Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–99: Through Maelstrom Rift (PFRPG) PDF

Having run this twice, I'm really not impressed with this. There was next to no challenge throughout, and really minimal effort to really allow the different character to really show off their uniqueness. That was really the one big thing this one had going for it, but it sort of feels like all efforts where made to make sure everything was just sort of normal or trivial.

The story was ok, and has the chance to be epic, if PFS Golarion deviates significantly from normal Golarion's year zero concept, but I also have a strong feeling that the potential setting evolutions implied here will simply go nowhere instead.

The mechanics where very clunky throughout, and while I really miss the old school Faction Missions and handouts, it just was not handled here at all, serving to remind us how cool it used to be and then not delivering.

So far, Season 8 has been a lot more miss than hit from what I've read and run, but I'd rank this as the least interesting scenario of the lot. It also felt like a really poor choice to leave the characters nearly completely in the dark from the beginning in regards to their own affiliations, when this could have been a good opportunity to introduce a new organization or even possible Faction and have the Players discover things as their characters do.

Despite playing the combat character in a session that has the potential to be low combat, I had a lot of fun.

Mechanically it's nice to have different secondary success conditions for different pre-gens. It's a little like having faction missions back without being as dull/annoying/divisive.

I played this at GenCon 2016 with a GM I knew pretty well and a group of friends from my local lodge. We had a ton of fun and I'd LOVE to see more of these characters and adventures in the future.
In terms of gameplay, there is a section when you get to play around with fly speeds and gravity a bit, which was certainly interesting, especially for me because I'd never played as a fly-capable character before. Some events and fights may seem more difficult for certain characters than others, but I felt that each character had a chance to shine when we played.
Each character's secondary success conditions were interesting, though some were more obvious than others. The character I played, for example, did not seem to have a clear-cut objective for the mission, while other characters had much more obvious success conditions. Now, clear-cut does not mean easy. Some can be harder than others.
All in all, I enjoyed this scenario a lot. In fact, the only real gripe I have is that this adventure, like True Dragons of Absalom and We Be Goblins, is a convention exclusive and I thus can't play it with my other pathfinder friends who couldn't go to GenCon for various reasons.

I played this at Gen Con 2016, and I have one thing to say to prospective GMs out there.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read your stuff and be prepared!!! Our GM (A VC to boot) was not prepared and it was by far the worst table experience of the 8 slots our group played in.

I give this 4 stars because I believe I can see past our GM's poor performance and see the creativity behind the scenario. There were several things that really had the potential to be fun, but you as a GM better know your stuff, or your players will be lost. This is despite the rigid formula of encounters that nearly every PFS scenario seems to suffer from.

It is hard enough as an experienced player to wrap our heads around unique characters and classes we may or may not be familiar with, so the GM needs to be ready to help the players along. There are many synergistic things between the PCs, but by the time the players figured out what those things were, it was too late in the scenario to actually use them.

When running an adventure like this at a convention, I think that having "Experience Required:None (You've never played before - rules will be taught)" listed as the experience required might be disingenuous. These pregens are complicated, and not something to be attempted by new players.

As with many pregen type situations, people needing to both learn the mechanics of their assigned class, and also digest the motivations of their character's backstory can be a bit overwhelming. Add to that the fact that you are playing elementals in an unknown terrain and the pregame stuff takes a bit of time.

Once you get going, you will love this scenario IF, and this is a BIG IF, you enjoy roleplaying. I mean truly enjoy roleplaying. I don't mean just putting a brogue on your hard drinking dwarf, or making LOTR jokes about the halflings or Gandalf's taking all of the XP for the Balrog. I mean the sort of roleplaying where you can be given an assigned role, with their motivations and truly run with it.

If you can't do that sort of willing suspension and getting out of your own box and getting into the box that the author of the scenario has offered you, then I recommend you find something else to play.

I don't intend to spoiler any of the specifics of race and class for the scenario, but the description itself states you will be playing "Elemental Guardians." Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and a bit in between. I played Earth. The mechanic of satisfying my motivations may have been a bit unclear at the beginning, but it became more clear as we pressed on. As for the others, well, we played it last night, and just today I discovered something about one of the other characters that makes me all the more proud of the roleplaying geniuses I have been blessed with. EW, you played that stuff perfectly dude!

Edit: our "Air guy" (who is trying to sleep in the back seat as I type this) wants me to add though that he didn't get much background motivation, and his character was exceedingly complicated to play.

I was a bit disappointed in the final combat, but not overly so. I suppose it could just be that we rolled well, or poorly, etc, and that influenced things. We got the mission done, and had a great time. We added one of our perennial +1s to round out our regular 5-man team, and he was great as expected! (Thanks HW!)

My summary for this one is that it truly was an enjoyable jaunt, where you got to play VERY nonstandard things. Lighthearted, mission oriented, and just downright fun!