Review of Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) by Fire Mountain Games

This is a series I plan to convert. Sounds incredible, and all the reviews rave about it.

 

[Neuroglyph]

If you play D&D - or any other role-playing game for that matter – long enough, chances are you will participate in what can only be called an “evil campaign”. Instead of heroes, you’ll roll up villainous characters, and then embark on a series of adventures filled with robbery, debauchery, pillaging, and violence. The characters will likely scheme and plot against each other even as they rampage across the countryside, and eventually, the campaign will implode upon itself in a flurry of player versus player duels and acts of treachery. With any luck, there will actually be no real bloodshed at the gaming table, although I personally played in one evil campaign which ended in copious amounts of fist-shaking, cheeto-throwing, and foul language that cannot be repeated here.

But regardless of the inevitable outcome, evil campaign can be a heck of a lot of fun… every once in a great while!
Not too long ago, Fire Mountain Games released the first in a series of adventures designed to create a campaign arc specifically for evil characters. The Way of the Wicked opens its diabolical saga with Book One: Knot of Thorns, the first of six products to offer Pathfinder players the opportunity to take a walk on the dark side of role-playing.

Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns)

• Author: Gary McBride
• Illustrations: Michael Clarke
• Publisher: Fire Mountain Games, LLC
• Year: 2012
• Media: PDF (100 pages)
• Price: $10.00 (PDF available from the RPGNow)

Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) is the first installment of a six-part adventure path for use with the Pathfinder RPG. Book One: Knot of Thorns is designed for evil characters of Levels 1 – 5, and all six parts comprise an entire campaign arc taking characters all the way to Level 20. Book One: Knot of Thorns contains four adventures which sets the characters on an evil path of world domination. The author includes encounters and monsters for all the adventures, a set of tips for Dungeon Masters to avoid certain problems inherent with an evil campaign, a guide for an alternative method to create villainous characters for the campaign, and a short campaign synopsis of all six books of this adventure path.

Production Quality

The production quality of Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) is downright excellent, with a great presentation, stunning layout, and really imaginative writing from the author. The story and contents are presented in a logical fashion, and the encounters and monster stat blocks are in formats which Pathfinder and OGL gamers will find familiar. The PDF contains both a table of contents and bookmarks for easy navigation, and a printer-friendly version comes with the standard copy, which is mostly black and white or grayscale for the main pages of the book.

While the overall story arc through the four adventures is a bit linear in progression, there are some quite “sand-boxy” parts throughout which allow the characters to engage in free-wheeling strategic planning and scheming. A bit more about this style is offered below in The Contents section of the review.

The artwork in Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) is fresh and striking, and many of the important NPCs are given illustration which can be shared with the players. Likewise, the maps in the adventure are well drawn and beautifully colored, and definitely a great resource for the DM. About the only non-positive thing I have to say is that I did not think the overland geographical map of Talingarde looked quite right to me, and I thought the artist might be a bit of an overzealous fjord enthusiast. But when you consider that all the artwork and the maps were accomplished by a single artist, it’s hard not to be a little impressed with this particular illustrator.

[Spoiler Warning: In discussing this product, there may be spoilers revealed which would impact a players ability to fully enjoy this product. Please skip to the Overall Score and Conclusions section to avoid any possible revelations about the plot.]

The Contents

Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) is actually four adventures (or Acts, as the author refers to them) in a series, designed to get the players and the characters well along the way to their evil destinies. The story takes place on the island nation of Talingarde, but I would imagine resourceful DMs could place this adventure in almost any setting of their choosing. In each Act, the characters have certain tasks and goals they have to complete in order to achieve victory, but how they decide to complete those tasks is completely open to the players. So while the plot follows a linear chain, within each Act is a “sand-box” to allow the heroes… er make that villains to plot and plan how they want to achieve the goals.

I should mention that the author does provide an arch-villain for the villainous characters to serve, and he is potent enough at this point of the series that no amount of treachery will allow the player-characters to overthrow him. Whether or not this changes over the course of the successive adventures is unknown to this reviewer, but personally, I think having an evil patron to start the campaign off is probably a smart idea in the long run.

Act One: Prison Break puts the villainous 1st Level characters in prison for a variety of heinous crimes. In fact, none of the characters are wrongfully accused, they are in fact evil, and they are scheduled to be executed in three days. They are given the means of escape (in the form of a nifty magic item) and an offer of recruitment by their evil patron, but it is up to the players to figure out how to break out of the fortified castle themselves.

In Act Two: Into the Knot, the villains meet their evil benefactor and are offered potential recruitment. But to prove themselves worthy, they are given a series of trials to prove their mettle. These trials are rather like a dungeon delve, mixing problem solving, traps, and combat, and are timed – they must be complete on a mere 24 hours. The villains are then given several months of training by their evil overlord, offering them one of a variety of benefits in the form of bonuses. Now they are ready to begin their service to their benefactor, and help him carry out his diabolical schemes.

Act Three: Fire-Axe and Act Four: Burning Balentyne are the main missions of the villain characters’ benefactor, which have them unite a bugbear tribe under a powerful chieftain, and then start a war by destroying a major castle on the borderlands, and allowing the bugbears to sweep into the heartlands of the country. Act Three is a bit linear here, being a series of encounters while sailing north to locate and unite the tribe. But Act Four is something quite different, and offers the players the opportunity to infiltrate and sabotage the castle defenses so that the bugbear horde can subdue and overrun the place. The players have a fairly free hand in how they can undermine the castle’s defenses, and are awarded victory points for committing acts of assassination and sabotage. It’s a very nifty way to run an adventure, and makes for a far more sinister and evil role-playing experience than a simple frontal assault of a fortified castle.

The author also provides a short gazetteer of Talingarde, advice on avoiding five major pitfalls which often happen to derail an evil campaign, and a guide to creating an evil character – complete with suggestions on class, alignment, and even specific rewards (such as skill or skill bonuses) for choosing a particular crime which they committed to land them in Act One’s prison.

Overall Score: 4.3 out of 5

Conclusions

I have to admit that I’m pretty well blown away by Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) and that’s saying a lot given my usual suspicions and doubts about running an evil campaign. The author really created a great series of four adventures, and set the stage for quite a campaign arc for players to experience the darker side of role-playing. Not only is there a cool story here, but there is tons of character creation variants added to the base Pathfinder rules to make certain that the players are creating memorable and unique evil characters for this campaign. The artwork and maps really go a long way to enhance this product, and the overall look and feel of Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) is both professional and well-polished.

Given that you get four adventures, plus character creation and background content, and even a mini-campaign setting (Talingarde) all in one package, it’s hard not to view Way of the Wicked (Book One: Knot of Thorns) as anything but a great deal… or if you’re feeling a little evil… a real steal!

So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.

Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)

• Presentation: 4.25
• - Design: 4.5 (beautiful layout, good format, and solid writing)
• - Illustrations: 4.0 (cool-looking evil cover, great illustrations and maps)
• Content: 4.25
• - Crunch: 4.0 (excellent encounters, inventive sand-box elements, cool rules add-ons for evil characters)
• - Fluff: 4.5 (Tons of great background material for evil, excellent story, awesome NPCs)
• Value: 4.5 (Four adventures and huge amounts of material for the price – a bargain!)

 

[gdmcbride]

Thanks for the review! I am humbled by your praise and glad you enjoyed "Way of the Wicked: Book One -- Knot of Thorns".

Two sequels are also available:

"Way of the Wicked: Call Forth Darkness" at Paizo.com and DriveThruRPG

and just released April 30th,

"Way of the Wicked: Tears of the Blessed" also at Paizo.com and DriveThruRPG.

It's never been a better time to be the bad guy.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

 

[dm4hire]

When this arc is finished is there a plan to put out a complete book?

 

[gdmcbride]

dm4hire,

The short answer is 'no'. We have for now no plans to put out a compiled book.

The longer answer is if everyone holds off waiting for us to put out such a book -- the answer is a definite no because we will be out of business.

If the line is so successful that we can't ignore because of fan demand, then who knows what the future holds. But for now -- pdfs and POD are the only way to walk the "Way of the Wicked".

Thanks for your interest,
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games