Tales of Freeport

[Messageboard Golem]

Death in Freeport defined the d20 adventure in August, 2000, and went on to win an Origins Award and an ENnie Award. Now it's time to return to the city that started it all in this brand new anthology of adventures. Critically acclaimed author Graeme Davis (architect of the Enemy Within Campaign) brings you four new Freeport adventures, plus a chapter of adventure hooks. The heart of the book is the Soul of the Serpent, in which the players tangle once again with the mysterious serpent people. Three shorter adventures round out the collection. Featuring a stunning cover by Monster Manual and Book of Vile Darkness artist Wayne Reynolds, Tales of Freeport is a must for any fan of the City of Adventure.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Tales of Freeport is part adventure collection, part setting and part crunch. All of this makes the book a valuable reference for the GM who doesn't want his Freeport nights to end.

The adventures all take place after the trilogy of modules and Hell in Freeport. In some ways this is too bad as these adventures would be perfect for getting the characters closer to the levels required for play in Hell, as opposed to the original starter trilogy. Wise GMs may decide to ignore that part about Hell in Freeport and use this immediately after the trilogy.

The book starts off with The Soul of the Serpent, a lengthy investigation on the disappearance of a merchant's daughter. Through diligent research, players discover that this isn't an isolated incident and have to go below where they'll learn that the old religious structure of Yig wasn't all about further education but instead, had many different branches, some of which call for sacrifice. The adventure is open and allows the players a lot of leeway in their efforts, doing a good job of involving the characters in the lives of many of Freeport's denizens from the law abiding to the law breaking. It's a nice contrast to some of the dungeon crawls currently on the market.

Those looking for a much different experience will enjoy a night at the Last Resort. Here, the author has woven numerous plot threads together as events happen with a rapid fire pace. It's an interesting twist to see the eight different story lines listed out on a time table, relying on the GM to keep track of who's who and what's what. Make notes on this if you want to run it as there is a lot of potential for confusion. The potential payout though, is worth it.

Cut Throat's Gold is more of an old fashioned treasure quest that has some sinister origins behind it's seemingly innocent start. Once the players get hold of a map and book passage to a swamp far away from civilization, they'll learn about the relationship between the lizard men and the serpent men. It's one of servant and master where the servants now worship the old serpents as gods. A nice layer to add to the background of the serpents. Even this though, isn't the whole story as there are other elements on the island trying to enforce their will upon the landscape and as the players will learn, they've been duped into coming here to do this entity's will.

Fair Salvage is a little too vague for my taste. It introduces the 'Strangers', a race of beings who've come back for their technology, that of the siege cannons defending Freeport. While they're nice and strange, unique and enigmatic, the adventure is so open ended that the GM basically has to write the ending for himself. That's fine for fleshing out an idea, but it's like the author went as fair as he wanted and didn't want to challenge the continuity of the setting, which is unlike previous modules which assume a certain path was taken and incorporates that into the Freeport setting proper.

The material in Plots & Places gives the reader some quick plot hooks to throw into his campaign like a missing merman and a situation involving an artists and a stone statue that looks a little too much like it's subject. It's a good section that'll get the brain juices flowing but isn't much more than, “This is something cool. Work it out for yourself.” With the sheer number of plots though, most GMs should have no problem adding the elements necessary to flesh out the ideas.

The places though, well, they disappointed me. Falthar's Curios and Salon De Masque are both from the web site and while they both have uses, they seem underwritten as there isn't a lot, if any, new detail and there are no maps for them.

Under Rules you Can Use, there's one new skill, Shadowing, the art of following someone without being seen. Not really a necessary skill but it might add something to those campaigns that want a specific skill instead of using Move Silently and Hide in Shadows with modifiers. More impressive are the prestige classes: Freeport Merchant, Ship's Captain, and Gambler. Each one has a nice role to fill in a city like Freeport and can translate over easily to almost any city. Finally, for those who just can't stand it any longer, a page of errata for the 1st printing of Freeport is provided.

The book has many strengths. It caters to a wide range of playing styles and doesn't force the GM into a “This Way Only” mentality. It takes into account special abilities and spells that the party may have access to, as well as what the rest of the world may do in reaction to events that the party sets off.

Layout is standard two column. Interior covers aren't used. A single page is used for the OGL, another for an ad for the upcoming psionic material. Another for the table of contents, another for the credits. Art in the book is great. David Griffith does an excellent job with the full page transition pieces between chapters while the other artists, including Christ Keefe, Mario Fiorito, Drew Baker, Britt Martin and Tom Baxa, all add their touch to the city of Freeport. Maps are on a good scale, easy to read and understand. Those who want another city map of Freeport get it with all of the locations in this adventure mapped out for ease of use while handouts are in the back and ready for copying.

Tales of Freeport is another winner from Green Ronin that could've used just a bit more shine and polish on the places and plots but is otherwise a solid buy for the dollar. The material is open enough to be used in any pirate city and can be modified with little difficulty. If you're looking to continue the Freeport tradition, then Tales of Freeport is for you.

http://www.greenronin.com/freeportfocus.shtml

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer

Caution: This review contains spoilers. If you intend to participate as a player in any of the adventures in Tales of Freeport, you should stop reading here or risk jeopardizing your enjoyment of these scenarios.

Sizing Up the Target
Tales of Freeport is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS supplement for the Freeport: City of Adventure campaign setting from Green Ronin Publishing. A 96-page softcover, Tales of Freeport is penned by Graeme Davis with some input from Chris Pramas and features artwork by some of Green Ronin’s top artists. Cartography is by Rob Lee, with some offerings from Todd Gamble. It retails for $18.95.

First Blood
Once more we are turned out onto the streets of Freeport. Just in case you’re one of the uneducated, Freeport is Green Ronin’s fabulous fantasy cityscape and the official setting for many of their fantasy releases. This port city is packed with enough adventure to keep any party of delvers happy for their length of their careers, and this anthology of four adventures demonstrates some of that excitement.

Graeme Davis is no stranger to the RPG set, having authored or edited several products from Steve Jackson Games and White Wolf before turning his attentions to Freeport. This is his first release from Green Ronin, but I like what he has done here and hope to see more from him aimed towards fantasy campaigns in the future. Chris Pramas, on the other hand, is Freeport, being the creator of both the port city and of Green Ronin Publishing.

The first adventure, “Soul of the Serpent,” could actually be used as the launching point for a mini-campaign. This is a classic espionage adventure, full of twists, double-crosses, and betrayals. A member of the serpent folk seeks to establish friendly relations with the surface dwellers, while a member of the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign hopes to bring the degenerate serpent folk under his command in order to destroy Freeport. The adventurers become involved when the daughter of a noble family disappears and they are recruited to find her. The first part of the adventure is very much a mystery, in which the PCs will be searching the manor for clues and questioning the household. Eventually, their line of questioning will lead them into the city, where they begin to pick up clues that something bigger is going on here. After a lot of legwork and questioning of citizens, they should eventually be able to find the trail that leads them to the crux of the adventure, a descent into the Sunken Temple of Yig. From there, they should find clues that lead them to the traitor among the serpent folk. “Soul of the Serpent” is intended for characters of 5th to 7th level, but with some work, it could be adapted as a continuation of the first three Freeport adventures.

In “The Last Resort,” eight plots come together in a jumbled puzzle and the characters must piece together which events are connected to which plot. The action is centered on a hotel named The Last Resort and it is here that all of the plots take place. The adventure runs on a strict timeline and Graeme has done a wonderful job of weaving everything together into a coherent whole that presents a living picture of a night in a fantasy hotel. Though the adventure assumes characters of 3rd to 6th level, there is very little combat here and the adventure is easily adapted to suit characters of nearly any level (I’d hesitate to go above 12th, as beyond that point, they have access to spells and magics that will make it too easy).

Where “The Last Resort” has relatively few opportunities for martial displays, the next adventure, “Cut-Throat’s Gold,” offers plenty. When the characters come across an old treasure map, adventure beckons with a gilded finger. However, the treasure is located in a ruined city in the middle of a vast swamp, and even after penetrating the natural surroundings, they find the city far from unoccupied. There’s one more little twist, but it’s so deliciously evil that I’ll not discuss it here to keep the surprise for any players who might be reading this (shame on you!). “Cut-Throat’s Gold” is intended for characters of levels 4 to 7.

“Fair Salvage” begins with rumors of a huge and mysterious ship sighted running against the wind so fast that the swiftest vessel couldn’t catch her. When people in Freeport start turning up dead in very grisly manners, the PCs are brought in to find out what’s going on. Investigation will lead them to the discovery of a race of beings that haven’t visited Freeport in two centuries! But how does this tie into the murders? That’s for the PCs to figure out. This adventure works best with characters of 7th to 9th level.

Tales of Freeport also offers up a selection of 13 plot hooks that can be expanded on by DMs and two new establishments (by Chris Pramas) to add to your Freeport campaign. Finally, there are some new skills, a new feat, some new firearms rules, and three new prestige classes (Freeport merchant, ship’s captain, and gambler) described here, as well as a listing of errata in the first print run of Freeport: City of Adventure and plenty of player handouts and reference charts.

Critical Hits
I like adventures that are more than simple “open the door, kill the monster, take the treasure” routines, and that’s what Tales of Freeport offers. You won’t find any simplified treasure hunts here (and even the adventure that seems to be just that definitely isn’t!), but you will find plenty of mystery, excitement, and intrigue. Each adventure stands alone, but all are tied by their link to Freeport. Even so, it would be fairly easy for a GM to transport them to a personal setting and still get very nearly the full enjoyment from them (making only a few necessary changes).

Critical Misses
I didn’t notice any glaring errors or formatting problems. I ran a few of the numbers for some of the characters and nothing showed up, so I think it’s safe to assume that the book is pretty much error free. Though the work is intended to be used with Freeport: City of Adventure, I still think it should be generic enough to fit into other campaigns and the only problem I found in this respect is the presence of a character class that must be described in Freeport, the Cultist (?) (Clt). The characters that use this class are described well enough that it shouldn’t hinder game play, but the hows and whys of the class are omitted from Tales. It would have been nice if the Cultist class had been stuck in here for those of us who don’t own a copy of Freeport, like me.

Coup de Grace
With the exception of character and place names, all text is designated as Open Game Content, which equates to about 90% of the book or so. As I noted earlier, a quick glance at the characters shows that they seem to be in compliance, and the new monsters and other game mechanics that are presented are properly formatted. The adventures are wholly original and look to be quite enjoyable (I can’t wait to run them for my own group, even though they aren’t in Freeport).

For Freeport fans, this should probably go to the top of your “must-have” list. For anyone else, take it at face value; a quartet of solidly written, entertaining adventures, some adventure plotlines, and a few new crunchy goodies. Given that the average Wizards of the Coast adventure scenario costs about $10, getting four good adventures for less than $20 is a pretty sweet deal. Don’t be fooled by the small size, there’s a lot of good stuff packed into this product.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.
Beware! This review contains spoilers.

Tales Of Freeport contains four adventures, some new locations and adventure ideas, and a few new rules for Green Ronin's pirate city setting, Freeport.

Tales Of Freeport is a 96-page mono softcover product costing $18.95. The layout is easy on the eye, with little wasted space and different types of information are clearly delineated. The high-quality artwork captures the feel of the adventures and the city, and is appropriate to the text. Maps are clear, scaled (to 5 feet indoors) and have compass direction. Writing style is evocative and engaging and editing is good.

The adventures in Tales of Freeport are set after the first four Freeport adventures and are designed to be used independently of each other.

The Soul Of The Serpent is the largest section of the book, taking up nearly half of it. It is designed for characters of 5th-7th level and dovetails quite well with the original trilogy. Whilst some serpent folk seek to redeem their degenerate brethren, the fractured Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign continues to seek ways to bring the Unspeakable One to Freeport. An ancient set of religious tablets is discovered that threatens to tear apart the serpent folk redemption from the inside. Soul of the Serpent allows the PCs to interact with a number of NPCs and explore various locations described in Freeport:COA on their way to solving this mystery-based adventure. However, a new location, the Temple of Yig, which lies beneath the sewers, is described in detail and a high-level cultist introduced as a new nemesis for the PCs.

The Last Resort is designed for characters of 3rd-6th level. It is an event-based adventure, taking place within the Last Resort hotel, with an interesting layout. First, eight short plot lines are described, followed by a night packed full of incidents related to the plots running along a timeline. The GM is given the choice to use them all at once or spread them out over several of the PCs visits. There are then some ideas for continuing the adventure, and the section concludes with stats for the NPCs and monsters.

Cut-Throat's Gold is designed for characters of levels 4-7. Freeport wouldn't be Freeport without pirates, and the epitome of pirate legends is the pirate's treasure map. In Cut-Throat's Gold, the PCs find that archetypal pirate's treasure map. After an action-packed journey to the map's goal, the PCs discover a ruined Valossan city inhabited by degenerate ancestor-worshipping serpent folk and must deal with the clever twist to the tale that ends this short adventure.

Fair Salvage is designed for characters of levels 7-9 and deals with the appearance of a mysterious ship in the waters of the Pirate Isles. The crux of the adventure centres around Freeport's cannons, now on the city wall, which were recovered from a wreck two centuries before. The owners of the cannons have come to retrieve them, by fair means or foul, and the PCs must find some sort of resolution. We are introduced to a new creature, the Stranger, an outsider with an impressive array of powers such as Force Storm, Telepathy, and membranous wings. They wield a new weapon, the Flamelance, which relies on the life force of the wielder to create small grenade-like fireballs.

Plots & Places provides some short adventure outlines and a couple of new locations in the style of Freeport:COA. The plotlines include a vampire war, a mystery involving a corpse missing its legs, as well as an interesting side plot, which could be used in the Soul of the Serpent adventure, involving the yuan-ti.

Rules You Can Use offers the new skill of Shadowing (following someone without being noticed) as well as a couple of new Knowledge and Profession skills. There is a new feat related to gambling, some new firearms rules for wet powder and clubbing firearms, and three new 10-level prestige classes - the Freeport Merchant (an NPC prestige class), Ship's Captain (with enhanced leadership and intimidation abilities), and Gambler. There is a page of errata for Freeport: COA (most importantly, revised stats for Serpent People). A rough double-page map indicating the new locations described in the book is given, there are some handouts for the adventures, and a page of reference tables for the new prestige classes.

High Points:
The adventures bring a good mix of the familiar and the new - PCs can interact with some of the material seen in Freeport: COA, but there are plenty of surprises along the way and an interesting event-based layout in The Last Resort adventure. The main adventure, Soul of the Serpent, should delight those who enjoyed the original trilogy. Probably the best aspect of the adventures is the amount of advice for the GM in running each adventure, with plenty of options for dealing with players/PCs choices, particularly in Soul of the Serpent.

Low Points:
A quick perusal of the stat blocks revealed a few minor errors (such as treating the Knowledge (Anatomy) skill as a class skill for sorcerers). The Prestige Classes filled out the feel of Freeport by introducing the ship's captain, the gambler, and the Freeport merchant, but all three concepts could be reasonably represented using the NPC Expert class, and felt a little redundant.

Conclusion:
There is plenty of material to expand and develop a Freeport campaign in Tales of Freeport and the adventures are presented with panache, good advice, and a heady feel for the unique aspects of Freeport. The additional game rule material I felt to be a little redundant and to my mind would have been better spent on another of the decent adventures presented in the rest of the book.

 

[Psion]

Tales of Freeport

Tales of Freeport is an anothology of adventures set in Green Ronin Publishing's Freeport setting. The scenarios are written by Graeme Davis and Chris Pramas.

A First Look

Tales of Freeport is a 96-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $18.95. This is a reasonable price for a d20 System book of this size.

The cover of the book is illustrated by Wayne Reynolds, and has a stylish depiction of a man with a mace unvieling a robed serpent folk who doesn't look too happy about the situation.

The interior is black and white, with illustrations by David Griffith, Chris Keefe, Marcio Fiorito, Drew Baker, Britt MArtin, and Tom Baxa. The art ranges from acceptable to good quality. In particular, I found Griffith's art to be amongst the best interior work I have seen him do.

The interior body text font is conservative. The lines are single spaced but the paragraphs are double spaces. Overall, the text density is reasonable and the layout is clear and readable.

A Deeper Look
(Spoiler warning: This section contains some details of the plots of the adventures)

The book has four major adventures in it. In addition to these, the book has a selection of adventure hooks and locations for additional adventures in Freeport, new rules used elsewhere in the book, maps, handouts, and reference tables.

The four major adventures are:
- The Soul of the Serpent: In this adventure, the players must uncover a plot by a surviving member of the cult of the yellow sign, who is attempting to implicate and exploit the serpent folk in his plot. This adventure has some excellent investigation and roleplaying potential. The adventure is for 5th-7th level characters.
- The Last Resort: This "adventure" is actually a detailed description of the Last Resort hotel in Freeport with mutliple plots associated with the hotel. There are eight plots in all, which are interlinked and designed to play out in a single night. This makes for an interesting and tense scenario, but possibly very demanding of the GM. However, some provision is made to separate the plots out if you think it will be too confusing for your players or too challenging for you. The scenario is designed for characters of 3rd-6th level.
- Cut-Throat's Gold: This adventure seems more traditional on the surface: the PCs happen upon a map to a lost city that promises wealth. Of course the city has hazards of it's own, that is to be expected. The curve ball is that the map is actually a lure by a sorcerer who hopes he can use the PCs to take the city from the inhabitants. The adventure is a designed for characters of 4th-7th level, but confesses that it is a difficult adventure and may need to be toned down for characters on the low end of that scale.
- Fair Salvage: Amidst rumors of sightings of a huge ship of inexplicible speed, the players must investigate a number of mysterious attacks in freeport. Soon they may find out that the attacks are from a strange race who has come to claim what is rightfully theirs. The adventure is designed for PCs of 7th-9th level.

In addition to the normal and necessary content of the adventures, the adventures contain additional information on possible resolutions and follow-on effects of the adventure and/or ways to continue the adventure.

The Plots & Places chapter provides a number of additional adventure ideas for use with freeport. Most of this section are adventure ideas, with fairly detailed descriptions of the adventure background. About two such plot seeds are provided per page. This chapter ends with two detailed locations, Falthar's Curios and Salon du Masque, complete with their own brief (one paragraph) adventure hooks and statistics. The later of these uses statistics for Green Ronin's Assassin's Handbook, which I was not exactly enamored with. Fortunately, they provide alternate statistics using the core assassin as well.

The final chapter is Rules You Can Use, a selection of new mechanics used elsewhere in this book. The mechanics include a new skill (shadowing), new knowledge and profession skill categories (navigation, gambler, and sailor), firearms rules, and three new prestige classes: freeport merchant, ship's captain, and gambler. Finally, there is a page of errata for the Freeport setting book.

Of these, I only found the shadowing skill and the ship's captain prestige class problematic. The ship's captain prestige class has the relatively minor sin of not using standard save advancements. The shadowing skill is more problematic, in that it is arguably redundant with existing skills, and provides no support for integrating the skill with existing classes, making it an example of what NOT to do when it comes to skill proliferation.

Conclusion

With the exception of the mechanical foibles mentioned above, I found Tales of Freeport to be a rather compelling collection of adventures. The adventures have enough investigative and roleplaying elements that they do not fall into the dungeon-crawling rut, though there is a fair selection of classic D&D adventuring elements. In particular, I was intrigued by the challenges that The Soul of the Serpent and The Last Resort offered.

Overall Grade: B+

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[GameWyrd]

* This review has been written by guest reviewer and Freeport DM Caliban's Toybox.

"FLIPPANT INTRODUCTION:"

Oh look. "Tales of Freeport."

Oh look. Ready to run d20 adventures. With "plots and locations" ready for you to "drop into" your own campaign. (So, if I DROP ADVENTURE INTO PIT, my score goes up. Right?)

Oh look. "Rules you can use." New prestige classes! New spells! New rules about gunpowder - when it gets wet! Right, right - Green Ronin must use the word "new" like I use the phrase "Oh no, not again.")

Four complete adventures - for character levels 3-9! Oh look. Reviewer going to slee --

But wait!

Graeme Davis. Now there's a name to conjure with, if what you want to conjure are the shades of some of the best work done in adventures and sourcebooks. In the late eighties and early nineties at least.

Okay. Graeme Davis? I can do this. Minas Tirith, Bogenhafen, Vampire...Graeme Davis wouldn't let me down, would he?

Would he?

FIND OUT IN NEXT WEEK'S EXCITING EPISODE!

(Okay, you've had your 'amusing' time-wasting introduction - get on with talking about the book or I'll feed you to the oil beetles. - Ed.)

Fine.

"MEATY CHUNKS"

The meat of the book is probably the four full length adventures. They're not linked, per se, but background threads are common and there are some suggestions for how the outcome of the earlier plots may affect the resolution of the later. This is not done in a particularly insightful or revelatory way, but it's the thought that counts. Especially if it's a thought about a calculator. An overview of each follows; although I've tried to avoid spoilers, one or two may slip unfortunately out like a couple of unlucky participants in a skating competition. If you're likely to have these run for you, you may want to pluck out your eyes to avoid taking in the next few paragraphs.

ADVENTURE ONE - "THE SOUL OF THE SERPENT" - recommended for characters of level 5-7 The longest adventure of the four (at least in terms of page count), "Soul of the Serpent" is a roughly four act affair with a mix of combat, investigation, talky bits, and the probably traditional dungeon crawl finale (crawling optional). There's plenty of variety during the investigative portion of the adventure - at least in the investigations the players are required to trudge around. Yet the tour around a subterranean tunnel complex - complete with opportunity to get thoroughly uffed up by a SPECIAL GUEST STAR from Out Of Time and Beyond Space - manages to be both entirely setting appropriate and bowel-cloggingly dull.

If you've played through the first bunch of Freeport adventures, you'll no doubt be tickled by an amusing inversion of one of the central conceits of these, and will warmly welcome the chance to catch up with a few of the important NPCs. If you haven't, no one cares about the likes of you.

Overall, I think the phrase 'damned with faint phrase' was invented to describe things like this. Routine. Competent. Workmanlike. You know the kind of thing. Publishers probably want to stop putting out adventures that advise the GM to randomly stage attacks as a way of moving players out of a dead end in investigations, though. There are less clumsy ways of moving pieces to the next space on the board...

ADVENTURE TWO - "THE LAST RESORT" - recommended for characters of any level Okay - this flat out saves the book from anything else I have to say about it. Rather than a bunch of numbered paragraphs which the players have read out to them as they move sequentially from one to the next until they either reach section 14 or 400, "The Last Resort" provides an interesting and detailed backdrop for a sequence of potential events. These events are the realisation of the plots. plans and schemes of a variety of NPCs who will find themselves unwittingly mingling, meshing, and generally horribly complicating things until - well. That's the beauty of "The Last Resort" - because how it all ends up is up to the players. And we all know what happens when PLAYERS start to interfere...!

It's reminiscent of a good one-off LARP game, or, for the more devoted tabletoppers, much of the intended structure of the WHFRP adventure 'Power Behind the Throne.' As such, it will take a significant investment of DM time and staging since the DM needs to have at least a nodding acquaintance with the various plots and motivations in order to convincingly modify them on the fly in response to player and NPC interaction, but the sheer richness of potential and the clarity with which these things are set out make this a far less unpleasant prospect than it might be.

ADVENTURE THREE - "CUT THROAT'S GOLD" - recommended for characters of level 4-7 The token "meanwhile, outside the city..." adventure. And the token "the PCs aquire a treasure map!" concept. And the token twist on the theme. Although "Soul of the Serpent" catered for a variety of tastes in the investigation that prefigured the dungeon-based climax, "Cut Throat's Gold" eschews all that pesky interaction and reasoning and opts to have the players gently wheeled through a parade of combat encounters. WITH AXE.

The kindest thing I can say about the adventure is that at least there's been some thought put into the combat; I imagine that if this sort of thing frosts your cookies, you're going to appreciate the different backdrops to your bouts of dice rolling and minature-shoving as well as the - potential - variation in tactics and armament employed by your various foes. On the other hand, if you prefer a little more texture to your flights of fancy this is probably going to profoundly disappoint. Worse, it will very likely profoundly bore, too.

ADVENTURE FOUR - "FAIR SALVAGE" - recommended for characters of levels 7-9 Like "The Soul of the Serpent," "Fair Salvage" leverages several background points from earlier supplements to drive its plot. Unlike "Soul of the Serpent," it's actually quite interesting, although it has the potential to quite radically alter the direction of your Freeport-based game (and indeed, although I sincerely doubt it will impact in the slightest, future Freeport releases). What initially appears to be a fairly standard set-up and investigation turns out to be headed in quite a different direction indeed, and the actions of the players in the previous adventures may have a bearing on exactly what that direction is.

Interestingly, "Fair Salvage" doesn't so much conclude as invite the DM to speculate on possibilities, to consider what has gone before and how it might shape what lies ahead. Like "The Last Resort," a certain investment of considered thought and evaluation are required to get the best out of strong potential. Fortunately, the book does a (barely) adequate job of offering up some possibilities and their impact on the setting to get inspiration-starved DMs started.

"NOT ONLY BUT ALSO:"

"Tales" also includes a chapter full of adventure seeds and thumbnail location sketches; as ever with this sort of thing, there's a lot of chaff and not much wheat - and which is which is something that's up to the individual to decide. In addition, there are some new rules about gunpowder, a puportedly new skill (which seems to duplicate the use of an old one) and a couple of suggestions of new uses for older ones, and three Prestige Classes (Gambler, Freeport Merchant, and Ship's Captain). I've not used any of them in play so I can't comment on game balance, but I can say that none of them seem particularly interesting on readthrough.

"AND FINALLY:"

Hmm. So. Of the four adventures, we have one poor, one routine (but varied), one extremely good with a demanding structure, and one which is potentially excellent (I leave the linking of assessment to adventure as an exercise for
the reader. You probably need some, after all). This is good mix - but I would urge caution unless you happen to have played through the earlier Freeport adventures, or at the very least own the hardback city gazetteer. Much is implicitly or explicitly referenced, and I can't quite shake the nagging thought that much becomes slightly baffling without them (rather in the same way the Dune TV and movies are watchable but slightly baffling without knowledge of the books).

"Tales of Freeport" is unusual for a collection of adventures in that it does potentially move the setting along in a different direction, as the author acknowledges and indeed appears to encourage, but the fact that the book begins with a greasily reassurance that nothing that has happened in the other Freeport books will have the slightest impact on the setting as it stands here make me doubt that Green Ronin will take the opportunity to make something of it. It's a shame, especially in light of some of the other strands of Davis' work elsewhere.

If you're not already a Freeport fan, this won't convert you - go get the hardcover city guide instead. On the other hand, if you're a Freeport DM stuck for time or invention, there are worse things to splash your cash on. And believe me, I know.

* This Tales of Freeport review was first posted at GameWyrd.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

ok

 

[Pramas]

<<This is good mix - but I would urge caution unless you happen to have played through the earlier Freeport adventures, or at the very least own the hardback city gazetteer.>>

Perhaps you missed this sentence from the very first paragraph of the book:

"To play these adventures, you will need the d20 System Player's Handbook (Core Rulebook I) and Freeport: The City of Adventure."

The book assumes you have access to the hardback, which you'll need to use Tales of Freeport to its fullest.

<<"Tales of Freeport" is unusual for a collection of adventures in that it does potentially move the setting along in a different direction, as the author acknowledges and indeed appears to encourage, but the fact that the book begins with a greasily reassurance that nothing that has happened in the other Freeport books will have the slightest impact on the setting as it stands here make me doubt that Green Ronin will take the opportunity to make something of it.>>

The reassurance comes from the second paragraph of the book. It says:

"The adventures in this book take place after the events of the first four Freeport adventures -- Death in Freeport, Terror in Freeport, Madness in Freeport and Hell in Freeport -- but they do not rely on them in any way. This means that the status of the city is exactly as described in the Freeport: the City of Adventure sourcebook, and that (along with the Core Rulebooks, of course) is all that you need to run these adventures."

What we are saying here is that you don't need to have the original adventure to run Tales of Freeport because the hardback already takes events of those adventures into account. As we say, the situation with the city is as described in Freeport: The City of Adventure. Guess I don't see anything "greasy" about that.

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin

 

[Pramas]

<<This is good mix - but I would urge caution unless you happen to have played through the earlier Freeport adventures, or at the very least own the hardback city gazetteer.>>

Perhaps you missed this sentence from the very first paragraph of the book:

"To play these adventures, you will need the d20 System Player's Handbook (Core Rulebook I) and Freeport: The City of Adventure."

The book assumes you have access to the hardback, which you'll need to use Tales of Freeport to its fullest.

<<"Tales of Freeport" is unusual for a collection of adventures in that it does potentially move the setting along in a different direction, as the author acknowledges and indeed appears to encourage, but the fact that the book begins with a greasily reassurance that nothing that has happened in the other Freeport books will have the slightest impact on the setting as it stands here make me doubt that Green Ronin will take the opportunity to make something of it.>>

The reassurance comes from the second paragraph of the book. It says:

"The adventures in this book take place after the events of the first four Freeport adventures -- Death in Freeport, Terror in Freeport, Madness in Freeport and Hell in Freeport -- but they do not rely on them in any way. This means that the status of the city is exactly as described in the Freeport: the City of Adventure sourcebook, and that (along with the Core Rulebooks, of course) is all that you need to run these adventures."

What we are saying here is that you don't need to have the original adventure to run Tales of Freeport because the hardback already takes events of those adventures into account. As we say, the situation with the city is as described in Freeport: The City of Adventure. Guess I don't see anything "greasy" about that.

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Just a comment on "The Last Resort." I just reffed this, and it's worth the price of admission, at least is was for my group. They were all having a ball, and as the session went on, they just got more and more into it. They kept wondering what they would hit next.

As the reviewer said, this supposed to be self scaling, and it worked great for a party of 3, average level 10.

<spoiler>
It's not that you kill your players, it's that involvement is voluntary. There are eight plots, and the players can avoid any of them they wish to.
My Fighter/Pirate found three excuses to swing from chandeliers, the druid was turning into a monkey, and the monk was doing Crouching Tiger tricks all over.
The ghost can hit hard with permanent ability drain, so I'd worry about a low level party taking it on. I scaled up the mummy to lich as the module recommended, but the ghost had beaten up my players so much, they just let it go.
There was lots of fun with the jewel thief, who they caught, but in fine Freeport style did not turn in, in return for a "special fee."
</spoiler>

The Last Resort was a 5 star in my book, I'll scale up the Soul of the Serpant and see how that relates to the reviewer's perceptions.