Steve Geddes's page

He's pretty great!

On another forum, there are two or three people I've "ignored", one at his request. The software doesn't show me what they post, but it does show me that they have posted, and gives me the option to see what they said if I want. Seems like a good approach to me.

Different strokes and all that, but for me even seeing the name of people I'm trying to ignore is enough to drive me away from online spaces. (Granted I have a pretty high tolerance before I get to the level of wanting to ignore someone, so have only done that twice in my online life).

I'd personally be in favor of a more complete ignore function (if it were possible).

Thanks very much for that. That’s a brilliant list! You did way more thinking on that than I expected.
Greatly appreciated.

I don’t mean what do you need in order to play. I just mean what books would you think should be included to give the full PF2 experience?

Another interpretation of 'too complex' is that choosing the "right" option is hard because there are so many of them. That is definitely a flawed perception that is a holdover from PF1. Pathfinder2e has a rather solid power floor. It is hard to create a character that is ineffective and not fun to play. PF2 also has a solid power ceiling, which annoys power gamers - especially ones coming from PF1. But the best attitude to have for choosing options for a character is to pick what feels engaging, entertaining, and fun. Leave the task of keeping the character within the power band up to the game system itself and realize that it is very unlikely for a character to be too low powered, or too high powered.

That’s an interesting perspective. I don’t really enjoy the game, but I’ve always found one of 5E’s strengths to be the high floor, low ceiling (provided you don’t allow multiclassing). I think it’s a good choice to build PF2 around that ideal too.

Like the hypothetical 5E fan we’re discussing, I had also just presumed that because of the large number of choices/options there must be combinations or synergies that render other options unattractive.

I can choose not to engage them, and I do, but I shouldn't have to deal with the mental stress of seeing messages directed toward harassing me at all. Nor should it be my job to keep alerting Paizo via flagging.

As usual, there is a load of great insight in DQ’s post. I think this quoted part is definitely something which may not be immediately obvious on the other side of the moderation dynamic.

“Flag and move on” is excellent advice as far as what we should do. But that in itself isn’t “the flag system working” - the visible moderator follow up is important.

Congrats to all of the staff that are hard at work making things happen behind the scenes (please stay hydrated warehouse crew!). I look forward to seeing the long-fought for changes from past and present Paizo employees come to fruition, and I hope that those that make it happen are recognized for their efforts.

It’s hard not to dwell on what might have been. (Unhelpful as such dwelling is).

Steve Geddes wrote:

Does that imply these new novels (optimism!) are likely to be unavailable in dead tree versions?

Fwiw, even if it were only POD, digital/audio books are an automatic nonpurchase for me. (Granted Im only one person). I really hope you find a way to produce physical copies too.

Not at all! One big part of this grand experiment is seeing if changing the formula will make physical novel publishing profitable enough to do more than this once.

Cross your fingers!

Will do.

Zagaroth wrote:

So, you mentioned that you are having some trouble getting as many novels written for Paizo / Pathfinder as you'd like.

The problem has never been finding authors to write for us, but rather finding enough people willing to pay us money to read the words those authors write. As Jim said, the fiction market is undergoing some very severe growing pains as the industry shifts toward digital/audiobook over physical printing and distribution.

At present, if you're looking to write fiction set in the Pathfinder or Starfinder universes, Pathfinder Infinite is where to look.

Hi mark.

Does that imply these new novels (optimism!) are likely to be unavailable in dead tree versions?

Fwiw, even if it were only POD, digital/audio books are an automatic nonpurchase for me. (Granted Im only one person). I really hope you find a way to produce physical copies too.

Paizo have renovated their website a few times over the years. Its always been done with great concern for preserving good things and making bad things better.

I cant imagine theyre suddenly going to stop caring about their online community.

Thanks for the comprehensive update.

If memory serves the savage tide issues were never released as PDFS (Except maybe the first one?) because the deal ended before it came to that point.

Yep. Paizo converted what they could before the license agreement expired (and were allowed to continue distributing those that theyd got to) but they didnt get to the end of the run.

The last few Dungeon magazines were never available as pdfs, sadly.

The biggest thing I am looking at with my question is attracting players. I want more playtesting in my system, and thus I am trying to determine if I can attract players by offering to run an AP in my system. Would that attract players that otherwise would not come to my game?

I am not particularly a fan of paizo's setting and don't know it deeply, hence why asking about altering the setting. To use my first reponse's example, I have no idea who Jatembe is and no idea what would make my version of the character feel contradictory to the expectations about them.

Gotcha. For me, it would be preferable to playtest a system running a professionally written Adventure than something the designer had homebrewed.

I would want to see how it dealt with a wide range of “standard” rpg situations rather than just showcasing things the designer thought would fit well.

If you were trying to sell me on a game, I think I’d prefer a system-specific adventure though.

Yeah, it’s entirely a function of the destination, not the source, I think.
If the system you’re translating to can deal with the theme/events well, it really makes no difference - I think it can even be an improvement.
Try to run a meat grinder in a cinematic, toon-like game though (or similar incongruity) and you’ll hit problems, imo.

Its certainly not petty to feel slighted, imo.
Having said that - I find that players (those who dont DM, anyway) are often unaware of the emotional drain that comes with running a longterm game.

(Which isnt an excuse, but it may be theyre processing it as if a player took a break. Thats a smaller change, imo).

That sounds like a fantastic tradition. I wish we were able to do that!

Good luck with navigating this setback. Hopefully you find a solution that works for you. Losing contact with a passion youve had for so long would be sad. On the other hand - well done for recognising what needed changing.

Best way is to email community@paizo.com.

Cool. <3

Yeah - no doubt the total lack of expectations on their part helped. But my involuntary "I wouldnt have done it like that" thoughts played a part, for sure.

I enjoyed it. It was too slow at the beginning, imo but it amped up pretty well by the middle.

I did like the fact it was just a D&D story rather than a pure marketting exercise - the IP mentioned was a teensy bit shoe-horned in and heavy handed for my tastes, but the nongamers I were with disagreed pretty unanimously about that (I took three nongamers and was slightly nervous about the post mortem but turns out they all liked it more than me, so I needn't have worried.)

Or the person doing it left and it wasnt on anyones to-do list. Job descriptions have historically been kind of nebulous at paizo.

I think its an easy trap to fall into to find a game/publisher/product one likes and to leap to the conclusion that the other people who also like it are "like me".

Creative endeavours work best when they capture a disparate audience, imo. Nothing paizo puts out will ever be perfect for me, no matter how much I admire their stuff. But theyre not tailoring their books to me - theyre trying to appeal to loads of tastes, many diametrically opposed to mine.

Its best to avoid thinking of the market as a horde of "average consumers".

Almost like the website sales are inconsequential.

That can’t be true, surely?

All that angst for no consequence?

They are extremely strict about what counts as "mint".
Ive regularly bought non mint copies where I couldnt tell what the issue was.

Link repeated for convenience.

The blue writing above is a link to those items on sale (grouped by system and item categories)

Emailing community@paizo.com would be my suggestion.

Although I'm not sure if they want everything sent through customer.service@paizo.com now (it would be one of those two).

Thanks. The reader is working now for some reason.

Copying and pasting links on the Paizo site often has this weird glitch where a space character is inserted midway through the link.

(That appears to have been what happened in the post of yours six above this one - the word “threads” is chopped in two). When I’m struggling to copy addresses from here, that’s often the way to resolve it.

Now I don't really follow DnD but as far as I know 5e is still the current edition and WoTC is still claiming they are not developing a new edition.

They’re not claiming that. They’re actively working on a new iteration/edition/version/revision/….whatever.

If you don’t really follow D&D, I’d caution against relying on “as far as I know”.

It appears theyre not making it for either system after all.

SF2 is some 2-3 years away at this point. If I'm wrong, feel free to chase me around like all those "PF2 will flop and Paizo will go bankrupt" people from 2019 :)

I think quantity of content is more significant than time between releases - the more sedate SF release schedule would suggest to me you should add a couple of years to your prediction.

I'm not going to chase you though, I'll scowl at you from my porch Gran Torino style.

Our time will come again.

Steve Geddes wrote:

I think a "(1st edition)" appended to every appropriate product title would be a good idea.

(Presuming thats easy enough to semi-automate).

Personally, I think it should be the other way around. Things that are second edition should say second edition. First edition is a retroactive name change. For over a decade, Pathfinder Core Rulebook meant something specific, and it should continue to mean that thing today.

That said... the Great War became World War I, so I suppose there's precedent for changing names after it's discovered a thing can happen more than once.

Its a fair point but in terms of usability it seems intuitive to me that the current version should always be the default (as all being well it will generally be the most sought after).

Ie newcomers are more likely to be looking for PF2 if they come here through searching pathfinder, imo.

I think a "(1st edition)" appended to every appropriate product title would be a good idea.

(Presuming thats easy enough to semi-automate).

This is great to see. One of the few positives to come out of the January awfulness. <3

What is really weird is that the 37195243 order did ship with all 4 sub titles with the discount and the next one didn't.

That is peculiar.

The paizo computer has some weird glitchiness from time to time. But usually once things are sorted they tick along fine (barring the very occassional site-wide issue).

Having said that, I know at least one person with multiple subscriptions not receiving her paizo advantage nor her free scenarios. So bugs do happen. Im skeptical that holiday discount is involved - but as you point out the timing was peculiar, so who knows.
Fingers crossed they sort it for you soon.
(Id definitely cut and paste the above into an email to customer.service@paizo.com, if I were you.

Traditionally, the holiday codes stacked with paizo advantage, so I dont think thats it.

My guess is that at least one of the four subs you have hasnt yet shipped you an item.

The paizo advantage only works once you have received an item from each. Typically, when people add a bunch of subs they tend to include the current or imminent items. So most dont experience what you are - because all four subs ship almost immediately (and the discount does apply immediately in that situation).

Nostalgia's a powerful drug, but it's one that I try to abstain from. I much prefer new stuff.

*peers at avatar*

If you dont want to wait,you can email customer.service@paizo.com and ask them to ship your sidecart immediately, without waiting for your next subscription shipment.

That will cost you more in postage overall, but might give you peace of mind.

Apparently my Core Rule Book and Beginners box were split out from my original order (37194412) and turned into a new one for the first of my subscriptions. This created a new one (37194420) that is now showing up as product not in stock. I guess that moved me out of my place in line. As far as I can tell, now I won't get the items or the subscriptions.

/sigh had I known I wouldn't have signed up for the subscriptions.

Im not sure if things have changed, but in "the old days" situations like yours were fine - your copy is set aside for when your subscription ships to save you postage so if they go out of stock thats for new orders, not for pending, sidecarted orders.

So I wouldnt despair yet.

(The "out of stock/backorder" flag is a long running display glitch that can cause confusion. Your copy should be fine - but if you order a second book there'll be a delay).

True floppy.

Community seems to be within the purview of the marketting team now. (Granted I havent seen anything formally stating that. Its just a kind of "vibe").

I find it amazing how memorable the connections we make online can be. You and I barely spoke but I clearly remember enjoying your posts. (I remember you leaving as well - glad that ickiness is in the past!)

If WotC are involved lawsuits are less likely.

This is an industry issue.

Steve Geddes wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

The original meaning of Intelligence in AI, before romanticism grabbed the words, is not INT. It is the I in CIA.

Thats a fascinating thought.

Thanks!

Yes but its more a coincidence of timing and easy fruits of AI academia to find a real-world application.

I have a degree in philosoohy including a fair chunk of cognitive science.

Im of the view that artificial intelligence is impossible, in principle.

I can get behind an alternate meaning suggested by The Raven Black's comment though.

The original meaning of Intelligence in AI, before romanticism grabbed the words, is not INT. It is the I in CIA.

Thats a fascinating thought.

Oh, cheers. Well they work pretty well, in my experience.

One trick for using printouts of pawns is to use a bulldog clip with the "wire" part removed as a base.

If you like them a little more mini like you can then glue the upended bulldog clip to a mini base.

EDIT: looks like they might be called foldback clips these days.