Acceptance of Fate

[Dr Midnight]

As a number of other reviewers for ACCEPTANCE OF FATE have stated, this is not my kind of module. I don't care for campaign-specific adventures. While a good idea in theory to an author, I believe most GMs want adventures that can be easily adapted into whatever campaign world they're running in- and I don't see ACCEPTANCE OF FATE being easily converted for worlds outside of Diomin. Alternately, if you LIKE Diomin (or worlds like it), this adventure will of course suit you perfectly with its well-defined details.

A matter of distaste for me was the style of the fantasy. Places with names like "Darkon", An "eater of souls", themes of wars between pantheons; Things like this just cause my eyes to glaze over. That's me, though. The point is that every time I tried to sit and really read the module through, I found myself looking for excuses to put it down and do something else.

As for aesthetics, I can write a little more accurately. The design and logos for the entire book are great- top notch stuff. The cover art is a horribly chaotic splattering of colors that just melt together into an undiscernible mess at arm's length. The subject of the painting turns me right off, too. What the cover tells me is that there are new races and classes I'll have to insert into my campaign just to play the module. The interior art ranges from meh to not bad. There's some really dense, stylized pencil art by Mike Chaney that clashes with the nobler feel of the writing. The maps are really well-drawn. Seeing the area in a 3D overhead really gives one a better idea of the place- but there's no measurements or scale to tell you how large an area is. Another problem (again, of taste) is that the areas are so small.

I'm not a game mechanic, and it surely shows in this review. I just know art and campaign feel... and I know that while Acceptance of Fate may be terrific for fans of the setting, I will not be using it in my games.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Some time ago, I got this module, the third part in the series, for review purposes. I had just started running my Star Wars d20 system game, and as I read through the background of this story, a single, interesting idea sparked in the recesses of my head... Light Gods... Light Force Users... Dark Gods... Dark Force... hmmm...

So I honestly put the book down for a while. My initial reaction was that this is a nicely done finale for an interesting story. Some of the artwork was lacking in contrast, and a bit superficial. I did like the NPC portraits in the book, but they would have been more useful if they weren't scattered throughout the text.

When my Star Wars game reached the appropriate level for the adventure, I picked the book back up and started absorbing it completely. I found a great framework for an adventure, that had a few problems that made for extra work for the GM. The action of the adventure picks up right in the middle, without a real introduction for characters who might not have played the earlier two installments of this trilogy. (Note, I haven't seen those books, but I have a feeling that if you play through the first two, then the action likely flows straight into the third book... For me, it was difficult, the heroes didn't feel any particular connection to this quest, even though it was the right thing to do.

What I can say is that this book provides rich details of a campaign world and the peoples and groups who live there.

My players, being the obstinate people that they are, don't follow plots very well, and I was able to extrapolate the world based upon the content in the story. I kept looping them back to the events of the story, and they finally finished it.

The idea of the climax never quite set completely well with me. I think it's a great story, but as a player, I might feel a bit like the plot was too heavy-handed. I think that with some work this would fit into nearly any game, but it probably would be more memorable if it was played as the conclusion to the trilogy. The maps and artwork can help make descriptions of the scenes and creatures more vivid, but I did find in a couple of places, that the artwork didn't really match the descriptive text 100%. This book introduces an new type of Magic Construct/creature that can add flavor to a campaign, and I like the idea and am using them in my Star Wars campaign as force driven constructs...

If you're looking for a story to draw from or inspire you, this is a good choice... if you're looking for the complete package, there might be better adventures out there for you.
All in all, I like it, I just wish I didn't have to struggle so hard to keep the plot in my story... Who knows, your story might fit better than an adaptation from the Star Wars universe.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

In early March, I received a copy of Acceptance of Fate from the publisher for review purposes. I'm apparently a lazy sot, since it took me this long to read and review it. However, I've read it twice now, and here's the review:

Firstly, this is an adventure module, and though the ENWorld d20 guide seems to list it as 30 pages, costing $7.95, the copy I have is 78 pages and says $15.95 on the back. The paper quality in the book is good, and in my opinion the art is hit-or-miss. I thought the cover was too dark and too busy, but I really liked some of the interior illustrations.

I gave this module a 3 for the following main reason: While the actual plot is pretty bland and has some definite moments of scripting, there are a bunch of interesting rules and rule variants scattered throughout the book, from new feats to a new template. That's the most useful part of the book, as far as I'm concerned: I wouldn't use the adventure itself, more on which later, but you can get a new type of magic item, a secret society of insane assassins who follow a multiclass path instead using a prestige class (something which should be done more often, if you ask me), feats, and the Glorified template. That's in addition to the normal array of new spells, magic items and monsters.

Now, the adventure itself: Well, this is tied quite closely to the setting. It's the last part of a three part series, and since I haven't seen either a) parts one and two or b) anything on the Diomin setting, I had some trouble with it. The plot itself is pretty easy to pick up, as it's fairly self-explanatory and the text itself is helpful. However, I had trouble with things like races and classes: Are gnolaum demihumans? One other reviewer says there are no demihumans in Diomin, so I guess they're human, but from the book itself I had the impression that they were like elves. There're some shamans mentioned in the book, and while you don't really need to know everything about them to run the module, you're in a bit of trouble if the PCs act outside the script and get into any sort of conflict with them, since I couldn't find any details on what the shaman class is like. Presumably, many of these questions are answered in a Diomin campaign setting book.

The other major problem I had with the module is that it's quite scripted. Some effort is given to providing alternate routes, a sort of "what if the PCs don't follow the script" thing, but the majority of it is based on various assumptions of what the PCs will do, such as trust some people, go with some people, get captured by other people, etc. There's one of those sections where the DM is supposed to force the PCs to flee. I don't know about you, but my players don't really understand that whole "run away and live" thing, and would all die at that point. From what I've read, that's pretty common, so assuming that the PCs will flee isn't by any means a sure thing.

I also thought that the prophecy puzzle was insanely difficult, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The ending is very impressive, and the requirements to become Glorified are really interesting. I honestly can't imagine more than a handful of D&D groups out there ever actually pulling it off, but it's a very nice touch. The template is very powerful and will definitely change your campaign, and that's noted in the text.

All in all this was a pretty good module, I reckon. The plot and story, as I said, was bland, but few modules have really compelling stories. I think that the rule additions in the text bring it up a bit, hence my 3.