 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. A role-playing-rich fifth leg to an urban sandbox AP
Porridge
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(Preliminary note: Hell's Rebels is a series of urban sandbox adventures. Like most sandbox adventures, these adventures especially benefit from a DM who is willing (i) to tailor the adventure to the motivations and goals of the particular party, (ii) to allow players to be proactive, and to shape the adventure around their decisions, and (iii) to allow the party to try (and succeed at) dealing with problems in unexpected ways. So while these adventures run fine "out of the box", they work best with experienced and flexible DMs who are willing to put in a little extra work.) I haven't run the Kintargo Contract yet, so this review is largely based on my impressions from reading through the adventure. After the somewhat combat-heavy 4th leg, the Kintargo Contract is crammed with entertaining role-playing opportunities, mixed with some interesting skill-heavy challenges. And although the events in this leg aren't as dramatic as the 4th leg -- there isn't a clear climax to this leg of the AP -- it looks really, really fun to play. Some expected highlights:
Some tweaks I'm planning on making:
Overall assessment: This leg is crammed with role-playing opportunities and skill-based puzzles, and looks like one of the most fun to play through. While it's not quite as enthralling as the best AP 5th leg (Rasputin Must Die), it's in contention for being the runner-up. 5 stars. An epic fourth leg to an urban sandbox AP
Porridge
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(Preliminary note: Hell's Rebels is a series of urban sandbox adventures. Like most sandbox adventures, these adventures especially benefit from a DM who is willing (i) to tailor the adventure to the motivations and goals of the particular party, (ii) to allow players to be proactive, and to shape the adventure around their decisions, and (iii) to allow the party to try (and succeed at) dealing with problems in unexpected ways. So while these adventures run fine "out of the box", they work best with experienced and flexible DMs who are willing to put in a little extra work.) We haven't finished A Song of Silver yet, so this review is largely based on my impressions from reading through the adventure. So far this has been a lot of fun, and I expect it to be among the best legs to date, second only to The Dance of the Damned. It wraps up some loose ends, allows the party to finally let loose on the authorities, and has a number of opportunities for a "special-ops"-style party to shine. There aren't quite as many role-playing opportunities in this leg of the AP as there were in the previous three legs. But the Temple of Asmodeus looks to have some pretty epic encounters, ones I expect my players will remember for a long time. Some of the things the players enjoyed, and some expected highlights:
Some tweaks we used/are planning to use to strengthen the narrative:
Overall assessment: Another great leg of this AP, up there with the very best AP 4th legs (like The End of Eternity and The Wake of the Watcher). 5 stars. A fantastic third leg to an urban sandbox AP
Porridge
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(Preliminary note: Hell's Rebels is a series of urban sandbox adventures. Like most sandbox adventures, these adventures especially benefit from a DM who is willing (i) to tailor the adventure to the motivations and goals of the particular party, (ii) to allow players to be proactive, and to shape the adventure around their decisions, and (iii) to allow the party to try (and succeed at) dealing with problems in unexpected ways. So while these adventures run fine "out of the box", they work best with experienced and flexible DMs who are willing to put in a little extra work.) The best leg of this AP, The Dance of the Damned nails it. Pretty much every part of this leg of the AP is stuffed with interesting social encounters and role-playing opportunities. The crown jewel is the fantastic Queen's Banquet, and the Ruby Masquerade is a close second. And even the side quests, like the Acisazi quest are nicely done, mixing the challenge of deep underwater travel with some appropriately spooky encounters. Some of the things the players enjoyed most during this leg of the AP:
Some tweaks we used:
Overall assessment: This leg is as good as the very best AP 3rd legs (like The Hook Mountain Massacre and The Varnhold Vanishing), and in my view, is the best of the lot. 5+ stars. A good second leg to an urban sandbox AP
Porridge
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(Preliminary note: Hell's Rebels is a series of urban sandbox adventures. Like most sandbox adventures, these adventures especially benefit from a DM who is willing (i) to tailor the adventure to the motivations and goals of the particular party, (ii) to allow players to be proactive, and to shape the adventure around their decisions, and (iii) to allow the party to try (and succeed at) dealing with problems in unexpected ways. So while these adventures run fine "out of the box", they work best with experienced and flexible DMs who are willing to put in a little extra work.) As with the last leg, we had a lot of fun with this adventure. A good well-rounded mix of role-playing, skill-use and combat, though the last third of the adventure becomes a bit more combat-heavy than I would have liked. Still, there were several opportunities to reward clever players willing to think their way around obstacles. As a side note, the feat bonuses that come with Rebellion advancement were an especially nice touch, as they're often prerequisites to getting other face and/or stealth-oriented feats. For example, the free Deceitful feat allowed the party's spellcasters to skip the feat tax on the Cunning Caster feat, which seems essential for a stealth-oriented party. (And since a stealth-oriented party will be aiming to get everyone the Stealth Synergy feat ASAP, feats are a scarce resource!) Some of the things the players enjoyed most during this leg of the AP:
Some tweaks we used to strengthen the narrative:
Overall assessment: Like the last leg, Turn of the Torrent was a lot of fun. It wasn't quite as enthralling as the very best AP 2nd legs (like Seven Days to the Grave or Curse of the Lady's Light), but still a very good entry. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars. A good first leg to an urban sandbox AP
Porridge
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(Preliminary note: Hell's Rebels is a series of urban sandbox adventures. Like most sandbox adventures, these adventures especially benefit from a DM who is willing (i) to tailor the adventure to the motivations and goals of the particular party, (ii) to allow players to be proactive, and to shape the adventure around their decisions, and (iii) to allow the party to try (and succeed at) dealing with problems in unexpected ways. So while these adventures run fine "out of the box", they work best with experienced and flexible DMs who are willing to put in a little extra work.) We had a lot of fun with this adventure. There are lots of role-playing opportunities, and a fair number of opportunities for a "special ops"-style parties willing to use things like stealth, trickery, or diplomacy to work around potential combat situations. Some of the things the players enjoyed most during this leg of the AP:
Some tweaks we used to strengthen the narrative:
Overall assessment: In Hell's Bright Shadow was a lot of fun. It wasn't quite as enthralling as the very best AP 1st legs (like Burnt Offerings or Smuggler's Shiv), but still a very good entry. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars. As with the first flaws supplement, this is a great idea. If offers a number of flaws players can take, and offers them incentives to do so - giving them an extra feat or 3 extra skill points. And this helps round out character creation in two ways. First, these flaws encourage players to develop characters with more interesting personalities. Second, these incentives allow players to flesh out their characters more as well, which is especially helpful for characters which only start out with 2 skill points, and characters built around some idea that requires a handful of feats to get off the ground. (And, incidentally, it makes it easier to play non-human characters, since being human isn't the only way to start off with that extra feat your character desperately needs.) That said, as with the first Flaws supplement, I was a little disappointed in the implementation of this idea. My main complaint is that a non-trivial number of these flaws aren't well balanced, either against themselves, or against the incentives for adopting them. For example, consider the Deranged flaw. The Deranged flaw incurs a -4 penalty to Intelligence, a -4 penalty to Wisdom, and takes a further -4 penalty to all will saves and wisdom checks. This is a staggeringly large penalty - the player loses 2 skill points per level, takes a hit on all intelligence and wisdom-based skills (including Perception), and incurs a net -6 penalty on will saves(!). If one takes an ability score point to be worth roughly one feat, then this flaw incurs over 10 negative feats worth of penalties, something I can't imagine a player ever doing in exchange for a feat. And because the penalties of adopting this flaw are so severe, they don't provide a player who wants to play a deranged character with a viable way of doing so. Likewise, consider the Cursed (Unlucky) flaw, which requires the player to roll twice for all attacks, saving throws, ability checks and skill checks, and take the worst of the two results. This is roughly equivalent to a 3.3 penalty on everything a player ever does. This is such an enormous penalty that it's hard to quantify. On the flip side, consider the Inner Turmoil flaw, which grants monks a -1 penalty on will saves. This seems too light for a free feat - you can use that feat to take Iron Will, and end up with a net +1 bonus to will saves. But it looks especially unbalanced when compared to either of the flaws just mentioned above, which impose strictly larger penalties. PROs: A great idea for a sub-system to flesh out characters, and a good tool kit for DMs and players looking for inspiration for interesting flaws to take. CONs: A number of these flaws aren't well-balanced, requiring DMs to do a fair amount of work tweaking the penalties to keep things balanced. VERDICT: 3 stars. Let me start by saying this is a great idea. Allowing players to take flaws gives players an incentive to develop more interesting characters, and paves the way for some great role-playing moments. Furthermore, the incentives for taking flaws -- gaining 3 skill points or an extra feat -- are also helpful is fleshing out starting characters, especially characters who would otherwise start with only 2 skill points, and characters built around the idea of doing something which requires a handful of feats to get off the ground. That said I was a little disappointed in the implementation of this idea, for two reasons. First, these flaws aren't terribly well balanced, either against themselves, or against the incentives for adopting them. For example, consider the Unlucky flaw. The Unlucky flaw incurs a -2 penalty on all saving throws(!) and a -3 penalty on rolls to confirm critical hits. This is essentially 4 negative feats worth of penalties, and something I can't ever imagine a player taking in exchange for a feat. And since the penalties of adopting this flaw are so severe, it doesn't provide players who want to play an unlucky character with a viable way to do so. On the flip side, consider the Contact Allergies or Scrawny flaws. The Contact Allergies flaw has you choose some material -- say, wool -- and you incur some minor penalties if you come into contact with this material. The Scrawny flaw grants a -5 penalty to CMD checks against being Bull Rushed. Since many characters will go their entire adventuring careers without coming into contact with wool or being bull rushed, these penalties seem very mild; too mild to justify an extra feat. Second, while most of these flaws lend themselves to role-playing opportunities, some of them do not. Again, Contact Allergies and Scrawny are good examples of flaws which I suspect can easily have no bearing on how the character was played. (A Scrawny wizard would be role-played differently... how exactly?) But this is a minor complaint. PROs: A great idea for a sub-system to flesh out characters, and a good tool kit for DMs and players looking for inspiration for interesting flaws to take. CONs: A number of these flaws aren't well-balanced, requiring DMs to do a non-trivial amount of work tweaking the penalties to keep things balanced. And a few of these flaws aren't very interesting, role-playing-wise. VERDICT: 3 stars. Best Player Companion Release To Date
Porridge
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This is a ground-breaking player companion release. There are lots of things to praise, but the best are a series of additions to bolster some previously-untenable martial options. Instead of describing all of this in detail, I'll just note that: 1. There are options that make a halfling martial character focusing on slings a viable option(!) 2. There are options that make a martial character focusing on thrown-weapons a viable option(!!) 3. There are options that make the core Fighter a competitive class(!!!) And there are lots of other goodies besides. As one of the designers noted: "One thing that Pathfinder DESPERATELY needs is more martial-focused extraordinary abilities that function under "rule of cool" rather than "rule of reality"." And this companion addition adds to such options in spades. The best player companion release to date.
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