What's that? Behind again? Honestly, though, if you're one of the two people still reading this... you should know better by now.
So the final round of RPGSS Season 9 is up and the polls are open (and soon to be closed). Which means it's finally time for me to talk about the last round, because I am that quick.
The Faceweaver’s Workshop
I've always liked the Soulbound Mannequin, but never had a place to use it. This encounter's a neat little set up for a particularly interesting one. That whole cyborg dilemma. You might last forever, but your existence sucks, ha! But that's alright, because this makes for a lot of really cool interaction with the NPC.
Unfortunately, that's all it has. I feel like it's riding on the coolness factor of a crazy soul-bound-construct. There's some ghouls being dicks to him! Well, yeah. Average ghouls. There's a hole with rot grubs! Okay, still cool. It all fits together nicely. It's a package that makes sense. But none of it really wows me. Nothing here really sticks out as super memorable or particularly interesting, other than the mannequin itself. And he's not really tied to the encounter, or the location, or even the ghouls or anything. I could pick him up and drop him pretty much anywhere in any city in any building and let him start murdering people and... he'd still be just as cool. There's a lot to be said for how cool he is, but there's also a lot to be said for how uninteresting the encounter is otherwise.
I mean, if you do diplomacize the guy, what's left? A fight with two ghouls. In an abandoned building. By the water. No one ever did that before.
Bracken Moor Bridge
Aw yis, Nirmathas. I love this place. Fey and will o wisps and Molthuni turncoats who are actually spies?! Yis, indeed. The story of this encounter is great. It's got a very flavorful buildup with the conflict in the region, the nasties in the Fangwood, and haunts that do exactly what haunts should do--provide narrative while being a reasonable hazard.
Speaking of hazards, this encounter is a bit of a mish-mash. The kelpie and the wisp working together make sense, but the mention of the fungal leshy doesn't even seem necessary. He's just kind of there to be story. And he doesn't even story that hard, since he's just collecting shinies in his garden. I could do that! Then throw in the Molthuni, and you've got (admittedly pretty awesome) fight with just about everything in it. Weather hazards reducing visibility, terrain hazards on the shores, a haunt, some invisible floating thing... I don't know if I really like that many factors all in such a short span and space.
Gnome’s Throw Crossing
I don't really care for clockwork gnomes, so this one's a hard sell on me. Crazy eccentrics with unbound wanderlust? Hell yeah. But mechano-nerds? That feels too WoW for me. (I know, I know, WoW didn't invent mechanically inclined gnomes. But I played that game too long to think otherwise.) That being said, this is another work of madness that I very much appreciate. It's also got just the right touch of gnomish humor without going overboard.
The encounter itself, though, seems deliberately designed as more of a Charisma check than a combat encounter. Yeah, doorkickers might find themselves at odds with the guardians of this portal, but I know my players would have a ball talking to these things. Smashing this particular door just seems rude. Consequently, I don't really think this is a super cinematic encounter because this is really just a really cool roleplaying encounter. Don't get me wrong--I love cool roleplaying encounters. I just think this sort of misses the point of this round? I mean, even if we did fight them... are they even tough enough for a fight? They kind of strike me as little pushovers... like gnomes. Hey-oh.
Dead Man’s End
This is another one with a great set up. A good encounter requires a good story, and this certainly has that. Chasing down vampires and ambushing them at a bridge that sometimes disappears because Desna. Awesome. I almost feel like the delaying bits are cheating, since that's more than just this encounter, but I like them enough to not care. (Rules are for suckers, after all.) (Suckers being people who aren't still playing the RPGSS game. People who are still playing should obviously play by the rules.) (Also, don't even listen to my parenthetical advice.)
Unfortunately, this one also seems to suffer from 'superstars cram lots of stuff on one map' syndrome. We've got a cool chase to a disappearing bridge with some vampires. But also it's been raining a bunch so the river can wash you away. Also it's really cold so better get those endure element spells ready. Except that you can't, because you made the mistake of grabbing the broken handrails! Or worse, you were stuck in the mud! Again, don't get me wrong! I think it all comes together very nicely in this case, making for a very memorable--and wet--encounter with some cool baddies that have a cool story going for them. I would only be particularly concerned about very successful PCs... taking this fight in the daytime seems entirely trivial. I guess that's the point, and they should be rewarded for delaying the vampire enough to make her life miserable, but I feel like the reward should be a legitimate shift to negotiation instead of a 'hey let's talk lol jk we're attacking now' thing. Why would the vampire want to even try starting shit with some adventurers while she's out of commission? Why would they even wait to try and get some protective shadow on that bitch and let her vampire the hell out of things? Also, isn't there something about vampires being unable to cross running water? That's another reason to avoid a fight here. I don't think that's part of Golarion vampire lore, but I'd try to apply something like that in a home game anyway. Negotiate for freedom, and then murder these murderhobos later. Average vampire.
And done!
... Maybe I am just a hater. Or maybe my tastes are just completely off. Either way, the Captain is an unrepentant jerk from Jersey, so that's just how things are.
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