I have to say this is no doubt one of the better FR sourcebooks. Despite having a plethora of cool stats for making your own adventures, the fluff and adventure ideas in here really got my imagination going. I created dozens of threads in my FR games, wherever they were set, after reading the ideas in this book.
I have to say this is no doubt one of the better FR sourcebooks. Despite having a plethora of cool stats for making your own adventures, the fluff and adventure ideas in here really got my imagination going. I created dozens of threads in my FR games, wherever they were set, after reading the ideas in this book.
Just my 2 pinch.
-DM Jeff
Wow. That good, heh? That's one of the only FR books I do not have. What in particular made it so appealing to your imagination? Can you give some specifics, with spoiler tags if need be?
Thanks!
Mactaka(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Companion Subscriber)
I agree.
I was able to run a game out of Hlondeth from this (Chosen of Sseth!)
I also liked their treatment of the Forest of Wyrms area and the south.
I set Shackled City in Tashluta, and the background of the surrounding lands there was very helpful.
Wow. That good, heh? That's one of the only FR books I do not have. What in particular made it so appealing to your imagination? Can you give some specifics, with spoiler tags if need be? Thanks!
In particular, their discussion on the plots and ways the yaun-ti infiltrate different societies, what they hope to gain, and specific missions had me scribbling adventure ideas on napkins to use later. The inhuman breeding experiments different castes used, and how they trained their agents to work among humans was just, well, darn good reading.
One part set up and gave particulars on where yaun-ti spies might be operating and what they were involved in around the Realms. Also, the geography sections were easy to read and seemed complete and ready to run. There are also chapters on how to develop and play an entire party of yaun-ti PC agents.
There's also intensive work exploring the nagas of the Realms and their plots and schemes. Some of the stat blocks were a bit "epic", but many others were just good ways of giving your players a swift kick in the unexpected. The monster section was large enough and had creatures of all levels.
And (this is always important to me) it wasn't dry, dull reading, it kept me engaged nearly throughout.
I'm with Jeff. This is one of my favorite FR supplements. I took big chunks of the adventure material in the back and transplanted it pretty seamlessly into my Savage Tide campaign. They wanted to stop and explore some ruins they could see in the jungle along the coast, so I cobbled together stuff from here and it went smashingly well.
I switched in Tashluta for Sasserine, and as another poster said, the background info for that was also quite handy. (though he was doing a different AP, the point is still the same)
I've also used some of the monsters out of it with good results. Highly recommended.
Mairkurion {tm}(Pathfinder Adventure Path, Tales, Battles Case Subscriber)
I don't run the Realms, so I only pick up FR supplements that stand out from the crowd, and after a few days of comparison, I picked this up yesterday at Half-Price Books. In other words, I'm really impressed with Serpent Kingdoms. Further, I'd like to know how much of this was done by our own Darrin Drader, along with anything else he wants to dish on the subject.
I'm not very familiar with the Realms (I bought it cos I like yuan-ti and it was reduced in price) so I assumed it was detailing a specific snake-heavy region.
It turned out it was more a guide to various "serpent enclaves" spread out across the land, and ways of introducing the serpent races into your campaigns. In that sense its a bit less Realms specific than most FR sourcebooks, which is a good thing for people like me.
Mairkurion {tm}(Pathfinder Adventure Path, Tales, Battles Case Subscriber)
Darrin Drader...
Sharoth(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber)
I too have this book and I think that it is worth the money to buy it.
Absolutely my favorite 3e FR regional sourcebook. It set a high mark for its type, and sadly I think it may have been the last regional sourcebook that WotC made for the setting.
So, Asgetrion, do you doubt my ability to summon DD by staring into the monitor and typing his names three times in bold?
I always doubt you (and your sanity) -- you should know that by now! ;P
Mairkurion {tm}(Pathfinder Adventure Path, Tales, Battles Case Subscriber)
See, I think the trick is three times in a row without interruption. Or maybe everyone has to truly believe, instead of doubting my sanity. Or maybe both. STOP SCREWING UP MY ATTEMPTS TO SUMMON DARRIN!!! 8@
Ahh... OK, your summons worked... thanks to a nameless imp showing up and pointing this out to me. Really, summoning spells don't work like they used to.
So what to say about this book...
The material was evenly split between Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd and me.
I worked on chunks throughout the book, but the sarrukh were the main creatures I worked on.
As far as the sarrukh go, the monster modification rules were never intended to be balanced or fall into the hands of players. Perhaps that should have been specified in the book. although it should obviously be common sense for any DM who wants to maintain some sense of balance in their game. Pun-Pun may look nifty on paper, but such a creature wouldn't ever make it into a game if the DM has one clue about what they're doing.
Aside from that, I like how the sarrukh were implemented in the 4E Forgotten Realms setting book with one exception: they killed off Pil'it'ith for some reason that I cannot fathom.
For Realms games, my group usually used this and Unapproachable East far more than other regional books. We like focusing on the southern and eastern regions, which are seldom used in much of the fiction of Realms. It had a more blank canvas feel to it since most of the books occur in the north and west.
-Weylin
Mairkurion {tm}(Pathfinder Adventure Path, Tales, Battles Case Subscriber)
Darrin Drader wrote:
The material was evenly split between Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd and me.
I worked on chunks throughout the book, but the sarrukh were the main creatures I worked on.
As far as the sarrukh go, the monster modification rules were never intended to be balanced or fall into the hands of players. Perhaps that should have been specified in the book. although it should obviously be common sense for any DM who wants to maintain some sense of balance in their game. Pun-Pun may look nifty on paper, but such a creature wouldn't ever make it into a game if the DM has one clue about what they're doing.
Thanks, Darrin, good stuff. I appreciate your work, and couldn't possibly agree with your sentiment more.
Asgetrion,
Spoiler:
I so CAN summon Darrin!
It's too bad Eric Boyd doesn't seem to post here anymore.
I imagine the list price is but not sure. Likely just a glitch as it was on sale before I believe and that was the old sale price. Though with it being Sunday and the last day of Gencon I doubt you get a reply till tomorrow.
I imagine the list price is but not sure. Likely just a glitch as it was on sale before I believe and that was the old sale price. Though with it being Sunday and the last day of Gencon I doubt you get a reply till tomorrow.
Thanks, do you think I should wait for an answer here or post elsewhere ?
I imagine the list price is but not sure. Likely just a glitch as it was on sale before I believe and that was the old sale price. Though with it being Sunday and the last day of Gencon I doubt you get a reply till tomorrow.
Thanks, do you think I should wait for an answer here or post elsewhere ?
The price should be $4.99. Hopefully, Gary or Ross will see this tomorrow and fix things. The rest of us are flying back from GenCon. I'll try to remember to check back here on Tuesday to make sure that somebody took care of this.
And at that price, anyone who doesn't already have it should at least consider getting it - in my opinion (whatever that's worth), this was the best of the 3rd edition FR-books, and who knows, a DM running the SSAP might find a thing or two in here that he could use.
I imagine the list price is but not sure. Likely just a glitch as it was on sale before I believe and that was the old sale price. Though with it being Sunday and the last day of Gencon I doubt you get a reply till tomorrow.
Thanks, do you think I should wait for an answer here or post elsewhere ?
The price should be $4.99. Hopefully, Gary or Ross will see this tomorrow and fix things. The rest of us are flying back from GenCon. I'll try to remember to check back here on Tuesday to make sure that somebody took care of this.
-Lisa
Hi Lisa, congratulations on the huge success of Paizo at GenCon.
I imagine the list price is but not sure. Likely just a glitch as it was on sale before I believe and that was the old sale price. Though with it being Sunday and the last day of Gencon I doubt you get a reply till tomorrow.
Thanks, do you think I should wait for an answer here or post elsewhere ?
The price should be $4.99. Hopefully, Gary or Ross will see this tomorrow and fix things. The rest of us are flying back from GenCon. I'll try to remember to check back here on Tuesday to make sure that somebody took care of this.
-Lisa
Hi Lisa, congratulations on the huge success of Paizo at GenCon.
The price is corrected and works like a charm :)
Excellent! Thanks for the congrats. We had a wonderful con that will keep us excited for at least a week or two! :)
I have to say this is no doubt one of the better FR sourcebooks. Despite having a plethora of cool stats for making your own adventures, the fluff and adventure ideas in here really got my imagination going. I created dozens of threads in my FR games, wherever they were set, after reading the ideas in this book.
There's a lot of praise for this book here so i think i'll give it a try. At $4.99 this book is worth every cent. I paid full price for this beauty when it cam out and felt a bit robbed. Most of the monsters are absurd, there is only clumps of information about the peninsula of Chult, not a lot of "i wonder what this town or city is i'll check the serpent kingdoms book" info. That being said, if you are a Forgotten Realms die hard like me you still can't live without this book and this is a steal.