Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
|
For PFS purposes, those sections (of Thornkeep: The Accursed Halls) are treated as optional role-play and background material. They cover the aboveground areas, the town of Thornkeep and its surrounds, around the actual dungeon, which is what starts on page 30.
When I played this, the GM didn't even mention those parts. So when I ran it myself a week or two later I did the same. In retrospect this was probably a bad decision; as I later discovered, there are a few valuable nuggets of background information to be found around the settlement which give the players a much better idea of what they are supposed to be achieving.
The next time I run this I plan to add some time at the front end for the players to explore Thornkeep; I feel it will make for a more satisfactory experience for all concerned.
(This matches how I feel about PFS credit for "The Dragon's Demand"; our GM is running the module in campaign mode, so we get to experience the full story. From talking to other players who have only played through the sanctioned parts of a chapter I think our GM made the right choice).