Simon Collins
Explorer
This is not a playtest review.
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
The Fiery Trial is a story arc spanning the year 2258 for the Babylon 5 RPG from Mongoose Publishing.
The Fiery Trial is a 128-page colour softcover product costing $24.95. Space is used well, with little wasted space (both inside covers are used, no ads), and with good-sized font and margins, and a one-line space between paragraphs. The main illustration used is again stills, but they are used much less frequently than in the RPG/Factbook. Instead we see location maps dotted through the product, which are colourful, computer-generated, and keyed, but with no scale. Some unfortunately look as though they have been expanded from original size and have lost some definition around the edges causing a blurred look. The writing style is informal, at times overly so (almost sounding like the author is talking to you rather than writing), whilst editing is fine with occasional minor errors.
The Fiery Trial takes two concepts from the RPG/Factbook and runs with them. In the 'Campaigns' section of the RPG/Factbook, there was advice for a GM on how to tie in her own campaign with the ongoing Babylon 5 plot and also on creating story arcs - major plot lines that are threaded through regular scenarios to provide a cohesive story arcing across the whole campaign. Though its not "a brand new concept among roleplaying games" as claimed on the back of the book (Pendragon uses this concept as its very basis for example), it is a high-level GM art, and one worthy of presentation to GMs running a Babylon 5 campaign with limited time to develop their own concepts. The Fiery Trial presents one such 'story arc'.
The biggest danger when hooking in to an existing plotline is that player actions may disrupt what has, in effect, already happened. And for those who want to stick as close to canon as possible, that might be an issue. So it was a welcome sight to see provision of warning signs throughout the story arc where this new plotline might affect the existing one and advice on how to deal with these situations.
The story arc takes place over four 'modules' after some advice on bringing player characters together, along with reference to the player handouts at the back of the book and on the Mongoose website that provide job opportunities and news items that help the PCs become established on Babylon 5 and tie in to the latest goings-on.
Module One helps the GM to bring the players together when they are approached by a potentially long-term employer, who is looking for a team to locate a missing survey team near the Rim. Module Two has the players once again contracted to their previous employer, this time rescuing a company executive from a Drazi prison. Module Three has them investigating a ghost spacecraft in an Aliens-style encounter tied to an ancient alien artifact, whilst the final module involves the player characters on a covert mission into Narn territory to further investigate ancient alien remains, with the help of their employer and some NPC hirelings. A climactic end with links to further mysteries finishes off the story arc. Between each of the modules are a number of short adventure ideas, often linked to the TV series plotline or to the Fiery Trial story arc, which serve to bump up the PCs' XP ready for the next module and to further enhance the Babylon 5 iconography and flavour.
Scattered through the adventures are additional pieces of Babylonian information such as stats for new types of ships (e.g. Hermes Transport and its raider variant, Narn Var'Loth Assault Destroyer), new creatures (e.g. P'Lask Snow Snake, Levana Ant Lion), a couple of new races (the amoral Llort, and the Yolu who developed the Mutai fighting sport), and some information on the Tirrith system.
High Points:
The story arc concept works very well and ties neatly in to the major TV series plotline without impacting too much upon it. The 'modules' or adventures have a good sense of development whilst retaining that half-frustrating, half-exciting sense of mystery the TV series managed to elicit. NPCs are described well, giving GMs plenty of motivational factors and personality/behavioural attributes to work with. The adventures also give the GM advice on possible options the players might take and occasionally give the GM options to take the adventure down a different path than the intended storyline.
Low Points:
Personally, I would have preferred a less informal writing style. I would also have liked to see some improvement to the quality of the maps, both in terms of detail and the locations that they covered.
Conclusion:
This well-developed series of adventures with an over-arcing theme provides a great tie-in to the first season of the TV series and bodes well for future releases from Mongoose for the Babylon 5 line. A less informal writing style and some better attention to presentation could have earned this module top marks, as the detailed NPCs, plethora of additional adventure ideas, player handouts and tie-ins and the quality of the adventures themselves was very good.
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
The Fiery Trial is a story arc spanning the year 2258 for the Babylon 5 RPG from Mongoose Publishing.
The Fiery Trial is a 128-page colour softcover product costing $24.95. Space is used well, with little wasted space (both inside covers are used, no ads), and with good-sized font and margins, and a one-line space between paragraphs. The main illustration used is again stills, but they are used much less frequently than in the RPG/Factbook. Instead we see location maps dotted through the product, which are colourful, computer-generated, and keyed, but with no scale. Some unfortunately look as though they have been expanded from original size and have lost some definition around the edges causing a blurred look. The writing style is informal, at times overly so (almost sounding like the author is talking to you rather than writing), whilst editing is fine with occasional minor errors.
The Fiery Trial takes two concepts from the RPG/Factbook and runs with them. In the 'Campaigns' section of the RPG/Factbook, there was advice for a GM on how to tie in her own campaign with the ongoing Babylon 5 plot and also on creating story arcs - major plot lines that are threaded through regular scenarios to provide a cohesive story arcing across the whole campaign. Though its not "a brand new concept among roleplaying games" as claimed on the back of the book (Pendragon uses this concept as its very basis for example), it is a high-level GM art, and one worthy of presentation to GMs running a Babylon 5 campaign with limited time to develop their own concepts. The Fiery Trial presents one such 'story arc'.
The biggest danger when hooking in to an existing plotline is that player actions may disrupt what has, in effect, already happened. And for those who want to stick as close to canon as possible, that might be an issue. So it was a welcome sight to see provision of warning signs throughout the story arc where this new plotline might affect the existing one and advice on how to deal with these situations.
The story arc takes place over four 'modules' after some advice on bringing player characters together, along with reference to the player handouts at the back of the book and on the Mongoose website that provide job opportunities and news items that help the PCs become established on Babylon 5 and tie in to the latest goings-on.
Module One helps the GM to bring the players together when they are approached by a potentially long-term employer, who is looking for a team to locate a missing survey team near the Rim. Module Two has the players once again contracted to their previous employer, this time rescuing a company executive from a Drazi prison. Module Three has them investigating a ghost spacecraft in an Aliens-style encounter tied to an ancient alien artifact, whilst the final module involves the player characters on a covert mission into Narn territory to further investigate ancient alien remains, with the help of their employer and some NPC hirelings. A climactic end with links to further mysteries finishes off the story arc. Between each of the modules are a number of short adventure ideas, often linked to the TV series plotline or to the Fiery Trial story arc, which serve to bump up the PCs' XP ready for the next module and to further enhance the Babylon 5 iconography and flavour.
Scattered through the adventures are additional pieces of Babylonian information such as stats for new types of ships (e.g. Hermes Transport and its raider variant, Narn Var'Loth Assault Destroyer), new creatures (e.g. P'Lask Snow Snake, Levana Ant Lion), a couple of new races (the amoral Llort, and the Yolu who developed the Mutai fighting sport), and some information on the Tirrith system.
High Points:
The story arc concept works very well and ties neatly in to the major TV series plotline without impacting too much upon it. The 'modules' or adventures have a good sense of development whilst retaining that half-frustrating, half-exciting sense of mystery the TV series managed to elicit. NPCs are described well, giving GMs plenty of motivational factors and personality/behavioural attributes to work with. The adventures also give the GM advice on possible options the players might take and occasionally give the GM options to take the adventure down a different path than the intended storyline.
Low Points:
Personally, I would have preferred a less informal writing style. I would also have liked to see some improvement to the quality of the maps, both in terms of detail and the locations that they covered.
Conclusion:
This well-developed series of adventures with an over-arcing theme provides a great tie-in to the first season of the TV series and bodes well for future releases from Mongoose for the Babylon 5 line. A less informal writing style and some better attention to presentation could have earned this module top marks, as the detailed NPCs, plethora of additional adventure ideas, player handouts and tie-ins and the quality of the adventures themselves was very good.
