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With the release of her second Adventure Path book today, I asked Sen H.H.S. a few questions and am delighted to share with you in the forum and on reddit, her replies!
CastleDour: GMs have talked about running Season of Ghosts into Curtain Call. Seeing as you wrote the first book of the former, and last book of the latter, and the developer James Jacobs already addressed mechanical questions about level compression and timeline, would you have any recommended tweaks to the story, themes, and lore to link these two adventures?
Sen H.H.S.: I have seen the idea of SoG to CC floating about, and personally, a GM that can pull it off would have my utmost respect. If I may brag a bit on the APs, that the two are hard to roll into one another is, I think, a testament to how well they work as standalone stories. They are highly self-contained, with lore tied heavily to their respective, if restrictive, regions. While that gives both great flavor, especially for groups that love roleplaying, trying to thread a single needle through for a continuous story arc becomes immensely difficult. I can see why JJ suggested the time skip, because it is easier for the PCs to undergo a "reset" off screen and a solid way to switch gears.
Now, if a GM were to come to me for suggestions, I would actually only give them a question in return: "Why is Bring the House Down the climax to the story that starts in The Summer that Never Was?" In fact, for Curtain Call itself, I think everyone should be asking why Bring the House Down is the third volume. If you can answer these questions, you would have likely done the work that is necessary to run the AP successfully.
CastleDour: Could Norgorber have ever meddled in Tian Xia politics, seeing as it was revealed that he is worshipped by some Jorogumos?
Sen H.H.S.: Indeed, the jorogumos do seem to have some particular interest in Norgorber, don't they? Or is it the other way around? On if Norgorber could have meddled in Tian Xia affairs, there is certainly no lore that I have seen that says he is incapable of it, or that he hasn't. That said, let's imagine that lack of mention is equivalent to saying he hasn't. If so, it raises quite an interesting question of "Well, why hasn't he then?" I personally think what makes characters intriguing sometimes is in what they have not and will not do. This is especially true, in my opinion, when it comes to Norgorber.
CastleDour: James Jacobs revealed this month that Norgorber was an unfavored court wizard in his homebrew who ascended to godhood, and that in bringing him into the Pathfinder universe, Paizo made some major changes and added a fourth aspect as Father Skinsaw, a god of murder. In writing Bring the House Down, how many notes were you given to reveal for the first time about the dark god's background, how much of his new backstory did you come up with, and what was it like to expand the lore of Norgorber?
Sen H.H.S.: I actually didn't receive any notes. In fact, we weren't supposed to dig into his past at all. We were just going to reveal his name. That we did was my fault, because at a certain milestone, I found myself with pages of Norgorber fan fiction notes rather than writing that showed I was working on the adventure. To save my skin, I attached that fan fiction to my check-in email with JJ, explained myself, and waited for my "inevitable doom". That... didn't happen. The rest is history.
As for what it felt like, I don't think I'll ever succinctly describe how daunting yet privileged of a task it was, especially when I wasn't slated to write Bring the House Down. You see, I was originally scheduled to work on a different Paizo project, so I turned down writing for Curtain Call when I was first invited. Then the OGL threw the schedule of the other project off. Also, for reasons I couldn't and still can't explain, I regretted turning down Curtain Call so much that after a weekend of physical agony, I apologized to the other developer to cancel the original project, then crawled back to ask if there was anything left to write in Curtain Call. Much to my dread, only the last volume was available. That this all snowballed into what we have now... I don't have the words for it. I have a paragraph for it, but not words.
In terms of how much backstory I came up with, I can only say that there are many things that didn't make it into the book for the usual production reasons. (A rumored sidebar about flirting with Norgorber is a tiny part.) If you read the book very carefully and between the lines, though, you might still get some hints about the story I wanted to tell. There are also a lot of things I didn't include in my submission because they were beyond the scope of the AP. If Paizo's ever interested... Well, they have my email.
CastleDour One piece of feedback you hear from readers is they would like more official content to accompany the Tian Xia World Guide, but Fire of the Ruby Phoenix and Season of Ghosts, the two released Tian Xia adventure paths, are rather self-contained in their specific regions. Would you be interested in writing a sequel to Season of Ghosts in a standalone adventure, where the Player Characters overthrow the leaders of Shenmen and travel through Tian Xia? Do you have any other ideas that you have not yet pitched to Paizo but would like to put out into the universe?
Sen H.H.S.: I'm always open for more adventures in Tian Xia if the opportunity arises, and I can definitely see there's a demand. A sequel to SoG would certainly be an option. I'm also with you on the idea of having a region-hopping adventure, as it would be great for showcasing the continent. Now, Paizo's work process doesn't take pitches (as far as I'm aware) when it comes to adventure paths, but there is Pathfinder Infinite. I do have some ideas bouncing about in my head, but given the writer's superstition of "If you talk about it, you're never going to do it", I'm going to stay quiet.
CastleDour: Do you have any future projects not under NDA that you would like to talk about?
Sen H.H.S.: It is quite ironic that though I've exposed a bunch of secrets about Norgorber, I do not currently have a lot of projects that isn't under NDA. The only one I've been partially released from is the upcoming NPC Core. As for the exciting ones that I would love to scream about... I ask everyone to please stay tuned by keeping an eye on my social media and website in the coming years. Thank you!
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You did great work on this I have to say. Before this I've only liked Norgorber for aesthetic and "Clown Cult" (Skinsaw Cult are fun hateable mooks to clown on ;D), but this is first adventure that actually make me like Norgorber as a character.
Like I've played Edgewatch, but Norgorber themes usually don't apply well to adventures (he is the Spooky McSpookmaster who social masterminds stuff and you don't know what he knows or if he is gaslighting you), but APs don't really suit to having master criminals with Moriarty level plans that well, since they need to have problems solvable for obvious reason. The end result is that Norgorber's worshippers aren't as cool as they could be portrayal wise(they really shouldn't be normal dungeon crawling foes) while Norgorber himself is the Spookmaster The Shadow Dude who is cool, but also does nothing except stand in horizon and is cool creepy.
This adventure's portrayal of Norgorber as character is fascinating study on what divinity has done him, explains what is up with his Aspects(I feel vindicated that my theory on them xD) and has his faith's themes apply to himself in ironic ways as well. It humanizes him, but when you put all of it together it makes him uncanny when you take in consideration what his masterplan was. It also provokes lot of fun philosophical debates regarding his plan, what happens to him when it fails and Starstone test & Ascension in general xD
(my only nitpicks are stuff like it being bit unclear what is previous lore's implication of Skinsaw Cult predating Norgorber not being explored here, to me combined with this it implies strongly that Norgorber co-opted skinsaw cult for himself. Thamir Gixx also is currently just "Thamir" since Gyx disappeared. But when only nitpicks story wise is not explaining all lore of what Mr Gorb has been doing and and equivalent of minor typo, yeah its really great xD)
my only nitpicks are stuff like it being bit unclear what is previous lore's implication of Skinsaw Cult predating Norgorber not being explored here, to me combined with this it implies strongly that Norgorber co-opted skinsaw cult for himself. Thamir Gixx also is currently just "Thamir" since Gyx disappeared. But when only nitpicks story wise is not explaining all lore of what Mr Gorb has been doing and and equivalent of minor typo, yeah its really great xD)
The skinsaw cult only predates Norgorber's ascension, no mention of it before he came of age.
My theory is the revolution he engineered had an element of Skinsaw Cult. Then he left for 10 years to fully embody his 4 aspects, of which they were only 1 part, and ascended at 33.
Gixx is still the Primarch even if he is missing. The grand council has to declare him dead or invoke a matter of note. Hes retired in Andoran lol
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Hmm I was kinda wondering if Skinsaw Cult might have had some connection to original Sundown Skinner, but its kinda hard to tell yeah without full details of whats the idea. Like is skinsaw cult just "Father Skinsaw" fanboys back when it was urban legend inspired by Norgorber or was it some kind of ancient Vyre secret society before it turned religious?
Nah it was mentioned in earlier books that Thamir right now goes without second part of his name since he is in kind of in between names stage iirc
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I didn't know that Thamir has dropped the Gixx part. As far as we know Gixx is still officially Primarch and Wynston is acting Primarch. Thamir Starborne just doesn't have the same ring to it. I hope it becomes Thamir Madinani! Or Thamir Arnsten, failing that.
I like your theory about the urban legend! Copycat killer cult sounds sinister and fitting.