Guide to Korvosa

Pathfinder Campaign Setting

by Mike McArtor (Designer), James Jacobs (Designer), Nicolas Logue (Designer)

The city-state of Korvosa, largest in all Varisia, has prospered over the last century since its abandonment by its founding nation of Cheliax. Its port brims with black-and-red-flagged ships—the colors of both Korvosa and Cheliax—endlessly trading fineries from the south for Varisian curiosities and her land’s natural bounty. As such, Korvosa rightfully claims to be the most cultured and civilized city in the region, yet visitors might also grant the city-state the titles of most decadent, exploitative, and socially stratified.

Cover art by Nicolas Ferrand

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

I started playing D&D in the summer I was 9 years old... which would be 1984. Before the end of that summer, unable to acquire actual D&D books, I started writing my own bizarre, 9-year-old's version of D&D. I didn't really stop making up games until high school. After a 4-5 year full-stop break from anything nerdy at all, I rejoined on AOL's TSR page circa 1996. There I met Sean K Reynolds, who later got me my first freelance d20 gig in 2001.

After writing a bunch of not-great work for a few d20 publishers and working as an editor for the local college's literary journal, I got my big break as an assistant editor for Dragon magazine. I honed my own game-design craft by helping other writers improve theirs, and as a result Wizards of the Coast invited me to co-write Complete Scoundrel with my fellow assistant editor, F. Wesley Schneider. That was pretty much a dream come true, and it was followed up with several smaller gigs with WotC and Paizo up until the end of 3.5D&D.

When Dragon ended and Paizo embarked on its own successful destiny, I also had the chance to write several full books for the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, including my first (and so far only) full-length adventure.

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic Premise: This is a guidebook to the city of Korvosa-mostly intended as a gamemaster guide for use with the Pathfinder world.

Korvosa is an interesting place, and this book has all of the details you need to really flesh out the city when using it for a campaign or even if your characters are just passing through. Being as I've been running the "Curse of the Crimson Throne" campaign for quite a while now (and have now started a second group running through it), this book has been a near-constant companion of mine. The book was written for 3.5 D&D, though (like the campaign), which makes some of the stats slightly off for the Pathfinder system. It's easily adaptable, though, and the basic city information in it is priceless.

[Wim De Hert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superbly illustrated, thorough and a beatifully woven background, with plenty of rich characters. If you're looking for a pathfinder universe, this may be it. Could have used some diagrams and a clearer map, however.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review later