paizo.com Recent Reviews by Chris Mortikapaizo.com Recent Reviews by Chris Mortika2024-02-16T23:53:10Z2024-02-16T23:53:10ZPathfinder Society Scenario #2-23: Shadow's Last Stand—Part I: At Shadow's Door (PFRPG) PDF: Some Assembly Required (3 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8jon?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-223-Shadows-Last-Stand-Part-I-At-Shadows-Door2013-08-07T19:49:49Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-23: Shadow's Last Stand—Part I: At Shadow's Door (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I've run this scenario four times now. While the reviews below note that there are parts missing from this adventure, a GM can connect the dots and create a good time.</p>
<p>My suggestions: </p>
<p>1) Emphasize the time-critical nature of the situation. True, the PCs have hours to reach the villain and rescue the hostages, but they don't know that.</p>
<p>2) The other reviewers correctly note that there's some encounters here that don't immediately connect to the captors: golems? elementals? Neither the hobgoblins nor the Spider herself could have these at ready disposal. But one of the Pathfinder wizards would, and the Spider has powerful mind-influencing spells. At least, that's how I've been putting the backstory pieces together.</p>
<p>3) There are several connections that can be made between this adventure and Shadow's Last Stand, for the GMs that run them back-to-back. Where did the rest of the party attendees end up? On the slaver ships, perhaps?</p>
<p>There's work to be done, making sense of all this, but the encounters here are cool, the challenges are diverse, and they payoff for work makes this worth the trouble.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-23: Shadow's Last Stand—Part I: At Shadow's Door (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I've run this scenario four times now. While the reviews below note that there are parts missing from this adventure, a GM can connect the dots and create a good time.</p>
<p>My suggestions: </p>
<p>1) Emphasize the time-critical nature of the situation. True, the PCs have hours to reach the villain and rescue the hostages, but they don't know that.</p>
<p>2) The other reviewers correctly note that there's some encounters here that don't immediately connect to the captors: golems? elementals? Neither the hobgoblins nor the Spider herself could have these at ready disposal. But one of the Pathfinder wizards would, and the Spider has powerful mind-influencing spells. At least, that's how I've been putting the backstory pieces together.</p>
<p>3) There are several connections that can be made between this adventure and Shadow's Last Stand, for the GMs that run them back-to-back. Where did the rest of the party attendees end up? On the slaver ships, perhaps?</p>
<p>There's work to be done, making sense of all this, but the encounters here are cool, the challenges are diverse, and they payoff for work makes this worth the trouble.</p>Chris Mortika2013-08-07T19:49:49ZPathfinder Online: Thornkeep (PFRPG): Great work, with hints of something extraordinary (5 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8tb0?Pathfinder-Online-Thornkeep2013-01-30T23:14:52Z<p><b>Pathfinder Online: Thornkeep (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Jim's review mentions the Village of Hommlet. I can also think of Monte Cook's Brinderford, or Waterdeep, or Greyhawk: established communities with mysterious dungeons underneath. This product continues a proud tradition, and it holds up that weighty responsibility.</p>
<p>My one concern: the levels are, well, too small, too briefly described. I understand about page-count, and I have read that a lot of material was cut. That's a shame. As this product stands, it's a great little campaign. As it could have been, with more generous resources, it would have been legendary.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Online: Thornkeep (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Jim's review mentions the Village of Hommlet. I can also think of Monte Cook's Brinderford, or Waterdeep, or Greyhawk: established communities with mysterious dungeons underneath. This product continues a proud tradition, and it holds up that weighty responsibility.</p>
<p>My one concern: the levels are, well, too small, too briefly described. I understand about page-count, and I have read that a lot of material was cut. That's a shame. As this product stands, it's a great little campaign. As it could have been, with more generous resources, it would have been legendary.</p>Chris Mortika2013-01-30T23:14:52ZThe 11th Hour (OGL) PDF: Now, THIS is an adventure! (5 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy7y0k?The-11th-Hour2010-02-09T21:38:18Z<p><b>The 11th Hour (OGL) PDF</b></p><p>In his own review, Bret gives an idea about the plotline here. I'll save you re-reading that.</p>
<p>I want to speak of the quality of this product. Tricky Owlbear has gone far out of its way to make this product as useful and friendy for the GM as possible. Details include how the outside world reacts to the situation, the characterization of the NPCs, and some terrific red herrings.</p>
<p>I cannot recommend this highly enough.</p><p><b>The 11th Hour (OGL) PDF</b></p><p>In his own review, Bret gives an idea about the plotline here. I'll save you re-reading that.</p>
<p>I want to speak of the quality of this product. Tricky Owlbear has gone far out of its way to make this product as useful and friendy for the GM as possible. Details include how the outside world reacts to the situation, the characterization of the NPCs, and some terrific red herrings.</p>
<p>I cannot recommend this highly enough.</p>Chris Mortika2010-02-09T21:38:18ZThe World of Avlis—Revised Edition (PFRPG) PDF: The Heart of the Product is Missing (1 star)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8bjv?The-World-of-Avlis-Revised-Edition2009-12-07T16:52:23Z<p><b>The World of Avlis—Revised Edition (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of the PDF.</p>
<p>I understand that there are tens of thousands of people who have enjoyed the on-line version of this campaign setting. But whatever they found didn't make it into this sourcebook for a tabletop game.</p>
<p>The rules are inconsistent with the <i>Pathfinder</i> RPG. The prose for the fluff is amateurish and rife with obvious spelling errors. ("hoard" for "horde", "lightening", etc.) The world as it is described has a great deal of fantastical history but no plot hooks. Everybody kind of gets along.</p>
<p>There's nothing in this book I can recommend.</p><p><b>The World of Avlis—Revised Edition (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of the PDF.</p>
<p>I understand that there are tens of thousands of people who have enjoyed the on-line version of this campaign setting. But whatever they found didn't make it into this sourcebook for a tabletop game.</p>
<p>The rules are inconsistent with the <i>Pathfinder</i> RPG. The prose for the fluff is amateurish and rife with obvious spelling errors. ("hoard" for "horde", "lightening", etc.) The world as it is described has a great deal of fantastical history but no plot hooks. Everybody kind of gets along.</p>
<p>There's nothing in this book I can recommend.</p>Chris Mortika2009-12-07T16:52:23ZPathfinder Module D4: Hungry Are the Dead (OGL) Print Edition: wow. Just... wow. (3 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy85en?Pathfinder-Module-D4-Hungry-Are-the-Dead2008-11-12T03:46:38Z<p><b>Pathfinder Module D4: Hungry Are the Dead (OGL) Print Edition</b></p><p>I admit, a lot of Tim Hitchcock's writing isn't my cup of tea. (That's because I don't like threads of spinal fluid and mostly human eyeballs floating in my tea...)</p>
<p>But I am very pleased to recommend "Hungry are the Dead". It starts plainly enough, with a zombie attack on a village, and just ... keeps ... getting ... weirder. This is the pay-off of a series of four modules, and I found it to be a satisfying conclusion.</p>
<p>Why only 3 stars? Craftsmanship and balance. </p>
<p>There are many points in the adventure where encounters don't work right or the plot derails if the party doesn't succeed in some chancy die rolls or doesn't choose particular actions. The text is long on Lovecraftian adjectives and lurid descriptions, and light on crunch when crunch would be useful. (There are "traps" with no DC and no means to avoid or disable. Other traps trigger even if the party avoids them completely.)</p>
<p>Too, this module completes the "Falcon's Hollow" adventures, at least, for the DM. There's no good way for the player characters to discover how these all tie together.</p>
<p>And, if someone decides whether the forest is Darkmoon Vale (map) or Darkmoon Wood (text), that would be helpful.</p>
<p>This is a tricky module to balance. The pregenerated characters include a paladin and a cleric, and that's good, but neither of them have a Charisma above 12, and that's bad. Parties without clerics will find "Hungry are the Dead" very difficult. Parties with, say, two high-Charisma clerics will find it much easier.</p>
<p>The plug promises "handouts to enhance play". None that I noticed.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Module D4: Hungry Are the Dead (OGL) Print Edition</b></p><p>I admit, a lot of Tim Hitchcock's writing isn't my cup of tea. (That's because I don't like threads of spinal fluid and mostly human eyeballs floating in my tea...)</p>
<p>But I am very pleased to recommend "Hungry are the Dead". It starts plainly enough, with a zombie attack on a village, and just ... keeps ... getting ... weirder. This is the pay-off of a series of four modules, and I found it to be a satisfying conclusion.</p>
<p>Why only 3 stars? Craftsmanship and balance. </p>
<p>There are many points in the adventure where encounters don't work right or the plot derails if the party doesn't succeed in some chancy die rolls or doesn't choose particular actions. The text is long on Lovecraftian adjectives and lurid descriptions, and light on crunch when crunch would be useful. (There are "traps" with no DC and no means to avoid or disable. Other traps trigger even if the party avoids them completely.)</p>
<p>Too, this module completes the "Falcon's Hollow" adventures, at least, for the DM. There's no good way for the player characters to discover how these all tie together.</p>
<p>And, if someone decides whether the forest is Darkmoon Vale (map) or Darkmoon Wood (text), that would be helpful.</p>
<p>This is a tricky module to balance. The pregenerated characters include a paladin and a cleric, and that's good, but neither of them have a Charisma above 12, and that's bad. Parties without clerics will find "Hungry are the Dead" very difficult. Parties with, say, two high-Charisma clerics will find it much easier.</p>
<p>The plug promises "handouts to enhance play". None that I noticed.</p>Chris Mortika2008-11-12T03:46:38ZPathfinder Companion: Second Darkness (OGL) Print Edition: Korvosa Culture Shock (3 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy84en?Pathfinder-Companion-Second-Darkness2008-08-04T23:08:27Z<p><b>Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness (OGL) Print Edition</b></p><p>If your <i>Curse of the Crimson Throne</i> players are chafing at the Lawful nature of Korvosa, and are wishing they could hang in a looser, more swinging town...</p>
<p>...they should be careful what they wish for.</p>
<p>This is a <i>Player's Guide to Riddleport and the Second Darkness</i>, expanded to 32 pages. The production values are top-notch. Riddleport is a great place to adventure, or run afoul of the thieves. The prestige classes and spells are cool. </p>
<p>The traits, sadly, are incomplete, but the text <i>promises</i> there'll be other traits, in another product, soon.</p>
<p>The sad thing: this will never get used as a <i>Player's Guide</i>. My players loved the $2 book introducing Ptolus. They loved the 16-page guide which introduced the Savage Tide, and the Curse of the Crimson Throne. I plunked down $10 and got five copies, to hand around the table for my players to keep. </p>
<p>This is a $10 item. There's no way I could pay $50 to hand it out to my players. I'd have to make 5 copies of the PDF and hand them out. </p>
<p>So the affordable 16-page player introductions to the campaigns are a thing of the past. Here's hoping that they'll become a thing of the future, too.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness (OGL) Print Edition</b></p><p>If your <i>Curse of the Crimson Throne</i> players are chafing at the Lawful nature of Korvosa, and are wishing they could hang in a looser, more swinging town...</p>
<p>...they should be careful what they wish for.</p>
<p>This is a <i>Player's Guide to Riddleport and the Second Darkness</i>, expanded to 32 pages. The production values are top-notch. Riddleport is a great place to adventure, or run afoul of the thieves. The prestige classes and spells are cool. </p>
<p>The traits, sadly, are incomplete, but the text <i>promises</i> there'll be other traits, in another product, soon.</p>
<p>The sad thing: this will never get used as a <i>Player's Guide</i>. My players loved the $2 book introducing Ptolus. They loved the 16-page guide which introduced the Savage Tide, and the Curse of the Crimson Throne. I plunked down $10 and got five copies, to hand around the table for my players to keep. </p>
<p>This is a $10 item. There's no way I could pay $50 to hand it out to my players. I'd have to make 5 copies of the PDF and hand them out. </p>
<p>So the affordable 16-page player introductions to the campaigns are a thing of the past. Here's hoping that they'll become a thing of the future, too.</p>Chris Mortika2008-08-04T23:08:27ZBehind the Spells: Dispel Magic (OGL) PDF: Good crusty details (3 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy7y2h?Behind-the-Spells-Dispel-Magic2008-05-20T23:25:28Z<p><b>Behind the Spells: Dispel Magic (OGL) PDF</b></p><p>Just yesterday, I was discussing Ed Greenwood's old "Pages from the Mages" column in DRAGON magazine. Crusty old Elminster would explain the origins of a couple of spell-books from the Realms, and details the spells in them, with rough edges, aspects of the dwoemers that didn't work quite the way the originator had intended, and such. Even the "standard" spells in the books were sometimes variations (usually slightly deficient) off the standar PHB versions.</p>
<p>I'd been saying that I liked that, and it was one aspect of 3rd Edition I missed, and that (in my opinion) the shininess of 4th Edition had moved further away from: the feel that these spells were part of some imperfect reality, perhaps, in some cases, kludges or "panda's thumbs".</p>
<p>Well, these "Behind the Spells" give us all of that back. I've read six pages on the history and qualities of <i>dispel magic</i>, and it feels more "real" to me. These 38 spells are going to be drawn up into a hardcopy book, and I'm going to loan it to the people who play Wizards in my campaign and say, "Write something like this for a couple more of your known spells."</p>
<p>Wizards <i>should</i> know this kind of trivia about their spells. (Sorcerers, or rogues reading scrolls, not so much.)</p>
<p>Why only 3 stars? Most of this 6 pages is backstory, and it could have been summed up in a page, and the back-story may not fit everybody's campaign.</p><p><b>Behind the Spells: Dispel Magic (OGL) PDF</b></p><p>Just yesterday, I was discussing Ed Greenwood's old "Pages from the Mages" column in DRAGON magazine. Crusty old Elminster would explain the origins of a couple of spell-books from the Realms, and details the spells in them, with rough edges, aspects of the dwoemers that didn't work quite the way the originator had intended, and such. Even the "standard" spells in the books were sometimes variations (usually slightly deficient) off the standar PHB versions.</p>
<p>I'd been saying that I liked that, and it was one aspect of 3rd Edition I missed, and that (in my opinion) the shininess of 4th Edition had moved further away from: the feel that these spells were part of some imperfect reality, perhaps, in some cases, kludges or "panda's thumbs".</p>
<p>Well, these "Behind the Spells" give us all of that back. I've read six pages on the history and qualities of <i>dispel magic</i>, and it feels more "real" to me. These 38 spells are going to be drawn up into a hardcopy book, and I'm going to loan it to the people who play Wizards in my campaign and say, "Write something like this for a couple more of your known spells."</p>
<p>Wizards <i>should</i> know this kind of trivia about their spells. (Sorcerers, or rogues reading scrolls, not so much.)</p>
<p>Why only 3 stars? Most of this 6 pages is backstory, and it could have been summed up in a page, and the back-story may not fit everybody's campaign.</p>Chris Mortika2008-05-20T23:25:28ZKOBOLD Guide to Game Design—Volume 1: Adventures: Good for Designers, and Good for GM's (5 stars)Chris Mortikahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy82ud?KOBOLD-Guide-to-Game-Design-Volume-1-Adventures2008-05-14T15:14:15Z<p><b>KOBOLD Guide to Game Design—Volume 1: Adventures</b></p><p>Did you like Wolfgang Baur's "Adventure Builder" series on the WotC website? Did you like his (short) run of "Dungeoncraft" articles? Consider these kind of like the graduate-level semester.</p>
<p>These essays were written for a specific audience:
<br />
<ul><li>writers interested in freelance design work (for example, essay #2, "Shorter, Faster, Harder, Less" on writing tersely)
<br />
<li>GM's willing to spend money, time, and effort to create kick-butt adventures and experiences for their players (for example, Nick Logue's "Stagecraft", on cinematic techniques)
<br />
</ul>(If you're happy running modules as written, there's not a lot here that will interest you.) Wolfgang culled the best of the Open Design essays for this collection.</p>
<p>My recommendation: get the print version. It's well-assembled and a nice size.</p><p><b>KOBOLD Guide to Game Design—Volume 1: Adventures</b></p><p>Did you like Wolfgang Baur's "Adventure Builder" series on the WotC website? Did you like his (short) run of "Dungeoncraft" articles? Consider these kind of like the graduate-level semester.</p>
<p>These essays were written for a specific audience:
<br />
<ul><li>writers interested in freelance design work (for example, essay #2, "Shorter, Faster, Harder, Less" on writing tersely)
<br />
<li>GM's willing to spend money, time, and effort to create kick-butt adventures and experiences for their players (for example, Nick Logue's "Stagecraft", on cinematic techniques)
<br />
</ul>(If you're happy running modules as written, there's not a lot here that will interest you.) Wolfgang culled the best of the Open Design essays for this collection.</p>
<p>My recommendation: get the print version. It's well-assembled and a nice size.</p>Chris Mortika2008-05-14T15:14:15Z