Pathfinder RPG Horror Adventures is officially announced for release in July 2016! You can check out the details and preorder now at http://paizo.com/horroradventures!
“Corruptions that can turn your character into a monster, from a blood-drinking vampire to a savage werewolf. The only cost is your very soul!“
…Was that a Dr. Orpheus reference in your product description, there, @officialpaizo?
Spent today playing with our Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles. We also started painting them! I have to say, painting these things is incredibly easy with the right tools. Really you can tell in the first picture - there’s a dungeon tile we left factory and gave the rest their first coat. The difference is night and day! Can’t wait to start detailing them and move on to the caverns and town sets!
*gets penalty* “that’s bullshit” *watches replay* “.. yeah okay”
Hahahaha
Pathfinder Bestiary 5 is out in the world and, as always, folks have questions about what made the cut… but also what didn’t. Let me tell you a little about the art of making Bestiaries, ‘cause there’s way more than just stats.
The curupira got all the way to the end, but we weren’t feeling the art. (Turns out that illustrating a little guy who runs fast with his feet on backwards is challenging to get just right.)
That’s a factor worth pointing out. For all the monsters in our bestiaries everything has to be in The Zone: story, design, and illustration. If something slips, there’s a strong chance the entry gets sideboarded. That doesn’t mean it won’t ever see the light of day, it just means that it’s not right for the project du jour.
Then sometimes everything works perfectly and a creature STILL doesn’t make it in. Take the roiling oil, for example. I ordered that guy for Bestiary 2. It’s great art, it’s a cool monsters, so why’d it take until now to slip in?
Take a look at your Bestiary. You’ll see that there are, generally, two types of layouts: one pagers and two pagers—and two pagers NEVER split over a spread.
NEVER.
That’s not by happenstance. Every Bestiary is a gigantic book puzzle. So if something slips, if a monster gets cut, if a name changes, if anything happens that reorders the book’s pagination by even one page, EVERYTHING slides. What that often means is that nothing dies alone. If one monster goes away, probably two monsters go away. Or something gets renamed.
That’s part of what happened to the roiling oil. It got chopped from B2, got picked up for B3 then chopped again, never made it off the sideboard for B4, but finally found a home here… a half decade later. That’s a lengthy example, but not the oldest (there’s at least one oldie from Bestiary 1 who’s never made it up to bat). It also happens to everyone. One of my guys for B5 got shuffled off because of the harsh realism of “We need to lose a book somewhere between ‘Ho-’ and "Ki-.”
And that’s just one harsh production reality.
Pffh. Bookmaking—am I right?
As for if there are other monsters that didn’t make the cut or were seriously considered, etcetera: Of course. Dozens. There are well over a hundred rows on the “sideboard” tab of my Bestiary Monsters spreadsheet.
But it’s okay, we’ll either find spots for them down the road or assure that they keep good company on the Isle of Misfit Monsters.
So, there you go. Bestiary 5 is in the world now, and you can pick it up from your favorite game store or straight from Paizo.com.
And if anyone’s interested in more behind the scenes details and specifics about making Bestiary 5, ask away or let me know. I’ll answer what I can. :D
Flower Power: Pit Bulls of the Revolution
Who let these dogs in to the Lana concert?
OMG I LOVE THEM ALL AND I WANT TO GIVE THEM HUGS AND KISSES AND ALL THE SNUGGLES AND TREATS IN THE WORLD
by hassan tabrizi Exotique 5: The World’s Most Beautiful CG Characters
so charming.
My review of Out of the Abyss, the new D&D adventure book.
This review is based on an early press copy provided by the publisher.
Update: typos fixed.
Sounds pretty easy, right? Well sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, when you’re sitting at a table of people you are friends with and hang out and get lunch together and that sort of thing, it’s hard to remember that in-game, you have to sometimes find reasons to endure each other’s presence. (Note: this is how evil characters and good characters can justify working together)
So the neutral evil rogue, the lawful good paladin, chaotic neutral ranger and the lawful neutral fighter enter a bar… all together - and nobody dies. See, sometimes the biggest puzzle in D&D is figuring out why your character is involved in this adventure. If your DM has done his job, it should be a bit easier, but that only goes so far. Only you can make your character care. And only you can make your character see the usefulness of the other characters.
So the paladin may WANT to kill the rogue, but she knows without the rogue, traps, doors and more stealthy operations may be more of a trouble than they currently are. The fighter may not get along with the ranger, but they see the how each other plays a part in the survival of the party and most importantly, the completion of the goal.
If your character is having a problem watching the rogue steal and lie and cheat, remember that calling them out on it or ruining their fun will definitely come back to you as soon as the other player has an opportunity. Which may cost your character their life (speaking from previous experience).
Look at it like a “deal with the devil” kind of thing. You need them and they need you. You’re both working toward the “greater good” even if it’s a selfish goal that projects you there or happens to be “on the way” to accomplishing your own agenda.
So no matter who you are, what your alignment, race, class… Have your morals and obligations, but remember to work with your party. It’s up to you to see the usefulness in the other characters, so work toward that. It will make everything more fun for everybody.
Sounds pretty easy, right? Well sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, when you’re sitting at a table of people you are friends with and hang out and get lunch together and that sort of thing, it’s hard to remember that in-game, you have to sometimes find reasons to endure each other’s presence. (Note: this is how evil characters and good characters can justify working together)
So the neutral evil rogue, the lawful good paladin, chaotic neutral ranger and the lawful neutral fighter enter a bar… all together - and nobody dies. See, sometimes the biggest puzzle in D&D is figuring out why your character is involved in this adventure. If your DM has done his job, it should be a bit easier, but that only goes so far. Only you can make your character care. And only you can make your character see the usefulness of the other characters.
So the paladin may WANT to kill the rogue, but she knows without the rogue, traps, doors and more stealthy operations may be more of a trouble than they currently are. The fighter may not get along with the ranger, but they see the how each other plays a part in the survival of the party and most importantly, the completion of the goal.
If your character is having a problem watching the rogue steal and lie and cheat, remember that calling them out on it or ruining their fun will definitely come back to you as soon as the other player has an opportunity. Which may cost your character their life (speaking from previous experience).
Look at it like a “deal with the devil” kind of thing. You need them and they need you. You’re both working toward the “greater good” even if it’s a selfish goal that projects you there or happens to be “on the way” to accomplishing your own agenda.
So no matter who you are, what your alignment, race, class… Have your morals and obligations, but remember to work with your party. It’s up to you to see the usefulness in the other characters, so work toward that. It will make everything more fun for everybody.
You know, I call this blog “RPG Pro Tip” and I may dish out a few good ideas every now and again, but that doesn’t mean I have all the answers. Something I tell people all the time when they’re interested in learning how to play Pathfinder or any RPG is that, though I’ve been playing on and off since I was a freshman in high school, I’m still learning new stuff every day. Being a master at anything is not an end goal - it is a journey. Mastery of a thing is to always be learning a thing, no matter what that thing happens to be. RPGs are no exception and may be even more of a daunting task because of the numerous aspects that involve RPGs. Apart from learning the hard math and game mechanics, there’s the other, art-side of roleplaying, problem solving and thinking outside the box. It uses both sides of the brain, if you will.
Anyway, just a thought that I had while submitting my RPG Superstar submission. I don’t think that I’ll make it very far (or into the next round even), but the fun of coming up with an item I think is interesting and unique and fun and taking the leap to submit it to industry heads and thousands of other players who may know less or much more than I do about the game and how it’s played. It’s all very exciting.
Good luck to those who have also entered!
GOLDEN SKULLS Hope you like skulls… by Art Director and Creative 3D Designer BILLY BOGIATZOGLOU
Yes
Gods of Lankhmar (Keith Parkinson, cover of AD&D Lankhmar module CA2: Swords of Deceit, TSR, 1986, reprinted in The Art of the AD&D Fantasy Game, TSR, 1989.) Apparently this also has been used in one form or another as the art for at least a dozen metal albums.
