I finished reading the 1st issue of Paizo’s Pathfinder #1 and I maintain my 1st impression that it’s one of the best D&D compatible products I’ve seen in a long time (they can’t say it but I can).
The 1st adventure, called Burnt Offering, takes characters from level 1 to level 4 (or more) and features fluffy and crunchy new twists on the low-level threat that are goblins. Think Gremlins meet World of Warcraft’s imps and you’re pretty much there, with a sprinkle of Jabba the Hutt’s annoying high-pitched laughing minion.
A major selling point for me is that there are absolutely no parts of the adventure where I would want to do a major tweak because of personal dislike of a scene. Nor because I find something unplayable as written. (And I’m a difficult client)
The adventure was written explicitly to take most players’ natural styles into account. It features an immersing story, great NPCs, lot’s of interesting fights, bling and early recognition of the player’s coolness in spite of their low levels. It’s built to allow a large range of player decision and the railroads, once the character get out of the ‘let’s start a new campaign and you begin here’ train, are pretty much absent.
The action takes an organic approach as some scenes can be played out of order or even skipped with no large impact on the plot. It even goes as far as allowing the start of the second adventure, The Skinsaw Murder, before the PCs are done exploring all the nooks and crannies of the 1st adventure. This makes the adventure path one of the better pre-made Sandbox D&D environment I’ve seen in a long time (Ptolus being another one, although it needs more DM work).
There are also a few options for the DM to make the setting grittier and set the villains ‘infamy’ rating to a level the group is comfortable with.
One nitpick is that it features a significant number of encounter where the PC’s equipment can be broken. While at low level it’s more of a nuisance to lose your Masterwork bastard sword, it never register’s very high on the player’s fun scale. For the author’s defense, I don’t think any such breakage occurs by DM fiat and dice rolls must be made.
Aside: Do any of you old school DMs remember the 2nd Against the Giant adventure where PC’s had a x% chance of dropping their magic weapons in little ice crevices and lose them forever? Yeah, I treat Grandaddy Gygax with utmost respect, but playing his way is not compatible with my current DMing values.
The adventure’s setting (a coastal town) is described in enough details to allow the DM to give it the flavour it deserves. Each key area as an evocative description and many NPCs have minor or significant ‘secrets’ to enrich the role-playing experience.
The campaign is set to take heroes from level 1 to 15 over 6 issues of the magazine. The Setting, a new world created by the Paizo team, appears to be Standard Fantasy fare built upon the ruins of immensely powerfully warring empires. Expect delicious relics and artefact’s to crop up. It remains generic enough to be imported in your favorite setting
It’s decided, unless some other really cool thing crops up (which is very likely), I’ll use this adventure as our introduction to D&D 4e next summer or fall. That’s how much I’m impressed by it. Converting a low level adventure is usually not all that hard. I hope the next issue will be the same. It ships this week… I should get it within 6-8 weeks…. sigh.
Paizo are great publishers, but they should take lessons from Amazon for shipping.
Very cool. Using it as a 4e intro was also in my mind.
Though dropping my current campaign and running this is another possibility, given discussed topics recently.
I think I should get it, though.
If you get it at your FLGS, chances are they’ll give you the Pathfinder’s player’s guide also (a 2$ economy!).
🙂
Sweet.
So much material, so little time… I still want to run Savage Tide, a friend offered to run Age of Worms, and my Shackled City, my Red Hand of Doom, and my Vault of Larin Karr are not even over. And there’s the Drow Wars waiting on my shelf. I think I have enough 3rd ed. material to last me quite a while, and when 4th ed. is out, I expect Paizo to publish a new AP that is just as great as Pathfinder and will require no conversion.
Lol! That’s why I said the “unless some other really cool thing crops up “
I know there will be… 🙂