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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Anio" data-source="post: 2443983" data-attributes="member: 24200">Gambler's Quest - review by Jason Lund (Anio)Gambler's Quest is an adventure written by William L. Christensen for Expeditious Retreat Press and priced at $5. This adventure is designed specifically for rogue characters of second to fourth levels and meant for one DM and one PC, though is scalable for various levels and more PCs. This product provides two PDFs consisting of a one-page PDF of the colour cover and the twenty-four-page adventure (including 1 title and credits page, 1 map page and 1 OGL page).As is to be expected from an adventure written for a solitary rogue, there are plans within plans and plenty of opportunities to sneak, steal, cheat and think your way through to a fortune. A four day gambling competition, organized by a local lord with dark intentions, is the centre piece of this adventure and after proving his/her worth during the competition, the PC is given the opportunity for greater rewards: just the sort of thing to entice a rogue into greater risk. I particularly like that my (admittedly) high expectations of the adventure were generally met; this adventure is far more than just hack and slash and requires the rogue PC to think their way through several situations, even if only to gain greater reward from any given situation. More than just providing reasons to roll more dice (though there are an abundance of opportunities for using several key rogue skills), this adventure challenges the player as much as the character and should make for an entertaining couple of sessions.Solid and clear advice is provided for scaling the adventure, along with several alternate introductory hooks and, despite being written for a solitary rogue, means of molding the adventure to suit a group of adventurers rather than a single PC is provided, thereby improving it's usefulness to potential DMs. The adventure is comprised of several key components, including stats for all NPCs in the area that they are likely to be encountered in, statistics for the town and keep described in the adventure, wandering encounters for the keep in which the gambling contest is held as well as details of all tricks, traps and monsters. The standard of boxed text descriptions of each area is used along with notes for a DM that highlight important NPCs, traps and treasures. At the end of the PDF, simple advice is given for several possible conclusions, in addition to adventure hooks for a follow-on adventure should the DM intend on running the PC/PCs in a campaign rather than a one-shot adventure. The back of the adventure also lists all of the NPCs in one place and notes their likely encounter area, as well as providing a pre-generated rogue character for a player should this product be used as a one-shot adventure.The strength of an adventure can often be measured by the plausibility of its NPCs and the flexibility of its events (as well as it's "Fun Factor!"). The NPCs in Gambler's Quest have been created with a solid idea of what makes a good NPC. Descriptions of the main NPCs are provided, but more importantly, their motivations and their resources to achieve their goals have been simply but effortlessly weaved into the adventure without forcing bizarre leaps of logic for a DM and PCs. The author also avoids forcing a PC down a linear path. From beginning to end, several alternatives are featured and a general sense of openness pervades this fun adventure, allowing for the feeling that the PC is not treading a tired path already well worn by others. It is highly unlikely that a PC, through their choices, will "break" the plot, and though the author has only had to contend with a single set of skills, it is still something far too common in adventure writing that a group of PCs *must* step from points A to B to C to complete the "grand quest". Thankfully, Gambler's Quest does not fall into this trap.The layout is simple and clean, with relatively few editing errors that neither hinder usability nor confuse the descriptions. The artwork is generally good, in black and white, and provides thematic synergy with the text as well as helping to ease readability. A single map of the keep belonging to the main villain (or main employer, depending upon the PC's choices) is included at the back of the adventure. The PDF is completely bookmarked and printer friendly.SummaryThough Gambler's Quest is not ground breaking, it does several things very well. NPCs make sense, the plot is simple and interesting without being dependent upon setting, the mechanics are spot on and the path for a PC is flexible and non-linear. Advice is given for several introductory hooks as well as for several likely conclusions and flexible hooks for the next adventure are provided. The artwork is good without being overbearing, the layout is easy on the eyes and the PDF is completely bookmarked. In short, this is a good little adventure and well worth the $5 price tag.Review by Jason Lund (Anio)</blockquote>

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