Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-15: The Blooming Catastrophe

I have had the luck to have run this scenario three time in the last week (twice were at Paizo Con Online). Each of the three were a very enjoyable game!

This scenario has an amazing balance of so many things. It mixes horror without being horrific with humor (which can get a little silly). The NPCs are very memorable! It also has a great mix of social, skills, and combat. I really appreciate how there are so many ways to solve the final encounter... in the end, all three avoided combat, if only just!

This is one of those rare scenarios that I would run over and over again!

As a GM, this was a great scenario to both prepare and run. The premise of the scenario is interesting, with imagery that is disturbing, humorous, and intriguing all at once. There's a good mix of combat and roleplay situations, and the final encounter can be resolved in several ways. More like this, please.

The presentation of characters here is top notch-- the provided dialogue and descriptions give the GM enough to work with in terms of personality and motivation to be able to improvise well. There are bits of (actually funny) humor throughout; the new NPC's suggested dialogue if the PCs utterly fail to deal with a hazard is wonderful.

This extends to the scenario's "villain", who is both interesting and (somehow) endearing. The situation is still ambiguous when the party first reaches it, but the dialogue and descriptions are good signposts toward potential resolution methods.

Combat-wise, the mooks/grunts are flavorful and fun: Mikhail Rekun took a known low level creature and flipped its iconic ability on its head. Moreover, he provides differentiating descriptions for several of these creatures, which both reinforces the aesthetics of the adventure and makes the mooks feel less anonymous.

Someone noted that the middle of the adventure is filler-y. This is a valid criticism, but the scenario suggests a way to speed it up / what to skip past if short on time.

If the final encounter is resolved with combat, it looks to be a real doozy. The villain's overall design seems to exceed what the Game Mastery Guide suggests for a creature of its level-- it seems to have "high everything", including (unlimited) spell-like abilities that are stronger than slotted spells at this level.

Editing of the scenario is great; there are none of the crippling errors that plague other PFS scenarios. The only mechanical (possible) error in the text is that a creature's listed HP changes (by 2) in the second battle in which it appears. It's otherwise completely identical (including its name), so it's very easy for a GM to miss this.

I am pleased with scenarios that can be approached in many ways. This one meets that. The plot is engaging.

I played this scenario in high tier with a mix of level 3 and 4 characters.

The Blooming Catastrophe is a quirky, charming scenario with a number of interesting characters and humorous moments. The mission, which leads you into the fire-ravaged forest of Finadar at the behest of one of the Society's more enigmatic leaders. Beginning with only an obtuse letter and little else to go on, the adventure gallops off on a fun (and sometimes disturbing) romp into a land tainted by calamity.

One of my favorite moments during the game was that it gave us the ability to resolve a rather dangerous combat situation non-violently, but still made the interaction challenging and complex. We had to pick our words and shape our actions carefully as to not provoke the other party, and we were rewarded for our efforts with a new friend and ally.

I would complain that the combats felt a little too much on the easy side, but not enough to dock any points.

The reason why I give this scenario only 4 stars, however, has to do with its use of a design philosophy I refer to as "luck-gating," where treasure rewards are hidden behind skill checks. Failing to achieve a certain number of successes on these checks results in losing this treasure, and I've never been a fan of depriving characters of treasure for what essentially comes down to bad luck (compare this to combat, where PCs who survive combat despite bad luck feel rewarded). It would have been better to assign some element of risk to these otherwise missable rewards, so that players at least feel like missing the treasure was a repercussion of failure rather than just bad luck.

Overall: A fun scenario, but please stop luck-gating treasure bundles. Make me feel like I earned it, rather than lucked into it.

Blooming Catastrophe has a good beginning and end. It is the middle that falters a bit. The new NPC was not one I was expecting and was kind of endiring. I hope to see more of her in stories. The plot was intriguing and made me want to know more.

The ending was nice as it does the one thing I love to see in modules, multiple choices on how you want to resolve it and they are clearly laid out. You can RP, combat, or skill it to resolve it. This is something I hope to see more as this allows the players a sense of choice in their adventures more than just the combat at the end.

The rewards were nice as it gives flavor to Leshys in the future and giving flavor to the players only brings more flavor to the world for me.

The middle was the weakest. The combat seemed more like filler than anything else and it was a bit dialog heavy. Not so much RP dialog just more explaining at times.

Overall, decent module and if you want to play a leshy in the future, give this a play.