Crothian
First Post
Of Sound Mind
There seem to be only a few really good modules out there these days. Companies are not putting resources to modules as they once did and while there have been a few gems most have been sub par. Modules have limited use and these days seem to me parts sourcebook then true adventure. It is a trend that Of Sound Mind does not follow, but it does not need to. It is a good module.
Of Sound Mind is an adventure written by Kevin Kulp. Kevin Kulp is also known as Piratecat and is an Administrator on EN World. This review comes since I ran the module then contacted Fiery Dragon to do a review of their pdf of it after I noticed they had this version released. I have heard a lot of talk about the module on the boards from many different people. But what really got me to try the module was the forward that Bruce Cordell wrote. It is a very glowing forward and impressed me very much.
Of Sound Mind is a pdf module by Fiery Dragon. It first appeared as a print module and one would imagine it can still be found in that format. The pdf is very similar to the print one in content, layout, and look. The pdf comes in a zip file a bit of 6 megs and the pdf itself is a little over six and a half megs. The pdf is fifty two pages in length. The re is a bit of color in the front and back, but these pages are not needed to run the adventure. So printing it out should be easy and not eat up a lot of ink as the pages have no borders or items that consume large quantities of ink. The art and maps are well done and easy to use. There is not a lot of either in the module making it nice and simple in that way.
The module is billed a psionic fantasy adventure. While psionics are a part of the adventure it is easy to remove them. Personally, I have never been a big fan of psionics in my fantasy game but found them used well here. Characters do not need to be psionics for the module to work. That was one of my first worries and I was pleased to learn that was not the case. The module does not start immediately. There are a few sections on preparations, background information for the Dungeon Master, advice for fitting the module into one’s campaign, and altering the focus of the adventure. By altering the focus I mean by making it more role playing or making it more combat oriented or tactically. This allows many different styles of campaigns to make use of this module. These sections are not big but they are a superb way to make sure as many different DMs can make use of this module as possible. It is these details that make me go back to a company and author more then once.
The module also comes with counters and dreams. Fiery Dragon is well known for their counter collections and I really love that they have counters specifically for this adventure included. This is a great mix of their strength as a company and it allows them to offer something the other companies do not. The counters are full color and easy to print out and make use of. The dreams are player handouts. There are twelve dreams presented here for different classes. On Fiery Dragon’s website one will find all the dreams plus an additional one. It would have been nice if they included it in the pdf, but as it is free on their website it should be easy enough for any one to get. The dreams are small handouts for the players and are very well written and more then a little bit creepy. These are just another great little detail for the adventure.
The adventure is designed for first level characters but has suggestions to make it a little harder doe parties of a higher level. The adventure starts in the town of Bellhold and while it is not fully defined makes for a nice small town that the can be used after the adventure is over. There are a few fun encounters and NPCS in the town that players can really take a liking or hating too depending on how things go. From there the adventures go to explore some minds and run into few interesting a some new creatures. Some of the encounters in there seem like a bit of a stretch to me and did not seem to fit that well. The encounters though were well balanced overall fAor the levels suggested and made for a fun day. The solution to it all was a little obvious and even without the hints provided a group should figure it out with ease.
When I ran it the group was of a higher level then they suggest and with some tweaking it worked out just fine. The dreams were a hit and when it was over the players were really curious as to what the other ones were. Hopefully there will eventually be an Of Sound Mind 2, Kevin Kulp has more then a little bit of talent.
There seem to be only a few really good modules out there these days. Companies are not putting resources to modules as they once did and while there have been a few gems most have been sub par. Modules have limited use and these days seem to me parts sourcebook then true adventure. It is a trend that Of Sound Mind does not follow, but it does not need to. It is a good module.
Of Sound Mind is an adventure written by Kevin Kulp. Kevin Kulp is also known as Piratecat and is an Administrator on EN World. This review comes since I ran the module then contacted Fiery Dragon to do a review of their pdf of it after I noticed they had this version released. I have heard a lot of talk about the module on the boards from many different people. But what really got me to try the module was the forward that Bruce Cordell wrote. It is a very glowing forward and impressed me very much.
Of Sound Mind is a pdf module by Fiery Dragon. It first appeared as a print module and one would imagine it can still be found in that format. The pdf is very similar to the print one in content, layout, and look. The pdf comes in a zip file a bit of 6 megs and the pdf itself is a little over six and a half megs. The pdf is fifty two pages in length. The re is a bit of color in the front and back, but these pages are not needed to run the adventure. So printing it out should be easy and not eat up a lot of ink as the pages have no borders or items that consume large quantities of ink. The art and maps are well done and easy to use. There is not a lot of either in the module making it nice and simple in that way.
The module is billed a psionic fantasy adventure. While psionics are a part of the adventure it is easy to remove them. Personally, I have never been a big fan of psionics in my fantasy game but found them used well here. Characters do not need to be psionics for the module to work. That was one of my first worries and I was pleased to learn that was not the case. The module does not start immediately. There are a few sections on preparations, background information for the Dungeon Master, advice for fitting the module into one’s campaign, and altering the focus of the adventure. By altering the focus I mean by making it more role playing or making it more combat oriented or tactically. This allows many different styles of campaigns to make use of this module. These sections are not big but they are a superb way to make sure as many different DMs can make use of this module as possible. It is these details that make me go back to a company and author more then once.
The module also comes with counters and dreams. Fiery Dragon is well known for their counter collections and I really love that they have counters specifically for this adventure included. This is a great mix of their strength as a company and it allows them to offer something the other companies do not. The counters are full color and easy to print out and make use of. The dreams are player handouts. There are twelve dreams presented here for different classes. On Fiery Dragon’s website one will find all the dreams plus an additional one. It would have been nice if they included it in the pdf, but as it is free on their website it should be easy enough for any one to get. The dreams are small handouts for the players and are very well written and more then a little bit creepy. These are just another great little detail for the adventure.
The adventure is designed for first level characters but has suggestions to make it a little harder doe parties of a higher level. The adventure starts in the town of Bellhold and while it is not fully defined makes for a nice small town that the can be used after the adventure is over. There are a few fun encounters and NPCS in the town that players can really take a liking or hating too depending on how things go. From there the adventures go to explore some minds and run into few interesting a some new creatures. Some of the encounters in there seem like a bit of a stretch to me and did not seem to fit that well. The encounters though were well balanced overall fAor the levels suggested and made for a fun day. The solution to it all was a little obvious and even without the hints provided a group should figure it out with ease.
When I ran it the group was of a higher level then they suggest and with some tweaking it worked out just fine. The dreams were a hit and when it was over the players were really curious as to what the other ones were. Hopefully there will eventually be an Of Sound Mind 2, Kevin Kulp has more then a little bit of talent.
