Pathfinder Adventure Path #51: The Hungry Storm (Jade Regent 3 of 6) (PFRPG)

The witch seems a little underdressed for the weather.

The witch seems a little underdressed for the weather.

Endure elements, it does wonders for your sex appeal.

wspatterson wrote:

The witch seems a little underdressed for the weather.

Endure elements, it does wonders for your sex appeal.

and adventurer's nipple

I suspect this'll be Paizo's coolest adventure so far.

Can't tell if being punny or serious.

Kajehase wrote:

I suspect this'll be Paizo's coolest adventure so far.

Can't tell if being punny or serious.

It is. ;p

Hope it's more roleplaying heavy and less of a monster bash/dungeon romp than the last two ones. Although with the theme of this module, I fear that is not that likely.

Hope it's more roleplaying heavy and less of a monster bash/dungeon romp than the last two ones. Although with the theme of this module, I fear that is not that likely.

Let it go dude you have been whining about this for weeks now... we get it!

Plenty of time to talk and role-play with the characters while travelling.

Endure elements seems the cheapest way of getting around the problem of cold, cheap and cheesy, and, as I have said before, if you check the 3.5 rules on cold, it is not enough if you are in the worst and coldest conditions "the arctic wastelands of the very top of the world of Golarion".

I've run some ice trek games, good fun. Fort comes into it heavily, so does weight and speed in difficult icy terrain.

For rules on trekking through cold climates. See the Frostburn handbook.

magnuskn wrote:

Hope it's more roleplaying heavy and less of a monster bash/dungeon romp than the last two ones. Although with the theme of this module, I fear that is not that likely.

Let it go dude you have been whining about this for weeks now... we get it!

Not talking to you, but the devs. And I'll see if they got it when the next adventures release.

Not talking to you, but the devs. And I'll see if they got it when the next adventures release.

Thid adventure was allready written when you gave your critique they might take your "advice" to heart when writing upcoming adventures but you repeating yourself over and over and over and over again will not change anything in this adventure path.

magnuskn wrote:

Not talking to you, but the devs. And I'll see if they got it when the next adventures release.

Thid adventure was allready written when you gave your critique they might take your "advice" to heart when writing upcoming adventures but you repeating yourself over and over and over and over again will not change anything in this adventure path.

Actually, I think I read in one of the forums that the adventures are already written for the whole path. I've personally enjoyed the AP quite a bit so far and so has my group. That said, I also tend to think the 'Roleplay elements' that Magnuskn feels like are missing are instead a something the DM should exercise a bit creativity and make the NPC's his own. I think Jade Regent has been an excellent Roleplay Toolbox so far where you could come up with scenes and side stories without having to worry about intruding on the overall story.

Paizo- Hurry and take my money! I'm excited about this one :)

I think there are lots of roleplaying opportunities in the first two modules. Great theme, great atmosphere. I like it so far. The setting for part 3 sounds awesome.

At any given time, an author is likely to be writing an AP volume that is around 7-9 months from being published - in other words, an entire AP and then some past the current issue being published. There is dev time after that, probably about 2 months, so overall the last chance for any substantive revision is going to be at least 4-5 months before the issue actually hits the store shelves.

IOW, if you're posting a review for an AP issue and hoping for changes in the next issue, you've missed the boat (literally, since the APs are printed overseas and shipped back to the US for distribution) by months.

That said, a journey over the crown is designed to take MONTHS. If your group can't find opportunities to roleplay on a trip that long... :)

I might compare the adventure in some ways to Sea Wyvern's Wake from the Savage Tide AP (at least from playing in it; I've never read the adventure) - you have a long journey with a number of events that happen along the way. Some of the events are one-offs, but others build upon one another. I'd say this mod has a stronger central core than SWW, as there are some key locations, but the adventure is more about the journey and how the PCs choose to get from here to there, and what they encounter along the way. There are scripted social encounters where they will have opportunities for negotiation and there are also plenty of modular situations that can be used to facilitate the social game along the way.

Whether the adventure satisfies your particular tastes, well, read it and find out! I think it came out great, and I hope you enjoy!

I might compare the adventure in some ways to Sea Wyvern's Wake from the Savage Tide AP (at least from playing in it; I've never read the adventure) - you have a long journey with a number of events that happen along the way. Some of the events are one-offs, but others build upon one another. I'd say this mod has a stronger central core than SWW, as there are some key locations, but the adventure is more about the journey and how the PCs choose to get from here to there, and what they encounter along the way. There are scripted social encounters where they will have opportunities for negotiation and there are also plenty of modular situations that can be used to facilitate the social game along the way.

That is what I was hoping for. The first two adventures were pretty site based, so this is a welcome change.

Looking forward to the next installment. :)

Read the first two and both were excellent. If it continues, this AP will round out my top 3 favorite list (along with Kingmaker and Runelords).

RobRob wrote:

magnuskn wrote:

Hope it's more roleplaying heavy and less of a monster bash/dungeon romp than the last two ones. Although with the theme of this module, I fear that is not that likely.

Let it go dude you have been whining about this for weeks now... we get it!

Not talking to you, but the devs. And I'll see if they got it when the next adventures release.

We're not creating the adventure path just for you, remember. The bulk of "The Hungry Storm" is wilderness adventure, but there are dungeon elements as well. Are there roleplaying elements? Of course... about the same amount as in the previous two adventures.

I'm sorry that I may have misled you several months ago by giving the impression that each installment of Jade Regent would include a large amount of roleplay elements with the significant NPCs of the campaign, but that was my best guess at the time. It turns out that we focused on other parts of the adventure path.

In any event, I stillthink that there's PLENTY of roleplaying opportunities in the adventure path... especially if you wish to focus more on the significant NPCs.

In fact, if there was ANY error made during this adventure path's construction (apart from possibly mismanaging expectations for some people), it's that we vastly underestimated how attached people would become with the significant NPCs. I was pretty sure that folks would enjoy Ameiko, Shalelu, Koya, Ulf, and Sandru... but had I a time machine, I would have tasked the authors with including the NPCs even more in the adventure. Which would PROBABLY have meant a little previous AP revision of changing some of the NPC levels down to 1 or so, so they wouldn't upstage the PCs.

James and Jason, I appreciate really very much that you take your time to answer me. And I've accepted since that the AP is what it is, but I still feel the need to grumble a bit about it, since I hope that at least future AP's which have such important NPC's will give them more to do. The comparison to those fantastic BioWare NPC's has been made, but along with giving them an interesting personality, they also had interesting story arcs in the games themselves.

But, anyway, thanks for speaking out about it. Really. Feedback from you guys always helps out a lot, also with deciding on how to move forward with the AP. I already had a talk with my players today, before I read this response, on managing their expectations of the AP and this will help further with adjusting it to what the AP really is about.

That said, saying that the roleplaying encounters can happen during the journey presents another problem: The journey is totally up to the GM. There is almost no official support beyond the random caravan encounters.

In Brinewall Legacy, the part about those 700 miles to Brinewall is literally just 1 1/2 pages of preparation and the journey itself. The transition to The Hungry Storm is also not very detailed on the happenings of the journey. Given the huge distances that the caravan has to traverse, it would have been better ( IMO ) to include more details on the countries the caravan travels through, like the towns they hit and so on.

I certainly had big problems coming up today with things for the characters to do when they left Sandpoint. And since the campaign largely should be about a large journey, handwaving that part for a "and then you arrived at Brinewall" seems wrong to me.

One good thing about this module seems that Jason is largely focusing on the travel itself. I'm quite looking forward to that!

I certainly had big problems coming up today with things for the characters to do when they left Sandpoint. And since the campaign largely should be about a large journey, handwaving that part for a "and then you arrived at Brinewall" seems wrong to me.

There's no crime in glossing over that portion of the journey at all. The "large journey" element of the campaign is really focused not on the relatively short voyage between Varisia and the Linnorm Kingdoms, after all, but in the 3rd adventure where you travel for thousands and thousands of miles over the north pole.

Also... the "Lands of the Linnorm Kingdoms" book has a LOT of information about the region, including a bunch of new ideas for adventures that could inspire all sorts of encounters as the PCs travel north from Varisia. Alas... even though we'd hoped to have that book out earlier, it was delayed. It should be out VERY soon, but for those playing the adventures as they're released, that's no real help. Guess it's just another example of why it's generally a pretty good idea to wait for all of the resources we produce for an AP to be available before starting the campaign...

magnuskn wrote:

I certainly had big problems coming up today with things for the characters to do when they left Sandpoint. And since the campaign largely should be about a large journey, handwaving that part for a "and then you arrived at Brinewall" seems wrong to me.

There's no crime in glossing over that portion of the journey at all. The "large journey" element of the campaign is really focused not on the relatively short voyage between Varisia and the Linnorm Kingdoms, after all, but in the 3rd adventure where you travel for thousands and thousands of miles over the north pole.

Also... the "Lands of the Linnorm Kingdoms" book has a LOT of information about the region, including a bunch of new ideas for adventures that could inspire all sorts of encounters as the PCs travel north from Varisia. Alas... even though we'd hoped to have that book out earlier, it was delayed. It should be out VERY soon, but for those playing the adventures as they're released, that's no real help. Guess it's just another example of why it's generally a pretty good idea to wait for all of the resources we produce for an AP to be available before starting the campaign...

As I said a few weeks, I'm on a bit of a timer, so this wasn't an option this time around. Although I generally agree very much with what you said.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do here. 700 miles is not exactly a little stretch of terrain and since that is the start of the caravan trek and probably the start of serious character interactions between the PCs and importan NPCs, personalities have to established, conflicts or relationships initiated and so on.

In any case... the best way to solve this problem is probably to head on over to the Jade Regent forums and chat with other GMs who are running the campaign. The amount of additional content and ideas that show up on the AP threads is often quite impressive.

magnuskn and others,

Think about this for the long journey in this AP. Look at the Lord of the Rings, more the books than the films. Do folks even realize the hundreds of miles and months of time that pass while the Fellowship is traveling from place to place? There are plenty of sections that would be "RP scenes" for the characters which would not be written into an AP about it and would be up to the GM and players to initiate if the books were made into an AP and the players' characters took the place of the Fellowship. This is how I look at Jade Regent, or any home brew adventure with lots of traveling. The GM can concentrate just on what is written and leap from encounter to encounter and ignore the actual journey or the GM can encourage the RP that can happen along the journey. Unfortunately, I know that some folks prefer to run things as they are written and do not like to ad lib with a published adventure.

Let it go dude you have been whining about this for weeks now... we get it!

I see you're new to messageboards! In any case, essentially telling a poster to 'shut up' isn't a very smart thing to do on internet messageboards.

In any case, mentioning such things now may not affect this particular AP, but it is a good thing to get it into the heads of the developers for future APs. (Further, if Paizo has anywhere to improve, managing expectations is fairly high up the list.)

I see you're new to messageboards! In any case, essentially telling a poster to 'shut up' isn't a very smart thing to do on internet messageboards.

In any case, mentioning such things now may not affect this particular AP, but it is a good thing to get it into the heads of the developers for future APs. (Further, if Paizo has anywhere to improve, managing expectations is fairly high up the list.)

Whatever dude...

The very same thing has been posted ad nauseam in virtually every thread about Jade Regent and every time James hurries out to apologize... Magnuskn has expressed his opinion... it has been noted by Paizo... he has gotten several apologies and explanations... stop beating the horse it is dead!

Arnwyn wrote:

I see you're new to messageboards! In any case, essentially telling a poster to 'shut up' isn't a very smart thing to do on internet messageboards.

In any case, mentioning such things now may not affect this particular AP, but it is a good thing to get it into the heads of the developers for future APs. (Further, if Paizo has anywhere to improve, managing expectations is fairly high up the list.)

Whatever dude...

The very same thing has been posted ad nauseam in virtually every thread about Jade Regent and every time James hurries out to apologize... Magnuskn has expressed his opinion... it has been noted by Paizo... he has gotten several apologies and explanations... stop beating the horse it is dead!

+1

Arnwyn wrote:

I see you're new to messageboards! In any case, essentially telling a poster to 'shut up' isn't a very smart thing to do on internet messageboards.

In any case, mentioning such things now may not affect this particular AP, but it is a good thing to get it into the heads of the developers for future APs. (Further, if Paizo has anywhere to improve, managing expectations is fairly high up the list.)

Whatever dude...

The very same thing has been posted ad nauseam in virtually every thread about Jade Regent and every time James hurries out to apologize... Magnuskn has expressed his opinion... it has been noted by Paizo... he has gotten several apologies and explanations... stop beating the horse it is dead!

I'm okay with the latest from James in the other thread.

Nonetheless, Arnwyn is right. Telling other posters to shut up is only a way to get a very negative reaction. I'll refrain from that now, but I'll probably ignore any arguments made by you in other threads from now on, since I find your attitude off-putting.

DLing it now, really want to read the support stuff on the Crown of the World.

DLing it now, really want to read the support stuff on the Crown of the World.

What!?! So soon!! *twiddles thumbs while waiting with anticipation...*

D_M must have a fan in costumer support, she always seems to get her shipments first. :p

I didn't want to tease until the issue started to become available for download, but the art and maps in this issue are really fabulous. The maps give a great feel of polar adventure (just wait until you see them; you'll understand what I mean), and the art pieces are amazing, starting with the front page of the adventure on page 6, but the absolute most mind-bendingly terrific one is page 24. It's a great example of the artist taking a slight tweak of an idea on a creature we've seen lots of times and taking it to a completely awesome place. It's brilliant and I wish I could take credit for suggesting it, but giant thumbs up to the artist on that piece. It is AHH to the SOME power!

Oh, and by the way, page 27 just might make you [bleep] your pants - it is that scary if you are one of the hapless PCs in the picture. :)

Good times!

I didn't want to tease until the issue started to become available for download

Oh, and by the way, page 27 just might make you [bleep] your pants - it is that scary if you are one of the hapless PCs in the picture. :)

One of these is not like the other.

Only 9 more days, only 9 more days...

Oh, and by the way, page 27 just might make you [bleep] your pants - it is that scary if you are one of the hapless PCs in the picture. :)

Good times!

I guess with all the blood in the picture that Lem WAS in the picture. :)

Any good art of Lini in this one?

Wow, I am very happy to see the monster on page 15 that is actually going to be in Bestiary 3. It is very appropriate to both this adventure and the adventure path as a whole. Kudos on including it.

For those of you who want to know what it is, it is a...

Any good art of Lini in this one?

No, the only artwork I see her in for this adventure is the piece on the cover, which is also on the table of contents page.

Jason already mentioned some of the great art in this that is worth a look, but I liked some of the other artwork every bit as much as those. He is so right about the maps of the Crown of the World - they are phenomenal. I find the piece on page 4 to be absolutely marvelous even though it has no characters in it whatsoever. Seelah is sporting a great winter outfit on page 67 and may well be my new favorite illustration of her, but wasn't she supposed to sit this AP out? Page 75 is a new favorite and is an awesome image for an elf archer (that is not Shelalu) and page 82 is a great homage to the abominable snowman.

Art wise, this AP definitely gets high marks from me.

Any good art of Lini in this one?

Most art is monsters and the beautiful maps. As far as PCs/NPCs, within the pages of the adventure itself (I'm looking at the PDF at the moment) I count 1 pic each of Feiya, Sajan, and Hayato, plus 1 each of Shalelu, Ameiko, and Ulf. I think the only Lini is the cover.

I couldn't agree more! The saumen kar is my first monster for Paizo and he looks awesome! All the creatures do, actually, the Quallupilluk is particularly frightening *shudder*.

Anyone else notice the art on the each cover's back is the same? Yeti, dragon... and then yeti, dragon. Hope that doesn't make it to print.

Really cool maps and art in here by the way.

Kevin Mack wrote:

Any good art of Lini in this one?

No, the only artwork I see her in for this adventure is the piece on the cover, which is also on the table of contents page.

Jason already mentioned some of the great art in this that is worth a look, but I liked some of the other artwork every bit as much as those. He is so right about the maps of the Crown of the World - they are phenomenal. I find the piece on page 4 to be absolutely marvelous even though it has no characters in it whatsoever. Seelah is sporting a great winter outfit on page 67 and may well be my new favorite illustration of her, but wasn't she supposed to sit this AP out? Page 75 is a new favorite and is an awesome image for an elf archer (that is not Shelalu) and page 82 is a great homage to the abominable snowman.

Art wise, this AP definitely gets high marks from me.

Not got the issue yet, but I'm guessing that P67 isn't in the main adventure, which is the bit that always uses the four iconics of the AP.

Anyone else notice the art on the each cover's back is the same? Yeti, dragon... and then yeti, dragon. Hope that doesn't make it to print.

Really cool maps and art in here by the way.

It's not just you. It bugs me too.

When do the rest of us non-Dark Mistress subscribers get our PDFs? :)

When do the rest of us non-Dark Mistress subscribers get our PDFs? :)

When they ship our orders? Most months it has been taking most of a week to process all of the subscription orders from the chatter I've seen on the boards. As this month also has an RPG line offering, it might even take a couple of days longer.

When do the rest of us non-Dark Mistress subscribers get our PDFs? :)

As was said it takes about a week to get all the orders done. I know a few people was posting in some of the other threads they had DLed there's before I got my notice. Though I did get mine on the first day possible. A couple of months ago I was one of the last people. There is a pattern to which group gets done first. The largest group which considering I am often in, is done first. Which to me says Superscribers is the largest group of subscribers. Then the rest of you get yours. :)

Anyone else notice the art on the each cover's back is the same? Yeti, dragon... and then yeti, dragon. Hope that doesn't make it to print.

Really cool maps and art in here by the way.

ACK! No, the covers are supposed to be different. I just went in and updated both download versions to reflect this change. You should have one less yeti and dragon ;)

Sunderstone wrote:

When do the rest of us non-Dark Mistress subscribers get our PDFs? :)

As was said it takes about a week to get all the orders done. I know a few people was posting in some of the other threads they had DLed there's before I got my notice. Though I did get mine on the first day possible. A couple of months ago I was one of the last people. There is a pattern to which group gets done first. The largest group which considering I am often in, is done first. Which to me says Superscribers is the largest group of subscribers. Then the rest of you get yours. :)

Same here. I've been pretty close to first, and I've been dead last. No rhyme nor reason to it.

Obviously it's way nicer being first :)

The artwork in the CoW article is out of this world awesome!!!

F5, F5, F5, F5, FHEY, IT WORKED!

I might compare the adventure in some ways to Sea Wyvern's Wake from the Savage Tide AP

A fine fellow of excellent pedigree and taste that young Mr Nelson, as I've always said:)

Huzzah!

Just read through it. Brief impression: knocked out of the park.

The first two installments of Jade Regent left me really underwhelmed. Other than the NPC interactions and caravan rules, there just didn't seem anything particularly new and interesting. I actually found Volume One a letdown from the goblin-centric prequel, and Volume Two... viking town, ninjas, whatever. These weren't bad adventures at all, but somehow they just didn't get up and dance.

But this does. Caravan trip across the Arctic; weather conditions finally a real menace for characters above low levels; a real sense of isolation and danger (no stopping at the next city for potions or a quick upgrade on your sword); a knockdown fight with a dragon (the APs have been very skimpy on these); an Inuit-based culture that's really important to the story; a top-notch villainess; and, at the end, a chance to riff on Tolkein. Really, what more could you ask for?

I was this close to cancelling my subscription this week. I have a ton of game material already, and this AP wasn't exactly singing to me. But this will keep me on board for at least one more chapter.

Doug M.

Ice Titan wrote:

Anyone else notice the art on the each cover's back is the same? Yeti, dragon... and then yeti, dragon. Hope that doesn't make it to print.

Really cool maps and art in here by the way.

ACK! No, the covers are supposed to be different. I just went in and updated both download versions to reflect this change. You should have one less yeti and dragon ;)

Umm... nope. I just re-downloaded it and I still get two yetis and two dragons.