Pathfinder Adventure Path #32: Rivers Run Red (Kingmaker 2 of 6) (PFRPG)

4.30/5 (based on 12 ratings)
Pathfinder Adventure Path #32: Rivers Run Red (Kingmaker 2 of 6) (PFRPG)
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Chapter 2: "Rivers Run Red"
by Rob McCreary

With the heart of the Stolen Lands explored and the bandits who ruled there scattered, the long-contested realm finally lies open for pioneers and settlers to stake their claims. Amid the rush of opportunistic travelers, the PCs find themselves stewards over a new domain, tasked with the responsibility of guiding and guarding a fledgling nation struggling to grow upon a treacherous borderland. Yet the threats to this new nation quickly prove themselves greater than mere bandits and wild beasts, as the monstrous natives of the hills and forests rampage forth to slaughter all who have trespassed upon their territory. Can the PCs hold the land they’ve fought so hard to explore and tame? Or will their legend be just one more lost to the fangs of the Stolen Lands?

    This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes:
  • “Rivers Run Red,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 5th-level characters, by Rob McCreary.
  • Expansive new rules for running your own cities and nations, by James Jacobs.
  • Insights into the rugged faith of Erastil, god of the hunt, by Sean K Reynolds.
  • Pathfinder Ollix Kaddar and Phargas get themselves to a nunnery in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Richard Pett.
  • Five new monsters, by Adam Daigle, Rob McCreary, Sean K Reynolds, and James L. Sutter.

Pathfinder Adventure Path is Paizo Publishing's monthly 96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover book printed on high-quality paper. 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. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set.

ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-233-3

"Rivers Run Red" is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (606 kb zip/PDF).

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

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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4.30/5 (based on 12 ratings)

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Good back material, poor maps

4/5

I ran this adventure with moderate modifications for a group of 5 players (4 experienced, 1 novice). We switched to the fast advancement track here, which meant cutting some encounters to bring the xp gain in line, and expanded Candlemere Tower slightly. With these modifications and a few kingdom turns, the adventure took 8 sessions of three or four hours each, for a total of ~30 hours. The players had a lot of fun.

The back material of the adventure is fantastic and pulls the book up to four stars. The kingdom rules are legendary, although they work best as something between sessions and are now replaced by the rules in Ultimate Campaign. I found the random event table in this version better than the one in Ultimate Campaign - it's less detailed but that makes it easier to tie in to existing plot threads. SKR's Erastil article is good, and the rorkoun from the bestiary fit in to my side quest involving Old Ones perfectly.

The adventure itself continues some of the same great trends from the first one in the series, with a rich world to explore full of fun and unique NPCs that make roleplaying a blast. Unfortunately, the bigger locations fall flat. The maps in particular are boring and often symmetrical. The last dungeon also makes no sense. A potentially awesome rush back to deal with a threat to all the PCs' hard work in front of their own walls gets turned into an 8 room dungeon with three set of monsters that logically shouldn't be living together.

If you're willing to put in the time to tailor this adventure to your group, this book is great inspiration. If you want to run an adventure as is, it's still good but could be better.


Build a Kingdom to rival Camelot!

5/5

Kingdom building was such an amazing added bonus and new level of fun and excitement! Great encounters and wonderful opportunities throughout the book for not only roll playing but true role playing as well.


Very entertaining

5/5

In my campaign we ended up switching out the city building rules for the updated version in Ultimate Campaign.
We also added more "kingdome events" to build a story for the region. Otherwise it turns into a hex cleaning campaign leaving the PCs high level and the kingdom undeveloped.


Blood Will Run in the Gutters Until...RIVERS RUN RED


The second installment of the Kingmaker Adventure Path gets down to the nitty-gritty of building a barony. This can be almost as much fun as slaying the trolls! Check my full review: Rivers Run Red




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Sovereign Court

redcelt32 wrote:
Having a party of 9-10 players every week

Man, I get cranky when my D&D groups go over 4. I can't imagine running what boils down to TWO FULL GROUPS simultaneously.


Rob Vermeulen wrote:
However, we tend to play with a 6 PC party, and I was wondering to which extend I would have to beef up the monsters for that.

I still hold that you really don't need to do anything, in the long term.

In the first couple levels, adding 50% more hp would keep the encounters reasonably challenging.

After that, the extra division of XP will settle your PCs at about 1 level lower than designed for (and they will stay there), balancing out the extra numbers in most cases. The extra actions available may call for a couple extra changes for final encounters (adding a couple minions), but that's about it.

Trying to keep up with the PCs is somewhat a losing proposition - you'll have to do it for the entire AP.

Scarab Sages

Cappadocious wrote:
Man, I get cranky when my D&D groups go over 4. I can't imagine running what boils down to TWO FULL GROUPS simultaneously.

I delegate a lot of stuff, including initiative, and the players all have to be very prepared when its their turn in combat. Otherwise, its more an attempt to make combat quick and smooth, which can be difficult, and balancing the encounters so they are challenging but not deadly :) I got alot of help from reading some of the threads here on the boards, from other DMs who run big groups, so I highly recommend their advice if you decide to try.


this will be the first ap i run (in pathfinder) as a wanted to run a true pathfinder game without converting a whole ap. my party will consist of 5-6 players so i will try the extra 50% hp for enemies and will take the slow progression. players should fall behind in level that way and if they start falling to far behind i can through in some mini/side quests. Anyone know any pathfind modules that could easily be adapted to this area with limited changes to use as side adventures?

One thing im curious about Kingmaker is the time it takes to build up a kingdom. how is this actually going to work time wise? will players set out to kill some bandits come back and a town is built? or more realistic of months/years of adventure down time while towns and such develop and at curtain time periods curtain adventure points pop up? just wondering how time overall will be handled...

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Yeah when I GM I shoot for 6 players, but anything in the 4-8 range is fine by me. Less than 4 starts to be a bit of a issue but is workable. More than 8 and it tends to just be to slow in my experience.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

RunebladeX wrote:
Anyone know any pathfind modules that could easily be adapted to this area with limited changes to use as side adventures?

I think you could easily adapt the D1, D4, and W1 to this location. Each would require some refining in terms of location and hook, but there are kobolds in the region and the troubles affecting Fort Thorn could easily affect one of your PCs' towns. Depending when you throw these into the mix they might need to be scaled for level as well. And all three are 3.5 rules, so you would need to do minimal conversion on them to fit them in a PFRPG game, though few major problems are springing to mind for any of them.


I like 5 players if at all possible. Exactly 5.. but I'm content with 4.

Actually I think I like 4 best, but the reason I think 5 is the superior number is because if one person has to be absent, we still have what I consider to be a quorum (with 4 players) and we play anyway. That has kept many a game session from being cancelled. No one person cancels a majority of the time, but sooner or later almost everyone will have to miss, so it balances it out.

I've worked with six but it just doesn't feel great. 4 to 5 is my target numbers.


yoda8myhead wrote:
FenrysStar wrote:
An expanded bestiary in the back of each book would be appreciated.
more than the ten or so pages the Bestiaries already get?

Let me put it to you this way, I don't always have a great use for the adventures, but usually I find a monster or two I find interesting. The Bestiary is one of the features I look forward to with each issue.


I've been having a lot of thoughts in and out of my head lately. This is a possible observation, but it seems to me now that Erastil is very close in many ways to the Celtic deity Cernunnos, known as Herne the Hunter in Britain whom the Romans called Sylvanus. Among other things the real world deity is usually depicted as a horned human. Just a possible observation.


RunebladeX wrote:

this will be the first ap i run (in pathfinder) as a wanted to run a true pathfinder game without converting a whole ap. my party will consist of 5-6 players so i will try the extra 50% hp for enemies and will take the slow progression. players should fall behind in level that way and if they start falling to far behind i can through in some mini/side quests. Anyone know any pathfind modules that could easily be adapted to this area with limited changes to use as side adventures?

One thing im curious about Kingmaker is the time it takes to build up a kingdom. how is this actually going to work time wise? will players set out to kill some bandits come back and a town is built? or more realistic of months/years of adventure down time while towns and such develop and at curtain time periods curtain adventure points pop up? just wondering how time overall will be handled...

I think it has been mentioned that there will be significant down time between the parts off this adventure path.Quite how this ties in with the unchanging nature of Golarion I'm not quite sure

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DM Wellard wrote:
RunebladeX wrote:

this will be the first ap i run (in pathfinder) as a wanted to run a true pathfinder game without converting a whole ap. my party will consist of 5-6 players so i will try the extra 50% hp for enemies and will take the slow progression. players should fall behind in level that way and if they start falling to far behind i can through in some mini/side quests. Anyone know any pathfind modules that could easily be adapted to this area with limited changes to use as side adventures?

One thing im curious about Kingmaker is the time it takes to build up a kingdom. how is this actually going to work time wise? will players set out to kill some bandits come back and a town is built? or more realistic of months/years of adventure down time while towns and such develop and at curtain time periods curtain adventure points pop up? just wondering how time overall will be handled...

I think it has been mentioned that there will be significant down time between the parts off this adventure path.Quite how this ties in with the unchanging nature of Golarion I'm not quite sure

We assume all Kingmaker APs start on the "current day" and how long they take to resolve is relatively irrelevant for world canon. Mostly because the Stolen Lands are pretty isolated from the rest of the world, but also because the future of Golarion isn't something we're really interested in pinning down; that's for GMs to play with. We're mostly just interested in Golarion's present. Which DOES move into the future at a rate of one day per day.


Oh I'm not complaining James I love being able to take the world and help my players mould it did it with Greyhawk, did it with the Realms, doing it with the Wilderlands in my PbP here..and it won't be the first AP that has occured over an extended time scale..Runelords should take well over a year in game time..so should Crimson Throne and Legacy.


Now after reading the first one... I can't wait to run this. This goes to the top of my next to play list. Currently running a RotR game converted.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
We assume all Kingmaker APs start on the "current day" and how long they take to resolve is relatively irrelevant for world canon. Mostly because the Stolen Lands are pretty isolated from the rest of the world, but also because the future of Golarion isn't something we're really interested in pinning down; that's for GMs to play with. We're mostly just interested in Golarion's present. Which DOES move into the future at a rate of one day per day.

I like this general approach to events management.

I always thought is wasn't quite the same calendar, as I couldn't see a justification for robbing Calistria of her month's fair share of days. It's much simpler to just say the Golarion year has 360 days. Otherwise, the seasons will precess to strange months over the centuries. Also, the leap years are only half as frequent as ours.

Does Golarion's moon have a proper name yet?


are there any fan-made calenders floating around anywhere?

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Ditto on the calender.

which months have 31 days by the way? 364 days a year mean 4 months have 31 days.

Liberty's Edge

Tim Statler wrote:

Ditto on the calender.

which months have 31 days by the way? 364 days a year mean 4 months have 31 days.

Sounds stupid but start with your thumb...= Jan. Between Thumb and index finger is Feb. Index finger itself is March.

Between next finger is April .

Top of next finger is June and so on...

Pinky finger is Sept. Then repeat Pinky as Oct then go back towards thumb.

Top of fingers is the months with 31 days.....

I know...wonders of elementary at a small school. My graduating class was 6.

Sean

EDIT plus there are 365 days a year with every fourth 366 because of leap year...

So seven months have 31 days.

Doesn't work....maybe I remember it incorrect.

At any rate Jan, March, May, July, Aug, Oct, Dec....have 31 days.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I know OUR calender. I was talking about Golarion's. :p


From a *really* old thread, somewhere on this board, I copied the following calendar information:

calendar:

Time on Golarion
Time travels on Golarion much as it does here on our own Earth. Sixty seconds form a minute, sixty minutes create an hour, and twenty-four hours make a day. The people of Golarion measure time much like we do as well, with seven days to a week and twelve 30-day months to a year. Years are marked since the founding of the last great empire, that of Aroden, the Last Man. Although the empire has collapsed, its calendar remains in use to this day. At the start of the campaign, the date is 4707 AR (Absalom Reckoning).
Days of the Week
The days of the week are as follows. Each day has a general purpose that most people in the Inner Sea region follow.

Day
General Purpose
Moonday Work, religion [night]
Toilday Work
Wealday Work
Oathday Work, pacts signed, oaths sworn
Fireday Work
Starday Work
Sunday Rest, religion

Months
The months in Golarion correspond to our own, with each new year starting shortly after the solstice. You'll notice that the name of each month is etymologically tied to a specific god—residents of Golarion see the gods reflected in the changing of the seasons, and their names for the months reflect this. (Gozreh's month, for instance, is a time of budding and new life, while Zon-Kuthon's is seen as the death of the old year.) Holidays in a given month are generally tied to their patron deity. In order, the months are:
Abadius (January)
Calistril (February)
Pharast (March)
Gozran (April)
Desnus (May)
Sarenith (June)
Erastus (July)
Arodus (August)
Rova (September)
Lamashan (October)
Neth (November)
Kuthona (December)

-- david
Papa.DRB

Tim Statler wrote:

Ditto on the calender.

which months have 31 days by the way? 364 days a year mean 4 months have 31 days.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Oh; and:
30 days hath September, April, June, and November.
All the rest have 31, except February, which has 28 and on leap Years 29.

thenorthman wrote:
Tim Statler wrote:

Ditto on the calender.

which months have 31 days by the way? 364 days a year mean 4 months have 31 days.

Sounds stupid but start with your thumb...= Jan. Between Thumb and index finger is Feb. Index finger itself is March.

Between next finger is April .

Top of next finger is June and so on...

Pinky finger is Sept. Then repeat Pinky as Oct then go back towards thumb.

Top of fingers is the months with 31 days.....

I know...wonders of elementary at a small school. My graduating class was 6.

Sean

EDIT plus there are 365 days a year with every fourth 366 because of leap year...

So seven months have 31 days.

Doesn't work....maybe I remember it incorrect.

At any rate Jan, March, May, July, Aug, Oct, Dec....have 31 days.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Tim Statler wrote:


Sounds stupid but start with your thumb...= Jan. Between Thumb and index finger is Feb. Index finger itself is March.

Between next finger is April .

Top of next finger is June and so on...

Pinky finger is Sept. Then repeat Pinky as Oct then go back towards thumb.

Top of fingers is the months with 31 days.....

I know...wonders of elementary at a small school. My graduating class was 6.

Sean

Start on your pinky and just use your fingers not your thumb, then it works.

Liberty's Edge

Justin Franklin wrote:
Tim Statler wrote:


Sounds stupid but start with your thumb...= Jan. Between Thumb and index finger is Feb. Index finger itself is March.

Between next finger is April .

Top of next finger is June and so on...

Pinky finger is Sept. Then repeat Pinky as Oct then go back towards thumb.

Top of fingers is the months with 31 days.....

I know...wonders of elementary at a small school. My graduating class was 6.

Sean

Start on your pinky and just use your fingers not your thumb, then it works.

Ahhhhhh.

Sean

Liberty's Edge

Tim Statler wrote:
I know OUR calender. I was talking about Golarion's. :p

One bad thing about getting a RSS feed. I didn't read the other posts otherwise I would of seen that. Sorry.

Sean

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

So how does the kingdom alignment bonus work? There's a box for it in the LES lines of the kingdom sheet, and I'm wondering if it's based off of the average of the council's alignments, or just the ruler's, or something else. Does the kingdom alignment equal the ruler's? I could see how the difference between the king's and the kingdom's could lead to Unrest, but it seems from the form that the non-ruler leadership roles don't contribute to it.


I just want to know when this is shipping out? When?!?!?! I cannot take the suspense anymore. My players are finishing second darkness... they will start this in September.... I must know... what day will the PDF appear in my account, and what day will the print version show up on my doorstep!


Krongar wrote:
I just want to know when this is shipping out? When?!?!?! I cannot take the suspense anymore. My players are finishing second darkness... they will start this in September.... I must know... what day will the PDF appear in my account, and what day will the print version show up on my doorstep!

well, ya have until september. I'm betting it will be before that

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Krongar wrote:
I just want to know when this is shipping out? When?!?!?! I cannot take the suspense anymore. My players are finishing second darkness... they will start this in September.... I must know... what day will the PDF appear in my account, and what day will the print version show up on my doorstep!

We can't be anywhere near that precise... especially when the product in question is still on a boat somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. Best we can do for now is "Late April."


Vic Wertz wrote:
Best we can do for now is "Late April."

roughly, how late are we talking about here?

Sovereign Court

Earwig wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Best we can do for now is "Late April."
roughly, how late are we talking about here?

June.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Earwig wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Best we can do for now is "Late April."
roughly, how late are we talking about here?

I would guess with it still being on the boat, the last week or two of April.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

It's currently looking like it'll be the week after next.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

you need to get a faster boat. :)

Sovereign Court

So, do we have an idea when this one gets rolled out? My group is finally rolling through the first one and I want start planning for the next. :)

edit: damn didn't see that last one from Vic.


I'm having a Pavlovian response, I'm gettin' so excited!


Vic Wertz wrote:


We can't be anywhere near that precise... especially when the product in question is still on a boat somewhere on the Pacific Ocean.

Zounds! The dreaded slow boat from China! I get flashbacks to the Delta Green hardcover release every time someone tells me their books are at, or finished and being shipped from, their printer in Asia.

/crossed fingers for another great installment


Doug OBrien wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:


We can't be anywhere near that precise... especially when the product in question is still on a boat somewhere on the Pacific Ocean.

Zounds! The dreaded slow boat from China! I get flashbacks to the Delta Green hardcover release every time someone tells me their books are at, or finished and being shipped from, their printer in Asia.

/crossed fingers for another great installment

Relax, it could be worse. Imagine you were a Pathfinder subscriber in Asia: you had to watch your books leaving Asia on a boat, to be delivered to America, to be re-packaged, and put onto a boat to be delivered to Asia...


I dont know but the PDF looks good, really good. I know my players will hate Rorkoun.


Is there a general estimation on how long it takes stock to get out to an FLGS (continental US) after release? Just excited about the prospect of grabbing one from one of my local stores.


When will the pdf be available for sale? And if it allready is, can someone point me to it?


Henrik Karlsson wrote:
When will the pdf be available for sale? And if it allready is, can someone point me to it?

If you scroll about halfway down this page it indicates that the PDF should be available next Wednesday (approx).

Liberty's Edge

I keep my subscription going and we have a backlog (gotta finish savage tide) before we hit Legacy of Fire...I just hand the unopened packet to whomever is going to DM what series...now that this one is out, I almost want to skip all the others because the premise of this scenario brings back the prospect of why we play this game...EXPLORE EXPLORE EXPLORE without really having to worry about the universe killing artifact....can't wait...

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Doug OBrien wrote:
Is there a general estimation on how long it takes stock to get out to an FLGS (continental US) after release? Just excited about the prospect of grabbing one from one of my local stores.

It generally takes 2-3 weeks after we begin shipping to subscribers to hit most retailers; in this case, the retail release date was yesterday.


How much of the kingdom-building rules do you anticipate sharing with your players?


Well, I've finally subscribed to the AP starting with this volume (I ordered Kingmaker #1 as well) because the basic premise of this AP sounds ideal for the game I'm currently running for my friends (Imperial Roman dark fantasy set in Germany circa 7 A.D.), and I figured that it sounded like I'd be able to adapt quite a bit. I'm also really curious about the rules involving the exploration and "taming of the land" aspect of this AP.

I don't have anything really specific to say about the product just yet (for obvious reasons), except that I wanted to mention that I've been wanting to support Paizo for a long while - the production quality is so consistently high (and Wayne Reynolds is one of my favorite artists), and since I recently quit playing World of Warcraft, I figured an AP subscription would run me around the same amount of money, but give me a lot more satisfaction for what I'm paying. The other APs looked really cool (based on what I saw in the store), but the concept Kingmaker is based on is what convinced me to finally take the plunge. Getting some birthday money also helped.


I was reading the fiction in Rivers Run Red, and wondering if Richard Pett's been listening to any 2 Live Crew lately. XD

Spoiler:
Specifically, Luke's part in Dirty Nursery Rhymes


Two things I'm curious about before plunking down money...possibly after depending on answering speed.

One, are there rules for hiring/conscripting/whatevering a military force? I realize actual army battlin' rules are still to come, but I hope RRR at least has some "here's what an army unit costs" guidelines so something like Cry Havoc can be used in the meantime if need be.

And B, is each leadership position given unique actions to take in a nation-building round? And if so, what do they average? Examples appreciated, like "on a given turn, the master spy can design a fake mustache, know 3d8 (wo-)men in a biblical sense, or gain proficiency with an exotic weapon (ex. steel-tipped throwing hat)."

Liberty's Edge

Quick question about the city building rules...

For the purposes of an adjacent structure, what constitutes "adjacent." Within the same 4 tile block, or will seperated by an alley suffice. There has been some conjecture here amongst some future city planners.

Thanks.

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

Vic Wertz wrote:


We can't be anywhere near that precise... especially when the product in question is still on a boat somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. Best we can do for now is "Late April."

Can't you hack into global positioning satellites, compare that data with the ship logs of all countries, and measure the water displacement caused by the weight of the books to get an approximation?

I'm pretty sure that any half-assed hacker on television or in a movie could do this in less than 10 minutes. If the Postmonster can't perform such a trivial task, you should consider kicking him to the curb.


Darian Graey wrote:

Quick question about the city building rules...

For the purposes of an adjacent structure, what constitutes "adjacent." Within the same 4 tile block, or will seperated by an alley suffice. There has been some conjecture here amongst some future city planners.

Thanks.

Kingdom Building

Liberty's Edge

Kingdom Building

Thanks. Missed the thread.

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