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Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–97: Siege of Serpents (PFRPG) PDF

3.90/5 (based on 7 ratings)
Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–97: Siege of Serpents (PFRPG) PDF

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1-11.

The Pathfinder Society has opened its gates to visitors from across the world in anticipation of the Grand Convocation, a magnificent festival in which Pathfinders share tales of their exploits, show off their findings, and celebrate the Society's accomplishments. However, an inopportune accident quickly spirals out of control when an old enemy attempts a brazen assault on the Pathfinders' home, and an unexpected foe emerges from hiding to seek vengeance for the Society's perceived crimes. Can the Pathfinders pacify the chaos and protect their guests while simultaneously defending the Grand Lodge?

Siege of Serpents is a multi-table interactive adventure in which each group's actions contribute to the entire room's success.

Written by Jim Groves.

Note: Siege of Serpents is designed for play in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. It may be run anywhere by anyone, as long as there are 5 tables playing the scenario simultaneously and are in contact with each other. To inquire about access to this scenario, refer to the Organized Play Convention Support Policy.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZOPSS0697E

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3.90/5 (based on 7 ratings)

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4/5 —

A special with a high emphasis on combat

3/5 —

Specials are always, well, special. It's fun to have a lot of people around, and that's no different for this one. However, if I'm going to be honest, it just didn't have the same 'wow'-factor as other specials I've played. A menagerie is fun, but it felt a bit out of place to me. I simply struggle to imagine such a zoo in the backyard of our glorious lodge, but that might just me. Various kinds of archives would have made more sense to me.

What also failed to make sense to me, but what might be explained in 6-98, were the combats. As it stands now, they felt a bit random. I struggled to find any sort of connection between them all. It was as if a handful of different encounters were just tossed together, only in an effort to provide the players with challenging fights. And challenging they were, they really packed quite a punch. I would have liked a bit more background on the fights. That way it would have been more of a story. Mind you, this is from a tier 5-6 perspective and might very well be different and more cohesive in the other tiers.

Another point that disappointed me a little, was the fact that the special didn't really reward creativity. In the previous specials I've played, such as Legacy of the Stonelords, it felt as if all skills were useful. This time around, you could only use non-combat skills at the start of the special. After that, it was basically fight after fight. That basically disallows you to showcase your prowess other than your martial capabilities. With all respect, I feel that's a flaw in design, especially for a special. A mix of the two throughout the entirety of a special, such as in the Legacy of the Stonelords, is far more preferable in my opinion.

That's not to say the special is bad in every single way. As I mentioned, the fights are challenging and I was happy to see the return of the 'district-control'-mechanism. It also felt as if players had more time for encounters compared to every previous special. That is a major improvement that can not be stressed enough.

I just don't think it's as good or balanced as other specials when it comes to storyline and creativity. Compared to scenarios however, working together with multiple groups at the same time always adds that extra something to a special. That sense of cooperation is unrivalled and that alone makes me want to recommend Siege of Serpents. If you have a chance to play a special, you should always do so. But if you get the choose between Specials, I'd honestly go for a different one instead.

Fun, but doesn't achieve everything it sets out to do

4/5 —

I just ran this and had a good time with friends, but I'm alo left slightly disappointed.

Good:
- Good story, engaging and with no facepalm stupidity moments
- No stupid "invisible walls" (some non-stupid ones)
- Encounters advance and tell the story to the players
- Lots of rarely-seen monsters to make your players go "whaaa..."
- Chronicle sheet is equally awesome for all tiers

Bad:
- Goons from the NPC Codex are sorely underpowered. I couldn't realistically challenge the PCs with them. To-hit was too low, AC too low.
- Too many encounters; to get a complete success all the tables need to complete LOTS of encounters, but there's not enough time for that in six hours let alone four.
- Final encounter has so very little to do with the story. The "boss" wasn't.
- Too many creatures with abilities that flourish in particular environments, locked up in rooms where they can't use them.

Spoiler:
Goons with area attacks that will inevitably damage their allies, flyby monsters in rooms with nowhere to go.

PFS #6-97 - Siege of Serpents

4/5 —

An excellent close out for season 6!

As usual, a very busy scenario with little / no time to fool around. Despite that, I didn't feel quite as rushed as in prior specials. We accomplished everything in a relatively timely manor and only had one encounter cut off prematurely to move on to the next part of the scenario.

Overall I was very pleased!

Big Scale, Big Events

3/5 —

Pros
- Closes out season 6 in a big way
- Good variety of encounters/challenges that fit the situation
- Area defense is great mechanic for multi-table cooperatives
- Some really good encounters, especially once you learn the backstory behind them

Cons
- Too much to do in a 5 hour slot
- Ridiculously easy for the bad guys at times
- Complexities of the plot really don't come through for players (Really need to play 6-98 to make sense of things)
- Too many map packs and flip mats required (try to use more maps from the same pack or both sides of a map instead of every encounter location being a different pack.)
- Why do pathfinders even hold convocations anymore? Have any of them not become a disaster?

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Webstore Gninja Minion

Announced!
Grand Lodge
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

First the Onyx Alliance, now this. Never attend a Grand Convocation. They always turn out poorly.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Jim Groves returns to writing scenarios...excellent! Can't wait to see this one unfold.
Liberty's Edge
Starfinder Superscriber

Is this one of the specials to be run at PaizoCon, or will this be only at GenCon?
Dark Archive

6-97?

that number seems a little high...

6-17 maybe?

6-97 is correct...they have a jump before end of year specials like this...

@rknop, this should be the PaizoCon special. 7-00 is the GenCon special IIRC...well debuting at GenCon I should say
Liberty's Edge
Starfinder Superscriber

Mike Brock lists the status of the 4 season-ending specials here
Paizo Employee Developer

PaizoCon GMs, we have sent the adventure to everyone signed up to run it at PaizoCon. You might not have received an email informing you that this is the case, but it should be updated in your downloads.
Liberty's Edge

I have not received it yet. I sent an email to customer service, but was wondering if anyone else is still waiting.
Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Fear not, you are not alone.
Paizo Employee Developer

I have checked with customer service, and it sounds like one of those brave representatives will be addressing any missing downloads for #6–97 and #6–98 a little later today.
Liberty's Edge

Thanks, John!
Paizo Employee Developer

Customer service has nobly gone through the list of GMs set to run this adventure at PaizoCon and manually added the file to those individuals' downloads. It looks like most people on the list already had the file, and about half of those who did not receive the file had provided an email address other than their paizo.com email address (the one used for your account on paizo.com).

PaizoCon GMs who do not have this adventure yet: We cannot add this file to your downloads until you tell us what your paizo.com email address is. Please let both Mike Brock and customer service know ASAP, and we will endeavor to have this added to your downloads on Monday.
Scarab Sages

Having the same issue. Hope it is resolved soon.
Paizo Employee Developer
Gornil wrote:
Having the same issue. Hope it is resolved soon.

Looking at your profile, I can confirm that your email address provided does not match your paizo.com email, which makes it very difficult to grant scenarios to your account. Please check your account and let customer service know what your paizo.com email is.

Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

John, what maps do I need to get together for this?
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4
TriOmegaZero wrote:
John, what maps do I need to get together for this?

If John doesn't answer before Sunday morning I will Pm you.Bear in mind I have not seen the post development, but I can't imagine many locations changed.

Paizo Employee Developer
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jim Groves wrote:
TriOmegaZero wrote:
John, what maps do I need to get together for this?
If John doesn't answer before Sunday morning I will Pm you.Bear in mind I have not seen the post development, but I can't imagine many locations changed.

Going from Memory:

Map Pack Fortress
Map Pack Elven City
Map Pack Village
Map Pack Magic Academy
Map Pack Palace
Flip-Mat Watch Station
Flip-Mat Pathfinder Lodge
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4

Well done!

That matches what I have.
Scarab Sages
John Compton wrote:
Gornil wrote:
Having the same issue. Hope it is resolved soon.
Looking at your profile, I can confirm that your email address provided does not match your paizo.com email, which makes it very difficult to grant scenarios to your account. Please check your account and let customer service know what your paizo.com email is.

That's odd, because I received the Serpent's Rise scenario already in my downloads. I wonder where the confusion happened?

Regardless, re-sent my paizo.com email address to customer service.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I posted in the PaizoCon volunteer thread, but I'll post here, too.

No map is provided for

Spoiler:
Floating Tower (area G)
Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure, Maps, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Is there any way we could remove the watermark on the pregens we hand out? For security purposes I don't like to give out my paizo.com email address to people at conventions.
Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure, Maps, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Terek wrote:
Is there any way we could remove the watermark on the pregens we hand out? For security purposes I don't like to give out my paizo.com email address to people at conventions.

Just realized I put this in the wrong product discussion thread. It should have gone in Serpent's Rise

Scarab Sages

Can anyone with Paizo comment on when this scenario will be available for purchase?
Sovereign Court
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

They will have ben out a year once GenCon rolls around. Given previous special releases, I wouldn't expect it before that.
Scarab Sages

Okay, so normally, by GenCon they're released or the release date is provided. Still no word.

Anybody care to comment?
Community & Digital Content Director
Tarrintino wrote:

Okay, so normally, by GenCon they're released or the release date is provided. Still no word.

Anybody care to comment?

Yep! This was just an oversight in the number of other Gen Con items up in the air last week. It's now available for purchase :)

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Oh, nice, this is now available for the unwashed masses! Will 6-98 and 6-99 also become available?

I'm probably missing something really obvious, but it looks to me like parts 2 and 3 are mathematically impossible to complete without running out the clock. There are not enough encounters for each table to get rid of the hit points they are adding to each district. Part 4 on the other hand has far too few hit points and it seems practically impossible for a party to actually complete wave 3.
I could readjust the hit points so the areas are completed when all the encounters are completed, but at that point it's not really a multi-table interactive and instead just a bunch of groups playing the same level-scaling adventure at the same time.
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