotten Realms was for me like Eberron was for you.
That said, Eberron is one of my absolute favorite settings. I love the magitek, I love the politics, I love the history and lore and pretty much everything.
The one thing I would change about the setting is that I'm disappointed that none of the new races got Dragonmarks. I get the gist of making the Core races Core via Dragonmarks, but the new races are so lovely and wonderful in so many cool elements of them that I just want them to be a thing.
Do you have a favorite location?
I love Q'barra, the pirate isles, and Sarlona... ah, almost everything is perfect.
(That said, I didn't fully appreciated how they handled Argonnessan, personally - I thought Dragons of Eberron wasn't as good a book as many others, in my opinion: I know many who like it, and that's fair as it has many excellent elements to it, it just felt slightly out-of-setting for me.)
Mm. Eberron is so good.
I tend to agree about Greenwod's stories - even though I liberally borrowed setting elements for a home game.
Saga Frontier has always had a great setting. I always wanted more out of the mechanics - especially Riki. Actually, I think we've discussed this before! I think the storytelling in SaGa Frontier 2 was better, even though I liked many of the characters better in 1 than in the sequel and I was often frustrated at Gustave's story-line; I did like Wil and Ginny a lot, though!
Story-wise Asellus, Blue (and Rouge!), Red, Riki, and, uh... was it TG-something?... were all really good, story-wise. I found Emmy and Lute less compelling - kind of cool, conceptually, but less potent.
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Getting published by Paizo is a dream of mine, because I absolutely love Golarion. Do you have any advice for how to get noticed? Self-publish? Pitch to smaller companies that accept unsolicited submissions? Kickstart projects?
For someone starting at the bottom and wanting to work their way up, where does Paizo generally look for new talent? What type of projects are they most likely to notice as a writer? Bestiaries, adventures, sub-system projects (like expanded downtime rules)?
Would trying to build a name for yourself by publishing for other systems with more lax third-party publishing rules work (ie. DMsguild, Foundry), or does Paizo only look at people with published Pathfinder work?
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Getting published by Paizo is a dream of mine, because I absolutely love Golarion. Do you have any advice for how to get noticed? Self-publish? Pitch to smaller companies that accept unsolicited submissions? Kickstart projects?
For someone starting at the bottom and wanting to work their way up, where does Paizo generally look for new talent? What type of projects are they most likely to notice as a writer? Bestiaries, adventures, sub-system projects (like expanded downtime rules)?
Would trying to build a name for yourself by publishing for other systems with more lax third-party publishing rules work (ie. DMsguild, Foundry), or does Paizo only look at people with published Pathfinder work?
So, I've been known to say that I took the hardest route to get to where I am today, but I'll give you what advice I can, starting with what I did to get here and what I'd recommend you do differently.
I started out pitching my homebrew projects to third-party publishers like Dreamscarred Press and Rogue Genius Games, and I backed a Kickstarter at the guest designer level. So, my first three published products were The Genius Guide to Bravery Feats, the first Akashic Mysteries release, and the Battle Lord, which was originally published as part of Liber Influxus Communis, a book that had a bunch of other freelancers working on it. I also spent a lot of time on the forums interacting with folks, participating in playtests, and watching reviews on both my products and other popular 3pp products to see what kind of mistakes people were making that I should watch out for and what kinds of openings there were in the game that I could be looking for opportunities to fill. I also wrote constantly. Some stuff got published right away and some stuff took awhile before I found the right publisher for it, but I'm always working on something and I'd recommend an aspiring game developer or designer do the same. Writing constantly helps you practice and improve your writing and mechanics, and it's essential for building up a portfolio of work which is absolutely necessary for moving beyond the freelance stage if you want to work for a company like Paizo or WotC.
Now, some general advice (including a couple things I wish someone had told me!) :
1) Go to the conventions that host the games you want to write for, and talk to the people making those games. Go to PaizoCon, go to GenCon, and make sure you bring a business card when you do. Be ready to sell yourself and talk about the unique experiences you can bring to your writing and design. Bring along a short sample of your work just in case, bt be prepared thatthe person you're pitching to probably won't have time or an answer for you right away.
2) If you get a card from a designer, developer, or publisher after talking to them about possibly doing work for them, follow up at 1 week and 1 month after while you're still in their mind to see if they have anything for you. Don't be a pest, but an e-mail once a month expressing a desire to work and updating your contact on any changes to your portfolio or experience since the last time you spoke is fine. (For me anyways; some developers might prefer less or more frequent contact, so pay attention to their responses even if the reply starts by telling you they don't have any work for you at that point in time.)
3) If you haven't published anything yet, don't let that stop you from writing homebrew. One of those things might end up being the project that gets your foot in the door with a small publisher.
4) When you have something you're proud of, shop it to small publishers. Put together a half-page pitch on the project: what system it's for, what it is, how many words long it is, and any other pertinent information. Don't send the full release until you have an agreement and a signed contract. Based on my personal experience, Amora Games, Drop Dead Studios, Legendary Games, Lost Spheres Publishing, and Rogue Genius Games are all reputable publishers who occasionally take open solicitations for new projects.
5) Once you've got a contract, bust your ass to make sure you fulfill all your obligations. Hit your turnover dates if applicable, pay close attention to the feedback you get from your designer, developer, or publisher, and be a good person to work with so that they want to hire you again and recommend you to their friends. Most, if not all, of the third-party publishers I mentioned above are run by, comprised of, or include Paizo freelancers who might be the recommendation you need to take that next step.
6) Write for different publishers. Every company has its own culture, standards, specialties, etc. and getting exposure to different ways of doing things and seeing the strengths and weaknesses of a broad array of writers and publishers will make you better.
7) Directly related to the above, play lots of different games. Play D&D, play Pathfinder, play Cypher System, play board games and TTRPGs of all kinds. The more you understand games and why designers and developers make the decisions they do with their products, the stronger you'll be as a freelancer.
8) Paizo generally doesn't take open solicitations, so be ready to write whatever you're asked to write if you want to become a regular freelancer.
9) If you're not sure how confident you should be about your work, it's okay to start small. Pitch a 5-page, $0.99 product. Take a 1,500 word assignment for an NPC write-up in a book. It's okay to do small projects as you build your talent and hone your skills.
10) Write constantly. You will hit periods of writer's block. Your motivation will ebb and wane. Practice will help you power through these moments and having a big catalogue of projects you've worked on that haven't been picked up by a publisher yet can help get you through those dry spells by going back to a previous project, polishing it up, and pitching it to 3pps while the creative juices recharge.
11) Don't be afraid to talk about your work and share it with the people you talk to. The best way to get your name out there is to get your name out there. Talk about what you're working on or what you've done in the past, why you're proud of it, and don't be afraid to provide links to the things you talk about. Sales and reviews are an important part of establishing a reputation that will lead to more work.
12) Don't be a jerk. This is a competitive industry with lots of people looking to step up, and your reputation can follow you for a long time. Don't be a toxic poster, don't be cruel to other members of the gaming community, and be considerate in how you talk about other people's work, even if you think it's flawed or problematic. That doesn't mean don't be honest; constructive criticism is very much a thing, and it's invaluable. But don't call someone else's work "garbage" or question their worth in posts or reviews. Use appropriate language and focus on "I" statements: "I think that mechanic XYZ is overtuned", "I wouldn't have done XYZ", etc.
Finally, know what you want to do and be ready to do it. The best way to get noticed in this industry and build a strong career platform for yourself is to be a skilled adventure writer, because adventures incorporate all the skills that a developer or designer from any department is going to be looking for: prose, mechanics, cartography, and attention to detail. If adventures aren't your thing that's fine; you can be a crunch writer or a prose writer and still get published in a Paizo book, and many very talented people preferto focus on a specialty like that. Adventure writing does give you the broadest array of folks who are going to be interested in working with you though, and the experience you gain writing adventures will make you better at crunch-work like designing monsters and character options.
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What is one of your favorite conversations we've ever had?
What is one of those you think I was dumb in? How do you think I could have improved?
Did you know: I never knew you liked Binders before this thread?
(I mean, there's a lot that I didn't know about you before this thread, but that was one of those things!) :D
12) Don't be a jerk. This is a competitive industry with lots of people looking to step up, and your reputation can follow you for a long time. Don't be a toxic poster, don't be cruel to other members of the gaming community, and be considerate in how you talk about other people's work, even if you think it's flawed or problematic. That doesn't mean don't be honest; constructive criticism is very much a thing, and it's invaluable. But don't call someone else's work "garbage" or question their worth in posts or reviews. Use appropriate language and focus on "I" statements: "I think that mechanic XYZ is overtuned", "I wouldn't have done XYZ", etc.
This is super-important advice in general, and I'm just going to add to it by mentioning that it's really easy to be a jerk on accident.
I know I have in the past, even when trying to avoid it. I know I've callously criticized others and called things dumb or stupid - it's honestly never been meant maliciously, and never supposed to reflect on the person, but I know such things can, in fact, hurt others and it is suuuuuuuuuper easy to make callous statements about people, or even innocuous statements that come off far more callous than intended.
Now, if only I could get the other eleven pieces of advice down in my own life... and get this piece of advice down in my own life, too. XD
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Great tips! If I may add, remember that everyone has different tastes, so learn to appreciate what others like even if you don't.
And try to get your trusty friends give you feedback, that way you will be sure that "amazing adventure" you designed was fun for them, and not only for you.
Oh, and speaking about campaign settings, while my crush will always be Ravenloft, I have always loved the extended Forgotten Realms with Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur. The Al-Qadim line has some of the best adventures ever! A horse race while riding nightmares? Being a judge between a dragon, manticore and simurgh? Having to deal with the dumbest genie ever? 9 HELLS YEAH!
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Hey Michael, as someone who digged 3.5 psionics, did you ever read the psionic campaign setting Mind Shadows by Green Ronin? It was one of the most innivatibe campaign settings for the time. However, it had an incredible flaw: it used 3.5 rules... but 3.0 psionics.
It had mechs, psionic martial artists, Tibetan-like halfling monks, cannibal elves and in general had a big Indian feel. It only had 2 books but I still treasure it, the fluff is amazing.
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Hey Michael, as someone who digged 3.5 psionics, did you ever read the psionic campaign setting Mind Shadows by Green Ronin? It was one of the most innivatibe campaign settings for the time. However, it had an incredible flaw: it used 3.5 rules... but 3.0 psionics.
It had mechs, psionic martial artists, Tibetan-like halfling monks, cannibal elves and in general had a big Indian feel. It only had 2 books but I still treasure it, the fluff is amazing.
This sounds hype as all get-out, and I've never heard of it!
Cool! I need to check it out!
However, it had an incredible flaw: it used 3.5 rules... but 3.0 psionics.
So I'm guessing it came out right after July of 2003, then; could have been as late as 2004, but it had to be before April, otherwise the 3.5 rules in the EXP would have already been out.
That is an exceptionally tight turn around - they must have been working on it since the original 3.0 psionics came out (whenever that was after 2000).
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IIRC they had the manuscript, changed it for 3.5, but didn't know XPH was comming out. A couple of years ago in a Paizo sale they were almost free, less than 5 bucks each. The campaign book could work really easely with PF1, and you could even adapt it to be akashic vs. psionics instead of arcane/divine magic vs. psionics, since in the CS it is one of the major concepts. I had a campaign there that included Oriental Adventures and the XPH, and we had a blast.
There was a pdf with changenotes for the monster book, but some would need a complete makeover to work under DSP psionic system. My favorite monsters were a large race of psionic cyclops, whuch I made into a PC race, and boddhisatvas, which were like ascended monks that decides to remain in the world to give guidance.
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Sadly it is hard to find nowadays. And there are no official pdf's :-/
One of my fave settings that saddly didn't get anything beyond those.two books.
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*offers hugs*
I helped! (E: I might have an odd definition of "help" XD )
Thanks, but the reason for the offerings of hugs was for Michael’s brother was shot in a home invasion yesterday.
(Sorry I didn’t link it earlier, I didn’t quite now the best way to go about it)
Oh, wow, that's horrible! Thank you for letting us know!
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Hugs and prayers from here, too, man - though gentle hugs to Lee!
Please keep us informed, if you think of it!
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Thanks, but the reason for the offerings of hugs was for Michael’s brother was shot in a home invasion yesterday.
(Sorry I didn’t link it earlier, I didn’t quite now the best way to go about it)
will donate tomorrow.
How is your family doing?
How is your family doing?
Bumping this, 'cause I know you're busy, but adding to it: how are you doing?
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How is your family doing?Bumping this, 'cause I know you're busy, but adding to it: how are you doing?
Family's doing good, honestly as well as can be expected. Lee's doing out-patient therapy and was discharged from the hospital back on Monday, so that's really good.
I am getting back in the swing of things and busily working on helping the org play department bounce back from my absence. I outlined four new adventures last week and assigned three of them, with the fourth going out Monday and more to come! Linda and James did a kickass job of keeping the PFS adventures moving while I was gone (I was really happy to see the dev work they'd picked up for me on this month's scenarios so that those could make it out on time) and that means I've been able to come back and jump into my favorite part of the job, season planning and adventure outlining. Oh, and I got an absolutely amazing review on one of my 3pp releases!
So, things are really about as good as they can be right now, thank you so much for asking :)
Did I ask what sections of the games' worlds (Golarion for PF and the wider universe for SF) you would be best equipped to answer questions on earlier in this thread? I can't remember who I've asked that in their AMA threads or not...
I have a lot of familiarity with the Sarkoris Scar and Iobaria. I'm not the authority on Absalom by any means, but working on the upcoming Agents of Edgewatch AP does mean I spent a lot of time getting familiar with it and shaping some of the more recent lore. I've also spent a lot of time in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings shaping the lore there, particularly as it pertains to the Varki and the Pathfinder Society (and gnomes, actually), so there's also that.
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Good news is good!
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I mean, in Agents of Edgewatch you are the cops, so I suppose it really comes down to what kind of enjoyment you can find in bucking the stereotype. I expect when I run it for my home group it will end up being a fairly different experience than some tables will have; my players tend to have an interesting civic-mindedness and desire to tackle things diplomatically that's only grown since we switched to PF2 (which I think does a really good job of presenting a framework where non-combat resolutions and encounters can feel just as interesting and engaging as combat). I fully anticipate them having a very strange cross between People's Court: Absalom with the occasional Bad Boys interlude for certain villains. The experience you have at your table will, I think, largely come down to what you make of it, but my experience during the writing phase is that Patrick definitely knew what kind of story he was telling and there are many opportunities to decide what kind of cops you want to be and what that means for the people you're sworn to serve and protect.
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Dang it, Sayre, I'm trying to avoid getting sucked into 2E!
Stop being so awesome!
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Dang it, Sayre, I'm trying to avoid getting sucked into 2E!
Stop being so awesome!
Give in to to the call! If you want to :)
Despite a fairly massive collection of material for PF1, I've found most of my play groups transitioning over to PF2. This, despite the fact that I have a fairly significant collection of things I wrote for PF1 that I haven't gotten to enjoy as much as I'd like to (when I write something for 3pp, I'm almost certainly writing it because it's something I want to have in the game). Personally, I love the 3-action system, the structured math, and the way that the system allows me to tell certain types of stories that were much harder to tell in PF1 (not impossible by any means, just harder). I've already completed some conversions of some of my favorite 3pp contributions from PF1 for PF2 (I expect those will start going up for sale shortly) and over time it'll almost certainly be my primary system.
I'll still recommend you consider the adventures even if you don't swap systems though. Conversions are pretty easy on that front and I think the PF2 APs have been some of the best adventures Paizo has put out to date (and not just because I'm credited in a couple of them!)
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Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. But I got stuff to do!
hashtag-dot-whine