Messageboard Golem
First Post
I realize that these instant adventures face limitations in space, but still if I spend money for a pre-generated adventure, there are certain things I want.
1) Art: The map is very nice. but no scale is provided. Other art is limited but is functional and reasonably good-looking.
2) Boxed-Text: You know what I mean, the graphic verbal descriptions that are supposed to imbue the proper mood for the players.
The text in this adventure is OK, but not award winning.
3) Role-playing: There is some at the beginning with the NPC that hires the adventurers, and some possible roleplaying with the main villain.
4) Smart NPC's: By this I mean, are their motivations and actions reasonable, or has the writer had them do something stupid so that there will be an adventure? The main villain is reasonably motivated, but almost no one else is.
5) Goodies: New items and/or monsters. One of each, which is fairly standard for this format. Both are substandard. One is a variation on an existing monster that I feel would have been better handled by simply describing their culture and giving the base monster character classes as appropriate. The item is a nebulously defined artifact that does not excite me, and which the characters are not supposed to keep anyway.
Other factors that bug me is that a lot of the encounters have the feel of lets throw an encounter into every room, whether it makes sense or not. Toss the extraneous encounters out and you have a thinner, but more sensible adventure that could be filled in. This could be a good adventure, but it'll take a bit of work to makeit work. All in all, I'd rate this a 1/5 except for one factor, the price. At a MSRP of $2.99, this is an increase over the earlier AEG modules, but still a good value, making this adventure rate a 2/5 for the nice artwork and the core of a good idea that was poorly executed.
1) Art: The map is very nice. but no scale is provided. Other art is limited but is functional and reasonably good-looking.
2) Boxed-Text: You know what I mean, the graphic verbal descriptions that are supposed to imbue the proper mood for the players.
The text in this adventure is OK, but not award winning.
3) Role-playing: There is some at the beginning with the NPC that hires the adventurers, and some possible roleplaying with the main villain.
4) Smart NPC's: By this I mean, are their motivations and actions reasonable, or has the writer had them do something stupid so that there will be an adventure? The main villain is reasonably motivated, but almost no one else is.
5) Goodies: New items and/or monsters. One of each, which is fairly standard for this format. Both are substandard. One is a variation on an existing monster that I feel would have been better handled by simply describing their culture and giving the base monster character classes as appropriate. The item is a nebulously defined artifact that does not excite me, and which the characters are not supposed to keep anyway.
Other factors that bug me is that a lot of the encounters have the feel of lets throw an encounter into every room, whether it makes sense or not. Toss the extraneous encounters out and you have a thinner, but more sensible adventure that could be filled in. This could be a good adventure, but it'll take a bit of work to makeit work. All in all, I'd rate this a 1/5 except for one factor, the price. At a MSRP of $2.99, this is an increase over the earlier AEG modules, but still a good value, making this adventure rate a 2/5 for the nice artwork and the core of a good idea that was poorly executed.
