Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-02: Sewer Dragons of Absalom (PFRPG) PDF

I have to say this was a pleasure to play and dm. I played this at gencon at high tier and it definately gave our group some things to worry about.

I later ran this with another great group, this group had two wizards. This group surprised me with ingenius strategies.

I have ran this and played it two more times, I have to say this is a really memorable scenario.

Great role playing potential, and story. Plus I like Kobolds. Good job to the author. On a side note I want to play a Kobold in PFS. Ogre can you mail me a boon? J/K

Sewer Dragons of Absalom

I ran this twice at Gencon 2011 and have mixed feelings on the module overall.

Both times that I ran Sewer Dragons, it was at the higher tier. In both cases, the players at my table were all experienced and nobody was playing a pre-gen. Most PCs were at level 7 (two were at level 8). If you have ever run a PFS scenario for level 7 at Gencon, you will know that not having a single pre-gen at the table is a rather rare occurrence. To have it happen twice in a row was very unusual. I think the module suffered for it, especially with a table of six.

The reason for this is straightforward: with a table of six experienced Pathfinders at level 7 (or 8), the combat throughout the module was not challenging at all. Worse, the combat was not terribly interesting, either. The sole exception to this was when a PC fell down the chute and found himself fighting a pair of Otyughs in the dark on his own until the rest of the party could come to his assistance. In both cases, the victims of the chute had high ACs, so they were easily able to stand against the pair of Otyughs without too much trouble. Had a relatively low AC character fallen down the chute instead, matters may well have gone otherwise.

Had the module been played at a higher tier with half the table playing pre-gens, it might be that the combat in the module might have had a very different feel. However, against a table of 6 experienced players who knew their level 7 characters’ capabilities well – the PCs just steamrolled through the opposition without even breaking a sweat.

On the plus side, the roleplaying elements in the module are uniformly excellent and these encounters are the greatest strength of the module. The first major encounter with Creeley Greeves may be solved by either combat or roleplaying and I thought this provided a nice balance to the module, overall. The surveillance part of the module which leads to the first roleplaying encounter at the Opera House with the King’s daughter, Yiddlepode, had a nice “vibe” to it and i would recommend that GMs play up on this “sneaky-Pete” element of the mod to provide the rogue a chance to shine. The roleplaying possibilities with the King and later Yiddlepode in the Epilogue were also very entertaining. Big thumbs up for these encounters as I love doing Kobold voices! The players clearly enjoyed all of these encounters.

My expectation is that the combat in the module will play much better at lower tier than it does at the higher tier. I would guess that the combat elements in the module were developed primarily with the lower tier in mind; Kobolds are obviously better foes for lower level characters. Many PFS scenarios play better at certain tiers than they do at others -- and my hope is that this module is no exception to that rule.

As I enjoyed the roleplaying aspects of the module so much, I will certainly run this module again for a lower tier group and update my review at that time. With a table of four or five PCs at level 3-4, this might prove to be a great module.

I am very encouraged by the comments from the other reviewers (so far) who have each suggested the combat in the module was deadly at lower tier. A great combat challenge with the great roleplaying opportunites the module already provides could EASILY make this a five-star module. As it stands, I can't go there (yet) based on the combat at higher-tier for all of the reasons stated above.

I would happily play one of Ogre's modules again and I look forward to the next chance to do so.

3.5 *** Stars
Reviewer: Steel_Wind

Sewer Dragons was the best scenario I played at Gencon 2011. Despite the name, you’re not going to spend all of your time on a 5' wide path.

Edit: I feel the need to edit my review. When I played Sewers, my GM (ran the scenario cold) mistakenly included all of the traps (and other features) from subtier 6-7 into subtier 3-4. So of course this scenario was much harder than normal (the final encounter was actually too hard). Without at least some of these traps though, Sewers loses some of it's charm, flavor and uniqueness, and subtier 3-4 would be kind of plain without them.

Sewers does not work well at subtier 6-7, it's too easy. You can't just add harmless CR 2 creatures and hope that it scales everything to subtier 6-7. Most of the encounters would be over before they even start.

The first trap could have also been a lot more vicious (in both subtiers), it wasn't damaging enough to be a factor, and because of its design it only caught 1 PC in two sessions.

Having said that, the scenario did have a wonderful mix of interesting NPCs, roleplaying, exploration, and combat.

This scenario had a lot of variety in it's encounters with a lot of different skills and abilities thrown at you. I played in the 3-4 bracket and the last encounter did not disappoint. Unfortunately we were pressed for time and didn't get the full effect but you might not make it out with the full party depending on the GM. I'd actually like to give this four and a half stars but I don't have that option. The only thing I found fault with was a little lack of motive from one of the NPCs that wasn't fully explained. That might have also been because we ran out of time. Over all great scenario and I hope to see more from this author.