Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–01: Between the Lines

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $3.99 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9cu3?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-7-01-Between-the-Lines

TL; DR– DnD-NOW WITH LSD! 92%

Basics-You’ve been summoned to help procure an item.  Fortunately, you know where it is, and even better, who has it.  They will even sell it to you!  What happens when you get what you want, and it does way more than you hoped for?  What happens when you play with an ancient box that stores the mental history of all who used it before?

Mechanics or Crunch-This is two adventures in one.  The first adventure is the standard one you know and love.  Run some errands, and then you get what you were searching for.  That’s all par for the course.  The second half is crazy, out there fun.  You enter a mental landscape.  That’s fine, but the map and the monsters are a bit off, and a bit more front loading and modifying of stat blocks would help GMs run this on the fly.  It’s not horrible, and if you read ahead (like you are supposed to!), you will be fine.  However, if you’re running this after just printing off your adventure, then you as a GM will be a  bit lost.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff-  As I said in mechanics, this is two adventures.  Half is in the regular world, and that is something your players can easily grab onto.  This part is here more to help draw your players in.  The real meat of the adventure is the second part.  Here is where things go on and off the rails.  On rails because the players progress through a linear  dream landscape, but have to do so in a specific order.  Off rails because this adventure plays like a LSD trip-and it is amazing!  Lot’s a crazy imagery and fun ways for the GM to really ham up the crazy, psychic nature of the adventure.  I absolutely love this adventure for that.  5/5

Execution-This adventure has your usual Pathfinder Society polish.  What I don’t like is how the monsters are not customized to the adventure.  The players fight some crazy dream monsters, but the monsters are not really customized to the purpose at hand.  It’s ok, but it wouldn’t take much to really fix up the monsters here, so you’re GMs don’t have extra math to fight with.  This adventure will be a bit long if the players and the GM are slow.  Honestly, its about ¾ of two different adventures, so if your GM doesn’t manage his or her time properly, you will be done late if this is run at a convention slot.  I’m complaining that there is too much here, which is a good problem to have, but it can be a major problem if not dealt with properly.  4.25/5

Summary-Occult Adventures kicked off this season of Pathfinder Society, and it shows in here.  This isn’t completely a psychic adventure as it got strange occult influences, and I hope this keeps up through the entire season of Pathfinder Society.  This is a crazy adventure that really provides some great roleplaying opportunities as well as some great scenes for players and GMs to just go hog wild with.  I love what I see here, and I can’t wait for more.  It’s not perfect.  I’d like a bit of customization from Paizo for the monsters as a GM who has missed some important information might try to throw CR 6 creatures at a level one party if the miss the section detailing how the encounter changes.  It hurts the overall presentation a bit, but honestly, I had a blast running this adventure.  If this is any indication of what’s coming next, BRING ON THE STRANGE! 92%

Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–05: Slave Ships of Absalom

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– ~$4 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9985?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-6-05-Slave-Ships-of-Absalom

TL; DR– Some problems hurt a good story that’s part of this year’s metaplot. 83%

Basics-Someone is selling tainted slaves in the Inner Sea!  A slave at a party had a spell cast upon her that allowed someone to eavesdrop on the guest.  Can you and the rest of the Pathfinder Society make some friends by discreetly finding out who is behind this?

Mechanics or Crunch– This is a reasonable short adventure as it’s designed for Pathfinder Society play.  However, some major missteps happen over the course of this story.  One is the players can fail a few rolls and be completely out of luck when it comes to the mystery.  In addition, like most PFS modules, there are some roleplaying and 2-to-3 fights.  However, one of these fights is pretty tough and can easily wipe most parties if the GM doesn’t pull a few punches.  This isn’t a bad module, but some of the Pathfinder mechanics work against the fun your players could have. 3/5

Theme or Fluff-Overall, I liked the story of this one.  There is a decent amount of roleplaying that can happen while still having the combat that some players crave.  However, some of the story seems off.  A character won’t help the players even after the players save that person’s life!  That kind of seems out of the realm of believability even with magic and elves about.  Also, this module is about slavery, so some players won’t like working for NPC’s who openly own slaves. 4.5/5

Execution– This is done by Paizo. They know how to layout a book.  It’s easy and quick to read.  The art is good, but as always I’d like a bit more.  What is here is well done. 5/5

Summary– This is a short, fun adventure that isn’t without its faults.  I enjoyed running this for my players, and they enjoyed playing this adventure.  It has the standard problems that can plague a Pathfinder game: combats based on CR alone and rolls killing investigation/roleplay.  Those are some problems that can really gum up this adventure’s gears.  Also, this is a module that deals with slavery.  If you’re players are not comfortable with that, then this will not be fun for them.  If you want a module set in Absalom where you have a decent mix of investigation and combat, this is a better than average module.  Also, if you want to get deeper into the Year of the Sky Key, then this an good start to the metaplot. 83%