theshoveller's page

In Pursuit of Water is a direct, challenging, and evocative scenario that requires more GM prep than it should. Scenes are atmospheric and interesting but a lot of guidance on how things should run is dotted around the text and GMs should plan to read this through several times to get the most out of it.

- Combats are potentially very tough, but attention to the antagonist's motivations will make them less punishing.
- It's not clear how the time-pressure is supposed to work (there doesn't seem to be any reason the PCs should fail unless they are defeated in combat, but the scenario spends many words on how they can recover from poor time-management).
- GMs need to think about how the plot can be telegraphed to the players more effectively than how its outlined in the text itself.

There are great ideas here and the scenario is fun to run, with a complex but satisfying final encounter. The story is very efficient and I managed to get through it without rushing in under 3.5 hours (in tier 3-4). I hope for a return to Aspenthar in season 3.

This is an efficient scenario that runs quickly. The balance between combat and roleplay is good, but both elements are individually lacking. Interacting with the key NPC is initially fun, but because she does not have plot-critical information, there is no pressing in-game *reason* to do it. The first two fights are trivial (I ran in tier 1-2) and well-thought-out environments are wasted on opponents who will fall to the first hit. The story seems to assume knowledge of either War for the Crown (or the season 9 Taldor arc) which makes the plot opaque for casual players.

This is a well-put-together scenario, with a good mix of interaction, puzzle-solving and combat. Social scenes may need a little bit of coaching because NPC descriptions/motivations are a bit brief. What it lacks is a "final scene" - both of the major fights are lacking in drama for low-CP parties and the non-linear dungeon layout means that the players may stumble on either without any build up. Generally though, this is easy to run (though inexperienced GMs will want to revise running hazards) and has the potential for standout gaming/roleplaying moments.

There are some well-crafted encounters here, but they are not easy. They are not, I think, unfair but one skill challenge is particularly punishing. GMs will find some combat encounters particularly enjoyable to run if they read the tactics closely - there are fun combo effects. There are plenty of roleplaying opportunities, but the interaction with the kobolds feels overwritten.

There's just too much here. The encounters are fine, the story is good, the minigame is overly complex and painfully time-consuming. Thinking constructively, two things could have been done here: 1) the repair minigame could have been drastically streamlined to run in an hour; 2) the scenario could have been expanded into a full module (or two-parter) to justify the time investment needed. I think the author should be commended for entertaining fights and a tense story, but the subsystem needed a firm editing hand to make it work.

Some great ideas here, with encounters that really pop off the page and run themselves. A little gruesome in places, but not in such a way that the GM can't gloss over those elements. A good balance of roleplay, puzzle-solving and combat, but most of the combat encounters (at least in tier 1-2, where I ran it) are push-overs for a competent group.

I can't help but think that the author overestimated the difficulty of the challenge presented in the scenario generally. The scenario has multiple endings depending on how many points the PCs gather over the course of the story - the expectation seems to have been that a competent party with accrue 15-20, but mine gathered 24 without particular effort (an outcome the author refers to as 'unlikely' in the text). I wonder if this scenario could have used some tweaking at editorial level to make it tougher.

This has the potential to be a really cerebral scenario, the author deserves serious credit for giving players an opportunity to discuss core philosophical topics at the table. The scenario also offers some good roleplaying scenes, in the time-honoured PFS manner of impressing the VIP at the dinner table. The scenario has two weaknesses - a lack of guidance for GMs who aren't interested/familiar with the basics of epistemology, and a lack of meaningful combat for players who feel their characters can't contribute to a scene about abstract ideas. Overall: refreshing but with room for improvement.