Dark Mistress
First Post
This product is 33 pages long. The cover, credits take up 2 pages.
Introduction – (5 pages Most of the 5th page is blank)
This section gives a history of the adventure. A adventure summery, 6 plot hooks to get characters involved and a section for GM advice. It also has a warning this is a lethal and dangerous adventure, with advice to be ready to replace characters etc.
A rough overview of the history. The City of Tsar, which was a city of worshipers of Orcus. Eventually good nations rose up and marched on the city to destroy it. It takes about that, what happened during the war and how things ended. Then a bit about why people are still in the area.
There is also sections that talk about how this was meant to be a trilogy of adventures and not written for smaller chunks like this, it also talks a bit about what you can expect out of the series and how dangerous it is. Greg flat says in this section that characters will die and he's not lying. Odds are high some will.
Chapter 1 – The Camp (14 pages)
This is a camp(really a town but it is called The Camp) of people living on the edges of the Desolation (which is the area around the City of Temples aka Tsar City.) This section has a full two page map of the camp and a map of the local Inn. It lists and details 15 different locations and talks about the NPC's in the city. Several of them are very interesting, some a bit amusing. All of them should provide interesting interaction for the PC's. At least one could be a replacement PC or Cohort. I am not sure Greg meant for this or not, but The Camp has a very Mos Eisley Cantina feel to the whole town. The population is VERY varied with a colorful feel. Almost like a old west town, most people are content to live their lives as long as they are left alone.
Chapter 2 – Events in the Camp (6 pages)
This section has 5 event based encounters. The first one automatically happens when the PC's first arrive the rest happen either at certain times, or after the PC's do something etc. At least one of these event encounters is potentially very deadly, it could even maybe lead to a TPK if the PC's are careless and is very possible to lead to a PC death. Also the PC's have to take over a responsibility in the camp, if they choose not to. They are no longer welcome at The Camp till they agree(they can hire a local NPC to take care of it for them though). Some will hate this as it feels forced(you almost can't avoid it), while others will like it cause of the RPing aspect.
Chapter 3 – The Desolation (2 pages)
The area as a whole is known as The Desolation, it covers 70 miles by 50 miles. It give a brief over view of the whole are and has a section goes into more detail about the army of light and the war they waged against the city.
It finishes with 3 pages of maps of the camp and a OGL.
Closing thoughts, For those of you that read my first review of the the PDF of the 3.5 Slumber Tsar book earlier this year this will look familiar. Since this is the first third of that same book, only updated to Pathfinder rules and a few other changes. This time around it is much cleaner and easier to read. More art and they art work is better, plus fits the text better. I didn't notice any errors this time, so the editing is much better this time around.
The stats blocks are now in the relevant section instead of at the end of the book. Which I consider a plus. Also each monster is described so you know exactly what they look like, which is also a plus. There is also 4 spells in chapter 1, ones taken from other sources but laid out in complete detail and updated to Pathfinder RPG.
This is just the starter camp at the edge of the real adventure. So far there is only the 6 event encounters and a random encounter table. Still at least one of the event encounters as mentioned very possible can lead to a PC death or maybe even a TPK
So whats my rating? For this section of the updated book I am giving it a 5 star. No it is not a complete adventure but for what it is. I honestly couldn't find a single flaw. The worse thing I can say about the book is in same cases there is bad use of space. Two pages have a lot of unused space and another piece of artwork would have been nice to help fill it in.
***Note for those that bought the 3.5 edition you can email Bill Webb over at Frog God Games and if you buy the first three parts or pay for the whole series up front, that you will get a refund for the price of the 3.5 edition price.
***Note 2: I would also like to point out if you buy all the sections or buy it all up front you will get a hard back book at the end as well as all the PDF's.
Introduction – (5 pages Most of the 5th page is blank)
This section gives a history of the adventure. A adventure summery, 6 plot hooks to get characters involved and a section for GM advice. It also has a warning this is a lethal and dangerous adventure, with advice to be ready to replace characters etc.
A rough overview of the history. The City of Tsar, which was a city of worshipers of Orcus. Eventually good nations rose up and marched on the city to destroy it. It takes about that, what happened during the war and how things ended. Then a bit about why people are still in the area.
There is also sections that talk about how this was meant to be a trilogy of adventures and not written for smaller chunks like this, it also talks a bit about what you can expect out of the series and how dangerous it is. Greg flat says in this section that characters will die and he's not lying. Odds are high some will.
Chapter 1 – The Camp (14 pages)
This is a camp(really a town but it is called The Camp) of people living on the edges of the Desolation (which is the area around the City of Temples aka Tsar City.) This section has a full two page map of the camp and a map of the local Inn. It lists and details 15 different locations and talks about the NPC's in the city. Several of them are very interesting, some a bit amusing. All of them should provide interesting interaction for the PC's. At least one could be a replacement PC or Cohort. I am not sure Greg meant for this or not, but The Camp has a very Mos Eisley Cantina feel to the whole town. The population is VERY varied with a colorful feel. Almost like a old west town, most people are content to live their lives as long as they are left alone.
Chapter 2 – Events in the Camp (6 pages)
This section has 5 event based encounters. The first one automatically happens when the PC's first arrive the rest happen either at certain times, or after the PC's do something etc. At least one of these event encounters is potentially very deadly, it could even maybe lead to a TPK if the PC's are careless and is very possible to lead to a PC death. Also the PC's have to take over a responsibility in the camp, if they choose not to. They are no longer welcome at The Camp till they agree(they can hire a local NPC to take care of it for them though). Some will hate this as it feels forced(you almost can't avoid it), while others will like it cause of the RPing aspect.
Chapter 3 – The Desolation (2 pages)
The area as a whole is known as The Desolation, it covers 70 miles by 50 miles. It give a brief over view of the whole are and has a section goes into more detail about the army of light and the war they waged against the city.
It finishes with 3 pages of maps of the camp and a OGL.
Closing thoughts, For those of you that read my first review of the the PDF of the 3.5 Slumber Tsar book earlier this year this will look familiar. Since this is the first third of that same book, only updated to Pathfinder rules and a few other changes. This time around it is much cleaner and easier to read. More art and they art work is better, plus fits the text better. I didn't notice any errors this time, so the editing is much better this time around.
The stats blocks are now in the relevant section instead of at the end of the book. Which I consider a plus. Also each monster is described so you know exactly what they look like, which is also a plus. There is also 4 spells in chapter 1, ones taken from other sources but laid out in complete detail and updated to Pathfinder RPG.
This is just the starter camp at the edge of the real adventure. So far there is only the 6 event encounters and a random encounter table. Still at least one of the event encounters as mentioned very possible can lead to a PC death or maybe even a TPK
So whats my rating? For this section of the updated book I am giving it a 5 star. No it is not a complete adventure but for what it is. I honestly couldn't find a single flaw. The worse thing I can say about the book is in same cases there is bad use of space. Two pages have a lot of unused space and another piece of artwork would have been nice to help fill it in.
***Note for those that bought the 3.5 edition you can email Bill Webb over at Frog God Games and if you buy the first three parts or pay for the whole series up front, that you will get a refund for the price of the 3.5 edition price.
***Note 2: I would also like to point out if you buy all the sections or buy it all up front you will get a hard back book at the end as well as all the PDF's.
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