What are, in people's opinions, the best of the current starting scenarios? I just picked up the following to start running PFS games in my area (Anchorage, AK) and am wondering what the best starter would be.
I grabbed the low-tier scenarios I could find for this season and the last. That includes:
Severing Ties
The Disappeared
The Cyphermage Dilemma
The Veteran's Vault
The Night March of Kalkamedes
The Glass River Rescue
Obviously I'll read over them, just wondering on people's opinions on what current modules form a good first impression - I was going to run the First Steps series but it seems they've been retired.
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What are, in people's opinions, the best of the current starting scenarios? I just picked up the following to start running PFS games in my area (Anchorage, AK) and am wondering what the best starter would be.
I grabbed the low-tier scenarios I could find for this season and the last. That includes:
Severing Ties
The Disappeared
The Cyphermage Dilemma
The Veteran's Vault
The Night March of Kalkamedes
The Glass River RescueObviously I'll read over them, just wondering on people's opinions on what current modules form a good first impression - I was going to run the First Steps series but it seems they've been retired.
I'd go back to season 0 or season 1 games - i would not start a group on any of those games - some are games to be savored others are potentially frustrating for beginners.
You can still run first steps 1 for your group
Among the Living (0-7) is scary and fun
Decline of Glory (0-24) and then they are ready for the first level of Thornkeep
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I'll second what Dhjika already said: Stick with older scenarios for brand new players.
Of the ones you listed (since you've already paid for them) I'd go with Night March. It's got a good mix of difficulty and role playing, but it's still pretty unforgiving on parties that just rush in without thinking things through.
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Mists of Mwangi is a great starter, with a really good sequel, The Penumbral Accords.
Both are very accomplishable with first level characters.
The Disappeared is actually pretty tough, and requires some out of the box thinking.
I like Frostfur Captives... has some tough encounters, but is a lot of fun!
Speaking of Goblins, you cannot forget one of my all-time favorites... We Be Goblins!!! Good introduction to the chaos that is Pathfinder... lets players play a pregen gobbo, with really no risk to their characters. Then, their characters can receive the chronicle and have decent starting money!
City of Strangers I & II were also pretty good scenarios.
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The best introductory PFS scenarios are First Steps Part 1 followed by Silent Tide, in that order. Both are new player and level 1 friendly.
Mists of Mwangi, Citadel of Flame, Decline of Glory are all suitable later.
Of the new scenarios, Night March is quite good.
I would avoid Cyphermage and Severing Ties (read the reviews for more info).
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I killed six of seven players at 1-2 in Severed Ties (the seventh managed to make his 'save or die,' save, I tried to convince him to try and rescue some of the others, and he managed to flee with 1hp remaining.
Would not recommend.
I actually really enjoyed GMing Cyphermage, and I'm pretty sure my players had fun. It requires a bit more work to read up on Riddleport but if you play up the flavour it's a really nice scenario.
I've played and GMed Night March, it's also a good one, but I wouldn't run it as the first scenario, give your players a bit of experience getting used to the game before running it.
I'll echo what the others have said. I've played Mists of Mwangi, it's very short and simple, and a good intro. I've ran Citadel of Flame, killed one and almost killed a second who failed a DC 3 acrobatics check, but it's a good scenario. It's a better scenario if you have someone that's in the Cheliax Faction, though.
City of Strangers I and II are excellent scenarios, but make sure you read up on Kaer Maga to really play up the flavour.
The Infernal Vault is also quite simple, a pretty standard dungeon crawl scenario. I played it at 3-4 and we had a real touch time with the BBEG, but I ran it at 1-2 and it was very balanced. There's not a lot of room for RP in this scenario, so I'd recommend playing up any opportunity you get (i.e. with the mercenaries).
Frozen Fingers of Midnight is short and simple.
Perils of the Pirate Pact is -really- easy at 1-2. Others in our group ran/played it at 6-7 and it seemed better for them.
The Prince of Augustana is pretty good, though the NPC is insufferable.
Don't run the Gods Market Gamble at 1-2. We got completely torn apart before we could get even close to the BBEG in the final fight, and lost our just-about-to-hit-level-2 characters. Was pretty frustrating.
You can hop into my own new group thread over here:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q349?Forming-a-new-chapter-Where-to-start#33
I've got a bunch of feedback on good starters and made a schedule for about 12-13 weeks of play which will take chars from lv 1 to around lv 3 or 4
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Mists of Mwangi is a great starter, with a really good sequel, The Penumbral Accords.
Both are very accomplishable with first level characters.
The Disappeared is actually pretty tough, and requires some out of the box thinking.
I like Frostfur Captives... has some tough encounters, but is a lot of fun!
Speaking of Goblins, you cannot forget one of my all-time favorites... We Be Goblins!!! Good introduction to the chaos that is Pathfinder... lets players play a pregen gobbo, with really no risk to their characters. Then, their characters can receive the chronicle and have decent starting money!
City of Strangers I & II were also pretty good scenarios.
While I generally agree with the responses here, I felt I should put my 2 cents in on The Penumbral Accords: I was playing a Lv 4 Fighter, 3 rounds into the first encounter, my 40 HP Fighter was dead-dead, -14 HP, admittedly the first enemy did confirm a crit on one of those attacks, but still; I was supposed to be the group's meat shield, and then 3 rounds in (Atk, Atk, Atk of Opportunity) I was dead-dead, not necessarily fun, and potentially demoralizing to the party, now that won't necessarily always happen, but keep this in mind when considering this as a scenario, now as I said, we were at Tier 4-5, but still worth considering if you do want to run it or not. I could include more details, but 1) died too quickly to be able offer many, and 2) it would not be cool to throw out spoilers frivolously
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While I generally agree with the responses here, I felt I should put my 2 cents in on The Penumbral Accords: I was playing a Lv 4 Fighter, 3 rounds into the first encounter, my 40 HP Fighter was dead-dead, -14 HP, admittedly the first enemy did confirm a crit on one of those attacks, but still; I was supposed to be the group's meat shield, and then 3 rounds in (Atk, Atk, Atk of Opportunity) I was dead-dead, not necessarily fun, and potentially demoralizing to the party, now that won't necessarily always happen, but keep this in mind when considering this as a scenario, now as I said, we were at Tier 4-5, but still worth considering if you do want to run it or not. I could include more details, but 1) died too quickly to be able offer many, and 2) it would not be cool to throw out spoilers frivolouslyMists of Mwangi is a great starter, with a really good sequel, The Penumbral Accords.
Both are very accomplishable with first level characters.
...
I had a similar experience playing Penumbral Accords at subtier 4-5. Not sure what it's like at 1-2 though.
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I'd definitely recommend First Steps, part 1 and Master of the Fallen Fortress to start, both of which are free downloads, I think. I know First Steps 1 is free, I'm just not sure about Fallen Fortress.
The Disappeared is a good one at low level, especially as a followup to First Steps 1, since they meet an NPC in FS1 who plays a key role in The Disappeared.
Agree with those saying to avoid Severing Ties at low level. There are certain threats that just don't belong in a tier 1-2 adventure. The same goes for Veteran's Vault, though not quite as strongly.
Some other older scenarios that I'd say are good for tier 1-2, and this will repeat earlier suggestion: Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible, Mists of Mwangi, Frostfur Captives, Infernal Vault, Frozen Fingers of Midnight, Among the Living, and Penumbral Accords.
Scenarios with a tier 1-2 that I'd recommend avoiding because they're just too tough at that low tier: Severing Ties, The Devil We Know part 1, The Prince of Augustana, and The Pallid Plague.
I played Cyphermage Dilemma and Night March of Kalkamedes at the higher tier, and never GMed them, so I don't know them well enough to know how they play at 1-2.
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Taking a more marketing approach...
I'm a fan of Before the Dawn Parts 1 & 2 for newer players...It's what I ran for my group of players! It's an epic two-parter with a fantastic first scenario and thrilling conclusion in the second scenario, something sure to get new players hooked. They were among my first scenarios in PFS, and I sure was hooked on PFS after that.