Author: Beau Jágr Sheldon

Monsters – Shadow Man


Shadow Man


The Shadow Man is a special breed of Bogeyman. As the name suggests, he lurks in the shadows, an undefined shape creeping along behind each step, hiding in every corner. The Shadow Man does no physical harm and cannot be captured by normal means.

He creeps. By Laura Hamilton.


His victims suffer no physical harm and no trauma, but are constantly plagued with self-doubt. They will become more uneasy the longer he walks behind them. Many victims of the Shadow Man will become anxious, ill at the thought of being seen, and lock themselves in their homes. By doing so, they cause themselves greater suffering, because he can surround them and overcome the light.

The Shadow Man can spread himself thin to haunt any number of people, but the more he tries to haunt, the weaker he becomes. It is always best to find him in a crowd. He fears light, and enough light will disrupt him. Even if he is disrupted, he always comes back to instill again the anxious doubt he inflicts.



Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.

Today’s art is by Laura Hamilton, finaira on Deviant Art. Thank you to Laura for her donation to the Monsters project! 


THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – The Magician


The Magician


Pick a card, any card, and the Magician will answer your wish. The Magician stands on the street corner, traveling city to city, offering a trick for whatever you’re willing to pay. His tricks come with a price. The Magician looks unassuming, just a lanky fellow with a pot belly standing on the corner with his table of tricks.

He doesn’t look scary at all. by Jaydot Sloane


The Magician is represented in the Tarot as a diviner – and divine he does, all of your future. He will flip a card or two and tell you what is to come. If you find that your future is unfavorable, he’ll make an offer. He’ll promise to delay your suffering – a few years, a few months, to give you time to prepare and fulfill all of your wishes. His promises, though, cost your soul.


When your time is up, your suffering will come along tenfold, and if you even survive the Magician will keep hold of your future. The moment your life ends is the moment you belong to him – an agent of bad fortune, an enforcer of bad will. The consequence of delaying your fate is no delayed gratification but his.




Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.

Today’s art is by Jaydot Sloan. Thanks to Jaydot for contributing to the Monsters collection!


THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – Two-Nosed Hounds


Two-Nosed Hounds


When someone is lost in time and space, there is a need for something more than just a standard search party. There is no greater expert in tracking than a Two-Nosed Hound. The hounds are intelligent beasts, but they are easily distracted, hard to control, and aggressive. They can be captured and domesticated to a degree, but once they have a master, they will trust no one else.

Nocturnal by nature, Two-Nosed Hounds only track at night, and will fight against any urging to do anything in daylight. They are able to find the scent of their targets through dimensions, in the mundane and dream worlds, and even can track people hundreds of years out of time, but their communication of the locations and time are limited to shared telepathic images. Not every species is equipped to withstand the mental strain of telepathic communication, so an untrained master of a Two-Nosed Hound may risk a stroke in trying to understand their hound.



Two-Nosed Hounds bounding through dimensional tears. Art by Laura Hamilton.


The hounds have two heads, each with a long snout and a very large nose. Their face is shaped similarly to the mundane Bloodhound. They have very long ears. The beasts are covered in a thick, matted fur. Their fur is resistant to fire, acid, and allows them to survive the most extreme cold, but they are vulnerable to parasites and they have a weak immune system, so they are always at high risk of illness. Two-Nosed Hounds have a howl that echoes beyond the mundane world, and their howl risks drawing attention from monsters in the dream world.


Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.

Today’s art is by Laura Hamilton, finaira on Deviant Art. Thank you to Laura for her donation to the Monsters project! 



THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – Grabber



Grabber


The world of dreams may be ruled by the Flesh King, but his enforcers and beasts of nightmare are many – and they do not always obey his instruction. One of these beasts is the Grabber. Born of hunger and greed, Grabbers climb up from the grimy muck of perverse cruelty, and live on the sustenance of humanity’s evil.


Grabbers smell, at first, like an overpowering cologne, until they move nearer and it turns to the acrid smell of sweat and rot. Most people are struck with fear or pure revulsion upon seeing the creature scrambling towards them. If a target manages to resist this fear, the Grabbers will become uninterested, and crawl away to find a more frightened meal.

A Grabber about to latch on to it’s victim, by Jaydot Sloan.


Grabbers are shaped like a human, but instead of a body, they are a mass of outstretched arms. Each arm has a hand with a gaping mouth in the center of the palm, with small spiny teeth that jut outwards. Grabbers have no difficulty moving on any terrain, and in the world of dreams this is especially valuable. Killing a grabber is very difficult. Once they grab hold of their target, they will not release. They will suck their prey dry of all bodily fluids, the spiny teeth gnawing and shredding through any tissue.




Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.


Today’s art is by Jaydot Sloan. Thank you to Jaydot for this donation to the Monsters project! 









THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – Dryads


Dryads

A Dryad turning her victim, by Kyrinn S. Eis.

Dryads are creatures of myth, painted by the Greeks as passive beauties of the oak trees. It may be that once, that is how they were. The dryads, with their sisters Meliai of the ash, the Caryatids of apple, the Epimeliad of the walnut, and the hamadryads who sleep in the trees, all protect the earth.

These creatures stand in the earth in the day, and wail when they are cut down and killed by the cruel machines of the modern world. They hold back throughout all of the seasons, but midsummer is when they are freed from their static forms. They step forth, creatures of wood with the slow sap pouring through their veins.


Dryads whisper through their leaves to draw their victims close, almost like Sirens singing, and they do no more than touch the humans who murdered their fellows. Upon the touch, the human is paralyzed, and roots burst forth from their feet, holding them to the ground. Their skin turns to a rough, thick bark, which breaks apart as wood branches tear through their flesh. The Dryads will watch in satisfaction as their victims bones break, and as the blood pouring from them turns to slow, sticky sap. This transformation cannot be stopped, and in the end, the victim is no more than another tree in the forest.

Today’s art is by Kyrinn S. Eis, creator of 

. Thank you Kyrinn!


Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.


Would you like to contribute art for the Monsters collection? Contact me at briesheldon@gmail.com.

Thank you!





THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – Scavengers

Scavengers

Scavengers are the offal eaters of the earth – the carrion crows. They eat whatever bits of meat and rotted flesh they can find, no matter what beast it comes from, man or animal. When they see smaller animals eating the wastes of the dead, they will stay hidden, and raise a screeching sound that makes hair stand on end to frighten away the others. They typically move to stay downwind of any other creatures, because they are surrounded by a nauseating smell of death.

If the Scavengers are unable to find food of their own, they will creep closer to areas inhabited by humans, and steal away small children. They are able to mimic human voices, and will stalk their prey to learn the voices of their parents. When the children wander near, following the calls of the Scavengers, the monsters will exhale a breath of vile gas that results in instant death and rapid decomposition. 
Scavengers and the remains of a doe; by Laura Hamilton (finaira).




These bird-like creatures are taller than the average human, and hulking in shape. Their bodies are made up of hundreds of wings, all folded close to their fatted form. They cannot fly – they only skitter on the ground on two feet, like rodents. Their bones are brittle, but protected by their thick skin and layers of fat. They have massive black beaks that they tuck close to their stomachs, and they can swallow creatures up to the size of a large dog. The only evidence they typically leave is feathers like a crow, and rolled up masses of bone, grit, and cartilage that they regurgitate.



Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.


Today’s art is by Laura Hamilton, finaira on Deviant Art. Thank you to Laura for her donation to the Monsters project!







THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – Hanging Men

Hanging Men

In a tarot deck, one may often find the Hanged Man on a tree upside down, one leg crossed over the other. The readers of the cards will tell any number of interpretations of divinity, suspension of life, martyrdom, but none will speak of the true meaning of the card. The card represents the Hanging Men, those who are between sleep and waking, on the edge of life and death.


by John W. Sheldon


The Hanging Men are the ghosts of men who died destitute and shamed for their cruel actions in life, and they hang from unseen trees. All of the Hanging Men appear to have been at least partially flayed, their bodies less the pound of flesh they paid for their sins.

Hanging Men can only be seen in peripheral vision, on the brink of death, or in dreaming sleep. They will target a person based on some imagined slight, still bitter and vindictive from their past life, and tease them, creeping into their minds and burning in thoughts of self-hatred, visions of pain and horrific torture, and leave the person with a damaged psyche as their revenge.

A victim may never escape the Hanging Men. If they are fortunate, they may find a blessing that hides them from the view of these spectres, and if they are less fortunate, they may meet someone in their dreams who will offer them a way out. In either case, by the time an option is found to leave, most people will take whatever option they can to get away from the endless scenes of terror that play in their minds.



Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.



THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Monsters – Underskin

THE UNDERSKIN


The Underskin is a stealthy creature that is incredibly dangerous. When outside of a host, the Underskin is nearly invisible – it just looks like a very thin sheen of oil and water on any surface, not even more than a drop of water thick. The Underskin is not really one entity, but instead millions of microscopic bacteria.

The Underskin takes its victims while they sleep by sliding over the surface of their body, like condensation or sweat, and seeping in through their skin. Once inside, they spread just beneath the skin over the muscles, thickening into a transparent membrane, but attaching, immovable, on the muscle bodies, and around the brain.

The victims will often wake up with blurry eyes and in a cold sweat, with a fine oily sheen on their face and body. After they have been taken by an Underskin, most people will see no difference, except their bodies will heal at a more rapid rate than normal. However, when the victims sleep, the Underskin will take over their bodies, and use them to complete tasks – eating whatever food they can to sate their hunger first, and then following on to often more devious tasks like stealing goods to hide in dank, dark sewers where the Underskin breed, or killing people who endanger their brood. 

An Underskin preparing to leave its host. by John W. Sheldon


The Underskin has one priority: protect their collective. They cannot be killed while in a host, and only leave their host after they have accomplished their tasks. When they leave the body of their host, it’s a violent and painful experience for both the victim and the Underskin as the creatures stretch and rip away from the muscles and brain. Normally the victim will get sick, with a headache and symptoms like that of typical influenza, and it can take weeks to recover. Many people have been accused of crimes they have no memory of committing during the times when they were controlled by the Underskin.

—

Thanks to +John Sheldon for his art contribution!
Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Gaming as Women – Finding My O with the X-Card

I’ve decided to put up a trailing backlog of my posts. From now on, after one-two months of my posts being hosted on Gaming as Women, they will be posted here on BravoCharlieSierra. I still suggest directing any comments to the main site, and recommend visiting Gaming as Women to read the articles by other amazing authors like Filamena Young, Jessica Hammer, Elin Dastäl, Renee Knipe, and Monica Speca.


This post was originally posted on Gaming as Women on January 9, 2012

Finding My O with the X-Card

I am a player who starts play with a lot of limits. A lot of “nuh uh!”’s. I have anxieties and fears and triggers. But, I love gaming. I love it, and it is one of the few places in my life I can find new experiences, work out my emotional and mental complications, and where I can push my boundaries.

This is why I love safe space gaming. A lot of people think this means you will never talk about anything bad ever, and that’s so far from true! While I tend to lean towards a little bit happier gaming and I prefer a hopeful ending, I don’t need to avoid every bad topic ever to have fun. I just need to feel safe.

What does that mean, then? To feel safe?

It means I have an exit strategy. It means I can say no. It means no one will laugh at me, criticize me, or quiz me if I say no or have to leave. It means that if I have to get up and walk away, I won’t hear “what the hell was that about?” from anyone at the table. It means that the worst thing someone will say in response to me needing to press pause is “Are you okay?” and that they’ll wait a minute before asking, “Are we okay to continue?”

Until about a year ago, I didn’t know I had triggers at the table. The more I played, and the more I learned about gaming, the more I knew that there were things that could happen in game that might upset me or scare me. During game design I found out that wow – consent in social interactions? That matters to me. I didn’t know that before!

There are a lot of ways to play without risking triggers. One option is just being open about your hard limits – which risks people thinking you’re being a “baby”, being “too sensitive”, or somehow crushing creativity/stunting the story. Another is to not play games where there is  a risk – a big shock to me was that some triggers are socially acceptable and sometimes key parts of the game’s setting! You are always at risk of some triggers.

It’s hard to confront fears and work towards pushing your boundaries when you keep a pristine surrounding and play nothing adventurous. It goes against my nature. I kept looking – how can I feel safe but still try new things that might scare me?

Then I found the X-card. It’s just a card with an X on it that you can use to indicate when you’re uncomfortable with content in a game, and it guides the players and GM to skip over or avoid that content. I thought it was awesome! If I feel uncomfortable, I just tap the card! No twenty minutes of explanation, no shoving my feelings under the rug. Mind you, plenty of people hate the idea of playing with one because of the aforementioned crushing creativity and stunting story complaints. But! There is something about the X-card I want to unpack. First, I want to share the other side.

When I went to OH, Games in December, Kira Scott ran Monsterhearts, and she put out an X-card – with an O on the back. The O is great, because Kira explained that when you want more of the content, you tap the O instead of the X. The O actually got used in that game – the X didn’t. In that game, there were at least 3 instances where I thought about using the X, but I didn’t use it. Why? I felt safe enough to not have to.

Having a tool like the X-card – particularly one with the opposing O side – at the table creates a specific kind of mood at the table. It says “We’re here together. If you need to stop, we’ll stop. But if you want to keep going? Let’s do this.” It encourages a style of gaming that I had not really pursued before – a knees-deep, heart-pounding headlong run into emotional risk, but the best kind.

I know that I risk getting hurt if I play like that. If it’s a bad hurt, and I want to stop, I put up the X and I know that the other players will support me in that. They don’t want me to be hurt, I don’t want to hurt them, it’s an understanding that we’re together in this. I haven’t used the X yet, but I am betting there will be a day when I do, because as much as I love confronting my fears, sometimes it’s a matter of time and place.

But, if it’s a good hurt, one that makes me feel like I’m unlocking something and that I want to feel more of, I tap the O and hold on tight.

It might make people think – well, why not just have the O-card? That establishes that people are on the same page, right? Not really. It’s easier to say more, more, yes, please! It’s not as easy to be in a group that’s saying yes! when you can feel yourself closing in and thinking, oh, please, no! That X-card is like a little unwritten rule. It says “Everyone has boundaries. Anyone could need this. It’s here for everyone.” It means I’m not alone.

Do you have a tool like this? Do you have a pre-game prep that establishes trust? How do you handle introducing new players to complicated or uncomfortable topics?

Gaming as Women – Paizo Publishing & Pathfinder – Interview with Judy Bauer

I’ve decided to put up a trailing backlog of my posts. From now on, after one-two months of my posts being hosted on Gaming as Women, they will be posted here on BravoCharlieSierra. I still suggest directing any comments to the main site, and recommend visiting Gaming as Women to read the articles by other amazing authors like Filamena Young, Jessica Hammer, Elin Dastäl, Renee Knipe, and Monica Speca.


This post was originally posted on Gaming as Women on December 7, 2012.

Paizo Publishing and Pathfinder – Interview with editor Judy Bauer

I have been incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to do an e-mail interview with Judy Bauer, an editor at Paizo Publishing. Judy primarily does editing for Pathfinder, and she has been kind enough to provide us with some extensive and awesome responses to our questions about her history, being a woman in the industry, and her work at Paizo. Thank you so much to Judy for her time!

Could you tell us a little more about your work at Paizo, and what books and systems you’ve had the opportunity to work on?
I’m an editor at Paizo, which for us means both copyediting and checking more developmental issues like clarity of rules, in-world continuity, plausibility of encounters, and gender balance/stereotypes. I started in 2010, and work on about every product line with words save Pathfinder Tales, so that’s every hardcover from the GameMastery Guide onward, every Adventure Path from Kingmaker onward, half the Pathfinder Scenarios from Season 1 onward, not to mention Pathfinder Campaign Setting books, Player Companions, Pathfinder Cards… It’s getting to be a long list!

What is your favorite project you’ve worked on at Paizo?
Probably Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide, partly because I learned so much about our campaign setting in the process (I love that in the same setting you can fight dragons, dinosaurs, and undead aliens), and partly because it was a chance to reexamine the setting and tweak some aspects that weren’t working or that didn’t make sense in retrospect.

more after the cut…



Did you play RPGs growing up? If so, what kind of experiences did you have as a female gamer?
Oh, totally. My dad had a lifetime subscription to Dragon, the red box, and a random selection of AD&D hardcovers that I browsed as a kid. He didn’t game himself, but loved that that I was interested in these books too. I first got a chance to play D&D when I was about 13 or so, was immediately hooked. I gamed whenever I could through grad school and now again that I’m working at Paizo, using whatever rule set the GM wanted to run.

I’ve had a couple bad experiences with pencil and paper RPGs (the worst being with another player who thought it would be a fun plot twist to mind control and rape my character, without clearing that with me). But I haven’t had anyone be condescending about my rules knowledge since junior high, and haven’t had problems with players being creepy since high school. I’ve mostly gamed with friends, though, and a good half of those groups included other women, which I’m sure makes a difference.

My one venture into MMOs, in contrast, really opened my eyes about how abusive and misogynistic gaming culture can be. There’s nothing like logging in to a screen full of graphic descriptions of your character (or you) being raped, complaining about it on some forum, then being flamed for having the audacity to be disgusted, you know? And, my bad luck, I’d picked an MMO that was totally unmoderated. I assembled some sympathetic players, and we started documenting incidences of in-game rape while campaigning the game’s creator to deal with the problem (he finally implemented an ignore option). I’m grateful for these allies, and glad I stuck it out and took action instead of walking away after the first time I was targeted, but wouldn’t wish that on anyone. It was really frustrating and demoralizing at the time, and definitely made me less excited about trying other MMOs.

Do you have any favorite RPGs? If so, why do you like them?
I’m pretty agnostic about rule systems—I’ll play about anything, including a friend’s homebrew rules with 42 (!) attributes, as long as the GM is good—and I’ve mostly played in homebrew settings. That said, I do have a soft spot for a few RPGs:

AD&D: This is the game I grew up with, and the system used in my longest-running campaign—my first RPG crush, I guess.

Call of Cthulhu: I love the setting, the gonzo concept, and the fact that because of the sanity mechanics, you’re not trying to win—you’re trying to lose as slowly as possible.

Exalted: The rules are so simple, the powers are intriguing, and you’re rewarded for doing crazy fantasy-superhero stunts!

Pathfinder: Every though I live and breathe this game every day, I’m still super excited about it (gripplis as PCs! Exploring the Crown of the World! Exploring other planets!). And I GMed for the first time using the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box!

As a woman in the gaming industry, how has your experience been in regards to finding work and getting recognition? Were there any particular challenges you experienced? 
I entered the game industry somewhat by chance, having previously worked in textbook development, so my experience isn’t that wide. But I feel really fortunate to work at a company that values my perspective as a woman, and to have managers who trust me and back me up if I have concerns about some aspect of a product, and who push me to put myself forward at seminars and conventions. Public recognition is actually something that I’m still getting used to, since textbook writers and editors try to be pretty invisible.

Do you think that women in the industry need to support each other more? What do you think is being done in the industry to make female contributors more welcome?
Again, I can’t speak for the industry as a whole, but I know in Paizo’s design contest, RPG Superstar,  we’re always cheering for women who make it to the top—the top people are our future freelancers, and sometimes our future coworkers. Additionally, several of our developers put quite a bit of effort into mentoring new freelancers, helping them strengthen their skills so they’ll be prepared to take on more complicated assignments, and we try to promote our freelancers whenever we can—like the awesome up-and-coming writers Savannah Broadway, Amanda Hamon, Tracy Hurley, Melissa Litwin, Amber Scott, and Christina Stiles!
Finally—this isn’t anything new, but I think it bears saying—treating other women as allies instead of competition can really improve the work (and con) environment and make it friendlier toward women. RPG publishing can still be a boys’ club, though it’s getting better; I find it very reassuring knowing others will back me up if I need to call shenanigans on something, and am glad to support them as well.

Paizo appears to have a lot of diversity in their management and contributors. Do you think it helps result in a better, more representative product?
It certainly helps! We want to see characters and settings that reflect ourselves, you know? And having been outsiders in various ways, we want to bring more people into our world.
Of course, being diverse in one dimension doesn’t mean you’re automatically inclusive across the board, even if you have the best of intentions. You really have to be alert to both opportunities for inclusion and warning signs that you’re excluding people or could cause offense, which can be hard when you’re also facing tight deadlines.
Feedback from our audience has been important for helping us improve, too. When we hear from fans that they appreciate interesting queer characters in adventures, a location doesn’t have as many female characters as they’d come to expect, or an encounter is potentially offensive or extremely upsetting, it helps us become more observant and strengthens our commitment to being more inclusive in the future.

When you are working on Paizo products, do you take gender representation and how women are portrayed into consideration?
Definitely. I try to keep that in mind all the time, to maintain gender balance in products and make sure female characters fill as wide of a variety of roles as the male characters—that they’re not always just victims, or villains, or prostitutes, or dead in the backstory.
This isn’t a policy I created; Paizo has always been committed to having balanced representation of women in its products. Half of our iconic characters for the character glasses are women, and in rules text and examples the style is to alternate between male and female pronouns to mix things up.
When I started, though, I noticed that while there were almost always female characters in adventures and in the campaign setting products, sometimes there weren’t very many, or they were all in the background, or all monsters. I was still fairly new and building trust with the developers, so I began counting male and female characters in products I was editing to back up my intuitions, and going to the developers with the numbers. A lot of them were surprised to learn the actual proportions of male to female characters in turnovers—perhaps because they’re are all men and used to seeing fewer female characters in RPG products, “some” female characters instinctively felt like “a lot” to them.
There was a little resistance to revising for gender balance, for the very fair reason that if you have to change characters’ gender or backstory during editing, at the end of the process, there’s a risk of introducing errors to a product. And sometimes your choices are limited because of the art ordered for characters. But my boss backed me up, and people gradually got into the habit of balancing characters during development, before I’d even see it. They also started giving feedback about gender balance to writers, which has helped as well—it’s so much easier if it’s there from the beginning. We’re still fine-tuning the process, but I think we’ve made real improvements.

What do you want to be known for in your career? When people think of “Judy Bauer”, what would you like their first thought to be?
“Adding women to adventures since 2010.”

Do you have any suggestions for women looking to work in the game industry?
I suspect the barriers differ a lot depending on what part of the industry you’re interested in—experience in other sectors will get you further as an editor or graphic designer than as a game designer, developer, or writer. For the latter three, writing groups and design competitions can be very helpful ways to get feedback on your work and strengthen your skills, and community publications are a great way to  build up a portfolio (for would-be Pathfinder writers and developers, we always recommend Wayfinder and RPG Superstar in particular).

Of course, Kickstarter now provides an alternative route to entering the field and building a portfolio. While we hear most about new designers breaking into the industry, it’s a great opportunity for editors and graphic designers, too—you’re needed to make the game designers’ ideas shine!


It was a great experience to communicate with Judy and learn about her career. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her work with Pathfinder! Thanks, Judy!