The House on Hook Street

I love roleplaying adventures that fully integrate into their settings and make full use of those settings. Generic adventures that can take place anywhere are not necessarily bad (and there are certainly many very good ones), but there is something special about an adventure that can’t easily take place anywhere other than where it’s set. The setting helps add to the adventure’s flavour, and can make the adventure more memorable than one with a generic setting.

The House on Hook Street by Brandon Hodge is such an adventure. Set in the Bridgefront neighbourhood of the city of Korvosa, it makes heavy use of concepts and rules from Occult Adventures, and brings to life one of the poorest, most poverty-stricken places in the Golarion setting. It would be possible to use The House on Hook Street with a different campaign setting, but to do so, you would pretty much need to transplant the entirety of Bridgefront (and with it, much of the rest of Korvosa) into the other campaign world. You could change the names of Bridgefront and the locations in it, but it would still be essentially the same place. Without its setting, The House on Hook Street would be a very different adventure.

Of course, the setting is only one part of a successful adventure. A good adventure also requires an exciting plot with interesting encounters and villains, and The House on Hook Street certainly has these. It embroils the PCs in a tale of drugs and lucid dreaming, and brings them into conflict with creatures of nightmare. It can be difficult to do horror effectively in a roleplaying adventure, but while The House on Hook Street isn’t strictly horror, it does contain some incredibly creepy moments that may strike fear in even the hardiest of heroes.

It is a complex adventure, and GMs should be sure to have read and reviewed it thoroughly before play, but it’s one of the best adventures I’ve seen in a while.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Plunder & Peril

One of the great things about fantasy roleplaying adventures is the vast variety of locations you can set them in. From the dungeons that started it all to forests, mountains, cities, and even bizarre planes of existence, the options are virtually limitless. Yet perhaps one of the least represented is the seafaring adventure. That’s not to say that they are never seen, just that the vast majority of Pathfinder and D&D adventures tend to be set on solid ground. The Skull & Shackles Adventure Path is a notable exception, and so is the adventure Plunder & Peril.

In fact, Plunder & Peril is presented as three mini-adventures that can be linked together to form one longer one or played separately. However, despite this presentation, I question how effective these adventures would be as stand-alones. The first would work reasonably well on its own, but the other two are too dependent on the set-up of the ones before it. As such, they will be far less effective run on their own and much more satisfying if run together.

The quality of the three adventures does vary though, with the first two being good and the third being weaker. Put together, they make for an adventure that starts strong, stays relatively strong, then ends weakly, making the whole average out to about mediocre. There are also a lot of ways in which the PCs can “derail” the adventures and there aren’t a lot of options for what GMs can do if this happens.

SPOILERS FOLLOW (including minor spoilers for Skull & Shackles)

We Be Goblins Free!

We Be Goblins! is clearly a very popular adventure module. Published by Paizo for 2011's Free RPG Day, it has, not surprisingly, resulted in two sequels: We Be Goblins Too! in 2013 and now, We Be Goblins Free!, each for its year's respective Free RPG Day. PDF versions of all three adventures are available for free from Paizo's website.

We Be Goblins! is certainly deserving of its popularity. It's an inventive, fun, and funny adventure. We Be Goblins Too! is similarly fun and funny, although as I point out in my review (linked above), it does suffer a bit from being too similar to We Be Goblins! However, if they're not played back-to-back, both adventures can remain extremely entertaining. We Be Goblins Free! is...well...just like its two predecessors. Unfortunately, it's reaching a point where the repetition starts to become stale, even with gaps between playing the adventures. Perhaps it's time to do something new with the goblin adventures. Or even bring them to an end.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Risen from the Sands

This year's Free RPG Day took place on the 21st of last month. Like most years, Paizo released a short adventure for it. This year's is Risen from the Sands by Rob McCreary (the pdf is available for free at the link). It's a short dungeon crawl playable in just a few hours (probably only one session for most groups). Set in Osirion, it works well as either a one-off adventure or as a brief interlude in an ongoing campaign.

There's not really anything about Risen from the Sands that makes one go “Wow!” It's a straight-forward adventure that's not particularly original and has nothing that really makes it stand out from other adventures. However, there's nothing particularly bad about the adventure either. It does its job and it does it competently. With a skilful GM, it will provide a few hours of fun for any group.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Tears at Bitter Manor

Paizo’s RPG Superstar is a yearly competition open to anyone who wants to try their hand at roleplaying game design. It starts each year in December and runs through into the new year. The public gets to vote on the submissions for each round, whittling down the competition first to 32 competitors, then 16, then 8, then the final 4 (originally, the first round was decided upon entirely by Paizo’s in-house judges, but in recent years, the first round has been opened up to public voting as well). The first round requires entrants to design a new magic items, while in the last round, the finalists submit an adventure proposal. The rounds in between vary from year to year, but often include tasks like designing a new monster, an NPC, an encounter location, etc. The winner of RPG Superstar gets a commission for his or her adventure proposal, gets to write the full adventure and see it published. In recent years, the runners-up have also received commissions to write a Pathfinder Society scenario. Many past RPG Superstar winners and runners-up have gone on to become regular contributors to Pathfinder adventures and books. This year’s winner is Victoria Jaczko, but it will be a while before her adventure sees publication. However, last year’s winner was Steven Helt, and his adventure, Tears at Bitter Manor is the latest Pathfinder Module.

Tears at Bitter Manor is about a group of retired adventurers who reunite once each year to celebrate old times. However, this year, two of their members mysteriously fail to show up, and so they hire the PCs to investigate what has happened. Although there is a bit of a mystery, it is a fairly straight-forward adventure overall. It’s a functional adventure and will likely be fun and entertaining to play, but despite its rather original premise, there’s not a lot about it that really stands out from other adventures.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Wardens of the Reborn Forge

The world of Golarion is something of a kitchen-sink campaign setting. By that, I mean it has a little bit of everything. The numerous countries and lands across the Inner Sea region allow for a wide variety of campaigns and styles from classic sword and sorcery to Vikings in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and Gothic Horror in Ustalav. There are the classic fantasy dwarves of the Five Kings Mountains, but also science fantasy with lasers and robots in Numeria. You can visit Egyptian-style pyramids in Osirion or deal with genies in Katapesh. And a little farther south, nestled between the magical nations of Nex and Geb, are the Mana Wastes, lands wrecked by centuries of magical warfare, where mana storms make the casting of magical spells a difficult, sometimes even impossible, task. Within the Mana Wastes lies the city of Alkenstar, the home of gunslingers and steampunk technology.

It is in this unusual fantasy location that Wardens of the Reborn Forge by Patrick Renie takes place. Yet, despite the fact that Alkenstar and the Mana Wastes are a very non-generic setting, Wardens is a surprisingly generic adventure. Oh, it has all the trappings of the setting. There are Mana Wastes mutants, clockwork leviathans, guns, and even a mana storm. However, it uses all these things in a generic dungeon crawl adventure that could otherwise take place just about anywhere.

This isn’t a terrible adventure. It’s functional and would probably be entertaining to play. However, it just doesn’t particularly stand out. Of course, not every adventure should. And oddly, given the unusual aspects of the setting, for a campaign set in Alkenstar and the Mana Wastes, perhaps a rather generic adventure would actually stand out. But that really only works if there are other adventures to compare it to. As Wardens is the first published adventure set in this location (not counting any Pathfinder Society scenarios that might have been set in Alkenstar), I would have expected something that made greater use of the setting, either the city or the Wastes around it.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The Dragon's Demand

While dragons are a hallmark of fantasy gaming (they are even present in the name Dungeons & Dragons, from which the Pathfinder game derives), they have surprisingly not featured much in Pathfinder adventures—at least not as the central focus. They have appeared in numerous adventures, but usually only as encounters along the way, or servants of the main villain. Into the Nightmare Rift, the fifth part of Shattered Star, had a draconic villain, but that dragon was not the central villain of the entire adventure path. However, dragons couldn’t remain in the shadows forever and a couple of recent non-adventure products—Dragons Unleashed and the Dragonslayer’s Handbook—have focused on dragons, and in The Dragon’s Demand by Mike Shel, a dragon finally gets to be the central villain of an epic adventure.

The Dragon’s Demand is the latest in the Pathfinder Modules series, but it is also the first in a brand new format for the series. Previous adventures have been 32 pages in length, but this doubles the count to 64. From here on, Pathfinder Modules will be this longer length, but will be released at a reduced rate. And The Dragon’s Demand starts the new format off in style with an adventure designed to take characters from first level all the way to seventh! Yet the higher page count doesn’t just allow for a longer adventure; it also allows for greater detail and background. The Dragon’s Demand is practically a mini-campaign, complete with a fleshed-out town and numerous smaller quests that the PCs can complete along the way. The adventure will work great for players looking for a short campaign that will last more than just a couple sessions, but will not go on for years (like an adventure path potentially can), and it will also work great as the triumphant start to a longer campaign.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

We Be Goblins Too!

A couple of years ago, Paizo released We Be Goblins! for the 2011 Free RPG Day. It is a short adventure in which players get to take on the roles of goblins (traditionally a villainous monster race). It is fun and comical, and good for a one-off session or just a break from the norm. It would also seem to have been a popular adventure since this year, Paizo has released a sequel, We Be Goblins Too!, in which players continue the adventures of the goblin heroes they played in We Be Goblins! Although Free RPG Day came and went last month, those who didn’t manage to acquire a free copy of the adventure then (and even those who did) can download a free pdf of the adventure from Paizo. The print version of the adventure is also available for $5.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Doom Comes to Dustpawn

For some reason, ever since the adventure was first announced, every time I see the name Doom Comes to Dustpawn mentioned (generally in comments on the Paizo messageboards), I misread it as Dust Comes to Doomspawn. I don’t know why. I just know that I have to keep correcting myself in my head. I had to be extra careful just to write the name correctly above, and I will likely have to be extra careful throughout this review. Since I can’t stop myself making this frustrating misreading, I thought I’d share it with all of you, possibly causing you to make the same misreading from now on and share in my frustration.

I am so cruel.

Of course, the question is, does Doom Comes to Dustpawn deserve my cruelty? And the answer is that it most definitely doesn’t. Doom Comes to Dustpawn by Mike Welham was the winning entry from last year’s RPG Superstar, a contest Paizo runs annually to find new writing talent. It’s been a very successful contest for Paizo, bringing a bunch of great new writers into the gaming world. Old pulp science fiction stories are the very clear inspiration for this adventure about an invasion from outer space, but, of course, reimagined as fantasy for the Golarion setting. The adventure cleverly mixes site-based encounters with event-based ones, allowing for an adventure that builds towards a specific climactic event, but does so in a very open-ended way, leaving the player characters to guide the action and development to that point.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Fangwood Keep

The border between Molthune and Nirmathas is a volatile area of Golarion. The two countries have been in a state of hostility, if not all-out war, for a long time, ever since Nirmathas broke off from its parent country, Molthune. It’s an area that is ripe for adventure and the setting of Fangwood Keep by Alex Greenshields. In the adventure, the PCs must retake a border fort (the titular Fangwood Keep) from a rogue Molthuni force that has taken it without orders to do so. It’s a very straight-forward and open-ended adventure. There’s a bit of a mystery to be solved (why did the Molthuni force go rogue and what are they after?), but overall, there’s not a lot of complexity here. However, the adventure’s basic simplicity is ultimately its strength. It sets a scene with fully detailed characters and motivations and then lets the PCs take care of the details. It makes very little in the way of assumptions about the PCs—not even which side they’re working for—allowing the adventure to progress in whatever way it happens to, in the end making for a fun and exciting adventure.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Broken Chains

I’ve always liked Katapesh, a country and city in the Pathfinder campaign setting. The Legacy of Fire adventure path was set mostly there (apart from some plane-hopping), and that adventure path did a great job fleshing out the setting. But beyond Legacy of Fire and the campaign setting supplement, Dark Markets, A Guide to Katapesh, nothing has been done with the area since. As such, I was very pleased to learn that the module Broken Chains by Tim Hitchcock was to be set in the city of Katapesh. I ran a very successful Legacy of Fire campaign a few years ago and my current campaigns aren’t likely to return to Katapesh any time soon. Nonetheless I was excited to read a new product set there, if only to revisit the location in my head.

Unfortunately, Broken Chains just didn’t grab my attention very well. It has one or two things I like in it, but overall it’s a mediocre generic adventure that just doesn’t use its setting to any good effect. Indeed, it’s an adventure that could happen just about anywhere with virtually no changes. True, it’s very useful to have adventures that can be placed anywhere gamemasters need them to be, but in that case, why make the default setting a place as colourful and identifiable as Katapesh? A place like Katapesh needs an adventure that really makes use of its unique characteristics. On top of that, Broken Chains is really just a little dull.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Murder's Mark

I’ve always liked adventures that do something a little different, ones that provide adventuring parties with something that transcends or even ignores the typical tropes associated with Dungeons and Dragons-style games. A well-made dungeon can be fun sometimes, but adventures that actually involve characters with the setting and don’t even go near a dungeon (or ruined castle or ancient caves or whatever large, indoor establishment you can come up with) are often better (assuming they’re well-designed, too). Murder’s Mark by Jim Groves is such an adventure. It’s a charming, low-level adventure centred around a Varisian circus and a murder mystery. It contains a wide assortment of well-detailed and interesting NPCs, each with their own motivations and goals, and lots of opportunity for roleplaying and setting immersion. There are surprisingly few fights in this adventure; however, there are numerous other things to keep the party’s attention and to keep them searching for the answers to the mystery. Alas, the adventure does has one significant problem that could completely ruin things if you have any rules lawyers in your group. However, if you have a group that is simply willing to go with the flow and not worry about a niggling rules detail, Murder’s Mark could make a great adventure to start a new campaign with.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Feast of Ravenmoor

Feast of Ravenmoor, by Brandon Hodge, is an adventure for 3rd-level Pathfinder characters. In it, the PCs are sent to the remote village of Ravenmoor to search for a missing tax collector. Once there, they get to attend the village’s monthly festival and experience the very strange customs of the locals. The adventure is rife with lots of role-playing opportunities. Indeed, depending how the PCs approach their mission, it’s possible to get through this adventure with very little combat at all. Although the story is set in Varisia, Ravenmoor’s remoteness and non-Varisian-like customs make it easy to transplant the adventure to other areas of Golarion or even to other campaign worlds if Game Masters desire. Overall, Feast of Ravenmoor is a straight-forward mystery adventure that should keep players entertained for several sessions. SPOILERS FOLLOW

The Harrowing

The Harrowing, by Crystal Frasier, is an adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. In it, a group of ninth-level characters go in search of a missing scholar and find themselves transported to an entirely different world, one created by an ancient Varisian fortune-teller and populated by characters from the stories she told (many of those stories clearly inspired by real-world stories, most notably Alice in Wonderland). The adventure is light-hearted and contains a good mix of encounter styles. The setting is interesting and well-detailed and provides a great opportunity for players and Game Masters to get use out of the Harrow Deck published by Paizo (although owning a Harrow Deck is not required to run the adventure; a regular deck of cards can easily substitute for it). SPOILERS FOLLOW

We Be Goblins!

We Be Goblins! is a short adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game released for this year’s Free RPG Day. The pdf is available for free download at paizo.com. In the adventure, players take on the role of goblins instead of standard PC races and head out to retrieve a stash of fireworks for the Licktoad tribe. Most groups should be able to run through the whole adventure in one session, two at most.

In short, this adventure is a lot of fun. I ran it as a play-by-post game and had a blast. There is a lot of humour injected into the adventure (not surprising as Pathfinder goblins have a very comical bent to them) and groups may end up spending large amounts of time laughing at the antics they get up to, both from scripted and non-scripted events.