Darius Silverbolt's page

Story:
This is a wonderful role play heavy scenario and it is great. My parties have enjoyed getting to know the locals and learning about the cultures of the two civilizations. The story does continue in a later scenario as well which is always fun to see.

Time (Based on a 4-hour slot):
Starship encounter with new players can take a fair amount of time. This particular starship encounter can run extra long with the nature of the encounter.

GM’ing Notes:
2 Standard flip mats used and one small work custom map. There is a starship encounter here so having the players think and assign roles is important. Having a cheat sheet for the various starship roles with the DC’s is a must for any convention.

Last Words:
Excellent scenario, also good for younger crowd. A solid role play encounter and not too deadly and I think it is one of the best adventures in the first season and even present a moral question for the party at the end. I would love to see more stories from Jason Keeley.

Story:
Overall one of the most straight forward scenarios out there. It doesn’t push the main plot line of season one at all but that was fine with me. The GM has some freedom in allowing the party to roleplay the investigation portion of the adventure. I think I would of like more information included for the cities of Maro and Tasch that the players could have learn just to get the exploration feel for being in the Starfinders.

Time (Based on a 4-hour slot):
There are 3 maps in the game (2 custom) and the pre-made map may not come into play depending on the party’s actions. No matter which tier you run the game in it is likely not going to run long. I have seen the game take on average of two hours to complete.

GM’ing Notes:
There are 3 maps in the game (2 custom) and the pre-made map may not come into play depending on the party’s actions. No custom mechanics in the scenario that has to be learned and the enemies and traps are not complicated at all. This is a great scenario for a new GM especially at tier 1-2.

Last Words:
This is one of my few stand-by scenarios at a convention (that isn’t repeatable) for several reasons. If you have GM’ed this one before you know it is an easy adventure to run. As you can start and finish it within 2-2.5 hours it is easy to get late walk ins onto a table and going especially that it does not have a star ship encounter. I think this scenario gets a bad rap for its simplicity. I don’t want all the scenarios this simple but as it was one of the first ones out there, I find it perfect for my needs and another good scenario for new players to SFS.

Story:
You get four simple missions for being new members to the Starfinder Society and it feels just like you would want it to. The missions are not “critical” missions to the organization, and they feel just like missions you would expect new members to receive. I personally like the role play involving the Dataphiles mission. I have ran this several times and I get more laughs with that mission than most with how I play up Ceren.

Time: (Based on a 4-hour slot):
A well prepared GM with handouts at the ready and will all the random selections do prior to game should be able to accomplish the session inside of four hours.

GM’ing Notes:
You have two premade maps and one customs map. The Acquisitives mission is very roll heavy with how it plays out. It can get drawn out a but if the mission doesn’t go well and players without certain skills can feel a tad left out.

Last Words:
I find the scenario over all a good fit for the kick off of the campaign and I still will run it for new players as it isn’t a very lethal scenario (but be mindful of the Exo-Guardian mission) and over has a good “intro” feel to it.

I am going to steal Mr. Case Review format.

Overall 4.5/5:

This was a fun scenario with role playing. I always preferred scenarios where combat, diplomacy, or the art of subterfuge can be used. I can't wait to run this for my local players.

Rankings:

From a players point of view

Story 4.0:
I enjoyed the story and it had a touch of railroad that you find in many scenario's but that is more to keep you on the path more than just going point A->B->C.

Setting : 5.0

Irrisen man we don't get to go out there much so it was great so have a area that was foreign to me for the most part as a player (and GM). I think we made it out to this area of the world once in PFS in season 0.

Role-play-ability : 5.0

Loads of good RP which has a direct outcome to how things play out which is something missing in many scenario's. The author was able to work in the culture of Irrisen plus the political climate and it was all apart of the story. Bravo.

Combat : 4.0

Our group didn't murder-hobo our way through which cost us encounters which to me a rare success. It nice to see a non-combat option even it is hard to accomplish. The fights we did have were very scary to our lower level party members (We ran Tier 4-5 w/ 6 PC's) but we won the day.

Conclusion:
Was a great time and this scenario is what the Pathfinders is all about. Action, adventure, excitement is what we crave and we got it. Also the time completed was about four hours which is what I like to see as a standard game time. Long enough to get a story across and friendly to the convention timing.

I would like to see more of what Mr. Andrew Hoskins has to offer.

Once again Mike Shel deliver's a seriously fun scenario for GenCon and at this point I would like to see a Mike Shel scenario at Gen Con next year.

The level of detail in this scenario is high. Many of the room descriptions are written to make this dungeon crawl style adventure down right spooky.

My only issue with this scenario is working the back story on page three into the game so the players can feel more integrated.

I would rate this one of the more difficult scenario's for the 3-7 Tier. As it can be easy to kill an under prepared party.

I ran this module three times at GENCON 2011 and even had Mr. Shel sitting at the table to watch the mayhem ensue.

The balance of combat, puzzle / trap solving, and role-playing was excellent for a tier 5-9 scenario.

I have always liked the Map Pack product line myself. I use them to complement my own hand drawn or support other flip maps or other various maps.

This new format now allows for dry/wet makers to be used on the this product and that is VERY useful for me and my gaming groups.

Ambush sites map pack is solid support map pack for various ambush's as the name suggest and I am very happy with this product. It works very well to support my Kingmaker campaign.

There is a time in every pathfinder career that they will recall overcoming impossible odds to save the day. This Scenario is that time. This module can terrify the players and the action never stops! I had a lot of fun running this one for many groups at home and GENCON. Players will forever remember this one.

Your parties actions or lack there of from Beyond the Dawn Part one will weigh heavily on what happens here. I high advise run part one before running part two as the story will make much more sense.

GM's must fully understand this scenario and be very prepared to run this successfully. This module is responsible from my one and only TPK in PFS.

Good Job Mr. Frost for writing this one.

I ran this scenario at GENCON 2010 five times. It is a blast and a great first adventure for new PC's. I got some great role playing situations in this one and some butt kicking good fights. Ms. Frasier out did herself here and I hope she can keep the writing up. There is even an EPIC part two to this one.

This is the first issue fot the age of worms campaign. That alone is worth getting the issue.

The Whispering Cairn is a great 1st level adventure for Veterans & Newcomers of DnD. The balanace of hack and slash, Brians before brawn , and ROLE playing are perfect.

The Diamond lakes backdrop was a must read for each DM wishing to run the whole campaign.

Temple of the Scopion god and Chambers of Antiquities are also good solid adventures.