Once a traditional part of the game, lately it seems like red herrings have gone the way of random encounters. Oh they’re still there, but they’re so de-emphasized that you can easily miss them if you’re not paying close attention. Most adventures seem content to lead the PCs along the course they’re supposed to be on; side-treks only occur if things go off the rails somehow (or they’re built-into the adventure).
It is, I think, something of a lost art that the PCs will get themselves into scrapes that don’t necessarily have to do with their current quest. More than just random combat encounters, there are times when people who don’t otherwise have anything to do with the PCs will become entangled with them, including thugs, thieves, and con artists. And all three are found in Unforgettable Encounters: Con Job at the Broken Jug, by 4th Dimension Games.
A 14-page supplement for the Pathfinder RPG, the Con Job at the Broken Jug’s title succinctly wraps up the nature of this short set-piece encounter. The PCs, at some point when they’re putting the word out that they’re looking for information, come to the attention of a pair of con artists. One of them, a beautiful woman, pretends to play the coquettish information broker, while the other plays her jealous husband.
If the scenario sounds simple, rest assured that the product itself is anything but. 4th Dimension Games made sure to cover every angle, and there’s a surprisingly deep amount of information here. The Broken Jug tavern is discussed and detailed to a surprisingly degree, including a full color map of the interior. The bartender is covered, as are the usual patrons (and their reactions to seeing the con job go down). The book covers what if the PCs make Diplomacy checks to learn about the supposed information broker, and the thieves’ backgrounds and motivations.
It’s noteworthy that the tavern setting is more than just a backdrop. This particular tavern serves its own type of alcohol, Axegrinder Blue, with a sidebar covering the effects of getting drunk. This is actually quite important to the scenario, as the enticing Allaine tries to make sure that the PC she’s talking to (guilefully maneuvering things so that she’s only talking to one person) gets drink while she flirts with him. Worry not about the rest of the party, though, as the book also covers what activities the other PCs can be up to as they’re waiting.
What a lot of people will notice is that the rules for the checks the PCs have to make during the actual con is that the checks aren’t static, nor directly based on the NPCs’ stats. Instead, the DCs are all based directly on the Average Party Level. This built-in scaling makes the encounter suitable for PCs of any level (though there’s a sidebar about what to do if the PCs are high enough level to have magic that can affect the situation). While some people might not like that the difficulty is set no matter how proficient the PCs are, this guarantees that the challenge will remain no matter how much the party has leveled up. It’s a simple and easy way to make sure that the encounter is as hard as it was written to be.
In regards to that, it should be reiterated that the nature of this encounter isn’t combat. Certainly, the threat of violence is part of the encounter, when the supposed jealous husband enters (and once again, there’s a helpful sidebar to cover the fact that his loaded crossbow may not intimidate higher-level PCs). But far and away the real challenge here is skill-based. There are multiple skill checks to notice the con, either directly or indirectly, and these are where the PCs need to excel if they don’t want to be dupes.
The product is quite enjoyable to read, as the pages are set on a cream-colored background, and several interior illustrations (mostly of the major NPCs) pop up throughout. Full bookmarks are present, and copy-and-paste is fully enabled.
Of course, no book is flawless, and that’s true for this one as well. The major problem with Con Job at the Broken Jug isn’t anything that’s found in its pages, but rather what’s not there. Specifically, there’s no mention of how much XP the PCs gain. Given that this isn’t supposed to be a combat encounter as much as a skill-based one, there’s no good way to judge what the XP award should be (particularly since the NPCs don’t even have XP listings, a staple of Pathfinder stat blocks). This is an oversight that hopefully will be corrected in an update.
I should mention that I also would have appreciated more information on what to do if you need to make a follow-up to this encounter. That is, what if the PCs go seeking the thieves out, either for revenge or because they need to retrieve a stolen item? To be fair, this is beyond the scope of the book, but a few paragraphs on what could come next would have been helpful. Still, it’s not a major loss.
Overall, Con Job at the Broken Jug is an incredibly detailed side trek for your PCs, and its nature as a setup means that it can be plugged in to virtually any campaign. Every angle is covered for how it can go down, and the challenge is surprisingly deep, presenting a “threat” that’s neither violent nor even truly malign. These are simply conmen who’ve practiced this ruse enough that it’s a well-oiled machine now. The intricacies presented here will surprise you, and will surprise your party even more. Make for an Unforgettable Encounter with the Con Job at the Broken Jug.
