RPG Superstar 7 Season Star Voter, 8 Season Star Voter. Pathfinder Society GM. 1,103 posts (3,962 including aliases). 33 reviews. 1 list. No wishlists. 22 Organized Play characters. 9 aliases.
This scenario is very complex to GM, and requires a ton of prep to do so properly. Even so, you need a few recommendations that my first table made to me to make that WORK.
GM tips:
1) Expose the players to how the mechanics work, tell them upfront that it is OK to split up, and they'll do much better.
2) Ignore aid another on the rumor investigation skill checks, if they roll to "aid" ask them their number and instead use that for their own successes, otherwise the mechanics needlessly punish PCs for having multiple PCs in one location.
3) Preroll your rumors so you know what you'll tell the PCs each time they get one from the true or false rumor list.
4) This is suggested in the module but allow various locations people want to go to investigate in a given phase to exist. e.g. If they go to the tavern (at the hearth and harvest), treat it like the beer garden.
5) Overplay how strongly NPCs react to intimidate and other negative things. Although this can backfire when you have a frustrated investigator decide to make an entire conversation about a touchy subject to someone after they note this reaction.
After following the changes I recommended above people enjoyed my tables at paizocon, but my first table had people telling me they hated it, which really stung because I tried my best to prepare this very complex scenario.
From a player perspective it is really satisfying if they can drive the story and figure things out, but if certain things happen it really becomes out of their control, and they feel like they can't figure anything out.
Edit, a lot of recent reviews are favorable. I have to say that calling a scenario much better with prep when that prep involves what community GMs have made up to fill in the gaps of a scenario, is really just saying that the scenario could have been improved by including those things.
This is a fantastic scenario, but be prepared to spend a good amount of time prepping it to make sure you have all the details. There are a few missing pieces right now that will be edited shortly I'd imagine (number of creatures in one encounter). The poster below summed up the abilities fairly succulently but I would add.
My opinion:
To go to the worldwound, and end up facing a creature that MADE this place ghost town's spawn, is a great story. I was expecting incorporeal undead from the stories, and I personally chose Frost Giant's home. It was very unexpected, and I loved the incorporation of PC Seekers into the story. I enjoyed the encounter with the NPCs, and, and despite easily having the appropriate social skills, my players were slightly challenged as to what to do with them when they got there.
The combats were challenging, but completely scalable and the tactics of most of them were far less severe than they could be (especially the final encounter).
The other reviewer was unhappy that PCs are forced to sit out due to save or suck mechanics, but in high level play, I hardly see how this is unfair, and at least they get saves each round to act, rather than being forced out of entire combats.
The optional encounter is amazing, but I didn't have time to run it when I ran it. I'll probably run it again just to get the opportunity.
The one critique I would have is the ooze encounter is particularly weak, and could have used a more challenging ooze in the upper subtier. Also I wish when I'd GMed it I had been more liberal about what stopping PCs from attacking meant with wall of thorns, as I could have (and should have) shut the PCs down much harder than simply making them fly around it.
I also found the NPC enjoyable. The scenario overall was good and appropriate for the season, but I had issues with the way the penultimate scene plays out, which I've spoiled below.
Spoiler:
The ending encounter was inappropriate for the tier, and offered nothing to pathfinders interested in exploring first, and examining things after they've been assured that no threats linger. The fact that the way you chose to investigate by path can end the scenario, is poor design. I liked the idea of exploring lore, but not the execution, especially since my table collected some evidence, but was not afforded a chance to explore other.
I love the open ended feel of this scenario, and how versatile the writing was in what it allows PCs to disguise their action in Bloodcove. Also the awareness point mechanic was good and the combats in the scenario were challenging and appropriate. Played it at the 1-2 subtler and every combat was tense (thanks mostly to amazing rolls in the first). Everyone who played it enjoyed it and I certainly enjoyed playing it when I did as well. The custom NPCs were also well written and enjoyable.
Both times I've GMed it people really enjoyed it and going over expectations for character's mundane gear at first level is a great idea. Having excellent NPC interactions, which the PCs can control their own choices through, really drives home the idea that the players get to choose what kind of Pathfinders they'll be, while also reinforcing that they are Pathfinders! I highly recommend this to new players, especially people wanting an introduction to pathfinder society. I will say that first steps 1 is probably a slower introduction to d20 play, but the new players I've seen didn't have an issue picking up Pathfinder from the scenario. It also is great in that you can somewhat tune the difficulty for tables of brand new players. One small note I would make for GMs would be to print off the appendix with Janira, as it will make your life much easier when going through the encounters.
Waking Rune is an epic finale to Season 4. Anyone who pay attention to blog posts should be unsurprised by what is coming, and I was personally thrilled by the scenario. Not for the faint of heart, and with little opportunity for role play, this is fight in which your actions feel epic, and PCs feel challenged. Can you stop the Waking Rune?
This scenario contains mechanics which a level one party, particularly of 4 PCs, is unreasonable to expect them to deal with in the 1-2 subtier. I will not run this scenario at tier 1-2, although I suspect that 4-5 will probably be better, simply because PCs have a lot more options to deal mechanics then. I love challenging encounters, and well designed fights that allow characters to use creative things to shine, but the 1-2 subtier is not the place to plunge PCs into the deep end and wish them the best.
Overall a very good modules, albeit a bit light on combat. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact there are so many faction missions which have virtually no roleplay. My cleric with some decent diplomatic abilities was able to shine for that aspect of the scenario. The combats themselves where appropriate and challenging in the 6-7 subtier with a balanced party.
I feel the Andoran faction mission is very poorly worded and a GM should clarify to some extent what mission success truly entails as I did exactly what was mentioned in the text, and this directly led to failure.
