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<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008389" data-attributes="member: 172"><p><em>(Review originally appeared on RPGnet. Some changes have been made from the original version).</em></p><p></p><p><strong>The Silver Summoning </strong></p><p></p><p>The Silver Summoning is the second offering by Fiery Dragon Productions, one of many D20 vendors leaping at the opportunity to publish and sell material aimed at the hobby's most popular game system. Fiery Dragon's first adventure for the D20 system was NeMoren's Vault. The two adventures use the same general setting, but they are not direct sequels. The Silver Summoning is designed for a party of characters level 5-7. </p><p></p><p><strong>A First Look </strong></p><p></p><p>The Silver Summoning is a soft-cover, staple-bound book with a blue cover. The front cover depicts a collage of characters and locations from the adventure, most prominently a dark haired woman. The cover art is color, but appears to be done is colored pencil. While not wholly unattractive, the art does appear less than professional in quality. While this sort of art could become a stylistic trademark for the company. However, as this is only their second product, that remains to be seen. </p><p></p><p>The adventure is 44 pages long, plus it includes a pullout section of cardboard counters. The product does make use of the front and back covers, for the challenge rating table and encounter tables respectively. </p><p></p><p>The interior is mostly black-and-white, except for the counter sheet and player handouts. The same artist who did the cover does the interior art. The "sketchy look" doesn't look as out of place in the black and white interior art as it does on the cover. It has a feel not unlike that of the classic Flying Buffalo Citybook series, if you are familiar with that. </p><p></p><p>The interior space is well used, with narrow margins (hint: I am not a fan of the "John Wick school of padding" ) and readable but compact font. The appendix, however, uses a font that is perhaps smaller than optimal. Flourishes are used at the top and bottom of the pages, but likewise aren't overly large. </p><p></p><p>The cartography is excellent. The maps are simple, straightforward, and have a clear key. The only fault I would assign the cartography is a little labeling. They refer to a "player's map" in the book but nothing is labeled the players map. </p><p></p><p>Overall, the production quality is fairly high but the simplistic art may throw you. The adventure is priced at $9.95 US. </p><p></p><p><strong>A Peek Inside </strong></p><p></p><p><em>(Warning -- this section of the review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.) </em></p><p></p><p>There is a lot of background to the adventure; it appears to have a "home setting" the same as NeMoren's vault. A lot of the names of characters and places have a strong Celtic feel (e.g., "Hollobrae", "Cuhulain." ) The setting assumptions are strong but not overwhelming. For example, it assumes that that there are orcs, dwarves, humans and elves all in the local region. Not an impossible find in one's local campaign, but it could be in a well fleshed-out campaign. The adventure revolves around the existence of a material called Tund Dust, which was the direct result of an ancient cataclysm of an Atlantis-like empire (actually, they call it Atlantis.) </p><p></p><p>Fortunately, as I read on I learned that the dependence on these details was not as strong as it initially seemed. If I didn't have an equivalent historical empire of magic in my game I could explain the Tund Dust in other ways; the Tund Dust is a source of magical power that has some unfortunate chaotic side effects, not unlike the warp stone of the Old World setting of Warhammer or similar contrivances. However, the author probably should have indicated that this was the case and provided alternatives. A DM with little time on their hands to learn the details and modify the module could have some problems integrating this adventure into an ongoing campaign. </p><p></p><p>The adventure itself is mildly event based, with some events linking together a number of site-based scenarios. Through their supposed notoriety, the adventurers earn invitations to a local wedding of some political importance. The bride and groom fall victim to an assassination attempt involving a rare poison. They are asked to retrieve a sample of the plant the poison is derived from in order to make an antidote and save the couple. Two possibilities are mentioned for how this herb can be retrieved: by pursuing the assassin or by going to meet the dwarves to the north who are known to have it. </p><p></p><p>The party is asked to pursue the assassin, and it is presumed that is what they do. On the surface, that is a safe assumption, but the possibility exists that the party could lose track of the assassin and opt for "plan B". The adventure does not directly address what to do in that case, but the DM might assume that on the way to the dwarven stronghold the party runs into the druid Cuhulain who is fairly pivotal to the last part of the adventure. The problem is similar if the adventurers catch the assassin too early (see below.) </p><p></p><p>The pursuit scenario includes a useful element that DMs should be able to use in the future: a quick but well developed system for negotiating wilderness pursuits based on the elements of the D20 system. The system is like a miniature rules add-on that describes how to determine whether pursuer or prey has the advantage based on mounts and character skills. The only problem I have with this otherwise neat and useful little system is that bluff is used to throw off trackers. I see bluff as more of an interpersonal skill and at best it should provide a synergy bonus. </p><p></p><p>The players can catch up to the assassin anywhere along the route between the town where they started and a distant town recently sacked by orcs. There is a lair to explore in-between if they haven't caught him before he reaches it. The lair includes some encounters alluding to the nature of the Tund Dust. </p><p></p><p>It seems that the adventure assumes that you are going to make it to the sacked village whether you catch the assassin or not. This is fairly bothersome since, as mentioned before, the encounter with the druid Cuhulain is pivotal to the second part of the adventure. </p><p></p><p>After reaching the town, the party encounters Cuhulain. Cuhulain is a cleric/druid belonging to an organization called "the path." He knows that something is wrong or tainted about the area. He informs the party of the problems with the natural order, that there is an orc assault on the dwarvish stronghold to the north, and that he thinks they are related. Further, he can tell the party more about the assassin (namely that he is a lackey of the main villain, a sorceress named Tonagma. Finally, he explains that he can help with the poisoned couple but in exchange the party must see to the situation at the dwarvish stronghold. </p><p></p><p>He offers two paths to get to the stronghold. Each is a site based scenario on its own, and between them they contain some interesting encounters and snippets of history. While parallel paths are a good thing in and adventure, it's unfortunate that the most interesting section of the adventure are mutually exclusive preventing the DM from getting full use of the adventure. However, it should be easy after the adventure for the DM to manufacture a reason to visit the unused location. </p><p></p><p>The last part of the adventure is the dwarven stronghold itself. The party soon learns that the orcs have succeeded in their siege, and are thrust into the position of intervening in the dwarf king's version of Custard's last stand. After this battle, the Dwarf king calls upon the party to prevent the sorceress from plundering the Tund Dust that is held deep within the dwarven vault, and asks them to retrieve it for safekeeping. </p><p></p><p>This last bit seems slightly illogical to me. It takes 3 talismans to open the vaults that hold the Tund Dust. The sorceress holds one talisman, the druid gave the characters one, and the king offers the last one. However, the king gives the character one talisman and asks them to pursue the sorceress. Which begs the question: What's the urgency of stopping the sorceress if she is short two talismans to retrieve the Tund Dust? And by giving the characters the last talisman and sending them to go get her, the characters only put the Tund Dust in peril. Now you might assume that there are other ways to open the chamber containing the Tund Dust, but the adventure doesn't indicate anything to this effect. </p><p></p><p>The final part of the adventure are 3 appendices. The first appendix is creature descriptions, including stat blocks for old favorites, plus some new creatures: mercury elemental, goran (an evil outsider), raging fish machine (a gnome construct), stizzilfish, three headed trolls, and yellow canyon wolves (all mutations caused by the Tund Dust.) The second appendix includes NPC write-ups. The final chapter details 7 new items, including the dwarven talismans and the Tund Dust, among other things. </p><p></p><p><strong>Summary and Conclusions </strong></p><p></p><p>Overall, the adventure is a solid effort. It has all of the basic elements desirable in a D20 adventure. For the most part it made good use of the rules, it has good cartography, complete creature and NPC descriptions where needed (and succinct NPC descriptions where the greater detail is not needed.) The interation with NPCs makes good use of the rules, providing a breakdown on what PCs can discover about the background from NPCs by their social skills and how well they roll. The adventure contains new creatures and items, a small local setting to adventure in complete with a small village, and goes above the call with the cutout counters, player handouts, and the pursuit resolution system. </p><p></p><p>The adventure has some decent idea content. The rationale behind the evolution of the scenario is believable for the most part. The major NPCs have well fleshed-out motives and a number of events in the adventure are logical outgrowths of the existence for the Tund Dust. </p><p></p><p>The first major weakness is that the presented background is woven into the story a little too tightly to easily be adapted to specific campaigns. Though some assumptions are reasonable or easily worked around (frex, there is no reason that the couple has to be a human/elven one; they could be any from any two nations or noble houses seeking an alliance) others are not (the origin of the Tund Dust is quite probably not going to work in a campaign with a well developed background and an alternate origin and reason for its existence may have to be derived and any consequences considered.) Though I don't expect these full length modules to be as bare bones as the mini-adventures I have reviewed in the past, some consideration given to alternate possibilities would have been a boon. </p><p></p><p>The second problem is that in many places, the flow of the adventure is assumed to occur in certain ways where logically there are a number of other possibilities. Starting from the beginning, it is assumed that the party is fairly altruistic and well known; alternate motivations or compulsions should have been considered for the party. Continuing, it is assumed that the party does not abandon the search for the assassin early and that they eventually make it to the sacked town, when it is quite possible they might abandon the pursuit or catch the assassin early. </p><p></p><p>Overall, this is a fairly solid module with a lot of usable material, but may require some additional "custom fitting" and troubleshooting by the DM. </p><p></p><p>Ratings </p><p></p><p>Ready to use material -- 5. Very good. New creatures, new magic, good maps, solid NPCs, plus bonus of cutout counters and pursuit system. </p><p>Idea content -- 3. Though some encounters shine through, many are fairly typical, and those good ones are strongly dependent upon the assumed world background. </p><p>Value for money -- 4. Good use of space, better page count/buck than NeMoren's Vault. </p><p></p><p>Overall substance rating -- 4. </p><p>Overall style rating -- 4. (Good production values but art seems a little subpar.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Psion, post: 2008389, member: 172"] [i](Review originally appeared on RPGnet. Some changes have been made from the original version).[/i] [b]The Silver Summoning [/b] The Silver Summoning is the second offering by Fiery Dragon Productions, one of many D20 vendors leaping at the opportunity to publish and sell material aimed at the hobby's most popular game system. Fiery Dragon's first adventure for the D20 system was NeMoren's Vault. The two adventures use the same general setting, but they are not direct sequels. The Silver Summoning is designed for a party of characters level 5-7. [b]A First Look [/b] The Silver Summoning is a soft-cover, staple-bound book with a blue cover. The front cover depicts a collage of characters and locations from the adventure, most prominently a dark haired woman. The cover art is color, but appears to be done is colored pencil. While not wholly unattractive, the art does appear less than professional in quality. While this sort of art could become a stylistic trademark for the company. However, as this is only their second product, that remains to be seen. The adventure is 44 pages long, plus it includes a pullout section of cardboard counters. The product does make use of the front and back covers, for the challenge rating table and encounter tables respectively. The interior is mostly black-and-white, except for the counter sheet and player handouts. The same artist who did the cover does the interior art. The "sketchy look" doesn't look as out of place in the black and white interior art as it does on the cover. It has a feel not unlike that of the classic Flying Buffalo Citybook series, if you are familiar with that. The interior space is well used, with narrow margins (hint: I am not a fan of the "John Wick school of padding" ) and readable but compact font. The appendix, however, uses a font that is perhaps smaller than optimal. Flourishes are used at the top and bottom of the pages, but likewise aren't overly large. The cartography is excellent. The maps are simple, straightforward, and have a clear key. The only fault I would assign the cartography is a little labeling. They refer to a "player's map" in the book but nothing is labeled the players map. Overall, the production quality is fairly high but the simplistic art may throw you. The adventure is priced at $9.95 US. [b]A Peek Inside [/b] [i](Warning -- this section of the review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.) [/i] There is a lot of background to the adventure; it appears to have a "home setting" the same as NeMoren's vault. A lot of the names of characters and places have a strong Celtic feel (e.g., "Hollobrae", "Cuhulain." ) The setting assumptions are strong but not overwhelming. For example, it assumes that that there are orcs, dwarves, humans and elves all in the local region. Not an impossible find in one's local campaign, but it could be in a well fleshed-out campaign. The adventure revolves around the existence of a material called Tund Dust, which was the direct result of an ancient cataclysm of an Atlantis-like empire (actually, they call it Atlantis.) Fortunately, as I read on I learned that the dependence on these details was not as strong as it initially seemed. If I didn't have an equivalent historical empire of magic in my game I could explain the Tund Dust in other ways; the Tund Dust is a source of magical power that has some unfortunate chaotic side effects, not unlike the warp stone of the Old World setting of Warhammer or similar contrivances. However, the author probably should have indicated that this was the case and provided alternatives. A DM with little time on their hands to learn the details and modify the module could have some problems integrating this adventure into an ongoing campaign. The adventure itself is mildly event based, with some events linking together a number of site-based scenarios. Through their supposed notoriety, the adventurers earn invitations to a local wedding of some political importance. The bride and groom fall victim to an assassination attempt involving a rare poison. They are asked to retrieve a sample of the plant the poison is derived from in order to make an antidote and save the couple. Two possibilities are mentioned for how this herb can be retrieved: by pursuing the assassin or by going to meet the dwarves to the north who are known to have it. The party is asked to pursue the assassin, and it is presumed that is what they do. On the surface, that is a safe assumption, but the possibility exists that the party could lose track of the assassin and opt for "plan B". The adventure does not directly address what to do in that case, but the DM might assume that on the way to the dwarven stronghold the party runs into the druid Cuhulain who is fairly pivotal to the last part of the adventure. The problem is similar if the adventurers catch the assassin too early (see below.) The pursuit scenario includes a useful element that DMs should be able to use in the future: a quick but well developed system for negotiating wilderness pursuits based on the elements of the D20 system. The system is like a miniature rules add-on that describes how to determine whether pursuer or prey has the advantage based on mounts and character skills. The only problem I have with this otherwise neat and useful little system is that bluff is used to throw off trackers. I see bluff as more of an interpersonal skill and at best it should provide a synergy bonus. The players can catch up to the assassin anywhere along the route between the town where they started and a distant town recently sacked by orcs. There is a lair to explore in-between if they haven't caught him before he reaches it. The lair includes some encounters alluding to the nature of the Tund Dust. It seems that the adventure assumes that you are going to make it to the sacked village whether you catch the assassin or not. This is fairly bothersome since, as mentioned before, the encounter with the druid Cuhulain is pivotal to the second part of the adventure. After reaching the town, the party encounters Cuhulain. Cuhulain is a cleric/druid belonging to an organization called "the path." He knows that something is wrong or tainted about the area. He informs the party of the problems with the natural order, that there is an orc assault on the dwarvish stronghold to the north, and that he thinks they are related. Further, he can tell the party more about the assassin (namely that he is a lackey of the main villain, a sorceress named Tonagma. Finally, he explains that he can help with the poisoned couple but in exchange the party must see to the situation at the dwarvish stronghold. He offers two paths to get to the stronghold. Each is a site based scenario on its own, and between them they contain some interesting encounters and snippets of history. While parallel paths are a good thing in and adventure, it's unfortunate that the most interesting section of the adventure are mutually exclusive preventing the DM from getting full use of the adventure. However, it should be easy after the adventure for the DM to manufacture a reason to visit the unused location. The last part of the adventure is the dwarven stronghold itself. The party soon learns that the orcs have succeeded in their siege, and are thrust into the position of intervening in the dwarf king's version of Custard's last stand. After this battle, the Dwarf king calls upon the party to prevent the sorceress from plundering the Tund Dust that is held deep within the dwarven vault, and asks them to retrieve it for safekeeping. This last bit seems slightly illogical to me. It takes 3 talismans to open the vaults that hold the Tund Dust. The sorceress holds one talisman, the druid gave the characters one, and the king offers the last one. However, the king gives the character one talisman and asks them to pursue the sorceress. Which begs the question: What's the urgency of stopping the sorceress if she is short two talismans to retrieve the Tund Dust? And by giving the characters the last talisman and sending them to go get her, the characters only put the Tund Dust in peril. Now you might assume that there are other ways to open the chamber containing the Tund Dust, but the adventure doesn't indicate anything to this effect. The final part of the adventure are 3 appendices. The first appendix is creature descriptions, including stat blocks for old favorites, plus some new creatures: mercury elemental, goran (an evil outsider), raging fish machine (a gnome construct), stizzilfish, three headed trolls, and yellow canyon wolves (all mutations caused by the Tund Dust.) The second appendix includes NPC write-ups. The final chapter details 7 new items, including the dwarven talismans and the Tund Dust, among other things. [b]Summary and Conclusions [/b] Overall, the adventure is a solid effort. It has all of the basic elements desirable in a D20 adventure. For the most part it made good use of the rules, it has good cartography, complete creature and NPC descriptions where needed (and succinct NPC descriptions where the greater detail is not needed.) The interation with NPCs makes good use of the rules, providing a breakdown on what PCs can discover about the background from NPCs by their social skills and how well they roll. The adventure contains new creatures and items, a small local setting to adventure in complete with a small village, and goes above the call with the cutout counters, player handouts, and the pursuit resolution system. The adventure has some decent idea content. The rationale behind the evolution of the scenario is believable for the most part. The major NPCs have well fleshed-out motives and a number of events in the adventure are logical outgrowths of the existence for the Tund Dust. The first major weakness is that the presented background is woven into the story a little too tightly to easily be adapted to specific campaigns. Though some assumptions are reasonable or easily worked around (frex, there is no reason that the couple has to be a human/elven one; they could be any from any two nations or noble houses seeking an alliance) others are not (the origin of the Tund Dust is quite probably not going to work in a campaign with a well developed background and an alternate origin and reason for its existence may have to be derived and any consequences considered.) Though I don't expect these full length modules to be as bare bones as the mini-adventures I have reviewed in the past, some consideration given to alternate possibilities would have been a boon. The second problem is that in many places, the flow of the adventure is assumed to occur in certain ways where logically there are a number of other possibilities. Starting from the beginning, it is assumed that the party is fairly altruistic and well known; alternate motivations or compulsions should have been considered for the party. Continuing, it is assumed that the party does not abandon the search for the assassin early and that they eventually make it to the sacked town, when it is quite possible they might abandon the pursuit or catch the assassin early. Overall, this is a fairly solid module with a lot of usable material, but may require some additional "custom fitting" and troubleshooting by the DM. Ratings Ready to use material -- 5. Very good. New creatures, new magic, good maps, solid NPCs, plus bonus of cutout counters and pursuit system. Idea content -- 3. Though some encounters shine through, many are fairly typical, and those good ones are strongly dependent upon the assumed world background. Value for money -- 4. Good use of space, better page count/buck than NeMoren's Vault. Overall substance rating -- 4. Overall style rating -- 4. (Good production values but art seems a little subpar.) [/QUOTE]
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