Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Darkmoon Vale (OGL)

Ummmm no Map showing all the regions? you have individual maps of each region talked about, but it makes it difficult to view the region as a whole when they are not all brought into one map.

Any product that Have a Map of the full region of Darkmoon Vale with the detail shown in this guide or close to it?

I'm considering using good ol' photoshop to throw together just such a thing . . . but I'd not say "no" to a free download :).

Good read so far, though I'm not quite through it . . .

I love the picture of Ezren getting eaten by the werewolf and all but I would have preferred a map of the region too...

Hi,

will a PDF version be available?

Ummmm no Map showing all the regions? you have individual maps of each region talked about, but it makes it difficult to view the region as a whole when they are not all brought into one map.

Any product that Have a Map of the full region of Darkmoon Vale with the detail shown in this guide or close to it?

The print edition has a poster map of the whole region. Vic said over on another thread that he was going to add it to the PDF, should be there by now.

will a PDF version be available?

PDF should be available for purchase at about the same time the book hits retail shelves, within a couple weeks usually.

Nice, thanks.
I'm very keen for it as I'm currently gming a campaign d0-d1.5 and there's seemingly a break between d1 and d1.5 (level 4)

yolo wrote:

will a PDF version be available?

PDF should be available for purchase at about the same time the book hits retail shelves, within a couple weeks usually.

July 30.

Um... is it me or is there something wrong with the poster map vis-a-vis the maps in the book?

Um... is it me or is there something wrong with the poster map vis-a-vis the maps in the book?

Can you elaborate on this? I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you have a better Perception check than I do.

Is anyone at Paizo ever going to send me my copy? Or perhaps even respond to one of my inquiries?

Is anyone at Paizo ever going to send me my copy? Or perhaps even respond to one of my inquiries?

[Just noting that we've taken care of your query in the appropriate place.]

While I've enjoyed reading this book, I have to say the poor editing of the text & the maps has been really frustrating!

Lots of locations in the text are not marked on either the maps in the book or the poster map. This is particularly confusing for the wilderness locations in Chapter 1 as I have no idea where a lot of these are, and it also happens in Chapter 2. The locations in Olfden on p33 are given "alphanumeric" designators but nothing is marked on the town map!

Is there any chance of posting all the maps on this site with the proper labels?

Cheers

Richard

veector wrote:

Um... is it me or is there something wrong with the poster map vis-a-vis the maps in the book?

Can you elaborate on this? I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you have a better Perception check than I do.

What I noticed is that the landscape in the poster map, particularly the mountain range, did not match what was in the detail view map. Since the maps differ in scale only very slightly, I thought this was weird.

Many maps also lack basic things like scale and compass rose.

In the "sidebar" about Karlae Siegefrost (at the bottom of pg. 41), the text cuts off in mid-sentence. I'm looking at the pdf version...I don't know if this is the case in the print version as well. Any chance of finding out what the full text is?

In the "sidebar" about Karlae Siegefrost (at the bottom of pg. 41), the text cuts off in mid-sentence. I'm looking at the pdf version...I don't know if this is the case in the print version as well. Any chance of finding out what the full text is?

Ah phooey. I'll see if I have the original text on my home computer when I get home.

How modular is this product? Would I get a lot of use out of this book if I chose to put Darkmoon Vale someplace else entirely such as Varisia, Greyhawk, or even Eberron?

I really like regional settings that give me a more intimate look at a smaller area to a big global or continental setting. At the same time, I don't need a region that's so locked into it's global or continental setting that I can't make use of it in a home campaign.

Any thoughts/reviews?

Thanks, all.

I think it's fairly modular - you could easily put it on the edges of the Eldeen Reaches in Eberron if you so desired.

My reactions to this book are mixed.

I loved the overall book itself. It had some great stuff in there and was very creative. However, I was disappointed at the multitude of spelling errors and the lack of location marks on the map of Olfden.

FatRat wrote:

In the "sidebar" about Karlae Siegefrost (at the bottom of pg. 41), the text cuts off in mid-sentence. I'm looking at the pdf version...I don't know if this is the case in the print version as well. Any chance of finding out what the full text is?

Ah phooey. I'll see if I have the original text on my home computer when I get home.

It is the case in the print version also. Im kind of curious as to what the remainder of the incomplete sentence is as well if you were able to find the original text. Thanks

One more question: is this the book wherein we finally find out the official version of what 'lurking evil' is under the old dwarven monastery?

Spoiler it if you want, but I'me getting increasingly curious as to just what the heck it is!

The table on page 60 is very bad edited. Magistrate Vamros Harg appears two times (one as Magistrate Vamros Harg and other as Vamros Harg and he has different levels and classes). Ingrid odeber appears with wrong race.
On page 3 in the description of the appendix, we are promised a new monster (the dream wolf) that´s only cited on page 24 (is that all about him ?) ].

The table on page 60 is very bad edited. Magistrate Vamros Harg appears two times (one as Magistrate Vamros Harg and other as Vamros Harg and he has different levels and classes). Ingrid odeber appears with wrong race.

On page 3 in the description of the appendix, we are promised a new monster (the dream wolf) that´s only cited on page 24 (is that all about him ?) ].

I asked way back when and this is the response I got.

One more question: is this the book wherein we finally find out the official version of what 'lurking evil' is under the old dwarven monastery?

Spoiler it if you want, but I'me getting increasingly curious as to just what the heck it is!

You want Hungry Are the Dead, then.

Eric Hinkle wrote:

One more question: is this the book wherein we finally find out the official version of what 'lurking evil' is under the old dwarven monastery?

Spoiler it if you want, but I'me getting increasingly curious as to just what the heck it is!

You want Hungry Are the Dead, then.

Thanks for letting me know!

I finally got the book and I love it. Just a few questions/comments though:

1) In the big character list we see Magistrate Vamros Harg listed as a NE expert/sorcerer and as a N expert. Was this an error, or are there two halflings named Vamros Harg running around in the Vale?

Or of course, Kreed got tired of N Harg's wimpiness and decided to replace him with someone (or thing) who can be better relied upon... I had a hard time seeing a NE character being bothered over not being able to enforce 'true justice' anyway.

2) Yay for all the wolves, wolf monsters, and werewolves, as I'm a big wolf fan. Will we ever see Lycanthropes of Golarion, either as an article or a book?

And am I wrong or did one of the people with Paizo say that Golarion has a 'demon lord of werewolves'? If so, can I get any further information on this character?

Okay, I did miss the book's not having the info on the dream wolves, though I can cobble something together (maybe they're sacred to Desna?). I hope the Pathfinder Bestiary includes an entry for them though.

Thanks Paizo for another great book.

1) In the big character list we see Magistrate Vamros Harg listed as a NE expert/sorcerer and as a N expert. Was this an error, or are there two halflings named Vamros Harg running around in the Vale?

It's an error; the second "Vamros Harg" (the one listed as an expert) shouldn't be there at all. The only Vamros Harg in Falcon's Hollow is the NE expert/sorcerer.

2) Yay for all the wolves, wolf monsters, and werewolves, as I'm a big wolf fan. Will we ever see Lycanthropes of Golarion, either as an article or a book?

Perhaps! Nothing's been announced yet, but lycanthropes are pretty cool.

And am I wrong or did one of the people with Paizo say that Golarion has a 'demon lord of werewolves'? If so, can I get any further information on this character?

We first mentioned the demon lord of werewolves in the hardcover Campaign Setting; she's on page 175: Jezelda, the Mistress of the Hungry Moon, Demon Lord of the Moon and Werewolves. Pathfinder #18's "Demon Lords of Golarion" will have some more info about her. Since she came about after work on Darkmoon Vale was done, she's not mentioned at all in Darkmoon Vale. The in-game reason is simple, of course; not all werewolves worship Jezelda, and the ones in Darkmoon Vale are simply not into the demon worship.

Okay, I did miss the book's not having the info on the dream wolves, though I can cobble something together (maybe they're sacred to Desna?). I hope the Pathfinder Bestiary includes an entry for them though.

Dream wolves have not yet been given the official new monster treatment. The text DOES say that there's a stat block for them, but the author never provided said stats so we cut them from the book. Alas, the mention of them on page 3 snuck by us.

Thanks for the information, Mister Jacobs.

I have been patiently watching this thread for the last lines about Karlae Siegfrost and where the Olfden map numbers were meant to go.
Is there an answer forthcoming Mr. Mike McArtor?

The fountain and town hall are easy to identify from the description, but the other listings could be in any number of locations.

I would love to see a web supplement or a full book treatment on Olfden to flesh out the bare bones framework we have so far.

Questions on my mind:
Why does a large walled town have such large gaps in the fortifications?
What is the significance of the largest buildings and the great deal of empty space around them? Manor houses? country estates inside the town?
temples? government buildings? farmland? pasture for siege times?

I have been patiently watching this thread for the last lines about Karlae Siegfrost and where the Olfden map numbers were meant to go.

Is there an answer forthcoming Mr. Mike McArtor?

The fountain and town hall are easy to identify from the description, but the other listings could be in any number of locations.

I would love to see a web supplement or a full book treatment on Olfden to flesh out the bare bones framework we have so far.

Questions on my mind:
Why does a large walled town have such large gaps in the fortifications?
What is the significance of the largest buildings and the great deal of empty space around them? Manor houses? country estates inside the town?
temples? government buildings? farmland? pasture for siege times?

My understanding is that Mike's moved mostly away from working on RPGs for a time to focus on other pursuits, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an answer from him.

We probably won't be doing much more with Olfden either; developing this information is mostly left in the hands of GMs. I'd certainly love to see what some of the creative folks here on the messageboards could come up with for answers to these questions.

But with the constant needs of Pathfinder's monthly schedule, launching a new edition of the game, launching a massive Organized Play campaign, increasing the number of supplements we produce, and a few other things still coming soon that we can't really talk about yet, chances of anyone at Paizo being able to go back to Darkmoon Vale and provide more information beyond what's already in the book are, unfortunately, pretty slim.

Now, that said in my last post, here's how I would explain the questions you asked:

Why does a large walled town have such large gaps in the fortifications?

What is the significance of the largest buildings and the great deal of empty space around them? Manor houses? country estates inside the town?
temples? government buildings? farmland? pasture for siege times?

I would say that the "gaps" in the walls to the south are actually blocked by gates and portcullises. Even though they're not on the map, that's a pretty standard way to shore up entrances. The larger gap in the wall to the northeast I would explain as an expansion of the city; that as the city started pressing in on its walls, they decided to open up some of those walls at a point in the past and then ran out of money before they finished the expansion. Might be a cool adventure hook; the PCs need to go round up funds and stoneworkers to get the job finished before the city's attacked by enemies?

The missing locations are kind of annoying, I agree. My advice there is to ignore the "O1" and "O2" and other keys entirely and simply place those locations where you wish; as I said in my previous post, there's little chance in the near future of Paizo coming along to "invalidate" the choices you make by expanding the information on Olfden.

Of course, reading the descriptions gives some good clues; the fact that the Sarenrae temple's the "Largest in Darkmoon Vale" argues pretty trongly for it being one of the largest, if not THE largest buildings in the city. My vote would go for the T-shaped building wiht the dome in the northeasternmost corner of the large open area for this building.

The five falcon fountain is likely the tiny blue circle in front of the biggest building in the city, and that would make that building the Town Hall, of course.

The other locations are all pretty tiny buildings and can pretty much go anywhere.

Anyway, I'd say that the large empty area is significant in that it's the town commons, a fair ground, if you will. The buildings there are probably noble villas, the town hall, the temple of Sarenrae, and other public works.

We probably won't be doing much more with Olfden either; developing this information is mostly left in the hands of GMs. I'd certainly love to see what some of the creative folks here on the messageboards could come up with for answers to these questions.

But with the constant needs of Pathfinder's monthly schedule, launching a new edition of the game, launching a massive Organized Play campaign, increasing the number of supplements we produce, and a few other things still coming soon that we can't really talk about yet, chances of anyone at Paizo being able to go back to Darkmoon Vale and provide more information beyond what's already in the book are, unfortunately, pretty slim.

I will take that as a green light to develop sites and npcs in Olfden.

James Jacobs wrote:

We probably won't be doing much more with Olfden either; developing this information is mostly left in the hands of GMs. I'd certainly love to see what some of the creative folks here on the messageboards could come up with for answers to these questions.

But with the constant needs of Pathfinder's monthly schedule, launching a new edition of the game, launching a massive Organized Play campaign, increasing the number of supplements we produce, and a few other things still coming soon that we can't really talk about yet, chances of anyone at Paizo being able to go back to Darkmoon Vale and provide more information beyond what's already in the book are, unfortunately, pretty slim.

I will take that as a green light to develop sites and npcs in Olfden.

When I have some content I will post back here to let everyone know.

Hey Tom,

I'd like to see that content. Do post back here when you've got something.

Darkmoon Vale looks like a great place to adventure and I'm loving the guide but there are a few confusing bits.

I love this book. I personally thought it was superior to Korvosa myself. The flavor of the area is just ripe with lots of fun

Oh argh, I looked at the thread of comments at the bottom of the item page and did not see any of the earlier comments about the missing text, and the responses about Paizo's publishing schedule were not there either. Sorry about bringing up a dead horse.

Hi, does Paizo put out errata for their products?

I'm less concerned with the maps than the places where the text is just unclear or missing. For example, Karlae Siegfrost's bio on page 41 just trails off midsentence and Vamros Harg is listed twice on the NPC list on page 60 with two different statlines (one puts him at level 3, the other at level 7).

The only map issue I had was the fact that two ruined human settlements (Falconridge and Northsap) were mentioned in the text but their locations do not appear on any of the smaller maps.

The vast majority of the book is really excellent, and I'd love to add the errata to my copy.

Hi, does Paizo put out errata for their products?

Erratas are hopefully something we will see in the future, but at this time Paizo does not release erratas for their products.

Am I alone in that I find it immensely silly that in the vale there is a mountain that stands more or less by itself, is AS HIGH AS THE MT. EVEREST, but somewhat under 10 miles wide???

I realize that Golarion is a fantastic setting and I am not demanding total geographic plausibility, but that mountain is really straining my suspension of disbelief.

I've ruled out that the 28k feet is a mistake and cut it down to 8k ;)

I've ruled out that the 28k feet is a mistake and cut it down to 8k ;)

This is a good fix. The mountain as it appears on the map is way out of bounds in size as well.

Gorbacz wrote:

I've ruled out that the 28k feet is a mistake and cut it down to 8k ;)

This is a good fix. The mountain as it appears on the map is way out of bounds in size as well.

Except, if I remember correctly there was something in the guide to Darkmore Vale about the dangers of adventuring at high altitude. I seem to remember something about the "death zone" of 22,000 feet or higher. That would only be appropriate if the mountain was 22k+ in height. Or am I remembering that from the core rulebook?

I've approached it with the "Dude, it's a game, mellow out" attitude and decided not to worry about it. :)

By the way, I recently went fly fishing near Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta rises about 14,000 from a set of surrounding mountains that are only about 3000 feet high. It's really impressive to see a mountain that high from that perspective. You notice it as a massive mountain when you're still 40 miles away. It's amazing to be in the town of Mount Shasta and to see this leviathan of a mountain looming over you and to realize that it's still 15 miles away. Now, imagine something twice as high. The view of the mountains from Falcon's Hollow would be incredible.

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:MtShasta_aerial.JPG&fil etimestamp=20060827125413

Wow, that looks really impressive. I also checked out satellite pictures, which really look similar to the map of the mountain in the Guide. Also the horizontal dimensions fit quite good (the "white zone" of Mt. Shasta is about 8 miles in diameter).

So perhaps it would suffice to cut the 28.000 ft in half... ;)

Will this (and other OGL Chronicles books) be updated for the Pathfinder RPG?

Will this (and other OGL Chronicles books) be updated for the Pathfinder RPG?

When we wrote all of our pre-Pathfinder RPG books, we already knew that the 3.5 version of the game was in its twilight years. While we didn't know if we were going to continue using a variant of 3.5 or switch over to 4th edition for many months, we did have to keep producing content, and as a result many of our pre-Pathfinder RPG books are relatively light on the rules-crunch. Guide to Darkmoon Vale is a perfect example of "rules-light," and as a result it won't be getting an update.

Although I've been 'following' Paizo since the beginning, I've only recently started purchasing PF products, and this was amongst my first major purchases.

Has anyone - official or otherwise - ever bothered to 'fix' the map? The product itself is very good (I like the lore-light approach), but the map is abysmal. I'm surprised it got past editing (lots of locales remained unmarked).

Was the missing line of text (noted above) ever reprinted anywhere? Is there an errata I should know about?

Thanks - Mark

I'm also pretty new to PF products; are there any map folios or map tiles for DMV? Also, appropriate paper minis or pawns for the modules associated with DMV?

Many thanks!

@James or Mark Whats the town north of Oldfen on the map? There's a white square where a town should be but no town name and nothing in the text of the book that I can see about what the town is.

There's a thread on this product on the main boards of a bunch of issues with the poster map. I'm finally getting around to running a campaign in Darkmoon Vale and I'm pulling my hair out with the issues with the poster map.

This is the link to the other thread:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2igxa&page=2?Guide-to-Darkmoon-Vale

thanks

Mike

That should be a brown square and the ruins of Northsap, the predecessor to Falcon's Hollow. The little maps in the book itself should give you a better overview about what to find where in the area.

Have they ever updated this Guide to fix the various errata & have they every released a map of the vale that wasn't incorrect/incomplete?

Have they ever updated this Guide to fix the various errata & have they every released a map of the vale that wasn't incorrect/incomplete?

I don't believe this has ever been reprinted. In fact, with only a couple of special exceptions, none of the softcovers have been reprinted.

-Skeld

Thank you.