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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009664" data-attributes="member: 18387">By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack The Minotaur is the latest release in the Master Adventures series from ØOne Games. It is written by Mario Barbati (based on an original adventure by Diego Di Dato) and can be downloaded from ØOne Games’ website as a PDF for only $5. What struck me as interesting about this adventure is the fact that it is written for a single character, a paladin of 6th level. While it also adapts easily to a party of four 3rd-level characters (and notes on adapting it for such are provided), it would serve nicely as a paladin’s quest and any DM will be able to find a place for it in their campaign. Without giving too much away, the character or characters must confront a minotaur that is kidnapping youths from a small nearby village. Twists and turns and role-playing opportunities abound in this well-written adventure and it’s sure to provide a thrilling time whether used as a one-on-one scenario or an adventure for a small group. There’s plenty here to keep everyone on their toes. The adventure also introduces a new prestige class and a new monster (neither which I shall name here because they feature heavily into the mystery and plot). The prestige class is well-written, though perhaps a bit too specialized for my tastes. It fits nicely into the scenario, but I can see only limited use for it outside of the adventure. Likewise, the new monster adds some mystery and depth to the plot of this adventure, but outside of this setting, it loses much of what makes it so interesting. Still, I’m sure that talented DMs can find other uses for it. Also included is a full-color map detailing the dungeon environment in which the bulk of the adventure takes place and a fully-dressed character sheet for the suggested character, Gulthammer the paladin. It’s nice that the character sheet is included, but if the DM is planning on running a party through the adventure or if they have another character in mind, then the effort is wasted. Still, Gulthammer could make a good NPC, so it’s not wasted space. Finally, the PDF download gives DMs two beautiful, full-color battle maps, scaled for use with miniatures or counters. My only complaint here is that while one of these maps is a room where a lot of action is likely to take place, the other is a close-up map of a room in which almost no action will be seen. It makes me pause to consider it’s worth the cost of the ink to print out a copy of this page just to place the miniatures in an empty space. All the NPCs and the write-ups of the new creature and prestige class are designated as Open Game Content, which means that others can draw upon them and all of the encounters seem to be balanced according to d20 System standards. I was pleased to see that stat blocks are given right there with the monster. Kudos for this! I hate having to stop to look up a monster in the middle of a fight. I should have everything I need right there in front of me. On the negative side, however, special attacks and qualities of the monsters were not defined, which means that you’ll have to break out the book. I give high points for originality for taking an old story and making it new again. The idea of a single hero challenging a horrible monster is older than written history, and the idea of a hero taking on a minotaur is even more cliché, but just trust me when I say that they’ve added a unique twist to this one. On the other hand, this is an adventure, not intended for players’ eyes. It doesn’t make it any less playable, but it does limit the scope of those who would find it useful, thus the low Playability score. Finally, I have to say that this is $5 well-spent, whether you’re looking for a challenging adventure for a small, low-level group of whether you just need something to fill an evening with a single player. Ambitious DMs could even run it individually for each member of their group, designating a point system like the old tournament modules, to let their players compete against one another to see who the best role-player is.To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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