10-20 Countdown to Round Mountain


GM Discussion

Paizo Employee 4/5 ** Developer

Ran it twice, played it once. I really hope we get more about Pan Majang; I would love to see a module set in the subterranean Howl's Moving Necropolis. And this was a fitting end to one of the most beloved parts of the Tapestry.

Only issue we had was with the Diplomacy check.

When I played the GM explained that since we made the Diplomacy check on day 3, we lost the ability to make further explorations. He even cut off the "lake" part of the scenario, which makes no sense to me as the cache of treasure you can discover should still be there even if the rats evacuate.

The scenario itself says you cannot earn any points dealing with the Ratfolk, which makes me think that you can still use the archives, take samples from the farm, dive for shellfish and do other activities that don't explicitly require interacting with a Ratfolk NPC.

I'd even argue you can still do all the checks in the barracks, given the soldiers would still be there prepping for the invasion by the clockwork army.

...Both times I ran the scenario my players were disappointed that the final encounter was only one wave of enemies.

5/5 *** Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht

Dustin Knight wrote:


When I played the GM explained that since we made the Diplomacy check on day 3, we lost the ability to make further explorations. He even cut off the "lake" part of the scenario, which makes no sense to me as the cache of treasure you can discover should still be there even if the rats evacuate.

That sounds like nonsense. Sure, you might lose the opportunity to socialise with a lot of people, but there's plenty of checks to be made by just looking around. As you said, lots of things will still be lying around afterwards. And if you manage to get them to evacuate that quickly, as a GM, I would say it still takes time, so you'd have few days to get more info.

I ran this yesterday and I misinterpreted the part where you can only make one check per person per day (I read it, and promptly forgot about it), and I was wondering why there was all this fuss about with time pressure, while I basically gave my players a tour of everything and they made the checks. I sort of guessed most checks would take 5 minutes, maybe some 15-30.

Also, the checks are ridiculously low. Okay, I had two INT-based characters and a Sage familiar who literally couldn't fail the checks. DC 19 is laughably low. I get that you want everyone to be able to make some checks, but making some trained-only shuts that down for a lot of people already. But even without that problem, you're still in an awkward situation: you want as many people to be able to participate, but make it a challenge anyway. So anyone with 2 skill points per level barely has anything useful to contribute anyway.
But back to the low DC thing: DC 17 or 19. Anyone with INT 10 who has put max ranks in that particular skill has a 70% chance of making that check. There's no difficulty in that. Make it properly low, so people can get it either through luck or cooperation. There's time enough anyway. You have 14 days, and at least 14 successes required. A party of 4 splitting into two groups, each trying one skill and aiding another will still net you two points per day, on average. Hell, a person with 10 INT and one rank in the requested skill has a 30% chance of making it in one try (assuming it's a class skill). Anyone with at least a moderate investment will almost certainly get the DC on their first try (relevant stat at 12, 3 skill ranks at level 7 already has a 55% chance). And that's with pretty much minimal investment. Only if you're in a party of absolute idiots (INT 7 across the board, barely any skill ranks per level, or not in the appropriate skill) will you fail those checks.

On a more constructive note, a question: How are you supposed to divide the tasks? Let players pick a district first, then tell them the choices in each district, or put everything "on the table" straight away and tell them you'll need skills A, B and C in district 1, D, E and F in district 2, and so on? Since the scenario specifically states travelling from district to district barely takes any time, I guess players can go sightsee everything and basically cherry-pick until they've found a skill they're good at and try that.

4/5 **** Venture-Lieutenant, Maryland—Hagerstown

Dustin wrote:
When I played the GM explained that since we made the Diplomacy check on day 3, we lost the ability to make further explorations. He even cut off the "lake" part of the scenario, which makes no sense to me as the cache of treasure you can discover should still be there even if the rats evacuate.

The way I understood it, you would only lose access to the ones that involve talking to the ratfolk. Not everything else.

Kwinton wrote:
On a more constructive note, a question: How are you supposed to divide the tasks? Let players pick a district first, then tell them the choices in each district, or put everything "on the table" straight away and tell them you'll need skills A, B and C in district 1, D, E and F in district 2, and so on?

I went with option #1. Let the players pick a district. I then read off the checks, or what was left on the table on the second visit. And let them work out who would go after what check.

And I agree the checks were too easy. I had a optimized witch and a investigator at my table.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

I thought the scenario was a 5-9 until someone pointed it out to me.

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5

Some goofiness aside I had a great time playing this scenario. Figuring out how to teleport the entire party in the last part being particularly entertaining. I'm sure the normal solution to that particular issue is just fine, but really why take the chance? Even if you have to reduce person a few companions down to less then small size and stuff them in a bag of holding for a couple of minutes.

Second Seekers (Roheas) 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Regional Venture-Coordinator, Appalachia

Plotwise this is exactly the sort of thing I want to see more of but this feels pretty poorly constructed mechanically.

I am gonna be running it 4 times this week at Origins - it feels to me like if you wanted to do this one on hyperspeed you could just flop the mechanical cards on the table here and any table with a halfway decent skills character would clear it no problem while characters with no investment could still attempt it.

Definitely feels more like a low level adventure that got high level combats tacked on.

That said lots of flavor here but I recommend thumbing through Dragon Empires Primers chapter on Nagajor and any extra information on the ratfolk empire you can find because the scenario doesnt give enough for you to really dig into things

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