A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4 (subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).
A shipment of relics on its way to Minkai vanished somewhere in the Forest of Spirits, a dense woodland home to kami and spirits of all sorts. In search of the missing shipment, Pathfinder agents travel to a remote village, where they uncover secrets of this enigmatic forest. This scenario features a wide variety of options for encounters and reasons for the vanishing, making for a fresh experience on mulitple playthoughs.
What more needs to be said about this "classic" scenario? I agree with the comments that it can be a bit challenging to run in places, but it's not insurmountable with adequate preparation. A great early effort for a PFS2 repeatable scenario. To me, anyway, it evokes the feeling of a particular Studio Ghibli film (you probably know the one I'm referring to).
There's just one thing that really bugs me about this scenario: the antagonist's(?) name is one syllable from the word for "criminal" in Japanese. However, for the most part, the antagonist is NOT a criminal (and I never choose to run the variation where they are, because it's the least interesting one). So I confess that I change their name when I run this. I also pick different names for the village.
(I wrote a detailed review, which vanished when I tried to post... The "Cliff's Notes" version:)
Strong Points:
- Well-balanced encounters
- Makes very good use of Minkai cultural (Japanese) themes
Weak Points:
- Needs work to make roleplaying work (Villages just sketched without description of characters, buildings, or situations in the village)
- Encounters slightly repetitive (same type or similar creatures)
The town part of the scenario just says succeed at some checks without really providing good context. Every time I GM this I weave the checks into exploring the town and it works great.
The difficulty of the encounters is a little too variable and it suffers without the GM putting in the extra work.
It's my favorite Replayable to GM, but it's been less enjoyable to play unfortunately.
Very strong start, role-play part a tad too little, but continued solidly
Before the game master can do this, of course, you first have to adjust to a scenario and prepare for it. There is enough scope here so that no questions remain unanswered. You can put yourself directly into the story. Well, I think that Tian Xia is far too little of the scope of the scouts anyway, but this adventure is good enough to get you in the mood for it.
There was little need to empathize with the NSC. The research into the missing could have been more sexy (in the sense of interesting) somehow. It's a shame, the part was settled too quickly. Here you have missed the train of variety a little.
The encounters are cleverly placed. I also think that they add enough variety that you can definitely play / lead four times without getting bored. However, I have selected the best possible combinations of village bonuses and plot. I think it's rather frustrating when the players get a bonus that doesn't bring them anything.
The finale (I had decided on my first date with the plant variant) was exciting, but never unfair. But the other encounters were always interesting and never unfair. Perhaps one could have brought in a bit more variety here as well.
Conclusion: Absolutely solid adventure! Solid and a little more. Nice that it's a repeatable. I will certainly take advantage of one or the other possibility in the encounters and plots. Four stars, all of which are well deserved!
My favorite replayable module. Nice stories, lots of interesting Tian Xia background. Perfect atmosphere. Great replay value, although the variable encounters don't seem to be completely balanced. Module should be re-edited though, to be more GM-friendly. GMs must make various cheat sheets for this to have all the infos handy. (Otherwise they'd have to scroll back and forth in the module to grab the necessary data for a single encounter.) Some artwork is missing for custom monsters, but that's no big deal.
For GMs:
Making some additional maps for the briefing and the spirit encounters is useful, as are cards (notes?) for the foibles / charms of the village and the spirits, otherwise no one will remember them.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber
YAY! I get to post the questions:
Maps list? Please?
Approximate street date?
We're going to be running these in November at our local store, and I'd like to know if I need to have them order maps for me, or if I've already got them.
The street date for Pathfinder and Starfinder Society scenarios, with occasional exceptions for winter holidays, is the last Wednesday of the month. So this month, it's October 30th.
As for the Maps:
Flip Mat Classics: Village Square (B side)
Flip Tiles: Forest Starter Set
Flip Tiles: Forest Perils Expansion
Organized Play Lead Developer
