Pathfinder Tales: "The Wizard's Mask" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The Wizard's Mask is one of those books that starts off strong, full of excitement and action.  As I got through the first few exhilarating chapters, I couldn't fathom why it got so few stars in reviews.  But the further I got, the less I liked the novel.  Frankly, it was just exhausting following the main characters: there's a death-defying combat, chase, or rooftop leap on nearly every page.  It's like one of those airport bookstore thrillers, where every chapter has to end on a cliff-hanger even more unrealistic than the last.  The plot is needlessly opaque, and some of the twists are more confusing than interesting, in a "here we go again . . ." way.  Last, I'm not convinced the author had a very deep understanding of Golarion--at least compared to others like Dave Gross.  I like Ed Greenwood (I used to play around in the Forgotten Realms sandbox years ago), but The Wizard's Mask comes across like a Michael Bay Transformers movie: too much action, too little characterisation, and a sense of relief when it's finally, really, actually, over.

SPOILERS

The Wizard's Mask is set entirely in the warring countries of Nirmathas and Molthune.  The main characters are a halfling thing named Tantaerra and a character named only (at first) The Masked, who starts off as a rival before becoming a benefactor and then partner in crime.  Tantaerra and The Masked have a classic relationship of banter, insults, and attempts to outdo one another as they get chased all across Molhune, Nirmathas, and back and forth (seemingly endlessly) trying to stay one step ahead of the armies and inquisitors of each side.  The action, blood, and body count mount with almost every page, and I can only imagine those two warring countries are sparsely populated by the time the novel gets to an end.  But before that, there's a villain with confusing motivations named Arkholm (a.k.a., Orivin Voyvik) who continually turns up after suffering tremendous amounts of damage like a medieval Terminator.  The last quarter or so of the book involves The Masked's backstory and a voyage into a classic D&D dungeon (full of gruesome and diabolical traps) to confront a cliched evil wizard named Mahalgris.  A bunch of confusing stuff happens afterwards (swarms of dweomercats, body switching, a magic gauntlet that blasts a villain into becoming a tentacle monster?).  Frankly, I lost track of what was happening as there was just too much, as if Greenwood just sat down to write a chapter each day to continue a shaggy dog story for as long as he needed to until reaching the required page count.

As I said, it starts off well and the action scenes, taken individually, are quite good.  Players and GMs in the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path could conceivably get a little useful background about Molthune and Nirmathas.  But apart from that, I just don't see a lot of value in The Wizard's Mask.  The pacing is frantic, there's little depth in setting or characterization, and I didn't really care what happened when I got to the end.  In short, it's a poor example of a Pathfinder Tales book and of fantasy literature in general.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-26: "Truth of the Seeker" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played through this scenario a few months back, and enjoyed it (I've now read it for the purposes of this review).  It's an excellent scenario that tells a strong story that will interest players who have an investment in this season's storyline and the future of the leadership of the Starfinder Society.  I have some minor quibbles, but nothing that keeps it from being an excellent experience.

SPOILERS

Truth of the Seeker is an important scenario for understanding the backstory behind the Scoured Stars incident, as well as insights into the major new figure of Jadnura.  In addition, it advances the season meta-plot of what the Society will do with *two* First Seekers.  The premise of the scenario is that Jadnura, upon his return from the Scoured Stars, has found himself lost (spiritually) and has thus taken an opportunity to travel and observe a remote stellar phenomenon to meditate about his past failures and future direction.

The PCs get involved in the story when an old friend of Jadnura, a memorable skittermander named Eshki, brings them together at a fancy restaurant on Absalom Station.  Eshki asks the PCs to track down Jadnura and persuade him to return to Absalom Station before the drama caused by his return and then sudden disappearance again create permanent damage to the Starfinder Society.  Eshki doesn't know where Jadnura is, but does know he was seen heading to the Idari, the planet-ship that brought the kasatha into the Pact Worlds system.  It's a strong hook and I liked the personality and artwork for Eshki, though I did wonder when reading the scenario: who is this dude and why does he think he can order us around?  He's not a Venture-Captain or faction leader or anything else of the type, as far as I can tell, but he's clearly giving commands and not asking for a favour.  A minor note, but it did strike me as odd.

The scenario then moves to the PCs arriving on the Idari.  This is the first Starfinder Society scenario that makes significant use of the location, and the writer did a really good job highlighting some of its distinctive features.  Specifically, the idea of a ship so large that it can contain distinctive geographical features and terrain, the particular kasathan notions of etiquette and honour, and the strong connection the people have to understanding cosmic notions of balance and change.  Information from the Pact Worlds sourcebook is integrated well, with visits to multiple locations named within.

The PCs start out at the Outland Markets, and need to do a gather information check to get their first lead.  This one of those exercises that is really for appearances sake only, as they'll still get the information (with only the most minor of penalties) even if they're all terrible at Diplomacy and fail all the checks.

The next scene is better, however, as the PCs find themselves in a tea shop run by Alsuka, an old friend of Jadnura.  Alsuka cleverly tests the PCs' patience and politeness by seeing how long they can make irrelevant small talk before they press for information on the missing leader.  I found it a bit odd that PCs are allowed to use pretty much any skill check in this social encounter (rather than just Diplomacy or Culture, the most obvious appropriate ones).  But again, the skill checks aren't really that important, as the PCs will get the next lead even if they fail them (something that's hard to do, as there are multiple opportunities for rerolls).  Mechanics aside, I really like the concept of the scene and the reminder that sometimes even Starfinders need to slow down and pay attention to contextual clues on how to best relate to people.

The lead from Alsuka's Tea House takes the PCs to the Pradulex Monastery, home to Jadnura's former mentor in solarian philosophy, Master Boojan.  Master Boojan also tests the PCs' respect for kasathan etiquette.  Once satisfied, he explains that Jadnura spent some time within the monastery but found even the peace within its walls could not assuage his troubled spirit.  When a visiting starship captain, Kahir of the Void Scholar, arrived to report on the discovery of a strange stellar phenomenon, Jadnura asked to be taken there.  As the PCs leave the monastery, they're accosted by a trio of kasathan solarian initiates from the monastery who have a beef with the Starfinder Society because of relatives' death in the Scoured Stars debacle.  This is the first combat encounter of the scenario, and I found it a bit forced and inconsistent with the portrayal of kasathan behaviour and culture in the rest of the adventure.

The PCs have no trouble finding Kahir and getting a trip aboard his ship to the stellar anomaly where Jadnura was dropped off (there's a rogue asteroid orbiting the anomaly, and it contains an ancient structure that makes an ideal observation point).  As is the developing trope for these scenarios, the ship can't land exactly at its destination due to rough terrain, and has to drop the PCs some distance away to walk.  This, of course, presages a combat encounter--this time against solar wisps from Alien Archive 2.  It's a fairly forgettable encounter, that again seems like the sort of thing inserted so there'd be some mid-point action.

The structure on the rogue asteroid is an ancient temple dedicated to Ibra, the god of secrets and mysteries.  There's a discrepancy in having an old-fashioned stone building as the observation point, as it's sitting on an asteroid that, explicitly, has no atmosphere!  And although we're told Jadnura borrowed some oxygen tanks, how long was he planning to hang out?  Oh well, the flip-mat is cool anyway.  There are some really interesting traps/hazards around the structure, with my favourite one the "Endless Stair Hazard" that has the PCs stuck in a trance for hours and emerging exhausted.  The rooms have some randomly placed treasure in gems and magic items--I wish scenarios would abandon the notion that monetary rewards like this have to appear in the scenario itself.  They often appear clunky and forced, and are usually irrelevant (since the PCs can't do much with them).  I know they're designed for people who purchase scenarios for use outside of organised play, but I'd rather these items appear in a separate appendix at the end for optional insertion by GMs who really need them.

The climax of the scenario is with a parasitic, incorporeal entity called a "void hantu."  The void hantu has drained Jadnura and left him comatose.  The creature is a real challenge to defeat, as it will almost certainly hit when it attacks (and thus has no reason not to full attack), and each hit does anywhere from 1 to 1d4+1 points of ability score damage.  And as an incorporeal creature, PCs who are unprepared could find themselves in a really bad situation.  I remember we were lucky to survive when I played through it.

With the void hantu defeated, Jandura can be awakened.  There's a satisfying scene with him, and I especially like the bit that he remembers PCs who played through the Scoured Stars Invasion special.  Jadnura agrees to return to Absalom Station and start to deal with the ramifications of everything that has happened to the Society in the last two years.

Overall, Truth of the Seeker was a strong scenario.  It makes great use (and advancement) of the season meta-plot, reveals some important insights about Jadnura, and serves as a good introduction to kasathan culture and the Idari.  The combat encounters are sometimes a bit forced, but that's not unusual in scenarios and I consider it a forgivable sin.  I'd definitely recommend this one to players and GMs.

GameMastery Map Pack: "Farmstead" [RPG]

I ran a little adventure for my son the other day (his vampire hunter PC had a run-in with the infamous Chupacabra!), and I needed something to represent a farmhouse and surrounding land.  I opened up the Farmstead map pack from its packaging, and found it was perfect!  I usually prefer flip-mats because they're easier to use, but the modular nature of the map pack made it really easy to arrange everything exactly how I wanted it.  The set includes a really nice array of tiles: a large farmhouse (complete with yard), a barn, a pigpen/chicken coop, a well, and several tiles of various types of crop fields--pumpkin, corn, hay, and more.  The detail is really good, and the grid lines are exactly the right type--visible, but not distracting.  I wish I had this early in Rise of the Runelords, as it could have represented all the farms around the Sandpoint hinterlands.  As the back of the box indicates, farms are dangerous places in RPGs, and this is the best way I can think of to quickly get things going.

Pathfinder: "Beginner Box Bash Demos Part 1" [RPG]

These four mini-adventures were designed to introduce new players to the Pathfinder Beginner Box by providing short demos at conventions and gaming stores.  I didn't encounter them in that context, but, like a lot of people, I've used them as supplements to a home Beginner Box game.  New GMs need help, and old GMs get lazy, so extras like this are always appreciated.

"Relics" starts with the PCs meeting with a (to me at least) somewhat shady businessman named Eberius Tauranor.  Tauranor hires the PCs to retrieve a valuable item from the mausoleum of an "ailing business contact" who has promised Tauranor any treasure there in exchange for a loan.  The item in question is a ceremonial sceptre carried by ancient priests of Aroden!  The briefing wasn't very well done, with a poor explanation of what's going on and no information if the PCs ask questions.  It comes across very suspicious, and my son (who's 8) assumed Tauranor was a bad guy and thus refused the mission entirely!  I think it would have been better to just have the PCs start at the mausoleum, with a handout letter explaining why they're there.  Anyway, the mausoleum has an interesting puzzle-based pitfall trap (that might be a bit hard for the GM to keep track of and indicate to the players what is happening).  In a nice touch, there are two scepters hidden in the mausoleum: a real one and a fake one, and PCs need to put some clues together to figure out which is which.  They then get ambushed by a group of thugs (the Bloody Knuckles) who have (without little explanation) come looking for the sceptre.  The PCs have the choice to fight or bluff them, and I like it when there are options in encounters like this.  Overall, "Relics" is okay but not great.

"Ruins" has a much better briefing, as the PCs get to interact with and ask questions from Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch in the Rusty Dragon.  She sends the PCs off to northern Varisia in search of an ancient Thassilonian ruin dedicated to the Runelord Xanderghul.  There, the PCs have to persuade an illusory guardian to let them pass in order to retrieve a Sihedron medallion.  It's a nice little foreshadowing for players if they eventually play Rise of the Runelords.  As with "Relics", the PCs are ambushed after retrieving the treasure--this time, by a group of goblins.  There is some backstory explanation for why the goblins are there, but the PCs will never be privy to it so I think the encounter probably comes across as somewhat random and possibly confusing.

"Terrors" has the PCs sent by Heidmarch from Sandpoint to Galduria to investigate strange rumors of lights and creatures seen near the town's graveyard.  Unlike the other demos, this one has several avenues for role-playing and investigation, and does a really nice job (in a necessarily compact way) of describing Galduria.  The backstory to what's happening is a bit involved, involving bandits, a waylaid witch, a stolen necromantic item, a foolish ritual, and the walking dead!  I really liked the magical item, the candle of night, and how smart PCs could use it to make the only combat encounter much easier.  I think this was the best adventure in the lot, as it shows that RPGs aren't just about dungeon crawls.

"Tomes" finishes the group, and I enjoyed its setting (Korvosa's Acadamae) since I had just run a module set there and had the appropriate map pack.  The PCs are sent from Sandpoint to Korvosa to purchase a spellbook that one of the Acadamae's lecturers wants to sell.  But when they get to the lecturer's office, they find the woman bloodied and unconscious.  A rival lecturer has sent a well-disguised mimic to try to find the book, and it's hiding as a lectern!  I ran this for my son (with some ally NPCs), and I can testify that mimics are pretty tough for Level 1 PCs!  Overall, it was solid.

I'm not 100% sure why these demos were in such a hurry to get the PCs out of Sandpoint, as I think they could have instead built on the adventure possibilities there without handwaving hundreds of miles of travel.  As short convention demos, it was probably fine, but as bonus stories for home games, I found them very hard to tie into the campaign.  On the other hand, free is free and beggars can't be choosers--plus, with some changes in detail and setting, they're not too hard to adopt.  I'm glad these were produced, and I wish similar ones were done for the Starfinder Beginner Box.

Pathfinder: "Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide" [RPG]

As my long-running Rise of the Runelords campaign has finally hit the last chapter, I realised that one of the things I've never reviewed is the original (3.5 edition) Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide.  This 16 page book was sold with a cover price of $ 2, and (I think) usually came bundled in packs of five so everyone at the gaming table could have one.  It's a high-quality product that comes on glossy paper and with colourful artwork and design.  They're pretty hard to find nowadays, but I was lucky to spot one on eBay for a reasonable price.  Anyway, with no further ado, let's get into it.

The cover is very cool, and, although players won't be quite aware of why yet, sets the tone for the campaign perfectly.  The 7-pointed Sihedron star takes prominence, and the page borders are designed as if the reader is about to open an ancient, eldritch tome.  The inside front-cover is a map of Sandpoint (the town that serves as the PCs' homebase), with detail sufficient to make out individual buildings, street names, and geographical features.  It's exactly the map that players should have at the table to better envision where their characters are, and players could, as they explore, make their own key to go along with the map.  The inside back-cover is similarly useful: an attractive map of Varisia that includes tons of marked locations and clear geographical features.  The vast majority of these locations aren't visited during the campaign, so there's no spoilers here--and in addition, the GM can make good use of this map as well.

The first page, "Welcome to Varisia," emphasises the usefulness of having PCs designed specifically for the region and the campaign.  Varisia is a frontier wilderness, and many of the challenges in the campaign involve surviving the land, not just monsters.  PCs who think about feats like Endurance and skills like Climb will find themselves better placed than PCs who care only about combat.  Players who ignore the Player's Guide very well may find themselves having a harder experience than they should in the campaign, but it's probably their own fault!

The next three pages, "Races of Varisia," discuss how the Core races fit into the region.  This is especially important for players new to Golarion who have probably never heard of Shoanti, Chelaxians, and Varisians.  Stories are best when they're grounded in interesting, believable settings, and this requires investment by the players in trying to make characters that reflect that setting.

Pages 6-9 are "Adventurers of Varisia."  It contains a couple of paragraphs on how each of the Core classes fits into the region and to the campaign more generally.  It's also chock-full of useful sidebars on things like native fauna, the deities of Golarion, and suggested familiars for sorcerers and wizards of different backgrounds.  In short, there's a ton of flavour and little bits of detail that help to situate a PC in the setting.

The next two pages are "Equipment of Varisia", and it focusses on weapons and armor used by the native Varisian and Shoanti peoples.  There are illustrations and statistics for things invented specifically for this setting, such as starknives, earthbreakers, bladed scarves, and more.  Many of these pieces of equipment were later included in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and other sources, but often in a way that strips them of a lot of the flavour that is presented here.

The next three pages are titled simply "Varisia."  The section contains a brief overview of the region and its history--a crucial theme of the Adventure Path.  Several feats for PCs who hail from the region are included.  Because this was designed for 3.5, I won't go into great detail on them, other than to say they're probably low-powered compared to modern Pathfinder feats.  This book came out before Paizo had the concept of campaign traits, which is probably the only thing really lacking here.  A sidebar describes the languages often spoken by inhabitants of Varisia.

Last up is a two-page description of Sandpoint.  Sandpoint is extremely important for the campaign--if the PCs don't care about it, the campaign doesn't really work.  So getting the players invested in the town early is one of the GM's biggest tasks.  This book doesn't really emphasise the necessary connection as much as it should, however.

I love the idea of Players Guides, and they're one of the things that drew me to Paizo Adventure Paths to begin with.  They're a great way to sell players (in a non-spoilery way) on a new campaign, and to give them a chance to customise characters for it.  The original Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide was a concise but interesting and useful preview of the campaign, and surely contribute to the success of the Adventure Path as a whole.  It's still worth using today and I think it's far superior to the (PDF only) Anniversary Edition Player's Guide (which I've reviewed elsewhere).  I'd recommend making the substitution, just linking to the updated traits for the Pathfinder RPG.

Pathfinder Society: "Year of the Ten T-shirt" [RPG]

The theme for Season Ten of Pathfinder Society is discovering more about the organisation's helmed leaders, the Decemvirate.  The logo for the accompanying shirt is decent: a helm with a crack running down it.  It's not as memorable as the logo for some previous seasons, but it's not bad.  The shirt itself is 100% cotton, comes in any color you want (as long as it's black), and has held up well for the several months I've owned it.  It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but I don't mind wearing it for the remainder of Season Ten.

Pathfinder Society: "Year of the Serpent T-shirt" [RPG]

This cool shirt has the logo for Season 7 of Pathfinder Society: "The Year of the Serpent."  This season's theme was the Aspis Consortium, a group of smugglers, thieves, and slavers who have often clashed with the Society in the past.  The Aspis Consortium is often thought of as a tangle of snakes, so the logo depicting a snake with the PFS Glyph of the Open Road in its fanged mouth was inspired design.  As for the shirt itself, it's the usual high-quality heavy cotton that still looks great after several washings.  I do wish they made these shirts in a color other than black, but I guess that's neither here nor there.  What you see is what you get, and this is one of the better PFS season designs to have on a shirt.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-25: "The Beacon Code Dilemma" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The Beacon Code Dilemma is a replayable scenario.  There are several tables of randomised features that the GM rolls on before beginning play, in order to change up some of the details of the story.  There are some original elements here that I quite liked, but (perhaps because of its randomised nature) the overall story falls flat.  I think the scenario was a good try, but there's a reason why MadLibs are not the basis good storytelling.

I played through this with my chronic self-medicating Solarion, and things did not go well--but that's not the scenario's fault.

SPOILERS

The Beacon Code Dilemma has an interesting backstory that makes excellent use of (and perhaps adds to) the lore around Triune and the concept of Drift beacons.  The PCs receive a briefing from the usually-dour Venture-Captain Niaaj and a SRO priest of Triune named MP-8 (with a cool illustration).  The gist of the matter is that, almost two centuries ago, a Starfinder Society ship named the Amber Reconnoiter went missing while in the Drift on a mission to study the Gap.  But recently, MP-8 had a vision direct from Triune providing the location of the missing ship, an event that means it must be significant in some way to the Church or its mission.  However, the ship's automated defences engaged when MP-8's salvage vessel approached, so the priests retreated and called in the Starfinder Society to investigate.  The premise of investigating a suddenly-returned missing ship is classic Star Trek, but the added angle of the Triune connection nicely situates the plot in the campaign setting.

In a fun departure from the norm, the PCs' first task takes place within the Lorespire Complex itself.  They must find information on the Amber Reconnoiter in the Society's archives, and (hopefully) see if a code can be transmitted to remotely shut down its defences.  The replayable nature of the scenario starts here, as four leads are outlined, but only two (randomly-determined) ones are presented to the PCs.  Each of these leads involves a little role-playing and problem-solving, and ends up with the PCs finding out some information about the missing ship's mission and crew (determined prior to the scenario from a random table) and part of the access code needed to shut down the ship's weaponry.   I'll go over the four briefly:

1) "The Archives" sees the PCs sent down to the Society's pre-digital(!) archives, full of towering bookshelves.  An NPC I really like, the librarian Royo, is present.  PCs who have his High Society Influence boon slotted receive some extra help from him, but overall their task requires little more than a Perception check or two to find some information on the Amber Reconnoiter's mission and crew.

2)  "Communion Vaults" has the PCs descend to where the Liavaran Dreamer named Whisperer of Solar Winds resides.  The Dreamers are giant, jellyfish-like creatures with powerful telepathic and precognitive abilities.  Their role in the Starfinder Society was first introduced in an earlier scenario that didn't handle them well.  Here, it's much better.  Assuming the PCs can activate a particular relic, they'll receive a transmitted vision of a mundane scene from a day in the life of the Amber Reconnoiter's crew.  In order to be effective, the GM needs to have prepared this separately, or it's likely to fall flat, however.

3. "First Seeker Ilyastre Memorial Museum" has the PCs meet Chiskisk from Dead Suns!  I really like little crossovers between SFS and the APs like this, and there's even a little bonus if a PC has a Chronicle sheet from AP # 1.  With some skill at using museum database terminals, the PCs can find a holoprojector to get a visual on the missing ship and its crew (something that would have been much better if the scenario included images of either).

4.  "Halls of Discovery" asks the PCs to recover some historical records from a very by-the-book robot who threatens to delay everything unless the PCs can figure out a way around its bureaucratic regulations.  When my group played this scenario, the group split up and my PC and another handled this aspect of the investigation.  We were really stymied for a long time as our PCs lacked the skills and personalities necessary to get past it (and violence almost erupted!).  It was a fun if mildly-frustrating scene.

After the investigation, the PCs are off into the Drift. When they reach the coordinates that MP-8 gave them, there's a series of hazards derived from chaotic planar energies.  PCs at every station on the ship have a role to play in trying to get the ship safely through the dangers, which could do damage directly to the hull (bypassing shields) and even to the crew!  It really boils down to a skills challenge, but the number of successes have a meaningful impact on other elements of the scenario. I thought it was a fast, fun, and exciting way to have some of the thrill of starship combat without the turgid slog that actual ship vs. ship battles usually becomes.  I'd like to see more of this sort of thing.

When the PCs' ship has gotten as close as it can through the planar debris field to the Amber Reconnoiter, a spacewalk is needed to traverse the remaining distance.  This encounter takes place using the zero-G rules, as the PCs glide from debris to debris while fending off some interstellar monsters called "Drift Cuttles."  Although the creatures have slightly different abilities based on random rolls, I don't think this encounter would be memorably different on repeat play.  It's one of those encounters that I like the idea of, but the zero-G rules are (perhaps necessarily) too cumbersome to make it really enjoyable.

The final phase of the scenario takes place once the PCs board the Amber Reconnoiter (making excellent use of the Ghost Ship flip-mat).  The missing ship has already been boarded by a crew of bad guys, who are randomly-determined to be pirates, cultists, gangsters, or mercenaries.  As far as I can tell, the result makes little to no difference in what comes next.  They do pose a major threat, however, with an Uplifted Bear Soldier verging on unfair (and the 4-player adjustments didn't sufficiently equalize things).  Due to internal disfunction, my group failed in this part of the scenario and a couple of us died.  Groups with better teamwork should have better luck, but still a real fight on their hands.  As for the big mystery of what happened to the ship, I think the repeatable nature of the scenario really caused the story to fall flat.  There are some little bits of the backstory to be found here and there in the form of crew logs, but unless a GM works really hard to play up the storytelling, it all comes across as very bland and forgettable.  There's even some sort of relic that the crew recovered, but there's no real use or meaning attributable to it, and nor do we find out what significance the ship's discovery has for Triune.

To sum up, I guess I'd say The Beacon Code Dilemma is a real mixed bag.  I liked the investigation phase, as it made good use of NPCs and has some good randomization.  The starship hazards were fun.  The combat encounters turned out to be long and perhaps a bit too hard (though, to be fair, many SFS scenarios have had way-too-easy combats).  I would say the big letdown with the scenario is a failure to satisfactorily resolve the premise of the plot.  A paint-by-numbers approach makes replayable scenarios more manageable logistically, but less interesting when it comes to story-telling.