Mouseferatu
Hero
Okay, here we are. The second of my two reviews for the Kenzer products I received. Some of you may have seen my less than glowing review for Quest for the Unknown for the Hackmaster game. Well, the good folks at Kenzer will be pleased to know that I think much more highly of this one. 
That said, though, let's get the flaws out of the way first.
(I'm not going to provide a plot summary. There are a few dozen other reviews floating around, both here, on the actual reviews page, and on RPG.net. And my fingers hurt.
)
Although I didn't notice as many here as I did in QftU, there were still a substantial number of missing words, incorrect punctuation (again with the en-dashes!), and general typos. I don't expect any product to be perfect--heck, most of my work has been for White Wolf, the undisputed RPG king of typos--but I feel they were a tad excessive.
(If anyone from WW is reading: it's a well known fact. Please don't fire me.)
I was also unimpressed with several of the traps/puzzles in the queen's maze. A lot of them were "designed to confuse intruders," but they didn't do any real harm, or really do much but slow them down. I got the impression that the writers had some ideas they thought were really cool, but they couldn't figure out how to make them work as "real" traps, so they were thrown in as is to "cause confusion."
Finally, while I really liked the inclusion of the supplimental material--the pictures, the contents of the libraries, the new prestige class (which isn't really a prestige class in the truest sense of the word)--I felt that there was a bit much. I didn't pay for Deathright, but if I had, I'd be a little disappointed. I'd have wanted more story and fewer "bonuses" for my money.
Now that that's out of the way, though...
In terms of overall story and the feel of the product, this is one of the best 3E modules I've picked up. The story had some really neat elements to it; even the love story angle was well done, and such things rarely are in gaming products. Kenzer also gets extra points for using a female lich, something I've done in my own games but have rarely seen in print, other than the occasional mention of the Githyanki queen.
(If you feel obliged to chime in here and point out someplace where you've seen a female lich in print--please don't. I said I've rarely seen it, not that it was never done.)
The multiple locations are all interesting, and the NPCs are all quite distinctive--despite only appearing "on screen" very briefly. The villains are fleshed out enough to be fully playable, again despite relatively brief screen time. And I particularly liked the fact that the party need not--in fact, probably should not--actually battle the queen at the end, but instead has other means of dealing with her.
I think the highest compliment I can pay Deathright is this: I've never had any interest before in picking up the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. This module has sparked that interest. I can't swear I'll buy it--$35 is still a hefty chunk for a campaign world that I'll likely steal from but not use in its entirety--but I'm at least considering it. And that's all on the strengths and interesting facets of this module.
I do have one other comment to make before I'm done. I did some work recently on a forthcoming Scarred Lands project, in which I had to create several random encounter charts. I remember how mind-numbing chart creation is. I was only basing them on a d% roll, and I still felt, by the end, that the charts were gnawing on my eyeballs.
Somewhere, locked away in an asylum where nobody will ever find him, a Kenzer author is wrapped in a straightjacket, gibbering madly and trying to slam his head into the padded walls hard enough to knock out his eyes. The random encounter table utilizes a d10,000!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoever conceived of that monstrosity needs to either get off the drugs, or take a whole lot more of 'em. And whoever was sadistic enough to make some poor author put it down on paper should spend eternity chained to a needle-keyed typewriter, constantly retyping Hemmingway's "Fairwell to Arms." 
Kudos overall, guys. I'm impressed.
That said, though, let's get the flaws out of the way first.
(I'm not going to provide a plot summary. There are a few dozen other reviews floating around, both here, on the actual reviews page, and on RPG.net. And my fingers hurt.
)Although I didn't notice as many here as I did in QftU, there were still a substantial number of missing words, incorrect punctuation (again with the en-dashes!), and general typos. I don't expect any product to be perfect--heck, most of my work has been for White Wolf, the undisputed RPG king of typos--but I feel they were a tad excessive.
(If anyone from WW is reading: it's a well known fact. Please don't fire me.
)I was also unimpressed with several of the traps/puzzles in the queen's maze. A lot of them were "designed to confuse intruders," but they didn't do any real harm, or really do much but slow them down. I got the impression that the writers had some ideas they thought were really cool, but they couldn't figure out how to make them work as "real" traps, so they were thrown in as is to "cause confusion."
Finally, while I really liked the inclusion of the supplimental material--the pictures, the contents of the libraries, the new prestige class (which isn't really a prestige class in the truest sense of the word)--I felt that there was a bit much. I didn't pay for Deathright, but if I had, I'd be a little disappointed. I'd have wanted more story and fewer "bonuses" for my money.
Now that that's out of the way, though...
In terms of overall story and the feel of the product, this is one of the best 3E modules I've picked up. The story had some really neat elements to it; even the love story angle was well done, and such things rarely are in gaming products. Kenzer also gets extra points for using a female lich, something I've done in my own games but have rarely seen in print, other than the occasional mention of the Githyanki queen.
(If you feel obliged to chime in here and point out someplace where you've seen a female lich in print--please don't. I said I've rarely seen it, not that it was never done.)
The multiple locations are all interesting, and the NPCs are all quite distinctive--despite only appearing "on screen" very briefly. The villains are fleshed out enough to be fully playable, again despite relatively brief screen time. And I particularly liked the fact that the party need not--in fact, probably should not--actually battle the queen at the end, but instead has other means of dealing with her.
I think the highest compliment I can pay Deathright is this: I've never had any interest before in picking up the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. This module has sparked that interest. I can't swear I'll buy it--$35 is still a hefty chunk for a campaign world that I'll likely steal from but not use in its entirety--but I'm at least considering it. And that's all on the strengths and interesting facets of this module.
I do have one other comment to make before I'm done. I did some work recently on a forthcoming Scarred Lands project, in which I had to create several random encounter charts. I remember how mind-numbing chart creation is. I was only basing them on a d% roll, and I still felt, by the end, that the charts were gnawing on my eyeballs.
Somewhere, locked away in an asylum where nobody will ever find him, a Kenzer author is wrapped in a straightjacket, gibbering madly and trying to slam his head into the padded walls hard enough to knock out his eyes. The random encounter table utilizes a d10,000!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoever conceived of that monstrosity needs to either get off the drugs, or take a whole lot more of 'em. And whoever was sadistic enough to make some poor author put it down on paper should spend eternity chained to a needle-keyed typewriter, constantly retyping Hemmingway's "Fairwell to Arms."
Kudos overall, guys. I'm impressed.
