My latest Pathfinder Society scenario, #4-23 Rivalry's End, is currently hitting a middle-of-the-road three stars. This seems to be an average of people who thought it was great and people who thought it was terrible. Although I read all reviews and commentary about my adventures, I'm particularly interested in why people don't like my material.

Here, the complaints seem to fall into two types: first, the scenario is too hard. Second, the "twist" ending is disappointing.

Regarding the "too hard" comments, I do think that the adventures I produce tend to require a certain level of system mastery. That's somewhat intentional, and I'm not upset about being labeled as writing difficult PFS scenarios. Plus, some people found Rivalry's End to be quite easy, so there is a wide spread here.

Regarding the "twist" ending, which I won't spoil here, there is plainly a future set-up for adventures Paizo is planning down the road. If the ending seemed contrived, that's because events have to fall out a certain way in order to set up later stories--the PCs can't always win every time, and a bit of deus ex machina is not inappropriate from time to time. If the ending seems implausible based on the motives of the NPCs involved, the best I can do is suggest people see what's coming next. I actually don't know what's coming next with Grandmaster Torch, which is sort of neat for me--I got to set up an introduction to a new plot thread for him without knowing where it will lead--and like everyone else I'm excited to see what Paizo's PFS team has in store.