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Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-17: Dreams of a Dustbound IslePaizo Inc.Our Price: $8.99 Add to CartThis was wonderful!
Propagandalf
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The setting, the atmosphere!
It inspired me so, I even made art of the scenario after playing it! Simply wonderful. I've GM'd this one and I FULLY agree with Ascalaphus' review.
Very enjoyable scenario, and I would very much like to see more like it (my players expressed similar views! ^^) I had much fun GM'ing this adventure, and the players enjoyed the RP. :) I loved the setup as well as the NPC's. All in all an excellent Part 1 of 2. :) I really liked running this scenario. The NPC's were interesting and colourful, the encounters and the setting equally so. The callbacks to a previous Adventure Path was not lost on some of my players who had much fun with them. And the equally puzzled reaction of those players who had no background knowledge of the story was very entertaining for me (The GM) personally. And it left some of them wanting to know more! This is a masterpiece of an adventure!
A very solid adventure for both a roleplay and fighting oriented groups. Definitely on of the best of 2E scenarios. The Good spoilers:
Spoiler:
The NPC's! Rarely if ever have I seen such a lovely bunch of adorable coolness!
Kukuha, the Kodama, Aojimitsu, the griffons! The end boss dogu!
Only one thing keeps me from giving it full 5 stars: The one bad spoilery thing:
Spoiler:
The boars in the beginning!
Why is there a boar encounter here? This is a second scenario where there is just a random boar attack in the beginning. Boars are cool an' all but no. The encounter serves no purpose for the plot. It is just a filler and an unnecessary timesink. The scenario itself offers so many wonderful roleplaying opportunities and plot relevant and cool encounters (fight and social) that easily fill the 4 hour playtime and more! GM'd this a a longer while ago. A very solid adventure with excellent theming and visuals.
The one thorn in the cake is the *puzzle*.
More of that in the Spoiler. Spoiler:
I ran the game in finnish, and the puzzle makes absolutely *no* sense even in english!
An ancient cyclopean script that somehow preserves the *deliberate* writing mistakes when tranlated into Common (Taldane)!?
Please, in future puzzles, make it so that succesfull Recall Knowledge gives more hints and/or can be used to solve the riddle. 
Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-24: Lightning Strikes, Stars FallPaizo Inc.Our Price: $8.99 Add to CartVery good and thematic scenario for Numeria!
Propagandalf
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I really really liked to run this scenario! (Ran it on the higher tier, 7-8) The writing was very good, the plot made sense ( and you got to meet people in Torch that you might've met earlier in certain adventure path! ), the skill challenges were okay, and the way the encounters were set up was phenomenal! The only, and I mean -only-, ehhh thing was in the beginning where the Venture Captains mentions against renting/buying horses. The players will need them. I simply omitted that small part and the whole group rented horses (minus the Elf Ranger and the Elf Monk who's overland speed was 40ft+) and everything went fine. :) Also don't put the biggest spoiler ON THE COVER! :O Encounter A (7-8)
Spoiler:
This is the one the players will most likely be able to pass peacefully if they have *any* wilderness capable people along. Make sure to only put them on the battlemap if they engage the Krooths! I've found that setting up the battlemap beforehand lessens the eagerness for diplomatic resolution. :D
My players latched onto the peaceful solution right away, after being described the sweltering heat, drying riverbed and understanding the plight of the large lizards. I must admit I fed into their empathy by having the tiny krooth hatchlings cling onto the bigger mother lizard like little opossum joeys. Encounter B (7-8)
Spoiler:
The Ambush! Oh this is where the beauty of the designers skill really shows! This has all the hallmarks of a good ambush: The long range weaponry of the hidden attackers who have prepared the battlefield to their advantage beforehand. The freedom the GM has when setting up the encounter also helps.
This fight uses the Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Swamp.
The Acid Bushes I positioned mostly on the other side, and near, of the tree trunk (the players naturally gravitate towards the cover/greater cover the trunk gives, so this is a nasty surprise for them and has a greater chance of triggering the Hazard.)
Encounter C (7-8)
Spoiler:
I loved the last encounter; the map, the boss, the hazard, the lackeys. This is what Numeria is all about!
I positioned the boss on top of the Annihilator Robot where they could monologue, command their minions and rain lightning on the battlefield. 2 of the melee lackeys were positioned on the highest ledge where the Hazard control panel was. They both defended the control panel and had good positions to Stealth Snipe the players on the canyon floor. 1 melee lackey i put inside the building, taking shots from the small windows if people tried to hide under Annihilator. He came out to Grab people and keep them in the sight of the Annihilators Chain Guns after a while. The Mage hid behind the Annihilator leg (Cover) in the lower ledge where the ladder is. They rolled Stealth for initiative. I made sure to keep the Mage within 30ft. of the Boss. The Mage has Electric Arc. This can be used to trigger the Bosses Reaction and give him the Quickened condition while also striking one player if they are close enough. Use the Mages Web spell to block of the stairs and create choke-points. Mirror Image & Vampiric Touch will keep them alive for a while longer. Now: THE BOSS The boss can be very tough to damage if the players don't score a lucky crit on him, breaking his Construct Armor. I made him use his ranged attacks, giving the impression of a physically weak caster. The Fighter and Monk who scaled the Annihilator to challenge him had a nasty surprise when he unleashed his Programmed Combo on them. I'd recommend against trying to Shove the players off from the top of the Annihilator (30ft. drop, so 15 damage and Prone) unless the players try that on the boss first. And even then do it just once if you succeed or the fight can drag on. If the boss is surrounded and in disadvantage, have him jump down to the canyon floor. His Hardness soaks most of the damage, and while he does end up Prone, he's mostly likely Quickened. (In my case the Fighter and Monk jumped after him, both taking the damage rather than slowly climb down) I purposely tried to get the party to spread out a bit by my positioning of the enemies. This makes the battle more dynamic and should mitigate the change of nuking the whole party with the Self-destruct the boss has. I managed to get 3 players under the explosion, bringing 2 of them down and leaving the remaining in low health. The rest of the fight was pretty much over by then and they got First Aid soon after. But the fight ended with a BANG! :D All in all, very good atmospheric scenario that let's a GM to really up the challenge with battlefield positioning and tactics if the players are strong. Recommend with a happy heart! 
Pathfinder Module: Cradle of NightPaizo Inc.Add Print Edition $24.99 Add PDF $19.99 Non-Mint Unavailable Player experience
Propagandalf
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The module is fun and challenging but the PC's *need* to have access to magic (caster PC's etc) and ability damage healing. I played as level 7 wizard (lvl 9 at the end) and had a blast! A cunning and resourceful party can prepare, bypass and overcome a lot of the challenges in creative ways. We had fun trying to think ways to even the odds. But I can imagine that a party with little magical ability is going to have a bad time (then again, it *is* lvl 7+ module) SPOILERS
Spoiler:
The main bad thing was the end boss. We had prepared with Cold protection so the boss was forced to melee since they had no other ranged attack type. The minibosses were much more interesting encounters than the main boss of the last dungeon.
The shadow corruption thing was awesome! Also the PFS chronicle boons were super thematic and cool! |
