A group of 6 of us, who have played together with the same characters (on and off) from levels 1-12, played the whole ‘Eyes of the Ten’ sequence over the weekend.
It’s good; really good.
So I thought I’d start with a review of Part 1.
For Pathfinder Cinematic Awesomeness, you will need:
- 1 ref who is very, very, very experienced, and very skilled.
- 5 or more players who game together a good deal, and who have played with the same set of characters many times.
- One standout author.
Seriously, this module rocked my world. It is dramatic, challenging and chock-full of PFS easter-eggs. It has an amazingly strong narrative drive, and is full of surprises.
Be warned, it is not for the faint-hearted. You need a ref with serious chops, and a high level of teamwork.
Find a group you really like, find a great ref, get yourself on the pathfinder society trail from 1st to 12th and finish it up with a widescreen, special-effects bonanza.
This adventure is made of win, props to Erik Mona.
As it says in the title really. Without the 'cool' factor of a great reveal late in the adventure, this would have been a 2-star adventure. The essence of this adventure is great, but it's dragged down by a lack of detail and some unsatisfactory go-nowhere plotting. Fortunately, all of these niggles are reasonably easily fixed, and the central premise of the adventure is very strong.
Overall, this could have been an absolute classic, but falls a little short due to some dangling plot threads and pacing issues. I'll be detailing what I did with the adventure over in the GM discussion thread.
Despite the three stars I would recommend this adventure be played along with Part I, as with a little bit of work Part II can be brought up to the same level as Part I, for a truly memorable double-bill.
This is a very solid and entertaining scenario, the encounters are well-thought out and the overall premise - that of trying not to draw too much attention to oneself is extremely well handled.
This would have been a five-star module in my eyes were it not for the weakness of the final encounter (see below). Even so, this is in my 'top ten' of PFS scenarios.
Spoiler:
The 'big fight' in this scenario is against a summoner and her eidolon, set in the environment of a prize/cage fight - it's a superb encounter - pretty tough, but absolutely full of excitement and colour. It's the high point of the scenario. The final encounter is hard to pull off without it feeling a bit flat by comparison. I'd recommend to GMs to really look at that last encounter and aim to make that a good coda to the adventure.
This is a reasonably well-written, brisk romp through the Land of the Linnorm Kings and Irrisen. It's squarely aimed at fans of Paizo's Golarion campaign setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It has a good mix of evocative description and transparency of mechanics - I never like RPG novels where the characters obviously can't be statted out as per the game they purport to come from - geeky I know, but it adds to my enjoyment when I can "see the stats" so to speak.
Most important of all - for a fantasy novel - it doesn't suck. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy novels, they're often over-long and turgid. This one is brisk, witty and has compelling characters. Props to the Authors for having good female characters who can kick ass and aren't caricatures.
If you like Pathfinder, this won't disappoint - it's not the most complex story in the world - but it is pacy and brings the setting alive.
This is well worth the money. it deals with treasure very quickly and easily.
Would have got 5 stars if it has a "Generic Treasure" sheet where you can enter gold, art, gems etc. and a summary sheet where you can see all the group + individual totals.
That said; this halved the amount of time it takes me to work out treasure placement. It also has a killer "% loot" feature that enables you to see which player has what % of the overall loot - superb!
