I played this and liked it a lot. it is DEFINITELTY longer than a one-shot , though, maybe 2-4 sessions!

An excellent adventure that is both fun and unique. The "heist" concept is brilliantly executed, divided into clear phases of planning/research, execution, and escape. The adventure offers multiple approaches in each respect, providing the players with many options and forcing them into none. Its descriptions are both concise and evocative. The formatting and layout are also designed with thoughtful consideration to ease-of-use.

Some things to keep in mind before you purchase:

• This adventure involves a lot of city exploration, interaction with NPCs, and information management. I personally found this adventure very challenging to run as a referee - not because of the adventure's failings, but because it feels innately more complex than other adventures. It has a lot of moving parts, in ways that others do not.
• This adventure is written for a very low-magic setting. The priests in this game are not spellcasters. If you plan on playing in a rules system where the religious institution(s) is/are magical, you will need to modify this adventure to fit.

Overall, it is definitely worth the $5 price tag to download on PDF. Highly recommended. I have written a more detailed review here if you are interested.

Excellent old-style adventure. Flavorful and to the point. Enough NPCs with just enough detail to be useful at the table. A quick read by me the night before allowed us to play throughout the next day (6-8 hours). Only about 30% of the module ended up being used but that's the point - I was armed with ideas whichever way the PCs went in accomplishing their goal. I was able to add rooftop chases, catacomb skulking with attacking skeletons, and triple crosses on the fly with the briefest consultation. SPOILER Both my PCs were doing the job unwillingly - they backed the archpriest's views. As the ending, I had the archpriest actually wanting to be kidnapped to make the church look truly bad AND accomplish his escape to his stronghold; when the PCs got him to the Angel Wings he calmly said "take us home" and the captain replied "yes, your excellency". My PCs were stunned and happy.

"We'll make all sorts of plans - but eventually it ALWAYS becomes an Italian Job!"

This is a very thorough city module. The Npc blocks give me everything I need to know (plus more than I wouldhave known to askfor). Love the very believable medieval feel of the scenario. Well worth the $5 and hope to see more adventures!

I like the premise of this adventure: heists, kidnappings, jailbreaks, burglaries and manipulating events without slaughtering everything in sight seem underrepresented in modules. The materials have been edited down to the essentials; the minimalist key for the castle where most of the key action takes place is a particularly good feature. The section on possible plans and their potential flaws is helpful. What isn't clear is how the adventure teaches the PCs the tricks of stealth, bluffing and planning etc in a gradual way. A possible solution would be a notoriety system.

A very strong prisoner rescue scenario is WGR6 City of Skulls; it makes us of a notoriety system. Bascially the PCs pick up points for who they are (e.g. elves look out of place in an evil kingdom), but more importantly, what they do (e.g. leaving witnesses, corpses lying about, broken locks). Squads of increasing power are dispatched to locate and destroy the PCs as points accumulate. This could be adapted to Kidnap the Archpriest. Asking questions without subtlety e.g. "Where are the Archpriest's rooms, and when is he least guarded?" would gain points. The leader of the squad might have a written order stating "track down the foreign traders who were in the Market Square asking questions about the Archpriest". The PCs might realise they need to be more subtle, and change disguises. Tougher squads could comprise a couple of Black Endoguards.

Recommended.

(Aside: I helped playtest this) I always put priority on usability, and this module delivers. It can be plugged in to any setting, any system, and any campaign, the writing is clear and consise, it provides all the moving pieces you could possibly need for your heist but doesn't bog you down with the task of keeping track of things that are irrelevant. It's written to help you run it. The art's great. There no wasted space or excess verbage. It's large amounts of bang for small amounts of buck.

Plus, you get to steal the pope. That's just great on its own.

Fantastic Module, clean layout, great art, and a through and welll designed heist adventure. the system and setting neutral design considerations really pull through, with little reskinning this can be dropped into any campaign. The heist design principles at the end are concise and good thought fodder for building your own heists. like skerples previous work, this module is grounded in teaching players and GM's OSR approaches to playing RPGs. having scoured the Internet for hesits adventures, this stands out as well researched and well constructed. it's easily worth the $5 price tag.

The very best. Nothing is quite like it, but Kidnap the Archpriest will probably outdo anything that imitates it.