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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009877" data-attributes="member: 18387">By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer, d20 Magazine Rack Sizing Up the Target Dragonstar: Raw Recruits is a mega-adventure for the Dragonstar campaign setting from Mystic Eye Games. It is written by Doug Herring, Andrew Thompson, Bret Boyd, Chuck Rice, and Charles Plemons III, with illustrations by Alan Dyson, Marcio Fiorito, Chad Sergesketter, and Rob Thomas, and featuring the beautiful cartography of Ed Bourelle. It retails for $24.99 and totals 16 full-color and 144 black-and-white pages.First Blood Let me begin by saying that I have only a passing familiarity with Dragonstar. I have the Starfarer’s Handbook, but I’ve never really taken an in-depth look at the setting. With that in mind, I’ll open by saying that Raw Recruits sparked my interest enough to make me take a look. I’ll be starting a campaign eventually and this certainly seems like a great adventure to kick things off. Raw Recruits opens with 16 full-color pages detailing the history, specifications, and crew of the Evarstanza, the massive exploration vessel on which the characters will be serving during the campaign. The vessel and her crew are given excellent treatment here, including some detailed maps (both in this section and on the cover). This is good, because the characters will be spending a lot of time on this ship. Two organizations with which the PCs will become intimately familiar, the Sevartha Exploration League and the K-Syndicate, are also touched on in this section. From there, the GM is provided with a half-dozen brief encounters designed to promote role-playing and to give the characters some familiarity with the vessel and her crew. This is followed by a more detailed treatment of the major crew members detailed in the 16-page introduction. From there, the rest of the book is devoted to four major adventures, each of which will doubtlessly require from two to four (possibly more) play sessions to complete. During the course of these adventures, the players will investigate a strange power reading from a dead planet, explore an ancient, automated refinery, enter and investigate a derelict freighter, and face terrible danger from a new and deadly threat. There is plenty of excitement to be had during the course of these adventures. Hidden mysteries, combat encounters, role-playing opportunities, classic sci-fi moments, and elements of horror can all be found herein. The adventures are well written, easy to follow, and are sure to provide hours of fun for both players and GMs. Also introduced are a new race, a handful of new magical items and equipment, and two new spells. All of the adventures in Raw Recruits can also function as stand-alones, to be inserted into a GMs campaign with a minimum of fuss (but to get the full effect, you really should use the whole setting because there’s so much role-playing opportunity here). Alternate openings are provided to help facilitate those who wish to use them separately. Critical Hits One of the most interesting things about Raw Recruits is, in my view, the part of the Evarstanza known as Evartown. Evartown is a huge section of the cargo deck designed to resemble a small town, complete with artificial periods of light and dark and disguised beams and hull platings to enhance the illusion. A half-dozen points of interest are given detail, leaving plenty of room for expansion by the GM. Evartown is of particular interest to me because many years ago, before role-playing came into vogue, I used to daydream up adventures on a great star-faring vessel that had a similar arrangement. Thus, in a way, this is a dream come true for me. The idea of a small village as part of a larger “city-in-space” (and what is a large spaceship, really?) strikes me as not only very interesting, but remarkably human. I also like the prelude that proceeds each adventure. From the celebration of the captain’s “Hatching Day” (he is a half-dragon), to the weekly poker game, to just the daily rotuine of shipboard life, the preludes serve to build the role-playing atmosphere that keeps the campaign from seeming like going from one adventure to the next. The idea that there is something in-between adventures seems to be missing from many campaigns and I was glad to see it stressed here. Kudos to the design team for this inclusion. Critical Misses If there is anything missing or overlooked in this product, I’m damned if I could find it. The supporting cast are both believable and very well-detailed and several are given illustrations to further the imagery. The adventures are complete, self-contained, and each leads nicely into the next, providing a very linear campaign outline, but still loose enough to permit the GM to slip in a few of his or her own side treks. Coup de Grace With a fair amount of Open Game Content (all stat blocks and new goodies) and excellent d20 compliance, this product is a great way to kick off a new Dragonstar campaign. If you’ve been holding off buying the Starfarer’s Handbook because you weren’t sure if you could design adventures for the setting, grab it and Raw Recruits and by the time you play through this mega-adventure, you’ll be well on your way to designing your own. It certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities and has made me excited to be beginning my own Dragonstar campaign. (Playability score is low because much of what is here is for the GM’s eyes only, but rest assured that the players will enjoy it.) To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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