Out now in print: Pavis County & Beyond - Secrets of the Borderlands

[Ian A. Thomson]

Finally, after  lot of effort, and tremendous support from champion collaborators with proofing, editing, artistry, layout help etc, it's finally here 🙂

Great summary of the contents by Nick, so I will post it here:

Pavis County & Beyond: Secrets of the Borderlands,The third volume of Pavis & Big Rubble Companion material to be revised and reissued on the Jonstown Compendium covers adventurer creation (inc. family history and local cults) for natives of rural Pavis County and the Zebra Tribe. Four full scenarios follow – The Corflu Connection, Problems with Neighbours, Crimson Shadows Over Prax and Echoes of Evil – with a smattering of ideas for how to link them into your campaign. Next are maps and gazetteers for eight prominent settlements in the Zola Fel Valley: Old Fort, Indagos, Garhound, Ronegarth, Weis, Horn Gate, Sun Dome (Town, not Temple) and Corflu. The book wraps up with twenty pages of room-by-room notes on how the author ran and expanded the classic Borderlands campaign; the Adventures section has more suggestions for how to merge that with a Pavis-based campaign, in which the adventurers become wide-ranging troubleshooters for Duke Raus of Rone. ($18.00 for 254 pages)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/448641/Pavis-County--Beyond-Secrets-of-the-Borderlands-RuneQuest?src=newest_community

Had a couple of minor errors spotted already, so feel free to let me know of any more.

As with the others there will be an update of course at some point to trap some final polishes

Edited November 21, 2023 by Nick Brooke

[Nick Brooke]

Copper in a day. Nice.

[smiorgan]

I'm going to get this. Running an expanded Borderlands is very appealing.

[Ian A. Thomson]

UPDATED PDFS NOW ON THE JONSTOWN COMPENDIUM:

VOL. 01: PDF has been updated for the final time. It wasn't going to be replaced again, since it already had an update after the POD was produced. (Due to some errors being noticed literally a day or two after the POD was finalized.) However, since Dario created a new map of the Big Rubble for Vol. 02, we thought we'd put this in the Vol. 01 pdf as well! (So it has replaced the original Players' & GM's versions, one nice and empty, and one with named primary locations.) Likewise the printable handout has been replaced with a blank version of the new map. (Big thanks to Simon Phipp for letting us use his version of the Big Rubble map prior to this point.)

VOL. 02: The aforementioned new map of the Big Rubble replaces the GM's Master Map in this book - the one with both named locations and a gazetteer of numbered locations too. We also added a new page at the end, with the cults of Buserian & Lokarnos. These would ideally have gone into Vol. 01 as they are a couple of standard cults for Suntown (as well as Sun County), but I only thought of doing them a week or so ago. There have also been a number of small alterations to information about places in the Big Rubble, made to match the Rubble section of Vol. 04 as it evolves. (AND, 'oh happy joy', all of this was done _before_ it went to POD layout!) :)

VOL. 03: The first round of minor error and formatting corrections.

[StephenMcG]

All this is coming a bit too slowly for me!  I am running my group through the original material.  Last night they got to the Tomb of Yurmonis.  I mean, it is a mean, killer of a dungeon and I like player deaths to be epic, so I had to work hard to keep them alive last night.

It didn't help that one player had to cancel last minute, so they were already under-strength.  They then proceeded to throw more 90+ rolls than anyone has any right to, both attacks and parries for solid 70 and 80% skills were failing regularly and the first round or two saw two of the three PC fail 80% inspiration rolls, one fumbled.  There was a Flintnail dwarf, I thought I would give them a boost, sacricing a POW to commune with Flintnail using his 80% Harmony rune, failed, almost fumbled.

The real investigator type, having learned (again) to stay out of melee, anticipated both the spear and rolling ball traps and then made the worst possible decisions, enhancing the effect of each.

He ran and jumped into the pit when he heard the gearing of the ball trap!  That was essentially as far as they got in 3 hours.  The fight took ages because they failed to hit so often.

Instant death for the ball trap victim? No. I decided, on the fly, that someone caught in there would be engulfed by the stone and emerge as a rock golem...they will see two additional players next week as reinforcements but their first encounter will be the rock golem.  If they beat it, they will be able to dig out their friend from the Rubble. 

I am inclined, at the end of this scenario, to add some kind of rocky growth to his skin, like it has become part of him...boost his armour points and restrict his ability to wear armour in some locations.  Will be a strange Lankhor Mhy sage in future, marked by the Rubble....

[Ian A. Thomson]

On 9/30/2023 at 6:53 PM, StephenMcG said:

All this is coming a bit too slowly for me!  I am running my group through the original material.  Last night they got to the Tomb of Yurmonis.  I mean, it is a mean, killer of a dungeon and I like player deaths to be epic, so I had to work hard to keep them alive last night.

All sounds awesome. I look forward to continuing to edit in (and adapt) the classic core Rubble material from the series as we go. This process starts in Vol. 04 with the first of the original major Rubble scenarios (Kakstan's Art Museum)

[Ian A. Thomson]

Vol. 03: "Pavis County & Beyond: Secrets of the Borderlands" Now Available in POD

Huge gratitude to the many collaborators and supporters for their critical help, without which this book would never have been completed! And to Nick Brooke again for creating the POD version from the original pdf.

There will be a set of images again as soon as Fabian receives his copy and makes his unboxing video. (It's been delayed reaching him for some reason.)

The price is slightly cheaper per page count, due to the Borderlands adaptation notes appendix not being included in the calculations. (Since some purchasers won't own Borderlands.)

Also, Vol. 04 is in its final stages. It's impossible to say exactly when it will be fully done and in the Compendium, but it should be within a month at the very latest.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/448641/pavis-county-beyond-secrets-of-the-borderlands-runequest

Edited November 21, 2023 by Ian A. Thomson

[Nick Brooke]

It’s a hefty tome… and it’s in good company.

[jajagappa]

33 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

It’s a hefty tome… and it’s in good company.

Lots of good works there! 🙂 

[Ian A. Thomson]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:00 AM, Nick Brooke said:

It’s a hefty tome… and it’s in good company.

Awesome bookshelf!

[Ian A. Thomson]

Black Friday sale on the Vol. 03 pdf - and the combo pdf & POD.

Just a few $ off, but if anyone was considering buying either, there's a very time-limited window open right now

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/448641/pavis-county-beyond-secrets-of-the-borderlands-runequest

[Nick Brooke]

[Ian A. Thomson]

On 9/30/2023 at 6:53 PM, StephenMcG said:

All this is coming a bit too slowly for me!  I am running my group through the original material.  Last night they got to the Tomb of Yurmonis. 

I am currently laying out the Tomb of Yurmonis for Vol. 05, and may use some of your ideas :)

[Ian A. Thomson]

Fabian has been able to make the time to do a quick unboxing video for Vol. 03 :)

Unfortunately not so great for still images due to glare, but here's a couple to show the beautiful physical form

Edited January 19 by Ian A. Thomson

[StephenMcG]

23 hours ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

I am currently laying out the Tomb of Yurmonis for Vol. 05, and may use some of your ideas 🙂

Help yourself, our gaming got disrupted for a few months there but we finished the tomb last night.

The room with the sarcophagus' I made into a doorway to a heroquest (talked about in another thread) where the adventurers needed to prove their worth rather than a straight spirit combat, it allowed the players to delve a bit into Flintnail lore.  I had reckoned three different heroquests (one for each guardian) and used the Flintnail because they interacted with the dwarf ghost.  They brought out an artifact (that I left undefined) which later proved to interface with the rock-infused character to help them past an obstacle.

The hybrid man/earth Elemental allowed them to bond with the dryad in the mask later on and persuade her to use the gnome to carry the paralysed cgaracters to safety with the remaining, battered characters holding off harassing Lunar troops before they get saved by Blackpowder wielding Flintnails.

The next scenario is going to be social, as Sor-Eel shows off newly "discovered" artworks recovered from the Big Rubble by Piers Bolde.  I had emphasised several times about how priceless these artworks might be while players were in there. Sor-Eel plans to ship these back to Glamour, to curry favour there. He is throwing a huge reception to show off the artwork and snub the Pavus cult holdouts.

This is where I will have the players mix with the various strata of society they gave met, get some insight into the various political games going on, and potentially set up what excitement they engage in next.