Part of my ratings always come from my initial read of the adventure. I found this one to be a little dull. One of the encounters in the adventure (which happens to be a fairly difficult one if the PCs are not lucky or don't have many ranged weapons) did not really fit in for me, and the map of it was fairly useless. I have run this scenario twice, and the second time I scrapped the useless map and made one up of my own--this helped the encounter greatly. If the party handles the last encounter correctly, it is not impossible. However, it is somewhat difficult--especially for first level characters. Both groups that I have run through Murder on the Silken Caravan have said that they had fun, but it has not been their favorite society scenario to date.

Three stars--a fundamentally sound scenario, but not outstanding. There are many other scenarios that are much more fun to play, read, and run.

This was my first scenario as a player. I had created a first level Osirion ranger sandwalker so it fitted in very well. I played tier one and thought that the adventure was very challenging. It was also very difficult to finish some of the fraction secret missions without the right class being present.

I would not recommend this adventure to beginning players to PFS. I hope that this adventure gets an update to PFRPG and finds itself in later sessions.

Not one of my favorites, the last battle Sucked, of course my character went down in the first round, it was almost like the writer wanted to kill someone. In Silent tide if you approached the combat smart you where okay, in this scenario their was no "smart" way to fight, more of a roll playing than role playing. It's not surprising to me that a lot of characters have died in this scenario.

The story line was great, characters ditto.... but the combat... Hey we where only first level!

This adventure is really good. The story is fun, and you have some great NPCs that you will naturally be able to RP with the players. The setting is memorable, and the mission makes sense. I really liked the set up of the mission goals and wish that later adventures that do something similar had stayed with this formula (spoiler for GMs running this):

There is two potentially dangerous encounters in this adventure if you run this one as a tier 1 for 1st level characters, so be sure you have a handle on what you want to do to address this.

Just ran this last night for my group as a stand-alone adventure. Everyone got a kick out of the Arabian-flavoured setting with camels, cultist lepers and Fortitude saves for non-lethal damage. The encounters were strong but mixed with good rping opportunities. The party had a good experience schmoozing with the major caravan NPCs. All the encounters (except the first) are tough for lvl 1 but the last one is perhaps too much as it very nearly became a TPK. Still my players enjoyed it and I recommned this one for a short evening of play.

I really enjoyed the storyline of this module. This is an investigative module done right. Additionally, it brings in a few new elements that allow it to stand out from other PFS modules. First it introduces two major deities to new players, and second, it introduces a new part of the game world to bring it to life. Both of these are good choices for being one of the first four adventures in the organized play line or to players new to Golarion in general.

I agree with another reviewer that there is a faction mission which seems out of place, however I enjoyed all the combats and felt they supported the plot well. One in particular, introduced some interesting challenges both environmentally and tactically.

No particular character class is required to successfully complete the game, however neither any really featured, save for the Ranger which could be useful.

I enjoyed the story and the combats in this game. I thought it introduced an interesting NPC that I hope will become reoccuring.

I also played this at GenCon '08. This adventure was fun and exciting...

until you join a caravan to complete your mission... at which point someone, I guess the author decides to throw a CR5+ combat your way. I won't reveal the specifics of the combat, but it was large and ridiculous for a level 1 party. It involved terrain penalties that the 'monsters' did not suffer.

The GM running our table told us that only one group he had ran won the encounter and they were 2nd level, the other 2 groups (3 including us) survived, but only because he did not Coup De Grace the players. We were robbed & left for dead til our cleric that we convinced to run could make it back to us.

Other than that combat, the module ran fine and was entertaining. I was grumpy and having 'Living Greyhawk' flashbacks. ( 3 Psuedonaturals, surprise round, entire party Truestrike grappled... yea, that happend!!!) Until I realized something on the car ride home. GenCon '08 did not use the 'PATHFINDER' rules for character creation, it was standard 3.5 PHB stuff. Meaning, our cleric would've had approx. 5-6 'Channel Energy' aka 1d6 healing bursts, not to mention health increases across the board that fight would've gone much better.

Being the first Pathfinder Society scenario I played, I must admit I enjoyed the experience. The plot was coherent, interesting, and easy to follow. The combats felt dangerous and exciting, just what a scenario needs to be intriguing. The faction missions were good except for one, whose mission was glued in by force. Also one encounter felt really out-of-place, irrelevant to the story so to speak. Albeit the minor issues, it's a solid module worthy of the praise.

Like most of the Pathfinder reviewers so far I played this at GenCon. The reason I'm only giving it three stars is I didn't get to play the entire adventure because it ran too long for a four hour slot. This is an adventure for a home game or the last slot of the convention when time is not a constraint. I'd guess six hours would do it justice. I did enjoy the parts that I played, though. The author did a good job of creating opportunities for all party roles to have their moment to shine. The desert setting was very flavorful, I felt like I was in North Africa trudging across the desert under the blistering heat of the midday sun. My Pathfinder PC is an Osirion cleric of Pharasma with Profession/Mortician--this scenario put her in her element indeed. Nice work, but 4 hours didn't do it justice.