Pathfinder Legends—Rise of the Runelords #1: Burnt Offerings

That can't be a full cast list, as there are no goblins. We heard goblins in the teaser didn't we?

There will probably be an 'additional parts voiced by members of the cast' at the end of it that will cover the remaining characters, including the goblins

Trailer preview added (and a download link to it as well).

Any more information on when the digital download will be available here?

On the official release date: March 23.

Also what is the plan for the DRM on the digital file?

Purchasers will be able to download it in mp3 and/or audiobook formats with no DRM.

That can't be a full cast list, as there are no goblins. We heard goblins in the teaser didn't we?

That is a full cast list—but not a full character list. A couple of the performers played multiple roles:

Trivia: The credits are read by Nicholas Briggs, the voice of the Daleks on Doctor Who—but he doesn't use the ring modulator, so no need to hide behind the sofa.

Okay. So, as someone who is currently playing in "Rise Of The Runelords," currently in book 4, can I listen to this and not be spoiled for the rest of the story?

Okay. So, as someone who is currently playing in "Rise Of The Runelords," currently in book 4, can I listen to this and not be spoiled for the rest of the story?

Absolutely! No spoilers here that would affect book 4.

*Looks at title*

Some one likes Dune...

Yeah I'll check this out.

I'd like to purchase it, but too expensive for one hour of run time. I generally don't find myself listening to audio material (apparently it's not a book) more than once unfortunately. There is a lot of highly entertaining, low cost or even free material out there to fill my commute. To purchase six of these would be $90 for 6 hours?

That's just how I look at it. I purchase a lot of Paizo stuff, but I think I'm out on this one.

Digital downloads will be available on paizo.com ($12.99) and BigFinish.com (£8.99).

When looking at the Big Finish site, it notes that Burnt Offerings is available for "pre-order".

So I take it that this is an error, and that the digital version on that site is not a pre-order, but will be available immediately for purchase?

This is a product description that would be worth fixing.

Digital downloads will be available on paizo.com ($12.99) and BigFinish.com (£8.99).

When will the digital download be avialable?

Soooo … subscription? Preferably including digital downloads?

ScrubKai wrote:

Any more information on when the digital download will be available here?

On the official release date: March 23.

Staking this out for my train trip home tonight. Please, Mr. Golem, let me have it soon!

So how are subscriptions going to work on this? I see big finish subscriptions work differently then the subscriptions that I normally see around here (pay once for the whole season vs pay as you go and get a bonus).

I'd rather subscribe through here, but the big finish digital subscription is really tempting at that price point.

This sounds perfect for my drive home from work which takes about an hour every day. I can't seem to find a link to the digital version, is it out yet?

The digital version will be available on 3/26.

I am holding off on this for a bit to see if you open up a subscription option. I would like to sub and hopefully get the hard copy and digital copy kind of like you do with the other products.

Fingers crossed! :)

I am holding off on this for a bit to see if you open up a subscription option. I would like to sub and hopefully get the hard copy and digital copy kind of like you do with the other products.

Fingers crossed! :)

Normally with audio CDs you can just add it to your digital libraries really easily. I don't know for sure if this will be the same as I have never bought anything from BigFinish before.

I added it to iTunes as easily as I can add anything else (although it didn't automatically pick up artist name, album and so forth).

We have a subscription in the works. Our tech team is working on it as I type :)

If Rise of the Runelords does well, is there the thought of tackling other APs?

Regardless, I'm Über-excited for this series. Because:
1. Paizo so rarely disappoints
2. I love RotRL, (I love Golarion in general!), and
3. Brits do grrrreat audio-dramas, by and large.

I'm in. Will no doubt subscribe- though I already went ahead and purchased the first volume cause I'm just the eager to get my ears on it...

Just as a heads up, I'll be sending out an email later today with the following information:

For a limited time, you can get the subscription price for the first volume, even if you don't subscribe!! From now until the Pathfinder Legends Subscription is online and fully operational, all paizo.com orders for Pathfinder Legends—Rise of the Runelords #1: Burnt Offerings will receive 20% off the MSRP! That makes the CD just $12.79 (MSRP $15.99) and the digital version, available starting March 26th, just $10.39 (MSRP $12.99). If you've already preordered the CD, we will be adjusting your order to the new lower price. This discount does not stack with other discounts.

Katina from my Customer Service team is currently working her way through the list of people who have already purchased the CD and adjusting the price they were ordered at down to the new price of $12.79.

Let me know if you have any questions (email customer.service@paizo.com, messageboards: CS Forum or phone (contact info at the bottom of the web page).

thanks
sara marie

Thanks, Sara Marie!
When I saw the cheaper price yesterday, it was enough to move me past the deadly sin of Sloth, and into pro-active action-taking mode! (Seriously, you have no idea how crippled by laziness I can be. Who knows when I would have ever ordered the darn CD, much as I wanted it! Sometimes, that little extra discount is all it takes…)

One last question, Is there anything extra on the cd that is not in the digital download?

Well, for that price, what's the harm. :)

One last question, Is there anything extra on the cd that is not in the digital download?

A jewel case?

I am holding off on this for a bit to see if you open up a subscription option. I would like to sub and hopefully get the hard copy and digital copy kind of like you do with the other products.

Fingers crossed! :)

I am with you on this. Just put in my order for the first one. If it is good, I will likely get the subscription.

I don't know why they would not include the digital copy with the subscription, if you are so inclined, it is too easy to just rip the CD for it anyway.

I listened to this three times tonight on a grueling, unexpectedly long commute. It finished and I just let it repeat. I've listened to a lot of the Doctor Who audio dramas, and I felt the production on this was much better.

Little sad that no one hooked me up with this project or made mention of it to the original Burnt Offerings the Play crew.

sniff
sniff

Well, at least we were the original.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat this is crazy!!!! I so have to get these... so it's about 2 months between each one?

For a limited time, you can get the subscription price for the first volume, even if you don't subscribe!! From now until the Pathfinder Legends Subscription is online and fully operational, all paizo.com orders for Pathfinder Legends—Rise of the Runelords #1: Burnt Offerings will receive 20% off the MSRP! That makes the CD just $12.79 (MSRP $15.99) and the digital version, available starting March 26th, just $10.39 (MSRP $12.99). If you've already preordered the CD, we will be adjusting your order to the new lower price. This discount does not stack with other discounts.

Won't the subscription also include digital downloads?

I would be all over this if they had voice acted parts for the AP's that you could have the players listen to. I'll probably buy it just to find out, but changing it from a story to an asset that can be used when running the AP would be amazing. I have done this myself with a voice modulating software (mostly for beasties). I also play music, edit game ambient tracks and music to fit scenes.

How neat would it be to set the scene, describe an NPC and then play the voice acted part.

Will the subscription include both CD and digital download?

FYI: I just downloaded the digital version at the discount price. I was happy to see the download contains both an mp3 version and an audio book version (m4b extension) of the audio. By double-clicking the audio book version, the audio was added to the Audobooks iTunes category with cover art, title and author information added. The mp3 version is broken up into 16 files. There is cover art (jpg) available as well as two mp3 files which contain music and total about 7 minutes in length.

First Thought: OMG this is amazing. I want this so bad!

Second Thought (upon seeing price): Ouch, $10.39. A bit pricey for 1 of 6 installments, but if they do it right, I'd pay that.

Third and Final Thought (upon seeing runtime): 1 hour?! Seriously? Pass. No reconsideration. Just Pass.

From a cost/entertainment standpoint:
That's ~7000x more than a standard MMO (assuming $15 a month for 25 hours enjoyment per week for 4 weeks, also assuming one of these audio dramas is available monthly, which I don't believe they are).
That's ~20x more expensive than a single player PC game such as Skyrim (assuming you bought the game at ~$60 and got only 100 hrs playtime out of it, which is very much on the low end).
That's ~7.5x more expensive than an audiobook (assuming S15 for 11 hours, such as Divergent available on iTunes now)
That's ~2.5x more expensive than going to see a movie (assuming ~$10 ticket for 2.5 hour movie with no food/drink).

And on all those comparisons are consciously on the low-end.

Call it an Audio Drama, Audiobook, or the greatest hour your ears will ever hear.... It's just way too overpriced for my money.

The subscription for the physical copy will not be including the digital download.

idilippy wrote:

I had a good deal of interest in this production, but seeing that it is only a 1 hour run time does make it seem far, far too short for the price. As much as I like Pathfinder I can't see myself spending half the price of an audiobook or more for less than 1/10th the content of most audiobooks. Are the other 5 parts going to be equally short?

As a comparison, the shortest audiobook in my library (The Gunslinger by Stephen King), is 7 hours and 54 minutes long and cost $2 less than this. I don't know anything about radio dramas compared to audiobooks, is it common for 6 hours of programming to run almost $100? I was very much looking forward to having this, I listen to audiobooks all the time, but at the moment even if it gets fantastic reviews I can't see myself getting it.

The fourth book is also available for preorder I think and it is also 1 hour in length.

Audio Books are typically read by 1 person who either reads it straight or does all the character 'voices' themselves. Full blown radio dramas have a collection of voice actors, music and effects that, if well done, are well worth the money.

Maybe so, though I recently checked out a couple BBC audiodramas from my library and feel like I prefer audiobooks even at the same price, let alone when I can have 7 or 8 times the amount of content for the price. I think the audio samples of the characters sound fine, but as much as I really wanted to have awesome Pathfinder audio this isn't for me. For the same price I'd much, much rather have 6 audiobooks through my Audible subscription, or a bunch of awesome 3rd party pdfs, or 4 parts of the Iron Gods adventure path when it comes out. Best of luck with the sales, if another path gets made with at least double the run time (12 hours for the path rather than 6) down the line I think I'd be more likely to consider it.

Is there any chance that a collected edition may eventually be released? Possibly with special feature type things? If so I'd definitely want to pick that up when it comes out and maybe just get the audio for now.

Big Finish occasionally does collections, but it's not something they automatically do with everything. I can tell you that we have never discussed it with them.

Those interested in special features should note that in addition to the excellent audio drama, this release also includes two instrumental music tracks from the drama's score which would make an excellent background for a Pathfinder gaming session (or, in my case, development).

...would make an excellent background for a Pathfinder gaming session (or, in my case, development).

...Wait, you work? I thought you developers played Pathfinder all day... :P

How rude! We sacrifice our game time to allow others to game in our stead.

I download the digital files today. Physical CDs are so 2002. While the adaptation is far from perfect I found it very enjoyable. One must remember, this is not an audio book. An audio book already has the script written - you just need to read it. This is more like a Broadway play which means there was a script to be written, actors to be hired, music to be scored and effects added. It's much more work than simply an audio book. Thus, I'm not surprised it costs more money. In the end, I'm happy I purchased it and I'm really looking forward to the next chapters.

The subscription for the physical copy will not be including the digital download.

So one would have to subscribe to both physical and digital editions separately to get both, then?

Can anyone tell me which iTunes folder the .mp4 file needs to be extracted into in order to show up properly?

EDIT: I ended up just exporting it into a file on my computer, then opening it in iTunes.

Having just finished listening to this, I must say that I am quite impressed. Being quite familiar with the original work, I was pleased with how it turned out. Regarding the things that did get cut, I can completely understand why they did. I do believe that I'll be subscribing for future episodes!

One thing that surprises me, though, is that in their credits they don't make any mention of it being based on the original AP or written under licence from Paizo, or anything like that. I would think that there would have to be something like that mentioned somewhere.

Sara Marie wrote:

The subscription for the physical copy will not be including the digital download.

So one would have to subscribe to both physical and digital editions separately to get both, then?

Honestly making a digital copy of the CD is really easy using a computer.

So I understand why they don't include both in a subscription.

Decided to go for the digital download, as I wanted it ASAP and really do need to cut down on the amount of physical stuff taking space up :)

I can understand people unused to this medium feeling it's expensive. However, it's cheaper to buy from Paizo than directly from Big Finish so I'm very happy with the price point.

I did something with this I can't remember doing for a very long time. I put on headphones, sat back, closed my eyes, and relaxed while I listened. Nothing, but nothing has held my attention like that for ages. I really was hooked on every word.

The choice of actors felt perfect. I really did imagine the story happening around me (I think I kicked my feet out a few times in case the Goblins had gotten too close!)

If there's a digital subscription I'll absolutely be taking that, otherwise grabbing the digital episode each month. Can't wait for part two, and I hope the plans extend far into the future for more AP conversions, or even 100% original stories!

One thing that surprises me, though, is that in their credits they don't make any mention of it being based on the original AP or written under licence from Paizo, or anything like that. I would think that there would have to be something like that mentioned somewhere.

Good point. It's covered on the packaging, but if you have the mp3 version, not so much. I'll see if we can't get it added to the announcement for chapter 3 and beyond (chapter 2 has already been mastered).

However, it's cheaper to buy from Paizo than directly from Big Finish so I'm very happy with the price point.

We use a list price in dollars, and they use a list price in pounds, so the relative value will vary based on the currency exchange rate. Unless one of the currencies takes a big hit, they should be in the same ballpark, though.