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.A very small thing, but it would be great to finally have a definitive version of the Firepelt cougar. Currently, it has been statted mainly as a cheetah, with Sprint. But it is described as a Leopard, which would give it Pounce.
Would be cool to see a definitive image that matches the description. As well as a proper stat block and animal companion version.
Looking forward to this book. Alas, my group just finished RotR Anniversary Edition a few months ago. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to run it in the future. Of course, then I will be converting all your hard work to PF2!
There won't be really any room for a firepelt cougar stat block. My preference is to use leopard stats for them, but when they're used as animal companions, that's weird since animal companions use different rules.
Page 44 of the hardcover Rise of the Runelords has the definitive image for them, in any case.
Fair enough. Thanks James.
If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.
It would be nice to have maps not only of the Rusty Dragon and the underground locations, but also of the town hall, garrison, temple, Hagfish, White Deer, theatre, etc.
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If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.
Here's the explanation: We invented the rules for spellcasting availability years AFTER we created Sandpoint. In retrospect, I should have made a new city quality that reduced Sandpoint's spellcasting level by 2 levels, but the prosperous and rumormongering citizens qualities are better fits.
Here's the current solution, which will be in the book: there are "caster's booths" in the market on one day a week when traveling spellcasters set up services in the town's marketplace for folks to purchase spells.
I'm not 100% happy with that, and there's a very good chance that Sandpoint's gonna get its Prosperous quality replaced by a new one that reduces the spellcasting availability.
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It would be nice to have maps not only of the Rusty Dragon and the underground locations, but also of the town hall, garrison, temple, Hagfish, White Deer, theatre, etc.
There'll be a map of the Rusty Dragon, as well as a map of the smuggler's tunnels and several other adventure sites.
The book is ONLY 96 pages long, and that means that it can't have maps of every location. Especially since putting a map into a book not only reduces the wordcount by 500 or 900 words (depending on if it's a half-page map or a full page map), but it also requires a portion of the remaining words to be spent on giving a description of the map's locations, even if that description is super short.
Which locations get maps are therefore ones that have to be specifically chosen for maximum value. In most cases, that means maps of un-keyed dungeon areas that GMs can use to "stock" with monsters and traps, since generating a map of an adventure site is a challenge for a lot of GMs, and maps of places like temples and town halls, where fights don't happen nearly as often, aren't nearly as necessary.
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If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.Here's the explanation: We invented the rules for spellcasting availability years AFTER we created Sandpoint. In retrospect, I should have made a new city quality that reduced Sandpoint's spellcasting level by 2 levels, but the prosperous and rumormongering citizens qualities are better fits.
Here's the current solution, which will be in the book: there are "caster's booths" in the market on one day a week when traveling spellcasters set up services in the town's marketplace for folks to purchase spells.
I'm not 100% happy with that, and there's a very good chance that Sandpoint's gonna get its Prosperous quality replaced by a new one that reduces the spellcasting availability.
James, giving the town priest a few levels is out of the picture? Or maybe introduce a traveling wizard NPC that walks the last coast road and is in town a few days each month?
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I'd like to see some closure for Cyrdak Drokkus and Sir Jasper Korvaski. As the first openly gay couple in Golarion, I've never quite understood why they keep their relationship secret, other than the Scarnettis might disapprove. Scarnetti disapproval doesn't seem to bother anyone else in town, so I don't see why they shouldn't "go public" with their relationship, if not tie the knot. It's been ~5 years since Runelords, so their relationship either progress to the next level, or cool and move on.
On a related note, any chance we'll find out the source of Cyrdak and Ameiko's rivalry?
This is a GREAT example of how much progression 12 years of real-world time passing makes the world a better place, and a great example of the type of thing that I'm glad to be able to finally adjust in print.
As for Cyrdak and Ameiko's rivalry... probably...
Yay! I ended up "fixing" this issue in my Runelords game after a long and involved plot, but I'm glad to hear that they're finally getting some "canonical" resolution. (In quotes because canon is only as binding as the GM deems!)
Looking forward to reading this, James! Thanks again!
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If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.Here's the explanation: We invented the rules for spellcasting availability years AFTER we created Sandpoint. In retrospect, I should have made a new city quality that reduced Sandpoint's spellcasting level by 2 levels, but the prosperous and rumormongering citizens qualities are better fits.
Here's the current solution, which will be in the book: there are "caster's booths" in the market on one day a week when traveling spellcasters set up services in the town's marketplace for folks to purchase spells.
I'm not 100% happy with that, and there's a very good chance that Sandpoint's gonna get its Prosperous quality replaced by a new one that reduces the spellcasting availability.
Oooo, I actually really like the traveling spellcaster idea ^w^
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I'd like to see some closure for Cyrdak Drokkus and Sir Jasper Korvaski. As the first openly gay couple in Golarion, I've never quite understood why they keep their relationship secret, other than the Scarnettis might disapprove. Scarnetti disapproval doesn't seem to bother anyone else in town, so I don't see why they shouldn't "go public" with their relationship, if not tie the knot. It's been ~5 years since Runelords, so their relationship either progress to the next level, or cool and move on.
On a related note, any chance we'll find out the source of Cyrdak and Ameiko's rivalry?
This is a GREAT example of how much progression 12 years of real-world time passing makes the world a better place, and a great example of the type of thing that I'm glad to be able to finally adjust in print.
As for Cyrdak and Ameiko's rivalry... probably...
Yay! I ended up "fixing" this issue in my Runelords game after a long and involved plot, but I'm glad to hear that they're finally getting some "canonical" resolution. (In quotes because canon is only as binding as the GM deems!)
Looking forward to reading this, James! Thanks again!
Me too! Thankies, Directorsaur!
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James, giving the town priest a few levels is out of the picture? Or maybe introduce a traveling wizard NPC that walks the last coast road and is in town a few days each month?If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.Here's the explanation: We invented the rules for spellcasting availability years AFTER we created Sandpoint. In retrospect, I should have made a new city quality that reduced Sandpoint's spellcasting level by 2 levels, but the prosperous and rumormongering citizens qualities are better fits.
Here's the current solution, which will be in the book: there are "caster's booths" in the market on one day a week when traveling spellcasters set up services in the town's marketplace for folks to purchase spells.
I'm not 100% happy with that, and there's a very good chance that Sandpoint's gonna get its Prosperous quality replaced by a new one that reduces the spellcasting availability.
The problem there is that the more powerful the locals get, the tougher it is to believe that the town needs adventurers to step in to help.
The "traveling wizard NPC" is precisely what the "Caster's booths" is though.
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Seems like just allowing Sandpoint to have this new quality in addition to it's pre-existing qualities would be a suitable solution.
James, giving the town priest a few levels is out of the picture? Or maybe introduce a traveling wizard NPC that walks the last coast road and is in town a few days each month?
A 'wizard of the coast,' so to speak?
Ba dum tish!
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Seems like just allowing Sandpoint to have this new quality in addition to it's pre-existing qualities would be a suitable solution.
James, giving the town priest a few levels is out of the picture? Or maybe introduce a traveling wizard NPC that walks the last coast road and is in town a few days each month?A 'wizard of the coast,' so to speak?
Ba dum tish!
eew
As a result, none of these traveling spellcasters will be wizards.
lol, PUN-ishing joke, Set.
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James, giving the town priest a few levels is out of the picture? Or maybe introduce a traveling wizard NPC that walks the last coast road and is in town a few days each month?If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.Here's the explanation: We invented the rules for spellcasting availability years AFTER we created Sandpoint. In retrospect, I should have made a new city quality that reduced Sandpoint's spellcasting level by 2 levels, but the prosperous and rumormongering citizens qualities are better fits.
Here's the current solution, which will be in the book: there are "caster's booths" in the market on one day a week when traveling spellcasters set up services in the town's marketplace for folks to purchase spells.
I'm not 100% happy with that, and there's a very good chance that Sandpoint's gonna get its Prosperous quality replaced by a new one that reduces the spellcasting availability.
The problem there is that the more powerful the locals get, the tougher it is to believe that the town needs adventurers to step in to help.
The "traveling wizard NPC" is precisely what the "Caster's booths" is though.
I would just rule, that, given Sandpoints status and history now, the statblock just takes into account, that there is a high chance of having traveling adventurers in town who are able to cast higher level spells...
I just don' like magic shops and spell booths.
I'm a little surprised to see this as a 1st edition release, as it seems like the perfect book to set up a 2.0 incarnation of the campaign setting line.
That said, I'm still super pumped for it! It may be the first campaign setting book I pre-order! Maybe do the "one time" subscription thing to get the pdf! :D
(I kind of really love Sandpoint.)
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Will it turn out Rynshinn Povalli has cool secret behind her? She seems kind of mysterious to me for level 5 expert
Rynshinn's got a secret too, yes, and it'll be explored.
I'm very curious to find out what's up with Rynshinn.
I'm currently playing RotRL in a group that's just about to wrap up book 1. I'm currently GM for a group that's a little behind the group I play in. I also have 3 previous attempts at RotRL as a player. Those all fell apart for various reasons and ended no later than book 3.
Of all the small writeup NPCs Rynshinn has always been the one who gets a bigger role, even if few or none of the others do. Everyone seems to sense there's something there to work with, but because it's all so vague her uses in those campaigns have varied a lot, and been scattered all along the light to pretty darn dark spectrum.
I'm wondering if any of those have come close to what will come out in the campaign setting.
Had to look up who Rynshinn is. As a half-elf, I'd wager it's safe to say her father was an elf. I don't suppose we know anything about her father? Could it be...JUSTICE IRONBRIAR?!?!?!?!?
Dun-dun-DUUUUNH!!!
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“The Mutterer is on the roof, can’t you hear his groans?
The Mutterer is in the walls, he wants to eat your bones!
The Mutterer is in your room, he’ll be there through the night,
The Mutterer is ‘neath your bed, and soon you’ll feel his bite!
So mind your mum and dad young one: stay quiet as a mouse,
Or else they’ll leave the front door wide and let him in the house!"
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Could be. From the RotRL board it seems placing Ironbriar as Tsuto's father is a fairly popular move, and I think it's been mentioned for Rynshinn as well.
I'd bet against it for a couple of reasons though. Her writeup makes it sound pretty certain that the elf in question is dead. There could be a twist there though. Her writeup also make it hard to imagine she would know something like that. I might be parsing the wording too closely, but it sounds like she's keeping a secret, not that there's a secret about her.
The other reason is since the book will be set in between RotRL and Jade Regent, Ironbriar should no longer be in the picture. If he's her father, it's a secret that goes nowhere.
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“The Mutterer is on the roof, can’t you hear his groans?
The Mutterer is in the walls, he wants to eat your bones!
The Mutterer is in your room, he’ll be there through the night,
The Mutterer is ‘neath your bed, and soon you’ll feel his bite!
So mind your mum and dad young one: stay quiet as a mouse,
Or else they’ll leave the front door wide and let him in the house!"
Hm, if this means what I think it means, one GM was on the right track!
Honestly I thought it was more likely that James Jacobs was telling us to listen to more Riders on the Storm by Jim Morrison.
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Hm, if this means what I think it means, one GM was on the right track!“The Mutterer is on the roof, can’t you hear his groans?
The Mutterer is in the walls, he wants to eat your bones!
The Mutterer is in your room, he’ll be there through the night,
The Mutterer is ‘neath your bed, and soon you’ll feel his bite!
So mind your mum and dad young one: stay quiet as a mouse,
Or else they’ll leave the front door wide and let him in the house!"
Heh... I doubt it, since the Mutterer is a new menace in the region that I just made up a few days ago. :-P
AKA: There's a fair bit of brand-new mayhem in the Sandpoint book!
Well if helps I'm sure that I'll use more Doors songs when playing Pathfinder, Mister Jacobs. :) Plus you know, demons love break on through to the other side. ;)
anyone have a list of sources that mention sandpoint? I'd like to dig through them and play sleepless detective. the one's I know to look through are Inner Sea World Guide, Rise of the Runelords (Anniversary edition and original), and the Brinewall Legacy.
The Beginner Box has a chapter about Sandpoint
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I thought Tsuto's adventurer was some elven adventurer whose name I forgot? ._. I don't really see why Ironbriar would be his father just because he is elf. In Rynshinn's case wasn't it some elven bard?
Why yes, I looked it up. An elven bard named Iremiel. I didn't find anything specific about Tsuto's father except "Lonjiku's wife Atsuii never revealed who the father was".
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Hm, if this means what I think it means, one GM was on the right track!“The Mutterer is on the roof, can’t you hear his groans?
The Mutterer is in the walls, he wants to eat your bones!
The Mutterer is in your room, he’ll be there through the night,
The Mutterer is ‘neath your bed, and soon you’ll feel his bite!
So mind your mum and dad young one: stay quiet as a mouse,
Or else they’ll leave the front door wide and let him in the house!"Heh... I doubt it, since the Mutterer is a new menace in the region that I just made up a few days ago. :-P
Well I can't say that I mind. It was one of the less pleasant directions things could go.
wonders if the Mutterer is good company... re-reads poem... nah, more like a misanthropic shut-in.
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I thought Tsuto's adventurer was some elven adventurer whose name I forgot? ._. I don't really see why Ironbriar would be his father just because he is elf. In Rynshinn's case wasn't it some elven bard?Why yes, I looked it up. An elven bard named Iremiel. I didn't find anything specific about Tsuto's father except "Lonjiku's wife Atsuii never revealed who the father was".
From a post from 2013 in James' thread:
As far as I know, Tsuto's father is never named or detailed anywhere. Is there any canon material on him, or am I free to let my creativity run wild?From my (mostly unpublished) Kaijitsu family timeline that I was working with during Jade Regent's first adventure... (spoilered since there are some SIGNIFICANT Jade Regent spoilers in there... and the dates might not 100% match up with the final published info in Jade Regent)
Spoiler:
4685 AR Rokuro arranges to have a beautiful young Tian woman named Atsuii betrothed to his son. Lonjiku and Atsuii are married later in the year at the Sandpoint Cathedral.
4687 Rokuro and Lonjiku travel to Brinewall to finalize the Kaijitsu move south to Magnimar, but when Lonjiku accidently exposes the Amatatsu Seal and alerts the Five Storms, things fall apart. Rokuro sends his son and family south, but the three ships are caught in a violent storm. Two are driven ashore in Brinestump Marsh, while the third bearing Lonjiku is lost in the Varisian Gulf for many weeks. Convinced her family has died, Anya commits suicide. Five Storms oni and ninjas attack and destroy Brinewall, but do not learn that Lonjiku survived the storm, or that his family now lives in Sandpoint. In the midst of her despair over the apparent loss of her husband, Atsuii seeks comfort in the arms of her previous lover from her time in Kintargo, an elven adventurer named Arinellus. He arrives in Sandpoint to comfort Atsuii only three days before a badly damaged ship limps into the harbor. Shocked and relieved to see her husband survived, Atsuii sends a frustrated Arinellus away and spends the next several weeks helping Lonjiku recover from his ordeal and to repair the damage done to the family’s holdings.
4688 All of Atsuii’s hard work at repairing her family after the tragedy nearly falls apart when she gives birth later in the year to a half-elf named Tsuto, the scandalous truth comes out. Enraged, Lonjiku disowns the half-elf and sends him to Turandarok Academy in Sandpoint to be raised as a bastard ward rather than give him the honor of being raised a true Kaijitsu.
4689 Ameiko Kaijitsu is born to Lonjiku and Atsuii. She is destined to be the only one of Lonjiku’s legitimate children, and thus the only Kaijitsu scion with a legitimate claim to the Jade Throne in Minkai.
4702 After a disastrous attempt to reconcile the bad blood between her half-brother and her father results in her brother striking her, Ameiko runs away from home shortly before the events of the “Late Unpleasantness” bring tragedy to Sandpoint. Atsuii Kaijitsu dies during these events of a mysterious fall from the sea cliff near her home.
4703 Word of her mother’s death causes Ameiko to return home, but she finds home as unpleasant as ever. Tsuto walks out on the family at the funeral, leaving Ameiko alone with her bitter father.
4705 Aged 16, Ameiko leaves home for the second time to take up life as an adventurer with several like-minded youths. Her adventuring career lasts just over a year.
4706 Rich from her adventuring success, Ameiko returns to Sandpoint to purchase an old tavern, “The Rusty Dragon,” and scandalizes her father by becoming a bartender and tavern keeper.
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While Tsuto has a tiny role in the Sandpoint book... his father does not.
Rynshinn and her situation, on the other hand, is VERY key to several plots in the book and is revealed for the first time in this book, and has nothing to do with the Kaijitsus.
I don't know if it's too late, but I seem to recall some discussion on the forums here about the size of the Sandpoint hinterlands. In particular, whether or not they were big enough to support Sandpoint agriculturally.
Is Sandpoint and its hinterlands self-sufficient with regard to food (crops, livestock for both dairy and meat, poultry, various forms of hunting and fishing)?
What about timber resources? From how far away does the lumber get floated down the river?
And now I'm thinking about the various grain mills which had burned down just before RotR. What is the situation with regard to the Scarnettis, the Sczarni, and those who need the mills to produce flour, etc.?
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I don't know if it's too late, but I seem to recall some discussion on the forums here about the size of the Sandpoint hinterlands. In particular, whether or not they were big enough to support Sandpoint agriculturally.
Is Sandpoint and its hinterlands self-sufficient with regard to food (crops, livestock for both dairy and meat, poultry, various forms of hunting and fishing)?
What about timber resources? From how far away does the lumber get floated down the river?
And now I'm thinking about the various grain mills which had burned down just before RotR. What is the situation with regard to the Scarnettis, the Sczarni, and those who need the mills to produce flour, etc.?
It's relatively self-sufficient, yes, but it's also on the only trade route between Magnimar and the northern towns, and is the only really safe port between Magnimar and Roderic's Cove. There's a LOT of trade going through there as well. (I'm more interested in the fun, quirky characters and the adventure opportunities in town, and those are the topics that take up the words, not farming rules.)
We don't get into the nitty-gritty of how much agriculture needs to support the town—if you feel there needs to be more farms, it's easy enough to add in more down south.
Lumber comes mostly from Tickwood, the edges of Mosswood, and little stands of trees all along the Turandarok river. Some of those smaller forests are gone now that the town's logged the little stuff out.
The grain mills are more or less stabilized at one grain mill owned by the Scarnettis. In the book, we assume that the truth about their shenanigans almost came out and they managed to cover it up but still took a hit to their reputation.
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Oh! Will the reason(s) for the animosity between Ameiko and Cyrdak come out?
Yup! It's good to get that secret out there, and it's also delightful seeing that so far, as far as I've seen, no one's guessed it yet! :D
One of my favorite parts of writing this book is that I got to basically pull back the curtain on almost EVERY ONE of the mysteries in Sandpoint. This book is filled with more spoilers than anything I've written for Pathfinder, I think.
One of my favorite parts of writing this book is that I got to basically pull back the curtain on almost EVERY ONE of the mysteries in Sandpoint. This book is filled with more spoilers than anything I've written for Pathfinder, I think.
*sigh*
Now I'm even more excited for October to get here. You're making me wish my life away, James!
It makes me happy that we get this sourcebook before the new edition roll out.
If it's not too late, maybe there could be an explanation/work-around for why the town's stat block lists the availability of spell level 4 spellcasting services, but only has detailed spellcasters with max. L 2 spells.Here's the explanation: We invented the rules for spellcasting availability years AFTER we created Sandpoint. In retrospect, I should have made a new city quality that reduced Sandpoint's spellcasting level by 2 levels, but the prosperous and rumormongering citizens qualities are better fits.
Here's the current solution, which will be in the book: there are "caster's booths" in the market on one day a week when traveling spellcasters set up services in the town's marketplace for folks to purchase spells.
I'm not 100% happy with that, and there's a very good chance that Sandpoint's gonna get its Prosperous quality replaced by a new one that reduces the spellcasting availability.
My Sandpoint now has an 18th level Sorcerer with the Destined bloodline acting as the town's "protector" of sorts, so the level 4 spellcasting services point is relatively moot! We kinda fixed that little faux pas ourselves. =)
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Awwwe, I'm finally getting to start my dream of running Rise of the Runelords, but this book won't be out in time for me to start. :(
Either way, I will be buying this book because I love how much character this town has and I will want to do campaigns set there in the future! Thank you for making this!
New book: "The Sandpoint Atlas". Maps of the town, the immediate environs (let's not go too crazy) and floor plans for every building in the town as well as the underground levels. :-)
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Yeah, this is one product that I'm genuinely excited and looking forward to seeing. :D
I'm going to get this for my birthday for sure!