Key monsters and NPCs from the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path come alive on your tabletop with the Pathfinder RPG Rise of the Runelords Pawn Collection, featuring more than 100 creature pawns for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or any tabletop fantasy RPG! Printed on sturdy cardstock, each pawn presents a beautiful full-color image of a monster or NPC from the Rise of the Runelords campaign, including goblins, dragons, giants, ogres, and dozens of unique NPCs also suitable for representing player characters. Designed for use with the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary Box, each cardstock pawn slots into a size-appropriate plastic base from that collection—making them easy to mix with traditional metal or plastic miniatures—and supplements that set’s creatures, together providing pawns for nearly every Rise of the Runelords encounter. With multiple pawns for commonly encountered foes and tons of distinct creature images, the Pathfinder RPG Rise of the Runelords Pawn Collection brings the enemies and allies of Pathfinder’s original campaign alive like never before!
In addition to being part of the Pathfinder Pawns Subscription, Pathfinder Adventure Path subscribers who preorder this set will receive a free PDF edition of this product when the print edition ships. (Note that you will need to have an active Pawns or AP subscription at the time the Pawn Collection ships in order to receive the PDF for free.)
Note: This product does not include bases. It is intended for use with the bases found in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary Box.
ISBN 978-1-60125-574-7
Rise of the Runelords Pawn Collection Set List
The enemies and allies of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path surge to life on your tabletop! Each has its own identification number for easy sorting. The Rise of the Runelords Pawn Collection includes:
Small (and Smaller)
1 Carrion Storm (4)
2 Enga Keckvia
3 Goblin Commando (3)
4 Goblin Warchanter
5 Goblin Warrior (10)
6 Gogmurt
7 Rat Swarm (8)
8 Redcap (5)
Medium
9 Aldern Foxglove
10 Ameiko Kaijitsu
11 Azaven
12 The Black Monk
13 Bruthazmus
14 Clockwork Librarian
15 Ghoul (3)
16 Goblin Commando on Goblin Dog
17 Goblin Dog (4)
18 Grayst Sevilla
19 Highlady Athroxis
If you don't know, "pawns" are double-sided images of monsters or NPCs printed on cardstock, designed to stand vertically with a plastic base that's the same size as the creature (so a Large-size monster with sit on a 2x2 base and its pawn will be bigger than a Small-size creature, for example). Pawns aren't as good as true three-dimensional miniatures, but they're a lot cheaper and are still better than simple flat tokens.
The Rise of the Runelords Pawn Collection contains around a hundred and fifty pawns with sizes ranging from Small all the way up to the Huge. The artwork for creatures and NPCs unique to the adventure path comes from the Anniversary Edition hardcover collection, and it's fantastic. The set also includes several pawns for creatures that appear in the AP but aren't unique to it, and the artwork for these pawns comes from the creature's Bestiary entry. Each pawn is numbered and labeled, and there's a list on the back, which makes sorting pretty easy (I use ziplock bags). The set *doesn't* come with bases, which is an important point for someone who doesn't have any other Paizo pawn sets.
The physical quality of the pawns is high. I'm writing this review at the halfway point of the AP, so I've used the set in about 50 sessions so far--all of the pawns are still in good shape, with no tears, bent corners, etc. They fit well with standard Paizo bases and are quite colorful.
Perhaps the most important thing to ask is how well simplify GM prep: in other words, are the pawns that are included of the right type and number to handle encounters in the AP? I'm at exactly the halfway point of the AP, so I think I have a pretty good sense of how much coverage there is, and my verdict would be: it's very hit or miss. The set is great on including pawns for "bosses" unique to the AP and some NPCs--as a rough guide, if there's a full colour illustration of the monster/NPC in the book, there's probably a pawn included in the set. For more normal encounters, however, the set is unpredictable and the choices made of what (and how many) to include of different creatures doesn't follow a consistent pattern. For example, the set comes with 8 rat swarms which is plenty for any encounter listed in the book, but doesn't come with any shadows and only 1 yeth hound which complicates planning for those encounters in Thistletop; it includes 4 ogre pawns, which sounds great, but there's an encounter in the Kreeg Clanhold with ten ogres simultaneously. Etc. I'm not complaining so much as trying to make it clear that owning this collection (even along with the Bestiary pawn box) doesn't mean that every pawn needed for the game will be at your fingertips: you're still going to have to make homemade tokens or cobble together substitutes for many encounters. In addition, the collection doesn't include any creatures that appear on the AP's random encounter tables (unless those creatures also appear in planned encounters).
In the end, I can give a partial endorsement to the collection. It contains enough to make it worthwhile, but not so much to make it a must-have.
For a players who are just starting out, and may have the Beginner Box, this is a really great incremental augmentation to a growing pawn set, and is a very affordable, and exciting addition.
This Pawn set has the benefit of a good ratio: a handful of NPCs, Some good monsters, and cultists, a clutch of named characters including Karzoug. The medium monsters are mostly giants due to the ROTRL story path, and the huge monsters are giants and spiders. But, what this set has is Goblins Galore! C'mon! You need Goblins!
IN CASE ANYONE READING THIS DOESN'T KNOW: The ROTRL pawn set does not contain the core iconics! Valeros and the gang are in the "Pathfinder Pawns NPC Codex Box" (The Beginner Box includes Merisiel, Ezren, Valeros, and Kyra), and the Skulls and Shackles Iconics are in - wait for it - "The Pathfinder Pawns Inner Sea Pawn Box". Also, like the other reviews said, there are no bases.
I like the set a lot, even though i comes without bases. I have some bases from a completely different (board) game that I use until I get my hands on one of the Bestiary boxes.
The missing 5th star is because many of the drawings extends to much outside the actual figure IMHO.
this is a good set of pawns if you are planning on running the Rise of the Runelords adventure path but i cant help feeling disappointed on the exclusion of some minis (like the bunyip, Tangletooth(Gogmurt's pet),the rune giant, the goblin ghast)but it's still cheaper than minis
Sadness. My set is missing pieces, and while I own the pdf there is no where in my town to get them printed. ;_;
1) Print the pages on 110 lb cardstock.
2) Using spray adhesive (Super 77 works the best IMO), create a 3-layer stack - blank page, blank page, printed page. Let dry under some weight for at least an hour. Create a 3-layer stack for both the front and back pages.
3) Once the 3-layer stacks are dry, cut out each pawn. Use a cutter of some sort, not scissors.
4) Use a glue stick to glue both halves of the pawn together. This will be 6 layers at completion.
5) Let the 6-layer pawns dry under weight for at least an hour.
Here's a link to a Facebook post showing my process as well. Homemade Pawns
Our VTT initiative is currently focused on new products and updating older maps and cards. We have not yet gotten to the point where we can convert old pawns. Thanks for expressing your interest!
Now that Savage Pathfinder is coming with Runlords as a product any chance this will get a reprint?
Actually YES! We've teamed up with Pinnacle to re-release these pawns to benefit both the original RotR audience and to give the new SW audience a chance to enjoy them as well. The re-release will have a different product code and a slightly higher price (reflective of the costs of manufacturing today vs. years ago) so stay tuned for more info.
Any updates on this? I'm interested. I found a site that claims 17 August release date.
We don't have a delivery date from our manufacturer yet so I can't say when these will release at this time. I can say that 8/17 is an interesting guess but even I don't have enough info to say whether that's reasonable or not quite yet.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
So another option, while you wait for reprints, is to get the PDF and print them on sticker paper. Then you can cut them out and put them on other pawns you already have. I've done this in the past with custom pawns or when I needed additional ones. The sticker paper also peels off pretty easily when you're done with the pawn.
