Scott Young's page

I had a great time playing this scenario. It begins simply enough, as a "go get this"-style mission, with some good investigation and a chance for the GM to play several various NPCs. It leads to a fun and dynamic combat situation, although it can be dangerous if the PCs split too much and don't support each other. A lot of great opportunity to bring the setting to life rather than just focusing on threatened squares on a map. Loved it, will run repeatedly.

[Disclaimer: I played this with an excellent GM, and also had to read it as research for my own scenario, so I spent more time with it than I usually would while playing or running a scenario.]

This scenario is not only a lot of fun, but sets the stage for a lot of Season 2 stuff and meta-plot stuff as well. Interesting NPCs, and situations that can be solved in a variety of ways should provide a fun experience no matter what your party likes best.

For GMs - this may take a bit more prep than average to make sure you can pull off the various NPCs and be able to handle creative solutions your PCs may come up with. We tended to fight what we were expected to talk to and talk to what we were expected to fight, so be ready for those options for every encounter.

One of the most fun scenarios I've played in Season 1!

I really enjoyed this one. Geb isn't a place you get to go to very often, and the GM can make this feel really different from other places in terms of their descriptions. There are folks to talk to, and a combat with a twist that clever PCs can uncover, in a place with interesting terrain. Overall a fun introduction for new players and interesting for Golarion veterans alike.

Only caveats: maybe not the best quest to choose as a new GM. A lot of the fun comes from the GM being able to portray the unique environment of Geb, and to improvise two NPCs in conversation at once. Without those elements, or as just a combat without the setting and build-up, this could be a bit flat.

This is a fun introduction to Pathfinder Second Edition. The encounter at the end can be tough on a party of brand-new PCs, though, as the creature can be a very maneuverable and dangerous opponent. Our party included a couple of pregens and new players, and the usual "initiative race" meant the creature could use hit-and-run tactics on a partially-split party.

As a GM, I'd use this to teach the lesson that "never split the party" includes during combat, when people rush in and get out of support range of the rest of the party. Against a highly maneuverable foe, letting it come to the party is a tactic that will be well-rewarded.

From a scenario point of view, this is fantastic. Great premise, cool NPCs, a skill challenge that feels like it means something, some expected and some unexpected combats. Played low tier with 6 and had a great time! The village made me nostalgic for the village of Hommlet, with named NPCs with motivations rather than just a DC.

I can see how a GM who was winging this could fall behind, and the skill challenge could drag. We had a very well-prepared GM, who had flow charts for the skill challenge that I think was key to making it run properly. Having a visual aid to keep the players engaged and informed was crucial for that scene to work. (Great job, Judah!)

I was a bit surprised time-wise that there were [#] combat encounters at the end, but it was the right level of challenge and really felt genuine in terms of what was happening. Those extra consumables you get from Pathfinder training came in very handy.

Overall, I enjoyed this immensely. Probably my favorite season 1 scenario I've played so far.

Helping a traumatized Pathfinder find peace? This is a great premise for an interesting scenario, something that would usually happen off-screen, if at all. I played this via play-by-post with an excellent GM, and so the characters really were able to develop their relationship with the NPC. A couple of great RP’ers really made this scenario shine.

The only downside was one of the encounters, which could definitely insta-pounce-kill someone in the surprise round. We were able to talk our way past perhaps two other combats, and then handled the final fight fairly easily. However, the stakes were high even then because it wasn’t clear what the NPC needed to do - we couldn’t just win the fight, we had to help them win THEIR fight.

A great scenario to play if you have a GM who can roleplay the various NPCs. Well done!

I wrote a long review, but the website ate it and so I have to redo it. Highlights: good investigations, although the clues are too easy for most PCs at this level; interesting bad guy and motivations; combats have some interesting aspects but are all vulnerable to certain characters (again, due to bad guy motivations); good writing, with lots of NPCs and dialogue for the investigation stage. Excellent introduction to Kalsgard if your players haven't been there before. Author Alex Riggs and Developer Michael Sayre did a great job. A few editing items slip through (what is the exchange rate between "dollars" and gp? ;) and a couple of likely PC plans that aren't foreseen that GMs can prep for using Land of the Linnorm Kings campaign book. Great scenario, will run again.

I've run this once, at high subtier for a party of six. I plan to run it again enough times that I'm making map tiles out of the flip mat PDFs and some props and terrain to go with it. It really is a great scenario.

First, the setting: Kaer Maga is one of the best settings in Golarion. We spent a lot of time in the investigation phase, and each "travel" segment can discover another cool aspect of the City of Strangers. For groups that want to roleplay, there is enough material to replay a bunch of times and still meet new people. I'm glad the troll augurs appear, but there's also room to have the party chat with gargoyles or a naga, filling ut the NPc roster and breathing life into those "gather information" rolls.

Once the investigation completes, the dungeon crawl begins - although even here there is some room for negotaiation. Despite being on a bigger map, there are enough encounters that it can be easy to trigger more than one, if the party is breezing through them. There are also some terrifying encounters that will challenge every the most powerful damage-dealers. I prepped my list based on the characters and players who signed up, choosing ones that would challenge them. In a convention game, I might leave one of the foes near the back of the map undetermined, so that it could be adapted to the party at hand. Given the range of foes, it would be easy to prep a set of encounters and then wipe the floor with an underprepared party.

The choice of encounters is excellent. There are horror encounters, and funny encounters, and could-be-roleplaying encounters. The are certain combinations that make a hilarious amount of sense. There are devious traps and hazards, and there are encounters with lots of creatures as well as single monsters. There are encounters that are straightforward, and some that are challenging (including one at APL+4!).

Particularly nice is that the goal itself changes each time, not just the monsters you fight. This really helps make each run seem like its own scenario. The only drawback is the use of the same map a bit too often - I understand why, but once players have seen the map once or twice they know a lot about the "dressing" and it loses its impact. I'd love to see some method of randomizing map tiles and/or assigning descriptions to rooms, to help make this part different each time as well.

I love this scenario. It sets the bar for evergreens in the future.

First of all: This scenario rewards people who love the lore of Golarion, and those who take good notes. You get to learn a lot about various aspects of the setting through exploration.

Second: Our GM didn't have the new Qadira book, and it made zero difference in his ability to make this an awesome experience for us, despite what other reviewers have posted.

There is some version of the influence mechanic (called clout) that helps keep track of how you're doing, but we were able to not need to back-up NPC to achieve what we wanted. There is one fight that is a challenge but a bit out-of-place, and the other fights were all very on-theme, with not just combat but information (and insanity) being delivered by the antagonists.

The only issue I found is that at the end, you basically have to "drink the kool-aid" of a cult to succeed at the mission. While I enjoyed the philosophical debate while it was largely theoretical, it is difficult for divinely-minded characters to really submit to the tests at the end. With four out of five PCs having a patron deity, this was pretty awkward. I wouldn't mind missing out on a boon for opting out based on my PCs religious beliefs, but this was apparently the primary success condition.

This is a fantastic investigation scenario, with a lot of room for roleplaying. There a couple of plot twists that made my eyes bug out with surprise, even though I had an inkling of something going on since I had already prepped (but not run) the special for this season. It's really nice to return to a location that really only shows up in a "retirement" arc, and a lot of the background detail there was very cool to see again. It's nice to know what those "folks" have been up to the last several years.

Hold on to your hats when you play this one, especially if you're Liberty's Edge!

This was a great event to participate in. We ran it at our local event the week after it was released at GenCon, with 7 tables. The overseer had one player bring in his trumpet for the "signal horn" and gave character parts out to different people to read in character.

Prep: this was much easier to prep than other scenarios, and required far fewer maps for "maybe" encounters. Even though there were encounters that the players didn't choose, prep wasn't over-taxing.

Encounters: it was great to see nods to previous scenarios in the selection of the enemy forces; long-time players appreciated the various connections to people they've fought before. The encounters were fairly challenging (I ran subtier 7-8), and I my party of five was in dire straits several times, although they managed to persevere, survive, and succeed. We finished three of the encounters in Part Two, but fell behind in Part Three and wound up skipping the Gulgamodh fight (had to skip something, the group really wanted to finish the <redacted> they were already fighting, and at this subtier the Gulgamodh encounter is a bit less interesting as a method of balancing it for the sub-tier).

Reporting Successes: the specials have evolved to a system where the reporting and conditions are pretty streamlined. When a house success is reported, a condition went into effect - fairly simple to enact on the fly, and our coordinator made cards for each one so table GMs could just throw them down and let the players worry about the bonuses.

Rewards: there are some cool rewards, although others have pointed out some disparity in their value, and the method of qualifying for them isn't obvious in-game. As such, some people might miss out on the coolest boons simply by making choices in the game, which is unfortunate. EDIT: Campaign leadership altered this almost immediately, improving it immensely!

Overall, I think this is the best-executed special I've seen. Well done to all involved!

First, let me echo the warning others have made: DO NOT GM THIS WITHOUT SUFFICIENT PREP. Just don't do it. It's a "SPECIAL", so it should be special for the players (and can be, as evidenced by all the high ratings). It is also the hardest scenario I've ever prepped. If you want to run this at the level it deserves, you need to prepare thoroughly, and there's a lot of special rules, environmental bits, and stuff from Occult Adventures here.

Second, the good news, since the low rating might seem harsh: This scenario is not a typical PFS experience. It's extraplanar, for starters, but the encounters are definitely non-standard. It also has a HUGE amount of backstory and lore, which is fantastic - I love it when a scenario allows me to use campaign material and encounters to make a setting feel different than the usual places. The pregens are unique, with interesting backstories and even some secret mission-type stuff that really allows for some great roleplaying moments. It even has room for a GM to add some cool stuff of their own devising, which is a rarity in Organized Play. If I could run this in in a home campaign situation, I think I'd give it 4-5 stars.

The problems arise from the fact that all of this is supposed to happen in a standard PFS timeslot where people are playing on a table that can often barely fit a regular-sized flip mat, using very complicated pregenerated characters.

We'll start with that last one first: the pregens are complex. Non-standard races, lots of newer classes, abilities that aren't commonly used... There's only one PC I would give to a new player, and even that one is using rules that are beyond basic. That makes them fun for experienced hands - but dropping a class from Occult Adventures on a player unawares is not setting them up for success. Luckily, we had a player at our table who knew the class in question and offered to switch - without that, I think we would have bogged down as the new player read and re-read 40 pages of OA during the game, and still didn't play at full potential.

Another issue is getting "buy-in" from the group. People know what Pathfinders do, and they know enough about the Aspis to make that work, but this is a new organization with vague goals, and so my players didn't have much of a framework to hang their roleplaying and decision-making off of. Thankfully, the pregens all have inicredible backstories and handouts, which helps.

To me, a big mechanical issue was the physical space needed to run the first encounter properly. Without getting into details, the space involved is larger than any table I've ever gamed at. That's fine when you're running Call of Cthulhu or even AD&D, where the GM could just "ballpark" distances and narrate results, but in Pathfinder most players are used to dealing with the grid. You can't really use the grid in this one; even when using the tricks suggested on the GM thread and PFSPrep.com, the GM will be making some estimates and playing fast and loose with some of the rules. Not all players (or GMs) are readily accepting of this.

After the first encounter, the scenario seemed to proceed more smoothly - most players had gotten to know enough of their pregen that they could be effective. The second encounter is interesting in a way, since players expect A to happen when in fact it doesn't, and then doesn't happen again, and again... and then suddenly B happens, triggering a neat encounter. Unfortunately, there is a lot of GM box text and uninhabited rooms to get through before B happens at all, which loses momentum.

The climax is really good, though - first, because no one is sure if it will be the climax or not, and also because of some neat mechanical stuff that makes it more than just "fight the BBEG". This ends the scenario on a really high note, which is always a good thing.

I wavered between 2 and 3 stars for this one. The pregens and the complex first encounter took for us more than half the slot, and it's hard to recover if that part isn't fun. There are a lot of special rules that pop up at different points, and some of them are game-changing, so it's a big deal if you miss something. The prep aspect is a significant impediment. I spent about double my usual amount of prep, and I still had some issues in keeping everything running smoothly. I don't think I'd want to do that again for a game at a con where you don't have any flexibility in table size or time limit, and where lore and story can't always cut through the noise. That's the situation this rating is based on. If I run this again, though, I will do so as a home game, perhaps over two "slots", and really use all the suggestions and options in the first part to bring the setting to life - I think that will make it a truly "special" scenario and worth 5 stars.

I hate to provide non-glowing reviews of people's work, so I hope this is taken in the spirit it is intended, as useful feedback for future endeavours. Ultimately, this felt like adventure path material, crammed into a PFS box.

Played this last night with a party of four at high subtier. We had a great GM who was able to seamlessly integrate the apparently random elements so that they made sense in the context of the exploration. One player had played it three times already, and still had fun without knowing what was going to happen. The fact that it's a 3-7 replayable is fantastic, I have a lot of mid-level PCs who are eligible.

Played this at low subtier with three PCs and a pregen. First, loved the use of the Harrow and the Yellow Sign... I mean, Prophet... even though my PC didn't believe in "that Varisian folktale", it provided a unique connection to the events.

Now having read it, this looks like it requires more prep than the average scenario, due to the number of NPCs and the complicated plot. Our GM only had a bit of time to prep and did a great job, but I can see who people might get lost in some of the details without knowing the scenario well.

I'm pretty surprised at the number of 1-star reviews - I suspect this has more to do with the GM than the scenario. There's lots of meat here, some great Varisian flavor, and a mystery that isn't either insanely complex or too easy. I felt like I had accomplished something by figuring it out, and even though we failed in one of the tasks, we managed to earn both prestige.

Highly recommended, but don't try to run it cold.

Finally finished reading Wayfinder #15 (the electronic version, since I couldn't make it to PaizoCon to get a printed copy... :(

Once again, the all-volunteer Wayfinder team has put together an excellent round-up of material. This issue focuses on the River Kingdoms, an area of Golarion so diverse you could run a dozen campaigns there and never have the same setting. It's a rich area, especially for characters and stories that are slightly over the line of the law (vigilante, anyone?). It's also the region where the Kingmaker Adventure Path is set, making it an essential resource for GMs running that campaign.

There are literally too many articles for me to review them all, but here are some highlights.

* Crunch: there are new archetypes, poisons, and a set of obeisances for two very flavorful deities worshiped mostly in the River Kingdoms (Hanspur and Gyronna). Throw these against your players as they pass through the ever-shifting river network for some nasty (yet not overpowered) surprises. Magical items (including some that scale with character level) and even new special materials are to be found as well. Bardic masterpieces, friendly (or not) NPC stat blocks... there's just so much that's ready for a GM to use as-is or as inspiration for their own campaign.

* Lore: (I refuse to use the term "fluff" for something so central to the game's feel!) To me, this is the best aspect of Wayfinder - you get dozens of creative takes on areas of Golarion that can be dropped into your campaign with almost no effort. Often, the Paizo products give an intriguing sentence or a few words of "hook"; in Wayfinder, some great Golorian scholars have fleshed those out into fully-developed encounters, NPCs, stories, or adventures - or created them out of whole cloth to fit seamlessly into the campaign. Here, you'll find tavern songs and anthems of the River Kingdoms, and a fully-designed tavern to sing them in, as well as explorer's journals and gazateers of various locations throughout the Kingdoms. Short fiction pieces help flesh out various areas of the lands, and provide NPC personalities that I've pulled into my games on more than one occasion.

Wayfinder 15 is one of the best ones yet, in my opinion. Some really great work by lots of great contributors, and the core Wayfinde team that puts it all together. Plus... it's free. Seriously. No reason to not download it and immerse yourself in one of Golarion's most varied and soggy regions.

Got to play this last week, and have now purchased and prepping to run. Overall this was a great experience as a player - a fairly conventional mission turns into something else entirely, and even with good Knowledge checks up front, there are surprises in store. I found myself pulled into the story, and kept flipping back and forth between who I believed the "bad guy" to be until quite late. It plays on some popular tropes without being predictable... or is it?

I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars because it does look like it will take a lot of prepping to pull off effectively as a GM, and that sort of time doesn't always work for Organized Play. The plot is complex, and requires several different NPC personalities to be portrayed. Our GM did a great job and the scenario really shone, but I could see how a less-RP-focused GM could make this fall flat. Following are some GM thoughts as I prep.

Overall, a great scenario, although perhaps more suited to play-by-post (where story can really come out without the pressure of a time slot) than regular play. Will run this one several times to make use of the higher prep required.

I played this (high subtier), and then prepped it to GM.

I've always been a fan of scenarios that require PCs to actually be *Pathfinders*, and this one does it: research, lore, crazy combats, fear of death, and exploring places we have never been before.

While the research rules are a bit clunky and probably need some adjustment to make things a little less "foregone conclusion", the way information is doled out really makes players pay attention and participate in putting the story together. Of course, the story does hinge on having played the special scenario that is related to this one, and without that, it's likely that the motivations may just be too complex to make sense. Still, this is a great exploration of one of the best NPCs to grace PFS, while also setting up a mysterious group in the shadows that isn't one of the regular enemies we face. I can't wait to see what happens next!

The Dreamland sequence was really well done. Alas, by the time my group got there, we were so short on time that our creativity had to be curtailed. The first fight, while cool and "realistic", just takes so darn long because of the mechanics of the creatures involved. Took us 2 hours to finish it, and then we skipped the optional and had to really rushed everything from the Dreamland sequence on. 4.5 hours is not enough to do this scenario justice.

I can understand the other reviewers who said that the name "Blakros Connection" is inappropriate, since we spend so little time in the Museum itself. For me, however, the title served to underline the importance of the connection that the <thing> came from the Blakros family's holdings, and how that might have happened. I expect that this connection will play out over future scenarios. To my character (who has met Nigel Aldain twice and really dislikes him), the only disappointment was that the esteemed curator did not have a stat block. One day, Nigel, one day...

Disclosure: I have an article in this issue. My first ever, so I immediately started paging through the PDF to find it, instead of reading it cover-to-cover like I have the other Wayfinders. I found I just couldn't do it, though - I spotted so many awesome bits in the titles and pull-quotes that I had to stop and read close to a dozen articles before finally jumping ahead to find mine. Then I went back and re-read everything.

In general, Wayfinder is an awesome publication, and just because it is fan-generated content doesn't mean it is somehow lesser than the "real" stuff. Obviously you won't be using it in the Pathfinder Society organized play campaign, but for anyone running home games, this issue is full of great reasons to add a trip to Ustalav(this issue's theme). Statted NPCs, gazeteers of villages ready to drop into your game, monsters, class options, and some great fiction to help bring the campaign setting alive... you'll find it all here. There's enough in hereto jump-start an Ustalav campaign without having to depend on the Carrion Crown adventure path at all (or to supplement the heck out of that adventure path). Well done to the great team of folks who put this together, both as a venue for fan authors *and* as a great source of gaming goodness.

I really enjoyed playing this and running it. When we played, we got in about halfway after some bad luck, saw one of the encounters, misjudged the tactical situation and thought we were outgunned, and turned tail and retreated. Even with that failure, it was a great scenario.

There is a greater emphasis on actually being a Pathfinder (Explore, Report, and all that) in this scenario, although RAW it may be implemented a bit harshly. Just walking through a dungeon killing stuff won't get you all the way there.

Running it, it has some great NPCs that players don't normally chat with, and explored an interesting and promising location with the potential for follow-up. The environmental "issues" and unusual traps really added a lot of flavour (I took the suggestions in the GM Forum thread to play this up), and even the combats had non-standard bits to keep players worrying about stuff they didn't understand. Fear of the unknown is your friend when GMing this one!

I ran this scenario for a party of 6 non-Core high-subtier players. They had a great time, and really enjoyed the main NPC interactions with 2 of the NPCs. There were some great tech-related surprise moments when the party encountered various items. Even without the Technologist feat, there are in-scenario resources to help players make use of some of the items.

Combats are interesting and utilize terrain very effectively, with multi-level fights with unusual opponents. Unfortunately, many of the opponents can be neutralized by a well-prepared party, even without the technology items found. This can completely unravel the (REALLY cool!) ticking-clock tense ending as designed. GMs, make sure you prepare for your party's likely buffs if you can, so you have a "Plan B" when the given tactics are rendered irrelevant.

Only real complaint: one of the important map areas is on a strange angle, making the grid close to unplayable without dealing with squeezing and unrealistic positioning in the entire room. This is unfortunate, since the map is actually rectilinear and is only rotated to squeeze it onto a single page width. In this room, positioning can be critical, so I strongly recommend GMs re-draw this map on the square. (My version will go onto the pfsprep.com website shortly.)

Also make sure you have the items stats from the PRD available, since there are a *lot* of items from the Technology Guide in this scenario, and the players will want to use them.

Great fun, would run again!

This is an excellent scenario that rewards GM prep. Lots of interesting NPCs that need to be distinguishable and have meaningful interactions with the PCs, plus a complicated puzzle plot, means the GM needs to have everything understood well in advance. Not a scenario to be run cold! (Not like any of them really are, but you will probably ruin this one if you run it cold.)

A few things to be aware of:
* someone in the party needs to speak a certain (uncommon) language or they will face major issues throughout;
* the handouts can accidentally reveal too much information if you don't follow the instructions in the sidebar on Page 4;
* there is an encounter that will TPK the lower sub-tier if the party chooses combat over diplomacy.

None of these are problems in design, except insofar as they encourage a more rounded PC design than many other scenarios. A well-prepared Pathfinder, quick of wit as well as blade, and well-prepared to explore, report and cooperate should succeed and have a memorable tale to tell at the end. Those of more violent tendencies may find themselves in over their heads or unable to complete their mission as effectively.

Major gripe: diagonal maps. I wound up printing the scenario map rather than making a custom one because of the 45-degree corridors everywhere. I know it makes the map interesting and makes sense from a lore point of view, but it needlessly complicates combat movement.

Well done! Will run this one again, and likely also PbP to allow some of the RP to really shine.

I played this once and have read it for GMing in the coming weeks, so this review is a bit from both sides of the screen. As a player, the story is really good, with lots of interesting NPCs to interact with, and in some cases to ask for help later. The location really provides some great Society lore, and the entire plot gives interesting insight into the early days of the Society. Having said that, the NPCs were all encountered early and together, making it a bit hard to keep everyone straight later on. However, this format did draw everyone in to roleplaying, even the folks who tend to be more combat-oriented.

The combats were challenging - some mechanically, and some from a moral point of view. I found myself facing a member of my own religion with conflicting aims - which gave my PC a moment to shine and some interesting notes on my Chronicle sheet.

As a GM - I love the way the evergreen randomness provides for different experiences each time. Even with the puzzles, PCs will have to go through the process to figure things out, and combats can change completely between runs.

This scenario exemplifies the duties of a Pathfinder - a mix of investigation, diplomacy, political intrigue, and all-out assault combat. Clumsy players can miss a lot of clues early on by upsetting their contacts, but most encounters can be solved in multiple ways.

My players also had trouble keeping track of all of the NPC names, even though they were keeping notes - I made face cards for a few, but should have done so for the rest. A lot of the names are three-syllable ones with similar cadence (especially the two principle NPCs), which seemed to trip people up.

As has been noted, players who have played through 5-03 The Hellknight's Feast have a potential tie-in to this scenario, so make sure your players check in advance and bring that Chronicle along, even if it is from another character. None of the players in my group had these accessible for me to check, so I had to wing it. (Not a big deal, but it's nice to utilize these tie-ins where they exist.)

Some things for the GM to watch for:

I will run this one again for sure!

I have run this twice, and it is by far one of the best PFS scenarios out there. Partially since, as a double-length scenario, there is less of a time limit, but mostly because of the various connections and tie-ins to previous scenarios. Back when this was a "retirement" arc, most of the players had played the Season 0-1 scenarios that provide the background for this, but nowadays many PCs won't even know some of the NPCs. Any GM who is going to run this should arrange for the players to play a few key scenarios first, even with other PCs, so that the players get the full experience.

This is also a great scenario to pull out all the stops in terms of props, terrain, etc. Reaching level 12 is a milestone, and this sereis should feel like a special event for your players.

I ran this with a party that included an aasimar paladin, a tiefling paladin, an aasimar sorceress, a human fighter and a gnome bard. The scenario set-up was the longest ever, because of some great in-character discussions on exactly what is illegal in Rahadoum and how it would affect their characters. This is a great scenario for roleplaying, and also for divine characters to really have some moments to shine outside of their usual role of "heal-smite-repeat".

GMs need to prep this one thoroughly, though - there are a lot of reactive elements where things change based on what the players do when, to the point that the encounter areas on the map change completely. You need to know who does what when, so you know what the party sees when they enter a room. You also want to research Rahadoum and its "Laws of Man", and consider how this affects divine characters - don't derive it at the table, plan out how this will work in advance because there is a lot of grey area in how you handle it.

Plus, iconic characters from fiction! We had one paladin ask for an autograph at one point.