ThornDJL7's page

Got to use this in an adventure not to long ago. It got an "ooo" when it hit the table, and then it got an "Aaaauggh" as it proceeded to destroy the heroes. :P

There wasn't a lot to pull me into the body of this, and became difficult to focus on it towards the end. I found myself having to go through sections twice due to phasing out mentally, but made sure to get it down before I moved on.

As far as an NDA goes though, it gives me lots of fun to go "I know! BUT my NDA says I can't tell you!"

Even when I don't know and my NDA has nothing to do with the answer it drives my players nuts. :P

Fun: (5) I had fun. Oh, did I have fun.

Story: (5) The story starts out how any investigation type starts but if you choose the right clues you can keep your players off guard depending on that route they take.

Combat: (5) The combats give the GM’s plenty of options to keep their players on their toes and not taking anything for granted. I enjoyed this. I had a full toolkit with nothing feeling wasted.

Roleplay: (5) The roleplay opportunities were fabulous and well mixed into the story. All of my players put this in their top 3 sessions of all time.

Challenge: (5) They felt pushed to their limits and I almost killed 2 of them, but they managed to scrape by just barely and come out with a win, a big win.

Overall: 5 (5 star) My word of warning if you spend too much time on the roleplay you will push this well out of the 4 hour mark. We took 5.5 hours, but we weren’t hammering the timers either. Just keep an eye on that clock at least.

Venture-Captain Dan Luckett (West Michigan)

Fun: (5) I enjoyed this scenario immensely.

Story: (3) This adventure’s story is straight forward, and not overly complicated. The only point of it that’s predictable is the beginning, and the end. The middle was entertaining.

Combat: (3) The only fight that I felt I challenged my party with was the BBEG in the end, but it was his mooks that did the most damage due to the super high AC 3/5 of the party had. They just smashed their way through everything.

Roleplay: (5) This is where this scenario shined. A good GM will ham this up to nines. If he doesn’t well…if you’re not a good GM what kind of GM does that make you…hmm?

Challenge: (3) There was no serious challenge to this adventure. It’s a fun romp, but doesn’t stress you in any real way. It was nice to see a new twist to an old enemy of PFS, but players are just too used to fighting this enemy to not be able to squash it handily.

Overall: 3.8 (4 star)
Venture-Captain Dan Luckett (West Michigan)

Fun: (Void) I am 99% sure this scenario was ruined for me by my GM being so soft spoken and it being played at Gencon where it was so noisy. I eventually gave up and keeping it to myself, I read the box text in the module on my Ipad to follow along. I just could not hear him or tell what was happening without it, and got tired of screaming, “What!?”

Story: (5) The story was actually pretty cool in my opinion. The setting was neat, and the idea of riding up on shore reminded me a little bit of the D-Day depictions mixed with something else I’m having difficulty placing. I found it absolutely fascinating.

Combat: (4) The first encounter was the only fight that I found challenging. The others were a joke, but that was probably more due to the fact that we had a perfect mix to stomp the BBEG.

Roleplay: (3) It was present in the required amounts. Nothing special, but it wasn’t missing.

Challenge: (4) A couple of the fights were annoying more than challenging, and aside for the above mentioned steam rolling by perfect party composition this should be a worthwhile challenge.

Overall: 4.0 (4 star)

Venture-Captain Dan Luckett (West Michigan)

Fun: (5) I had fun, but that may have been more due to the GM and the people I played with. Hard to tell, so I’ll let it slide in this category.

Story: (2) There wasn’t really any story to speak of. It had just enough of a weak justification to wander off to the Storval Stairs.

Combat: (5) The combat in this was extremely challenging and kept you on your toes.

Roleplay: (1) None that I noticed.

Challenge: (2) This was honestly too hard. When I played it at Gencon, I had heard of 2 other tables. One TPK’d, and the other was set to TPK when they timed out and survived by default. Our group would have wiped if we had gotten 1 more person pushing it to the 5-6 player group size. 5 people would not have done well.

Overall: 3.0 (3 star)

Venture-Captain Dan Luckett (West Michigan)

Player Perspective:

Fun: (5) I had fun.

Story: (3) The story was fairly predictable after the initial scene. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly invoking either.

Combat: (5) The combat in this was fairly inventive. It made good use of terrain in interesting ways, and kept you engaged like a good game of chess. It made the tactician in my very happy.

Roleplay: (5) The roleplay in this was stellar, from the villains to the protagonists. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Challenge: (5) I felt challenged, but I didn’t ever feel it was beyond what we could handle. It was not a cake walk, but it shouldn’t smash your face in either. It was perfect.

Overall: 4.6 (5 star)

Venture-Captain Dan Luckett (West Michigan)

When I review something,I try to be as objective as possible. I find thinking back on this book and being objective difficult. The protagonist is my favorite archetype, the lead lady is as well. It centers around fictional religion, and my favorite sort of fictional religion the anti-undead death god. Just strikes me as awesome.

So, all that said, here is my most objective thoughts. The writing, while good was not what I'd call deep, but in it's simplicity it was nice. There are areas of the story that felt forced at times, but it wasn't so bad that it broke my immersion at any point. At other points, it felt like this story was intentionally leading to a sequel, aside from the typical ending of "The story goes on..." at the end of it.

No concept felt groundbreaking or overly thought provoking, but it felt like I was watching my favorite genre of movie. So, it wasn't unexpected.

I guess my meandering review is: This book was enjoyable, to any pathfinder fan, I would recommend it. If you're into fantasy in general, I'd say it's worth a read.

My experience: I ran this for a five man, APL 3.2 group. Our spread was Fighter, Alchemist, Cavalier, Monk, and Witch. This was run for Pathfinder Society. It took us 10.5 hours over two sessions. It cuts nicely in two portions, not sure how I'd do it to break it into 4 hour slots. Probably Feast, House, Field.

Combat: The combats in this for the most part seemed right on the money. They challenged my party, pushed them to their limits, and made them get creative. There are a couple encounters that are rough on them. I would thoroughly encourage an APL of 3-4. Less than that and you risk wiping your table at times.

Roleplay: The roleplay is where this module truly shines. For a player to enjoy this they need to be willing to get “into” the scenario and be willing to explore new ideas and concepts. There are tons of RP opportunities in this module and that’s what made me love it. As a GM, you have to have a real strong attention to detail, because it’s the small things that make the RP spots what they are.

Overall: The module started out a little creepy, and kept getting creepier and creepier. My players were weirded out through and through by the end and were loving every minute of it. I heartily recommend this to anyone who likes a good story and a great adventure.

Point of View: Player (Tier 3-4) <---Rare for me

Roleplay: The roleplay presented through the lost survivor dwarf was well done and interesting. I made sure to stop and listen to the GM when this character spoke. Though his take on it made me think the dwarf was more of a stoner than anything.

Combat: Combat overall was pretty boring. The only fight that really grabbed at me was the one with the final boss, and even then she seemed to be a one trick pony.

Originality: The non-linear dungeon, and the weird "final" room, stuck out at me as very original. Somehow, by pure luck, we managed to go to the "last" room last. This is worth a play through, but I wouldn't take more than 4 players through it to keep it challenging combat wise.

Point of View: GM (3x run)

Story: Extremely entertaining, and fun. The explaining it from a goblin's point of view, and then what it really looks like to us. Is an entertaining way of seeing through the goblin mentality.

Roleplay: The entire scenario is one gigantic roleplay moments. Even the weakest roleplayer can slip into the goblin mentality and have a blast with this.

Combat: While nothing that I would task as "Difficult" the fact that you're being a goblin, and the sheer difference in point of view makes every combat in this scenario memorable.

Originality: I, in my experience have never read, seen, or done anything like this. This scenario strikes me as extremely original.

Point of View: GM (Once run)

Story: It was a fairly straight forward story. The part that intrigued me was the back story connection between the villian and the location. The story has very little opportunity to shine in the actual session though.

Roleplay: There is only one intended roleplay moment, and was fairly entertaining. Definitely a plus to the scenario.

Combat: The combats if played right will challenge your players, and keep them on the edge of their seat groaning and cheering with every blow.

Originality: Truly, this is a tried and true scenario. It isn't really original. It's the same thing, with a different skin over it. Though that doesn't mean it isn't fun. Just a comfortable pair of shoes.

Overall: It was fun, it challenged my players, and I will likely run it again.

Point of View: Multiple runs GM

Combat: The combats were overly simple and seemed to be nothing special. In all cases my parties blew through them and were unimpressed. Note: Most of my parties had access to darkvision, neutering the front cover monster heavily.

Roleplay: None really to speak of. It was a straight forward no roleplay dungeon crawl.

Overall, this adventure wasn't so terrible that I wouldn't play it, but it wasn't something I'd reccomend either.

Point of view: Player and GM who prepped but didn't run for players.

I agree with other reviewers that the sandbox part of it lacked what I think would make this a "5 star" dynamic reaction. Instead of just being able to do each encounter that the PC's desire. Have some kind of dynamic shift based on what order they did them. That would make this great

The combats were average, and only became interesting when a GM used an unorthodox tactic, but otherwise would be forgettable.

The roleplay points were a huge saving grace to this encounter. I really enjoyed them.

Pros:
1) Easy and straight forward player hook that makes sense.
2) Great writing and great details on 4/5 encounters
3) Great puzzles. Actually had my players puzzled for a bit. Which is abnormal since most puzzles are incredibly easy in scenarios.

Con:
1) Encounter #5 had great reasoning from a GM perspective, but ultimately satisfying 1/8 of the potential players curiosity seems kind of weak IMO. It could have used more build up. Like making it a well known Pathfinder foil instead of Random Encounter.

2) *****SPOILER***** Encounter #5 was extremely brutal. The cramped quarters definitely played into the "random encounters" favor. Wizard wins initiative, moves up, color spray, 3/4 of my players are out for the count due to bad rolls. May not happen every time, but enough to have my players robbed blind and fail one of their missions. Still they "Succeeded" but learned in a very brutal way that failing initiative can be a game ender.

You know how the first movie with few exceptions is awesome beyond belief, but then the sequel ruins the series as a whole. That's how I feel about this adventure.

Pros:
1)Interesting background fluff... which is pretty much just for the DM.

2) Interesting premise, and adventure idea.

Cons:
1) Weak character hook. Very weak. Literally six of six players went "And we care why?"

2) WAAAAY too skill roll intensive on the first portion. It just became annoying.

3) Trial itself was not all that interesting, I find myself bored with it at times, and can see the boredom in my players eyes. I felt bad for running this.

Overall, while an interesting idea on paper, it's difficult to run as written, and would take an extensive rewrite to make interesting. It either needs more book space to fill in the "unfinished" portions, or a different mechanic (A reason to get rid of the story section in the back?). It has a lot of individual pieces while each are interesting in their own right, are clunky slapped together the way they were..

Bottom line: I'd skip this adventure if I were to do it again.

I found out about Paizo, and Pathfinder system in 2009 while hunting for 3.5 books for my brothers in a FLGS. At first I was resistant to a new game system, but after finding that I could not get new 3.5 books, I broke down and got 3 of these books. 1 for me, and the other 2 for my brothers.

Pros:
1) Fixed 90% of what I didn't like about 3.5
2) Combined the PHB & DMG into one book.
3) Fantastic artwork IMO
4) Logical layout, and doesn't seem to be scattered randomly like older editions.
5) Makes the core classes viable.

Con
1) The book is cheaply bound, but I'm ok with that, since it was monetarily cheap to begin with. Which is what is important to me. I have tape for a reason.

Overall, it's a great book, and I recommend it to any older system D&D player I meet, and I regularily advertise how awesome this game is. Thank you Paizo!

Pros:
1. Introduction: I’ve always enjoyed the intros and the view into the developer world, but what I especially enjoyed was the information on how to implement music that would be relevant to your campaign. I hope to see more of this in future APs.

2. Story: The story is by far one of the most fascinating parts of this adventure, and the way it involves the players seemed to keep my players rooted to their seat when I spoke. They found it creepy, but my storytelling capabilities seemed to be lacking to make them actually afraid.

3. The haunts section was also an enjoyable read over and I plan on using these more and more in the future, and maybe not just with a horror based campaign, only time will tell there.

4. The bestiary was another great point for this book. I enjoyed the detailed write-ups and Spring Heeled Jack is now being used as a point to bring new characters into my story before we head off to “The Trial of the Beast”.

Cons:
1. The only con I could find with the book was the fiction section. Now, I’ve read the entire fiction section, and I found it enjoyable, but I’d of rather had more information on the adventure, or more monsters, or more info on potential side quests for Ravengro. Something other than that. I actually found it frustrating having to pick up the story from book to book. If it had been all in one spot, I would have enjoyed it much more, but I just don’t feel it added to this AP or book any way.

Pros: Neat setting.
Cons: Every encounter is extremely frustrating mechanically, seemingly designed to kill your players, and are overall no fun.

The highly optimized party was handily given their butts to them in every encounter, with no seeming way to win.

The tank was hit majority of the time, the damage dealers less than the majority, or couldn't even hurt them, the healer often had character's die before they even got a chance to heal. The diplomacy/roleplay portions of it were extremely weak.

There is no way that I can see that an avg. party can go into this module, and win. They'd have to know exactly what they're facing which there is no way of doing, and have exactly the right kind of optimization to win, otherwise it's Game Over.

Overall: The entire adventure felt as if someone picked and designed some of the hardest encounters I've ever seen, and went "Hmm...how many players can I kill with this one?" It was by far the worst adventure I've ever played in.

For an adventure designed for new players it was exactly what I wanted it to be. It had a sprinkling of undead, a little perception, some climbing, some locks, some big baddies. It was what my veteran friends and I refer to as cookie cutter. Though because I was running some relative newbies through, it was awesome. I give it a 4 star, it's 5th star would have been if it hadn't been quite so predictable, but that may not even be attainable.

Pros: Unorthodox and new to my group of players. As long as I kept things moving everyone seemed to enjoy the module. The timeline is well made.

Cons: Some plot holes, but with pre-warning of them my players seemed ok with the hand wave and ignore.

Overall, I like it and plan on running it as often as possible.

The figure itself is extremely complicated from a detail point of view. I spent about 10 hours actually painting this mini not including prep, basing, and priming. This for me is about double the time I spend painting a single figure.

Overall, though it was a fun mini to paint, and I learned a lot from painting this one. My favorite part was the fire bird, and was the first time I’ve ever painted a flame effect. I would rate it as a very difficult mini to paint.

Lastly, to put this all in perspective for you other mini painters, my average rating on CMON is currently 3.9 of 10.

I ran this for the first time yesterday. In prep I of course read it over, and it sounded like a fun and challenging story. Which it was.

The major downside which seemed to drag the entire story down is the fights turned into exercises of player and character endurance. They were some of the longest fights I've ever seen in my 12 years of gaming.