Kigvan's page

The Overflow Archives is definitely one of my favorite PFS Scenarios (I only have about 20 or less that I haven’t played currently, and I have GMed a few of those). I have played this once (low tier normal mode) and GMed it 4 times (once high tier normal mode, and 3 times low tier CORE). I think this scenario has a great balance of role-play encounters, environmental difficulties, combats and Puzzles.

The feel of this scenario is quite whimsical at times, and some people might not like that. Though of every table of the five I have experienced with this game has enjoyed it a great deal.

One of my favorite parts of the main Puzzle is that the part needed for success in the scenario is not too difficult and should be able to be finished even with a group that doesn’t care a great deal for such things, but there is a second part that, while not needed of scenario success, can be more satisfying for people who love puzzles.

The role-play available in this scenario is quite fun, though it is possible for a group to just hack their way through this scenario if that is their preferred play style.

The combats are interesting and varied, while fitting the theme of the scenario. I was also glad of the inclusion of a creature that I think is quite creepy and fun, and to my knowledge hasn’t been used in any previous PFS scenarios. I found that the low tier is generally quite a lot more forgiving in the combats than the high tier, but can still be challenging.

The only thing I generally did not like much about this scenario is the map of the lower level. While I greatly appreciate the theme of the map, being once a temple of Desna, it is quite difficult to draw and run combats in, especially considering the additional environmental effects happening in this scenario. When I ran this for my local group I simplified and turned the map to make it easier to draw and move around in, but I did draw out the actual map for my 3 tables at PaizoCon. I don’t feel like the change in the map had any negative effect on running the scenario.

Overall I highly recommend this scenario. I believe it would be a disservice to run this scenario without preparation, as there is quite a few moving parts, and I think it deserves to be run smoothly.

I ended up playing this at a friend's house rather than at one of the local game stores that runs PFS games. It was a very rich setting with lots of background info able to be found out by the group. It is really good to see so much detail on Natambu. Good preparation I am sure makes the sandbox portion of this scenario run much more smoothly. While there is technology involved, this scenario doesn't feel like it is a sci-fi game. There are some interesting opponents and challenges in this scenario. In a normal time slot players are going to have to make decisions on what actions they want to take, there will not probably be enough time to do everything. Playing this in a private home let us play without worry about making a time slot or closing hours. We got a fairly late start probably close to 8pm, next thing we knew it was nearly 11pm, then 1am, and we finally finished at 2am, but we did do (I think, I haven't read the scenario yet, just played in it) every task. There apparently is a mechanism to wrap up the scenario in a timely manner if the players are trying to do everything; I think this is very valuable for running at game stores or conventions.

I highly recommend if people are able to take the time to play this thoroughly if they have the chance.