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Huh! This one snuck up on me.
It amuses me that many nations are detailed in a single book, and this sleepy coastal town gets an entire book of its own. Not complaining at all, though. Just made me chuckle a bit.
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This has been a long time coming! Sounds terrific - I’m really glad you went with an expanded book and included both maps.
More books from James Jacobs (I presume) are always welcome.
I’m really glad you went with an expanded book...
Ooh! I didn't even notice the expanded page count. Pretty cool!
Awesome!
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Cool! :D
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96 pages. Sweet! And probably very light on rules, which is good.
Also, likely the reason why the Rusty Dragon wasn't in Inner Sea Taverns.
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I bet it's Shayliss Vinder.
cool
YES! Mine, mine, mine!
This is AWESOME!! And it's 96 pages, too!
Will be waiting in great anticipation.
Thank you to all those involved in making it a reality - especially James Jacobs.
Carry on!
--C.
Creative Director
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I suppose this will reprint Sheriff's and Father Zantus' statblocks from the comic book bonus article and include same info on Rusty Dragon as comic book articles?
Yes it will. In fact, I'm going to be including stat blocks for EVERY NPC of note in town.
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This has been a long time coming! Sounds terrific - I’m really glad you went with an expanded book and included both maps.
More books from James Jacobs (I presume) are always welcome.
And yes, I'm writing the whole book. I've got a week or so left on finishing it up so now is a great time for folks to drop in requests and suggestions and hopes and fears for me to take into account!
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96 pages. Sweet! And probably very light on rules, which is good.
Also, likely the reason why the Rusty Dragon wasn't in Inner Sea Taverns.
Beyond there being stat blocks for all the NPCs and villains of note, there'll be some new things here and there (mostly in the form of new items or spells or monsters unique to the area), but it's not intended to be a player's book. It's VERY focused toward the GM who wants to run a Sandpoint campaign (it will have elements of "build your own campaign using this book as a sandbox workshop") and to folks who just want to know more about Sandpoint.
Including the reason why it's had so much trouble lately.
And yes, this is the reason the Rusty Dragon wasn't in Inner Sea Taverns.
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Ooooh yes, back where it all began and now we'll finally learn who in secret is a veiled master!
I can reveal that now. No one in Sandpoint is secretly a veiled master.
Note that is NOT the same as saying "No one in Sandpoint is a monster disguised as a human," nor is it "The aboleths have no presence in the Sandpoint region."
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And to reiterate: I'm still finishing this up, so if anyone has any hopes and ideas and suggestions for what to include in what's more or less gonna be a big sandbox setting/96-page gazetteer of a town and its Hinterlands... now's the time to speak up! I'll be here watching and reading and occasionally commenting.
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Umm... Well assuming book details what happened after Ameiko left Sandpoint, would be nice to know how Rusty Dragon is nowadays doing. Would in general nice to have expansion on stuff from RotR, Jade Regent article and bonus article.
Like, I'd like to have details on ghost of the Chopper and what is on Chopper's Island and also about Valdermar family's... Situation. Besides that uh, there are lot of interesting areas in Hinterlands I'm interesting in knowing stuff about, like Devil's Platter, Red Bishop and the Tors.
Also, since book seems to assume RotR happened, I want to hear what happened to Scarnetti family since players had pretty good chance of exposing their arson scheme and getting them jailed as result :D Maybe would be nice to also know what happened to exorcised Foxglove Manor, like did Aldern's sisters take it over? How about Thistletop, now that Malfeshnekor is dead, has it become archeology site or is it just there abandoned?
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Umm... Well assuming book details what happened after Ameiko left Sandpoint, would be nice to know how Rusty Dragon is nowadays doing. Would in general nice to have expansion on stuff from RotR, Jade Regent article and bonus article.
Like, I'd like to have details on ghost of the Chopper and what is on Chopper's Island and also about Valdermar family's... Situation. Besides that uh, there are lot of interesting areas in Hinterlands I'm interesting in knowing stuff about, like Devil's Platter, Red Bishop and the Tors.
Also, since book seems to assume RotR happened, I want to hear what happened to Scarnetti family since players had pretty good chance of exposing their arson scheme and getting them jailed as result :D Maybe would be nice to also know what happened to exorcised Foxglove Manor, like did Aldern's sisters take it over? How about Thistletop, now that Malfeshnekor is dead, has it become archeology site or is it just there abandoned?
The book is set in the time between Rise of the Runelords and Jade Regent. Ameiko is still in town. That said, I do talk a little bit about what happens to her manor and the Rusty Dragon once she leaves town for Jade Regent. The book assumes Rise of the Runelords has happened, but that's pretty much the only assumption.
There's going to be LOTS more info on Chopper, his island, the Valdemar situation, Devil's Platter, the Red Bishop, and the Tors.
Foxglove Manor is now just an empty house that's up for sale. Do your players want to buy it? The book will talk about the repercussions of that choice too, as well as how the PCs go about purchasing it.
And the Scarnettis are still in power, but the assumption is that their arson scheme is still hidden—that was never a heavy plot point in an adventure and is one that could fuel part of a sandbox game in Sandpoint, a great example of one of dozens and dozens of plot threads and quests and rumors that'll be in the book for GMs to mine for adventure starters.
Thistletop assumes Malfeshnekor is dead, but there's something going on, rumors say, about who lives there now... or who might have come BACK to live there...
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There have been strong hints that something about this area is important in the conflict between Pazuzu and Lamashtu will we find Something out about that?
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:O My hype for the book is growing! And so are my questions!
Come to think about it, what happens to Habe's Sanatorium? Does book assume he is still running it? And if book is before Jade Regent, is Koya Mvashti's mother Niska Mvashti still alive and gets stats and all?
What happened to Catacombs of Wrath and Lamashtu's Shrine underneath Sandpoint after RotR?
I guess not all characters from RotR's gazetteers can get stats since there are like 50 of them, but do they all get mentioned and how their life has been since goblin and giant attacks?
Decided to check RotR hardcover and Jade Regent part 1 just in case there was something cool I forgot about and I have now three more final questions for now:
1) Will it turn out that Ilsoari Gandethus has dark secret in his academy's basement?
2) Will it turn out Rynshinn Povalli has cool secret behind her? She seems kind of mysterious to me for level 5 expert
3) Will we find out about Wisher's Well Vorimorath's schemes? :D
Sorry if I over did it with questions again, more questions pop in my head more excited I get ^_^;
And to reiterate: I'm still finishing this up, so if anyone has any hopes and ideas and suggestions for what to include in what's more or less gonna be a big sandbox setting/96-page gazetteer of a town and its Hinterlands... now's the time to speak up! I'll be here watching and reading and occasionally commenting.
In sandbox-y products, I always enjoy those little adventure seeds - kind of one or two paragraph summaries of a potential plot.
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:O My hype for the book is growing! And so are my questions!
Come to think about it, what happens to Habe's Sanatorium? Does book assume he is still running it? And if book is before Jade Regent, is Koya Mvashti's mother Niska Mvashti still alive and gets stats and all?
What happened to Catacombs of Wrath and Lamashtu's Shrine underneath Sandpoint after RotR?
I guess not all characters from RotR's gazetteers can get stats since there are like 50 of them, but do they all get mentioned and how their life has been since goblin and giant attacks?
Decided to check RotR hardcover and Jade Regent part 1 just in case there was something cool I forgot about and I have now three more final questions for now:
1) Will it turn out that Ilsoari Gandethus has dark secret in his academy's basement?
2) Will it turn out Rynshinn Povalli has cool secret behind her? She seems kind of mysterious to me for level 5 expert
3) Will we find out about Wisher's Well Vorimorath's schemes? :DSorry if I over did it with questions again, more questions pop in my head more excited I get ^_^;
Habe's Sanatorium is in the book and will reflect Habe's recent events from Runelords.
Niska is still alive... for NOW.
High level adventurers used magic to fix the sinkhole, but there are still dungeons below Sandpoint to explore.
All of the characters get stats, save for a few who die between Runelords and now. Many of these characters are lower level commoners, experts, or aristocrats, and those will share a set of generic stats. But if a character is not human, is higher level than 3rd, or has a level in something other than commoner, aristocrat, or expert, they'll have their own stat block.
Ilsoari's "secret" will likely be revealed, yes.
Rynshinn's got a secret too, yes, and it'll be explored.
Wisher's Well will have an entry, along with a stat block for Vorimorath and a few other things.
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And to reiterate: I'm still finishing this up, so if anyone has any hopes and ideas and suggestions for what to include in what's more or less gonna be a big sandbox setting/96-page gazetteer of a town and its Hinterlands... now's the time to speak up! I'll be here watching and reading and occasionally commenting.In sandbox-y products, I always enjoy those little adventure seeds - kind of one or two paragraph summaries of a potential plot.
Every location in Sandpoint and every location in the hinterlands will get its own specialized rumor and its own specialized quests. Some of these will overlap. Some locations will have more than one rumor or quest. And there'll be an entire chapter about "adventure seeds" and semi-fleshed-out plots to expand upon.
THANKS for doing this for us Mr. Jacobs! Look forward to any and all input that you can give us on the going ons in and around Sandpoint! Been waiting years to see this and I think you will not disappoint the fans at ALL!
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Rynshinn's got a secret too, yes, and it'll be explored.
Rynshinn made my PC in RotRL, Il'setsya, a puppet of Ssila'meshnik the Colorless Wyrm to wear on her tail. The two of them ended up as an item in that campaign. Now I'm wondering what the secret was! :D
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Will be Birdcrunchers and Licktoads be there, and will the Goblins quadrology be incorporated?
All of the local goblin tribes will have info, but the Goblins series likely won't be incorporated, since their story more or less kicks off in tandem with Jade Regent, which, again, is assumed to happen AFTER this book.
Every location in Sandpoint and every location in the hinterlands will get its own specialized rumor and its own specialized quests. Some of these will overlap. Some locations will have more than one rumor or quest. And there'll be an entire chapter about "adventure seeds" and semi-fleshed-out plots to expand upon.And to reiterate: I'm still finishing this up, so if anyone has any hopes and ideas and suggestions for what to include in what's more or less gonna be a big sandbox setting/96-page gazetteer of a town and its Hinterlands... now's the time to speak up! I'll be here watching and reading and occasionally commenting.In sandbox-y products, I always enjoy those little adventure seeds - kind of one or two paragraph summaries of a potential plot.
Well, that’s better than what I was looking for.
Thanks!
I would love to see a "fifty things the PCs might see in Sandpoint," like NPC A having an argument in the street with NPC B about Topic X, or NPC C's wagon having broken down, etc. Not major "adventure hooks," but just little bits of flavour to spice up an otherwise uneventful day of shopping or info gathering. Some times I'm really good at thinking on my feet for stuff like this, and other times . . . not so much.
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May I ask. How many NPC head arts? How many NPC full body arts?
Dunno yet. I haven't written the art brief and no art has been ordered, but as a general rule I would like to have a piece of art on every spread. Subtracting out the first and last page gives us 47 spreads (94 pages), of which 3 will have half-page art openers for the 3 chapters, and I think 4 will have maps, leaving us 40 spreads to split between portrait-style illustrations and full body illustrations. Looking at that, I'd say that there'll PROBABLY be something like 15 portrait illustrations and 25 full body illustrations, but again... I haven't done the art brief yet and word counts will influence what happens where.
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I would love to see a "fifty things the PCs might see in Sandpoint," like NPC A having an argument in the street with NPC B about Topic X, or NPC C's wagon having broken down, etc. Not major "adventure hooks," but just little bits of flavour to spice up an otherwise uneventful day of shopping or info gathering. Some times I'm really good at thinking on my feet for stuff like this, and other times . . . not so much.
That's an interesting idea. I don't think I'll have room for many of these big lists though, alas.
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This is awesome. People have being asking for this pretty much since day 1. I'm glad that the stars aligned.
Is Amaya appearing? Is Tsuto assumed to be dead?
Ah, it would be very cool to have something like "10 things you learn growing up in Sandpoint" or maybe ideas to make PCs related to the npcs in town.
I honestly don't need this in another format since the playtest won't be available until August, the Return of the Runelords will be in full swing when this become available, and quite honestly, I LOVE to see this in the format written.
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This is awesome. People have being asking for this pretty much since day 1. I'm glad that the stars aligned.
Is Amaya appearing? Is Tsuto assumed to be dead?
Ah, it would be very cool to have something like "10 things you learn growing up in Sandpoint" or maybe ideas to make PCs related to the npcs in town.
Amaya is not in Sandppoint.
Tsuto is dead (as is his dad).
Hmmm... the 10 things you learn growing up Sandpoint is a cool idea. Not sure there'll be room to include but I'll see what I can do.
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I honestly don't need this in another format since the playtest won't be available until August, the Return of the Runelords will be in full swing when this become available, and quite honestly, I LOVE to see this in the format written.
With the exception of the NPC/Villain stat blocks, this book is gonna be pretty much equally useful for you if you run 1st or 2nd edition Pathfinder. Or D&D or GURPS or Fantasy Hero or Runequest or Call of Cthulhu Dreamlands or Tunnels & Trolls or The Strange or whatever fantasy-genre RPG you prefer.
This is awesome! Really looking forward to it.
Dot
This is wonderful.
What I hope for in the book is a way for new GMs to take this book, plus the Beginner Box, and run lots of interesting adventures with just those two bits.
And a flip mat
And pawns for all the NPCs and monsters that aren't already included in the BB.
And a card deck with NPC portraits that I can show to my players, and perhaps with their stat blocks on the back.
I envision clipping the card to the top of my GM screen so that I can be behind a "mask" as I portray each NPC.
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Thanks for pointing me to the thread James! wish-list for this book, if you're still taking orders at this late hour:
-goblin stat blocks (with cool PC levels)
-goblin troops stat block (at least one would be really cool... for high level heroes wading in seas of goblins... :) )
-encounter tables for various areas surrounding Sandpoint (with encounter % chance per hour or per day)
-potency of drinks at the Rusty Dragon (using the Inner Sea Taverns rules)
-munsterz
-rules on love... for PCs falling in love with Ameiko
Thank you! :)
The little town where it all began... awesome!