Pathfinder #1—Rise of the Runelords Chapter 1: "Burnt Offerings" (OGL) (based on
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Chapter 1: "Burnt Offerings"
by James Jacobs
The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins in the small coastal town of Sandpoint. In a time when rumors of rampaging dragons and massing armies of giants have everyone on edge, the people of Sandpoint eagerly anticipate the coming festival to commemorate the consecration of a new temple. Yet, at the height of the ceremony, disaster strikes. A band of goblins assaults Sandpoint, and it falls to the heroes to defend the new temple.
In the days that follow, a mysterious malady that leaves its victims monstrously deformed and dangerously insane spreads through the town. The PCs must not only determine what’s causing this strange contagion, but also discover the sinister connection between the plague, the goblin attacks, and the emergence of a strange rune from an empire thought to be long dead.
This volume of Pathfinder also includes extensive details on the town of Sandpoint, several new monsters, and information on the mysterious ancient empire of Thassilon, whose cruel and despotic rulers may not be as dead as history would have us believe.
For characters of 1st to 3rd level.
Pathfinder is Paizo Publishing's 96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover Adventure Path book printed on high-quality paper that releases in a monthly volume. Each volume is brought to you by the same staff which brought you Dragon and Dungeon magazines for over five years. It contains an in-depth Adventure Path scenario, stats for about a half-dozen new monsters, and several support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Because Pathfinder uses the Open Game License, it is 100% compatible with the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-035-3
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Enclosed is an exerpt from the review on my blog. My full review is a bit longer than is allowed, however it can be found on my blog which is attached to my profile.
Summary
The characters are present in the village of Sandpoint, when a host of goblins invade the town, that shows an unusual amount of organization that is atypical for goblin tribes. With the initial goblin foray defeated, the effects of the attack linger on. Clues lead the characters to a goblin hideout on Thistletop for the final showdown with mastermind behind the attacks.
Key features
1. A large dungeon adventure with 2 dungeons for the characters to explore.
2. A fully mapped out village of Sandpoint, along with a gazetteer detailing the village.
3. An interesting article by Wolfgang Baur titled The History of Thassilon.
4. The Pathfinder Journal, which has the feel of the older pulp sword and sorcery writing. Now the first one is more of a general introduction, and in the next books, it follows in a first person narrative. While there are a number of folks that consider this a flaw in the design, I consider it a feature.
5. A re-imaging of the classic goblin monster, that is both a bit comical and horrific. Count me as a proponent of the new image. I have always like their image as the small monser in the closet, that struggles in the realm of planning, but can still cause significant distruction due in part to their number.
Suffice to say that first installment is very solid, and there is plenty of information provided to allow for quite a bit of role playing and adventuring around the town. For a low level adventure, there is a good amount of action, and note worthy combats to be had.
Overall, I give this module a solid thumbs up, and it is one of my favorites in their Pathfinder lineup.
This is a high quality, in all aspects, adventure/campaign book that is worth getting in print and pdf. I would have liked to give this product 4.75 out of 5. 5 means perfect and though there are minor (very minor) issues I am rounding up.
The book's layout is physically perfect and uses superior quality paper much better than most paper used by other companies for their "adventure path" eqivalents. Sections are set out in a logical fashion: Adventure; background enhancements; Pathfinder journal; Bestiary and Pregenerated Characters. These are all the materials that a DM needs to fashion a long term campaign.
Unlike other reviews, this is most certainly not vanilla and I would refute the calls for "more icing". For sure added extras would be fantastic but there is all you need to create and personalise RotRL into your own game. There is just enough for the inexperience DM to run the adventure linearly and enough "holes" for a veteran DM to be creative and add their own take to the storyline.
An unrated aspect of this product is the support. There are multiple forum postings that support DMs and players who are experiencing this campaign. There forums are STILL alive and questions can be asked and global responses received. The Paizo staff listen and where there are unseen shortcomings have been realised support products have been released for purchase to enhance, ie, Maps.
The only thing I am not fused on is the Pathfinder Journal as it has no direct relevance to the adventure path itself. It is background for sure but I would think that the section would be better served as a separate book. This would save on product cost and S&H. I would not rate this as a minor issue or higher.
This is one of the best if not the best opener for a campaign I have ever read, played or DMed. I HIGHLY recommend this product to any DM, beginning or experienced, to purchase and run.
The fine folks at Paizo make a stand to show us that the decades old boring vision of fantasy roleplaying is not the only option out there. Re-imagining the cannon fodder race of goblins has given their first book so much praise and awards the big boys must be worried.
A fantastic story and a compelling adventure are sure to grab your players by the throat and make them beg for more. The goblins are no longer cannon fodder... they are MONSTERS! My players developed a vicious hatred for goblins I have never seen them exhibit ever before for any monster. Just the mention of "goblin" is enough to get them red in the face and ready for a bloodthirsty combat!
I've got no idea what it is like to actually play the adventure, but BOY does Paizo put out a product that is easy to DM. I didn't have to tweak a thing. The NPCs were well detailed and believable, and it was so easy to come up with ways to make the PC's a part of the Sandpoint community. The battles were fun and interesting, the supporting articles were great, and the physical quality of the product top notch. Just a great product.
If you want to stand up in your community -name it Sandpoint- you have to do some heavy monster killing, serious townfolk rescuing, charismatic -eye-blinking relationships, deep dungeon delving and treasure hauls from outdoors; then this is your chance! This adventure has it all. And developed in a great way.
For those of you thinking of getting into the Pathfinder APs, start here. It continues the tradition of Shackled City and Age of Worms while instilling the world of Golarian with its own life and future.
I would have liked a bit more detail on how to make the PCs native to the town, but that is a minor issue.
Excellent quality in both production and design. I plan on using it in the FR, and it does not seem like much work to transplant Sandpoint.
Nevertheless, my take (a summarized version of the previous):
Not a 5-star as it's not the best of the best.
Not a 4-star as there's still better out there.
The good:
(1) excellent paper
(2) well thought villians (eg Nualia and Erylium)
The bad:
(1) Poor fleshed out Sandpoint
(2) Hooks not good to tie story together (i devised my own)
(3) No good motivation for players (yet another problem that was mentioned on page 56 but not thought out why the players want to "feel" for Sandpoint)
Overall, its still playable with modifications to be made by the DM.
Books of this quality do not come along very often. The writing and art is top notch, as well as the breadth and depth of material for DMs to use when running the adventure.
The characters vis-a-vis the setting may seem unnatural at times, but I suspect this is a Paizo convention to highlight the flavor of the campaign world.