Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-11: No Time for Treason

I agree with Checkmonkey. This scenario falls extremely short as a mystery. It has some fun, quirky NPCs and it is entertaining to interact with them – but never in this scenario did I ever feel like the roleplay was truly rewarding, and the “mystery” left a lot to be desired. Every NPC basically gives you the same vague information (and not enough information for you to really act upon - outside of following the railroad exactly as the author has set for you). You get a list of points of interest: go from point A, to point B, to point C – but all roads lead to point D, E, and F with no room for intrigue or other possibilities. As a player, I felt like I was just getting yanked around without any real player agency at all. Plus, if that wasn’t enough, there’s actually an NPC working with your party who has a seemingly super-sophisticated spy network (and who gets even more info for your party while you sleep), so I really didn’t feel like our party was needed at all. Why did we need a spy network Paizo? Couldn’t we have just found out the information on our own so we felt like we’d done something? Deus Ex Spy Network was not fun. Give the PCs a reason to exist!

Also, this is a pet peeve of mine, but Paizo or its authors seem to have a habit of making their villains a bunch of incompetent idiots. This scenario was no exception. The villains are perpetrating what equates to a bunch of juvenile pranks for the most-part. They never felt like they were a real threat, came up with some hair-brained schemes, and were weaklings in combat to boot. Is it too much to ask that we match wits with competent villains every once in a while? Instead we get the Aspis Consortium, the Onyx Alliance, and these guys (who are probably the worst of the bunch)…

A number of reviewers have rated this scenario up for the extensive RP options – but I feel like this is indicative of the lack of good RP options in a number of Society scenarios, at least as of writing this review. We’re so starved for good roleplay that any roleplay at all is considered a big bonus, even if (as I mentioned earlier) the RP doesn’t lead anywhere.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this scenario. Even if you’re interested in playing Pt2 of this Taldan 2-parter (which actually is a good scenario), I’d recommend skipping this scenario and just going straight to the sequel. You won’t miss anything – outside of a railroad masquerading as a mystery.

I can understand what the author was going for in this adventure. I belive they wanted more mystery than combat. Unfortunately the mystery boils down to going to a few locations and making skill checks for a story that everyone at the table immediately guessed from the first location. It never felt like there was any danger for either ourselves or any NPC during the scenario. For those reasons I can't recommend this adventure to anyone who's not attempting to be a completionist for season 3.

I completed this scenario in about 3.5 hours. This scenario features more social encounters and skill checks than it does combat. The mystery plot was intriguing, although the outcome wasn't surprising, but overall it was good.

I like the division of skill DCs into Easy, Standard, and Hard in the sidebar on page 5. The text was easier to read and required less space than normal. I also like how It offer guidance for GMs on setting DCs of checks that players may wish to attempt, and GMs inform players which skills are more difficult than others. It would be great if this became standard in future scenarios!

As title says, this scenario is very heavy on RP.
If your GM likes it, this can run very long.
If not, it quickly boils down to a series of skill checks.
It was the latter when I played it so we were done in less than 3hrs.

It was still fun, but I personally would prefer if it gave GM an optional encounter similar to how it was done at the end of 2-11.

When I prepared this scenario for online play, I felt unsure that players would buy into it. It is very much geared toward roleplay and the investigation part far outweighs the combat parts in playtime.
I have since run it three times (25, 28 and 30 CPs) and all groups seem to have enjoyed it greatly. I for one have found it fun and the fights can be challenging.
Another one for which I can't wait to see what is in store for part 2.
I chose to constrain roleplay time, to avoid the game lasting too long. It would probably run 3h or less if cutting the RP to just skill checks. I ran just under 4.5h in all 3 sessions. I see the potential for the game to very easily slip to 5.5-6h if a lot of roleplay is involved and the GM don't limit it (which is fine, obviously, as long as everyone is aware of that).