If you’re one of the generation of gamers who cut their teeth on 20-sided dice, you know that the mythology around the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy settings often hinge upon the machinations of deities, at times capricious and petty, at times aloof, at times all too ready to lend a not-particularly-helpful hand. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Fizban.) The gods also play a central role in the D&D-stepchild game of Pathfinder RPG, produced by Paizo Publishing. Their setting of Golarion…
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Magic permeates fantasy settings, but even in these realms, there is a type of creature that typically embodies these magical forces in a more fundamental way than anything else. I am speaking of the ubiquitous fey, creatures who are often depicted as being born of magic . Now many of the major fey races have been collected together into the Pathfinder Campaign Setting supplement Fey Revisited (Paizo, Amazon). The fey creatures in Pathfinder are natives to the First World, which…
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I’m a big fan of rule systems. Throughout my experience in role playing, both as a player and a gamemaster, I’ve loved building interesting characters, worlds, and storylines on my own, rarely relying on established modules and setting manuals. But to me the rules are a guide for the game and I try to follow them fairly closely, using them to inspire new ideas on where to go. In a way, it’s the limitations of rule systems that provide the…
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Pathfinder Online, a next-generation massively-multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) fantasy game jointly developed by Goblinworks and Paizo Publishing and funded through Kickstarter, reached its ambitious $1 million goal with scant hours to spare late this evening. The project had until approximately 7:00 pm Central time to reach its stated goal or receive none of the pledged funding. It passed that goal with some four hours to spare, and ended its campaign with $1,091,194 in total pledges. Pathfinder Online is a fantasy…
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Black Gate is very pleased to offer our readers an exclusive first look at the latest Pathfinder Tales novel by Dave Gross, the acclaimed author of Prince of Wolves and Master of Devils. In the deep forests of Kyonin, elves live among their own kind, far from the prying eyes of other races. Few of impure blood are allowed beyond the nation’s borders, and thus it’s a great honor for the half-elven Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan…
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Black Gate is very pleased to offer our readers an exclusive first look at the latest Pathfinder Tales novel by Dave Gross, the acclaimed author of Prince of Wolves and Master of Devils. In the deep forests of Kyonin, elves live among their own kind, far from the prying eyes of other races. Few of impure blood are allowed beyond the nation’s borders, and thus it’s a great honor for the half-elven Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan…
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By Dave Gross This is an excerpt from the upcoming Pathfinder Tales novel Queen of Thorns by Dave Gross, presented by Black Gate magazine. It appears with the permission of Paizo Publishing and Dave Gross, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part. All rights reserved. Copyright 2012 by Paizo Publishing, LLC. Chapter One: The Midsummer Masquerade Varian The slap lifted Radovan off his feet and knocked the mask from his face. He crashed through a table, scattering…
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If there’s one potential flaw in reading stories set in roleplaying game settings, it’s that the emphasis is more on the mechanics of the system and magical setting than on the development of the characters. The best stories, of course, are able to avoid this and create complex, dynamic characters that resonate among some of the most memorable in all of fantasy. Raistlin Majere, Elminster, and Drizzt Do’Urden all come to mind as iconic characters born in roleplaying tie-in novels….
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Back in March I got this hankering for something nostalgic in the RPG universe so I went to my twin bookshelves of games and thought ‘where do you go from here?’ Well, where I went was to the tattered pages of Basic D&D, and as I flipped through the booklets I was transported back to a simpler time, a better time, when the game I loved wasn’t a rules monster with so many supplements I didn’t know which way was…
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Black Gate Reviews Editor Bill Ward is a multi-talented gent. Not only is he one of the most energetic editors in the field, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Who’s Who in modern fantasy, but he’s also a very talented writer in his own right. And Paizo Publishing has given him an opportunity to show off some of that talent by commissioning him to write a story for their Pathfinder Tales Web Fiction line — a weekly presentation of multi-part adventures featuring the…
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