Jade Regent - The Empty Throne

In Jade Regent, the PCs have set out from their home in Sandpoint, a small town in southern Varisia, trekked north with their caravan to Kalsgard in the Linnorm Kingdoms, then ventured across the frozen Crown of the World to the continent of Tian Xia, crossed through the Forest of Spirits, and arrived in Minkai, the homeland of Ameiko Kaijitsu’s family. Now, having gathered allies, they must set out for the capital city, Kasai, to overthrow the Jade Regent and place Ameiko, the rightful heir, on the throne, in The Empty Throne, the sixth and final instalment of the Jade Regent Adventure Path. Written by Neil Spicer, the adventure has the unenviable task of wrapping up an entire campaign with a suitably epic conclusion, whilst simultaneously allowing for the possibility of more should individual gaming groups wish to continue with their characters. Overall, it manages this pretty well, especially given the difficulties high-level adventures can present to designers. Gaming groups who have played through the entire adventure path will likely find this conclusion exciting, thrilling, and most importantly, satisfying. While the adventure isn’t perfect, few things are, and players aren’t likely to notice its imperfections, especially in the hands of a skilled GM.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Jade Regent - Tide of Honor

In Tide of Honor by Tito Leati, the fifth instalment of the Jade Regent Adventure Path, the PCs finally arrive in Minkai, the country of their destination. There they need to begin gathering allies to help them overthrow the Jade Regent and place the rightful heir, Ameiko, on the Jade Throne. Tide of Honor is something of a change in style for the adventure path. What has been primarily a journey from one point to another now starts to set up a home base. Instead of fighting clearly defined enemies blocking their way, the PCs must now engage in a significant amount of diplomacy to win the trust and assistance of people who might be willing to help them, or might not. There are still obvious enemies to fight, but there are also a number of people who could go either way or just remain neutral. There’s a great deal of roleplaying potential in the adventure, more so than any of the previous instalments (with the possible exception of Night of Frozen Shadows), and for groups who prefer that sort of thing, I think this adventure has the potential to be one of the most enjoyable and memorable of the entire adventure path. However, for groups who prefer a more combat-oriented approach, there’s still lots to keep them happy, and GMs can easily gloss over the diplomacy stuff in such cases.

For the first time in Jade Regent, PCs are able to start taking real control of their destinies. Up until now, they’ve been following a trail laid out for them, defeating enemies sent to stop them, and making the occasional blow against the main enemy, but for the most part, they haven’t had a lot of say in what they needed to do. They had missions to complete and a destination to reach, and that was it. There have been rewards along the way, but by the end of the fourth adventure, some groups might be starting to feel a little railroaded. This adventure is sure to change that as the ball starts to move very firmly into the PCs’ court. Naturally, there are still missions to complete and enemies to defeat, but this time, the PCs have a lot more choice in how they approach the missions and what order they complete them in.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Jade Regent - Forest of Spirits

The fourth volume of the Jade Regent Adventure Path, Forest of Spirits brings the player characters onto the continent of Tian Xia, and ever closer to their final destination of Minkai. But naturally, there are delays and obstructions that they must deal with along the way. Overall, Forest of Spirits looks to be a fun adventure, with moments of light-heartedness early on, followed by an opportunity for the PCs to make their first major strike against the central villains of the entire adventure path. Like the previous instalment, The Hungry Storm, it is very much a travel-from-point-A-to-point-B adventure, but unlike The Hungry Storm, it handles it in such a way as to give a greater sense of purpose to the PCs’ actions by tying it much more thematically to the land in which it’s set and by providing the PCs with a greater sense of accomplishment and resolution.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Jade Regent - The Hungry Storm

In every adventure path, there always seems to be at least one volume that doesn’t live up to the quality of the others. For Jade Regent, that volume is The Hungry Storm. It’s a shame because this was one I was particularly looking forward to (I’ve always liked adventures set in the far north and I was particularly eager to see its treatment of the Erutaki, Golarion’s version of the Inuit). There are a lot of good ideas in it, and it’s the first one so far to make heavy use of the caravan, around which the adventure path is supposed to centre. However, those ideas are either not given enough depth or they just don’t string together well. The Hungry Storm is not a bad adventure—I’ve certainly seen far worse ones out there—but it’s not particularly great either. It’s somewhat mediocre overall, and when compared with the two excellent opening volumes, mediocre really stands out. That said, I do believe that in the hands of a competent GM, this adventure can still be a lot of fun for the players, who may not even notice its shortcomings.

The biggest difficulty The Hungry Storm has to deal with is the fact that it is a journey-from-point-A-to-point-B adventure. I both love and loathe these kinds of adventures. I love them because I like seeing the characters outside their home turf and how they react to situations there (and this, when it comes down to it, is the basis of the entire Jade Regent Adventure Path). I loathe them because it’s very difficult to string a coherent narrative across them since the PCs can easily wander quite far afield. Indeed, sometimes it’s better to not bother with a narrative at all and just let the PCs explore. However, to do that in a published adventure just results in a clone of The Isle of Dread transplanted to a different climate. That sort of thing has been done a hundred times before and doesn’t really need to be done again. So The Hungry Storm tries to include a central narrative. As a whole, Jade Regent has been doing quite well stringing out a coherent narrative over what is essentially a journey-from-point-A-to-point-B campaign. Unfortunately, The Hungry Storm on its own doesn’t manage this nearly as well.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Jade Regent - Night of Frozen Shadows

Pathfinder Adventure Path #50: Night of Frozen Shadows by Greg A. Vaughan continues the Jade Regent adventure path, begun in The Brinewall Legacy. In it, the PCs travel to the city of Kalsgard in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings to find the legendary sword, Suishen, and then to find a guide across the Crown of the World to the far-off land of Minkai. The adventure is mostly event-based with a lot of role-playing opportunities, and ends with a dungeon crawl. It contains an interesting system for tracking the PCs’ “notoriety”, and from that, determining how and when their opponents react. It makes an excellent continuation of the adventure path, and only really suffers from having no explanation for the inaction of the party’s NPC allies. SPOILERS FOLLOW

The Brinewall Legacy

Pathfinder Adventure Path #49: The Brinewall Legacy is the opening instalment of the Jade Regent Adventure Path. Written by James Jacobs, Paizo’s creative director, it presents the first part of a world-spanning campaign that will take PCs from the small town of Sandpoint in Varisia (part of the world of Golarion) to the eastern continent of Tian Xia and the country of Minkai. Fans of the old AD&D Oriental Adventures book are likely to find a lot to love in this series. Minor spoilers follow.

The plot of The Brinewall Legacy revolves around discovering the birthright of a prominent Sandpoint personality, Ameiko Kaijitsu. People familiar with the Pathfinder Adventure Paths will recognize Ameiko from the first AP, Rise of the Runelords. She was a prominent, though minor, character in that Adventure Path, and is now a major focus for Jade Regent. (Warning: Some of her history has been retconned slightly to keep her still very young in this adventure. Game Masters who wish to set this after Rise of the Runelords may want to review this and make appropriate adjustments.)