A Review of the Shattered Star Adventure Path

Shattered Star is the eleventh adventure path, #61 to #66, from Paizo Publishing for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, the supplements are covered by the Open Game License with some content therefore being considered Open Game Content.

As with all the adventure paths, this is in six parts, starting at 1st level with the final module taking characters up to 17th level and beyond.

Each module can be bought in either PDF or as a softcover book. All are still available as PDFs from Paizo’s store and some softcovers are still available from them as well. Missing softcovers can be found on sites such as Amazon.

For more complete reviews of the different modules rather than this brief overview of the whole adventure path, click on the links to read them.

The Adventure Path is, naturally, set in Paizo’s world of Golarion. The theme of the path is reassembling an artefact known as the Sihedron, the titular Shattered Star, which was created by the First Emperor of Thassilon.

Shards of Sin sees the characters asked to find a missing Pathfinder Society contact, which leads them into part of Magnimar’s Irespan. Within this they will recover the first part of the Sihedron.

Curse of the Lady’s Light has the characters travelling to what is essentially a gigantic lighthouse dating back to Thassilon. They will explore this to continue finding the pieces of the Sihedron.

The Asylum Stone sees the characters travelling to Kaer Maga, the City of Strangers. Once there, they will need to travel to a pocket realm to recover another piece of the Shattered Star.

Beyond the Doomsday Door has the characters travel to an abbey. They will need to deal with invaders who have taken over the place, and prevent a qlippoth lord from being unleashed on the world.

Into the Nightmare Rift has the characters travel to a massive ruin from the time of Thassilon to recover the last two pieces of the Sihedron. The ruin also has a portal leading to Leng.

The Dead Heart of Xin is the finale of the adventure path has the characters reassembling the Sihedron, then travelling to Xin, the former capital of Thassilon, which has risen above the waves. First Emperor Xin isn’t as dead as expected and will need dealing with.

Each module also has additional information on top of the adventure. There is a six-part piece of fiction that isn’t connected to the adventure, nor is it located at any of the adventure sites.

Also covered are various gods, including qlippoth lords, and background information for Golarion, and each module has new magic items and monsters.

Shattered Star Adventure Path in Review

Each module is well bookmarked and well presented, containing many full colour illustrations up to about half a page in size.

As with many such adventure paths, it is, almost by necessity, very linear in nature. There are, however, various potential side quests in each module, with two inside the front covers and some NPCs having them as well. In addition, each has two new monuments for Magnimar.

Shards of Sin sees the characters asking around for information, before getting onto the real meat of the adventure, which is essentially a dungeon crawl.

Curse of the Lady’s Light has the potential for a major change happening to one character, and this change can affect subsequent adventures. Fortunately, this is covered where required. This is essentially another dungeon crawl.

The Asylum Stone starts off with some city encounters, before they head underground for, again, a dungeon crawl.

The main part of Beyond the Doomsday Door is another dungeon crawl.

Into the Nightmare Rift, surprise, surprise, once again focuses around another dungeon crawl, though Leng could be expanded.

The Dead Heart of Xin‘s main focus is another dungeon crawl. If dungeon crawls don’t appeal to those playing this adventure path, they probably won’t enjoy it. This adventure has what is potentially the biggest problem; it’s possible for the entire story to derail at this point, if the characters don’t do what they are supposed to do. This is realised, and options are given to try and prevent it, but it’s still definitely possible and there’s a potential for GM fiat to be invoked to get things going again. Not great.

Like all adventure paths, this one could be expanded by the GM. Fortunately, though, it is pretty complete as-is; with it being primarily dungeon crawls, or set in locations that are covered in source books if they are referred to, the GM has enough content to keep it going. Not that it couldn’t be expanded, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Shattered Star Adventure Path is a decent adventure path, bar the potential problem with the last module (and it might be that is unlikely to happen).