Review: Pathfinder #1 Burnt Offerings

Background

I believe that it was during the summer of 2006 that WotC informed Paizo that they were pulling back the licensing for Dungeon and Dragon magazines. For a company that these magazines were the bedrock for, this was not a good thing. After numerous discussions and brainstorming sessions, and I am probably minimizing the chaos of the WotC decision on them, they came up with the Pathfinder concept. They recognized that one of their core competencies was adventure paths, of which they had successfully launched three of them with their flagship magazines. With this direction established, James Jacobs was appointed the lead on the Pathfinder Adventure Path, and he took on the task of writing the first installment of Rise of the Runelords.

Layout

The book comes in at hefty 96 pages not counting the covers, with the actual adventure taking up 47 of these pages, with an approximate word count of ~40,000 words. The book is divided up into several sections including the main adventure, two supporting articles, the Pathfinder Journal, bestiary and the pregens. For the most part, the first two adventure paths would follow this layout, and with the third adventure path they would make some changes to this basic format.

The first adventure path drew a number of critics on the font size and the ease of reading. I personally did not find it that bad, but I can see how this could be a valid criticism. There have been a number of modules created with small font, and this module is not any worse than some of the others that I have seen.

Artwork

In the 1970’s and 1980’s D&D art was strictly black and white, with the only color art being on cover. A number of us old timers have nostalgic memories of the early art, and some were actual very good; for the most part it was fairly basic. As the editions rolled on, the art stayed black and white, but more fantastic elements were added, and there was additional complexity in the subject matter of the artwork. By the time we arrive at the late 3rd edition period, more and more adventures and supplements were turning to color, and a number of published products were full color. Monte Cook’s publications are a good indicator of this, as his early stuff is black and white, and with the publish of Arcana Evolved and Ptolus, he is now publishing full color.

Keeping with this art direction, the Pathfinder is full color, and for the most part it is very good. The cover is design is an action sequence drawn by Wayne Reynolds, along with an iconic fighter taking up the space slightly right of center and this has become their trademark presentation for the Pathfinder AP line. I realize that not everyone likes the style of Wayne, but I like the action and detail that is invoked in his art. I agree that it is very much a departure from the roots of D&D, however enjoy flipping through his work. The interior art is done by a number of artists, and it ranges from excellent to cartoonish. In particular, I am very fond of the illustrations on pages 28, 57 and 72. The style that is on pages 12 and 42 is not to my taste, but I am willing to look past this.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the cartography, which is amazing. While I like the old blue maps from the early days, and the simplicity that is contained with in them, the new generation of color computer cartography is just stunning to look at. I love maps, and I have a noted weakness for complex fully color maps. While I can appreciate the hand drawn maps, and I have made my fair share of them, the things that can be done now days with the latest mapping software never cease to capture my fascination.

Summary

The characters are present in the village of Sandpoint, when a host of goblins invade the town, that shows an unusual amount of organization that is atypical for goblin tribes. With the initial goblin foray defeated, the effects of the attack linger on. Clues lead the characters to a goblin hideout on Thistletop for the final showdown with mastermind behind the attacks.

Key features

There are a number of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. A large dungeon adventure with 2 dungeons for the characters to explore.

2. A fully mapped out village of Sandpoint, along with a gazetteer detailing the village.

3. An interesting article by Wolfgang Baur titled The History of Thassilon.

4. The Pathfinder Journal, which has the feel of the older pulp sword and sorcery writing. Now the first one is more of a general introduction, and in the next books, it follows in a first person narrative. While there are a number of folks that consider this a flaw in the design, I consider it a feature.

5. A re-imaging of the classic goblin monster, that is both a bit comical and horrific. Count me as a proponent of the new image. I have always like their image as the small monser in the closet, that struggles in the realm of planning, but can still cause significant distruction due in part to their number.

Final notes

While the revoking of the Dungeon and Dragon magazine in my mind was huge mistake, and I can not but think that with this, there would be not be the Pathfinder AP and the other fan created magazines that have popped up to fill the void. Now I will say that Pathfinder is an Adventure Path, and comes with a defined story arc, which may not sit well with the older crowd that prefers more of a sandbox campaign in which the characters tell the story, not the other way around. I do agree that is a valid concern, but the initial sales numbers for Paizo have re-enforced their decision to move forward with the adventure path concept. I also would agree that there is something to be said for completing an entire adventure path, as it does feel like a badge of honor to say that I made it through and defeated the villain at the end. I will not comment more on this topic, as I will save it for a future blog entry. Suffice to say that first installment is very solid, and there is plenty of information provided to allow for quite a bit of role playing and adventuring around the town. For a low level adventure, there is a good amount of action, and note worthy combats to be had.

Overall, I give this module a solid thumbs up, and it is one of my favorites in their Pathfinder lineup.

Rating: 4 1/2 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

As I write this, Paizo is out of print on this book, with no near term plans to reprint this. I suspect that there are still a number of outlets available to get the actual physical copy, including e-bay and other collectors and game stores. The PDF is still available. It is interesting to note that there was an alternate cover version available at GenCon 40 (2007), that showed the protagist (Karzoug) of the series on the cover, and that version is also sold out.

General update and other stuff

Another light blog day for me. This week is a holiday week, and I am trying to spend time with the family, so my blog is not getting the attention that I would like to give it. Next week should be back to normal posting.

In other news, my Ruined Stockade adventure is completely completely mapped out, and it came in at 115 encounters. I have just started to add the text details, but I have a long way to go. My own personal technique for dungeon creation is as follows:

1) Draw out the maps in pencil
2) Write up short text on everything
3) Add the flavor text
4) Add the cross reference details, room links, and add the plot details
5) Write up the appendix with special monsters, magic items & NPC's
6) Write up the monster stat blocks as appropriate (I try to get away with as little as possible, but sometimes I can not)
7) Redraw the maps in pen
8) Finished - time to start on the next project.

I am going to take my son through to play test, and then I will use it later in the year with my old group, and I might take this beast to GenCon. This one is designed to be a mini-sandbox adventure with lots of different areas to explore along with 6 dungeon areas.

For this weekend's review, I am going to tackle Pathfinder #1 Burnt Offerings, and that should go up tomorrow. This will be the first in a six part series reviewing the first AP in the Pathfinder series.

Quote of the Day:

"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." (The Tower of the Elephant. Robert E. Howard)

Somewhere in there is a lesson on feedback.

Commentary: The Horus Heresy

‘I was there,’ he would say afterwards, until afterwards became a time quite devoid of laughter. ‘I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor.’ It was a delicious conceit, and his comrades would chuckle at the sheer treason of it. (the opening lines of Horus Rising)

“I was there.” Such a powerful statement, that I love reading it, in its many incarnations. It implies that that something so significant has happened, that the writer feels needs to attach his own personal reputation to this event. To be able to tell a story, and start it with the phrase, “I was there,” gives special meaning to an otherwise tale normal tale, and promotes it to an epic status. A short and simple way to say that the story teller was fortunate enough to have witnessed such a special event and the story about to be told is true, as it was witnessed first hand. This statement harkens back to an earlier age where minstrels would tell such stories around a fire to pass glories tales of courage and heroism to a younger generation. Ahh..to be able to tell such a tale and say, “I was there.”

I probably should back up a bit. I have just finished reading the 9th installment of the Black Library’s premier Horus Heresy line. After reading the first book, I have been hooked every since. The first book is by Dan Abnett, who is one of my favorites of the shared world authors. Dan is just a machine when it comes to cranking our novels, and he turns them out at a frenzied pace (maybe he really is part machine..but that’s another story). When it comes to shared world authors and subject matter is based on a game, it truly is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of the results produced. I have read some good books, and I have read books that I would describe as bubble gum, and I have read books that are “cover your eyes bad.” In this case, I think that Dan has set a high standard that the other authors are trying to achieve.

Anyone who has been in the gaming hobby is probably familiar with the Warhammer 40K game and the mythos that surrounds the game, even if it is just at a surface level. I have to applaud Games Workshop for creating not just a war game with miniatures, but rather a living breathing universe that gives the games context, and adds an extra element of enjoyment to the hobby. In each iteration of the game, they have further refined and improved upon the background fluff, and there is a consistency of theme that runs through it. I can appreciate the effort that Games Workshop has put into maintaining the consistency and the spirit of the story background, and I wish that WotC was as careful and mindful a steward of the D&D story. But I digress.

The story of Horus is an age old tale of the son rebelling against his father. In this particular tale, there is a strong tie back to the biblical rebellion of angels, and I can not but help think that this is deliberate. The Emperor of mankind is described god that has led mankind to a glorious new age. As part of his plan, he has created the primarchs to assist him. At this point in the myth cycle, it gets very fuzzy as to why the primarchs became separated from the Emperor, and it is not entirely clear as to whether this was by design or by criminal action. After the primarchs have been reunited with their father, he appoints Horus to be the Warmaster for his armies. Over the course of the first three books, there are a number of times that Horus refers to the Emperor as his father, and it further establishes the theme of a rebellion of angels against their god like father. The primarchs are continuously throughout the novels describes as angelic beings blessed with superior talents as compared to the rest of the mankind, including the superhuman Astartes.

While the prose of the novels is not as symbolic as Milton or Dante, nor as heroic as Tolkien or even as colorful as Howard, it is sufficient to breathe life into this story. Where I applaud the authors is how they inject a human element into the stoic space marines, and how they capture the tragedy that is unfolding. When reading the first one, I was caught up in the image of Horus as a heroic figure, embodied of all that is good in a leader. As the first trilogy progressed, one could see the seeds of destruction being sown, building to the scene in the temple of healing where the final tragic step is taken, and the train wreck is assured. This is a dark trilogy that has no good ending. It is truly a shame, as there was much promise in Horus, and that is what makes the first trilogy so good. There is something about a literary tragedy that holds a special place in epic story telling, as it resonates well with our circumstances in our own life. It is this empathy for the characters that leads us back to the tragedies, as it is the only reason that we would continue to read Shakespeare’s tragedies long after his death.

To date, there are nine books in the series, and I like to think of the series as three different trilogies. I will leave it at that for the moment, as I will touch on the different trilogies in future blogs and comment more on the subject matter covered in them. Suffice to say that I do consider the Horus Heresy to be one of the better series based on game material that I have read, and it is worthy of reading at least the first three books.

Small Update Today

Today will be a small update. I finished Mechanicum, and in tomorrow's blog I will be commenting further on the Horus Heresy book series. Next up for me is Conan, and I am a bit embarrassed to say that I have not read any Conan material prior to this book. I read Solomon Kane last year, and it was excellent, and I am looking forward to digging back into Howard's material once again. For my readers that enjoyed Solomon Kane, I would highly recommend Matthias Thulmann: Witch Hunter by C.L. Werner. Thulmann feels very much like Kane transported into the Warhammer universe, and it was a very good read.

Tonight I want to put in some significant time into my mega-dungeon, so hopefully I will make some good progress.

4th edition: Commentary p1

Holy Toledo! Even the spiders have more legs in 4th ed!

Just kidding. Actually the picture to the right is of a Solifugae, of which the dreaded camel spider is one, even though it is really not a spider at all. However, it is still rather nasty, and I would not want to get bit by one.

A snippet from Wikipedia:

Solifugae is an order of Arachnida, containing more than 1,000 described species in about 140 genera. The name derives from Latin, and means those that flee from the sun. The order is also known by the names Solpugida, Solpugides, Solpugae, Galeodea and Mycetophorae. Their common names include camel spider, wind scorpion, sun scorpion and sun spider. Solifugae are not true spiders, which are from a different order, Araneae. Like scorpions and harvestmen, they belong to a distinct arachnid order.

Last night I was running my first 4th edition adventure using Brave Halfling Publishing’s The Ruins of Ramat as a base. My son has discovered my 4th ed books, and he has decided that he likes this better than C&C. I suspect that he likes the additional powers and abilities that the 4th ed characters have, and the perception of that they are more powerful than their earlier counterparts. While this is true, everything gets a massive bump in 4th ed. It’s a bit of inflation that I personally feel is not necessary.

This brings me back to my opening comment. The first encounter was a nerfed deathjump spider. I swapped out the crab spider for the 4th ed version spider, which prompted me to look for the above mentioned camel spider, and this proved to be a bit of a challenge for the two characters that my son was bringing through the adventure. He is still working on coordinating attacks with his characters, and has not quite mastered the finer points of 4th ed combat, but I am sure that will come in time.

One of my earlier blogs, I was ranting on a bit about the inflation bloat that is present in 4th ed, and I have been meaning to revisit the topic. I have enclosed a chart of some randomly selected weapons and have charted how the damage has changed throughout the various editions. I know that the picture is rather small, but you can double click on it to see the enlarged version. As I claimed in my earlier post, there is a noticeable weapon damage inflation that is present.

As time has gone by, some would say that inflation was going to happen. While I agree that a little is ok, by the time we get to 4th ed, it is a tad too much. I grew up on 1st ed, and have only played a little bit of OD&D. As a player I enjoyed the inflation from OD&D to 1st ed, and I believe this was a modest increase. However, we are a point now where it is really too much.

As weapon damage goes up, monster HD and HP’s go up as well. For example, let’s look at a couple of monsters. A grey wolf, which is a level 2 skirmisher, has 38 hp’s! Let’s look at another example. A level 1 kobold skirmisher has 27 hps. Now I realize that minions only have 1 hp, and I actually like this idea, but as you move beyond minions, the monsters themselves have a lot of hit points.

I realize that combat is one of the more interesting points in the game, and I think everyone likes to roll the attack dice and lay down some smack, but I personally do not want every combat going two hours. It feels like the intent of the game is to have combat be an epic affair. I am not sure that I am fully aligned to this concept. I think there should be some epic combats, but most combats should be resolved fairly quickly, otherwise the entire game bogs down. Count me in the group that likes to streamline things, and minimize the dice rolls, as the more dice that are rolled, the longer things will stretch out. I would much rather role play an encounter than perform numerous skill checks to figure out what happens. The same goes for combat.

As I get more exposure to 4th ed, it feels like a miniature’s game rather than a true role play game. Some folks may take this to mean that I am not a fan of 4th ed, and that is not true at all, although I am ranting a bit here. It is just moving a bit far from its original roots, but it is still a fine game in its own right.

As it appears that my son can produce a character or two a day, I suspect that I will be playing more 4th ed, and I will be providing additional commentary as appropriate. All things considered, this is not a bad thing!