RPG Superstar 8 Season Star Voter, 9 Season Star Voter. Organized Play Member. 238 posts (268 including aliases). 9 reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 12 Organized Play characters. 2 aliases.
I ran this for a group of new Pathfinder Society players, and it worked out perfectly. The players got a real sense of what it means to be a Pathfinder; with equal doses of investigation, diplomacy and combat.
I would have liked to see faction missions for all the factions, as the Taldor mission really added meaning to our session.
I'm loving this series, and this story was no disappointment, although I didn't enjoy it as much as Prince of Thieves or Queen of Thorns, which I'm reading now.
I’d love to see what Mr Greenwood could do if he gave this another pass or two with his writers pen, but right now “The Wizards Mask” is a poorly told, bland story that often makes for unwieldy reading.
The first "act" with the challenges is a great introduction to goblin culture and a great warmup for the session. It set much of the tone of the game and even a sort of hierachy amoungst the goblin PCs.
The second act where the goblins travel towards their objective was fun. I could have used some flavour text here, but I'll be more prepared next time.
The last act is a load of fun, but I really suggest using miniatures to keep track of things, I had players all over the place and the multiple levels made things more tricky.
Right, I know this adventure is retired, but there were several things I really liked about it, especially as my group gets used to Pathfinder Society.
Variety
There are loads of nice things for a GM to cut his or her teeth on: adverse weather, travel, some information gathering and diplomacy, as well as a few interesting encounters. I really valued this scenario as a chance to up my GM game.
Aspis Consortium
This was the first time my players met the Aspis Consortium in anyway, shape or form, and I think the adventure effectivly hints at their power. As one player commented "...so basically they're Cobra".
First Steps Part 3
I've taken a few tables through the first steps campaign now and found it valuable overall.
Cons
My greatest frustration is that I still don't know why Shadow Lodge and Lantern Lodge are not in play anymore.
I didn't enjoy the Taldor related mission, and my players didn't benefit much from it either.
Tip
Have a look at The Confirmation, from Season 5, which I guess replaces the First Steps campaign.
I'm glad I bought this map, and while I rate it highly there were some things I didn't like that I want to mention.
While you can fold the map to show just one ship, you loose being able to see a true top-down view of the ship unless you add a new crease to the map.
I don't like the plank rendering, there's a nice wood texture but each plank looks like it's framed with a shaded rectangle.
There are some print and play maps out there that do a great job of showing rigging. I would have likes to see the same technique used here, because a pirate ship is really a great piece of 3D terrain to fight over. I think this map failed in that sense.
Those are my gripes, but I'm still glad I bought this map and looking forward to getting some good use out of it.
If you've already bought anything else in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line, then you know what kind of quality to expect. The Beginners box does not disappoint, even if you've already been playing for awhile. I recently moved overseas and couldn't take my core book with me, so I bought the beginners box instead. While the rules are simplified, they are not changed, meaning that you can simply add on rules from the Core book as you need to.
Some rules that are left out are some skills like Handle Animal, rules such as attacks of opportunity and encumbrance. I think in general, having left out certain rules has made the game easier for new players. However, I'd advise more experienced players to use the Core rules on top of this set.
Besides rules, you get a decent set of character/NPC card mini's, monsters to cover level 1-6, two great dry-erase maps, a solo adventure, a small party adventure (3-5 PC's) as well as a stack of free PDF downloads.
What more could anyone really want? Maybe more plastic bases for the mini's.
