Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 161 posts (168 including aliases). 9 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 6 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.
Chapter 1 has so many problematic areas and don't really want to get into them. I really enjoyed chapters 2 and 3....
However with Chapter 2 I made a lot of changes and ran it as a 4-5 hour one shot twice. Both times I had a lot of positive feedback; however, even though I had to make several changes it was mostly to speed up play for a one shot. Like a previous reviewer put this scenario was built like an infiltration, but is designed as a dungeon crawl. It would be good to include a lot of tips and tricks on how to make it a better infiltration mission. Even my players were confused at some parts because I described it as a heist. I essentially added a lot of skill checks where there would be forced combat so that it could be more heist / infiltration like. Which meant abstracting some of the components. Overall enjoyed the contents of the book even though there were many problematic parts in the specifics.
A lot of the NPCs had backstories that weren't relevant to the plot. Paizo needs to do a better job of not forcing backstory that has no relevancy to the plot, OR will come out during play. It feels forced and ungenuine taking up word count that could be used to better facilitate things like: "How to run this like a heist".
First 37 pages were great. The notable figures not so much.. the deep dive into the four main areas of high helm were okay. Overall the lore has a lot to be desired. I was hoping for more dwarf not less.... The overall art direction seemed to be all over the place. Some hitting a grim dark feel and tone. Others felt overly cartoonist.
I ran this about a year and a half ago for an in person one-shot. I was going through. my notes about the different scenarios I've ran. I was going through my notes and remembered how amazing this adventure was and how much fun everyone had. It actually reinforces kind of how bad the last two seasons of PFS modules have been. I've been playing PFS or using the material less and less. So wanted to make sure I came to give it five-stars.
As others have mentioned the lore aspect was great. The encounters and playing through it - not so much. The hazards were literally a waste of encounter time given how trivial they were and felt disjointed.
Too many rails where rolls or choices don't matter
I played as a player then read the scenario afterwards.
Railroading for society games isn't' a bad thing but in this scenario half the rolls did not matter. Not only that even though this is a higher level scenario having a VC and potential (annoying) VC watching over the shoulder and interveneing was EVEN More rails. If there are no consequences there should be no roll or if the consequence is so minor there shouldn't be a roll. Almost every failed roll is: "You find it anyway", "You get there anyway", "Take damage and then heal", or "The NPC does the thing for you".
Examples
Spoiler:
- "If the PCs don’t gain enough TP, Zinthyra is able to do it herself after a considerable period of time, but the unfocused magical energies influence the structure on the other side, granting all enemies in Part B a +1 circumstance bonus to initiative." -- Each PC gets two checks and you need a number of TP equal to party members. That's a lot of rolls where failure HAS ZERO consequence. Like what are we even doing here?
- "Although the PCs may attempt most puzzles as often as they like, and in any order, time is still a consideration. PCs may take 10 minute breaks to heal, refocus, or similar activities at any time during this act, but they may not rest long enough to make daily preparations. If they’re considering it, Zinthyra will let them know that the teleportation circle won’t stay active that long and getting it to work again could take months or even years, since her activation was a bit of a hack job (though she merely claims it was “rushed”)." -- The time thing should have been noted at the beginning, but ultimately everything can be tried unlimited amount of time and a day is essentially infinite for the activities.
- Magic Hallway: **Development** Once each PC has found a way forward or followed someone else who did, the party can proceed. -- Another instance where does it even matter if we roll? No consequences for failure. There is no mechanical way to actually handle the timer either. (e.g. number of failures).
- Hole in the Wall actually has a condition applied for failed attempts (our gm only did damage no condition); however both Hole in the wall and jumbled hallway deal damage which can just be healed fairly quickly since neither of them start a combat
- Hall of hands - Again more damage but doesn't end in any combat or any complex damage, so we could just lay on hands until healed.
- Sealed doorway -- again deals damage but no combat, which is trivialized with healing.
- The pirates at the end -- There is only a small chance of you getting a hint about this happening at the beginning; but this encounter is so out of left field. Then several NPCs are there as well that support you. Because it's not clear to the players (even after reading) the motivations and how skill checks would talk them down (30 of them) it's just so bizarre. I like the idea of the encounter but execution was really terrible.
There is more I could point out, but as a player this was just not enjoyable. When you are rolling dice but the result doesn't matter just creates a bad play experience, like why did I even come? There was lots of potential but poorly written / execution. I don't blame the GM I had as I read through and understood why it felt so bad.
It's scenarios like these that make me not like Pathfinder society play. There are several reasons; but there is a fine line between a "fun" and "annoying" when it comes to tone; especially the NPCs. The combats are also laughably easy which made it feel like what's the point when all were so easy.
The overall concept is great which is flipping "Dungeon exploration" on it's head. However going into the dungeons the characters would know not to take anything in the vaults; however some of the treasure bundles are blocked behind taking "items" in the vault. I get that not every Treasure Bundle should be achievable; and I know there are debates on this topic in general. But it feels weird to encourage PCs to take something in the name of a TB.
I was excited for the chase, but one of the worst bits was the Babies in need obstacle. Every combat encounter till now AND the tone of the main NPC was to kill Rats. Then there is an obstacle "A panicked kobold approaches with a large treasure chest containing a large number of baby rats. The kobold demands help with reuniting them with their parents as the babies mewl helplessly." Sorry ladies; their parents are dead as the combat.
The spircy death chicken challenge seems out of place. With that said if you could run this encounter modified for friends it's got a lot of great bones there; but the overall tone; inconsistencies makes it hard to run as is.
This is probably now my favorite one-shot of all time. I absolutely love the theme of a "battle of the bands" style adventure. Not only that it really showcases roleplaying opportunities that are available in a sci-fi setting that aren't as readily available in a fantasy setting. Maybe I'm a bit biased since this is the first game my group has played in person in the last two years, but this was amazing. So much thematic moments. From the first scene "Jukebox heroes" to the scrappy unlikely combat all the way to Songbird station. Each moment was very memorable. The group of people I played the scenario with leaned in hard on the musician front. We had five players. Since there were 4 premades the last player picked one of the pregens that are used for Starfinder society. They ended up playing the "Social Media/Self-appointed Manager" for the band. It was a great addition.
I hope to see more one-shots in the Starfinder setting that are as highly thematic as Band on the Run.
This is my favorite Lost Omens book so far and I absolutely loved Legends. I normally take my time when reading through campaign source books, but I devoured this one. I plan on going back and reading some sections more carefully especially the geography areas that I sped through.
Even if you don't want to have or play in the Mwangi expanse there is so much material that can be used in any campaign setting. For example I really loved the section on Nagisa. I would love to be a player in an adventure centered around this lore. The book has lots of other great Plot hooks and compelling NPCs.
There are very few mechanics in the book, but the ancestories are definitely worth looking at. My favorite are the Anadi, sentient shapeshifting spiders. This makes me excited for future Paizo products as the quality just keeps improving.
This is by far my favorite scenario so far ( played in 6 and have ran 2). Thank you Tineke Bolleman for such an amazing scenario. I love that this one has a lot of flexibility and calls out alternative "creative" solutions that players may have. I have seen people have some questions around ambiguity, but I think that lends the module strength compared to some of the railroaded scenarios I've been a player (could be a function of the GM's ability to be flexible).
One of my favorite portions of the adventure was the accumulation of their goal. It reminds me of Dramatic Tasks in the Savage Worlds setting and has given me ideas on how to incorporate more skill based encounters in my home games.
