Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa (OGL) (based on
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Paizo Publishing, LLC
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The city-state of Korvosa, largest in all Varisia, has prospered over the last century since its abandonment by its founding nation of Cheliax. Its port brims with black-and-red-flagged ships—the colors of both Korvosa and Cheliax—endlessly trading fineries from the south for Varisian curiosities and her land’s natural bounty. As such, Korvosa rightfully claims to be the most cultured and civilized city in the region, yet visitors might also grant the city-state the titles of most decadent, exploitative, and socially stratified.
This 64-page book serves as an exhaustive guide to the city, including details on all major points of interest, profiles on the city’s movers and shakers, and countless adventure hooks for enterprising GMs to expand upon. It also includes a full-color poster map of Korvosa. While designed for use with the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, this information-packed supplement is useable in any fantasy RPG campaign.
Written by Mike McArtor
ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-078-0
Note: The map in this book should have been inserted using contact cement, but it was inadvertently bound in instead. Please do not attempt to tear it out; instead, carefully cut it out.
How to Remove Your Korvosa Poster Map
You'll need the book, a piece of thick paper or thin plastic (we used a file folder) that a blade won't easily cut through, a ruler, and a flat cutting device such as a razor blade or a sculpting tool. (Please don't cut yourself!)
You can see that when the poster was bound into the book, an extra 1/4" of poster was printed for the binding. This 1/4" contains only water areas—cutting the poster out doesn't cut anything off the map.
We placed our file folder snug into the binding between the poster and the interior pages of the book. Make sure whatever you use cannot be easily cut through or you will damage the interior pages.
(Click on this picture to enlarge.) Place your ruler between the two folds of the poster so that the layers from bottom to top go:
Interior pages
File folder
Bottom of poster
Ruler
Top of Poster
Make sure you line the ruler up as straight as possible with the top edge of the poster so that you get a perfectly rectangular poster after the cut.
Carefully fold back the top layer of the map, making sure to keep the ruler straight and in the same spot you just lined it up at. Then, cut slowly and carefully down the edge of the ruler. Do not cut yourself. Do not press hard enough to cut through the file folder or whatever you've chosen to cut on. You only want to cut through two thin layers of poster, not through the file folder.
And there you go! You should have a 1/8" slice of paper left bound into the book, there should be no damage to the interior pages (or binding!), and the result is no more leftover paper than you'd find in a book with a bound-in, perforated, poster map.
Embora eu tenha ouvido falar de um bom trabalho nas descrições das cidades de Forgotten Realms, meus únicos referenciais de suplementos sobre cidades são os livros sobre Sigil em Planescape e as cidades de Mystara. E baseado nisso posso dizer que o trabalho em Guide to Korvosa é muito competente e um dos melhores que eu já vi. O livro realmente nos faz visualizar as ruas de Korvosa e seu complexo povo, participar de seus problemas e ansiar por vivencia-los. Fora descrever a cidade de uma maneira enciclopédica, ela descreve de uma maneira viva e pratica que permite começar as exploração de seu contudo de maneira imediata. A leitura é prazerosa (com exceção de ficar tentando entender onde começa e termina cada distrito) e mesmo sem nunca usar a cidade como está escrita, certamente se ganha muito embasamento e ideias para construir ou incrementar sua próprias criações. Assumidamente Korvosa é a cidade mais bem desenvolvida de Golarion e um local onde não somente existem aventuras quanto drama para começar e terminar inúmeras histórias.
A campaign setting book in the "just fluff" department. It has no crunch (the only thing that comes close is a couple of statblocks and some encounter tables in the appendix), is light on art (for being a Pathfinder product) and you couldn't push more words into a 64 page product if you tried.
Introduction (Very Good+)
Except for the general introduction block of text, this chapter actually has a lot of usefull roleplay stuff most other setting books never bother with. Common phrases, how people live and other basic (and interesting!) odds and ends.
Places (Very Good)
Vividely describes districts and important places in said districts, simple enough. One of the few weaknesses of the book is the maps in this section - more contrast would've been nice. The places are not ondimensional, seems organic and logical (and not to mention, good places to have things going on).
People (Very Good)
Mostly a chapter on the important factions of people in the city, nobility, guards and so on. Slight dissapointment that there is no sidebar of what the populace tends to work with (rough percentage or something), but no biggie.
History (Good)
While the city history seeps through most of the other chapters, the important bits gets bigger blocks of texts here (there is a timeline on the inside of the cover, talk about max use out of space!), but most of it just feels like repetition of the first chapters with a few extra details collected into one place.
Secrets (Very Good+)
The primary adventure hook section. Good enough to just read, but it has ideas for all kinds of adventures, making it the most GM friendly part.
As an aside, the book is well written, fluid to read and never encountered any editing that messed things up, which makes the book even better.
This suppliment continues in Paizo's fine tradition of setting the bar. Extremely useful; no filler, packed with intrigue. Five Stars, maybe more. Check my full review A Guide to Korvosa
This sets a new standard for urban fantasy supplements. I feel very sorry for those attempting to follow after. I liked how the feel of the city was evoked and the little touches like the food commonly eaten and the rents for houses. This is the sort of city guide that GM's can really use. I cannot wait to explore this setting as a player. Well done.
Guide to Korvosa is quite simply the best city sourcebook I've ever read. It's absolutely packed with incredible hooks and background material and I constantly caught myself saying "oh, I want to use this", "oh, I want to use that", and "oh that's just evil. NICE!" And that was just in the second chapter of the book. If you want a very well-written city sourcebook for your Pathfinder game or even for your homebrew campaign, look no further. Guide to Korvosa has it all.
McArtor is a modern day Alexander Dumas. His writing is breath-taking. His words help bring Korvosa to life. A must-own for anyone who loves Pathfinder.
The best Paizo product I've bought thus far. Even if you have no intention of running a game in Korvosa, the book is worth picking up because it's a fantastic read in it's own right. It's also full of interesting people and places and their associated adventure hooks that could easily be slotted into another setting. Mike McArtor has really outdone himself!
I just received my Guide to Korvosa today and am very impressed with the level of detail here. The way the whole book is written "in game" makes for an excellent presentation. So long as I can keep my players' prying eyes out of chapter 5, this will ensure their ability to immerse themselves in the game world once I run my Crimson throne campaign.
Only down note I've found thus far: The inadvertent binding of the map into the book. Still, follow the directions above and it will come out just fine.
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