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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009915" data-attributes="member: 18387">By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack*Caution: This review may contain spoilers. Sizing Up the Target Interludes: Sands of Pain is a 64-page adventure/sourcebook (the second in the Interludes series) located in the Bluffsides: City on the Edge campaign setting. It comes from Thunderhead Games (a member of the Mystic Eye Games LLC) and can be ordered from either website or picked up at your local friendly game store (or even through our own FRP Games sponsor!). It retails for the low price of only $12.99. Interludes: Sands of Pain is written by Jeffrey Quinn, with help from Becky Glenn and Matthew Mosher.First Blood Interludes: Sands of Pain takes characters to a new region of the Bluffsides campaign; the land of the Dragon Sands (which is conveniently detailed in the upcoming Dry Lands: Empires of the Dragon Sands sourcebook from Thunderhead Games). If you don’t happen to own these fine products, don’t worry, for the materials herein are also generic enough that using them in an existing campaign setting would be relatively easy. A few name changes, some minor adjustments, and they’re ready to drop into any Arabian-style setting that you wish. Without giving away too much, the adventure revolves around assisting a young man with freeing his love from the clutches of her evil uncle. Of course, as the Bard said, the course of true love never runs smooth, and there are plenty of wrinkles in this tale for the characters to iron out. It should be noted, however, that it does rely on the idea that the characters are heroes and will be drawn to aid someone through the goodness of their hearts. Characters of a baser nature may need other motivations to play out this adventure. The adventure itself is well written and easy to follow, especially through the use of theme boxes (described below), with a good balance of combat and role-playing opportunities. Though it seems simple from the brief description above, the plot is actually quite complex and will keep even budding detectives on their toes. There’s enough here for several quality sessions of role-playing adventure. But adventure isn’t all that this product is about. It’s also a sourcebook for the Empires of the Dragon Sands. To that end, there are not less than seven new monsters, five new magical items, a host of new equipment, and a new prestige class fully detailed in this sourcebook. Furthermore, certain key areas (those that might be used on a semi-regular basis in a campaign) are given extra treatment. For example, even though an inn which the characters visit early on serves as little more than a backdrop for this adventure, details of the owner, regular visitors, rumors that might be gathered there, and plot hooks are given and a map of the place is included, making it easier for GMs to use it in a future adventure or to expand this one. There are even a whole section of new NPCs and plenty of ideas for continuing the adventure. In short, not only is this a high-quality adventure, but also a great sourcebook that expands the Bluffsides campaign setting. Critical Hits I think the thing that I found most interesting about this work is the concept of theme boxes. This is my first excursion into Thunderhead Games products, but if all of them utilize theme boxes, it won’t be my last. The theme box approach utilizes checkboxes at certain key encounters. The most commonly utilized are Greater Than and Less Than, which provide a means for the GM to quickly alter the encounter for parties or higher than or lower than the recommended strength for the adventure. Others include Holier Than Thou (options for parties with strong or multiple divine spellcasters), Mind Over Matter (for parties with strong or multiple psionic characters), Puzzles and Pits (for roleplay heavy parties), Spell Slingers (for parties with strong or multiple arcane spellcasters), Sword and Shield (for parties with strong or multiple fighters), and Treacherous Traps (for parties with strong or multiple rogues). Of course, not every encounter has a theme box and not all theme boxes are present where they are used. The idea is a good one and I’m only sorry that someone hasn’t thought of it before now. It’s nice to have these options available for a group like mine, that tends to have more bloodthirsty types than thinkers and whose ability to roll 20s seems uncanny. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the sourcebook material as well. The setting is a dry, dusty desert, where the heat can get oppressive during the day. In such conditions, metal armor would cook anyone wearing it within a few hours. To combat this problem, the inhabitants of these lands have developed ceramic armor in place of metal plates. It’s a good system, and one that gives a nice touch of fantasy to the setting. I also applaud the fact that the maps are largely interspersed in the text of the adventure, at the entry for the encounter location. This makes running the adventure a lot easier, as I don’t have to flip back and forth between a map page and the adventure. Critical Misses I didn’t find any real problems with Sands of Pain. From a mechanical standpoint, everything seems well balanced, the adventure is not only playable, but also interesting, and the setting is rife with flavor. It is, as I said, very much setting-specific, but I don’t consider that a fault, since it is a part of the Bluffsides campaign line and it is easily adapted to other settings with a minimum of work. There are one or two references to spells or items detailed in other Thunderhead Games products, and it would have been nice to see them reprinted here, but they are not vital to the adventure and the loss is minimal, at best. Coup de Grace In summary, a great product with a lot of support for an established campaign setting, yet flexible enough to stand on its own. If you are just looking for a fun adventure in an Arabian-style setting, you’ll love this one. If you are an avid collector of the Bluffsides campaign series, you really can’t go wrong! d20 Compliance is observed throughout the book and the Open Gaming Content is set off by shaded boxes, making it easy to identify it at a glance. Most all of the new material is designated OGC. This adventure is highly playable, not only because of the expansions to key encounter locales (that provide them to be used in further adventures), but because of the sourcebook material that is included herein. Players will find less material specifically targeted at them, but the new equipment section has a few new weapons and a lot of ceramic armor. Even though it is an Arabian-setting, the designers have not fallen back on timeworn clichés in the design of the adventure. The setting is unique and the adventure itself fairly fresh and exciting. For the price you pay, you get a lot of good stuff. I’d say it’s well worth it whether you’re a newcomer to the setting, or a long-time resident.To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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