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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SJ" data-source="post: 2010649" data-attributes="member: 6325">Note: This is a playtest review.Plague of Dreams (PoD) is an introductory character level adventure from <a href="http://www.fierydragon.com" target="_blank">Fiery Dragon Productions</a> for <a href="http://www.arcanaunearthed.com" target="_blank">Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed</a> (AU) game. The guidelines suggest that this module will take 4 1st-level characters to approximately 3rd level by completion. The product is a 64-page adventure with color covers and black-and-white pages. The retail price is $15 USD.PoD takes place in and around the city of Gahanis, a location in the central region of the default lands of the AU game, the upcoming Diamond Throne (DT) setting. The party is introduced to the adventure through contact with a local trade guild, one noted for its mystery and secrecy of operations. It seems this guild, among other parties, desires a powerful magic item, and their best clue to its location has been appropriated by bandits. Unknown to the party, a powerful force mirrors their every move, setting up a climactic battle in the final chapter. Whether the characters agree to work for the guild or not, they will travel to many points of interest including an abandoned fortress built by the Giants hundreds of years ago and a mystical lake where villains and beasts are rumored to lair.  Each of these locations is detailed, with 16 pages of the book dedicated to providing content for the city of Gahanis. This feature alone is welcomed as at the time of this writing the Diamond Throne product from <a href="http://www.montecook.com" target="_blank">Malhavoc Press</a> is not yet available. DM's looking to get started with AU games for their players should appreciate the information offered for the party's initial home base. While not intricately detailed, (there are no maps of significant buildings of the city, or detailed statblocks for each shop owner and passerby), there are plenty of intrigues, backgrounds, and flavor text to allow a DM to breathe life and pique interest into his AU game. As an example, the owners of the various trade guilds compete for business (legitimate and otherwise), and there are multiple instances of petty conflicts and opinions among the owners and operators mentioned in the location descriptions.The adventure itself ties in with the residents and visitors to Gahanis, so alternative hooks and seeds to the suggested plot line are easy to accommodate. This is one feature I demand from adventures, as my parties NEVER seem to be able to follow the planned path. With enough detail on the attitudes and motivations of the NPC's in Gahanis available, any DM should be able to reign in those birdwalking party members and get them to generally follow the module sequence. If the players choose not to trust the guild who initially contacts them, any number of officials from the city or merchants would be more than willing to include the PC's in their plans for uncovering the mystery set before them.No new classes are offered by PoD, but since AU is only weeks old, there should be plenty of new material from AU itself to satisfy. PoD does feature some new monsters from the DT setting, as well as offering up a few low CR baddies on its own. The stats for these monsters, like the Dark Scamp and Seether, are detailed in the module. What is missing, however, is a good image of each beast. While images are provided in the Counter Collection IV: Worlds of the Diamond Throne product (which I also own, so it wasn't a problem for me), there is no good visual representation in the module. Images here would have helped.In terms of the general art included with PoD, it is very good, if sparse. A few images are used to give glimpses into the NPC's, and others are artist perspectives of interesting locations described in the adventure. The Giant-built town hall of Gahanis and the looming wall and gate of the Battlehome fortress were neat enough I copied them to distribute to the players (and help add visuals to my descriptions). The maps for the fortress layout and dungeon/cave locations are excellent quality, but no more special than you'd expect from a basic 2-d layout. The overland maps of the areas near Gahanis are not as detailed, but are generally useful. The map of the city of Gahanis is fairly detailed and is keyed to the descriptions of locations in the text. I bought PoD at GenCon and was given a color handout of the city map without the keyed location markers. I don't know if retail buyers will get this map, but it's on glossy paper and looks great. Perhaps it will be offered as a free download.In playing, the amount of flexibility given by having places to go and people to talk to allowed a great depth of roleplaying to the game. We have all likely experienced a situation where the DM tended to railroad the party into the plot hooks because he didn't have enough satellite material to allow the party to explore. Improvising is fine, but it's quite convenient to have pregenerated material that you know is consistent with the adventure on hand.The encounters provide a nice mix of city-based roleplaying, allowing DM's to sow a little intrigue and introduce some recurring NPC's, with outdoor adventuring where using the land and dealing with the elements lets your Greenbonds and Witches shine, with good ol' dungeon crawling where the nasties lie in the darkness waiting for your characters to bring them dinner. We had a rather large party (up to 8 characters), and I found some of the encounters to be slightly less challenging to them as written, but it is a trivial matter to increase the danger for an encounter as opposed to trying to scale it back on the fly.I give Plague of Dreams a top score, it provides a detailed backdrop for a blooming AU campaign, with great locations and interesting NPC's, as well as a good mystery that will lead your players into multiple locations, traps, and conflicts. In my mind, anything less than the best score means that there are parts of the adventure that I would have done (or wish had been done) differently. Despite the few minor concerns voiced above, I wouldn't have changed PoD at all.As one additional item, it segues nicely into <a href="http://mysticeyegames" target="_blank">Mystic Eye Games'</a> <a href="http://www.mysticeyegames.com/products.php?product=34&p_id=17" target="_blank">Siege on Ebonring Keep</a>, so that you can use both adventures for your AU game. Cooperation among licensees in this way is something DM's should really appreciate, I know I did.</blockquote>

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