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Welcome to part IV of our interview with Jonathan Roberts
27. What makes a good Pathfinder product? Virtual Table Top product?
I think what makes a good Pathfinder product is the same as what makes a good rpg product for any system. It has to be clear how the product can fit into an ongoing campaign and has to provide something that GMs wouldn't have created themselves. Most people are running campaigns that will go on over years with established groups. As much as everyone enjoys the odd one-shot adventure, it's better if an adventure can be incorporated into an ongoing campaign. It's also great if these adventures can bring something totally new to the table. With the Breaking of Forstor Nagar we're not only bringing a unique fantasy location to the table, we're also bringing a new table!
A good virtual tabletop product has to to work in the GMs favour. If it takes more time to learn, and sort out bugs or niggles than it saves during play then a virtual tabletop project has failed. We'll be creating a solid e-adventure first with a minimal implementation of the automatic bells and whistles first. Once we have the core of the product rock solid we'll add layers of automation onto that base with the end result of a product that's not only a great time saver, but also easy to pick up and use without a huge learning curve for those that are new to virtual tabletops.
Finally, all products, in whatever form need great production values. We'll be focusing on making sure that this product looks amazing.
28. What is your favorite Pathfinder product?
Oh come on - it has to be the core rulebook. This is what fantasy rulebooks should look like. It oozes style and atmosphere, and the bookmarked pdf is a joy. That was an amazing base from which to launch a new game system and Paizo knocked it out of the park.
29. What is your favorite Fantastic Maps product and why?
I love the Ice Temple. It was a fun take on a standard fantasy trope - the temple. I decided to think outside the box and challenge myself to make a truly fantastic location. The result - a temple inside a frozen waterfall that trapped an ancient dragon - was a great success. I'd certainly do some things differently now but I learnt a lot doing it. There may be products that are more widely useful - I mean who doesn't need a forest map for wilderness encounters - but I love locations that fire up the imagination.
30. What is your favorite Rite Publishing product and why?
My favourite has to be the Rituals of Choice adventure path. The scope of the project with the direct involvement of the patrons at every stage is creating an adenture of epic scope. It allows seeds to be sown early that will pay off far down the road - which fits with the flavour of the Arcana Evolved setting. I was also impressed with the level of care that goes into considering alternative solutions to encounters than the standard 'I kill it and take its stuff' approach. When a GM has this kind of preparation in front of them they tend to run the games differently, almost with the expectation that the players will solve encounters intelligently. I find players respond well to that. The Rituals of Choice adventures do an excellent job of including this degree of depth within a fixed pagecount.
I can't resist mentioning Colosseum Morpheon as well. Any adventure that promises dimension hopping chase scenes and fights that span a solar system has my vote!
31. What has been your best moment playing with an Virtual Table Top?
The best moments are still the standard ones - when they heard that the Lantern Man of Ylraphon was back (in a sequel to Richard Pett's The Styes). When they killed their first dragon. The virtual tabletop games have all the same great moments as your normal games. However there are some great moments that come from the unique advantages that a virtual tabletop provides. I'll never forget my players' first encounter with a gargantuan spider. Now that's a creature with some reach which, combined with it's own enormous size, meant that their torches couldn't see most of it when it was atttacking. The first they knew of the spider was when I revealed what they coud see in the cavern. They saw some pale strands and some large dark spiky lines. They didn't twig, until I rotated it just slightly. One guy said - "guys, did that just move. I don't think those are just set dressing - there's something really big in here". Of course as a good GM that was the perfect time to call for initiative.
32. What has been your most memorable fan response to Breaking of Fostor Nagar?
Awesome and gorgeous have come up a few times. People have really been liking the downloadable ship that I've made available and our first senior patron was very happy with the three masted square rigger that he got as a thank you for signing up. All patrons will get that and other assets as soon as the project hits goal. We've got an interesting selection of patrons so far - some new to VTTs, some old hands, some new to Pathfinder and some who've been playing it through the beta. I'm looking forward to getting the wide varieties of inputs as we put this together.
33. What role do you think Breaking of Fostor Nagar will play in the Pathfinder Rpg gaming community?
I think Breaking of Forstor Nagar will be a major event for Pathfinder. This will be the first adventure created within Pathfinder specifically for use with a virtual tabletop. In the process of creating the adventure we will be developing a framework for the Pathfinder rules that speeds up play for the GMs, and that framework will be available for all people to use in their home games. The existence of a commercially developed Pathfinder framework should be a major boon for the Pathfinder community, and the fact that Paizo have allowed us to create it speaks volumes about their commitment to support 3rd party publishing in all its forms. I think VTTs are likely to become more and more a part of mainstream gaming and I'd love Breaking of Forstor Nagar to be a landmark in that process.
We will also be porting Breaking of Forstor Nagar over into other VTTs - including Fantasy Grounds and TTopRPG. We aim for this to be an adventure that really showcases the capabilities of virtual tabletops.
34. Any plans on personally running a Breaking of Fostor Nagar?
I certainly will be! I have two groups that I regularly GM for and they will certainly be playtesting this. They have an --- inventive approach to tactics so they should give the adventure a pretty thorough run through.
35. Could you tell us a little about the difference between professional design and designing for play?
The biggest difference is in making sure that all the angles are covered. I know my groups, and though they can go off on some weird tangents I do know their standard tactics. If they're faced with a new city there are specific people they'll go off and talk to, certain locations that they'll want to know about. This lets me focus my time on those aspects of the game. When you're designing for a commercial product its important to consider every GMs group - and try to out guess all the players. Now that's clearly not possible so the trick is giving the GM enough of a safety net so that if the players go off in an unexpected direction the GM will have notes to hand that can cover it. All VTTs have the capability to really help with this through hyperlinks and text tied to locations so there should never be a moment where the GM is leafing through an adventure looking for the name of an NPC.
36. Why do you think this type of project has not been done before?
I think it's because a lot of things have come together now that make this possible. 4th edition does not have an OGL license that allows for the creation of computer adventures, so we couldn't do this kind of venture for 4th edition. In contrast Paizo have explicitly allowed us to create an e-adventure, and we've been developing this at full steam ahead since we got the okay from them. So yes, legally we couldn't have started any earlier!
The wonderful thing is that this comes at a time when Maptool is about to release a new stable version - 1.3. This version has an impressive feature list: initiative tracking, dynamic line of sight, light and vision, macros that allow the players and the GM to automate attacks, apply damage and healing, clickable room descriptions.... the list is extensive and opens up a wealth of options for lightening the GM's load. With this build going into a stable release it's the perfect time to create a commercial Pathfinder adventure.
We will be posting part V of this five part inteview on Friday. Your welcome to sign up as a patron today!
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