Varisian Homeland Locations and Sandpoint


Rise of the Runelords


I just picked up the anniversary edition of Rise of the Runelords campaign, and I am eager to get underway with a group of players I've been adventuring with the last few months. Spending the night at work last night(no customers at a gas station = tons of free time) getting myself somewhat familiarized with Sandpoint and the beginning encounters, along with some of the speeches that the NPCs will be making at the Swallowtail Festival opening.

However, my main issue is that I've NEVER seen the world that this Adventure Path uses(or any AP for that matter), and I don't know how far I could let my PCs go as their "hometowns" if they want to be non-citizens of Sandpoint, or if I should sort-of "force" Sandpoint residency onto them. I REALLY don't want to do the latter since I want to inspire creativity, but as my first time DMing, I'm not sure what to do, as this is sort-of out of my comfort zone.

Should I just let the PCs give me reasons for coming to Sandpoint from their towns and go with it, or limit them the regions they can come from?


There is a downloadable PDF for the Players for Runelords. This has more information on the region. I recommend GMs should download and read it as well to familiarize themselves with the area further (especially as the hardback edition lacks maps of Varisia).

There are certain benefits to being born and raised in Sandpoint, especially if you use the Traits optional rule. But to be honest, the dedication of the cathedral alone should draw players to the region; you could have some there as guards from a caravan or the like and thus not know the region... just know that there's a party and they're celebrating. ;)

Mind you, even people who lived in town all their lives could very well be recluses who just don't know much about the town. For instance, one of my players is playing a half-orc Barbarian Scholar (the barbarian aspect being from his mother's orcish heritage) who is fascinated with Thassilonian literature... and thus never really got out much. He had his nose buried in a book rather than socialize.

Thus even if you have someone raised in town... there are perfectly good reasons why that player might not know much about the town. Ultimately however it's up to the players.

Paizo Employee Developer

Tangent101 wrote:
There is a downloadable PDF for the Players for Runelords. This has more information on the region. I recommend GMs should download and read it as well to familiarize themselves with the area further (especially as the hardback edition lacks maps of Varisia).

Helpful link to the Player's Guide.


Thank you guys for the response on this. I had downloaded this PDF after receiving the hardcover in the mail, but I didn't print it(as I prefer to have hard copies instead of PC ones, honestly) yet.

I plan on using a 2-trait system, one from the world, and one not, to try and immerse my players more. The group I'm currently with is sort-of new, aside from our current GM(who was excited when he came into my work last night and saw I had picked up the book), and I'm not sure how they'd go with the RP aspect.

Some backstory on my PCs and our current campaign:

So, what we're currently doing is a homebrew world my GM made, and three of the PCs are new to DnD, which is fine, but when it comes to player interactions, it's a back and forth on how things go with us. They seem slightly invested in their characters, but I guess they're not fully committed. The only one who's "in character" is our CE Tiefling who's voiced his desire to kill me, a LG Paladin, and is only working WITH me in combats to kill the enemies who are trying to kill me, so save him the pleasure.

With newer PCs, should I still run the 20 point-system for their stats, or should I do a Roll 4, re-roll the lowest and take the highest 3? Also, since I might only have 3-4 PCs, should I do my best to keep an NPC with them, to round out the group, or will 4 be able to get through this AP with no problem? Only worried because I've spent a few hours browsing the "obituary" thread, and just surprised at the sheer number of deaths so far.


A fair number of deaths come from the original version of this AP. The anniversary edition toned some things down. It's still very challenging and can be downright deadly for those not prepared.

Grand Lodge

Generally, the APs are intended to use a two trait system. Usually, one is a Campaign trait (given in the Players Guide) which ties the character to the campaign, and the other one is taken from a variety of resources (generally, the APG, but other resources abound.)

The one item that I would suggest getting if you get the chance is the Players Companion, Varisia: Birthplace of Legends... it is chock full of good stuff about Varisia, from additional traits, to new feats, archetypes, etc. My personal favorite is the 2 page map in the center of the book. Then there is a handy travel chart in the back, which gives general travel times to and from various major spots.

20 pt buy worked well for me the first time I ran it, but I am planning to start running the Anniversary Edition soon with the same players... sort of a reboot/alternate timeline, and I am starting with 15 pt, and planning to give boosts as boons throughout play.

Good luck, man! I had a blast running this the first time, and with a little tweaking, I am thinking I will have a blast this time too!


I had players roll really well. Except for one. Thus two of the PCs and the NPC are at 31-32... and the last player I had increase her stats to 25 points worth.

For future campaigns I'll be doing points. I think 25 points works fine really for the epic-level campaigns, and those extra points do improve lower-level survivability. Though you can go with fewer points and just be lenient; what matters isn't killing characters but making the players think "oh hell, I'm going to die!" and then squeak off surviving. In short, what should kill players isn't bad die rolls, but stupidity.

Grand Lodge

I forgot to mention that I am using the Vigor/Wounds optional rules from APG. It really helps lower level survivability.

EDIT: And Hero Points! :p


Thanks guys, this is a LOT of help, and I appreciate all the posts! I am probably going to do a 20 point system, depending on how well they grasp it via the book(the people I think that will be joining are fairly new).

The fact that the Anniversary Edition is slightly easier makes me a little sad. I sort-of like the possibility of more chance for death! I think if I get 4 PCs I'll make some harder beginning tweaks. I dunno what, yet, but I want to make it more of a "Hoshit, we almost died" in some aspects.

Also, I've gotten a hold of the PDFs you guys mentioned. Printed(but haven't read) the Birthplace guide yet(it's right beside me, and I just finished work), but I intend to if not this morning, tonight at work.

While I have the question in mind from you guys who've run this before:
When is a good starting point to let them get access to +1/Magical items that are NOT from the enemies? Masterwork I was planning on letting that happen after some running around, and maybe around level 2/3-ish. I've always been with players who do their best to fully deck out their characters(such as having a level 10 with +8 STR Belt, +8 DEX bracers, etc etc), and I want the enemies to be a threat, and not push-overs.


Okay. Slightly easier doesn't mean cakewalk. For instance, there's a Greater Barghest that they will encounter when 4-5th level. My group was 5th level. They used a cleric ability to see through doors and the Cleric rolled a natural 20 Perception, meaning she knew Mal was in there and invisible. Thus they buffed themselves (and they'd spent the night at Sandpoint and returned to finish the place so they were fresh). Bull Strength. Aid. Bless. Rage on the Barbarian. Using Nualia's magic armor and sword. And even with all that, the only reason the Barbarian didn't die is I saw he'd not survive one more round and had Shalelu enter the room to help (most of the PCs were sniping or using spells from outside and healing the Barbarian using Selective Channeling). Then Mal, wanting an elf snack, took one half-hearted swipe at the Barbarian (reducing him to 14 HPs while raging) and proceeded to do 28 hit points of damage to Shalelu.

In short: they were prepared. They buffed. They even used See Invisible (on the Bard/Cleric). The Barbarian was doing an amazing 1d10+18 hit points damage (bastard swords used two-handed with a high-strength and Power Attack are nasty). And yet the Blink Spell the Barghest was using negated almost every single attack (a string of really good rolls) and its own Bull Strength and bonuses meant it only missed on a 1... and was doing a minimum of 27 hit points of damage each round.

That's not to mention the Shadows in the next room which, in a surprise round could one-shot PCs with that 1d6 strength damage attack while ignoring armor.

Trust me. Even if they're not stupid they can very easily die.


Table 12-4 on page 399of the core rule book, or HERE under the "Placing Treasure" heading.

It isn't the be-all end-all of gear limitation, but it is a fair benchmark to weigh a character's gear outlay against, since big time magic weapons and gear are quite expensive. In general I wouldn't worry about restricting the types of items to a given level (their cash on hand will limit custom items and such) and you can get a good idea for the scale of treasure to reward based on the types of things presented in the AP itself.


Yeah, I read about the Barghest in the book, and I saw the CR and the "supposed" level you'd be at around there. Scratched my head, and I'm praying my PCs don't go in that room. Ever.

Good idea on them for resting to full. Makes sense he was doing so much damage, though. Fairly tough encounter. :x Blink is a nasty spell if the rolls are in your favour. I had a fight where my Cleric's deity died, and I was "forced" to take a few levels in Bard so I could be something that resembled a healer still. Blink allowed me to go toe-to-toe with a foe who was +2 CR on me, 1v1. Think he was a fighter, too. Don't remember.

Then again, if your dice are hot, PCs are gonna die anyway. I've been on the receiving end of that numerous times. Current record is 7 characters in a single session. Not even exaggerating.


If you want it more difficult, you can always ramp it up ;)

As far as locally based PCs go, they can swing either way. Sandpoint is a village on the coast, a few days from Magnimar, a major city. So if you have PCs who want to be from a big city, or from somewhere else, they can easily be from elsewhere, just in Sandpoint for the start of things. Or they can easily be locals -- whichever you or they want.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Well, the good news is that RotRL is designed to slowly introduce people to Golarion. All PCs really need to know is that the country they're in is a frontier area, much like the Keep on the Borderlands, and that there's a cathedral dedication coinciding with the Swallowtail Festival in a small but wealthy town nearby. They'll learn more about the setting as they go - gods, nationalities, history, etc.

Keep things local to begin with. Local Heroes is your friend here - take your time and introduce the prominent citizens to the PCs. In addition to the stuff that Paizo wrote, interject with some character specific sidetreks. The campaign traits they take will let you know what stories they want you to tell them. Someone took Family Ties? Looks like you'll be bringing in Jubrayl and the Sczarni. Someone took Hagfish Hopeful? Then maybe they need to go find a new Norah when the old one dies unexpectedly (maybe the goblins got her!). Someone took Giant Slayer? Maybe a runt from one of the ogre litters have wandered a bit too close to town, and the PCs hear that it dragged off a farmer last night. The PCs have to go hunt it down and kill it (it's already too late for the poor farmer).

As the campaign progresses, the lens starts to pull back, and reveal more about the world they've been adventuring in. Now that they're comfortable with the setting, they are ready to learn some of Golarion's hidden truths, most notably about Thassilon and the civilization that ruled this part of the world ten thousand years ago.

Grand Lodge

Good point Misroi...


Thank you to everyone who's posting here. It all really is helping, and I'm getting a lot of good ideas/feelings about the beginnings from reading other threads here. Slowly gaining more confidence going into this campaign.

Grand Lodge

What I did was madness, but because in the 3.5 days, the big X was a TPK in Skinsaw, I looked for an alternative that would at least give them a fighting chance.

So what I did was:

Spoiler:
I made the party ex-agents of the big K, himself! They of course, had to be figured into somehow surviving 10K years. The years were not kind, as time eroded their memories of the past... they had forgotten who they were, and had created new identities for themselves.

Now, the trick was that Xanesha recognized them, and had approached them shortly after the Sawmill. She invited them to a dinner, and called them by their Thassilonian names. It threw them off so badly! The point is though that they then get the choice of which path they want to go down... Good or Evil... one fell pretty hard, but we worked and had him on the road to redemption in the end. It was epic...

This time, they are the same characters, but something happened. Now they wake up in the prisons of Kaer Maga, their experience drained by the Golarion-versions of Intellect Devourers, who died when they hit XP 0. (Explaining why they start at 1st level) Now they get to try and figure out what happened. Why were they thrown in Shalast's most notorious prison? What do they do now? Things start happening again, but this time, things are different. Things are less available, high level magic use has not been heard of for thousands of years, even magic items are scarce, or the prized possession of some rich collector...

I hope it comes out awesome, but only time will tell... I gotta get the players to buy in to the concept... So far it is working pretty well!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

That's inspired, Aeshuura. I'd love to hear how that all shakes out.

Grand Lodge

Thanks buddy! I am kind of excited. Haven't been this excited about running for quite some time... I will try to find the time to post some of it as a sort of campaign log. I will need to take the time though... :p

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