Jiggy's page

This has got to be one of the most fun scenarios I've ever run or played. There's a fun mix of combat, exploration, and trapfinding. The plot is not deep, but not every scenario's plot should be deep. PFS needs more straightforward, fun romps through this fantasy world of ours. It's just good clean fun: let's go fight pirates, kill spiders, and look for treasure! What's not to love?

This scenario was tons of fun both to play and to run. It's hard to write this while resisting the urge to just tell all the stories that came up. It's a different kind of mission than you usually get (for me personally, the first escort mission I've ever played in PFS) and is pretty well-executed.

My one complaint is that a couple of the faction missions were somewhat confusingly worded. In particular, the Grand Lodge faction mission reads a little vague. I was confused about who I was/wasn't allowed to see/do what, and when I ran it as a GM later, the Grand Lodge player at the table had the same confusion.

But other than that, fantastic!

I recently played through the entire First Steps trilogy. The first two parts were great, but this one was sorely lacking.

Material leading up to one of the encounters felt like it should have been its own plot hook, but then it turns out you just needed to fight one creature and that's it. It felt like it was building up to be a subplot, then turned out to be what amounted to a "random encounter".

Then there's the bit about it getting cold. You're warned that the temperature could drop below forty degrees (Fahrenheit, I assume). Oh no! Forty! Seriously, water doesn't even freeze at that temperature, and for anyone who doesn't live on the friggin' equator that's jacket weather. But apparently, for tough adventuring types, it's sufficient for nonlethal damage even while wearing a cold weather outfit.

And then there's the swamp. Without any decision-making along the way, you simply have to make a series of checks (the same skill, eight times in a row) and then make a save for each failure, and one failed save results in "bad stuff" happening. Alright, let's have everyone roll about 12 d20s (give or take a few) with no opportunity for either roleplaying or use of tactics, and then it doesn't really matter because with that many rolls you're guaranteed to fail. May as well just announce that everyone got [bad stuff] in the swamp and skip the unceremonious rolling.

We even had one player ready to just walk away from the table without a chronicle (the GM coaxed him into staying), and frankly, I don't blame him.