The folks at Paizo have actually made two Ruby Phoenix adventures for a fairly obvious reason. Within Pathfinder’s world of Golarion, the Ruby Phoenix Tournament occurs every ten years. Time progresses on Golarion at the same rate as Earth. The first adventure was released in early 2012 and the second in mid 2021, so almost ten years apart. While the return to the Ruby Phoenix Tournament was published as a three part adventure path the original was a single adventure module. This review will focus on the 2012 stand alone adventure.
Just as with the Jade Regent review I’ll preface this by stating that I have only read The Ruby Phoenix Tournament module as research for my China RPG endeavor. I have NOT played through the adventure as a DM or as a player. If you’re interested in playing Ruby Phoenix yourself, I will be giving some spoilers for the module but nothing extreme. I’d say its fine to read this and still play through the adventure.
The Ruby Phoenix Tournament was started as part of the will of Hao Jin. She was a famous adventurer three centuries ago. She was famous for collecting a vast, magical treasure trove and for coming back from the dead. Hao Jin’s talent for returning from the dead earned her the nickname, Ruby Phoenix. As no one could really know when Hao Jin was dead for certain her will stated she had to be missing for more than ten years before her assets could be dispersed. And her giant treasure trove wouldn’t be given away in a simple manner. Every ten years a grand tournament is held and the winner can claim just one of the fabulous magical items from Hao Jin’s treasure vault.
The players are one of the many teams vying for the grand prize in the tournament. It’s a story straight out of a shonen like Naruto, Hunter X Hunter, or Dragon Ball. You always have to have a tournament! And alongside the tournament are a number of amazing tests of skill and prowess for the PCs to complete. Running, breaking bricks, archery, and tests of endurance against temperature. Dragon slaying, beheaded undead, snake sorcerers, and noodle house brawls. Any one of these things could be a wuxia movie by itself and Ruby Phoenix crams them all into a single module about a five day tournament.
There’s a plot and some villains, but I’m honestly not even sure it’s necessary. The adventure’s main pull is all the other stuff going on, not the nefarious evil lurking in the shadows. It’s a bit of a mystery for the PCs though so I won’t spoil it for anyone who might end up playing the adventure.
From my “Chinese adventure” perspective Ruby Phoenix rates decently. The 30 page adventure has an action packed scene on every page. While I don’t want to re-explore D&D 3.5/Pathfinder 1e, there’s plenty of ideas here that I could adapt for a different system. On the negative side, there’s no wu xing elements in the adventure. Additionally the themes are more in line with a Hong Kong martial arts movie instead of the historical period piece of Chinese history I’m interested in. Which might make this the perfect adventure to use for the Feng Shui 2 system!
Ruby Phoenix Tournament is a good Chinese adventure and looks like a hell of a fun time. It feels too narrow in focus for the Chinese campaign I’m imagining. Whatever system I end up using I’m sure I could work parts of the adventure in, if not adapt the whole thing. If you’d like to try out The Ruby Phoenix Tournament for yourself you can find it on Paizo’s website.
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