Pathfinder: "Seekers of Secrets" [RPG]

Seeker of Secrets is all about the in-world Pathfinder Society: its history, ethos, leaders, lodges, and more.  It's thus a great way for GMs to add more depth and description for the scenarios they run, while players can add better background for their characters and take advantage of the prestige classes and magic items in the last third of the book.   The book is a 64-page softcover with full color art (that's a mixed bag, to be frank, though there's a great illustration of noteworthy Pathfinder Eando Kline on page 4).

The cover is fun, with a classic image of a rogue paying too much attention to treasure while a monster sneaks up behind her (and her friends shouting in the background is a nice detail).  The inside front cover is a map of the Inner Sea noting the location of Pathfinder lodges.  It's interesting to see several in close proximity in some areas while other large regions have hardly any.  The inside back cover is a reproduction of the cover art, sans title and logo.  Running along the bottom of the pages throughout all three chapters are illustrations and capsule descriptions of various Venture-Captains in the Pathfinder Society.  These are the "face" of the organisation for most players, and it's good to have another way to make them come alive.

Chapter 1 ("Welcome to the Pathfinder Society") takes up 26 pages.  It provides a good general overview of the Society: the duties that every PFS player knows ("Explore, Report, Cooperate"), the organisation's internal leadership structure, a timeline history (which comes up in some noteworthy scenarios), the in-world application process to join (which seems much more rigorous than most PFS characters I've seen could actually meet!), and a lengthy discussion of the role that the Pathfinder Society could fill in a more traditional campaign (e.g., having the PCs be part of a team sent on expeditions instead of the cliched "you're in a tavern and there's only one table free" beginning).  The chapter spends several pages with a one or two paragraph description of how the Pathfinder Society operates in each region of the Inner Sea (including those where they don't have lodges or aren't legally allowed to operate, such as Hermea, the Hold of Belkzen, and Ilizmagorti).  It makes for interesting reading, and there's some great ideas there, like an all-undead team for secret missions in Geb, an all elf crew to investigate murders in Kyonin, etc.  There's a brief mention of rival groups (like the Aspis Consortium) and I wish this had been fleshed out much more.  Last, there's a few new feats and five new spells--the best of which, teleport trap, is perfect for a big bad guy's lair (as I can personally testify).

Chapter 2 ("Where Secrets Sleep") is 12 pages long, and focusses on detailing the various Pathfinder lodges around the Inner Sea.  Lodges are where agents receive their mission briefings, but they can also serve as places to rest, train, and do research in between missions.  Lodges definitely don't follow a uniform plan, and are very much a reflection of the locale and the venture-captain in charge: from a back room behind a bait-and-tackle shop to a luxurious estate.  Apart from capsule descriptions of various lodges, the chapter provides a map and detailed description of the Society's central headquarters (the Grand Lodge in Absalom) and of its first foray into Varisia (Heidmarch Manor in Magnimar).  There's a lot of very flavourful description that should help GMs (and scenario writers) bring these places to life.

Chapter 3 ("Tools of the Trade") finishes the book off with about 22 pages of new magic items and prestige classes.  The chapter starts with a one-page summary of various past volumes of the (in-world) Pathfinder Chronicles, and there's some really intriguing bits there.  Several pages in the chapter are devoted to an extensive discussion and list of ioun stones that I think is more complicated and less interesting than the space is worth.  A few new wayfinders are introduced, but they're so expensive I can't see PCs ever being able to afford them (or wanting to even if they had the cash).  Then, there's a complicated set of tables setting out various resonance abilities when ioun stones are implanted in wayfinders.  Just not my cup of tea.  Some other new magic items are included.  I think the best part of this chapter is the three new prestige classes: the Pathfinder Delver (archaeologists and dungeoneers), the Pathfinder Savant (spellcasters skilled in learning the magic of other classes), and the Student of War (an intelligence-based tactical fighter and leader; I used this for my sadly-departed PC Sarabian, and thought it was pretty cool).  None of these prestige classes are super-powered, but I think they're all solid and worth taking.  An NPC (complete with description, stat block, and artwork) for each prestige classes is also included--though I'm not really sure why.

Overall, Seekers of Secrets is a fantastic and under-used resource for players and GMs in Paizo's "Organized Play" division.  It's a really nice package and one I've referred to multiple times.