A Pathfinder Society Quest designed for levels 1–4 (subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).
Venture-Captain Calisro Benarry has arranged for the PC's transport to the pirate haven of Port Peril to make contact with Free Captain Stella Fane and negotiate a contract with her, facilitating Society movements through the pirate blockades in the area. The job seems simple: track down the the pirate captain, secure the agreement, and then return to Absalom. But few things are simple when a den of villainous pirates is involved, and it's unlikely the PCs will be able to leave Port Peril without throwing a few punches in a proper pub brawl!
I liked the background and information about the Shackles contained in this scenario, which made the scenario (and roleplay) come alive.
The scenario started however, in an awkward way. We’re on an important mission, but yet our Pathfinder ship drops us off in the middle of the ocean on a sandbar, miles away from shore (without any explanation)? To make things worse, they tell us to jump overboard and swim to the sandbar in deep but calm water in our armor (no mention of whether the contract is waterproof, just that it’s sealed). We’re told to wait there for an undetermined amount of time for someone to pick us up. During this time, the water rises and covers the sandbar with 2 inches of water, submerging our feet while we wait, preventing us from even sitting down. Hours later, a local fisherman picks us up in his rowboat, but do we go directly to Port Peril? Nope, of course not, we make numerous stops along the way catching crabs. But it doesn’t end there. Once the mission is finished, you escape and take that same fisherman’s boat back to the sandbar and sleep the night on the sandbar, which may or may not be flooded with water. Then, you wait an entire day on the sandbar for another ship. I’m not sure what feeling the author was going for, but I couldn’t help but feel disrespected, treated like dirt. If this were a real campaign, this would be the last mission my PC would perform for the Pathfinder Society. Anyway...
”After reading the quest, I felt like too many details were not provided.”:
For example, in The Last Chance, the DCs for swimming and climbing should have been provided. Is the scroll waterproof (because we ended up swimming away instead of fighting)? Why was it important to leave us on a sandbar?
The combat at subtier 1-2 was very easy.
Love the maps that were used. This quest has very good qualities for a repeatable.
I had a new GM run Port and I thought it was too complex for her. She didn't understand the background lore, there's a unique hazard, spells, it’s too sandboxy, and there are too many details that the GM is left to improvise. It took more than 2 hours. This quest is for an experienced GM.
Overall: Good lore and a sandbox a creative GM can use, but weak combat and irritating fluff. (7/10)
Played and ran this multiple times. Colorful NPCs. Good replay value. Fun bar fight :)
Downsides for me:
Spoiler:
Module expects some metagaming from the players with the abstract zone rules. This might be OK for some but the first playthrough was highly off-putting for me.
Module doesn't do a good job at explaining what the players could do to pacify an area. Having discussed this with other GMs I currently use these rules: zone can be disabled (e.g. diplo or intimidate) with 2 actions (standard hazard rules) while being in or next to a zone, yet this is not pointed out explicitly, so many GMs run it differently.
Similarly, in my interpretation the pacified areas should still fire their "speciality" every turn (unless everything is pacified already), yet many GMs don't run it this way. Some clarification would be nice on these topics.
Great fun was had all around. I guess the players need to be okay with some railroading (see spoiler tag), but all in all it is just plain fun with some quite diverse locations for nice replayability.
Railroading:
The bar fight is hard-coded, so even if the players try to stay out of trouble, they will be drawn into it no matter what they do. My group was totally fine with that but some players might take offense.
I've run this a couple times, and I love it. It's a fun, breezy romp in a pirate town. The combat is novel and provides a good opportunity for everyone to exercise their narrative skills.
I'm hoping for Tavern Multi-pack. So, well there be drinking rules? I'm thinking if running this one at home with my adult friends and turning it into Pathfinder the drinking game. Lol!
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Tonatiuh Ramírez wrote:
Huh? A two-star rating? Is there a more in length review about why?
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any suggestions on running this quest? Little confused when it comes to the bar brawl. Any advice would be welcomed.
The bar fight itself is basically a big hazard that abstracts the fight, instead of there being dozens of minis on the board. The first round, pick one of the dotted areas (usually the one with the most people in it, even if those are enemies), and roll the bar fight's general mayhem Strike against everyone in it. Then, with the second action, use its Port Peril Specialty wherever you think it'll cause the most chaos. The actual units in the bar fight work just like normal enemies--you can flavor these as patrons who specifically have it out for the party, rather than the bar fight going on in the background.
Since quests are much shorter than scenarios and simply don't have as much time to set up characters and backstory, my suggestion is to really lean into the tropes when running them. For instance, rather than saying "the bar fight rolls a Strike against everyone" each round, I'd suggest describing it with as many zany bar fight movie scenes as possible, such as "a halfling gets thrown sliding down the countertop, his mug Striking everyone along the way" or "A chandelier falls from the ceiling, knocking over a table and sending forks and knives showering in a cone." In that vein, I'd also suggest having the PC's discussion with Stella happen in between the checks in the skill challenge, rather than having an infodump up front as soon as everyone gets to the bar, to get that "let's talk over cards" kind of feeling.
Also, if you're worried about having too much to prepare, it's perfectly fine to just decide which of the three routes you want to run and prepare just that one ahead of time.