Review: Among the Living – Paizo

Overview

• The premise is that the Shadowfinders are sent to rescue Bodriggan Wuthers, a Shadowfinder agent, and retrieve a relic he’s discovered under an opera house.
• The setting played well: gilt, burnished opera house (previously a temple to Aroden, the dead god). I followed the scenario’s directions and emphasized the elite snobbery and the gaudy, overly dramatic opera house. When I described the massive crystal chandelier, one player instantly started scheming.
• Among the Living is a Pathfinder Society scenario, initially written for Organized Play. It was listed as a very Halloween-appropriate adventure. Since it’s written for Organized Play it has a concise start and end and should have been designed for a 4-hour play slot. We finished in 2.5 hours each time.
• I simplified maps for the basement/dig site. With fewer skill checks, it wasn’t nearly as hard to keep the party focused on a goal. Both groups realized they couldn’t leave until the zombie menace was quelled and acted accordingly.
• Even though Among the Living has 5 Acts (separate encounters), I only ran Acts 1, 3, and 5 with each group. Both groups were fairly exhausted resource-wise after Act 1, and had to tread more carefully. I think all five Acts would have been an almost unavoidable TPK.
• The first group was much more direct, dealing with zombies with a head-on approach. The second group was more cunning and deceitful when dealing with Zyphus’s cultists.
• Good adventure for Shadowfinder. Suitable one-shot with flexible scaling. Easy to adapt, seasonally appropriate. Very combat-heavy, strong survival horror/Night of the Living Dead tropes.

Link

Paizo: https://paizo.com/products/btpy85p3?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-7-Among-the-Living