Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curse of the Crimson Throne (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curse of the Crimson Throne (PFRPG)
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A Campaign Fit For a Queen

The kings and queens of Korvosa have long ruled under the shadow of the Curse of the Crimson Throne—an infamous superstition claiming that no monarch of the city of Korvosa shall ever die of old age or produce an heir. Whether or not there is any truth to the legend of the curse, Korvosa's current king is but the latest victim to succumb to this foul legacy. Now, the metropolis teeters on the edge of anarchy, and it falls to a band of new heroes to save Korvosa from the greatest threat it has ever known! This hardcover compilation updates the fan-favorite campaign for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, including new and revised content and nearly 500 pages packed with mayhem, excitement, and adventure!

This hardcover edition of Curse of the Crimson Throne contains:

  • All six chapters of the original Adventure Path, expanded and updated for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
  • An in-depth gazetteer of the city of Korvosa as it exists under the rule of its new queen.
  • An array of new rules options for characters, ranging from campaign traits to spells to magic items.
  • An expansive appendix with statistics, descriptions, backgrounds, and rules support for the 12 most important NPCs in the campaign.
  • A bestiary featuring nine monsters from the original Adventure Path making their debut under the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules.
  • Dozens of new illustrations, never-before-seen characters, location maps, extensive new encounter locations, and more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-890-8

Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Sanctioned Content
Curse of the Crimson Throne is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild.

Download the rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheets — (681 kb zip/PDF)

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

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

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The Gold Standard For Adventure Paths

5/5

This AP is widely considered one of the (if not THE) best Adventure Paths for good reason. It really is that good. Tons of really interesting NPCs and storylines. Lots and lots and lots of room for a GM to add their own touches. An excellent story that makes the PCs feel like heroes. Villains they really want to beat. Heck, it's even a good introduction to the pathfinder system and world.

Not only that, but since it's so popular, there's tons of advice about what changes to make, what to keep an eye on, and how to make changes that can improve it. This edition is a fantastic deal and an excellent campaign and I can't recommend it highly enough.


Frick it my review got deleted

5/5

I wrote fricking long review about great time I had with running the whole campaign(and post campaign) and then it got deleted by the fricking "too much backtracking" page dagnabbit

I'm not gonna write the entire thing again, so here is in short: This campaign has great recurring NPC cast(most of later APs have problem with introducing cool NPCs and then rest of books never mentioning them again), great themes, great villains, Kazavon's awesome hair, allows multiple approaches to different situations(such as infiltrating with sneaking or talking through places instead of just fighting through them. Kinda reminds me of Deux Ex computer games in a way), awesome locations, awesome post campaign potential and is one of my favourite APs ever.


Good value, but some reservations

4/5

Short Version: A smart buy but held back by structural issues.

It's hard to get better adventure value for your dollar than this or the Rise of the Runelords collected edition. If I were reviewing on that alone, this would be 5 stars and then some. But there's more to an adventure than that.

The AP's hook is quite good, but almost immediately discarded in favor of saving the city. This can be helped a good session 0, but still feels artificial.

Even looking at the new plot, many elements feel shoehorned in. People point to volumes 4 and 5 for this, but there are sections in 2 that exist only to kill time as the plot advances and an entire dungeon in 3 that is cool but can seem forced if the players don't kick in the door right away. Any of these alone would be fine, but each makes the next more obvious.

That being said, there's a lot of cool stuff going on here, it just takes at least a star's worth of work to stitch it together.


3.5 vs. Pathfinder comparison!

5/5

I´m gonna list the differences between the original AP#7s chapters and it´s adaption into the hardcover edition:

Inside front cover:
The "Korvosan Hierarchy" overview is not reprinted.
Part 1:
The illustration on page 6 is exchanged for a cartoony new one on page 12 of the HC.
Page 10 of AP#7 has a map where the 8 locations in Korvosa that are important for book 1 are marked and named. This map is reprinted on page 400 of the HC but that one shows ALL important locations of the campaign at once, marked with letters and numbers.
"Lamm´s Lambs" stats are upgraded to young human on page 18 of the HC.
"Yargin Balko" now has a full body illustration instead of an upper body one. "Hookshanks Gruller" gets a full body illustration. "Giggles" gets a fbi. "Gaedren Lamm" gets a fbi.
Part 2:
King Eodred Arabasti gets a head illu. "Imps and Dragons" gets an illustration. "Meet the mob" gets a "Amin Jalento" head illu and his battle stats.
Part 3:
The illustration of "Sabina Merrin" on page 25 is not reprinted (she gets a new one on page 455).
Part 4:
"Cressida Croft" gets a head illu (and fbi on page 443). The Queens gets a new veiled head illu (the old one is more mysterious). The "renegade guards" stats in "All the Worlds Meat" get new stats. "Verik Vancasterkin" is upgraded from fighter 3 to fighter 4.
Part 5:
The "Ambassadors Secret" gets a new head illu. The fbi of "Vencarlo Orisini" from page 34 is not reprinted. The fbi of "Devargo Barvasi" on page 37 is replaced with a new one that is very much less impressive. He is upgraded from rogue 4 to rogue 5. "Majenko" is changed from pseudodragon to house drake. The illustration on page 41 is replaced with a new one (page 57). Both are equally creepy.
Part 6:
The "Trinia Sabor" fbi from page 43 is not reprinted (she gets a new look on page 460, but the old one is flashier). She is upgraded from bard 4 to bard 5. "The Shingle Chase" gets a better illustration. Curiously it features the old flashier Trinia Sabor outfit instead of the new.
Part 7:
The Owlbear skeleton gets gorgeous art on page 59 of the HC. The cool illustration on page 52 is replaced by a cool new one on HC page 61.
Cabbagehead´s head illu is replaced by a fbi. The "Gaekhen" head illu is not reprinted. "Vreeg" gets a much better new fbi.
Concluding the adventure:
The famous "green dress Illeosa Arabasti" illustration from page 56 (on which the first miniature is based) is NOT reprinted!
The Blackjack illustration from page 57 is replaced by a much better one on HC page 67.
Appendixes:
The 4 page Harrow article is updated to a 14 page one!
The 8 page "people of the road" article about varisians is not reprinted.
The 6 page Pathfinder´s journal is not reprinted.
Bestiary:
The illustration of the "Dream Spider", the only creature that hasn´t been adapted to a Bestiary yet, is not reprinted from page 82 but it´s stats are.
Inside back cover:
The "Korvosas enemies" overview is not reprinted.

While the new edition HC is better overall and everything needed for playing the campaign is included, updated and streamlined, quite a few cool things are left out.
I´m glad i got the original AP #7 too.


Even better than the original

5/5

Read my full review at Of Dice and Pen.

It was perhaps inevitable that Curse of the Crimson Throne would one day also receive a similar treatment to Rise of the Runelords. There’s no special anniversary to celebrate this year, but does there really need to be? Much like its Runelords predecessor, the new hardcover compilation of Crimson Throne updates the adventure path to Pathfinder rules and also expands on the story where beneficial and streamlines in other areas. It also takes advantage of the most recent rules supplements, making use of newer monsters, classes, and feats where appropriate.

At nearly 500 pages in length, it is actually a substantially larger tome than the hardcover Runelords (a good 50 pages or so longer), and its extra length is certainly put to good use. Indeed, it manages to make one of the best adventure paths even better.


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Marco Massoudi wrote:

I'm not sure that i like the new look or name.

The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition looks much better.
That said, i am going to buy this.
The title seems to suggest that this is the first, but not last, of Adventure Path collections.
I know - we won't getting a Second Darkness or Legacy of Fire APC anytime soon (if ever), but maybe a Kingmaker or Carrion Crown one? ;-)

If anything, a Second Darkness or Legacy of Fire compilation would be more likely than the others if only to finally update the other two APs that are still under 3.5 rules. Naturally, it's all up to how well this sells and how much old stock of the original modules they have.


there are threads for this conversation, this isn't the one.


So yeah, blood pig. It rules. I look forward to the artwork being showcased for this pretty soon.

Community & Digital Content Director

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Ckorik wrote:
Will there be an interactive maps for this (like Runelords?)

Yup! It will be available separately and in the PDF version of the compilation. If you purchase the PDF version of the compilation, it also will come with a separate file containing player handouts :)


I'm going add more Occult flavor, which it already oozes in spades.

Funny enough, just as news broke about it, I was opening my package with Crown of Fangs and Skeletons of Scarwall. :-)

Still, it'll be nice not having to convert it myself. :-)


Chris Lambertz wrote:
Ckorik wrote:
Will there be an interactive maps for this (like Runelords?)
Yup! It will be available separately and in the PDF version of the compilation. If you purchase the PDF version of the compilation, it also will come with a separate file containing player handouts :)

This is awesome! Thank you!


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captain yesterday wrote:
I'm going add more Occult flavor, which it already oozes in spades.

Same here. I think Occult Adventures and Horror Adventures will see a lot of use in my upcoming Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign, and I intend to insert elements from The House on Hook Street in the campaign as well.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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I managed to squeeze in some elements from Occult Adventures here and there into the new book. Not a lot, but the book DOES, for example, give advice on what happens if you bring a spiritualist into Scarwall, or how some occult options might allow for strange new potential interactions with the Harrow deck or other things you find along the way!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
I managed to squeeze in some elements from Occult Adventures here and there into the new book. Not a lot, but the book DOES, for example, give advice on what happens if you bring a spiritualist into Scarwall, or how some occult options might allow for strange new potential interactions with the Harrow deck or other things you find along the way!

That´s pretty cool.

I know quite some people who GM and feel overwhelmed by new options and have problems incorporating them into APs. They will surely appreciate it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Hayato Ken wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I managed to squeeze in some elements from Occult Adventures here and there into the new book. Not a lot, but the book DOES, for example, give advice on what happens if you bring a spiritualist into Scarwall, or how some occult options might allow for strange new potential interactions with the Harrow deck or other things you find along the way!

That´s pretty cool.

I know quite some people who GM and feel overwhelmed by new options and have problems incorporating them into APs. They will surely appreciate it.

True... but that said, a GM who's overwhelmed by the new options and has problems dealing with them absolutely should NOT allow those new options into his game. That's not the mark of a lazy GM... that's the mark of a skilled GM who knows what his limits are.

Personally, I suspect that many GMs who find their games aren't "challenging" enough when they run a game run into that problem precisely because they allow players carte blanche to build characters from books and options the GM isn't familiar with. In a best-case scenario, the GM is the one with the best rules-fu at the table, and when a player knows the mechanics of a class a lot better than the GM the GM is more often going to be blindsided by things.

And to you players out there... if you DO get to build a class that you think the GM isn't familiar with, don't use this as an opportunity to trick/ambush your poor GM. Work with him to make sure he's aware of your character's options, tactics, and potentials. The whole mindset of "if the GM knows my tricks then he'll use that knowledge to win and kill my character" is toxic to the game. As are GMs who do that, of course... if you have a GM who pulls this kind of stunt, though, chances are good you know that already and the solution there isn't really to build a sneaky character using options that GM isn't familiar with but to either find a new GM or volunteer to be the GM for your group.


YAY! Occult Option stuff for Scarwall! :D


Any chance some Ultimate Intrigue stuff got put in like, a Heist.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

RHMG Animator wrote:
Any chance some Ultimate Intrigue stuff got put in like, a Heist.

There's a Vigilante, but that's about it from Ultimate Intrigue. No heists or anything like that.


James Jacobs wrote:
RHMG Animator wrote:
Any chance some Ultimate Intrigue stuff got put in like, a Heist.
There's a Vigilante, but that's about it from Ultimate Intrigue. No heists or anything like that.

Nuts, I felt like there were some ideal spots to put some of that stuff in...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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RHMG Animator wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
RHMG Animator wrote:
Any chance some Ultimate Intrigue stuff got put in like, a Heist.
There's a Vigilante, but that's about it from Ultimate Intrigue. No heists or anything like that.
Nuts, I felt like there were some ideal spots to put some of that stuff in...

The point of this whole book was to update it to the current rules but to keep the same flavor and experience as closely as possible to the original. It's not really a "remake" at all. As you saw with Runelords, the end result is pretty much the same game, with a few expansions here and there.

Since there was never a heist in the original, there's no heist in it now.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:


The point of this whole book was to update it to the current rules but to keep the same flavor and experience as closely as possible to the original. It's not really a "remake" at all. As you saw with Runelords, the end result is pretty much the same game, with a few expansions here and there.

Since there was never a heist in the original, there's no heist in it now.

And of course, it's a relatively open campaign - especially in the beginning of both volumes 1 and 2. There is nothing which prevents a GM from adding such elements to the AP as they may wish. I plan to do exactly that in the first half of the Edge of Anarchy to suit my own campaign's plans.

FWIW, I had never read or played CotCT for these past 9 - going on ten years as I always wanted to leave playing it an option. Having resolved to run it, I have been reading the first two volumes all week (for the first time!)

I definitely can see the changes over the years in writing and editing styles as well as the refining of the development process. "AP Creation Skill Levels" are certainly not static at Paizo. For one thing, the readability level of CotCT (at least as initially released) is quite a bit behind the curve of the standard at Paizo over the past 4 years (say). (It's not even close, really.)

While I suppose this will come off as a criticism, it's not meant to be. There's no way that you can devote your lives to 11+ years making APs and NOT get noticeably better at it.


*thinks having a heist in CotCT isn't as good as having verbal sparring duels with sphinxes.*

In any case forward more blood pig! :D

Grand Lodge

Maveric28 wrote:

Now for the Eternal Question: Do I buy it on Amazon for $50 and free shipping, or buy it from Paizo for $60 and another $12 shipping. Hey, not trying to be disloyal or anything, but $22 bucks is $22 bucks. So the question is whether the PDF is worth $22 when you already own a hardcover.

Plus Amazon will likely have it closer to $40 by the release date.

I get where you're coming from. I live in Canada and after crunching the numbers of getting it from Paizo or Indigo Books the choice was obvious. Paizo was going to cost me ballpark $105 Canadian. Indigo with free shipping is $72.84. No brainier for me. I wish I could order everything from Paizo, but the reality is, it does not always make economical sense. Indigo is expecting to have it delivered by October 18 so I am good with that. Not likely running it until the new year anyway, have to finish Emerald Spire first.


There will be an NPC with a Kyton Eidolon. Will that be available as a player option?


*thought it was with unchained*


Yes, I believe so.

No, I believe they didn't have enough room for Kyton Eidolons in Unchained.


Ah.


That's just what I've gathered from hearsay, I don't actually own Unchained. :-)


9 people marked this as a favorite.

I doubt the Kyton would like being unchained anyway.

Liberty's Edge

Olmac wrote:
Maveric28 wrote:

Now for the Eternal Question: Do I buy it on Amazon for $50 and free shipping, or buy it from Paizo for $60 and another $12 shipping. Hey, not trying to be disloyal or anything, but $22 bucks is $22 bucks. So the question is whether the PDF is worth $22 when you already own a hardcover.

Plus Amazon will likely have it closer to $40 by the release date.
I get where you're coming from. I live in Canada and after crunching the numbers of getting it from Paizo or Indigo Books the choice was obvious. Paizo was going to cost me ballpark $105 Canadian. Indigo with free shipping is $72.84. No brainier for me. I wish I could order everything from Paizo, but the reality is, it does not always make economical sense. Indigo is expecting to have it delivered by October 18 so I am good with that. Not likely running it until the new year anyway, have to finish Emerald Spire first.

And cheaper still at Amazon.ca at $68.68 with free shipping. Which I expect you knew and you prefer to shop at Indigo for some reason (which has it at $69.37); however Indigo.ca also offers Plum points if you are a part of that loyalty program, so there is that.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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The NPC wrote:
There will be an NPC with a Kyton Eidolon. Will that be available as a player option?

The rules for kyton eidolons are in the book's appendix. Whether or not your GM makes those rules available to your PC for this adventure or for any adventure is up to your GM, of course.


James Jacobs wrote:
The NPC wrote:
There will be an NPC with a Kyton Eidolon. Will that be available as a player option?
The rules for kyton eidolons are in the book's appendix. Whether or not your GM makes those rules available to your PC for this adventure or for any adventure is up to your GM, of course.

Cool. Thanks.


Well that answers that question. :)


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Just pre-ordered this today over Amazon. I won't be using this for a good long while, since I already ran CotCT years ago with forum-made conversions and my second group is now wanting to run Shadowrun for a while... but I wanted this for such a long while, it would be hypocritical to not support this.

Also, Laori deserves it. Second favorite Pathfinder character for me, after Ameiko. :)

Liberty's Edge

I was looking through Vol 1 Edge of Anarchy last night and broke down the XP point awards and the point in the adventure where the PCs "ding" to the next level.

Going strictly by the book and not including bonus XP arising from any encounter which does not explicitly specify it, there is a very real problem with the XP awards in this Volume of the CotCT AP.

Essentially, the problem arises from the different possible resolutions of all of the encounters at Eel's End.

Spoiler:

Should the PCs stick with the premise and bribe Devargo and resolve the whole matter peaceably (indeed, as the bag of gold they are given by Cressida explicitly suggests as how they are supposed to resolve it) the PCs will earn only 800 xp for this segment of the adventure -- instead of the roughly 11,600+ they would otherwise earn if they just kill everything and everyone, instead.

Seeing as there are only a touch over 36,000 XP available in all of Vol 1 to earn, this is a significant potential oversight as it will leave the PCs at 2nd level

Spoiler:
in the Shingles Chase (DCs in the chase may then be a problem) as well as in the Dead Warrens, up to and including the encounter with the Necrophidius (which can then be deadly in their DCs vs paralyzation).

Question: Has there been any tinkering with the XP points specified in CotCT anniversary edition? What about the assumed progression track? Medium or Fast?


Fast track same as Rise, I already asked, not sure about the rest though. :-)

Liberty's Edge

captain yesterday wrote:
Fast track same as Rise, I already asked, not sure about the rest though. :-)

On the XP point breakdown, at the end of Edge of Anarchy, if the PCs do everything, they will ding 4th at the conclusion of the final encounter if on the medium track (Which is what they are supposed to be in accordance with the intended design).

Admittedly, if the Fast Track is used and Eel's End is resolved through roleplay, the PCs should then ding 3rd after the Shingle Chase and before the Dead Warrens starts.

My reason for doing the breakdown was to figure out how much slack there was in the design for additional encounters, and switching to medium track and adding a 5th PC, whether I could expand the 1st volume significantly by adding in ~15,000-25,000 XP worth of CRs.

Answer: YES. Assume Eeel's End is resolved via roleplay and that there are 5 PCs instead of 4, all progressing on the Medium track, you can then add 25,000+ XP to Vol 1 safely.

Silver Crusade Contributor

If you're not already aware of this: bear in mind that the original books use 3.5's xp track, which is essentially Faster-Then-Fast. ^_^


Yeah it was pretty fast as I recall.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Updating a 3.5 product to Pathfinder is more than just swapping out statistics. A lot more. Adjusting the experience point awards is another big part. As with Rise of the Runelords, the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover assumes that you run using the Fast XP track, but as Kalindlara pointed out, even our Fast track is slower than was 3.5's XP route.

As a result, Curse of the Crimson Throne for Pathfinder gives out more XP overall than the version for 3.5. This is the same thing for the Runelords hardcover. How does it give out more XP? Two ways:

1) Pathfinder is more interested in actually giving out story awards for XP than was 3.5. You COULD do story awards in 3.5, but game and adventure design philosophy put a much stronger focus on killing as a method for gaining XP, at least as the assumed baseline. With Pathfinder, we give out XP for solving problems via methods other than killing, and also give out XP for completing significant story awards far more often.

2) The bigger way, though, is simply by adding MORE. There's certainly a significant addition to the campaign between "A History of Ashes" and "Skeletons of Scarwall" (a new complex I designed consisting of about 20 encounter areas), but that's not the only place I added encounters. I added encounters to EVERY adventure. Some more than others—in Scarwall, for example, EVERY room now has something going on, be it a fight or a trap or a haunt or a clue or a treasure or whatever. That more or less added, I'm guessing, about 15 pages or so of content to that adventure—all of them encounters. There's additional encounters in the other adventures as well; in some cases things I put back into the adventure after I had to cut them from previous publication for space count, but in most cases entirely new things I added as part of the development process.

So... in the end, you start this campaign at 1st level and can expect to reach 17th level, and more or less will progress through the levels at about the same rate and speed as you did if you played it back when it first came out. All part of my goal of preserving as much of the original play experience as I could.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Steel_Wind wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
Fast track same as Rise, I already asked, not sure about the rest though. :-)

On the XP point breakdown, at the end of Edge of Anarchy, if the PCs do everything, they will ding 4th at the conclusion of the final encounter if on the medium track (Which is what they are supposed to be in accordance with the intended design).

Admittedly, if the Fast Track is used and Eel's End is resolved through roleplay, the PCs should then ding 3rd after the Shingle Chase and before the Dead Warrens starts.

My reason for doing the breakdown was to figure out how much slack there was in the design for additional encounters, and switching to medium track and adding a 5th PC, whether I could expand the 1st volume significantly by adding in ~15,000-25,000 XP worth of CRs.

Answer: YES. Assume Eeel's End is resolved via roleplay and that there are 5 PCs instead of 4, all progressing on the Medium track, you can then add 25,000+ XP to Vol 1 safely.

In the end, how much additional content you want to add to ANY adventure or campaign is your call. You're in charge of and control the game, after all, and that means you control how often and how much XP is given out. Just make sure you let your players know if you're adjusting XP totals or gain rates before the game begins!


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Wait...did you just say you added MORE to Castle Scarwall, Mister Jacobs?!

Silver Crusade Contributor

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Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait...did you just say you added MORE to Castle Scarwall, Mister Jacobs?!

He sure did. ^_^

Grand Lodge

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

Now I really wish it was available at GenCon.


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Kalindlara wrote:
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait...did you just say you added MORE to Castle Scarwall, Mister Jacobs?!
He sure did. ^_^

WHOOP!!! *dances around like a blood frenzied goblin*

This is even more AWESOME!!

And yeah I wish it was at GenCon too but at least it will be out before my Birthday. :)

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:

Updating a 3.5 product to Pathfinder is more than just swapping out statistics. A lot more. Adjusting the experience point awards is another big part. As with Rise of the Runelords, the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover assumes that you run using the Fast XP track, but as Kalindlara pointed out, even our Fast track is slower than was 3.5's XP route.

As a result, Curse of the Crimson Throne for Pathfinder gives out more XP overall than the version for 3.5. This is the same thing for the Runelords hardcover. How does it give out more XP? Two ways:

1) Pathfinder is more interested in actually giving out story awards for XP than was 3.5. You COULD do story awards in 3.5, but game and adventure design philosophy put a much stronger focus on killing as a method for gaining XP, at least as the assumed baseline. With Pathfinder, we give out XP for solving problems via methods other than killing, and also give out XP for completing significant story awards far more often.

2) The bigger way, though, is simply by adding MORE. There's certainly a significant addition to the campaign between "A History of Ashes" and "Skeletons of Scarwall" (a new complex I designed consisting of about 20 encounter areas), but that's not the only place I added encounters. I added encounters to EVERY adventure. Some more than others—in Scarwall, for example, EVERY room now has something going on, be it a fight or a trap or a haunt or a clue or a treasure or whatever. That more or less added, I'm guessing, about 15 pages or so of content to that adventure—all of them encounters. There's additional encounters in the other adventures as well; in some cases things I put back into the adventure after I had to cut them from previous publication for space count, but in most cases entirely new things I added as part of the development process.

So... in the end, you start this campaign at 1st level and can expect to reach 17th level, and more or less will progress through the levels at about the same rate and speed as you did if you...

James, will you also be adding "Milestones" where PC's should be at a certain level before doing something? For those of us who don't use XP.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Marik Whiterose wrote:
James, will you also be adding "Milestones" where PC's should be at a certain level before doing something? For those of us who don't use XP.

We do this for all our adventures, be they modules or AP installments. Harcover compilations (like Runelords, and like Crimson Throne) included.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait...did you just say you added MORE to Castle Scarwall, Mister Jacobs?!

QUITE a lot more, in fact.


James Jacobs wrote:
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait...did you just say you added MORE to Castle Scarwall, Mister Jacobs?!
QUITE a lot more, in fact.

OOo....OOOO....oooo

*faints*

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Thomas Seitz wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait...did you just say you added MORE to Castle Scarwall, Mister Jacobs?!
QUITE a lot more, in fact.

OOo....OOOO....oooo

*faints*

All those rooms in the previous version that had either no encounter in them or one of the letter codes for a generic kitchen/armory/whatever? With the exception of the toilets and generic storerooms... ALL of those rooms now have new things, be they actual monster encounters or hidden treasures or haunts or clues or the like. Several of these were things I had to cut from the original adventure, but most are brand new even to Greg.


*feels woozy and light headed by the awesome*

Still...too much awesome...must remember more...

Grand Lodge

Steel_Wind wrote:
Olmac wrote:
Maveric28 wrote:

Now for the Eternal Question: Do I buy it on Amazon for $50 and free shipping, or buy it from Paizo for $60 and another $12 shipping. Hey, not trying to be disloyal or anything, but $22 bucks is $22 bucks. So the question is whether the PDF is worth $22 when you already own a hardcover.

Plus Amazon will likely have it closer to $40 by the release date.
I get where you're coming from. I live in Canada and after crunching the numbers of getting it from Paizo or Indigo Books the choice was obvious. Paizo was going to cost me ballpark $105 Canadian. Indigo with free shipping is $72.84. No brainier for me. I wish I could order everything from Paizo, but the reality is, it does not always make economical sense. Indigo is expecting to have it delivered by October 18 so I am good with that. Not likely running it until the new year anyway, have to finish Emerald Spire first.

And cheaper still at Amazon.ca at $68.68 with free shipping. Which I expect you knew and you prefer to shop at Indigo for some reason (which has it at $69.37); however Indigo.ca also offers Plum points if you are a part of that loyalty program, so there is that.

Yep, got me 694 points with the purchase. That is worth far more than a $0.69 difference in price.

Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:
Marik Whiterose wrote:
James, will you also be adding "Milestones" where PC's should be at a certain level before doing something? For those of us who don't use XP.
We do this for all our adventures, be they modules or AP installments. Harcover compilations (like Runelords, and like Crimson Throne) included.

I was really hoping this would be the case...Thanks.

I love to add more crunch without worrying about how the added experience would effect the actually adventure level wise. Now to start planning some more encounters and side treks.

I have a great group of players (aged 13-42, my friend and his 2 boys and my nephew) don't really care how long it takes between levels as long as they are having fun. After all, that is what it is all about.


Flynn Greywalker wrote:
Chris Lambertz wrote:
Announced at GAMA Trade Show and now available for preorder! Cover is very close to final, but may change when we go to print. Description is not final.
And now we know why James got pulled off Strange Aeons. I hope Shattered Star, Second Darkness and one to two more of the older paths (I hope either Carrion Crown, Serpent's Skull or Skulls and Shackles) go this way in a year or two. I love that you guys update them and add some new material. Great call!

Meh, nothing beyond Legacy of Fire would NEED to be released like this; i.e., converted from 3.5 to real Pathfinder rules, since Council of Thieves was the first "true" Pathfinder rules-based AP.

I'll not pay those prices for just "some new material" in a hardback version of something that doesn't need conversion, but I'll say what I would buy: Flip-Mats, Map Packs, whatever-it-would-take maps at full scale, all the maps, for all the books in an AP (had to get new drafting equipment for Second Darkness's drow areas). Granted, some of those gods-forsaken huge things ("1 inch = 10 feet," anyone?) would have to be rolled up into a tube, rather than folded into a book (or block), but still...I know of at least one GM who would've greatly appreciated that for the fifth book of CoCT. :-/

LB

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Lady Bluehawk wrote:
Flynn Greywalker wrote:
Chris Lambertz wrote:
Announced at GAMA Trade Show and now available for preorder! Cover is very close to final, but may change when we go to print. Description is not final.
And now we know why James got pulled off Strange Aeons. I hope Shattered Star, Second Darkness and one to two more of the older paths (I hope either Carrion Crown, Serpent's Skull or Skulls and Shackles) go this way in a year or two. I love that you guys update them and add some new material. Great call!

Meh, nothing beyond Legacy of Fire would NEED to be released like this; i.e., converted from 3.5 to real Pathfinder rules, since Council of Thieves was the first "true" Pathfinder rules-based AP.

I'll not pay those prices for just "some new material" in a hardback version of something that doesn't need conversion, but I'll say what I would buy: Flip-Mats, Map Packs, whatever-it-would-take maps at full scale, all the maps, for all the books in an AP (had to get new drafting equipment for Second Darkness's drow areas). Granted, some of those gods-forsaken huge things ("1 inch = 10 feet," anyone?) would have to be rolled up into a tube, rather than folded into a book (or block), but still...I know of at least one GM who would've greatly appreciated that for the fifth book of CoCT. :-/

LB

Uh, "those prices"?

You do realize the hardcover is 1/2 the price of all the AP volumes, right?

(Accounting for the most recent APs anyway, with half of the volumes that are left of the original CotCT being marked down to $5 because the other half are completely sold out you'r not likely to complete the set if you tried now outside of buying the hardcover)

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