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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2008587" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.Price: $8.95Page Count: 32Price per page: About 28 cents per pageDesigned for Character Level: 2-12Format: SoftcoverExternal Artwork: A good quality colour picture of the goddess Akrasia pictured in front of a jungle temple.Additional Page Use: The front inside cover has an advert, the back inside cover has the OGL. The back cover has an introduction and overview to the module. The first page has contents and credits.Internal Artwork: Limited in quantity, but a few stylish and attractive black and white sketches appropriate to the text. There are sketches of the new monsters and magic items.Maps: The maps are basic but clear and practical.Text Density: Text density is tight and there are no margins, but there are regular patches of white space in the text.Text Style: The style of writing is intelligent and succinct. There are a few typos, but nothing that distracts.The Adventure: Actually a series of vignettes (short essays or character sketches) that can be used as part of a set of linked adventures, spread throughout a campaign, or used standalone. Each of the vignettes centres round the cult of Akrasia, the goddess of distraction, procrastination and wasted time.After a brief introduction (2 pages) with some flavour text giving an example of the cult's work, the module discusses the goddess Akrasia (7 pages) - her doctrine, followers, clerics, temples and the nature of her evil (and how it might affect PCs). There is also some detailed information about The Leaking Hourglass - the symbol of Akrasia, and possibly a real magical item which promotes distraction and procrastination. There follow some Akratic Legends and the section finishes with a detailed example of Litarra, a halfling rogue cult member - included are adventure hooks to promote her use as an NPC villain and statistics for her at 9 total class levels, and 14 total class levels.The next section is a 1 page outline of an Akratic shrine, an unfinished temple built by an ancient race - the temple is guarded by a spider-like outsider, a Gloomholt (new monster), sent by Akrasia herself to stop people leaving the temple if they shelter there. The section also provides a hook into another Eden Odyssey module, Wonders Out Of Time.Yaraemon the Bard is presented in the next section (2 pages). Yaraemon is a wandering NPC cult member, again including statistics, this time at three different levels (5, 8 and 11). He owns a magical item, the Harp of Distraction, which is detailed in the Appendix. A sidebar gives possible connections into the other adventures detailedThe Way Choice is an inn run by a follower of Akrasia (4 pages). The layout of the rooms is covered, and details of the staff given. There is a shrine to Akrasia in the basement of the inn, guarded by a life-reft (a new monster that steals PC actions) and containing night candles (a new magical item that deludes characters into thinking that little time is passing).The next section (3 pages) deals with a plan by four Akratic cult members to impede the building of embankments to stop a river flooding a small town. The NPCs involved are detailed including their motivations and roleplaying tips, with some links to other sections of the module.The Temple of Present Delights (6 pages) is a more established Akratic temple than the ruined shrine outlined previously. The temple was only finished through a set of unusual circumstances (the Akrasian cleric who finally finished the temple (by adding little bits here and there) hanged himself in despair after he realised what he had done). 11 NPCs are detailed, and the rooms of the temple are detailed. The temple is guarded by the outsiders introduced in previous sections plus a Phanera (a new monster that shoots hallucinogenic darts at victims and then releases a construct (the phanera decoy monster) which the victims blame, kill and forget so that the phanera can remain undetected until the hallucinogen kicks in, at which time it attacks) and the Saphard (a new monster, a magical large feline whose appearance mesmerises victims).The Appendix details 7 new spells (from the 1st-level 'indolence' to the 9th-level 'steal time') and introduces the Distraction domain. A new Prestige Class, The Distractor (whose class features include silver tongue and drinking companion), is followed by the 5 new monsters from the module, and 4 new magical items (including the amusing magical 'red tape' that can be wound around documents to force the reader to read it carefully, no matter its contents).  The High Points: Looking back on your life you become aware of some of the things you could have achieved if only you hadn't stayed for that one last drink, if only you hadn't watched so much TV, if only you could have been bothered. How much better would the world be if we all got off our backsides and actually completed that great idea we had but never saw through? Eden Odyssey take this idea to its conclusion and highlights its insidious evil (exemplified by the section 'Akrasia As The Enemy'). Then they build a cult and a goddess around that idea and put it in a fantasy setting - detailing various locations and NPCs who represent this concept (for TV, read bard with magical harp for instance). Exploring the quiet evil that is inherent in the Akrasian ethos can lead to some interesting thoughts on the echoes it has in our own lives. The more I read, the more I came to understand the possibilities of how the ideas presented here could be used to seriously antagonise my players and their PCs. Mwahahaha!The detail of the NPCs in particular was very good, and the new monsters, spells and items reflected the theme of the module well. The use of statistics for NPCs at different levels should prove useful in integrating the ideas into a home-grown campaign. The Low Points: Despite the module introducing the concept of linking in different sections to create a coherent whole (and sidebars to help you do this), the module still felt a bit disjointed at times, and it would require some time to thread the various sections together (if you can be bothered of course). There are no comprehensive adventures here, purely a series of well-detailed NPCs and locations, with some related crunchy bits. The theme of Akrasia introduced in this module is one that you have to be interested in introducing to your campaign as it is quite specialised and unusual.Conclusion: This is a useful book if you are intending to add a new goddess into your pantheon and want something that will bring a sense of underlying and subtle evil into your campaign. Of limited use otherwise, and requiring some work from DMs to integrate into adventures or campaigns, nevertheless this contains some excellent ideas, is well presented, and is an interesting and unusual divergence from the mainstream adventure/sourcebook offering, both in style and content.  Its a shame that the cover price may put off some from taking a look at this imaginative though specialised product.</blockquote>

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