Evil cults and eldritch horror is common fare for many a hero from the pages of novels found in Appendix N of the old AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. Whether your favorite pulp fantasy hero is Conan, Elric, or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, that legacy of heroes facing down horrific demons and gods raised up by unspeakable cults is a great trope to play upon in any fantasy adventure campaign.
Raging Swan Press takes a page from that evil cult legacy, and uses that tried-and-true trope in its new adventure, Against the Cult of the Bat God. Here a group of 5th Level Pathfinder RPG heroes must face down a dark secret in a lonely remote town… a secret which just might spell their doom when time runs out!
Against the Cult of the Bat God (for Pathfinder RPG)
Against the Cult of the Bat God is a stand-alone Pathfinder RPG adventure for up to six Level 5 heroes. The adventure module comes with all the content complete, including monster stat blocks, maps, scalable encounters and traps, and a detailed storyline. The adventure also includes six 5th Level pre-generated characters for players to use to get immediately into the action.
Production Quality
The production quality of Against the Cult of the Bat God is above average to good, with a fairly simple layout presenting some rather good adventure content. The writing in the module is very good, and although the storyline is not necessarily ground-breaking, the plot and content make for a good read.
The PDF comes in two forms – a printer-friendly edition and a screen-friendly edition - the latter usable on both laptops and tablets/readers. Purchasers get both forms of the adventure a part of their download from RPGNow. The adventure PDF has both a table of contents and bookmarks for navigating through the document, and it covers all major sections and encounters for easy reference.
The artwork and illustrations in Against the Cult of the Bat God is a bit lackluster overall. The plain white lettering on solid black covers used for many Raging Swan Press products is not particularly eye-catching and presents nothing to entice the reader into the adventure. The interior artwork is heavy inked line drawings which do hearken back to the “old school” style found in early D&D adventure modules, but is pretty sparse throughout the product. The use of the Larry Elmore Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio to depict the pre-generated characters in the module comes off as less of homage and more like a bit of infringement. The cartography, on the other hand, is quite good, and drawn with a freehand rough-and-ready style that definitely invokes OSR gaming.
Bat-men Rises
[Reviewer's Note: Please note that most of the specific information about the plot of this adventure has been omitted to avoid "spoilers" so that the review can be read by players and Gamemasters alike.]
Against the Cult of the Bat God for Pathfinder RPG rather gives away the plot in the very title itself – the heroes are going to be up against some sort of cult who worship some kind of god that’s very bat-like. In many respects, the overall structure of the adventure is reminiscent of the original T1The Village of Hommlet in that an evil cult is lurking nearby to a small village that doesn’t realize it is in grave peril. However, it is in the details that we find that the similarities cease, and a unique fantasy-horror story emerges.
The module Against the Cult of the Bat God is presented in three major sections, following a detailed introduction on how to use the module. The introduction to the module discusses the mechanics of the stat blocks, the anatomy of encounters, trap stat blocks, and rules for identifying magic items “on the road” during the course of play. Much of this is designed in a way readily familiar to Pathfinder RPG players, but the designer was quite thorough to make sure the product was as user-friendly as possible.
Following the introductory explanations, the designer launches into a description of the setting in which the adventure takes place, entitled The Lonely Coast. The adventure takes place in a village which lies in an area called the Lonely Coast, and the designer provides both a map of the region as well as a quick précis of its ruler, the terrain, and notable landmarks. The village of Oakhurst is also well-detailed, with a map, local rumors table, the nature of life in the village, and a key to notable locales and details of NPCS. While this section is quite useful for the purposes of running the adventure, it is a bit confusing when it precedes the actual adventure introduction or plot hooks, which is found in the second section of the module.
The second section is entitled Investigations and is the real “meat” of the adventure and plotline. Here we are finally given the adventure introduction and synopsis, as well as information on how to use the adventure in one’s own campaign setting. A timeline is provided for the events during the adventure – there is a ticking clock counting down to doomsday – as well as plot hooks to get the characters to come to Oakhurst in the first place. As one might surmise from the title of this section, the adventure centers around an investigation into disturbing rumors of a cult, missing persons, and hints of blood sacrifices. In some respects, this adventure could almost be run as a Call of Cthulhu RPG plotline, as there is a creepy tainted quality to the village and its inhabitants, as well as some truly horrific scenes as the heroes get further involved with the story. One need only set the adventure in some remote New England backwoods burg, and the heroes could easily be rolling SAN checks before the first night is done.
The designer did a good job with descriptions of the town and its inhabitants to create a disturbing atmosphere for the adventure. There is a table of random events and scenes that the heroes can encounter as they are going about the village questioning the distrusting and suspicious folk, and much of these occurrences are generally harmless moments, but nevertheless still have a spooky or repellent quality to them. These creepy scenes become ever more disturbing and horrific once the heroes venture against the bat god cult itself, and the designer creates some fright-house moments all through the lead-up to the adventures deadly and fateful climax. Quite literally, the fate of Oakhurst and the Lonely Coast region lie in the hands of the player-characters, and their failure would spell not only their own doom, but the death of many NPCs throughout the lands.
The encounters in Against the Cult of the Bat God are plentiful and with good variety, and include quite a few new and unique and inventive new monsters and monster variants. Each of the encounters are scalable up or down in CR, with details on how to modify the monsters or traps to match the power-level of the party of heroes. In nearly all cases, the stat blocks for the monsters in each encounter are right on the page, a requirement when using such a large selection of evil NPCs and new monster types. Although the encounters are generally well balanced, the final encounter is quite a doozy, and GMs should be mindful of the dangers inherent in the final “boss” monster.
The loot rewards for the adventure seem quite short-changed for the level of the heroes, and it’s possible for the party to miss out on a large chunk of their reward due to it being hidden in one spot behind a high DC Search check. The cash and magic rewards are fairly run-of-the-mill fare, and GMs might want to evaluate the risk vs. reward for themselves when running this module.
The final section offers six pre-generated Pathfinder RPG heroes of 5th level, which use images from the Larry Elmore Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio. Nice pictures, but they might come off a bit too Dragonlance-y for some gamers.
Overall Score: 3.2 out of 5.0
Conclusions
Overall, Against the Cult of the Bat God is a solid one-shot adventure module for Pathfinder RPG. While the production quality is just a bit above average, the adventure design and story are pretty good. The designer has a flair for creating that sense of dread and creepiness often found in horror genre game systems, and it translates over to Pathfinder heroic role-playing quite well in the end.
All things considered, the price for the PDFs (remember, you get two versions here) of this adventure module is not too bad, and there is potentially several nights of good role-playing to be had from this quest against the evil bat cult.
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary playtest copy of the product in hardbound format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
Raging Swan Press takes a page from that evil cult legacy, and uses that tried-and-true trope in its new adventure, Against the Cult of the Bat God. Here a group of 5th Level Pathfinder RPG heroes must face down a dark secret in a lonely remote town… a secret which just might spell their doom when time runs out!Against the Cult of the Bat God (for Pathfinder RPG)
- Designer: John Bennett
- Illustrators: Creighton Broadhurst and Simon Butler (cover); (interior) Nicole Cardiff, Pawet Dobosz (The Forge Studios), Larry Elmore and William McAusland; Some artwork copyright William McAusland, used with permission; (cartography) Philippa Broadhurst, Simon Butler and Tom Fayen
- Publisher: Raging Swan Press
- Year: 2014
- Media: PDF (63 pages)
- Price: $8.99 (Available from RPGNow in PDF format)
Against the Cult of the Bat God is a stand-alone Pathfinder RPG adventure for up to six Level 5 heroes. The adventure module comes with all the content complete, including monster stat blocks, maps, scalable encounters and traps, and a detailed storyline. The adventure also includes six 5th Level pre-generated characters for players to use to get immediately into the action.
Production Quality
The production quality of Against the Cult of the Bat God is above average to good, with a fairly simple layout presenting some rather good adventure content. The writing in the module is very good, and although the storyline is not necessarily ground-breaking, the plot and content make for a good read.
The PDF comes in two forms – a printer-friendly edition and a screen-friendly edition - the latter usable on both laptops and tablets/readers. Purchasers get both forms of the adventure a part of their download from RPGNow. The adventure PDF has both a table of contents and bookmarks for navigating through the document, and it covers all major sections and encounters for easy reference.
The artwork and illustrations in Against the Cult of the Bat God is a bit lackluster overall. The plain white lettering on solid black covers used for many Raging Swan Press products is not particularly eye-catching and presents nothing to entice the reader into the adventure. The interior artwork is heavy inked line drawings which do hearken back to the “old school” style found in early D&D adventure modules, but is pretty sparse throughout the product. The use of the Larry Elmore Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio to depict the pre-generated characters in the module comes off as less of homage and more like a bit of infringement. The cartography, on the other hand, is quite good, and drawn with a freehand rough-and-ready style that definitely invokes OSR gaming.
Bat-men Rises
[Reviewer's Note: Please note that most of the specific information about the plot of this adventure has been omitted to avoid "spoilers" so that the review can be read by players and Gamemasters alike.]
Against the Cult of the Bat God for Pathfinder RPG rather gives away the plot in the very title itself – the heroes are going to be up against some sort of cult who worship some kind of god that’s very bat-like. In many respects, the overall structure of the adventure is reminiscent of the original T1The Village of Hommlet in that an evil cult is lurking nearby to a small village that doesn’t realize it is in grave peril. However, it is in the details that we find that the similarities cease, and a unique fantasy-horror story emerges.
The module Against the Cult of the Bat God is presented in three major sections, following a detailed introduction on how to use the module. The introduction to the module discusses the mechanics of the stat blocks, the anatomy of encounters, trap stat blocks, and rules for identifying magic items “on the road” during the course of play. Much of this is designed in a way readily familiar to Pathfinder RPG players, but the designer was quite thorough to make sure the product was as user-friendly as possible.
Following the introductory explanations, the designer launches into a description of the setting in which the adventure takes place, entitled The Lonely Coast. The adventure takes place in a village which lies in an area called the Lonely Coast, and the designer provides both a map of the region as well as a quick précis of its ruler, the terrain, and notable landmarks. The village of Oakhurst is also well-detailed, with a map, local rumors table, the nature of life in the village, and a key to notable locales and details of NPCS. While this section is quite useful for the purposes of running the adventure, it is a bit confusing when it precedes the actual adventure introduction or plot hooks, which is found in the second section of the module.
The second section is entitled Investigations and is the real “meat” of the adventure and plotline. Here we are finally given the adventure introduction and synopsis, as well as information on how to use the adventure in one’s own campaign setting. A timeline is provided for the events during the adventure – there is a ticking clock counting down to doomsday – as well as plot hooks to get the characters to come to Oakhurst in the first place. As one might surmise from the title of this section, the adventure centers around an investigation into disturbing rumors of a cult, missing persons, and hints of blood sacrifices. In some respects, this adventure could almost be run as a Call of Cthulhu RPG plotline, as there is a creepy tainted quality to the village and its inhabitants, as well as some truly horrific scenes as the heroes get further involved with the story. One need only set the adventure in some remote New England backwoods burg, and the heroes could easily be rolling SAN checks before the first night is done.
The designer did a good job with descriptions of the town and its inhabitants to create a disturbing atmosphere for the adventure. There is a table of random events and scenes that the heroes can encounter as they are going about the village questioning the distrusting and suspicious folk, and much of these occurrences are generally harmless moments, but nevertheless still have a spooky or repellent quality to them. These creepy scenes become ever more disturbing and horrific once the heroes venture against the bat god cult itself, and the designer creates some fright-house moments all through the lead-up to the adventures deadly and fateful climax. Quite literally, the fate of Oakhurst and the Lonely Coast region lie in the hands of the player-characters, and their failure would spell not only their own doom, but the death of many NPCs throughout the lands.
The encounters in Against the Cult of the Bat God are plentiful and with good variety, and include quite a few new and unique and inventive new monsters and monster variants. Each of the encounters are scalable up or down in CR, with details on how to modify the monsters or traps to match the power-level of the party of heroes. In nearly all cases, the stat blocks for the monsters in each encounter are right on the page, a requirement when using such a large selection of evil NPCs and new monster types. Although the encounters are generally well balanced, the final encounter is quite a doozy, and GMs should be mindful of the dangers inherent in the final “boss” monster.
The loot rewards for the adventure seem quite short-changed for the level of the heroes, and it’s possible for the party to miss out on a large chunk of their reward due to it being hidden in one spot behind a high DC Search check. The cash and magic rewards are fairly run-of-the-mill fare, and GMs might want to evaluate the risk vs. reward for themselves when running this module.
The final section offers six pre-generated Pathfinder RPG heroes of 5th level, which use images from the Larry Elmore Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio. Nice pictures, but they might come off a bit too Dragonlance-y for some gamers.
Overall Score: 3.2 out of 5.0
Conclusions
Overall, Against the Cult of the Bat God is a solid one-shot adventure module for Pathfinder RPG. While the production quality is just a bit above average, the adventure design and story are pretty good. The designer has a flair for creating that sense of dread and creepiness often found in horror genre game systems, and it translates over to Pathfinder heroic role-playing quite well in the end.
All things considered, the price for the PDFs (remember, you get two versions here) of this adventure module is not too bad, and there is potentially several nights of good role-playing to be had from this quest against the evil bat cult.
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary playtest copy of the product in hardbound format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 2.75
- - Design: 3.0 (Decent utilitarian design; very good solid writing and plot design)
- - Illustrations: 2.5 (Uninspiring cover; lackluster interior sketches; cool maps though!)
- Content: 3.75
- - Crunch: 3.5 (Solid encounters; interesting new monsters and variants)
- - Fluff: 4.0 (Old School style; creepy horror atmosphere; excellent descriptions)
- Value: 3.0 (Decent price for a solid one-shot adventure.)
