A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1-2.
The Aspis Consortium pays well, but few can stand its underhanded tactics for long. One operative fed up with the Consortium's practices has contacted the Pathfinder Society with a tempting offer: assist her in leaving the organization, and she will supply the Society with years of insider intelligence about their longstanding rival. It's up to the PCs to navigate Diobel—a proud town run by cutthroat smugglers—earn the defector's trust, and deal a telling blow to their Aspis foes.
"The Consortium Compact" is an evergreen, replayable scenario designed to help introduce players to the Pathfinder Society, the Isle of Kortos, and one of the Society's longstanding rivals.
Written by Mike Kimmel.
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Ran this at a convention. I enjoyed (and the players did too) the free form nature of the three missions as well as the flexibility to set up an ambush during the last encounter.
I do have a few minor nitpicks. The fact that both organizations are 'Consortiums' made it difficult for the players to follow what was going on during the last encounter.
Just wrote a long review, which the website dumped into the abyss. I'm not gonna retype it all, but I'll go over the biggest points.
1 - The amount of player choice here is amazing.
2 - I've written in other reviews that it's bad design when a combat can be bypassed with a single or very few skill checks. This scenario does not make that mistake. Combats can be bypassed with skill sections, but each skill section requires success from multiple PCs. There are multiple choices of skills for each section/subsection such that any party should have a chance. There are multiple tracks for each skill section to take depending on party choice. The DCs are well balanced. Each section should take a decent bit of time, and require the PCs to roleplay.
This should be the model for skill sections that can replace combats going forward. Mr. Kimmel's innovations here are simply excellent.
Played this last night with my local PFS crew. I really enjoyed the different mission options, which allows for a variety of character types to all shine at some point. The encounters were fun and dynamic and the storyline was solid.
I think this should be 3 stars, but then again I've played it 4 times...
...and I'd be OK to play it a 5th time. The module can't be bad or even mediocre if I'm willing to play it so many times. I enjoy myself every time. So that's why I'm giving it 4 stars.
I don't find any part of the module to be impressive, but neither is anything bad or even merely "meh." All parts seem to work just fine. I don't find the module to be flexible, either -- so if the GM is allowed to change things up for each replay, I haven't seen it. All 4 plays have been mostly the same.
However, how each group handled the encounters was very different. I got to see PCs try stealth, brute force combat, diplomacy, and subterfuge. I bribed my way through one game, buying as many successes as I could.
Overall, pretty good.
Not bad, but I don't think it'll stay fresh quite that long
To play this once, it's fine. The story works well enough, there's flexibility in how you do things, and I like those sort of final confrontations.
However, as an evergreen, I dunno. The story is pretty static. The GM chooses which enemies to use in the final confrontation, and this time there's actual well-built statblocks to pick from. I foresee that fight being interesting every time. It's just those missions before that I'd be kinda dozing through on re-runs.
Why are there so many
Scenarios about Aspis
And those on the other side?
These archvillains have visions
And some have bronze badges
The Aspis they hide in plain sight
So we've been told
And some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Someday we'll fight them
The Consortium Connection
The Pathfinders, your players, and me...
I'm currently running four (!) PbP tables of this.
One of my frustrations is that the races and genders of the NPCs aren't specified in the stat blocks. Digging through the text some are identified as women (the port inspector, for example), but I feel this information should be in the stat blocks.
Similarly, I'm assuming most everyone is human, if it doesn't specify otherwise ...?
Uhm, in the 'Warehouse Location 5: Loading Platform' chart, the #4 entry seems to be missing for the randomized d6 die roll.
While its easy enough to re-roll a result of '4', could we get a hint as to what #4 was supposed to be?
Please?
Also, 2 of the generic 'Healing' NPCs (the Acolyte and the Mercenary Healer) are both listed as Clerics. Can we get clarification on which Gods they follow, or do we need to try and puzzle it out from the alignment, domains, and weapon choices?
