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Disclaimer the first: I love social scenarios. Most of my characters are skill monkeys and I live for scenarios like this.
Disclaimer the second: This scenario ties in to War of the Crown, the AP I’ve been waiting 10+ years for.

The PCs are hired to serve the interests of the Society, by gaining access to the General Arnisant Museum and Historical Residence. It’s like having access to the Blakeros, but (so far) less likely to produce things to kill you. There’s also a side mission where Sovereign Court members are trying to help influence an upcoming vote. (There’s been a long debate on whether Primogeniture is the right word, I’ll not rehash here.) I disagree with other reviewers. It is not treason to influence the vote, Stavian has to allow said vote after all… And yes, you should avoid breaking the law (duh) but I think her warning is to avoid the “Well we’ll just go kill him. Problem solved!” school of thought.
This is a very sandboxy and social adventure, but best of all, it’s written by someone (I feel) who has GMed lots of tables. From Lady Morilla’s admonition, to the impact of vanities on the different NPCs, to Cincia’s truly summing up the Society’s ‘mixed’ reputation, I got the impression the writer had seen too many scenarios go sideways, either because of murder hobos, or the “Hey, I’ve got this X, how does it impact things?” Either way, well done!

Side note, a) my table was horribly ill suited for this scenario, and yet they still came close to succeeding. That’s a mark of a good scenario, where there’s still a chance, no matter how remote. (and it was very remote)

Summing up a great scenario for even average social characters, an exceptional scenario for social PCs. And isn’t that the Sovereign Court’s hat?

I don’t normally write reviews, a pattern I’m trying to break. With Stalking the Best we get an enjoyable read of a wide (but rapidly dwindling) cast.
Back are Elyana and Drelm, the unusual pairing from the end of Plauge of Shadows. One nice thing about them is they have their own lives, and are not even touched by the ‘will they/won’t they’ tension seen so often in such pairings. Both are professional, and friends.
The villians, and their plots are equally varied. People familiar with the world will quickly suspect the <redacted> when they are first seen, but <redacted>’s plans are much more layered.
The use of rarer classes actually works in the broader context of the River Kingdoms. While the LBEG and Lisette are not as common as a fighter or a wizard, they work in the context of the ‘everything goes’ nature of the Kingdoms, much better than, say, a ninja in Taldor. Also the logistics of a gun user are nicely referenced, as well as the fact that the story takes place largely away from resupply. I will admit, it would be entertaining to see, for example, someone write the logistics of a archer fighter or ranger who blows through 4+ arrows a round.
Game mechanics are visible at times, which works in the context of a RPG novel. Some surprisingly mundane methods are used to support the mechanics, others take advantage of rules people forget. (Without spoiling to much, when your SLAs don’t work, your spells still might.)
The cast of characters, while focusing on three, is rather large, and you get attached to a few before they die horribly. This is an ensemble piece, with some surprisingly powerful moments (Drelm’s final fate is clearly a surprise to everyone, including him.)

Ok, let's get the lion in the room out of the way.

Bozhe Moi! Rasputin!

Regular consumers of the messageboards know that part of Golarion's canon is that it's in the same prime material as Earth, this just confirms it.

Brandon does an excellent job of making the scenario epic, and non-history altering. Everything makes 'sense' from a fantasy and historical perspective. There's concentrated awesome, even if Rasputin does not have a Don Bluth inspired familar.

Now for the rest of the book.

The magic items are WW I oriented, but most are easily fluffed to be Golarion (or setting) neutral. I defy anyone to not look at frontovik’s gas mask and go "Are you my mummy?"

Aside, from the art on pg 62, the Iconic Gunslinger is having a little too much fun. And who wouldn't want a Gunslinger with a Mosin-Nagant M1891, or a Maxim machine gun?

The Bestiary is likewise very easily fluffed back to 'traditional fantasy' terms. Those who remember the siege engine of Greyhawk will enjoy the living tank, for example.

The 'deity section' is dedicated to the Horseman of War. The embodyment of Sherman's warning to the city of Atlanta. "You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." Szuriel does not fight to win, to liberate, to unite or to build. She fights for the destruction of the soldier, the peacemaker, the mother, the child. Very depressing, perhaps moreso that there are people in the game world, and in real life, who would enjoy serving her.

"I’d like to think people had better sense than that. The one thing that ought to be obvious to a civilian is that war zones are an experience to avoid. Nonetheless, I know a couple men who’ve moaned that they missed “Nam,” the great test of manhood of our generation. They’re idiots if they believe that, and twits if they were just mouthing words that had become the in thing for their social circles." - David Drake

Finally, we get Part 5 of the Bonedust dolls, AKA, "How messed up is Irrisen anyway?" Without giving too much away, the impression I take from this part, and the fiction as a whole isn't that the noble children are cruel and enjoy cruelty, rather they don't know it's wrong. If you're used to having a child beat instead of you, why would you think the child gettng beat is wrong?

All in all, this is likely the best all around adventure path so far. I say so far, but the bar is raised pretty high.

I pulled this from a random box, at my FLGS. This thing is a beast of a large mini, the detail is incredible, and the mix of the clear plastic and the skeleton is captivating.

Just received these yesterday. Beautiful dice, the numbers are clear and easy to read. The D4 is a bit more difficult because of the designs in the centre of the face, but still not impossible.

I'm only giving 4 stars because I wish Q-workshop would sell a 10 dice set, and even better if it had a 'negative' d6 opposite of the others' colour, but still this is a great set to give a new gamer.

I've always heard arguments of 'why can't my wizard research cure light wounds?' While most of the spell varients are clever versions of published spells (a summoner's spiritual weapon resembles his eidolon's jaws) the end result is a wonderful way to customize a character's spell list.

And it keeps getting bigger and better.

KQ 14 is full of content, and this one seems extra Pathfinder heavy, with a bit of love for Dragon Age. The fact that the magazine mixes articles from our hobby's "elders" (quotes since any more they aren't much older than I) and newer voices just shows how forward thinking keeping the print magazine alive is.

P.S. If you want to see more 4.x 3.x PFRPG true 20 etc, start submitting!

Not being a 4x player, the name does nothing for me. (Keanu)"Whoa, Iron Dragon? Excellent!"(/Keanu) but the sculpt is anything but bogus. If I had the skill I'd likely add more detail to the mini than given, but for buying it in a pack, it's an excellent quality mini.

I ordered one from Paizo, so of course I pick up a pack for the roommate and there's one in there.

The detail is excellent, and this will serve as a Sivak Draconian, a half silver dragon, a large sized Drachen...

The sword on mine was bent, but no big deal.

Now all I need is a bozak to complete my evil Draconians and some noble draconians.

Ok, hitting the creatures one by one:

Air Jelly: a small formatting error, the swarm traits are missing from the creature description (compare to the bat swarm in the bestiary). Other than that, mechanically sound.
Use: I’ll use these in the darklands, definitely adds to the ‘alien’ nature of the underdark.

Burning Demon: Icky monster. The table entry lacks the range of the darkvision. Also it can be inferred, but is not stated, that the grease aura cannot be focused on one target, it just affects the floor. As mentioned above, part of the stat-block template was tossed in as well. Burn is also unclear about adding to the duration.
Use: Interesting monster, I’d save them for a Yomi themed plane, and remove the demon subtype. Or (using the info in the Bestiary) they may be formed from the souls of gluttons.

Canopic Jar: Mechanics look sound, thought Extra Turning should be Extra Channel. It is corporeal, but lacks a strength score. Also an accidental use of the enter key is noted above.
Use: Easily the best monster in here. While the idea seems simple (It’s a brain, in a jar!) the concept of having a monster subtly buffing the zombie-as-a-mummy schtick makes this interesting.

Dread Waif: Stat block looks good. I do wonder if the Fearsome Aura is a (SU) or (EX) effect, and if it’s mind affecting. It’s nice to see the gnome tie.
Use: Will see use in an urban campaign, especially with a gnome PC or NPC.

Ghissic: Stat block again looks good, though I don’t know why Weapon Finesse has a qualifier of (proboscis). Creepy bug creatures.
Use: works best in the isolated creepy town trope, but will likely see use in my games.

Greenmold Bones: The concept and mechanics are sound. I don’t like the fluff for Mouldering form (why does it affect steel) but the mechanic is nice.
Use: Good for a surprising druidic undead

Red Mercy Flower: Truly a monster For the Man Who Has Everything
Use: Best saved for use against aliens and totem based characters.

Riverwraith: Another ‘twisted fae’ As I liked the sundered women from the Scarred Lands, these appeal to me. A duration on the Waterspout is missing though.

Sisha: A good creature, nice to see the foo dog/lion again. The use of ‘usually’ in the description of ‘frightful aura’ is disconcerting. When isn’t it ‘usual’?

Wicker Man: Nice solid construct, though creation notes are missing.

Overview: There are 6 monsters that I’d rate highly enough to use, two druid related creatures, and one that I dislike.

I'll recommend it for new ideas and surprises for the players.

All in all, I rate this book a solid 3.5 stars. The 3.5 crunchy bits that snuck past editing, when mixed with the incomplete editing and the ‘blah’ nature of some of the races keep it from being a 4. This is a good first offering for the Pathfinder RPG, and definitely has some ideas worth modifying/creating. The writers just need to tighten up the mechanics and editing.

Hard to believe I started reading these when Reagan was president, the USSR was a threat, and MSH was -the- superhero game.

This book is lavishly illustrated and full of information on the characters and the universe. Even if you don't play M&M, it is worth it for the 'bible' of the Wild Cards universe.

It is light, and the paizo is clear to read. It rolls well, just always get the bad numbers. That's more crystal caste dice hating me than anything.

Just picked one up at the FLGS, impulse buy.

The mini is very clean and sharpp Details are excellent, and likely way above my skill level to paint.

I asked a couple of female coworkers if she looked 'real' or if she suffered from hugenormus breast syndrome (HBS) The consensus was no, she looks like a buff woman who had augmentation to get back to normal breast size, so good job there.

All in all, worth the 8 bucks :-)

Pretty much exactly what it says. 5 modules, two of which are in the same town. All are 3.5 modules. If you don't have any of them, you can't beat close to $60 of adventures for $20. Heck, if you have 1, you still will find it hard to beat.

This is a wonderful mini, both for its stated purpose and for a 'generic' tiefling. the sword can be kitted out for another weapon, and the shield might be able to with a bit more effort. She's not all 'boobs and bare skin' like too many female minis, and actually inspired me to both create a class and a character concept around her.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of D0 during free RPG day. The module is short, sweet and surprisingly simple. It doesn’t require min/maxed characters, and the iconics (available for download) work well. I augmented them with my own 25 point build characters to give the players variety.

The adventure encounters do provide a variety of challenges and give each character a chance to shine. I ran this for free comic book day twice, once for a batch of kids, once for a group of adults and kids. In both cases the adventure was a nice G rated adventure (well, ignoring the killing of monsters and vicious animals). The kids even eagerly adopted the fox.

My advice? Buy some cheep common plastic miniatures some dice and run this at your FLGS for kids, give the best player (or all of them) a set of dice and a mini, and you’ll have new gamers to go home and pester their parents.

I mean there's some references to nudity, but no long taudry descriptions or sexual scenes. Very interesting pseudo Europe setting and a nice bit of detective work. It is interesting how whipping out Commune doesn't solve this one.

Note. Do not read the forward unless you want to have an urge to drop a scorpion down Erik's pants. (I'll see you at Origins, spoiler-boy!) ;-)