Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Lean & Hungry is a Japanese-style adventure from Atlas Games and is designed for characters of 4th-6th level.
Lean & Hungry is a 64-page mono softcover product costing $14.95. Largish spaces between paragraphs and titles, along with a few chunks of white space at the end of chapters, give the product an airy feel. Two pages of ads don't help this aspect. Art runs from good to average; the front cover showing a cameo of the main protagonist and a horde of undead. The maps are a little small, but clear and scaled. Writing style is good, whilst editing is average with minor but regular mistakes.
Introduction
This section gives the background to the adventure. Centuries ago, an evil alchemist performed a ritual to achieve divinity in a specially built sanctum, which required her to bathe in the essence of divine winds for a millenium. Afterwards, a group of demon hunters sealed the sanctum, but released the alchemist's undead cannibalistic servitors (jikininki) from the sanctum in the process. Centuries passed and barbarian bandits hired by a relic hunter came looking for the sanctum (now resembling only an earthen mound). The bandits terrorised the local population until faced with a group of samurai who happened to be in the area. The PCs enter the framework as the samurai have just been smashed by the bandits and the jikininki have risen at the smell of blood and flesh in the vicinity.
There is some advice for amending the adventure to non-Japanese settings (or a mix of the two), some plot hooks, roleplaying advice for the GM, and a plot synopsis
Chapter One: A City Besieged
This chapter has the PCs entering the area and travelling toward the village of Mura through villages razed by the bandits. There are community stats for Mura and some rumours that can be gathered. The PCs enter Mura with some roleplaying opportunities and can discover the existence of the jikininki (possibly first hand) and the bandits. A new wondrous item, the Vigilant Lantern, which casts a light that detects evil, is described.
Chapter Two: The Barbarian Raiders
This chapter looks at the bandits lair, and the possible roleplaying opportunities that might arise when the PCs confront the barbarian raiders and their relic hunter employer,plus further roleplaying encounters back in Mura.
Chapter Three: The Field Of Combat
The PCs investigate the field where the battle between the samurai and the bandits took place, possibly facing attack by the jikininki, golem-like terracotta soldiers who act as guardians to the alchemist's sanctum, controlled by the alchemist's earth spirit familiar. The PCs may discover the underground lair of the jikininki and may fall victims of the foul curse that created the jikininki (a new spell to this end is provided).
Chapter Four: The Ancient Kofun
This chapter describes the layout and ancounters within the alchemist's sanctum, which include the traps and guards set by the demon hunters who sealed the sanctum. The encounters are a mixture of timed events and location by location description, with new wondrous items and creatures suited to the genre. The encounters and locations require a mix of skill use, combat, and puzzle-solving. In the climactic battle, the PCs must face the alchemist who has been transormed by her very long bath into a very nasty adversary, that the PCs will likely be unable to defeat. The main aim, however, should be for the PCs to stop her transformation into an evil deity rather than killing her - they are best advised to run once they have awakened her. This may be a deadly encounter for gung-ho parties (CR 13 minimum, more with servitors) and the GM may need to make some changes to suit the natures of her players.
Chapter Five: And They All Lived...
This chapter discusses resolving the various issues detailed in the adventure, possible consequences of the PCs actions along with some further adventure ideas linked to the Lean & Hungry plotline, and guidelines for XP awards.
Appendix One: New NPC Classes
This appendix contains two new 20-level NPC classes -the criminal (an NPC variant on the rogue), and the faithful (an NPC variant of the cleric), based on a similar relationship as the adept has to the sorcerer/wizard. Apart from the fact that the criminal has non-standard save progressions and the faithful has 3 skill points per level, they are just toned-down versions of the classes noted above.
Appendix Two: Characters
This chapter gives stat blocks, description, background and roleplaying advice for the main NPCs. A spot check on the main character of the bandit leader revealed a number of errors - available skill points not matching, additional damage from strength bonus for a two-handed weapon not taken into account, and a 5th-level character with the Leadership feat. This does not bode well for the rest of the stat blocks and GMs using the module would be advised to check these out before use.
Conclusion:
Despite the dodgy stat blocks, Lean & Hungry should make an entertaining adventure for the GM willing to put in a little work in preparation - there may also be a need to water down the final encounter. There is a mix of roleplaying, combat, and skill use, though the first half of the adventure is very roleplaying oriented whilst the second half relies primarily on skill use and combat. The detail on the personality, behaviour, and goals of each of the NPCs is refreshing and helpful, and the plotline intriguing and atmospheric. Though best suited for an Asian setting, with a little further work this could be amended to other campaign settings.
This is not a playtest review.
Lean & Hungry is a Japanese-style adventure from Atlas Games and is designed for characters of 4th-6th level.
Lean & Hungry is a 64-page mono softcover product costing $14.95. Largish spaces between paragraphs and titles, along with a few chunks of white space at the end of chapters, give the product an airy feel. Two pages of ads don't help this aspect. Art runs from good to average; the front cover showing a cameo of the main protagonist and a horde of undead. The maps are a little small, but clear and scaled. Writing style is good, whilst editing is average with minor but regular mistakes.
Introduction
This section gives the background to the adventure. Centuries ago, an evil alchemist performed a ritual to achieve divinity in a specially built sanctum, which required her to bathe in the essence of divine winds for a millenium. Afterwards, a group of demon hunters sealed the sanctum, but released the alchemist's undead cannibalistic servitors (jikininki) from the sanctum in the process. Centuries passed and barbarian bandits hired by a relic hunter came looking for the sanctum (now resembling only an earthen mound). The bandits terrorised the local population until faced with a group of samurai who happened to be in the area. The PCs enter the framework as the samurai have just been smashed by the bandits and the jikininki have risen at the smell of blood and flesh in the vicinity.
There is some advice for amending the adventure to non-Japanese settings (or a mix of the two), some plot hooks, roleplaying advice for the GM, and a plot synopsis
Chapter One: A City Besieged
This chapter has the PCs entering the area and travelling toward the village of Mura through villages razed by the bandits. There are community stats for Mura and some rumours that can be gathered. The PCs enter Mura with some roleplaying opportunities and can discover the existence of the jikininki (possibly first hand) and the bandits. A new wondrous item, the Vigilant Lantern, which casts a light that detects evil, is described.
Chapter Two: The Barbarian Raiders
This chapter looks at the bandits lair, and the possible roleplaying opportunities that might arise when the PCs confront the barbarian raiders and their relic hunter employer,plus further roleplaying encounters back in Mura.
Chapter Three: The Field Of Combat
The PCs investigate the field where the battle between the samurai and the bandits took place, possibly facing attack by the jikininki, golem-like terracotta soldiers who act as guardians to the alchemist's sanctum, controlled by the alchemist's earth spirit familiar. The PCs may discover the underground lair of the jikininki and may fall victims of the foul curse that created the jikininki (a new spell to this end is provided).
Chapter Four: The Ancient Kofun
This chapter describes the layout and ancounters within the alchemist's sanctum, which include the traps and guards set by the demon hunters who sealed the sanctum. The encounters are a mixture of timed events and location by location description, with new wondrous items and creatures suited to the genre. The encounters and locations require a mix of skill use, combat, and puzzle-solving. In the climactic battle, the PCs must face the alchemist who has been transormed by her very long bath into a very nasty adversary, that the PCs will likely be unable to defeat. The main aim, however, should be for the PCs to stop her transformation into an evil deity rather than killing her - they are best advised to run once they have awakened her. This may be a deadly encounter for gung-ho parties (CR 13 minimum, more with servitors) and the GM may need to make some changes to suit the natures of her players.
Chapter Five: And They All Lived...
This chapter discusses resolving the various issues detailed in the adventure, possible consequences of the PCs actions along with some further adventure ideas linked to the Lean & Hungry plotline, and guidelines for XP awards.
Appendix One: New NPC Classes
This appendix contains two new 20-level NPC classes -the criminal (an NPC variant on the rogue), and the faithful (an NPC variant of the cleric), based on a similar relationship as the adept has to the sorcerer/wizard. Apart from the fact that the criminal has non-standard save progressions and the faithful has 3 skill points per level, they are just toned-down versions of the classes noted above.
Appendix Two: Characters
This chapter gives stat blocks, description, background and roleplaying advice for the main NPCs. A spot check on the main character of the bandit leader revealed a number of errors - available skill points not matching, additional damage from strength bonus for a two-handed weapon not taken into account, and a 5th-level character with the Leadership feat. This does not bode well for the rest of the stat blocks and GMs using the module would be advised to check these out before use.
Conclusion:
Despite the dodgy stat blocks, Lean & Hungry should make an entertaining adventure for the GM willing to put in a little work in preparation - there may also be a need to water down the final encounter. There is a mix of roleplaying, combat, and skill use, though the first half of the adventure is very roleplaying oriented whilst the second half relies primarily on skill use and combat. The detail on the personality, behaviour, and goals of each of the NPCs is refreshing and helpful, and the plotline intriguing and atmospheric. Though best suited for an Asian setting, with a little further work this could be amended to other campaign settings.
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