Haven’t talked about work in a while, because GDC and GDC-plague wiped me out, and GDC/GAMA-plague then swept through the office, consuming everything in its wake, which means the office has been pretty empty/quiet for a while.
Since we haven’t had the sort of funny debates/exchanges I usually post here, given that we haven’t been in the office at the same time, here are some of the work things about which I’m most excited:
1. PaizoCon approaches! We’re shaping up to have a ton of cool panels, guest speakers, and content, and I hope, as I do every year, to meet and hopefully play some games with cool people, especially those who are newer to Pathfinder.
2. We’re starting to plan out our Campaign Setting schedule for 2017. We had a brainstorming meeting for staff members to suggest what topics/areas of Golarion we thought we should cover, and also to suggest their passion projects for this line. Turns out, a lot of suggestions were in both those categories, and I can’t wait to get working on them.
3. The Curse of the Crimson Throne deluxe edition. I didn’t read through this one because at one point, my regular Pathfinder group was going to play it, and I didn’t want to be spoiled, so it’ll be great to have it updated and collected in one volume.
4. The Strange Aeons Adventure Path. Creative Director James Jacobs and Senior Developer Rob McCreary have ably managed our flagship softcover line for years, but it’s also great to see a new generation of AP developers – @amazonchique and Adam Daigle – taking the reins. Strange Aeons is Adam’s project, and I’m thrilled for him. Crystal’s doing the following AP.
5. Back-to-back campaign settings on which I was an author. 🙂 Most of my writing work for Paizo has happened during development, so it was great to get to write for a non-troubled project.
Inner Sea Faiths is our March Campaign Setting book, and I wrote two of the goddesses covered there–Sivanah and Naderi. I’ve always liked Sivanah, and wanted to play up the idea that her trickster aspect may, in some ways, be protective. The idea that unveiled truth might be too much for mortal minds to comprehend is definitely something that made its way into d20 games through Lovecraft, but it’s there in older sources, like the aggadic/Talmudic story of the four sages who went to heaven (one dies, one goes mad, one becomes an apostate–only one is able to survive with his ilfe, mind, and faith intact), the Hindu concept of Maya, and so on. I was really drawn to the idea that Sivanah might be tricking mortals alike not out of sheer mischief (though that’s definitely a part of her nature), but to protect them from something they couldn’t survive encountering.
I didn’t like Naderi as much, which was why I offered to write her. From a literary perspective, she makes sense–she’s the Romeo & Juliet goddess, and her backstory of being vaulted unwittingly into godhood and feeling as if she’d betrayed Shelyn, her former patron, has definite emotional resonance. At the same time, I’m not entirely comfortable that we have a deity of suicide who’s not evil, and given our game’s alignment system, nuance like the difference between being evil and being in pain gets steamrolled by game mechanics.
It was hard to write–to make her compelling without endorsing what she’s about–and I’m not sure I found the right balance.
I am, however, happy with the 77th House of Judgment, a heavenly court in this month’s Campaign Setting: Heaven Unleashed. Tasked both with hearing civil cases and criminal cases that involve residents of Heaven, and with seeking the ultimate nature of goodness, they’re also the most junior circuit court and thus get the crap cases. 🙂
I also re/wrote the entry on Andoletta, empyreal lord of consolation, respect, and security, who’s kind of an old Italian grandma and also kind of a nun and also kind of a witch. She is the one who shows up to rock a rocking chair in a child’s room when he’s afraid of the dark, who dries orphans’ tears, and who also is having none of your disrespect.
And I did the intro/tour of Heaven. Props to @markmoreland, who was an excellent (and patient!) developer on this stuff–I know he had to rework that intro especially to make it work.
And props to Amanda Hamon Kunz, who was the developer on Inner Sea Faiths, which is in a new, experimental format–96 pages!–and added some delightful grace notes, like making one of Sivanah’s divine servitors, Ai, an outsider who hijacks summonings directed to Zon-Kuthon, only to reveal its true allegiance at the most inopportune moment for the summoners, into a trumpet archon, which adds a new layer of trickster hilarity to the whole thing.
I’m used to working on the dev/edit end at Paizo, but as an author, I’m really fortunate to get to place my work in the hands of people with so much talent, craft, and passion for what they do. ❤
Also, Inner Sea Faiths and Heaven Unleashed have two of my favorite covers in a long time, so that was an unexpected bonus. 🙂
Since there’s apparently no way to respond to asks (if you have a question you want an answer to, please reblog so I can read the entire comment instead of just the preview and respond), got the following ask:
“Can I ask why you feel a deity of suicide should be evil? I’m puzzled.”
So, CW: discussion of suicide.
I don’t necessarily feel a deity of suicide who, say, focused on people with terminal illnesses who wanted to control their end would be evil.
I do think it’s evil to romanticize suicide, and especially to encourage it in teenagers.
Today at Paizo…
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