Unfortunately, I feel forced to start this review by talking about something as uninteresting as myself, but I have been running the Strength of Thousands adventure path and this adventure feels either a very off-target promotion for said AP, or an adventure focused on players that are already playing the AP.
I don’t particularly consider, that it serves either of those potential targets/groups particularly well.
My approach for this review is to go in chronological order through the scenario to mention points that hopefully count as helpful review feedback:
Getting Started: Including the map of the Maggambia that includes the speaker's stage would have been nice, unfortunately, it is only to be found in the actual first volumes of the AP.
Going from “this would be nice” to “why not reprint this, the artworks and descriptions for the listed student, are only to be found in the AP. If you want to use this part of the adventure (and you might not see below) it’s a bit cheeky to tell the GM who got this quest the suggestion to purchase the first volume of the AP.
Something like this should be on the store page, it feels pretty unreasonable, if they had at least reprinted the artwork that would have helped significantly.
Unfortunately… and this is what I alluded to above… I am not sure even giving specific names or images actually does anything, and there is an argument to be made, that skipping them would be better.
This adventure can run longer than you can expect and “chatting with the students” can easily run long if you want to give every player enough time to interact.
Players that have no exposure to the SoT AP likely do not have a lot to chat about, and while the GM could likely try to write/improv some chatter.. running the AP I took time to slowly introduce those characters, shoving up to 6 of them into the players face, particularly since they do not interact with the scenario… is a distraction from the core narrative of the Quest.
I tried to do so in one of my sessions, trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, but my players were overwhelmed, though Otts introduction and box text after this part did not help at all.
Players that have exposure to the AP and might already have met the local students (and all the others that were excluded here, and the list seems intentional) likely want to interact with the NPCs, particularly since not all of them might still be around in their version of the AP.
If you are the GM that also runs the AP for those exact players this could work, but since the students will essentially interact with strangers it feels like a setup for a very odd interaction.
This gets worse as the story janks them away to their own lectures. Had the students played a significantly larger role (like the students in Quest 14) I could absolutely understand the inclusion, but the scenario went into a different direction.
While I have promised to run this for a mix of the players from my SoT groups, I am not sure if it will make it better or just distract from the core narrative.
Takulu Ot pages 4 to 6: Irrespective of the support role Ot plays in the AP (quite comparable to a VC in the Pathfinder Society) the quest spends a lot of word count on him. In the second box text he really sounds overwhelming, asking so many questions without giving players the chance to answer. I would suggest that a block like that can benefit from reduced density.
There is a whole page with answers, and personally, I think replacing it with a sidebar about Ott would have been better (one group actually asked about his own hobbies to be able to mention the birdwatching as neat), but I want to focus on one of the answers.
I am already critical of adventures that expose the players to too many NPCs and names in a short amount of time (and this is relevant for some of my neurodivergent players), but the answer about the faction really takes the cake as far as overwhelming and misguided answers are concerned.
This brings back the question, are you trying to promote the AP or catering to those who play it?
Explaining the perquisite (and personally my understanding differs from how it is presented here as this text makes it sound like students receive no schooling during this period) is decently fitting for this adventure, but will be explained later anyway.
Bombarding the players with the 5 relatively hard to spell and remember names of the 5 branches, along with what they stand for is absolutely overwhelming and does not interact with what the adventure is about.
Handing players the pdf of the free player's guide is a much better way to introduce those branches, and the AP also introduces them with/via the students that are part of it (that share the same dorm).
“Have a walk and talk with Teacher Ot, where you can talk about yourself and showcase some of your stuff” is a pretty decent fit for this portion of the adventure, and my only complaint is that while the gift the players can receive from the teacher is nicely described… it feels very early to receive a gift like that, and it would likely have worked better as the players just receiving a gift basked as they are leaving.
Community service
Last time I ran this I sort of add libbed Ot explaining to the people who the Pathfinder Society against are, because to the people of Nantambu treat even lower-ranking students with respect because of the institution they are now part of… the people of Nantambu have not really been properly introduced to the players or at least not in a way the players can experience.
I would have appreciated that setup being more direct.
It feels weird that Ot, who is here to observe the Pathfinders is… leaving… I have implied that he has people/birds watching the players but it is a contradiction.
The various challenges are interesting, though last time I ran it, the only reason I did not do all of them was due to my convention time slot. I had expected this to be there to make the adventure more repeatable but it is easily possible for players to do all of them in the 4 in-game hours they have been given.
Before I go into details, in general, these have been received well, as skill challenges like this allow the players to describe their actions and how they approach a particular problem (which usually results in quite pleasant RP and descriptions from my players if I am lucky)
These challenges share a “if players pitch other skills the DC is 17” sentence and that text gets repeated every time. I would personally prefer it in a sidebar, though I applaud the mentioning it. While the PFS2 guide to organized play gives GMs permission to do something similar, it is always worthwhile to remind GMs that they can be flexible. In situations like that, players can suggest skills/spells/applications that the adventure either has not considered or does not have enough word count to acknowledge.
All of these challenges require a certain amount of successes even if for some a simple success feels like it should be enough, but while that could be a bit distracting I actually appreciate the chance to give every player a chance to contribute, as I have seen to many tables were fast/impatient players rolled first and thus it felt like not everyone could contribute.
Cat Rescue: Good challenge, I personally appreciated the attention to giving the cat something to say in case players can speak with animals. Absolutely worth praising.
Sewer Rush: I appreciate that this is just a straightforward combat, the combat difficulty will differ a bit based on the group as oozes are immune to precision damage and some classes depend on it. In my runs thus far the oozes have proven to be a good encounter (and one that mirrors a theme in the AP) even though some of my teen players questioned the all ages tag as they hit his barbarian ^^
This encounter might feel harder for bigger parties due to the nature of the enemy’s AOE, but in general, I feel like it is a fitting/thematic inclusion (nonsentient dangerous enemies).
Agressive Farming: I got a lot of creative solutions and positive player interactions out of this one, I guess cleaning up the garden resonated very well with my players.
Full Bellies, Warm Heart: This is essentially the local equivalent of a soup kitchen and community clinique, I really like the idea and thus far characters have embraced to help in their own way. If the skills were not as open as they are here, I could see players feeling like they struggle to contribute but this setup works quite well.
Checking Out Unchecked Magic: This one is a big rocky, not sure if it is the storytelling of a character that would rather not look for a new familiar (which sounds a bit cold) or the fact that many players will assume that once they have the familiar grabbed the challenge should conclude.
It is however nice that players have a “magical” challenge, as after all the local students would normally take care of situations like this, and they are all schooled in magic.
Two Sides: This one seems to be inspired by a challenge Old Mage Jatembe once faced, but personally I am not a huge fan of the setup, and struggle how the player characters' status as outsiders would interact with this one. It’s not bad but my least favored option here, and I am rather surprised/perplexed, that this one warranted custom artwork. The art looks like it is trying to replicate the laughing/sad faces often used in theatre illustrations, and it feels odd to me.
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The Feast: I appreciate that the adventure makes it clear that it takes care of healing the players, it supports the characterization of Teacher Ot and players will likely be more relaxed in the Tokku’s Troubles part.
Worth mentioning the name under the illustrations of the character from the AP (that has to deal with other issues there) is a typo and listed as Takku.
Not sure why the NPC was reused, but it’s nice to see artwork of non-humans that fit a particular region.
Tokku’s Troubles:
I think the investigation is done well, and I appreciate that no complex subsystem was used.
Not sure how I feel about players being penalized here if they failed at Community Service tasks as that connection is not all that apparent, with the investigation in between these events.
Chases and other subsystems have been very present in org play of late, and we have reached the point, where players and GMs seem to start to react negatively to them, especially the ones that do not feel like they are a great fit for the scene, or do not have a relevant impact.
Fortunately chasing fey through the streets of Nantambu is thematically fitting.
I appreciate the fact that a “Running a Chase” sidebar was printed into this adventure as quests like this are a good starting point for new players.
Just like the last Quest this one is experimenting with the default rules by adding bonus successes/points to the player's progress if they choose certain options. Not a bad addition, but I would appreciate guidance for GMs on whether that potential bonus is something that is supposed to be communicated to the players before they roll.
Dealing with Problems Moderate:
Talking down some fey in a non-violent manner is a fitting theme for the AP, and based on the setup players are not very likely to want to fight them.
I have yet to actually run the encounter and could only imagine it happening if the players are a bit bloodthirsty or want to arrest them.
While I appreciate that subduing them without killing them is not penalized, a lot of classes do not have good options to do nonlethal damage. In the AP I have a house rule for it, but org play players are unlikely to have a lot of great options.
Conclusion: As mentioned above I would have added all the monetary/valuable rewards as a gift basket here, but I have no issues with this part, other than that it will really depend on your sloth length if your group has a lot of time to dedicate to this part. This adventure has a lot of potential for RP and I could see run times ranging from 1.5 to 5 hours.
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Production quality: The version of this quest I have downloaded misses the bookmarks, as a GM who often uses them, I am disappointed by the omission.
[b]NPC will [b] This way of writing/phrasing appears in some of the box text and also large swats of the GM-facing text, once you see it it becomes really hard to ignore.
This is not something I am used to in Paizo’s writings, and while it might shorten how long the text looks, it implies the author had a very limited vocabulary (that is very likely not the case and I hope that future works will be able to improve on this)
I am not trying to make assumptions but it’s hard to read and I wonder what happened here, it feels like an early draft that could have used more polish in this regard.
This is one of the major issues that hold this scenario back and one of the reasons why I am praising it in the player-facing part of this review. It can be a great experience, but there is unfortunately room for improvement.
(based on 2 ratings)
