Voyages across uncharted seas to far-away places have been part of human myth, legend, and history since the beginning of recorded time and beyond. Whether it’s from Odysseus’ journeys back to Ithaca as told in Homer’s Odessey, the great sea-battles and heroic deeds told in the Sagas, or the wild tales of Sinbad and his Seven Voyages, the urge to take a ship, and set off exploring the unknown is a powerful force which many cannot resist.
Likewise, fantasy novels are filled with examples of the heroes setting sail in search of new lands and conquests across the vast oceans. Conan, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, Elric of Melnibonea are just a few of the characters in modern fantasy who have set sail to discover unknown islands, fight new foes, and uncover vast treasures.
And as well we know, any sort of tale found in modern fantasy is rich material for GMs to build new adventures in our fantasy role-playing games.
Not long ago, Kobold Press released a new supplement for the Midgard Campaign Setting called Journeys to the West. Here is a book filled with undiscovered islands, strange lost cities, terrible monsters, and treasures awaiting courageous heroes willing to sail deep into Midgard’s Western Ocean.
Journeys to the West
Journeys to the West is a supplement for the Midgard Campaign Setting, designed to be used with the Pathfinder RPG system. The supplement contains information about the last free-city, Barsella, at the edge of the Western Ocean, along a map and information about the inhabitants. There is details about seven island/archipelago locations in the Western Ocean, including a map and gazetteer of important places such as villages, ruins, geological features, and encounters. Journeys to the West also includes ten new monsters and four new magic items which are found in the unknown islands and waters of the Western Sea, and five complete adventures for use with Pathfinder characters of Levels 1st through 9th.
Production Quality
The production quality of Journeys to the West is quite excellent, containing some very good writing within a pleasing layout that is easy to read and utilize as a GM. The adventure, items, and monster layouts are set up in a Pathfinder RPG format, making them readily understood by GMs. Descriptions of locations, NPCs, and other important facts are quite detailed, ensuring that the encounters and explorations can be quite immersive for the players.
The book contains both a table of contents and PDF bookmarks, so that navigation through the document’s 140 pages is quite easy.
The artwork is somewhat of a mixed bag, with the cover art looking exciting and heroic, but with the interior art not quite living up to the cover art. Some of the interior illustrations are black-and-white, while others are in full color, which leaves an impression that some of the art is unfinished. Visually, some of the interior pieces are quite striking, while others look muddled and confused, and a couple images don’t seem applicable to the setting at all.
Overall, the cartography is good and plentiful, with the island and city maps showing great details. Adventure and encounter maps are utilitarian but well-drawn, but I was a little disappointed that only one piece of the cartography was done in color.
Sailing beyond the edge of the world…
Journeys to the West has a simple but exciting premise: What wonders can be found by the heroes if they sail beyond the edge of the map? The islands and archipelagos out in the Western Ocean are filled with unknown dangers, and are designed so that each new place has that “sand-boxy” feel to it. Heroes have the opportunity to explore these places, become involved with local adventures and quest (or not), and new monsters and treasures to discover – or they can just sail onward to a new island to discover. The format allows the book to be used in almost any Pathfinder RPG campaign setting, so long as there is a vast unexplored ocean for the characters to set sail upon.
The book is divided roughly into un-numbered chapters, with each island/archipelago site having its own section. The book opens in Barsella, City at the End of the World, the starting place for the heroes to embark on a voyage of discovery out in unknown waters. The city has a nicely detailed map and glossography of important sites in Barsella, as well as descriptions of major NPCs, politics, society, and other information to bring the city to life. The designers included five new traits to allow players to create characters native to Barsella, and two adventure seeds which can be developed into a full adventure.
The next seven chapters detail the islands which can be found out in the Western Ocean, and to avoid any spoilers – this is all about discovering new lands afterall – I’ll keep my comments as general as possible. Each of these island locations are discussed in excellent detail, and include sub-sections for major landmarks and places, inhabitants, encounters, and environmental conditions unique to that island. These environmental conditions can range from typical threats such as tidal waves and tsunamis, to more bizarre effects involving very powerful magical forces, like dimensional rifts. I thought these were an excellent way to make each island even more unique from the others, and to create unexpected dangers both mundane and esoteric. Each of these island sections end with a set of three Island Adventures – these are sample quests to be developed more fully by a GM, and are specific to that particular island.
Following the chapters on the new islands to explore in the Western Ocean, the designers offer ten new monsters which appear in various locations throughout the islands. Each includes a Pathfinder-style stat block, as well as a colorful illustration of the new creature.
The next chapter is introduces four new magic items found out in the Western Ocean. These items are in standard Pathfinder stat blocks, and range in level from CL 7 to CL13. Each item is very detailed and fitting for theme of the supplement, and illustrated with some of the best artwork in this book.
The final chapter offers five complete adventures for characters ranging from Level 1 to Level 9. The adventures come with everything one might expect in a module, such as an adventure summary, hooks, “read-aloud” text, wandering monster tables, encounters, and maps. While I have not played these adventures myself, I like what I read in them, and think they show considerable imagination and potential for some exciting role-play.
Overall Score: 3.8 out of 5.0
Conclusions
I have to say I pretty impressed with Journeys to the West. Kobold Press has put out some great new Pathfinder RPG material for their Midgard Campaign Setting, and this supplement offers a very different sort of adventure style – sailing on the high seas in search of places unknown! But even if you don’t use the Midgard setting, the contents in this book can be easily put down in almost any setting with few modifications, providing GMs with new islands and monsters in their an ocean in their own homegrown world.
The amount of material in this book is staggering, and Journeys to the West quite a few options for some solid “sand-box” style exploration play. Not only does it contain eight locations in which to start new adventures, but over a score of adventure hooks, and five fully built and ready-to-run adventures, and new monsters and magic items. Given the modest price-point for all that contents, Journeys to the West is well worth considering for almost any Pathfinder RPG group.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Editor’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
Presentation: 3.5
- Design: 4.0 (Excellent writing; good layout; adheres to Pathfinder RPG stat blocks)
- Illustrations: 3.0 (Awesome cover; mixed bag of interior art from mediocre to superb; decent maps)
Content: 4.0
- Crunch: 4.0 (Tons of great new crunch – monsters, domains, traits, adventures and more)
- Fluff: 4.0 (Extra-fluffy stuff; lots of unique locales and monsters with tons of details)
Value: 4.0 (Months of Pathfinder adventure in there – lots of content for the price)
Likewise, fantasy novels are filled with examples of the heroes setting sail in search of new lands and conquests across the vast oceans. Conan, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, Elric of Melnibonea are just a few of the characters in modern fantasy who have set sail to discover unknown islands, fight new foes, and uncover vast treasures.
And as well we know, any sort of tale found in modern fantasy is rich material for GMs to build new adventures in our fantasy role-playing games.
Not long ago, Kobold Press released a new supplement for the Midgard Campaign Setting called Journeys to the West. Here is a book filled with undiscovered islands, strange lost cities, terrible monsters, and treasures awaiting courageous heroes willing to sail deep into Midgard’s Western Ocean.
Journeys to the West
- Lead Designer: Christina Stiles
- Designers: Wolfgang Baur, Dawson Kriska, Morgan Boehringer, Andrew Christian, Jim Groves, Michael
- Lane, Ted Reed, Brian Suskind, Henry Wong
- Illustrations: Craig J. Spearing (cover); Chris McFann, Guido Kuip, and Hugo Solis (interior); Morgan Boehringer, Peter Bradley, Sean Macdonald, and Brian Suskind (cartography)
- Publisher: Kobold Press
- Year: 2012
- Media: PDF (139 pages)
- Price: $14.99 (PDF available from the RPGNow)
Journeys to the West is a supplement for the Midgard Campaign Setting, designed to be used with the Pathfinder RPG system. The supplement contains information about the last free-city, Barsella, at the edge of the Western Ocean, along a map and information about the inhabitants. There is details about seven island/archipelago locations in the Western Ocean, including a map and gazetteer of important places such as villages, ruins, geological features, and encounters. Journeys to the West also includes ten new monsters and four new magic items which are found in the unknown islands and waters of the Western Sea, and five complete adventures for use with Pathfinder characters of Levels 1st through 9th.
Production Quality
The production quality of Journeys to the West is quite excellent, containing some very good writing within a pleasing layout that is easy to read and utilize as a GM. The adventure, items, and monster layouts are set up in a Pathfinder RPG format, making them readily understood by GMs. Descriptions of locations, NPCs, and other important facts are quite detailed, ensuring that the encounters and explorations can be quite immersive for the players.
The book contains both a table of contents and PDF bookmarks, so that navigation through the document’s 140 pages is quite easy.
The artwork is somewhat of a mixed bag, with the cover art looking exciting and heroic, but with the interior art not quite living up to the cover art. Some of the interior illustrations are black-and-white, while others are in full color, which leaves an impression that some of the art is unfinished. Visually, some of the interior pieces are quite striking, while others look muddled and confused, and a couple images don’t seem applicable to the setting at all.
Overall, the cartography is good and plentiful, with the island and city maps showing great details. Adventure and encounter maps are utilitarian but well-drawn, but I was a little disappointed that only one piece of the cartography was done in color.
Sailing beyond the edge of the world…
Journeys to the West has a simple but exciting premise: What wonders can be found by the heroes if they sail beyond the edge of the map? The islands and archipelagos out in the Western Ocean are filled with unknown dangers, and are designed so that each new place has that “sand-boxy” feel to it. Heroes have the opportunity to explore these places, become involved with local adventures and quest (or not), and new monsters and treasures to discover – or they can just sail onward to a new island to discover. The format allows the book to be used in almost any Pathfinder RPG campaign setting, so long as there is a vast unexplored ocean for the characters to set sail upon.
The book is divided roughly into un-numbered chapters, with each island/archipelago site having its own section. The book opens in Barsella, City at the End of the World, the starting place for the heroes to embark on a voyage of discovery out in unknown waters. The city has a nicely detailed map and glossography of important sites in Barsella, as well as descriptions of major NPCs, politics, society, and other information to bring the city to life. The designers included five new traits to allow players to create characters native to Barsella, and two adventure seeds which can be developed into a full adventure.
The next seven chapters detail the islands which can be found out in the Western Ocean, and to avoid any spoilers – this is all about discovering new lands afterall – I’ll keep my comments as general as possible. Each of these island locations are discussed in excellent detail, and include sub-sections for major landmarks and places, inhabitants, encounters, and environmental conditions unique to that island. These environmental conditions can range from typical threats such as tidal waves and tsunamis, to more bizarre effects involving very powerful magical forces, like dimensional rifts. I thought these were an excellent way to make each island even more unique from the others, and to create unexpected dangers both mundane and esoteric. Each of these island sections end with a set of three Island Adventures – these are sample quests to be developed more fully by a GM, and are specific to that particular island.
Following the chapters on the new islands to explore in the Western Ocean, the designers offer ten new monsters which appear in various locations throughout the islands. Each includes a Pathfinder-style stat block, as well as a colorful illustration of the new creature.
The next chapter is introduces four new magic items found out in the Western Ocean. These items are in standard Pathfinder stat blocks, and range in level from CL 7 to CL13. Each item is very detailed and fitting for theme of the supplement, and illustrated with some of the best artwork in this book.
The final chapter offers five complete adventures for characters ranging from Level 1 to Level 9. The adventures come with everything one might expect in a module, such as an adventure summary, hooks, “read-aloud” text, wandering monster tables, encounters, and maps. While I have not played these adventures myself, I like what I read in them, and think they show considerable imagination and potential for some exciting role-play.
Overall Score: 3.8 out of 5.0
Conclusions
I have to say I pretty impressed with Journeys to the West. Kobold Press has put out some great new Pathfinder RPG material for their Midgard Campaign Setting, and this supplement offers a very different sort of adventure style – sailing on the high seas in search of places unknown! But even if you don’t use the Midgard setting, the contents in this book can be easily put down in almost any setting with few modifications, providing GMs with new islands and monsters in their an ocean in their own homegrown world.
The amount of material in this book is staggering, and Journeys to the West quite a few options for some solid “sand-box” style exploration play. Not only does it contain eight locations in which to start new adventures, but over a score of adventure hooks, and five fully built and ready-to-run adventures, and new monsters and magic items. Given the modest price-point for all that contents, Journeys to the West is well worth considering for almost any Pathfinder RPG group.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Editor’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
Presentation: 3.5
- Design: 4.0 (Excellent writing; good layout; adheres to Pathfinder RPG stat blocks)
- Illustrations: 3.0 (Awesome cover; mixed bag of interior art from mediocre to superb; decent maps)
Content: 4.0
- Crunch: 4.0 (Tons of great new crunch – monsters, domains, traits, adventures and more)
- Fluff: 4.0 (Extra-fluffy stuff; lots of unique locales and monsters with tons of details)
Value: 4.0 (Months of Pathfinder adventure in there – lots of content for the price)
