Pathfinder Society Scenario Intro 3: First Steps—Part III: A Vision of Betrayal (PFRPG) PDF (based on
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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st level characters.
Dispatched on an envoy mission overland from Absalom to port city Escadar, you must weather the harsh wilderness of the Isle of Kortos before you can hope to meet with the representative of the elusive gillmen, and only then come face to face with the greatest threat to the Pathfinder Society.
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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Hmmmm I've been trying to figure out what I think and feel about this particular module and so far all I can really say is that it seemed awkward and a little slow. But really I should blame that on my GM since what made it slow was that we had several long pauses as he struggled to express himself or to find and make a ruling.
The module itself seemed to take a few good steps, such as:
Spoiler:
the Centaurs warning us about a roaming predator. This was appreciated! A little warning and foreshadowing meant I didn't feel like the encounter with the Krenshar was a random encounter. Instead I felt like if we had have been more careful we might have been able to avoid the fight all together.
Spoiler:
The final encounter was interesting. A little predictable, I knew something was gonna happen and that the most likely thing was that someone was gonna steal the relic or we were being conned. Still that being said the bartenders use of the preset explosions and such was good and the encounter was balanced pretty well as far as diffeculty went
If I have any serious complaints about the mod its this one:
Spoiler:
at one stage we stumbled across a Kobold druid/shaman/sorcerer living alone in the middle of no where. We slaughtered her horribly. My complaint is that her crocidile thingy attacked us immediately, so it seemed like the only thing to do. But my Cleric of Iomedae had to object to looting her home and killing the Kobold herself, since we had intruded in her home and had no right to steal from her. Rather she had every right to defend her home. Must there be so many encounters that clearly make lawful good characters uncomfortable? if PFS wants to continue with morally grey scenarios (which i normally like) perhaps PFS should allow true moral greyness in the game by allowing evil characters , if only Lawful evil, to offset the good ones..
So in conclusion this module is hard for me to critique since the flaws seem to be my GMs. I think id say it was average in its quality...
The series as a whole needs to be updated as a part of Season 5 and changes with factions expected to come.
As a n00b GM, I find the inclusion of four flip-maps, no use of the back sides of any of the maps somewhat distressing on the budget. It is no help that of the maps, 3 of 4 are out-of-print.
I have not yet run the Scenario though I am prepping, and I will update my review after I have actually run it. At this point of the preparation, to do the maps accurately as printed I have the following choices:
1) Buy ONE flip-mat still in print, and for the other three choose among the following and have those three maps compared to the one I am able to purchase.
2) Buy the PDFs at $9 each and print three or four of them at another $20 each. No thanks!
3) Prepare ONE map ahead-of-time on the blank side of my Beginner Box flip-mat, and then have my players wait while I dither drawing out the other maps as I can.
4) Blow big money on ink printing out either the PDFs I'm expected to purchase or extracting the maps available in this Scenario's PDF.
5) What I'm actually doing: Extracting the map images, doing 'edge detection' in GIMP, enlarging them to the proper size, turning the images 1-bit black/white, printing, coloring them in by hand while referring to the source image. It's a big-freakin' ball-o-suck but the best option I have with cash available.
The issue of maps, right there alone, takes this scenario down quite a bit. I'm a n00b GM. I am not made out of money. I can see buying "A" flip-mat, as I did for the prior scenario, and that worked just great. I can see hand-drawing "A" map for the scenario on the blank side of my Beginner Box flip-mat. I can see buying "A" map deck, such as the "Ambush" set or some other so I can call this done.
Writing this thing for four mostly out-of-print maps is an unwelcome kick in my wallet and has me unnerved about the purchase of other PFS modules. Fortunately this is the third and not the first of the First Steps, or I'd have never started.
Please consider these issues and do a new "First Steps" for 5th season covering the new factions. I have comments elsewhere about the series as a whole. Paizo can do better. Paizo MUST do better for a 5th season "Intro" series.
This scenario is somewhat foggy in my memory (which is probably not a good sign) but I remember it being tedious. I remember making a lot of survival checks and the GM introducing us to the necessity and annoyance of buying and marking off supplies such as food and water. It's a good introduction for new players, though, and how fun it is probably depends upon the GM.
I had read some reviews before playing this scenario, and I admit, it had me worried. All the arbitrary rolls for environmental effects seemed terribly tedious. Yet, I hardly even noticed. Our GM did a great job describing the environmental hazards, and we as players went out of our way to protect ourselves. The battles in the scenario are great. Especially the last one. It's awesome. The only reason I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is because...
Spoiler:
an NPC wizard who you have to fight isn't carrying a spellbook! It made my wizard very sad
As long as you have a descriptive GM and you yourself are willing to roleplay an overland trek this adventure will be awesome for you.
I would say this is a good introduction to some of the less interesting PFS scenarios, but I don't know if that's a good thing. The travel is boring and arbitrary, and takes up way too much time. On the other hand, the final encounter is at least somewhat interesting. On the whole, I'm going to probably run just the first two scenarios from this series in the future.
