Sir_Wulf's page

Tim Hitchcock has brewed up another excellent adventure with Decline of Glory, a challenging scenario set near a downtrodden Taldan village and its distillery. I was one of the first people to run this adventure when it premiered at PaizoCon 2009, and my players had a blast!

The Pathfinders’ initial goal seems fairly straightforward: They want authorization to build a new Pathfinder chapter house in Taldor's rural countryside. Unfortunately, the area has gone downhill recently, as a changing watercourse transformed the region's rich bottom land into vile, fungus-draped swamps. Calling the area "wine country" would be a grave error: "Muddy, whiskey-besotted squalor" suits the place better.

Decline of Glory features several well-drawn, three-dimensional NPCs. Although their pasts are only briefly sketched in, the details provided by the author give an attentive gamemaster a solid impression of the character’s opinions, emotions, and problems. From a former knight fleeing his past to a soldier cloaking personal ambitions behind loyalty to his crown, these supporting characters really came alive for me.

The PCs' task gives them several scenes of heroic action, spiced with chances for interesting role-play. While the order of many events is predetermined, there are plenty of opportunities for creative play. I’ll never forget the inspired roleplaying it brought out in my players at the ‘con, as the party tried to bluff an important NPC into cooperating. Everything builds to a satisfying crescendo in the final act, when the PCs’ face grim odds in a scene reminiscent of classic horror films.

I enthusiastically recommend this scenario, and can’t wait to see what Tim Hitchcock does next!

Another solid adventure for the Society’s roguish scholars, The Third Riddle has the strongest “Indiana Jones” vibe of any I’ve seen so far. It can be approached as a “puzzle dungeon”, but those who prefer more a “direct” approach have plenty of opportunities for battle.

My players enjoyed trying to outthink the challenges of the Ravenous Sphinx, bantering with the NPCs, quoting from raiders of the Lost Ark, and trying to “beat” the puzzle aspects of the scenario. The combats were interesting and well-balanced: Their unusual terrain inspired my players to try a variety of odd stunts, leaping from catwalks and climbing on shelves.

The Third Riddle does reward substantial GM preparation. Some of the information inside is laid out in a way reminiscent of the WotC “delve” format, with rooms described on one page and the inhabitants or traps described on a different page. Because the scenario is so short, I didn’t find the layout to be a problem when I ran the scenario.

The Gamemastery Map Pack: Caravans would definitely come in handy for one encounter. (Since I hadn’t purchased the map pack yet, I enlarged and photocopied the illustrations given for the expedition’s wagons, using them to depict the caravan.)

This scenario's material could have been effectively expanded to twice the size. A GM using it for a home game could easily make this part of a larger arc, taking seeds mentioned in the adventure and building its plotline into several adventure sessions. The “Third Riddle” of the title could trigger a massive political and magical conflict if additional rumors surfaced about Nethys’ lethal secret.