Mary Yamato's page

This is based on the first half. I'm not positive we'll see the rest and I really feel like writing a review.

Most of the reviews have come from GMs. Our GM seems to be enjoying running this. As a player, though, I liked the first few sessions and then ended up intensely disliking the Manor House arc. A couple of problems:

(1) This arc makes too-heavy use of "put in something the PCs can't handle and then give them the gimmick they need to handle it." I counted at least three of these in quick succession, and by the third I was sick of it. (I have been warned that this continues to the end.)

(2) The GM chose to play buying and selling strictly by the rules, meaning there was nothing useful we could buy. So the cash awards came across as a useless tease, and the well-equipped friendly NPC came across as an even worse one. I'm told that this reverses later, but short of the GM flatly telling them, the players won't know this.

Having "there's money but you can't buy anything," "there's treasure but you promised not to take it," and "there's treasure but it would offend a valuable ally if you took it" back to back in an arc where the PCs were missing very basic stuff...not that much fun. It might have been a good idea to tell the players "No resupply until much later" right away, as one would for _Serpent's Skull_ #1. I'd have made a different character if I'd known.

(3) I know it's standard for modules, but still, I hate going up a level every session, especially when the events are so crowded together. We went from 1st to 5th in 4-5 days, and the whole dynamic of interacting with the townsfolk became bizarre.

Rapid advancement with no downtime has a sort of cartoonish feel. Which could be okay, but the NPCs should be more broadly drawn, like cartoons, to support the flavor. Instead they were relatively realistically drawn, and this was jarring. (I acknowledge, though, that a lot of players like rapid advancement and for them this will not be a problem.)

So, a lot of griping. I did like the early parts quite a bit. GMs may want to carefully read through the Manor House and see if it's likely to be a bad fit for their group as it was for ours.

I liked the idea here, and the first encounter (settled purely by roleplaying) was a lot of fun. However the second encounter simply killed the entire party. With our mix of characters I think that was more or less a forgone conclusion: they couldn't do enough damage to stop it from killing all of them, and it's impossible to get away from it.

There were also a lot of small annoying logic issues. The McGuffin item is played up as being a big deal but it's only a big deal when it's hurting the PCs--it's not useful or impressive otherwise. The curse is annoying without being flavorful. The Venture-Captain's information is more than usually useless--she knows both too much and too little. A building gets referred to as a "cathedral" and a "chapel" in alternate sentences--those are not the same thing! And most of the faction missions are really one mission split into two parts, so there isn't much to do with them. (Once you can get a piece of such-and-such NPC, getting two pieces is hardly an additional challenge....) One faction mission should properly represent an extended investigation, not suitable for the pace of play here.

On the positive side, the NPCs are really colorful and I like the backstory. I just wish it had gotten more chance to shine. Five PCs, level 5, with one of them a summoner so effectively six PCs--we abandoned the fight after two rounds because it was clearly too onesided. The player was particularly angry that there was no warning or time to prepare.

There are a lot of big, neat concepts here; it may be worth buying as an idea source. Some good description, too. But it reads more like an outline than a worked-out adventure. This is especially problematic in part I where I almost have the impression that the PCs are supposed to sit on their hands rather than attempting to complete their mission.

The only part that is really worked out is the large multi-faction battle at the end, which would be excruciatingly difficult to run; and even here, if you approach it as a political problem, there's not enough material on the factions. (If you approach it as a fight, frankly, it's probably best for the PCs if they nuke all three factions indiscriminately, at which point the complex situation hardly matters.)

The module also indulges itself in a lot of heavy-handed NPC pushing of the PCs. It is not really a good idea to say "This NPC is too powerful for the PCs to fight, therefore they won't even try, therefore no stats are needed." Players don't tend to like this, and sometimes the hapless GM *will* need some stats. While you could argue that the PCs should be more careful, frankly if I were a careful PC I would refuse this assignment, as it seems well above the pay grade of the 9th-10th level PCs it is supposed to be for. So the PCs must be bold enough to do this, but lose that boldness at key moments--a difficult line to walk for both players and GMs.

I'm not entirely sorry I bought it, but I can't run it. Parts II and III might work tucked into some other adventure, if I ever need a short scenario set on those planes.

The PCs discover the ruined capital of their nemesis and confront him directly.

The scenery and settings of this module are incredible: the ruined city, the Runelord's spire high above the realms of breathable air, the Runewell itself.

The city has over 1000 inhabitants, though, and the module can barely hint at them. Unless the PCs stick perfectly to script, a lot of additional GM work will be required. (And at least one clue deliberately sends them off script.) The module also has (for Paizo) an unusual number of editing and logic errors.

The final defense of the Spire seems sketchy, and Karzoug himself is not as colorful as I would hope. Still, it's among the most playable high-level modules I've ever seen, and well worth the price just for the city itself.

I've tried repeatedly to post this: here's one more, much shorter attempt.

This is a classical dungeon with very strong writeups for the central NPCs: detailed, technically accurate, with excellent tactical notes. It fails to shine fully, however, because there is not much scope for non-combat interaction. One faction is confined to its quarters, two consist of people who have been more or less reduced to automata, almost all are described as uninterested in negotiation. A group interested in intrigue will require considerable GM reworking. The sin theme, therefore, is underdeveloped.

The adventure is much shorter than it looks (my group finished in 4.5 sessions) because several of the promised 7 dungeons are only 1-2 traps or creatures. The traps are inspired by Tomb of Horrors and were not appropriate for my group, but are fairly easy to remove.

The background material contains the usual items plus a too-short section on Thassilonian magic with one spell and one rune per school, and an outstanding background article on Lamashtu. This is truly a model of excellence in cult writeups--it gives details not only on the goddess but on the role of her priesthood in different societies.

Overall, this should be fine for dungeon-crawling groups, but others may find it lacking in spots. My player was particularly disappointed in the Greed dungeon, which should have foreshadowed Xin-Shalast but was utterly flat in play.

Mary

A small town is menaced by goblins; the PCs must discover what is driving them.

Scenarios for very low level PCs are difficult to write. This is one of the best I've seen, despite some too-hard encounters late in the module. The goblins are given tons of color--goblin songs! goblin stunts!--which makes them both funny and menacing. The town's backstory is well detailed, and many colorful NPCs, some with attached vignettes, are provided. There is enough material that the GM can easily improvise further adventures in Sandpoint.

The later sections could have been toned down a little, especially for novice players: the lethality abruptly ramps up. The scenarios remain colorful and engaging, with a good range of foes. There is also some effective foreshadowing of the overall Adventure Path plot arc.

Supplementary material includes a detailed writeup of the town of Sandpoint, with locations, NPCs, and history. My group made excellent use of the history, but would have appreciated stat blocks for those NPCs likely to be PC combat allies during the scenario. There is also a short bestiary, mostly of creatures not present in the scenario, and a Pathfinder's Journal which we found physically difficult to read and completely dissociated from the campaign, thus not very interesting.

GMs will want to handle the later encounters with care, but overall this is a very solid start to the Pathfinder series. I will likely be reusing it as a starting adventure, or at least location, for subsequent games.

A series of grisly murders are associated with the PCs' names, and they must act to find the real killer and clear themselves.

I don't think I've ever been so excited about a module while reading it: this one is complex, moody, coherent, and downright fascinating. I couldn't wait to run it.

In play we found the relentless horror (following close on _Burnt Offerings_ which was also fairly horrific in play) to be too much for the PCs, but this will obviously vary from group to group. I would have liked to see the backstory of the haunted house connect more tightly to the proposed solution. But the first half, ending in the haunted house, was still a terrific, scary experience.

The second half was a little weaker because the writeup of Magnimar is sparse, and the city locations are not used richly (only a few set piece locations). The promised political intrigue in Magnimar is left purely up to the GM. The final encounter was also dangerously hard for PCs of this level. Still, a colorful and memorable scenario, paling mainly in comparison with the first half.

Supplemental materials include a useful writeup of the cult of Desna, a bestiary, and a sketchy writeup of the city of Magnimar. I was disappointed in the latter, especially compared to the excellent Sandpoint writeup. It was mainly a high-level overview with little in the way of adventure hooks or specific locations. (Anyone using this module should be sure to download the corrected map of Magnimar; the one in the module is mangled.)

Despite my criticisms, I think this is one of the strongest modules I have ever seen. Its emotional punch is so strong that it may well have to be adapted to meet the needs of specific groups, but the raw material is all there, and it's dynamite material.

The PCs must deal with the aftermath of a brutal ogre attack on a border fort.

This module was apparently cut down savagely from its original length, and it shows. Early scenes are lavishly developed while the endgame is rushed and thin. One of the most interesting parts--the floating den of vice--has been left on the cutting room floor.

What is left has well-constructed, colorful locations and NPCs, albeit unusually grisly ones. My group skipped many of the descriptions, but did not have trouble with the content itself--we just didn't need to hear all the gory details.

Some GM work may be necessary to solidify the timeline and logic flow of the adventure. The encounters are well chosen and appropriately difficult, with one possible exception.

While the module suggests that the PCs may end up taking over and managing the fort, my PCs refused, and I believe that will be the usual outcome. It is too far from the PCs' other interests and too difficult to hold.

Subsidiary materials include thumbnail sketches of every named location on the map of Varisia, which I found extremely helpful, and an article on managing a fort which I found completely unhelpful-- basically just a random event table.

This is a workable adventure with some awkward moments, mainly due to heavy cutting. Compared to previous entries it has quite a few typos, but not enough to damage its usefulness.

The PCs must deal with a giant attack on their hometown and then track down and defeat its instigators.

The hometown defense is a well-constructed scenario. For our group it was about 12 hours of exciting play, using the terrain and previously established locations to good effect. My only complaint is that I would like to have seen more contrast between the giants and last module's ogres--their behavior is rather similar.

The giant fortress was not as interesting. It contains surprisingly few giants, and they are not given much to do--it is a stock collection of monsters in rooms with little interaction. With some revision it could be more lively. The villain's backstory is excellent but unlikely to appear in play.

Additional materials include background on stone giants and dragons, and 7 monsters (all of them used in the scenario). Unfortunately I felt as though the monsters were more thrown into the scenario than featured in it. For example, one is a mythological haunter of dwarven mines: placing it in a giant fortress seems arbitrary. The product description claims that there is also an article on Lamashtu, but that article actually appears in #5.

Overall, an adequate module with good production values, but lacking sparkle compared to earlier entries in the series.