|
I've just got hold of "Stay of Execution". It looks good and I'm running a Slot Zero this Friday before running the adventure at Conception UK, (our second biggest convention after GenCon).
It reads like a very open-ended adventure. It hints at a few possibilities and I plan to work out a few of those encounters in advance. I'm quite happy to do that but I must admit I am suprised that some of this groundwork isn't provided in the module.
I'm also trying to sketch out an overall map of the prison. I wonder why this basic isn't in the module. Perhaps it was cut due to space. The description is pretty ambiguous and only a tiny part of the huge complex is mapped. I appreciate that the pressure needs to be applied to the players to drive then through a certain sequence of events. OK, but my players are lively and inventive and will twist the plot as hard as they can. If I have to stop and work out the next room, or an NPC, that will slow the pace and reduce the drama.
Has anyone else found that a problem, or perhaps someone else has sketched out an overall plan of the prison to share?
|
|
We played "Stay of Execution" last night and it was great. We had a lot of entertainment from it. I had a hunch that things would wander off the plotted locations and they certainly did but that was fine. I'm glad I had spent a few minutes sketching out the overall plan of the prison or the game would have slowed down a lot.
This was a brilliant adventure for roleplaying and wheeler-dealing. It was never a really tough challenge from the combats. That was partly because my players used every opportunity they could to roleplay their way through.
Interestingly, because of their Faction missions, they spontaneously asked a lot of difficult questions about the set-up of the prison.
The Qadiran player hooked on to the quest for the Qadiran prisoner like a bloodhound, and she spent a lot of time trying to work out how the smuggled items were being paid for by the prisoners and how the smugglers got OUT of the prison. (DMs, better prepare your answers carefully.)
Our Osirion Faction character is actually an Ulfen warrior and she is not heterosexual. She fell heavily for the red headed and green eyed Enga and put a lot of effort and charm into the preservation of her life so she could carry her off. She was very, very upset to suddenly find she was not unconscious but dead. If you've read the scenario you'll guess which faction popped her.
Our Andoran players refused to leave the prison without seeing Skrange so they could find some evidence of corruption. I made Skrange a Johnny Cash style half orc dressed in black and shaking his rusty cage. Alone in his tower he has been writing a book for the last fifteen years about the was he has been incarcerated by his treacherous cousin. The Andorans claimed to be agents of his publisher and offered to get it published for him.
Rivak and his hairy heavies stopped the party in their tracks but they offered to get him out of jail with them. Of course that's a much better offer than getting Hadge so he accepted. Rival later ratted on the gnolls and used them as a distraction for the outside wall guards while he got away scot free.
The party avoided the worst of the bugs by luring them off by feeding them the food from the barrels and holding them at bay with flaming torches and burning oil. Their plan went a little awry when the characters slipped on the greasy rubbish and fell into their own burning oil.
They took out Enga VERY swiftly. They left hurriedly when the riot spilt into their area. Rivak's ambush turned into a deal and they had the required payment for Grinnd in their backpack. They sweetened the deal by sketching of him in erotic poses and leaving him the drawings. He didn't eat them.
Very little blood was spilt but we had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to running again at Conception UK next week.
|
|
Again, unlike probably *all* the other groups who played this adventure, our group differed. We completed the Tier 4-5 in 2 hours, with absolutely no challenge whatsoever (group consisted of 3x 4th, 1x 3rd, and 2x 2nd).
To me it also felt empty of content, as if the potential was wasted needlessly.
First off, the location of Hadge was given out way too easily. A little hints and searching would have improved the scenario immensely. Also meeting more characters with some *depth* would have made it intriguing. My Taldan bard wasn't very keen on discussing with the female Ulfen barbarian, especially with the hostility she showed, so that combat ended swiftly.
So, it has frames for a good adventure, but doesn't have the content on the canvas. With heavy modifications (like drawing a map of the prison and not giving out the location of Hadge) this scenario would improve a lot. I advice DMs to take a look at it and ponder about it.
Creative Director
|
This is interesting.
Society adventures have a lot more restrictions than most adventures, and the largest of them is that you have to present a situation that'll fill 4 hours of time, but also is adaptable to an unusually wide range (unusual for 3.5 games) of PC levels. If you make a Scenario too complex, with too many clues, it's easy to create a situation where groups won't have enough time to complete the adventure—they'll get hung up on an early clue. Other groups will hit those clues exactly right and barrel through, and will finish the adventure super early.
We're still in season 0, which means we're still figuring out how to create good adventures. Feedback like the above is incredible valuable as a result, but what'd be even MORE valuable is suggestions on how we could have improved problem scenarios.
Furthermore... for players who have found adventures to be too easy and simple time and time again... what adventures (if any) in the PFS DID work well for you, and why?
|
|
Furthermore... for players who have found adventures to be too easy and simple time and time again... what adventures (if any) in the PFS DID work well for you, and why?
Most players here have been praising Black Waters for its atmosphere and balance.
Also Frozen Fingers of Midnight, Silent Tide, Slave Pits of Absalom, and Among the Living have earned a stamp of quality on them. Of course they have had their technical problems, but overall they've been very good.
Back to the topic on suggestions how to improve Stay of Execution:
* Do not reveal the location of Hadge. Since he's the weapons' crafter of the prison, he is valuable and is definitely known to the other gangs. If the PCs ask about Hadge, the gangs get suspicious whether they are there to compete or foil the gang's plan. This would also give the Andoran a better way to accomplish their faction quest.
* I felt like the gargoyle is stapled to the story by force, it has very little to do with anything. And a prison guard refusing a bribe to let the PCs inside?! Preposterous! Preferably the guards agree to let them inside, and outside, but when they meet again afterwards the corrupt guards plan to ambush the seemingly wealthy PCs.
* Although having a flashback is a nice way of telling what's going on, it's getting a tad old. Besides, this is a new area we are traveling in. It'd be nice to know about the surrounding area.
Hope that helps a bit.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
I just ran this today, for a six-person Tier 1-2 party.
Going in, the party found a place to stay in town and started asking around. The didn't spend much time at all hanging around outside the prison walls, and none of them made a DC 20 spot check, so they didn't encounter the gargoyle.
Regarding the town of indeterminate size, the module itself says very little. I made up some NPCs for the PCs to talk to, and they found out the schedule for the food deliveries inside the prison, and arranged to make a delivery the next day. They hide their equipment and armor, and enter through the main gates, and ...
... the module, as written, is suddenly no help whatsoever. Two gangs, we don't know how large and we don't know how strong, and a cadre of unstatted guards are having a three-way war. (Why the guards? I thought they stayed out of the conflicts inside the walls.) The war is taking place in the unmapped inner courtyard, around the PCs and the food supply.
I made stuff up for the entire afternoon, and the players were happy. But I really didn't run this adventure.
Like James said, this sort of feedback is very helpful to make future scenarios even better. I like this one, but I can see where everyone is coming from in their feedback.
I want to remind everyone that we're in Season 0 and that this is largely a playtest season for us. Don't get too frustrated--we're learning and improving and you're helping us do it.
|
Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
|
I ran this at Conception in the UK last Sunday. Felt that it is a great scenario idea but there's a lot of information missing and it tries to cover too much for a 4 hour game. It really needs an overall layout of the prison and some general details so that GMs can fill in the gaps. Talking with other GMs of this scenario, they seemed to think the same - nice idea but needs more info. [Personally I also think this scenario could actually make a great short campaign/story arc.]
|
|
I ran this yesterday with heavy modifications.
1) For starters I didn't include the secret passage. Knowing how long the place has been there, inevitably someone else would have found it before the PCs.
2) The main route inside would have been either to call for the gargoyle to carry them one by one, or bribe the guards. Since it's made quite clear this backwater prison has soldiers and guards of minimal motivation, they couldn't care less who goes in. Getting just one gold coin is enough to let the PCs through, though I made it quite clear they aren't very overjoyed about the idea to let them back out.
3) Food deliveries... this caused me a problem. Since the prisoners aren't chained inside the prison, it'd be too dangerous for the guards to go inside to deliver the food to them. Besides the guards don't care. I had them have their sickly humor get a way with them, so they *catapult* (pun intended) food over the wall.
4) Since walking on the courtyard is a sign of war, there are no prisoners outside. Three doors; north side's tower, south side's tower, and the small storage cottage.
4a) The cottage served only due to Cheliax's faction quest.
4b) South side was the place where the scenario itself would have happened. With a successful spot check they could see the gargoyle sitting on top of the tower, yet immobile.
4c) North side was quite hostile. The lone prisoner, who was behind the door as the PCs opened it (it was locked), startled and demanded they leave, accusing them as South side spies. I made it clear there's nothing of interest here, especially since the lone prisoner wanted them out. This cunningly sets the gang war piece in motion, as the north siders have a reason to suspect the south siders for .. anything.
5) The south side was a bit more hospitable, yet they were quite as suspicious, and told how gruesome the northers are. Southers avenged, slaughtering a few northers as warning. Merely I did this to show what kind of double standards the prisoners have. Furthermore, they do admit to succumbing to cannibalism due to shortage of food.
6) Practically all the faction quest MacGuffins were in the same area, so as long as they made search checks to each room, they get their own. Really, the faction quests are really unimaginative.
7) Enga really dislikes when she is bothered, so it doesn't take long till she gets enraged and attack the PCs. Hadge, on the other hand, is gagged and won't tell there the focus is. As a defense he exclaims the information will go with him if he dies.
8) By the time they get to Hadge the gang war starts, and without the guards. The northers are after Hadge, of course. Rivak and the gnolls get in and die miserably, as always.
9) Since all the routes have been blocked, the PCs had to escape to the roof, where the "senile" gargoyle was. PCs offered the book, Grinnd ate it, and flew them one by one to the other side of the wall. After he had done this, Grinnd got greedy and demanded another book.
I had a real problem with the last encounter. There's no condition for a subtle approach to the issue. The PCs offered to go buy a new book and return with it. Eventually I felt like going home, so the gargoyle just went apes and attacked. Hey, really, there isn't much I can do!
Final verdict: I'm wondering if the scenario writers ever ask their NPCs "Why are you (not) doing this?". Sometimes the reasons behind the NPCs actions are ludicrous and idiotic.
|
|
I would like to add in my 2 cp. I just ran Stay of Execution at a FLGS that had agreed to sponsor a Pathfinder Society Game Day. I had four people arrive to play. Two were from my regular Sunday gaming group and two were there as new players wanting to learn about Pathfinder. We had a slight misunderstanding from the new players. They had downloaded the Beta and the Guide to Organized Play, but had created their PC's using the Beta rules. I modified their rolls on the fly and we played the scenario.
This makes my TPK rating at 2. Overall everyone had fun. As I said at first this is just my 2 cp.
|
|
I would like to add in my 2 cp. I just ran Stay of Execution at a FLGS that had agreed to sponsor a Pathfinder Society Game Day. I had four people arrive to play. Two were from my regular Sunday gaming group and two were there as new players wanting to learn about Pathfinder. We had a slight misunderstanding from the new players. They had downloaded the Beta and the Guide to Organized Play, but had created their PC's using the Beta rules. I modified their rolls on the fly and we played the scenario. ** spoiler omitted **
This makes my TPK rating at 2. Overall everyone had fun. As I said at first this is just my 2 cp.
Could you tell what characters played this (level, class, race)? I'm wondering if player tactics have a remarkable effect on the outcome. We haven't had a single TPK in your local gaming group.
That's a typo. I'll get that corrected. The highest Tier should be 2,251.
Thanks for all the advice on how to improve this adventure. I liked the overall feel of it, it's kind of like the prison Sona in season 3 of Prison Break.
Have anyone come up with a map of the prison, by the way? In that case, I would be very interested in it :)
Cheers
OK, I have now completed part 1 of my partial re-write of Stay of Execution (I'm running a private game), and it was a blast.
I used a castle map I found on the Wizards site, and placed it on the edge of a cliff, so that the only way in was to have Grinnd and his allies airlift them in. I had prepared more information on the various prison factions, and also placed the faction missions at various places in the prison, so that the players had to really work for it.
The basic plot was still the same, get Hadge. The way they did it though, was not as straight-forward. They didn't attack the Smashers during the riot, but instead chose to get a feel for the prison, talking with the various factions. Then, the one playing the orc (wis 5, int 6), blurted out to Rivak Redburn that the group dwarf was a smith, so Rivak tried to recruit him. The dwarf said that if Rivak and the gnolls helped them killed Enga, he would do so, and he would even get two smiths! So while the PCs snuck into Engas tower, Rivak and the gnolls attacked the rest of the Smashers (I made them into a bigger group).
The PCs then went over to the Gates gang to find a register of the prison (Osirian faction mission). Short story, they sort of provoke a fight with Helist and 10 of his band, and wipe them out in the process. So now they have decimated the Smashers and the Gates gang, and are more or less co-leading the Gnolls (which they probably could have defeated easily as well).
I am thinking of what to do next session, I ended this session with the guards pouring in the gates and the PC's fleeing towards "safety". I cannot see that the leaders of the prison would sit idly by and watch a group of people (the PC's) upset the, albeit fragile, status quo of the prison.
I was thinking of preparing an arrogant Taldor prison leader and his powerful wizard lieutenant, but I am not sure what they should do. Maybe force every prisoner out in the open until he can sort out what's going on? I remember one episode where they did this in Prison Break. Only problem is, as soon as he realizes that the PC's don't belong there, the only logical thing to do would be remove the PC's weapons and let them rot there.. but removing the PC's weapon and equipment isn't exactly something I want, especially not since I don't see them getting it back easily either..
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
|
Trellian, sounds like an excellent job!
Regarding what to do next, I think it depends on the motivation of the prison leader. What does he want, and how does he see the party as a means to get it? (Alternatively, the same could be asked of the wizard lackey.)
So, yeah, let him find the party, identify them as being off the books, strip them of their gear, and throw them back in the prison. For maybe a week. Let them plot and stew and try to escape. Then, once they see that you're not going to make it easy for them, have the warden return and offer them a deal: freedom, and, if they perform this simple errand for him, their gear back as well.
Trellian, sounds like an excellent job!
Regarding what to do next, I think it depends on the motivation of the prison leader. What does he want, and how does he see the party as a means to get it? (Alternatively, the same could be asked of the wizard lackey.)
So, yeah, let him find the party, identify them as being off the books, strip them of their gear, and throw them back in the prison. For maybe a week. Let them plot and stew and try to escape. Then, once they see that you're not going to make it easy for them, have the warden return and offer them a deal: freedom, and, if they perform this simple errand for him, their gear back as well.
Thanks, several of the players agreed that this was the best Pathfinder scenario so far (it was the 5th). Time permitting, I will rework some of the other modules we'll be playing as well.
Yes, I have pretty much decided that, unless they come up with a genious plan, they will be caught. They are still quite injured after their battle with the Gates gang, and 40 guards aren't to be trifled with. They do not have another book with them, so Grinnd won't be there for a timely save either (they can obtain a book from the Tower King, either by subterfuge, brute force or by doing him a favor). Since several of the faction missions include discovering evidence of the prisons corruption, I was thinking of having the warden task them with recovering some damnifying evidence of this, or maybe eliminating some of his opponents (to give the players a moral dilemma).
However, I am not sure how the players will react if let loose of the prison. They don't have a whole lotta magical equipment, and might choose to escape back to Absalom instead.
|
Is there a PFS module yet that features a nut-house? I'm trying to reconcile the story and maps, etc. in this module ahead of Marmalade Dog this weekend, where I'll be running it.
I like the basic premise. It has kind of an Escape From New York kind of thing going on. It has obvious problems, though. The problems challenge the verisimilitude of the story at its core, and if you try to scale things up to where it starts to make sense, then you're in a situation where this premise deserves its own campaign instead of just a module. Maybe it's just me, but I can't see gangs the way they're described here and not see there being this relatively large population and massive environment to go with it. If there's all that, then we need a lot more to go by, which is what I think the other commentators have said too.
After thinking about it for a couple of days, though, I think I've come up with a way to round this square peg. It is possible to keep all the maps, encounters and basic story arc as they are and just rewrite the backstory and fluff around it - kind of the way I had to do for PFS #24 Decline of Glory for it to make sense.
What if instead of a prison, as such, it were a kind of a hotel for unwanted Taldan nobility - a hotel where nobody is allowed to leave, but not quite a prison? I figure in a society where nobility is a big deal, as in Taldor, there have to be some unfortunate souls who need to be shut up somewhere safe and out of the way, a place for the products of incest and excess. The earthquake can be a nice touch, since (riffing off an earlier post) the prison could be on a precipice of a cliff that pulled away from the land and is now jutting out at an angle, leaving the whole keep on a slope - just a little off, as it were. A 5 degree slope to the west for every floor inside the walls makes for an interesting twist, especially if you have a wizard with Grease memorized!
Anyway, spitballing at this point, working it out. But so far I like calling it the "Precarious Prison of Porthmos" and transforming Hadge into a Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys kind of nutty, son-of-a-minor-noble character.
|
|
I ran this yesterday with heavy modifications...
I ran this on Saturday for the Seattle Mob utilizing a number of Deussu's modifications.
1) I nixed the "secret passage", figuring that a secret passage known to anyone is no longer going to be secret and puts a big hole in the "impenetrable" prison idea.
2) I went with trebuchets rather than catapults. This served as the food and prisoner delivery system. The courtyard inside the keep was strung with overhanging nets to catch the "new fish" and food/supply deliveries. The guards offered to fling the PCs into the prison with their equipment for a price.
3) Grinnd the Gargoyle served as the method by which the party got into and escaped the prison. They had to go into the nearby town and purchase a book at the Antiquities Market (which featured goods from the Weird East). They managed to find a book written by the ancient cyclops of Iobaria...which while it wasn't as tasty as the book provided by the Society, it tided Grinnd over until he could get the other book.
4) I added some detail about the keep's smithy and such as well as the actual structure of the keep.
At one point the party had Hadge in hand and almost sacrificed their personal/faction missions to just get out of the prison and get on with the rest of the quest.
For the party I ran, the end was very anti-climactic...if I run this again I might look to make things a bit more harrowing.
Overall it was an interesting premise, but again it felt like something that should have really had a minimum tier of 3-4 to give it a good gritty prison feel. It suffers from a lack of detail about the environment, how things work, and the factions -- it was too big a story for a single PFS module. A number of elements felt like they were bolted on after the fact (the storage shed), some were just silly (the secret passage). I really liked the gargoyle though.
CJ