Psion
Adventurer
Adventure II 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 I, are anthologies of previously published "adventure keep" mini-adventures by AEG. The component adventures were written by a variety of authors, including seasoned RPG writers such as Mike Mearls, Douglas Sun, Rich Wulf, John Zinser, and Ree Soesbee.
Playtest Note: I have used some of the adventures included, both in their original form and out of this book.
A First Look
Adventure II 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 by William O'Conner depicts a well armored humanoid warrior in a dungeon setting. The interior is black and white and features artists Liz Danforth, Cris Dornaus, Carl Frank, Darren M.A. Calvert, Jonathan Hunt, Lisa Hunt, Amandine Labarre, G.W. McKee, Matt Morrow, Michael Phillippi, Mike Sellers, Ethan Slayton, and Jeff Wright. I don't have as many of the originals for this book than those that went into Adventure I, but some of the artwork associated with those I do have was not drawn from the original adventure.
The maps are not directly credited. Some are the same as the ones in the original adventure, but the maps from earlier adventures are refined to be more attractive and include grids.
A Deeper Look
There are 24 adventures collected in this volume, mostly drawn from the later adventures published in the series with nicer covers and a higher ($2.99 US) MSRP. These later adventures were produced in sets of four, many themed to a rules supplement produced by AEG (Dragon adventures, Evil adventures, and Undead adventures), but there was also a set of "city adventures" and a set of "Oriental Adventures" suitable for use with AEG's d20 Rokugan or WotCs Oriental Adventures.
In addition to these later adventure sets, four adventures were drawn from the earlier cheaper adventures with tomb themes (Tomb of the Overseers, Temple of the Eternal Flame, Temple of the Iron Codex, and the Heart of Amun Khonshu) and included as "Tomb Adventures".
Each adventure is a single chapter in this book. The adventures are sorted into the above groups of four, but within these sets, go approximately in level order where applicable (the cities were and are listed as being appropriate for all levels.)
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 level ranges are listed at the beginning of each adventure, and again at the beginning of the GM text. The city adventures list a range of 1-20. Other adventures have level ranges from 1-3 to 9-11.
In the case of the city adventures, the level range is probably not too accurate given the material presented here. True, these are almost more miniature settings vice adventures per se. However, while the originals were very packed, they left it to the GM to flesh out many NPCs. In the versions that appear here, more stat blocks have been fleshed out and there is a more definite level range that challenges in the city are geared towards.
The city adventures are, however, nice little adventure filled sites to build little campaigns around. I ran an arc of my own campaign using the Dark Elf City of Hossuth, though the others have excellent possibilities as well.
One major difference between the adventures in Adventure II and those in Adventure I is that those in Adventure II are more purpose built. The dragon, tomb, and undead adventures are generally the same sort of quick drop-in adventures appropriate for a typical d20 fantasy part that were in Adventure I. The Oriental and evil adventures, however, are designed for a more specific campaign style.
Additions to the adventures include more thoroughly fleshed out statistics, encounter tables for those involving travel, DCs for bardic knowledge rolls, and plot hooks and links to other adventures.
The appendices collect all the new magic and creatures, refined and updated to 3.5. This is generally handled well, such as correcting conventions that were incorrect for 3.0 in the first place (like having resistance to energy expressed as a percentage instead of a point total.) I did see a few minor glitches. For example, the Vesagos gargoyle has most of its statistics properly updated to a construct per 3.5, but it spends two feats on weapon finesse (one each for claw and bite), where in 3.5 the feat is not weapon specific.
Of course, as some gentle readers out there may know, I am not 100% on board with the changes involved in 3.5 and was happy to see they didn't garble some encounters for the sake of minor changes. For example, in the Oriental Adventure Blood on White Petals, I thought that using the fiendish template on an animated object was a great way to represent weapons animated by the demon in that advanture. This technically isn't kosher per 3.5, but gladly, they did it anyways.
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.
The adventures in this volume are a bit better written than those in Adventure I, and the city adventures provide a bit broader possibilities than the smaller adventures. However, the evil and Oriental adventure are little more purpose built than those in Adventure I, and might be of less use if you never play those style of games.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
Playtest Note: I have used some of the adventures included, both in their original form and out of this book.
A First Look
Adventure II 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 by William O'Conner depicts a well armored humanoid warrior in a dungeon setting. The interior is black and white and features artists Liz Danforth, Cris Dornaus, Carl Frank, Darren M.A. Calvert, Jonathan Hunt, Lisa Hunt, Amandine Labarre, G.W. McKee, Matt Morrow, Michael Phillippi, Mike Sellers, Ethan Slayton, and Jeff Wright. I don't have as many of the originals for this book than those that went into Adventure I, but some of the artwork associated with those I do have was not drawn from the original adventure.
The maps are not directly credited. Some are the same as the ones in the original adventure, but the maps from earlier adventures are refined to be more attractive and include grids.
A Deeper Look
There are 24 adventures collected in this volume, mostly drawn from the later adventures published in the series with nicer covers and a higher ($2.99 US) MSRP. These later adventures were produced in sets of four, many themed to a rules supplement produced by AEG (Dragon adventures, Evil adventures, and Undead adventures), but there was also a set of "city adventures" and a set of "Oriental Adventures" suitable for use with AEG's d20 Rokugan or WotCs Oriental Adventures.
In addition to these later adventure sets, four adventures were drawn from the earlier cheaper adventures with tomb themes (Tomb of the Overseers, Temple of the Eternal Flame, Temple of the Iron Codex, and the Heart of Amun Khonshu) and included as "Tomb Adventures".
Each adventure is a single chapter in this book. The adventures are sorted into the above groups of four, but within these sets, go approximately in level order where applicable (the cities were and are listed as being appropriate for all levels.)
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 level ranges are listed at the beginning of each adventure, and again at the beginning of the GM text. The city adventures list a range of 1-20. Other adventures have level ranges from 1-3 to 9-11.
In the case of the city adventures, the level range is probably not too accurate given the material presented here. True, these are almost more miniature settings vice adventures per se. However, while the originals were very packed, they left it to the GM to flesh out many NPCs. In the versions that appear here, more stat blocks have been fleshed out and there is a more definite level range that challenges in the city are geared towards.
The city adventures are, however, nice little adventure filled sites to build little campaigns around. I ran an arc of my own campaign using the Dark Elf City of Hossuth, though the others have excellent possibilities as well.
One major difference between the adventures in Adventure II and those in Adventure I is that those in Adventure II are more purpose built. The dragon, tomb, and undead adventures are generally the same sort of quick drop-in adventures appropriate for a typical d20 fantasy part that were in Adventure I. The Oriental and evil adventures, however, are designed for a more specific campaign style.
Additions to the adventures include more thoroughly fleshed out statistics, encounter tables for those involving travel, DCs for bardic knowledge rolls, and plot hooks and links to other adventures.
The appendices collect all the new magic and creatures, refined and updated to 3.5. This is generally handled well, such as correcting conventions that were incorrect for 3.0 in the first place (like having resistance to energy expressed as a percentage instead of a point total.) I did see a few minor glitches. For example, the Vesagos gargoyle has most of its statistics properly updated to a construct per 3.5, but it spends two feats on weapon finesse (one each for claw and bite), where in 3.5 the feat is not weapon specific.
Of course, as some gentle readers out there may know, I am not 100% on board with the changes involved in 3.5 and was happy to see they didn't garble some encounters for the sake of minor changes. For example, in the Oriental Adventure Blood on White Petals, I thought that using the fiendish template on an animated object was a great way to represent weapons animated by the demon in that advanture. This technically isn't kosher per 3.5, but gladly, they did it anyways.
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.
The adventures in this volume are a bit better written than those in Adventure I, and the city adventures provide a bit broader possibilities than the smaller adventures. However, the evil and Oriental adventure are little more purpose built than those in Adventure I, and might be of less use if you never play those style of games.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
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