GoCorral

I continue to preface this review by stating that I have only read the Jade Regent adventure path as research for my China RPG endeavor. I have NOT played through the adventure path as a DM or as a player. If you’re interested in playing Jade Regent yourself, I will probably be giving some spoilers for the modules but nothing extreme. I’d say its fine to read this and still play through the adventures.

Part 6: The Empty Throne

The Empty Throne continues the rebellion started in Tide of Honor. All the PCs’ allies distract the armies of the evil oni while the PCs themselves sneak into the capital. There are two goals in the module, kill the Jade Regent and provide evidence of Ameiko’s legitimacy to succeed the throne. The module intends for the players to gather evidence first but there’s no real reason for them to do so besides an old accountant telling them to.

The progress of the rebellion is tracked using a points system. More points benefits the party. They make the final battle against the Jade Regent easier and the epilogue has better results with more points. The Jade Regent and his three most powerful companions have a teamwork score that has an hourglass effect with the rebellion points. The more rebellion points the party has the fewer teamwork points the Jade Regent’s team has. If the Jade Regent’s team has a positive score they gain a bunch of teamwork feats. If the teamwork score is negative the Jade Regent’s team turns on each other and starts killing each other. The epilogue is just story-dressing for how good of an ending the players get. It’s a nice guide for the DM to describe the end to such a long campaign.

The PCs are expected the start with proving Ameiko is a legitimate heir to rule Minkai. This isn’t a legal legitimacy, but spiritual. The previous emperor was murdered by the Jade Regent and left unburied at the sacred graveyard island for all past emperors. The players have to go to the island and bury the previous emperor’s body. At the island they are confronted by all the spirits of the most evil emperors in Minkai’s history. After defeating the evil spirits the players perform the official burial for the previous emperor.

The Jade Regent is hiding at his stolen palace in the capital of Minkai. He has three powerful companions with him. The first is his grandfather, the evil oni behind all the bad things in Minkai. The second is the Jade Regent’s girlfriend who is also a seer. The third is a anthropomorphic raven assassin. The palace itself is a simple dungeon with a few hidden secrets. During the raid there is a heavy incentive for stealth over force as all the guards in the city ready to fight the PCs. The players may have to retreat and attempt the fight more than once if they haven’t broken the evil groups’ teamwork. Once the Jade Regent is slain the campaign is ready to wrap up.

There are a few notes on how to continue the campaign after Ameiko becomes Empress of Minkai. The main focus is on the nearby nation of Chu Ye which is openly ruled by oni. The evil creatures can come seeking revenge for the PCs unseating the evil oni in charge of Minkai. Perhaps the other three oni lords that orchestrated the Jade Regent’s take over of Minkai show up as well. The notes for this are a minimal outline, but enough for a creative DM to run with it. The campaign doesn’t need to stop at The Empty Throne unless you want it to.

Final Thoughts

I was initially brought to Jade Regent because it was set in Tian Xia. I was still willing to give it a chance once I discovered that Tian Xia is not China, but all of Asia and the campaign focuses on just Minkai (Japan). Brinewall Legacy seemed fine, but the campaign really takes a dive in the second, third, and fourth installments. Night of Frozen Shadows is a mystery adventure, a genre that D&D is poorly suited for. The Hungry Storm is a pile of random encounters and a villain that the players have every reason to ignore. Forest of Spirits has a good appetizer with the banquets, but then enters a long slog in a nonsensical dungeon. Tide of Honor and The Empty Throne finish the adventure path out strong.

If I were to run Jade Regent I would make a few changes. First, one of the PCs should be the heir. Second, I’d probably just skip the first four modules and start with Tide of Honor. This skips the unique aspect of Jade Regent, the journey from home to Minkai, but that wasn’t the part I was interested in when I found the adventure path. I want the parts that are actually in Tian Xia!

I doubt that I’ll actually run Jade Regent at this point though. I’m not terribly interested in returning to D&D 3.5/Pathfinder 1e. I could convert Jade Regent Pathfinder 2e, but that feels like a lot of work for a system I’ve barely played. There were a few fan conversions that were stopped, but none have finished and been published yet. The Pathfinder adventure path conversion community gathers on this Discord server if you’re interested. And of course the official Jade Regent adventure path is available on Paizo’s website.

I’ll still take a look at Pathfinder’s other Tian Xia material though. Ruby Phoenix seems like another poor choice at first glance, but Season of Ghosts looks absolutely amazing. That’s one I might want to run regardless of whether it feels “Chinese” enough for me to scratch that itch.