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Rise of the Runelords #1-6
Rise of the Runelords
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!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
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!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
428 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 24, 2020
Basic Plot: Small town adventurers get caught up in the return of some of the most deadly beings to ever walk Golarion.
The story is great and the book is well-constructed. It's easy for any GM to find what they need in here. As much as I love the story, though, I have yet to actually finish the entire campaign with a party. It's frustrating. Part of the problem is that the story is so subtle sometimes, that it is very easy for a party to completely miss the clues of the overplot and become uninvested in the final outcome. As much as I love it, I couldn't seem to get my players there, too.
The story is great and the book is well-constructed. It's easy for any GM to find what they need in here. As much as I love the story, though, I have yet to actually finish the entire campaign with a party. It's frustrating. Part of the problem is that the story is so subtle sometimes, that it is very easy for a party to completely miss the clues of the overplot and become uninvested in the final outcome. As much as I love it, I couldn't seem to get my players there, too.
October 13, 2017
This is a really good campaign for teaching the mechanics of Pathfinder and getting people started, but a lot of it leans towards murder hobos. I think some of the later developed adventure paths do a better job of setting up a dynamic story, but this one definitely has a cohesive narrative and a lot of cool fights/magics involved.
September 11, 2017
Great RPG adventure - still running this as the DM now.
December 5, 2020
Loads of fun!
April 1, 2016
I loved reading and running this campaign. There is such a rich backstory to every location and character. Even when bad guys have to die, you really delve into what drives them. As always, Wayne Reynolds creates phenomenal artwork and was even kind enough to sign my copy at GenCon 2015.
April 27, 2013
Excelente campanha. :)
Edição capa dura com todos os módulos, bem detalhada, stats dos monstros, etc.
Edição capa dura com todos os módulos, bem detalhada, stats dos monstros, etc.
April 28, 2014
Well, finished for now.
May 4, 2018
Read through the whole book. character creation is already done. can't wait to run my players through this. it will be good times
January 3, 2019
Brilliant for first timers, great story and a great game!
December 1, 2019
A great guide: so much detail and organized so well. Good balance of adventure, mystery, horror, and humour. Your players will love this.
February 22, 2026
Sometimes, you read something and think, "hey, this is interesting...and not for me." That's sort of where I'm at with this, apparently classic Pathfinder adventure path. I've never played Pathfinder, nor do I ever plan to. The idea of making 3rd Ed D&D even more number crunchy is a non-starter for me. But, I've read enough adventure modules and campaigns to have a general handle on things.
The overall story is fine. It's fairly standard. Big, ancient bad wants to come back and restart his old evil "take over the world" scheme. Things start off small, with a local village being menaced by goblins, and then get entirely out of hand. The adventure is pretty darned big as it stands, but there are several places along the way where the writers suggest taking your time and indulging in side-quests. I could imagine a run of this going on for a year of regular sessions, if not more. And there's a pretty good sized cast of NPCs, many of which will no doubt return again and again across the weeks and months.
Being the first Pathfinder thing I've read, I was surprised by the tone. Much of the art and a lot of what I hear said about the game has led me to believe the game would be more of a light tone, heroic fantasy. But this has a lot of pretty grim horror throughout. It's packaged in a way that makes me think of something closer to "all ages," but adult themes and content lurk throughout. When I first started reading the book, I got the sense that the goblins were sort of mischievous scamps, almost comic relief. But no. As presented in the events of the first adventure, they're exceptionally nasty, violent, horrors. Tonal whiplash. Not only that, but it features a lot of dogs getting killed, which is pretty much a no for me. There's also a very awkwardly handled bit where an NPC tries to seduce a PC. Not something I'd put in my game, and not handled with any notable sensitivity here.
I'm not super well versed in D&D history, but there are elements of this campaign that I suspect may be inspired by the classic Giants modules, as well as the Temple of Elemental Evil. I was also reminded of some things I've heard about Red Hand of Doom. Not saying that this is any kind of direct lift. Only that it seems to cover some similar themes, like echoes of those classic adventures.
The art throughout is well done. Most isn't really a style I especially respond to, but it's all competently done. The maps look nice, though I imagine you'd have to get PDFs, or find some other means of getting much, MUCH larger copies to make them useful in any way at the table. Maybe they're got virtual tabletop versions. I don't know. I don't do virtual tabletops.
Overall, this was an interesting read. The world of Golarian seems like a perfectly serviceable, generic fantasy world. Maybe not as unique as the one from Earthdawn, but certainly less bland than The Forgotten Realms. Will I be diving deeper into it? I can't imagine so. I had seen a couple things before, but was surprised how outright they mix in a bunch of Lovecraftian/Mythos stuff.
This volume is from 2012. The hobby has gone through a lot since then. I expect Paizo has a better handle on tone and such by this point.
The overall story is fine. It's fairly standard. Big, ancient bad wants to come back and restart his old evil "take over the world" scheme. Things start off small, with a local village being menaced by goblins, and then get entirely out of hand. The adventure is pretty darned big as it stands, but there are several places along the way where the writers suggest taking your time and indulging in side-quests. I could imagine a run of this going on for a year of regular sessions, if not more. And there's a pretty good sized cast of NPCs, many of which will no doubt return again and again across the weeks and months.
Being the first Pathfinder thing I've read, I was surprised by the tone. Much of the art and a lot of what I hear said about the game has led me to believe the game would be more of a light tone, heroic fantasy. But this has a lot of pretty grim horror throughout. It's packaged in a way that makes me think of something closer to "all ages," but adult themes and content lurk throughout. When I first started reading the book, I got the sense that the goblins were sort of mischievous scamps, almost comic relief. But no. As presented in the events of the first adventure, they're exceptionally nasty, violent, horrors. Tonal whiplash. Not only that, but it features a lot of dogs getting killed, which is pretty much a no for me. There's also a very awkwardly handled bit where an NPC tries to seduce a PC. Not something I'd put in my game, and not handled with any notable sensitivity here.
I'm not super well versed in D&D history, but there are elements of this campaign that I suspect may be inspired by the classic Giants modules, as well as the Temple of Elemental Evil. I was also reminded of some things I've heard about Red Hand of Doom. Not saying that this is any kind of direct lift. Only that it seems to cover some similar themes, like echoes of those classic adventures.
The art throughout is well done. Most isn't really a style I especially respond to, but it's all competently done. The maps look nice, though I imagine you'd have to get PDFs, or find some other means of getting much, MUCH larger copies to make them useful in any way at the table. Maybe they're got virtual tabletop versions. I don't know. I don't do virtual tabletops.
Overall, this was an interesting read. The world of Golarian seems like a perfectly serviceable, generic fantasy world. Maybe not as unique as the one from Earthdawn, but certainly less bland than The Forgotten Realms. Will I be diving deeper into it? I can't imagine so. I had seen a couple things before, but was surprised how outright they mix in a bunch of Lovecraftian/Mythos stuff.
This volume is from 2012. The hobby has gone through a lot since then. I expect Paizo has a better handle on tone and such by this point.
Read
May 20, 2024How? Library found.
What? The Adventure Path series is a monthly series of some adventures that form a cohesive campaign. This was an outgrowth of Paizo having the publishing rights for Dragon and Dungeon magazine for D&D 3rd ed.; once WotC moved to D&D 4e, Paizo put out its own RPG, Pathfinder (2009), which was essentially a continuation of D&D 3e.
"Rise of the Runelords" was the first Adventure Path, put out in 2007; then in 2012, they released this Anniversary Edition for Pathfinder. "Anniversary Edition" feels a bit much for 5 years, but they partly probably wanted to get it out for their own RPG system.
As for this adventure path, fittingly enough for the first in the series (as standalone books -- the idea of connected adventures got used three times by Paizo in their run on Dungeon) this is a pretty standard sort of campaign: we start with goblins, move on to ogres, end with giants and wizards from an ancient but not quite dead empire.
Yeah, so? First and perhaps unnecessary to say: I am not the target for this, but I found a little poll somewhat did online a year or so ago and the respondents voted this their favorite Adventure Path. (The compiler notes that it's not that good a campaign, and people are probably just nostalgic because it was the first in this new series.) To expand: I'm not the target because this is pretty generic fantasy world (that's a feature for the audience); and also the art I find tends towards the Liefeld-esque bloating of humanoid bodies with giant muscles. More underfed wastrels, please!
Second, if I slow down with the book and shelves some of my jaded, "been doing this since '85" tendencies, I can see some things that might interest people here, besides the sort of generic "work your way up from goblins to arch-wizard" framework:
* there is a lot of material here that I'm sure could make the world feel lived in;
* there's some fun twists on old monsters -- the goblins love singing, the ogres you fight are literally inbred mutant hillbillies
* there's a horror interlude with a serial killer and a fight in a bell-tower
I guess that's about it for things that I like, though I see why other people might like this. For instance, there's a dungeon where each part is themed after a deadly sin and at the end you get magical weapons -- which seems dreadfully boring to me, but I know people love to get magical weapons after completing a dungeon; and a dungeon that has a theme is a big hit. Now, the "you need to do this quest to get ready for the rest of your quest" is a classic form, though again, I think this adventure path is a little too classic, i.e., generic.
What? The Adventure Path series is a monthly series of some adventures that form a cohesive campaign. This was an outgrowth of Paizo having the publishing rights for Dragon and Dungeon magazine for D&D 3rd ed.; once WotC moved to D&D 4e, Paizo put out its own RPG, Pathfinder (2009), which was essentially a continuation of D&D 3e.
"Rise of the Runelords" was the first Adventure Path, put out in 2007; then in 2012, they released this Anniversary Edition for Pathfinder. "Anniversary Edition" feels a bit much for 5 years, but they partly probably wanted to get it out for their own RPG system.
As for this adventure path, fittingly enough for the first in the series (as standalone books -- the idea of connected adventures got used three times by Paizo in their run on Dungeon) this is a pretty standard sort of campaign: we start with goblins, move on to ogres, end with giants and wizards from an ancient but not quite dead empire.
Yeah, so? First and perhaps unnecessary to say: I am not the target for this, but I found a little poll somewhat did online a year or so ago and the respondents voted this their favorite Adventure Path. (The compiler notes that it's not that good a campaign, and people are probably just nostalgic because it was the first in this new series.) To expand: I'm not the target because this is pretty generic fantasy world (that's a feature for the audience); and also the art I find tends towards the Liefeld-esque bloating of humanoid bodies with giant muscles. More underfed wastrels, please!
Second, if I slow down with the book and shelves some of my jaded, "been doing this since '85" tendencies, I can see some things that might interest people here, besides the sort of generic "work your way up from goblins to arch-wizard" framework:
* there is a lot of material here that I'm sure could make the world feel lived in;
* there's some fun twists on old monsters -- the goblins love singing, the ogres you fight are literally inbred mutant hillbillies
* there's a horror interlude with a serial killer and a fight in a bell-tower
I guess that's about it for things that I like, though I see why other people might like this. For instance, there's a dungeon where each part is themed after a deadly sin and at the end you get magical weapons -- which seems dreadfully boring to me, but I know people love to get magical weapons after completing a dungeon; and a dungeon that has a theme is a big hit. Now, the "you need to do this quest to get ready for the rest of your quest" is a classic form, though again, I think this adventure path is a little too classic, i.e., generic.
August 8, 2022
Una buenísima colección de aventuras para hacer una gran campaña. Si tus jugadores son de los que disfrutan de una aventura de salvar el mundo, este es un grandioso punto de partida lleno de material para MESES (o incluso años, dependiendo del ritmo) de juego. Lo recomiendo sobre todo a mesas en las que se juegue semanal o bisemanalmente, porque es una campaña realmente larga y, a menos que se cumpla esa condición, quizá se haga aburrida.
También creo que es una campaña que se disfruta mucho más con jugadores que conocen bien el sistema y algo del lore (por esto último no hay tanto problema, ya que la campaña tiene material gratuito en español con una guía para la misma).
También creo que es una campaña que se disfruta mucho más con jugadores que conocen bien el sistema y algo del lore (por esto último no hay tanto problema, ya que la campaña tiene material gratuito en español con una guía para la misma).
September 22, 2019
Lots and lots of backstory that I don't know how even a highly-talented DM could communicate to the players. The campaign does do a good job of providing diverse scenarios that all tie into the main story.
July 6, 2014
One great AP for Pathfinder Rpg line!
December 4, 2015
I haven't read the other Paizo adventure paths, but I enjoyed this one a lot. I can see many interesting ways for my players to die. Mwahaha.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews