Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–08: The Confirmation (PFRPG) PDF

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for level 1-2.

Almost all Pathfinders undergo extensive training for three or more years to learn the tricks of the trade, and their last test before graduating from the ranks of the initiates to the status of a full Pathfinder agent is the Confirmation, a special research project that involves considerable fieldwork and is designed to simulate the initiates' future work as a Pathfinder. Even the noteworthy field commissioned agents sometimes participate in such trials as a way to familiarize themselves with the Pathfinder Society’s rules and expectations. Although Confirmation is typically an individual affair, the society recently discovered a site on the Isle of Kortos that would be perfect for initiates but perhaps too dangerous to handle alone. Successfully uncovering this site’s secrets will not only contribute to the society’s body of knowledge but shape the exciting careers ahead for each of the prospective agents.

Written by Kyle Baird.

This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

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An intro that's big on heart, light on substance

3/5

Played in a PbP game, coming at it from the perspective of a first "real PFS" experience (PFS rules, random group of players).

I loved this scenario from the perspective of introducing us to being a Pathfinder. There were ample reminders to take notes and be prepared for anything, and the bonus free consumables gave us a toolbag of tricks to use when we needed them. Janira is a fun character. The guidance from her is likely invaluable to players new to Pathfinder, and her enthusiasm is written so strongly that you can't help but RP along with her.

The concept behind the adventure seems interesting. Not only are you becoming confirmed Pathfinders, but there are mysterious gillmen hiding out in caves and conducting rituals.

Unfortunately, the meat of the adventure inside the cave is ruined because...

Adventure spoilers:
The plot pans out into nothing much.
The gillman you locate can be RP'd with, but doesn't reveal anything exciting. The cave is just a place some gillmen come to chill. Heck, the source of the recent safety problems has been dealt with before the party even gets there. Plus, along the way you deal with bland and unmotivating threats that reveal next to nothing about the cave or the story behind the necromancer. Its like the internal part of the cave is one big handwave to say: "I guess you had an adventure in there?"

The Aroden bit went over most of our heads and didn't really feel like a revelation or important in any way. Just another piece of vaguely notable scenery that we dutifully took notes on and had no reason to spare any more thoughts on.

Of course, the encounter after leaving the cave was awesome. Swingy, but with just enough opportunities to play tactically (at least in our group that lacked a 2-hander wielder). Our Janira went down early and we had a bit of nailbiting with if she had managed to stabilize. That the writing manages to draw you in to care about her in such a short time is a testament to the author. :>


4/5


Solid introduction to Pathfinder Society format

4/5

Great adventure - ran it with 6 1st level heroes at our local game shop. It was my first time running a Pathfinder Society game, and The Confirmation was a solid 4 hour session. The players enjoyed it, there are a moderate variety of challenges, and the PCs get to meet and befriend a great NPC (hopefully we'll see more recurring NPC characters so that Chronicle Boons can be used!)

All in all an enjoyable session. Combat is probably a 4/10 for difficulty, which is A-OK. One important note, keep in mind this is an introductory adventure for a lot of new players, so if you've got to fudge the dice to avoid killing PCs, please do it - I remember reading that when new players lose their characters at a low level, they never return to RPG games, and write off the whole domain as 'not something they enjoy'.


A great introduction, but flawed as an evergreen

3/5

Roughly 18 months after I played my first PFS-scenario, I got to play this evergreen for the first time. I feel like an actual Pathfinder now, which is strange given the time it took me to get round to this. Looking back, I neither like nor dislike the scenario.

For a new player, it's a great scenario. You get to learn what a typical scenario would be like and it's pretty straightforward. It's a good introduction and it seems to be easy to prepare and run for a GM as well. For a more experienced player, it's a bit unfortunate that it lacks a story a little. You get various small arcs that create a story together, but it feels a bit like a patchwork of things.

Furthermore I have to say that having the BBEG fight potentially at the start – which is something my characters would opt for every single time as you don't leave a friend behind – it makes the rest of the encounters feel like a 'is that all?' kind of thing. It's a little disappointing in that sense, giving the whole a scenario an anticlimactic vibe.

My last issue is that I just can't see it be fun as an evergreen. It's too straightforward and lacks variety to simply play and appreciate it again. I'm sure the creatures will change, but if that's the only thing that will be different, it's just not enough for me personally. The only two reasons I can think of that would make me want to play it again, would be the boons on the chronicle or if I'd make it a legal table for others to enjoy. It's a good and enjoyable scenario, but not really worth repeating. As it's an evergreen, I feel obliged to lower my final rating by one star, leaving it with 3 out of 5 stars.


Great Intro

4/5

Excellent intro scenario for PFS, and Janira is an awesome NPC. This would be a solid 5 star scenario if it:

1) Didn't rely upon one flip-mat that is no longer in print, and secondly have gigantic custom maps to draw/print. This is a standard intro scenario and the necessary resources to play it should have been easy.

2) Either this or the Wounded Wisp should get a quick edit to fix the simple dependency between the two.


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GM's can apply credit to a 2nd level character once and an unlimited number of times to first level characters.

Shadow Lodge

Very cool. Thank You.


DM Beckett wrote:
I might have missed it, but in the PFS guide it states that all Tier 1 Scenarios and Tier 1-2 Moduels are replayable. I know this one is for players, but do DMs also get full credit each time they run this as well, or just once?

Urgh - nice catch.

Just noticed this is neither a Tier 1 Scenario or a Tier 1-2 Module, so yeah credit once only under current rules.

Not as good as First Steps after all.

Grand Lodge

Shifty, the scenario mentions replayability itself.


If you're looking for some hand outs/online icons/references for the carvings in the you know where Linky


TriOmegaZero wrote:
Shifty, the scenario mentions replayability itself.

Ahhh righto, ok then, thanks matey :)

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

No problem. :)

Shadow Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dshagins wrote:
Just bought this and I have yet to run it. I am once again disappointed by the volume of books required to run the scenario (Core Rulebook, APG, ARG, Bestiary 1-4). Seems to be that if I want to run two season 4/5 games at a con or my local gaming store I have to bring half my gaming shelf.

Dshagins, if you weren't aware of it already, there's a great resource for PFS Gms HERE Most scenarios have had stat block cheat sheets made for them. Since GMs are allowed to use the PRD, as long as you have the time to prep beforehand, you can print off the sheets and not have to rely on books/internet for stats. That's what I do every week for the games I run, or at least have the cheat sheets on my tablet so I can read them off of it. I wasn't a huge fan of them making all the hardcovers into core assumption for the GMs, but letting us use the PRD goes a long way to helping prep.

Sovereign Court

Kyle Baird wrote:
GM's can apply credit to a 2nd level character once and an unlimited number of times to first level characters.

Just to double-check, is this also true for First Steps I? There's been some confusion about that in my area recently.

Shadow Lodge

For first steps you can apply credit to a first level character infinitely (player or GM), but only once per character.

Page 20 Under "Replaying Scenarios"

"There are two exceptions to these rules. All Tier 1 scenarios and Tier 1–2 sanctioned modules are available for unlimited replay with a 1st-level character for credit. The sanctioned modules may also be played with a 2nd-level character once for credit. GMs may receive another Chronicle sheet each time they run one of the Tier 1 scenarios or Tier 1–2 sanctioned modules, but may only apply a Chronicle sheet to one 2nd-level character per adventure."

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber
Kyrand wrote:
Kyle Baird wrote:
GM's can apply credit to a 2nd level character once and an unlimited number of times to first level characters.
Just to double-check, is this also true for First Steps I? There's been some confusion about that in my area recently.

No. First Steps is, explicitly, for level 1 characters only. The chronicle shows this, too - it list the subtier as "1", not "1-2".

Sovereign Court

JohnF wrote:
Kyrand wrote:
Kyle Baird wrote:
GM's can apply credit to a 2nd level character once and an unlimited number of times to first level characters.
Just to double-check, is this also true for First Steps I? There's been some confusion about that in my area recently.

No. First Steps is, explicitly, for level 1 characters only. The chronicle shows this, too - it list the subtier as "1", not "1-2".

Ah, I could have worded my question better -- I was referring to the GM being able to get multiple credits (on different PCs) from running it.

DM Beckett wrote:

For first steps you can apply credit to a first level character infinitely (player or GM), but only once per character.

Page 20 Under "Replaying Scenarios"

"There are two exceptions to these rules. All Tier 1 scenarios and Tier 1–2 sanctioned modules are available for unlimited replay with a 1st-level character for credit. The sanctioned modules may also be played with a 2nd-level character once for credit. GMs may receive another Chronicle sheet each time they run one of the Tier 1 scenarios or Tier 1–2 sanctioned modules, but may only apply a Chronicle sheet to one 2nd-level character per adventure."

This is what I was looking for, specifically the last sentence. Thank you for the page reference!

Liberty's Edge

I would make one suggestion, the encounter at the cave entrance should have 3 <censored>. There is a statistical probability that 1 in 3 runs of the encounter will end with <censored> drowning in the river. It also removes the option, after Janira does her monologue, of the players saying "Or we could just kill it...". The final encounter is fine as it is, but not much of a challenge for Advanced/Ultimate characters.

When Janira was showing off her new wayfinder, one of the players commented "Are you sure it didn't belong to someone else?". Upon close inspection she said "You're right! I wonder who J.L. was?". There are a few other spelling errors, but this is the most humourous.

I wouldn't mind secret door(s) being marked on the map(s). I would also like to see stat blocks at the end of the scenario organized by tier for all future releases, it makes them much easier to run.

Liberty's Edge

I would make one more suggestion: Change the Secondary Success Conditions to- "make an effort to chronicle the mission and 2 of the 4 remaining situtations". A couple of guys made no effort at all at journalling, but still got 2 PP for 3 of 5.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Kyle,

Thank you for coming up with this. This is perfect for the new folks in the region I just started, both players new to Society and the ones who want to GM for me.

While I may not be a huge fan of all of your work, this is definitely a scenario worth saying "Thank you" for.

So, Grazi ;)

Shadow Lodge

If this has already been discussed I apologize.

Let me preface this by saying that I only run/play PFS online. So I get irritated with season 0's because the maps at times take a bunch of time and effort to get them aligned to a VTT.

The crop work on the maps is awful for "Tight Spaces" and "Undead End". They were cropped with squares of unequal size. This makes it impossible to have a clean alignment. I know there was talk before about making maps easier for online gamers. This one was worse than most Season 0's. Sure this only effects a smaller portion of folks than those who have to draw them out (and yes we are lucky we don't have to draw them out) but I would ask that these kind of things be considered before publishing PDFs.

All that said the Scenario is excellently well written and I can't wait to run it during the OnlineGameDay #2.

Rant over, thanks everyone at Paizo for doing what they do. If this sounded too whiney or too direct it was not my intention, I just couldn't find the words to point out this issue without sounding jerky.


It was as struggle to use the cavern map packs. I tried to avoid custom 'random cave area #7' maps and I also avoided only using a single section of the map which force the whole 'PCs start here right on top of the monsters' situation.

Shadow Lodge

No worries. for some reason I thought that graphic designer's at paizo handled that part not the writer. In all honesty it's better than the scenarios where they just don't provide a map.

I did purchase the cavern's map pack and was able to make it work. Thanks again for your time in creating the scenario.

Sovereign Court

In the stats and gear for the encounter in area C,

Spoiler:
the stats say broken battleaxe, the gear says broken greataxe. Which is it supposed to be?

Grand Lodge

Spoiler:
Battle axe, as listed under the melee attack.

Sovereign Court

TriOmegaZero wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
A battleaxe requires martial weapon proficiency though, correct? Minotaurs do not have that feat and their entry in the bestiary lists greataxe. Though still martial, it is, I guess, a racial weapon for them and they don't need the feat for it.
Grand Lodge

Spoiler:
However, this minotaur has the battleaxe listed in his stat block and is therefore proficient. :)

The combat gear entry is an editing mistake.

Sovereign Court

Area B4 list several possible treasures that the PCs only get 2 of, but the entire list isn't on the chronicle sheet. Do I write in the missing items or are then not supposed to be there?

Sovereign Court

DonKeebals wrote:
Area B4 list several possible treasures that the PCs only get 2 of, but the entire list isn't on the chronicle sheet. Do I write in the missing items or are then not supposed to be there?

Since I can't edit the post, I'll reply. The reason for the "missing" items, is because they are considered always available.


I'm trying to understand the way this scenario works. I can only play it once at second level with one character. Also, the way I'm reading it I can play it multiple times at first level, even say 3 times with the same character? Is this correct?

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

deadlyrose1983 wrote:
I'm trying to understand the way this scenario works. I can only play it once at second level with one character. Also, the way I'm reading it I can play it multiple times at first level, even say 3 times with the same character? Is this correct?

Only once PER character, but you can play it with any number of first-level characters associated with your PFS ID number.

Shadow Lodge

I love this game and am gearing up to run it a couple of times at a new convention. I am very excited and am busily pulling things together, which led me to wonder - is there a map pack or flip mat that corresponds to the final exam?


There is not, but it could easily be represented by any forest setting that provides adequate distance and terrain between the PCs and the minotaur. The specifics of the map aren't really that important, it's the "how do we work together to save Janira and defeat the minotaur while navigating some terrain obstacles" that's important.

Lantern Lodge

I missed it, but what maps are best used with this scenario?
Trying to find one for this weekend that doesn't require me to buy more map-packs then I already have.

Lantern Lodge

Charlie Rock wrote:

I missed it, but what maps are best used with this scenario?

Trying to find one for this weekend that doesn't require me to buy more map-packs then I already have.

It helps if you actually click on the other pages besides 1, Charlie.

oops, I see it now, thanks.

Lantern Lodge

I noticed there are some items the adventurers find in the 'dungeon' that are not on the session page:
+1 longsword, +1 Small wooden shield, etc.
Are we supposed to write those in or what?

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

+1 weapons and armor are on the always available list, and therefore don't need to be on chronicle sheets.


When I print page 24 the player handouts they are blank and blank on my screen. Is there somewhere to download the handouts with content?

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

They're supposed to be blank. They're handouts that you give to the players if you want stylized paper for them to take notes on.

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