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Most of us have some great memorable moments in Pathfider Society play, and now I want to know:
What specially makes a scenario something to remember?
Was it:
- The Mission
- Roleplaying with NPCs
- Villains - build or personalty?
- Immersive environment
- Unique/original maps
- Challenging encounters
- Rewards on a chronicle
- Character death
- A great GM (details on why they were great?)
- Interaction with other players at the table.
- Something I didn't list? (Note: this choice is impossible)
Think back to your favorite moments. What was it exactly that made that moment stick in your brain like a barbarian's axe?
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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One memorable faction mission involved needing to actively seek to show mercy to people who were trying to kill me. Made me glad I had Improved Disarm.
Basically, having a mission of "kill person X" with a faction mission of "also kill Y and Z" is boring and I'm sooooo glad that that's not what happens all the time (though once in a while is fun).
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I think the most memorable moment is the one players in my area who weren't even at the table keep reminding me of: my own personal hubris.
'Hey so I hear you have a cleric that prepared a very important spell that could have made that encounter go a whole lot easier but didn't have the right spell components on your character sheet. Bet you wish you had bought 25 gp worth of silver dust, eh?'
I'd also say a scenario can be memorable because of the location you are told to go. We were told to go into the frickin' Eye of Abendego. No PC should ever consciously go there, EVER.
/PFS Lesson #184 If you are going to put skill ranks in a Profession, always put them in Profession: Sailor. It's the only one ever used in scenarios.
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1) Players doing stupid things
2) Epic BBG showdowns
3) Good roleplaying
4) Memorable player quotes
From your list:
Mission: Sure, scenario design is really important and can make the game memorable.
Roleplaying with NPCs: For sure, which is why I do voices / accents / etc.
Villains: Personality but also tactics. A boss fight should feel *unique*. If it feels like the mook fights, you're doing something wrong. Each round I like the NPC to say a little something...
I've rarely seen much roleplaying between PCs, which is a shame. When it happens it's usually funny.
Maps: Maybe a map would be memorable, if we could get full color printable maps for PFOS. As it is, I make my own (and it can take time to do).
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The MissionThink about what missions are memorable. Answer the question of "why?"
Commiting acts of terrorism in the name of your Faction(Suck it Katheer). And then having to answer the question of your fellow pathfinders "Jack did you just blow up a building?" answer in a horrible French/Taldoran accent "ummm no" as the smoking corpe of a monk lands 10 feet from us.
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I think missions are a big thing for me. I like to feel like something is on the line, that what I am doing is important, and I am doing something fun and exciting. In a lot of scenarios, I feel little more than an errant boy. Specifically with the “go there and fetch artifact X” missions. In many instances I have no idea why the artifact is important, why I should care, and it has no long term impact. I am just collecting a random object to be shoved into the Grand Lodge archive where it will never see the light of the sun again. But in other scenarios I have ran or played, I have seen fun, inventive, and interesting missions like work to save other Pathfinders in dire situations, solved murder mysteries, gone to exotic locations, and fought nefarious foes.
I also like it when I get legitimate choices with how to deal with encounters and situations within the scenario. I really like it when I can try and be creative in my solutions, or see my social skills actually come into use (plus it can be fun to see a particularly dense group of players get into trouble when they don’t think a situation through, and use their swords instead of their heads, and the disastrous consequences. Have to get them to learn somehow.).
Very much can roleplaying NPCs make things memorable. Many of my favorite moments have been either running interesting NPCs, or interacting with them as a player. NPCs can make a world come alive, and can make me care about what I am doing in the scenario. I can remember many times interesting NPCs with unique traits, plights, problems, and encounter issues. I often find the scenarios where I don’t get to react with NPCs to be the most boring for me. As then it usually just dissolved into a four to five hour slugfest against monsters.
I love to see reoccurring NPCs that I can grow attached to. Such as some of the Venture-Captains like Dreng and Osprey, and Grandmaster Torch. It’s always good to see a couple familiar faces.
Villains for me can really help to make a scenario. When you have a good villain that the PCs can hate, or maybe even sympathize with, and they can hang with the part for a good few rounds and give them a good run around, it can really help to make the scenario end with a memorable bang. A good villain can really help drive the plot of a scenario.
I like to see at least one good encounter each scenario. One that can really push a party, and force them to really try hard or risk suffering some casualties. If every battle is a cakewalk, the scenario can be a bit of a letdown to me. The encounters I usually remember are the ones that really pushed me as a player, or as a GM I could push the party to give it their all. Either because of unique environments and/or the NPCs or monsters involved used good or interesting tactics, and had the stats to threaten the party.
For faction missions, I like to see missions that fit the actual theme of the faction in question, don’t feel just tacked on in order to fill that requirement for PFS play. I want them to be something that is fun to accomplish rather than just a fetch quest chore I have to complete along the way to get my precious PA.
I can get more specific on some of these points, such as pointing out specific scenarios, if you like Kyle.
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Well, it can be anything, of course. The one I replied in the previous thread was because of an awesome GM.
Villains tend to be memorable because of their personality, not their builds. While I do remember both the BBEGs in Silent Tide and The Trouble with Secrets, they're because they offed my PC, not because they were especially interesting personalities. In Living Greyhawk, on the other hand, there was this one villain we hunted across several modules over the course of FIVE YEARS of campaign, and never actually got to kill him. I still hate that guy.
Good rewards are memorable. Not the loot. There's always loot. It's stuff like favours from the authorities, or finding a strange book bound in human skin that permanently eats a point of Wisdom but gives you nifty magic if you read it. Stuff that actually comes into play in later modules is also good.
Immersive environment is a good one. Perils of the Pirate Pact is a good example, as are the Kaer Maga modules.
Roleplaying with the NPCs or the other PCs can be very memorable indeed - we even have a quotes page for PFS Finland. Indeed, since most of them aren't funny unless you were there, but were still deemed good enough to enshrine on the campaign wiki, they'd kinda have too be. An example, after kicking down a door:
"What shoddy worksmanship. A dwarf would have built a much better door."
"An elf would have <i>grown</i> a better one."
- Absalom Dzhownz and Dairhe Faulilj, architectural critics.
I'm not so sure about maps. Unless using the flip-mats or map packs, the only one who actually sees them in all their glory tends to be the GM, and the art tends to lose a lot once it's reproduced on the battlemap. Now that I think back, all the truly memorable examples of cartography were the ones that made no sense or were needlessly complex.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Commiting acts of terrorism in the name of your Faction(Suck it Katheer). And then having to answer the question of your fellow pathfinders "Jack did you just blow up a building?" answer in a horrible French/Taldoran accent "ummm no" as the smoking corpe of a monk lands 10 feet from us.The MissionThink about what missions are memorable. Answer the question of "why?"
"You all saw it! That orphanage attacked me!"
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Commiting acts of terrorism in the name of your Faction(Suck it Katheer). And then having to answer the question of your fellow pathfinders "Jack did you just blow up a building?" answer in a horrible French/Taldoran accent "ummm no" as the smoking corpe of a monk lands 10 feet from us.
That would be Sedeq, not Katheer. Many Fortunes was a mediocre scenario but it was the faction missions that made it fun. I think that faction missions that require more than just a skill check are memorable. Ones that allow for creative solutions are more interesting. Ones that authorize mayhem are even more so.
I'm not sure how to answer this question: I've gone through a number of scenarios that were memorable, but not enjoyable. Am I supposed to include those as well?
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Commiting acts of terrorism in the name of your Faction(Suck it Katheer). And then having to answer the question of your fellow pathfinders "Jack did you just blow up a building?" answer in a horrible French/Taldoran accent "ummm no" as the smoking corpe of a monk lands 10 feet from us.That would be Sedeq, not Katheer. Many Fortunes was a mediocre scenario but it was the faction missions that made it fun. I think that faction missions that require more than just a skill check are memorable. Ones that allow for creative solutions are more interesting. Ones that authorize mayhem are even more so.
I'll have to split my answers in two.
Memorable in a good way:
-interesting non-combat encounters where everyone can participate (e.g. the locked boxes in Silent Tide, the skill challenge in Pallid Plague)
-combat encounters in an unusual setting (e.g. Delirium's Tangle)
-flavourful faction missions that don't involve skill checks (e.g. Taldor faction mission from City of Strangers)
Memorable in a bad way:
-combat encounters that are boring but brutally difficult
-plots that make little sense
-puzzles that bring the game to a grinding halt
-dumb "retrieve item X" faction missions that simply involve making an obscure skill check
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Commiting acts of terrorism in the name of your Faction(Suck it Katheer). And then having to answer the question of your fellow pathfinders "Jack did you just blow up a building?" answer in a horrible French/Taldoran accent "ummm no" as the smoking corpe of a monk lands 10 feet from us.That would be Sedeq, not Katheer. Many Fortunes was a mediocre scenario but it was the faction missions that made it fun. I think that faction missions that require more than just a skill check are memorable. Ones that allow for creative solutions are more interesting. Ones that authorize mayhem are even more so.
Oh yeah, it's been a while.
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One thing I notice about more memorable stories in the mods themselves is if the opening 'Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it.' statement is if its not crowded with a dozen names and places with 6 syllable confusing names that youll never hear again.
Alot of the time I feel the need to do a short recap of what was said cause the intro thing is so long and jumbled.
"VC utbgryegrenoig
wants you to go to the town of ;lsiubabriue
and find the mystical nvriuebnviureg
bring it to nb;'uvbre
and then head to vrn;euiabevr
to pay vfenbhbvtvtrub"
Else you wind up with a half dozen confused players going 'Isnt that the guy? Thats his name, right? No? But I thought that was him?'
'No, dummy. Thats the venture captain.'
Also, near death experiences are good ways to make people remember the mod.
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Something interesting happening. Kind of like (as I try to dodge a spoiler here...) the first thing that happens as you walk in the door in the Mists of Mwangi scenario. Fun stuff. :D
Many Taldor faction missions are funny. In DWK1 we were all histerical when Taldor completed their first mission. Or i #51 and then #52.
Cheliax missions can also be fun though they are often of a nature that does not allow them to be shared with other players.
In general faction missions that make players do something entirely unexpected within plain veiw of other characters are good (they need not be silly).
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The MissionThink about what missions are memorable. Answer the question of "why?"
Rescue at Azlant Ridge and To Scale the Dragon come to mind. They are both adventures with seemingly overwhelming opposition which the PCs brave and overcome.
DWK, City of Strangers, the Blakross scenarios... they create a sense of continuity in the campaign, which I also appreciate a lot.
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Something I didn't list? Faction Missions!What makes a faction mission memorable?
Those that cause PCs to take completely unexpected actions before the party. Taldor in DWK1 and #51 and #52 come to mind.
Cheliax also have many fun missions, but they are often so secretive that only the PC in questions gets to enjoy it.|
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Most of us have some great memorable moments in Pathfider Society play, and now I want to know:
The people (Players and GM)
- Just meeting face to face
- How they run their PCs
- How they GM
An 8" tall toy king kong
Kyle apologizing to a table of newbees for a TPK
My PC being hit by a channel negative energy and having no idea what hit him (GenCon 2009, Shipyard Rats) - 1st full Pathfinder scenario.
The people!
Doug Doug (name drop) and Kyle's masterwork maps.
-Swiftbrook
Just My Thoughts
I added a spoiler tag.