Does your game lack depth? Under a lot of pressure to try something new? Creative springs running a bit dry? Then it is time to make a splash with the Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting and Undersea Sourcebook.
Aquatic adventure awaits in three dimensions with this unique underwater world. This tome is filled to the brim with useful material for any game: a dozen new races, a triad of new classes and prestige classes, scores of new feats and spells, solutions for 3D combat, ninety new monsters, cardstock minis and so much more! All beautifully color-illustrated by Alluria Publishing's talented design team. Take the plunge!
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This book is an impressive collective writing effort to bring probably the least explored environment in tabletop games. The amount of content is massive and very well-implemented. There are several races to choose from, the classes have been given an aquatic feel, the spells have been converted and even the weapons have been redesigned. Yeah, they offer as many weapons as there are in a player guide, all adapted for underwater environments and their restrictive rules when it comes to swing a weapon. You won't fight with a sword, but there's the spear equivalent that does the job.
While it's good to see everything the seas can offer, I'd like to point out that every chapter of this book can be added to any setting. Yep, Golarion, for instance, can have the Cerulean Seas next to it. While it's a shame that no setting to date has charted its underwater sections, it's a real blessing that it can be layered on top another setting without any problem.
An excellent book that paves the way for the future of underwater settings ^_^
Excellent underwater content, oh, and there's a campaign setting too
This book is everything I never knew I needed to have to run an underwater adventure, and has made me interested in an all underwater campaign, something I never would have wanted to run without this book. While they required a little thinking to wrap my head around, the rules for buoyancy, drag, and pressure really add a lot to the feel of an underwater game.
The races come next, and offer a nice variety of exotic races to choose from as well as more familiar races like sea elves and seafolk. classes chapter, aside from including a few interesting new classes like the Kahuna and Siren, gives short conversion notes for the core and APG pathfinder classes that keep them relevent in an entirely underwater campaign.
Not to be overlooked in all the excellent rules is the fact that this book is called a Campaign Setting and does include some information about the Cerulean Seas. Small nuggets of campaign details are sprinkled through each section of the book, and a short 26 page section gives a little information on the history of the various races and a tiny amount of information on cities in the setting. This is probably the section of the book that could use the most expansion, and if my primary interest in the book was as a campaign setting I would probably disappointed with this section. As it is it's a nice little bonus add on to the rules and serves to give some flavor to the different races.
All in all this book provides everything you never knew you desperately wanted for underwater campaigns. If you have any interest in running an underseas campaign this book will be valuable to you. If you never thought you wanted to run an undersea campaign this might convert you like it did for me.
Other reviews have covered this in more detail than I could ever hope so I'll just give my general impressions.
This is one of those books you can live without. Until you want to have an all underwater campaign that is. Then this book isn't just necessary, I cant even think of an appropriate substitute. Not only does it give you some useable underwater rules but it gives you a butt-ton of races and other rules so you can do it. It even comes with some fluff so you don't have to make a setting from scratch. There are just so many tools and rules for this to not be useful. But only if you are running a game that is underwater more often than not, otherwise it's a large word count and a ton of rules that you'll never use. But that's the kind of product this is. I reviewed Companions of Firmament today and this is in the sam vein. Unfortunately I do not have a product that helps you play underground or on the sun but if you want to play in the sky you get that, if you want to play in the water you get this, so by being pretty much mandatory for an entire terrain that takes up a whole lot of space on a planet this book gets 5 stars.
No question. If you want to play underwater get this book. You need it.
The detailed reviews above cover the contents of this product in detail, so I won't go into them yet again. What I'll tell you is that as 35 year gamer with a degree in marine biology, running entirely submerged campaigns has been a dream. I've picked up every marine supplement I can find and Cerulean Seas is the clear winner. Followed by Azure Ice, Indigo Seas and Waves of Thought, this is a great series that deserves recognition.
Underwater adventuring has always been, insofar as Pathfinder is concerned, one of those ideas that seem great in theory but difficult in practice. After all, taking your adventuring party underwater means that everyone’s aware that one good dispel magic will take away whatever spells or magic items they’re using to keep breathing. Add in penalties for how melee and ranged attacks work, changes to spellcasting, and even the continual Swim checks to keep moving, and it’s not only a headache for everyone involved, but quite likely a TPK waiting to happen. And don’t even get me started on the logistics of fighting across three dimensions of movement.
And so, underwater adventuring was quietly pushed off to the side. Just enough rules were provided to make it theoretically possible, without anyone worrying about how practical it actually was. Few adventures were published that dealt with characters going into the waves, and those that were kept it to the shallow end of the pool, with dry land always being close by. Finding new paths under the sea seemed like it’d always be resigned the realm of pipe-dreams and a few die-hards, never to be accessible to the mainstream Pathfinder gamers.
All of that changed when Alluria Publishing released Cerulean Seas, a massive campaign setting-slash-sourcebook that not only takes Pathfinder underwater, but actually makes such a game doable. Let’s take a look at what the book offers so that you’ll know this isn’t just a fish story I’m telling you.
As a PDF file, Cerulean Seas hits all of the high-water marks. It has full, nested bookmarks (an absolute necessity in a book that’s nearly 300 pages long), and allows for copy-and-pasting without problems. And of course, the artwork – oh wow, the artwork! Alluria has always had a reputation for their lavish illustrations, and they certainly live up to it here. An entire team of interior artists have lovingly portrayed myriad aspects of the book’s material, from new races and monsters to new equipment, to spell effects, to a map of the Cerulean Seas area, and so much more, (almost) all of it in lush full color. Alluria is perhaps the only company that can compete with Paizo on an even footing for how gorgeous their books look.
Of course, this (and the subtle but ornate page borders) means that this book is far from printer-friendly. At the time of this writing, a print version of the book is still in the works, but isn’t yet available. If you want a hardcopy of Cerulean Seas, you might be better to wait for that, as this PDF would likely send your printer to Davy Jones’ Locker.
The book’s opening chapter dives right in, opening with framing fiction that defines the game world. The Cerulean Seas campaign setting used to be a normal game world, but had a great flood that covered the world with ninety-nine percent water. There’s more to it than this, of course, including a recently-won genocidal war against the sahuagin, the role the gods played in the great flood, and more, but this is the main thrust of the story, and sets the stage for this water world.
The chapter takes us through some basic terms and definitions before we start to get into the specifics of living under the sea. It’s here that the book might start to scare away some of the more casual-type gamers, because this chapter pulls no punches in what it presents. We’re given an introduction to how things like buoyancy, hydraulic pressure, ambient sunlight, and more work underwater. The first chapter is basically a primer for things to be aware of regarding life underwater, and how these translate into game terms. This is especially true for underwater combat, which has its own section here.
I’ll take a moment to say that while this section can be off-putting for how dry (ironically) its listing of various undersea features can be, as well as how complicated the rules for buoyancy and the accompany combat changes are, it’s worth persevering through. The book deals with this more in the Game Mastering section, but these are the changes that really make an undersea game feel different; and as with all parts of a complex table-top game, they’ll become more familiar (to the point of being second-nature) over time.
The second chapter returns to more familiar territory where PF sourcebooks are concerned, presenting twelve new undersea races (though one or two, such as sea elves or the mogogols, may seem familiar). Cleverly, these are sub-divided into three groups: the anthromorphs (who have humanoid bodies), the feykith (fey-related sea-dwellers), and merfolk (who are humanoid from the waist up, and fish from the waist down). Interestingly, the human-equivalent race is presented as the “seafolk,” a merfolk race. They not only have the human’s “floating” +2 ability bonus that can be applied everywhere, but are the only race to have various cross-breeds listed, with alternate racial traits presented.
Each race received a generous focus, listing not only their statistics but also plenty of flavor text regarding their society, alignment, possible names, etc. However, ardent Pathfinder fans may be somewhat disappointed that the expanded racial options from the Advanced Player’s Guide aren’t reproduced here. That is, there are no alternate racial features available (seafolk crossbreeds notwithstanding) nor are there alternate favored class options.
I’m of two minds about this, as it seems somewhat unfair that these have suddenly been assumed to be default necessities for third-party contributions to the Pathfinder RPG. At the same time, those bring a hefty level of customization to the table that are very helpful in making your character’s race be of greater importance. That said, twelve colorful new races here certainly make that notable in and of themselves. It’s also worth noting that the book doesn’t forget to bring us the various vital statistics for these races (one of those little things that are nevertheless important).
Subsequent to the races chapter is the chapter on classes, and it’s here where things get truly interesting. The book makes some generalized notes about changes to existing classes before dealing with how to alter each base class specifically for an undersea game. This part of the book does deal with the APG classes, so you alchemists and oracles and such can all breathe a sigh a relief.
The changes made in this regard are absolutes, rather than the optional class archetypes presented in the APG. Interestingly, a few classes are recommended to be discarded entirely in favor of three new base classes presented here. Bards are passed over in favor of sirens, druids are replaced with kahunas, and rangers are given the boot in favor of mariners.
These new classes do a great job presenting their own twist on the niche that their replaced classes fill. The Kahuna, for example, is a full-progression divine spellcaster, but selects a single animal spirit that, as she gains levels, is able to utilize greater and greater spirit powers to bolster herself and her allies (or alternately harm her enemies).
This chapter also deals with prestige classes, listing which ones from the Core Rulebook and APG are useable without any changes, which need some changes, and which aren’t available at all. There are also three new prestige classes presented here, the each comber (those who venture into the wilds of the remaining dry land), glimmerkeeper (fast-moving undersea hero), and sea witch (an aquatic necromancer).
Skills and feats are the subject of the fourth chapter. As with many things, the skills section offers a series of new interpretations of existing skills, though there are no new skills added (something I was grateful for, as adding new skills often feels contrived). The feats section got a similar examination for several existing feats, but here we’re given almost four-dozen new underwater feats as well.
The chapter on money and equipment was interesting for how much stayed the same, though quite a bit changed in appearance. Most precious metals have been replaced by things like shells or pearls, though the measurements of currency are largely the same. New equipment helps there be a greater selection of viable weapons and armor underwater, not to mention various items that are unique to undersea adventuring, such as holy sand to replace holy water. Oddly, ships are presented here also, reinforcing that some aquatic races still spend a lot of their time above the waves.
The magic chapter presents some very imaginative alterations to not only existing spells, but also existing material components and foci before it moves into new spells and magic items. Some of what’s here deals with the change from fire damage to boiling-water damage, while others present alternate ways of harnessing electrical spells, or various utility spells such as defeating undersea pressure, or even breathing air for characters who want to go top-side.
It’s at the seventh chapter of the book that we take a look at the Cerulean Seas campaign world. This chapter takes a surprisingly light tone with the campaign, presenting many different facets of it but not going too deep with any of them, letting you fill in a lot of the blanks to make the game world your own. It does cover the recent histories and major NPCs of all of the major races, presents a number of major cities, a brief overview of the spoken languages, and an overview of the world’s recent history. My favorite, however, was the presentation of the Cerulean Seas religions. The undersea races uniformly decided to prevent religious strife by allowing only nine deities to be worshipped, one for each alignment. However, in order to sweep everyone under this umbrella, there are various “cults” that worship different aspects of these deities (each deity has two cults presented, with their own alignments, domains, etc.). These cults may only operate with the blessing of the parent faith, and it was engrossing to read about how various races merged their native religions with that of a more dominant faith, often resulting in the major god literally consuming the smaller one as a consequence.
I don’t mind saying that chapter eight, the Game Mastering Chapter, was perhaps the most friendly and helpful such section I’ve ever read. It speaks frankly, and almost familiarly, about the problems with running an undersea game, and what to do about them. Remember those scary new rules from chapter one? It goes over what the most important are to get down pat and how to ease into them. We get general guidelines on converting other materials for an undersea game, whether in terms of buoyancy or pressure tolerance. But my favorite section here was the unabashed look at the problem of 3D combat.
The book outlines roughly a half-dozen options for what to do about this issue, ranging from buying commercial elevation trackers to ordering a pizza and using those little plastic things that keep the cheese off of the box to elevate your minis. But by far the most favored option it presents is the one where it walks you, step by step, through creating your own adjustable boards for elevation. These are basically a few square inches of hard foam boarding that are moved up and down a standing rod; add a half-dozen of them to your game table and you can easily simulate characters moving across every dimension. It’s a fun little project, and works great for any tabletop game that needs a 3D combat solution.
There’s also a fascinating section on the planar arrangement (or perhaps just the widespread belief in the arrangement) of this campaign world. After all, an undersea culture hardly believes in a plane of fire, especially one that stands equal to the plane of water! Likewise, the oceans of the outer planes are considered much more prominent than the dry areas of such realms.
The final full chapter of the book presents almost a hundred new monsters to help populate your undersea game. From aquatic familiars to a large selection of new giants and true dragons (which are given their own grouping, rather than being chromatic or metallic), there’s plenty here to round out an underwater bestiary. New selections of simple templates and guidelines on how the major creature types work underwater provide further options and guidelines.
The book closes out with a number of helpful aids, such as a consolidated list of undersea monsters from this book, the Pathfinder Bestiary, and Alluria’s other Pathfinder books. Add in a pronunciation guide, cardstock minis, a character sheet, and more, and there’s everything you’ll need to get started on your Cerulean Seas game right away.
And if you’re not already excited about using this book to run an underwater game after reading this review, then trust me: it’s more due to my descriptions lacking enough fidelity to the book’s accomplishments than anything else. Cerulean Seas not only looks at every aspect of running a game in an underwater world – from what it means to be submerged to the logistics of it at the game table – but presents holistic options and alterations for setting a Pathfinder game there. The new material is expansive and the campaign setting covers a wide range of topics while still leaving room for customization. And of course, the artwork is beautiful and prominent. This is easily one of the best Pathfinder books to come out of the third-party market, and the absolute best for the topic it covers.
Don’t be afraid to make your game better by taking it down where it’s wetter. Bring your characters to the Cerulean Seas; it’ll make a big splash amongst your gaming group.
The problem with Facebook and gaming, I have found, is that many folks who game and chat online value their screen names and online identities, versus the "real names" that people tend to use on Facebook. Some folks freely mix the two, while others keep them separate.
How about a Cerulean Seas Sim on Second Life, while we're at it? SL has a thriving merfolk community. ;)
Personally, I seem to find the majority to freely mix the two. Why be embarrassed or secretive to be a gamer?
Second Life? Heck, I've never even played an MMORPG. I have enough vices sucking up my free time. :P
The Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting, under the Pathfinder Roleplaying Compatibility License, has been the most successful product that we ever released. We had hoped that it would do well, but the results far exceeded our expectations. So far, reviews have been universally splendid.
Despite glowing reviews, we have found a few errors and minor concerns. In addition, the release of the Pathfinder Bestiary 2 has put our product slightly out of date. Therefore, we have worked hard at creating a revised copy; one that fixes the concerns and errors that have been reported so far, and that updates the book to full compatibility with Bestiary 2. We are happy with the result, and hope that you will be too. The revised version is available for free to all who have already downloaded the product.
With this revision also comes a revision to our sales strategy and product lineup for 2011. First, we are reducing the price of our "Core Book," the Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting (electronic version) to $19.95. Originally, it was going to be a stand-alone book, with a few supplements if it was successful. Under that scenario and with the exorbitant production costs of this project, we had little choice but to charge a high price just to break even. However, the success of this project screams that we go in a different direction. Instead, we are focusing our entire product line on the Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting. We will have several really great and affordable products to support our core setting. Those "charter customers" who purchased our product at the higher price will not be forgotten: we will extend a lifetime discount on all future Cerulean Seas products (through RPGnow.com) for these customers.
Products to look for this spring:
Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting (Print Version)
Waves of Thought: Undersea Psionics (in association with Dreamscarred Press)
Time and Tides: An Undersea Fantasy Calendar
Indigo Ice: Undersea Arctic Adventure Guide
Thank you,
J. Matthew Kubisz
Alluria Publishing
Note: Changes to product (price and revised file) may take up to 24 hours to go into effect at the Paizo Store. Thank you for your patience.
I just remembered where I had seen cindarians, before. In a studio tour at Disney MGM Studios (now Disney Hollywood Studios) there is a gallery of concept art. One concept for "The Little Mermaid"'s Ursula was that of a lionfish:
That was quick! I suppose I need to step up my plans for a Cerulean Seas-oriented website for a possible campaign, then? ;)
I've heard quite a few folks interested in a Cerulean Seas PbP campaign. Though, to be honest, I'd like to explore what MapTool has to offer. Any thoughts?
I think the campaign will begin near a "seaweed city", a floating city crafted of living seaweed in which aquatic faces dwell beneath the surface.
That was quick! I suppose I need to step up my plans for a Cerulean Seas-oriented website for a possible campaign, then? ;)
I've heard quite a few folks interested in a Cerulean Seas PbP campaign. Though, to be honest, I'd like to explore what MapTool has to offer. Any thoughts?
I think the campaign will begin near a "seaweed city", a floating city crafted of living seaweed in which aquatic faces dwell beneath the surface.
I like your seaweed city idea..I may have to steal that..
Is Paizo going to get stock of the print version??
Maybe. Unfortunately there are a few contract issues that have to be ironed out first. It may be several months. For now, it is available exclusively at RPGnow.com.
Is Paizo going to get stock of the print version??
Maybe. Unfortunately there are a few contract issues that have to be ironed out first. It may be several months. For now, it is available exclusively at RPGnow.com.
Hmm no Pathfinder subscriber discount there though. :(
I like your seaweed city idea..I may have to steal that..
Feel free! I'm working on notes, even now, to write such a city up in two ways. The first will be for my current 3.5e undersea campaign in the World of Greyhawk, where the party may soon travel to the Jungle of Lost Ships ( http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/lgmp/20050118a ). Secondly, I shall write the floating city up using Pathfinder/Cerulean Seas, as a standalone (floatalone?) adventure.
Envision, if you will, a long-dormant submerged volcano rising into the shallows as a seamount. "Because they project out above the surrounding sea floor, they disturb standard water flow, causing eddies... seamounts are thus centers where the fish that feed on them aggregate, in turn falling prey to further predation, making seamounts important biological hotspots." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamount ) Thus a great mat of floating seaweed and debris are caught in an endless eddy, a slowly-rotating whirlpool turning almost imperceptibly. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_island )
Now turn your attention to the world beneath the waves. Envision stalks of kelp-like seaweed growing up from the surface of the seamount and the lattice of seaweed intertwined between the massive stalks as it grows down to meet the forest of kelp ( http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/efc_kelp/kelp_cam.aspx ).
Imagine two factions of subsurface dwellers, the first acting as defenders of the seaweed city. They protect its most vulnerable secret, that the heart of the city has been living for nearly one hundred millennia (borrowed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posidonia_oceanica ). The second cult secretly wishes to free the floaton from its terrestrial tether. To this end they have developed a potent poison, a disease which will weaken the stalks upon which their society is anchored.
Envision this, as the basis for pearl-money:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4226289174_e2aed0812f_z.jpg
A fish entrapped within an oyster, then entombed within a blister pearl.
Is Paizo going to get stock of the print version??
Maybe. Unfortunately there are a few contract issues that have to be ironed out first. It may be several months. For now, it is available exclusively at RPGnow.com.
Any news to report on this becoming available at Paizo?
I'm in love with Cerulean Seas, & just buying the softcover at rpgnow since only the PDF is available here on paizo.
I am keeping my eyes open for any future releases in this line!
Oh! & I did forget to ask one question: How do they communicate in Cerulean Seas? Is there talk on that in the book? Is it all gesturing & body language, or some sort of sign? Or is everyone sort of telepathic?
Please fill me in, thank you!
Chapter 6 deals with new magic as well as old one: After introducing some exceptions, we are introduced to a huge list of aquatic spell components, replacing drylander components - I love this list. While it seems to be a small and unnecessary component, I really consider going this extra-mile in detail and depth of coverage makes the approach stand out. APG-fans can rejoice, by the way: Undersea spell lists are provided for all the core and APG-classes and modifications to the spells have also been included in the lists. Over 100 spells are either entirely new or have been heavily modified to work beneath the waves and the two new casting base classes Kahuna and Siren also get their respective spell-lists. Surprisingly, the spells ranging from acidic red algae to black maelstroms are surprisingly well-crafted and none felt like overpowered or a story/game-breaker to me - indeed, some do expand the tactical options provided by 3d-fighting and currents - awesome! The new magic item-section comes with 2 armor and 4 weapon qualities as well as 1 new specific armor as well as 8 specific items, all of which (with one exception) come with their own high-quality artworks.
The 7th chapter deals with the Cerulean Seas campaign setting and can be considered a primer/gazetteer of the setting: This section contains racial histories, short NPC-write ups of famous NPCs as well as detailed information on the respective languages spoken beneath the waves. Religion is covered as well, but in a different way from what you'd expect: The council of nine, 9 deities seeking to absorb all other faiths, make for the mainstream religions and uphold the verdicts of "There shall be only 9" - but where there's persecution, there will also be cults, ranging from variations of the 9 teachings to more heretical positions. Two sanctioned cults per deity are included in the respective write-ups, lending further diversity to the pantheon. A vast array of short city-write-ups as well as a page chronicling current events provide ample hooks for the DM to craft adventures around.
Chapter 8 offers advice for Dming adventures under the sea and does a great job - extensive tbales to help you convert both items and creatures to the Cerulean Seas are provided along guidelines for buoyancy and then there's the battlemat-problem: If you've been stacking dice, this pdf has a page of depth-cubes you can print-out and use instead, providing more stability -quick and doesn't take too much time. If you're going for the recommended solution (after discussing some alternatives), we get actually some cool DIY-information: Tracker trees! Templates for the trees are provided both in full-color and B/w at the end of the pdf and the assembly instructions are comprehensive and easy and most importantly: Affordable, relatively easy to contruct and also a nice alternative if you're shooting for a solution for aerial combat as well.
No environment-focused book would be complete without a bestiary and thus, Alluria Publishing provides us with a smattering of new creatures in chapter 9: From Algoids (underwater shambling mounds) to degenerate merfolk, coral shephards (treant-like guardians of coral reefs) to a vast array of fishes, dinosaurs to 9 new kinds of deep-sea song dragons, we get a lot of cool critters. Have I mentioned the sound and steam elementals as well as 12 new familiar animals, creatures like dire lampreys to seacats and several species of sea-titans (e.g. with kraken-tentacles as lower parts of the torso) to original creatures like the mind-controlling, arcane static-producing mysterious slug-humanoids Slurgs and the awakened animal species of animals, the so-called trueforms? The creatures herein add a lot to a given campaign, even if it only skirts the water's surface. 4 simple templates also help you adjusting other creatures to the Cerulean Seas.
We also get appendices: Creatures by CR, a pronunciation guide, an index of tables, an art-index, 2 pages of char-sheet, 4 pages of card-stock minis,2 tracker tree templates, 1 page of depth cubes and 1 page-map of the Cerulean Seas. Finally, as I've mentioned in the beginning of this review, we get an index.
Conclusion:
Editing is very good - I noticed only about 10 glitches over 290 pages and all of them were minor hyphen- or punctuation errors. Formatting is top-notch and layout adheres to the two-column standard. The layout. Oh my god, it's beautiful. The slightly blue-tinged full-color pages are accentuated with gold and offer for a cool, unified look. The pdf comes with more than extensive bookmarks, greatly facilitating usage of the book and it should be noted, that size and art notwithstanding, the setting only takes up about 18 mbs, making it still a viable candidate for e-readers. Let me talk about the art: The artwork herein is GORGEOUS. I mean Paizo-level GORGEOUS. In fact, the interior artwork is probably at a level of quality I've rarely, if ever, seen before in a 3pp-book. In spite of having a lot of different artists creating these pieces, the book nevertheless maintains an unified look that is beyond what one would expect from most publications. Have I mentioned that a lot of weapons, ships etc. also get their artworks?
Let's get to the content: The attention to even the most minuscule detail and peculiarity is STAGGERING. Just about everything has been taken into consideration and lists like the spell-components and their underwater equivalents, the item conversions, the idea of aqua gravis etc. ensure that this pdf does not only provide a blue-tinged dryland equivalent of a setting, but rather an astonishing world that feels distinctively different. Underwater economics, travel etc. - all the aspects of underwater adventuring that had been handwaved at best until now have been covered in a consistent, intelligent and concise manner. Have I mentioned that the amount of letters f the respective alphabets are mentioned in the language write-ups? The sheer amount of fluffy details complementing the crunch is awesome. The new content is almost universally killer, ranging from the new races and their more unique representatives to the new classes. I didn't have a balance-concern with a single spell or feat. An then there's the setting-primer, which provides for a nice political landscape to spring upon your players. Proving that they know how to go above and beyond, the folks over at Alluria have also covered the 3d-combat an its representation with tracker trees to an extent that I did not expect to see. Conversion hellp for the GM ensures that this book will not be limited to single uses or just the material herein, but make it easy to expand the setting with more content. The buoyancy, deep pressure etc.-rules are plain awesome and the bestiary-section alone, with the resplendent artworks and huge variety enables you to genuinely portray an underwater world. Even if you choose to utterly ignore all setting-specific information, you'll still be left with over 200 pages of top-quality content that makes this book the ultimate resource on underwater adventuring - be it for an extensive period or just a couple of adventures. If you combine this book with e.g. OD's Sunken Empires, you'll be in for a fresh gaming environment that by its rules and premises alone evokes non-conventional tactics, environments and twists of tried and true tropes as well as opening whole new revenues for adventurers. I am rarely blown out of the water (bad pun, I know), but this epic tome managed not only to surprise me with all-around stellar quality, but also with its imaginative potential, its attention to details and the fresh approach to the world beneath the waves. If your campaign world has even one ocean, you need to have this. in fact, I maintain that this book belongs to the rare pdf that should grace just about any shelf of PFRPG-material, as it easily surpasses e.g. D&D 3.5's Sandstorm and Frostburn - it's that good.
I really hope for Alluria Publishing's production hiatus to stop soon, as this pdf is of an almost unprecedented quality and, from production values to content, simply awesome and professional. If all books were like this, I could stop reviewing right now. If I could give this pdf 6 stars, I would. Seriously. The 20 bucks they charge for the pdf are a steal and while the pdf will extort a brutal drain on your printer, the downright beautiful end-result will be worth it as this is one of the instances where craft and art of deigning RPG-products go hand in hand. Seeing that I can't give this pdf 6 stars, I'll settle for my highest possible verdict of 5 stars and the Endzeitgeist seal of approval - this belongs to your shelf and I guarantee that you won't regret your purchase.
Endzeitgeist out.
P.s.: This being my 400th review here on Paizo, I wanted to thank all the people who read my reviews and especially those that drop a nice line about my work. It's you I do this for! Thanks!
I forgot - reviewed here, on RPGaggression and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!
End, thanks for the kind review.
I designed the classes (base + prestige) and some other smatterings here and there for this book, and I am glad to hear you enjoyed the trio of new base clsses. One of the challenges for me was creating unique mechanics as opposed to simple underwater bards, druids, etc. Moreover, I think with just a little work, the siren, kahuna, and mariner could easily become viable, unique, and enjoyable additions to an above ground game.
This book is beautiful and detailed. Hats off to Alluria's design team. Their ability to create gorgeous products aids this book and my other with them, Fey Folio, to no end.
As for Alluria's halt, I am just a freelancer. However, I hope they come back soon -- I've more manuscripts to submit!
Again, thanks for this review and all others you do. They're thorough and informative.
Yeah I have been wondering what happened to the company. They was steadily getting better and better and then poof.
I think in Pathways #6 Emily Kubisz mentioned that Alluria was on hiatus due to some reasons - I hope they get back as the last two products, Fey Folio and this one both were stellar offerings.
Matthew AC wrote:
I designed the classes (base + prestige) and some other smatterings here and there for this book, and I am glad to hear you enjoyed the trio of new base clsses. One of the challenges for me was creating unique mechanics as opposed to simple underwater bards, druids, etc. Moreover, I think with just a little work, the siren, kahuna, and mariner could easily become viable, unique, and enjoyable additions to an above ground game.
Great work there - I hope we'll see more Cerulean Seas-books - more performances for the Siren would be awesome! And some Mariner-exclusive PrCs... Plus psionics and Cerulean Seas sounded like awesomeness and win...
I hope my review brings at least a bit attention to Alluria's great work.
Yeah I have been wondering what happened to the company. They was steadily getting better and better and then poof.
I think in Pathways #6 Emily Kubisz mentioned that Alluria was on hiatus due to some reasons - I hope they get back as the last two products, Fey Folio and this one both were stellar offerings.
Yeah I remember reading somewhere maybe there, that they was taking time off for some reasons. I just figured they would be back by now, well honestly I thought they would be back sooner than now, it's been awhile since their last product.
Great work there - I hope we'll see more Cerulean Seas-books - more performances for the Siren would be awesome! And some Mariner-exclusive PrCs... Plus psionics and Cerulean Seas sounded like awesomeness and win...
I hope my review brings at least a bit attention to Alluria's great work.
You know, I will fire off an e-mail to Alluria and see what's happening.
I turned in a good amount of content for psionics + Cerulean to them earlier. Also, I may be sitting on a few more Siren performances that could be cleaned up and posted here.
You know, I will fire off an e-mail to Alluria and see what's happening.
I turned in a good amount of content for psionics + Cerulean to them earlier. Also, I may be sitting on a few more Siren performances that could be cleaned up and posted here.
If the answer is not too personal, I'd appreciate some kind of update, even if it's "hiatus due to undisclosed reasons until further notice".
You know, I will fire off an e-mail to Alluria and see what's happening.
I turned in a good amount of content for psionics + Cerulean to them earlier. Also, I may be sitting on a few more Siren performances that could be cleaned up and posted here.
If the answer is not too personal, I'd appreciate some kind of update, even if it's "hiatus due to undisclosed reasons until further notice".
All the best!
Same. I get stuff happens but I thought Alluria was starting to really hit stride. I would like to see more by them.
I picked up a copy of the PDF for this a while ago, and I have to agree with Endzeitgeist's review. This is a beautiful book with an incredible amount of attention to detail. I'd say that this is one case where a 3pp has produced a superior product to what Paizo produces.
I've been thinking of using PoD to produce a nice, high quality physical copy of this book. Does anyone have experience with a good PoD service that could turn out a good looking hardcover copy of this book?
So any word on Alluria? It has been now almost two months since the email and still nothing new.
I just checked on Drivethru and their company web page is not gone. Their products are still for sale but no company web page. It will be very disappointing if they went out of business. :(
Ok I just got a email from... well lets just call them a reliable source of someone that would likely know and have no reason to lie. Below is quoted from the email on the record.
Quote:
For the moment Alluria is dead in the water. The quality of the books was simply to high; they didn't even come close to making back what they put into them, and basicly went bankrupt. If the money stream somehow comes in, Alluria will be back.
They said more off the record but because they said off the record I won't repeat what they said. Very sad to hear, but kinda what i expected. They had very high quality art and work on their books, I was kinda afraid of this. Anyways i thought I would pass this along to those that was interested.
I am going to try and see if I can get in contact with them and maybe talk them into trying a pledge drive for future products and to help recoup some of their loses.
That's really sad news. They really did pour their all into their books.
Puts all of their remaining items I don't have yet in shopping cart Gonna be selling Cerulean Seas pretty hard from here on out. I want these people to be paid for their work.
That was kinda what I expected, but that sucks. Hard. I'm glad I have most of their supplements. Perhaps some way they'll get back. I'd hate Cerulean Seas to be their final book - it's such a crowning achievement...
It is too bad. Alluria's run by some good people -- I owe them a hearty thank you, too; I pitched Fey Folio to them, and their strong backing (art, etc) made that products as successful as it was. Additionally, they really let me loose on the classes in Cerulean Seas, allowed me to take some fun risks -- not sure everyone would have been comfortable with letting me do that.
All in all they made a lot of fun, gorgeous and useful products; I hope things work out for them in the future.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
My review of Alluria Publishing's Cerulean Seas (posted here because it's too long for the reviews section):
Underwater adventuring has always been, insofar as Pathfinder is concerned, one of those ideas that seem great in theory but difficult in practice. After all, taking your adventuring party underwater means that everyone’s aware that one good dispel magic will take away whatever spells or magic items they’re using to keep breathing. Add in penalties for how melee and ranged attacks work, changes to spellcasting, and even the continual Swim checks to keep moving, and it’s not only a headache for everyone involved, but quite likely a TPK waiting to happen. And don’t even get me started on the logistics of fighting across three dimensions of movement.
And so, underwater adventuring was quietly pushed off to the side. Just enough rules were provided to make it theoretically possible, without anyone worrying about how practical it actually was. Few adventures were published that dealt with characters going into the waves, and those that were kept it to the shallow end of the pool, with dry land always being close by. Finding new paths under the sea seemed like it’d always be resigned the realm of pipe-dreams and a few die-hards, never to be accessible to the mainstream Pathfinder gamers.
All of that changed when Alluria Publishing released Cerulean Seas, a massive campaign setting-slash-sourcebook that not only takes Pathfinder underwater, but actually makes such a game doable. Let’s take a look at what the book offers so that you’ll know this isn’t just a fish story I’m telling you.
As a PDF file, Cerulean Seas hits all of the high-water marks. It has full, nested bookmarks (an absolute necessity in a book that’s nearly 300 pages long), and allows for copy-and-pasting without problems. And of course, the artwork – oh wow, the artwork! Alluria has always had a reputation for their lavish illustrations, and they certainly live up to it here. An entire team of interior artists have lovingly portrayed myriad aspects of the book’s material, from new races and monsters to new equipment, to spell effects, to a map of the Cerulean Seas area, and so much more, (almost) all of it in lush full color. Alluria is perhaps the only company that can compete with Paizo on an even footing for how gorgeous their books look.
Of course, this (and the subtle but ornate page borders) means that this book is far from printer-friendly. At the time of this writing, a print version of the book is still in the works, but isn’t yet available. If you want a hardcopy of Cerulean Seas, you might be better to wait for that, as this PDF would likely send your printer to Davy Jones’ Locker.
The book’s opening chapter dives right in, opening with framing fiction that defines the game world. The Cerulean Seas campaign setting used to be a normal game world, but had a great flood that covered the world with ninety-nine percent water. There’s more to it than this, of course, including a recently-won genocidal war against the sahuagin, the role the gods played in the great flood, and more, but this is the main thrust of the story, and sets the stage for this water world.
The chapter takes us through some basic terms and definitions before we start to get into the specifics of living under the sea. It’s here that the book might start to scare away some of the more casual-type gamers, because this chapter pulls no punches in what it presents. We’re given an introduction to how things like buoyancy, hydraulic pressure, ambient sunlight, and more work underwater. The first chapter is basically a primer for things to be aware of regarding life underwater, and how these translate into game terms. This is especially true for underwater combat, which has its own section here.
I’ll take a moment to say that while this section can be off-putting for how dry (ironically) its listing of various undersea features can be, as well as how complicated the rules for buoyancy and the accompany combat changes are, it’s worth persevering through. The book deals with this more in the Game Mastering section, but these are the changes that really make an undersea game feel different; and as with all parts of a complex table-top game, they’ll become more familiar (to the point of being second-nature) over time.
The second chapter returns to more familiar territory where PF sourcebooks are concerned, presenting twelve new undersea races (though one or two, such as sea elves or the mogogols, may seem familiar). Cleverly, these are sub-divided into three groups: the anthromorphs (who have humanoid bodies), the feykith (fey-related sea-dwellers), and merfolk (who are humanoid from the waist up, and fish from the waist down). Interestingly, the human-equivalent race is presented as the “seafolk,” a merfolk race. They not only have the human’s “floating” +2 ability bonus that can be applied everywhere, but are the only race to have various cross-breeds listed, with alternate racial traits presented.
Each race received a generous focus, listing not only their statistics but also plenty of flavor text regarding their society, alignment, possible names, etc. However, ardent Pathfinder fans may be somewhat disappointed that the expanded racial options from the Advanced Player’s Guide aren’t reproduced here. That is, there are no alternate racial features available (seafolk crossbreeds notwithstanding) nor are there alternate favored class options.
I’m of two minds about this, as it seems somewhat unfair that these have suddenly been assumed to be default necessities for third-party contributions to the Pathfinder RPG. At the same time, those bring a hefty level of customization to the table that are very helpful in making your character’s race be of greater importance. That said, twelve colorful new races here certainly make that notable in and of themselves. It’s also worth noting that the book doesn’t forget to bring us the various vital statistics for these races (one of those little things that are nevertheless important).
Subsequent to the races chapter is the chapter on classes, and it’s here where things get truly interesting. The book makes some generalized notes about changes to existing classes before dealing with how to alter each base class specifically for an undersea game. This part of the book does deal with the APG classes, so you alchemists and oracles and such can all breathe a sigh a relief.
The changes made in this regard are absolutes, rather than the optional class archetypes presented in the APG. Interestingly, a few classes are recommended to be discarded entirely in favor of three new base classes presented here. Bards are passed over in favor of sirens, druids are replaced with kahunas, and rangers are given the boot in favor of mariners.
These new classes do a great job presenting their own twist on the niche that their replaced classes fill. The Kahuna, for example, is a full-progression divine spellcaster, but selects a single animal spirit that, as she gains levels, is able to utilize greater and greater spirit powers to bolster herself and her allies (or alternately harm her enemies).
This chapter also deals with prestige classes, listing which ones from the Core Rulebook and APG are useable without any changes, which need some changes, and which aren’t available at all. There are also three new prestige classes presented here, the each comber (those who venture into the wilds of the remaining dry land), glimmerkeeper (fast-moving undersea hero), and sea witch (an aquatic necromancer).
Skills and feats are the subject of the fourth chapter. As with many things, the skills section offers a series of new interpretations of existing skills, though there are no new skills added (something I was grateful for, as adding new skills often feels contrived). The feats section got a similar examination for several existing feats, but here we’re given almost four-dozen new underwater feats as well.
The chapter on money and equipment was interesting for how much stayed the same, though quite a bit changed in appearance. Most precious metals have been replaced by things like shells or pearls, though the measurements of currency are largely the same. New equipment helps there be a greater selection of viable weapons and armor underwater, not to mention various items that are unique to undersea adventuring, such as holy sand to replace holy water. Oddly, ships are presented here also, reinforcing that some aquatic races still spend a lot of their time above the waves.
The magic chapter presents some very imaginative alterations to not only existing spells, but also existing material components and foci before it moves into new spells and magic items. Some of what’s here deals with the change from fire damage to boiling-water damage, while others present alternate ways of harnessing electrical spells, or various utility spells such as defeating undersea pressure, or even breathing air for characters who want to go top-side.
It’s at the seventh chapter of the book that we take a look at the Cerulean Seas campaign world. This chapter takes a surprisingly light tone with the campaign, presenting many different facets of it but not going too deep with any of them, letting you fill in a lot of the blanks to make the game world your own. It does cover the recent histories and major NPCs of all of the major races, presents a number of major cities, a brief overview of the spoken languages, and an overview of the world’s recent history. My favorite, however, was the presentation of the Cerulean Seas religions. The undersea races uniformly decided to prevent religious strife by allowing only nine deities to be worshipped, one for each alignment. However, in order to sweep everyone under this umbrella, there are various “cults” that worship different aspects of these deities (each deity has two cults presented, with their own alignments, domains, etc.). These cults may only operate with the blessing of the parent faith, and it was engrossing to read about how various races merged their native religions with that of a more dominant faith, often resulting in the major god literally consuming the smaller one as a consequence.
I don’t mind saying that chapter eight, the Game Mastering Chapter, was perhaps the most friendly and helpful such section I’ve ever read. It speaks frankly, and almost familiarly, about the problems with running an undersea game, and what to do about them. Remember those scary new rules from chapter one? It goes over what the most important are to get down pat and how to ease into them. We get general guidelines on converting other materials for an undersea game, whether in terms of buoyancy or pressure tolerance. But my favorite section here was the unabashed look at the problem of 3D combat.
The book outlines roughly a half-dozen options for what to do about this issue, ranging from buying commercial elevation trackers to ordering a pizza and using those little plastic things that keep the cheese off of the box to elevate your minis. But by far the most favored option it presents is the one where it walks you, step by step, through creating your own adjustable boards for elevation. These are basically a few square inches of hard foam boarding that are moved up and down a standing rod; add a half-dozen of them to your game table and you can easily simulate characters moving across every dimension. It’s a fun little project, and works great for any tabletop game that needs a 3D combat solution.
There’s also a fascinating section on the planar arrangement (or perhaps just the widespread belief in the arrangement) of this campaign world. After all, an undersea culture hardly believes in a plane of fire, especially one that stands equal to the plane of water! Likewise, the oceans of the outer planes are considered much more prominent than the dry areas of such realms.
The final full chapter of the book presents almost a hundred new monsters to help populate your undersea game. From aquatic familiars to a large selection of new giants and true dragons (which are given their own grouping, rather than being chromatic or metallic), there’s plenty here to round out an underwater bestiary. New selections of simple templates and guidelines on how the major creature types work underwater provide further options and guidelines.
The book closes out with a number of helpful aids, such as a consolidated list of undersea monsters from this book, the Pathfinder Bestiary, and Alluria’s other Pathfinder books. Add in a pronunciation guide, cardstock minis, a character sheet, and more, and there’s everything you’ll need to get started on your Cerulean Seas game right away.
And if you’re not already excited about using this book to run an underwater game after reading this review, then trust me: it’s more due to my descriptions lacking enough fidelity to the book’s accomplishments than anything else. Cerulean Seas not only looks at every aspect of running a game in an underwater world – from what it means to be submerged to the logistics of it at the game table – but presents holistic options and alterations for setting a Pathfinder game there. The new material is expansive and the campaign setting covers a wide range of topics while still leaving room for customization. And of course, the artwork is beautiful and prominent. This is easily one of the best Pathfinder books to come out of the third-party market, and the absolute best for the topic it covers.
Don’t be afraid to make your game better by taking it down where it’s wetter. Bring your characters to the Cerulean Seas; it’ll make a big splash amongst your gaming group.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Endzeitgeist wrote:
Nice array of informative reviews, Alzrius!
Thanks, End. I remembered that someone said something to me before about cross-posting my RPGNow reviews here, so I've started to move some of them over.
Good news everyone! Alluria has met their Kickstarter goal and is on their way to publishing new products. They're still taking contributions, here's the link http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alluria/cerulean-seas
*edit* Looking at the other thread I see that it's already been posted, my bad.
