A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th-level pregenerated characters.
Years of political maneuvering, espionage, smuggling, and diplomacy have set the stage for the Aspis Consortium's most ambitious attack on their Inner Sea rivals: the Pathfinder Society. All that remains are several key preparations that only an elite team of Aspis agents can arrange, and once the fireworks begin, these same agents must strike quickly and mercilessly to secure objectives—some shared and some connected to deeper plots—and escape without the Society being any the wiser.
In this adventure the players portray agents of the Aspis Consortium using 7th-level pregenerated characters. The events in this story also connect to and expand upon those in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-97: Siege of Serpents.
Written by John Compton.
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6 hours, 5 deaths out of five. Seems to require the wizard to cast scrolls that are found on pretty mich everybody. With bbeg slow-chainlightning 3 out of 4 remaining (magus was brutally murdered previously) pcs out of action in the second round at the 6 hour mark I found myself not having fun pushing my mini towards his death six squares at a time. The previous encounter came close, with only two deaths due to things and diplomacy of +7 being the highest for the other things.
With a dead pregen you can pay for resurrection by selling all the junk however the corpse retrieval still costs prestige points. Which a new 1-level does not have.
Might have been fun, but with so many character-specific things it's hard to enjoy those characters outperforming or being more important. So far I haven't found a reason for the brawler - except for bbeg fight against things. Otherwise just a gimmicky character that is outperformed by everyone. Even the healer (who heals).
I can say this scenario was the peak of my gaming life. It was expertly crafted in that everyone had spotlight time, it was not bogged down by combat or grind, and that final boss battle is something amazing. This is the bar I think any scenario should strive for, and I will still be talking about this game for years to come.
Simply awesome
Christopher Wasko
(RPG Superstar 2015 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16)
—
Perhaps the best PFS player experience I've ever had. Well-structured pregens, compelling backstories and motivations, exciting storyline...the whole package. Bravo, Mr. Compton!
This is an excellent scenario that has more than earned its place in my top 5 favorite PFS scenarios of all time. John knocked it out of the park with this scenario, and here are few reasons why.
Story
Story is a big thing for me when it comes to scenarios. I’m always more interested in an exciting story than a mindless dungeon delve, and Serpents Rise has exciting story covered in spades. Not only do we have the overall story, which parallels the events of Siege of Serpents, but we have 6 unique side stories, each directly tying one of the Aspis agents being played by the players into the meat of the main story. These pseudo side quests (somewhat reminiscent of old faction missions) are well written and engaging. They do draw the spotlight on one or two players at a time, but fortunately can be concluded in about 5-10 minutes a piece. In a situation like a home game, where table time isn’t an issue, having one-on-one side quests isn’t really an issue. But in a convention atmosphere, or at a game day that limits slot time, I can imagine situations where some of these side stories derail the main game quite a bit. Fortunately, a well prepared and skilled GM should be able to keep the pace of their game flowing through these side missions.
Characters
Each pregenerated character is unique, intelligently constructed, and relatively well equipped. I enjoyed that pregens pulled from Unchained, Advanced Class Guide, and other newer sources to create characters of moderate to high power, ones that easily overshadow the classic level 7 PFS pregens (Harsk, we’re all looking at you, buddy). They all also have brilliantly written backstories, outstanding art selections, and personal motivations so diverse and complex that some of them honestly make me question all this dwindling animosity I once possessed towards the Aspis Consortium prior to this scenario.
While there has been some negative feedback regarding the gear on each pregen, I find their loadout to be appropriate to the scenario. Coupled with the invitation to make further purchases at the beginning of the scenario and the roughly 2,000 gp available to the party through pooling character wealth, most cautious players will invest in a wand of cure light wounds and some utility potions or scrolls.
Challenges and Combat
The non-combat situations present in the scenario challenge players to think outside the box to achieve success, rather than just roll dice and succeed or fail at their skill checks. This is just what you want in your game, as nothing dulls a table experience more than boiling every non-combat encounter down to “roll a d20 and add ___.” The one involving Janira especially requires some good conceptual problem solving. I also deeply enjoyed the last non-combat encounter that introduces that “seventh pregen” into the mix. Nothing gets a table pumped for the final encounter like having your players give an impassioned speech about why the Pathfinder Society needs to burn for its sins.
Paired alongside these well structured non-combat encounters, the combats were, by and large, equally challenging as well. While the combat in area A is a rather a-typical combat, all of the other encounters are quite unique and refreshing. The one in the tapestry room can be especially challenging for players, while the final encounter, if prepared for adequately, should last several rounds. For GMs reading this review that are planning on running, see the spoiler below.
GM only:
Remember that the creature in the final area makes use of his scroll, as detailed in his “before combat” tactics. I’ve heard reports from other tables where their fights against the final opponent were less than epic, and they were all due to the fact that the GM neglected to make use of that scroll before combat begins. It changes the fight significantly and turns what should be a 5-10 round combat into a 1-2 round combat.
Overall
This scenario is an easy 5 star review for me to give. I deeply enjoyed running it and am hoping to see it opened up as a 4 or 5 star exclusive scenario once Season 7 is in full swing. I think that having more than a 5 hour time slot would be beneficial to the scenario, as there is a lot in the first half of Serpents Rise that could be explored in more depth if time wasn’t an issue. I wouldn’t recommend any GM run this scenario cold, and would advise GMs prepping this scenario to read the pregens backstories and handouts as well—there’s a lot mentioned in them that is missed in the scenario proper.
11 days until Paizocon, any idea on when the GMs who have this in their downloads will be able to access it and the other specials so we have ample time to prepare/purchase supplies for it?
11 days until Paizocon, any idea on when the GMs who have this in their downloads will be able to access it and the other specials so we have ample time to prepare/purchase supplies for it?
As has been the case in past years, the adventures go live for convention GMs on the Friday before the convention (May 15th this year). There are a few that might be ready earlier than that on a case-by-case basis.
For this adventure, you'll want the following map products:
Spoiler:
Map Pack: Fortress (out of print, yes, but it ended up being a good fit)
Map Pack: Temple
11 days until Paizocon, any idea on when the GMs who have this in their downloads will be able to access it and the other specials so we have ample time to prepare/purchase supplies for it?
As has been the case in past years, the adventures go live for convention GMs on the Friday before the convention (May 15th this year). There are a few that might be ready earlier than that on a case-by-case basis.
For this adventure, you'll want the following map products:
** spoiler omitted **
Thanks John! Any chance of getting the list of maps needed for the other specials too?
PaizoCon GMs, we have sent the adventure to everyone signed up to run it at PaizoCon. You might not have received an email informing you that this is the case, but it should be updated in your downloads.
Customer service has nobly gone through the list of GMs set to run this adventure at PaizoCon and manually added the file to those individuals' downloads. It looks like most people on the list already had the file, and about half of those who did not receive the file had provided an email address other than their paizo.com email address (the one used for your account on paizo.com).
PaizoCon GMs who do not have this adventure yet: We cannot add this file to your downloads until you tell us what your paizo.com email address is. Please let both Mike Brock and customer service know ASAP, and we will endeavor to have this added to your downloads on Monday.
John, this is one of my favorite PFS scenarios ever. My GM was woefully unprepared and I could tell how excellent it is through that challenge. Kudos and thanks!
I have to say, the scenario was quite fantastic! There was quite a bit of nail biting in certain spots, but for good reason. Congratulations of a very entertaining and difficult scenario that was enjoyable. If I get the chance, I would gladly GM this at some time once it's available to my VO.
According to Mike the 6-98 and 6-99 will need 4 or 5 stars to run after GenCon, even for VO's.
EDIT:This will be the 4 star special and 6-99 will be the 5 star special scenario.
Darn. My region has a couple 4-star GMs but that's the city while I'm out in the burbs, which has its own pool of GMs and players. I think the highest we have is 2-stars.
Wait, so newer areas without high star VO's won't be able to get this at all? That's sort of lame. Super exclusive club things like this tend to sour audiences quickly.
Wallie, I think I'm the only four star (currently!) in Columbus, and I don't know if we've any five stars yet. Seems to incentivize running events. (I know I'm trying to get my specials in)
I played this scenario at Gen Con, and it was great. Considering its ties to Siege of Serpents, and having played it a few nights previous, it was especially fun.
Not sure if this was a mistake or not but on 322's character sheet:
For people who want no info going in about abilities:
322's Interstellar void ability does not have the rules restriction text on it from the void mystery stating that it can be used once per day plus an additional time at 10th level. As such it became an ability which dealt a big chunk of damage, that could be used every turn, so there was almost no reason to use other damaging spells, since it could be used infinitely.
We eventually had to rule that the void mystery text took precedent, because the Oracle was just blasting everything. It might have been intentional, but it lead to a bit of imbalance.
Played this Sunday morning at Gen Con. Everyone's character got special show-case time, and it was a perfect compliment to 6-97 Siege of Serpents.
Our GM, Chris, was extremely well-prepared and turned in a spectacular performance. I've been gaming since 1978 (37 years) and this is easily among my top 3 favorite gaming experiences in all that time.
My character was 322. Chilling! Role-playing her even creeped out the other players at the table. I cannot wait for her (and all the other Aspis agents) to show up in future scenarios.
Had a blast with this at GenCon, however I thought I read that the chronicle would be updated after Paizocon to be a tier (6-8 I believe) and not just level 7. I applied it to an 8th level character thinking this was the case. Is there clarification on this?
So as a 4 star gm... how do i go about getting this to run now that Gen con has ended.
We've started to add those to qualifying GMs' downloads. I would expect the process to be done within a week or two.
As a more recent 4-star GM, I expect I'm further down the list for that, so shall be patient. Don't need it till next month anyway. Thankfully, PbP has little lead time needed =)
It seems that the halfling pregen, Joliryn, has an inconsistency in her statblock. It says everywhere that she has a scimitar, including her weapon focus feat and her art, but the offense section lists a +1 flaming kukri, with a +12 attack bonus, which seems to include the weapon focus feat.
Any word on the availability of this one for four stars yet? I imagine with the shakeups in VO positions and bringing on a new coordinator that things get pushed back. But I know my players are dying to play this one, so I'd hate to see it forgotten.
Any word on the availability of this one for four stars yet? I imagine with the shakeups in VO positions and bringing on a new coordinator that things get pushed back. But I know my players are dying to play this one, so I'd hate to see it forgotten.
I just mailed customer services and I received it in about 3 days.
Scenario-6-98-Serpents-Rise
http://paizo.com/products/btpy9lzy
http://paizo.com/products/btpy9mbd
all this links show "unavailable" text under price, not
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