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You *only* *ever* deduct treasure bundles if the scenario explicitly tells you to.
Page 6: (Treasure bundles at the end of the encounter with Webhekiz)
Treasure: Dozens of personal affects protrude from amid the wreckage of the sewer. The PCs receive 2 Treasure Bundles representing these affects for completing the encounter with Webhekiz, regardless of whether they take the items or not.
Page 11:
Treasure: If the PCs manage to reach the Unsinkable before Qxal reaches the
Bloody Mire, they have enough time to spot and recover a cache of Bhopanese art objects that washed downriver during Qxal’s assault on Hoba Dukuza. This cache is worth 2 Treasure Bundles, regardless of whether the PCs get compensation from the Pathfinder Society or the Bhopanese survivors they rescued.
Further the Guide:
Treasure Bundles
At the end of a scenario, the GM should tally the number of Treasure Bundles found.
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Further:
The guide, under table variation.
However, awarding fewer than the maximum Treasure Bundles shouldn’t be a punitive tool. Unless recovering a Treasure Bundle is tied to succeeding at key skill checks or making key choices, PCs who overcome an encounter with creative solutions should earn the same reward they would have earned by defeating that foe in combat. Adventures call out special exceptions, such as treasure only accessible if the PCs investigate a particular secret door or agree to an NPC’s proposal.
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You get credit for finding (and recording / reporting) Treasure Bundles, not taking them.
The wording was *intentionally* changed from "Treasure Bundles Acquired" to "Treasure bundles found" so as not to penalize players for moral actions, such as a refusing to disturb the sanctity of a tomb by looting it. And was part of an intentional shift to move the society more toward archeologists, and away from tomb raiders and plunderers.
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No, the adventures that have exceptions call them out *explicitly.* They say things like 'If the players agree to this, they lose one treasure bundle.'
Contrast "Burden of Envy"
However, inadequate preparations and circumstance present a series of obstacles that the party must overcome or bribe the guards to overlook, reducing their profits and the available Treasure Bundles.
You lose treasure bundles for failing checks, not for being good people
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I'm running this in two days. One thing in particular has me worried. The way I read it, there's no chance for the PCs to heal themselves between encounter B (Jinkins/Redcaps) and the chase. There's a 10-minute window after the chase to heal up. So that's basically two back-to-back fights with a chase in between, with only one round of healing for everyone? That seems pretty harsh, especially considering the boss hits like a truck.
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I'm running this in two days. One thing in particular has me worried. The way I read it, there's no chance for the PCs to heal themselves between encounter B (Jinkins/Redcaps) and the chase. There's a 10-minute window after the chase to heal up. So that's basically two back-to-back fights with a chase in between, with only one round of healing for everyone? That seems pretty harsh, especially considering the boss hits like a truck.
Yup. This is intentional. Fortunately the boss difficulty is somewhat offset by the cannons.
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I'm running this in two days. One thing in particular has me worried. The way I read it, there's no chance for the PCs to heal themselves between encounter B (Jinkins/Redcaps) and the chase. There's a 10-minute window after the chase to heal up. So that's basically two back-to-back fights with a chase in between, with only one round of healing for everyone? That seems pretty harsh, especially considering the boss hits like a truck.
Not all assignments guarantee a chance to heal. There are number of adventures that have back to back encounters.
How did the adventure end up?
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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I'm running this in two days. One thing in particular has me worried. The way I read it, there's no chance for the PCs to heal themselves between encounter B (Jinkins/Redcaps) and the chase. There's a 10-minute window after the chase to heal up. So that's basically two back-to-back fights with a chase in between, with only one round of healing for everyone? That seems pretty harsh, especially considering the boss hits like a truck.Not all assignments guarantee a chance to heal. There are number of adventures that have back to back encounters.
Well, yeah, but most adventures don't really throw you against a blood butterfly that can crit on its first attack on a 6+. >_>
How did the adventure end up?
Pretty well, actually. Helps if you have a Cleric and two healing-focused characters. The Redcaps were scary, but people made it through the chase fine. The boss was quite a drain on resources, but they managed to beat them just in time. The one round that the Monarch needs to fly over to the PCs helps a lot with last-minute healing.
Which brings me to another point. I had to dock the players three treasure bundles for failing checks. One bundle was at the beginning overcoming the obstacles (you get one bundle per obstacle, essentially), and two more for not being fast enough during the chase. The first one stings, but I can see the reasoning. The chase, though, feels a bit bad. Basically everyone needs to succeed on their check to progress (usually, the amount of successes needed equals the amount of PCs). But if a player rolls badly or doesn't have the skills required, they're essentially a dead weight to the team, and others have to make up for it. Skill DCs are pretty low (especially in the high tier), so it's easier to crit succeed, but still. IMHO challenges should require everyone to succeed OR have a few good rolls, but not both. Especially since only a small subsection of skills are allowed.. Basically everyone needs to roll above-average in order to obtain those treasure bundles. The poor Barbarian had basically no mental skills and couldn't participate in half the checks.
Other opinions on this? I'm not asking for this to be changed, just like to hear other opinions.
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The poor Barbarian had basically no mental skills and couldn't participate in half the checks.
If I recall, you can chose what order you go in each turn, so when we played this, we had the low skill characters go first any time there was an obstacle they *could* effect, and delay any time there wasn't (which often got us past the obstacle to one they could.)
But also, early chases just didn't have great balance, because the writers were still learning the system...