If tramping through musty tombs, undead-ridden castles, and trackless wastes have lost their appeal to your Pathfinder gaming group, then maybe your players need a nice vacation to someplace warm, near a tropical sea, and filled with all new horrors and deadly dangers to liven up their adventuring careers! Sea-bound adventures certainly offer a whole new dimension to a campaign, and can provide some amazing stories and unique challenges for Pathfinder gamers.
This year, Frog God Games released a new campaign setting called Razor Coast, offering a high-fantasy take on swashbuckling adventures, and providing locales and unearthly plots which could inspire another “Pirates of the Caribbean” Trilogy. But more than a campaign setting, Razor Coast claims to offer not one, but two complete story arcs, and enough content to keep Pathfinder heroes busy from Level 5 to Level 12!
Razor Coast
Razor Coast is a campaign setting and adventure path by Frog God Games, for Pathfinder characters of Levels 5th through 12th. The sourcebook is designed for a high-fantasy campaign set in an Age of Sail, and features a Caribbean-like environment of pirates, swashbuckling, and adventures both on land and sea. Razor Coast features two main plot arcs for the characters to experience, as well as dozens of side adventures, encounters, and sub-plots to add excitement and substance to the overarching adventure paths. The sourcebook also introduces new monsters, magic items, and mundane items which can be found along the Razor Coast, and there are also new character options and feats to allow the players tie their heroes into the campaign setting as desired.
Production Quality
The production quality of Razor Coast is exceptional, providing a very polished and useful layout for the book, and features impressive writing talent in its design. The designers of this book show incredible imagination and talent in plots, monster design, and new items, as well as new rules variations. And the format of the monster and item stat blocks is identical to that of the Pathfinder format.
Razor Coast comes with both a table of contents, an overview of the chapters in the introduction, and PDF bookmarks. Regretfully, the PDF bookmarks are not as detailed as one would expect in a book of this size, in many cases lacking the sub-bookmarks within each chapter which would make navigation much easier. The addition of appendices at the end of the book, collecting campaign concepts into cohesive groups is an excellent tool, and somewhat makes up for the sparsely detailed bookmarks.
The illustrations in Razor Coast are superb, and that goes for cartography as well. Considering the number of artists tapped to add their talent to the book, and a fantastic cover by famed Wayne Reynolds, it’s no wonder that Razor Coast has the look and feel of an official Pathfinder product; a real coup for the team at Frog God Games.
The Call of the Sea
Razor Coast is well designed to give Pathfinder player-characters an experience of high-fantasy, dangerous pirates, dark magic, and swashbuckling all in one big package. It provides both a campaign setting, as well as two powerhouse campaign plot arcs, plus a wide range of NPCs, sub-plots, and side adventures. The campaign in Razor Coast claims to take a party of 5th Level heroes, and keep them busy for the next seven levels of their adventuring career. And from the huge amount of content in this sourcebook, the designers at Frog God Games look like they made good on that claim!
Razor Coast is divided into seven large chapters, and followed up with eight more appendices, to provide all the tools a GM needs to design and run the campaign arcs in the setting.
The book opens with an Introduction, which gives an overview of the contents, and how it can be used to create an individualized campaign. The nature of the setting and the encounters are quite sand-boxy, allowing heroes to explore side adventures, as well as the two (major and minor) plot arcs. The Introduction also details the types of content contained in Razor Coast, and how the different encounter types and sub-plots are used within a campaign. There are Inciting Incidents which can introduce the party to the main plot arcs and get them enticed into pursuing them. Relationship Sub-plots detail encounters that involve the life story of important NPCs, and some of these feed back into the main plot arcs. There are Set-Pieces providing a self-contained series of encounters which have their own plots and story, and while they do not necessarily involve the main plot arcs, can contain experiences which enhance the those arcs. And finally, there are Stand Alone encounters which occasionally crop up, some of which might be connected to the main arcs and provide additional context. This design offers a multi-layered approach to the main plot arcs in Razor Coast, and certainly keeps the PCs engaged in the setting and the story.
In Chapter 1, GMs are introduced to Port Shaw, the major civilized area in the Razor Coast setting. This chapter includes very detailed descriptions of many of the influential NPCs, including their habits, alliances, and motivations. Some of these NPCs are dire villains which will eventually become enemies of the PCs, while others are generally neutral in character, and can be induced to become allies, depending, of course, on the actions of the heroes. There is also a history of the region, of the development of Port Shaw, and information about the Tulita natives that pre-date the Port - and their relationship to the powerful entities haunting the Razor Coast.
Chapter 2 explains how to build a unique campaign path from the resources provided in the Razor Coast setting and adventure content. According to the designers, Razor Coast has a massive array of resources for the GMs to create their own style of campaign for their players:
The designers go to great lengths to explain how a GM can set up a unique campaign that still remains sand-boxy, but still allows a campaign to move forward with some focus. I particularly liked the details provided about how the interactions of the PCs can affect the lives of the major NPCs – and some of them could come to a very bad end unless the PCs take an interest in them. This chapter also gives a sample campaign outline, with details about how the first two sessions for 5th level characters could play out. There are adventure tracking sheets for 5th level play, 6th-7th, 7th-8th, 8th-9th, 9th-10th, as well as for the two main plot arcs.
Chapter 3 provides detailed information about the various encounters, rumors, adventures, and vignettes that the PCs can come across when in Port Shaw. The designers created a vibrant and detailed city that feels like a “living” locale, with a wide range of events and happenings occurring all the time. Besides the encounters and adventures, there are also new NPCs and shops introduced in this chapter, adding even more details to the lively swashbuckling town of Port Shaw.
In Chapter 4, the designers open up the adventure possibilities for PCs in the area around Port Shaw, as well as in the sewers beneath it. This section includes random encounters and set pieces, including full details about the sewers - which is quite like a series of mini-dungeons lying beneath the town. There are also some very nasty dungeons outside the sewers, and very involved plots for the PCs to encounter, so there’s considerable number of adventures possibilities within this single chapter.
Adventures at sea are introduced in Chapter 5, presenting the PCs with the prospect of sailing to various locales along the Razor Coast and the islands dotting the waters off the coastline. The designers added considerable details about sea travel, including the effects of the dangerous weather which plagues the Razor Coast, and how that the weather can alter the fates of the heroes – such as being washed overboard in the midst of a gale! There are a number of stand-alone encounters in this chapter, which have a wide range of interesting new creatures that can attack the heroes’ ship and crew. There are also several set pieces in this chapter, including locales such as the Beacon Island and the Kraken’s Reef – two very dangerous and potentially rewarding sites for an adventure. There are some nifty graphics in this chapter as well, including full-color graphics of the flags flown by various ships in the region, and a awesome ship map to use when the characters take their sea voyage.
The final two chapters, Chapters 6 and 7, deal directly with the major and minor plot arcs for the Razor Coast campaign setting. In order to avoid spoilers, the details about this section will be as minimalistic as possible. However, it can be said that the details on the main plots, and their place in the overall campaign are truly amazing, and the actions of the PCs can have a massive effect on the region of the Razor Coast – such as averting the destruction of Port Shaw and all its denizens! Each of these chapters also have specific encounters for the lead-up to the climactic moments of the main plot arcs, and present a variety of exciting challenges for the heroes to overcome.
Finally, Razor Coast ends with eight appendices, which provide quick references, handouts, and adventure worksheets to use during a campaign. There are appendices devoted to listing new items in the campaign, new monsters and monster templates, a gazetteer of the entire Razor Coast for further development by the GM, and even a set of new player-character options for handling duels, creating a swashbuckler, or even being a member of the Tulita tribes. There’s also a very well-written, stand-alone adventure by Frank Mentzer, which takes place near the Razor Coast but not exactly related to the plot arcs. And there’s even an entire appendix devoted to a synopsis of the adventure options for creating a unique campaign arc in the Razor Coast, as well as the commensurate levels for which set pieces and encounters are appropriate for use.
Overall Score: 4.1 out of 5.0
Conclusions
I’m really impressed with Razor Coast by Frog God Games, and frankly I think this should be a model for how campaign arcs should be devised from here on out. It offers a fresh and exciting setting for playing a swashbuckling campaign set in a high-fantasy world, with just the right mix of mystery, excitement, and skullduggery to engage players who enjoy that “Pirates of the Caribbean” vibe. The overall design of the book, from writing and plots to amazing illustrations, is designed to have that “wow” factor for any GM using this campaign setting.
Razor Coast is decently priced, being about what I would expect to pay for the massive amount of content contained in its pages. There’s enough adventure material in here to keep a bunch of player-characters busy for seven levels or more, over hours and hours of gameplay - well worth an investment in a unique and exciting campaign setting indeed!
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which this review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
This year, Frog God Games released a new campaign setting called Razor Coast, offering a high-fantasy take on swashbuckling adventures, and providing locales and unearthly plots which could inspire another “Pirates of the Caribbean” Trilogy. But more than a campaign setting, Razor Coast claims to offer not one, but two complete story arcs, and enough content to keep Pathfinder heroes busy from Level 5 to Level 12!Razor Coast
- Designer: Nicolas Logue (with Lou Agresta, Tim Hitchcock, John Ling)
- Illustrations: Wayne Reynolds (cover); (interior) Rowena Aitken, Richard Clark, David Day, Steve Ellis, Andrew Hou, Eric Lofgren, Claudio Pozas, Wayne Reynolds, Ted Reed, Tony Schmidt, Cynthia Shephard, Hugo Solis, & Savage Mojo’s: Aaron Acevedo, Alec Acevedo, Chris Malidore, Chris Bivins, and Carly Sorge
- Cartography: Robert Altbauer, Erik Frankhouse, Rob Lazzaretti, Sean Macdonald, Hugo Solis
- Publisher: Frog God Games
- Year: 2013
- Media: PDF (546 pages)
- Price: $40.00 (Available from RPGNow)
Razor Coast is a campaign setting and adventure path by Frog God Games, for Pathfinder characters of Levels 5th through 12th. The sourcebook is designed for a high-fantasy campaign set in an Age of Sail, and features a Caribbean-like environment of pirates, swashbuckling, and adventures both on land and sea. Razor Coast features two main plot arcs for the characters to experience, as well as dozens of side adventures, encounters, and sub-plots to add excitement and substance to the overarching adventure paths. The sourcebook also introduces new monsters, magic items, and mundane items which can be found along the Razor Coast, and there are also new character options and feats to allow the players tie their heroes into the campaign setting as desired.
Production Quality
The production quality of Razor Coast is exceptional, providing a very polished and useful layout for the book, and features impressive writing talent in its design. The designers of this book show incredible imagination and talent in plots, monster design, and new items, as well as new rules variations. And the format of the monster and item stat blocks is identical to that of the Pathfinder format.
Razor Coast comes with both a table of contents, an overview of the chapters in the introduction, and PDF bookmarks. Regretfully, the PDF bookmarks are not as detailed as one would expect in a book of this size, in many cases lacking the sub-bookmarks within each chapter which would make navigation much easier. The addition of appendices at the end of the book, collecting campaign concepts into cohesive groups is an excellent tool, and somewhat makes up for the sparsely detailed bookmarks.
The illustrations in Razor Coast are superb, and that goes for cartography as well. Considering the number of artists tapped to add their talent to the book, and a fantastic cover by famed Wayne Reynolds, it’s no wonder that Razor Coast has the look and feel of an official Pathfinder product; a real coup for the team at Frog God Games.
The Call of the Sea
Razor Coast is well designed to give Pathfinder player-characters an experience of high-fantasy, dangerous pirates, dark magic, and swashbuckling all in one big package. It provides both a campaign setting, as well as two powerhouse campaign plot arcs, plus a wide range of NPCs, sub-plots, and side adventures. The campaign in Razor Coast claims to take a party of 5th Level heroes, and keep them busy for the next seven levels of their adventuring career. And from the huge amount of content in this sourcebook, the designers at Frog God Games look like they made good on that claim!
Razor Coast is divided into seven large chapters, and followed up with eight more appendices, to provide all the tools a GM needs to design and run the campaign arcs in the setting.
The book opens with an Introduction, which gives an overview of the contents, and how it can be used to create an individualized campaign. The nature of the setting and the encounters are quite sand-boxy, allowing heroes to explore side adventures, as well as the two (major and minor) plot arcs. The Introduction also details the types of content contained in Razor Coast, and how the different encounter types and sub-plots are used within a campaign. There are Inciting Incidents which can introduce the party to the main plot arcs and get them enticed into pursuing them. Relationship Sub-plots detail encounters that involve the life story of important NPCs, and some of these feed back into the main plot arcs. There are Set-Pieces providing a self-contained series of encounters which have their own plots and story, and while they do not necessarily involve the main plot arcs, can contain experiences which enhance the those arcs. And finally, there are Stand Alone encounters which occasionally crop up, some of which might be connected to the main arcs and provide additional context. This design offers a multi-layered approach to the main plot arcs in Razor Coast, and certainly keeps the PCs engaged in the setting and the story.
In Chapter 1, GMs are introduced to Port Shaw, the major civilized area in the Razor Coast setting. This chapter includes very detailed descriptions of many of the influential NPCs, including their habits, alliances, and motivations. Some of these NPCs are dire villains which will eventually become enemies of the PCs, while others are generally neutral in character, and can be induced to become allies, depending, of course, on the actions of the heroes. There is also a history of the region, of the development of Port Shaw, and information about the Tulita natives that pre-date the Port - and their relationship to the powerful entities haunting the Razor Coast.
Chapter 2 explains how to build a unique campaign path from the resources provided in the Razor Coast setting and adventure content. According to the designers, Razor Coast has a massive array of resources for the GMs to create their own style of campaign for their players:
The designers go to great lengths to explain how a GM can set up a unique campaign that still remains sand-boxy, but still allows a campaign to move forward with some focus. I particularly liked the details provided about how the interactions of the PCs can affect the lives of the major NPCs – and some of them could come to a very bad end unless the PCs take an interest in them. This chapter also gives a sample campaign outline, with details about how the first two sessions for 5th level characters could play out. There are adventure tracking sheets for 5th level play, 6th-7th, 7th-8th, 8th-9th, 9th-10th, as well as for the two main plot arcs.
Chapter 3 provides detailed information about the various encounters, rumors, adventures, and vignettes that the PCs can come across when in Port Shaw. The designers created a vibrant and detailed city that feels like a “living” locale, with a wide range of events and happenings occurring all the time. Besides the encounters and adventures, there are also new NPCs and shops introduced in this chapter, adding even more details to the lively swashbuckling town of Port Shaw.
In Chapter 4, the designers open up the adventure possibilities for PCs in the area around Port Shaw, as well as in the sewers beneath it. This section includes random encounters and set pieces, including full details about the sewers - which is quite like a series of mini-dungeons lying beneath the town. There are also some very nasty dungeons outside the sewers, and very involved plots for the PCs to encounter, so there’s considerable number of adventures possibilities within this single chapter.
Adventures at sea are introduced in Chapter 5, presenting the PCs with the prospect of sailing to various locales along the Razor Coast and the islands dotting the waters off the coastline. The designers added considerable details about sea travel, including the effects of the dangerous weather which plagues the Razor Coast, and how that the weather can alter the fates of the heroes – such as being washed overboard in the midst of a gale! There are a number of stand-alone encounters in this chapter, which have a wide range of interesting new creatures that can attack the heroes’ ship and crew. There are also several set pieces in this chapter, including locales such as the Beacon Island and the Kraken’s Reef – two very dangerous and potentially rewarding sites for an adventure. There are some nifty graphics in this chapter as well, including full-color graphics of the flags flown by various ships in the region, and a awesome ship map to use when the characters take their sea voyage.
The final two chapters, Chapters 6 and 7, deal directly with the major and minor plot arcs for the Razor Coast campaign setting. In order to avoid spoilers, the details about this section will be as minimalistic as possible. However, it can be said that the details on the main plots, and their place in the overall campaign are truly amazing, and the actions of the PCs can have a massive effect on the region of the Razor Coast – such as averting the destruction of Port Shaw and all its denizens! Each of these chapters also have specific encounters for the lead-up to the climactic moments of the main plot arcs, and present a variety of exciting challenges for the heroes to overcome.
Finally, Razor Coast ends with eight appendices, which provide quick references, handouts, and adventure worksheets to use during a campaign. There are appendices devoted to listing new items in the campaign, new monsters and monster templates, a gazetteer of the entire Razor Coast for further development by the GM, and even a set of new player-character options for handling duels, creating a swashbuckler, or even being a member of the Tulita tribes. There’s also a very well-written, stand-alone adventure by Frank Mentzer, which takes place near the Razor Coast but not exactly related to the plot arcs. And there’s even an entire appendix devoted to a synopsis of the adventure options for creating a unique campaign arc in the Razor Coast, as well as the commensurate levels for which set pieces and encounters are appropriate for use.
Overall Score: 4.1 out of 5.0
Conclusions
I’m really impressed with Razor Coast by Frog God Games, and frankly I think this should be a model for how campaign arcs should be devised from here on out. It offers a fresh and exciting setting for playing a swashbuckling campaign set in a high-fantasy world, with just the right mix of mystery, excitement, and skullduggery to engage players who enjoy that “Pirates of the Caribbean” vibe. The overall design of the book, from writing and plots to amazing illustrations, is designed to have that “wow” factor for any GM using this campaign setting.
Razor Coast is decently priced, being about what I would expect to pay for the massive amount of content contained in its pages. There’s enough adventure material in here to keep a bunch of player-characters busy for seven levels or more, over hours and hours of gameplay - well worth an investment in a unique and exciting campaign setting indeed!
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which this review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 4.25
- - Design: 4.0 (Amazing writing style; professional layout; weak on bookmarks but tolerable)
- - Illustrations: 4.5 (Gorgeous artwork overall; tons of full color illustrations; great cartography)
- Content: 4.5
- - Crunch: 4.5 (Tons of crunchy bits; cool rules variations; well-designed stat block for every encounter)
- - Fluff: 4.5 (Awesome story and plot; fantastic new items and monsters; amazing descriptions of NPCs)
- Value: 3.5 (Decently price; about what I would expect to pay for the volume of content)
