A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4.
A new year dawns for the Pathfinder Society. For the past several years, Pathfinders have explored the edges of the Iobarian wilderness, making new allies and discovering hints at a long-forgotten past. Now, the Decemvirate has decided that it is time for the Pathfinders to do what Pathfinders do best: explore, report, and cooperate! In an ancient cyclopean ruin, the Society seeks to stake their claim with both a new lodge and, hopefully, new insights into Iobaria's remote history. Some secrets are best left buried, however. Will the PCs make a name for themselves as modern day explorers, or will the evil lurking at the heart of the Iobarian dig site consume their hopes and dreams?
Written by Scott D. Young
Scenario tags: Metaplot
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
Citadel is an exploration scenario with a mix of everything except roleplay.
The main reason this scenario is 2 stars is the exploration phase of the different parts of the citadel. Lots of skill checks, lots of time, and very little happens.
The encounters were very average.
This scenario was the first time I've seen the flip-tiles in person, and after seeing them I now know that I don't wish to purchase them.
Overall: An average dungeon crawl wrapped in a tedious exploration.
Even when I'm disappointed, I generally try to stay positive in my reviews, but for this one the DC is quite high.
The story and the lore are great, which is why I still give it 2 stars. BUt the numbers just don't add up in the worst possible way. For a lvl 1 character in the low tier, the DC's are absolutely ridiculous (consistently 5 higher than a level based DC, which begs the question whether the author bothered to look at CRB table 10-5) even though a single success is required to succeed at the task. This unfairly penalises the players for having a small party, even though the Aid Another DC is lowered, which is utterly unreasonable.
Furthermore, there is an interesting "start of the metaplot" story here that wants to be told, but failing tosucceed at multiple of these ultra high DC checks in the final part means you just don't get that story, which in my opinion adds insult to injury.
A fine little scenario. Shame about the numbers, though
I missed this scenario on release, and my experience running it was much improved because of the warnings in the reviews here. If I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of cyclopes.
Spoiler:
Some of these skill DCs are downright silly. I opened up my Core Rulebook and penciled in DCs from the Level-Based DC table. I also brainstormed some alternate skills for some of the exploration challenges. I ramped down the damage in some encounters to a level where I could one-shot a healthy in-tier wizard on maximum damage, but a fighter would still be standing. This must have been a rough one to play or to gamemaster on initial release.
I also love me a good subsystem, but it's a bit much to have to teach the players two different subsystems in a single four-hour session.
The words are all good though: the characters, the setting, the mood. It is possible for players and GM to enjoy their time at the table with this scenario, but the GM needs to know what they are walking into. Leave enough prep time to spruce up the printed material. Unfortunately, that's more work than I expect a PFS product to ask from me, especially one I might have run on minimal prep at a convention when the scheduled GM gets the flu.
I give it two stars for a fine story undermined by bad numbers.
I kind of like that the scenario was challenging. Against the background of me thinking too many scenarios are too easy, this is a good reminder that players should stay on their toes.
That being said, it's not a great introduction to the season, and a lot of new players at conventions probably got introduced to PF2 with a TPK.
It would have been better as the 2nd scenario of the season, and softer scaling at the low end.
This, along with 2-02, is supposed to be released at GenCon, correct? Why the available date of 8/26 then?
I believe 8/26 is the date they're available for purchase by the general public, after having been initially exclusive to GMs running at the convention. Same reason 2-00 won't be available for purchase until August 4, 2021, but with a much smaller exclusivity window.
So this is in a "folder" named "Year of Corruption's Reach." Meanwhile, the cover art says "Year of Corruption's Grasp." Just curious: Which one is correct? I'm guessing Grasp -- not only because it is art rather than text, but also because it's better -- but confirmation would be appreciated.
The current version of this file has got an error on the Chronicle Sheet.
The sector "Boons" on the Chronicle Sheet states information from the Special King of Thorns. This should be removed.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber
So, we're running this online Friday night. I scheduled it that way because I was told it could be run anytime after the 26th and that it would drop then. Any chance I can get some clue as to what actual tiles are being used so I can at least get them uploaded to Roll 20? Any other clues so I can start the prep work?
Thanks!
Also, is this going to be the new regular release schedule? Meaning the last Friday of the month instead of the last Thursday. This means our venue no longer gets first crack. If a new scenario drops on Thursday, I have time to prep it before running it Friday evening (EST). If it's not going to drop until sometime Friday while I'm at work, it becomes very difficult to impossible to run it that night. Just my pair of coppers.
does the pdf come with separate VTT friendly maps?
Not even close.
How is it at all reasonable with the pandemic pushing the majority of games to VTT that these new scenarios are still not providing VTT friendly maps in the PDFs? This goes beyond being unfriendly, because it's all dungeon tiles, but there's no unmarked single image of the full map, so to do it properly you have to copy all the tiles individually and then line and orient everything by hand. This makes what should be a five minute task into a half hour of drudgework.
Now getting to play this scenario, it seems the DCs are too high, and getting players to roll against a time limit is just designed to punish players, especially as critical failures happen far too often with the high DC, and just remove research points. Overall, I really liked the story, but absolutely despise how difficult the DCs were made.
Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Rysky wrote:
The map file was likely made before the recent decision and focus to make the maps be VTT friendly was put into place.
This framing....
They already have the electronic files. I can add a page to a pdf in <30 seconds.
It doesn't have anything to do with the pandemic. But if it did... the pandemic Started shutting down society ~6 months ago. And the product release was delayed by a month. It's a decision.
The following seem like possible contributing reasons to me:
Paizo is busy, they produce a lot of adventures on a very tight schedule. There is no meaningful competition (there is extremely high product lock-in and loyalty of the customer base). They have some very expensive map products that they sell separately.
But it doesn't have anything to do with the pandemic.
It's not the end of the world. But it is a decision.
I agree the map files should be more easily imported into VTT. I'm sure Paizo is listening and it looks like the later society PDFs do have map files that are able to be imported easily.
Help.. Does anyone know if there is an Errata for the Chronicle Sheet?? For some reason it states under Boons..
"Congratulations on completing King in Thorns!...."
There are also no items listed..
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Brian Raivel wrote:
Help.. Does anyone know if there is an Errata for the Chronicle Sheet?? For some reason it states under Boons..
"Congratulations on completing King in Thorns!...."
There are also no items listed..
Since the second season, all boons have been moved online in the ACP system. After the GM registers your game, you get access to the scenario boon for free, IF the scenario has a boon.
As for the Items, I don't think the adventure has any uncommon or important items that would warrant access or a price reduction, so I think it's normal. But it has been a while since I played.
This has been the most lack luster game i've played to date, would strongly not suggest playing it, a lack of basic understanding of game rules as a level 1-2 has DC's that are nearly impossible to make. Creating a senario that literally asks if we are new society members only to throw large dc numbers at us is not a fun experience. Disliked the use of map-tiles on all the combat maps, only map i liked was the over-view of the main map area.
This has been the most lack luster game i've played to date, would strongly not suggest playing it, a lack of basic understanding of game rules as a level 1-2 has DC's that are nearly impossible to make. Creating a senario that literally asks if we are new society members only to throw large dc numbers at us is not a fun experience. Disliked the use of map-tiles on all the combat maps, only map i liked was the over-view of the main map area.
2/10.
Ran this this past weekend.
Fully agree concerning the DC numbers. Not only are they too high for a 1-4 adventure, there is also no adjustment between low and high tier. However, even without the adjustment, the DC's are too high even for the high tier.
Concerning the maps, I am going to chalk that up to this being an early season 2 adventure. For the hand-out version of the map, I just went with that for most of the adventure, except for the one fight that occurs within that area, and for that I just used another map that was similar.
