We ran this mod as the opener for Pathfinder Society in our area. The faction missions were excellent and provided fantastic roleplaying opportunities, to the point of having the players almost on the floor. They found the encounters pretty tough, which is usually alright, as I really like challenging my players. The only problem was, they had exhausted most of their healing early so they didn't have anything left for the final encounter. If it hadn't come to some great rolls on their part, and some bad rolling on mine, I could easily have TPK'd the party.

Good: The Faction missions led to awesome roleplaying opportunities

Bad: As stated in the previous reviews, a look at that one encounter on the dock might be in order, at least for the low level tier (an entire group of first level characters is not going to have the resources for the healing required). Barring that, drop a hint to the group playing at first level prior to starting, the importance of being well stocked in healing and having a Cleric if they try to play this without.

Overall: It was an awesome opener!

Well, I played this at gencon, I recently had the pleasure to run this as a DM. The story/rp elements where great. In both instances the characters accompished this mod very differently. If you are looking at playing this series, I would suggest staggering the series so the teirs increase.

I ran this for the first time yesterday. In prep I of course read it over, and it sounded like a fun and challenging story. Which it was.

The major downside which seemed to drag the entire story down is the fights turned into exercises of player and character endurance. They were some of the longest fights I've ever seen in my 12 years of gaming.

It's been six months since I played through the adventure, but it was a fantastic beginning to Season 1.

Shipyard Rats is not for the feint of heart. The adventure is challenging and there were several TPKs in one combat in particular (our group did just fine, but rumor has it that the group really has to work together to succeed). What's particularly enjoyable about this adventure is the variety of settings and opportunities to really showcase the changes to the Pathfinder system.

Just make sure your group knows that playing smart is the only way to survive.

Pathfinder continues to challenge in fun ways without going overboard. Encounters can be tricky but good writing leaves room for a good team to overcome obstacles.

Perhaps some more details for the more dynamic part of the adventure which require timing could help the DM better adjudicate events that transpire.

I felt like we had some options and some time sensitive decisions to make. The combats felt appropriate (tier 1-2). If this is the typical quality of PFS I'll certainly keep playing it.

This PFS contains a straight forward mission and is easy to run. You have to work hard to present a few RP opportunities. It seemed a little shy of a fully dynamic adventure that includes thinking puzzles and Roleplay, but jumps from battle to battle. It was still enjoyable and makes use of some fun maps.

This is the longest and toughest scenario I've played in (though in my opinion not quite as tough as Murder on the Silken Caravan, which I GM'd). It took about six hours of play ("home" game via FG2), mostly due to faction missions that seemed to require interrogations of a LOT of NPCs. That being said, the six acts were all interesting and most were challenging in a good way, with plenty of "uh-oh" moments both in and out of character. The faction missions were very well designed and provided for some fun incidents. Looking forward to playing in part 2 next week!

The first thing I'd tell you about PFS games is stay in your level. This holds ever so true for Shipyard Rats. The combats are challenging and in dynamic locations. For the players it is also sprinkled with a few interesting role playing opportunities. I would highly recomend this for beginning players.

Context: I GM'ed this module at Gencon 2009 seven times.

The good: This adventure's settings are very thematic and evocative. Combats are tactically interesting. The encounters provide plenty of chances for various character classes to shine. A steal for the price. Makes great use of Flip-Mats.

The bad: Minor mechanical snafus (NPCs with PC levels do not have their hit points computed per the PFRPG core rules; a missing spell or ability in a few spots). Needs a RPing encounter.

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