Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-04: Equal Exchanges – Necessary Introductions

Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-04: Equal Exchanges – Necessary Introductions

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 8.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq02esl?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-504-Equal-Exchanges-Necessary-Introductions 

TL; DR– Good with a few issues. 90% 

Basics– Let’s go make friends!  The Pathfinder society wants to make friends with a dragon, and YOU get to make the introductions.  Don’t mess up, because you can be flamebroiled and are tasty with ketchup! 

Mechanics or Crunch– The adventure has all the pieces where they should be and they generally work well.  There are about 3 fights, a couple traps, and a skill challenge. Those are all mechanically done well.  The skill challenges are not as much fun as they could have been, because my players tend to feel like they want them to just end by accomplishing X solutions before Y events.  I can dress that up, but the repeated challenges can get boring in a hurry, so I just let them succeed if they do well enough. Overall what’s here is good, but it has a few issues.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff– This adventure is a pretty simple story where the normal dungeon crawl is flipped.  Instead of going into a place where you are NOT supposed to be, you are invited into this one.  However, some elements feel a bit crammed in.  I like the goblins making kimchi, but they are not really needed and it detracts from the overall flow.  My players didn’t really explore much; why would you just explore a person’s house if they are waiting for you?  Also the last fight just doesn’t need to happen.  Maybe having a hallway fight with OTHER robbers would be a better way to endear the kobold butler to the players?  Something to consider.     4/5

Execution–  Pathfinder by Paizo?  Yeah this is gonna be a slam dunk.  I might not be crazy about the 9 buck price tag, but for five people to get 3ish hours of entertainment, then I’m a bit more ok.  5/5

Summary– This is a decent adventure that will tie to something bigger.  And that’s the whole hope of organized play.  It’s a fun ~3 hour adventure where the players get some fights, some social encounters, and some skill tests.  It’s well put together, but a few issues crop up along the way that prevent perfection.  Some are system choice issues and some are flow issues.  None are going to hurt this in a fatal way, but maybe change an element or two to make this a better experience. 90%

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