Pathfinder Adventure Path #54: The Empty Throne (Jade Regent 6 of 6) (PFRPG)

Largest city as in surface area? Because Absalom is a quarter million people, and i'm sure there's 100k metropoli around the Inner Sea.

==Aelryinth

Ah, then my mistake. I don't have the Inner Sea Guide, and wasn't aware of more populous cities in Golarion. I hadn't realized someone having created a map with as many buildings as I've placed in this one. It took me 10 hours to hand-draw 8500 buildings. I couldn't imagine anyone else actually creating a map with more buildings in it!

Aelryinth wrote:

Largest city as in surface area? Because Absalom is a quarter million people, and i'm sure there's 100k metropoli around the Inner Sea.

==Aelryinth

Ah, then my mistake. I don't have the Inner Sea Guide, and wasn't aware of more populous cities in Golarion. I hadn't realized someone having created a map with as many buildings as I've placed in this one. It took me 10 hours to hand-draw 8500 buildings. I couldn't imagine anyone else actually creating a map with more buildings in it!

Wow, that's some impressive attention to detail :P I can't wait till this ships and I can get my hands on it :)

yeah, pretty sure the capitals of Osirion, Katapesh, Taldor, Qadira, and Cheliax are all 100k+.

==Aelryinth

I'd like to thank the awesome Paizo Customer Service (Erik!) for helping me solve a minor but vexing issue with my subscription copy.

Question

I just downloaded this, but it didn't have the interactive maps. Are they still forthcoming?

Question

** spoiler omitted **

Hide a stone among stones and a man among men.

This is at the end of the printing credits on page 4. What's that mean and why is it there? :d

I know that I'll catch heck for this, but I cannot stand Reynold's art. Just another ho hum piece. Too stylized for my tastes. I prefer the artist who did the covers on The Serpent's Skull AP.

I like Wayne Reynolds but you are correct the cover artist on Serpents Skull was the best to date

I just downloaded this, but it didn't have the interactive maps. Are they still forthcoming?

The are included in the one-file-per-chapter set, but I do not see them in my single-file set.

Same here. The one-file-per-chapter download has them, the single file has them not.

Why does the pdf's saving date show up as some day in 1663? Weird.

I didn't think of that. I'll download the chapter downloads to get the interactive maps. Thanks, guys!

After a brief overview, the adventure beautifully stands up to the overall awesomeness of this entire AP. So happy I chose to run this one as my first full Pathfinder AP. Stellar quality all the way through.

One comment on the interactive maps. Is there any way we could get an update on the file to include a "Player View/GM View" button like in previous volumes? On most of the maps in this one, it's not a big deal, but there are some secret doors in the Jade Palace.

I just downloaded this, but it didn't have the interactive maps. Are they still forthcoming?

I've updated the Single File download to include the Interactive Maps.

Why does the pdf's saving date show up as some day in 1663? Weird.

This is probably an artifact that the watermarker is doing. I'll take a look at it sometime later today.

One comment on the interactive maps. Is there any way we could get an update on the file to include a "Player View/GM Views" button like in previous volumes. On most of the maps in this one, it's not a big deal, but there are some secret doors in the Jade Palace.

It does look like this should be present on one of the maps. I'll see what I can do to get this updated ASAP.

Joseph Wilson wrote:

One comment on the interactive maps. Is there any way we could get an update on the file to include a "Player View/GM Views" button like in previous volumes. On most of the maps in this one, it's not a big deal, but there are some secret doors in the Jade Palace.

It does look like this should be present on one of the maps. I'll see what I can do to get this updated ASAP.

FYI: You rock. ;-)

Quote:

Hide a stone among stones and a man among men.

This is at the end of the printing credits on page 4. What's that mean and why is it there? :d

It's an old expression that basically means the best place to find something is among something that is similar. For example, if I wanted to hide a tree, I would put it in a forest, if I wanted to hide some sand, I would put it in a desert.

And if assassins are after you, perhaps the best place to hide is a city.

Ice Titan wrote:

Quote:

Hide a stone among stones and a man among men.

This is at the end of the printing credits on page 4. What's that mean and why is it there? :d

It's an old expression that basically means the best place to find something is among something that is similar. For example, if I wanted to hide a tree, I would put it in a forest, if I wanted to hide some sand, I would put it in a desert.

And if assassins are after you, perhaps the best place to hide is a city.

I can understand that, but it's in the printing credits.

Like, "Printed in China. Hide a stone among stones...".

I see it's a quote from a 1958 samurai flick called Hidden Fortress, so maybe... ?

Oh, well where would you hide a quote?

Among a bunch of words :P

Any interesting magic items or NPC articles?

So do we finally get to see a lot monsters in this one unlike the last AP?

Any highlights about this adventure?

Mechalibur wrote:

Ice Titan wrote:

Quote:

Hide a stone among stones and a man among men.

This is at the end of the printing credits on page 4. What's that mean and why is it there? :d

It's an old expression that basically means the best place to find something is among something that is similar. For example, if I wanted to hide a tree, I would put it in a forest, if I wanted to hide some sand, I would put it in a desert.

And if assassins are after you, perhaps the best place to hide is a city.

I can understand that, but it's in the printing credits.

Like, "Printed in China. Hide a stone among stones...".

I see it's a quote from a 1958 samurai flick called Hidden Fortress, so maybe... ?

Paizo's been hiding movie quotes in the credits line of book #6 of their AP's since #6 IIRC. I didn't find out about this till someone brought it up in CC or SS.

Huh, you are correct! I just took Shadows of Gallowspire at random, and it has "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!" right after "Printed in China."

How interesting...

Ice Titan wrote:

Mechalibur wrote:

Ice Titan wrote:

Quote:

Hide a stone among stones and a man among men.

This is at the end of the printing credits on page 4. What's that mean and why is it there? :d

It's an old expression that basically means the best place to find something is among something that is similar. For example, if I wanted to hide a tree, I would put it in a forest, if I wanted to hide some sand, I would put it in a desert.

And if assassins are after you, perhaps the best place to hide is a city.

I can understand that, but it's in the printing credits.

Like, "Printed in China. Hide a stone among stones...".

I see it's a quote from a 1958 samurai flick called Hidden Fortress, so maybe... ?

Paizo's been hiding movie quotes in the credits line of book #6 of their AP's since #6 IIRC. I didn't find out about this till someone brought it up in CC or SS.

! I might as well go collect them.

And for the record... they're not all movie quotes.

I hope they hide some in the RotRL Hard Cover :-)

And for the record... they're not all movie quotes.

Indeed. The first one (AP #6) is... quite ominous.

Now that people have discovered this, we'll just have to hide other things other places. Perhaps we can lay out adventures to contain acrostics at the start, end, or even middle of lines in random paragraphs. Who here's good at word searches?

Or, you know, include the designer's initials in the map-layouts. ;)

What are the monsters CRs?

What are the new magic items(if any)?

Re- the review. I want to point out that the adventure explains that the encounters are harder than expected because the NPCs that help the PCs are supposed to be involved in the encounters. Conversely, that's a lot of NPCs for the DM to manage, considering that there are a lot of complex NPC bad guys as well. Running this adventure will require a LOT of prep time.

That was actually one of Paizo's design goals for The Empty Throne. Basically, it pits two adventuring parties against one another. One good and one evil. Does that complicate things? Yes, somewhat. But, is it a fitting ending to an epic campaign with a Japanese-style throwdown? Yeah, I think so. If you're going to have one seriously complex combat encounter, it's best to have it serve as the finale. Personally, if I were running this...

Just my two cents,
--Neil

Neil, having read through the adventure in advance preparation for my game, there are a lot of good classic Kurosawa showdown moments in this adventure (along with other strong Japanese cinematic scenarios), which is just my cup of tea. Well played sir!

Cool.

/salute

Got a question about this AP. Does it provide advanced stats for the core NPC's or even just Ameiko? Is she expected to be heavily involved in the final campaign pieces (i.e. travelling with party and participating actively) or is she only effectively a level 6 or 7 NPC at the end?

Got a question about this AP. Does it provide advanced stats for the core NPC's or even just Ameiko? Is she expected to be heavily involved in the final campaign pieces (i.e. travelling with party and participating actively) or is she only effectively a level 6 or 7 NPC at the end?

No- no advance stats, though advancing is mentioned

All the PC related NPCs are supposed to be taking an active role, though it is only mentioned.

Yes, it does sound like there will be a lot of "dm talking to himself" moments, unless some tweaks are made.

Chad Bartlett wrote:

I just downloaded this, but it didn't have the interactive maps. Are they still forthcoming?

I've updated the Single File download to include the Interactive Maps.

RuyanVe wrote:

Why does the pdf's saving date show up as some day in 1663? Weird.

This is probably an artifact that the watermarker is doing. I'll take a look at it sometime later today.

Joseph Wilson wrote:

One comment on the interactive maps. Is there any way we could get an update on the file to include a "Player View/GM Views" button like in previous volumes. On most of the maps in this one, it's not a big deal, but there are some secret doors in the Jade Palace.

It does look like this should be present on one of the maps. I'll see what I can do to get this updated ASAP.

The Interactive Maps have been updated to reflect this change.

I finally got my printed version of this and I took a look at the City of Kasai map, which I originally created as a hand-drawn map as a commission, and I can tell there has been nothing added in details, nor anything taken away from my original work - except my was lineart only, and this, of course, is a full color map. It's almost unfortunate, that this map only takes of a single page, as the details cannot be easily shown at the current scale - it might have been better as an 11x17 foldout map. But, still, I'm happy to see it and hold in my hands!

I finally got my printed version of this and I took a look at the City of Kasai map, which I originally created as a hand-drawn map as a commission, and I can tell there has been nothing added in details, nor anything taken away from my original work - except my was lineart only, and this, of course, is a full color map. It's almost unfortunate, that this map only takes of a single page, as the details cannot be easily shown at the current scale - it might have been better as an 11x17 foldout map. But, still, I'm happy to see it and hold in my hands!

Check out the Jade Regent Map Folio, and it is a 22x34 foldout map.

What are the four new monsters?

What are the four new monsters?

Gashadokuro (CR 13 NE Huge undead)

Cheers!

Those last two also appear in the actual adventure.

I wanted to mention just how awesome it was that Paizo used one of the monsters from Green Ronin's old Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts book. I actually dusted off my copy for the first time in years when I saw that.

It's always great to see Open Game Content being reused - that's what the OGL's all about, after all - and I salute Paizo for doing so with such an old book here.

Sincubus wrote:

What are the four new monsters?

Gashadokuro (CR 13 NE Huge undead)

Jinmenju (CR 11 N Huge plant)
Wind Yai (CR 16 LE Huge outsider [air][giant][native][oni][shapechanger])
Rokurokubi (CR 14 LE Medium monstrous humanoid)

Cheers!

Thanks man!

Does the Rokurokubi have a cool picture with her long neck? (much like on the cover?)

Daviot wrote:

Sincubus wrote:

What are the four new monsters?

Gashadokuro (CR 13 NE Huge undead)

Jinmenju (CR 11 N Huge plant)
Wind Yai (CR 16 LE Huge outsider [air][giant][native][oni][shapechanger])
Rokurokubi (CR 14 LE Medium monstrous humanoid)

Cheers!

Thanks man!

Does the Rokurokubi have a cool picture with her long neck? (much like on the cover?)

She's sitting by a screen, having a nice cuppa.

So, very different from her appearance on the cover where she's a evil extremly long-necked horror with teeth which would give Jaws nightmares!? :p

Sincubus wrote:

What are the four new monsters?

Gashadokuro (CR 13 NE Huge undead)

Jinmenju (CR 11 N Huge plant)
Wind Yai (CR 16 LE Huge outsider [air][giant][native][oni][shapechanger])
Rokurokubi (CR 14 LE Medium monstrous humanoid)

Cheers!

Wait, so that giant skeleton from the first animated Hellboy is actually something from Japanese folklore? And they gave it a write-up?? Woohoo!

And that tree... *shudder* Reminds me of something Wednesday Addams might have drawn.

Daviot wrote:

Sincubus wrote:

What are the four new monsters?

Gashadokuro (CR 13 NE Huge undead)

Jinmenju (CR 11 N Huge plant)
Wind Yai (CR 16 LE Huge outsider [air][giant][native][oni][shapechanger])
Rokurokubi (CR 14 LE Medium monstrous humanoid)

Cheers!

Wait, so that giant skeleton from the first animated Hellboy is actually something from Japanese folklore? And they gave it a write-up?? Woohoo!

And that tree... *shudder* Reminds me of something Wednesday Addams might have drawn.

Reminds me of the anime The Twelve Kingdoms with those trees that people picked their children off of.

I dislike the genie-like Oni, enough elemental creatures already... (I rather see bakeneko, namazu or other unique asian creatures instead)

But the other 3 creatures are really the most AWESOME creatures so far in AP!!! I really like the pictures of them toO! The giant skeleton and head-tree are so nice! Hope to see them in future adventure paths in the story!

Good work on this bestiary!!! (little number of creatures, but 3 extremly cool ones that make up for that!)

This is the only AP from #1-#60 which has not been reduced in price (down to $10) as part of the "Great Golem sale".

Shouldn´t this be the case?

Thanks for changing the price accordingly.

I hope the last few copies (less than 25 left in stock) of this issue sell out more quickly now. :-)