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

4.10/5 (based on 21 ratings)
Pathfinder Legends—Rise of the Runelords #1: Burnt Offerings

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Sandpoint. An ordinary town on the Lost Coast of Varisia. When Ezren, Merisiel, Valeros and Harsk arrive, seeking rest from their adventures, it seems the town's annual Swallowtail Festival will give them what they need—until goblins attack during a ceremony to consecrate the town's rebuilt church.

After defending Sandpoint, the adventurers discover a sinister plot to return an ancient evil to Varisia. Can they discover the connection between the goblin attack and the removal of mortal remains from a crypt in the town's graveyard?

This is just the beginning of a new quest for the iconic Pathfinder characters Ezren, Merisiel, Valeros and Harsk. The Rise of the Runelords begins with burnt offerings—and only four heroes stand against it.

Pathfinder Legends audio dramas adapt the world and characters of the best-selling Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Each episode runs about an hour and features a cast of professional actors, sound effects, and music that immerse you into the dangerous and exciting world of Pathfinder!

Audio Samples

Download the trailer! (3.4 MB MP3/zip)

Download Ameiko sample (86 KB MP3/zip)

Download goblin sample (180 KB MP3/zip)

Download Nualia sample (135 KB MP3/zip)

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4.10/5 (based on 21 ratings)

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Sadly, Not Worth the Money

2/5 —

NO SPOILERS

Pathfinder Legends is the title of a product line that dramatizes chapters of popular Pathfinder adventure paths by including four of Pathfinder's iconic characters (Valeros the fighter, Merisiel the rogue, Ezren the wizard, and Harsk the ranger) in what is basically an audio-play complete with background music and special effects. So, the somewhat awkwardly titled "Pathfinder Legends: Rise of the Runelords # 1: Burnt Offerings" covers the first installment of that adventure path.

The most important thing to remember before buying this is that these are *not* novelizations. There is no narrator, nor is there description of events or action scenes. Instead, the story is told solely through dialogue (and sound effects), which means that the listener can usually get the gist of the plot but there is far, far less detail and immersion in the setting than one would get through a novelization or even reading the adventure itself. Because many scenes in the adventure are skipped and there's no narration, the entire first chapter of the adventure path (which would take several sessions to play at the gaming table) is reduced to less than an hour. In other words, this audio recording will hit the highlights of each chapter of the adventure path, but in a rather shallow way.

There are some nice features in the recording. The voice acting of the Iconics is strong and fits with how I imagined them from the comics (the goblins need to be more shrill though, methinks) and the sound effects and music is quite good and up to Big Finish's usual standard. The dialogue is professionally written and manages, for the most part, to establish what is happening in the plot.

Still, all of that being said, I think the conclusion has to be that this is a disappointment. Combat scenes, so integral to a sword-and-sorcery adventure like this one, are reduced to a lot of grunting, exciting music, and "sword clangs" sound effects. There's no way to get a sense of what's going on, who's doing cool stuff, how the difference Iconics fight, what the villains look like, how overwhelming the odds are, etc. If you haven't read the adventure path, I'd imagine the listener would be quite lost in many places and find it incredibly difficult to imagine the scenes. I would have far, far preferred that this was a true audiobook based on a novelization of the adventure path than in this sort of "dialogue-only" format.

What adds insult to injury is how expensive these recordings are given how short they are. It's just not good value for money, and I'd be embarrassed to spend something like $ 90 to $ 120 USD to have all six parts. I can get full-length, full-cast audiobooks for a third to a half of that.

Even hardcore Pathfinder enthusiasts could find better things to spend their money on. So, as a whole, I have to recommend giving this one a miss.

SPOILERS

Some parts of the first chapter of the adventure path are skipped. There's very little "role-playing" in Sandpoint, and most of the key NPCs (apart from Ameiko and Sheriff Hemlock) barely appear at all. Some of the most memorable encounters from the adventure, like "The Shopkeeper's Daughter" and "Monster in the Closet" don't appear at all. The Catacombs of Wrath are also skipped. I'm not saying we need to see the Iconics in every random encounter that would feature in a real campaign, but I can't help but feel like the writers of the script were in a big hurry and with instructions to condense the story down as much as possible.

I will say, to be fair, that they did a really nice job explaining Nualia's backstory in a clear, coherent, and interesting way. I'm sure most gaming groups get a much more confused picture of why she's doing what she's doing. In addition, I quite liked the "twist" of the Iconics getting captured at Thistletop.

Terrific! But why so short?

3/5 —

I really enjoyed the heck this audio production. Well acted, great music and sound effects, and just well done all together. But I can't figure why it was so short. Was it the cost of production? I mean the running time was about an hour, and like 10-15 minutes of that was just music. It felt like a credits sequence, but without the credits...

Anyway, I really wish it had a little more time to develop the characters and the story, which with the material it's based on could have easily had 4 hours worth of stuff. I mean, obviously I get cutting out the dungeon crawling parts as that would have been boring, but there was a lot interesting side characters that were omitted from the story that I think would have made it a much richer experience.

That's my 2 cents, anyway. Hopefully Paizo and Big Finish will consider that for future Pathfinder Legends works.

Great voice acting and production value!

4/5 —

My biggest complaint is that it's too short. I understand the need for tightening up the story, but I feel it may have been too much.

The other minor issue I had with it is the combat scenes. It's obviously very difficult to portray a melee fight scene with audio only, but I think there's definitely some room for tweaking.

Overall though, I loved listening to this. The music is great, voices, sound effects, etc. I look forward to more!

Greatly done and a excellent game aid as well

5/5 —

This is brilliant. I have used Big Finish for Blakes 7 and Doctor Who and love what they do. I could not believe that Pathfinder was doing this. The acting is great and while the length is a little short it does not butcher the story. Its a great listen and worth every penny.

As a game aid it can give both GM and players ideas for characterization, storytelling and pace.

Great stuff and I hope the community has embraced these audios so that they will continue.

woo!

5/5 —

We finally got around to listening to this and I was surprised by how much I liked it. From the outset the accents make me think of the complaint that modern fantasy worlds are "ren faires with elf ears," but after you get past that you can start having fun. The voice actor for Valeros is perfect, the guy who does Hemlock fits the image I've always had in my mind, and it gets into the motivation of the NPCs in ways that the PCs in my campaign just didn't really manage. Also, it's not afraid to mess with the plot in minor ways, so it's not just the same story re-hashed--it's more like it's re-told. So: Bonus.

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Grand Lodge

I went for the digital subscription through Big Finish which was $40 and some change for the whole set.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Yeah, the big difference in our subscription offerings is the term—if you subscribe through bigfinish.com, your subscription includes all six volumes and concludes after that. If you subscribe from paizo.com, your subscription goes until you tell us to cancel it, which means it can include less than six volumes, or it can go on to include whatever follows Rise of the Runelords.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

When you say "our subscription offerings" any idea on when they'll be available? I feel like I'm missing out on something, even though I've already got my copy of issue #1. :o
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

What's the reason the digital version is not included with the physical CD subscription? It would be nice, especially for overseas customers, to be able to listen even before the CD arrives.

Furthermore, supplying just MP3 files and not lossless files such as FLAC seems a bit backward in an age of high-speed braodband internet.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Zaister wrote:

What's the reason the digital version is not included with the physical CD subscription? It would be nice, especially for overseas customers, to be able to listen even before the CD arrives.

Furthermore, supplying just MP3 files and not lossless files such as FLAC seems a bit backward in an age of high-speed braodband internet.

Quoted for truth.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

After listing to this first chapter, I have to say that these are really well done. The actors are great and the story is pretty faithful to the source material. My only complaint is that I wish they were a bit longer, if only because I would have loved to have a few more of the in between parts like the catacombs exploration in this.

Another thought is after hearing Ameiko get such a prevalent role, the next AP I'd love to hear a dramatization of is Jade Regent.
Shadow Lodge

I keep seeing mention of a subscription for this but I can't find it.
Webstore Gninja Minion
1 person marked this as a favorite.
the Queen's Raven wrote:
I keep seeing mention of a subscription for this but I can't find it.

The subscription for this product is awaiting a couple of new features for our website—rest assured we will announce it from the rooftops once its available! :)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Zaister wrote:

What's the reason the digital version is not included with the physical CD subscription? It would be nice, especially for overseas customers, to be able to listen even before the CD arrives.

Furthermore, supplying just MP3 files and not lossless files such as FLAC seems a bit backward in an age of high-speed braodband internet.

All I can tell you is that these are Big Finish's standards.

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
All I can tell you is that these are Big Finish's standards.

I was afraid it was something like this.

3 people marked this as a favorite.

I so want this line to do well enough that Big finish does double cd versions of the next adventure path. Anything we can do besides just encouraging others to get copies of this?

Does digital vs cd matter or anything, or subscriptions here or there?

This product is very very good and, as someone already said, a must be for anyone who will have to run this AP in the future. I can just imagine how much useful it will be after the complete release. Next one? I hope Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Merisiel: ... Speaking of which, you stink!
Valeros: That's the musk of the open road
...
Harsk: Something in the air
Merisiel: That's Valeros
Italian FAN wrote:
Next one? I hope Curse of the Crimson Throne.

I think I'd prefer Carrion Crown or Serpent's Skull but I wouldn't say no to Crimson Throne, or any of the others for that matter.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
1 person marked this as a favorite.
ScrubKai wrote:

I so want this line to do well enough that Big finish does double cd versions of the next adventure path. Anything we can do besides just encouraging others to get copies of this?

Does digital vs cd matter or anything, or subscriptions here or there?

I expect that ultimately, Big Finish will mainly be looking at sales to determine future support. Subscriptions are certainly helpful. CD sales are pretty important, because I don't believe they do any download-only products.

The best thing you can do is spread the word about how much you like them. Post reviews in appropriate places. Tell your friends on social media. And if your friends like it as much as you, tell them to tell their friends!

I purchased the CD from the LFGS because I really hate walking out empty handed, and I really do wish to have this product. Otherwise I've been looking at getting the download version.

I want to rip the CD. I have 19 tracks I want to call something other than "Track01", "Track02". Artist? Composer? Could someone please give me a "spoilered" copy of the track list? I wouldn't want the listing to spoil anyone else's enjoyment of the series.
Romaq wrote:

I purchased the CD from the LFGS because I really hate walking out empty handed, and I really do wish to have this product. Otherwise I've been looking at getting the download version.

I want to rip the CD. I have 19 tracks I want to call something other than "Track01", "Track02". Artist? Composer? Could someone please give me a "spoilered" copy of the track list? I wouldn't want the listing to spoil anyone else's enjoyment of the series.

The download version is simply named "Burnt Offerings, Track xx" (from 1 to 17), followed by "CD Extras_ Music Suite x" (1 and 2) for the two final tracks. No spoilers to spoil :)

Writer, Director, and cast can be found at the Big Finish website
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Ick! Well, they *could* have named the tracks something more interesting than that, I suppose. Except, of course, it could potentially give spoilers. Ok, I'll go with that. Thank you! I really don't want to buy the download version for a CD I already have. :D

Thanks, and cheers!
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Still no subscription?
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

My CD came in the mail today! Now just need to find time to actually listen to the darn thing....

Perhaps because I'm a long time Black Library listener I'm rather accustomed to the prices and the difference between an audio drama and an audio book.

I love the sound effects and large cast in Burnt Offerings. I felt the whole adventure come to life. Makes for an great commute to work, and I found myself waiting in the car a few extra moments to finish off a scene when I arrived.

I enjoyed it also, for what it was. It's only an hour CD, so the format limited things to the bare essentials to get the story across. ABSOLUTELY OFF LIMITS to my wife and the other players in my group until I can actually do the campaign. I look forward to using some sound effects in the game, particularly "We Be Goblins". I want my game group to really see themselves in the middle of the campaign!
spectre113 wrote:

Perhaps because I'm a long time Black Library listener I'm rather accustomed to the prices and the difference between an audio drama and an audio book.

I love the sound effects and large cast in Burnt Offerings. I felt the whole adventure come to life. Makes for an great commute to work, and I found myself waiting in the car a few extra moments to finish off a scene when I arrived.

+1 & I think I got mine about a week are 2 ago!!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Lukas Klausner wrote:
Still no subscription?

Sadly, we're having some technical issues there. But we are working on it!

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
Sara Marie wrote:

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.

Building the subscription for this is a longer process than we hoped. Creating it highlighted some areas of the code base that need to be reworked before we can add another subscription. So, since the 2nd volume is about to start shipping and releases at the end of the month (May 28th) we will be removing this discount and adding it instead to volume 2: Skinsaw Murders. I'm going to leave the discount live until tomorrow morning so that you all have a last minute chance to get the "subscription" price on volume 1. Let us know in the customer service forums or by email customer.service@paizo.com or by phone if you need any help.

thanks
sara marie
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Hi All,

Apologies if this is mentioned somewhere obvious, but I seem to have missed where it says how often we are expecting the new volumes to come out. Will this be a monthly or 6 weekly etc. timing between releases? I am trying to figure out if I can afford a subscription when it does come out.

Cheers
Blackcat
Sovereign Court
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
blackcat wrote:


Will this be a monthly or 6 weekly etc. timing between releases?

One every 2 months Blackcat

Liberty's Edge
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Now we just need to get audiobooks of the Pathfinder novels! :)

Wow had to transfer this to three devices to get it to unzip.
Files all scrambled in folder and unable to rearrange them.
Three minute sound files that take about 2 minutes each to load up and play.
Taking as long to get each snippet to play as the playtime itself.
Ended up having to delete unzipped file to stop strange abort message from popping up every minute or so on my desktop,even though whole file was playing fine.

Great sound quality and a fun listen, I really was loving the concept.
But I kept losing immersion due to file size, location and buffering. Way too much hassle to bother paying for more of these.
Wish the setup was more like an audio book.
Grand Lodge

Mine came with an m4b version that is just like a standard audio book.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

I'd strongly suggest you try a different unzipping utility. What you *should* get is the following:


  • Burnt Offerings - Trailer.mp3
  • PF001 Burnt Offerings AB (folder)
  • PF001 Burnt Offerings mp3 (folder)
  • Vortex 61.pdf (a Big Finish newsletter)

The "AB" folder contains a JPG of the cover and a single m4b audiobook file which should play nicely with many audiobook readers, including iTunes. I would recommend using this version if you have compatible software.

The "mp3" folder contains the cover JPG and 19 mp3 files, one for each chapter. As standard mp3 files, pretty much any media player from the last decade plus should be able to deal with these files; I would recommend using this version either to burn a CD or for use with older software or hardware. (You should be able to just drop these into your iTunes window as well.) Note that the largest of these mp3 files is under 13 MB, and a couple of them are just 6.5 MB, and pretty much any modern mp3 player should be able to begin playing them in literally less than a second. Your report that it takes minutes to load suggests there is a major problem with your configuration, and again, my biggest suspect is your unzipping utility.
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