Jason S's page

Usually, I like using diplomatic solutions for encounters; Assault however takes this idea to extremes.

This is the first time in a scenario where I wish we killed everything instead of using Diplomacy. The scenario was unsatisfying because I felt we bypassed almost every encounter because we used Diplomacy. And as result, I left feeling like we handwaved and missed the entire scenario (including the final encounter).

The scenario ended in less than 2 hours (which could have been 60 minutes if the GM didn't waste time and we didn't have 3 new PF players). We had a single combat encounter, which was extremely easy (even though we played it wrong and made it more challenging by accident), and it wasn't as entertaining as I was lead to believe. The faction missions were above average.

If you’re only going to have only one mandatory combat encounter in a scenario, you’d better be sure the roleplaying encounters are interesting. The problem with Assault is that negotiations don’t necessarily mean a lot of roleplaying, or a lot of entertaining roleplaying in any case. And with an average GM, they’re just a bunch of skill checks.

Unlike other reviewers, minor boons as rewards at the end of the scenario aren’t important to me, and don’t affect whether I think a scenario is good or bad.

For me, the scenario was ruined by the potential overuse of Diplomacy (which ironically lead to a lack of roleplay).

Paizo did a great job updating D&D 3.5 and to their credit the changes have been interesting, well balanced, and have stood the test of time. If you like D&D, you will love Pathfinder.

The concepts, ideas, and environment surrounding Delirium have great potential. Unfortunately, the execution of these concepts doesn't meet this potential, and what should have been a journey through the weird and fantastic, is in fact a stroll through the mundane.

The puzzles in Delirium are both solved by multiple (15+) consecutive skill checks that require very little in the way of player thought, interaction, or decision making. Rolling dice for the sake of rolling dice, until you get "10 successes" isn't interesting or fun (for me anyway, I suppose the other reviewers are easier to please). It's just 'meh'.

Although 'mazes are boring', mazes with a few simple puzzles that players can think about, are not boring. As much as "The Darkest Vengeance" is criticized for its (broken) puzzle, I think they did it right in the sense that it required some player input combined with some skill checks... now that's fun! The simple puzzles in Silent Tide are also fun. But this is not.

Another major problem I have with this scenario is that the players will never learn the (interesting) back story behind this scenario (unless the GM makes a major change to the scenario, or reads the back story to them at the end, lol).

Regarding the encounters, they're extremely easy, but more importantly, the majority of them aren't interesting. When I say the encounters are easy, what I mean is that six 1st level PCs could easily beat the scenario at subtier 4-5. I wish I was exaggerating.

I might seem overly harsh but unfortunately I just don't think this scenario will be satisfying to myself or my players (without major modifications). Everyone would leave the session saying "Is that it?". Not only was this scenario too easy, it just failed to be interesting. For me, what makes it worse is that the scenario had the framework to be something special.

I've found these spell templates are very useful for my games and there's a good variety in the templates so that you can extrapolate if the radius / length is longer. It's close to being a must-have GM tool and they're highly recommended.

This module is fun and has the potential for some crazy endings. A lot of the fun will depend on how much everyone likes roleplay. 5 star for roleplay players, 3 star otherwise.

There's not too much that hasn't already been said except for:
1) This needed a lot more prep than I thought it would (although it can easily be run straight)
2) The GM has to add more detail / excitement to the middle encounter, which is fine I guess.
3) Many reviews say this module took 2 hours, my particular groups likes to roleplay and it took 3.5 hours.
4) This is the first module in at least 10+ years where I actually read the box text almost word-for-word.

Good job!

This set is great for PFS also, since it contains a lot of animals (particularily monkeys) and tribes people, which you'll be using in various scenarios (especially Rescue on Azlant Ridge).

Great for creating an army, on a budget too!

After reading Collector, I agree with the other reviewer: It's convoluted and messy, and there are many things that won't make sense to either the GM or the players.

Most of the encounters are super easy and high level groups will just crush them unless the NPC tactics are substantially improved, to at least make it interesting.

On the other extreme, one encounter is so deadly it’s virtually guaranteed to kill at least 1+ PCs at subtier 10-11 (and is super weak at subtier 7-8). Did anyone playtest and crunch numbers, or was that intended? Sigh.

In the future, I'd like to see either the authors or the editor do a better job when it comes to balancing encounters and making reasonable tactics. We shouldn't see encounters that are ridiculously easy or completely unfair death traps.

The scenario isn’t all bad of course.

1) If you simplify and make changes to the background story, it’s somewhat interesting and unique.

2) Unlike other scenarios, the background to the scenario will be revealed. I really like this! Unfortunately, the NPC doing the delivery is annoying as written (and won’t promote much sympathy). I wish the NPC had a different personality, it would make it *harder* on the PCs to decide what to do next, not easier.

3) The environment (of the first encounter) feels somewhat exotic and it invokes cool Kung Fu images in my mind. Unfortunately, the NPCs will get schooled so badly, those visions will never emerge.

Collector has the potential to be a very memorable scenario and has a unique storyline, however it's not polished and needs major modifications before I think it would be fun for my home group.

This scenario suited my GMing style perfectly. This scenario had the best mix of strong roleplay combined with combat I've seen so far.

Frostfur to me was a roleplay sandbox, in that there was a lot of room to add your own roleplaying touches and personality into the scenario. The GM can (and should) take a lot of liberties with the roleplaying aspect of the scenario. If the GM plays it flat, as pure combat encounters and a few skill checks, the scenario is still good but not great.

Frostfur Captives is not like other scenarios, the encounters are not about killing the PCs, the encounters are about killing the goblins (and the PCs trying to protect them). The encounters in Frostfur will NOT challenge the PCs, even when playing up (2nd level PCs against subtier 4-5). The opponents are too weak, non-optimized and use poor tactics. However, the mission itself should be very difficult because Frostfur is an escort mission.

It seems to me Frostfur will play out very differently each time it's played.

Unlike MotTM, Frostfur can be played in non-home environments and still be a great experience.

Length: Long (with roleplay), medium (no RP). 4 hours in a hobby store and 5.5 hours at home.
Sweet Spot: All subtiers are ok, but the combat encounters were too weak unless you played up to subtier 4-5 and changed tactics.
Experience: GM at subtier 4-5
Entertainment: Like Rebecca Black says "Fun fun fun". (9/10)
Roleplay: Strong roleplay "sandbox" but depends heavily on the GMs added touches. (9/10)
Combat/Challenges: Combat challenges were too weak (especially considering there was one day rest between each encounter) and the tactics didn't fit the creatures well. (7/10)
Uniqueness: Escorting speaking goblins. Yes!(10/10)
Faction Missions: Great job Paizo! One mission per faction = good. Faction missions were good too! (10/10)
Overall: I think everyone in my two sessions had a memorable experience. (10/10)
Would you recommend: Yes

This was the 2nd best scenario I've run so far in PFS and hopefully the goblins in the Frostfur tribe will be memorable for you too!

This set has great overall use in campaigns outside of Rise of the Runelords.

I'm using this for PFS only and these minis have seen a lot of use. You can almost always find a use for goblins, zombies, shadows, some animals, and some distinct human NPCs.

Edit: I'm reducing the rating to 4 stars because the art and coloring have improved significantly since this set came out.

This is a perfect flip-mat. First of all, it can be re-used many times, how often are your low level characters in an otherwise non-descript village town square? Lots, so this map will see a lot of action.

Also, it has all the shops drawn in (you don't see roof tops). If you don't like the shop on the flip-map, you can place a map pack tile over top of it.

Well, maybe it's not perfect, the "B" side of the map doesn't have a variant version of the town square, but it's close and I'm pleased.

As a scenario, Plague's main problem is that it fails to convey a good story to the PCs. The NPCs are morons. Plague is extremely railroaded (no sandbox at all) and too easy to be an "investigation" scenario.

Another weakness of this scenario is that you can fail the scenario based on skill checks alone.

The back story in Plague is quite compelling; however, the players will never learn about it if played RAW. So it's just wasted.

Length: 1.5 hours as a player, 4 hours as a GM.
Sweet Spot: Avoid subtier 6-7, it will get silly.
Experience: Player at subtier 1-2, GM at subtier 3-4.
Entertainment: Worst PFS experience as a player. (2/10)
Roleplay: No roleplay (except insane bad guys being... insane). (2/10)
Combat/Challenges: Ridiculously easy (our party took 6 damage total). The skill challenge can be too hard for some groups. (1/10)
Maps: Lots of custom maps, would have preferred some use of flip maps. (6/10)
Boons: Maybe the best part of the scenario. (8/10)
Uniqueness: First PFS skill challenge? (8/10)
Faction Missions: Average (6/10)
Overall: Railroaded easy investigation scenarios aren't fun for me. (3/10)

As a player, this was my worst PFS experience. As a GM, it made me do more work than I wanted. I do not recommend.

I saw this map pack in action during Gen Con and it would have been much better as a (2 sided) flip mat imo. I would gladly buy this product if you made a flip mat version of it.

In general, I found the arrows distracting and the tiles never (perfectly) lined up with each other. Also, it was annoying when the tiles were knocked around by by mistake.

I thought this scenario had a really nice variety of both combat and non-combat encounters and some roleplay as well. This was at subtier 4-5

The combat encounters were both challenging and interesting. The first encounter, if played right (ours wasn't) is quite deadly and tactically interesting. And finally, a memorable final boss encounter!

The only unfortunate thing about the scenario is that our GM gave us too many ideas on how to get into the city, even when we had the skills and ideas to do something more creative. Yes, we asked for ideas, however I feel players should sometimes have to struggle. Player solutions to problems are often more interesting, creative, and plain crazy compared to typical module solutions. As GM, just say "yes" to them.

I agree with the other reviewers, stop embarrassing Barbarian NPCs and give them 2H weapons. If PCs are able to do 15+ points of damage each round, NPCs should be able to as well. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Unfortunately I didn't play enough to have a solid opinion of this scenario, I did however enjoy the end fight and it was quite challenging (3 players out of 6 dropped and I was pretty sure we were going to die) at subtier 4-5.

This scenario was poorly edited. This scenario was filler until the end fight, and the end fight (to the series!) was disappointing as hell.

The encounters are memorable for all the wrong reasons, they won't challenge the party, but they have a chance of killing one character.

One encounter in particular, was sprung on us like a trap, like something blew up under our feet. We should have had at least a few rounds to prepare (especially since we made a 30+ Perception check). Hopefully that was a GM mistake and not the intent of the author. It was deadly enough to kill a pregen of the correct level, so beware, it could easily kill PCs "playing up".

The end fight was both bland and super easy. However, with a little bit of bad luck it can end with a PC death. Either way, it's not fun and was extremely disappointing. I was really surprised when I killed the boss, I thought they were just guards and there would be another encounter after that. And that lead to a "is that it" moment, which is not the best way to end a 3 part series.

In it's current format, Tide is only really good for brand new level 1 PCs playing their first adventure.

It's kind of cheesy too since you're the only ones interested in "saving Absalom" from creatures even 10 year old boys with pitchforks could handle. It has not aged well.

It runs short (2-3 hours).

Having said that, it's enjoyable and a decent introduction for new players to PFS.

As much as I hate to say it, this scenario was as much of a railroad, if not more, than compared to other scenarios. At least when you're going room-by-room, they’re being honest about it.

In Mauler, you're basically hand fed information to connect-the-dots, from point A, to point B, to point C. No thinking required. Skills were needed, but that doesn't make a scenario interesting does it? I'm not even positive that failed skill checks would mean failing the scenario, you could probably complete it without (I won't know until I read Mauler). There was no mystery (that the players could figure out) basically. Having a murder mystery without plot twists, more than one suspect, or needing to think sucks imo.

There was only one enjoyable scene and that was roleplaying with Vilk's "friend", and that's only because our GM was great at roleplaying.

All of the encounters were incredibly easy as well as uninteresting.

In addition, some encounters made no sense at all.

Also, the novelty of homosexual relationships is wearing thin. My table just groaned and rolled their eyes.

Again, this is another scenario where we really could have done without the faction missions. To make matters worse, some faction missions were either highly contentious (Andoran) or extremely difficult (Osirian).

Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed with Mauler, I was expecting some kind of mystery, something where I had to think, maybe with a neat plot twist. Alas, we were just stuck with a mangy dog which we put down in 2 rounds with only a 1st level monk and a ranger. Mauler is serviceable, but not 5 star material.

Sewer Dragons was the best scenario I played at Gencon 2011. Despite the name, you’re not going to spend all of your time on a 5' wide path.

Edit: I feel the need to edit my review. When I played Sewers, my GM (ran the scenario cold) mistakenly included all of the traps (and other features) from subtier 6-7 into subtier 3-4. So of course this scenario was much harder than normal (the final encounter was actually too hard). Without at least some of these traps though, Sewers loses some of it's charm, flavor and uniqueness, and subtier 3-4 would be kind of plain without them.

Sewers does not work well at subtier 6-7, it's too easy. You can't just add harmless CR 2 creatures and hope that it scales everything to subtier 6-7. Most of the encounters would be over before they even start.

The first trap could have also been a lot more vicious (in both subtiers), it wasn't damaging enough to be a factor, and because of its design it only caught 1 PC in two sessions.

Having said that, the scenario did have a wonderful mix of interesting NPCs, roleplaying, exploration, and combat.

If you're one of those GMs that like to run the scenario "as is", this is not the scenario for you. Unmodified, this is a 2 star killer scenario that should be avoided. Even victorious, your players will likely be annoyed and won't have fun.

As others have already stated, this is a killer scenario (especially with the optional encounter). Ideally you should have 6 PCs and the group should be APL 3 at subtier 1-2 and APL of 6 at subtier 4-5 (to avoid a TPK).

Having said that, with some modifications, this scenario is great. One of the best aspects of this scenario is that it oozes dark gothic horror, that was fun to GM. Even the intro was fun.

Length: Long. I thought it was going to take 5 hours and it took almost 6 hours. To fit into 5 hours, much handwaving has to be done (and the optional encounter skipped).
Sweet Spot: Both subtiers are equally good.
Experience: GM subtier 1-2.
Entertainment: Overall DV is fun, although the optional and final encounter can be frustrating.(9/10)
Roleplay: This scenario has some fun roleplay at the start and some interesting interactions later (depends on GM). (10/10)
Combat/Challenges: Too deadly at times. The puzzle the PCs are meant to solve is unlikely to be solved without modifications. (4/10)
Uniqueness: It's memorable, hopefully not for the wrong reasons. (9/10)
Faction Missions: Average Mcguffin and they don't really add anything the scenario. Then again, you probably wouldn't have time for anything more involved. (7/10)
Overall: With changes to the final encounter and puzzle, this is a great and memorable scenario. Unmodified it's a mess and frustrating at best. (9/10)

I highly recommend reading the GM thread on this scenario and I'll post my thoughts there.

The GM should modify the puzzle in the scenario. As written, most groups won't even get the clues needed to solve the puzzle. Even with the clues, my group of players almost didn't figure it out (it took 20+ minutes).

Edit: Bumping to 5 stars since this is exactly the kind of scenario I like, with the exception of the problems with the final encounter and puzzle.

The reason I bought this scenario was because of the creepy dark horror theme, and I wasn't disappointed. So if your players like dark horror themes and you're willing to heavily modify the main puzzle and the final encounters, your players will have a good time.

Tide of the Morning is a fun little adventure with a main enemy that reminds me a lot of Swiper, from kids TV show "Dora the Exporer". Tide isn't that hard but it can be a lot of fun. There's some roleplay, some exploration, and a unique combat at the end.

The last encounter in Tide could use some updating, especially at subtier 1-2. Also, there's a subtier 1-2 encounter that can turn deadly and ironically... it's easier at subtier 4-5. Tide runs well at subtier 4-5.

This scenario is roleplaying on steroids. As a matter of fact, it will consume almost all of your gaming session. If your group likes combat but doesn't like roleplaying / talking, your group will NOT like this scenario.

This is a scenario for experienced GMs only and GMs who are comfortable with open-ended play. This isn't a scenario you just "pick up and play", the GM has to do some work to make it run smoothly.

I also think that Mermaid is best experienced at home (as opposed to loud convention halls with time limits). There is a lot of subtle roleplaying that could occur and it just can't be done while raising your voice the entire time.

Having said that, the payoff is great. The NPCs in this scenario are interesting, the story is fun. The NPC background stories are adult themed and thought should be given if you think children might be at the table. For adults it's hilarious though! We laughed a lot this scenario.

Length: Extremely long. Great care has to be taken to get to the first encounter as fast as possible. In my home game, this scenario took 6.5 hours. It will take the full slot.
Sweet Spot: It's best to play Mermaid at subtier 1-2. High level PCs have abilities and spells that could break the storyline if your GM is unprepared.
Experience: GM subtier 1-2.
Entertainment: Extremely funny if you like roleplay. (10/10)
Roleplay: Roleplayers will be in heaven, combat monkeys in hell. (10/10)
Combat/Challenges: The challenge is the investigation, which is great. There is hardly any combat. (10/10)
Uniqueness: Very unique to PFS. (10/10)
Faction Missions: Average. Because of the time constraints, they're an unwanted distraction and GMs will have to keep on eye on time. (7/10)
Overall: This scenario is memorable and can lead to great roleplaying moments. (10/10)

I highly recommend reading the GM thread on this scenario, because smart players could easily derail the scenario (or you'll be forced to railroad, which several GMs have done and which I think every player hates).

I've also included my notes for this scenario, which I hope helps fellow GMs prepare.
http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cwUrYWFjYW

One last thing, Paizo, could you not put spoilers in the title of the scenario or on the cover of the scenario?

The bottom line is that this scenario will be hit-or-miss with GMs and players, you either love it or hate it. My group loved it, but I can easily see how it could be hated. Good luck and have fun!

This simple scenario has a really nice mix of investigation, combat, and roleplay.

Length: Medium-Long. At Gencon it took 3.5 hours, in my home game it took almost 5.5 hours.
Sweet Spot: It seems the most realistic at subtier 3-4, it can be very challenging at subtier 1-2, and it doesn't scale well at subtier 6-7 (avoid).
Experience: GM and player at tiers 1-2
Entertainment: It was fun, everyone had a role to play. (9/10)
Roleplay: Medium roleplay, depends on the group/DM. (8/10)
Combat/Challenges: Challenges were simple and deadly (maybe too deadly for some tier 1 groups). Finale was epic.(8/10)
Uniqueness: It was simple but interesting. I made some changes.(7/10)
Faction Missions: Better than average, depends on DMs interpretation. (9/10)
Overall: Good time, nice mix of everything (9/10)

The only bad thing I can say about this scenario is the TPK potential for level 1 characters.

My players were very happy with this scenario. This scenario should definitely be updated for the PFRPG.

I thought this scenario was fairly standard fare (combat orientated) until the last encounter which was kind of cool. This scenario was played at tier 1-2, maybe it's better at higher subtiers.

Edit: After reading various posts on this scenario, it seems like it's really important for GMs to add a lot of their own fluff to this scenario, to make this scenario memorable. Otherwise it's fairly average.

The backstory was interesting but difficult for the DM to convey. There was a horror theme for the last encounter only, standard romp besides that.

This is a medium length scenario (3 hours for us and we were cautious). I'm not sure why some other reviewers went overtime, there was only 1 encounter that might cause this.

Citadel has a nice variety of challenges, both combat and non-combat. Nice backstory. It also had some memorable moments near the end, especially for the Cheliax faction.

I found there was an above average amount of player strife in this scenario (due to factions), especially if you have a Taldor / Andoran player or Paladin in the group, which can cause a loss of fun.

I also found that this scenario can be a little rough on 1st level groups if they don't own a wand of cure light wounds. There's potentially a lot of damage in this scenario.

Length: Medium.
Sweet Spot: Both subtiers are good.
Experience: Player and GM, both at subtier 1-2.
Entertainment: Fun for everyone. (9/10)
Roleplay: Good roleplay. (9/10)
Combat/Challenges: Good. Neat concept on BBG fight, but rarely gets used (unless tweaked). (8/10)
Uniqueness: The encounters were unique and memorable (9/10)
Faction Missions: Very good, but players could disagree on how they want to handle things. Cheliax mission is awesome. (9/10)
Overall: Fun. (9/10)

Edit: Bumping to 5 stars since this is exactly the kind of scenario I like, with the exception that the last encounter could be slightly different and more challenging.

Imo this scenario is extremely risky if you decide to play up.

I thought this was fairly standard (combat orientated) faire and although the setting is pretty cool, it's up to the GM to make or break the setting with details and roleplay. This scenario could have been really creepy, but it's open to GM interpretation because the scenario doesn't suggest anything of the sort (and would probably offend some people if it did).

I found several things unbelievable, which kind of ruined my suspension of disbelief. For example,

Also, I don't like that Frost gave some of the enemy picks (x4 crit damage), it's the perfect way to ruin someone's introduction to PF (or make the DM fudge).

This is a short scenario (2 hours) and can be played up with the normal risk (because of non-optimal spell selection).

With the right GM (and changes to the scenario to make it more believable), this scenario could be 4 stars (maybe even 5 with awesome roleplay details and a massive royal rumble and chaos), but I think it's more typical that it's a 3 star with most GMs.