Following my review of Dark Astral, I grab a look at a new adventure for it from Terrible Wyrm.
Reviewing an
adventure path or module is always gonna be a tricky affair. You can’t go into
a lot of detail in case it gives the game away for would-be players. Even
saying, “oh the twist is great” simply highlights a twist that players will
then look for. Reading through though it is possible to get a good sense of the
flow of the game and it is that ‘flow’ or feel that I’ll try and convey here.
Judging a book by its
cover…
Before popping the
hood and looking at the guts of what makes this adventure tick, it’s better to
stand back and have a look at the visuals and presentations. To continue the
terminology, let’s kick the tyres a bit.
What a cover page.
Colour me impressed by the simultaneously new and old skool vibes this
generates. From the colour palette to the choice of font and layout, this
screams out to the classic sci-fi fan in me. This cover wouldn’t be out of
place amongst those classic science fiction paperbacks that you can now only
ever pick up second hand from charity or thrift store.
Flipping the book
over, metaphorically at least as I’m reviewing the pdf, the vibes change and
twang the nostalgia chords even more. If you’ve played a certain 2nd edition of
a wargame set in a grim future some forty-odd thousand years in the future,
then you’ll no doubt get wafts of the same aesthetic. The little nods to even
the packaging are fabulous. Now some will no doubt feel this that this is a rip
more than an homage. When something goes out of its way to recreate a feel from
over twenty-five years ago though (that makes me feel old), I think it’s fair
play and well done.
This same look
continues inside with the spacing, font, and some iconography. Perhaps it’s
leaning more into copy at this point, but I’ll be damned if I don’t say I love
it.
Is this only style?
When you know just one gun won’t be
enough.
Ok ok. So this
doesn’t waste any time getting stuck into the meat of the product. Straight
away you are given a choice. This adventure can be run in two ways. One way is
your more traditional group of characters looking to achieve a certain number
of objectives. The second, and thematically this is ace, your group all play
Astrotemplars and kill, maim, burn their way to achieving their goals.
Essentially this is a
dungeon crawl in the form of a downed space vessel. Building on the setting in
Dark Astral, the group will venture into the underbelly of Edessa towards The
Retribution. The intro is short and punchy to get the players attention and
deliver the hooks. Everything is clear and well laid out, easy to read and,
importantly, should be easy to deliver. The maps are well-drawn and each room
has good descriptors bringing variety whist still remaining a cohesive whole.
I didn’t think I’d be
using a picture of Hector today!
The oft forgotten French space rat.
On top of this, the
adventure brings something to the table which I found sorely lacking in my
games of 40k as a younger lad. Rats. Well not just rats, but space rats; or if
you prefer, rats in space… Seriously though, if you can bring your elves, dwarves,
halflings and all manner of other physiologies into the grim and perilous
future, why can’t you bring the ratmen and all their vile deeds? Further
emphasising the sci-fi Zweihander riff, this is a great choice to include here.
I’ve written a lot of my own fluff for this type of stuff so it was interesting
to see another’s take on it. Personally I would have liked a bit more, but as
this is an adventure, it’s more than forgivable.
No assembly required.
As two adventures in
one, each room or encounter shows differences depending on how you are running
the game. The layout remains constant but if everyone is Atrotemplars, the
threat is definitely ramped up. I’m also a fan of there being clear indicators of
the lighting settings in each room. Visibility and “what goes bump in the dark”
is something that is often overlooked in adventures with presumptions that
there are torches on the walls of folks are wearing headlamps…
The approach of
listing a number of varied objectives is a novel and clever one. It would be
relatively easy to switch these around of alter slightly on the fly to provide
a bit of flexibility depending on the group. Additionally, the pre-generated
characters and NPCs throughout are more than adequate to get you to the table
with this very quickly.
Buying adventures off
the shelf is something I did many moons ago when I would pick up copies of
Dragon and Dungeon (when the local newsagent had them at least). I moved
towards the tendency to write pretty much all of my own material. The more I
played, the more I became appreciative of how easy my group would go off-piste.
I’ve started to come back to these more now though as with constraints on time.
It’s brilliant to be able to pick something like this up and be able to get
going with only an hour or so reading beforehand. There are even all the
counters you’ll need for those who use battlemaps and such. What’s more, in the
digital age and circumstances we find ourselves in, this would be easy to manipulate
with your paint package of choice.
Is it worth picking
up?
My impressions of
this product are, on the whole, very good. It’s right up my street though so I
should temper my enthusiasm with some additional constructive comments. The
usability of this product might be limited if you are not looking for this
particular flavour of science fiction game. Where many dungeon crawl adventures
can be relatively easily plugged into your setting of choice, this would
require a touch more work. If this is the kind of thing you’re after though,
you will get a well laid out product that’s an easy read and looks fun to play.
It also does what it
intends to do admirably in being a contained adventure that could be run in a
lengthy session or paced over a few if you enjoy a touch of procrastination and
character dialogue. Building on the setting provided in Dark Astral, this would
be an excellent springboard for further grim and perilous tales. Now to rustle
up some people online for a game!
The Dark Below Edessa is now
available electronically and in print via DrivethruRPG. Dark Astral is
available from Andrews McMeel Publishing in print at Amazon and Barnes &
Noble. You can also see
more of my RPG ramblings over on Twitter (@brother_rooster)
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