The Kazan Gambit - The Sleeping Kin

[Messageboard Golem]

Only a tiny fraction of the population within Mega-City One have any psi-talent at all. Through the power of their mind alone, these rare individuals are able to influence the thoughts of another, levitate inanimate objects or gaze into the future to witness their own fate and that of others. Ever since the Atomic War of 2070, the incidence of psi-talent within the population of virtually every city in the world has steadily been increasing - as have the dangerous associated with this unpredictable skill.

The second Judge Dredd scenario from Mongoose Publishing takes a patrol of judges on a roller-coaster ride through Mega-City One, in a desperate attempt to track down evil Sov-block agents before they bring the Justice Department to its knees. Complete with all new rules, The Sleeping Kin not only provides several gaming sessions of exciting adventure, it also forms a vital part of the growing Judge Dredd roleplaying game.

 

[GameWyrd]

The Sleeping Kin is the first of three scenarios in the Kazan Gambit Trilogy for the Judge Dredd d20 RPG from Mongoose Publishing.

You don’t often see scenarios coming out of the great Swindon machine but I think it was a wise choice to put something together for Judge Dredd. Mega-City One is just a huge place and the Judges are so powerful in their own right that I can imagine putting together a scenario might be more of a challenge to many GMs than putting together another dungeon crawl would be. The Sleeping Kin isn’t a dungeon crawl, in fact it’s refreshingly balanced between investigation and slugging it out with perps. In some ways then that it’s a shame its designed for four to six players of 3rd to 4th levels – but I suppose there are plenty of valid arguments in starting any street judge at 3rd level anyway.

If you’re likely to play the scenario then stop reading because this review will probably give something important away.

It’s really easy to provide a synopsis of the Sleeping Kin because that’s just what the book does early on in. GMs are advised to read through the whole book, get to grips with things and to be free to allow their players to stray off the beaten track. The plot in the scenario is typically 2000AD. Surprisingly so, in fact, impressively so. The Judges begin by investigating an alien smuggling ring but discover it’s actually a weird cannibal club. The organiser behind the cannibal club is found dead and the players will realise that the killers were probably modified cleaning bots.

"The players will realise" is a dangerous phrase. What if they don’t? In a Judge Dredd setting it isn’t so dangerous. If you’re playing in a Judge environment, especially with the players as rookies, then the various NPCs that will be involved in the investigation will discover important clues as needed and when the players miss them. In fact, there’s a tough lock that needs to be picked in the Sleeping Kin and if the players can’t pick it or don’t decide to blast the door open then they can call for backup for that sort of trivial detail too.

The 32-paged book is formatted to assist the GM trying to run the game directly from it. The paragraphs that a GM could read verbatim to the players often appear in italics. Just sometimes though the formatting messes up the quote continues out of the italics and into normal text. It isn’t a disaster or even all that much of a problem; it’s just something to watch out for. I’d watch the italic text closely even when the formatting is behaving itself too. It’s perhaps an issue for me because it’s a pet peeve but sometimes, just sometimes, it tells the players what they’re doing rather than what’s happening. For example, "You walk around the examination table to join Gaunt." Did I? No. I was going to talk to him from the doorway. Cheap – but possibly true. To be fair, it doesn’t happen very often and when it does happen it is most often in small details like that – but to be the perfect scenario it shouldn’t happen at all.

Okay. I missed some of the plot synopsis out on purpose. Sleeper agents from East-Meg (read: Russia) have been re-actived and are going about finishing their mission from a war that ended decades ago. The sleeper agents really have been asleep – in suspended animation. It’s probably there in plain text but I can’t for the life of me find a mention of just why the agents kill off the head of the Gourmet Club – but they do, and it’s just as well, because it’s a vital link. The characters do go up against the agents again. The last scene in the book could be truly epic, a large-scale melee when a march goes wrong and then a cinematic chase/combat scene around some of the interesting features of the gigantic Mega-City One. My only concern with the final fight is that it involves a bit of player railroading; just a little. The situation needs to get out of hand and so no matter how impressive the players are. I think its one of those times when the plot gets away with such an event but its never something to take lightly.

The Sleeping Kin makes a great showcase for Judge Dredd and Mega-City One. The scope of the game is good and takes full advantage of the genre. It’s similarity to the comic strip is worth noting too, some ideas are borrowed straight from plots in the graphic novels but that’s not a crime when the whole RPG comes from there too. The illustrations in the book are heavily supplement with strips of comics from the series and this is a familiar feature in the roleplaying series. I think GMs will be very much better off of they’re familiar with the scenario to the point where they don’t need to read the italic text and when they can roleplay the important NPCs that show up rather than trying to steamrollers their appearances in key scenes. The Sleeping Kin is also particularly nice in as far as you can chop the sleeping kin, the East-Meg agents, out of it entirely. The investigation of smuggling that turns into alien eating is a nice Judge Dredd encounter in its own right and is just the sort of thing which you can pull the game book out for and use anywhere else in your game.

* This GameWyrd review first appeared here.

 

[skalvar]

((Disclaimer - I have done and continue to do freelance work for Mongoose Publishing))

Summary: A reasonable attempt to create an adventure that both explores and contradicts the stereotypes of the Judge Dredd universe. The structure of the adventure itself relies too much on driving characters from one scene to another. However, it provides excellent examples of a wide variety of Judge activities for beginning Judges. The individual scenarios (called Progs) make good use of the unique setting mechanics. The Prog design creates a very modular adventure, allowing even a novice GM to pull the scenes apart for insertion into an existing game.

As presented
The adventure in "The Sleeping Kin" guides the players through three connected adventures (called Progs in the text). Prog One involves the players stumbling onto a mutant smuggling ring associated with a four star dining facility. Prog Two guides the players though the investigation of the murder that closes Prog One. Prog Three deals with a riot related to but not directly connected with the murder investigation. All three Progs lead the players fairly firmly from one scene to the next, allowing for little deviation in the players activities. Senior judges provide direction in the form of 'advice'. Players are left alone to decide how to respond to some combat and tactical situations, but all strategic level decisions fall into more experienced (GM) hands.

The module concludes by introducing two new Prior Lives for civilian characters. These prior lives see considerable use through out the module. However, they do not add appreciably to the module's use in a non-judge campaign.

Section Score: 3 (Average)

As setting introduction
"The Sleeping Kin" does a good job of introducing the world of low-level street/beat judges. Many of the scenes provide both investigative and repression opportunities for Judges. A few provide excellent examples of random "judge" encounters in both normal and heightened tension situations.

The descriptive text accompanying most scenes within the Progs provides insight into the physical presence of Mega-City One. The briefings and mission structures also give a novice JD GM guidance in the construction of assignments. Most major information is delivered by NPCs, which saves the players from bad dice luck but also contributes to the feeling of being out of control.

Section Score: 4 (Good)

Use of setting mechanics/archetypes
The JD system strongly emphasises the use of XP rewards for proper behaviour as well as penalties for inappropriate actions. Most of the scenes in "The Sleeping Kin" take advantage of this mechanic, suggesting alternate awards for players who live up to the setting. The scenes and programs as presented also provide many opportunities for players to call in various backup squads, make arrest checks, and utilize the intricate equipment provided them by the Justice Department.

Novice JD players will find the reserve required to survive Prog Two somewhat difficult. In this Prog player judges work undercover, posing as hackers to get vital information from rogue robots. They will have to ignore standard Justice Department protocol, bend rules, and ignore a wide variety of crimes. This role reversal forces the players to think outside the box about judge activity, but failure carries some disastrous consequences. The author may have wanted to take more care to protect novices from their errors in this situation.

Section Score: 4 (Good)

Ability to modify/adapt adventure to target campaign
The rigid nature of the connections between the various Progs, as well as between scenes within the Progs, makes this a difficult adventure to insert whole cloth. On the other hand, many of the individual scenes with the Prog can be disconnected from the main plot and inserted into any running game. Furthermore the three Prog's presented do not have to be connected in any way; any of the three could make for a nice evening or two of gaming.

Section Score: 4 (Good for modularity)

Conclusion
As written I would hesitate to run "The Sleeping Kin". It provides plenty of action and investigation, but the rigid nature of the plot and the connection between scenes would put my players off. If we regard it as a source book for potential adventures/scenes rather than as a stand-alone adventure the product comes off in a much better light. My rating of 3 reflects my opinion about this product as an adventure; I would give it a solid 4 as a source book.

Overall Score: 3 (Average)