By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
Tempest Feud is a 128-page mega-adventure for the STAR WARS Roleplaying Game, written by Jeff Grubb and Owen K.C. Stephens. Matt Hatton provides the dramatic cover artwork, while Adi Granov shows off his talents on the interior. This Wizards of the Coast adventure is suitable for use in any era and retails for $24.95.
First Blood
Caution: Spoilers can be found here. Do not read this review if you intend to participate in this adventure as a player. Doing may spoil many of the surprises in store for your character.
Tempest Feud is a mega-adventure of sweeping scope and it revolves around favorite STAR WARS bad-guy, the Hutts. It uses only the rules from the STAR WARS Roleplaying Game, though other STAR WARS sourcebooks could easily be drawn from. In Act One, our heroes have to deal with some Hutt operations on the blockaded world of Endegraad. In Act Two, they become more deeply embroiled in Hutt politics and deceptions on Nar Shaddaa (the Hutt homeworld), and by Act Three, it all comes together and the final enemy is revealed on Varl, the original homeworld of the Hutts (now a polluted swamp). The adventure is designed so as to function as a stand-alone or to be easily inserted into an ongoing campaign.
Jeff Grubb’s name is synonymous with role-playing. Besides numerous gaming supplements (including the Power of the Jedi and Arms and Equipment Guide sourcebooks for the STAR WARS Roleplaying Game), he has also written a good number of fantasy novels. Owen K.C. Stephens is perhaps not quite so well-known but has contributed to a vast array of STAR WARS Roleplaying Game products and even if his name doesn’t stand out in your memory, chances are if you’re a STAR WARS player, you’ve seen some of his work.
While Tempest Feud presents an epic adventure, it also serves as a sourcebook, giving a brief, but very insightful look into the lives of the galaxy’s most infamous crimelords. A brief history of the Hutts, naming conventions, and even a crash course in the Hutt language are all included in the introduction. This all makes good sense because in this adventure, the heroes will deal heavily with the Hutts. This should be considered required reading for the GM, as it really adds something to the adventure.
On the surface, the adventure seems to be pretty straightforward; a Hutt clan leader needs the heroes to run some medicinal and emergency supplies to a plague-ravaged planet. This may seem a bit out of character for a Hutt, but he also has something else to gain. His youngest child is on the planet and the Hutt would like the heroes to check up on him. Oh, and of course the planet is under the control of the Corporate Sector Authority (which is why the Hutt is hoping that the heroes will take the job; it generates less suspicion is a group of freelancers is delivering medical supplies).
Of course, there is a lot more going on than meets the eye, and through the course of the adventure, the heroes will deal with all manner of interesting plot twists. Not everyone in the family, for instance, would be happy to see the youngest son returned safely home. And there are other, even more intriguing complications that arise later (and I won’t detail them here, in case PCs are reading this). Needless to say, the adventure is anything but straightforward.
The adventure progresses smoothly, with plenty of natural breakpoints and it would be easy for a GM to divide the three acts into separate adventures, connected by a plot thread that stretches through an entire campaign. In fact, advice for doing just this has been thoughtfully provided.
Each act is built around the classic mold. It begins with the introduction, builds the plot through complications, the crescendos to a climax. Each, of course, builds the big finish in the 3rd act. If played out right, the whole will fit seamlessly together like a move or a television episode (there are even natural “commercial” breaks built right in).
Furthermore, at the end of each act, sub-plots are offered for the GM to flesh out himself. These loosely tie into the adventure and can not only function as tie-ins (should the GM not wish to run through the entire adventure at once), but also as interludes if the entire group is unavailable for a session or two. These mini-plots are also a good way to bring the heroes up to the appropriate level for the next part of the adventure.
Finally, the adventure includes new creatures, new Hutt starships (including one for the players), new Hutt droids, and new equipment. The player’s starship is fully mapped out and (assuming it survives the adventure) could easily be used in their further adventures around the galaxy). The maps are Spartan, but very readable and easy to follow.
Critical Hits
First off, I was pleased to see that the adventure was filled with what I like to call “what if” sidebars. These are sidebars that help the GM get the adventure back on track if things go horribly wrong. For example, what if the heroes don’t even want to bargain with the Hutt and simply open fire? There is a sidebar giving hints on how to handle this eventuality and how to salvage the remainder of the adventure. These appear throughout the text, whenever there is a crucial point where the actions of the heroes could make or break the plot.
For beginning GMs (and even a few of us veterans), the inclusion of these sidebars is a wonderful thing. It saves me a lot of effort thinking of a way to salvage my $25 investment when the party Jedi goes nuts and sabers a vital NPC or even, through bad luck, the heroes lose their ship and find themselves stranded. It is easy to see how these features will be very helpful.
I also found that a lot of effort went into keeping the Star Wars feel. A bar is not a bar, it’s a cantina. And it isn’t a real dive, it’s a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.” This goes a long way towards helping the GM to convey to the players that they aren’t in a fantasy setting or a modern arena, this is Star Wars!
Critical Misses
As nice and easy to read as the maps are, they are not gridded. This doesn’t sit well with me, because it means that I have to break out a ruler in order to track movements and if I’m trying to transfer it to a larger medium (a battle mat, for example), it becomes a lot of work. Gridding might have made the maps seem a little cluttered, but it would have made them much easier for me to use.
While exciting and filled with plenty of opportunity, the adventure is very linear and will require a bit of GM tweaking to give the heroes a sense of free will. The mini-adventure suggestions between the acts can go a long way towards correcting this. That isn’t to say that it is predictable, just that at times, it seems to leap from point A to point B to point C with little or no filler in between.
Coup de Grace
If you’ve got a mid-level group of STAR WARS heroes who are sitting about the cantina, cooling their jets, this might be just the thing to shake some life back into them. It is definitely not suitable for lower-level heroes without some major restructuring, but it could easily be adapted for higher-level characters. The adventure is lengthy enough to provide enough entertainment for several game sessions and could be expanded into a major campaign plot thread with some effort. If you’re tired of having your heroes confront the Empire every week, give this one a try and let them do something else with their time for a change.
Though it can be set in any era, the two that are easiest are the Rise of the Empire and the Rebellion Era. It can be established in the early days of the New Republic, but to set it anytime after the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong will require some retinkering.
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