Short running Season 5 Scenarios


GM Discussion


I was wondering if I could have some advice on usual run times for season 5 scenarios?

I am running a mini-campaign knitting these scenarios together. I picked season 5 because I wanted to start with the Confirmation and liked the look of several other scenarios. And the Worldwound thing is quite a good motivator for players

I was wondering which can take less than the 4 hour PFS target based on past experience.

I ask because I might have a session where this weekend where 2 scenarios could be fit in but they would have to both run short for this to be feasible.

As an aside several boons from season 5 seem to be story based and have no mechanical benefit (such as the Horn of Aroden). What are these for/do these do?

Thanks

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

Season 5 has quite a few mini-storylines running around. The "non-boons" are mostly related to the buildup of Assault on the Wound.

mild Assault on the Wound spoilers:

In Assault on the Wound, the Society brings an army into the Worldwound. That scenario features mass-combat rules; players command armies. It is a scenario you need to put in special prep for, it requires teaching players about mass combat. It got a lot of bad reviews from people who didn't see that coming. If properly prepared (by both players and GM) it's a fun scenario however.

The non-boons collected before give players access to special troop types, or enhance the New Army of Exploration that the Taldor faction is putting together.

What with collecting boons to fuel your army, and the extended runtime, think of Assault on the Wound as one of season 5's climax adventures. (Along with Vengeance at Sundered Crag and Legacy of the Stonelords).

5/5 *****

Season 5 scenarios have a reputation for running long. Some shorter ones could include:

Elven entanglement: everyone is dead after the first encounter, cuts run time down considerably
Weapon in the Rift: relatively self contained, does include a stupid puzzle.
Fate of the Fiend: See elven entanglement
Sealed Gate: See Fate of the Fiend

Merchant's Wake can probably be done in under 4 hours as can You Have Waht You Hold. I would be dubious about the rest.


Oh ok good to know
I forgot to mention my group is low tier so not sure how many of those work

I think I am going to give Library of the Lion a shot at the weekend

5/5 5/55/5

If you don't have extended role playing sessions 5-04 - The Stolen Heir is pretty shot. 5-19 - The Horn of Aroden is even shorter.

In your timeline the Horn of Aroden should be run sometime after Library of the Lion. Library of the Lion has a clue that leads to the Horn of Aroden.

Weapon in the rift is a pretty Epic scenario and is worth playing, The puzzle mentioned about is inconsequential since the party has an easy way around it if they can't figure it out.


Thanks for that. I will prep Horn of Aroden just in case there is time (actually have Saturday evening and a Sunday daytime session)

Stolen heir should have been short but we are actually stuck halfway through (games not being run for official credit) . Players insisted on swallowing every red herring and grilling every npc extensively. I wasn't quite skilled enough to steer away because non answers made them paranoid and suspicious :-(

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

I really like the puzzle in Weapon in the Rift, but it can benefit from using props, and as a GM you have to make sure you really understand it - test-drive it a couple of times beforehand. There's good info in the GM discussion thread about it.

Players overthinking things, or taking an approach that makes perfect sense that the author didn't anticipate, is unfortunately something that can just happen. PFS scenarios are fairly linear (they have to be, to be a self-contained 4-hour story).

Modules can be much more flexible in that sort of thing, because they're allowed to take longer. A typical module (one chronicle sheet worth) is about equivalent to three scenarios. They're often less linear in how players approach things, going from a broad line of possible clue locations to gradually narrowing down just where the big bad's location could be.

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