| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
A JWM pirate adventure on the high seas?
After merfolk releases?
Heck yes!
Played in the 1-2 tier and DCs seemed kinda high, and almost TPKd
Then win boss fight in less than 2 rounds
Combats were way, way, way too easy in the 3-4
I have run this scenario twice now - once at Gen Con, and once at TheLittlestCon on Find the Path's discord server online. The first time, I ran the 3-4 tier. The second time, I ran the 7-8 tier. Any comments that I have may not necessarily apply to 1-2 or 5-6. I haven't solidly looked over those two tiers yet.
First of all, there is not nearly enough time for the first two "Events." Both times, while GMing with players who are familiar with the game and know how to plan their turns ahead of time, I was only able to get through one round of combat in both the fight on the crashed ships and the first underwater combat. These fights have the potential to have some really cool things unfold and my players were very disappointed both times when we only made it through one round of combat before we were told to move on. I think there needs to be more time built into these sections so that players can actually experience some of the uniqueness of the fights because its there, its really cool and none of my players got to experience it fully.
Some of the hazards are very deadly for the 3-4 tier and I don't imagine it's much better for the 1-2 tier. There's one where I knocked two players unconscious in the 3-4 tier. One crit failed the save and one failed it. For the one who crit failed it, the damage very nearly instantly killed them. Then on the higher level table I ran, I don't think the damage was terribly different. I feel like the hazard scaling for some in particular could use some improvement.
Vertical combat! I love the concept of it. I wish it existed more. However, I don't feel like it's practical at the lower levels. Unless someone randomly has combat climber, which isn't a feat many usually take because it doesn't come up much, they cannot fight while climbing as climbing requires two hands. When the creatures tactics specifically say they stay in the water until players come to them, that makes it hard for players to fully engage in the fight when they cannot climb and swing a weapon simultaneously. At the higher levels, the vertical combat was a lot of fun and the players have more tools at their disposal to make it work even if no one has a climb speed or combat climber so it works much better there.
Lastly, the final combat feels rather easy. Again, the villain has a lot of cool abilities that I like to show off because someone somewhere put a lot of effort into creating this amazing character. And they were dead before I could really do that. The players did enjoy getting to actually get through a whole fight, but I definitely think they would've appreciated getting to finish a fight that's a bit more challenging. The challenging fights mostly got interrupted and the last fight was two rounds.
I know that seems like a lot of negative stuff, but I do really really like the story that is baked into this scenario. I think it is well crafted, unique without feeling weird, and lays everything out in a way that players can experience rather than just hear about if they pick the right challenges along the way. The guide to the connected adventures really helps make this possible when used the right way.
For a final point, I would like to state that I am in no way perfect and I may have missed things that would've made some of my comments less necessary. When someone puts a lot of text in front of me, I do struggle to read all of it completely. I did go through this scenario several times, but like most specials, its a lot of text and I find that I notice new things every time I read through it. That's on me, not on anyone who contributed to this scenario's creation.
Overall, LOVE the story, LOVE the statblocks of the unique enemies, wish I had more time to show off the villains before they died, wish we had a bit more guidance on vertical combat, and think the first two acts need a little more time baked into them for the combats at their ends.
//Loved the story, felt the mechanics were a little off. I left a review with more details. But it gave me an idea. Maybe you thought of this before and it doesnt work idk but ...
I had a general idea, that could be applied to any PFS/PF2E content. Writers shouldn't have to also do the mechanics and encounters. Writers should focus on the story and intent they want to get across. And then you could have "mechanics" come in and insert the encounters and skill DC stuff.
It could look something like this:
Writer: This is an incredible story, here are the characters the party will meet... story... story..
First encounter: Bandits in an alley. The party will meet bandits that are from X group and will fight to the death. Extra flavor bit for leader of bandits. [ Mechanic will then come in and flesh this out with the right scaling, abilities and monsters]
Second encounter: Party will have to convince NPC to give them widget but as they do the widget is stolen by a BEAR! Party has to navigate the crowded streets and eventually be lead into the forest to catch the BEAR to get their widget back. Any extra flavor bits. [Mechanic comes in and again fleshes this out with skill checks etc.]
Letting the writers write, and someone else really focused on the rules and mechanics seems like itll produce a better product overall. I have no inside information but this seems like itll allow the writers to write more, or richer, and itll allow for the rules/balance/scale to be consistent across all formats by having a group focused on it completely.
Similar to how you have illustrators and writers, now you just add in mechanics!
Just an idea.
Organized Play Coordinator
|
Paizo, is there any way you'd consider bumping the release date for these specials forward by a couple weeks? Dragon Con is always on Labor Day weekend, and we're always scrambling to try and read/prep this scenario with only a couple of days to work with.
I'm always able to grant scenarios to convention GMs early, though this August has been difficult between my various outages. According to my records, DragonCon GMs were granted their scenarios on August 12; if you did not receive them, please contact your convention coordinator.