What do you think?
Rate this book
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Ultimate Campaign
Take Charge!
Where the dungeon ends, another adventure begins! Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign takes you on a guided tour through the parts of the game that happen between monster attacks and quests for ancient artifacts. As some of the most powerful and prestigious heroes around, do your player characters want to build up a kingdom of their own, or lead an army against a neighboring nation? Perhaps they want to start a business, craft magic items, or embark on a quest that will come to define them. Whether you're looking for help generating a young character or seeking ways to challenge adventurers who've grown bored of fighting monsters one-on-one, this book has everything you need!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign includes:
- A detailed guide to generating character backstories, including a new system for random character generation and traits and drawbacks to meld your background with your statistics.
- Story feats that increase in power as you achieve key goals, making quests and crusades more than just flavor!
- A complete downtime rules system to flesh out those parts of a PC's life that take place between adventures, such as running a business, gaining power and influence in a community, or starting a magical academy.
- New rules for retraining and switching classes; honor, reputation, and fame; young characters; investment; magic item creation; and other key adventuring topics.
- Rules for building up a kingdom, including construction and technological advancements, governing your people, and more.
- Mass combat rules to help you lead clashing armies and conduct epic battles in a fun and efficient manner—without losing sight of the PCs themselves.
... and much, much more!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
Where the dungeon ends, another adventure begins! Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign takes you on a guided tour through the parts of the game that happen between monster attacks and quests for ancient artifacts. As some of the most powerful and prestigious heroes around, do your player characters want to build up a kingdom of their own, or lead an army against a neighboring nation? Perhaps they want to start a business, craft magic items, or embark on a quest that will come to define them. Whether you're looking for help generating a young character or seeking ways to challenge adventurers who've grown bored of fighting monsters one-on-one, this book has everything you need!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign includes:
- A detailed guide to generating character backstories, including a new system for random character generation and traits and drawbacks to meld your background with your statistics.
- Story feats that increase in power as you achieve key goals, making quests and crusades more than just flavor!
- A complete downtime rules system to flesh out those parts of a PC's life that take place between adventures, such as running a business, gaining power and influence in a community, or starting a magical academy.
- New rules for retraining and switching classes; honor, reputation, and fame; young characters; investment; magic item creation; and other key adventuring topics.
- Rules for building up a kingdom, including construction and technological advancements, governing your people, and more.
- Mass combat rules to help you lead clashing armies and conduct epic battles in a fun and efficient manner—without losing sight of the PCs themselves.
... and much, much more!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
254 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2013
7 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Jason Bulmahn
125 books40 followersLead Designer of Paizo Inc and Minotaur Games, creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 6, 2017
I have enough books and imagination so that I don't have space for this. The art is inspirational, and if you don't have this elsewhere, its worth the read. Pathfinder is not my system of choice, though I enjoy pillaging their materials for ideas. Someone new to DMing who plays primarily Pathfinder would probably have the patience to find it three stars-worthy.
September 14, 2013
One of the most unique RPG books I've seen. This is great for developing backgrounds all the way to character retirement. The kingdom building and mass warfare sections were great. While the material in this book can deepen any character's story, I can't imagine a GM with four or more players trying to manage all of this simultaneously. Still, worth the read even if Pathfinder is not your RPG of choice.
November 23, 2013
I'm torn, there are a lot of great things in this book that can make my campaign prep easier and quicker. On the other hand though, there are so many cool options and rules here that I don't actually save any time. I really do like this book, it gives me a lot of tools as a GM to make my game world ritcher, and it gives my players options to tie there characters to it in ways that while always possible were seldom if ever taken advantage of.
Read
January 24, 2015ULTIMATE CAMPAIGN, FOR PICKING TRAITS FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER, AND AS A REFERENCE ONCE YOU'RE RUNNING YOUR OWN KINGDOM
June 14, 2014
Overview
The four chapters of Ultimate Campaign each focus on one or more aspects of the Pathfinder roleplaying game that happen outside of the "typical" session.
Character Background
This chapter covers all kinds of background options, including tables for randomly generating various aspects of your background. It features tables that are race-specific as well, so differing cultures and lifespans are taken into account. I particularly like the fact that they incorporate options for characters who were raised by or among races other than their own.
Downtime
Although some of this chapter gives more information on various class-specific downtime activities (such as item crafting, finding a new animal companion, etc.), the vast majority of this chapter is about player run organizations. Want to know the mechanical benefits of running a thieves guild? or keeping a sage on retainer? or owning the tavern the group visits when they return to town to resupply? You'll find it all here.
Campaign Systems
This "chapter" is really just a catch-all for all the subsystems of the game - alignment, companions, magic item creation, retraining, etc. It expands on all of these, and also adds some new ones, including contacts, honor, investment, reputation, and others.
Kingdoms and War
This chapter provides the rules necessary to found, expand, and manage your own kingdom... including rules for armies clashing with one another. I don't know that any of my campaigns will ever need this level of management, but just in case... Ultimate Campaign has it covered.
Aesthetics (4 out of 5)
I like the artwork in this book slightly less than the art I've found in other Pathfinder books. However, it is still high quality. In general, this book keeps up the high production standards of Paizo, which are higher than many similar RPG titles.
Ease of Use (4 out of 5)
There are some rules in this book that you can just pick up and insert in any campaign without a second thought. However, there are a few systems that are complicated enough that you'll probably have to read them two or three times before you "get it." I'm a huge fan of the downtime systems in Chapter 2, but there are a few parts that just weren't intuitive. Several times I had one of those, "Wait, what?" moments while reading and had to go back and reread.
Price (5 out of 5)
This book has the typical price tag for a hardback Pathfinder supplement, which is slightly more expensive than I would like. However, used copies are pretty easy to find online, and the pdf deal on Paizo.com is pretty sweet as well. Even better, much of the information in Ultimate Campaign can be found in the Pathfinder Reference Document for free.
Value (4 out of 5)
If your players are only in it for the dungeon crawl, this book will sit on your shelf and gather dust. However, if your players are interested in making their characters fixtures of the campaign setting, this book is invaluable. Whether by weaving the setting into their character's story or by redefining the geopolitical boundaries of the setting itself, Ultimate Campaign gives a lot of options. If you prefer a straight dungeon crawl to a sprawling multifaceted campaign, you probably won't find much value here. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you were interested enough to read this far, you'll be delighted with the options in this supplement.
Summary
If you're looking for guidelines and rules for all the things that happen outside the dungeon itself, this book is an incredible buy. If you have the spare cash, pick it up. If you don't have the spare cash, start saving.
For more reviews of RPG products, check out Outsyder Gaming.
The four chapters of Ultimate Campaign each focus on one or more aspects of the Pathfinder roleplaying game that happen outside of the "typical" session.
Character Background
This chapter covers all kinds of background options, including tables for randomly generating various aspects of your background. It features tables that are race-specific as well, so differing cultures and lifespans are taken into account. I particularly like the fact that they incorporate options for characters who were raised by or among races other than their own.
Downtime
Although some of this chapter gives more information on various class-specific downtime activities (such as item crafting, finding a new animal companion, etc.), the vast majority of this chapter is about player run organizations. Want to know the mechanical benefits of running a thieves guild? or keeping a sage on retainer? or owning the tavern the group visits when they return to town to resupply? You'll find it all here.
Campaign Systems
This "chapter" is really just a catch-all for all the subsystems of the game - alignment, companions, magic item creation, retraining, etc. It expands on all of these, and also adds some new ones, including contacts, honor, investment, reputation, and others.
Kingdoms and War
This chapter provides the rules necessary to found, expand, and manage your own kingdom... including rules for armies clashing with one another. I don't know that any of my campaigns will ever need this level of management, but just in case... Ultimate Campaign has it covered.
Aesthetics (4 out of 5)
I like the artwork in this book slightly less than the art I've found in other Pathfinder books. However, it is still high quality. In general, this book keeps up the high production standards of Paizo, which are higher than many similar RPG titles.
Ease of Use (4 out of 5)
There are some rules in this book that you can just pick up and insert in any campaign without a second thought. However, there are a few systems that are complicated enough that you'll probably have to read them two or three times before you "get it." I'm a huge fan of the downtime systems in Chapter 2, but there are a few parts that just weren't intuitive. Several times I had one of those, "Wait, what?" moments while reading and had to go back and reread.
Price (5 out of 5)
This book has the typical price tag for a hardback Pathfinder supplement, which is slightly more expensive than I would like. However, used copies are pretty easy to find online, and the pdf deal on Paizo.com is pretty sweet as well. Even better, much of the information in Ultimate Campaign can be found in the Pathfinder Reference Document for free.
Value (4 out of 5)
If your players are only in it for the dungeon crawl, this book will sit on your shelf and gather dust. However, if your players are interested in making their characters fixtures of the campaign setting, this book is invaluable. Whether by weaving the setting into their character's story or by redefining the geopolitical boundaries of the setting itself, Ultimate Campaign gives a lot of options. If you prefer a straight dungeon crawl to a sprawling multifaceted campaign, you probably won't find much value here. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you were interested enough to read this far, you'll be delighted with the options in this supplement.
Summary
If you're looking for guidelines and rules for all the things that happen outside the dungeon itself, this book is an incredible buy. If you have the spare cash, pick it up. If you don't have the spare cash, start saving.
For more reviews of RPG products, check out Outsyder Gaming.
June 30, 2013
This source book lives up to the standards that Paizo has set. While I will probably never use some of the optional rules such as bartering and building a kingdom from scratch, it is still a great reference to have. Who knows, perhaps one of my Player Characters will someday wish to found a village.
I am, however, very excited about the character background ideas and tables, youth tables, traits and story traits. The mass combat is efficient and quick, which I really like and just may come in handy sooner or later :) All in all a very sound investment.
I am, however, very excited about the character background ideas and tables, youth tables, traits and story traits. The mass combat is efficient and quick, which I really like and just may come in handy sooner or later :) All in all a very sound investment.
October 11, 2023
Basic Premise: Resources for building a full campaign for the Pathfinder RPG.
While this book has some crunch in it, rules for how to retrain characters in different classes, for example, this book is mostly about the fluff. Creating a story that involves everyone at the table is a vital part of roleplaying (not just roll-playing). This book has a lot of resources to help with that. There is also the "downtime" aspect and the bigger picture of what the PCs ultimate goals are (beyond surviving the current bar fight).
While this book has some crunch in it, rules for how to retrain characters in different classes, for example, this book is mostly about the fluff. Creating a story that involves everyone at the table is a vital part of roleplaying (not just roll-playing). This book has a lot of resources to help with that. There is also the "downtime" aspect and the bigger picture of what the PCs ultimate goals are (beyond surviving the current bar fight).
June 12, 2013
Holy CRAP so many ideas to gleam from this book!
July 2, 2013
I still have to playtest it but it's full of great stuff.
December 7, 2013
An excellent supplement for developing greater immersion in the RPG world.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews