Jason S's page

Mission Impossible. That's the best description for this scenario.

The other reviews already covered the great parts of this scenario: Fun mission, great setting, good roleplaying, fun puzzle, fantastic handouts, and out-of-the-box thinking might be needed. If you're a GM or player that doesn't like roleplaying scenarios, do everyone a favor and pass on it.

Somehow our group blundered through this scenario, so if our 2 fighters and cleric can, anyone can do it. But maybe the GM was just being generous. Also, we split the party lots of times, you just have to know when to proceed and when to wait. I think this scenario teaches hard, but good lessons.

This scenario instills a sense of wonder and mystery in the players, which is a rare thing these days.

This scenario is an escort mission and a travel-based skill challenge scenario that rewards creative solutions, and it's strongly supported by a wonderful storyline.

My only complaint about this scenario is that the scenario starts and ends strong, but the middle of the scenario seems like filler. The combats (especially the last one) need to be beefed up a little (NOT a lot!). Then the scenario would be perfect.

I thought Wardstone was a good introduction to some of the themes in season 5.

There was fair amount of roleplaying in this scenario but like any roleplaying scenario it will greatly depend on the players and GM.

The main friendly NPC could have been fairly interesting but he wasn't portrayed in a realistic (or sympathetic) light. Also, the way the scenario ended was a bit silly and we made plenty of jokes about it.

Also, although I thought there might have been some mystery in this scenario (I was expecting to fix the wardstone), there is none.

I disagree with a previous reviewer; this scenario is extremely railroaded, but enjoyable none-the-less. If there was a fork in the road, I didn’t see it.

This is actually a great product. The giant poster map of the city of Korvosa and another giant map of the surrounding area in itself is worth the price. To print these off it would cost you $20 each, so you’re already saving money. You can then take the Korvosa poster map and laminate it. Your gaming group will love you, especially since the city of Korvosa will be used extensively.

It was mentioned that the Korvosa city map is already included in the Korvosa city book and this is true. However that map isn't perfect (you have to cut the map away from the book, they messed up) and the color/lettering in map folio version is slightly better imo also.

Also included are small color maps of every map used in the AP. These aren’t nearly as useful as the posters, but they can be useful to GMs when reading room description, because you won't need to constantly flip pages to see where the room is on the map (which is my bane when reading an AP).

So all around, extremely useful, and a great cost savings.

The end of the Shadow Lodge could have been so much better.

The problem with this scenario was mainly the story. When you have an intelligent enemy... they shouldn't be scripted to do unintelligent things "just so the PCs can win". Anyone who calls themselves a master manipulator and spy (and I'm talking about both end bosses here) should act much more discreetly and intelligently. Otherwise you don't live long enough to be 10th level, lol. I shouldn't leave the scenario thinking: "Wow, ____ is really f-ing stupid". The PCs shouldn't even have the *chance* to catch them unless we have a (good) plan. But honestly it comes down to winning initiative, just like every other combat. What's the point of having defenses in your lair if you're going to ignore them and fight killer hit squads anyway? You'd think a master spy would run/teleport away or at least attempt to trick us.

Also, the end of the Shadow Lodge was just completely silly, it made no sense, his plans would be more easily accomplished with the status quo. I hope the end of the Lantern Lodge was better than this. Because of the stupidity of it all, the GM was forced to use fiat and cut screens, which no one likes.

Also, I'm bothered by the horrible tactics that are used by the end boss. Seriously, if you feel the need to give her bad tactics in order to compensate for the fact that she's several levels above the PCs, just lower her level and give her good tactics. Sigh.

The encounters could be deadly (at subtier 6-7) but there were several ways to solve them without raw power or optimization.

This scenario is a romp through Sedeq, where the PCs apparently get to beat up whoever they like... with absolutely no consequences! This scenario is good for players who want to create mayhem, because apparently you can get away with anything in the streets of Sedeq (probably thanks to the PFS legal team and GM Torch).

There are a lot of problems with this scenario:
1) Lack of maps: Maps (even flip maps) are provided for only 2 out of 4 combat encounters.

2) Lack of Challenge: This scenario isn't challenging, even compared to other season 0 scenarios.

3) Lack of Gold: You'll receive a lot less gold than normal at subtiers 3-4 and 6-7, and even less if you're not a thug.

4) Thugs: There's only one way to solve each encounter (guess how?) and no guidelines for alternate solutions.

The only reason to play/read this scenario is because Grandmaster Torch is in it. Having said that, it's a forgettable appearance and will make your players dislike him more. I suppose the other reason for playing this scenario is to emphasize that Pathfinders aren't "good guys" necessarily.

Unlike the Magus Spell Deck (which is a 5 star product), the Alchemist Spell Deck is missing all of the spells/extracts from both Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat.

For example, even for my simple (of 1st level PC) needs, I found that the following spells were missing: Anticipate Peril, Illusion of Calm, Longshot, and Targeted Bomb Admixture.

This could have been a great product but unfortunately it’s useless to me in the current condition.

I’d like this company to fix their product and allow us to download the fixed version. Then I’ll change my rating accordingly.

The Magus Spell Deck is a must have supplement, especially for new or casual players.

The Magus Spell Deck is complete (as far as I can tell) and contains all Magus spells from Ultimate Magic and (the majority of) Magus spells from Ultimate Combat.

The only thing I’d change about this product is perhaps making the borders smaller, decreasing the margins and using as much space as possible for text. When this is done, increase the size of the text (for at least some of the shorter spells).

This is a great product and its been extremely helpful to me, especially when I’m trying to help new or casual players with spells. I've also used it when GMing and I need a reminder on 1-2 NPC spells. It's also been useful for conventions, because I can just print the spells I need (or have trouble remembering).

Great product.

This is a great and "realistic" watch station from a fantasy perspective. Side #1 is a small fort and side #2 is a small prison/dungeon. This flip map is versatile and can be used for locations other than a watch station.

I believe Paizo is now using a new laminating material for the flip-maps. The new lamination is less rigid, so it should be easier to use on a gaming table. There were some concerns about the durability, but this map seems durable to me. This is a good change.

Great map, looking forward to more!

I found this scenario very average and unmemorable. It's an investigation scenario that wasn't sandboxy at all.

Creative solutions in this scenario were not rewarded. GMs need more direction if alternative solutions are going to be allowed, especially if they bypass encounters. My GM felt that since nothing was written, that the course of action we selected wouldn't help.

Unlike the previous reviewer, we didn't find any of the encounters challenging at all, even playing up. (I'm not trying to say that challenging is fun, I'm just saying it as a matter of fact).

There were events in this scenario that directly affect the future of several faction leaders in PFS. If you care about your faction, you won't want to skip this scenario.

This scenario is 70% roleplay, 30% deadly combat.

The start of this scenario is a roleplay sandbox and I liked the mechanics of the skill challenge needed to succeed. We had some good roleplaying moments, but perhaps that was because of the GM. This was the best part of the scenario.

One of the encounters was deadly without being particularly interesting or fun. The monster was tough because multiple immunities. When I played, only two PCs (out of six) could damage it while everyone else watched (and was probably ready to run away). Single boss encounters (without other interesting details or effects) just don't work and the encounter could have been designed a lot better.

Also, the previous encounter could potentially make weak groups even weaker. Bad idea. I can imagine a lot of groups failing this scenario, especially if the GM doesn't allow them to access spellcasting services inside the citadel. The author should have been very specific about whether these services should even be available. Details like that are extremely important to limit table variance, because most of the time it's the difference between success and failure. This was probably the worst offense of the scenario.

I heard there was a map of Citadel Vraid included (which is cool), but it wasn't needed for this scenario. I never saw the map and I think the scenario is better when the map isn't used.

Demon is a decent story-based investigation scenario with some good flavor.

The creepy roleplay aspect of this scenario is where it really shines and should be the most memorable aspect of this scenario.

The manor also has an excellent haunted house feel, and there is definitely a fear of the unknown. What kind of hellhole are you walking into?

The main weakness of this scenario is that there's a lot of exposition (box text) and investigation without a lot happening. It vaguely reminds me of "Haunting of Hinojai", but more happened in Haunting. There were limited combats but also limited things to find. Maybe we missed something?

Empty rooms with several lines of box text each can take significant session time and can ruin the pacing of the scenario, especially if the room-to-room searching isn't expedited. This isn't to say empty rooms are bad, but they could contain less irrelevant details (box text) and GMs should adapt their style.

There aren't a lot of combats in this scenario, so I feel that the optional combat should be used especially if the players bypass other combats.

There were a lot of handouts in this scenario, which I appreciated, although I'm not sure if everyone was as interested. It's a bit jarring to have no handouts in most scenarios and then six (?) in this scenario. Less would have been better.

The story that was told through the hand outs about the farmers was good, but I didn't understand or appreciate the metaplot storyline since I've played limited season 4 scenarios.

Also, I found the end story a little unrealistic.

Although the ending was suitably creepy and gory, it was anti-climatic and wasn't challenging at all. I think one PC took 5 damage. From falling. Exclusives at tier 3-7 aren't the time for soft encounters. EDIT: This scenario is not an easy scenario, there are two deadly encounters in it that were both bypassed and skipped when I played it. You've been warned.

Also, there was a story element that forced the GM to cheat and use GM fiat to control, if the players made certain choices. I really dislike it when an adventure forces GM to break standard Pathfinder rules to ensure a certain storyline happens. To make it clear, I don't blame the GM at all, I blame the scenario. PCs should be allowed to do what they want to do without breaking adventures. This is major pet peeve of mine.

I did not feel that the title of this scenario spoiled the scenario.

Overall: This scenario had excellent flavor, but not enough happened. I also dislike adventures that force GM fiat to complete pre-scripted storylines. This scenario deserves 4 stars based on flavor, unfortunately I can't get the taste of 'Magical Tea Party' out of my mouth. (7/10)

Key was the best special event I've played so far (and I've played all of them).

I liked the variety and choice in quests. I liked the creativity in the encounters. I liked the story. I loved the roleplay (which was the main feature). But I would have liked to know the significance of the key (which was probably part 2)!

Many of the quests in this scenario involve convincing, persuading, bribing, influencing, and intimidating others, which some players might have a problem with (if they have a super hero complex). This scenario heavily favors rogue, bard, and other "Pathfinder" skills, which I thought was great. Paladins will have a tough time with this scenario, similar to "Severing Ties".

The only thing I didn't like about this scenario was the encounter before the chase.

Overall: Best special event so far, was entertaining, fun, and different. (8/10)

This is my first set of minis (out of 17) that I'm disappointed in. We buy paper minis specifically so we can run adventure paths, and unfortunately many of these minis are not good representations of specific NPCs.

On the bright side, I thought the artist did great on the NPCs that had a description but didn't have any art in CotCT. I especially like the NPCs and thugs at Eel's End.

My advice is to use the artwork from the AP as much as possible in the future. If future sets are like this, I'll have to reconsider purchasing paper minis for APs.

This book is how adventures should be done. It has everything: Climatic fight scenes, old enemies, old friends, surprises, lots of roleplay, lots of sandbox decisions to be made, epic fights, mysteries, and memorable moments.

I even enjoyed the other parts of the product, namely:
1) An overview of the Golarion solar system (and alien metals).
2) A bestiary where I actually liked and would use every creature again.
3) A fantastic article on Cayden Cailean (who I didn’t really like before). Now I understand.
4) A great new prestige class that’s similar to a Paladin, but is Cailean inspired.

Book #2 will work with either book #1 or books #3-6.

The only negative aspects of this book are:
1) The Pathfinder Journal (if I want to read fiction, I buy fiction).
2) A pirate mini-encounter, which I found to be a waste because I didn’t find it very original or interesting. As a combat encounter, it’s something that I could put together fairly easily with a ship flip map. I also wasn’t a fan of the NPC builds.

Immortal is another strong roleplaying scenario. It features a few fun puzzles, contains limited combat encounters, and is very similar to the scenario “Murder the Throaty Mermaid” in many respects. Which is to say it’s a great time with the right people.

Like most roleplaying scenarios, this scenario is best played in a location where you can easily hear your GM.

The only constructive criticism I have about the scenario is that I wish there was some kind of boon at the end of the chronicle. For example, for 20 PP, maybe extend our lives by 5-10 years and give us +1 save bonus to death effects? Sure, the boon might be a waste of PP, but it would be something interesting to talk about.

Cyphermage is a basic straightforward investigation/combat mission. Does that make it bad? No, but it also doesn’t make it good.

There was very little roleplaying, no problem solving or decision making was needed from the players (it was a bit of a railroad), and it contained no puzzles. It reminded me a little bit of “The Devil We Know 2: Cassomir’s Locker” in terms of what you can expect.

On a positive note the scenario wasn’t so difficult that I couldn’t enjoy myself. It’s actually nice to destroy the opposition sometimes. We had a very non-optimal party and we did fine. This scenario will be seen as too easy by some people.

I can see why some reviewers were upset, the scenario lacks flavor and isn't interesting enough to run multiple times. This isn't a bad scenario, but it also wasn't worthy of being the exclusive this year. A scenario like Golemworks (with a high level of detail and complexity)would have been a better choice.

Ties has roleplaying elements, but for me the scenario felt a little flat. I think the problem was that the roleplaying wasn't deep or open-ended, and it always devolved into "Are you going to get me the McGuffin or not?"

I didn’t feel like this set was worth the money, especially compared to the value you get in other sets.

What you get are only 2 pages of minis, and many of the designs are very simple and similar to each other (commoners). This is the smallest mini set I’ve seen yet, so I feel a little ripped off. It should be priced at $1.

The colors aren’t vibrant, which was surprising since the minis are from Katapesh. The colors are very dull, duller than other paper mini sets. I was expecting an extension of the “The Howl of the Carrion King” paper mini set.

Anyway, save your money, skip this set.

This is an excellent set and worth the money.

What you get are 16 pages of Halflings, each with very intricate custom art, covering all of the core classes, base classes, and I think all of the prestige classes and NPC classes as well. There are 2 minis for each class, one male, and one female.

Anyway, I’m very pleased with the level of detail, unique clothing design/style, and color in each and every mini. Great work.

This scenario had a good story… but it was too deadly.

In my run of this scenario, the players had good system mastery, we had an ideal group composition, the perfect buffs, the perfect consumables, good spell selection, decent tactics, and we still barely made it out alive. Our two spellcasters were dropped into negatives once each. My fighter was 1 hit from death too. I’m not even sure how you’d do this scenario without one class ability in particular, I guess you’d need *great* tactics. My GM ran a few things wrong (doing more damage to us), but it still didn’t make a huge difference.

Optimized "super groups" will like Green Market, since it will validate their play style.

The only reason I’m giving this scenario 4 stars (instead of 3) is because there’s lots of foreshadowing (if you have the right skills), and you’re given time and ability to prepare (if you know what to do and have some system mastery). Also, lots of helpful items are dropped along the way.

I’m not 100% convinced season 4 scenarios are being adjusted properly for 4 players. I know Golemworks didn’t scale well to 4 players in the final encounter. I won’t know for sure about Market until I read it, but it sure didn’t FEEL like it was scaled well, and maybe that was part of the problem. I think that if we had 6 players, it would have been significantly easier (and I wouldn't have felt like this was a killer scenario).

About the Green Market itself. It had a good story, good investigation, and some potentially decent roleplaying moments (the NPCs aren’t that interesting, so it’s up to the players/GM to make it interesting, but the opportunity is there). Each combat encounter was well designed.

I didn't like the faction missions in this scenario. They took up too much time and were basically a number of 1v1 roleplaying encounters that didn't involve the rest of the party, it was a very boring lull in the adventure. Also, most of the missions occurred before anything meaningful happenned, which killed the pacing of the scenario and made the start of the scenario more boring than it should have been.

I’d also like to remind reviewers not to include spoilers in reviews, especially without a spoiler tag.

First and foremost, Mantis is a puzzle based scenario. Mantis has some of the best puzzles I’ve seen in PFS scenarios so far. The puzzles can be solved by average players, they have multiple solutions, and in general they’ll be enjoyable for most players.

Hopefully the GM lets the players struggle a bit and doesn’t auto-solve the puzzle with mere dice rolls (otherwise, why have hand outs?). That’s my only criticism of the puzzles. Imo, the best way to handle puzzles is to have the relevant skills HELP with solving the puzzle (they provide hints and clues). I don’t want skill checks to outright bypass a puzzle altogether (unless the roll is extremely high, but even then I’d rather let the players think for a bit).

Concerning the handouts, it’s important that you print and give all of them to your players. Even for summarizing what they know during the 1st “encounter” (no hand out is provided). It just makes everything clear. And make a copy for each player (I never got to see a few hand outs). That advice applies to puzzles in general.

The combat encounters in Mantis are sometimes creative but underwhelming. Although the NPC builds are complex, they’re ineffective. This is compounded by the environment, poor tactics, and weak archetypes.

The GM obviously has to update the plot based on the Shadow Lodge faction being part of the PFS. There is no “big reveal” and the “confrontation” at the end should be more of a celebration, which should lead to GM Torch and the PCs hunting down The Spider.

The entire Shadow Lodge plot gets lost in the order of the scenarios. After the assassination attempt on GM Torch, it would make sense to go after the Spider. For many players at my table, they’d already killed her at level 1, which made the entire meta-plot a joke (which isn’t the authors fault). Epic conclusions to major plot lines need to be tier 7-11, not 1-7 (like Shadow’s Last Stand).

So the proper order (if you care about the SL plotline) would be The Dalsine Affair, Mantis’s Prey, and then Shadows Last Stand 1+2. This is obviously very hard to do in the logical order. I hope in the future Paizo considers the tier when concluding storyline arcs.

I also thought the story of the Allegro college was interesting (and good reading for the GM), but the players will only learn a fraction of it (and that’s only if they have the correct skills). This is unfortunate.

This book is probably the worst book #1 of any AP I’ve read. As a solo adventure, Shadow is OK. Unfortunately, Shadow is book #1 of an adventure path (AP). The job of book #1 of an AP is to "set the stage" for the rest of the AP, and Shadow fails at this job miserably.

The main problem with Shadow (and the player’s guide) is that it’s disjointed from the rest of the AP. Running Shadow is like running “The Sopranos” on Golarion. Can mob campaigns be fun? Definitely! Will Riddleport, the NPCs you meet, and your base of operation (that you’ve been building) be completely irrelevant in books 2-6? Absolutely! And that’s one of the main problems.

The other problem is that the players are encouraged to start the campaign with non-good PCs and then the rest of the AP relies on the fact that the PCs are heroes that will sacrifice everything to save the world. This book basically just sets the rest of the AP up for failure.

On its own, Shadow is “OK”, but I find the encounters are rather mundane compared to other products (like Pathfinder Society Organized Play). Also, if you’re a thinking person, the storyline could be better.

The supporting article on Riddleport was good. The bestiary was not. The side quest was OK. With the exception of Ghoulette (which is awesome), the gambling games are forgettable.

Maybe the worst thing that can happen is that your players love Riddleport, because the PCs won’t see Riddleport, their casino, or gambling after book #1.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great AP, I just think that if you’re going to run this AP, I would ignore most of Shadows in the Sky, read the support articles, and run something else in Riddleport (adventures in Riddleport while investigating "the blot"), and then run books 2-6. You could also run a mini-campaign with books #1-3. Second Darkness is a good AP as long as you don't mix book #1 with #3-6.

Market is an investigation scenario with a few unique strategy and roleplaying elements.

The initial investigation acts are average, however the subsequent acts of hunting down the poacher makes up for it.

Warning: There's a chase scene. Chase scenes get a bad rap, but for my group this was actually the best part of the scenario. That's because the GM ran each stage as a mini-roleplaying event, and it ended up being quite funny for us. It's unfortunate that a lot of GMs remove this encounter and that more GMs haven't learned to run chase scenes so that they're actually fun.

The final act has a well designed NPC (finally!), so most players will enjoy the challenge.

Overall: Once you get through the initial acts, Market is a fun little investigation scenario. (7/10)

Golemworks is an excellent horror scenario. It's really sick and twisted in parts, which I enjoyed! It can also be toned down for more sensitive players, and I'm sure the horror theme can be cranked up as well.

The horror aspect is going to depend heavily on the GM of course, but the framework is there, and it should be decent with most GMs.

I have the following criticisms of this excellent scenario:
A) The difficulty level of one of the encounters is too hard if the GM is prepared.
B) This is a very complex scenario and needs a lot of preparation to run PROPERLY. More of a criticism of most GMs than the scenario.
C) The encounters are not scaled properly for 4 person groups, some of them still seem too difficult (in particular the final encounter).

Regarding 'B', my GM didn't run this scenario properly (which is why I rated the scenario lower previously). However, this might have been done on purpose since it could have been too deadly otherwise.