PFS2 #5-10: The Crocodile's Smile - GM Discussion

[Harley Quinn X]

I was prepping this for this weekend, and just started the thread to give some early thoughts. The premise sounds good. There seems to be a lot of rounds of RP in the beginning, but with all the stuff that comes afterwards, I think it may have to be rushed.

It seems we have a minor "big creature limited by room size" issue in area B2, though not as severe as those in the past. Still looks like it can be an issue.

Area B2:

The Pillar Room has very few spaces for the large creatures to be able to move in, given the pillars going throughout the room. Depending on subtier and challenge points you can have up to three large creatures in a room that as only 16 spots they can stand in.

It is looking relatively easy for both the GM and the players to lock the NPCs out of the fight by placement.

[Hilary Moon Murphy]

I made a revised version of the lackluster handout that originally came with this scenario.

Hmm

[Squark]

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

I made a revised version of the lackluster handout that originally came with this scenario.

Hmm

That will come in quite handy this weekend, Thank you!

[Zoomba]

That handout looks great! My only note (and the scenario itself is guilty of this so I think it's just from copying text over) is

Spoiler:

Having 'Nazreiha appears to be an attractive, middle-aged Vudrani woman...' in place where all the others as just described as '___ is...' can lead to some inferences I don't think were intended.

[thistledown]

It's very frustrating that the background and summary don't actually go over what's going on IN the scenario. We don't know about Faqhir's bankruptcy until we get to his bedroom. We don't know he's the mastermind until we're underground.

I don't understand why it doesn't consider the option of the pathfinders saying "Hey guards, we're already looking into this too. Let's share some info and access." instead of sneaking around.

[Ascalaphus]

I wanted a slightly different presentation on the handout, so I adapted HMM's version.

here

* Changed the "appears to be" to "is" in Nazreiha's description
* Made a bit more room for taking notes after Discovery

[Hilary Moon Murphy]

Nice, Lau!

[Misroi]

I made a minor adjustment to the adventure - well, minor to me, but incredibly important.

So, auction etiquette demands that attendees should be addressed as either Master or Madame. Makes sense, this is a swanky auction, so titles are important. And when it comes to the NPC list, this all tracks. Everyone identifies as either male or female on the guest list.

Except PCs, possibly. And, in my case, two PCs are nonbinary - one of which is played by a nonbinary player. What do we do if neither title feels right for them? Forcing them to pick one feels wrong. I spoke with the nonbinary player ahead of time alerting them to the issue, and we came up with a solution that worked for our table.

The three titles we have now are Master, Madame, and Mayhem. I'm still not sold on the nonbinary title, but the nonbinary player is happy with the answer. Also, I made a small adjustment to the bejeweling of weapons - the type of gems bejeweling the weapon also acts as a signifier of your preferred pronouns and title! I went with rubies for Master, sapphires for Madame, and emeralds for Mayhem.

It all just struck me as odd - Paizo is usually pretty good about gender representation, so this binary titling felt weird.

[Squark]

That is an unfortunate oversight, especially odd given how many of Safa's fellows in previous adventures would going by Mayhem under your system.

At the very least, I suspect Safa themself would approve of being called Mayhem Safa.