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Today, we'll be talking about the Infiltration Subsystem, which is in my opinion Pathfinder 2e's best example of a Scenario Structure.
Let's jump right in!
Basics of Infiltration
"Not all elements of an adventure can be resolved with force of arms and the sizzle of deadly magic. Sometimes subtlety is required to circumvent foes or accomplish a goal. When the characters need to rely on improvisation and fast thinking to infiltrate a stronghold or organization to save the day, the infiltration subsystem provides a framework for those adventures" (GMC 196). The subsystem works as follows:
In pursuit of their objective, the PCs overcome obstacles by earning Infiltration Points and try to avoid gaining Awareness Points (generally speaking, you gain 1 IP on a success or 2 IP on a critical success, and gain 1 AP on a failure or 2 AP on a critical failure). AP also increase by 1 at the end of each round, to represent the passage of time. As the PCs accrue AP, things get harder, as DCs increase and complications occur.
Each round of the infiltration, each PC can choose to attempt to overcome one obstacle that they have access to, and they need not all try to overcome the same ones (some are group obstacles, meaning the group overcomes them together, while others area individual obstacles, meaning everyone overcomes it separately). They can instead try to overcome a complication or take advantage of an opportunity as those are available.
PCs may also be able to gain Edge Points that turn a failure/critical failure into a success by doing Preparation Activities before the infiltration begins. These EP can usually only be used for specific things, e.g. Forge Documents allowing you to present said documents to help you later on. Like with infiltration rounds, there's no set amount of time for this preparation, so GMs will want to set either a time per activity or a maximum number of preparation activities.
The Infiltration Procedure
What does each round of infiltration look like? Note: some of this is my own interpretation, since these details are scattered throughout the chapter.
- Round Starts. The GM outlines the available obstacles or opportunities to the PCs and describes the scene, accounting for AP and potentially foreshadowing complications.
- PCs Take Turns. Each PC chooses one obstacle, complication, or opportunity to attempt to overcome or take advantage of in whatever order they'd like.
- Overcoming Obstacles. If an obstacle is overcome mid round, the GM outlines any changes to their step 1 description and the remaining players can choose from either new or existing options.
- Complications. Whenever AP hit a new threshold, the GM announces any automatic effects (like DCs increasing) and presents any complications that the PCs must overcome. Doing so takes their turn, just like attempting obstacles. If the PCs reach the last AP threshold, the infiltration fails and they must retreat.
- Combat. If combat breaks out, increase AP by 1 for each round of combat (unless the PCs take particular precautions or the area is isolated).
- Round Ends. The round ends either when the PCs overcome their last obstacle and succeed, reach the last AP threshold and fail, or when each PC has attempted to overcome one obstacle or complication. If the infiltration is not over, the GM announces that they are increasing AP by 1 and begins again at Step 1.
This does not include PC Preparations, which happen before the infiltration and not during it.
Initial Thoughts
As written, I quite like this! It makes sense that the time that each round takes depends on the context, though GMs will definitely want to make a decision there, even if just to figure out how long buffs or other long-lasting effects last. I love the concrete obstacles to be overcome, I love that AP ticks up every round, and I love that there are multiple stages of failure before the infiltration is strictly over. It does feel like the PCs can mess up a lot and still succeed if we keep to "twice the number of Infiltration Points necessary" for success, but I haven't run a RAW infiltration before, so I'm curious whether it will feel too generous or if it will still be a good challenge.
I've alluded in previous articles to the fact that I tend to prefer slightly less abstracted infiltrations. I do think that infiltrations like this have their place, but I have also had really good results with Justin Alexander's Heists and Raids. There are two aspects that I prefer there:
- Preparation Activities are fairly abstract as written. I much prefer concrete information that the PCs can act on over vaguer, BitD-style flashbacky Edge Points, and I really like the idea of getting ground plans or similar ahead of time.
- I prefer having even a vague, loose map and therefore navigating through a location that feels more versatile, rather than a linear string of obstacles. I do think that there are ways to bring some of this to the existing Infiltration Rules, however, which I'll discuss after I go through examples in APs.
All in all, however, it's a solid Scenario Structure! It's clear what the PCs are doing and when, it's clear how switching into other modes like combat works, it's clear how tension will build through complications, and it's clear what the fail state is (though what happens when that fail state occurs is less clear). I do, however, think a clear outline like I wrote up above is really crucial for GMs to make sure they don't miss anything (I could totally see myself missing that I should increase AP after each round, for example). The biggest thing GMs will want to make sure of is that there are opportunities for PC choices to matter and for good play to affect the result, but I think this structure absolutely has the tools to make that happen.
Infiltration in Paizo Modules
I grabbed a handful of modules off my shelf that have Infiltrations in them - we're going to go through these to see how Paizo uses infiltrations in play, what lessons we can learn, and what variations on infiltrations might be neat!
Spore War #2: The Secret of Deathstalk Tower
This is perhaps the most by-the-book infiltration I've seen. Essentially, as one of the miscellaneous war missions the PCs perform during Chapter 2, the PCs must infiltrate a nearby town, save an elven spy, and escape! It's divided into 5 stages, each with 2 group obstacles that the PCs can choose between in order to bypass that stage of the infiltration: get through town, get into the tower, rescue the spy, steal a bunch of treasure (optional), and then get back out again.
This is a pretty tight infiltration compared to the guidelines! Stages 1-2 require 3 IP, Stages 3 and 5 require 2 IP, and the optional Stage 4 requires 4 IP. This means there are 10 total IP required (optionally 14 for some crazy treasure), but only 8 of those are required to rescue the elf (the last 2 are getting out). The PCs fail at 12 AP (or if they don't rescue him for 15 total hours), meaning that they need to roll fairly well to succeed in time! (Though as always, clever plans might make this much easier)
Interestingly, this section does not allow for Preparation Activities, though the PCs can start with 4 Edge Points if they spend a campaign-level resources called Triumph Points. Doing so makes this infiltration much easier, and is almost certainly worth it. It also only uses group obstacles, not individual obstacles.
I think this section works really well! I love the 5 stages instead of a strictly linear list of 5 obstacles, both because it gives some built-in choice and because it's a lot easier for the GM to say "You must infiltrate Riverspire, how do you want to do that?" and use the 2 written obstacles as a base if the PCs do something wildly creative. I also think the abstraction built into infiltrations works really well here, since this tower is presumably pretty dang large but this mission is relatively small and contained.
The one flaw I see as written is that it seems very possible for the PCs to rescue the elf but then accrue 12 AP before escaping (especially if they go for the treasure), and it's not clear what happens in this case. Is the elf snatched from their grasp no matter what they do? Does the NPC succumb to their wounds while the PCs flee? (And what if they heal him?) Does the GM have to design a climactic battle against the entire roused fortress?
Triumph of the Tusk #1: The Resurrection Flood
Chapter 3 of this book presents an infiltration into Splitskull Keep. It's a bit different than normal in a few key ways:
- The ultimate goal is not really to be sneaky. Instead, the PCs are only sneaky long enough to demoralize the defenders enough that they can walk straight into where the final boss is or draw him out for a fight.
- Instead of the focus being overcoming obstacles, the focus is gaining IP, and obstacles are simply one way to do that. The more IP the PCs gain, the more demoralized the defenders are, and the easier it will be to reach the final boss!
- One of the listed Obstacles essentially allows the PCs to take down an enemy squadron without entering encounter mode! Love this, abstracting fights is great for an infiltration. That being said, they can also get into normal combats (usually if they fail to take them out successfully using skill checks), and doing so will always earn IP and only might earn AP as fights are common within the keep.
- The biggest change, however, is that there is a map, and the PCs can basically mix and match what obstacles they want to attempt while moving through the map.
Interestingly, this section also appears not to allow Preparation Activities, though it does allow the PCs to Gather Information.
So, what do we think? It's certainly interesting! The 1 hour per round timer seems a bit arbitrary (how long is bashing some skulls or poisoning some food really going to take?) but that can be fixed by changing it to 10 minutes and adjusting as needed (or by suspending your disbelief). The concept of "demoralize the orcs until they are pissed at their leader" is certainly an interesting idea, and potentially a lot of fun for the players! I really don't buy the idea that killing guards and destroying their shit will do anything other than make them try to kill you really, really hard, however, let alone help you. (As as sidenote, this is the same strategy that a lot of governments try to take in foreign policy, "let's just bomb the civilians until they revolt against their leader," and it has never once worked because, turns out, when people watch their friends get murdered, they tend to get madder at the murderers than at the people in charge who maybe could have prevented it.) I feel like this would make more sense if it was a longer term social challenge where the PCs could reasonably live in the outer keep, spreading propaganda and subtly undermining the boss rather than just beating the crap out of them.
I think this is another case of Pathfinder Adventure Design being hamstrung by needing XP-for-encounters rather than for completing goals. IMO, a Heist or Raid structure paired with multiple sub-goals might work better for this scenario, or else a more social and less sneaky structure, but then the PCs might bypass all the potential fights and we can't have that!
Prey For Death
This module begins with the infiltration and eventually assassination of a big, baddass warlord! Like the previous example, this is a Hybrid Infiltration (as the sidebar calls it), played on a map but using aspects of the infiltration rules.
It starts with preparation activities (finally!), and gives several new options for what those might be, most importantly potentially uncovering secrets! I really like that it gives both options for asking questions about the target or the location, or for observing it firsthand. Though, weirdly, it calls Edge Points "Leverage Points" instead. Probably just a typo!
Another change from the core infiltration rules is that there are no obstacles; instead, the PCs traverse the map and deal with complications based on their actions! I largely like this, as having both "obstacles" and "combat encounters" listed felt like a lot in the previous adventure, and it has guidance on how the PCs might gain AP since it doesn't tick up automatically (since there are no more Infiltration Rounds). Weirdly, the PCs face a patrol whenever they stay in one place, but never if they keep moving - I feel like a random check every 10 minutes would be more appropriate? But this does encourage the PCs to keep moving, so pros and cons.
However, despite there not being obstacles, the PCs must still earn Infiltration Points by overcoming encounters or exploring the dungeon. Once they earn enough Infiltration Points, the PCs can just... ambush their target whenever and wherever they want. I gotta be honest, I am not a fan. It's very clearly just there to make the PCs fight enough of the dungeon to get enough XP to level, but IMO if you're doing an assassination, the goal should be to avoid lesser foes as much as possible in order to avoid detection!
If I were to try to fix this, I would instead have a clear timeline of where Ordulf was at various points in the day and I would give the PCs several opportunities to learn about some or all of those events. I would also in general reduce the difficulty of individual encounters (to trivial/low in most cases), but have an Order of battle that showcased how the castle reacted to defend against attackers. I would also increase the amount of information the PCs could theoretically gain, both ahead of time and by exploring the dungeon, so that the challenge became making a good plan to attack their target without drawing the whole castle to them, rather than doing enough combats and whatnot to make ambushing him automatic. Make the PCs think like Assassins! They'll have fun, I promise!
Still, XP-for-encounter limitations aside, I think this is a really cool scenario!
Triumph of the Tusk #33: Destroyer's Doom
The 2nd to last chapter of Triumph of the Tusk features the most ambitious usage of the Infiltration Subsystem I've seen to date - an infiltration not of an individual building or location, but the infiltration and subsequent sabotage of an entire city!
This scenario sees the PCs pursue a series of objectives over the course of about a week (depending on how the previous chapter went, which I love). The more Sabotage Points the PCs get, the easier the final battle is, with fewer or weaker enemies to fight. Overall, I quite like this application of AP in particular to a larger scale series of small missions, and I am always excited to see Paizo write more sandboxy adventures!
There are two major things that I don't love about this structure:
- Time. How long do things take? Is the GM expected to just estimate it based on vibes? I assume that Gathering Information takes 2 hours since that's the default, but how long can the PCs do things each day? They become fatigued after 16 hours each day, and need to sleep for 8, but how long is spent eating, going to the bathroom, traveling between locations, and similar? I think this chapter either needs a structure like my previous Overland Travel rules (4 hour watches, with most things taking 1 watch, whether gathering information, visiting the local markets and shopping around, or pursuing an Objective), or for each Objective to have a more clear hourly breakdown of how long things take and a clear limit per day (I'd say 12 hours is probably reasonable to be able to fit daily maintenance stuff in without trouble). Without either of these, the very cool 7-ish day timeline becomes a lot less impactful.
- Leads. I don't like that the only way for the PCs to learn about potential missions is to gather information, and I sincerely hope that I missed things (I read the book when it first came out, but only skimmed this chapter for this article). I would really love if instead each mission had ways to find more leads, either from helpful contacts, seized enemy intel, or similar. This isn't a fatal flaw by any means, but would serve to make the city feel more interconnected!
- Patrols. I would personally prefer either patrols of guards, some sort of Response Team for the bad guys to use in reaction to the PCs, or 1-2 more Complications in addition to those listed. Not a huge deal, but as y'all know I prefer more reactive scenarios!
None of these are fatal flaws, however, and can be reasonably dealt with.
Interestingly, there's a mini infiltration scenario within the broader city infiltration, which is very straightforward / by the book, and I therefore don't have much else to say about it (other than "Locate Cells" obstacle being really weird, given that the jail is really small and the PCs already needing to take out the guards nearby). It works fine, and is a great example of a quick and dirty infiltration.
Overall, a really cool use of the infiltration rules that showcases how flexible they are and gives us some great ideas for less linear adventure scenarios!
The Future of Infiltration
It's clear that infiltration is a strong Scenario Structure overall. It presents an abstracted and simplified structure for stealth scenarios, and it works really well when you want that level of abstraction! I haven't actually run one of these yet, but I did write them into my Hammerfist Holds Sidequests for Red Hand of Doom (see the Breaking & Entering sidebar) so I'm excited to try them out soon!
It's also clear that I am not alone in my desire for more map-based heist shennanigans, and unfortunately the infiltration subsystem does not track neatly onto such scenarios. I think the biggest barrier is XP-for-encounters, rather than XP-for-goals, but supporting the more open structure that this change would make would require some more work. So, I'm gonna do that work! Hopefully within the next week or two, though we'll see.
My next article will be going through Paizo's other Scenario Structures, followed by an article outlining what makes a good Scenario Structure. After that, interspersed between my normal adventure prep articles, I'll be outlining some other more fleshed out Scenario Structures (including one for Infiltration, though I might do some variety of Overland Travel first).
See you then :)
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