PFS2 1-10 Tarnbreaker's Trail

[Quentin Coldwater]

Ah, I read that apart from the challenge on day 3, all challenges are for one person only. With those extra attempts, they'll have gotten first place for sure. Thanks!

[Mark Stratton]

I am preparing to run this, and I have a question about one of the encounters.

Spoiler:

For the lesser giant short-faced bear, it has a claw attack with the reach keyword. Pathfinder 2e says this about reach:

"Natural attacks with this trait can be used to attack creatures up to the listed distance away instead of only adjacent creatures."

There is no listed distance for this attack, in either of the subtiers. Do I just presume that the attack can reach 10 feet?

Thanks for any help.

[Pirate Rob]

I've been running it as 10ft.

[Nefreet]

I concur.

[Mark Stratton]

Hey, Pirate Rob and Nefreet, thanks!

[Mark Stratton]

First World Bard wrote:

I'm prepping this adventure to run it tomorrow evening, and there is still one thing I don't understand. What benefit do the PCs get for improving the attitude of other teams? Sure, if they can manage to do this to Without Trace or Fail, the sabotages will stop. But there are four other teams to influence as well, and the players are told to slot a boon that has the effect of changing one team's disposition to Friendly.

Failing any sort of other guidance, I'll probably say that if the PCs encounter a Helpful team that has already done a trial, they will give the PCs a +1 circumstance bonus on checks at that trial. (If Two Houses is Friendly from the boon, I'll have them give the same bonus, based on the descriptive text)
Additionally, when a PC successfully Gathers Information with the trial officials, does that bonus apply only to the PC, or to the whole party? The Critical Success wording makes it seem like only one PC gets it, while the Success wording applies to the whole party.

I had this same question regarding the benefit to improving the attitude of the other teams. I like your resolution to this situation, which seems to be entirely missing from the scenario.

[Mark Stratton]

I'm sorry to do this, but I have a bunch of questions. I don't know why this scenario seems so challenging me to prep, but a number of things escape me. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

1. Uneven Terrain

Spoiler:

In B2. Caribou Herd (page 16), it says the frozen pond is both uneven ground and difficult terrain. What's the Acrobatics DC to cross? According to Acrobatics on page 240 of the CRB, "smooth sheet of ice" is Master rank, or DC 20. For a level 1-4 scenario, is that accurate? That seems awfully tough. Now, in encounter D2 ICE FLOE, the DC for the Acrobatics Check to Balance is DC 14 (or 16 for subtier 3-4). That seems more appropriate, but without any guidance, I would have just made the DC 20 in encounter B2 because it's ice.

2. Multiple PCs making Checkpoint Checks

Spoiler:

Am I understand this correctly that multiple PCs can attempt to overcome the challenges in the check point, but a PC can either attempt the check -or- Aid Another, but cannot do both? On a couple it says that on a failure, another PC can try. So, must a failure occur for another to try, or can multiple PCs try (and thus earn multiple Progress Points)?

3. Pushing On

Spoiler:

On Page 9, it says "If the PCs wish to push on toward another obstacle after completing their current checkpoint trial, they can..." What does that mean? I don't get how that mechanic works, and I don't see any explanation of it. Do they go from the checkpoint and then (assuming the push on) to the next day's stuff? I don't get it.

[GM Blake]

I run the caribou herd as a skill challenge (stealth, nature, etc) not a tactical map. You don't need to add not slipping on ice on top of it.

Correct, you cannot both try and aid another.

They left off the consequences in the scenario, but if you press on and fail to get enough progress points, you could be camping in up to severe cold weather. There's no benefit to pressing on (even though the NPCs are described to be doing it when their total exceeds the players by however many (5 I recall).

[Mark Stratton]

GM Blake wrote:

I run the caribou herd as a skill challenge (stealth, nature, etc) not a tactical map. You don't need to add not slipping on ice on top of it.

Correct, you cannot both try and aid another.

They left off the consequences in the scenario, but if you press on and fail to get enough progress points, you could be camping in up to severe cold weather. There's no benefit to pressing on (even though the NPCs are described to be doing it when their total exceeds the players by however many (5 I recall).

Interesting about the Caribou encounter, because it specifically calls out the uneven terrain and the Balance check, but your solution does make sense.

As to pressing on, I mean, is there a limit? They don’t explain how it works, or how far they can go in one day, etc.

I don’t mean to be hyper critical, but it seems like a lot was left out of this scenario.

[Pirate Rob]

I really love running this one, but it does have some issues.

I've GMed it 6 times although not for awhile now so it's possible there are errors in my memory.

Some things:

Making friends with the other teams largely doesn't matter. I play up the friendship with friendly banter and information from the other teams at the camp. No mechanical bonuses but information about what's coming up feels rewarding at least.

Travel distance/speed/night travel is also irrelevant. I describe it as being like the Amazing Race, every time you get to a location you have to complete a challenge and then check in for a mandatory 12hr downtime.

I've never had a team try and push into the night but with the setup as I've described it it hasn't come up.

I present the current attitude of other teams along with their racing points as known information. Explain that the race mechanics are a bit abstracted with racing points being a combination of challenge and racing speed that determines the winner. I also note to the players that the adjustment for greater than 4 players is front loaded so they shouldn't worry about feeling behind at first.

I present night as an opportunity for players to rest, recover and spend some time doing whatever they like. I suggest that socializing with other teams or chatting with the race officials are obvious options but let players do what they want.

Socializing and Race officials remain the most popular choices but I've had characters keep watch, especially after the sabotage, or otherwise investigate clues they've found regarding malfeasance.

Or want to use Survival to predict the weather (I've told them the next day's weather on a success).

Or want to maintain/repair gear (On a successful crafting check I've let them choose a single character to give +1 to for the next day of overland travel).

For most of the challenges each PC can participate once. They can use that participation to help another character with aid or magic or whatever or they can make their own attempt.

[Mark Stratton]

That’s super helpful! Thanks, everyone, for the feedback!

[GM Blake]

Looking back at the scenario, I see that do--apparently needlessly--call out the uneven and rough terrain of the ice on the caribou fields. Where the "ice" does matter is the Ice Walk (and they give a balance DC there) and the final encounter where a large part of the field is ice. I suppose the editors might have just slipped in those references at the first instance of ice on a map without paying attention to whether the tactical rules mattered in that instance. Or it was written with more complexity and edited to be simpler and those rules references just got left behind.

But, yeah, I suspect this scenario was a lot more complex in the original draft.

[Squark]

So, I know this is an old scenario, but I'm running it for the first time soon and I'm unclear what benefit there is to the PCs pressing on after completing a challenge. Also, how much time does the party have to socialize with other teams or the tournament officials at these stops if they don't press onward?

[The Seldon Plan]

I was making little team cards as handouts for the players and Rikkun of the Wyrding Wayfinders does not have a stated ancestry.