A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–5.
Several years ago, rebellion in the seaside town of Pezzack resulted in a Chelish blockade to slowly starve the rioters into submission. Since then few have entered or left, trapping the increasingly desperate citizens with little with which to repair their broken homes and eke out a living. When the Society learns that an important informant still lives in the ruined town, the PCs must smuggle themselves into Pezzack, navigate the devastated urban landscape, and extract their contact—all without igniting a new rebellion and inviting Cheliax’s unfettered wrath.
Content in “Out of Anarchy” contributes to the ongoing storyline of the Dark Archive and Liberty’s Edge factions.
Written by Garrett Guillotte.
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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At first I was really anxious because of the negative comments. Then I started prepping and realized this is way more up my alley than most scenarios, with few combats (some can be avoided), mostly social interaction and a sandbox with much more than just the locations needed. It has a rich history (reading 'Towns of Inner Sea is a *must* for this one) and its possible to connect the plot no matter where they go.
Weak points:
- Olandil using Pathfinder signs and telling how to navigate the... oh for the love of Calistria. Just cut that out and proceed. This made no sense - did he know there would be pathfinders? how the hell is that even supposed to look? The optional part is really unnecessary and frankly made no sense to me.
- didn't catch what is the significance of giving the PCs Poppos message in the intro part
- the mechanics for influence - saw them, glazed over. Fortunately in the end, there is a simple suggestion to use the most appropriate enemy and it should've been said so in the first place - it would cut the wordcount right there.
Strong points:
- NPCs - Poppo and Olandil in particular but loved Madge and a few out of scenario people.
- atmosphere of claustrofobia and danger
- allowing PCs to investigate on more locations than just the ones in the scenario - even tho the story *is* railroady it's possible to cover most of the tracks (except the part where basically Poppo's plan is sorts of deus ex machina). The city was tangible and much more than just a random background.
- having a scenario that didn't need a single combat for two thirds of it - I was really enjoying myself and so did the players (I asked them, to be sure).
In the end, I would've been happier if the scenario was trimmed a bit and simplified but it still allowed us a memorable adventure.
Super fun scenario in my opinion. As others have pointed out it is a fairly complex scenario with a lot for GMs keep track of but in my opinion the complex mechanics add a lot to the scenario. The way the factions were organized was interesting but the real payoff for me as GM was watching how the players actively discussed which factions they wanted to support and which they wanted to oppose and seeing them unintentionally aid the wrong factions. From the looks of the reviews I know some may not like it but I hope to see more of this from Paizo in the future.
The main thing that keeps this for being a five star scenario in my eyes is that a lot of the creatures in the low tier encounters didn't seem to make all that much sense given how the encounters were set up which made most of the combats laughably easy, which I suppose was for the best because we would have ran long if any of the fights had taken more than two rounds.
When I read the reviews and saw comments like "convoluted" and "complicated," I knew that this would be the scenario for me. I'm easily bored by a series of encounters loosely strung together with a weak plotline, so complex is what I look for as a GM. I want RP. I want investigation. And I want them all mixed up in surprising ways. With that in mind, we ask the big question:
Does Out of Anarchy give PCs a successful combat, role-playing, and investigative experience?
Yes... -ish.
The First Scenario: Investigation:
The entire first half of this scenario is given over to investigating the city of Pezzack. Once upon a time, Pezzack rebelled against House Thrune. Imperial Cheliax used Pezzack as an example, and the city has never recovered. Presently, four factions vie for control over the city and its future. It's up to the PCs to explore the city, determine who these factions are, and eventually pick one to support.
Immediately, players are given a huge pile of information about the city. Fourteen locations, many of which feature an important NPC, as well as the four factions. And then even more to do for members of Liberty's Edge and the Dark Archive. The NPC who gives this information is set up as a fast-talking know-it-all, which is helpful, because the GM needs to be in rapid-fire mode as well.
In the midst of this madhouse, the PCs are looking for a specific individual who is living under three different aliases, each connected to one of the factions. Which means that when PCs visit a faction, that NPC may only know one of the aliases. The PCs will only find this person halfway through the scenario, and nothing they do can change this.
GM Notes
**Players will be stunned by so much information.
**Players will confuse the factions, the aliases, and the NPCs.
**You may want to print out the important info as a reference.
**Players will not know how to find Olandil, unless they go to a specific location first.
**The players of combat-monster PCs may fall asleep.
The Second Scenario: Combat:
Once the PCs have finally found Olandil, skewing the fate of Pezzack in the process during a plot of city-wide compulsion, combat finally begins. There are multiple combats, and they come in quick succession.
The first combat is optional and forgettable. To fit this scenario in a convention slot, I would choose to skip it. I didn't, and needed to squish things together later on.
The second combat has a frustrating map with elevation changes, and can be settled through Diplomacy. So explaining how the map works can take much longer than the combat itself. I built the map out of three pieces of cardboard, just so I wouldn't have to constantly explain when and how to jump and climb.
The third combat is against strix, which pits low-level characters against flying creatures. One of the factions asks you to come out and clean up the tower, but it stands as the encounter that just doesn't mix with the rest of the rebellion. As the city is about to fall apart, why am I messing around with two strix? It is a fun encounter, with strix who are happy to taunt the PCs, but the party was ready to leave town. This was clearly a distraction.
The final combat was fun, unique, clever, and mildly different based on which faction the PCs supported during the scenario. But it was steamrolled by 1st level characters, and just didn't have the heft to scare them.
GM Notes
**Skip the optional, unless you've got a party of combat monsters.
**Draw maps in advance, because you certainly won't have time in a slot.
**Be prepared for small faction differences in tactics.
**If the PCs investigate a lot, these encounters will all be rushed.
Roleplaying Opportunities:
Poppo, the main contact at the Academy of Applied Magic, is amazing. Beyond being a professor of applied magic, he's also a gnome. Let your knack for chaos run free, and Poppo is fantastic. The PCs should enjoy this.
Olandil is also a fun NPC, and his rage at being rescued by fresh recruits should certainly be played up. He isn't very useful in combat, and shouldn't be used to outshine the PCs. It's a tough balance to let him and Poppo drive the second part of the scenario without him ordering the PCs around and running the show.
The various faction NPCs have very little background, so feel free to make them whatever you need at the moment. But don’t play them up too much, or PCs will spend too much time with them. Time they really don’t have in the long run. If this were a module, you could use them a lot more.
Villains? All faceless. No meaningful monologues. Imperial Cheliax is the villain here, so the Loyalist faction are the closest you’ll have. One NPC, Gellius, is only interesting as a cowardly guard, but he ultimately doesn’t know much that can influence the scenario.
Final verdict?
This is a great scenario to run if you have plenty of time to prep and players who are interested in a wide-ranging sandbox investigation. Combat is not the highlight here, and so will disappoint some PFS players. With a GM who is prepared with printed handouts representing NPCs and factions, players will have a much better time during the investigation. Overall, lots of fun, would run again. Four stars.
I have run this on 2 separate occasions, both on high and low tier.
On the outside it seems like it would be a breeze, but there are some situations that if not correctly noted or underscored by the GM can cost the party dearly.
The combats are not overly involved, but the plot is a touch convoluted for new GMs, and you must prepare for the many permutations this scenario can bring, but if you have it down (I suggest at least a solid week of prep time), then it is fine, then it depends on player makeup and play style, but consistently at my tables and others witnessed, this seems scenario seems to run over into overtime, even with experienced players.
While I have no issue with longer play times, I echo the other posters here by saying that this could have been fleshed out into a module easily with a few tweaks to the story.
Apart from that the plot and story were awesome and helped show Pezzack as a town on the precipice of destroying itself in rebellion.
A solid effort, but hectic, no matter how you slice it! Still a 4 star adventure even with the wrinkles.
I ran this yesterday and I really enjoyed it, my only real complaint was that it was really long. But our group was really getting into the role playing side of things and to the openness of the first half of the mod. They were exploring and interacting with the environment and people. We had a blast but it took us 5 1/2 hours and we rushed at the end since the venue was closing.
I will say this is not one you want to run cold, there is too much going on and too much to understand. I found a tracking sheet online at pfs prep that really helps with the factions. I normally read through mods twice before I run them and I really needed it on this one. On the second read through I think it all fell into place.
Pezzack and its people are very interesting and the mod does not get into that enough but there are other resources. Having "Towns of the Inner Sea" helped, there is a full write up that I printed out and brought to the table. But I initial looked at the pathfinder wiki, "http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Pezzack" to get going and it provided enough to get the feel and history for this mod.
I gave it 4 stars for story, setting and openness. The draw backs complexity and length. I know these type of mods tend to get bad ratings but as a GM I really like this type as long as you have time to prepare
The files are all developed, edited, and laid out a little earlier than usual. I'm not the one who does the final packaging, so I can't give you a definitive "XYZ o'clock."
I haven't played, read or run this yet - but when two 4-star and a 5-star GM give such poor reviews - I have to wonder what went wrong.
Just yesterday, one of our venture-officers had this removed from the schedule of a local venue that was planning on running it next week in a some-what time-constrained slot.
The possible question area contains an important clue, or at least something to go on. "What’s Poppo’s message?" But there is nothing in the intro text about a message. The message is actually from Olandil only apparently relayed through Poppo.
The whole influence thing has no clear indication in the player text boxes. Influencing also has little impact on the story and it seems like most groups will just try to cover all the locations gaining roughly the same points for all with a slight advantage to the Loyalists. Then the faction mission parts are not separated out enough to figure out they are not part of the main story. They are also incomprehensible as to who these people are and why they should know about them.
Very poorly written and very difficult to make this one fun I found.
While prepping, I had to reread the it 4 times to even really understand the influence stuff. It was very very confusing. Unfortunately, not enough players to run, but I knew from just reading the adventure and reviews, it would run long.
But the last section was hilariously awesome! I wish they'd do more escapes like that!
Please playtest these better to avoid running over.
