PF Companion/Chroncile: Jungles! Woo!

[Rechan]

For a few weeks I knew the Paizo adventure path "The Serpent's Skull" was going to focus on the Mwangi expanse, which is a source I've stolen from for a jungle colony campaign. I'm re-running said campaign for a new group, and it vexed me that the Serpent's Skull was coming out three months after I started, rather than NOW so I can mine it for ideas.

Just now was perusing Paizo's site and I came across the Chronicle Heart of the Jungle, and the Chronicle Sargava, the Lost Colony. And they come out at the end of JUNE!

Boy am I excited.

Although I'm curious about the Heart of the Jungle, too. I've not seen a Chronicle that focuses on such a Large area. Looking at cultures and cities and big adventure sites... Do you think the book will also have details/hooks on little adventure sites? Tiny nuggets, rather than BIG cities?

 

[Steel_Wind]

For a few weeks I knew the Paizo adventure path "The Serpent's Skull" was going to focus on the Mwangi expanse, which is a source I've stolen from for a jungle colony campaign. I'm re-running said campaign for a new group, and it vexed me that the Serpent's Skull was coming out three months after I started, rather than NOW so I can mine it for ideas.

Just now was perusing Paizo's site and I came across the Chronicle Heart of the Jungle, and the Chronicle Sargava, the Lost Colony. And they come out at the end of JUNE!

Boy am I excited.

Although I'm curious about the Heart of the Jungle, too. I've not seen a Chronicle that focuses on such a Large area. Looking at cultures and cities and big adventure sites... Do you think the book will also have details/hooks on little adventure sites? Tiny nuggets, rather than BIG cities?

You are correct in the sense that both of the products you have listed are being released to support the regional context of the forthcoming Serpent's Skull AP. There will doubtless be a fair bit of regional detailing within the AP modules itself, as there always is.

As for Heart of the Jungle, like most Paizo regional products, it is likely to run the gammut in terms of its content. Given the necessary brevity that a 64 page product entails, I think it likely that Heart of the Jungle will provide you with many hooks and the mention of smaller sites, as opposed to significant and exacting detail on a few large cities.

My expectation is that Sargava will be more higly focussed -- and more immediately useful -- to the initial Serpent Skull AP campaign, at least in its opening stages. That's why it's located so close to the area in which the first Serpent's Skull AP module takes place.

On an another note, the whole idea of The Serpent's Skull, for the first time, actually seems to have the potential to use The Pathfinder Society in a believable role in their adventures. That doesn't mean that the idea behind the Pathfinder Society isn't a generally useful GM foil; but useful and believable are two distinct concepts.

Another element that James Jacobs mentioned earlier this week on the Paizo boards was the observation that, generally speaking, the further south one goes on Golarion, the more "high powered" the world setting becomes (with a few exceptions). While I'm not a fan of high powered games, generally, other people are -- so this revelation may be of greater interest to them.

In terms of high powered jungle settings, while the old Aztec feel or a more African King Solomon's Mine feel easily comes to mind set against such a background, I am also reminded of my favorite Middle Earth module that Iron Crown Enterprises released back in the early 1980s: The Court of Ardor. Ardor was intended to provide a backdrop for an epic AP against some very misguided elves, relics from the first Age of Middle Earth who were attempting to do a thing (destroy the sun, as I recall) which would would ultimately result in recalling Morgoth from the Void.

My point: jungles can be very exotic and quite cool, in unexpected ways.

 

[Rechan]

You are correct in the sense that both of the products you have listed are being released to support the regional context of the forthcoming Serpent's Skull AP. There will doubtless be a fair bit of regional detailing within the AP modules itself, as there always is.

As for Heart of the Jungle, like most Paizo regional products, it is likely to run the gammut in terms of its content. Given the necessary brevity that a 64 page product entails, I think it likely that Heart of the Jungle will provide you with many hooks and the mention of smaller sites, as opposed to significant and exacting detail on a few large cities.

I'm not sure how they'll compare. The writeup on the site talks about focusing on the various flora/fauna of the Jungle (diseases, plants, etc), nine jungle cities, and a focus on the BIG adventure sites (lost cities).

I'm just hoping for little nuggets too. An example would be just the mention of smaller adventure sites, or even something as simple as "Here's a shrine to x, which looks like y".

I enjoyed the sweeping things that the Pathfinder Campaign Setting gave the Mwangi. The few sentences about the Screaming Jungle (Screaming monkeys, filled with silent plant monsters) really gave me a great evocative fill with no real detail, so I had something to run with. I also cannibalize so many names from it.

Another element that James Jacobs mentioned earlier this week on the Paizo boards was the observation that, generally speaking, the further south one goes on Golarion, the more "high powered" the world setting becomes (with a few exceptions). While I'm not a fan of high powered games, generally, other people are -- so this revelation may be of greater interest to them.

I'm curious what you mean by "High powered". It makes me think "High fantasy", but I'm not really seeing how that's necessarily the case. At least, I don't know why things get more high powered as they drift further.

Although I have an idea of what you might mean. In River into Darkness, there was essentially a steam boat. It was powered by some magical creature, but I didn't like it. Not because it was magitech, but 1) they didn't go into detail about it, and 2) it's something unique that popped up, but if this was in fact real, you'd think this technology (or magic or whatever) would be more widespread than one little boat in one little corner of the world. But it hadn't impacted the world, it's just tucked in there to get the PCs from point A to point B and require a sidequest.

My point: jungles can be very exotic and quite cool, in unexpected ways.

Jungles, and the type of feel that adventures have - that 1920s big game hunter/Indiana Jones tone/Things are lost and wild and the emphasis on exploration - I love it! That and Deserts are my favorite geographical settings.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think in this case, the high-powered/high fantasy description is taken to mean exactly that. James Jacobs' original comments on the subject can be found here.

I understand the sentiment, but it's worth pointing out that we're NOT ignoring African areas or mythologies in Golarion because we DO have Garund as part of the Inner Sea region. In fact, we're setting an entire Adventure Path there. The Serpent's Skull Adventure Path is going to have a LOT of African themes and mythos to it.

Frankly, the more southern you get on Garund, the less it looks and feels like Africa because it gets pretty high-fantasy/high-magic even further south.

...Just look at the various nations, from north to south. With SOME exceptions, the further south you go, the more high-magic you get. While the further north you go, the more traditional fantasy you get.

Of course, there are exceptions, but the general rule in the Inner Sea is that the further south you are, the more high-fantasy things get.

 

[Shemeska]

Although I'm curious about the Heart of the Jungle, too. I've not seen a Chronicle that focuses on such a Large area. Looking at cultures and cities and big adventure sites... Do you think the book will also have details/hooks on little adventure sites? Tiny nuggets, rather than BIG cities?

There will be details on both big cities and locations, and smaller ones as well. Trust me on this one.

 

[James Jacobs]

Heart of the Jungle is not a model of Chronicles book we do often, but we HAVE done it before. The closest analogy is Into the Darklands, which covers ALL of the three layers of the underground realm under the Inner Sea Region. Those familiar with Into the Darklands will know what to expect, but basically Heart of the Jungle will present a LOT of locations, gazetteer style, both for civilized areas and for adventure sites. It'll also present several new monsters as well as a lot of new diseases and hazards and other fun things to inflict on players while they explore jungles.

As for my comment about "high power to the south," it's a bit more complex.

Basically, the general theme of the Inner Sea region is that the further north you go, the more gritty and low-magic things get. While as you head south, the more high-fantasy and outlandish things get. That's why you have things like perpetual hurricanes, nations ruled by undead, the mana wastes, flying cities, empires ruled by wizards, genies, super-diverse cities like Katapesh, and the like in the southern regions. And why to the north you have generally low magic/gritty stuff like Brevoy (which was heavily inspired by George Martin's Westeros), "Conan land" with the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, the Land of the Linnorm Kings, and gritty regions like the River Kingdoms or Varisia.

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions. Numeria and Irrisen are in the north but are pretty wild. And then to the south you have the entire Mwangi Expanse and Sargava which are pretty low-magic and gritty.

"Serpent's Skull" is likely going to run from 1st level to about 17th or 18th level—about the same range as "Kingmaker" or "Rise of the Runelords" or "Curse of the Crimson Throne." And since it's set in the Mwangi Expanse, it's not going to be as overwhelmingly high-fantasy as an adventure set in Nex would be. That said... a large part of "Serpent's Skull" is about discovering some pretty potent high-fantasy stuff tied to the ancient past...

 

[MerrikCale]

Heart of the Jungle is not a model of Chronicles book we do often, but we HAVE done it before. The closest analogy is Into the Darklands, which covers ALL of the three layers of the underground realm under the Inner Sea Region. Those familiar with Into the Darklands will know what to expect, but basically Heart of the Jungle will present a LOT of locations, gazetteer style, both for civilized areas and for adventure sites. It'll also present several new monsters as well as a lot of new diseases and hazards and other fun things to inflict on players while they explore jungles.

Interesting, although I think the best Chronicles books (at least those on locations) are more narrowed in focus like Cities of Golarion or my favroite, Darkmoon Vale. I would love to see more Chronicle books that take a region and make a 64 page supplement on it