Worlds at War
The search for the Queen of Witches finally ends when the Dancing Hut travels to Baba Yaga’s homeland of Russia on the planet Earth. The year is 1918, and the First World War rages throughout Europe. The heroes find themselves in the wilds of Siberia, where they must face Russian soldiers armed with twentieth-century technology to infiltrate an ancient monastery and rescue Baba Yaga from her estranged son, Grigori Rasputin. Can the heroes kill the “Mad Monk”—who has already cheated death once before—and free Baba Yaga, or will they fall before the horrors of modern war?
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Reign of Winter Adventure Path and includes:
“Rasputin Must Die!”, a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 13th-level characters, by Brandon Hodge.
A look into the cultural climate of Russia in the midst of revolution, along with rules for her weapons of war, by Adam Daigle and Brandon Hodge.
Revelations on Szuriel, the Horseman of War, and her brutal quest for souls, by Sean K Reynolds.
Spiders versus sentient dolls in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Kevin Andrew Murphy.
Four new monsters, by Adam Daigle, Brandon Hodge, and Sean K Reynolds.
Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world’s oldest fantasy RPG.
ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-496-2
Rasputin Must Die! is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (639 KB zip/PDF).
DriveThruRPG: This product is available as print-on-demand from DriveThruRPG:
I had been looking forward to this one simply on account of the title. I have to say that the story elements and the setting were top notch. Where we all found it lost points was just how overpowered we found most of the fights. Even for experienced players we found them too difficult for the levels.
Everything about this book - from Brandon Hodge's introduction to the back-matter to the inside-cover items - was a joy and a pleasure to read!
This is, by far, my favorite book/module/scenario/AP to have read and GM'd - slightly edging out "The Flesh Collector" PFS scenario, even!
My players were having so much fun with this book that I purposefully dragged out RP and certain sections of it so the book took us longer than any of the others, and they loved every minute of it.
It is simply amazing.
There are several 'look so mad' things, but,
actually all of them are perfectly harmonized without way over the line.
Rasputin must Die! is definetly top of the adventure path line.
Highly recommend!
Brandon Hodge was definitely the best choice for this adventure. He expertly handled historical content and mixed the fantasy with real world elements in a way that enhanced the story. I love this adventure and he it gives me hope for seeing more boundary pushing content from Brandon and from Paizo as a whole.
I admit when this was first announced I was at best sceptical of the entire idea however having read and Dm'd it I can say I have never been happier to be completly wrong about a product before. Ths is an incredible adventure path instalment and I cant recomend it enough.
To be honest I was quite skeptical and unenthused by this whole concept, but having read it I thought it was brilliantly executed and very well-written. The fairytale-like fantasy elements have been meshed really well together with the early C20th and crazy-scientist parts.
It also has my favorite iteration of Baba Yaga's hut so far. All the references to real-world fairytales are pretty cool.
So, I was at the local Books-A-Million today and thought, "hey, I wonder what Pathfinder books they have". I walked over there, and found this one, and decided to thumb through it...
so...if I didn't want to play the others, would this be structured well enough to do a one shot?
You'd need to come up with why your PCs have wound up in the Hut and why they're saving Dear Grandmother. Yaga is wise and powerful, and always makes plans; maybe an great power owes the Old Crone for a service she did (something that's simple yet over-the-top is probably best, like midwife a divine birth) and now seeks to repay its debt.
Feel free to make your premise as insane as you think your group will accept. After all, you are running Rasputin Must Die! as a one shot.
Once you've gotten around how the heck the PCs wound up in the Hut, you can pretty much just roll with the rest. It may well spin off into other things.
Alternatively, have them get to Earth via another method, use something like the World Serpent Inn or Sigil or other planar causeway that could logically bridge the gap between worlds/settings.
Change the premise of saving Baba Yaga into stopping Rasputin's engine of potentially worldS ending destruction, and I think that's plenty of premise right there.
I was thinking if the adventurers were elves and were able to stay on earth, would they be able to live long enough to go to my house and look at an adventure about themselves?
Is it possible to run this adventure as a stand alone without running the entire adventure path? I would dearly like to drop my players into the middle of WWI!
AFAIK, anyone who owns one or more AP volumes has always been perfectly free to run any AP volume as a stand-alone adventure, or to work it into their home campaign as part of their PCs’ ongoing careers. You’ll need to come up with explanations, that work in your own campaign, for how the PCs got their hands on Baba Yaga’s Hut (or the comparable McGuffin) to get them to Earth, and why they’re going there, but that aside, it’s dealer’s (or GM’s) choice. ;)
JRR, it would be exceptionally easy to rework RMD as either a standalone adventure or one modified to plug into your home campaign at appropriate levels.
With a slight modification to the hook to encourage PCs to rescue Baba Yaga for one reason or another, it could be as easy as giving them entry to the Hut or even plugging its first room (and subsequent chambers) into a pre-existing dungeon to act as a portal to Earth. I'm sure once you read it you'll find the possibilities for an easy transition to your home campaign will be numerous.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
It played less well than it read though in my campaign. The whole monastery is written as rather static and, as usual, assumes the players take it on in on go. It requires a lot of work, for example, not to stretch the imagination too much. if the PCs take their time and retreat to the Hut to recover. How long does Rasputin's ritual take, and how are the PCs even supposed to know that they might be on the clock?
The ritual follows The Rule of Cool - it is always five minutes to completion when PCs enter the final room.
I've used the monastery as a toolbox, splitting it into escalating multi-stage fights. In the end, the PCs retreated once and once they were back it was the final big rumble against the Polkovnik and everything that was left alive (or undead) within the inner monastery.
I've been running a game of Pathfinder set on Earth during prohibition where the players are mafia members and I'm slipping this book in and I'm very excited to play it out. Been wanting to run RMD forever and I've been constructing the prison camp and getting all the minis for it.