Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-13: A Gilded Test

This scenario takes the players to Taldor, one of my favorite places, to fight in an underground fighting ring, which already places a good emphasis on what to expect.

The players arrive to Taldor, to some great characterization of Venture-Captain Muesello, as well as some fun little opportunities for social encounters, like being accosted by shady merchants peddling their wares at the Gray Market. The players were really into the social encounters, so we got to have a lot of fun roleplaying just after stepping off the boat.

Soon after, they're given a mission and sworn to silence about their role in the Pathfinder Society as they meet a new friend, who they get to talk with using the influence system, which was a great opportunity to give a lot of background about Oppara, the political situation in Taldor, and other things to really immerse the players in the world, but you do have to come up with it personally.

Naturally they got some recall knowledge checks to go off of before delving into conversation, so they're not going in blind, although I'm sure War for the Crown players will enjoy seeing what's going on in the present.

The combat was fun, although the first one was pretty easy, despite there being a lot of enemies. My main gripe is that it never really states whether you're meant to be killing your opponents, although they do have surrender conditions. I opted to say they went into 'dying' and didn't have their opponents get up, but my players were more than happy to help heal them, especially in situations where they felt bad for the other teams. This way felt pretty heartwarming, as they made friends with the people they fought.

The second fight puts up a challenge if the GM uses good strategy, although it may depend on the party composition. The battlefields are interesting and can work against both the enemies and the players, if the players are smart.

The last fight had people at the edge of their seat at times, and the surprise at the end was a fantastic moment, helped set the tone well, and even caused a bit of a scuffle about what to do to with the big bad, evoking some strong feelings, especially with his arrogant yet threatening demeanor.

Everyone loved Vionnia, whose conversations will make up the bulk of the social encounters, and makes for a great opportunity to show off some Taldan pride. One of my players was gushing over Vionnia afterward for a good while, and was very happy to make a new friend, especially since her character was from Taldor. Overall, a great scenario, you just need good social skills to get the most out of the social encounters, though that's pretty standard. It is a bit rough how all of the skills to influence aside from the lore, are charisma-based. The influence system generally works better when there are multiple people with multiple types of skills that can influence them, so I would say that with some leeway for what can influence her, things are more fun for the players.

Overall, it has no problems that are hard to fix, and it was a great time overall.

I think my kids will love this. Just run around on the streets killing things.

Me? Not as much. The end result seems fairly insignificant, like you earned 4 XP but the world is no better off for it.

This is an efficient scenario that runs quickly. The balance between combat and roleplay is good, but both elements are individually lacking. Interacting with the key NPC is initially fun, but because she does not have plot-critical information, there is no pressing in-game *reason* to do it. The first two fights are trivial (I ran in tier 1-2) and well-thought-out environments are wasted on opponents who will fall to the first hit. The story seems to assume knowledge of either War for the Crown (or the season 9 Taldor arc) which makes the plot opaque for casual players.

I've played this one time at low tier and GMed twice, both low and high tier.

The short version of this review is that all seemed fine unless (1) you were in high tier and (2) the interaction aspect with Vionnia really bored the players and dragged the game on. Regarding #2, both my teammates (when I played) and my players (when I GMed) both in low and high tier all complained about this aspect, and I think two rounds instead of three would have been a sweet spot. Finally in high tier, DCs weren't easy to hit at all, and I felt the party was pretty well balanced, at least on paper.

As a player, I had fun, as a GM, preparation was fine. Low tier was almost too easy combat wise for the first two fights, but the final fight was well balanced. High tier almost felt like a drag running - again the team was balanced, and combat was balanced, but all fights took very long. My low tier game clocked in at 2.5 hours, and the high tier game exceeded 5 hours and that wore on the players a bit even though no one was in danger of completely dying. When I played in low tier, I don't recall exceeding 3 hours.

I'd probably give 3/5 here...storyline is more than fine, but I feel between the interactive, and the combat experience, a few things fell flat.

While playing the scenario felt almost completely pointless. There didn't seem any option to talk to people and investigate the issues except for Vionnia's skill challenge which was essentially super boring and neither of us rolled any successes anyway. The backstory makes it a lot better but of course not all parties will be able to learn anything.