I'm trying to place the Radiant Festival within the Precipice Quarter, and am running into a problem.
By all the descriptions, there are plenty of sites, buildings, displays and attractions in the Quarter, but not on the Radiant Festival fairgrounds. The Tipsy Tengu, the goblin food stalls, the Dragonfly Pagoda, the Dreaming Palace, and the Edgewatch Headquarters - all in the Quarter but not on the fairgrounds. There is mention that the rebuilders just closed off everything east of Jasper street to contain the undead there.
However, when I look at the maps of Absalom, and adjust them to match the scale of the map of the Radiant Festival grounds, the festival fills the entire quarter. The shoreline even matches up - though the scale of the buildings in the maps are hugely different.
So - is the scale incorrect for one map or the other, or are some of these other locations located in the Eastgate or Docks districts near the Precipice Quarter?
I had the same concern. And with the scale of the buildings being so different, I think it's a mistake. Whoever did the festival grounds made it fill the whole space. They also left green space around on all sides; there ought to be buildings along some of those edges.
I thought I might try to photoshop the festival layout onto the city map using a smaller footprint, but I also couldn't figure out what "Jasper Street" was to know the original intent. Have you found anything that identifies that street?
I suppose it's possible the delayed Absalom book will have a corrected map. (Which helps if people wait for the entire path to be published before starting running it, but doesn't help those wanting to jump in right now.)
I also did a couple of Google comparisons. The entire Quarter is maybe 1.5 square miles; could be a bit smaller, but it's definitely bigger than one square mile. The 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville TN was 70 acres, or about 1/9 of a square mile. Disneyland in California is not much bigger at 85 acres. Central Park in New York City is 840 acres, so about 1.31 square miles, which is pretty darn close to the footprint of the Quarter. Imagine trying to clear an area the size of Central Park of existing streets and buildings - and then fill the entire space with a fairground. (And yes, a lake, but still...) So it clearly should be smaller than that. I'm just not sure how much smaller.
And maybe leave a wide swath of the buildings along the west and north sides in place as well, for things like the Edgewatch HQ and Dreaming Palace.
So I'd love to see what ideas others have for solving this.
Even the Guide to Absalom from 1E never gave street names.
If I shrink the Festival grounds to half the scale listed, they fit nicely and are still almost 3/4 of a mile across, while giving a fair amount of the quarter left. The "Hall of Nations" is still about 150 yards long, or a good sized city block. I can even point to a street parallel to the outer wall that I'll call "Jasper", and a street just north of the fairgrounds to call "Whisper Lane" (as they flattened everything from whisper lane to the outer wall for the festival).
Here's crappy photoshop screengrabs from the pdf's
At the stated scale -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iwZR5_NkgR3LwRBghE0Uy3eNTQU9x_JC/view?usp= sharing
With the festival at half the stated scale -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_iTjN5iFxZ_xzT7fV4d945jUVDZxH8yN/view?usp= sharing
(I made them crappy lowrez, but they're still screengrabs from the official pdfs - if Paizo wants the images gone I'll happily comply)
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While I'm not directly involved with the Adventure Path... a look at the images Moximus just posted makes me think that indeed the problem was a typo on the map scale. The second (half-scale) image certainly looks more appropriate to me, especially considering that I've written a LOT of locations and NPCs for the Precipice Quarter in the upcoming Absalom book and I want there to be enough room left over in there for those NPCs once the Radiant Festival goes up! :-P
Note also that at the half-sized image, the streets on the Festival part of town look much more comparable to the other streets in width...
Moximus, thanks for putting those images together. That helps a lot!
Hi James, thanks for joining this conversation. Typos happen, no worries - and are generally resolved pretty rapidly between the amazing community here, and Paizo folks providing commentary to help clarify intent. I just wanted to say that I really, really appreciate your willingness to chime in like this!
Hopefully this means the eventual Absalom book will indeed have a "corrected" version? (please) I'm good with running the AP using Moximus's quick fix, although my group is still debating whether to wait for the Absalom book. Either way, the completionist in me still wants to see a "pretty" version someday. ;)
James, thanks for that clarification - always good to have these updates from the Office of Expectation Management.