Pathfinder Adventure Path #186: Ghost King’s Rage (Blood Lords 6 of 6)

Announced for December! Product image and description are not final and may be subject to change.

Seems like final boss might be psychopomp related maybe? I doubt an usher is final boss(they were still demigod level right) but usher article in undead campaign hints motivations of antagonists a bit :D Either way ah so its Ghost King's Rage because party will be bringing that upon the main antagonists rather than party having to fight the rage gotcha :D

so we get to fight the BBEG on his own horror realm & visit the boneyard? sweet and more artifact lvl items yes!

Undead PCs in the Boneyard ? Sounds like Geb's own Suicide Squad.

The Martyr Mafia if you will. The Haka-Kiri no Han. The Suttee Samooh. The Seppuku no Shūgō.

I have no idea what I'm saying. I'm just looking up works and attempting to my a group synonymous to Suicide Squad. XD

The Doomed Destroyers.

The Borrowed-time Battalion.

IS THAT A YAMARAJ ON THE COVER?!?!?!?!?!

Yep

I am either very blind, or there is a new cover that I cannot see for some reason. Either way, a potential conflict/interaction with a Yamaraj Psychopomp is super exciting!!

I am either very blind, or there is a new cover that I cannot see for some reason. Either way, a potential conflict/interaction with a Yamaraj Psychopomp is super exciting!!

Check the Blood Lords Adventure Path landing page, they have each of the main cover art pieces for each of the AP parts. That's what they are talking about.

I'm just finding funny that the traitor is possible secret Narakaas worshipper based on yamaraj on cover and the article :p

That said, it seems more likely that first chapter is trip to boneyard and second one is Xibalba related maybe? I mean sahkils are psychopomp connected and nightmarish...

With this one out so soon, it's time for some final speculation: any chance of a surprise Nexian reveal, or do we think this one stays a Gebbite story?

It stays a Gebbite story, although with some extraplanar travel to Boneyard to fight psychopomps (usually it's the fifth volume that goes to some exotic locale.) However, Nex will be referenced in the credits page quotes.

OTOH, shadow magic plays a prominent role in the AP, Count Ranalc is one of the few entities of interest in the Shadow Plane, and he was associated with Nex.

One of the key story goals of this Adventure Path from the outset (I wasn't the lead developer, so I can't say if this maintained this goal all the way through) was to present a Geb story that didn't rely on Nex stuff at all. For a LONG time, Nex and Geb had this sort of co-dependantrelationship that made it very difficult to tell stories about one nation/person without having to tell the same amount of stories with the other, which is why it took us sooooo long to get around to actually doing anything of note in either nation.

An AP about a Nexian embassy visiting Jalmeray, Qadira, and points east, no Geb required, would be cool.

An AP to become mighty Nexian powers-that-be so that you can face your Blood Lords PCs when the inevitable final battle comes.

Is this product supposed to be available to order already? I haven't even gotten the notice about my subscription order being processed. Also, hoping to see the final cover soon instead of the stand-in.

Is this product supposed to be available to order already? I haven't even gotten the notice about my subscription order being processed. Also, hoping to see the final cover soon instead of the stand-in.

Subscription authorisations should be happening tomorrow per the thread

VestOfHolding wrote:

Is this product supposed to be available to order already? I haven't even gotten the notice about my subscription order being processed. Also, hoping to see the final cover soon instead of the stand-in.

Subscription authorisations should be happening tomorrow per the thread

I meant to call more attention to the fact that the "Add to Cart" button is active, though the release date isn't for a couple more weeks. Unless it's basically starting pre-orders for non-subscribers?

Someone please think of the poor Yamaraj.

Ooh, final cover!

Super curious to see how this one wraps up - and what goodies are in the back!

I'm curious if the final boss will be someone other than Kemnebi.
In addition, I found a spelling error in the product description: "Narakass Narakaas"

Glad to see the final cover! Though I do kind of hope Mr. Forehead-for-days isn't the big bad. There's just nothing intimidating about his design, lol.

Glad to see the final cover! Though I do kind of hope Mr. Forehead-for-days isn't the big bad. There's just nothing intimidating about his design, lol.

All I can see now is a vampire-conehead Dan Ackroyd

I do wish Kemnebi looked a little less Dracula and a little more East African/South Asian. The tall forehead I can cope with - I've watched Zeta Gundam, after all.

Just to note, all vetalarana have the psychic dome head :p

(normal vetala vampires didn't, but 2e hasn't made mentions of those so I dunno if they exist anymore :'D )

Kemnebi does look goofy. The combination of classic vampire design and the swollen craniums of the vetalarana is odd.

Okay, I just got this, let me test the spoiler tags...

So, contents of the adventure toolbox:

So, contents of the adventure toolbox:

** spoiler omitted **

Shabti!!

Force Choke is a level 6 spell in Pathfinder 2e now.

GGSigmar wrote:

So, contents of the adventure toolbox:

** spoiler omitted **

Shabti!!

Wow, they get gorgeous art in this one - and a lot of it! Four very shiny pieces; I love the designs of the pair in the Adventure Toolbox. Hopefully their little sidebars here are indicative of a proper Ancestry treatment someday!

Loving Narakaas' look!

In the single-file version of this book's PDF, the PDF outline doesn't seem to be set up right... there's just 7 sections listed to jump to, one for each major portion of the book, rather than each chapter, heading, and subheading being included like has been the case in virtually every other Paizo PDF I have downloaded. This makes it far harder to navigate the digital copy than usual. This issue seems to be present whether I open the PDF in Chrome or in a dedicated document-viewing program.

Additionally, the interior front and back cover seem to be presented here side-by-side as a single page of the PDF, which is duplicated first after the cover page and then again after the back cover page. Since these double-width pages are wider than the rest of the pages, it's add an unfortunate horizontal scrollbar when zooming in so that the majority of the PDF fills the width of the viewer.

In the single-file version of this book's PDF, the PDF outline doesn't seem to be set up right... there's just 7 sections listed to jump to, one for each major portion of the book, rather than each chapter, heading, and subheading being included like has been the case in virtually every other Paizo PDF I have downloaded. This makes it far harder to navigate the digital copy than usual. This issue seems to be present whether I open the PDF in Chrome or in a dedicated document-viewing program.

Additionally, the interior front and back cover seem to be presented here side-by-side as a single page of the PDF, which is duplicated first after the cover page and then again after the back cover page. Since these double-width pages are wider than the rest of the pages, it's add an unfortunate horizontal scrollbar when zooming in so that the majority of the PDF fills the width of the viewer.

Please email customers service with any product issues so that they can be shared with our art team.

Please email customers service with any product issues so that they can be shared with our art team.

Will do!

I have the same problem and emailed customer service.

Well, that's Blood Lords over with, I guess. I just left 'Ghost King's Rage' a **** review, because it genuinely did not suck.

That said, I have never disliked a Pathfinder AP as much as I disliked Blood Lords, and that's a unique sensation for me. I'm guessing the whole 'play as sentient - but not necessarily evil - undead' was just not a good fit for my lizard brain. IMO, I think the gimmick exhausted itself very quickly, and was not robust enough to support a six month campaign arc.

Onwards, to Gatewalkers, and let us never speak of this AP again.

I won’t leave a review until I’ve actually run this volume of the AP, but I’ve been a big fan of Blood Lords, and I hope we see more big swings like it in the future. To each their own!

Does this volume use the faction influence mechanic in a meaningful way?

Eh, kinda. In Chapter 2 you are given a shopping list or arcane crap to pick up. Your reputation with various factions makes this scavenger hunt more/less challenging.

I won’t leave a review until I’ve actually run this volume of the AP, but I’ve been a big fan of Blood Lords, and I hope we see more big swings like it in the future. To each their own!

While I do understand the reasoning behind "I will review this once I've played it" that sort of thing tends to result in fewer reviews for high level or end-of-Path installments. Furthermore, hearing good reviews as soon as possible lets us continue to do what folks liked (or at least take that feedback into consideration) earlier—since we operate more than a year ahead of publication schedule, the first point we'd be able to implement suggestions from a review on day 1 would be in a product that doesn't see print potentially until day 367 or more.

That goes for reviews that are more critical, of course, as well; We can't course correct on what we're doing if folks wait for us to arrive at the destination before giving feedback.

That all said, dropping feedback in here on the boards or elsewhere on the internet where we'll be able to see the feedback and act on it is helpful too! It's just that reviews have more visibility and are more likely to be noticed by more eyes.

That's good to know! I usually try to wait so that my review is more informed and helpful, but I'll start leaving reviews sooner for the sake of developer feedback.

willfromamerica wrote:

I won’t leave a review until I’ve actually run this volume of the AP, but I’ve been a big fan of Blood Lords, and I hope we see more big swings like it in the future. To each their own!

While I do understand the reasoning behind "I will review this once I've played it" that sort of thing tends to result in fewer reviews for high level or end-of-Path installments. Furthermore, hearing good reviews as soon as possible lets us continue to do what folks liked (or at least take that feedback into consideration) earlier—since we operate more than a year ahead of publication schedule, the first point we'd be able to implement suggestions from a review on day 1 would be in a product that doesn't see print potentially until day 367 or more.

That goes for reviews that are more critical, of course, as well; We can't course correct on what we're doing if folks wait for us to arrive at the destination before giving feedback.

That all said, dropping feedback in here on the boards or elsewhere on the internet where we'll be able to see the feedback and act on it is helpful too! It's just that reviews have more visibility and are more likely to be noticed by more eyes.

Yeah I feel bad about it but this is partially why I try to review books I have comments even if I want to play or run them first :'D Though I go through periods where I lack energy to review... interstellar species and impossible lands are now on my backlog among other things...

Interestingly several NPCs in this book have different levels compared to similar entries in Lost Omens: Impossible Lands. Since Impossible Lands is the book directly about the setting I would assume its the most accurate as the author of Ghost's revenge may not have been privy to the information before its release. It would nice to get confirmation though.

That goes for reviews that are more critical, of course, as well; We can't course correct on what we're doing if folks wait for us to arrive at the destination before giving feedback.

I understand the thought process here, but reading text alone isn't sufficient to grasp how it plays "on the ground" in my opinion. I've had many instances where something made sense on the page, in my brain, and seemed straightforward and then it got to the table and was a mess.

James Jacobs wrote:

That goes for reviews that are more critical, of course, as well; We can't course correct on what we're doing if folks wait for us to arrive at the destination before giving feedback.

I understand the thought process here, but reading text alone isn't sufficient to grasp how it plays "on the ground" in my opinion. I've had many instances where something made sense on the page, in my brain, and seemed straightforward and then it got to the table and was a mess.

** spoiler omitted **

Not for "how did this play with my specific group," perhaps not, but it absolutely is enough to judge if the adventure was fun to read, and if it was easy or difficult to follow the plot. Not every adventure needs to be run to be enjoyed. Reading one that you never run can entertain you for an afternoon, and it can inspire you the next day, month, or year with your own writing.

A qualifier of "I haven't run this yet, but here's how the adventure reads" is fine, and honestly, since more adventures are read than run, it's kind of more important to get feedback on how they read than how they play. And if an adventure's text is simply hard to read or process... that alone is helpful feedback for us. If one waits months or even years to give us that feedback, those are months and years we, in theory, aren't using that feedback to improve.

After all, I don't imagine an adventure that's not enjoyable to read has nearly the same chance of seeing play at a table.

That all said, any and all reviews are helpful, so thank you for those provided.

But the sooner, the better.

That's good to know! I usually try to wait so that my review is more informed and helpful, but I'll start leaving reviews sooner for the sake of developer feedback.

It is possible to update a review.

willfromamerica wrote:

That's good to know! I usually try to wait so that my review is more informed and helpful, but I'll start leaving reviews sooner for the sake of developer feedback.

It is possible to update a review.

Huh... I'd never noticed that edit button before. I always just assumed it was like forum posts where you can't edit them after a few minutes.