Sliska Zafir's page

The scenario doesn't hold up mechanically. Fights were a breeze, skill challenges overcome way too easily and were way too linear. Our GM tried to make it challenging; but it was a tall order. It probably plays better with 4 players; our table had 6 and everyone jockeying for die rolls and everyone blowing them away. The Azlanti are intriguing and would, you think, make for great high-level adversaries. Unfortunately their tech wasn't on par with the party's and therefore too easy. I know its harder to write a mechanically challenging high level scenario; but this one drops the ball early.

I like that Org Play is bringing us new scenes for adventure. This one, the adventurers find themselves as the only living creatures on an island of dead. That raises a host of interesting questions. Also, the mystery of what's going on is fun to investigate, although a conclusion is elusive and could lead to party squabbling (ours did). The combats could be separated a bit better, imho, and also allow for different party decisions in regards to the mystery (combats in different locations, depending on choices made). Otherwise, fun NPCs to interact with.

Good imagery and writing, balanced fight encounters (though all on the same map was a bit boring), and some fun scenes.

Fairly straightforward, with Rain getting in trouble again!!!

Our GM indulged us with great linnorm roleplaying. Bring your social skills, they will be useful. A martial-focused party would not do well. I too, would like to see a return of these kids.

Another great adventure. Interesting plot, excellent encounters, good mix of skill and combat challenges, and many paths to success. Well done!

This was skittertastic! Flump rolls in and is immediately needed for his diplomatic skills, attempting to resolve friction between the Society and his day job bosses. Then, a sudden crisis! Yay a chance to help both!

Great intro, plot-building middle, with some nice, well-played sci-fi tropes, and then a fun, climactic final encounter. I loved the tactical challenges present.

But the combats just don't present a challenge as written. Foes were not equipped and enabled to be a threat. Runs in 4 hours or less. GM tip: Use a voice distortion app and record Valor. It made my session fun.

I wasn't impressed with this one. The combats were humdrum and too similar. The one bright spot was the thing that followed the path, and made for interesting movement choices. Overall, the plot was thin and repetitive; too little advanced in the metaplot. Villains attacking the lodge have to be more clever - they were bland.

This is everything I want in a haunted mansion fantasy adventure. A wide spectrum of foes, superb storyline, a well-done Research subsystem that rewards players for unraveling mysteries, and frightfully good horror moments.

If you like horror adventures, don't miss this one. I'm having an awesome time running it, and imagine as a player I'd rank it one of the highest ever. Ever. It's that good, and I've been playing FRPGs since 1978.

As a GM, prepare to answer some things like...is there a nearby town where we can buy supplies/do library research? I said yes, and used Carnav (Ravounel). They also had a campsite in Crook Cove.

This party works well for our group - bard, champion, rogue, investigator with heal focus. Investigator is almost a must. Cleric/Oracle of Pharasma also good. Also, as another reviewer said, playing in long sessions or playing weekly will enhance the player experience, as the story will seem more contiguous and players will be able to connect discoveries better than long downtimes.

Get this!

But it gets knocked down a star, just due to that the "experimental" Oliphaunt actually has serious build errors, as presented. A power core that can't fit its frame, for starters (Pulse Black for Small, Oliphaunt is Medium). Second, the stat block spends too many Build Points and doesn't have enough Power Core Units to even power *one* of its two weapons, unless you drop shields or defensive countermeasures.

It needed a serious rebuild, and being one of the main foci of the adventure - customizing your ship - it really should've been double checked so the players start with a build that actually works with rules! Calling it "experimental" is no excuse. Only the cargo holds are, which has nothing to do with PCU/BP expenditures.

I hate taking away anything I gave, it just leaves an ugly taste in players mouths. I had to downgrade thrusters and shields. Even though there hasn't been a starship battle yet, it is a big mistake to give out something that you have to later take away. I hope my players understand. I posted alternative, rules-conforming stats in the discussion thread.

That said, this has been a BLAST to GM so far. One grim job, one odd job, one funny job, really just keeps it fresh. It definitely echoes Firefly moments, and is my favorite AP so far. The story parts are original and fascinating, it is excellent gaming, imho.

There are more fights than in your regular scenario. They just keep coming.

If you like combat slogs and dungeon crawling, you'll probably enjoy this. There are some tough fights inside.

The adventure lacks puzzles of any kind, and roleplaying / diplomatic encounters are very few. "Face" characters may feel less important.

Also, I like the premise of the curse, and there are nice flavorful elements like the pillar-watchers.

I like this adventure quite a bit.

Pros:
* Answers the question of what's been done with Pathfinders' kids while parents go adventuring.
* A sandbox mystery, but with enough structure to guide completion through the whole thing. In fact, there could be even more (both of my groups, once as GM, once as player) finished it early.
* I liked the mundane and supernatural explanations for the mysteries. This is a nice addition to the mystery PFS scenario. Different characters come up with different interpretations, which preserves the sense of mystery all the way through to the end.
* The format allowed me to let players choose what secret checks they thought were relevant (instead of saying "Skill x,y,z will solve the challenge"). This increased the sense of mystery, as the players didn't know necessarily what skills would be useful to solving it, and their impression of what was going on was informed by previous interpretations.
* I loved hearing player speculation about what was the source of the mysteries, whether some were just mundane problems, or spirits, or ghosts. This part was good writing, though if at times a stretch.
* 3 ways to deal with the ending, and that is just great. Especially if the shed fight leaves the group wounded.

Cons:
* A little more detail on the classrooms would be nice. Maybe a puzzle. My players picked up on the "snake hints", which seemed like a red herring. There seemed some time for perhaps an optional encounter here. Maybe the tortoise got loose; or maybe some shed skin leads the PCs to a pet snake or reveals the snake clues.
* The treasure bundle situation is difficult, admittedly. Lawful PCs wouldn't take anything from the school, such as books. The author covers this, but it strains disbelief a little. A slight tweak perhaps.

Summary:
Even when the players are doing well, they may not know it. I like this about this adventure. It keeps the players guessing to the end.

This review is just for the adventure portion included in the box. Menace Under Otari, as a classic dungeon crawl, is XP-thick, and I like this, as a feature of this product; you get to level in the adventure, and fight the final fight as 2nd level. That's a win in my book for the players. Diplomacy-based PCs may feel less useful in this adventure, but luckily all PF2E classes have pretty good balance and are able to contribute. If playing with 4 players, I'd recommend rewarding each hero a hero point per hour of play, or at the very least every two hours. With so many die rolls, those will come in handy.

Without giving too much away, the adventure has a good mix of different difficulty-level combats, some terrain challenges, and a puzzle. All of this is great for teaching the game.

If you plan to orient players to Otari and its locations and NPCs (say as a non-Pathfinder Society adventure, or to start the beginning of a campaign), I would definitely allow 5 hours for each session, so 10 hours for both parts. I GM'ed it in one go, and in retrospect, would've broken it into two sessions. If running it in one go 10 hours would allow you to take some breaks throughout, if just to break up the slog through the dungeon.

If running this online, I'd insist player come early for characters and training, unless they are good at figuring out VTTs, and experienced PF2E players. One other thing. Ask players to have their 2nd level choices decided before game time, as the game assumes that you will level before the end fight.

Overall, I'd love to play this particular adventure, because I like dungeon crawls, the tactical challenge they present, and this is, imho, a great beginner adventure. That said, the sanctioning document is very liberal with interpretation on how to run it, think "campaign mode", so I allowed any class/ancestry combos, but not rare backgrounds. Also, I had 5 players, only scaled up a few fights. 4 players may take a bit shorter than 10 hours.

Enjoy this fine product!

the 'puzzle' (and I use that term loosely) makes no sense whatsoever. And for not the reason you might think. It's so bad, it drags this scenario down far. 1.5 stars.

Serious spoiler:

That said, the fights were tough for our party (good) (the 4-player scaling a little questionable) , but also dialogue with the

After being pounded on relentlessly by the combats, there was very little to no resolution or resolution of the non-combat things you achieved.

Sadly, 2-03 felt like it's not a scenario you play, but one you endure. I don't have that kind of play experience often with PFS. I hope not to have it again any time soon.

It seemed like the fights could have been a bit tougher, but perhaps that was a function of our group makeup and initiative order (throwing fireballs...)

I sure hope PFS 2E scales up well. This scenario made me wonder if the GM had enough to work with.

A trip to Numeria is always fun and full of surprises.

If you want to roleplay, find that elsewhere. This is a scenario that can teach the combat rules. Thank your GM if he chooses to run it. It requires a bit more technical prep than most scenarios, and the experience is probably governed by how much prep the GM is able to make. That said, players can make anything fun (and add roleplaying). A different kind of scenario, and I like that.

Typical formulaic structure (hard to be atypical in org play though, so not much complaint there.) Liked the consequences for failure on skill checks - although bad luck begets more bad luck - and the end fight was a tough one for the PCs, a good thing, if the GM can take advantage of the tactical positioning.

The idea of this scenario - a Second Seeker returns from a horrible mistake, needs a personal retreat, and seeks an unusual experience - is terrific, and ripe for adventure. A closer look at the kasatha is welcome, if a little boring.

There is no real difficulty in the social interactions; no real consequence for failures. Eventually you get to the end of your quest, and then...WHAM! A TPK waiting for most parties. No joke. Lulled into a false sense of complacency perhaps? But this encounter is off the charts CR 7. The end encounter abilities create a wildly swingy potential, and is really uncalled for. If you don't have the right mix of party types, with experienced players, you will probably need to run away and fail the quest.

Loved it! I enjoy the foreshadowing of all the Starfinder scenarios, and this one didn't disappoint. A tense, problem-solving oriented mystery unfolds with dilemma. You fight in their element and must prevail. Great stuff, Kate.

This adventure, which continues the storyline begun in 1-05 The First Mandate, begins with a very unusual ceremony, allows the PCs to travel to a restricted planet, access privileged information, discover some unusual technologies and creatures, navigate an interesting enigma, learn more about the Scoured Stars incident and then foil the efforts of surprise enemies.

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