Jade Regent as a Sequel to Runelords?


Jade Regent

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

As the PDF sale is on, and I am carefully totting up what I can get (thus far, Age of Worms from the Dungeon magazines, because I've heard good things about it and it's long!) I wondered about Jade Regent. We are about ten weeks in Rise of the Rune Lords (and I have two whole other adventure paths to run!).

So, my idle musing is whether Jade Regent would stand as a sequel to Runelords, in the distant future.

On the one hand, yes, this would require a significant upgrade of the enemies and challenges, yes (though it's not the first time - my 3.Aotrs conversion of the AD&D Dragon Mountain started at 16th and ended in Epic!) - but as I'm running for eight players, I have to go through and add/amend anyway even if I run adventure paths at their intended levels. (On top of the fact I play 3.Aotrs, which lies somewhere on the 3.5 side of a hidious mutant hybrid of 3.5, Pathfinder and houserules...)

Do those of you who are familar with it, then, think the story would be a good sequel? The scope certain seems like it would be big enough. The journey aspects I would perhaps have to fudge, a bit, one way or another (but my players are a little used to that, since I'm a terrible stickler for "journey"-type adventures...!)


what about Jade Regent with slightly younger siblings of the rune lords party?

i'm doing that, actually we started jade regent first, then we started rune lords with older siblings (they were in turvik i believe celebrating the swallowtail festival and i had them reminisce about what went wrong at the festival five years previously then bam went right into the beginning of rune lords) we are also making shattered star a part of that family thing but thats not til later:) the plan is then to have last book of shattered star be all three generations of siblings


also Jade Regent is a very good AP
i am also a big fan of epic journeys:)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Considering that most of the party don't have siblings (at least three out of eight have had their familes or clans wiped out...!), not really an option!

The Next Generation is certainly a similar option, though, I'd alrady considered (Ameiko would just have to be a bit older...!): if it's a suitable option, I may give the players the choice of which way to go, come the end of Runelords.

But like I say, it's going to be only a moderate bit more work to convert to higher level than to run it t it's assigned level anyway, if indeed it is a plausible option.


As long as Ameiko doesn't die in your campaign then yes, it is an option.
tho the whole path tops out at 16th level but it can be abbreviated and adjusted easily.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Okay, so I bought it anyway, and I've been skimming the first part the player's guide and the boards.

Initial thoughts on conversion for a true RotRL sequel.

Mechanical Pros:

1) The biggest one: chance to press on with the characters into top level and Epic.

2) The PCs shouldn't need much motivation, since they'll already have relations with Ameiko and Shayelu from RotRL (possibly even romances, though no-one has seriously looked into that at this early stage.)

3) Number of random encounters can be seriously abbreiviated (so less work on my part), since at the level the PCs will be at, most things will either stay well away or be speed bumps that don't give any XP anyway (since we're using 3.x XP), neither of which are worth fighting. (Corollary: unless I can find a suitable source of already done-up such encounters.)

4) Caravan aspects (which many people seem to think aren't as good) may largely be irrelevant aside from a source of roleplaying fodder for similar reasons. The PCs will be doing ALL the heavy lifting in combat.

Mechanical Cons:
1) Lots of NPCs. This could be a major issue (we're already at eight players and high-level play gets complicated). That said, if I keep the NPCs relatively low level (though maybe the more important ones pushed up a bit), it will keep the players busy protecting their much more fragile companions. (And every one always loves the "protect/guard/escort" missions in games, don't they...!

2) Teleport and other fast travel options will need to have lid placed firmly on them early on. The caravan itself may go a long way to doing that, however.

3) Caravan aspects may trivialised.

* * * *

What other similar sort of things might I need to consider along these sorts of lines?


the Caravan rules suck anyway so don't feel bad about dropping them:)

Liberty's Edge

Teleporting and other fast travel are irrelevant once the player's obtain the Warding Box in Book 1.

-Vaz


Word is, Crimson Throne is an excellent sequel. Witchwar Legacy is also supposed to be good as a stand alone module to run afterwards, but I've never played either.

I'm running RotRL and Wrath of the Righteous at the same time. We just finished Chapter two with Xanesha and are detouring to Kenabre next.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Vaziir Jivaan wrote:

Teleporting and other fast travel are irrelevant once the player's obtain the Warding Box in Book 1.

-Vaz

Ah-haha. Right. Yeah, that'd do it! Good job, Paizo!

That's probably the single biggest stumbling block removed then: now it's just a case of finding out if my players really want to do enough high-level adventure.

ecw1701 wrote:
Word is, Crimson Throne is an excellent sequel. Witchwar Legacy is also supposed to be good as a stand alone module to run afterwards, but I've never played either.

I know it's supposed to be set after RotRLs, but Jade Empire did bill itself as a proper pesudo-sequel. JE also has a couple of advantages in that regard: first, the PCs will have connections to the NPCs and Sandpoint to start off - it seems to me a module based on NPCs as the driving force just lends itself to being run with not just players, but PCs who have a history with them, and I think saving an empire is more suitably epic than saving Korvosa.

Also, and this is probably the most pertinent point, I actually bought Jade Empire, and not Crimson Throne...!

Liberty's Edge

Have a look at Shattered Star. My understanding is that it is intended to be a sequel to Rise of the Runelords. It has more to do with the Sihedron Star et al. Jade Regent was coined as a "spiritual sequel" if memory serves, and the only real sequel trait it carries I believe is a recurring cast.

That being said, Jade Regent would get my vote. I love the idea of a foul mouthed tavern owner finding out she's the long lost heir to an empire on the brink.

-Vaz


I always assumed Golarion time is equal to real time. So that Jade Regent takes place 4 years after RotRL (it was released 4 years latter). I dunno. *shrugs*


Arikiel, the Paizo employees have stated that the only "set-in-stone" timeline is the Reign of Winter campaign. Any other game can be set at any time the GM wants, though the campaign does assume that it's around a hundred or so years after the big human god bit the big one.

-------

I recently was considering a merged campaign for Runelords and Jade Regent. To be honest, it works best if you start with Runelords and then at the end of Chapter 1 or partway into Chapter 2 (after dealing with the ghoul infestation) switch to Jade Regent. You may want to keep it at the Slow Advancement rate in this situation, at which point the PCs would be around 3rd level.

Then run the PCs through all of Jade Regent. You probably would want to have it end with them at a lower level - perhaps 12th level, and if you are interested in Mythic, you can have the Seal having given them Mythic power to compensate for their lower level. Either that or just reduce the effectiveness of their foes. (I'd suggest if you DID use Mythic, only have them get to Tier 3 or 4 at most. In addition, once Ameiko is on the throne, they could lose that Mythic ability so they're less potent when they return to the Runelords game.)

After they put Ameiko on the throne, maybe a couple of the secondary PCs want to return to Sandpoint. If any of the PCs have family there, that's incentive to return as well.

They get back, and they're now dealing with Xanesha's cult. If you ended with the goblins, they arrive in time to deal with the ghouls (only upgrade them to mythic ghasts or to ghouls with class levels - alternatively, you could try to adapt the ghouls to the Troops subtype that was first found in RoW 5 - mind you, the Troops subtype is an excellent method of upgrading low-level critters to be a viable threat for higher-level PCs and I hope rules are put out on how to adapt any creature to the Troops subtype).

Likewise, upgrade Xanesha and other encounters for a 12th-level party... and when they go against the Hillbilly Ogres, give many of the Ogres class levels. Key enemies can either be given Mythic tiers (if you feel like using Mythic, and I found it can beef up encounters nicely) or multiple class levels.

Eventually you won't need to do a significant rebuild of critters. However, with Karzoug you'll either want to beef up his allies, or provide him with several Mythic Tiers as if he's facing level 20 PCs he'll have some troubles! ;)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

That would require even more work, though, and would require me to go through and modifiy RotRL for the third time (the first time to six players, the second time, four years later when we were actually ready to start for eight players), which honestly, I really can't face.

That and the fact that I don't have time to attempt to write off 2/3s of my prep work for the first half of RotRL (as we and in the middle of that currently, and I have a day quest in Rolemaster to write for Christmas as well), let alone re-write most of JR to keep the power-level down AND rewrite the rest of RotRL to push the power level up. (It's aslo way easier to buff up and than tone down).

Nah, if I'm doing this (and player feedback so far is out of two players of the nine that have replied, both are keen to do it), I'm gonna do all of RotRL first and then move on to Jade Regent.

I have no plans to use mythic. We have Epic, that's bad enough: and my own Defiant template, which sees constant use (in short, integering hit point as a block and allowing them to sacrifice a block to knobble SoL/SoD statuses instantly, have a reroll on a save at the cost of an effecive negative level, or use a block of hit points to effectively Iron Heart Surge away any effect they doesn't like) goes a very long way to keep boss monsters defensively solid while offensively reasonable.

(I expect Mr K, for example, will have 2-3 Defiant levels (I haven't got there yet in stating up), for instance, which will go a long way to making him really nasty, as you can imagine with two to four times his (maximum) hitpoints and the ability to laugh off status effects...)

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / Jade Regent / Jade Regent as a Sequel to Runelords? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Jade Regent