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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009312" data-attributes="member: 1129">Dark Awakenings Part IGuardianGame Product Design by Keith DonePublished by Auran84 pages, full color maps, CD-ROM$19.95If you need a module for 4-6 characters at 3rd-4th level, you could do much worse than Guardian.  This perfect bound 84-page book takes place on the island of Gurdian.  Those who’ve read some of my previous reviews know that I love island settings because they’re much easier to place into your own campaign.Guardian housed elves in the past but currently houses humans.  A priestly order with a love of knowledge.  Well, you know how humans are.  They see something shinny and pretty and have to play with it.  What happens in this case however is that the elven ruins that are uncovered lead to some unpleasant side effects as the elves were holding a powerful creature known as the Grimorden.  With the humans playing around and some of them even stealing, this powerful demon, while not quite able to burst forth from its prison, is able to influence the land about with its powers.  These powers include animating the dead, summoning elementals, and even some minor mind control.  You know, minor stuff.Well, how do the players get involved?  Seems that the priesthood realizes that some of the goods they’ve found need a special touch and request the players aid in deciphering some of the old elf artifacts and goodies that they’ve found.  A short sea voyage, and what sea voyage is complete without some complications, and they’re on the way to Guardian.Now the book is actually broken up into different sections.  It starts off with Acts, which are event driven encounters, that take place at certain times.  See, the Grimorden, just because it’s wiped out most of the monks and other life on the island, isn’t done.  It needs more souls to fully break free and guess who’s got souls?  If you said the player’s, your right on the money.  So this creature summons undead, elementals, and if the players dawdled about enough, can even attack them in person.Of course, the players have lots of areas to explore as well and will have opportunities to help survivors and battle the undead that have been summoned.  They’ve get the chance to immerse themselves into the adventure through lore and history as the party is given numerous opportunities to learn about the island, it’s old elven inhabitants, the priesthood that’s since taken up residence here, and the failures of the priesthood to prevent this terror from occurring in the first place.  Remember, no good deed goes unpunished!Normally, a group this level wouldn’t have a chance against this monster.  The key then, is to find its weakness, which is done through investigation and role-playing.  Turns out the party needs three gems that have been removed from the Grimorden’s prison to keep it in check.  One of the first encounters, before the party even leaves for Guardian, can help them find one of the three gems they need. My only complaint here, and it’s partial solved by a bonus download, is that the third gem is in the Shadowland and requires the GM to purchase another module.  As mentioned though, that’s now optional as an alternative ending can provide the GM with a solid ending without buying another module.In addition to the adventure, there are numerous new crunchy bits.  This includes new monsters like the Grimorden, and the shape changing Selchie, elven artifacts from a bygone time, and new spells.  Other bits include background information on the gods of the setting, as well as perhaps too much background on the island Guardian and the history of the Grimorden and its numerous past conquests.The CD comes with all sorts of goodies itself.  First off, it has a director’s cut of the module that’s 98 pages long.  Problem is that it’s not real clear on what’s bonus material.  For example, it’s 14 pages longer than the printed book.  If there was a quick introduction that said, “Pages X,Y, Z are all new information that may be printed for ease of use,” I’d be happy, but as the module is fairly complete in and of itself, I’m not printing out over 90 pages to get an index and appendix with useful terms and definitions.  Of course, you can print out single pages like the full color maps.In addition to the expanded story, there’s a 3D interface.  See the ship on the cover?  That’s an example of the animation within the disk.  There are seven images with numerous options.  You can change the camera angel, time of scene, and hide/show different options depending on when the characters arrive at the scene.  Night, Day, Rain, and other options help make this a very useful tool if used.  It doesn’t allow movement forward or back, though; it’s as if you were standing there, and could turn in any direction and even look up or down, but no movement.  I’m running a HP 2 G, 512 Ram, 80 G Hard Drive and had no problems with installation or running the adventure.  Those interesting in seeing what some of the scenes look like should head on over to the Auran website which has several goodies for anxious readers.The module itself is tightly packed with text with very little wide space and very small margins.  It’s almost too difficult to read!  Rare do you hear me complain about something of that nature.  The art is top notch and ranks up there with Privateer Press and their impressive art.  The full color maps are a nice touch and add a lot to the worth of the module.The biggest problem I had isn’t the price.  Full color, perfect bound, CD with lots of bonus stuff for $20?  No problem there.  Is it the story?  Nope.  Despite the extensive amount of background information, most of it is adaptable to any campaign.  My problem is the presentation.  A book that relies heavily on events and site based encounters needs to have a few things.  First up, a timeline, by itself, listing all events with a reference to the text for details.  Second up, a flow-chart of events.  Those two things would push this close to a 5.  The third thing is the order of goods.  Why are all the maps and handouts in the middle of the book?  They’re not precut or anything so you can’t just yank them out.  If those three issues were handled, I’d grade this a solid 5.  Without flow-charts, timelines, and what I consider poor organization, it’s a solid 4.</blockquote>

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