In my reviews I rarely give 1's, just as I rarely give 5's. While production qualities matter, the content is what determines a final rating. Good pictures or unique ideas won't save a product from a poor review, but it might push a good one slightly higher. Functionality first, then the flash if you please. Price is also generally taken into consideration. A quick summary of my personal ratings:
1 - Lazy, incomplete, shoddy effort. So disgusted I'm likely only to open it again to review it.
2 - Below average. Not completely unhappy I bought it since it probably has some good ideas.
3 - Average/Good. I got approximately what I expected in terms of content and quality. No major flaws and useful.
4 - Very Good. I got more than I expected. Inspired me enough to think about using it down the road.
5 - Excellent. The cream of the industry. I immediately want to use it somewhere. Excellent production values.
Those reading my previous reviews know that I was somewhat disappointed by Kenzer & Co's Kalamar setting, and majorly disappointed by their module "Lands of Mystery". "Deathright" however is another story altogether. You've got the standard dunegon crawl adventure fare here.. a dungeon, a big maze, mind puzzles, undead to fight, and a legendary evil coming back to 'life'. What's different here is the way everything is put together.
PRODUCTION QUALITY: As is usual for a Kingdoms of Kalamar product, the cover is a nicely drawn, full color picture with slightly cartoonish (in brightness of color, not in the realistic appearance of the characters portrayed) feel. The back shows the area in Kalamar where the adventure takes place. The interior maps are good and clear and per usual there's a set of imagequest pictures to show the players instead of (or in conjunction with) the greyed text boxes. The pictures are somewhat even in style, but for the most part are at least average in appearance and sometimes quite good. White space isn't quite as well used as in some other RPG supplements but for the most part the reading is easy.
Production Quality Rating: 4
CONTENT: (WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD)
The PCs find themselves in an area where numerous undead are beginning to arise in an area where an ancient Queen turned to evil arts to try to raise a dead lover. This legend is revealed in bits to the PCs who will be sent from one small town to another, have to deal with the mistrust of two of the towns who blame the other for the children that have gone missing since the undead have started to rise and a fortress where the soldiers see traitors behind every bush. Once the PCs find out the truth and see past all the red herrings in their way, they'll enter the castle and the maze of puzzles. Normally I hate puzzles. They're usually out of place, and often an ancient version of a modern one (like that logic puzzle in Lands of Mystery which could have come out of any Logic Puzzles book today). In this case, the Queen found her lover when he passed the tests that showed him to be her intellectual equal, and as such the area itself has a love of such things. In death, she created the maze to test her lover again.. she assumed he would be the only one who could find her in it. Needless to say, when she (now a lich) latches onto a male PC and assumes he'll go to bed with her.. well, I haven't seen the combination of horror and comedy done as well in an adventure as this one. The story is well written, and easy reading. There are lots of opportunities for interesting RP and horrific/comedic situations. My main issue is the areas at the beginning could lose the PCs, they might not find certain information unless beat over the head with it by the DM, etc. Another large issue is the final encounter. Unless the PCs realize something that doesn't appear too obvious from reading (requiring the DM to find a way to show the clues himself) they're going to die and they only have a short time to figure it out. I also find the maze a bit too... complicated. Very long passages of nothing along with small areas of extreme danger and fiendish traps. The DM will have to be careful to provide some hints of things not included in the descriptions, in order to keep the party alive.
The little touches stood out though, like telling the DM to include more than the usual undead skeletons and zombies to show how pervasive the growing effect causing the undead really is. For instance, a family of a mother duck and duckling zombies paddling in a pond. Very nice touch.
A final concern is that the adventure is much darker than many AD&D modules, and certainly more so than most of the Kenzer ones I've read. Here, the children aren't all found chained to be safely rescued, instead most of them are dead in a quite graphic and horrific fashion. I actually like the idea of the players realizing they won't be able to save everyone and adding such dark elements into a campaign, but it came as a shock to me when I started reading.
Content Rating: 4.5 (A very well put together adventure, but requires the DM to be extra careful die to some of the 'insta-death' or at least 'insta-outta the adventure' traps. Even with the well put together backstory that explains why there are so many puzzles and traps, I still wish they didn't dominate the adventure the way they do.. players will have started along an intriguing storyline and then may forget why they're going through the maze.. the puzzles having become the major issue).
CONCLUSION: This adventure is a strong offering from Kenzer & Co with a tragic storyline, an obvious danger, some intrigue and political roleplaying, and interesting NPCs. The module should come with a warning though since there are some very disturbing scenes that are darker than the average module. There's humor and pathos both. Except for a few issues mentioned under the Content Rating section, this module would have gotten a 5.
Overall Rating: 4
Adventure Module Ratings (Not included in the overall score)
For a Beginning DM: 2 (Things are fairly complicated. The DM will have to keep track of a timeline and modify the adventure as he goes along to match it. Given that this adventure is for higher level characters, this really isn't much of an issue.
For Beginning Players: 2 (Same as for the DM. This rating isn't really relevant, but a group going through its first campaign might not be careful enough to survive especially if they haven't been exposed to puzzles much.)
Completeness of Adventures: 4 (Everything needed is here, but the DM will have to imrpovise a fair bit as the players have some freedom of action, and events continue around them as they take time).
