Tag: Pathfinder Society

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-02: Shipyard Sabotage

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-02: Shipyard Sabotage

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $8.99  here https://store.paizo.com/pathfinder-society-scenario-7-02-shipyard-sabotage/ 

TL; DR-Solid, if a little short 97%

Basics– Let’s buy a boat!  The Pathfinders want to take to the seas, and you are sent to help buy a boat.  Time to navigate the interest of a used boat salesman, but that won’t be the most dangerous thing to happen on the docks that day!

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure has a solid mix of social and combat.  The social is a long series of events to first buy a boat, then save the dock.  Then the fight shifts to the seas for the final fight.  There is also fun in this adventure where social challenges can be used to end fights early.  It’s an interesting mix that makes this a fun adventure. 5/5

Theme or Fluff– The adventure has a fun story, and it expands on the world and the story of the Pathfinder Society.  Choices can be made in this adventure if a player wants to learn to solve problems creatively or with care for the human element.  It’s something I think more Pathfinder Society events need.  5/5

Execution– I love what’s here, but what’s missing is the only problem.  The adventure is a solid layout and execution.  It’s got the Paizo polish I think is amazing.  But, I think the adventure is just too short.  This is a 2 to 3 hour adventure that needs a bit more fight in it to really push it to the 4 hour mark. 4.5/5Summary– I do love this adventure, even if it’s short.  I like to see new approaches to things.  Also the fact that this adventure emphasizes the human aspect of combat like just getting people to surrender as opposed to just killing everyone, and negotiating a cheap price for a boat!  It’s a fun adventure that is well done.  But if the worst thing I can say is I want more, then it’s a solid adventure. 97%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-17: Stranded on Yesterday’s Tide

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Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day! 

Product- Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-17: Stranded on Yesterday’s Tide

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer- Paizo

Price- $8.99 here  https://paizo.com/products/btq03tyu?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-517-Stranded-on-Yesterdays-Tide 

TL; DR- Solid story with a divisive 1st act.  93%

Basics-  TIME LOOP!  When the god died, time ran in a circle.  What happens to those stuck in it?  Can you get them out?

Mechanics or Crunch- The adventure is a good one, but influence is a dividing factor.  Influence encounters are something that divides players.  It’s a mechanical way to make social encounters work, but some players absolutely hate them.  This starts with one.  That will either make you love this adventure or start off weak.  From there it gets better and enters surprising levels of Cthulhu mythos.  And that’s always fun. 4/5

Theme or Fluff-  Mystery, into combat, and then Cthulhu.  That’s the ingredients of a solid four hours of fun. I love the story and enjoy everything it has to offer.5/5

Execution-  It’s Paizo.  They know this.  they know how to lay out an adventure.  5/5

Summary-  I enjoyed this one but not everyone will.  The influence-focused encounters will make some players mad, but others will find their stride. Then it’s combat and skills to win the day.  Those are always fun, so all players will enjoy everything after the first act.  Fun, but something to keep in mind.  93%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-13: All That Glitters

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-13: All That Glitters

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 8.99 here  https://paizo.com/products/btq08c00?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-613-All-That-Glitters 

TL; DR– Solid, but too short 91% 

Basics– Ready for maybe a wild goose chase?  A lost vault has been discovered that may have a lost key to a pocket dimension.  If you check the cache, the Pathfinders get to keep everything but that key.

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure is a good old dungeon crawl.  Not much diplomacy, not much outside exploration, but good old enter the room, explore, kill the bad guys.  You can’t beat the classics.  There might be some encounter balance issues, but overall its crunch is well balanced.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff–  The biggest issue for this adventure is the length.  This is a VERY short adventure with a bit of story, but not much beyond the basics.  This adventure uses a map that was used in a quest, but this is a full sized adventure.  It’s fun as you explore the vault-like museum, but it needs to be longer.  I’m pretty quick as a GM, but this took me less than 2 hours to run at a con.  And something important, I dont think they describe what the key is.  You find it, but they don’t describe what it looks like.  4/5

Execution– It’s Paizo.  Solid layout, production, art, and even text makes this something to be studied.  5/5

Summary– This is a fun adventure.  I like the crawl.  Crawls in dungeons are always fun, but this is just not long enough.  Throw me more encounters here.  Some are even marked as optional.  More things to do would spice up this adventure.  But, what’s here is good.  91%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Intro: Year of Immortal Influence

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Product– Pathfinder Society Intro: Year of Immortal Influence

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer–   Paizo

Price– $8.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq03g2r?Pathfinder-Society-Intro-Year-of-Immortal-Influence 

TL; DR– A good, but not perfect intro.  97% 

Basics– Pathfinders, are you ready to PARTY!?  This intro scenario for this year’s Pathfinder Society season has you go hobnob with the snobs of Absolom to make a good impression.  All you got to do is be nice, show the Pathfinder Society is good, and make a friendly impression.  What could go wrong?

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure’s mechanics are on point for an intro adventure. There are about four different encounters in this adventure.  It’s pretty heavenly split between some social, some light exploration, and combat.  All of them feel like they fit for the levels they aim for.  This adventure is the standard excellent Paizo crunch I expect.5 /5

Theme or Fluff–  Intro adventures have tough ground to cover, and this one does well, but it’s not perfect.  The adventure has the players go to the party, and start with a few different mini interludes.  These work well, but players can’t see all the characters and their small side quests and vignettes.  Not bad, as the forced adventures where players have to do all the side quests get a bit story heavy, but these all kind of boil down to “do good and learn that one person doesn’t like you”.  Next there is the new antiPathfinder group who aren’t evil, and you have to avoid them.  Then you quite literally have to fight devils and then save someone’s life.  After that people try to run you over.  After that you must convince everyone you’re awesome after literally saving people from the devil.  Lastly there is one last optional combat that’s fun.  The story gets a bit disjointed as you save them every step of the way, but people still don’t like you.  Maybe that’s more realistic than I think having just reread that again.  4.5 /5

Execution–  This is just a yadda yadda of all my other Pathfinder reviews.  Good layout, easy reading, good pictures, good resources, good handout….yadda yadda yadda.  I expected Paizo to make a good layout for the adventures, and I got it.  I might quibble about not having all the monster pictures in the book, but that has more to do with there being three different fights possible in the middle, but seeing as those on their free database with pictures, that feels too pedantic for even me to downgrade them for.  5/5

Summary– This isn’t perfect, but this might be one of the better year intro adventures out there.  The mechanics are good.  The flow is not perfect, but it works decent enough. The adventure itself is solidly crafted.  It players in under four hours, and is fun enough that everyone had a blast.  If you want to jump in to Pathfinder Society, this is a good starting point as either a GM or a player.  97%  

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-05: The Arclord Who Never Was

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-05: The Arclord Who Never Was

System- Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $6 here https://paizo.com/products/btq02dw7?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-405-The-Arclord-Who-Never-Was  

TL; DR-Good overall story, but small issues in the middle beats.  83%

Basics– Who is the skull?  You find a talking skull…what the heck is up with that?  Find out who the skull is and continue the mystery of the fey who want it!  

Mechanics or Crunch– The math is all balanced for this adventure, but the progression of it is a bit skewed.  This adventure is basically several skill tests, a potential fight, skill test/fight, plot, skill tests, then end fight.  Players who are combat monsters will be a bit bored as the goal of most damage will not be a major time sink for the game.  It is all balanced for the numbers and skills used, but the game is moving to much more explore, report, corporate and less destroy all things.  4/5

Theme or Fluff– The overall story of this adventure is great, but the beat by beat is a bit off.  The basics are to learn about the skull.  Characters are introduced in throw away lines and given full pictures, but I don’t honestly know who they are and how they fit into the flow.  This leads to players asking questions that I honestly can’t answer.  It’s nice to have, but it feels off.  One example is a NPC who talked to the skull as a person, but that person is mentioned exactly four times. All four times are either in the paragraph saying he talked to her or his pictures.  NO real description of who he is and why we care.  The major pieces are fun and the second half of the adventure comes together well. The first half has good things that just don’t fit true.  3.5/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yep. Solid Art?  Yep.  Good layout? Yep!  This is what I expect from a Paizo adventure.  I complained that there are TOO many pictures.  That’s a good problem to have.  5/5

Summary– I like the metaplot between the starter adventure, this adventure, and the last of the trilogy about this magic talking skull.  The crunch is good, but not even.  If you just want to beat things, this is not your adventure.  If you want to explore a magic town, this is a blast.  As a GM, some pieces don’t quite work.  I want more background on some characters.  Help me use the NPCs and their pictures to fill out the social bits of the adventure.  It’s physically well done, and the big story is a blast.  I just need more flow in the middle.  83%

Daily Punch 12-18-18 Lord Giveth, Lord Taketh spell for Pathfinder

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How about a few spells for Pathfinder?

 

Lord Giveth, lord Taketh, light School necromancy; Level antipaladin 1, cleric/oracle 1, inquisitor 1, shaman 1, witch 1

CASTING

Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S

EFFECT

Range touch
Target two creature touched
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will half; Spell Resistance yes

DESCRIPTION

When laying your hand upon a creature, you channel negative energy that deals 1d4 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +5) to the first creature and heal an equal amount to a second creature.

 

Lord Giveth, lord Taketh, moderate 

School necromancy; Level antipaladin 3, cleric/oracle 2, inquisitor 2, shaman 2, witch 2

DESCRIPTION

This spell functions like lord giveth, lord taketh light, except that you deal 2d4 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +10) and heal an equal amount.

 

Lord Giveth, lord Taketh, serious

School necromancy; Level antipaladin 4, cleric/oracle 3, inquisitor 3, shaman 3, witch 4

DESCRIPTION

This spell functions like lord giveth, lord taketh light, except that you deal 3d4 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +15) and heal an equal amount.

 

Lord Giveth, lord Taketh, critical

School necromancy; Level cleric/oracle 4, inquisitor 4, shaman 4, witch 5;

DESCRIPTION

This spell functions like lord giveth, lord taketh light, except that you deal 4d4 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +20) and heal an equal amount.

 

 

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–14—Faithless and Forgotten, Part 1: Let Bygones Be

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Product-Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–14—Faithless and Forgotten, Part 1: Let Bygones Be

System-Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $4.00 here

TL; DR-Instantly one of my favorites! 97%

PZOPSS0714E

Basics-Cheliax is back!  This Pathfinder scenario is the start of renewed relations with Cheliax as the Pathfinders move from the shadows and are asked to investigate a few choice locations in the country.  However, along the way you find that not is all it seems as you have to deal with an oppressive dictator, unfriendly towns people, and horrors from days gone by that have subsisted on the most foul of meats.  Will you survive the horrors of town and the horror long forgotten?

Mechanics or Crunch-This adventure hits all their right marks for a PFS adventure-exploration, social challenges, problem solving(non-fighting),and problem solving(fighting!).  Every character gets a chance to be awesome in this one as you can simple fight everything everywhere as a way to win, but if you think your way through the problems, you can find some awesome solutions that are rewarded.  The fights that are here are all balanced and felt fun with enough threats to keep the players interested but not enough challenge to destroy the level 1 party.  The social still has the Pathfinder problem of “fail by 1, no help” that all Pathfinder adventures will always have, but overall it’s a blast to play that is well balanced for any party. 5/5

Theme or Fluff-This adventure has the feel of a Cheliax adventure, but does have a slight problem with the end.  Overall the part of the scenario that takes place in town feels like a town adventure where you must help the townspeople survive in their dictatorship.  The rural exploration is fun, as you get to interact with some often unused monsters.  The end boss is a bit strange.  It makes sense for the DM who gets to read the behind the scenes bit of the adventure, but most adventurers might not see that and will be a bit confused.  Overall it’s fun as the left hand turn parts don’t distract from the great story. 4.75/5

Execution– I like how Paizo prepares their modules, but I’ve also become a little estranged from theme as well.  I like that they now place stat blocks at the back of the adventure, so I don’t have to have almost 10 books open to run the game.  However, I’d like a little more consistency with that.  The main NPCs get stat blocks in the text, while the rest of the monsters are at the end of the adventure.  That’s a pain to flip through, so I would prefer to just have all the encounters together in a clump at the end or put them together throughout.  That’s my only real complaint about these adventures though.  I love how Paizo puts together their stories, so this one is no different. 4.75/5

Summary-Everybody loves to hate on Cheliax, but it’s always fun to play there.  Throwing the halfling bard to the Order of the Rack wolves is always a great way to start some roleplaying as well as draw the player’s interest deeper into the game.  I love what I’m seeing here, and I think I most players will as well.  This isn’t a perfect adventure as the ending is a bit strange, and I’d like some minor format changes.  But taken together, this is one of my favorite adventures from this year. 97%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–12: The Twisted Circle

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Product-Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–12: The Twisted Circle

System–  Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $4 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9hgz?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-7-12-The-Twisted-Circle

TL; DR-Too many ingredients spoil this soup. 70%

PZOPSS0712E

Basics-A Pathfinder has vanished, and you must solve the mystery of the xenophobic town!  This adventure delves into the Mana Wastes as you try to uncover why a small town is prospering while all around them die, and they must hide their children.  Will you find the lost Pathfinder before it’s too late?

Mechanics or Crunch-This adventure is somewhat short and doesn’t add a new mechanic like some other PFS scenarios.  However, the fights that do happen here can be a real pain.  This is designed for levels 1 to 5, but the first fight is a swarm.  That right there can wipe a party of level 1’s, and that fight is for the low tier.  Aside from that, the adventure isn’t bad, but it’s a pain to have to pull punches if the players are new to the game or if they are new Pathfinders in general.  Also, this mod does some good things like providing the characters with scrolls they may need, but without a caster or the sense to use the tools they get, players will miss 70% of what going on as plants and talking to them play a big role in this one. 3.5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-The story of this adventure is a bit scatter shot.  Nothing here is horrible, but some parts involve a random evil bad guy, another involve some plant monsters, and finally, the town has it’s own strange role to play.  It feels like this adventure goes into too many directions instead of focusing on one group of monsters or theme.  As a GM, I was a bit lost.  There is a lot of fun stuff here, but as a GM you have to keep a ton of balls in the air to have a payoff.  And, if you team isn’t on their game they might miss too much to really get the main beats.  Too many ingredients spoil this soup.  3/5

Execution– Overall, this has all the standard Pathfinder Society polish.  Everything get’s laid out well enough to keep you running quickly and efficiently.  I think there are a few too many pages of just text to bore the reader and prevent quick skimming, but overall this is a decently laid out adventure, Paizo’s bread and butter.  4.5/5

Summary-This isn’t bad, but this won’t be on the top of any of my lists.  It’s a simple enough adventure that has possibly bad enemy choices as well as a bit too convoluted plot.  It’s easy enough to run, but not something that you may want to run.  If you LOVE the Mana Wastes and Pathfinder Society, you will enjoy this.  If you just want a 4 four hour adventure for your local PFS group, this might not be the best adventure for you to pick out.  70%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–22: Out of Anarchy

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Product-Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–22: Out of Anarchy

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 4 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9cu1?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-6-22-Out-of-Anarchy

TL; DR– Too many ingredients spoil the soup! 78%

PZOPSS0622E_180

Basics-The society never leaves a man behind-they just might take five years to help him…and it might be someone’s pet project as well…. In this adventure, the Pathfinder Society sends in new recruits to find a long forgotten Pathfinder in a blockagged town in Cheliax.  There, the young Pathfinder have to navigate several different rival groups, find their target, and get him out…all while not starting the third burning of the city!  This adventure is designed for level first to fifth level characters.

Mechanics or Crunch-What’s here is good, but there is just too much here!  This adventure has some serious roleplaying opportunities (which is great) and some serious combats (there are over four!).  That is too much for a four-hour time slot!  Each part isn’t bad as the roleplaying characters get some time to shine and the combat monkeys can take center stage at different points, but in a four hour adventure slot at a con, this adventure simply is too long.  GMs will have to drop part to keep this one going fast enough to cover all the ground. 3.5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-So, not only is there a lot of mechanics, there is also a lot of story to cover as well.  It’s not bad, but it’s too much!  First is a missing Pathfinder.  Then,there are four factions to contend with.  Next is trying to get out and get help.  And lastly is dealing with other enemy groups in the city.  That is too much talking!  I love good roleplaying in a Pathfinder Society adventure, but with so much going on here, it’s hard to make all the pieces shine.  If you don’t ham up each group, then players don’t notice them.  If you do, then it takes too much precious time that you won’t have for the fights and talking to the different groups later.  It’s too difficult a balance to walk-especially for a 1-5 level, four-hour scenario. 4/5

Execution-Overall, this adventure has the Paizo polish.  Lot’s of pictures to help describe things, lot’s of included information to make running this easy, and a decent amount of breaks to make the text flow better.  However, the organization isn’t perfect.  This adventure is about 40 pages!  Some pages are copies of Bestiary books to help run the adventure, but I would like a few more breaks and a table or two detailing how different groups interact with the players at different locations.  Those little things would help speed up the pace of this adventure and possibly get it out close to the four-hour runtime. 4.25/5

Summary-If I had eight hours with a single table, this would be a great adventure to put them through.  They could really dig deep into the roleplaying, and the combat-crunch players would have an absolute blast as well by being able to paint the town red with their enemies.  But, this is written with the goal of four hours.  For that time limit, there is just too much here!  It’s written well enough, but will all the twists, turns, and fights, you CAN’T get this adventure done and be on time.  And any adventure I can’t run in a time slot at a con, written for a con, isn’t one I run a second time. 78%