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Paizo

Unread postby icycalm » 11 Jan 2021 18:10

https://paizo.com/

I spend a lot of time on Paizo's site these days, especially in the forum, which is a goldmine of resources for DMs (I advise players to stay the hell away from it, and indeed from Paizo's entire site, and just let me feed them info as I see fit in this forum, as I am about to do in the post below, because all this stuff is rife with spoilers).

Back in the summer, Paizo issued a public apology for their latest campaign, Agents of Edgewatch (which concluded publication last month), for not being woke enough. This is the apology: https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sh9r

Erik Mona wrote:Agents of Edgewatch Update
Monday, June 22, 2020

Image

We at Paizo strive to represent our company’s values of inclusivity through the content of our Pathfinder and Starfinder publications. Showcasing diversity in the stories of the cultures, races, sexualities, and gender identities of our characters is something we’ve tried to emphasize since the company’s inception 18 years ago. As we wrote in our public statement earlier this month about the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s an ongoing and vital process.

The murder of George Floyd by police and the resulting political actions, increased visibility around issues of police brutality, and ongoing conversation about the role of policing in our society casts a difficult light upon Agents of Edgewatch, our upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Path in which players take on the roles of members of the city watch in a vast fantasy metropolis. As Paizo’s publisher, I want to take this opportunity to address the situation directly.

When we began work early last year on Agents of Edgewatch, we conceived of the adventures as a pseudo-Victorian crime drama in which a party of Sherlock Holmeses would bring a cult of sinister murderers to justice against the backdrop of a World’s Fair-style celebration in Absalom, the huge city at the center of the Pathfinder world. Along the way, we’d dabble in some buddy cop movie tropes and use the players’ role as new and idealistic town guards as a framing device for a tour of the city as they attempt to thwart the evil cult’s machinations.

In our heads, this was a classic detective story, not a chance for players to act out power fantasies of being militarized police officers oppressing citizens. As publisher, I was confident that we could steer well clear of egregious parallels to modern police violence and handle the material responsibly.

But there’s more to it than that. What I hadn't realized—no doubt a result of my own privilege—is that the very concept of police, the idea of in fact taking on the role of police, makes some members of the Paizo community deeply uncomfortable, no matter how deftly we might try to pull off the execution.

While I remain proud of the work we as a team have put into the Agents of Edgewatch campaign, and I believe that our writers, developers, and editors have ensured that the subject matter has been handled responsibly, I also believe that if we were making the decision about Adventure Path themes today, we would have chosen to go forward with a different idea, or a different take on a similar detective-story theme. For many of us here at Paizo, our understanding has evolved, not just of the horrible impact of police violence, but how some members of our community—especially those who are also members of the Black community—have not had the luxury of ignoring it.

To that end, I should acknowledge that some members of our staff did raise concerns about the campaign’s theme early on. In retrospect, I did not give these concerns the full audience that they deserved, and I regret this oversight. That’s part of the learning process, too.

I remain confident in our ability to create a campaign that lives up to our editorial and moral standards—even while acknowledging that we should have chosen a different approach for this Adventure Path. The events of the Agents of Edgewatch campaign assume empathic, heroic player characters who are there to serve their community. Groups who wish to play the campaign without taking on the role of city guards will be able to remove the law-enforcement element from the story without much work, instead telling the heroic tale of a band of local adventurers who take it upon themselves to rid the city of murderers and evil cultists. The free Agents of Edgewatch Player’s Guide (scheduled to release next week) will offer several suggestions on how to do this, as well as tips on how to utilize and adapt Pathfinder’s non-combat conflict-resolution mechanics as well as non-lethal combat rules when running the campaign.

I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of our editing team, who have been exemplary in helping us to eliminate unintentionally problematic elements, consult with sensitivity readers, and ensure that products come with detailed content warnings. The developers have likewise been striving to be more sensitive to these concerns. I hope that Agents of Edgewatch as a whole will display our ability to listen and present the subject matter respectfully. We will continue to strive to improve our sensitivity and ensure our adventure and plot elements remain firmly in the realm of fantasy.

While we cannot afford to cancel or delay the Adventure Path, we want to show our commitment to remedying our earlier choices through action. As we stated in a previous blog, we’ve contributed the Starfinder Core Rulebook to Humble Bundle’s Fight for Racial Justice charity fundraising campaign, which has already raised more than $3,700,000 for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Race Forward, and the Bail Project. Furthermore, Paizo will donate a portion of proceeds from all volumes of the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path sold through the end of 2021 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Lastly, next month, we’ll announce another major fundraising effort focused squarely on Paizo’s products, with charity proceeds to benefit Black-oriented charities. We hope you will join us in these efforts.

We remain committed to the ideals of inclusivity and racial justice. We will continue to listen and will strive to do better in the future.

Erik Mona
Publisher


There's pages and pages of forum comments below. I skimmed a bunch and didn't find a single male voice among them.


P.S. The campaign sounds awesome.

P.P.S. I am sure the above is the reason that the main campaign of 2021 will be written by two women and set in Africa [ > ]. Not that I am complaining: that campaign sounds great too, and both of them continue Paizo's legacy of unique themes and mechanics. Don't know about the execution, but we'll know soon enough.
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icycalm
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Re: Paizo

Unread postby icycalm » 17 Sep 2021 09:10

Insanity.

https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748d ... r-Infinite

Paizo wrote:Announcing Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Today at Gen Con, we announced a new way for members of the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities to create content to expand the brands and make a lasting mark on the games we all love: Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite.

Beginning on October 13, 2021, content creators will be able to sell adventures, fiction, setting supplements, rules expansions, maps, art packs, and more using Paizo’s intellectual property. That means that you can, for the first time, write an RPG supplement set in the official Pathfinder or Starfinder settings that references our locations, organizations, characters, deities and more, and sell it to your fellow players and GMs.

Want to tell the story of Kyra and Merisiel’s adventures on what they’d hoped would be a restful honeymoon? Now you can!

What about that side quest adventure you’ve always wanted to share to support your favorite Pathfinder Adventure Path? Now’s the time!

How about that custom character class or alien species you made for your Starfinder campaign that you just know others are going to love? Yep, that too.

Our partners at OneBookShelf (DriveThruRPG, DriveThruCards, Astral Tabletop) will be hosting and managing the program, bringing years of experience running similar community content marketplaces for other tabletop properties to bear.

Check out the content creation guidelines, frequently asked questions, and the starter layout templates and art assets available to community creators at pathfinderinfinite.com and starfinderinfinite.com.

We’ll have more information to share in the coming weeks, but the real excitement won’t start until all of you can share your Pathfinder and Starfinder creations with the world in just under a month. I’m looking forward to seeing what incredible things you come up with!

Image

Image

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy


https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748d ... nfinite#11

Mark Moreland, Director of Brand Strategy wrote:As with similar programs, there will be an elite creator program, "Infinite Masters," that will be curated by the staff at OneBookShelf and featured prominently in promotions on the storefront. All management of that program will likewise be handled by OBS.


If you thought we already had too much material to play...

Most of the stuff will suck, but there will be some gems among them. The license will motivate talented creators to invest in and expand Golarion instead of being forced to make their own bs world that no one will care about.
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icycalm
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Re: Paizo

Unread postby icycalm » 16 Oct 2021 00:05

I am trolling them hardcore now: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43hxo&page ... ORKERS#241

icycalm wrote:I don't know how you can keep working with people so openly hostile. When relationships degrade to this point, how can the company keep running? In my mind, it would be best to split up at that point. Everyone goes their separate ways, and if some people want to set up diversity offices or whatnot, they can do that, and if other people just want to sit down and make games, they can do that too.

Coming every day into an environment where everyone sees everyone else as some kind of enemy to extract stuff from...

I'd rather be begging for quarters on the street.


https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43hxo&page ... ORKERS#242

icycalm wrote:What if I only want to work with black people?

Is that illegal?

Will I be forced to have some whites on staff too at my company?


https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43hxo&page ... ORKERS#244

icycalm wrote:You are right, I should instead be supporting the brave Paizo workers who are fighting against this evil company.

Down with Paizo! I am stopping my subscription until they enact racial quotas!

Enjoy your woke echo-chamber, until you destroy completely the best RPG company ever.


90% of the forum needs to be banned, half the employees need to be fired. I could get this done in a day.

#bringinicycalm #thegreatpaizoculling
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icycalm
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Re: Paizo

Unread postby icycalm » 13 Jan 2022 03:20

The maps that come with Fantasy Grounds DLC are higher-res than those that come with the PDFs. This means that the ultimate way to purchase Paizo material is to buy the Fantasy Grounds version, which also gives you the PDF on Paizo's site. At that point the print version's only function is for easy reading in a couch or in bed and for collection purposes if you can afford it.

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2vbd9?WTF- ... th-Maps#24

LotsOfLore wrote:Yes, and yes. The maps as they come in the AP pdfs that we buy are barely acceptable in resolution terms, I agree with Gnomatsu and others.
I hate it that Fantasy Grounds or Roll20 have access to the high resolution version and we don't. If Paizo needs to raise the cost of the APs in order to let us have them, so be it.
If they want to instead offer a separate digital map companion product to the adventure path books that has a lot of maps (more than what appears in the AP), all full resolution grid/non grid etc., that also would be a great thing to sell.
One way or the other, we need proper digital maps in the APs. Period.


https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2vbd9?WTF- ... th-Maps#48

Noven wrote:Maybe this could be something someone takes up for the Starfinder Infinite program? I mean seriously, their VTT partners get the uncompressed images and the Horizons of the Vast maps look GORGEOUS on Fantasy Grounds.
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icycalm
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Re: Paizo

Unread postby icycalm » 07 Apr 2022 14:42

Ubisoft is Developing a New IP Called ‘Pathfinder’
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43lms?Ubis ... -IP-Called

And Nissan has a car, and Apex Legends has a character. We’ll manage.


Granted seeing their reaction to Elden Ring I'm just waiting till they learn that Paizo's Pathfinder is even more "open world" than that and their games XD


You can click through to read about the new game. It’s a BR that sounds even shittier than Hyper Scape, which they are shutting down soon because no one’s playing it.
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