It's really hard to write a scenario to debut your organised play and edition, I'm definitely understanding of that, however this scenario now has to hold the test of time for whether you'd want to play it later on.
The answer is no.
Balance is off, because the challenge point system hadn't been put in place, the tons of small quests and a pathfinder party isn't great, and then on top of that there is so much space dedicated to repeatability.
It's a pity, because I don't want to repeat it.
There are tons of great scenarios in this OP campaign, this one just isn't one of them.
I think the goblin silliness saves it from being a 1* but all the interesting aspects to this scenario were names of goblins that I created rather than the scenario.
Goblin silliness and freeform in part B saves it from 1*
I'm glad to see that Paizo are exploring different styles of adventure for year 1. This is a very open ended scenario which rewards a strong roleplay focussed GM, and creative players.
It loses a couple of stars for me, for two reasons:
1) The fear of the main foe simply isn't there. I heard others complain that there was no foreshadowing for the big beasty at the end. I made sure I focussed on the foreshadowing, but my group didn't attach to it. Instead they knew the end would be a combat with a nasty native creature, and they also didn't feel threatened. I think an earlier encounter with the creature, or a second combat would help it a lot, but that could just be me.
2) The beasty is NASTY. For lv1 players, this would be just as deadly as the Sandstone secret. This very nearly TPK'd my new players ripe at 11 XP. I like that we have threatening monsters, but I'd prefer them to stick to Tier 3-4 and upwards.
This scenario isn't like the others, in that it's a *hard* combat scenario. My table really enjoyed this, and roleplayed the heck out of the travel.
I named the two horses Persephone and Machete, because otherwise there isn't much chance to inject my own voice into characters on the way, and that was all my players needed to go hard.
The final encounter was overly stylised, making it very hard for our Pregen Sorcerer to do much. That said, I like encounters which make you play differently and this one succeeded on that.
Overall, I was happy with this, and I'd run it again.
The combat is quite cool, especially the water themed pub. I found it quite shallow though, with not enough meat to the situation to make it feel like anything more than a pub fight.
A part of a longer adventure I think this would easily hit 4 stars though, and I appreciate the attempt. Keep experimenting Paizo!
This was the first PFS2E scenario I GM'd, and I chose it on face value because I was interested in the Lastwall -> Gravelands transition that occured post Tyrant's Grasp. I wasn't disappointed.
It's a simple yet compelling background: This is our one opportunity to retrieve artifacts from old Lastwall, and find MIA agents.
Because I enjoyed the military theme presented in #5-02 The Wardstone Patrol, you can take this scenario in the same direction and be well rewarded.
The combats are nothing special, outside of the final encounter which was mega tough for our group. Tough in a good way though, and the PCs were worried for the latter half of the fight.
Would recommend this adventure to others looking to learn more about the Gravelands and rural Lastwall.
The political incentive of creating a trade route avoiding Druma is really compelling, and gives a lofty goal for level 1-4 characters. The in character descriptions are quite light for why it's important to Isger, but can be easily communicated using the info in the adventure background.
In play, there is a nice mix of roleplay/skill based investigation, combat, and in between. The Mountain goats, oh the goats! They can be combat or another skill based encounter. Mechanically simple, and yet the addition of the cliff makes the encounter memorable.
This adventure does rely on Nature/Athletics/Survival heavily, punishing characters who are missing these skills. Also since it's over multiple days the adventure allows casters to nova.
Overall Trailblazer's Bounty is well worth the shortcomings for such a delightful portrayal of "Oregon Trail: Menador Mountains".
