uncleden's page

Lets just start by saying that I am a fussy reviewer.
I loved how well this mod tied in to the previous mod in the series. Continuity is well done here. The flavor of the locale for this mod is also well presented. It truly felt like we were entering a dangerous place and gave us a good reason to tread carefully.
The encounters seemed balanced and depending on your party mix can be pretty challenging. The final 2 fights in particular were very satisfying.
I played this and the first one in this series with my Paladin character, but there is nothing in this storyline so far that would not have worked just as well with my should be NE thug character.
I liked this mod enough, after playing it and reading it that it gets 5 stars even with the following issues.

I played this mod at tier 4-5. The fights were not unusually tough, except perhaps the last one. I have to say I was fairly impressed with the story. the faction missions seemed to be interesting as well. Also it meshed very well with the next mod in the series and actually felt like there was a reason to play the next mod in the series with the same character.

Why i did not givee it 5 stars.

I can barely remember playing this one. There is better stuff out there. As a year 0 mod it is a cakewalk for pathfinder characters.

This mod is linear and all about the combats. If you have a party that is inclined to use diplomacy and actually treat government officials with respect they can get hosed out of a faction mission for it. Since I regard this as a penalty for good roleplay I downgraded this mod.
As a year 0 mod the fights are a cakewalk for pathfinder characters.

The story was fun to follow. It is also a fun one to run. The fights were soft in year 0 and now we are under the pathfinder rpg rules they really need updating as even the least combat effective parties will stomp them.
I do find myself practicing PJR gangsigns whenever I think about this mod. PJR 4 ever!
I would love to see a toughened up version of the PJR in a future mod with an axe to grind with the pathfinders.

For a year 0 mod this one delivers. It present Taldor in such a light that you can see why it is in decline.
Your characters will be talking about this one many mods later.

Having played and then run this multiple times I will say that this one never fails to make the players laugh. The shear amount of breakstuffness that this mod brings is a joy. Your inner 10 year old will be gleeful.
The final combat is tough and feels like a boss fight.

This mod is a sequel to a pair of other mods and thus has a recurring theme. I for one found the story presented in this mod to be enjoyable in the beginning and the the bad guy at the end was kinda meh. I do not think this is in any way the fault of Larry as the bad guy is limited by the story line.

Positives
Insane painter guy is a hoot to roleplay for judges and players that are up to it.
Smaller puzzle solutions are fun, individualized and attainable .

Nags

Negatives.
Main puzzle is unsolvable unless the DM thinks to print or bring resources that are not included with the mod, namely a map of Cassomir. The map in the mod has the answer on it so is not a useful reference to the players as it then swings the puzzle to too easy.
This is a major issue and is 3/4 of why I marked it down so far.

None of the puzzles seem to count towards the encounter count. This mod consistently runs long because of it even with skipping the optional fight. A four part puzzle really should have counted toward the 5 encounter limit especially since it starts with a lengthy chat with a madman.

Once again the stat blocks are of the go back to the previous encounter and look there for them variety. Please start putting them in the back. It will save on print and save having to have so many different pages open to run a fight.

PS. Just changed my review score down to 1 from 3 due to the 2+ months that Paizo has known about the glaring problem with this mod with no fix.

After reading it I really like this mod. The monster choices make sense and are interesting. The environment is well described. The plot is easy to follow. The faction missions are interesting. Most of the obvious questions have been answered by the author. Last but not least this is a mod that refers to the bestiary rather than some encounter 3 or so pages ago for stat blocks. Since i can bookmark the bestiary way easier than flipping back three or more pages in a pdf (I run from a laptop) this is a big convenience issue.

I marked it down from a perfect 5 for the following reasons.