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The bare "framework" this seed promised intrigued me. As I read it I realized that it was perfect for some current intrigue I was planning in my home campaign. I was able to convert it to my world, and due to the ideas it presented I was able to flesh it out and get several game sessions out of it. I am a huge fan of these seeds now!
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This review is for the entire story with the first three chapters available for download here at rpg.drivethrustuff.com and ALL TEN episodes available at author Robert J. Defendi's website, PlayTesting.net (http://playtesting.net/?cat=3). After all, completionists (myself included) will naturally be compelled to download all ten episodes of this podcast novel in order to know the entire story as it unfolds.
I know this story is labeled as a comedy of sorts, and believe me when I say that I did indeed get the premise of Death by Cliché, but even with that in mind and after having I’d downloaded and listened to all ten of this podcast novel’s episodes, which range in duration from 29:12 (Episode 2) to 1:18:03 (Episode 1, I still have to say that I wasn't all that crazy about it. The story had a pretty original premise in the beginning, I'll admit (a game designer who gets shot by a deranged fan a la the Beetles’ very own John Lennon, only to be transported to the crazed fan's tabletop RPG campaign in an “afterlife” of sorts), but it got a little cheesy for me at times. The near-end of Episode 9, for example, the chief protagonist, Damico, starts bickering with two of his party members and the chief antagonist on how to set up the dramatic scene where the Evil Overlord himself threatens to destroy the world right before the final battle ensues. Granted, I know the story is all about a game designer trapped inside an RPG dimension where the lines blur between the world he’s now living in and the real world gaming sessions that are supposedly controlling it, but for me, this cheesiness often got a little too much for me, and I would’ve preferred it if Mr. Defendi would’ve toned it down in certain places. Additionally, there were scenes that Defendi had written into the story (e.g., a random 20th-century housewife who greets the husband who she apparently hates with venomous henpecking) that more or less drew my attention away from the primary narrative itself and, to my ears, didn’t add all that much to the adventure at hand, if anything at all. However, if there was one solitary thing about Death by Cliché that didn’t sit well with me at all, it was the fact that Defendi did all the voice acting by himself, which made it hard for me to tell the difference between certain characters (most specifically Omar the half-elven fighter and Gorthander the dwarven cleric). Not only that, but Defendi had made some questionable voice acting choices at certain points in the story (i.e., the aforementioned scene involving Damico bickering with his two party members and the Evil Overlord over the final climactic scene) that made it hard for me to take it seriously. Next time, Robert, if you’re reading this, I advise you to hire a handful of fellow readers to read certain parts so that there’s less confusion between the characters for untrained ears.
All in all, even though I didn’t hate Death by Cliché , especially in terms of how it began, I still didn’t feel compelled to listen to it a second time after I was done with it the first. It’s not a bad podcast at all, like I’ve said before, especially in terms of the quality of recording quality. At the same time, however, I’d be lying if I was to say that I loved it. Maybe it was just my serious demeanor that had gotten in the way of my enjoying this product, but hey, if nothing else, at least all ten episodes of this audiobook are available for free, so if nothing else, at least Final Redoubt Press can say that.
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If 'To Burn a Witch' is an indication of the general level of FRP's work, then they should be charging for this (and I'd gladly pay). The Adventure Seed is a an incredibly versatile and practical addition to a GM's virtual bookshelf. The writing is strong (and has a wry sense of humur) and the reader is left with a sense that there is no wasted space in the product (which weighs in at 13 pages). The underlying rationale for the product is a system-agnostic stats-less module which can provide an entire adventure. Whilst it does fit into the broader 'Moving Shadows' campaign, it can easily be played as a stand-alone experience.
Each segment is well-presented and I quite enjoyed the 'Dramatic Purpose' sidebars with each step of the module. The work as advertised - explicitly stating the purpose of each scene and what a GM should try to achieve with it. I feel that this is of use to novice and veteran GMS alike. The actual story of the module could be played out in a night or two and balances roleplaying and combat and has plenty of opportunities for the GM to personalise the experience. There is an unexpected twist which can be can be a source of great drama if foreshadowed well enough. Beyond that, I can't give too many other details without ruining the adventure.
I'd highly recommend this title, and if it is indicative of the general quality fo the Adventure Seed line, then I'd be keen to try them too.
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I was looking for something to make the new 4E combat both more lethal and a bit quicker. This product serves that purpose nicely. It overlays onto the existing 4E system with little adjustment. Beware, if using this be sure you have a strong healer in the group (if you don't travel with a cleric you are crazy, IMO). One of the other benefits of this system is that it also makes powers and feats that cancel out critical hits (such as Armor of Bahamut) MUCH more useful. It also raises the stakes a bit on those Opportunity attacks! I could regale you with tales of the characters in our group one-punching monsters and pulling their bacon out of the fire in the process. Suffice it to say that combat is a bit more nail-biting and when that natural 20 does come up, it is a LOT more exciting. Pick it up, you won't be dissapointed.
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Okay. This doesn't really work with the usual review format so I'll just kinda go with it...
This first part of Death By Cliche is highly entertaining and promises much from the rest. From the Chapter Quotes to the evaluation of gamers and gaming to the actual storyline, everything works rather nicely. Defendi has a nice turn of phrase and I frequently found myself laughing out loud at this, rather than merely grinning wryly as I expected to. In general style it's somehow the closest thing to a gaming Rifftrax that I've come across (check Rifftrax website if you don't know what that means, you wont regret it).
There are limits to how well I can justify my opinions without quoting from the piece and spoiling the fun for other so I'll just say "It's funny. It's good. Download it. I mean, what have you got to lose?"
I can honestly say that I'd have been happy to pay for product of this quality and the fact that I haven't been asked to is a huge bonus.
Right, I'm off to transfer the first three parts to my MP3 player, right next to Old Harry's Game and Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
PS. Bob, if you read this, I've got this system I'd like you to look at... _:^)
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The Echoes of Heaven Bestiary/The Tainted Tears (OGL version) is a combination of adventure and accessory from Final Redoubt Press. The zipped file is over twenty megabytes in size, and contains two separate PDFs, along with a PDF readme and Campaign Cartographer files. The Bestiary is ninety-five pages long, while the adventure is fifty-eight. Both PDFs contain full bookmarks.
Both PDFs have full color covers, with those being (the adventure maps notwithstanding) the only instances of color artwork. There is plenty of black and white interior art in both products (notably, the Bestiary has artwork for most of the creatures it gives), and no borders along the page edges.
Reviewing this product is a tad more difficult than with most books, since this is actually two products in one. On the one hand is The Tainted Tears, the fourth adventure in The Moving Shadow campaign. One the other is The Echoes of Heaven Bestiary, filled with new monsters for this setting. I’ll cover the adventure first, followed by the supplement.
The Tainted Tears follows where the last adventure left off, as the PCs continue to investigate (and become entangled in) a diabolic plot to allow an Ulcer (a place where Hell seeps into the mortal world) to grow and become permanent. As with the previous adventures, this actually begins with a mini-adventure where the characters “remember” themselves from ten thousand years ago, during the war in heaven. After this, the main saga continues as the characters chase Morthon, a duke of Hell, while he uses his new unholy relic to create new Ulcers in the world. When he creates one in a slaughtered village, the PCs have to put the nightmares of the slain inhabitants to rest before they can close the portal.
The adventure flows very well, both in narrative function and as part of the overarching campaign. No corners have been cut, as it covers everything from running the adventure in another campaign world, to a section detailing what happens if the PCs fail. There’s really nothing here that’s poorly done.
The Echoes of Heaven Bestiary is also a good product, but doesn’t quite live up to the same standard as its companion adventure. To be sure, the Bestiary also has a high premium placed on completeness. It begins with over a dozen pages explaining how various monster types work in The Echoes of Heaven, as well as the role of monsters in the campaign world. After this, it begins to showcase new monsters, the majority of which fall under large banners (e.g. angels, demons, nephilim, etc.). Each monster has a section (usually about a paragraph) dedicated to their appearance, motivation, and campaign use.
If this all sounds too good to be true for the Bestiary, it is, to a degree. While the monsters are very evocative in how they’re described and showcased, this seems to come at the expense of mechanical uniqueness. While the stat blocks here seem solid, it’s sort of expected that new monsters will have some degree of unique abilities to help set them apart. While all of the angels share a common suite of powers, beyond that they just have individualized spell lists; there are no supernatural or extraordinary abilities unique to each kind of angel, which makes them seem somewhat bland, particularly if you want to cherry-pick from this monster book for other campaign worlds. Moreover, there are a number of epic-level creatures here, but they pale in comparison to epic monsters from other sources. Moruloth, the Demon of Pride, is a CR 34 monster, but has an anemic 346 hit points (and no supernatural abilities beyond what all demons have). Clearly, this guy would be eaten alive by a group of level 34 PCs.
Those are really the only failings in these products. If not for the fact that the monsters lack uniquely inspired powers (and some oomph at the higher levels), the Bestiary is a good resource, and the adventure serves very well as the next step in a dramatic campaign. The Bestiary and The Tainted Tears are great resources for an Echoes of Heaven campaign, but you may need to do some tweaking to use them in any other OGL game.
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Once again I was amazed at the possibilities that can be used in an Ulcer. In the Tainted Tears the party enters one and basically become posessed by the tormented souls trapped therein and attempt to solve a mystery while battling some demons trying to take over the Ulcer as their own. It did take two read throughs and some page flipping to figure out what was going on but it was well written. This type of adventure may not appeal to all players as it will make them think and there are some straight forward combats so there is something for all types of players.
One thing also that I liked was that this is not a 'close it or the world as we know it ends' type Ulcers as was in the latter adventures - something that the author points out in the introduction as well. In fact this is more of a side-bar Ulcer and could very well be avoided by the party. Although the cause of the Ulcer does tie in with the last adventure, it could easily be ignored and could be dropped in just about anyplace without a problem.
I also enjoyed the Beastiary quite a bit. It contains predominantly several types of demons, angels and everybody's favorite - dragons. While some of the entries are repeats from previous books, like the buckle golem and wind wraith, the majority is new. What really struck me is the relationship between the divine creatures to their fallen counerparts. The angel to their demon or the giant to nephilim relationship for example. I felt it added depth to the creatures by giving the potential temptations that might make an angel fall or the struggle of a giant to do good even though it knows it will be a demon after death.
One drawback in the HARP version is that to get a complete set of elementals you will need to reference the Bazaar #5 (or first annual) to get stats.
But overall I was very pleased with the content. The beastiary for background information as well as more options unique to the EoH setting and the adventure for not being 'world affecting' while adding a new perspective on Ulcers.
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I recently purchased this product intrigued by the Christian themes. I was aware of Mr Defendi’s previous work on Spacemaster. There are also not many modules written specifically for Rolemaster. I have in the past dealt with this by converting Warhammer Fantasy Scenarios.
I was not certain what to expect. I am not in any way disappointed by my purchase. In fact I ended up getting all the other available products in this line and now eagerly await new releases.
I have been incredibly impressed – even stunned – at just how good the setting and adventure module are. The level of quality is incredible and the dedication of the people involved is clear in every page and illustration.
The setting is very detailed and has enough information with adventure seeds to allow for you to create your own scenarios in the setting with ease. However, the adventure book with the settings book that comprises “The Moving Shadows” campaign is what really makes it for me. It is for me one of the most epic and interesting campaigns I have come across in 22 years of gaming. I am really looking forward to running this. I wholeheartedly recommend this line.
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OK guys, first thing to get straight is that I bought this product at a discount on condition that I review it. I had downloaded the freebie adventures which I thought were pretty impressive, and wanted to see how good the real product was. The limits to this review is that I have not spent the full time it would take to read the product completely as at this point I was taking advantage of the discount opportunity offered to see if I would buy the complete campaign in the future, and for the small price you get a lot of pages to review.
So will I buy the rest? Most definitely. I am a GM who likes most things outlined for me, so prep time can be minimised in those really busy weeks. The module comes with commentary on how to use the product in either the full campaign or in your own world, and is broken down quite nicely into logical sections each with their own outlines of what the section will achieve, goal of the action - including how to start, text that you can just read out to the players, and even commentary on how to cope with failure of players to obtain the correct goals. There appears to be a nice balance between action events and puzzle solving events - if you are after a dungeon bash this is probably not the product.for you. For me the ease with which I can pick up and run the campaign is a great attraction - however if you like to add your own twists there is plenty of scope to do that also.
This is the fourth in a series of ten - each comes with an extra sourcebook. Included with this is a bestiary. It contains great detail on all of the creatures and monsters and includes a lot of illustrations. It is divided into a number of sections, including how to use the monsters in the game, the rules for using them, and the detailed bestiary entry itself. I was impressed by the detail and quality of whole package.
Overall I think that while this product can be run on its own, the full benefits of the detailed commentaries, the strength of the detail, will only be realised by running this as part of the greater campaign where the linked plots build into the full story design. Again the breadth of the scope of the complete series is pretty impressive.
One of the features of the product is that it is available in different rules versions but I'm not sure how useful that is to the average GM. I've never changed rulesets mid campaign, so being able to buy the product ready for 4 different rules is not that useful to me. I only play with 2 of the different rules versions myself, and the different versions have slight differences in mechanics tailored to the specific rules versions, which is nice and shows some care in putting together the different versions. The bestiary entries also look to be tailored nicely for each ruleset. But ultimately I think I will decide with my players on the ruleset we want to use, and stick with that for the whole campaign.
overall I was pretty impressed!
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OK guys, first thing to get straight is that I bought this product at a discount on condition that I review it. I had downloaded the freebie adventures which I thought were pretty impressive, and wanted to see how good the real product was. The limits to this review is that I have not spent the full time it would take to read the product completely as at this point I was taking advantage of the discount opportunity offered to see if I would buy the complete campaign in the future, and for the small price you get a lot of pages to review.
So will I buy the rest? Most definitely. I am a GM who likes most things outlined for me, so prep time can be minimised in those really busy weeks. The module comes with commentary on how to use the product in either the full campaign or in your own world, and is broken down quite nicely into logical sections each with their own outlines of what the section will achieve, goal of the action - including how to start, text that you can just read out to the players, and even commentary on how to cope with failure of players to obtain the correct goals. There appears to be a nice balance between action events and puzzle solving events - if you are after a dungeon bash this is probably not the product.for you. For me the ease with which I can pick up and run the campaign is a great attraction - however if you like to add your own twists there is plenty of scope to do that also.
This is the fourth in a series of ten - each comes with an extra sourcebook. Included with this is a bestiary. It contains great detail on all of the creatures and monsters and includes a lot of illustrations. It is divided into a number of sections, including how to use the monsters in the game, the rules for using them, and the detailed bestiary entry itself. I was impressed by the detail and quality of whole package.
Overall I think that while this product can be run on its own, the full benefits of the detailed commentaries, the strength of the detail, will only be realised by running this as part of the greater campaign where the linked plots build into the full story design. Again the breadth of the scope of the complete series is pretty impressive.
One of the features of the product is that it is available in different rules versions but I'm not sure how useful that is to the average GM. I've never changed rulesets mid campaign, so being able to buy the product ready for 4 different rules is not that useful to me. I only play with 2 of the different rules versions myself, and the different versions have slight differences in mechanics tailored to the specific rules versions, which is nice and shows some care in putting together the different versions. The bestiary entries also look to be tailored nicely for each ruleset. But ultimately I think I will decide with my players on the ruleset we want to use, and stick with that for the whole campaign.
overall I was pretty impressed!
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OK guys, first thing to get straight is that I bought this product at a discount on condition that I review it. I had downloaded the freebie adventures which I thought were pretty impressive, and wanted to see how good the real product was. The limits to this review is that I have not spent the full time it would take to read the product completely as at this point I was taking advantage of the discount opportunity offered to see if I would buy the complete campaign in the future, and for the small price you get a lot of pages to review.
So will I buy the rest? Most definitely. I am a GM who likes most things outlined for me, so prep time can be minimised in those really busy weeks. The module comes with commentary on how to use the product in either the full campaign or in your own world, and is broken down quite nicely into logical sections each with their own outlines of what the section will achieve, goal of the action - including how to start, text that you can just read out to the players, and even commentary on how to cope with failure of players to obtain the correct goals. There appears to be a nice balance between action events and puzzle solving events - if you are after a dungeon bash this is probably not the product.for you. For me the ease with which I can pick up and run the campaign is a great attraction - however if you like to add your own twists there is plenty of scope to do that also.
This is the fourth in a series of ten - each comes with an extra sourcebook. Included with this is a bestiary. It contains great detail on all of the creatures and monsters and includes a lot of illustrations. It is divided into a number of sections, including how to use the monsters in the game, the rules for using them, and the detailed bestiary entry itself. I was impressed by the detail and quality of whole package.
Overall I think that while this product can be run on its own, the full benefits of the detailed commentaries, the strength of the detail, will only be realised by running this as part of the greater campaign where the linked plots build into the full story design. Again the breadth of the scope of the complete series is pretty impressive.
One of the features of the product is that it is available in different rules versions but I'm not sure how useful that is to the average GM. I've never changed rulesets mid campaign, so being able to buy the product ready for 4 different rules is not that useful to me. I only play with 2 of the different rules versions myself, and the different versions have slight differences in mechanics tailored to the specific rules versions, which is nice and shows some care in putting together the different versions. The bestiary entries also look to be tailored nicely for each ruleset. But ultimately I think I will decide with my players on the ruleset we want to use, and stick with that for the whole campaign.
overall I was pretty impressed!
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OK guys, first thing to get straight is that I bought this product at a discount on condition that I review it. I had downloaded the freebie adventures which I thought were pretty impressive, and wanted to see how good the real product was. The limits to this review is that I have not spent the full time it would take to read the product completely as at this point I was taking advantage of the discount opportunity offered to see if I would buy the complete campaign in the future, and for the small price you get a lot of pages to review.
So will I buy the rest? Most definitely. I am a GM who likes most things outlined for me, so prep time can be minimised in those really busy weeks. The module comes with commentary on how to use the product in either the full campaign or in your own world, and is broken down quite nicely into logical sections each with their own outlines of what the section will achieve, goal of the action - including how to start, text that you can just read out to the players, and even commentary on how to cope with failure of players to obtain the correct goals. There appears to be a nice balance between action events and puzzle solving events - if you are after a dungeon bash this is probably not the product.for you. For me the ease with which I can pick up and run the campaign is a great attraction - however if you like to add your own twists there is plenty of scope to do that also.
This is the fourth in a series of ten - each comes with an extra sourcebook. Included with this is a bestiary. It contains great detail on all of the creatures and monsters and includes a lot of illustrations. It is divided into a number of sections, including how to use the monsters in the game, the rules for using them, and the detailed bestiary entry itself. I was impressed by the detail and quality of whole package.
Overall I think that while this product can be run on its own, the full benefits of the detailed commentaries, the strength of the detail, will only be realised by running this as part of the greater campaign where the linked plots build into the full story design. Again the breadth of the scope of the complete series is pretty impressive.
One of the features of the product is that it is available in different rules versions but I'm not sure how useful that is to the average GM. I've never changed rulesets mid campaign, so being able to buy the product ready for 4 different rules is not that useful to me. I only play with 2 of the different rules versions myself, and the different versions have slight differences in mechanics tailored to the specific rules versions, which is nice and shows some care in putting together the different versions. The bestiary entries also look to be tailored nicely for each ruleset. But ultimately I think I will decide with my players on the ruleset we want to use, and stick with that for the whole campaign.
overall I was pretty impressed!
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Product Review:
Defendi, Robert J. 2007. The Echoes of Heaven “The Tainted Tears” & “The Bestiary”. Salt Lake City: Final Redoubt Press. 58pp. Stock# 1004DB $9.99
Robert Defendi’s, The Tainted Tears is a complex cohesion of metaphors and riddles. He creates a module with a Christian-base myth, developed in such a way as to accommodate both the thinking and combat needs of the players and allowing the GM to manipulate the players through their own knowledge of Christianity, or lack there of.
The overview and history tying directly to what the GM needs to this particular module (and) in his series is a nice touch. Defendi gives his GMs a step–by–step description of the game flow and the thought processes going into the module’s designing, coupled with a writer’s definition of terms, the processes used and how each is to be used and interpreted allows the GM to interpret the author and run the game in the way Defendi sees it, perhaps even leaning (or relearning) something. Still though, it is written to definitely allow for individual flavoring by the GM.
This is not a print–n–go, hack–n–slash, there are a number of points the GM must familiarize himself with prior to running this module. Hence, I suggest printing it in its entirety and giving the GM the ability to prepare and make notes as well. Tailoring to the players, the GM will then have a game his players will talk about for some time.
The only real down I found in the module itself, was the strength differences between the templates for the players and the villains during the designed combats. I would recommend bringing some of them down a little. The design allows for both fight and flight but players may get discourage unable to win any but the easiest of encounters. Bringing down the combat strengths of the opponents will mix the results. In my opinion giving some to run from, some to fight and win, and some to fight and have to flee from; thus keeping the players on edge.
The Bestiary’s composition includes unique angles, demons and undead; some more than a bit interesting. With creatures, insertable into any campaign, that gives the players an encounter that they have never seen and in the dark on how to just walk through the encounter.
It will take the GM a little time to prepare and some coaxing to keep the players snaking along the course for the game, but is well worth it. Written in all four of the major gaming systems, so no matter what you play, get yourself a pen and sit with this module in hand for an evening or two. Introduce your players to Robert Defendi’s Tainted Tears, they will love and regret that you did!
Written by:
Eric Sheppard
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Great little structures - I love them. Would like to see more in the series and particularly support for CC3 and other style packs.
LIKED: Variety, quality.
DISLIKED: Would like to see more in the series and particularly support for CC3 and other style packs.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Satisfied
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Lost Kingdom of the Dwarves
Lost Kingdom of the Dwarves is the next supplement for Echoes of Heaven. It details the country of Uzarag that was once the homeland for the dwarves but has since been taken over by the Warlord.
It starts with a history of the realm, more detailed story of Saint Kulan and the fall to the Warlord. I found the stories quite good and gave me a good feel for the history.
Next you have some backround on dwarves in general. The ironic part of this is that Uzarag is the home of the dwarves yet none live. This information has a lot to do with how dwarves live in other cultures while maintaining their own, and their dreams of retaking the realm. Although there are obvious parallels to Moria, which the author also points out, it is in this section where the differences are most notable making Uzarag Defendi?s as opposed to an imitation of Tolkein. The psychology of Belkanath dwarves is a little dark. For example the more you suffer in the attainment of a goal, the more important it is. Smith?s having their hands broken on their anvil (and healed) when they become masters. You also have the Unwed who gave up on marriage and family and instead devote their lives to another pursuit ? be it a craft or warfare.
Next up ? the orcs, the real denizens of Uzarag. Their culture is quite simple and brutal. You also get some brief descriptions of several cities, some NPC?s and adventure seeds sprinkled throughout.
After this some new rules ? dwarven rune casting and the Unwed training package. The latter is fairly straightforward. Runecasting and the rune priest I found quite interesting as a new class in that the character could have a ring of runes (like keys) to cast from. You also get some stats for rune silver and rune gold, magical elements that are found in Uzarag previously mined by the dwarves.
Overall I found the material quite interesting and well put together. One thing to remember is that it is a region book and not a city like Feldric?s Redoubt in The Last Free City was. As such there are no city maps but there are a few tiles of that could be used as generic locations like part of a dungeon or a gatehouse. While these are a nice touch, I feel they were almost unnecessary. They are well done but seem out of place ? the book deals with a region and the map is of a room for example.
It did seem to be a bit light on specifics but I felt a lot of that was covered in On Corrupted Ground as use for an active orc installation.
On Corrupted Ground
This is the companion adventure that goes along with the Kingdom of the Dwarves. It continues the saga of the Splinter from the first adventure The Throne of God. The party learns that the Splinter is in Uzarag and bad things will happen if it stays. So the party hitches up with some dwarves on holiday (as in off to Uzarag to kill some orcs and perhaps find return some dwarven artifacts) to go to one of the cities in the eastern part of Uzarag and get it.
Overall the fort is put together well. The battle plan of the orcs is fairly simple and if the party screws up they will most likely be killed or captured ? as it should be if you are entering a hostile fortification. Perhaps I am too much of a purist but it was actually nice to see bathrooms (or garderobes as they are called in the book which I had to look up) in an occupied fortification.
The climax could make some very tense players and reminds me a bit of Vecna Lives. Let us just say that it should be very intense and end quite badly and quickly for the party.
A new monster is included (water wraith, more powerful windwraith from an earlier supplement) And stats for the Warlord.
LIKED: Kingdom - Excellent map of the region. Loved the history. I also thought the nuances on dwarven psychology fit the setting quite well.
Corrupted Ground - Liked the stat sheet for tracking inhabitants. Will be very helpful.
DISLIKED: Kingdom - Some editing errors - typos referencing stats from other systems for example.
Corrupted Ground - The teaser to me seemed really out of place - like a half-teaser - and I didn't think added much. Perhaps it will make more sense in the next one.
The maps are really good but awfully dark. Although well done (I am envious of his proficiency in CC3) the room numbers are hard to read if printed in color on 8 1/2 x 11.
Failure again could cause the world to end, like the last one. Although I enjoyed the adventure, if played in succession (rather than with some filler as there aren't enough exp in the last one to get the party to the suggested 9th level) 'saving the world' again could lessen the drama later on saving the world for the final time.
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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