Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-23: The Star-Crossed Court

2.30/5 (based on 15 ratings)

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3–6 (subtiers 3–4 and 5–6).

On an idyllic island of the western coast of Garund, the PCs arrive at the iruxi city of Ekkeshikaar. Seeking to establish new trade relations between the lizardfolk of Ekkeshikaar and the people of Vidrian, the Pathfinder Society must navigate a delicate political landscape while thwarting the efforts of nefarious forces who seek to stop the proposed alliance by any means necessary.

Written by: Alex Riggs

Scenario tags: Repeatable

[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]

The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Society Scenario Subscription.

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Average product rating:

2.30/5 (based on 15 ratings)

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2/5

Despite being replayable it has no elements that change between plays.

Observatory encounter is too easy with the monsters arriving in waves. The rune inlaid floor should make the combat interesting but somehow fails to do so.

The encounters don't even meaningfully differ between tiers with one encounter just having more of the same creature.

Trade conference as the finale is a nice change of pace but of the 2 combats one is one dimensional and then other is easy to the point of boredom.


3/5

The story itself is really intriguing. I love the idea of the dino rodeo and the court room scene is adding something unique to the theme as well. First combat is very challenging. The biggest flaws I have found with this scenario have nothing to do with the module per se. First of all the minimap in the intro is dead wrong. To F2F players this might be a merely cosmetic issue, but in a VTT GMs tend to include the minimap on the game's welcome page, and in this case you'd see a nice green Mwangi jungle instead of an island city. Also, as it was mentioned previously, the scenario has no variable parts as you'd expect with a replayable game.


It was fine.

4/5

I don't understand how this would be fun to repeat, but it's a fine scenario. It's a nice balance of fighting and social encounters.

Yes, the combats are hard, like just about every other 3-6 scenario.


I enjoyed the encounter everyone's complaining about

3/5

Wow, a challenge. Better 1 star it.

Our table really enjoyed the [REDACTED] encounter. You don't even fully TPK if you all die, so I'm not sure why everyone is so worried about their characters having some level of risk in a 3-6.

It is on the same level of 1-04 Bandits of Immenwood, and I think that high DCs can be quite feelbad, but it's certainly something you can overcome.


Would not recommend

1/5

I was very excited for the follow up to 1-09, Star-Crossed Voyages. The story was engaging and the NPC's were interesting with diverse encounters.

However, the design of some of the encounters make this unplayable as written at high tier. One encounter required some very lucky saves to avoid a TPK; the final social encounter had so many required checks at such high DC's that even with multiple characters optimized for social checks getting decent but not great rolls and Hero Points littering the table, we were not close to success. I've never played or run a table that resulted in zero Fame, until this one.

I'm not sure how this survived playtesting. The fixes for high tier seem straightforward: for the combat, change two of the creatures to different but similar-themed ones, and for the social challenge change the DC's to 5th level (20) instead of 6th (22), and/or don't require all PC's to make checks for every challenge.

As written, though, I would recommend that no one play this at high tier.


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Paizo Employee Webstore Coordinator

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Announced for June! Product image and description are not final and may be subject to change.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Is the tier known?

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I guess this is continuation to star crossed journey? :O

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

CorvusMask wrote:
I guess this is continuation to star crossed journey? :O

Correct. While they're not strictly a two-parter in that you don't have to play one before the other, they are part of the same world events and Star-Crossed Court will give folks opportunities to leverage the boons from Voyages.


The tier is missing from this one?


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm hoping its a 3-6 or even as 5-8, most of the people I GM for are already into the 5-6 range with their characters who played Star-Crossed Voyages and will be pushing 7 by the time this gets released. its also marked as a repeatable? Is that correct? Seems a little odd to have a 'unofficial part 2' as a repeatable following a non-repeatable, but if its how we get a higher tier repeatable, cool!

Paizo Employee Webstore Coordinator

Sorry folks, that was a copy/paste error on my part. The tiers should be showing now :)

The Exchange

I have noticed that this scenario, being a level 3-6, still has the Repeatable tag on it. Is this going to be a higher level repeatable?

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

Malcolmxkav wrote:
I have noticed that this scenario, being a level 3-6, still has the Repeatable tag on it. Is this going to be a higher level repeatable?

Yes, this is correctly labeled as a repeatable adventure.


Michael Sayre wrote:
Malcolmxkav wrote:
I have noticed that this scenario, being a level 3-6, still has the Repeatable tag on it. Is this going to be a higher level repeatable?
Yes, this is correctly labeled as a repeatable adventure.

It may have the label of being a repeatable but the content has very little actualy repeatable elements to it.

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.
andreww wrote:
Michael Sayre wrote:
Malcolmxkav wrote:
I have noticed that this scenario, being a level 3-6, still has the Repeatable tag on it. Is this going to be a higher level repeatable?
Yes, this is correctly labeled as a repeatable adventure.
It may have the label of being a repeatable but the content has very little actualy repeatable elements to it.

Yes, I read your review. The reality of the earlier repeatable adventures we've done this season is that while they're great for creating a lot of variety in experiences, they're not something that fits well within the world dynamics we're currently dealing with. Scenarios like Lost on the Spirit Road are intensely time-consuming to dev and difficult to fit within our production budget due to generally requiring significantly more word count than a standard scenario. Given that we're in a time of world-wide pandemic and civil unrest where none of us are able to work alongside each other and freelancers have been forced to bow out of projects, request extensions on their turnovers, etc., due to COVID-related issues or other struggles, we chose to go with a different repeatable model here rather than deprive the audience of a 3-6 repeatable.

Our goals with this adventure were to provide a variable route to success on an adventure that could collect data via the issuance of Chronicle sheets well into the coming season and allow players to continue shaping the campaign as a result. While it may not be structured as the kind of repeatable you would prefer, it is exactly what we asked the freelancer for to fit within the production dynamics we're currently working with.

Allowing players to experience multiple social resolutions was the goal here, creating an opportunity to be diplomatic, sneaky, inventive, or a combination of the three within a relatively static framework designed to showcase an ancestry that will likely continue to play a role in the stories we tell for years to come.


The NPCs from encounters B & C lack any defensive stats, which are important due to the nature of the enconters. Any answer to this?


I think the assumption is that Kess is going to be petrified first round and Lashweather probably is of high enough level that the enemies really won't harm him in any meaningful way.

One thing I desperately want to ask is, why was the ritual circle not marked in detail? I have no clue which constellation is supposed to be which. Going to end up just saying the outer four are the summon ones.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

In the Observation tower, I picked which constellations most closely matched the descriptions and then randomized the rest while wondering why they were so different from the descriptions. We adapted, improvised and overcame.

Something else that seems to be missing; what to report for degrees of success. If the negotiation goes one way, check box A, another way, check box B, etc. From the responses above, it would seem that Paizo would want to know what degree of success or failure the players incurred.

Just my pair of coppers.

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