Saturday, October 17, 2015

Two More Reviews

While I've been doing a good deal of writing throughout the spring and summer involving Pirates of the Spanish Main, I've also been running a Pathfinder campaign using Green Ronin's Freeport setting. As part of that, I've made use of several published scenarios to fill in the gaps between The Lost Island, Peril in Freeport and Dark Deeds in Freeport. Here are reviews for two of those adventures.

Anyone who's interested, by the way, could follow my campaign notes over at the Piazza.

Freeport Campaign #4

-Nate


The Golden Banner
When I picked up this scenario, I was admittedly just looking for an adventure to fill up a session or two, and to let the heroes gain some experience. I was familiar with the author's work, especially his Broken Earth campaign setting, which was my introduction to Savage Worlds, so I figured I'd give it a try. It proved even better than I expected.

The premise of the adventure is that a local nobleman--or, more correctly, some of his people--has found an old relic related to a battle involving local churches; now he's trying to decide to which church to give it. That leads to conflict, of course, including a threat to the merchant's safety.

On the one hand, the players moved quickly through the investigation. That's a good thing, I think, because it's hard when investigations take up too much time at the table. That, in turn, led into solid action, first at a fancy dinner gathering and then in an old warehouse. I tailored some things to better fit the Freeport setting, and we had two fun sessions from it.

The Golden Banner


Scourge of the Steaming Isle
This is another of the Pirate Campaign Plug-Ins from Legendary Games. While intended to be used as an interlude in Paizo's Skull & Shackles adventure path, it proved a good fit here.

The premise is that the PCs have earned the enmity of Captain Sculberd Crags, a pirate who has done harm to them through their associates or property. The PCs, then can seek him out in his island lair for some comeuppance. They can come at the situation in a number of ways.

When I ran this one, the PCs came at it from an unexpected direction, leading into a running battle in which they sniped at the pirates and were eventually forced into a big confrontation. We wound up spending three sessions (with about three solid hours of play from each) in order to finish this business. Here again there was solid action, especially in the dark surrounding the pirates' camp and then between both sides' ships. I recommend this scenario, too.

Scourge of the Steaming Isle