We Finished - Another Final Review of Jade Regent


Jade Regent


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Tonight my players completed the last segment of the Jade Regent AP, defeating the Jade Regent and placing Ameiko on the throne of Minkai.

Took us 33 sessions over 19th months.

I thought I'd write up a summary review, thoughts, and changes I ended up making for those interested in running the AP.

TLDR: Great campaign overall. Had some issues with each of the book but the overall campaign they loved.

First our characters were:
* Varisian Magus
* Chelish Bard (Archivist)
* Mwangi Alchemist (Chirurgeon)
* Ulfen Summoner

I will say while this wasn't my first rpg campaign, it was my first pathfinder campaign.

Wall of Text going through each book:

Book 1 - Brinewall Legacy

The characters began their journey with Ameiko and the other NPCs to discover their fate.

The players very quickly built relationships with the primary NPCs, and I kept the whole major plot arc a secret for the players. They knew it was going to be a journey to the east, but the whole reveal about Ameiko and their role as Scions took them by surprise.

Overall this book ran as normal, but very quickly we discovered that
1 - The Caravan Combat Rules did not work so well, though the players loved the tracking the resources and upgrading the caravan.

I ended up scraping the combat system and instead running caravan encounters as normal party encounters just rescaled.

2 - They did not prefer the relationship system, feeling it got in the way of real RP with the character, and instead focused more on finding them gifts and rolling dice.

Book 2 - Night of Frozen Shadows

The characters enjoyed exploring Karlsgard, but I had to come up with ways to explain why the Frozen Shadows didn't just attack them outright. I ended up saying that the frozen shadows was not sure exactly which caravan arriving in town was the Scions so were playing cool.

The only other major change I made in this one was to remove the archon. I instead used a combination of the Varisian mafia to give them a data dump about the public face of the frozen shadows, and used Suishen to convey the rest of the information.

This was the beginning though of the running gag of the campaign. That the party wished the bad guys would leave a journal so they know how exactly they were tied into the Oni.

Book 3 - Hungry Storm

I will admit to being wary about this book. I was planning on either fast forward past it, or do the highlights. After reading the authors discussion on it though here on the forms I gave it a shot.

I am happy I did as my players loved this book. I ended up using the random encounter tables and slowing down the caravan to make them spend more time over the crown. This gave the players the feeling of trudging along this inhospitable and dangerous landscape.

The only complaint they had was the plot wasn't tied to the overall campaign. This cause confusion until they realized it, continually assuming that the black towers were tied to an oni plan.

I did end up changing around the Yeti cave scene. The players at this point were getting a little tired of 'home invasions', and that really was what the yeti did. I ended up reworking it where the encounter was saving the yetis rather than slaughtering them.

Book 4 - Forest of Spirits

This book had some highs and lows. The party enjoyed the time with Prince Balthasar, but the Forest of spirits was kind of a low. The reveal scene with the Kami was good but beyond that it wasn't as interesting to them.

Not wanting to do another very long dungeon crawl I ended up swapping out the Ruby Phoenix tournament with the House of Withered blossoms. The NPCs delved the dungeon while the PCs went to recover a weapon from the tournament.

This worked out well as the party loved the tournament and enjoyed it as a change.

In retrospect though this book was odd. For dealing with the Golarian equivalent of the Mongols their was no interaction with the horse lords. And the forest of spirits, was just another dungeon crawl.

If I were to rerun the campaign I'd probably rework this book and do part one as dealing with the nomadic horse lords one on one, and the second as an adventure in the forest itself dealing with Kami.

Book 5 - Tide of Honor

Getting to this book the party was overjoyed they had finally reached Minkai.

The players enjoyed wheeling and dealing and taking care of problems, and building an army to go after the Jade Regent.

This book ran as written except for minor flavor here and there.

Book 6 - The Empty Throne

Ready to take back the throne the party headed into Kasai. Most of this book ran as written except for the party's crazy plans.

The only issue I really had was the rebellion point system. While overall it worked I had to remove the penalty of a point per day. The party was much more interested in inciting rebellion, spreading propaganda, than doing a rush on the imperial palace itself. Such plans took in game weeks to plan and execute, meaning they could never catch up due to the loss in rebellion points. Removing the penalty gave them time to plan and work.

I will comment that my players came up with an an insane plan that worked. Using teleport spells and gathering detailed descriptions of the throne room through their contact network, they teleported into the throne room, and stole the jade throne. They took the throne to a public park where citizens were gathered and defeated the jade regent and his companions in public. While I could have just said the throne couldn't be teleported the plan was interesting and fits their style. This did let them circumvent the entire palace dungeon crawl, but this felt more in their style.

In summary through the AP was great.
The things we loved.


  • The core NPCs from book one, and the NPCs they met in book 2.
  • Book 3 was a great success.
  • The whole overarching storyline was great.
  • The epic feel of the journey across the world.

The only big complaints I had running it.


  • Way too many NPCs, and no one wanted to leave them on the sidelines as they had all developed deep attachments to them. I would have liked a way for the NPCs to be in combat in some sort of abstract way besides being in the battle.
  • Book 4 was high and low and felt disjoined.
  • Tracking systems that felt like they were rushed.
  • The Five Storms really came off as stupid. The AP as written has them sitting on their hands till the party finally arrives in Minkai, but knowing where the party is when the seal is used. It would have been nice to have a way for the Five storms to appear dangerous not incompetent.


I just wanted to chime in and say thanks for this review. I started running this campaign, and the group had a great time. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the game came to a screeching halt as we started book 3.

In the back of my mind, I always hoped I might be able to pick this one back up. This review reignites that excitement!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Sounds like a lot of things went similar to my campaign, although I personally hated module three and, contrary to my original plans, ran module six pretty much as it was written.

I am picking up this campaign again for my second group, when we finish RotRL there in a few weeks, where I still am a player, instead of the GM. Since that group only has four players, instead of six, I foresee that they might try the slow approach to module six, instead of just bulldozing through the module. I'll have to rework rebellion points then, too.


Has anyone had a group that... er... failed?

Either to install Ameiko, an unexpected outcome, or the party was taken out.


Well done wrapping up the AP! It's one that I'd really like to GM for my group but, unfortunately, most of them already played it.


Magnuskn - Let me also say thanks to you. I was reading your posts and replies as well and considering them as I ran the game.

Designer

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magnuskn wrote:

Sounds like a lot of things went similar to my campaign, although I personally hated module three and, contrary to my original plans, ran module six pretty much as it was written.

I am picking up this campaign again for my second group, when we finish RotRL there in a few weeks, where I still am a player, instead of the GM. Since that group only has four players, instead of six, I foresee that they might try the slow approach to module six, instead of just bulldozing through the module. I'll have to rework rebellion points then, too.

If you're using Ultimate Relationships at all, I suggest making the rebellion its own Relationship Link. It's what I'm doing right now (in Book 5). I've given details about each province and region from Book 5's gazetteer and have just let the PCs decide what they're doing (right now, half the party is debating between assassinating or making contact with the governor of Akafuto, since it's the last province in their march from Seinaru Heikiko to Kasai, and the other half is under Mt Kumijinja trying to reforge Raiko (the Sugimatsu blade; I decided all the families' special weapons were intelligent instead of the Amatatsu's being arbitrarily way better, but Munasukaru had broken Raiko's intelligence over time)...then again, I also created 4 other "Storms" to go with Anamurumon and made Anamurumon more badass, so they're going to need all the help they can get...

Designer

DM Under The Bridge wrote:

Has anyone had a group that... er... failed?

Either to install Ameiko, an unexpected outcome, or the party was taken out.

My group has had some near disasters, such as when they recently visited the ancestral Amatatsu home with a skeleton crew and ran into a Five Storms ambush with a dimensional lock (the druid managed a natural 20 to dispel it and the oracle then plane shifted, and the druid needed I think an 18 or 19). They also make a lot of alliances of convenience, so it's possible that when they get to Part 6, an alliance there might come back to haunt them.


That sounds great!


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Our party was lost due to an epic flea infestation, dost that count:-)


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I actually started this one recently (maybe 3-4 sessions in) and I'd just like to thank huntsfromshadow for these invaluable insights. I have a group of 5 PCs and tomorrow's game session we begin (in earnest) the journey to Brinewall Castle.
The PCs are:
•Tarahake; kitsune slayer (appearing as a young tian man, and professional soldier).
•Ayumi; catfolk ninja (the younger sister of a catfolk character from my Rise of the Runelords group).
•Takano; human brawler (a large, sumo-style tian man, who always looked up to Ameiko as a big sister).
•Xin (no, no not that Xin) a gnome (verminous hunter archetype) whose family always thought the boy had a touch of spriggan or wayang blood, but sent him away due to his fascination with vermin. (Also, in game, it's been stated he gave himself the name Xin, not truly understanding the origins).
•Ithuriel; a samsaran warpriest (and someone who knew Koya's mother as well as Ameiko's grandfather-in his past lives).

I'm really looking forward to how this plays out.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
huntsfromshadow wrote:
Magnuskn - Let me also say thanks to you. I was reading your posts and replies as well and considering them as I ran the game.

That is very kind of you to say. Thank you. :)

Rogue Eidolon wrote:
If you're using Ultimate Relationships at all, I suggest making the rebellion its own Relationship Link. It's what I'm doing right now (in Book 5). I've given details about each province and region from Book 5's gazetteer and have just let the PCs decide what they're doing (right now, half the party is debating between assassinating or making contact with the governor of Akafuto, since it's the last province in their march from Seinaru Heikiko to Kasai, and the other half is under Mt Kumijinja trying to reforge Raiko (the Sugimatsu blade; I decided all the families' special weapons were intelligent instead of the Amatatsu's being arbitrarily way better, but Munasukaru had broken Raiko's intelligence over time)...then again, I also created 4 other "Storms" to go with Anamurumon and made Anamurumon more badass, so they're going to need all the help they can get...

I just got the PDF a few days ago (and Imperial Relationships... as to that, I was a bit surprised that it only contained the rules for the four main NPC's... didn't you have rules for almost 50-something NPC's in the campaign?). I really didn't have the time to read anything beyond scrolling through it, so I can't give an informed answer at the moment. I'll get to it during the next weekend and then I can give a proper response if using it for the rebellion seems like a good idea to me. :)


magnuskn wrote:

I just got the PDF a few days ago (and Imperial Relationships... as to that, I was a bit surprised that it only contained the rules for the four main NPC's... didn't you have rules for almost 50-something NPC's in the campaign?). I really didn't have the time to read anything beyond scrolling through it, so I can't give an informed answer at the moment. I'll get to it during the next weekend and then I can give a proper response if using it for the rebellion seems like a good idea to me. :)

I do have more, but they aren't written up in a useful way like that. The amount of time it takes to do that and the money art costs meant that a book of all of them wouldn't be a feasible thing due to how long it would be and thus how much it would then have to cost to buy (I still plan to release a regular stream of more of them when I can build up a surplus).


Huh, from what I'm hearing on this and other threads, a lot of groups really enjoy developing relationships with the NPCs. Some even sound like a Pokemon show: 'collect 'em all!'

My group largely ignores the NPCs. Ameiko and Sandru are actually PCs (played by latecomers to our group). They have very little, if any, interest in Koya or Shalelu and only slightly more interest in Ulf. (Never met Spivey as they didn't explore Brinewall village.) Of their own volition, they've forgotten all about Relationship scores. I've thought of trying to reintroduce the concept to them, but no one seems to care much about it.


Dustin Ashe wrote:

Huh, from what I'm hearing on this and other threads, a lot of groups really enjoy developing relationships with the NPCs. Some even sound like a Pokemon show: 'collect 'em all!'

My group largely ignores the NPCs. Ameiko and Sandru are actually PCs (played by latecomers to our group). They have very little, if any, interest in Koya or Shalelu and only slightly more interest in Ulf. (Never met Spivey as they didn't explore Brinewall village.) Of their own volition, they've forgotten all about Relationship scores. I've thought of trying to reintroduce the concept to them, but no one seems to care much about it.

Yeah, the lump sum relationship scores weren't particularly compelling for me and my players. When I ran this for my group, I used a 10 rank system that would have incentives like leveling up, and the system has since been published, that's what we've been talking about.


Rogue Eidolon wrote:
Yeah, the lump sum relationship scores weren't particularly compelling for me and my players. When I ran this for my group, I used a 10 rank system that would have incentives like leveling up, and the system has since been published, that's what we've been talking about.

Yeah, I tried to introduce the 10-rank system (great product, by the way) but they didn't bite when I dangled that in front of them either. But I'm running it for 7 players, so that probably narrows their focus somewhat.

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