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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="tsadkiel" data-source="post: 2008720" data-attributes="member: 262">In most fantasy campaigns, evil is pretty easy to spot.  The gods of evil obligingly outfit their minions in some combination of spiky, blood-stained armor, sinister black robes, and/or tight leather dominatrix outfits, making the average paladin's job that much easier.  In Eden Studio's first d20 vignette book, however, a more subtle evil is presented.Akrasia, the titular goddess, presides over failures, lost opportunity, and wasted time - not as glamorous as the traditional killing and pillaging, certainly, but often more effective.The Book - The cover features a nice portrait of Akrasia herself, holding her leaking hourglass symbol.  Interior art is generally pretty good, and shows a consistent style (also found in "Wonders Out of Time.")  layout is good, with very little wasted space.  There are a few typographical errors, but the grammar is good and the prose style is engaging.  There isn't a  lot of fiction in the book (fortunately, as it's a short book) and what little there is takes the form of legends of the Akratic faith.The book begins with an overview of Akrasia, her legends, and her faith.  This section details her nature (including alignment and domains), doctrine ("one more game of cards, then to work"), followers, clerics, and temples.  There's a quite useful section on how Akrasia's followers would fuction as enemies in a gaming campaign, focusing on their more subtle nature, and then the overview concludes with the faith's major artifact (the Leaking Hourglass), some Akratic legends, and an example of a follower of Akrasia - Littara, a halfling Distractor.  Litarra's write-up contains a brief note on how she relates to the vignettes in the book - a nice precedent, and one that is followed.The vignettes are as follows -"The Sheltering Shrine" - probably the weakest vignette in the book - the PC's discover a shrine inhabited by a gloomholt, an outsider servant of Akrasia.  Unfortunately, there's very little guidance provided on just what the gloomholt actually does.  The episode does little more than provide a tie-in to "Wonders Out of Time."  "Yaraemon the Bard" - another sample follower of Akrasia.  yaraemon possesses a Harp of Distraction, and uses it and his native wit to mislead, distract, and delay adventurers.  "The Way Choice" - probably my favorite vignette in the book.  The way Choice is an inn run by a follower of Akrasia - his influence has corrupted the surrounding villagers to the point that they behave like villagers in a stereotypical adventure, hanging out at the inn and handing out rumors to passing strangers.   "Until the Rains Come" - a town which straddles a river needs to build embankments to control floodwater; unfortunately, a quartet of Akratics are hindering the construction.  A very good example of akrasia's followers in action, and an entirely role-play driven scenario.  The Akratics are also quite nicely detailed (even if Godric reminds me too much of myself) and make good use of NPC classes.  This vignette will rewuire some work on the DM's part, since the only NPC's detailed are the Akratics."The Temple of Present Delights" - a detailed temple of Akrasia.The Appendix details the domain of Distraction and its spells, the Distractor Prestige Class, four new monsters, and four new magic items.  The domain and its spells are powerful, but probably not overwhelmingly so, and mor elikey to be used my NPC's than PC'sThe Distractor Prestige Class is an interesting case - the mechanics highlight the nature of the class well, but make the class less useful than it should be.  The class skills are a case in point - the distractor chooses any ten skills that the character doesn't already possess as their class skills.  These skills are now considered exclusive to the distractor class, meaning they can't use skill points from other classes to raise these skills.  Similarly, the distractor can't use distractor skill points to raise any skill they possessed before taking the prestige class.  Confused?  So was I.  These mechanics highlight the nature of the class, but make gaining the class more trouble than it's worth.  Similarly, the class requires the ability to cast second level divine spells, but doesn't ptovide any spellcasting ability at all.  The mosnters are inventive, but there is some mechaical wonkiness - some of the mosnters have the wrong hit die type.  Also, the monsters seem to be an afterthought, as they distract from the essentially human nature of Akrasia's evil.  This is a very original and entertaining book, and presents an unusual set of opponents for fantasy d20 adventures.  teh individual should, however, be prepared to do a little work.</blockquote>

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