Recession Reviews: The Worldwound Incursion (Pathfinder AP 73)

by Frank Gori

Recession Reviews: The Worldwound Incursion

Times are hard. While the cost of a gaming book beats any trip to the theatre, our loved ones don’t always see things it that way. When you can spare the money, what products deserve your hard earned gaming dollars? Who balances enough crunch with the fluff to allow the frugal GM to recycle, after all the best games are the ones you can play over and over again without losing interest.

Today we take on the first installment of Wrath of the Righteous. Any publishers interested in having something reviewed in this format should email me a request at theflyingpincushion@gmail.com

Also, Last week we got a contact from Brandon Hodge about the recession review format, here's what he had to say "I really like the approach to reviews--value for page is a really cool meter. Keep it up, and, again, thanks for taking the time to review our stuff!!!"

Book 1 The Worldwound Incursion:

Written by: Amber E. Scott

Page count: 98 counting the inside covers

Throw Away pages: 21 (forward, advertisements, credits, and a story not directly useful to the adventure)

Golden Pages: 32 (reusable npcs, spells, reusable maps, monsters, new items)

Cover price: $22.99

Price per page: $0.23

Modified price per page: $0.21 = Cover price/pages + golden pages – throw away pages= modified price per page

Crunch to Fluff Ratio: 4.66 to 1

Our Rating out of 10: 8.5 very reusable

Description (minor spoilers): When I saw what was coming I was very close to cancelling my AP subscription. I downloaded the playtest for the Mythic Adventure Tiers and was NOT a fan. As a DM I already have trouble with the CR system as it doesn’t account for player experience. My players are all DMs and ex DMs with a decade or more gaming experience, they punch 3-4 CRs above their level consistently and rarely with casualties. As a DM I can put them on the ropes of a TPK with strong tactics but they always find a way out. Mythic Tiers just makes my job harder.

I fucking love this book. I am using an economic system here so the rating is as high as I can justify but I was close to giving the narrative when the PCs awaken a golden page ranking. Here’s the thing you need to appreciate about this AP your PCs start off as collateral damage in a greater conflict and rise up to be big heroes. All the tricks as a DM I use to make a player feel more heroic are here, from flawed allies they need to rescue to eventual minions, to a city in crisis and your PCs being the only real chance to save victory from the jaws of disaster.

Another good element here is that you can take this as a stand alone book with very little adjustment. It will take your PCs from 1^st to 6^th level and give them decent treasure and alliances but there is nothing that absolutely forces you into the next installment.

I’m not going to use the mythic Tiers. I’m not going to adjust this at all, my guys will beat it anyway, if it comes up I’ll throw them some extra treasure or potions or items to make up the difference but there is one certainty, I will run this book, the rest have a high bar to stand up to.