A ne pas confondre avec le plus récent book of the damned qui présente les obédiences maléfiques. (Des sortes de dons qui se développent en trois étapes en respectant un rituel quotidien)

I was away at PAX Unplugged this weekend and into the first part of this week, so let me start off with an apology for not responding to this thread earlier.

As noted in the OP, I am already on the record as admitting that Folca's inclusion was in bad taste, that it was a mistake to publish it, and that I and everyone else at Paizo regret the text that made it into the final book. Please allow me to repeat that sentiment, originally offered on Twitter, here directly: It was a mistake to include these themes in one of our products. We should not have done it the first time in the original Book of the Damned Volume 3, and we should have used the opportunity of the compiled hardcover to adjust elements of the character to be something less divisive and dumb, or to cut it altogether.

We didn't do that, and frankly we deserve the criticism we've received on the issue.

We certainly don't intend to focus on Folca in the future, and will not be including him in future Pathfinder products. From this point forward, Folca is officially done in the world of Pathfinder, and he heads into the memory hole with other mistakes we've made.

We cannot change the printed books in which he already appears. In the event that we reprint the book, we will very likely cut him from the book entirely. Changing the files without changing the book itself is a significant departure from our normal errata policy, and brings with it a number of logistical challenges. We’re not interested in creating an allure for pirated copies of the uncensored version, and thus we will address Folca’s presence (or lack thereof) as part of our reprint strategy for the book.

We're also taking some internal editorial steps to make sure that material suggesting sexual violence against children gets nixed before we publish it. Yes, it is a very real "evil" in the world, but Pathfinder doesn't need to include every single reprehensible thing in the universe, and it doesn't need to include predatory sexual violence against children, especially with rules attached.

Many of you are probably thinking, "what's the problem? I can handle this in my game." Or maybe even "bad guys are supposed to be evil," and to you folks this statement probably seems like some kind of betrayal or act of cowardice. The fact of the matter is that this issue specifically crosses a line with a HUGE number of gamers, and we knew better than to cross it this time. After the recent furor, we know even better not to cross it in the future.

You're cool to do whatever you want in your games, but the public is right to hold us to a higher standard. Just because you think you can be responsible with this type of content does not mean that every GM can. Much more importantly, the primary concern here is less the GM and more the player who randomly encounters these themes unwittingly, and finds him or herself reliving terrible memories of trauma during what is supposed to be a game people play for fun.

Every so often, in an effort to fill in every blank, or provide rules for every eventuality, we can cross into a line of making a rule for something that probably shouldn't be in the game in the first place.

Folca is an example of just such an element, and he (and his kind) will not be welcome in Pathfinder products in the future.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Inc.

PS: Due to the potential volatility of this topic, we’ll be temporarily closing this topic at 5:00 Pacific time today to allow our moderators to take their four-day Thanksgiving holiday in relative peace. We’ll open things again when we return to the office next week.