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PATHMASTER: Cutting Silver Pass $7.99
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PATHMASTER: Cutting Silver Pass
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PATHMASTER: Cutting Silver Pass
Publisher: AAW Games
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/26/2013 13:09:52

The PATHMASTER products are part of an adventure writing and design competition from Adventureaweek.com. Five finalists from loads of initial entries were chosen to write an adventure each, and the winning adventure of the five gets to move onward and upward in the RPG writing industry. This review is a review of one of the adventures from the five finalists. I've reviewed each of the five final adventure submissions, culminating in me choosing my own personal winning entry for PATHMASTER. Each review has been concluded with a few comments on the adventure relative to the others, and some justification as to its position in the winning stakes. All five reviews have been posted at the same time, so if you're reading this, you can read the other 4 review entries as well. With that in mind, on with the review.

Cutting Silver Pass, written by Scott Janke, is Pathfinder RPG adventure for 7th level characters. This 37 page pdf has a neat and professional layout, with excellent art, maps and general presentation. The pdf uses colour coding to good effect, allowing one to differentiate between different elements of the adventure on a quick glance. Like others in the series, the backgrounds are heavy in colour, so this is not a particularly print-friendly product for home printing. Writing is good, though the clarity of the adventure outline is a bit lacking in places, and it's often not quite clear where the adventure is going or what the expected course of action is in a particular scenario.

This adventure takes place in the remote regions of the land in a rich mining colony run by several influential and important silver barons. Traditionally, silver mined in the area is carted around the mountain to more civilized areas, but a recent discovery by the local mining wizard has indicated that there is a path through the mountains that would substantially improve on mining operations. The PCs get involved when the mining wizard disappears with his secret plans for the new mountain pass/underpass and the silver barons enlist their aid in finishing the wizard's project. This adventure takes place in a variety of different locations, from the mining town, to the underground areas of the adventure, and eventually on to the other side of the mountain and civilized lands. Parts of the adventure are event-based, but for the most part the PCs will be location based as they execute the plans to complete each stage of cutting the pass.

Cutting Silver Pass is a varied adventure that has a lot of different opportunities for players and their characters. The adventure starts with an investigation into the mining wizard's disappearance, followed by some trickery (and a lot of luck) in finding the initial stages of the pass. There the PCs will have to overcome obstacles and clear dangers as the mining folk build the pass from the wizard's plans. The encounters are varied, particularly those that directly involve the PCs. There are a number of event based encounters that affect the mining operations themselves, slowing down progress or enabling the PCs to speed things up. There's plenty of opportunity for roleplaying, particularly in negotiation, where the PCs need to negotiate moving the pass through the lands occupied by others.

This is not an adventure that takes a few days of game time, but rather something that will involve the PCs for months. While these long timescales can quickly be glossed over, parts of the adventure really involve the PCs acting like project managers rather than adventurers. This might be fine for some, but I think the large time scales and the involvement of the mining projects actually hinder the smooth progress of the adventure. Essentially it boils down to the PCs overcoming some obstacles on a stage of the plan, and then having to wait weeks to complete the part until the next obstacles come around. These weeks are filled with events that hinder building progress, which don't always involve the PCs. The parts of the adventure that involve the PCs are good, particularly the negotiations on the other side of the mountain and the white-water rafting challenge, but the building operations are something I'd definitely skim over as it's just not that exciting.

Overall this is a good adventure. There're lots of interesting combat encounters, good roleplaying encounters, and a number of other scenarios that players and PCs will find enjoyable to indulge in. I think the long timescales are not for me, and it's a pity parts of the adventure were geared towards it rather than just keeping the building operations in the background. Still, lots of fun to be had in this good adventure.

As far as the other adventures in the contest are concerned, I think Cutting Silver Pass offers a unique experience in getting involved in a grand project, but the execution might not be for some. There's a lot of downtime that can be glossed over, but in doing so the movement from one part of the building plan to another seems forced. This slows down the pace and action of the game, and makes it feel a bit like a trawl. It's still a good adventure, though, but I think the dynamic approach of Timeless Fort and Ironwall Gap Must Hold is much more exciting, while the atmosphere of To Walk the Dark Road makes it much more fun to play through. Twilight Falling is also quite fast paced, even though it shares elements of investigative work with this adventure. Cutting Silver Pass is certainly different and explores the boundaries in adventure design by offering a unique experience that most PCs will not frequently get involved in. Still, I just don't think it holds up as well on the excitement and fast-paced action scales as the other adventures, and, as such, despite it's good offering, I've rated this adventure as 5th on my list of adventures in the PATHMASTER contest.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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PATHMASTER: Cutting Silver Pass
Publisher: AAW Games
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/17/2013 03:07:29

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Full disclosure:

I was one of the judges of the contest that determined which pitches were chosen for the Pathmaster contest. I did not receive any compensation and thus do not consider my verdict compromised. The very presence of these modules means that I like the premise of all Pathmaster-modules, but can their execution stand up?

This module is 37 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 3 pages of advertisement, 1 page back cover and 1 page SRD, leaving us with 29 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This being an adventure-module, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

All right, still here? The town of Imarlap is blessed by abundant silver, but also is quite far off the trodden paths, requiring expensive magic to properly get the goods to civilization. All that changed when the local dwarven wizard miscast a spell and stumbled across a huge cavern complex - a plan thus formed to cut a pass through the mountains and deliver the silver via these caverns and the rivers coursing through them. Unfortunately, the wizard was secretive and neither he, nor his apprentice have been seen for more than a month - enter the PCs!

Hired by the town's silver barons, the PCs will first have to find the missing wizard's hidden tower - by piecing together evidence from survivors of a mining accident - all of which could be more cooperative. Navigating the mining tunnels, the PCs find the tower and means of access and have to acknowledge that the dwarf's paranoia was well-founded: Assassinated by his apprentice, he now is a specter and one first obstacle on the PC's way. And with his plans, the true meat of the adventure begins: Developing Silver Pass. Yes, you heard me right -via crews and engineering, the PCs will have the task of developing a pass - with all the consequences that entails:

From realizing how and what areas to develop to exterminating puddings and similar dangerous vermin to dealing with raiding xorns, trolls and negotiating with the were-bear cave druid (who unfortunately stands in the way of progress - a nice moral dilemma) to the Stoneraven Giant Tribe, which may be more than the PCs can handle via brute force. Speaking of brute force: A local Silver Dragon, Scrilmeiis, may also challenge PCs for honorable fights and, when treated fairly, might make for a great champion for the exploited miners and political counter-weight to the silver barons - if the PCs can win him over via chivalrous conduct and smart thinking. As a final challenge, the PCs can deal with the Whitewater Orc Tribe - probably by navigating canoes down the rapids and fighting off the green-skins in a truly cool and iconic mini-game style encounter that actually comes with a table that makes running it rather easy..

We also get all the maps in player-friendly versions.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful, original 2-column standard and is one of my favorites among the unique styles used for Pathmaster-modules. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience and the cartography is neat, as we've come to expect from AaW.

All right, let's get one thing out of the way right now - Scott Janke has created a UNIQUE module here - there are not that many "Developing" modules available - beyond Kingmaker and "Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale" and some of AaW's offerings (Like "Forest for the Trees"), there simply aren't enough modules out there that breathe the spirit of conquering/exploring/developing the wilderness and this is one: Suffused by the spirit of frontiersmen, of can-do, of bringing civilization, this sandbox offers ways for PCs to actually influence a settlement, of doing something significant and while it works well in its context, it left me hungering for more - I'd be all game for a Fitzcarraldo-style AP or any further expansions and similar modules - this offering feels that fresh, that new, that uncommon - marrying details and believable, at times tragic characters with the unconventional premise, we have a great module on our hands - final verdict? 5 stars +seal of approval!

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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