Pathfinder Comics: "Worldscape, Volume 1"

NO SPOILERS

This hardcover collection includes Pathfinder: Worldscape Issues 1-6 (a complete story) along with almost 50 pages of back matter such as variant covers, character profiles, some new game mechanics (like archetypes), and a fold-out poster map.  The comics are real winners--the story is great, the characterisation of the Iconics is spot-on, the new guest characters are interesting, and the artwork is of a higher standard than many of the earlier Pathfinder comics.  The back matter, however, is far more of a mixed bag, with the encounters particularly lacking.  Still, on the whole, I'd definitely recommend this one.

SPOILERS

Alright, let's get into it!

* Issue 1: Our core four Iconics (Merisiel, Kyra, Seoni, and Valeros--sorry Ezren!) have finally tracked down the veiled master Thulgroon (from past volumes), but he somehow shifts the entire party somewhere . . . else!  The four are separated, and this issue tells what happened to Valeros.  In a delightfully/awfully graphic combat, he deals with some brigands before an awesome four-armed ape bursts out of the trees and starts a bone-breaking bearhug.  Who, of all creatures in the world, comes to Valeros' rescue?  Freaking Xanesha (from RotRL) is who!  You know I love me some continuity.  But Xanesha hasn't saved Valeros out of the kindness of her serpentine heart.  Instead, she takes him as a slave-gladiator to fight for the entertainment of the evil Empress Camilla in a city called Shareen.  And who is Valeros' first opponent?  Freaking Red Sonja is who!  Valeros is holding his own until he notices that Merisiel seems to be part of Empress Camilla's entourage--and that's when Red Sonja stabs him through the chest!  It's a corker of a first issue, that's for sure.

* Issue 2: This one starts with Seoni awakening in the jungle.  There's an exciting solo battle against a jungle lion, and then a great introduction to Fantomah, a jungle goddess that surely has the death domain.  Fantomah explains that Seoni is in a place called the Worldscape, an artificially-created demi-plane that draws in legendary heroes and villains from three planets: Golarion, Earth, and Barsoom.  Whoever possesses both a certain sceptre and crown will be able to rule the Worldscape, and Fantomah and her allies (Thun'da, a classic jungle hero, and Tars Tarkas, a Green Martian) want Seoni's help in recovering them.  One snag is that Ruthazek, the Gorilla King of the Mwangi Expanse, is also in the Worldscape--and he's on the evil side!  Again, a very strong issue.

* Issue 3: Kyra's the star of this issue, and it's a great presentation of her point of view.  Kyra finds herself in the city of Shareen, and after being betrayed by someone she was trying to help (Mordred!), she finds a real ally in John Carter, Warlord of Mars.  His introduction is awesome and hilarious.  It turns out that John Carter is a co-leader (along with Red Sonja) of the resistance against Empress Camilla, and the issue ties in nicely to Valeros' storyline from issue # 1.  The Iconics are starting to come together, and the plot will be moving quickly soon.  I'm glad we got a chance to see these characters on their own, however.  It's a good testament to the groundwork of previous volumes that each of these Iconics has a real personality and distinctive voice.

* Issue 4: Merisiel is the last Iconic who needs to be featured, and this issue reveals that this isn't the character's first trip to the Worldscape!  When Merisiel led a band of thieves (and long before she met the other Iconics), she was transported there, had a love affair with a cool sky pirate named Phondari (another pulp character, I assume), and ended up working for Queen Camilla and stealing for her the sceptre before returning to Golarion. It's a nice twist and provides some good insight into Merisiel's character.  At the end of the issue, the Merisiel from the "present" appears back in the Worldscape and she's asked by Queen Camilla to steal the crown from "the king".  It's a nice surprise who that turns out to be. Completely unrelated, there's a fun little line about legendary Pathfinder Durvin Gest having been in the Worldscape as well at one time.

* Issue 5: Valeros, Seoni, and Kyra join the resistance, and the revolution starts.  There's a ton of action in this issue, but still room for some nice character development.  Merisiel however, seems allied with Queen Camilla.  Has she abandoned recent loyalties for older ones?

* Issue 6: "The king" is Tarzan!  The heroes rush to protect his jungle camp as Ruthazek sends armies of gorillas after the crown.  The good guys win, of course, (with Merisiel's help) and there's another cool appearance by Fantomah and a nice send-off for Tarzan.  The Iconics are returned to Golarion seconds after they left, with no memory of what happened and with Thulgroon having escaped again.  But Fantomah promises Merisiel that she'll remember and return to the Worldscape when the time is right.

It's a really satisfying, well-told story.  The artwork, as mentioned, is excellent.  I don't have a lot of natural affection for the pulp characters featured here, but their inclusion in the stories worked out well.  It's not always easy to mash-up genres and characters, but here it all flowed nicely.

Now, on to the back matter.  Here's what's included:

* Variant Covers (20 pages): Every issue was originally released with a few different variant covers, and they're all reproduced here.  There are fewer spoof covers in this volume compared to some previous ones, as most of the artwork focuses on the pulp characters.  It's cool to see Tom Mandrake's interpretation of some of the Pathfinder Iconics.

* Encounters (6 half pages): Although previous volumes gave one or two pages each to encounters, here each encounter is presented in just half a page with a grid-map that's too small to use in actual gameplay (minis won't fit) and a paragraph that gives some suggested set-up and potential enemies.  I'm not as much of a fan of this new style of presenting encounters, as they don't really save GMs any time.  These are really more like very general encounter ideas than a ready-to-go package.

* Character Profiles (circa 12 pages):  The following pulp characters get full stat blocks and backgrounds: Red Sonja, John Carter, Thun'da, Tars Tarkas, and Tarzan.  I personally thought Thun'da's background was interesting (a classic lost valley hero), while Tars Tarkas' background was too long and Tarzan's was pretty bland.  Milage will vary here, but I don't imagine too many campaigns actually integrating these characters.

* Crunch (circle 10 pages): Several new mechanics options are presented here, some of which could be quite handy if your have a flexible GM: 1) A new ranger archetype called the Sword-Devil (a very powerful spell-less ranger); 2) A new race, Green Martians (overpowered for most games); 3) A new fighter archetype called the Warlord (a very niche archetype for unarmoured warriors skilled with weapons from the planet Barsoom); 4) Another new ranger archetype, the Jungle Lord (no armor, *lots* of animal companions, looks good)

* A fold-out removable poster:  One side is a scene of the pulp and Pathfinder heroes drawn by Reilly Brown; it's okay, but nothing remarkable.  The other side is an encounter grid titled the "Ruins of Kho."  It looks really cool (I wonder if it's from one of the real flip-mats?), but again the gridlines create squares too small to use for actual minis.  Unless you want every combatant represented by something no larger than a thumb-tack, this just doesn't work.  Frustrating.

In sum, we have six strong issues but some problems with the back matter.  Pathfinder: Worldscape isn't a perfect collection, but I do think it's worth buying and reading.