This was a fairly enjoyable module to run! Although primarily combat driven, there were some decent roleplay opportunities along the way that my players took full advantage of.

I very much enjoyed Diobel as a setting, although I agree with some of the prior reviewers that it is rather hard to describe the city concisely. I felt like that I knew quite a bit about the wonderful city, but only had the opportunity to convey small portions of this knowledge to the players.

Encounter 5 seems to come out of left field, and I would have liked to see something a bit more appropriate... and perhaps a little less difficult!

Have some fun with the few interesting NPCs in this encounter, reward good diplomacy, and make sure you have a few level twos leading the charge. Otherwise you have some real TPK potential!

(GMed)
This was a fun one. I had some technical difficulties so had to cut out one short encounter and we rushed the end but all in all, it was a really good and dynamic session.
The mission briefing and the city gave it all a great athmosphere, and even tho the mission was very straightforward, it gave the playres a nice mix of RP opportunities and good tactical challenges. I'm really looking forward to GMing this one again (without rushing)

We had a decent time with this one, or there wasn't much frustration going on, which was a relief. It was one fight after another and the final battle caused a character death as they ran into a situation that was beyond them.

I kind of enjoyed running this one more than other later modules as it ran quicker and thus there was more breathing room for embellishing with the roleplaying, which is what people were getting the most enjoyment from.

A lot of later modules, with a 5 hour time plan (we only have four hours to play at our FLGS) means they feel rushed, where this one allowed for a more casual (and enjoyable pace).

Still, there isn't a great deal of depth here, and a major character in the story was underwhelming in its build or tactical strategy.

The maps were very cramped which made the fights a bit stagnant unfortunately. It also would have been nice to get a map of the town. The players were having a hard time getting the idea of what the town was like.

The transitions between the acts was also a bit sparse. It felt like we were just moving from one dungeon room to the next.

This adventure is not a total disaster, but quite close.
The story is nice, although it's completely up to the DM to narrate everything.
The villain is boring, the encounters fail to take full advantage of their setup.

Why did I give this onyl one star? It took me two hours to understand how the coastal village is supposed to look like and to adequately convey it to my players has really bugged me. Why do the NPCs do nothing about the villain? Why is one of the encounters in a boat completely out of place?

Logic bugs kill adventures. The Hydra Fang has left me with a slight toothache.

This is a straight forward pfs with roleplay potential. I think it is a good run but the 3 and 5 encounter are unnecessary.

I had the opportunity to play through Hydra's Fang with a group of level 1 and 2 Pathfinders. This adventure was very direct and fairly fun with ample opportunities for the group to think creatively and try to solve things without always resorting to swinging their sword (though it helped).

Without spoiling, I can say that the end of this module is excessively difficult for a group of low level characters who are not strong on tactics. I wish it could be toned down, but since modules have to be run as-is, I would strongly suggest the group be level 2 before running or you're likely looking at least a few deaths.

Edit: In hindsight, I find it interesting how often this specific "climax" encounter comes up in society play; it's a little frustrating actually.

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 combats are the best part of this nice little adventure from Mr. Hitchcock.

Despite being (in my opinion) built around the combats, the tension does build. By the time the players finally get to their primary objective, they're ready to take out their frustration in spades.

I have run this adventure twice now, and both times the players have had an absolute blast. It is a fairly simple, straightforward mission, but it moves quickly and the final confrontation has several opportunities for any character class to shine. I rank this as five stars--great fun, great playability, and not quite as difficult as many folks have made it out to be.

(Side note: I recommend that the PCs have at least one other scenario under their belts before playing this one--they certainly do need the potions and scrolls!!)

I liked the feel of the scenario, but it was a little heavy handed.

I wouldn't run this for 1st level characters unless you were really mad at your players. ;)

2nd level PCs will have a blast with this!!