Curse of the Crimson Throne is Back!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

In the coming weeks, I'll be previewing all sorts of incredible art and exciting new elements of the upcoming Hardcover edition of the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, but before I get into all of that, I wanted first to show off one of my favorite new pieces of artwork from the book—an incredible illustration that opens the book up in its introduction. Feast your eyes!

James Jacobs
Creative Director

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Tags: Curse of the Crimson Throne Lie Setiawan Pathfinder Adventure Path
Silver Crusade Contributor

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SO EXCITED. ^_^


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

'Scuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. Holy HELL, that's GORGEOUS.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

*sniffs*

They should have sent a poet!


Freakin' fantastic!


The party offers some constructive criticism to the Queen. It doesn't look like she or her entourage are very appreciative. ;)

In all seriousness, this is getting me hyped for the full release.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I would buy a high quality print of this.


Awesome!

~~ Andy


Harsk isn't f!@$ing around.

Love the determination in his eyes. :-)


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captain yesterday wrote:

Harsk isn't f#~#ing around.

Love the determination in his eyes. :-)

Harsk isn't even aiming for the henchwomen, he's going right after the Queen.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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I appreciate the enthusiasm folks have for the art. Glad to see it's doing its job and getting people excited. Please don't take this as an excuse to test the limits of the profanity filter we've got here and save the naughty language for the naughty corners of the internet.

Think of the goblins. They hear that kind of talk and who KNOWS what they might do? Poor things!


At least they don't write it down.

Anyway, incredible art!


That's truly beautiful artwork.

I'm going to be running this campaign for the first time when it's out and I'm really excited to see all of the new art and discussed changes.

I'm a little sad I can't use this as a wallpaper though as my players would see it and ask questions (so far they're going in with zero info/spoilers and are excited to uncover everything as they play).


Looking good!

And I'm looking forward to the book itself. :)

Silver Crusade

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James Jacobs wrote:

I appreciate the enthusiasm folks have for the art. Glad to see it's doing its job and getting people excited. Please don't take this as an excuse to test the limits of the profanity filter we've got here and save the naughty language for the naughty corners of the internet.

Think of the goblins. They hear that kind of talk and who KNOWS what they might do? Poor things!

Sowwy.


Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Wonderful art!


Great piece of artwork!

Ruyan.


thecursor wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:

Harsk isn't f#~#ing around.

Love the determination in his eyes. :-)

Harsk isn't even aiming for the henchwomen, he's going right after the Queen.

He has the right idea. But I doupt Ileosa goes down that easily =)


Gorgeous painting!

I am SO looking forward to getting this book!


Oh that's very pretty. Really gorgeous action shot.

Isn't the throne room *upstairs* though? :P

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Every good villain has multiple throne rooms.


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I can't wait for this, if not to play it then just the art alone will be worth it.

But who am I kidding, of course I'm going to run this as GM. Usely I give a list of all the adventure path with a small idea of what is about to my players and let them vote on which one they want to play. But I think that once I get this, I will just tell them to sit down, we are doing this one!

Shadow Lodge

Routana wrote:
thecursor wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:

Harsk isn't f#~#ing around.

Love the determination in his eyes. :-)

Harsk isn't even aiming for the henchwomen, he's going right after the Queen.
He has the right idea. But I doupt Ileosa goes down that easily =)

Blood simulacra do, though ;)


Rannik wrote:
... Usely I give a list of all the adventure path with a small idea of what is about to my players and let them vote on which one they want to play. But I think that once I get this, I will just tell them to sit down, we are doing this one!

That's exactly what I've done!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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tremor3258 wrote:

Oh that's very pretty. Really gorgeous action shot.

Isn't the throne room *upstairs* though? :P

It is. The presence of a few steps leading down to help stage a more dramatic presence of the heroes in the art does not magically transform the throne room into the basement.


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Routana wrote:
thecursor wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:

Harsk isn't f#~#ing around.

Love the determination in his eyes. :-)

Harsk isn't even aiming for the henchwomen, he's going right after the Queen.
He has the right idea. But I doupt Ileosa goes down that easily =)

Doesn't he remember what happened to the last poor fool who tried that!?


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Very nice. I'd love to see this in a poster form for sale.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

This piece is wonderful. Can't wait to run the adventure.


James Jacobs wrote:
Think of the goblins. They hear that kind of talk and who KNOWS what they might do? Poor things!

They will put it into one of their horrifyingly and amazingly terrible songs.

(looks around) Wait a second... this isn't one of the naughty corners of the internet!? What have I been doing here all this time (besides enjoying this awesome artwork)? Why didn't somebody tell me?

In all seriousness though. As an artist and animator I have to say this is a very good illustration. Crowd scenes are very difficult make look right, but every person in this scene is expressive, dynamically posed, and beautifully rendered. Everyone's feet are in the correct positions (this is harder to do than it sounds). I love the flutter of the curtains, and how the swish of the various capes, coats, etc, accurately follows the movement of the characters they are attached to. The texture of the walls is wonderful, it really feels like an old, and heavy castle chamber.

My critiques:
First off, someone appears to have stolen Seelah's equipment and fooled the party with a very good disguise check. Because the facial structure (including her eyes, ears, lip shape, shape of her jaw and cheek bones, etc) is all inconsistent with her portrayal in the Core Rulebook. In addition, like 90% of fantasy swordsmen and women, she isn't holding her sword properly (its edge should be facing the viewer given the position of her hand). Which is strange because everybody else is holding their weapons/flute properly. All the more reason for me to believe that is a doppleganger about to turn on the party.
Secondly... something feels off about the perspective of the columns compared to the hallway behind the adventurers. The lines at the top of the left-hand face of the columns should be more or less parallel with the hallway's lines, yet they are not.
Thirdly, and this is just nitpicking at this point, the lighting is just okay. Ezren's fire-spell isn't casting any shadows, even though we can see its highlights. There is also too too much light in that chamber given the light sources being displayed. The entire piece needs more contrast, much more contrast. The shadows should be deeper and darker, and the extremities of the room should fade nearly into darkness, instead of a light blueish-grey.
Hmm... that turned into a whole pile of critique. Curse you Art School; for teaching me how to critique a piece to death, but not create a piece of the marvelous quality I just spent three paragraphs ripping on!

Ahem... This art is great. I feel Paizo has maintained a tradition of high quality illustrations which really give their world depth and flavor, and I hope to see that continue into the future. I am very much looking forward to this product's release, and adding it to my collection!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

That art is effing amazing. One thing y'all have always done is provide fantastic, eyecatching artwork for the books. Having beautiful (and often creepy) images to show the players helps so much to add to the mood and spark the imagination.

Grand Lodge

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Lem has some +1 impervious adamantine balls facing down those grey maidens with just his trusty flute.

Shadow Lodge

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MassivePauldrons wrote:
Lem has some +1 impervious adamantine balls facing down those grey maidens with just his trusty flute.

Going by Ileosa's dress, that Lem is a 14th level Scarwall-wizened badass facing a troop of 5th level fighters. He'll be fine.


James Jacobs wrote:
tremor3258 wrote:

Oh that's very pretty. Really gorgeous action shot.

Isn't the throne room *upstairs* though? :P

It is. The presence of a few steps leading down to help stage a more dramatic presence of the heroes in the art does not magically transform the throne room into the basement.

I'm sort of geeking out on a direct reply. :)

Still, even if I'm pedantic, it's a pretty big testament to Crimson Throne that I remembered that level of detail given it's years since I pulled it last off the shelf.

Contributor

Muser wrote:
MassivePauldrons wrote:
Lem has some +1 impervious adamantine balls facing down those grey maidens with just his trusty flute.
Going by Ileosa's dress, that Lem is a 14th level Scarwall-wizened badass facing a troop of 5th level fighters. He'll be fine.

Probably closer to 15th level by this point. But certainly after Scarwall. In which case, probably nothing short of Zon-Kuthon himself is intimidating.

Shadow Lodge

Davic The Grey wrote:
Muser wrote:
MassivePauldrons wrote:
Lem has some +1 impervious adamantine balls facing down those grey maidens with just his trusty flute.
Going by Ileosa's dress, that Lem is a 14th level Scarwall-wizened badass facing a troop of 5th level fighters. He'll be fine.
Probably closer to 15th level by this point. But certainly after Scarwall. In which case, probably nothing short of Zon-Kuthon himself is intimidating.

Speaking of old Zon, our heroes of Korvosa just met a merchant with a distinctive open wound on his face while visiting Shadow Pangolais(Laori's most familiar plane shift target that). Immanence, feck yass.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Muser wrote:
MassivePauldrons wrote:
Lem has some +1 impervious adamantine balls facing down those grey maidens with just his trusty flute.
Going by Ileosa's dress, that Lem is a 14th level Scarwall-wizened badass facing a troop of 5th level fighters. He'll be fine.

They're 8th level fighters, and going by the original print they each have more hit points than Lem. So I think my point is still somewhat valid... but I guess one song of discord later and the problem would solve itself. To be honest I just saw a chance to use, "adamantine balls" in a sentence, and leapt boldly through the breach damn the consequences.


Any new Player Guide for this?

Silver Crusade Contributor

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KM WolfMaw wrote:
Any new Player Guide for this?

Nope. The hardcover does include updated Campaign Traits, though. ^_^


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

And oh my god, the art, got my PDF yesterday and have been making undignified capering motions ever since.


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And what pray tell would Undignified Capering Motions look like, and would you mind if I named a future band that.

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