A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
The Maze of the Open Road has mostly been stabilized, and yet agents are still ending up at the wrong destination. While no one has been hurt, Venture-Captain Sigvard Tornkvist fears that it might be a matter of time until injury or worse results. She tasks the PCs with investigating the cause of these mishaps, and dealing with it if possible. Little do the PCs know what they've gotten themselves into, but there's a nonzero chance they'll find themselves in a dance-off before their mission is complete.
Written by Mikko Kallio
Scenario tags: Repeatable
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
It's a wacky maze where anything could happen. There's hardly any theme besides "wacky" and "random." Many times common sense doesn't apply. Spoilers:nothing is connected. Just roll dice when the gm tells, don't use logic or try to solve the mystery.
Also, there's a chase near the end. It goes on for ten challenges, and there's no reward or penalty for catching up to the target. I hate challenges with no point, and I'm not a fan of the chase rules in general.
This adventure is a pit without fun. Skip it.
Such a long time to be going, and a short time to be there.
This was a nifty adventure with a nice wrap-up encounter at the end. The players get lots of choice as to how this one plays out, so they can steer the adventure a bit to the type of play they prefer. There's even a choice at the end, one which I personally thought would be a total no-brainer. But I ran it twice, and each time the party made a different choice, and it turns out it was great fun both times.
What really didn't do it for me, though, was a chase in the middle of it. It is really long and challenging to track! Both times I ran it, I felt my lifeforce sapping from me as the players threw themselves after one obstacle after another and failed, struggling to find new ways to narrate their actions, and both times I was ready to be done to find out I was only halfway through! Meanwhile the rascals you're chasing are long since sipping tea at the finish line, so I didn't narrate anything about them. I have yet to crack this nut.
One other funky thing: this adventure uses a map tile set, but comes with a host of massive PNG maps that represent the assembly of map tiles for each scene. I would strongly recommend the map tiles if you're running in person – those maps are a beast and because of their origin don't look all that great if you try to print them out for your use.
On a plus note, I thought the Foundry module for this one was exceptionally good. See my review under that product (Part 2 of 2).
This scenario is light-hearted and fun for a repeatable. I like that instead of minimal randomness, it's the group that is deciding between multiple options to tailor their experience.
While the chase seems hard, I greatly appreciate that there are multiple scales between success and failure. The final combat option is difficult, and a sneak attack shuriken Toshiro can eliminate a PC before they can act. (That's why you should pick Dance-Off.)
The editing seemed good for the scenario; it was only marred by the chronicle sheet calling Toshiro "Tanshiro". It was nice to receive high-quality map images with the PDF, but it's possible they are too high-quality for VTTs (roll20 upload size limit) or downloading in some regions.
Overall, I enjoyed playing and running this, so 4 stars!
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Why is the pdf for this thing nearly 20 times the size of the pdf for the other pfs scenario this month?
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Ah. Guess I should have opened the zip before asking.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
The lack of Tile Numbers is world rendering hard mode. Why we have pictures of the maps but no way to quickly reference the tiles is... Irritating.
And while I'm complaining - please, for the love of all goodness - start including the range of numbers for the enemies so "Minimum - Maximum" instead of having the number for base challenge for the encounter and having to reference the box adds like 20 minutes to my prep' time. This would be the single biggest Quality of Life improvement for me as a GM, as I try and have miniatures for every battle.
Is this ONLY going to require the forest tiles starter set? Gonna run it next week and want to make sure I have the maps I need.
Amethyst Tiefling wrote:
Any chance we can get a list of which tiles are referenced for which maps?
Hey Guys, I ran it on Saturday. I have to say this was incredibly annoying. It was such a mess to switch maps, especially because they share tiles. (Related: there was so much switching that I ended up losing one of my tiles, I'm genuinely very bothered.) In addition, one of the maps used THE SAME PIECE. This Flip tile hassle: I could not give this adventure more that 4 stars. Building such massive maps and not including the Flip tiles should not be allowed.
This PDF has been updated with assembly guides for the flip-tile maps. Our apologies for the omission, and thank you for your patience as we corrected it!
No other part of this scenario was altered in this process.
I've downloaded the scenario after receiving an email concerning the update but the pdf still does not seem to contain assembly instructions. Have I missed something?
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
I've downloaded the scenario after receiving an email concerning the update but the pdf still does not seem to contain assembly instructions. Have I missed something?
