Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom (OGL)

haven't got the physical one, but my digital oneis great

i have just 2 complains... there are not all the prices for livingin for district, only half of them...

Which districts are missing this info? Mind you, we don't have our print copies yet, so I'll need to grab the PDF.

and it would have been great that like in Guide to Korvosa it showed small maps of each distrcit saying where each location stands (not the districts, but the interesting places)...

ii know i would have beena lot bigger book if it had that... but it really would hae been useful

Actually, doing that wouldn't have made it a bigger book ... it would have been the same size, with less information.

On page 3 it mentions an appendix with movers and shakers, and fighting techniques. Was this simply something that didn't make it into the final product?

Let's just say that Guide to Absalom was a crazy project, I'm glad it turned out so well, and there may be additional material from the book that you'll be seeing in the future--not necessarily THAT material, but additional material.

I know it's a Chronicle not a Companion (but then, we didn't get any in Osirion, either, and we did get regional feats, the precursor to traits, in the Campaign Guide, which was also a Chronicle), but couldn't we have had some traits? I love traits but there appears to be a pretty patchy commitment to them...

Montalve wrote:

haven't got the physical one, but my digital oneis great

i have just 2 complains... there are not all the prices for livingin for district, only half of them...

Which districts are missing this info? Mind you, we don't have our print copies yet, so I'll need to grab the PDF.

will check in a minute...

Montalve wrote:

and it would have been great that like in Guide to Korvosa it showed small maps of each distrcit saying where each location stands (not the districts, but the interesting places)...

ii know i would have beena lot bigger book if it had that... but it really would hae been useful

Actually, doing that wouldn't have made it a bigger book ... it would have been the same size, with less information.

Each district in Absalom is the size of a large city. So to have these items recognizable and not completely crowding each other out on the page, these "little" district maps would be 1/2 page each. That's a total of 6-7 pages ... and we simply can't print a book that's 6-7 pages longer. So we'd have to cut 6-7 pages of text content. Is that what you really want? Or can you just assign those places locations that are convenient for you within the district? ;)

:P supposed this will be the answer, and yes I do prefer more content... je still it would have been nice ;-)

but aye i can find them place myself... some of them are quite easy... the Irorium and similar for starters, the smaller ones are the issue...

but no complainings i like my book... i am told my agents got hold of the physical copy... so i will just wait for it so i might read chapter 5 derectly from it

je at least Ivy District and Beldrin's Bluff i have on detail, and yes the rest of the information increases a lot considering the information that would be repeated...

Montalve wrote:

haven't got the physical one, but my digital oneis great

i have just 2 complains... there are not all the prices for livingin for district, only half of them...

Which districts are missing this info? Mind you, we don't have our print copies yet, so I'll need to grab the PDF.

Cost of Living:

This are the ones that appear:

*Ascendant Court
*Azlanti Keep
*The Coins
*The Docks
*Eastgate
*Flotsam Graveyard
*Foreign Quarter
*Green Ridge

The ones Missing are:

*Ivy District
*Merchant's Quarter
*The Petal District
*Precipice Quarter (not that its needed...)
*Puddles (I understand they might not need it... mostly)
*Westgate
*Wise Quarter

so almost half of them are missing this information (actually a bit less considering that at least one don't really needs it, while the other might not need it most of the time or at all)

they appear and dissapear in order, the 1st districts get them, and from Green Ridge forward the information just dissapears.

so any chances we could get the living cost of the Districts that are not included?

Was there supposed to be a poster map with this product? I noticed that there was one with Korvosa and Darkmoon Vale, but my copy doesn't have one.

There is no poster map in this one. For now the full-page map is as big as it gets.

I just got mine, and was going to note my disappointment at the lack of a poster map, but I see it's been noted already.

So... yeah. No poster map (especially for such a LARGE city) = BOOO!

Extremely disappointing.

There is no poster map in this one. For now the full-page map is as big as it gets.

I too hope this will change. A massive poster map like Ptolus' one of these days, maybe? Or an Absalom Map Folio?

I'm not finished reading it but I loved the sights and sounds of absalom -- from the variety of mounts to be purchased, to the broken down and somewhat submerged district of 'Puddles', to the neightborhood of 'Gilltown' and its sullen gillmen. I can't wait to run a break-in and rescue on 'The Black Whale' or a short campaign with minotaur, centaur, and gillmen as player races.

Absalom could have easily been a hardbound book! I paid over $100 for Ptolus, so $40-$50 for a book truly befitting a city the size and scope of Absalom would have been money well spent...

-That One Digitalelf Fellow-

So got to the Absalom book in my reading que of Pathfinder Chronicles. I love it so far but I too wish there was a poster map for a city like this. Katapesh did fine without one (it was as much a region book as it was a city book so *shrug*) but a city like Absalom could benefit from a poster map. I hope you guys can make one available at some point.

That being said my biggest disappointment was the lack of the promised Appendix. I was hoping for some of that information if not for the fluff on the NPC's than for some crunch I could give my players. *sadness*

so any chances we could get the living cost of the Districts that are not included?

I'm not sure how this information got lost the first time through, but I take full responsibility for it. As some of you know I took a break from all rpg writing shortly after Absalom was done, which is why I didn't peek in on this thread earlier. Now that I have, I'm happy to post my (unedited and thus unofficial) living costs for those distrcits missing it.

Cost of Living: Ivy District
The following costs of living are averages for the Ivy District Court district:
Building Ownership
Palace 300,000 gp and up
Manor 200,00 gp and up
Villa 100,000 gp
Townhouse 50,000 gp
Flathouse 10,000 55,000 gp
Flop 3,000 15,000 gp
Bunk 500-1,000 gp

Building rent (per month)
Keep 8,500 gp
Manor 3,000 gp
Villa 750 gp
Townhouse 500 gp
Flathouse 250 gp
Flop 40-150 gp
Bunk 3-10 gp

General Expenses
Food Costs 125% normal
Transportation Costs 75% normal
Goods costs 125% normal

Cost of Living: Merchant's Quarter
The following costs of living are averages for the Merchant's Quarter district:
Building Ownership
Palace 250,000 gp and up
Manor 175,00 gp and up
Villa 90,000 gp
Townhouse 45,000 gp
Flathouse 8,000 55,000 gp
Flop 2,500 7,500 gp
Bunk 100-200 gp

Building rent (per month)
Keep 7,500 gp
Manor 2,000 gp
Villa 600 gp
Townhouse 200 gp
Flathouse 100 gp
Flop 15-50 gp
Bunk 2-8 gp

General Expenses
Food Costs 150% normal
Transportation Costs 50% normal
Goods Costs 90% normal

Cost of Living: Petal District
The following costs of living are averages for the Petal District:
Building Ownership
Palace 1,000,000 gp and up
Manor 500,00 gp and up
Villa 250,000 gp
Townhouse 100,000 gp
Flathouse 50,000 95,000 gp
Flop 20,000 45,000 gp

Building rent (per month)
Keep 50,000 gp
Manor 10,000 gp
Villa 5,000 gp
Townhouse 1,000 gp
Flathouse 500 gp
Flop 100-450 gp

General Expenses
Food Costs 200% normal
Transportation Costs 100% normal
Goods costs 150% normal

Cost of Living: Precipice Quarter
The following costs of living are averages for the Precipice Quarter district:
General Expenses
Transportation Costs 1,000% normal

Cost of Living: Puddles
The following costs of living are averages for the Puddles district:
Building Ownership
Flathouse Free if you can defend it
Flop Free if you can defend it
Bunk Free if you can defend it

Building rent (per month)
Rent covers the cost of someone else clearing out the biggest rats and putting a lock on the door, and not much else.
Flop 5-8 gp
Bunk 1-2 gp

General Expenses
Food Costs 75% normal
Transportation Costs 100% normal
Goods Costs 125% normal

Cost of Living: Westgate
The following costs of living are averages for the Westgate district:
Building Ownership
Palace 225,000 gp and up
Manor 70,00 gp and up
Villa 45,000 gp
Townhouse 35,000 gp
Flathouse 17,500 30,000 gp
Flop 3,500 8,000 gp
Bunk 250-500 gp

Building rent (per month)
Keep 7,500 gp
Manor 750 gp
Villa 250 gp
Townhouse 200 gp
Flathouse 100 gp
Flop 20-75 gp
Bunk 1-5 gp

General Expenses
Food Costs 90% normal
Transportation Costs 90% normal
Goods costs 100% normal

Cost of Living: Wise Quarter
The following costs of living are averages for the Wise Quarter district:
Building Ownership
Palace 250,000 gp and up
Manor 175,00 gp and up
Villa 90,000 gp
Townhouse 45,000 gp
Flathouse 8,000 55,000 gp
Flop 2,500 7,500 gp
Bunk 100-200 gp

Building rent (per month)
Keep 7,000 gp
Manor 1,750 gp
Villa 550 gp
Townhouse 175 gp
Flathouse 90 gp
Flop 12-40 gp
Bunk 2-8 gp

General Expenses
Food Costs 90% normal
Transportation Costs 90% normal
Goods Costs 100% normal

Thanks Owen!

Thanks Owen!

My pleasure.

As a writer it's always annoying when somethign gets left out of a book. Sometime it's cut for space, but in this case it looks like I just never compiled that information into my final turnover, making its absence my totally fault.

There's some other information (sidebars on drinks, slang and holidays of Absalom, and waaay too much detail on the Arcanamirium) that was either lost in the transfer of the book from Mike McArtor to Sean, or was actually cut for space. Someday, of course, that matertial may show up but that's Paizo's call.

But Sean asked me to get this information up a while ago, so I'm finally fixing that snafu.

This or the Gazetteer? I am planning on buying the new Campaign Guide when it comes out in February?

I'd like to get something, but I like maps, and I'm weighing this product and gazetteer - but it seems like much of these things would be included in the Campaign Setting book.

Recommendations?

Absalom's getting 4 pages in the new campaign setting (same as the current campaign setting). Much less info than the 64 pages in the Guide to Absalom. :)

Absalom's getting 4 pages in the new campaign setting (same as the current campaign setting). Much less info than the 64 pages in the Guide to Absalom. :)

Thank you sir! Any thoughts on the gazetteer? Will that be a part of the upcoming CS?

Montalve wrote:

so any chances we could get the living cost of the Districts that are not included?

I'm not sure how this information got lost the first time through, but I take full responsibility for it. As some of you know I took a break from all rpg writing shortly after Absalom was done, which is why I didn't peek in on this thread earlier. Now that I have, I'm happy to post my (unedited and thus unofficial) living costs for those distrcits missing it....

Thanks for me too; this is very helpful.

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Absalom's getting 4 pages in the new campaign setting (same as the current campaign setting). Much less info than the 64 pages in the Guide to Absalom. :)

Thank you sir! Any thoughts on the gazetteer? Will that be a part of the upcoming CS?

That's kind of like asking if an encyclopedia entry on Europe will be part of a full-length book about Europe—both things cover the same area, but at very different levels, so they don't generally share common text.

That's kind of like asking if an encyclopedia entry on Europe will be part of a full-length book about Europe—both things cover the same area, but at very different levels, so they don't generally share common text.

In other words: If the Gazetteer has a half-page summary of Absalom, and the campaign setting will have a 4-page summary of Absalom, it makes sense that the campaign setting would include all the relevant information from the Gaz, though it probably isn't a direct quote of the Gaz.

yoda8myhead wrote:

The lack of poster map in this is very disappointing. Any chance of getting a poster map to buy on its own?

We were unable to get things to come together properly in time for this project, but we expect to provide a large map of Absalom in an as-yet-unannounced product for next spring.

Are there any updates on this product? Will it still include a poster map of Absalom?

Vic Wertz wrote:

yoda8myhead wrote:

The lack of poster map in this is very disappointing. Any chance of getting a poster map to buy on its own?

We were unable to get things to come together properly in time for this project, but we expect to provide a large map of Absalom in an as-yet-unannounced product for next spring.

Are there any updates on this product? Will it still include a poster map of Absalom?

Wow, that's going back! When I said that in '08, we thought that Absalom would probably be included in Cities of Golarion, and a poster map would thus be part of the City Map Folio. We ultimately decided to feature all-new locations in that book, so the Absalom poster map was never commissioned. There is a possibility that we'll return to Absalom in a big enough way at *some* point, though.

(Thread necromancy mode ON)

Could we expect to have one day the stats for hippocampus companion ?
Maybe in a blog post ? Maybe with an archetype for the hippocampus cavalry ? It has been done before with the hippogriffs and the Sable Company (01/06/11)

It will be great !

I'd be willing to bet if you just made a poster map of Absalom it'd sell too...or maybe as a bonus in some new book or something.

I'd be willing to bet if you just made a poster map of Absalom it'd sell too...or maybe as a bonus in some new book or something.

Still hoping for this as well.

so am i..

Anyone have an idea of how accurate this book still is? I'm prepping to start Agents of Edgewatch soon (about halfway through reading the second book) and wanted to get a more in depth look at the city besides the gazetteer info in the AP. Mostly looking for noble houses, specific NPCs, organizations, etc, so that I can help PCs tie their character backgrounds into the city.

If a bunch of the info is retconned though, I'd rather not waste the time/ confuse my brain.

I know there will eventually be the updated Lost Omens, hardcover version, but since there isn't even a release date yet, I expect we will be starting well before that comes out.

Anyone have an idea of how accurate this book still is? I'm prepping to start Agents of Edgewatch soon (about halfway through reading the second book) and wanted to get a more in depth look at the city besides the gazetteer info in the AP. Mostly looking for noble houses, specific NPCs, organizations, etc, so that I can help PCs tie their character backgrounds into the city.

If a bunch of the info is retconned though, I'd rather not waste the time/ confuse my brain.

I know there will eventually be the updated Lost Omens, hardcover version, but since there isn't even a release date yet, I expect we will be starting well before that comes out.

A lot of this book should still be up to date, and it's a fun read. Just use the Lost Omens World Guide's Absalom chapter for an overview of what's changed, and I think you should be good.

Thank you Opsylum! According to this page, I bought this book in May of 2009, so ill have to dig it out, haha.