Rite Publishing

Wayne Anthony Reynolds was kind enought to give us a little insight into the creation of the cover image for 

Hereos of the Jade Oath!

Illustration by Wayne Anthony Reynolds

Layout by Claudia Burgos

I have an interest in East Asian history so was immediately intrigued by the concept of Lands of the Jade Oath when Frank first contacted me in 2006. At the time Frank wanted me to create a Letterbox format image. (sized 11" x 33") However, it had to be made so that it could be split into three separate (triptych) images. I was given a list of characters and monsters that would feature in the illustration and a considerable amount of reference material consisting of written descriptions, concept sketches and weapon reference. I found the reference material to be very inspirational and a powerful impetus to begin working on the sketch image for the cover.

The section that is shown on the Heroes of the Jade Oath cover features a Demon Hunter and Enlightened Scholar characters fighting a vampire and some zombies. I was provided with an extensive written description for each character class - especially the Enlightened Scholar! The Scholar character also belonged to the mandragon race and as there were a lot of mandragon concept sketches to accompany the description too. The amount of source material for that character was extremely comprehensive. Combined with my own research images the reference material I'd amassed for the image ensured that I had plenty of information to draw upon. 

The challenge was to take the source material to a new level but still keep the imagery culturally recognisable. I love this sort of work!

I recall that the Demon Hunter was fairly straight forward as a spell casting fighter type. I liked the idea of the character casting spells in the form of magically enhanced ofuda which made the concept delightfully oriental. Drawing upon my own references and knowledge I was able to indulge in adding lots of costume detail to this character too.

I had to make a number of corrections to the Scholar character at sketch stage as I was depicting a character from an entirely new race concept that I'd not seen before. However, I really enjoy world-building and find this sort of design work incredibly fulfilling. 

I think the vampire was my own design and was a culmination from a written description and my own knowledge.

The Heroes of the Jade Oath cover image was an amazing project to work on. I got an opportunity to create new characters, creatures and monsters using extremely imaginative descriptions, inspired from a fascinating culture and mythology. I immensely enjoyed working on the painting and am thrilled that I was chosen to contribute the artwork for this game concept.

 -Wayne Anthony Reynolds

Check out Heroes of the Jade Oath at the Paizo store today. 

I am working on updating Evocative City Sites:: The Rogues Gallery Tavern to the Pafthinder Roleplaying Game. Originally this series had had no statblocks for any system I thought I would post those statblocks here for your amusement. Once I have finished this file will be updated automatically from the current version to the new. 

Today we bring you gothic synergy having just released our newest product Restless Souls, we now bring you a few vessals of malevolent malediction.

Curses!

Curses and cursed items are a common part of horror movies and literature. Many a protagonist has succumbed to the misfortune of being cursed for their actions, inaction or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of my favourite parts of many old school games was the prevalence of cursed items particular within the BECMI series of adventures. Below is a few new cursed items with which to vex your Pathfinder Roleplaying Game players.

RING OF ENERGY ATTRACTION

Aura faint (minor) or moderate (major or greater) abjuration; CL 3^rd (minor), 7^th (major) or 11^th (greater)

Slot ring; Weight –

[Description]

This ring appears to be a magical ring of energy resistance except that in addition to providing resistance to one energy type it provides a -5 penalty to all saving throws against the five energy types.

[Creation]

Magic Items ring of energy protection

RING OF VAMPIRIC REGENERATION

Aura strong conjuration; CL 15^th

Slot ring; Weight –

[Description]

This ring appears to be a magical ring of regeneration except that it carries an additional curse. On any day that the ring heals the character more than ¼ his maximum hit points he will undergo a startling transformation. Two hours after going to sleep, the character temporarily rises as a vampire. The character has no control or memories of his actions as a vampire, but this evil creature will need drink blood to replace the hit points healed by the ring’s magical curse.

[Creation]

Magic Items ring of regeneration

MOONSTONE AMULET

Aura moderate transmutation; CL 10^th

Slot neck; Weight ½ lb.

[Description]

This amulet grants you +2 bonus to Strength, Constitution and Wisdom and appears to be an divine amulet of the moon’s grace. However this amulet, carries with it a powerful curse. Any who wear the amulet for a full lunar cycle find themselves afflicted with werewolf lycanthropy as detailed in the Pathfinder Bestiary. This curse can be removed with a remove curse spell but if the curse is removed so is the benefit granted by the amulet. While in hybrid or animal form, the character has no control or memory of his actions and is driven by bestial chaotic evil impulses.

[Creation]

Magic Items amulet of the moon’s grace

Heroes of the Jade Oath (Arcana Evolved) Hardcover/PDF Preorder Bundle

Think Oriental Adventuring is all about accepting your place on The Great Wheel?

Think again!

Heroes of the Jade Oath takes the choices and flexibility of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved and adds an immersive, fully researched, and instantly playable Oriental background.

So kick karma in the butt and choose your own destiny with Lands of the Jade Oath—the largest setting for Arcana Evolved ever published.

Heroes of the Jade Oath includes:
• Detailed information on the new setting Lands of the Jade Oath
• New marvelous player races like Bakemono, Mandragoran, Qahngol, Shenxue, and Yueren elves and 11 other variants
• Evocative new character classes like Demon Hunter, Enlightened Scholar, Kensai, Kusa, 7 different Monks, 6 new totem warriors, 4 new witch types, and two new champion causes
• The new Fung Shui skill and 42 pages of feats including two new feat types Ch’I and Unbound feats
• Optional Rules for Cinematic Combat, New Combat Rites, Zodiac Signs, Oaths of Power and Villain points
• Spellcaster options for Sutra Casters, New Spell Templates, and Ch’I
• A Huge selection of weapons, armor, and alchemic items from the Far East
• ...and much, much more

Requires the use of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved

338 pages

The hardcover has a black-and-white interior. The PDF edition is full color. The PDF will automatically be updated to the final (Omega) version when it is released at no additional cost.

Author: Frank Carr
Artists: Claudia Burgos, Jason Rainville, Wayne Anthony Reynolds, Jonathan Roberts, Hugo Solis, Kurt A. Taylor, Jeff Ward, Amanda Webb
Editor: Bill Collins

This product was created as part of the Heroes of the Jade Oath patronage project.

This special preorder bundle works a bit differently than most products here at paizo.com. At checkout, you will immediately be charged the full bundle price, and you will immediately be given access to the Beta PDF. When the finished PDF edition becomes available, you will automatically gain access to that edition. When the final print edition becomes available and is shipped to you, you will be charged the shipping fee.

Order cancellations for this item can only be refunded with store credit.

Welcome to Fridays & Functions; a series of a posts that will always deal with what goes on behind the scenes, including  design diaries, interviews, technical commentary, etc.  First up is a 6 part interview with Frank Carr Author of Heroes of the Jade Oath you can find 

41. How did you feel when you saw the layout for the first preview? What were you impressions of Corey Graham’s work?

I thought Corey did a great job with the layout, especially the fonts and that beautiful border; which by the way actually says, “Lands of the Jade Oath” in Chinese and is not just a literal translation, but it is a contxtually correct usage of the words for the title.

42. Quickling Pirate Ninjas?

Huh? Where?! They've been after me ever since that time when I almost didn't consider them for the indigenous race of Javasriya.

43. How do you feel about lands of the jade oath as a patronage project rather than a traditional model? Would you have preferred something else like the Ransom Model?

I think that the patronage project model may have been the only real way to do this project justice and get it done right for those who have been wanting to see this setting for so long. I don't think any other method would have allowed this setting to get done right.

44. What are your recommendations for making Lands of the Jade Oath relevant in a n existing campaign (AE game, 3.5 game and/or hybrid)?

If you don't already have an existing area for the orient to your campaign, then Jade Oath might be a good setting to consider if your players should decide to explore that region. Also, some of your players might want to come from this region even if you don't actively play in the setting; they can use the information from Jade Oath as part of their character background – maybe even having enemies from their past hunting them down. As far as game mechanics, you should consider using Arcana Evolved as that is the default Player's Handbook for the Jade Oath setting. It is designed to be used with the AD&D 3rd edition Player's Handbook as well. Hybrid campaigns might work the best, but using the setting with just AE is also just fine.

45. How did magic and the supernatural affect the cultural and ecological evolution of Lands of the Jade Oath?

Culturally, the wu lin societies that are already in place in a lot of Asian fiction was ideally the way to go. It was already there and established for powerful warriors and workers of magical deeds. I just extended it to be a useful type of institution throughout the setting. Ecologically, there are many magical locales such as the Ghostwall, City of Dragon's Sacrifice, Broken Pillar, mist-trees, the Islands of Mu, the Hidden City, the Valley of Jars, floating mountains, City with No Name, and other various mystical sites that can be explored and many even have a very real basis in the real-life equivalent nations in Asia, such as the Great Wall of China (Ghostwall) and the Valley of Jars (the Plain of Jars in Laos).

46. Could you talk about your favorite new race from Lands of the Jade Oath?

I don't know what to say; I like them all. It's like asking me to pick a favorite child. Well, looking at most of them, they are derivative of other fantasy races that we have seen at one time or another. Sanesaram are dwarves, yueren are elves, qahngol are half-orcs, and hushen are a subrace of litorians. So, I guess out of those that I think are not quite so derivative, that leaves the shenxue, mandragoran, and bakemono.

I like the shenxue a lot due to their inherent connection to nature and the spirit world. They are also very interesting from a design perspective as well and was perhaps the hardest and most time-intensive race to create for me. No two shenxue are alike and I think that is a great part of what appeals to me about them. I like that they can be connected to both another standard PC race and yet also be connected intrinsically with a natural part of the world or one of its elements.

Bakemono are like the mischievous little bastards you hate to like in certain movies. They are part goblin, part kappa, part Loki, part Yoda, part Oghra from the Dark Crystal, and part Gremlins with a good chunk of mythological bakemono attitude and stereotypical harridan thrown in for the women of the race. They are the evil muppets of the Jade Oath setting and I can't help but love them for their inherently mischievous nature. It's just too delicious a way to have fun to pass up when creating a character.

The Mandragorans are perhaps the oldest race on a purely creative level with me personally. I first created what would become the mandragorans back in 1994 as a mercantile race for my 2nd edition AD&D game. They were a fusion of a comic book I had seen of a character with a head-tail from Micronauts back in the 80's, Twi'leks from Star Wars (the Micronaut and Star Wars inspirations were for the initial ideas to incorporate head-tails on the race), Obsidimen from Earthdawn (for the idea of colorful “veins” running across their bodies), Pitt and Nautica characters from what was back then Image Comics (for the lack of a nose), and the attitude of a race from Talislanta called the Ispasians (who also had no nose). Eventually, they evolved to incorporate inspiration from Farscape ( Zaan, the blue plant lady, and Dargo, the guy with the bird-beak nose and the head-tails.), some more original ideas I had wherein I thought about giving them several aspects from Indian culture fused with ideas I had on Druid-like plant people. Then I gave a lot of thought to their physiology, which evolved to what it is now after talking with an artist how plant-like head-vines should look with a more irregular and asymmetrical design.

47. What is your favorite new class from Lands of the Jade Oath?

Man, that is a hard thing to say. I like them all. The kensai is pretty much the way I think a warrior dedicated to lifelong mastery of a single weapon should be. The kusa is my ideal and most flexible vision of the ninja. The demon hunter is built with subclasses to take advantage of the different ways one can specialize in fighting demons and other infernals, while being a tough combatant with a little magic at his disposal. The enlightened scholar is very flexible with a lot of different ways to interpret him.

Right now, if I had to pick one I guess it would be the enlightened scholar. I just love that, even more so than any other new class in the book, he covers an archetype that doesn't ever really get covered well in the rest of D&D or AE – the martial physican, the mad scientist, the adademic field scholar who doesn't know magic, the alchemist who doesn't work with spells, the peasant mage, the fang shih, the crazy inventor (and let's face it – ancient China had a lot of these between alchemists seeking immortality who consumed mercury, crushed dinosaur bones, and cinnabar and then there were guys like the one that strapped fireworks to a chair in order to achieve flight – that didn't end well), etc. This archetype is perfect for characters like that of Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures, Fong Sai Yuk, Kang the Mad from Jade Empire, Johnny Depps version of Ichabod Krane from Sleepy Hollow, Q from James Bond, the Professor from Gilligans Island, and Fester from the Addams Family, etc.

48. How did your relationship with Rite Publishing start? How would you characterize it now?

It started at GenCon last year when I played in a sort of playtest game for A Witches Choice with Steve Russell and Bill Collins amongst others. We had some time prior to the game starting while Steve set up the game and we waited for other players to show up. Steve had questions about the progress of Jade Oath, so we talked about it. As we talked, Steve pitched the idea of me trying to get it published under the Patronage business model that Steve had recently come from a seminar on. Eventually the conversation led us down the path of Steve doing the publishing for us and I told Steve very early on that I wanted Bill Collins as my editor, which he agreed with me about for many reasons and now we are all making this great product with lots of other nice and talented folks. I think we all get along pretty good. If anyone ever rocks the boat it is usually my fault because I can be unreasonably demanding, tyrannical, and puritanical about my vision for the product. The guys at Rite Publishing are super understanding though and put up with my tirades quite well.  ;)

49. What makes a good Oriental Rpg product?

I think a good oriental RPG product needs to not just be grounded in historical facts, but it should also emphasize the fantasy of a mythological Asia as well as incorporate some new and original ideas that are derived from the philosophies and mythologies of Asia. After all, the best western fantasy games have taken that path with regards to Western cultures and it seems to have worked out really well for them.

It should also be well rounded. By that, I mean that it should consider a lot of, if not all, of the major cultures of Asia. They are all so rich in culture and mythology that I think it is a shame to ignore any of them. A good oriental setting shouldn't have its most influential culture or kingdom exist in a vacuum. It should be surrounded by other kingdoms and cultures that it influences and is influenced by and these cultures should be reasonably well described for the setting as well as being considered when creating races, classes, equipment, etc.

50. What is your favorite Oriental Rpg product (besides yours)?

Well, it is hard for me to pick any single one, but I suppose I could say that I really like Cathay: Jewel of the East by AEG, Mystic China by Palladium Books, the Kara Tur box set by TSR, and Dragonfist by Chris Pramas and TSR.

Throughout horror literature, men and women of science are capable of amazing feats that are traditionally reserved for those that study the magical arts. When running a horror game with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game it is possible to simulate this with the following changes.

Item Creation Feats

Item creation feats do not require a minimum caster level but instead require a number of ranks in Spellcraft equal to the caster level previously required.

Magic Item Prerequisites

Any prerequisite spells do not need to be possessed by the item creator instead the creater must succeed on a Craft (magical device) check DC 10 + 2 x spell level to successfully imbue the contraption with the necessary spells.

Favor

All magical items created by this method should seem pseudo-magical in nature. Their auras unsteady, the devices complicated and clockwork with whirring parts and cracking electricity.

The writing of many horror authors can provide inspiration for these types of characters from Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein to Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s Crawford Tilinghast from the short story From Beyond. Below is a look at how I might design Crawford for my campaign.

Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. I had not seen him since that day, two months and a half before, when he had told me toward what goal his physical and metaphysical researches were leading; when he had answered my awed and almost frightened remonstrances by driving me from his laboratory and his house in a burst of fanatical rage. – From Beyond by Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

Crawford Tilinghast

He is a stout man, thin, with bagged skin that has taken on a yellowish, grey palour. His eyes are shrunken, circled and seemingly glow. His hands are tremulous and twitching and his forehead is veined and corrugated. The man is unkempt with disordered dress, wild beard and dark hair streaked with white.

Crawford Tilinghast 

Male human expert 6

CN Medium humanoid (human)

Init +0; Senses none; Perception +X

[Defenses]

AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10

hp 27 (6d8)

Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +7

Defensive Abilities ferocity; Immune mind-affecting affects (due to insanity)

[Offense]

Speed 30 ft.

Melee heavy mace +3 (1d8-1)

[Statistics]

Str 8, Dex 11, Con 10, Int 21, Wis 14, Cha 6

Base Atk +4; CMB +3; CMD 13

Feats Craft Wondrous Items, Skill Focus (Craft (magical device)), Skill Focus (Spellcraft)

Skills Bluff +4, Craft (magical device) +17, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (engineering) +14, Knowledge (history) +14, Knowledge (local) +11, Knowledge (planes) +14, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +11, Profession (scientist) +11, Spellcraft +17, Use Magical Device +4

Languages Common

Gear npc gear plus Tillinghast’s Apparatus

We entered the laboratory in the attic, and I observed that detestable electrical machine, glowing with a sickly, sinister, violet luminosity. It was connected with a powerful chemical battery, but seemed to be receiving no current; for I recalled that in its experimental stage it had sputtered and purred when in action. In reply to my question Tillinghast mumbled that this permanent glow was not electrical in any sense that I could understand. – From Beyond by Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

Tilinghast’s Apparatus

Aura moderate divination; Spellcraft 6 ranks

Slot none; Price 90,000 gp; Weight 40 lbs.

[Description]

Tilinghast’s Apparatus generates waves of pseudo-magical energy which act upon undiscovered sense organs within the humanoid body. Once per day this device can be turned on for a period of up to 1 hour. This effect acts as the contact other plane except the device’s power is sustained unless turned off. Unlike traditional uses of this spell, Tilinghast’s Apparatus has the potential to damage a person’s Str, Dex, Con and Cha as reflected in Crawford’s statistics.

[Construction]

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Craft (magical device) DC 20; Cost 45,000 gp

Weapon of Swashbuckling

Price (item level): +1 (11th)

Body slot: -(held)
Caster level: 3rd  
Aura: Moderate Necromancy (DC 17)
Activation: Use-activated
Weight:-

“Though this weapon appears more elegant and balanced than seems possible, it exudes a sense of “capability” that you cannot explain”

Lore: 

Bardic Knowledge or Knowledge (arcana)
DC 17:  Popular amongst the more tactically minded warriors of  the Questor’s Society.  A number of them have been lost by members of the society who did not return from challenges laid before their membership.   

DC 22: Dame Desdemona Rathdon “the mage knight” first developed this item in Last Tower of Endhold, for her son a wild, reckless, but brilliant swashbuckling member of the Questor’s Society.     

DC 32: Each member of the Shorehawks of the Shadowfey Sea, possesses a weapon bearing this enchantment a gift from the Circle of Heroes for protecting the harbor of the Evocative City.

Abilities:
You add your Dexterity modifier to your combat maneuver bonus.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, (cat’s grace)

Illustrations by Kurt Taylor and Claudia Burgos

31. What is your feeling about the Rituals of Choice Adventure Path? (Publisher’s shameless plug)
From what I experienced at GenCon, I think I would really like to get in on the ground floor of this adventure path. I think it is the first real adventure path from 1 thru 25 for Arcana Evolved (AE) and it was pretty fun with some interesting ideas on the day I played it.

32. What is (was) your home AE game like?

Well, we haven't played AE in a while, what with scheduling conflicts and a Ptolus game that we can barely get together to play. When we were playing it most recently, it was more like a series of short playtest sessions wherein I let the players have two characters apiece and we made two different teams that were trying to pass a special adventurer's exam to become magistrates. It involved gladiatorial combat (killing was discouraged) and a survival/race/mystery event to solve. I tried using some third party material that didn't work out well from the DM-making-it-fun perspective, but that is why we were playing this stuff. The players had plenty of fun with their characters though.

33. What is the AE product you want to buy?

I want an AE product like Ptolus, but since Ptolus has rules to adapt it to AE, I guess I already have it. I think I would like the next best thing that would be original and just for AE. It would be a setting/city/location book and an adventure (or maybe even an adventure path/campaign guide if you want to get real ambitious with it) combined with a race/class book with new and unique monsters, magic items, NPCs, prestige classes, feats, optional rules for the location. Oh, and to make it really unique, make all focused on a single race and their influence and maybe even a far reaching special organization of that race that is focused on something that could profoundly alter the setting through the course of the adventure. Monsters would be racial enemies and allies and magic items would be all about the race and classes focused on by the book. For example something like “Rising of the Plains Lords: Litorian Totem Warriors”, “The Creeping Forest Plague: Faen Greenbonds”, or “Dark Pact of the Verrik Godking: Verrik Witches”. The focus of these books would be on not only the named races and classes, but also on an event/adventure(s)/campaign arc and a location (broad and far reaching or just in a specific locale, though preferably the former) with monsters from the plains or the creeping forest or creatures that have been mutated by a verrik curse that has jumped species. The adventures would be things like, “Why are the litorians uprising?”, “What happened in that dark forest to cause it to start creeping about and maliciously killing any it encounters and why are the faen protecting it?”, or “Where did this curse come from and why is it affecting more than just the verrik now?”. For the litorians, the location wouldn't just be about the plains, but about their tribal and nomadic culture. I want these books and many others that I can think of in a similar vein.

34. Can you name for us a totem type, champion type and a witch type that would be cool but you have never seen from the fans?

Let's see... I would like to see a Star witch inspired by ancient star readers of the Heian dyanasty of Japan (and may very well make it soon myself). As for the totem warrior, I have written many of those I want that I haven't seen elsewhere yet. But, all that aside, I guess we haven't seen the boar yet or the crocodile for that matter; after all, the reptiles need more love, too. We wouldn't want to see crocodile tears for lack of including them, now would we?  My group created the concept of the Cheetoes Champion. That would be fun to write up. But, you want me to be serious, I suppose, so if I had to choose one I haven't written or seen I would like to see a Champion of the Fey, I think. Something like that could be great for PCs or villains that protect the natural creatures, mystical items, and magic places of the faerie realms

35. What kind of player experience did you hope to create with your game? Did your goals change during the design process? Do you feel that you met them?

I wanted to create an experience where the player would find a really exotic world with adventures from the far east that both met some of his expectations (grounding him in something somewhat familiar yet not of his own culture), but at the same time blowing away many of his other expectations and preconceived notions and stereotypes with something more based in the cultures and stories of the far east that was also imaginative, original, and evocative. I also did not want to lose the original feel of Arcana Evolved. You might say that I just wanted to add a little ginger to it. I don't think that premise ever really changed, though a lot of my preconceived notions changed during the process of researching and writing the book. I'm not sure if I met those expectations, but I sure hope I did.

36. What does AE need more of?

I think AE needs more written about the concepts that were unique to it vs. other 3rd edition products and concepts such as truenames, oaths, ceremonies, magic totems, spirits, what exactly is the Green and the Dark, the akashic memory, what does it really mean to become a mojh, what exactly was the curse laid upon the Verrik and the circumstances surrounding it, where did the giants really come from, and what is a day in the life of a faen like. 

37. What advice would you give to fans of AE?

Go and look for products that support AE and purchase them and then turn right around and critique them to make them better and encourage the publishers of those products to create more and better AE products. If you want a product about AE in space, let it be known and see if you can drum up support. Being vocal and supportive of what you want is the way to be heard and maybe even getting someone to write something you think you would like to see. Jade Oath wouldn't have happened if it weren't for folks who did just that and then kept on hitting me over the head with their opinions about my ideas and how they wanted to see me write them down in a serious product some day.

38. What do you think the future is for AE?

I think that AE has a dedicated and supportive community that will stick around for many more years. Those who weren't happy with 3rd edition, but also don't feel that all the changes made in 4th edition were too drastic will probably give AE a try if they haven't already. As long as there are publishers who will support AE I think there will be an audience for AE and it might even grow as word keeps getting out about what a great product Monte Cook has created and what Rite Publishing is doing.

39. Is there anything else the world should know about you?

Not really. There is a lot to know, but I am not comfortable being in the public spotlight. I guess I could tell you guys that I grew up spending my summers on a carnival for the first 11 years of my life and that I have been in the military my entire adult life. I am married to a woman from Asia and have two great boys. I like shows like Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Farscape, Supernatural, 11th Hour, Babylon 5, Chuck, Heroes, Life, and Band of Brothers, though I have little time to watch any of them. I also like books, comics, and video games, but I seldom get to enjoy them (almost never in the case of video games). Online gaming absolutely annoys me so much that I will probably never ever do it. I prefer living in the country and have a phobia of crowds. And even though it terrifies me every time I do it, I enjoy jumping out of airplanes while in flight.

40. Is there anything else the world should know about AE?

Well, I think that word has already gotten out about what a great system it is. So, I don't really know what else to say about it. I guess people should know that it helps to facilitate fantasy settings where magic is more common and can affect the every day life of characters and NPCs from all walks of life. Rituals and ceremonies are more easily created and duplicated in this system than in any other D20 system I have ever seen, both for players and NPCs. It emphasizes fantasy archetypes and tropes seldom emphasized by other D20 systems, if at all. What other D20 system lets you play a giant, a spryte, an akashic, a runethane, or a witch right away at first level and then further emphasize your racial archetype with racial or evolved levels as you progress?

Welcome to Wednesdays & Woes our web series about Rpg Horror Elements this week Mark Gedak brings you something PCs take from granted that coming back from the dead has no consequence. Mark can help teach your players how wrong they are.    

Illustration by Arthur Wang

One of the problems with running a horror-based campaign in the Pathfinder system or any standard OGL fantasy game is that too much of the magic and physics of the world is known. A wand of ice storm deals on average a set amount of damage, a fifth level wizard’s acid arrow will burn targets for two rounds. Horror occurs when the unexpected happens. For horror-based campaign to work there needs to be some uncertainty, some chance for things to go horribly wrong. Below you will find five alternate resolutions to the process of raising the dead.

Sometimes They Come Back...Wrong!

It is hard to deal with the death of a loved one, but it is harder still to have them returned to you transformed in unknowable ways. Being resurrected, raised from the dead or reincarnated is a common practice for heroes in many fantasy roleplaying games. What is overlooked in these games is that when you slip beyond the veil that separates life from death, death can affect you in unpredictable ways. Contact with oblivion can leave even the hardiest hero changed. Below are a few examples of what can happen to a person who has been brought back from the dead.

Aberrant to Green

Sometimes when a person is raised from the dead within a large city, their connection to the living world becomes strained. This antipathy to the natural world manifests in a number of ways. Any person found to be aberrant to green adds the following special abilities and qualities:

Animal Antipathy (Ex): You carry with you the taint of death. This aura unnerves animals who encounter you. Any animal that you come into contact with you has its attitude shifted one state toward the negative. An animal will never possess a helpful attitude toward you.

Severed Bond (Su):  If you are a druid or ranger who possesses an animal companion, that bound is lost. The druid instead gains one of the following cleric domains: Air, Death, Earth, Fire, Water or Weather. The ranger instead gains the companion bound.

Druids of 9^th level or higher are aware of this condition and often warn their younger members of this risk. If a druid hopes to be raised from the dead, he will often counsel his travelling companions to only conduct the ceremony within the natural environment.

Filled with Rage

If a person dies a particularly violent death, the brutality of the attack that killed them may become imprinted on their soul. This causes the raised person to develop almost a secondary personality that causes them to lash out at others. Any person who is raised from the dead and filled with raised gains the following special abilities.

Berserk (Ex) When the character enters combat, there is a cumulative 1% chance each round that its rage breaks free and they go berserk. The uncontrolled character goes on a rampage, attacking the nearest living thing or smashing some object smaller than itself if no creature is within reach., then moving on to spread more destruction. A close friend can try to calm the character down, which requires a DC 19 Charisma check It takes one minute of inactivity for the percentage to reset to 0%.

Ferocity (Ex) The character can remain conscious and continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The character is staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. A character with ferocity dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score.

From Beyond

When a raise dead spell is cast, the soul of the departed must be willing to return to the material plane and be reunited with its body. However, in the emptiness of the afterlife, strange beings swim about the ether hoping to consume a lost soul or steal their path back to the material world. If one of these strange creatures can subvert the spell energy to their own use, these alien creatures can be drawn back into the body instead of the original soul. Any person who becomes a shell for another gains the following special abilities.

Alien Mind (Ex) The character gains a +4 bonus to mind-affecting spells, spell-like abilities and powerful. Additionally, the character’s mind is hostile to divination magic and any divinations spells cast on the character also deal 1d6 points of damage to the caster.

Transformative Event (Ex) The character has been changed in unpredictable ways. You may immediately reassign feats, skills, class abilities or even class levels previously selected. Once changed this becomes your new form.

If a character becomes a shell for another, he truly has become a new person, with new goals and ambitions. This can allow them to rework their character into a completely different party role.

Touched by Evil

If the soul of the departed travels the ether too close to the negative material plane, the evil energy of that realm seeps into the newly departed and transforms them into their own evil twin. A person that has been touched by evil is changed in the following ways.

Alignment: The moral aspect of the character’s alignment shifts from good or neutral to evil.

Aura: Your character exhibits an aura of evil similar to that possessed by an evil cleric.

Smite Good (Ex):  Once per day, the character can call out to the powers of darkness to aid him in his struggle against good. As a swift action, the character chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is good, the character adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack rolls and adds his character level to all damage rolls made against the target of his smite. If the target of smite good is an outsider with the good subtype, a good-aligned dragon, or a fey creature, the bonus to damage increases to 2 points of damage per level the character possesses. Regardless of the target, smite good attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the character gains a deflection bonus equal to his Charisma modifier (if any) to his AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the character targets a creature that is not good, the smite is wasted with no effect.

The smite good effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the character rests and regains his uses of this ability. At 4th level, and at every three levels thereafter, the character may smite good one additional time per day to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.

Warded from Salvation

It is only possible for a soul to be returned to his body within a specific period of time before they are taken by their deity toward their final reward or rest. If a person is raised at the limit of allowable time, his deity may take affront at the person’s choice to return to life instead of coming into their deity’s glory. Such persons become warded from salvation and are changed in the following ways.

Faithless (Su): The character cannot be granted spells by his original deity. Many faithless instead turn to the enemies of their previous gods for divine power.

Out of Sight (Su): The character is completely undetectable by magic means by anyone worshiping or working for the character’s previous faith.

Slow to Heal (Ex): The character regains only one-half the hit points from any curative magic.

Welcome to Fridays & Functions; a series of a posts that will always deal with what goes on behind the scenes, including  design diaries, interviews, technical commentary, etc.  First up is a 5 part interview with Frank Carr Author of Heroes of the Jade Oath you can find 

Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here

Illustration by Jason Rainville

21. What makes a good Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved product?

A good AE product makes you think about the games you want to run in a new way. They give you ideas for characters and stories that you may not have done before. Monte Cook did this when Arcana Unearthed first came out with the idea of being able to play a large-sized giant or a tiny-sized spryte or this new character concept called an akashic or by actually creating a magic system that was actually about as flexible as what you might find in many of the fantasy novels on the shelves.

22. What is your favorite Arcana Evolved product (besides yours and the core book)?

I am assuming you mean out of those produced by Monte. That is tough for me because I like them all with my top three having to be Legacy of the Dragons, Ruins of Intrigue, and Mystic Secrets. If I have to pick a favorite, I would have to say Mystic Secrets is it, but not just because I had a hand in play-testing it; it introduced some neat spells, expanded on runes and rune children, and introduced some magical locations and new magic items. But most of all, I really like the idea of the rituals of power and ceremonies that it introduced to the game. It really expanded on the concept behind ceremonial feats and showed how magic was available in everyday life for non-spellcasters and NPCs in a mystical setting. I thought that was very flavorful and thought provoking. 

23. What is your favorite Non-Monte AE (besides yours) product and why?

Again, this is a difficult choice you are asking me. Choosing favorites is always difficult for me because it could be something different a week from now. Right now, I would have to say Akashic Nodes because the concept behind the whole project was so fresh and original. It took the idea behind something flavorful in the main book, ran with it, and really expanded on it. It was something that had not really been done before and it did it well. 

Editor's note: this product is no longer available you will have to ask Fiery Dragon about that ;)

24. What is your favorite Rite Publishing product and why?

I don't know if that is a fair question for me to answer because I haven't had much opportunity to read any products lately (for pretty much the last two years or so). Of those I own from Rite Publishing (Items Evolved: Rituals, Veiled Denizens, and Mythic Monstrosities) I would have to go with Mythic Monstrosities because I like the monsters in that book and I think Arcana Evolved needs more original monsters. I like the others, too, but I haven't had the time to give Items Evolved a fair reading. If I had the chance to read up on all the products by Rite Publishing, I suspect that the Living Airship might become my new favorite. I love original concepts like that. Okay, maybe not love, but rather “like-like” in that special way kids talk.  However, I have also been eyeing that adventure path, A Witch's Choice, after playing it for a couple hours at GenCon; I think it has a lot of potential.

25. What has been your best moment playing with an AE product?

I have had a lot of good moments, but you know how it is – you always remember your first. I was playing a large-sized giant champion in the first AE tournament in 2003, when I was targeted by a spell from the main villain to learn my truename so she could use a magical command on me. It was pretty sweet when I was able to tell the DM that I was Unbound and that the villainous spellcaster had just wasted her spell on me for nothing and I didn't even have to roll a saving throw. My character then proceeded to pound on the villain and hold the line against a bunch of undead coming down the stairs. They couldn't get past him because of his reach and attacks of opportunity.

Later that same day, I was playing in a game that Tom Lommel (AKA Thrommel) was running. There was a prize to be given out in this game, though, and it was a complete set of the new Arcana Unearthed miniatures; the first ones made for AU/AE. Everyone had great moments in that game and Tom couldn't decide who should get them, so we had a “d20 roll off”. I despaired. My rolls all night had been under 10. I was shocked to discover that I ended up actually tied with “Mr. Lucky” across the table from me who had been rolling great most of the night. It was a very tension-filled moment when we then had a tie breaking roll-off. And then... I won!

26. What has been your most memorable fan response to Lands of the Jade Oath?

I can't really say that there is a single thing, but rather it has been that everyone has been so supportive of this project from the beginning where folks encouraged me to get the license and then to keep at it over the years. It has been a great project with a lot invested in it for me, but there are a lot of fans out there that have stayed on me with lots of great encouragement and curiosity about the project. It has been fun and very fulfilling just seeing people rally behind my ideas. I never really expected that and it is very nice to see that happening. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far it has been great.

27. What role do you think Heroes of the Jade Oath plays in the AE gaming community?

I like to think of it as the white elephant, the underdog, and the little engine that could all rolled into one. You might hear about it here or there, while never really seeing it, and you know the odds are against it, but it just keeps on chugging along and it is almost over that giant hill now. Folks like underdogs and I think they want to see it succeed. In a way it is also like something for AE-ophiles to rally behind. I think it is the first third-party AE project to be over a hundred pages since Tell It To My Axe and until Rite Publishing picked up the banner, AE went through an extremely long dry spell. I think AE fans are ready for another AE product that they can sink their teeth into. Even better than that though is that I think it is attracting fans of oriental game settings and for many of them Heroes of the Jade Oath might inspire them to take a look at AE, which is even better for the AE community.

28. Any plans on running a Lands of the Jade Oath game using Fantasy Grounds or Maptool?

Is that an online gaming tool program? Sorry, but as much as I would like to, I don't do any online or LAN gaming. My game groups just don't have the infrastructure that would require. Many of them are not computer users, or at least not into that sort of “gaming table”.

29. Could you tell us a little about the difference between professional game design and designing for play?

Professional game design requires much more thought and creativity. When designing for the home game, you can feel free to borrow whatever you want from any of your books and if you, as DM, are comfortable with any shifts in game balance that might or might not cause, then that is cool as long as everyone has fun. When designing professionally, you have to consider where you are getting your inspiration from. You can't just take something someone else wrote and use it. For example, when I first started the project, I was going to use the races and classes from Oriental Adventures until I learned that they were not open content. This challenged me to be original; which, in the end, was the best thing that could have happened for Lands of the Jade Oath.

30. Why do you think the "Obvious Books" (racial and class books) for AE have never been done?

The community that has grown around Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved is what I consider a sort of d20 RPG counterculture. Another comparison might be something like Mac vs. PC. Most of us wanted to play something different; something that was D&D, but not D&D – not our daddy's D&D so to speak. Monte gave us that. He gave us a game that many of us consider to be better than core 3rd edition D&D. AU/AE became the cutting edge of d20 design for a while, even though it was not popular with everyone. But for a third party publisher, it left a pretty big mark on the gaming community; a lasting mark.

Part 4 continues next Friday

Rite Publishing has reached an agreement with Steve Kenson to write a M&M Superlink patronage project.

No further information about the project is available at this time.

About Steve Kenson

Steve Kenson is a writer and designer of fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) and related fiction.

His most notable creation is the d20 System superhero roleplaying game Mutants and Masterminds for Green Ronin Publishing, which won multiple ENnie awards. He also designed True20 Adventure Roleplaying and the Freedom City campaign setting also for Green Ronin. He has written material for many RPGs, including: Aberrant, Champions, DC Universe, the Marvel Super-Heroes Adventure Game, Shadowrun, Silver Age Sentinels, and his Mutants and Masterminds.

About Rite Publishing

Rite Publishing is a PDF and print on demand RPG Company known for producing patronage projects for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game including Clinton J. Boomer’s Coliseum Morpheuon (PFRPG), The Rituals of Choice Adventure Path (MCAE), and Heroes of the Jade Oath (MCAE) this will be Rite Publishing’s 8th patronage project and the first using the M&M Superlink license. 

Welcome to Fridays & Functions; a series of a posts that will always deal with what goes on behind the scenes, including  design diaries, interviews, technical commentary, etc.  First up is a 5 part interview with Frank Carr Author of Heroes of the Jade Oath you can find Part 1 Here

Illustration by Hugo Solis

11. Living and breathing the Rituals of Choice adventure path I know how hard it is to watch an editor take a red pen to a beloved work, how do you handle that with a work as close to you as Lands of the Jade Oath? How do you plan to handle patron criticism.?

With a very big stick!  Seriously, I don't mind criticism as long as it is making a valid and relevant point. I am the sort of person who would rather be told up front and in my face if you have a problem with me or what I do. I can deal with that on nearly all levels and I can respect people more for being that way with me. But, I don't like it when people talk behind my back or otherwise behave like a hypocrite.

That said, I have been dealing with Bill Collins (the editor on this book) on and off for a few years now and he and I have a great rapport. I would discuss the occasional idea I had for the books with him and he was a great sounding board for what would and would not be a good idea. But then, he never really told me that I had a bad idea. He always seems to enable me by telling me that I could take that so-so idea and make it better by taking approaches x, y, or z. This relationship is what makes him working on this book so great. He and I can take the sour things that crop up and make a whiskey sour out of them instead of tossing them out completely and going back to scratch on something.

As to dealing with patron criticism, I don't think there will be much of anything that will bother me as long as folks on both sides of the creative process are open-minded, honest, and willing to hear each other out.

12. Describe your best moment working on Lands of the Jade Oath?

That would have to be when I finally got to see the final, complete cover painting image by Wayne Reynolds.

13. What do you feel was the most ingenious part of Lands of the Jade Oath that you devised?

That is hard for me to say because there are a few things that I really liked about what I have written so far. I guess it would be a tossup between the shenxue race and the enlightened scholar class. The shenxue race, because they are my answer to having both a hengeyokai and a half-breed race descended from spirits all rolled into one. I like how a shenxue player can choose almost any race in the setting and then add a spiritual aspect like fox, mountain, or some other thing to create a unique racial choice that endables player creativity while still making good sense in the setting. The Enlightened Scholar class, because the concept is one that hasn't really been addressed before now as a character class for the adventuring scholar, alchemist, antiquarian, physician, or hedge mage. The class was ispired by characters from fiction and film such as Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures, Foo Shen from Big Trouble in Little China, Alec Guiness' rendition of Obi Wan Kenobi, Indiana Jones, Wong Fei Hong, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and many others. I know that there are a couple out there now that Wizards of the Coast came up with just before they came out with 4th edition, but I originally wrote this class up in its first draft back in early 2004. Because I know I came up with it before I knew of other efforts along these lines makes me rather proud of it.

14. What specific design choice are you most happy with, and why?

I guess that might be either the path classes or the ch'i magic system. Both are very flexible and makes game options available to more types of characters than just magic-users or warrior-types. In the case of ch'i that would because written up as feats they become available to any who can qualify. In the case of paths, they are martial arts or castes and backgrounds that make a character more unique and enjoyable within the setting, while sacrificing as little as possible from one's class. 

15. Which design element was the hardest to figure out, and why?

That was probably the shenxue racial traits. I knew what I wanted to accomplish with them, but getting to that point was very difficult. Trying to balance what I wanted them to be with the reality of game mechanics was very difficult for me to do when I was first trying to design that race. At first, being shenxue was just going to be a template you could add to your character, but that wouldn't work for many reasons.

16. What did you learn about design and especially designing for eastern-style settings?

A lot, it is a very open-ended question because there is just so much to learn. I will mention a couple of them, though. One that I would have to mention is that everyone has a different idea about what an oriental game setting should incorporate, though there are also a lot of common denominators folks would like to see, such as martial arts and cultures that can serve as fantasy analogues to Asian cultures. I also learned that it is possible to introduce fun and balanced changes to an existing game system without having to redo the whole game system. Also, the best and most popular design decisions involve making or modifying a mechanical rule that enhances a story element. While balance between all the rules in the game is important, balance between the rules and the story are just as important, if not more so.

17. What have you learned about Land of the Jade Oath in play-testing?

I have learned that nothing is as good as what you think it is until you get not only a second opinion, but get it field tested as well as a second and third opinion. I have also learned that sometimes you have to go with what you think is best despite what someone else says, especially when a couple of someones aren't agreeing with each other or you, and they don't know the overall vision of the project as well as you do. Stay true to the vision and it will work out, no matter how many bumps are in the road. 

What did you change as a result?

After showing the draft write-up of my shenxue to my players, a couple of them came back to me with a critique about how a couple of the shenxue spiritual aspects had abilities that were too similar. After brainstorming for a bit with them and later by myself, we managed to come up with better abilities that were unique to each spiritual aspect.

18. Did you make any other mistakes or miscalculations in the design process? How did you fix them?

Yes, I have made several mistakes and miscalculations along the way, but I have always been able to get them under control and make things even better than the original concept was before as a result of recognizing those mistakes. I would do this by simply going back to the drawing board, so to speak. I would ask myself, “What am I trying to accomplish with this idea and is it necessary?” If the answer was yes to that, then I would try and see if there was a better way to approach what I was trying to do than what I had tried already. This process forced me to come up with better ideas, both setting and story -wise and rules mechanic -wise. Despite having stated all this, though, I think my biggest mistake is that I cannot stop creating stuff. I have too many ideas I want to throw out there that I cannot stop myself from either improving on them or creating more. For example, as the manuscript stands right now there are 6 new totems (horse, centipede, monkey, praying mantis, tiger, and elephant), 4 new witch types (jade, ghost, five element, and dragon), and 12 spiritual aspects for the shenxue (hare, mountain, river, fire, fox, sword, crane, bamboo, cloud, dog, snow, and panda). I wanted to create more and even started doing so, before I was able to force myself to trim them down to the more reasonable numbers I just mentioned. Even now I am burning to write up a Star Witch and Monkey spiritual aspect and have nearly complete or partially completed drafts of the badger, cat, carp, city, frog, desert, graveyard, moon, rat, and snake shenxue spiritual aspects and spider totem.

19. We have a long history of a Japanese focus in the RPG industry how do you decided what has become cliché and what is a valuable trope to explore?

A good indicator if it is cliché is if it is something that is made fun of in popular tv or anime. However, if it is something that you just can't perceive an Asian or oriental setting being without a certain element or trope, then that element or trope is a “must-have” for the setting; even if it is cliche. Some folks actually like having something cliché in their settings. For me, must-haves from Japanese culture includes things like samurai, katanas, fox spirits, sohei, paper magic, and yes – even ninjas (though, I decided to approach them with a more antiquated Japanese term for them that roughly means - “shadow scout”: Kusa). I think that if you approach the cliché stuff with a “dialed-down” approach, then you can make them work for you without getting all the negative baggage that normally comes with those things.

I spent a great deal of my adolescence in the eighties and some of my earliest exposure to Asian cinema were the ninja movies of that period. So, they are a cliché and a “must-have” to me; however, I refuse to let them dominate the setting, while at the same time letting them be available for any DM who wants to use them or any player who wants to be one. After all, the game is about having fun and playing something you enjoy. I know of plenty of DM that would like to have hidden ninjas “flip out” and attack PCs.   I know there are a lot of folks who dislike ninjas, but there are at least just as many who like the idea of their oriental settings having them around. To me, something being cliché is about how it is perceived and often that is all about the tone or volume. If ninjas were all into wearing wearing red, white, or black ninja costumes with abilities that rivaled the superpowers of the costumed vigilantes in comics, then that would definitely be too much, but ninjas who seldom, if ever, wear costumes like that (often going undercover on missions) and have abilities on par with other characters - only specialized in what they do – then that is not cliché to me. That is something that the military forces, law enforcement, spies, and assassins of the real world really do, so it makes sense that the preeminent assassins, spies, and saboteurs of a fantasy world full of magic would do it also, but with just a touch of some magical abilities of their own as a countermeasure and weapon against the possible magisters and witches they might encounter, not to mention just plain giving themselves a leg up on their enemies.

20. Are you happy with where Lands of the Jade Oath is today?

Yes, but there is always room for improvement. I can't stop myself from constantly trying to come up with new ways to make it better.

You can find part 3 HERE

"I am an explorer, a man of action, and foiler of nefarious plots. Come read my book, Evocative City Sites, and I, Owain Northway, will guide you to a house of ill repute filled with shapechangers. I will tell you of 

The Intimate Shape Festhall."

Evocative City Sites: a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible supplement detailing small locations that you could find in any urban campaign setting. Each site is detailed with its own cartography, a 1”=1 square scale map pack, two unique npcs, 5 adventure seeds, all presented in the unique, useful, and entertaining form of Owain Northway’s first person point-of-view guidebook.

The Intimate Shape Festhall is a place where you can relax and induldge your every desire. you can find any companion you desire, as the attendants here can read your very mind, all in a building that could deal with any threat and possibly even break a dragon under its massive wieght. You will find it in a secluded spot just down from the Next Inn. 

Now at the Paizo Store

Welcome to Tuesdays & Tasks a series of web articles dedicated to encounters, campaiging and adventure ideas, compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. 

Image by joe holmes (creative commons licence)

Any Portal in the Storm

The encounter can occur at any time that the PCs are traveling outside. 

Suddenly, without warning a massivly powerful lightning storm advances on you

Storm (Thunderstorm): Wind speeds are severe (30 to 50 mph) and visibility is cut by three-quarters. Storms last for 2d4–1 hours. See Storms, below, for more details.

Super Cell Thunderstorm: In addition to wind and precipitation (usually rain, but sometimes also hail), thunderstorms are accompanied by lightning that can pose a hazard to characters without proper shelter (especially those in metal armor). Assume 1d3 bolts per round for a 2d4-1 hours. Each bolt causes between 10d8 points of electricity damage.

Windstorm: Powerful enough to bring down branches if not whole trees, windstorms automatically extinguish unprotected flames and have a 75% chance of blowing out protected flames, such as those of lanterns. Ranged weapon attacks are impossible, and even siege weapons have a –4 penalty on attack rolls. Perception checks that rely on sound are at a –8 penalty due to the howling of the wind. Small creatures are check, while tiny creatures are blown away.

Checked: unable to move forward against the force of the wind unless they succeed on a DC 10 Strength check (if on the ground) or a DC 20 Fly skill check if airborne.

Blown Away : Creatures on the ground are knocked prone and rolled 1d4 × 10 feet, taking 1d4 points of nonlethal damage per 10 feet, unless they make a DC 15 Strength check. Flying creatures are blown back 2d6 × 10 feet and take 2d6 points of nonlethal damage due to battering and buffeting, unless they succeed on a DC 25 Fly skill check.

Portal

In the middle of this storm the PCs stumble upon or into a magical portal that leads to an extradimensional safe-hold.    

What they find within is two groups who have also sought shelter from the storm here they are at odds with each other but have developed a tense détente. That is until the PCs arrive and upset this delicate balance.   

Centaur Clan (1 for every PC)

Minotaur Clan (1 for every PC)

Scaling the Encounter

To decrease the challenge of the encounter

-Reduce the damage dealt by the thunderstorm to 4d8, and reduce the number of bolts to 1 per minute.

-Reduce the number of clan members to one for every two PCs.

 To increase the challenge of the encounter

-Add a tornado to the storm.

-Increase the number of clan members to two for every PC.

Illustration by Hugo Solis

Wyrd  of Questhaven our newest release,  is on sale now (at DrivethruRpg and Paizo.com), a race of half-elven/half ogre magi stock created at the command of The Mandate of the August Personage in Darkness, usable as player characters at 1st level, with custom feats, spells, and prestige classes; they make an optimal choice for bards, favored souls, sorcerers, warlocks and wizards. Also included is a Paragon class that makes them just as interesting as the original 3.0 version. Included with this is a plug-and-play 1st-person point-of-view descriptive text that allows for an easy introduction of this new race, numbered only in the hundreds, into your existing campaign. Updated from 3.0 to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this product also includes:

• New descriptive text told from a wyrd's perspective
• Racial Traits with a multiple-choice legacy ability
• 7-level Wyrd Paragon Class
• 11 Feats
• The Oni Sorcerous Bloodline
• Whispering Advisor of the Emperor Dragons Prestige Class
• 9 Spells

From the same designer who crafted the hugely successful Ironborn of Questhaven and the best-selling Feats 101 comes the second book in the extraordinary Questhaven Campaign Setting. This new line brings you the best of the 3.0 and 3.5 Open Gaming Content updated for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Each element is customized yet kept modular providing game components beyond the core products helping to create an evocative campaign experiences.

Welcome to Fridays & Functions; a series of a posts that will always deal with what goes on behind the scenes, including  design diaries, interviews, technical commentary, etc.  First up is a 5 part interview with Frank Carr Author of Heroes of the Jade Oath

Frank Carr is the Jade Mandarin of Lands of the Jade Oath. He is also a criminal and military intelligence analyst who worked with both the U.S. Army and the ATF, serving in the United States, Asia, and the Middle East. He play-tested for Monte Cook and Mutants and Mastermind's Algernon Files along with several others. He has been gaming since 1982, enjoying every version of D&D, L5R, Earthdawn, Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, Rifts, Mutants & Masterminds, Fireborn, World of Darkness, and many others.

We are doing a 5 part interview with him, that we will be releasing every Friday, in anticipation of the retail release of Heroes of the Jade Oath BETA on February 1^st, 2010.

1.      Please provide a brief bio about yourself, you gaming habits, and your professional work.

I grew up on traveling on the carnival circuit with my folks until I was about 11 when we settled in our long time summer home in Florida where I spent my teen years until I joined the military. I have been an intelligence analyst ever since with the occasional odd job for a year or two simultaneous  being an analyst and going to college. I have visited a few different countries and even met my wife in South Korea. I currently live in the midwest with my wife and two sons, when not working overseas.

I like to play fantasy rpgs, but also enjoy the occasional board game like Operation Tannhauser, Heroscape, and Shogun. I like most rpg genres - mainly fantasy, but I find that you really need a DM with the wherewithall to run a game if the genre is a little unusual for your group. Given the right DM, I enjoy steampunk, wild west, supers, sci-fi, and horror, but most of all I enjoy the Asian/oriental fantasy genre. I think I am a decent DM given enough time between games to prepare, but often find that a weekly game will burn me out pretty quick as I too often do not have the necessary time to prepare for my games due to work and/or family, which always has priority. I like to use props for my adventures and unique mannerisms for my NPCs, but I find that I can let my introverted nature get the best of me sometimes and end up holding back when I should cut loose with characterization. I often do the same thing when I am a player, too. Occasionally, I cut loose and channel a stern martial arts master, a southern waitress, a cowardly maniac, or whatever strikes me as the correct persona at the time. Those are always the best encounters for my players, but I usually need a sugar and caffeine high before I can channel those characters. 

You can see from the bio above what I do for a living, but I would rather not delve into that too much if it is okay. In my line of work, you run into a lot of people who dislike you for what you do.

2. Ok I have to ask why a 334 page book? Why did you not start small, like a introductory adventure to the setting with standard characters. A “Strangers in a Strange Land” type of choice? (I have always wondered this because it would have generated more support from 90% of your audience “the players”).

It started as a proposal for a single 256 page book to Monte Cook, but ended up as a three part PDF project with the first PDF being around 250 some-odd pages and the second and third PDFs planned on being around 60 to 90 pages each. It all boils down to not knowing what I was getting into and the idea behind teaching a man to fish.

I wanted a book that would allow a game group to run as many adventures as they like in an oriental campaign rather than the one I lay out for them. So, to do this you have to provide a game setting with lots of angles for them to use for adventures. So, I wanted to do a setting book, but it turned out that I had too many ideas that I wanted to incorporate into the book, so the size of it all got away from me.

3.     Did you ever think about each section as individual PDFs instead of one large PDF? Or doing something like Monte Cook’s Way of the Sword or Way of the Staff?

Yeah, see above. That idea was pitched to me in a manner similar to your question that I should do this and it would allow me to get something out sooner. I liked the idea and went to Monte with it and he approved of it.

4.     Could you please sum up "Lands of the Jade Oath" in a paragraph?

Long ago the dramojh rose up to threaten the world, but ancient defenders, with the backing of divine power, beat them back and banished them from this realm of existence. However, their banishment took a toll - access to the celestial courts of the gods was cut off in the final backlash of a powerful curse by the dramojh, though mystical access to the lands of the dead and the ten thousand hells was not. Since that time, those who protect these lands against the depredations of the infernal allies of the dramojh that have been sealed away do so with the mystical power of ch'i, the enlightened might of sutra magic, sagacious martial arts, and the magical power of ceremonial spells and oaths - but, most of all with their stamina, wits, and the will of the Jade Oath. In these lands, the magic is potent - but, potent magic always has its curse to bear.

5.     How did you first become interested in creating a book about Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved rather than standard d20 product like Jade and Steel?

Products like Jade and Steel, while good and different (i.e. not Japan-centric) from most oriental game supplements out there, they just didn't have the right spark to hold my interest for long. They were just nothing like Kara Tur or Chris Pramas' Jade Empire. So, when I saw what Monte had done with his rules, I saw a lot of similarities to what I knew could be a powerful part of any strong, Chinese fantasy rpg. It had truenames, quasi-magical ceremonies, a flexible magic system with template and spell weaving, it meant something to not have a truename, rune magic, racial levels, classes like the mage blade and the witch, and it was a breath of fresh air for a lot of D&D game tables. Others were doing Asian-themed material for D&D, but not Arcana Evolved (AE), then called Arcana Unearthed, and even then most were Japanese-themed with almost nothing to do with the other cultures of Asia. I wanted to have a grand setting that covered multiple Asian culture for AE the way Kara Tur did it for Advanced D&D.

6.     How did you feel, when you discovered someone has signed up for the Patronage Project?

Flabbergassed. I couldn't believe somebody actually paid money for things from out of my imagination. I thought, "This crazy patronage thing might work after all!" Really, it was awesome and very humbling at the same time.

7.     Could you list some of your major influences in the creation of Lands of the Jade Oath?

There are so many, but here are a few: Journey to the West (literature), Romance of the Three Kingdoms (literature), The Water Margin (literature), A Chinese Ghost Story (film), Big Trouble in Little China (film), The Bride with White Hair (film), Musa (film), Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (film), Swordsman 2 (film), Princess Minonoke (animated film), Daughter of the Empire (fiction), Spirited Away (animated film), Avatar (television cartoon series), Inu Yasha (anime), Hero (film), Ninja Scroll (anime), Way of the Rat (comic), The Path (comic), and Jade Empire (video game).

8.    What are the strengths of Lands of the Jade Oath over other Eastern settings like L5R or Oriental Adventures?

It has Arcana Evolved for its rules base. That's all it needs right? If it isn't, then I should mention that it is not Japan-centric the way those other books are. It is focused on a variety of Asian cultures, much like Kara Tur was, though many of those cultures are strongly influenced by the Chinese-like empire at the center of the map. It has new races like the mandragorans, the shenxue, bakemono, and others. It has 4 new base classes: the demon hunter, the kensai, the kusa, and the enlightened scholar. It has a feat-based magic system any character can learn to use to represent the power of ch'i. It has sutra magic, new totems, new causes to champion, new witcheries, oaths of power, evolved totems, alternate classes, new spell templates, paths to bring the power of martial arts and caste backgrounds to your characters, conversion notes for using material from the core rules, and new feats, including Unbound feats to represent those who are learning to break away from the karmic cycle of rebirth towards ultimate enlightenment and oneness with the universe. It has a lot of weapons from the far east that those books never discussed, including the guan dao, the monk's spade, hooked swords, the three section staff, and many others along with new weapon templates, new alchemical items from the exotic orient and many other items. It has wu lin factions, secret societies, immortals, religious cults and sects, government bureaucracies and cover-ups, powerful spirits, imperial courts, exotic locations, demons bound to the very land itself, and ancient mysteries. Is that cool enough?

9.     Can you tell me about your experience so far of working with Rite Publishing Vs. Other publishers you have worked with?

I don't really have much experience dealing with other publishers as we never got far into the process for one reason or another. However, what I have experienced with Rite Publishing has been pretty cool so far. I couldn't have picked a better group of folks to work on my project.

10.                        Can you tell me how you felt when you first saw the cover art by Wayne Anthony Reynolds?

Ecstatic. Awed. Blown Away. It was absolutely mind-blowing to see him take that image in my head and turn it into something even better than anything I could have ever dreamed up. Of course, I got to see it bit by bit as he worked on it, but even after that seeing that final product just knocked me over with a feather. The detail is amazing. It is sitting on my dining room wall right now and I still can't believe it all.

Continue on to Part 2

2009 was Rite Publishing’s most successful year ever.

That says it all.

 Here are some of my favorite highlights:

We launched Jonathan Roberts’ Fantastic Maps as our first imprint.

 We started selling our products at the Paizo store,

 Jason Rainville and Hugo Solis joined us as primary artists.

Initial Sketch by Hugo Solis 

We launched the Litorians patronage project which hopefully will continue as a series of Arcana Evolved racial supplements (Monte willing).

Illustration by Jason Raiville

 We launched our first Pathfinder Rpg patronage project with Coliseum Morpheuon, which brought Clinton J. Boomer into the fold.

Illustration by Wayne Anthony Reynolds 

We released the Heroes of the Jade Oath BETA proofing copy to the patrons on time.

Illustration by Tyler Bartley

We launched our first foray into the virtual table top gaming marketplace with the Breaking of Fostor Nagar Patronage Project. (Special Thanks to Paizo for letting us do this).

We released our best selling product to date: Feats 101, reaching #8 on the Rpg Countdown.

Illustration by Hugo Solis 

I also launched the new Questhaven series as a default setting for our Pathfinder Rpg projects.

 And with patron input we are looking closely at launching our next patronage project in January as an M&M Superlink project.

 We had some minor disappointments in 2009:

 Delays in the releases of the Intimate Shape Festhall (it will be released January 5^th)

 The failure of the Monsters of Taboo line for 3.5 OGL

 The Reverse Design complimentary patronage project has only seen one on time release, forcing me to stop soliciting for the project until all the current outstanding assignments are turned in.

 On to 2010

 Questhaven will continue to see product created for it, with the Evocative City Sites being folded in and expanded upon with Pathfinder Rpg rules added in.

 The Rituals of Choice adventure path will also continue along with our AE racial supplements (Monte willing).

 Heroes of the Jade Oath will see the release of the Errata version of the BETA, a development of its patron exclusive adventure and public release of the BETA for retail PDF and Print sales.

 We of course will see the release of Coliseum Morpheuon in 2010 with Boomer gearing up once the holidays are past along with Breaking of Fostor Nagar.

 You can also expect new patronage projects for the Pathfinder Rpg, right now I hope that a certain “Jackanapes” project will gain solid footing once a few other projects are completed, and we will be soliciting for ideas in February.

 We also hope to expand into other gaming systems in a manner similar to what we are planning with M&M Superlink,

Last but not least, we are developing a small retail product for the Powered by Spycraft License.

Thanks to all the patrons, cusotmers and staff for making this our best year to date, and a hope that 2010 will be even better.  

Steven D. Russell

Rite Publishing 

Illustration by Jason Rainville

For your viewing pleasure Rite Publishing presents the Jack of Diamonds; one of the Benefactors gracing the pages of the Coliseum Morpheuon patronage project. Benefactors are Npcs that serve as the managers and promoters of all the battles that happen within the Chimeric Amphitheater, They can be either friend or foe, as the complex motivations and political intrigue draw you in.   Enjoy!

Jack of Diamonds (CR: 21)

Lifespark Psion-Killer 

Cleric of Artifice 12

LE Large Construct

Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision;

Perception +17

Defense

AC 44, touch 13, flat-footed 44 (+15 armor, +19 natural, +4 deflection [from spell], –1 size)

hp 164 (15d10+30+12d8)

Fort +16, Ref +12, Will +16 (+14 vs. mind-affecting)

DR 10/adamantine; Immune construct traits, magic

Offense

Speed 20 ft.

Melee 2 slams +33 (4d8+10; 19-20/x2)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Special Attacks dispel magic, channel energy (6/day; 6d6, DC 21 Will)

Spells Prepared (CL 12th; Artifice & Rune Domains)

6th - banishment, blade barrier (DC 20), major creation (D)

5th - fabricate (D), righteous might, slay living (DC 19), wall of stone

4th - air walk, explosive runes (DC 18) (D), freedom of movement, greater magic weapon, order's wrath (DC 18)

3rd - bestow curse (DC 17), blindness/deafness (DC 17), invisibility purge, locate object, stone shape (D), water walk

2nd - align weapon, bull's strength, calm emotions (DC 16), hold person (DC 16), make whole, wood shape (D)

1st - cause fear (DC 15), command (DC 15), comprehend languages, shield of faith (+4 deflection bonus, already cast), deathwatch, erase (D)

Orisons - detect magic, light, mending (D, see below), read magic, stabilize

Domain Abilities:

Artificer's Touch (Sp): Cast mending at will; melee touch deals 1d6+6, bypassing up to 12 points of hardness or DR, to objects and constructs 7/day.

Blast Rune (Sp): As a standard action, create a blast rune in any adjacent square which last up to 12 rounds or until discharged, 7/day.  Any creature entering the square takes 1d6+6 points of damage (acid, cold, fire or electricity).  See PFRPG pg. 47 for more information.

Dancing Weapons (Su): Grant a touched melee weapon the dancing special weapon quality for 4 rounds, 2/day.

Spell Rune (Sp): Can attach another spell, up to 5th-level, to the blast rune.  See PFRPG pg. 47.

Statistics

Str 31, Dex 10, Con —, Int 10, Wis 19, Cha 16

Base Atk +24; CMB +34; CMD 43

Feats Alignment Channel (Law), Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Awesome Blow, Channel Smite, Cleave, Construct Channel (see below), Extra Traits: [Starry-Eyed Dreamer & Thief of Dreams], Great Cleave, Greater Bull Rush, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Channel, Improved Critical: Slam, Improved Natural Attack, Power Attack, Scribe Scroll [B], Weapon Focus: Slam

Skills Craft (weapons, metalworking) +15, Knowledge (religion) +15, Perception +17, Sense Motive +19

Ecology

Environment any

Organization solitary

Treasure +5 Large full plate, headband of mental prowess (wisdom & charisma) +4, cloak of resistance +3 (NOTE: due to his normally treasure-less construct origin, the Jack of Diamonds has only the treasure of a 17th-level NPC)

Special Abilities

Immunity to Magic (Ex) A psion-killer stone golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. The Jack of Diamonds can voluntarily 'lower' this special spell resistance as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.  Once the Jack of Diamonds lowers its resistance, it remains down until the Jack of Diamond's next turn.  At the beginning of his turn, the immunity automatically returns unless Jack of Diamonds intentionally keeps it down (requiring another standard action).  This immunity to magic never interferes with the spells, items or abilities of the Jack of Diamonds, allowing him to cast spells upon himself freely.

Dispel Psionics (Su) A psion-killer stone golem can use dispel magic as a free action once per round. The effect is as a targeted dispel, which may target any one object, creature or spell in a 30-foot-radius burst. The dispel check is 1d20+10.

Open Mind (Ex) Unlike normal constructs, the Jack of Diamonds is not immune to mind-affecting effects.  In fact, its mind is especially vulnerable to magical compulsion.  A lifespark construct takes a -2 penalty on saving throws against mind-affecting effects.  The Jack of Diamonds is still immune to spells which allow spell resistance (see above).

Spirit Within (Ex) Though the Jack of Diamonds is not a living creature, a "spirit" still resides within it.  Unlike most constructs, the lifespark construct is not immune to all necromantic effects.  Certain spells that rely on the existence of a creature's soul (not "life force") - namely astral projection, clone, magic jar and soul bind - can affect lifespark constructs.  No other necromantic effects affect the Jack of Diamonds, and he is still immune to death effects.

New Feat:

REPAIR-CONSTRUCT CHANNEL

You can channel divine energy to heal constructs.

Prerequisite: Ability to channel energy, Artifice Domain

Benefit: Instead of its normal effect, you can choose to have your ability to channel energy heal constructs.  If you choose to heal constructs, your channel energy has no effect on any other creatures.  The amount of damage healed is otherwise unchanged.

            Dreamburning and The Jack of Diamonds:

Hope: the Jack of Diamonds wants nothing more than to be absolute master of all reality.  He worships a theoretical mathematical constant representing Perfect Complexity, an empty throne of a godhead he seeks to someday occupy as manipulator of the cosmos.

Hope: although he defines himself as a pragmatist, the Jack is nothing less than a true starry-eyed dreamer; although he would never admit his secret desire, and has taken no steps to accomplish this hidden goal, the Jack of Diamonds dreams of creating life in his own image.

Aspiration: the Jack of Diamonds hates the vagaries of extreme mortal emotion which tug at him and force him, against his will, to feel fear, frustration, blind rage, and occasionally even compassion.  His ambition is to somehow rid himself of these distractions without sacrificing his mind.

Goal: the Jack of Diamonds is fascinated with the intermingling of emotion and willpower.  He enjoys seeing the effects of emotion on others, and also enjoys experiments wherein he forces mortals to act contrary to their emotions, seeking to understand the limitations of will.