A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4 (Subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).
A new era is beginning for the Pathfinder Society, with new recruits and new factions all excited to build connections and embark on grand adventures. The PCs are among these recruits invited to attend a welcoming party where they can meet both the old guard as well as the up-and-coming leaders. But the party's not all talk; the PCs learn of four exciting escapades in Absalom, through which they can kick off their adventuring careers!
This adventure's individual missions include numerous variations that make each play-through exciting and different.
Written by Lyz Liddell.
Scenario Tags: Repeatable
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The replayable elements to this mostly add complication to the GM side rather than actually changing the plot in a meaningful way for the players.
Difficulty of the Ritual encounter varies immensely on if you use the normal disable rules or a note hidden in the forums that it should only take 1 action.
I do really like the haunted house section at least.
In the first part you felt too many new names and it was difficult for me to keep track of things, to create sensible role-playing games and to represent all the NPCs differently. I think when you're saddle-stuck in the Pathfinder story, it's a lot easier.
What I really liked is that it is quite possible, has several options, to tackle the individual missions in some cases without a fight.
The boons are definitely worthwhile and encouraged to play again. Here, too, the different developments that are possible are quite sufficient. But I don't think I will run it again as GM.
My least favorite replayable module. The replay value is relatively low, even with the random elements. Some nice roleplaying opportunities with PFS high society but way too many names for new players. The first part feels extremely forced. Also, the adventure runs very long with the ball part and the four missions.
Spoiler:
I found it silly to have the players work for getting assignments in the first place. And given that the module states they get the missions even if they fail to gain the VCs full attention, I just give the players the four random assignments at the beginning of the game, all of them referring to the VC being able to give some additional help at the ball. This saves a bit of time and is also more logical in my opinion.
Flotsam Graveyard: it should be somewhat clearer to the PCs that the creature can actually be pacified (given that this is one of the possible achievements for the secondary objective). Yet, some of the random behavior trait wills make this virtually impossible. Also, most missions for this area don't even include the creature so the players will likely assume it's just a hostile construct guarding the smuggler ship, and kill it.
Museum: the skills needed to disable the ritual are very limited. If the players aren't good at those, and are not aware that they need to protect the assistants, this might become a bloodbath.
Westgate: This might turn into two battles. They won't be really long, and will probably not present a meaningful obstacle, but it will be time-consuming.
Haunted House: this is my favorite one :) Also, an optional battle. Poor zombies never seem to come out to play in my games, the other missions take way too long.
It's also not quite clear how much time the players have to complete the missions. I assumed at least 1 hour, so that refocusing and healing is available. Or could they even re-prepare?
I probably would have given this more stars when I first played it in 2019. Having played most of Season 1, it's pretty clear this isn't even one of the better repeatables.
There are too many proper names for an introduction to Pathfinder. While most players are rolling over from First Edition and know many of the characters, it's just unnecessarily burdensome to learn about the Faction leaders' personalities when new players won't even know what factions are. As the 1-01, a lot of people are going to look to this as their first PFS scenario, and it's just not appropriate.
Individually, the quests are fine. As a matter of fact, I think the easiest revision is to run it as a bundle of 4 quests, like PFS1 #10-16.
I GM'd this twice recently, and I and my players did enjoy both runs. However, I found that it did run on a little long as there is just so much to do. With a roleplay encounter at the beginning and 4 total encounters with random elements.
As for the random elements and encounters, I would say that the comparable 1e scenario, "the Confirmation" was superior to this offering.
Spoiler:
: In both runs, the players loved the haunted house and spent most time there. I had a ball as a GM for that one.
The Flotsam graveyard was enjoyed by all, though I think we could have done without the "rage" option. It was more fun to pacify the fleshforge than be forced to fight it.
The Ritual was a nail-biter encounter. It posed a significant challenge to the party and dropped quite a few of them. (1 group failed to save Tavvar, the other saved her but that was due to a lucky roll)
The statue street was just ok. I like the complex hazard mechanic, but it was just my least favourite encounter in the scenario.
Uh, all but 1 of the maps have copies for sale here on Paizo.
Yes, I saw that when looking around, but that's still 1 short from a full set needed. Also buying from the US for me, here in Sweden, absolutely sucks due to fees and shipping etc (it's possible, but is a hassle and costs a fortune).
Not really much to do there, it probably is cheaper to PDF + print.
I just hope they will reprint it soon so it becomes in stock through the usual outlets again. Doesn't make sense to base current adventures and campaigns around OOP products.
Not really much to do there, it probably is cheaper to PDF + print.
I just hope they will reprint it soon so it becomes in stock through the usual outlets again. Doesn't make sense to base current adventures and campaigns around OOP products.
The products are always available in PDF and we use custom maps in our products all the time. In fact, APs only use custom maps and they're our most popular keystone product.
We generally try to lean towards using in-print maps to make it more convenient for GMs who just want to buy and drop down a flip-mat, but if we have an out-of-print map that folks can still grab the PDF for, it makes more sense to use that than paying for a custom map we don't really need to be paying for and that's actually less convenient for our GMs.
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Can someone post the link here, that the ritual disable is 1-action (normally a complex hazard it takes 2 TWO.) I remember it was ruled as 1 specifically.
Organized Play Developer
