![]()
Sign in to create or edit a product review. Ran this last weekend for Ascalaphus for a parry consistorie of Ranger 8, Rogue 7, Champion 7, Sorcerer 6, Monk 6 (high tier, 20 CP). I do like the flavour of the scenario, and it manages to cater an aquatic scenario really well. The encounters are evocative, and the Society prepares you pretty well to proceed. All of the encounters are cool! I have a minor gripe about the mechanics of the BBEG, since the DCs are absolutely ludicrous (those could be tuned down from Extreme to High and it would still work well), but the setup is really nice. Another issue I have, even post-op: I'm sceptical about a dictionary sidebar for Iblydan words, and NPCs using them. I get it's supposed to add more flavour, but to me (and this is honestly not meant as an offence to anyone!), in my head, one of the NPCs sounded like a random Latino from South Park or Family Guy. I'm way more interested in enemy statblocks, as that would have an actual practical use. The final issue: As Ascalaphus mentioned below, in these real life polarised times (including on the subject of the environment), it bothers me that there's only the "fight these ecoterrorrists with legitimate grievances" option. There were many possibilities to avoid this and have the existing encounters play out the same. TLDR: I do find this a good adventure and I recommend it, but it has some issues. I had fun playing this adventure yesterday. The story is fun, the skill challenges are interesting, and the combats were fine for a low tier adventure. There is a lie issue related to an AP that was not addressed though. The removal of statblocks from the appendices is a critical failure, though. First off, our GM had constant 502 errors on Archives of Nethys (the official PRD!!), resulting in unnecessary delays. Second, relegating GMs to external solutions such as PFSPrep really is a major step back and utterly GM unfriendly. Third, this will scare off potential GM's. Honestly, we don't care about page count: it's a fully digital document. Finished running this one yesterday: Yeah, this is all I expected it to be. Particularly the build-up in chapter 4 is spectacular, culminating in "the scene that was seen around the world".
I ran this one during the weekend for a 4 player party in the low tier. Setting
Skill challenges
Combats
Detractions
All in all, I really enjoyed running this scenario. The length of the scenario combined with the detractions mentioned above knock it down to 4 stars. Perspective: I ran this low tier for a party of 3 level 7 players and one level 5 (14 CP). The good
The problematic
The bad
Example of a stat block error:
An example for this is a variant creature that has a 0ft Reach despite having become Large (basic creature is Tiny) - Many creatures get a "Variant" of an existing creature together with a Rare rarity tag, where the only difference is comparable to an Elite template. This just feels like an arbitrary +5 DC increase to Recall Knowledge on top of the already increased DC for increased creature level. So I'm not talking about creatures with Numeria-specific alterations, since those are rare enough to warrant the tag. - The chronicle has incorrect prices for the unlocked items. Chronicle errors:
A +1 weapon costs 35gp, not 41gp: This simply looks like a mistake.
A +1 Striking weapon costs 100gp, not 71gp: This looks like an unintended discount, as there is no mention of either a discount or a limit. Not much to say really: Great setting, good combats, interesting story (and by now the start of a reasonably long scenario chain). A straightforward and slightly challenging module. I think it's a decent showcase of what Pathfinder 2E has to offer, though a Remaster version of the pregens (including assigning a missing feat here and there) would be cool. This one runs que fast, but it has cool encounters and amazingly written pregens. 2 thumbs up! Perspective: GM'd this at high tier (19 CP) Story wise, this is a worthy successor to Lost on the Spirit Road. The situation and feel of the situation are alien (slightly creepy) and well-described. Even though the combats are somewhat on the easy side (to be expected in a 1-4 tier scenario nowadays), they are interesting and varied. It's easy enough to setup the encounters to be challenging, without immediately becoming utterly deadly. The skill challenge subsystem used is easy to understand for the GM, and doesn't require sharing any mechanics with the players. This gets a huge "Thumbs Up!" from me. All aspects regarding replayability are thought out well and very well implemented: I honestly experience this as a breath of fresh air compared to more recent replayable scenarios. Perspective: Player, low tier 16 CP Story wise this was interesting, and it was already set into motion during season 5. I'm curious to see what's going on here, though I'm not sure I like it. Combat wise, the fights were not very interesting. Particularly the last fight makes use of a creature that should not be there at the level 1-2 subtier, ever, regardless of CP. Mechanics wise, the GM described the part between the first and second combat as confusing. Also forcing at least 1 PC to sit out a whole combat should not be considered when writinga scenario: It works in movies and series, but not in a tabletop RPG, as you rob these players of a chance to have fun. Finally, basically have multiple scenes back to back without a chance at downtime is fine at higher levels, but for low level (and especially intro) scenarios, this is just not fun. Skill wise, I like it: The DC's seemed reasonable and well spread out. Perspective: I ran this in low tier for 5 players at 18 CP. Lore & Flavor
Skills
Subsystems
Spoiler: subsystem I've seen, and the rewards for it are a more interesting than the standard your subtier potions that you often get. But as has been pointed out by others, the system is substantially harder with 5 players due to the amount of required vs available checks. I was also missing some DC's for the 'standard' skills within the stat blocks of some of the NPC's.
Influence The other subsystem was interesting, but I felt it was badly phrased, leading to some confusion. The way it was written leads me to think the scenario (or at least this part?) was originally not intended to be a replayable one. Combats
Content warning
Humour
Summary
Perspective: Played this at high tier (bard 6, oracle 4, summoner 6, psychic 6, Valeros 5 and Ezren 5) Combats & hazards
Skills
Flavour & Lore
All-in-all, this scenario reminded me of the PFS1 scenario Thralls of the Shattered God, which is one of the best dungeon delves I've played. This scenario does a very good job and feels like a worthy spiritual successor of that one. Kudos on this scenario! Perspective: Played it low tier (alchemist 7, barb 7, barb 8, cleric 8, witch 9, swashbuckler 7) The positive side
The mixed bag
The negative side
- Please simplify the explanation of puzzles: If GM's don't understand them, they can't explain them to their players. Also being able to completely bypass one with a simple check has a weird effect on tension and immersion. - Please don't use flipmats from modules (spoilers, availability)... The Noble Estate or even Pathfinder Lodge flipmats exist, and would have fit just as well. Edit to add: Despite the mixed bag and the negatives, we did have a good time! Story wise, this scenario continues where we left off in the Safa storyline. It leads us to the magical island of Jalmeray, which is portrayed really well, and the NPC's are evocative. I think the combats could have been interesting but we could talk our way out of them (which is good and makes sense story wise). Unfortunately that's kind of where the positive feedback ends for me:
2) We're basically getting to puzzle our way to new information about a specific target (revealed at the end of the previous story), yet we're somehow expected to (without cause) dive head first into a side-plot that reveals itself halfway-through to be the main plot of the scenario, that not even barely manages to announce itself at all. I'm a bit disappointed in this one: The whole Safa storyline was really cool up to now. Sadly this scenario comes over as filler content just so you can kind of dramatically reveal at the end who was actually our quarry. Just... Meh... :( I like this one: It has fun(ny) encounters without falling into the slapstick trap, as has been the case with too many recent scenarios. I have a few question marks with regards to the actual replayability since the choice of encounters is largely dictated by player choice, but in general it's a well thought-out and developed scenario. Note that I especially like the "alternative" final encounter a lot, even though the scaling within the tiers seems to heavily favour being in the higher Challenge Point regions of the said tier. The main inconvenience of the setup is that you have to make it clear to the players that it is a skill challenge that uses very varied skills (instead of only the obvious one). Even then, I think most people will veer towards the combat option, despite the alternative being really well set-up. Good marks again for Mikko! Played this yesterday in the high tier (26 CP). The flavour clearly showcases Ustalav in an unmistakable way: The huge and depressing 19th century Transylvanian countryside, combined with the second wave of industrial revolution experiments. Love that. The story is an interesting investigation, where you're trying to understand what is going on, what has happened, with the help or hindrance of interesting the NPCs. The combats are cool: The "experiment gone wrong" encounter was nicely set-up (though weird), and in all combats Recall Knowledge really paid off (Knowledge Domain cleric), giving an idea on how to deal with some of the creatures. Reusing this map for the mansion makes sense given the location, but I agree with others that it's a bit overused. The inside doesn't really match the description we get from the boxtext anyway, so it could just as well have been Noble Estate or another less used map. All in all we had a good time, though it ran long. First off, I did enjoy both playing and running this scenario. It has amazing flavor, but there are some challenges to overcome. The pros
The cons
All in all
My expectations surged high when the module was announced as soon as I saw the author (very good memories from Thralls of the Shattered Gods!). I enjoyed prepping this one immensely, and had absolute fun running it. Prep
Story
Mechanics
Combats
Overall
Perspective: Ran this high tier for 6 players (20CP). Mechanics
Combats
Lore
Played this one the other day; We fell just in the high tier. The mystery was okay (seen better, seen worse), though the callback to #2-13 is obvious and there was no real surprise. Yet I like that the investigation is at the heart of the unstable Great Power that is Taldor. It did a good job showing the powder keg that is Oppara, and I wonder if we're going to see more of that in later seasons (writing as we are nearing the halfway point of season 5). I've always been a fan of Gloriana Morilla and her storyline ever since she became head of the Taldor faction, so I certainly hope so. I did like the skill encounters: They felt different, they were varied in required skills, and made it possible for nearly everybody to participate at the same time. What I slightly dislike is the low number of combat encounters: I'm all for the possibility of skipping a combat (it gives other people the ability to shine, and it's cool to prevent or defuse a situation), but in this case that leaves only a single combat encounter, which feels a bit disappointing. What I really dislike is unfortunately a gripe with the general Season 3 metaplot, so I guess that's on campaign management (not on the writer): Two-parters are generally geared towards a single mystery that needs to be solved over 2 adventures. It's meant to be solved in part 2, even though in most cases you are pushed towards solving it from the start before hearing "we'll contact you again soon" seemingly halfway through the mystery, which the taste of a meh-quality cliffhanger. Having played all of the season 3 multi-parters, only one part 1 felt actually satisfying, and it's not this one. One of the better designed skill heavy scenarios I've seen published in a long time, with enough opportunity to roleplay. An important sidenote is that players should really be made aware of which minigame they are playing, otherwise the DC's will end up a lot higher than expected (as was mentioned in a previous review).
Perspective: Ran this low tier (15CP). The lore is cool, even if some of the flavor gets ruined a bit with the Remaster's reimagination of magical schools. The encounters are interesting, and meaningful since they all manage to convey a story. The skull has been amazing in every scenario so far, and the scenario is not afraid to show its power without overshadowing the players. The skull's background and personality lends itself to casual ridiculous ostentatious displays of magic, and I love it. Skill wise, this one is fun: The skills are reasonably varied (within the range that you can expect) and DC's are right. My only gripe is with the boss encounter: Once more the BBEG stats are disappointing, suggesting they lack any will to live (though that may be an issue limited to the low tier, as its stats are somewhat more reasonable in the high tier). If all the other encounters have more survivability than the boss fight, then what's the point of a boss fight? This seems to be a constant for the lower level "part 2" scenario's of Season 4: Smug bosses without any real capabilities, which makes you wonder how they even managed to get this far with their plans. Perspective: Ran this in the high tier. I do enjoy the lore that is presented in the Qadira story arc since season 3. It's well presented and evocative. I also like how the NPC's are presented, and their artwork is cool! I did have some complaints about the skill challenges though:
The combats are rough: The BBEG's abilities are punishing, so the GM should really follow the tactics as written to make it work as intended I really enjoyed the flavor of this scenario: It's nice to see the students growing up, but that school really must be built on some ancient chaos themed burial ground or something. Positive sides:
Negative bits:
From a GM perspective this one was mostly clear and easy to prep. The handouts are useful, most of the information is there, it's just that after running it, some of the main mechanics of the scenario feel a bit off:
Spoiler:
The skills are all to get to the rifts. But the fact that the party just knows how to close something of such magnitude without any information, description or even so much as a knowledge like check, just doesn't make any sense to me. Finally, for a time-sensitive scenario, this one runs strangely long. A lot is happening, but it's mainly due to the combats. They are evocative and reasonably challenging, but Spoiler: . Loved the high tier BBEG encounter: Those monsters are cool!
all enemies are relatively tough, and/ or rely on kiting, which naturally lengthens combat. All in all I did absolutely enjoy running this one. Highly recommend, especially the high tier.
|