Book of the River Nations: Exploration and Kingdom Building (PFRPG) PDF

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Explore the uncharted! Tame the Land! Rule Your Own Nation!

Book of the River Nations: Exploration and Kingdom Building gives you the rules you need to explore lands unknown and then to rule those lands. These rules are expanded to include easy-to-read flowcharts for exploration and kingdom turns, new buildings to include in your cities, more than double the events, and expanded Exploration, City, and Kingdom Sheets.

Rule your Nation and Make your Mark on the World!

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JBE0205E


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3.00/5 (based on 5 ratings)

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Read my whole review for a true star rating.

3/5

Book of the River Nations: Exploration and Kingdom Building by Jon Brazar Enterprises

This product is 2o pages long. It starts with a cover. (1 pages)

Exploration Rules (2 pages)
This has rules for exploring land. It has movement rate and a few other things in it.

Kingdom Building (12 pages)
This section has rules for building a kingdom, random events, rules and positions of powers with the effects they have. Taxes, buildings and the effects they have etc. It is a quick simple yet effect set of rules for building a kingdom.

It ends with 4 pages of sheets, exploration map, city district sheet, kingdom stat sheet, and NPC sheet and a OGL. (5 pages)

Closing Thoughts. This is the exploration rules from Kingmaker AP 1, The Stolen Lands reprinted. The kingdom building rules is the rules from Kingmaker AP 2, River Runs Red, with 3 extra pages of information. Looks like a few more buildings and kingdom events are added to it. Other than the new sheets which are helpful and 3 pages of new buildings and kingdom events, it is just the information from the two Kingmaker AP's combined together in one book in a print friendly format. Again I find this one hard to rate as it depends a lot if you have the AP's and if being able to print the information is important to you.

My one critic is I wish the kingdom events had been it's own chapter. That way you could print it out and give everything but the events to the players, that would have helped make this better and more useful. As it is for 3 bucks, if you don't have the AP's and want some quick and simple kingdom building rules, then I would give it a 3.5 star. If you have the AP's but would like the new buildings and events and want a print friendly copy, then I would give it a 3 star. If you just want a print friendly version or just want the new buildings etc, then I would give it a 2 star.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus


A well put-together compilation

4/5

Down and Dirty: This is a compilation product. If you are happy sorting through multiple books looking up rules that you use every session, this isn't the book for you. If convenience is worth 3 dollars - it certainly is for me - then you'll love this book.

The book can be broken into three large sections.

The first, Exploration Rules, is a simple and straight-forward compilation of materials presented in earlier products.

The second, Kingdom Building, has a few nice new rules - new buildings, new events - as well as everything that you know and love from earlier products. It is well put together, easy to read, and flows in a logical way. This section, however, has the one major drawback of the book - namely, the "Kingdom Events" are connected seamlessly to earlier sections. I would have preferred that the material be presented in multiple chapters, so that I could give the Kingdom Building crunchiness to my players without giving them all of the events as well. This could be solved by printing the materials but, as another commentator observed, the thick black borders making printing burdensome.

Finally, there are a few pages worth of player handouts. Again, these are things we've seen before, but it *is* convenient to have all of this material in one place.


Stellar idea, less than stellar results

2/5

This pdf is a combination of the exploration and kingdom building rules featured in the Kingmaker adventure path (AP #31 and 32 respectively). While it is a good idea to combine two sets of rules that are annoying to have apart, it's not worth the money if you already have those APs. There is some new content to the rules by way of some new buildings and kingdom events, but you can find content almost exactly like that (and more of it) for free on the kingmaker messageboard. The layout is nice and clear and the artwork is surprisingly good (kudos to the artists). There are also some expanded kingdom sheets in the back which are nice, but not nice enough to spend $3 on a slightly bigger sheet of paper with a few more lines. Could have greatly benefitted from new material, I would have even paid more if there was some serious crunch added. Just seems like a wasted opportunity for some serious expansion of the rules.


Not much new content

2/5

This is mostly a reprint from Pathfinder 31 (exploration) and 32 (kingdom building).

There is some new content (10 new buildings and 23 new events), but taken together, this is probably less than three pages out of 20. I cannot recommend this product to anyone owning said two volumes.

The rules themselves are solid. The PDF is a bit easier to read than the original PDF, due to a simpler layout and a different font. The step-by-step guides are nice.

If you do not have Pathfinder volume 31 and 32, but need some kingdom-building rules for a campaign of your own, you might give this product a try.


Great Ideas, but a few problems

4/5

Front Cover - 1 page
Chapter 2 - 2 pages, Exploration rules
Chapter 3 - 12 pages, Kingdom building rules
Appendix - 4 pages, various forms
OGL - 1 page

The Good: The sidebars are quite helpful, putting turn steps in one place and in an easy to reference format, ensuring steps can be taken in the right order and nothing forgotten.

Several new buildings are added, mostly consisting of various new types of craftsmen.

Several new events are also added, organized into Bad, Adventurer, Leadership, and Good sub-tables. The adventurer and leadership sub-tables have both good and bad events in them, but the categories all work and quite well.

The Kingdom form is roomy, and includes places to list the names of the kingdom's cities, and the values they contribute for the kingdom stats.

The Bad: There are a few spelling errors, though certainly not so many as to make the product unusable. Most notable of these are the spelling of burden as burdon, and spelling of edict as edit in several places.

The kingdom form in the appendix has places under the edicts section for Economy changes for Promotion and Festivals, and Unrest for Taxation, though none of those affect said traits. The Promotion/Festivals should have been slots for BPs and the Taxation for Loyalty.

The Ugly: The front cover is nice, with a parchment look and simple graphics that isn't overdone.
The interior illustrations are sparse, but good, and fit well with the product. I like less well the margin graphic on all the rules pages. It, while not bad-looking, is dark and increases the amount of ink that will be consumed when printing the book.

Overall I found this a good product, and liked the new rules additions. I would liked to have seen a more printer friendly layout, but it's not as bad as some other products have been in that regard.


Jon Brazer Enterprises

Available now at Paizo.com.

Silver Crusade

Does this connect to the Kingmaker AP? The description seems a little light.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Is there any kind of preview for the product anywhere?

Jon Brazer Enterprises

The Exploration and Kingdom Building rules come from a popular AP (I don't think I can say which ... but *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*) but are expanded to include more more events, more buildings, alternate ruler titles. Additionally there are flow charts to make exploration and kingdom turns easier. So when you enter a hex, you know that you automatically find the landmark sites, then explore the hex, discover the standard sites, then make a roll to discover the hidden sites. There's a similar one for a kingdom turn. The flow charts make it easy to have a quick reference so you know what to do without missing steps.

Currently the only preview available is on RPGNow. I'm working to get on my own site, but its going to take a few days (since I'm running a pathfinder game tonight).


So the basic set of rules are the same, ie. not more complex, but you have added buildings, etc.?

Also, how many (non-cover) pages is this, please?

-- david
Papa.DRB

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Papa-DRB wrote:
So the basic set of rules are the same, ie. not more complex, but you have added buildings, etc.?

*Bumps Nose* You got it sir.

Papa-DRB wrote:
Also, how many (non-cover) pages is this, please?

20 pages total. 1 page is the cover, 1 is OGL/Credits. Exploration Sheet is 1 page, City District sheet is 2 pages, Kingdom SHeet is 1 page. The remainder is pure content.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
The Exploration and Kingdom Building rules come from a popular AP (I don't think I can say which ...

The OGL is a little vague on that point. It's very clear that you can't advertise this as "Compatible with Kingmaker"... but it's also clear that if you take Open Game Content from, say, Pathfinder Adventure Path #31 and 32, you have to list them in your OGL Section 15 (which you did). The OGL is *not* clear on whether you can or cannot also mention that fact elsewhere.

My personal opinion is that the intent was probably "give credit where credit is due, as long as you're not using that credit to gain a marketing advantage." Certainly, Paizo wouldn't have any problem with you telling people as a matter of fact that you're building on the rules we published in Kingmaker, so long as you don't cross that line into "ideal for use with Kingmaker!"


I posted a review :D

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Geistlinger wrote:
I posted a review :D

Thank you for taking the time to review. I really hope you find it useful in your game.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

One preview of the new additions in the Book of the River Nations: Exploration and Kingdom Building rules, as requested.


You mention, on page 9, "Book of the River Nations: Mass Combat" but I don't see it for sale here?

-- david
Papa.DRB

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Papa-DRB wrote:

You mention, on page 9, "Book of the River Nations: Mass Combat" but I don't see it for sale here?

-- david
Papa.DRB

Still working on that one. At the rate I'm going, it should be up in 2-ish weeks. Once its finished, it'll be here.


*cool* Count on at least 1 sale....

-- david
Papa.DRB


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I've just posted my review over on RPGNow.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Geistlinger wrote:
I posted a review :D
Alzrius wrote:
I've just posted my review over on RPGNow.

Gentlemen. Thank you for your reviews. I am really glad you enjoyed the product.

You both mentioned a few minor errors. I just finished revising the Book of the River Nations and made sure to incorporate the errors that you both mentioned. The new version should be available from Paizo in the early part of the week.

Thank you for taking the time to review it; I really do appreciate it.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
I just finished revising the Book of the River Nations and made sure to incorporate the errors that you both mentioned. The new version should be available from Paizo in the early part of the week.

Updates to existing products actually become available as soon as you upload them... but the e-mail informing current purchasers about the update won't go out until Monday.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Vic Wertz wrote:
Updates to existing products actually become available as soon as you upload them... but the e-mail informing current purchasers about the update won't go out until Monday.

Thanks Vic.

In that case, everyone, there's a new version up and ready for you to download.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
In that case, everyone, there's a new version up and ready for you to download.

Thanks Dale! I just checked it out, and it looks great - you got most of the errors I saw.

The only ones still there are in the Kingdom Edicts sidebar on page 11. The first is that the "Token" Promotion edict should give a Stability bonus of +1, rather than the -1 listed. Similarly, the entry for 1 Festival Per Year should give a +1 Loyalty bonus, rather than -1.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Alright,

There are two reviews for the first Book of the River Nations that are 2 star reviews. Their reasons are "Not much new content" and "Could have greatly benefitted from new material," respectively. So allow me to give me my perspective and the goal of this product.

As a Pathfinder Compatible publisher, I cannot state that any new material is for use with Kingmaker. The license specifically states, "The list of products you may reference is set out in Exhibit B, which Paizo may update at any time. You may not reference any Paizo products that are not listed in Exhibit B without express written permission." (emphasis mine). That list does not include the Kingmaker AP. I wanted to support the Kingmaker rules (and infact have new material already written) but I have no way of letting people know that they are for use with Kingmaker.

So I made the decision reprint the Kingmaker rules. I need a place to start from and the rules were release as open content. I ran them past Paizo first to make sure they were ok with it and they gave me a green light.

As a result, the new material I will be releasing I can say they are for use with the Book of the River Nations rules. Its not a perfect situation, but it is as close as I can get.

The other reason I made this was for PLAYERS. Players typically do not buy adventure paths. As such, players, the very people who will be using these rules do not have them. For my own home Kingmaker game, I am copying and pasting these very rules from the PDF for them to use. I realized that I was not the only GM doing this very thing. And then there are plenty of GMs that don't subscribe to the subscription and just have the book itself. They have to type these rules in by hand or have to xerox their books. I don't know about anyone else, but the thought of doing that to my APs do not appeal to me.

So while I understand that these two reviewers were disappointed that it contained little new material, I can only say that new material is coming, but I first must establish a common ground for all to work from. And that means reprinting the rules. If you were disappointed with the Exploration and Kingdom Building rules, I highly recommend taking a pass at the Mass Combat rules being released tomorrow. While it is clarified and cleaned up, the rules are largely the same. You will be equally disappointed with those as well.

Having said that, I am sure the all new material (coming out early next year) will delight all. We are really excited about it and know that it will enhance the rules considerably.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Eventually I plan to buy this and when I do, I will review it.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Dark_Mistress wrote:
Eventually I plan to buy this and when I do, I will review it.

I appreciate that DM. Your reviews are always exceptional.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
Dark_Mistress wrote:
Eventually I plan to buy this and when I do, I will review it.
I appreciate that DM. Your reviews are always exceptional.

Flattery will get you everywhere and nearly everything with me. Everything but a good review anyways, unless the product is deserving. :)

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Dark_Mistress wrote:
Flattery will get you everywhere and nearly everything with me.

Did I mention how wonderful your wings look? ;)

Dark_Mistress wrote:
Everything but a good review anyways, unless the product is deserving. :)

Fair enough.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

Any update on the ETA for "Book of the River Nations: Mass Combat"?

Jon Brazer Enterprises

The Shining Fool wrote:
Any update on the ETA for "Book of the River Nations: Mass Combat"?

(The sun will come out) Tomorrow!

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Shining Fool, thank you for taking the time to write your review. I really appreciate it.


Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
Available now at Paizo.com.

Interested enough that the 3$ price tag is worth the looksee. if i like it i'll probably snag the followup. Also, DM is there anything you don't buy? good lord woman!


Dale McCoy Jr wrote:

Alright,

There are two reviews for the first Book of the River Nations that are 2 star reviews. Their reasons are "Not much new content" and "Could have greatly benefitted from new material," respectively. So allow me to give me my perspective and the goal of this product.

As a Pathfinder Compatible publisher, I cannot state that any new material is for use with Kingmaker. The license specifically states, "The list of products you may reference is set out in Exhibit B, which Paizo may update at any time. You may not reference any Paizo products that are not listed in Exhibit B without express written permission." (emphasis mine). That list does not include the Kingmaker AP. I wanted to support the Kingmaker rules (and infact have new material already written) but I have no way of letting people know that they are for use with Kingmaker.

So I made the decision reprint the Kingmaker rules. I need a place to start from and the rules were release as open content. I ran them past Paizo first to make sure they were ok with it and they gave me a green light.

As a result, the new material I will be releasing I can say they are for use with the Book of the River Nations rules. Its not a perfect situation, but it is as close as I can get.

The other reason I made this was for PLAYERS. Players typically do not buy adventure paths. As such, players, the very people who will be using these rules do not have them. For my own home Kingmaker game, I am copying and pasting these very rules from the PDF for them to use. I realized that I was not the only GM doing this very thing. And then there are plenty of GMs that don't subscribe to the subscription and just have the book itself. They have to type these rules in by hand or have to xerox their books. I don't know about anyone else, but the thought of doing that to my APs do not appeal to me.

So while I understand that these two reviewers were disappointed that it contained little new material, I can only say that new material is coming, but I...

In advance I just want to say that I am not out to get you or tear you down Mr. McCoy, so if I sound heated please please please don't take it personally. While your explaination is elucidating on why you did what you did, none of that made it to the product description. It is never stated that it is a guide for players, nor is it stated that this is the base from which a whole set of add-ons will spring. I'm not reviewing your product based on your intentions with it, I'm reviewing based on what was promised and what was delivered. The product description promises expanded rules, new buildings, and new encounters and in all of these areas I found them to be lacking. The new buildings seemed like copies of each other with a minor difference each and the new encounter table is inferior to the free one offered on the Kingmaker messageboard, hence the 2 star review. I get your whole "common ground" line of thought, but I find it very weak. Why not hold back this product until the new stuff is ready and then release them together? And while you can't say "Kingmaker" you could have said "This is a reprint of rules contained in AP #31-32" if Mr. Wertz earlier post is correct.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Hey Robert,

First off, I do want to say, thank you for taking the time to review and to respond to my post. I know I sounded defensive in the previous post. I should have taken the time to phrase a number of things differently. But ... I oopsed. So, for that, I am sorry.

Robert Cameron wrote:
While your explaination is elucidating on why you did what you did, none of that made it to the product description. It is never stated that it is a guide for players, nor is it stated that this is the base from which a whole set of add-ons will spring.

Totally fair. And you are right. I did a poor job of explaining it in the product description. I hope I did did a better job with the mass combat supplement.

Robert Cameron wrote:
I'm not reviewing your product based on your intentions with it, I'm reviewing based on what was promised and what was delivered. The product description promises expanded rules, new buildings, and new encounters and in all of these areas I found them to be lacking. The new buildings seemed like copies of each other with a minor difference each and the new encounter table is inferior to the free one offered on the Kingmaker messageboard, hence the 2 star review.

Also totally fair. You reviewed it in a manner you saw fit.

As far as the table on the message boards goes, I was not able to copy any material from the boards. I did, however, place an open call in that exact thread for submissions of the events table. 1 person responded and as such only the one person's events made it into the book. I wrote others myself that I found some to be similar to those on the thread and deleted them because I did not want anyone saying that I copied their idea without giving credit.

Robert Cameron wrote:
I get your whole "common ground" line of thought, but I find it very weak. Why not hold back this product until the new stuff is ready and then release them together?

That was a business decision to establish a common ground first and then to release additional expanded material, one that I still feel is a good idea. Short of the long: revenue generated from 1 product fuels the production of another. I understand if you do not find that explanation to your liking, but that is business.

Robert Cameron wrote:
And while you can't say "Kingmaker" you could have said "This is a reprint of rules contained in AP #31-32" if Mr. Wertz earlier post is correct.

At the point in time this was published, I did not have a written ok from Paizo. Mind you, I did not ask either. The Mass Combat supplement's product description reflects the above mentioned ok.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Reviewed, here and at ENworld.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Dark_Mistress wrote:
Reviewed, here and at ENworld.

DM, Thank you for doing so. I appreciate it.


I don't think I have the credentials to mount an official review, but I wanted to say this:
As a player, I think this product is worth the price. The only drawback is that we don't have images of the new buildings. As the record keeper for our group, I have been printing/cutting/pasting the little buildings from the official players guide onto our district maps.
But I will definatly look at new products from J.B. Enterprises in the future, based on the usefulness of this one.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Tallghost wrote:

I don't think I have the credentials to mount an official review, but I wanted to say this:

As a player, I think this product is worth the price. The only drawback is that we don't have images of the new buildings. As the record keeper for our group, I have been printing/cutting/pasting the little buildings from the official players guide onto our district maps.
But I will definatly look at new products from J.B. Enterprises in the future, based on the usefulness of this one.

I have no credentials. I just started doing reviews about a year ago and people apparently liked them. Which in my mind just proves people are crazy. So do your review and then another and another etc. Thats how it works.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

IMO, the only credentials you need to do a review is to answer "yes" to these two question: A) did you buy it? and B) did you read it? If you did both of those, you are perfectly qualified to do a review.

Shadow Lodge

Dark_Mistress wrote:
I have no credentials. I just started doing reviews about a year ago and people apparently liked them. Which in my mind just proves people are crazy. So do your review and then another and another etc. Thats how it works.

I think it is due to how in-depth most of your reviews tend to be. While most of us, given a book of feats, would simply review the book as a whole, you tend to give your impressions of at least most of the feats therein.

I must admit, I emulated your reviewing style for my review of Swords & Wizardry: Complete Rulebook.

And I'd like to thank you for noticing I'm crazy. :D

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Kthulhu wrote:
Dark_Mistress wrote:
I have no credentials. I just started doing reviews about a year ago and people apparently liked them. Which in my mind just proves people are crazy. So do your review and then another and another etc. Thats how it works.

I think it is due to how in-depth most of your reviews tend to be. While most of us, given a book of feats, would simply review the book as a whole, you tend to give your impressions of at least most of the feats therein.

I must admit, I emulated your reviewing style for my review of Swords & Wizardry: Complete Rulebook.

And I'd like to thank you for noticing I'm crazy. :D

Yeah depends on the size, some of the bigger books I can't give a impression on everything I would like or it would end up several pages long. :)

And there was no real noticing your crazy, you like my reviews and voted for my SGG book and then wanted a preorder. So yeah that like saying, hey glad you noticed the barn pink flying elephant, just not something your likely to not notice.


Dale McCoy Jr wrote:


As far as the table on the message boards goes, I was not able to copy any material from the boards. I did, however, place an open call in that exact thread for submissions of the events table. 1 person responded and as such only the one person's events made it into the book. I wrote others myself that I found some to be similar to those on the thread and deleted them because I did not want anyone saying that I copied their idea without giving credit.

If you do an update, feel free to use stuff from my posts, either under my actual name (Rob Vermeulen) or my Alias (Berhagen)


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Animal crime lord ? really ?

this was the only Jaw dropper that I found (so far). if I throw that at my players they will string me up from the nearest telephone pole.

ACL aside, I like having this info in a stand alone product. I also like most of the additions (though like some above I would have hoped for some more).

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Book of the River Nations: Exploration and Kingdom Building Rules have spent several weeks on Paizo's non-Paizo Top 10 downloads. Check it out and check out the Mass Combat Rules, a selection of Feats, Spells and Archetypes/Prestige Classes that would be helpful with these rules, or Pre-Order the Print version and get the PDF for FREE.

Liberty's Edge

In the Kingdom Rules it lists a Market as only needing 1 city block (by default as it doesn't say), but has the prerequisite of needing to be built adjacent to at least two houses.

However the token for the Market in the Pathfinder rules has it as a two Block space.

Which is correct?

I could be just missing something.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have and use this product every KM session, it puts in one location the rules from the first two modules. Is it absolutely necessary - Not if you have the modules. HOWEVER, it is exceptionally convenient to have the rules all in one spot.


Concern:

Page 6 and 7 of this book shows the Marshal and Warden to benefit Economy and Loyalty scores as per the rules in AP#32. However, the "updated" version of this in the Book of the River Nations- Complete Player's Referene for Kingdom Building has them reversed. What gives?!?!?!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

AFAIK, that's a deliberate decision made by Dale, since what's written in KM #2 for the warden fits historically better to the marshall and vice versa.

Ruyan.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Short of the long, these two products have different design goals. The individual PDFs (Exploration and Kingdom Building, Mass Combat, and Feats and Secret Societies) had the goal of getting the rules into players' hands with few a few expansions and no modifications. The Complete Players' Reference, however, corrected a number of things that I felt could be improved. Among them was the Marshal and the Warden. The original rules reversed their historical roles. So I corrected that.

I specifically didn't go back and revise the original PDFs for those that wanted the original rules. This way, you have the option of playing by the way presented in the AP or with some alterations. Your choice.

Edit: Ninja'ed by RuyanVe.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:

Short of the long, these two products have different design goals. The individual PDFs (Exploration and Kingdom Building, Mass Combat, and Feats and Secret Societies) had the goal of getting the rules into players' hands with few a few expansions and no modifications. The Complete Players' Reference, however, corrected a number of things that I felt could be improved. Among them was the Marshal and the Warden. The original rules reversed their historical roles. So I corrected that.

I specifically didn't go back and revise the original PDFs for those that wanted the original rules. This way, you have the option of playing by the way presented in the AP or with some alterations. Your choice.

Edit: Ninja'ed by RuyanVe.

THX Dale...I do love the product :)

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

For Black Friday, this PDF will be on sale for $0.99. Be sure to grab it this weekend for this low, LOW price.

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