Pathfinder Teases New Runelords Content

Paizo Publishing may be bringing back the Runelords, the original villains of their Pathfinder campaign setting. On social media yesterday, Paizo posted a Wayne Reynolds promotional image from their original Rise of the Runelords adventure path along with a brief post saying that the Runelords would be returning in upcoming Pathfinder products. No further detail was given.

https://bsky.app/profile/paizo.com%2Fpost%2F3llcruuwlgi26

The Runelords featured in a trilogy of popular adventure paths and were one of the key villains of the Golarion setting. The seven magic casters, each representing a different kind of cardinal sin, ruled over ancient Thassilon until its destruction via the cataclysmic Earthfall event. Paizo's first Pathfinder adventure path, Rise of the Runelords, pitted heroes against the return of one such Runelord, while the Shattered Star and Return of the Runelords adventure paths followed up on the return of ancient Thassilon and brought back other runelords to the present day. In Golarion's shifting continuity, two Runelords are now active, with one ruling over a newly founded New Thassilon in a benevolent fashion.

Popular speculation is that Paizo is updating Rise of the Runelords for Pathfinder 2E, as there are relatively few OGL-based monsters. A stream detailing Paizo's plans will air this Friday.

 

[Anthro78]

I don't buy this. Encounter expectations are different between games. look how poorly the direct port of the encounters went with the Savage Worlds conversion.

Different games are different, even when they are closely related. Conversions should be done with as much care as original design.

It's the method they used for Kingmaker. They created a 5e bestiary and referred to the original 2e adventure book for the plot points.

 

[Superchunk77]

Savage Worlds does not have the same expectations of "fights per day" for XP, and nor does it use resources the same way. By porting over the encounters the way they did, they made the adventures work AGAINST what Savage Worlds is designed to do.

How you managed to not see those complaints is beyond me. They are pretty common.

PEG would have taken flak from fans of the adventure paths for removing any of those encounters. It's up the GM to include and exclude what they feel is relevant for their group. And I'm also confident the guys doing the conversion mentioned at the very start, they these conversions would be straight up from one system to another. So while SW doesn't "need" all of the encounters, I'd much rather have too much material than too little.

 

[Reynard]

It's the method they used for Kingmaker. They created a 5e bestiary and referred to the original 2e adventure book for the plot points.

Does it work?

 

[Reynard]

PEG would have taken flak from fans of the adventure paths for removing any of those encounters. It's up the GM to include and exclude what they feel is relevant for their group. And I'm also confident the guys doing the conversion mentioned at the very start, they these conversions would be straight up from one system to another. So while SW doesn't "need" all of the encounters, I'd much rather have too much material than too little.

"The GM can fix it" is lazy game design.

 

[Anthro78]

Does it work?

Couldn't say. I play Pathfinder 2e and only very rarely 5e. But that's how they did it for Kingmaker and I would say that's more cost effective for them than a complete re-write which require more author and editorial time. But given that more 5e conversions haven't been announced, my guess is that it's not financially advantageous for them to do conversions in any form.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I really enjoyed the orginal PF stuff, so keen to see where they go here

 

[TheSword]

Does it work?

Yes, not because the GM has to fix it but because 5e is very forgiving when it comes difficulty in comparison to Pathfinder.

 

[danir]

I’m running the rise of the runelords savage pathfinder version and it is great.
Yes, it is a direct port, and there are a couple of things that are better if modified, but it is easily done on the fly.
Compared to the amount of re-balancing tips and other mechanical suggestions i see on Paizo forums for the pathfinder version, it seems that the SWPF is much easier to run as is.

 

[BigZebra]

"The GM can fix it" is lazy game design.

The license from Paizo didn't allow for PEG to alter the AP, it needed to be a straight conversion.

 

[BigZebra]

Actually this is reply of a (former) PEG employee on a question on why the AP structure wasn't more "Savage World"-ified: