A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3-7.
The failure of Mendev's wardstones set in motion not only a new crusade but also catalyzed a change in the Pathfinder Society's various factions. As the Pathfinders prepare to march on the Sky Citadel Jormurdun, members of the various factions scramble to consolidate their gains and neutralize their enemies. "The Paths We Choose" is a special event designed to highlight the changes in each faction over the course of Season 5, The Year of the Demon, and the adventure is different for each group depending on which factions are represented at the table. Content in "The Paths We Choose" also contributes directly to the ongoing storylines of the Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira, Sczarni, and Taldor factions. This adventure kicks off Season 6, The Year of the Sky Key and is for character levels 3-7.
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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Played this in the big group at Gen Con. Due to the mess of mustering I played in a group of 6 with 5 different factions and we didn't get to play my faction mission.
The ones we did play went well for our group and worked mechanically, but I'm not sure they all made sense. (Sczarni puzzle chase? We do this for Taldor...err...Mendev? We didn't play the Silver Crusade one, but that gets called out quite a bit.)
I'm also not sure what the group aspect to this was supposed to be. Our GM didn't know they were supposed to be reporting successes. I'm guessing this was just leftovers from the change from group special to standard mission?
Some factions get more love than others. There, I said it. This ambitious and long special has some wonderful moments, but roughly half of the missions accomplish nothing and take us nowhere in the grand scheme of the PFS plot. It’s definitely worth playing, but only if you’re in the factions that have received some inspiration.
Mission details ahead:
Sovereign Court: This is one of the best of the bunch. Although I skipped the warehouse and had the team assault the coach in transit, there was a lot of fun to be had with this one. The combat was relatively easy, but keeping the town guards off their backs was the difficult and interesting part of the violence.
Coming up with ways to deface Lord Minovitas paintings was an excellent and flavourful beginning for the Sovereign Court. Of course my mischievous party descended immediately into claims of bestiality and accusations of drunkenness. Great fun.
Here's the list of portraits I described for the PCs:
1. Lord Minovitas has slain a Nabasu demon and is standing over it.
2. Lord Minovitas shares an intimate dinner with Queen Galfrey. She looks smitten and he is lecturing in strategy.
3. Lord Minovitas has fired a longbow arrow into the forehead of a balor. A number of Kyonin elves are cheering his markmanship.
4. Lord Minovitas has removed his shirt and is wrestling a mammoth. A number of stylised Mammoth Lord men and women cheer him on.
5. Lord Minovitas has gathered the Taldan nobles to his cause at a feast. This painting resembles the last supper, with Lord Minovitas in the centre.
6. Lord Minovitas looks into the middle-distance, with the enormous ghostly face of Emperor Stavian staring into the middle-distance behind him.
Silver Crusade: The slave auction is stacked against the party, but giving the GM a Doppelganger boss to deal with adds much of the excitement and fun to this mission. I had my Midley Blackburn prepare a disguise as an Andoran eagle knight to sequester the released slave from the PCs, but they raided his home in the middle of the night instead. It was a great idea to have the entire slaver gang have darkvision.
Exchange: Wow. This one was intense. It really helps to up the cinematic vision of the PCs rowing through the flotsam graveyard, searching for Guaril. When we played through this the assassins cut Guaril within an inch of his life, only to have the matured Devilfish surge from the deep. It looked at the sole remaining assassin, then Guaril. I rolled randomly and lo and behold, the kraken grabped the poor crime lord, tearing him to pieces and taking him to -13hp (He has low con. Ouch) The party screamed and withdrew, returning to Aaqir with grim news. Definitely a great memorable combat for the PFS storyline.
Grand Lodge: Apart from a nice prestige decision involving saving corrupted agents, this short dungeon crawl was formulaic and boring as well. I feel like we’ve had two years of the Grand Lodge standing for absolutely nothing.
The monsters are either a cakewalk or terrifying depending on the damage potential of the PCs. If you have PCs with low piercing damage, they're effectively committing suicide by attacking. If a PC can regularly deal 15+ dam, it's over in a heartbeat.
Trying to incapacitate a spider-climbing, fire-breathing, bomb-hurling, tumour-riddled alchemist is a tough ask.
Osirion: Formulaic and boring, with barely anything relevant to the Tahonikepsu/Amenopheus power struggle. This mission is the worst of the lot.
Dark Archive: After reading this, I was expecting it to be super creepy for the PCs. After running it, the actual result turned out to be totally different. The Owb seemed to be more grindy and monotonous than scary and disturbing. One creature versus 6 PCs isn't really that scary. The special notes with the mirror shards were good, but one smiting paladin and you'll end up with a combat that teaches the PCs to never fear anything again.
Andoran: Really great. I love the political intrigue angle, I love the 'bust down the door' combat mission where the PCs are trying to cover all escape routes rather than smash a monster. This 'capture the criminal' combat encounter deserves more exploration.
This scenario felt very much like First Steps: Electric Boogaloo with the interactions with faction leaders. However, most of my entertainment came from the group I was playing with rather than the scenario itself. Each mission seemed to vary in quality and length, making for a rather disjointed progression. (And 15 minute adventuring day.) Overall I would also give it 3.5 stars if I could.
This review may be updated after a replay to experience the other factions.
Update: After using a replay to experience two more of the missions, I find nothing to sway my opinion. There is a wide range that this scenario can play over, and it is quite hefty overall for maybe not as much gain as I would like. I feel like First Steps would have felt like this, had it been done in one scenario rather than three.
I have not yet read the scenario, and cannot comment on the GM side of it for now.
This scenario is really just some unrelated mini missions over a bland backdrop. We played high tier, Scarab Sages, Exchange, and Liberty's Edge missions. I was curious so I read through the scenario after but am only judging based on our actual experience playing. We seem to have got some of the less interesting missions, but that could just be personal opinion.
Scarab Sages
The most tacked on mission. Relatively unexciting and over quickly. Also has the worst story wrap up. So long Amenopheus!
Spoiler:
The trap killed an animal companion, so I guess theres that
Exchange
The puzzle(?) seemed to just be a time filler. The final combat was actually touch and go for us. I normally complain about suboptimal NPCs but this seemed about right. Story wise this faction never really made sense to me and the scenario handles it awkwardly but I don't know what else they should have done save not have combined the factions.
Spoiler:
I love the 3 sided combat thing and would like to see more of it. Im the type that likes seeing stats for important NPCs so I like that they included Guaril's
Libery's Edge
Best of the three. A nontraditional scenario like this begs for nontraditional encounters and this delivered. Again the wrap up doesnt particularly make sense to me but thats not really a problem with the scenario but rather the decisions to change the factions.
Backdrop
The party backdrop thing was fairly blah and a little lockstep. You are talking to some important people when a messenger pulls you away. Id like to have seen the backdrop integrated into the story more either as the second prestige or the boons being from influencing the events at the party. In an inherently disintegrated story you have to really work hard to make the connections relevant.
A few of the missions look kind of neat (Taldor, Grand Lodge, Cheliax) so if you know youll be playing those then maybe this would be okay. On the whole, though, trying to wrap up all the faction changes with one scenario just proved too heavy a task and this scenario suffers for it. I would still play it or read through it just to know what happened, but don't expect a super exciting game.
Trying to review as an average of likely experiences...
Compared to other reason scenarios released at the end of Season 5, this one is certainly better than those, so I'm trying to decide if I'm grading scenarios on a curve now, where scenarios like Assault and Scars set the bottom of the curve...
This a fairly hefty amount of prep work for a GM. It weighed in at about 55 pages for me with all the stat blocks printed out.
The basics are you will be picking 3-4 of the factions from the available 7 and running the missions for those factions.
The scenario begins among a backdrop of a 4-day festival, and there are six "important" NPCs that can be interacted with among several events over those 4 days. I honestly didn't find any of those NPCs that compelling to roleplay for more than 30-60 seconds, and they don't really factor much into anything else in the scenario. If you're trying to make a 4-hour game store slot, I'd invest no more than a few minutes describing the multi-day events as a backdrop and skipping using these NPCs at all.
You will want to select 3 missions at a minimum. If you only have time to run 2, the table won't be able to get full prestige. The scenario is permissive to allow you to run 4, 5 or even all 7 if you have the time for it.
The Taldor mission gets decent marks for me, since it's a sandbox that gives multiple creative methods for a party to tackle. It's a tough one, and I did have a Taldor faction Paladin of Shelyn at my table. I wish there was a little more guidance on why this sabotage was critical beyond serving Lady Gloriana's whims. I can see the change from Taldor to Sovereign Court being a rough transition, as Sovereign Court is secret like "Fight Club" and not really a place for over-the-top-I-was-born-to-be-royal nobles to cavort. Many groups won't do any combat. If you like creative roleplay, this is a 4/5. If you don't, this is a 1/5 and Sovereign Court seems "off".
The Cheliax/Dark Achive mission is also decent. I enjoyed roleplaying Zarta putting on some thick rimmed glasses and tying her hair up in a bun, but still being her usual Zartaness. It's a very basic dungeon crawl with a single fight. The newly presented monster here gets high marks for creativity, and run for the 6-person 6-7 subtier is a tough fight for those hungry for a tough one. Zarta rocks, the fight has a good vibe but is short. I'd give it a 3/5 or 4/5 if you like interesting but tough fights.
The Exchange mission is a bit bumpy. It has all kinds of issues with internal consistency which are obvious right away. Like why would Guaril not simply tell the PCs where to meet versus giving them something to puzzle out? The whole relationship with Aaqir and Guaril is a bit clunky as well and felt contrived to both me as the GM and the players. The fight mechanics are solid though, and the GM is given flexibility to tune the encounter difficulty. If a GM wants to press "hard mode" (there's no written hard mode, but a GM has tools to challenge optimized groups), he can provide one of the most difficult 6-7 subtier fights I've seen written in a while. The fight mechanics get a 5/5, the general Exchange presentation a 1/5.
The Silver Crusade mission is very strange. It feels like it was a rejected draft for an Andoran mission. I'm not a fan of this one at all, it's clunky and hard to run. The fight is guaranteed. It feels like the development for it was rushed. Honestly, I'd simply prefer if it didn't exist in the scenario since it takes away from running a better mission and does ZILCH to advance or make Silver Crusade any more interesting.
The Andoran mission could be alright. At first read-through, it seems like there's no combat to be had, until you look at the NPC's inventory. Then, it has the chance to be a fairly interesting fight. There will be a lot of table variation in this one, running how that NPC and the scene play out and how GMs deal with Perception/Stealth and certain spells. I honestly might've preferred if this one was more clearly presented. As it exists though, a GM could compress it to a short (30 minute) mission, or it could sprawl over 90 minutes. Wrapping up with Maldris is clunky though. He essentially says folks in Andoran are standing in the way of real democracy, and he can't operate in an environment like that because he might have to report up to someone who doesn't share his values. I find this to be like an American saying "Man, I take issue with the fact only rich folks are getting elected... in order to fight this off, I'm moving to Fiji." What the?!? The faction explanation gets fat 0/5 for me, but the mission itself is a 3/5 because it's somewhat interesting.
The Scarab Sages one I only had a chance to skim, as I knew I wouldn't be running it. It felt "bolted on", as its an Osirion style tomb inside Absalom. And instead of getting to see Tahonikepsu, you get to talk to Amenopheus, who isn't even your new big boss. I think I would've preferred seeing this actually set outside of Absalom and getting time with the time dragon, in a completely different scenario. The combat looks like it would be alright, but it's also a bit clunky. Maybe 2/5 or 3/5 depending on group taste.
The Grand Lodge one looks excellent, it was another one I only skimmed. I like the reference to Bonekeep and the fact that the Grand Lodge almost has a "Shadow Lodge vibe" that it is developing, cleaning up the messes caused by the Society. The combat looks like it could be interesting as well, with an interesting NPC to play with. This one is likely a 4/5.
Table variation will lead to wildly different reviews on this one, so I'm going to try to give it a blended review that should represent how I see this across many runs that give all factions equal representation.
The best 3 missions are 3/5 or 4/5 experiences, call it a 3.5/5 blended.
There's the average missions, call them 2/5 or 3/5 experiences, or a 2.5/5 blended.
Then there's the ones that defy reasoning, "because reasons". These are 0/5 or 1/5 experiences, or a 1/5 blended.
Averaging it all out, I'm left with a 2/5 or 3/5 star experience. Because it can vary wildly, I'm inclined to round down instead of round up. A scenario which consistently delivers a certain experience would get the benefit of rounding up. Because this one is so variable, I'd likely round it down.
However, compared to other recent scenarios, this one is better. I wish I could give it a half-star review, because I'd rate it 2.5.
I agree with an earlier reviewer, I'd rather have had a scenario where Hitchcock could've written to his heart's content and not had to juggle a bunch of awkward factions that fit like square pegs in round holes.
This feels like a evolution of First Steps part 1. I really like it!
There are currently 7 Quests within the scenario, with the game only experiencing details of 3 of the 7.
With proper GM notations on the chronicle sheets, is it possible to play this scenario twice in order to experience 6 of the faction specific quests? With the proviso that no player gets to repeat a quest?
EG. Playthrough 1: Dark Archive, Grand Lodge, Exchange.
Playthrough 2: Silver Crusade, Scarab Sages, Andoran.
(Miss out on the Taldor mission)
This would double the play potential of this product and allow more PFS players to let their characters experience the changes in their factions.
That would be very difficult to coordinate. Remember that you would have to ensure that everyone at the table was not replaying one of the missions, and that's a tall order for a table of six.
The Special advises that a group should be able to play through at least three missions, but it can do more as the slot allows. It's conceivable that one might play 5-99 as an epic, 6- to 8-hour event and do all of the missions.
Why was the Silver Crusade left out as the only faction that doesn't get any attention in this module ?
Silver Crusade had a mission, just like every other current faction. If you played with more than 3 factions present, your table might not have had time to get to it was all.
Follow-up Question... Since this scenario becomes available after the start of Gen Con, how should the faction changeovers be handled?
I had the same question - the answer is in the fact that you get to make one faction change at any point during Season Six. When you start Season Six, your faction transfers to the new one matching it (if applicable). From then until next Gen Con, you can make one free faction change.
Announced for July! Keep in mind that it won't be available for normal purchase until just before Gen Con 2015 but is available for regional conventions and game days.
I'm confused. It is available for purchase, but it can't run it unless it's at a qualifying con or game days?
Announced for July! Keep in mind that it won't be available for normal purchase until just before Gen Con 2015 but is available for regional conventions and game days.
I'm confused. It is available for purchase, but it can't run it unless it's at a qualifying con or game days?
So since this was run as a special, does it count towards the "10 exclusives/specials" for qualification for 5th GM star?
I only ask because I'm at 99 tables and want to start getting those in soon.
So...you've got 99 tables but an exclusive ain't one?
;-)
Hard to tell if you are being serious or not. I have 113 tables now. And no. I have never run an exclusive. I have run a table at a multi-table special though.
Still no definitive answer to my question that I can see.
Hard to tell if you are being serious or not. I have 113 tables now. And no. I have never run an exclusive. I have run a table at a multi-table special though.
Still no definitive answer to my question that I can see.
I have a question, not whether it is a misspelling and maybe not important, but English is not my language and I tend to translate the stage for better interpretation. On page 6 named 'The Opparan Trace Commission,' and also page 10, but say the glorious speech Opparan Trade Commission. which of the two is? if they mean different things.
I have a question, not whether it is a misspelling and maybe not important, but English is not my language and I tend to translate the stage for better interpretation. On page 6 named 'The Opparan Trace Commission,' and also page 10, but say the glorious speech Opparan Trade Commission. which of the two is? if they mean different things.
It should be the "Opparan Trade Commission." Trace would be a typo.
given that this was essentially a reboot of first steps to introduce new factions, and tome of righteous repose has set precedent for a 3-7 evergreen, is there any chance this could be opened up for replay? likely without the trait boon intact, similar to the wayfinder restriction on confirmation?
I honestly hope not - this is way different from Tome of Righteous Repose. If people are super interested in playing for the other missions, that's why GM stars exist.
But honestly, half of the missions are pretty crappy anyway. The Exchange and Sovereign Court missions are cool, but the Grand Lodge, Liberty's Edge and Scarab Sages missions are forgettable, and the Dark Archive and Silver Crusade missions are downright terrible.
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