Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht 1,653 posts (6,453 including aliases). 127 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 43 Organized Play characters. 11 aliases.
This scenario had a good premise, but sadly never delivers on it. All the fights seem to be lacking in some way or another. The first fight throws you into the chaos, but is only there to lead you on the right track; the second fight is exciting (and my players genuinely had fun to star in a bar brawl), but the enemies are disappointing in strength; the last few fights seem unnecessary and use cramped spaces so enemies have no way to maneuver. The final encounter could've been so cool, with the enemies having an interesting party setup that could equal a normal adventuring group, yet they have to fight in a cramped space and all have a handful of HP, which means they go down with just a few hits.
My first problem with this scenario is how little information is given. Enemies know just enough to lead you to the next encounter and are just plot vehicles, but even the roleplay encounter is badly designed (more on this later). You get five pieces of information and 5 NPCs to tell them, but no instruction on their whereabouts. In this sense I'd preferred if this encounter was more on-rails, so I'd have context, but I understand there are people who love this and I won't hold it against them. The encounter with the guards has no reason being there as-is: right now, it's an arbitrary roadblock without any explanation why it's there. I ended up skipping it as I had no context for it. They're supposed to go inside but don't, yet won't let anyone pass to do their work for them, and if the players wait to see what happens, they're just standing there bickering. The Goblin fight is a pushover and the Goblins just rush to their death. They have no room for maneuvering and just get in each other's way. The final encounter is badly written in that the writer expects the players to just come outside without trying anything, and it was only at my player's suggestion that they'd make it a fair fight, rather than pelt them with ranged weapons from above (a single well-thrown Alchemist bomb would've heavily injured all of them). The enemies have no tactics (or means) to fight from range when the players decide to play dirty.
Also, this is one of many scenarios where the plot is only revealed after the boss fight is over. I'd just love to see a plot gradually uncovered, with players puzzling things together bit by bit, rather than by exposition dump.
The roleplay-encounter: This is where your second prestige point hinges on, yet is totally unfair. Each attempt costs 1d6 hours and is insanely high for low-level characters. And the mechanics for when you're talking to the characters don't make sense, either. You need to make a Local or Diplomacy to find them in the first place, yet they require another check just for them to pass the information, with a small bonus or penalty when the party does a certain thing.
I gave the second star just because of the bar fight. I'm sure the intentions were good, but I find it lacking in execution.
(I GMed this)
I just love how this scenario starts. No one expects what's happening, and although people are mistrustful of the seemingly easy mission, seeing the players realising what's going on makes for a great story. The roleplay was great, without the adventure hinging on it. I wish this was done more often.
I also liked the variety of the encounters. Pathfinder has hundreds of Bestiary pages; it's great to see them put to use to create more unique encounters, rather than throwing more vanilla humans at the party (and even the human encounters had some interesting strategies). Though I feel the monsters could've been buffed slightly, the damage output never really reached its full potential. Meanwhile, the final boss was a house to deal with, but with action economy favouring the players, she never really got to shine.
What puts this scenario down for me is the fact that the dungeon made little to no sense, the backstory never really factored in, and the BBEG's plan was as cliche'd as they come. My players kept wondering what they were doing in the dungeon, and why everything's even there.
I liked how the writer tried to make it a realistic lair with sleeping quarters, a kitchen, and a training room, but if half of those rooms are empty with nothing to find (or even lacking flavour text), it loses some of its appeal. Similarly, the Society expects you to loot everything, and failing to loot a wardrobe could cost you a handful of GP. I know the Society likes you to loot valuables, but I don't think I'm supposed to loot a legitimate business, even if it's a front for the evil guys.
All in all, the encounters were great in its variety and abilities (although they do suffer from the "stay inside your room until the heroes kick in the door"-syndrome), but the backstory could really use some help.
