[Legendary Games] 2013 Preview #18: Conquering Heroes

[Jason Nelson]

Tempting as it might be to bask in the post-release glow of the red-hot Imperial Heroes, that just isn't our style. Success, as they say, breeds success, and so there's no better time to strike while the iron's still hot and announce the first full-on preview for Conquering Heroes! This latest product continues the proud tradition of its forebears, featuring 8 richly detailed pregenerated characters with relationships not only to each other but also to the campaign setting and ancillary characters of the Kings and Kingdoms Adventure Path. Of course, they can just as easily be used in any home game, providing full-flavored NPCs, cohorts, hirelings, or even replacement PCs that fairly pop right off the page. Brought to you by the incomparable Neil Spicer and the artistic stylings of Hugo Solis, the team that brought you the original Gothic Heroes, this product will be a worthy successor to a heroic dynasty. Check it out!

[Daronil]

Hi Jason - absolutely LOVE the stuff you're doing.

Just a quick question: will you guys be just working your way through the APs, or mixing them about a bit, and say, putting together some stuff for Wrath of the Righteous (I'm thinking your could call it "The Good Guys Strike Back" :) )

I'm being purely selfish here.

I'm currently running Carrion Crown (and adapting Murmuring Fountain & Fiddler's Lament, as we'd gone through HoH before I discovered them, so I'm modifying them to work at higher levels).

My next campaign will be Jade Regent (and we'll be using your stuff 100%! My wife wants to play the Kaiyannna, my son's best friend wants to play Akobi, and my son - lovable prankster that he is - is dying to play Nurch :))

But I'll likely skip the next three. My son is already running Shattered Star and Skull & Shackles with his group, and Reign of Winter doesn't grab me - but WotR would be right up our alley.

Not hassling, Jason - just curious :)

I'll pretty much lap up whatever you guys publish! I just recently got my son interested in your stuff, too - he's running Kingmaker and grabbed Cold Mountain; spot on for his group, apparently.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

I'll probably skip this one initially, since all the players I've rounded up so far are making their own chars, but these guys might still come in handy as NPCs. Cohorts, maybe, or members of one of the parties sent to the other regions...

[Jason Nelson]

To EML - One of the great strengths of the "Heroes" line is their utility as drop-in NPCs for any campaign. In particular, given that the Kingmaker AP is one of the closest APs Paizo has done in terms of being a "classic fantasy" AP, the characters designed for it here can very easily fit into almost any kind of campaign.

Plus, they're just that darned cool! You should totally get them anyway; you *WILL* find a good use for them sooner rather than later, be it as allies, adversaries, cohorts, hirelings, love interests, long-lost relatives, or even just fodder for stories and sidetreks.

To Daronil - We do have our sights set on WotR, though we will see exactly how that comes together, as we have a lot of pots boiling right now. We do have one big surprise coming with our NEXT Heroes project after this one, but we aren't quite ready to let that cat out of the bag just yet. :)

[Jason Nelson]

Conquering Heroes ARE HERE!

Ready to download at www.makeyourgamelegendary.com as part of our exclusive advance purchase program (which also nets you a coupon code for 10% off your next purchase direct from us), and should be available this Friday here at Paizo.com and our other sales partners.

If you've been following the previews, or if you've checked out Gothic Heroes or Imperial Heroes, you know that this one is going to rock your socks off! Neil Spicer is the man when it comes to delivering amazing characters that kick your door down and DEMAND to get used in your campaign. Check them out today!

[Eric Hinkle]

I like the quasi-Slavic feel of several of those names. I'll definitely have to be getting this one.

And by the way, will we be seeing any releases for the Kingbreaker line that are neither modules or sample characters? You know, like your great horror releases "Beyond the Void" and "Cultic Cryptomancia"?

[Jason Nelson]

Oh yes, just you wait.

- We've already previewed Beyond the Bright Veil, a product devoted to integrating the influence of the fey into your campaign world.

- We've already released, as you well know, Beasts of Legend: Coldwood Codex, a dynamite compendium of lavishly detailed fey and undead monsters.

- and a BUNCH more products that are just around the corner. Some we've teased just a bit - a sequel to the Coldwood Codex, a product dealing with tournaments, and some we've kept completely under wraps, but never fear. You. Will. Be. Blown. Away.

[Eric Hinkle]

I'll be looking forward to the article on tournaments. I'd like to see if this will be the 'classic' Hollywood-style tournament, with shining knights and jousts in the lists and everyone's a gentleman (save for the scheming villain), or if it's more like the early European tournaments (wild armed brawl at a pre-arranged spot that ends up starting feuds and maybe getting everyone tossed out of polite society/excommunicated).

I imagine it's more like the former, though half-orcs and barbarians might like the second one.

[Jason Nelson]

It'll have a little bit of everything, from the vicious to the very, very proper.

[Jason Nelson]

But meanwhile, Conquering Heroes is coming right here to Paizo (and to d20pfsrd and DrivethruRPG/RPGNow) - midnight tonight! Check it out!

[Solidchaos085]

Very nice, just downloaded this a couple of hours ago, I enjoy these works of pregen characters (it's a shame my kingmaker was already underway, but I suppose I could introduce these heroes as extra NPCs and leaders)

[Neil Spicer]

Yep. We're always caught between that rock and a hard place in giving folks new material for the older AP's at the same time we're striving to do something for the newer ones. Conquering Heroes is an attempt at the former. And it won't be our last, as I'm sure we'll go back and still create new material which works well for some of Paizo's older AP's.

The good new is, even if you're already well into a particular campaign, you can still use these pregens as NPCs (both as allies or enemies). They can also serve as replacement characters in the event a regular PC dies or you have a TPK. Likewise, there's always the possibility of rerunning the campaign with a different group and using them from the very beginning.

Adventure Paths tend to have a long shelf-life since they're campaigns and not just standalone adventures. As such, our AP plug-in's are meant as supporting material that can be useful for just as long. They're also useful inspiration for any other PCs your players might envision...or even as something you might cook up for an NPC in an entirely different adventure or campaign. In a lot of ways, they're like a miniature NPC Codex, only with more background, roleplay, and character advancement suggestions. I've really tried to do something more with this product line than simply pregen PCs which can only add value to a single campaign.

[Kevin Mack]

Just giving it a look over really good although it seems they have gone back to black and white instead of full colour?

[Neil Spicer]

Hugo's detail shows up best in B&W. So, we stuck with that. Doesn't mean we won't go full color again in the future, though. Instead, I think the B&W style that Hugo has brought to the horror-inspired, noir-like Gothic Heroes as well as the exploratory, expeditionary Conquering Heroes fits in with the themes of those APs. It's like those images were copied out of some old musty tomes or scout's diary. So, the B&W imagery on scroll-like paper made sense, I think. Meanwhile, all the pageantry and vibrant nature of Imperial Heroes demanded full color. And a future product certainly may as well.

[Solidchaos085]

Neil Spicer wrote:

Yep. We're always caught between that rock and a hard place in giving folks new material for the older AP's at the same time we're striving to do something for the newer ones. Conquering Heroes is an attempt at the former. And it won't be our last, as I'm sure we'll go back and still create new material which works well for some of Paizo's older AP's.

The good new is, even if you're already well into a particular campaign, you can still use these pregens as NPCs (both as allies or enemies). They can also serve as replacement characters in the event a regular PC dies or you have a TPK. Likewise, there's always the possibility of rerunning the campaign with a different group and using them from the very beginning.

Adventure Paths tend to have a long shelf-life since they're campaigns and not just standalone adventures. As such, our AP plug-in's are meant as supporting material that can be useful for just as long. They're also useful inspiration for any other PCs your players might envision...or even as something you might cook up for an NPC in an entirely different adventure or campaign. In a lot of ways, they're like a miniature NPC Codex, only with more background, roleplay, and character advancement suggestions. I've really tried to do something more with this product line than simply pregen PCs which can only add value to a single campaign.

I completely agree that they shouldn't bee limited to the AP they were created for, they have a charm to them (even my gf agrees to that) much like a Bioware npc.

To that end, I'm preparing to use all of the characters from all three books in a personal sandbox campaign I'm running with her. So appreciate the cast you supplied me with.

(That said: I now challenge you all to make pregens for Council of Thieves or Serpent's Skull, mwahaha)