At a glance: True to the Wicked Fantasy Factory mission statement, Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower will turn your role playing experience into an artificial blood spatter filled, henchman chopping, campy B-movie. This is not a bad thing; whatever your gaming style, your party will find this adventure an enjoyable over-the-top romp.
Wicked Fantasy Factory #1: Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower
An Adventure for Character Levels 1-3
The tagline for the new adventure series, published by Goodman Games in conjunction with Wicked Fantasy Factory, is, “Don’t just crawl through dungeons, make them sorry they ever met you.” Now, it seems to me that, upon reading this, most people will find themselves in one of three camps: “Finally, rules for disemboweling NPCs!” or “How many times have I been promised an over-the-top adventure and been disappointed” or “My group is too mature for this sort of childish hack and slash, we prefer adventures with more role playing and puzzle solving.” If you find yourself in the first group, then you already know you’re going to enjoy these adventures and you don’t need me to tell you, so you can stop reading right now. It is for people who find themselves more in the second and third categories that I write this review.
For those unfamiliar with the WFF series, it attempts to give, via the addition of a few rules, fantasy d20 role playing the feeling of a blood-and-guts action flick. As with movies, this can either go very right or very wrong. For the most part, WFF gets it right; it doesn’t take itself too seriously. That is, while getting that gory action feeling, it keeps a sense of humor and campy B-movie flavor. These added rules include: finishing moves (ultra fancy death-blows that gain parties extra XP when successful), mooks (those low-level minions that every hero enjoys dispatching several at a time), phat lewt (an item more valuable – and perhaps more powerful – than much of the other treasure combined), and, of course, the thing every action hero’s day is incomplete without, The Big Badass (an evil nemesis who just won’t seem to stay dead!).
Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower fits smoothly into this tongue-in-cheek framework, even including it’s own additional cinematic action staple, “bullet time” (you know, alter the flow of time and move with such speed that you can dodge bullets…ok, arrows). It starts with a comfortably simple dungeon crawl backbone; the heroes are gaining entrance to the evil warlord’s stronghold to learn what he is up to and to stop him. However, make that stronghold the former residence of a powerful wizard and now you’ve got a recipe for magical traps, innumerable strange encounters and loads of powerful magic treasure: straightforward, classic and deadly.
For those of you who may be worried that a “juiced up” adventure is one kick down the door and slay the monster encounter after another, lay your fears aside. There are plenty of non-combat puzzles and challenges and even several non-combat solutions to combat encounters (though, if you can chop some mooks in half with one swing isn’t that faster than talking to them?). The dungeon isn’t just a rogue’s playground either; the magical nature of the setting gives plenty for the low level spell casters to do (playing that 2nd level wizard just might pay off in this adventure).
The true strength of this adventure, however, lies in its flexibility (flexibility, in this case refers both to the course of the adventure and to the quality of the adventure within, or outside of, the WFF over-the-top framework). There is an obvious linear path to the dungeon crawl, but parties are not penalized by this (for the most part) if they want to do it their own way. More importantly to those of you who found yourselves in group three earlier, this adventure will hold up just fine without the added rules. This is particularly beneficial as different groups may find only some of the extra rules to be positive additions to the flow of the adventure.
The one rule in particular that stands out as being awkward and ineffective is the finishing move. In the end, a finishing move winds up being a standard attack of whatever variety the character prefers, only without the benefit of many combat specific modifiers (for example, there is no allowance made for the weapon focus feat). Damage is not dealt normally, but instead is one-half character level (rounded up) d6’s. Particularly at the low levels of this adventure, this is typically less effective than what the character could do otherwise. Finishing moves wind up being anti-climatic, particularly when a regular attack would have done the job and the player’s description could have been just as dramatic and gory. Sweetening the finishing moves with extra XP for each opponent killed in such a way helps encourage some players in the beginning, but the novelty quickly wears off as players realize it’s far more beneficial to kill quickly and not waste resources than spend an extra two rounds to kill spectacularly.
While I did not pick up Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower with the idea of incorporating it into a campaign (I was comped a copy for review), DMs who do will find this to be a second weakness. The writers have attempted to give many setting generic descriptions and NPCs, but in the end the overall storyline is too insular to be seamlessly inserted into a larger story without a lot of manipulation. However, if you’ve picked up this adventure in the hopes of adding it to your campaign, perhaps you’re missing the point. This isn’t a campaign adventure, this is a kill-an-afternoon-by-killing-the-bad-guys romp of an adventure.
All in all, this early installment of the Wicked Fantasy Factory series lays out some modest goals and meets almost all of them. It doesn’t matter what your playing style or experience, Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower will offer every group axe-slashing fun and blood-spurting adventure.
Pros:
Cons:
Wicked Fantasy Factory #1: Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower
An Adventure for Character Levels 1-3
The tagline for the new adventure series, published by Goodman Games in conjunction with Wicked Fantasy Factory, is, “Don’t just crawl through dungeons, make them sorry they ever met you.” Now, it seems to me that, upon reading this, most people will find themselves in one of three camps: “Finally, rules for disemboweling NPCs!” or “How many times have I been promised an over-the-top adventure and been disappointed” or “My group is too mature for this sort of childish hack and slash, we prefer adventures with more role playing and puzzle solving.” If you find yourself in the first group, then you already know you’re going to enjoy these adventures and you don’t need me to tell you, so you can stop reading right now. It is for people who find themselves more in the second and third categories that I write this review.
For those unfamiliar with the WFF series, it attempts to give, via the addition of a few rules, fantasy d20 role playing the feeling of a blood-and-guts action flick. As with movies, this can either go very right or very wrong. For the most part, WFF gets it right; it doesn’t take itself too seriously. That is, while getting that gory action feeling, it keeps a sense of humor and campy B-movie flavor. These added rules include: finishing moves (ultra fancy death-blows that gain parties extra XP when successful), mooks (those low-level minions that every hero enjoys dispatching several at a time), phat lewt (an item more valuable – and perhaps more powerful – than much of the other treasure combined), and, of course, the thing every action hero’s day is incomplete without, The Big Badass (an evil nemesis who just won’t seem to stay dead!).
Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower fits smoothly into this tongue-in-cheek framework, even including it’s own additional cinematic action staple, “bullet time” (you know, alter the flow of time and move with such speed that you can dodge bullets…ok, arrows). It starts with a comfortably simple dungeon crawl backbone; the heroes are gaining entrance to the evil warlord’s stronghold to learn what he is up to and to stop him. However, make that stronghold the former residence of a powerful wizard and now you’ve got a recipe for magical traps, innumerable strange encounters and loads of powerful magic treasure: straightforward, classic and deadly.
For those of you who may be worried that a “juiced up” adventure is one kick down the door and slay the monster encounter after another, lay your fears aside. There are plenty of non-combat puzzles and challenges and even several non-combat solutions to combat encounters (though, if you can chop some mooks in half with one swing isn’t that faster than talking to them?). The dungeon isn’t just a rogue’s playground either; the magical nature of the setting gives plenty for the low level spell casters to do (playing that 2nd level wizard just might pay off in this adventure).
The true strength of this adventure, however, lies in its flexibility (flexibility, in this case refers both to the course of the adventure and to the quality of the adventure within, or outside of, the WFF over-the-top framework). There is an obvious linear path to the dungeon crawl, but parties are not penalized by this (for the most part) if they want to do it their own way. More importantly to those of you who found yourselves in group three earlier, this adventure will hold up just fine without the added rules. This is particularly beneficial as different groups may find only some of the extra rules to be positive additions to the flow of the adventure.
The one rule in particular that stands out as being awkward and ineffective is the finishing move. In the end, a finishing move winds up being a standard attack of whatever variety the character prefers, only without the benefit of many combat specific modifiers (for example, there is no allowance made for the weapon focus feat). Damage is not dealt normally, but instead is one-half character level (rounded up) d6’s. Particularly at the low levels of this adventure, this is typically less effective than what the character could do otherwise. Finishing moves wind up being anti-climatic, particularly when a regular attack would have done the job and the player’s description could have been just as dramatic and gory. Sweetening the finishing moves with extra XP for each opponent killed in such a way helps encourage some players in the beginning, but the novelty quickly wears off as players realize it’s far more beneficial to kill quickly and not waste resources than spend an extra two rounds to kill spectacularly.
While I did not pick up Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower with the idea of incorporating it into a campaign (I was comped a copy for review), DMs who do will find this to be a second weakness. The writers have attempted to give many setting generic descriptions and NPCs, but in the end the overall storyline is too insular to be seamlessly inserted into a larger story without a lot of manipulation. However, if you’ve picked up this adventure in the hopes of adding it to your campaign, perhaps you’re missing the point. This isn’t a campaign adventure, this is a kill-an-afternoon-by-killing-the-bad-guys romp of an adventure.
All in all, this early installment of the Wicked Fantasy Factory series lays out some modest goals and meets almost all of them. It doesn’t matter what your playing style or experience, Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower will offer every group axe-slashing fun and blood-spurting adventure.
Pros:
•E-Z stat blocks work almost as smoothly as they should
•Dungeon layout is great for a linear crawl but not so limiting that the party can’t get creative and come up with whole new ways to assault the wizard’s tower
•WFF mook, phat lewt, and Big Badass rules add exactly the extra flavor promised
•Plays just as well with just some or none of the “over-the-top” additions for those groups who prefer a more traditional feel to the adventure
•Full color maps are spectacular
•Dungeon layout is great for a linear crawl but not so limiting that the party can’t get creative and come up with whole new ways to assault the wizard’s tower
•WFF mook, phat lewt, and Big Badass rules add exactly the extra flavor promised
•Plays just as well with just some or none of the “over-the-top” additions for those groups who prefer a more traditional feel to the adventure
•Full color maps are spectacular
Cons:
•Full color maps are not usable on the table and the map layout is very difficult to render by hand
•Not very well suited for integration into most campaigns
•WFF finishing moves rules don’t live up to the promise – the average low level character is more effective with traditional combat options; might as well just add the color text without the optional die roles
•Not very well suited for integration into most campaigns
•WFF finishing moves rules don’t live up to the promise – the average low level character is more effective with traditional combat options; might as well just add the color text without the optional die roles
