A Breath of Fresh Air

Product information... View for more details

5 out of 5 rating for A Breath of Fresh Air

This review contains spoilers.
"A breath of fresh air" is a short adventure created under the Cypher System Creator licence. CSC is a programme similar to Dungeon Master's Guild - it allows independent authors to publish their work without the need to get and pay licence fees. In exchange they have access to free art, layout packs etc. they can use in their publications.
The looks
"A breath..." looks great. The layout is clear, the art - a mix of photographs and illustrations - is easy on the eye and one piece, which doubles as the map of the area where the adventure takes place, is gorgeous. The map is also the only original picture in the book (not counting the photos), the smaller illustrations are recycled from "The Bridges we Burn - a Numenera adventure", the author's other work.
The story
Although universal by design the scenario has a strong Ninth World feel and it just begs to be run with the Voil Chasm - a gigantic rift in the Steadfast. While exploring the edge of the Rift, the PCs are attacked by a pack of Badook - bloodthirsty creatures- then the PCs discover a gigantic, ancient machine the size of a castle, which takes them to the bottom of the Rift, thus saving them from the Badooks. Truly alien creatures live at the hot, volcanic and toxic environment of the bottom - the Fungoids. These creatures need the giant to survive, since it brings them fresh air from the surface, the air they need to procreate. And the PCs need the same air to, well, breathe. Since the giant goes up only once a week the PCs have to decide if they want to wait, having less and less air to breathe, or make the machine go up earlier - which dooms the entire race of Fungoids, because their lifespan is only one day long.

This fact has a huge impact on the adventure - the creatures live and die so fast that they don't remember the PCs. And one day they might understand who they are, the next they might fight with them over the precious resource. Coupled with the fact that the Fungoids use emotions to communicate (which in my group led to some truly fantastic roleplaying;there is also an appendix with a list of emotions) the PCs are placed in a difficult, confusing and potentially deadly situation. There is also a strong moral undercurrent present throughout: do 4 people have the right to kill an entire species in order to save themselves? What about getting a number of powerful artefacts, would it make it right?

All in all, for 3 bucks, it's really worth getting, even if it is for the gorgeous illustration/map that you get. The scenario is also good, a bit linear (which acutally helps to keep the players focused), but with a big decision to make at the end, a decision that can -later on- haunt the PCs. Or help them grow, become something more than stats on paper.

5 out of 5 rating for A Breath of Fresh Air

Ever wondered what lurks below the surface of the world?

Janek wants to tell you a story about a colony of sentient fungi with very short life spans who 'mine' the surface for air. While the adventure is setting agnostic, the level of weird contained within makes it feel right at home in any Numenera campaign. The author clearly shows his firm grasp on the wondrous and bizarre nature of the setting yet again, and even though this story isn't as epic in scope as The Bridges We Burn, it's just as enjoyable.

5 out of 5 rating for A Breath of Fresh Air

Just finished running ABoFA for my group.

Simply put, it was astounding. The choices that that need to be made come along naturally.

To start off, pros and cons(Avoiding spoils).

Pros
Meaningful decisions
Lots of room to improvise within the situation using the tools presented
Communication with the main plot creatures is really fun! Frustrating at first, but intuitive once things get rolling.
Many many potential outcomes! The documentation gave some likely outcomes as well as resolutions for some of the more likely/common outcomes for most parties.
Quality writing, well fleshed out environments and story.
Very well prepared and realized ecosystem within its own sphere.

Cons
The opening scene seems a bit "openly railroady". The party needs to "activate the pedestal to begin the quest". To any players whom this isn't their first game, the "plot choice" is pretty clear. Some people may or may not like that, and it's a preference thing.
There could stand to be a little more meat to the middle section of the storyline in the PDF itself.

The Adventure took my group 2 sessions, and they all felt pretty happy with it. The pacing was solid, and we came to an unexpected conclusion.

All told, I'd give this a 9/10. Excellent writing, original ideas, good pacing, and fits perfectly in the Numenera setting.

5 out of 5 rating for A Breath of Fresh Air

A very unusual, complex, and challenging situation presented to the players, with additional sense of wonder. Looking good! (full review in Polish: http://polter.pl/rpg/A-Breath-of-Fresh-Air-c29556)

5 out of 5 rating for A Breath of Fresh Air

This one-off adventure is easy to port in about any sci-fi world (or even fantasy-sci-fi world), but its feel is perfect for the Ninth World.
It is an underground story linked to a lost civilization, a huge, ancient juggernout used for a task not contemplated in its duties, and two very peculiar communities of strange creatures fighting each other deep down underground.

What I loved of this adventure is not only how its background was built (the underground creatures are very alien in their organization and behaviour, but still everything makes sense once you understood them: there is no "weird for the sake of just being weird") but even more how understanding the background leads you to a maze of moral choices. This should be what sci-fi is for.

Considering the very low price and how this scenario can be very successfully adapted to about any campaign, I warmly recommend this adventure.

5 out of 5 rating for A Breath of Fresh Air

Adventures can be written to accomplish different things in RPGs. This one is written to make you think about what you are doing. And, then, what you have done.