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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009847" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains spoilers.This is not a playtest review.Raw Recruits contains adventure material for characters of levels 1 to 6, and is a licensed Dragonstar product by Mystic Eye Games, with permission from Fantasy Flight Games. For those of you who have not come across Dragonstar - its a campaign setting that is quickly, though somewhat unfairly, described as D&D in space.Raw Recruits is a 160-page softcover product costing $24.99. Though the majority of the book is mono, the first 16 pages and the inside covers are full colour. Margins, font size and white space vary considerably - there are two full white pages for notes at the end, and the font size and line spacing change as the book progresses from good to poor. Art runs mainly from average to good and maps, though a little bland, are functional, with scale and compass direction where appropriate. Writing style is good, and editing is average with occasional but regular errors.Raw Recruits actually consists of four separate adventures with advice for stringing them together to create a mini-campaign. The mini-campaign has as its focus a large space exploration vessel, the Evarstanza. The ship is owned by Mercucio, a half-dragon leader of the Sevartha Exploration League. Mercucio is looking for a group to go on exploration missions on his ship, offering generous rewards for those who join up...enter the PCs. Well, in fact the PCs have already entered, as the product presumes the PCs are already working for Mercucio and give no guidelines or presentation of the recruitment process other than a short piece of flavour text at the very beginning.The colour pages at the beginning give a background to Mercucio, the Evarstanza and its crew. Its a shame that the crew's personality descriptions are separated from their stat blocks but the personalities are interesting and described well. The ship and its accompanying map are suitable for use outside the adventures (and outside the Dragonstar setting for that matter).Six short 'interludes' give the GM some ideas for running life aboard the Evarstanza between the four adventures. These are followed by the stat blocks for the Evarstanza's crew, and then onto the four main adventures. 1. 'Aftermath' is a diplomacy-orientated adventure as the PCs investigate a mysterious power reading from a planet considered "off limits" by the Empire. Its designed for characters of levels 1 to 2 and contains stats for a new race, the Asharin, and advice for scaling the adventure.2. 'Ancient Factory' takes place in a mithral refinery run by a soulmech. The PCs must brave the dangers of the old refinery. Again there is advice on scaling the adventure, and running it standalone. It is designed for PCs of levels 2 to 4.3. 'Freighter 237' is designed for PCs of levels 3-5 and cleverly creates an aliens-style atmosphere of suspense and horror as they investigate a derelict spaceship.4. 'The Dead Cannon' features a more combat-orientated adventure as the PCs attempt to recover a dangerous weapon from a lunar laboratory. This is probably most effective when run as the climax of the previous three adventures but there is still advice to run it standalone.Appendix 1 offers new monsters and templates from the adventures, whilst appendix 2 has new items, and appendix 3 has new spells. There is a 6-page index which seems unnecessarily long due to the larger font used here.Conclusion: A clever set of adventures in that they each concentrate on a different set of player skills - roleplaying, skill use, puzzle solving, and combat & tactics. They can be used standalone but work most effectively as a linked series of adventures, and there is advice for scaling. The adventures themselves are not amazingly original, and do have some oddities (such as a halfling getting pregnant by a human) as well as occasionally being a bit railroaded. However, they should all provide a good basis for an adventure or campaign (with a little work) for Dragonstar, and could be raided for plot ideas for other settings.</blockquote>

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