 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. 
Pathfinder Society Scenario #5: Mists of Mwangi (OGL/PFRPG) PDFPaizo Inc.Our Price: $3.99 Add to CartA Night at the Museum of the Apes 
Mark Seifter
—
A classic scenario that started a run of later Blakros Museum scenarios. Mists is basically a dungeon crawl, but it makes up for the dearth of non-combat encounters with strong ambience.
Challenge (3/5):
Even the 3.5 version of this scenario had some legitimate challenges, and with the conversion, Subtier 4-5 now has the best challenge of any Season 0 I've seen (Subtier 1-2 looks like it would be a cakewalk now, though, so if you're running this for a home group, consider just using the 3.5 version if you're running Subtier 1-2). It isn't overpowering, but there's a few things that can go very wrong for a party. A group that is high on Cha and Int casters can be screwed by the mists, which completely incapacitate all spellcasting for those characters. Somehow every time I've played or GMed this one, there's been a sorcerer around who failed his save and got monkeyfied. Fortunately, the module has a clever built-in mechanism for modulating the challenge--if the party starts losing and someone gets KOed, you learn that KOing ends the monkey effect, whereas a curb-stomping party may never learn this depending on how they dealwith the ape scholars. The only trouble, of course, is if the team all dies on the encounter with the first KO. However, you do need to be able to heal off that fight. When I first ran this, it was with a party who were all completely new characters and had no CLW wands. This can be rough in any scenario, so remind the group that they can pay for heals at a temple if necessary. The other potential trouble can be the vargouilles. When I played this with my monk, he was the only one who made all four Will saves at the higher tier. If he had failed and the vargouilles were played smartly (knock out, then kiss, then wait), we would have had a TPK and several new vargouilles. In general, multiple save or disables coming at once can be pretty tough. Granted, I haven't yet seen this one actually take out the whole party, but do watch out. In general the mod has plenty of save or sucks, but this is the only case where there are so many that have such a dangerous condition. If you can somehow avoid the ridiculously easy PFRPG version of the 1-2 subtier, consider the rating increased up to 4. Interesting Encounters (4/5):
The encounters added to the flavor and theme of the demon-mist-haunted museum, with a good variety of opponents, each themed to one of the museum's exhibits. Several examples include vargouilles masquerading as masks, the taxidermic monsters in the same room that don't come to life (yet), and a ziggurat with a giant gorilla surrounded by monkeys and evil monkey idols hiding in the brush. Roleplaying Opportunities (2.5/5):
This scenario is basically a dungeon crawl. There is one opportunity to talk to a besieged scholar which is essentially the only RP encounter you get unless you count the Venture Captain or Nigel Aldain, who you save at the very end. However, the RP potential of the mist itself boosts this one up to 2.5. Be careful, however, as the mists are clearly portrayed as a negative effect, so you need players who will ham it up despite this fact, as opposed to the sorts of players who don't like to dwell on failures or setbacks. Golarion Flavor/Continuity (4/5):
You get surprisingly-much in this category considering it's just a dungeon crawl in Absalom. While not directly relevant to this particular adventure, the lore on the Blakros Museum itself was rich and evocative enough to spawn several more adventures each off of unanswered questions piqued by the scenario's background text. You also get Anghazan and Mwangi themes. Finally, having Adril Hestram as the VC is useful to build up to the retirement arc. This is a scenario in which the PFS would logically be involved, and the adventure flows together well with no logical inconsistencies except perhaps how the giant crocodile fit itself up there. Awesome Factor (4/5):
This category exists for things that just make the characters call out "That's awesome!" On the other side, it includes things that make them groan, but I've named the category after the positive side of the aspect. The flavor oozing out of this scenario is what makes it awesome, as expected for a Nic Logue adventure. This scenario is able to creep people out, and it's inspired at least one player to have his character quail in dread whenever the museum is mentioned again (after which he'll always explain that the negative reaction is in character only with "I am loving it"). The mists and their effects are also awesome, but with a warning of a potential for anti-awesome if you have an Int or Cha caster whose player cares more about effectiveness than the flavor. Overall Analysis (4/5): I don't judge often in extremes. A scenario will truly have to be something to get a 1/5 or a 5/5 from me in any category. I know some reviewers tend to rate high, where a 3/5 would be a product they didn't like. For me, Mist of Mwangi's low 4/5 (it had an average of 3.5) means that the scenario is very good. This places it at just about "Paizo average" quality for me, but only because Paizo's quality tends to be high, so I expect a high median quality from them. Try to run Subtier 4-5 for a better challenge. Also, there's a file to make a 3d map of the museum on the forums. I did so, and it's awesome, but it's way harder to do than the thread makes it sound (unless you're way better at building things than me, I guess). 
Pathfinder Society Scenario #14: The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch (OGL) PDFPaizo Inc.Our Price: $3.99 Add to CartThe Many Misfortunes of Grandmaster Torch
Mark Seifter
—
This may be the worst PFS scenario I have ever seen, though I say that after fully admitting that even though I started at Gencon of Season 0, I happened to only play Season 0 scenarios that weren't retired, so there could be worse.
Challenge (2/5)::
The encounters in the module are all pathetic except for the vermin. The time I played this in Subtier 3-4, the vermin were substantially harder than the hypothetical fight consisting of all the other enemies in the scenario coming at you at once. Granted, in this instance, the GM had some hot dice for the vermin, so I'll go ahead and figure that the vermin are about right in difficulty. Interesting Encounters (2/5)::
The author tries pretty hard to give at least some of the encounters varied conditions, rather than straight up fights. Unfortunately, some of these are pretty big fumbles in my book. One of the worst parts of the scenario is the inflexible way that the scenarios turn into combat, detailed more below. Fighting in an area with no weapons or magic could be cool but just came out feeling cheesy. The chase against the invisible opponent into the spice factory has some potential, but it's likely to wind up as bothersome, with the PCs forced to contend with the unrelated guards of the place who they don't really have a reason to fight. The vermin fight and protection money thugs are pretty standard and uninteresting. Roleplaying Opportunities (1/5)::
I really like Grandmaster Torch, and there is an opportunity for roleplay with him here, but in the end he seems to have been stuck into this scenario as a gimmick, and the way he interacts with the PCs probably hurts his status overall and yields people who just hate him and aren't interested in ever seeing him again (or want to kill him) as I've heard about on the forums. The real reason for the 1/5, however, is the ridiculously railroady and anti-RP nature of the mission here. You are tasked with essentially mugging four people for their artifacts. When I first played this adventure, our group decided to take it another way, and explain that the items were stolen merchandise and that they were actually dangerous to the owner (as we had discovered along the way), and we assured the owners that we knew they were duped by the thief into buying stolen goods, so we wouldn't press charges. Our backup was to offer to buy the items back. In no instances did the scenario allow this to work. One guy (running guy) uses a 300 gold piece item to run away from the party, even if they are completely non-threatening and have no intent to harm him whatsoever. What the hell? That's a lot of money down the drain. This railroady there-must-be-a-fight aspect earns Many Fortunes a rare 1/5 from me in this category. Golarion Flavor/Continuity (1/5)::
There's two ways to think of this mission as the VC describes it. There's the rational way, where the Pathfinders are trying to reason with some unwitting purchasers of dangerous items that will release a plague in order to neutralize the threat and recover the items. Then there's the absolutely insane way, where the Pathfinders are going on a jolly mugging and killing spree through the streets of Sedeq, murdering citizens whose only crime may have been unwittingly purchasing stolen goods (you can't very well leave them alive, as they surely can point out your party to the guards and get you all arrested immediately). Also you probably have to kill all witnesses for good measure. Now, usually a PC who presents that second plan will be scowled at by everyone else or directed away from it by the GM or the scenario itself. But--you guessed it--in Many Fortunes, they assume that you use the crazy plan. In fact, if you don't try the psychopath plan, the adventure railroads you into fighting anyway, and all NPCs react to you as if they knew you were going to be treating them that way. At least they will sometimes be attacking you first? Fortunately, there are apparently no consequences to the PCs for blatantly murdering all of these people. For added bonus points, the Taldor mission encourages terrorism and mass murder (generally ending in an explosion killing dozens of innocents) and the Qadira mission requires an assassination of some random guy the Pasha doesn't like using a poison that was selected for its unbearable agony. I haven't even gotten into the weirdness of the giant antimagic field on the market and what implications its existence has for all of Golarion as a whole. Awesome Factor (1.5/5)::
This category exists for things that just make the characters call out "That's awesome!" On the other side, it includes things that make them groan, but I've named the category after the positive side of the aspect. The weird magical appearance of the giant bugs was actually kind of awesome, I guess, but the ridiculous assumptions of murdering people in a big city with no consequences, combined with the evil faction missions, are very anti-awesome. If you are a paladin in Taldor, Qadira, or Lantern Lodge (particularly Taldor), PvP rule be damned, you should be losing your powers if you don't sabotage your fellow faction members on those missions, not that you had a great chance of keeping your paladinhood through the main scenario anyway... Overall Analysis (1/5): I don't judge often in extremes. A scenario will truly have to be something to get a 1/5 or a 5/5 from me in any category. This scenario managed to get a 1/5 in two categories. I know some reviewers tend to rate high, where a 3/5 would be a product they didn't like. For me, The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch's 1 star rating means that it has serious problems. It would actually be fine with some major adjustments for a non-PFS GM who is allowed to change the scenario around somewhat. But given that you aren't supposed to make changes in PFS that actually modify the challenges in the scenario, I have to rate this scenario based on that. It's not easy to get a 1/5 in my rating system, since I rarely give a 1/5 or 5/5 on any given category, and you need to average 1.5 or below to get a 1 star review. This scenario should almost certainly have been retired, and I'm guessing that Grandmaster Torch's appearance is the main thing that allowed it to stay. That's a pity, since as I said before, this scenario actually leads to character decay for GMT, so I am willfully avoiding it for my group that has the most interplay with Torch. 
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-01: The Frostfur Captives (PFRPG) PDFPaizo Inc.Our Price: $3.99 Add to CartThe Goblins Didn't Start the Fire (At Least That You Can Prove)
Mark Seifter
—
A great scenario for newcomers and veteran players alike, Frostfur hits all the right notes with a solid mix of encounter types and the potential for inordinate amounts of laughter.
Challenge (3/5)::
The module is not particularly challenging at either subtier, though neither is it a cakewalk. The variety of encounters (see below) helps here, as it stops a one-trick pony PC from dominating everything. The GM can make the encounters a bit tougher or easier while staying in the bounds of the scenario by making the goblin captives more or less of a liability, which is a wonderful tool to have at your disposal. Interesting Encounters (4/5)::
You get a wide variety of encounters in this scenario. Goblins sniping at you from atop a tower, with the added urgency of a signal fire to extinguish before it gives you away (with real, though not huge, consequences if you don't), a snowstorm, a corrupt troll that you can talk, trick, or even wrestle your way past, a creepy soulbond doll guardian that you can try to stealth past, and of course some humans and wolves. While some of those might not seem so special, each of these encounters is made more interesting by the inclusion of the goblin captives, who can provide amusing commentary, ridiculous complications, and more. Roleplaying Opportunities (4/5)::
This scenario had a lot of opportunities for RP, and it requires the GM to be ready to play them to their potential. RP can be had with the initial rangers who drop off the goblins, several places in the village before crossing the ferry (though realistically probably only with faction mission-relevant characters), with the troll, at the lodge with the would-be ambushers, and of course with the captives themselves.
The goblin RP can make or break the scenario, and while the author provides some tips, you need to come to table with ideas of your own as well. A lot of the magic could be lost if run by a GM who isn't good at inventing goblin stuff on the spot, or especially one who just glosses over the goblins or turns them into a requirement for a DC X Intimidate check. Golarion Flavor/Continuity (4.5/5)::
I'll admit--I've always liked Irrisen. My first PFS character is from Irrisen. Even Shades of Ice Part 2 wasn't enough for me. I wasn't disappointed by the Irrisen flavor in this scenario. The author made the most of the choice of country, including both obvious shout outs to Irrisen's distinctive features like the ice troll social encounter and the chicken-hut border guard dolls and Easter eggs like the Osirion mission's connection to the Ice Mines of Lost Hope.
The mission makes sense that the Pathfinder Society would be performing it, and the main mission coheres well from beginning to end. The final enemies have a believable motive and an understandable point, which is a refreshing change from the sometimes nonsensically-aggressive or wantonly-suicidal enemies that you see in other scenarios. It's actually a shame that you can't try to work this out with them, explain why you're performing the mission, offer to let them kill the goblins once the Society has its information, or something like that. I debated strongly on giving this category a 4/5 instead of 4.5/5 for one issue I have, however. It has to do with the Grand Lodge mission (which I'm about to say how it's awesome in the next section, so stay with me while I explain why it was problematic in this section). There is just no way that the Grand Lodge should, in a non-verisimilitude-breaking way, be able to get their faction point if Taldor does their mission (or at least, there's no way in the Nine Hells that the Grand Lodge PC would be able to divine that they are not losing their point for this, other than by metagaming that there must not be a conflict between two faction missions). I know the missions aren't supposed to be mutually exclusive, and that's fine. So the Grand Lodge mission should have just been reworded instead to not mention the border patrol. As it is, you're likely to have conflict between those two missions at the table unless the GM breaks the fourth wall and tells the Grand Lodge player flat out "Don't worry. You can somehow complete your mission to not be spotted and reported by the Border Guard by charging loudly at the Border Guard, killing it, and taking its scrying focus that lets the people they're reporting to, the ones you didn't want to know about this, watch your every move." Now, as I'll mention below, the whole not knowing exactly what might break their mission is a fantastic aspect of the Grand Lodge mission in every other instance, and in the game I played of it, no conflict came up because there were no Taldor PCs, so we just avoided the entire encounter (Grand Lodge PC tense the whole time and then exhaling like he had dodged a bullet when we made it past). Awesome Factor (4.5/5)::
This scenario has plenty of awesome. Irrisen, the goblin captives, (potentially) wrestling the troll, little hidden Easter eggs. And some of the faction missions too. Though I mentioned an issue with the Grand Lodge mission above in continuity, I would like to mention in this section why it was, other than the above, totally awesome. First time through this scenario, my fellow player, brother-in-arms for almost 20 scenarios by that point, was intensely into that faction mission like none he had received before. Always before (for his old faction, since this was at Gencon and he had just switched to Grand Lodge), he would make a check and do the mission. This time he had to prevent any incidents from happening. So every time someone went off to the side, it made him sweat, and he spent a huge effort of his sorcerer's ability tailing the other PCs, particularly the Andoran barbarian who he was terrified would start yelling in the streets of Harvest's End about destroying the slavekeeping jadwiga regime. The lack of knowing what might go wrong built up tension in a way he had never felt about previous faction missions.
Anti-awesome is only the amount you could lose from this scenario if playing it under a GM who doesn't use what's in here to its potential. There's a lot of awesome stuff that is semiscripted or unscripted, so it can be quite GM-dependent. Also it can be sad for a cavalier with a horse or dog to lose their mount (particularly the medium cavaliers, who don't get too many chances to have enough space for their mount already), but I'm for the simulationism as seen in the scenario over gamism here, as handwaving these pets to be allowed around goblins would make no sense at all. Overall Analysis (4/5): I don't judge often in extremes. A scenario will truly have to be something to get a 1/5 or a 5/5 from me in any category. I know some reviewers tend to rate high, where a 3/5 would be a product they didn't like. For me, Frostfur Captives' solid 4/5 (it had an average of 4) means that the scenario is of excellent quality. This places it at just slightly above "Paizo average" quality for me, but only because Paizo's quality tends to be high, so I expect a high median quality from them. However, for you GMs, pass on this one, despite my high ratings, if you don't relish the idea of playing a group of goblin captives. Their portrayal is the lynchpin of this scenario. 
Pathfinder Society Scenario #33: Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible (PFRPG) PDFPaizo Inc.Our Price: $3.99 Add to CartPeace Summit on the Kingdom of the Impossible
Mark Seifter
—
"Using the twin guns of grace and tact, I blasted our enemy with a fair compromise" --Zapp Brannigan Assault is an extremely good scenario, with ample opportunities for all types of play. It is unusual in the high number of encounters that can be bypassed via Diplomacy, so if you don't think that's a good thing, you may strongly disagree with my review. Challenge (2.5/5)::
It isn't easy to judge the full difficulty of this scenario, despite having run it, due to the sheer amount of fights that you can talk down. In fact, I've generally seen over half of the fights ended via Diplomacy, including the BBEG fight with Zamir. The opponents seem fairly respectable, and one of the most amusing challenges is in actually losing a fight when necessary! I'll rate it down from 3/5 to 2.5/5 just because the Diplomacy DCs are low enough that any real Diplomacy character can just end everything if they do decide to take the talkie route. Interesting Encounters (4/5)::
Okay, it's true. Most of these encounters are some dudes (and a training dummy) in a ruin. Standard fare. One of the encounters in said ruins has the somewhat-interesting twist that the monks attempt to pose as statues. The main reason for the high score is the first encounter. This is one of the most creative battles in PFS because the PCs have to lose. Letting Zamir's agents escape with the fake Scepter of the Arclords while making it look like a real fight and dealing with the added factor of the Thakur's men who aren't in on the con can be highly amusing and is quite non-standard. This could fall flat if you don't play up the importance of keeping the con secret. Even though the scenario itself has no mechanic for the NPCs figuring out the ruse, make the PCs roll Bluff checks and roll as if you were Sensing Motive, calling out players who have their characters do creative things to help make the ruse more convincing. Roleplaying Opportunities (4.5/5)::
Except the thieves you are conning into stealing your fake artifact, just about everything else is a potential roleplaying encounter. Add in the faction missions, which encourage RP, and you can have a huge amount of fun. Obviously, you need a GM who can bring these NPCs to life, so I don't recommend this scenario if that isn't your cup of tea. Even the most bloodthirsty of parties will still get to RP with the Thakur's men, and potentially pursue some faction missions with them. This gives a good chance to show an outside view of the situation from a force other than the Society or the Consortium. The Tiger monks and bandits can be reasoned with and convinced to switch sides. In my first run of this scenario, the Zen Archer PC was training with the monks and the Taldan Cavalier kept trying to mimic their moves, adopting a hilariously Taldan-racist version of their stances and trying to strike unarmed (to succeed at the mission to learn the moves of the style). The slaves offer an opportunity for some interplay if you have both Andoran/Silver Crusade and Cheliax/Shadow Lodge characters at your table. If the Andoran is loudly offering all of them their freedom and the Cheliax character rolls poorly on social skills like intimidate, have the woman in question look to the the Andoran PC as a protector. This can later give the Cheliax PC a chance to trick the Andoran PC into making the check for him, if he is clever. Zamir himself can even be convinced to stand down by successful Diplomacy, and indeed Qadirans get to do some textile wheeling and dealing with him. To make the final encounter more than just a Diplomacy check, have him be at first skeptical that the PCs would be willing to offer him a job after he assassinated their Venture Captain (Zamir himself is not a merciful man, so he might have trouble accepting that other people would think that way). Have them state some arguments as to why he would be better off working with the Society to fulfill his own goals (if the PCs flounder on this, you can call for some Knowledge rolls to point out that the Consortium is untrustworthy and that its agents are more secretive than the Society's and thus less likely to gain a celebrity status like the one he desires). This could have achieved a 5/5 if it had more guidance for making the RP encounters memorable and not just a "roll Diplomacy", as some of the reviews before mine attest it can be in the hands of a less prepared GM. Golarion Flavor / Continuity (3.5/5)::
Nowadays we've also got Cult of the Ebon Destroyer, but back then, Assault was the only gateway I'm aware of to Jalmeray and all the cool India-inspired fantasy that lies therein. The adventure makes sense that the PFS would be involved, and it all logically hangs together. Unfortunately, it doesn't really include too many Jalmeray elements in it explicitly like CotED, although the GM can certainly add the embellishments if she has time. Everything in the scenario fits for Jalmeray, it's just that the PCs don't encounter monsters or customs that exude the flavor in such a way to help a GM who owned just this scenario convey it. Still, the monks and such are cool, so I was debating between 3 and 3.5. In the end, the scenario gets a 3.5 for teaching me that the leader of Jalmeray was the Thakur, so I could get it right at the Paizocon 2011 Trivia Contest, as one of my few contributions to my amazing team. Awesome Factor (4/5)::
This category exists for things that just make the characters call out "That's awesome!" On the other side, it includes things that make them groan, but I've named the category after the positive side of the aspect. The setting of Jalmeray, the encounter where you have to lose, some of the faction missions, and the number of possibilities for RP are all awesome. The boon is a nice touch too. The only thing that I would consider anti-awesome is the potential for this scenario to be a pitfall for a starting GM, as it may not give enough to guide them through the RP encounters as more than just a "roll your Diplomacy". Overall Analysis (4/5): I don't judge often in extremes. A scenario will truly have to be something to get a 1/5 or a 5/5 from me in any category. I know some reviewers tend to rate high, where a 3/5 would be a product they didn't like. For me, Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible's lowish 4/5 (it had an average of 3.7) means that the scenario is very good and fun to play. This places it at about "Paizo average" quality, but only because Paizo's quality tends to be high, so I expect a high median quality from them. Again, stay away from this scenario as a GM if you aren't prepared for some immersive RP (and as usual for PFS scenarios, wordcount is at a premium, so be ready to make up a lot of the content of that RP, beyond the gist of the situation, yourself). If you can do that, and particularly if you can do a bit of research into Jalmeray, your group will remember this scenario for a long time. Silent Tide I'm going to be rating a bunch of PFS scenarios using five main criteria that I think are all important for a scenario to be the best it can be. I'll start off my string of PFS reviews with the very first PFS scenario. Even though it was written for 3.5, this one still has some strong qualities that make it worth playing, so long as you understand its limitations. Challenge (1.5/5)::
Other than the final boss, Nessian, this scenario's opposition are pathetic jokes. The Black Echelon operatives have attack bonus and damage that are far too low, especially in Subtier 4-5, and the thugs aren't much better. Nessian can give PCs a run for their money unless he has his poor Will save exploited, so that earns this scenario a 1.5. Interesting Encounters (3.5/5)::
Fortunately, given what I said about the challenge level, every single one of these encounters gives you something extra to think about. In the first fight, there's captives falling off a cliff. Then there's the hatches and the grain. After that, the pipe organ can really be great if you play up the urgency to get the pipe organ going as soon as possible (forget the amount of time the mod says they have--make the players think the armada might attack any second if they don't start the music!). Despite having the biggest challenge, the final encounter area was the least interesting, though the sagging former siege tower cluster is still a cool encounter site compared to a generic dungeon room. Unfortunately, the Challenge bleeds over into this category to mark it down from 4 to 3.5--the encounters are in fact so easy that they hinder your ability to benefit from the coolness in them (for instance, if the Black Echelon were actually scary opponents, the hatches in the granary might be more relevant in that fight). Roleplaying Opportunities (3.5/5)::
The main roleplaying opportunity is in the Siphons with Grandmaster Torch and the chests. I will admit to being biased in favor of RPing with GMT because of the excellent interactions I had with my group, offering to pay him large sums of money to obtain or hide information. I've heard other groups hate GMT, so I suppose it's all in what you take from the character. The whole chest portion is a nice change of pace and placed at a good point in the scenario. Additional RP opportunities can be found with Yargos the hapless historian, and Andoran/Silver Crusade PCs are more likely to talk to him a lot to get their mission completed. Other than that, you can make your own RP moments by playing out the PCs' search for the diner and conversation therein instead of starting them at the cliff and by adding a scene with the terrified survivor of the Abadar temple. Golarion Flavor / Continuity (3.5/5)::
There is no stretch for the Pathfinder Society to be involved in this scenario, and the plot is coherent and sensical. As the first scenario, Absalom is a natural choice, and it gives the perfect opportunity to introduce or emphasize the following elements to your group: Grandmaster Torch, Absalom, the many failed attacks on Absalom (particularly Taldor's), The Puddles (and the earthquakes that made them what they are), and Abadar. You can also extrapolate additiona lore on the contents of the various chests. So basically, no continuity problems, and good basic stuff for a starting group. Nothing groundbreaking though. I'll give it a bump in this regard though since it was the very first scenario. Awesome Factor (2.5/5)::
This category exists for things that just make the characters call out "That's awesome!" On the other side, it includes things that make them groan, but I've named the category after the positive side of the aspect. For me and my players in my two runnings of this scenario, the awesome touches were Grandmaster Torch himself, the chests, the organ encounter setup. The magical moving tattoos would have also been included if they were available for a character to purchase, the lack of which (considering how easy it would be to include) is actually a pretty big mistake. Due to that mishandling, I'm actually putting the magical tattoos in the not-so-awesome category, along with the severe mood-killing easiness. As an additional potential non-awesome factor, if your friendly Rogue doesn't have Shadow Strike (Calistria forbid you're playing Merisiel, for instance), she will find herself frustrated after the first encounter at the high subtier, as the Black Echelon use Obscuring Mist and Nessian uses Blur, so everything has concealment and negates sneak attacks. Another GM at my venue had this issue. Overall Analysis (3/5): I don't judge often in extremes. A scenario will truly have to be something to get a 1/5 or a 5/5 from me in any category. I know some reviewers tend to rate high, where a 3/5 would be a product they didn't like. For me, Silent Tide's 3/5 means that the scenario is good, but could have been better. A 3 star is an average RPG scenario, but Paizo in general is capable of better because they tend to put out high quality product. Honestly if it was updated to Pathfinder in such a way that it was not just updated in format (adding CMB and such--I don't care about that and I didn't knock the scenario any points for that) but also had the difficulty significantly increased, the scenario might hit 4 stars just from that. 
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-20: The Rats of Round Mountain—Part I: The Sundered Path (PFRPG) PDFPaizo Inc.Our Price: $3.99 Add to CartThis product was extremely deadly...Mark Seifter —Not only did The Sundered Path TPK all 7 PCs in my table of Tiefling Gunslinger/Synthesists, it killed all 7 players as well. Throughout the play session, the eight of us heard dark and ominous laughter echo from somewhere unseen. |
|
