Pathfinder Adventure Path: Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path: Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (PFRPG)
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In the sleepy coastal town of Sandpoint, evil is brewing. An attack by crazed goblins reveals the shadows of a forgotten past returning to threaten the town—and perhaps all of Varisia. The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins with this goblin raid and takes players on an epic journey through the land of Varisia as they track a cult of serial killers, fight backwoods ogres, stop an advancing army of stone giants, delve into ancient dungeons, and finally face off against a wizard-king in his ancient mountaintop city. This hardcover compilation updates the fan-favorite campaign to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules with revised and new content in more than 400 pages packed with mayhem, excitement, and adventure!

Celebrating both the fifth anniversary of the Pathfinder Adventure Path and the tenth anniversary of Paizo Publishing, this new edition expands the original campaign with new options and refined encounters throughout, incorporating 5 years of community feedback.

    The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition contains:
  • All six chapters of the original Adventure Path, expanded and updated for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
  • Articles on the major locations of Rise of the Runelords: sleepy Sandpoint, the ancient Thassilonian city of Xin-Shalast, and others.
  • Revelations on the sinister magic of Thassilon, with updated spells, magic items, and details on tracking sin points throughout the campaign.
  • A bestiary featuring eight monsters updated from the original Adventure Path, plus an all-new terror.
  • Dozens of new illustrations, never-before-seen characters, location maps, and more!

The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is not part of any subscription.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-436-8

FAQ:

Q: Will you be doing hardcover compilations of all of your Adventure Paths?
A: No. This is a special celebration of our very first Adventure Path on its 5th Anniversary. Several of the original volumes of Rise of the Runelords have been unavailable in print for a long time, yet it remains one of our most popular adventure paths; that circumstance presents a unique opportunity for us to expand and update it for use with the Pathfinder RPG, and to apply lessons we've learned about making Adventure Paths over the last half-decade. Our other adventure paths are largely still in print, and many of them were designed for use with the Pathfinder RPG to begin with; we have no plans to recompile them.

Q: Is there anything missing from the original AP volumes?
A: Yes—otherwise, this book would be more than 600 pages long! Some of the monsters and other things created for Rise of the Runelords are now part of the official Pathfinder RPG rules, so they're not reprinted here. The original volumes also included monster ecologies, bestiary entries, and other campaign setting material that isn't directly used in the adventure itself; those items are also not present in this collection. The Pathfinder Journal fiction featuring Eando Kline is not presented here either, but it has been compiled—along with the installments from the subsequent two Adventure Paths—as The Compass Stone, now available in ePub form. We have also replaced some of the artwork from the previous edition, and replaced the six individual introductions with one new one.

Q: What is included in the digital version?
A: In addition to the full version, the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition download includes the Interactive Maps and a Lite version for reading on portable electronic devices.

Download the Web Enhancement! - (180 KB zip PDF)
Originally posted to the Paizo blog for Pathfinder Adventure Path #5.

Bring your campaign to life!
The Rise of the Runelords Mega SoundPack from Syrinscape is a complete audio solution for playing through the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.

Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules and Chronicle sheets for running this Adventure Path are available as a free download (438 KB zip/PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
SoundSet on Syrinscape
Archives of Nethys

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This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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Epic introduction to Golarian, updated beautifully.

5/5

This is a beautiful update to the first Golarion based AP Paizo released. It consolidates all the volumes of the original into one easy to use book. Lots of the artwork has been updated significantly improving on many of the pieces from the original. The original stuff wasn't bad, just a big cartoony. It also updates the stats of everything using the Pathfinder 1st edition rules.

It was what kicked off the world's introduction to Golarion. This volume gave it a facelift and nice boost. My group took about 2.5 years to play through it to completion. Right around 500 hours of play. So tons of game play in it. It was the first campaign I've ever "completed" as a GM. It was only the 2nd campaign I've ever "completed" as a player or GM. I've played in dozens of other campaigns that never completed and only fizzled out. My players loved it and still talk about it and we are 1/3 of the way through Skull & Shackles having been playing it for a year.

Of all the APs Paizo has released this one likely has the most official and unofficial support for it. There are thousands of pages of fan material done for it. Paizo message boards, Facebook groups, fan pages, fan zines (Wayfinder #7 is completely devoted to it) and more have been done for it. Giving GMs unparalleled resources and support for it. It's no wonder it is one of the most popular APs they've done. I highly recommend all the additional support for it. Especially the fan stuff, it fills in lots of missing holes that just couldn't be filled in the AP itself.

I'm not sure how I feel about the construction quality of the book itself. We played for 2.5 years, but we played virtually via Fantasy Grounds with the data module for it there. A lot of my referencing and work was done through the module on the computer. I'd say in the end I only used the printed book about 1/3 the time I would have if I would have played through it in person. The binding is very loose for what I consider a small amount of usage. Other than the binding the cover itself is in good condition. I've got a feeling that had it gotten nothing but in person play and reference the binding would have fallen off by now. I'm not hard on my books, I always use the proper method of easing the binding of a new hardcover book, and I'm not rough in my handling of them. So this feels like it isn't made with the quality I would expect.

Book construction quality aside, this AP checks all the high adventure checkboxes. Wizards, dragons, goblins, magic, ancient civilizations, epic treasures, giants, ogres, dungeon crawls, sieges, wilderness exploration, haunted houses, city based stuff. You name it. This fully deserves the 5 stars I give it.


A Legendary Campaign Receives the Deluxe Package it Deserves

5/5

NO SPOILERS

I honestly don't even know where to start in reviewing this book. It was my bible for the longest campaign I've ever ran, and I've paged through its 428 pages so many times, I'm surprised my copy is in as good of shape as it is. Equalled only by the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover compilation, the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is the most detailed, impressive, and gorgeous presentation of a campaign I've ever seen. It's a testament to James Jacob and the wonderful visual and art design folks at Paizo for putting it together. In addition to the core adventures, the book includes an incredible array of supplementary material throughout its appendices: gazetteers, bestiaries, new magic items, and more. And interspersed throughout are full-colour, detailed maps, high-quality artwork of NPCs and monsters, handouts, useful sidebars to help the GM in running particular scenes, and more. I really can't rave enough about it.

I've already reviewed the substance of each of the six chapters of the adventure path in my reviews of issues # 1-6 of the monthly publication they originally appeared in (available on the Paizo website). This Anniversary Edition is no lazy cut & paste compilation or mere updating of the original 3.5 rules to Pathfinder. Everything has been refined, revised, polished, and packaged together to make a whole that is even better than the sum of its original parts. James Jacob read through countless posts on the forums about the original adventures and added encounters, explanations, and more to help everything flow even better. I've compared the original versions to this revised package, and with only a couple of exceptions, the revisions are a sound improvement.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the best presentation of a classic fantasy role-playing campaign available. You'll get hundreds of hours of gameplay out of it, experience characters growing from battling goblins at level 1 to battling the greatest threats the setting has to offer at level 18. It's a satisfying, meaty, epic campaign, and this Anniversary Edition does it full justice.


Also on Fantasy Grounds!

5/5

I don't understand why this is not mentioned here but by paying 60$ you get both the pdf version of the adventure as well as the Fantasy Grounds VTT plug in that saves you TONS of prepping. This adventure is excellent, with a lot of scary and funny moments and is a must-buy for all Pathfinder fans out there!


They all need this treatment

5/5

I have the original softcovers. I collected them up to the 50's and when I changed jobs money was tighter and I couldn't keep up. Recently going back to pick up some of the ones I missed I was shocked to see prices as high as 234.00 for a single softcover. There are a lot of Pathfinder fans who didnt get the softcovers when they were first released and these hardcovers are excellent as well as being affordable.

The book itself is solid. Takes up less space on my shelf, is a great first series of adventures, looks beautiful, is fun to play and is just overall well worth the money i spent on it. I will also be picking up Crimson Throne hardcover and hope they continue on and it was the adventure paths that drew me to PF in the first place.


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James Jacobs wrote:

From the end of "Concluding the Campaign" in Pathfinder 6:

** spoiler omitted **

Delicious.


If the Harridan is now a template why not allow it to apply to all types of Lamia for a bigger badder version of anyone you want?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Dragon78 wrote:
If the Harridan is now a template why not allow it to apply to all types of Lamia for a bigger badder version of anyone you want?

Would that be so bad?

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC

James Jacobs wrote:

From the end of "Concluding the Campaign" in Pathfinder 6:

** spoiler omitted **

*sniff* *sniff*

Is that mythic adventures I smell?


Return of the Runelords....we aren't talking anything Golarian-shattering here are we? I mean that in a Forgotten Realms-shattering destroying the setting I once loved sense.

Shadow Lodge

Gotta have some world-shattering event to accompany PF 2E! :)


Gururamalamaswami wrote:
Return of the Runelords....we aren't talking anything Golarian-shattering here are we? I mean that in a Forgotten Realms-shattering destroying the setting I once loved sense.

As has been the case with a few adventure paths, I expect that's really up to the players and whether or not they succeed in preventing said Golarion-shattering event. Unless Paizo means to deviate from their current approach to setting-altering events (being that shaping the setting is up to the people sitting around the game tables), I think Golarion as we know it is relatively safe.


Hmmm, I have been aching to run Rise of the Runelords for about 6 months now. Its our first Pathfinder campaign and the idea of a main enemy that is thousands of years old and stated up with the old rules system of 3.5 against a group of pathfinder characters resonates very well with our group. Almost a coming of age, or transition ritual. So I struggle to decide if I want to use the AP books I inherited from my friends or if I should wait another 6 months to use a fully up to date version.
What would you do? Mr. Jacobs?

Sovereign Court

James, you are a delicious tease!

Liberty's Edge

Since Pathfinder Rangers cannot have bears as an animal companion:

Spoiler:
Are you going to have a different type of animal caught in the bear trap that turns out to be Jakardros' animal companion who eventually leads the PCs to the Grauls?

Thanks!


Still can't get here fast enough!

Grand Lodge

I know!!!! The wait is killing me... >.<

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ven wrote:

Hmmm, I have been aching to run Rise of the Runelords for about 6 months now. Its our first Pathfinder campaign and the idea of a main enemy that is thousands of years old and stated up with the old rules system of 3.5 against a group of pathfinder characters resonates very well with our group. Almost a coming of age, or transition ritual. So I struggle to decide if I want to use the AP books I inherited from my friends or if I should wait another 6 months to use a fully up to date version.

What would you do? Mr. Jacobs?

I would wait for the upcoming revised book. It's a cute idea to have the PCs fight an "older edition" version, but it'd also be kinda underwhelming and frustrating, I would think.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

HangarFlying wrote:

Since Pathfinder Rangers cannot have bears as an animal companion:

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks!

Yes.

Spoiler:
Kibb the bear is now Kibb the firepelt cougar.

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
HangarFlying wrote:

Since Pathfinder Rangers cannot have bears as an animal companion:

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks!

Yes.

** spoiler omitted **

I guess I'll have to update the paper minis set!

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

James Jacobs wrote:
HangarFlying wrote:

Since Pathfinder Rangers cannot have bears as an animal companion:

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks!

Yes.

** spoiler omitted **

Too bad.

Spoiler:
I quite liked Kibb the Bear. I was secretly hoping that instead of swapping out the stats, we would get to see a new option for Bear animal companions.

Oh, well. I'm sure the rest of the book will be awesome enough to make up for it :-)

Liberty's Edge

Just for reference then, fire pelt cougars use the same stats as small cats, correct?

Thanks for the response, James!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

HangarFlying wrote:

Just for reference then, fire pelt cougars use the same stats as small cats, correct?

Thanks for the response, James!

Correct... although I still don't like that we called that category "small cat" since that makes it sound like a house cat. Would have preferred to name that category "Cougar/Leopard/Cheetah" or something like that.

Liberty's Edge

I agree. The first time I saw small cat I thought: well, that isn't very manly.

Grand Lodge

I rather like Wild Cat and Great Cat myself. :)


Will the battle maps be updated for this new version as well? I love how there are now player maps and DM maps with different info on them (e.g. no secret doors on player maps). I like to print out the map pdfs to scale and play on those. Having secret doors etc. on them can be a real frustration.

Just curious.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Heine Stick wrote:
Gururamalamaswami wrote:
Return of the Runelords....we aren't talking anything Golarian-shattering here are we? I mean that in a Forgotten Realms-shattering destroying the setting I once loved sense.
As has been the case with a few adventure paths, I expect that's really up to the players and whether or not they succeed in preventing said Golarion-shattering event. Unless Paizo means to deviate from their current approach to setting-altering events (being that shaping the setting is up to the people sitting around the game tables), I think Golarion as we know it is relatively safe.

I really wouldn't mind Paizo introducing a bit more meta-plot and some powerful and memorable good guys into the world. One of my players recently complained about the world feeling too static and I for one agree with him. It's really sort of that World of Warcraft MMO feeling, where your passage as a hero isn't really noted in the world, although supposedly you helped everyone you met.

Golarion needs, IMO, a lesser version of Elminster. Someone who is not as ridiculously powerful as him, but yet powerful enough to give us an indication why all those high CR monsters hanging around have not simply ROFL-stomped the good guys.

Someone who is memorable and should be a recurring character in several AP's. There is, again IMO, a disconnect between AP's, which makes the world feel less alive. I was really very happy when Ramoska Arkminos turned up in Carrion Crown. I wish Laori Vaus would make an appearance in Shattered Star.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
magnuskn wrote:
Someone who is memorable and should be a recurring character in several AP's. There is, again IMO, a disconnect between AP's, which makes the world feel less alive. I was really very happy when Ramoska Arkminos turned up in Carrion Crown. I wish Laori Vaus would make an appearance in Shattered Star.

Interesting that after calling out for more good guys, you mention two evil characters! :-P

That said, I hear where you're coming from. There ARE some powerful good guys in the setting, but we've been hesitant to do much at all with them so far, primarily after seeing how that went with Forgotten Realms. We really want the PCs to be the main good guys in the setting, after all.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
magnuskn wrote:
Someone who is memorable and should be a recurring character in several AP's. There is, again IMO, a disconnect between AP's, which makes the world feel less alive. I was really very happy when Ramoska Arkminos turned up in Carrion Crown. I wish Laori Vaus would make an appearance in Shattered Star.

Interesting that after calling out for more good guys, you mention two evil characters! :-P

That said, I hear where you're coming from. There ARE some powerful good guys in the setting, but we've been hesitant to do much at all with them so far, primarily after seeing how that went with Forgotten Realms. We really want the PCs to be the main good guys in the setting, after all.

Well, that I mentioned two evil ( arguable, in the case of Laori ^^ ) people stems from exactly the problem I tried to describe... they are some of the most interesting characters in Curse of the Crimson Throne, there are very few people on the good guys side who have that kind of pull. Trinia Sabor, Thousand Bones and Cressida Kroft don't have that hook which translates to an instant coolness factor.

And I realize that you want to avoid a situation like the Forgotten Realms, where there were so many completely overpowered good aligned characters that many players were discouraged to ever become as influential and important as them. But I personally think that Golarion falls too much on the other side of the equation, there are way too few cool good characters who seem to be pulling some strings in the background and who the PC's can meet in different campaigns.

I don't even know if the AP's are the place to make Golarion really come to life, I think novels would probably be a better avenue. As much as a lot of people dislike Drizzt and Elminster, their novels sold well and their names became synonymous for the Forgotten Realms ( for good or for ill ).

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Novels and adventures accomplish two different things. And frankly, what you're looking for—heroes—isn't something you'll be finding a lot of in adventures, since the heroes in an adventure are the PCs, and that's pretty much the ONLY part of an adventure's story we don't (because we can't) talk about.

That said, we are publishing novels set in Golarion now. We're deliberately skewing the novel stories to tell "small" stories rather than world-changing ones, so that more or less means that the heroes in the novels will be low or mid level more often than they're high level.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:

Novels and adventures accomplish two different things. And frankly, what you're looking for—heroes—isn't something you'll be finding a lot of in adventures, since the heroes in an adventure are the PCs, and that's pretty much the ONLY part of an adventure's story we don't (because we can't) talk about.

That said, we are publishing novels set in Golarion now. We're deliberately skewing the novel stories to tell "small" stories rather than world-changing ones, so that more or less means that the heroes in the novels will be low or mid level more often than they're high level.

Oh, I get that the PC's are the heroes in the AP's, so some more powerful dude showing them up is counterproductive. Although there are easy plot points which can explain why said high-level NPC can't do exactly that.

As for the novels, I personally think you might want to give them a bit variation. To take an example from the BattleTech novels, there were lots of novels about yet another scrappy mercenary outfit overcoming adversity to make it big in the end ( which would compare to novels with low- and mid-level characters ), but the ones which turned out to be the ones which shaped the BattleTech universe were the ones by Michael Stackpole. Those involved the leaders and big movers of the Inner Sphere and the Clans and gave that universe most of its iconic characters.

Of course I am just pointing out where my personal interests lie and what I'd like to see to make Golarion feel less static and more like something which evolves over the years. I know that you guys actually want the setting to be as player character driven as possible ( which ironically makes it more even static, as the actual results of the AP's cannot be discussed in too much detail ). You are moving a little bit beyond that with the Shattered Star AP, but as you can't really talk about the "canon" outcomes of the old AP's, due to your current policy, it will probably end up in the vein of "And over in Korvosa, Queen Ileosa something something, while Karzoug mumble-mumble and the Drow in the Mierani Forest this'n that". :p

But at least for me seeing the meta-plot of the Forgotten Realms advance helped me much in creating homebrewn campaigns in that world and made me care about it much more than I care currently about Golarion. That I have to take characters from other universes to point to and say "I want my character to be as cool as that guy!" is still a big minus in my book. I still have hopes to see that change over the next few years. :)

Shadow Lodge

magnuskn wrote:
Well, that I mentioned two evil ( arguable, in the case of Laori ^^ ) people stems from exactly the problem I tried to describe... they are some of the most interesting characters in Curse of the Crimson Throne, there are very few people on the good guys side who have that kind of pull.

The interesting good characters are [insert PC names here].

And Laori is definitely evil. In fact, her alignment is Cute Evil. ;)
Just because someone is kinda cheery and upbeat, that doesn't mean they're less evil.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Kthulhu wrote:
magnuskn wrote:
Well, that I mentioned two evil ( arguable, in the case of Laori ^^ ) people stems from exactly the problem I tried to describe... they are some of the most interesting characters in Curse of the Crimson Throne, there are very few people on the good guys side who have that kind of pull.

The interesting good characters are [insert PC names here].

And Laori is definitely evil. In fact, her alignment is Cute Evil. ;)
Just because someone is kinda cheery and upbeat, that doesn't mean they're less evil.

Believe me, after you read Mikazes ( sadly sporadic ) tales about her in his campaign, "cute evil" doesn't cut it anymore. ;)


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I really can't see at all what is supposed to be cute or even symapthetic about this Laori character. I think I'd find her insufferable.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Zaister wrote:
I really can't see at all what is supposed to be cute or even symapthetic about this Laori character. I think I'd find her insufferable.

To each his own. Laori was, as for now at least, the most memorable character presented in the AP's I've GM'ed and/or read.


James Jacobs wrote:

There ARE some powerful good guys in the setting, but we've been hesitant to do much at all with them so far, primarily after seeing how that went with Forgotten Realms. We really want the PCs to be the main good guys in the setting, after all.

Theis caution is appreciated. It's only occasionally bothersome, such as when the PC who just died happened to be the only one who could have raised or resurrected a party; but it can also be a little weird for groups that establish ties to a place like Sandpoint.

Father Zantus is 4th L I think. I randomly determined the levels of the other five ranking clerics in the multifaith Cathedral, and Sarenrae's happened to be 6th. I decided that was a non-issue since being "in charge" of the Cathedral would be a mostly administrative position anyway. But one of the PC's -- a Sandpoint local and relation of The Chopper -- is now a 14th L cleric of Sarenrae, and still defers to the (now 7th) L priestess back in town.

Celebrity claims nothwithstanding, I have a hard time believing that, for example, Jennifer Lopez is just "Jenny from the block." High level PCs are going to get shoved into new roles even when not adventuring, unless there are mid-to-high level NPCs who can do the job.


James Jacobs wrote:
That said, we are publishing novels set in Golarion now. We're deliberately skewing the novel stories to tell "small" stories rather than world-changing ones, so that more or less means that the heroes in the novels will be low or mid level more often than they're high level.

Along that tangent; I've read and enjoyed "Death's Heretic" - and awaiting delivery of "Master of Devils". But something that I'd like to see in the Golarion novels is a story that is scoped over more books. I'm NOT thinking of something more "epic" - the level of story captured in the Golarion books really suits me. But I'd really want to see a 6-part book series which tells a rich and complex tale that does justice to its page-count.

If you had the pleasure of reading The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson... that is the kind of thing I'd love to see, but done for Golarion.


Were that to happen, it would be interesting to see something epic in scale, but historical, rather than set in Golarion's present-day era.

Something like a series covering the Shining Crusade against Tar-Baphon could be pretty amazing. Epic bad guys, epic good guys, the death of Arazni, the rise of Iomadae, etc.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Volaran wrote:

Were that to happen, it would be interesting to see something epic in scale, but historical, rather than set in Golarion's present-day era.

Something like a series covering the Shining Crusade against Tar-Baphon could be pretty amazing. Epic bad guys, epic good guys, the death of Arazni, the rise of Iomadae, etc.

But that's the whole crux of the problem. :-/ Golarion has an amazing history of incredibly epic s*** happening left and right... but it's all in the past. There were epic heroes... but they have been mostly dead for some time.

But right now, it's in complete stasis. Yeah, things are happening in the AP's, but because of the way they are designed, those events don't seem to be felt elsewhere in the world.


Sorry if that wasn't clear. I didn't quote, but I was mostly responding to LoreKeeper's interest in more epically scaled novels set in Golarion. I'm actually pretty content with the APs as they are.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
magnuskn wrote:
Zaister wrote:
I really can't see at all what is supposed to be cute or even symapthetic about this Laori character. I think I'd find her insufferable.
To each his own. Laori was, as for now at least, the most memorable character presented in the AP's I've GM'ed and/or read.

That's not a contradiction to what I said. I wasn't inferring that character couldn't be memorable.

I just don't see how one could refer to this murderous psychopath as cute or even just sympathetic.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
magnuskn wrote:
But right now, it's in complete stasis. Yeah, things are happening in the AP's, but because of the way they are designed, those events don't seem to be felt elsewhere in the world.

You say that as if it was a bad thing.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Zaister wrote:
magnuskn wrote:
Zaister wrote:
I really can't see at all what is supposed to be cute or even symapthetic about this Laori character. I think I'd find her insufferable.
To each his own. Laori was, as for now at least, the most memorable character presented in the AP's I've GM'ed and/or read.

That's not a contradiction to what I said. I wasn't inferring that character couldn't be memorable.

I just don't see how one could refer to this murderous psychopath as cute or even just sympathetic.

Well, I guess you GM'ed/saw her GM'ed differently than I did. ^^


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
magnuskn wrote:
Well, I guess you GM'ed/saw her GM'ed differently than I did. ^^

I just read the adventures, never played them.

As a GM I'd hate to have to play a character like that and would probably swap her out for another character. As a player I would hate if my party would want to associate with her. Her whole character concept repels me. On top of that, the illustration is ridiculously bad which doesn't help. To be honest, I've only read the first three adventures, the whole leaving the city for two adventures just when things are beginning to get interesting put me right off this AP for the time being.

I'd probably swap out the whole Brotherhood, as Zon-Kuthon is the one evil deity that I can't really get behind as a GM, and I'd much rather not have to use his religion in my game.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Zaister wrote:
magnuskn wrote:
Well, I guess you GM'ed/saw her GM'ed differently than I did. ^^

I just read the adventures, never played them.

As a GM I'd hate to have to play a character like that and would probably swap her out for another character. As a player I would hate if my party would want to associate with her. Her whole character concept repels me. On top of that, the illustration is ridiculously bad which doesn't help. To be honest, I've only read the first three adventures, the whole leaving the city for two adventures just when things are beginning to get interesting put me right off this AP for the time being.

I'd probably swap out the whole Brotherhood, as Zon-Kuthon is the one evil deity that I can't really get behind as a GM, and I'd much rather not have to use his religion in my game.

I sense an irreconcilable difference of taste here. :p

But for me the anime artwork worked quite well and, yeah, I could have GM'ed her as more of a creepy disturbed person. I did under-emphasize that factor, because I know my players well and she wouldn't have survived to appear later on if I had done that.

Also, you can really add a lot of complexity to her. I recommend looking that post from Mikaze. Link.


Volaran wrote:
Sorry if that wasn't clear. I didn't quote, but I was mostly responding to LoreKeeper's interest in more epically scaled novels set in Golarion. I'm actually pretty content with the APs as they are.

Now a trilogy handling the Shining Crusade would undeniably be epic reading material. But technically what I'm asking for is *not* a more grandiose/epic story itself - but a more complex story that takes more than 300 pages to fully unfold. It is fine to have comparatively mundane characters - representing maybe level 8 or so on the high-end of things - but that doesn't mean that their story has to be less deep or meaningful than the one surrounding the Shining Crusade.


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magnuskn wrote:

I sense an irreconcilable difference of taste here. :p

But for me the anime artwork worked quite well and, yeah, I could have GM'ed her as more of a creepy disturbed person. I did under-emphasize that factor, because I know my players well and she wouldn't have survived to appear later on if I had done that.

Also, you can really add a lot of complexity to her. I recommend looking that post from Mikaze. Link.

Looked at the thread, still don't get it. There is nothing positive at all about this character to me.

Anyway, this doesn't really belong here. Sorry for "threadjacking".


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magnuskn wrote:


But that's the whole crux of the problem. :-/ Golarion has an amazing history of incredibly epic s*** happening left and right... but it's all in the past. There were epic heroes... but they have been mostly dead for some time.

But right now, it's in complete stasis. Yeah, things are happening in the AP's, but because of the way they are designed, those events don't seem to be felt elsewhere in the world.

I don't see that as a problem. As I understand it, there is a deliberate design intent to NOT assume any AP has "happened" yet in any other content. The one exception to this that I can think of is Rise of the Runelords, which I think James Jacobs said was done as an experiment.

Otherwise, this is supposed to be an age of new heroes appearing... and the world-impact-continuity is up to the GM to provide. If a GM runs Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne, for example, in either order, it is up to him/her to make whatever adjustments he/she feels necessary so that the events of the first one are reflected (as needed and desired) in the second.

By assuming that all occur without depending upon the others, the GM is free to choose which APs or adventures occur, and in what order.

Likewise, the absence of numerous high-level NPCs is there to give the Players the chance to grow into those roles... and to become those NPCs in later parts of that GM's campaign version of Golarion.


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That's fine and dandy if this were a homebrewn campaign. I've done much the same back when I was running Forgotten Realms homebrewns and could mention the players old characters to them in the following campaign.

But as of now I run AP's and those, up until now, always drop the players into what feels like a sterilized setting, with completely new NPC characters and no connection to old AP's.

It would just be cool if some known NPC would turn up, so that the players can go "Hey, it's that guy/lady!". Paizo has done this very sparingly, with Shalelu ( who is somewhat of a stoic, which doesn't help too much in making her memorable ), Ameiko Kaijitsu and now Ramoska Arminos.

It would just be nice to see more connection between the AP's, to see that this is a living, breathing world. I hope Shattered Star can move in that direction, after all it plays in Varisia and, as stated by James, is after the events of the first three AP's.

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