Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–11: Library of the Lion (PFRPG) PDF

Having now played this and run it twice, I've gotten my thoughts in order for this review.

First off, there has never been a scenario like this before, and as of writing this, it is still the only one that exists. That means that Library can be thought of as sort of a “guinea pig scenario” when PFS development was trying something out to see how it was received. And just for attempting that, I’ve got to give them a big hand. After six years of content, to write something that so breaks the mold of what you expect from a scenario, that takes a leap of faith. Lucky for them, authors Kyle Elliot and John Compton really hit it out of the park with this one.

The scenario required the creation of never before used mechanics—clues—in order to keep investigation of the Library of the Lion exciting, and man does it work. I’m reminded of another scenario, where in players have to research a cure for a terrible plague, but it mostly boiled down to X amount of skill checks, meaning Y amount of time, and that was about it. With the clue mechanic in Library, my players instead are very engaged in the actual research, debating over who searches what room, and are always eager to read whatever clues they received aloud to the table, proudly announcing their successes. This is a great thing to see. Especially when I can get players who have non-social PCs engaged in a challenge that’s 100% different from combat.

The restricted time frame the PCs have to explore also added a great element to the scenario, the running minute count I kept on the board served as an invisible hand, always ushering the players to stay on point. That’s also a good thing to have in a scenario like this; without it I can see PCs getting overwhelmed with the amount of rooms to search or even boringly moving as a unit from room to room until they find all the clues. As it is, with a party that works well together and thinks outside the box, I’ve found that all of my tables have been able to find all the clues and make it back under two hours—even with just 4 players present. That is a great feeling to be able to reward your players with.

Furthermore, the NPCs in this scenario are among the most memorable and unique Society has to offer (Grandmaster Torch being a solid exception). Both the Guardian and the librarian each serve both a crucial mechanical point as well as being a delight to roleplay as. I can use the Guardian as a GM to offer hints if needed to the PCs, or to fill in gaps in their understanding of the history of Taldor, while the librarian can serve to give the PCs a more grounded understanding of both the Lion Blades and what service to Taldor truly is under Prince Stavian. By having these NPCs in the scenario, and making them so memorable and unique, it made getting my players to roleplay a breeze. They wanted to try and negotiate with the Guardian and to try and fool the librarian. I’ve never had a scenario so give me the tools I need to make NPCs interesting as this one does.

In addition to all this, Library is literally packed with lore about the Inner Sea. There are detailed tidbits present in the clues the PCs uncover, there is excellent lore regarding Taldor in the scenario, and several of the final rooms are open ended enough to include items from whatever exotic and untapped nations the GM wishes to mention. I found myself pausing the scenario at points to give brief history lessons on the Inner Sea region, having my players make a token Knowledge check as an excuse for me to dish about the rich world that Pathfinder takes place in. I thoroughly enjoyed the ease that I was able to do this with in the scenario, and I believe my players enjoyed uncovering random bits of lore, becoming more immersed with each new thing they learned.

Finally, no investigative, thinking-man’s (and woman’s) scenario like this would be complete without puzzles. And Library has some of the best ones in PFS. I will not detail them at all, as to do so would be to do a disservice to this remarkable scenario, suffice it to say that at one point, a player tried to make a Knowledge check to get hints as to how to bypass one of the puzzles. I smiled and simply told him no—everything you need to succeed in Library of the Lion is right there in front of you. You just have to work your brain a bit.

In the end, I highly recommend Library of the Lion, it is in my top five scenarios of all time and may be my new favorite 1-5. It is a delight both to run and to play, and if you have any questions when prepping it I encourage you to post over on the GM boards. Kyle and John have been consistently on top of answering any and all questions and further explaining the mechanics. My only advice would be for GMs to prep this scenario thoroughly in advance, and to play it before running it if possible. There is more prep work for this 1-5 than any other out there, and I am not exaggerating.

So do your research and draw your maps, because Library of the Lion is worth the extra work. It’s a wholly unique experience and one that everyone should be able to enjoy.

I had the good fortune of playing this scenario recently. We had a diverse group as we entered the library, and it worked out well. The puzzles were fun and environment interesting. This was a scenario where thought overtook brawn. For a society of scholars and archaeologists, this kind of encounter should happen more often!

I will echo one thing other reviewers mentioned: this is a scenario that must be prepared well in advance. Some scenarios can be run cold if needed due to familiar mechanics and activities; this is not one of those scenarios. There are numerous handouts and other clues that must be well understood by the GM and provided to players. GMs: do your homework!

I haven't played this one, but I enjoyed running it. The puzzles aren't bad and it's a good excuse for groups to take Ezren as a pregen. It's a little fiddly with the "deck of finds" and your combat folks may be annoyed by there not being any fights at all but otherwise seemed like a good mix.

If your enjoyment of an adventure is based on how many times per hour you get to power attack, look elsewhere.

Now that we have that out of the way, this has got puzzles, investigations, clues, plenty of opportunity for inter-party roleplay, time management, lots of fun, and does it all in a few hours.

Truth be told, I got mixed feelings about this scenario. Let's start with the parts I liked. I appreciated the whole stealthy infiltration part of the mission. It's always nice to roleplay that out. Then there was the fact that there is a really interesting NPC in this scenario. Not just that, it's a rather unique and memorable one in a good way and that deserves a star by itself. I'm not sure if this was my GM doing an amazing job portraying this individual or not, but his performance made this an interesting scenario.

However, there were also things I didn't like that much. Solving puzzles is fun and are always challenging, but at some point I had decipher a code as it was part of the faction mission. I don't mind doing that, but it so happened to be that I was the only member of that faction in the party. So while I was puzzling, my character just sat on her eidolon and blindly followed her friends. It made me feel like I wasn't really participating or contributing at times since I was preoccupied. While that actually fits the personality of my character, for me as a player I felt a bit excluded from the action.

I just mentioned the word 'action'. I'd honestly have to say that's another issue I have with this scenario: most of this scenario is the party going into a room, doing a skill check, rolling some dice and then moving on to the next room. It more or less boils down to a reliance on skill checks and, as we all know, not everyone is into that sort of thing. I personally don't have any issue with making a check often, but I got the feeling two other players were quite frankly bored and disappointed a little by the way the scenario developed.

To add onto that, there is also a certain time sensitivity that has been build into the scenario. As a result we felt a bit too rushed to roleplay those chambers and our skill checks out as well. I suppose, and this is just a guess, that it would have been a more fun experience if we had done so. But then again, I wouldn't have been able to in the first place due to having to crack a code.

Conclusion: the idea behind is the scenario is fun, but the mechanics behind the scenes are a bit lacking I'm afraid.