Erick Wilson's page

I want to give this five stars, I really do. But I can't, quite. This is an interesting scenario with just enough zaniness. There's a lot going on, but without the plot being too opaque or convoluted, like they often are. There are social and combat encounters, and the combats can actually prove relatively challenging even to experienced player groups (which is rare in these scenarios).

On the other hand, this is the sort of scenario that probably should have been a module. If run properly, it will run long, probably much longer than your time slot. But the really fatal flaw, which has been mentioned by others, is that killing the BBEG is a success condition, yet there is no compelling in-game reason to kill her. She even goes out of her way to negotiate and reason with you. It truly is a major offense to good scenario writing, and for that alone I have to knock off a star.

To be honest, this probably doesn't deserve 5 stars, but I wanted to balance out the rating if possible since it sure as hell deserves more than 2. Here's the deal: most everyone complaining seems to be upset that the mod was hard. Well that's just a silly reason to complain (unless there's something truly unfair or unbalanced).

I personally love tough adventures, but I also wouldn't rate this one higher simply because it's difficult. In addition to just being difficult though, (most of) the encounters are also varied and interesting (which is pretty much all you can ask for in the PFS format). Sadly, the optional encounter (which most people probably don't play) is maybe the most interesting.

Most of the complaints I saw confused me. The mechanics of some the fights are complicated, yes (perhaps to the point of being unwieldy for novice GMs), but there's nothing inherently wrong with them. The fight at the beginning seems to be drawing particular ire, but honestly it's fantastic.

The bottom line is that this mod is for experienced GMs with capable players who enjoy being challenged (which ought, by the way, to be exactly what we want more of). If that's not you, fine. Don't play it. But that's no good reason to come on here and downrate a perfectly well-constructed mod.

Incidentally, I both played and ran this on hard mode (which is awesome), and there were no deaths either time (though admittedly the first encounter could have very easily tipped over to a TPK on both occasions). I cursed my way through that first fight (which left my 7th level warrior type with 11 HP before I took my first standard action), but when the dust cleared I was very excited and ready for more. Man up, folks. If the mods can't scare you at least sometimes, what's the point?

You'll get the title if you play it.

Anyway, this scenario is a mixed bag. Overall, it's very good. Other people have already complained about the puzzle, so I won't reiterate what they said. I will say, however, that it is difficult to put a puzzle in a mod and make success or failure in solving it meaningful. It should probably be optional, because the way it is done here you either solve the puzzle or the mod is pretty much over. This means if you don't solve it, GMs will invariably end up hand-waving it, so what was the point?

The big things recommending this mod are the final set piece, already much lauded, and the inclusion of an optional hard mode. Especially the hard mode. At last! Also the challenges are nicely varied in general.

On the downside, there are some curious problems with the final encounter too. For such a meticulously arranged set-piece, it's unclear what the author thought the party ought to do if they were lacking certain abilities. Some pieces of information (most notably, climb DCs) that really ought to be present, aren't. There is the potential for certain types of parties to be seriously stymied if they don't have ways around...well, certain things (trying to avoid spoilers).

Run/play this mod if you like challenging fights, cinematic set-pieces, and tactics in general. Not so much if you're looking for an easy challenge or a lot of RP. Also probably avoid it if long puzzles with awkward resolution systems bother you a lot.

Arrgh! I just wrote a long, detailed review of this, which the system then ate when I tried to post it. I'm not doing it again, so I'll just say that this mod is extremely cool and interesting, and has the potential to be very difficult (far more so at high tier). Experienced GMs will get more out of it than novices, for sure. It has tough, intelligent villains, and a couple of devilish tricks designed to take advantage of typical PC psychology. Best of all, it has built in latitude for GMs to alter the tactics of the enemies in the end dungeon.

It has a couple of flaws and some of the logic is just slightly wonky, but that stuff can be worked out with only minor tweaking if you're on the ball. I can see why more inexperienced groups (both players and GMs) would find it frustrating. The "long narrow hallway" complaint someone posted about did not come up as a problem for my table at all, and won't for you either if you get a little creative with the tactics in the end dungeon. Hint: Set the BBEG fight in the pit room. Makes all the difference in the world.

This is what PFS mods should be all about. It's fairly challenging, the encounters are interesting and varied, and the boss fight is really cool. Plus it references The Boxer's Omen! The freaking Boxer's Omen, people! Now that's a cool Asian film reference!

On the downside, there is basically no RP here at all. But hey, does there really always need to be? The argument could also be made that characters have too much time and opportunity to rest between challenges, but that's a common issue that is admittedly difficult for the mod writers to address.

First of all, changing the human bandits from The Seven Samurai into tengu does not exactly qualify in my book as high innovation. But that's far from my central gripe with this mod.

The system for acquiring defense points against the bandits was an interesting idea, but in practice it is over-complicated, tedious, time consuming, and far too liberal in its rewards. The last of those is a big problem because...

As usual, the mod is far, far too easy. The bandits come in waves, each of which is modified based on the defense points earned by the PCs, and separated by a certain space of time from the last wave. Well, I made none of the modifications my PCs' defense preparations demanded, I dramatically reduced the time between waves, and I think I even added a couple of guys...and they still curb stomped the assault with trivial ease.

Finally, it is really absurd that the mod does not take into account what to do if the PCs want to split up and defend separate sections of the town. That was, of course, the first thing my PCs asked to do, and I had to just tell them no, the mod really gives me no way to let you do that.

I am baffled by the high ratings this mod is receiving.

1. The much touted open ended format is a smokescreen. Players really have very limited options about how to go about this mod. It's very much on rails, despite pretending not to be (which is worse, really, because it invariably leads to confusion).

2. The clues that lead you, during the investigation sequence, from one thing to the next are conspicuous and barely logical.

3. The fights are absurdly easy.

4. There is a kind of cool environmental danger scene, but ultimately if you run it as written it is mostly just tedious.