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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8883818" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 68: May/Jun 1998part 3/5Convergence: Another new system hits the shelves, and once again they give Chris the job of coming up with an adventure for it, since he's repeatedly proven that he does his homework (unlike certain other staff members) and won't drop thematic or mechanical clangers like putting saturday morning cartoon comic relief sidekicks in Athas or treating the Tarrasque like an apocalypse level threat in Council of Wyrms. There might still be cringy bits, like everyone having codenames that wouldn't look out of place as handles on modern day social media sites, but at least they'll be ones that make sense in context. Anyway, the PC's are hired to retrieve a scientist and their findings from a distant space station. They've got an alien artifact to analyse and want to make sure that Insight gets the info within and makes first contact. Of course, it wouldn't be an adventure if things went smoothly and Voidcorp already knows about it too. Their strike force gets there before you, takes over and pretend to be the station's legitimate authorities. Will you realise something is very wrong with the situation in time and be ready to deal with their attacks, make your way through the station to defeat the enemies and rescue the surviving civilians? As usual for Chris, he goes for quality rather than quantity in his adversaries, making sure they have detailed plans & personalities and don't risk themselves unnecessarily when they can communicate over vidscreen and use traps. If it looks like the PC's are winning easily, their morale will break and they'll try to get out of there to be scheming and unpleasant another day. As with his 5th Age adventure he's taking pains to make this not feel like D&D, but instead draws more on claustrophobic sci-fi stuff where the PC's will be on the back foot much of the adventure and have to use their wits rather than raw force to win the day. I think this counts as another success from him, both as an adventure and in providing a whole load of worldbuilding details that could be built upon and lead to future plots. He does seem to have an impressive variety of tricks up his sleeves that he's able to pull out now he's not being held back by another editor. Just how long can he keep up the energy to play multiple roles at once? Side Treks - One Winter's Night: What's that Lassie? It's time to rescue another trapped person in imminent danger? Let's get going then, no time to waste! As the title implies, it's getting dark and chilly, the PC's are travelling through a forest when a young boy in a panic rides by them. His uncle was trapped under a tree trunk while logging and wounded. They need to get him out and soon, because there are wolf-riding goblins in the area that could make an appearance any time. Does your party have the raw lifting power to move 850lbs of tree straight off, (an instance where a large party with mounts and hirelings will have a big advantage) or will you have to try something creative involving levers, magic or careful cutting around the problem. Unless you're very quick in getting it off and leaving the vicinity, the goblins will catch up with you either during the rescue or while you're carrying him away, giving you a pretty decent combat challenge due to their speed when wolf-riding and use of ranged weapons. Nothing groundbreaking, but all competently done, and it engages with the details of the lifting/carrying/encumbrance mechanics, which is an important part of the rules many adventures forget about these days. It's nice to have some challenges that have actual mechanics to their resolution that aren't combat. This can have a thumbs up for both of it's sections.</blockquote>

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