zeonsghost's page

In theory, I should love this scenario. It's a shame that several little editorial decisions kinda mess it up and made it less fun to run.

The Good:

I do think the scenario gives PCs the feeling they are aiding in a war effort while keeping them off the front lines. My players really enjoyed leaning into the RP for each group they rescued.

The infiltration becoming harder the more people you rescue is thematically appropriate and builds narrative tension well.

The Bad: It's an intro scenario and I think unlike the past several, it doesn't really set up why you're here aiding a country in a war effort. Surprise, we're at war with Cheliax!! I get that a lot of this story ties into Battlecry, but the society isn't a military outfit. Just sorta odd.

The Ugly:

The Appendix changes are awful. I'm glad I'm running this on a decent ipad because running this in paper is gonna take up huge swaths of table space between the enemies that are printed in the adventure and the ones that aren't. We got away from doing this to the cheers of GMs. Going back feels like getting less bang for your buck.

The concept, story, and setting for this scenario are super cool. Shame that the mechanics of it fail to translate into a fun experience.

1. The PCs lose gold in the black questions of the beginning of the scenario unless they both ask the right question and make a high DC Intelligence check.

2. The DCs for many of the saves seem abnormally high. For instance, the variant mummy is the same CR as the bog standard mummy but its fear aura is DC 19 (compared the the original's 16). This where my game ended, as even the high wisdom/will save characters failed the saves and we ended in a TPK.

3. The auction's characters are well described, given interesting motivations, and you can find neat ways to interact with them. Shame that the auction itself didn't seem to have clear rules and that if you manage to convince the other bidders to leave you're rewarded with more combat. It feels like punishing success.

4. The boons are pretty easy to lose, as are the prestige points.

I hate giving this scenario the lowest score because the story is great, but it needs to be playable. And this wasn't.

Despite playing this at a late night con slot in a loud room where it was occasionally hard to hear the GM, this was the best experience I had with a PFS scenario. It does a good job of making the player's actions feel important multiple times while sharing the spotlight with a cast of high power NPCs. The dungeon crawl part is a bit slow, but the pay offs when you get the full picture of what's going on is worthwhile. The final fight is nothing short of epic, though if you're smart you can make it easier through using the resources you gain throughout the fight.