Psion
Adventurer
Adventure I
Adventure I is a book in the "one word topic" series of books for d20 fantasy games, published by AEG. The book and it's companion volume, Adventure II, are anthologies of previously published "adventure keep" mini-adventures by AEG. The component adventures were written by a variety of authors.
Playtest Note: I have used some of the adventures included, both in their original form and out of this book.
A First Look
Adventure I is a 288 page perfect-bound softcover book available for $29.95. This is a decent price in today's gaming product market and a significant improvement over the price per page that the component adventures enjoyed.
The cover illustration depicts a female elven warrior in a dungeon setting. The interior is black and white and features artists Cris Dornaus, Carl Frank, Darren M.A. Gilvert, Lisa Hunt, and Amandine Labarre. Most of the interior art appears to have come from the original adventures.
The maps are not directly credited but are not the same ones as used in the original adventures. They are a significant improvement, having much better detail and featuring grids that most of the previous adventures lacked.
A Deeper Look
There are 24 adventures collected in this volume, mostly drawn from the earlier adventures published in the series with less fancy covers and a lower ($2.50 US) MSRP. Each one is a single chapter in this book. There is also a brief introduction describing changes, the layout of the adventures, GM tips on scaling the adventures, alternative for introduction, and similar material. Finally are two appendices describing new magic and creatures features in the adventures.
Each of the adventures take 8-14 pages, more typically 10-12. The adventures are listed in approximate order of the party level range. The level ranges are listed at the beginning of each adventure, and again at the beginning of the GM text. In one adventure that I ran (Out of Body, Out of Mind), I noticed that the two listed ranges do not match (one says 4-6, the other 1-3). From context, 4-6 is correct.
Some level ranges were tweaked from the original. For example, in Servants of the Blood Moon, the level range was changed from 7-10 to 9-11. This particular change was rather appropriate; the original adventure had an encounter with a CR 12 NPC and 10 CR 7 creatures, which would have squashed a level 7 party!
As noted above, the most immediately notable refinement is the maps, which are much more attractive and now feature grids that make it easier reference for mapping. Also, many stat blocks were expanded and updated to 3.5. In some cases, this is a bit verbose than perhaps it needed to be. For example, in the original Against the Barrow King, there were no statistics for the commoner prisoners. These statistics were added for the updated version, which I am uncertain was needed.
Other additions to the adventures include encounter tables for those involving travel, DCs for bardic lore rolls for information about the area, and plot hooks and links to other adventures.
For those not familiar with the original adventures, they are mostly site based adventures, though a few are progressive event-driven. Most of the adventures are not simple loot-fests, and involve some specific goal. Many also feature new creatures and/or magic, which are listed in the appendices.
There are a few really nice adventures herein. For example the popular Jerimond's Orb has the party unraveling the troubling mystery behind a cursed town, and Out of Body, Out of Mind is a site based adventure in an exotic tomb hanging over a pit of lava, which faces the players with a final challenge that will take more than a strong sword arm to deal with.
That said, one thing that did not get shored up was the plot and backstory of some of the weaker adventures. Murder of the Seven Points is a mystery that strings the characters along and railroads them to the conclusion, instead of letting them actually solve the mystery themselves. Princes, Thieves, and Goblins still has a premise that seems very forced (inventing magic that changes who your father is, and then allows goblins to somehow recognize this), and The Last Gods, while it has some flavorful encounters and challenges, has the PCs in a spectator role during the finale.
The appendices, which collect all the new magic and creatures, are where we see some of the best rules corrections and updates to 3.5. The creatures are where we see the most changes, and most of them are handled well. For example, the cave wyrm from Sundered Faith sees a great update, using the new DR system and shoring up the feat selection (including new 3.5 feats.)
Conclusions
Overall, I find these compilations to be of great utility. If you need something quick for a nights game, or just are looking for some filler adventures that won't tie you down for many sessions, these are quick and easy to run, and run the gamut of the most commonly played levels. Also, since they are so small and dispensable, you won't feel bad changing details or stripping them for parts (I did just that with Sundered Faith.)
If you intend to use many of these, this format is much more fiscally sensible than the individual adventures (if you can even find them anymore). Further, the new material is a boon for many of the adventures, and the updates and rules revisions were done competently.
Overall Grade: B
-Alan D. Kohler
Adventure I is a book in the "one word topic" series of books for d20 fantasy games, published by AEG. The book and it's companion volume, Adventure II, are anthologies of previously published "adventure keep" mini-adventures by AEG. The component adventures were written by a variety of authors.
Playtest Note: I have used some of the adventures included, both in their original form and out of this book.
A First Look
Adventure I is a 288 page perfect-bound softcover book available for $29.95. This is a decent price in today's gaming product market and a significant improvement over the price per page that the component adventures enjoyed.
The cover illustration depicts a female elven warrior in a dungeon setting. The interior is black and white and features artists Cris Dornaus, Carl Frank, Darren M.A. Gilvert, Lisa Hunt, and Amandine Labarre. Most of the interior art appears to have come from the original adventures.
The maps are not directly credited but are not the same ones as used in the original adventures. They are a significant improvement, having much better detail and featuring grids that most of the previous adventures lacked.
A Deeper Look
There are 24 adventures collected in this volume, mostly drawn from the earlier adventures published in the series with less fancy covers and a lower ($2.50 US) MSRP. Each one is a single chapter in this book. There is also a brief introduction describing changes, the layout of the adventures, GM tips on scaling the adventures, alternative for introduction, and similar material. Finally are two appendices describing new magic and creatures features in the adventures.
Each of the adventures take 8-14 pages, more typically 10-12. The adventures are listed in approximate order of the party level range. The level ranges are listed at the beginning of each adventure, and again at the beginning of the GM text. In one adventure that I ran (Out of Body, Out of Mind), I noticed that the two listed ranges do not match (one says 4-6, the other 1-3). From context, 4-6 is correct.
Some level ranges were tweaked from the original. For example, in Servants of the Blood Moon, the level range was changed from 7-10 to 9-11. This particular change was rather appropriate; the original adventure had an encounter with a CR 12 NPC and 10 CR 7 creatures, which would have squashed a level 7 party!
As noted above, the most immediately notable refinement is the maps, which are much more attractive and now feature grids that make it easier reference for mapping. Also, many stat blocks were expanded and updated to 3.5. In some cases, this is a bit verbose than perhaps it needed to be. For example, in the original Against the Barrow King, there were no statistics for the commoner prisoners. These statistics were added for the updated version, which I am uncertain was needed.
Other additions to the adventures include encounter tables for those involving travel, DCs for bardic lore rolls for information about the area, and plot hooks and links to other adventures.
For those not familiar with the original adventures, they are mostly site based adventures, though a few are progressive event-driven. Most of the adventures are not simple loot-fests, and involve some specific goal. Many also feature new creatures and/or magic, which are listed in the appendices.
There are a few really nice adventures herein. For example the popular Jerimond's Orb has the party unraveling the troubling mystery behind a cursed town, and Out of Body, Out of Mind is a site based adventure in an exotic tomb hanging over a pit of lava, which faces the players with a final challenge that will take more than a strong sword arm to deal with.
That said, one thing that did not get shored up was the plot and backstory of some of the weaker adventures. Murder of the Seven Points is a mystery that strings the characters along and railroads them to the conclusion, instead of letting them actually solve the mystery themselves. Princes, Thieves, and Goblins still has a premise that seems very forced (inventing magic that changes who your father is, and then allows goblins to somehow recognize this), and The Last Gods, while it has some flavorful encounters and challenges, has the PCs in a spectator role during the finale.
The appendices, which collect all the new magic and creatures, are where we see some of the best rules corrections and updates to 3.5. The creatures are where we see the most changes, and most of them are handled well. For example, the cave wyrm from Sundered Faith sees a great update, using the new DR system and shoring up the feat selection (including new 3.5 feats.)
Conclusions
Overall, I find these compilations to be of great utility. If you need something quick for a nights game, or just are looking for some filler adventures that won't tie you down for many sessions, these are quick and easy to run, and run the gamut of the most commonly played levels. Also, since they are so small and dispensable, you won't feel bad changing details or stripping them for parts (I did just that with Sundered Faith.)
If you intend to use many of these, this format is much more fiscally sensible than the individual adventures (if you can even find them anymore). Further, the new material is a boon for many of the adventures, and the updates and rules revisions were done competently.
Overall Grade: B
-Alan D. Kohler
