In the sleepy coastal town of Sandpoint, evil is brewing. An attack by crazed goblins reveals
the shadows of a forgotten past returning to threaten the town—and perhaps all of Varisia.
The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins with this goblin raid and takes players on
an epic journey through the land of Varisia as they track a cult of serial killers, fight
backwoods ogres, stop an advancing army of stone giants, delve into
ancient dungeons, and finally face off against a wizard-king in his
ancient mountaintop city. This hardcover compilation updates
the fan-favorite campaign to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
rules with revised and new content in more than 400 pages
packed with mayhem, excitement, and adventure!
Celebrating both the fifth anniversary of the Pathfinder
Adventure Path and the tenth anniversary of Paizo Publishing, this new
edition expands the original campaign with new options and
refined encounters throughout, incorporating 5 years of
community feedback.
The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition contains:
All six chapters of the original Adventure Path, expanded
and updated for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Articles on the major locations of Rise of the Runelords:
sleepy Sandpoint, the ancient Thassilonian city of
Xin-Shalast, and others.
Revelations on the sinister magic of Thassilon, with
updated spells, magic items, and details on tracking sin
points throughout the campaign.
A bestiary featuring eight monsters updated from the
original Adventure Path, plus an all-new terror.
Dozens of new illustrations, never-before-seen
characters, location maps, and more!
The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is not part of any subscription.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-436-8
FAQ:
Q: Will you be doing hardcover compilations of all of your Adventure Paths? A: No. This is a special celebration of our very first Adventure Path on its 5th Anniversary. Several of the original volumes of Rise of the Runelords have been unavailable in print for a long time, yet it remains one of our most popular adventure paths; that circumstance presents a unique opportunity for us to expand and update it for use with the Pathfinder RPG, and to apply lessons we've learned about making Adventure Paths over the last half-decade. Our other adventure paths are largely still in print, and many of them were designed for use with the Pathfinder RPG to begin with; we have no plans to recompile them.
Q: Is there anything missing from the original AP volumes? A: Yes—otherwise, this book would be more than 600 pages long! Some of the monsters and other things created for Rise of the Runelords are now part of the official Pathfinder RPG rules, so they're not reprinted here. The original volumes also included monster ecologies, bestiary entries, and other campaign setting material that isn't directly used in the adventure itself; those items are also not present in this collection. The Pathfinder Journal fiction featuring Eando Kline is not presented here either, but it has been compiled—along with the installments from the subsequent two Adventure Paths—as The Compass Stone, now available in ePub form. We have also replaced some of the artwork from the previous edition, and replaced the six individual introductions with one new one.
Q: What is included in the digital version? A: In addition to the full version, the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition download includes the Interactive Maps and a Lite version for reading on portable electronic devices.
Bring your campaign to life! The Rise of the Runelords Mega SoundPack from Syrinscape is a complete audio solution for playing through the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules and Chronicle sheets for running this Adventure Path are available as a free download (438 KB zip/PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
This is a beautiful update to the first Golarion based AP Paizo released. It consolidates all the volumes of the original into one easy to use book. Lots of the artwork has been updated significantly improving on many of the pieces from the original. The original stuff wasn't bad, just a big cartoony. It also updates the stats of everything using the Pathfinder 1st edition rules.
It was what kicked off the world's introduction to Golarion. This volume gave it a facelift and nice boost. My group took about 2.5 years to play through it to completion. Right around 500 hours of play. So tons of game play in it. It was the first campaign I've ever "completed" as a GM. It was only the 2nd campaign I've ever "completed" as a player or GM. I've played in dozens of other campaigns that never completed and only fizzled out. My players loved it and still talk about it and we are 1/3 of the way through Skull & Shackles having been playing it for a year.
Of all the APs Paizo has released this one likely has the most official and unofficial support for it. There are thousands of pages of fan material done for it. Paizo message boards, Facebook groups, fan pages, fan zines (Wayfinder #7 is completely devoted to it) and more have been done for it. Giving GMs unparalleled resources and support for it. It's no wonder it is one of the most popular APs they've done. I highly recommend all the additional support for it. Especially the fan stuff, it fills in lots of missing holes that just couldn't be filled in the AP itself.
I'm not sure how I feel about the construction quality of the book itself. We played for 2.5 years, but we played virtually via Fantasy Grounds with the data module for it there. A lot of my referencing and work was done through the module on the computer. I'd say in the end I only used the printed book about 1/3 the time I would have if I would have played through it in person. The binding is very loose for what I consider a small amount of usage. Other than the binding the cover itself is in good condition. I've got a feeling that had it gotten nothing but in person play and reference the binding would have fallen off by now. I'm not hard on my books, I always use the proper method of easing the binding of a new hardcover book, and I'm not rough in my handling of them. So this feels like it isn't made with the quality I would expect.
Book construction quality aside, this AP checks all the high adventure checkboxes. Wizards, dragons, goblins, magic, ancient civilizations, epic treasures, giants, ogres, dungeon crawls, sieges, wilderness exploration, haunted houses, city based stuff. You name it. This fully deserves the 5 stars I give it.
A Legendary Campaign Receives the Deluxe Package it Deserves
I honestly don't even know where to start in reviewing this book. It was my bible for the longest campaign I've ever ran, and I've paged through its 428 pages so many times, I'm surprised my copy is in as good of shape as it is. Equalled only by the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover compilation, the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is the most detailed, impressive, and gorgeous presentation of a campaign I've ever seen. It's a testament to James Jacob and the wonderful visual and art design folks at Paizo for putting it together. In addition to the core adventures, the book includes an incredible array of supplementary material throughout its appendices: gazetteers, bestiaries, new magic items, and more. And interspersed throughout are full-colour, detailed maps, high-quality artwork of NPCs and monsters, handouts, useful sidebars to help the GM in running particular scenes, and more. I really can't rave enough about it.
I've already reviewed the substance of each of the six chapters of the adventure path in my reviews of issues # 1-6 of the monthly publication they originally appeared in (available on the Paizo website). This Anniversary Edition is no lazy cut & paste compilation or mere updating of the original 3.5 rules to Pathfinder. Everything has been refined, revised, polished, and packaged together to make a whole that is even better than the sum of its original parts. James Jacob read through countless posts on the forums about the original adventures and added encounters, explanations, and more to help everything flow even better. I've compared the original versions to this revised package, and with only a couple of exceptions, the revisions are a sound improvement.
As far as I'm concerned, this is the best presentation of a classic fantasy role-playing campaign available. You'll get hundreds of hours of gameplay out of it, experience characters growing from battling goblins at level 1 to battling the greatest threats the setting has to offer at level 18. It's a satisfying, meaty, epic campaign, and this Anniversary Edition does it full justice.
I don't understand why this is not mentioned here but by paying 60$ you get both the pdf version of the adventure as well as the Fantasy Grounds VTT plug in that saves you TONS of prepping. This adventure is excellent, with a lot of scary and funny moments and is a must-buy for all Pathfinder fans out there!
I have the original softcovers. I collected them up to the 50's and when I changed jobs money was tighter and I couldn't keep up. Recently going back to pick up some of the ones I missed I was shocked to see prices as high as 234.00 for a single softcover. There are a lot of Pathfinder fans who didnt get the softcovers when they were first released and these hardcovers are excellent as well as being affordable.
The book itself is solid. Takes up less space on my shelf, is a great first series of adventures, looks beautiful, is fun to play and is just overall well worth the money i spent on it. I will also be picking up Crimson Throne hardcover and hope they continue on and it was the adventure paths that drew me to PF in the first place.
"Expanded articles on the locations of Rise of the Runelords: Sandpoint, Magnimar, Turtleback Ferry, and the ancient Thassilonian empire of Shalast and its sprawling capital."
Hardcover + PPM mini set = wallet self-destructs. ;D
Will this be part of the AP subscription?
According to the write up above: "The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is not part of any subscription, but Pathfinder Adventure Path subscribers who preorder this book will receive a free PDF edition of this book when the print edition ships. (Note that you will need to have an active AP subscription at the time the Anniversary Edition ships in order to receive the PDF for free.)"
Something to consider, Paizo trimmed the fat from the AP by removing some needless items, EXPANDED many parts in-turn, will sure to have GREAT production value, and is at the affordable price of $60!
I could have easily seen the product priced at $100 but $60 is awesome! That's like buying 3 issues of any other AP. Instead you get a whole campaign.
Kudos to you Paizo, for listening to fans and producing something I'm sure will have a large number of pre-orders by the end of the weekend.
It is rare that I am willing to fork out for physical product from the Paizo store... that pesky international shipping just isn't much fun, but for this I WILL MAKE AN EXCEPTION.
Actually I do have a question. Will the players guide be part of it as well? And will the players guide be expanded and updated like the more recent ones?
Hope for something like this has been lurking in the back of my mind since the day I got sucked into Pathfinder.
When you guys announce a new product, my initial reaction is usually "This is exactly what I wanted and I didn't even know it." This time, you have actually given me exactly what I wanted. I love you guys.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Scott Betts wrote:
Oh, great.
Now I have to buy this, and a new, structurally-reinforced coffee table for it to sit on.
That's nothing compared to Ptolus, Pathfinder Core Rulebook, or Tome of Horrors Complete. Of course, if you want to play Runelords with the Core Rulebook... Maybe you should pick up that industrial strength table...
I hear Monte Cook just re-published Ptolus in two-volume format. Apparently you don't even need a flatbed pickup to take it home from the store anymore.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Scott Betts wrote:
deinol wrote:
That's nothing compared to Ptolus,
I hear Monte Cook just re-published Ptolus in two-volume format. Apparently you don't even need a flatbed pickup to take it home from the store anymore.
Yes, I quite recommend picking it up. I already have the original version, so I won't be.
For extra fun, replace Magnimar with Ptolus when you run Runelords again.
Maybe I'm just hopeful or have my references mixed up - but is there a complete mini set to go with this?
There are a set of RotRL minis coming out next year in combination with this, but I don't know how 'complete' it will be. I think the press release said there would be 60 different minis in the RotRL set.
Is this part of any of the subscriptions or do I need to add it?
From the product description:
Quote:
The Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition is not part of any subscription, but Pathfinder Adventure Path subscribers who preorder this book will receive a free PDF edition of this book when the print edition ships. (Note that you will need to have an active AP subscription at the time the Anniversary Edition ships in order to receive the PDF for free.)
I know that it states that they stated they don't plan on doing this with other APs but it would be really awesome if they did this for at least the APs before the release of the PFRPG.
