Pathfinder Adventure Path #157: Devil at the Dreaming Palace (Agents of Edgewatch 1 of 6)

I’ll start off by noting that I have not yet ran or played this campaign, but at the time of writing, I have bought all 6 books of the AP and intend to GM it for a group of my regular RP buddies very soon.

Keeping that in mind, I actually thought the first book in this AP was a pretty strong start. I had a few issues with it at the beginning, but otherwise, I was very happy with it. Also, this is the perspective of another white guy, but I thought that the themes of law enforcement are fine for the most part. Cop dramas are pretty popular on TV, and I kind of see Agents of Edgewatch as Paizo’s attempt to create a cop drama in roleplay form. Though, as another reviewer commented, I do not like the mercenary aspect of the Edgewatch Precinct either. I would’ve much rather seen the Precinct pay the players for their service – instead of forcing the players to get paid off by citizens and “confiscated” items. I intend to change this in my own home game, and run it much more like Pathfinder Society – where the players are expected to hand in everything they acquire during missions, and get a general salary for their work. If a player likes a particular piece of treasure, they can pay for it with their wages, and file the proper paperwork to get the original themselves, or pay for the precinct to get an exact copy made for them instead.

Now then, spoilers follow…

So, as far as my issues with the beginning go – I really was hoping that for an AP that’s basically trying to be a cop drama, they would do more at the beginning to set the stage for a cop drama. The campaign could’ve started with something unique, like the players taking the role of rookies having just signed up for the officer’s academy – and let them get to know each other in the first act while they went through basic training and their graduations.

Instead of something like that, Paizo threw us directly into the precinct and the party’s first assignment with absolutely no fanfare at all. Paizo didn’t even think it necessary to play out the opening ceremonies of the Radiant Festival – which is something that I’m definitely adding to my own home game.

Keeping all that in mind, I was still very happy with this AP book overall. The party goes to a number of unique locations like a zoo and a kind of Saw-like murder hotel – and though I’m not normally a fan of dungeon-delves (and I personally think Paizo relies too heavily on them in the first place), the unique nature of the dungeons in this book made me feel more excited for the experience. There’s also a great-looking roleplay segment where the party gets to meet a rogue’s gallery of villainous characters (who, unfortunately, in most circumstances never show up again – unless you write them back into the game yourself).

The two main villains of the book are pretty great too, and I have a feeling that a certain clown-prince of crime might have inspired the lead antagonist. Speaking of that lead antagonist, I’m intending to have him be a reoccurring character in my home game – and possibly even have him replace the ultimate villain of book 6 – because when it was all said and done, I actually liked him a LOT more than the campaign’s actual final villain.

As far as the first books other content, I did appreciate a map and description of the fairgrounds, and I intend to use it religiously during the opening acts of the campaign. The gear in the armory is also kind of cool – and I’m especially a fan of the telescoping nightsticks.

Overall – while this book did have its flaws, I was very happy with the installment.

I'll spend little time discussing the themes of law enforcement in this book; others have done so better than I as a white person could ever do. Keep those reviews in mind before anything else: what I want to focus on is the excellent use of foreshadowing throughout the book. Spoilers ahead!

From the very start, payoffs are set up that won't come back until much, much later in the AP. Here's a mysterious zoo attack; the perpetrator will come back later. Here's an NPC that'll show up in the final book and help! Here's more who you'll meet later; some obviously antagonistic, some seemingly innocent. Setup for future books which could have completely been omitted as in many other AP volumes makes this a book with a narrative that'll weave in on itself throughout the adventure path. I can't wait for the glint of recognition in my players eyes followed by shock and surprise later on when mystery elements foreshadowed as early as the FIRST ENCOUNTER come back months later. And the fact that the book tells the GM that this will be important later lets them hype and build the scene with the due respect good foreshadowing needs without even having read the next books yet.

Whatever your take on the themes of Edgewatch, Paizo take note: this is how you set yourself apart from other APs!

Spoilers, in case you were wondering.

I will start this off by saying Sutter has given us an excellent adventure, with the buildup to the main villain and the affect he has had on almost every other NPC in some way, directly or not, being absolutely delicious for both players and GMs alike as all the pieces start to fall in to place.

The Menagerie riot is an interesting step in that while it may give many players red herrings for the time being its a nice little set piece that ties into later parts, more so if the players are able to actually pick up on it.

Midway through when the party has to infiltrate a villain bar and schmooze numerous characters (setting up the rogues gallery for this AP methinks) through various unique challenges and games is an utter delight as well.

That said, this AP does have some pitfalls so I would not in good conscience or taste run/play it as is.

There’s a small bit at the beginning where it says the PCs aren’t cops but mercenaries hired by the force, oof, to save on money and the like. That’s... not good, but it doesn’t seem to be addressed in the adventure proper and the PCs are indeed treated as rookie cops rather than outside assistance with less liability so that was probably left in from an earlier draft, hopefully.

Then there’s the loot. I wish more thought and different actions were taken in order to make sure PCs could stay equipped throughout the adventure but anytime people are dealt with, either criminals or victims, civil forfeiture and bribes/“thank yous” enter the picture and just leave an obscenely sour taste in my mouth. This whole component needs to be rewritten I would suggest.

Then we get to the second act, a workers revolt. Leading/Reading up to it you think there’ll be an intense hostage situation to try diplomacy at (and there is, to a point) when dealing with the workers who have been treated poorly, but sadly and horribly the workers revolting, Kobolds, wanting to set up a union for better rights and pay and chanting slogans they don’t understand but parrot (explicitly said so) immediate devolve into a massacre before the PCs even enter the picture, and the hostage situation itself for those that survived can go even worse very quickly and easily. This is compounded by the fact that the architect admits she was underpaying the Kobolds after, but the book tries to frame her a victim and as someone you should like, even pointing out she’ll be important later on in the AP. So Architect treating workers like crap good, protesters and unionizers deranged and homicidal, gotcha.

(Wip)

First off: I don't have an issue with the whole police theme so I don't really care about playing police officers. The whole art design and tone of the book though paints the agents of edgewatch as a bunch of cringy do-gooders. Luckily that's easy to change so I won't let this affect my rating.

Spoilers Ahead!

The Bad:

The first chapter of the book is pretty mediocre: you'll get to walk around town and do a bunch of small tasks. The tavern one is great and foreshadows the final encounter in the book. The goblin encounter is fun. The rest is uninspiring, especially the foreshadowing for the main villain: making animals go wild is pretty low on the evil murder cult scale. Can't judge this without knowing the rest of the AP though.

Maps for the first chapter are mostly omitted with references to official flip mats and other products. This makes it look like they did this on purpose.

The Good:

Encounter and Map design is fantastic. The art is well done and there is plenty of room for tactical positioning and different movement on the maps. There are lots of traps and traps are also used in combat so that's great.

Loot is great so you won't need to adjust much there compared to Age of Ashes or Fall of Plaguestone.

The pair of main villains are designed really well. The main villain is a friendly, sadistic and always happy bastard that likes to torture people so this will be very fun to run since this will hit players in an unexpected way. Even better is his second in command who has a very tragic backstory and makes you empathize with her. However she's just bat shit crazy. All in all fantastic character design.

It's a railroad but you have more freedom in between encounters. The players can decide which side quest they want to tackle first.

The underground bar in chapter 3 is very well done and the tasks are fun. My only complaint here is that there are like ~8 floors to explore and you'll have enough clues for the next chapter after 3. That's kinda sad because you'll meet important and interesting NPCs for the next APs.

The festival descriptions in the back were kinda boring but each place has it's little issue and adventure hook in there. Gotta give them props here.

There's so much material and text crammed in here, so expect this to be a longer read than usual.

Verdict: Absolutely fantastic. You likely won't run this one straight out of the book but there's enough material in there to adjust it to your liking. Could have deserved a better chapter 1 with more oomph to get the PCs invested and therefore 4 instead of 5 stars.

First up I'll be honest and say that I dont actually play 2nd edition pathfinder however I do plan to convert this back to 1st edition so the game system has no bearing on the review.

As the five stars indicate I was very impressed with this adventure and in my opinion is probably the best one for the new edition so far and definetly a strong start for this Ap

regarding the recent controversy and the fact you play a form of law enforcement my own opinion is the subject matter has been well handled for the most part (There is one minor niggling bit but I suspect that it was more a result of trying to maintain the WBL in the game than any other reason)

If anything I would say the thing most people may have a problem with is the final chapter of the adventure which I dont want to spoil but lets just say that whilst not Hook mountain levels of violence/gore it certainly does push it further than any Paizo adventure I can think of in recent years and it is incredibly dark theme wise so definetly may not be for the faint hearted.

More than anything else I would say this Ap was more victim to poor timing than anything else and if the release of this ap and extiction curse had been reversed there would have been no problem with it but as always your milage may vary.