After several people in my regular gaming group played The Confirmation and reported positive things on it, I was excited to get a chance to play it at Gencon this year. Having been a victim of Mr. Baird’s bloodlust two years prior in his “Race for the Runecarved Key”, and having just survived the notorious first encounter of his “Sealed Gate” on the first day of Gencon, I was curious to see what Kyle had to offer in a low-level encounter. I played with a party of 5 randoms, and we ran the gamut of experience from seasoned to an apparent first time player.
I was extremely pleased to see a thoughtful, well designed scenario that takes on several challenging goals and succeeds. First, it’s a VERY good introduction to the Society and to some of the mythos and geography of Golarion with good exposition and good opportunity for role playing and “hooking” new players. Second, the encounters are clearly planned to use a variety of rules and mechanics in a way that will be easy for GMs to use to teach new folks. Finally, the writing and the story itself, though basic and straightforward, was compelling and enjoyable. I’m a long time gamer and PFSer, but I hope to play it a couple of more times and eventually GM it. The map for the final encounter was clearly thoughtfully designed to bring into play all of the items the party could have, and allow a “scripted” encounter to play out with an organic, exciting feel.
Kudos to Mr. Baird for demonstrating ability to write not just nightmare-inducing murderboxes, but introductory scenarios that will keep both players and GMs coming back for more Paizo goods.
