Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–01: Trial by Machine (PFRPG) PDF

Announced for August!

This sounds like a really nasty version of The Confirmation.
"Oops, sorry guys. I started the machine somehow. If you make it out alive, consider yourself field agents."

It sounds like a nasty version of Master of the Fallen Fortress to me. :)

The danger room has gone haywire again...

"Trial by Combot" would have been a better name. ;)

As long as they all do not have harness 8/10, my summoner's eidolon will have a field day in there.

Sounds cool!

More than a millennium has passed since the "machine mage" Karamoss's failed siege of Absalom...

Sure enough!

So based on the Faction letters, this one is going to build off the Silver Crusade story for season 6?

Signed up to play this at gencon can't wait

This product description is missing the Author name. It's in the picture though.

This was pretty rough one with 4 level 1 players. Still not sure about this technology stuff being introduced into PFS. Debating as to whether I will be doing any more of the season six scenarios.

This was pretty rough one with 4 level 1 players. Still not sure about this technology stuff being introduced into PFS. Debating as to whether I will be doing any more of the season six scenarios.

You realize they explicitly said that a lot of Season Six scenarios has nothing to do with technology, right?

This scenario was full of it. Just about every battle was against some form of machine.

This scenario was full of it. Just about every battle was against some form of machine.

Some season 5 scenarios were full of demons. Others didn't have a single one.

That is True. I just am not a real big fan of the technology flavor I guess. Still on the fence about it all.

I personally have no problem with it and look forward to the experience. However, I totally support your desire to only play the non-tech scenarios this season. Hopefully they will be obvious in which scenarios are more traditional than others.

I am going to give it at least one more try. Maybe it will get better or there will be something that changes my mind about the whole thing.

I typically print the maps at scale for the scenarios when possible. I use Gimp to do some scaling and chopping. All the maps for this scenario just copy over as black blocks. This is the first time I've had this problem with a Paizo PDF. Anyone else seeing this? It's going to be a serious pain if I can't print the maps.

I was having the same problem, but Nitro PDF Reader got the images out for me.

I was having the same problem, but Nitro PDF Reader got the images out for me.

Yikes $140 is steep. I'll give the 14 day trial a shot but it won't be a long term solution.

I was able to get the maps out by loading the PDF into gimp instead of copy/paste. Now the issue is that these maps have the trap and room ID marks embedded into the image. Most current Paizo maps have them on a different layer so when you copy and paste them over the markings don't copy. Very convenient. This will mean more editing to fuzz out the secret parts.

I know it sounds like a lot of complaining. It's just that being able to put maps together quickly and out to the printers is very nice. Having printed maps on PFS night makes the scenario go much smoother (and faster). Less time drawing == more time playing, and pretty maps with the awesome Paizo artwork is very impressive :)

Iammars wrote:

I was having the same problem, but Nitro PDF Reader got the images out for me.

Yikes $140 is steep. I'll give the 14 day trial a shot but it won't be a long term solution.

I was able to get the maps out by loading the PDF into gimp instead of copy/paste. Now the issue is that these maps have the trap and room ID marks embedded into the image. Most current Paizo maps have them on a different layer so when you copy and paste them over the markings don't copy. Very convenient. This will mean more editing to fuzz out the secret parts.

I know it sounds like a lot of complaining. It's just that being able to put maps together quickly and out to the printers is very nice. Having printed maps on PFS night makes the scenario go much smoother (and faster). Less time drawing == more time playing, and pretty maps with the awesome Paizo artwork is very impressive :)

I'm just using the free version. I agree that $140 seems steep, which is why I'm not using that version.

This was pretty rough one with 4 level 1 players...

This was confirmed in play. Our table on Sunday at GenCon consisted of a L2 Alchemist, a L2 Slayer, and four L1 pregen (Bard, Cleric, Rogue, Warrior). We barely squeaked through the first fight, managed to parlay with the raiders, and were nearly TPK'd with just the first two npcs with auras. Given a lack of resources after defeating *one* (we closed the door and had not entered the room) we high-tailed it out of there (like intelligent explorers would and should do) requesting additional resources or means to handle that situation and we were informed that we should have 'kept going'. End of Module.

...

There was no way for us to handle that room with the resources on hand.

This is a potentially bad PR situation for folks who want to play in PFS games, have sat down to this for their first game, and run into this. As it is, there may be four players (A family--Husband, wife, two children--the folks using the pregen characters) who were a bit put off by how the module ended.

What's more important is... can this be adjusted somewhat with an errata sheet or the like to make it a bit more survivable for that sort of situation while maintaining a level of challenge and fair play?

It won't make a difference to me, I've played it, got a handful of coins and a prestige for my character (far better than the unattainable res costs @L2, of course).

If there was some way to offer suggestions on how to improve this, I'm willing to submit a more in-depth idea on how this could be adjusted while still maintaining lethality potential.

Jim Page

On behalf of

Wei Ji the Learner, Slayer 2 Tengu

I GMed a lot of slots for Gen Con 2014, but this was the only PFS adventure I got to actually play at the convention. I am a long-tenured veteran of PFS modules, and I have to say that this one is quite challenging.

Furthermore, the overall application of technology to PFS is somewhat saddening...

I ran 4 slots of this at GenCon and I won't deny that it is tough, but I don't think it requires errata. Really there are three major encounters to worry about, and all of them become much better with good tactics. One of the common threads I saw when I ran this scenario was that players quickly adapted to all the encounters and while a party member may have gone down quickly, that's about all that happened.

And honestly, if there are a bunch of new players at the table, it's our job as GMs to encourage these tactics.

As for Season 6 and Technology, John Compton has already stated that Year 6 will have less Numeria stuff than Season 5 had demons. I wouldn't take Trial By Machine to be an example of how the rest of the year is going to be.

I'm just using the free version. I agree that $140 seems steep, which is why I'm not using that version.

My bad. I was looking at the full PDF tool, not the "reader". I got Nitro Reader and I'm now able to copy and paste into Gimp without the room/trap markings coming over. You're a life-saver.

Thanks!

I played this at gencon and our DM was fantastic. In a group of 6 we had three completely new to pathfinder players. Two were running pregens (warpriest and sorcerer). There was one level 2 character (bloodrager). The others were a shaman, skald, and hunter. The skeletons were the toughest part. We had one character almost die but we got through it by the skin of our teeth. The room without oxygen was also a scary moment since it took half the health of most of us. Overall though everyone seemed to love the tech elements since it added such an element of suspense. You never knew what would be around the next corner. The difficulty added to that suspense...we were definitely all on the edge of our seats. At the end the new players all seemed interested in playing more. I thought the scenario was a huge success.

I think it's kind of a jerky/bad DM move to let you go back to HQ and then end the scenario on you with no warning. At the very least you should be able to try and rest in the bunker room with all the beds to restore spells since you're not on a timed mission.

I certainly hope the rest of season 6 isn't as brutal as this scenario was...played this last weekend at Dragoncon. we had a couple of veteran players and three players new to PFS. one was sitting in his first PFS game...needless to say the scenario was exceptionally difficult. our highest level character (level 3)was killed before he even got off a shot at the first creature we faced...in that same encounter two other members of our party were put down into negative digits and a animal companion was killed.

The whole scenario was written like it was Bonekeep...not a 1-5. Sadly i think this scenario might have soured atleast one of the new players to not play any more PFS in the future.

our table was playing the low tier...unless our GM was completely screwing us over...the encounters were not tier appropriate at all...it felt more like a 7-11.

When I sit down at a 1-5...I expect it to be somewhat lighthearted...maybe some puzzles, knowledge checks, or diplomacy...and a couple of hack and slash encounters where unless you do something crazy or have horrible luck...the worst you can expect is maybe one teammate unconscious.

If this continues i may just forego the rest of season 6.

I liked it, and enjoyed the challenge.

And was not the slightest bit surprised that trial by machine had a lot of machines in it.
Kind of expected, really.

I had a minor problem when I printed this.

I certainly hope the rest of season 6 isn't as brutal as this scenario was...played this last weekend at Dragoncon. we had a couple of veteran players and three players new to PFS. one was sitting in his first PFS game...needless to say the scenario was exceptionally difficult. our highest level character (level 3)was killed before he even got off a shot at the first creature we faced...in that same encounter two other members of our party were put down into negative digits and a animal companion was killed.

The whole scenario was written like it was Bonekeep...not a 1-5. Sadly i think this scenario might have soured atleast one of the new players to not play any more PFS in the future.

our table was playing the low tier...unless our GM was completely screwing us over...the encounters were not tier appropriate at all...it felt more like a 7-11.

When I sit down at a 1-5...I expect it to be somewhat lighthearted...maybe some puzzles, knowledge checks, or diplomacy...and a couple of hack and slash encounters where unless you do something crazy or have horrible luck...the worst you can expect is maybe one teammate unconscious.

If this continues i may just forego the rest of season 6.

Hmmmm, played this Saturday with a group of 5 other 1st levels. I was the only 2nd level. Gorum was with me ane we were victorious, although our blood ranger was almost killed by the strange skeletons. In our toughest fight, a 40 point critical was more than enough to kill it. "all praise to Gorum"

Or in other words, fun, tough, but hardly bone keep. We had a wizard 1, cleric 1, cleric 1, warpriest 1, bloodrager 1 and warpriest 2 (me).

Edit: might have helped that the warpriests and bloodrager were two handed beat-sticks

Playing this tonight, and haven't settled on a PC yet. I don't see any factions mentioned as being associated with this one. Are there faction mission(s)?

This scenario furthers the Silver Crusade faction storyline.

Question:

Would this scenario work as a "pre"-Fires of Creation adventure?

Since the campaign presumes that the heroes start as a party, I was wondering if this would be a good intro.

It has a couple of advantages over the normal PFS use, that ...

• One of more of the characters is MUCH more likely to have the technologist feat.
  
• The technological treasures found in this adventure are much less likely to be unbalancing to the campaign.

Since the campaign presumes that the heroes start as a party, I was wondering if this would be a good intro.

Question:

Would this scenario work as a "pre"-Fires of Creation adventure?

Since the campaign presumes that the heroes start as a party, I was wondering if this would be a good intro.

It has a couple of advantages over the normal PFS use, that ...

• One of more of the characters is MUCH more likely to have the technologist feat.
  
• The technological treasures found in this adventure are much less likely to be unbalancing to the campaign.

Since the campaign presumes that the heroes start as a party, I was wondering if this would be a good intro.

I think that could work rather nicely.