JP On Gaming

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Pathfinder Society Adventures... Some thoughts

I have played three Pathfinder Society adventures so far and really enjoy them. While those I have played so far are mostly cookie-cutter adventure door-monster-treasure, they have kept me interested and wanting for more. I look forward to the next rounds of adventure. The local community in Denver/Colorado Springs is still small but one that is growing.

I have tried to bring out some of the good and bad points about the campaign. I plan to revise those as time goes by.

Strong points

  • The system Drawing on about 8 years of experience in the system, the Pathfinder system is solid and very good. Even during the game, we keep finding out gems that make the game so much more interesting and easy, like staggered.
  • The world I really like Golarion... it has so many different regions each of them with great adventure potential.
  • The Factions I like the factions. All five of them are distinct and have unique flavors of their own to really add a whole other dimension to your PC. An Andoran fighter and a Taldoran fighter would have clearly different adventuring goals and outlook on life, one that is completely based in a role-playing element.
  • Weak points

  • The adventure hooks Simply being ordered to go do something is a simple way to get adventures on-track, but it does lack originality and is quickly redundant. I hope future adventure do break that mold.
  • No regional system The Golarion world cries out for a regional system like Living Greyhawk or Living Arcanis. To have volunteers expand and develop it would help the system grow quicker. It would also help certain (real-life) regions to grow by having a local volunteer run and help with events. Another reason I would like to see this is because when creating a character, one can build characters for specific regions. "Going to Khafeer?! I’ll use my Qadiran character!"
  • The Factions Yes... they are a strength, but they are also a weakness! The Factions should be one of the best things of the game, but they fall a little flat. I would really like to see them play a bigger part in the adventures themselves. Perhaps have something more akin to Living Arcanis' secret societies. I hope they come out with something more geared towards those factions later on, like faction-specific adventures, goals or even interactives.

    In the end, I think the campaign will gain in experience and grow with its strength. A lot of what I find as weak points can be expanded, modified or changed with time. I hope the big-wigs at Paizo are willing to listen to suggestion and push them through the pipe down to the players. Having been on their side of the coin for the last 6 years, I know that many changes like the ones I would like to see take time to trickle down the pipe to the players. Until then... roll those 20s!

    JP

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