No Trick, But a Serious Treat!

Monday, October 24, 2016

October scenarios always present an interesting challenge because they coincide so well with Halloween yet are also early enough in the season that I'm itching to develop the yearlong metaplot further. In the past we've had some creepy October adventures like Hall of the Flesh Eaters and To Judge a Soul, Part 2: Karma Reclaimed, but we've never had one with explicit Halloween imagery. This time, I carved out a piece of the Season 8 schedule like a chunk of pumpkin flesh from a cheerful jack-o'-lantern, tentatively naming the adventure "No seriously, Halloween." Linda and I didn't know quite what the plot would be until we combined it with another concept that had been percolating in our collection of madcap ideas. Then it all came together so beautifully that Linda couldn't resist writing Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-06: Reaping What We Sow herself. If we follow the jack-o'-lantern analogy, Linda is the candle—so often a cheerful source of light and warmth. From within the haunted depths of a jack-o'-lantern fortress, however, her creative energies shine with a truly sinister radiance. In this Tier 1-5 adventure, the PCs travel to a small town in northern Galt on a mission of peace and redemption, yet it can so quickly become a tragedy of blood and tears. Come for the Shelynite pumpkin-carving festival! Stay for the legacy of vengeance and terror (with notes so a GM can lighten the mood or play up the horror as befits the audience)!


Illustration by Marko Horvatin

In the office, we keep track of our long project queue with notecards. Early in the writing process for #8-06, Linda took a few artistic liberties with the scenario's project card, which I have photographed and spoilered below.

#8-06 Spoilers!

Illustration by Giorgio Baroni

The concept of an evergreen 1st-level adventure dates back to the First Steps adventures, and with The Confirmation in Season 5, it turned into something of a yearly tradition to release another evergreen adventure near the end of the calendar year. This has worked really well, providing players of all experience levels an infinitely replayable scenario designed to let the GM change several components to enhance the experience. This year, we made two big changes before we reached out to Andrew Hoskins to write the next evergreen adventure. First, we've changed the level, as Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-07: From the Tome of Righteous Repose is a Tier 3-7 scenario replayable for all of those levels. This helps address one of the big concerns that there are lots of low-level adventures—not that that's a bad thing—yet comparably fewer adventures that help a PC travel beyond the Tier 1-5 range.

Because we expect #8-07 will see a lot of play, we also aimed to increase the replayability beyond that of its evergreen predecessors by varying not only the creatures involved but also the location and the plot itself. The adventure allows the PCs to travel to three different locations and face off against one of four Major Threats, each of which has an assortment of possible Linked Threats (i.e. lieutenants and favored minions). On top of that, there are sundry additional monsters, traps, and hazards that a GM can use to populate the dungeons, each of which varies depending on whether the site appears in Lastwall, Ustalav, or the Hold of Belkzen. Don't fret though, as GMs just need to prepare what they plan to run, not every option. With Andrew Hoskins' writing, Linda's development work, and the guidance of our newest in-world venture-captain Shevar Besnik, you're in for many great adventures to come.

John Compton
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Giorgio Baroni Marko Horvatin Pathfinder Society Pathfinder Society Scenarios
4/5 ****

I love the Shelyn pumpkin by Marko Horvatin.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

So do I!

I am so looking forward to all of these!

Hmm

1/5

Oh no, Galt. X)


Galt!!!!!!!!!!!

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Looks like Shevar got into too much of the pumpkin juice!

I am looking forward to the newest evergreen!

1/5 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

OMG! A 3-7 Evergreen! *swoons*

Dark Archive 5/5 *

excellent. not only a random encounter table but a random location and plot. can't wait.

Grand Lodge 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Finally, that cat is out of the bag! I expect the experiment to be a smashing success. :)

Dark Archive 5/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Be sure to play your Smashing Pumkins on your ipod

Grand Lodge 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
BretI wrote:
Looks like Shevar got into too much of the pumpkin juice!

Oh, no... no more pumpkin juice for me. At a party for last year's First Brewing, I drank an entire keg on a dare then—well, it wasn't pretty. Now I stick firmly to aged bourbon. Just last week I got in a barrel from my favorite distillery in Alkenstar.

Sovereign Court 4/5 ** Regional Venture-Coordinator, Southwest

I'm so excited for the new 3-7 evergreen. Too much good stuff, indeed!

4/5 ****

1 person marked this as a favorite.

So I currently have 11 characters leveled 3-7...

Sounds like I'll have plenty of excitement in store for them.

Grand Lodge 3/5

It's going to be very interesting to see a bunch of lvl 7's replaying 8-07.

awesome.

Grand Lodge 4/5

joe kirner wrote:
excellent. not only a random encounter table but a random location and plot. can't wait.

I can assure you, each my selections were made meticulously. The only thing random are my dice... usually.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/5 RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8

Excellent. Most excellent.

Silver Crusade 2/5 RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

3-7 Evergreen... seriously, awesome. I'm very excited about this, guys!

Grand Lodge 4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Not only do I love that there is a 3–7 Evergreen, but one of the fine lines will be loved by many a GM: "Don't fret though, as GMs just need to prepare what they plan to run, not every option."

4/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Tyler Beck wrote:
3-7 Evergreen... seriously, awesome. I'm very excited about this, guys!

With Andrew writing, I expect nothing short of excellence. :-)

(No pressure.)

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Many treats indeed!

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

Do we know the date this is going live?

Paizo Employee 4/5 Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

Lau Bannenberg wrote:
Do we know the date this is going live?

It should be tomorrow (Wednesday).

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Any preview of what maps will be used, or do I need to bite my nails for 24 hours until I find out? I don't think I've ever anticipated a scenario drop more!

Hmm

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Coordinator

Mentioned this to John and he will get the relevant maps posted asap!

Paizo Employee 4/5 Pathfinder Society Lead Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

Any preview of what maps will be used, or do I need to bite my nails for 24 hours until I find out? I don't think I've ever anticipated a scenario drop more!

Hmm

#8–07 Map:
This uses both sides of Bigger Flip-Mat: Dungeon.
Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

I bought it exactly for that. Excited!

Liberty's Edge 3/5 *

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Aw, my...

Spoiler:
Leshy Warden

is already level 6.


Nice! i am waiting for 8-07, but now i want to see what this have to offer. I found scenarios (im not a PFS player) as a excelent sidequests for main adventures, modules or APs.

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5 ****

Both sides, John? That's cool... makes the purchase even more palatable! Going to pick up the map Thursday when I play it... so that can GM it about 5 times in the next couple of weeks (including twice at Jim Con!)

This will quickly become one of my top 3 most run scenarios!

*

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Nice!

& I'm one step closer to having John approve my Tier 12+ evergreen pitch!

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