A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
Drandle Dreng's unmasking as the member of the Decemvirate known as Sapphire has left the Sewer Dragons in a sort of limbo, with one of their strongest political allies largely stripped of influence. Chief Yiddlepode still believes that these agreements with outsiders is the best way to keep the Sewer Dragons strong, but, while that was an easy case to make before their territory was devastated, doubts have arisen among other members of the tribe in the ensuing years. Trapmaster Tok especially has begun to blame the Pathfinder for their misfortune. He has issued a challenge to Yiddlepode for the leadership of the Sewer Dragons, and she has turned again to the Pathfinders. The conflict brewing beneath the streets of Absalom threatens to destabilize the whole city. The PCs need to prove to the beleaguered kobold allies that the best way foward is together.
Written by Genevieve Olejnik
Scenario tags: Faction (Radiant Oath)
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
I liked the mix of subsystems (influence & chase), combat & diplomacy. Combat can easily fall a bit flat if you have diplomatic players, as you can circumvent the only somewhat difficult encounter (or get chastised for not doing so).
The influence game was well done with unique actions specific to the round. The chase on the other hand fell a bit flat, with 7/8 obstacles allowing a acrobatics spam, but I guess that's par for the course if you're doing a kobold chase.
I love scenarios that bring in the minor subsystems and this scenario uses two. In the past that's been a heavy cognitive load (2-01 Citadel of Corruption), but here the Influence system was constrained to just a pair of NPCs, and it introduced a novel round-by-round shake up to the system. On the other hand, the Chase scene was overly reliant on a pair of obvious recurring skills (Athletics and Acrobatics) and could have used some more creative alternatives to involve PCs who don't have those skills maxed.
The final encounter is fun, but the scenario rewards incentivize talking down the antagonist rather than fighting. So the party rolls into the climax with enough time left in the slot to run a tough fight, but the good outcome is we roll a skill check and all go home early? Alternatively, the players fight a tough opponent, get the satisfaction of defeating them, and then find out they lose out on part of the scenario reward because they fought back against an ambush. Either way that's disappointing note to leave the players on.
This is actually the second encounter in the scenario that is statted out for a fight, but subtextually wags the author's finger at players who draw their swords. I could really do with less of that overall.
All this can be worked around by a GM who sees the trouble coming and puts the players' fun at the table ahead of running the scenario perfectly faithful to how it was written. But when playing with an unfamiliar group at a convention, I could see this being a bad time on both sides of the GM screen.
Crisis is a short scenario that is a mix of the influence system, chase, and easy combats. It took us 2.5 hours.
I think the story is good, although it’s a non-epic story in a long list of non-epic stories.
I dislike the influence system, but it was relatively short lived, and the NPC was relatively interesting and well written. The encounter would have been better without the influence system.
The obstacle system in PF2 doesn’t work. If there is a locked gate blocking the party, why does every member of the party need to unlock it? After we unlock it, do we close and lock the gate for the next person going through it? If 5 players can squeeze through an opening, why does that allow non-mobile player #6 squeeze through the same opening? It doesn’t make any sense. And in terms of fun, it’s just more roll-play.
I liked that the skill challenges included only a smaller subset of skills, but this lead to some skills being used repetitively, and if the group doesn’t have these skills, they will fail (as Andreww stated).
The combat was too easy. Both combats were over before the end of the 1st round (some players didn’t get to act). Only one player took a few HP of damage the entire scenario. Perhaps combat was too easy because we easily passed the skill challenges (our dice were on fire)?
” Bypassing encounters”:
Bypassing the last encounter with diplomacy made sense and it was (narratively) the right thing to do, but it was also not satisfying.
Overall: For me, the PF2 subsystems are being overused and are ruining the game. (3/10)
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
