Something that's missing from even the central tomes of
D&D itself is a friendly, cohesive guide for beginners. Fast Forward Entertainment seeks to fill this gap with an adventure and guidebook--
Orcfest. The volume is touted as a "rollicking quest" that will help players and DMs alike learn the craft and fun of playing, while gaining a solid grasp of the rules. It's said to be a learn-as-you-go manual, adding layers to the game as the adventure unfolds, complete with diagrams that "easily illustrate any aspect of the game". Written by a veteran designer,
Orcfest has a lot going for it as a unique product, if it manages to be the "perfect learner's manual" the back cover blurb claims.
Orcfest starts out with a guide for beginning players, thinning out the rules and giving summaries of some harder to understand features of the game. When one is just looking at the numbers selecting a class for one's first character can be quite daunting. Unfortunately, this manual is shallow on the rules; the section that explains classes details only four of them. In explaining other rules, the book takes many pages to explain what a DM (even a beginning one just somewhat familiar with the rules) could make clear after a few moments of talking to the players. That's if those players haven't read the rules.
Sections on combat are equally vapid, stating that more detail is added later in the adventure, which isn't really the case. The guidelines don't even reference the core books by title, abbreviation, or sections (as allowed by the d2o Guide) to aid the unfamiliar with locating the rules they're trying to learn. Further, the diagrams that illustrate game mechanics are a depiction of combat against a single enemy and then multiple foes. One part shows a character moving in a way that's contrary to the text, and the text itself refers to the wrong part of the diagram. Since there are no other diagrams in the adventure,
Orcfest hardly elucidates these few facets of the game, much less "any aspect". The explanation of combat does not include die roll results to illustrate points either (like both the
PHB and
DMG do in their examples).
Orcfest misses the opportunity to explain more complex, yet valuable, tactics to the inexperienced, such as casting or fighting on the defensive, charging, and other special maneuvers--all of which are available in the SRD. (In fact, a printout of the combat section of the SRD might prove a better tool.)
Conversely, the parts of the player's guide that describe things unrelated to the rules are pretty good. Players are instructed in good play etiquette, what to expect from differing adventure locales, and how to interact with NPCs. All of these things might be overwhelming to a new player, and some understanding before jumping into a game is certainly valuable. Reid seems to support the roleplaying style of play (as opposed to "kick-in-the-door"), which is a great thing to show as valuable to new players, even though the latter style can be fun too.
Speaking of fun, the adventure section is next, complete with tidbits for a new DM. As one can find out on the back cover of
Orcfest, the tale is set in a frontier town named Solitude on the border between human and orc lands. Powers that be in Solitude know the orcs are about to have a grand festival in which many tribes gather. The mayor of the town is concerned that the barbaric humanoids are about to assault Solitude. He needs help.
The adventure needs help too, for it's not well conceived. Though it starts out with a great piece of action to set the mood, it quickly degenerates into cliché, poor use of mechanics, and indolent storytelling. Very unusual items that are required to complete later parts of the adventure just happen to be located nearby--in a dungeon into which the intrepid PCs must delve. Those heroes are on a tight time limit, yet this fact is largely ignored with distances to places and when the text suggests repeat attempts at failed missions. A few examples of poor mechanics are no DC given for some skill checks, using CR and EL interchangeably, text that mentions treasure (gems) yet gives no value for those gems, and so on. It's important to get things right when a product holds itself up as not just an adventure, but also an instruction manual.
Perhaps it's more important to show a new DM how to construct a story, but as I mentioned, the story is poorly rendered. Many of the NPCs in the base town could easily handle the pivotal ventures the heroes are asked to undertake. Many of the encounters can easily overwhelm a low-level group. Inscriptions in one area provide clues to enter secret rooms in another with a "you-forgot-your-password" flair, and equally as unlikely, traps are placed in areas that would be commonly traversed by those inhabiting a place. As anyone could guess, the enemies of Solitude do have a plan, but the not a good one, involving influencing a monster with magic that the caster can't pull off, due to his Will save and the target's HD. If the DM just assumes the plan succeeds anyway, that creature is CR 9, so the story is written so the "heroes" don't face it, while the more powerful characters in Solitude do. One also has to wonder why the orc chieftain, who is neutral in alignment, is so keen on eradicating the border settlement.
Once again,
Orcfest redeems itself to a certain extent with the advice it gives new DMs. The design of Solitude itself shows a creative knack for fudging the statistics of inhabitants that live in rough areas, per suggestions from the
DMG. Further, Solitude has a purpose for existing on the dangerous border--lumber and the remnants of a lost civilization. The DM's guidelines also encourages realism when it comes to law, limited availability of magic items except as rewards, and solid advice for interacting with the players (and their characters) in a fair and fun-inducing manner. Other gems include ideas for adjusting monsters without reducing their CR, and creating special roles for certain NPCs. Especially good is a section on experience awards based on story accomplishments, used instead of monster kills. One must remember, however, that all of these points have a home in one core rulebook or another.
Moreover, some of the DM material is not praiseworthy. An example includes aiding player mapping by giving exact directions and measurements. While this is hardly an unusual technique, when's the last time you could eyeball a room and get the exact measurements and compass directions? How useful is the skill Intuit Direction coupled with such free information? Much worse,
Orcfest presents an encounter area (the orc festival) that it arguably too complex for beginning DMs and players. Limited notes on orcish culture therein contain a long list of how the PCs might screw up, due to lack of familiarity with orc traditions, such as they are. That same section ends with an admonition to go easy on the players, because they can tire of keeping up the ruse of posing as orcs. In several places, the notes for the DM promote the exceptionally bad technique of reminding the players of their goals, or telling them what they should do when the going gets rough. Use this idea and see how quickly your players rely on you to get them out of all sorts of situations, instead of playing intelligently.
Readers, on the other hand, should rely on a book's layout to keep things clear, so little must be said about the graphic presentation of
Orcfest. While the typography gets the job done (that is, it gets the text in the book), the presentation is often unattractive, and sometimes hampers the usefulness of the book. Font size changes regularly for no apparent reason, while here a section head is printed as body text, and there text intended to be read aloud is not typeset like other read-aloud sections, easily mistaken for body text. The illustrations and maps are all good, however. Even the cover art is striking, though the background has been clipped, leaving rough spots.
Orcfest is a coarse attempt itself. The adventure is formulaic, poorly edited, and lazily designed (game-wise and graphically). Most of the "advice" offered can be gleaned from the rulebooks with relative ease. This book isn't even a good learners manual, much less a perfect one. It reads as if Fast Forward tried to make a mediocre, 40-page adventure more saleable by packaging it in the façade of a 96-page education tool that also promotes the sale of their
Green Races setting. While a group can certainly have some enjoyment playing
Orcfest, and even learn a thing or two, this fair simply isn't worth the price of admission.
This review was originally written for
Gaming Frontiers on 01/15/03.
