The Whisper of Horses

[Jraynack]

On Red River Ranch, terror sleeps - but not long.

As investigators search for answers concerning a mysterious pregnancy among the horses and the disappearance of the two veterinarians on the ranch, a killer lurks in the shadows.

On the eve of a national horse race, will investigators find the answers they need before the horses give birth - and what exactly grows inside.

Alea Publishing Group is proud to present a first in d20 Modern Horror Adventures:

- Two movie files (with sound) that can be shown to players to depict what thier investigators are actually seeing!
- Sound effects (such as gunshots and a car crash) that can be heard during play to enhance the mood at that intense moment!
- Eye-Openers (freaky little whammies that you can spring on investigators during the adventure).
- The entire e-book is extensively book-marked and easily navigable (we designed this adventure for those who enjoy GMing on their desktop or laptop computer - but that doesn't mean you can't print this out and run it from the tabletop).
- 8 skillfully done maps (expect nothing less from Alea).
- 8 player handouts.
- 4 possible endings.
- An experience point system to reward players for finding important clues.

- And a specifically designed disk label for easy storing (for those who like to keep their e-books on cds; this feature is in the DEMO).

Also included is d20 Insanity Rules for all of those harrowing encounters and Charms, a new type of magic item that is dependent on the investigators’ superstitious nature to work.

Come and join Alea Publishing Group in bringing terror to a whole new level.

 

[Crothian]

Whisper of Horses

It seems that adventures for d20 Modern tend to be of the investigation and supernatural genres. It is not like there are many adventures being written for d20 Modern either. So, it makes me wonder if this is the way most people are using d20 Modern or if these are the only modules for the game that really sell. Either way it is good for me since these are the type of adventures I prefer. It is just one of those odd observations I have made on the game. Whisper of Horse is like so many others, a supernatural mystery adventure for d20 Modern, but that is not a bad thing.

Whisper of Horses is a new d20 Modern adventure by Alea Publishing Group. Alea is better known for their PDFs that deal with knights and honor. This is their first non fantasy book. The sixty-five page PDF in color and very well book marked. The zip is a bit over seven megs and contains the PDF as well as two sound files, two picture files, and two film files for some audio and video support to enhance the module.

Whisper of Horses seems to be the first adventure to be designed to be run from a laptop at the gaming table. The adventure can be printed out and run the usually way but this has a few specific options that make it better when run from a computer. The movies files and sound files are designed to be played at appropriate points in the adventure. They are not needed but really do a nice job of adding something to the adventure. The quality of these is not great but it is good enough. I really hope to see more companies start to do more of this in the future as it is a really cool and different idea.

The adventure does a nice job of bringing in characters from anywhere in the United States. Characters can probably be brought in from around the world as well but it might be harder. The characters do not need to know each other for it to work either. The characters basically win a price, get transported to New York City for a few days and then off the south west for a horse race. Of course there is a nice mystery of sick horses, veterinarians disappearing and old Indian legends the players will soon run into. Also, they will learn that they were specifically picked to win the price to come out here and investigate things.

The adventure is site based. The characters have plenty of choices of places to go and gather clues and run into a lot of fairly interesting characters. The reasons for these particular characters being brought in are also a nice little twist the players might not expect. The adventure is designed for third level characters and does involve some good investigation skills. There are many handouts to give the characters, some great layout of buildings they will explore, and of course the computer sound and video files. This module has the most variety in props for a game I have seen.

The module seems like a fun game and should be easy to use in most d20 Modern games. The module does not assume lots of magic but it does have some little magical charms. The book also presents insanity rules as an option to further make the game a little more horror oriented.

Reading through it makes me want to run the module. It seems to work for either a one shot or in a campaign. It is one that I would pick up again after knowing what it is and how the module reads. Alea Publishing has done a nice job with the adventure and I hope to see more like this from them.

 

[DragonTurtle]

A Whisper of Horses

Physical Description: A Whisper of Horses by Alea Publishing Group is a 65 page color PDF modern horror adventure. The PDF includes multiple hound outs and attached files for sound and video to play for your players. The PDF includes a table of contents and is extensively book marked. Art includes color photographs and detailed maps. There is even a graphic to use as a CD label if you choose to run the game from a CD. Due to the high amount of color used, and the photographs this document would require a lot of ink to print. Some non shaded versions of the maps and such are in the appendix for easy printing, otherwise I would recommend using the adventure from a laptop as truly more can be gained from it this way.

For the player: The player is mostly going to benefit most from the ability to play in the adventure. The plot hook is fairly see-through but if this adventure is the first for the group it does a good job in bringing the PCs together. A nice addition is that XP awards can also be given out for detailed investigating which should help the non combat oriented characters to play a role in the game.

For the GM: This is a fairly self-contained adventure that can be ran from a laptop and fully takes advantage of being on a computer. The maps are great and detailed, and handouts are plentiful and well done to help the players immerse themselves in the plot. The NPCs are stated out and some can be used to replace characters who die during the adventure. There is information on a society that may also provide additional plot hooks for further adventures.

New Mechanics: The PDF includes rules on Sanity that should be familiar in concept to anyone who has played a horror themed RPG. It is a nice touch to the adventure and should really enhance some of the themes in the game.

There are also rules on charms, which are minor magical items. A few sample charms are detailed. This is a nice way to add a little bit of the supernatural to the game without going into the real of fantasy.

Overview: This adventure really stands out for understanding that a PDF can be more than something printed out, that as a file on a computer it can do more than a printed document. Alea deserves recognition for this and I hope to see others follow their example. The adventure is mostly investigational which will of course require a certain type of player, one that doesn’t yearn for mostly combat. For this adventure I rate it 5 out of 5. There is too much here that exceeds expectations to go with a lower score. I personally am planning to run a one shot adventure of this with my group.

 

[The Lost Muse]

Disclaimer: I have received this product for free through Crothian's new review program. I like fantasy, and although I own Call of Cthulhu d20, I have never run an adventure in the horror genre. This is my first review, and I will try to be both unbiased and thorough.

The Whisper of Horses is a d20 Modern Horror Adventure available in electronic format from Alea Publishing. Unlike other e-books, this one includes not just a pdf, but also two sound clips, and two video clips. The instructions claim that the book is meant to be run off a laptop. It certainly is; by making use of hyper linking, this book facilitates online play very well. Not only does it allow you to play the included sound files without opening them up in an alternate program, but also links to websites that may be of use. Throughout the book are photographs to help evoke the correct mood. The table of contents is excellent, and the book is thoroughly bookmarked. The adventure itself is 28 pages long, and the rest of the 65 page pdf is made up of appendixes, the table of contents, and the Open Game License. There are no full page advertisements; however, there is a link to Alea Publishing’s website, and mention of one of their forthcoming products. The text contains very few typographical errors, and reads well for the most part.

The premise of the adventure seems fairly standard by horror movie genre conventions. A group of Native Americans accidentally summoned a demon attempting to defend themselves from the influx of white settlers, but discovered the demon’s true nature and trapped it. Now, in the present, the demon has returned and must be stopped. The Party is recruited as possible members of the Fortean Society through a faked contest. While this is not the strongest of hooks, what self-respecting player would turn down a free trip?

Frequently throughout the adventure, bonus experience points are offered for rolling well on Research Checks. This seems like rewarding those with good stats and ranks in the Research Skill, and penalizing those who have a different idea for their character. Since the player characters are supposed to be investigators, I suppose that this makes sense. Another feature I noticed in this adventure was “Playtester Highlights.” These sidebars contain suggestions based on how playtesting groups ran the adventure. These suggestions are good, such as having the party appear on talk shows after “winning” a contest.

There are plenty of maps in the book; all the major areas seem to be mapped out. The quality of the maps is good. They are all clear, and well labeled. Any maps that have knowledge not meant for players come in a player version and a GM version. This is a good thing.

The adventure has four possible outcomes detailed, and each is plausible. Two of the endings (mostly) wrap up all the loose ends, while two of them leave a nice messy ending allowing for a continuing storyline.

Following the end of the adventure, there are Six Appendixes. Appendix 1 contains the d20 Modern Stats for all the NPC’s. I am not very familiar with d20 Modern, so as far as I can tell the stat blocks are all right. Each NPC also has a photo-quality picture of their face. I’m not sold on this as a good thing, but it helps if you are unable to describe the faces.

Appendix 2 contains “eye-openers” events to unsettle the player characters. These are all neat little random encounters that can be dropped in at various points throughout the adventure. They can be used for foreshadowing later events also.

Appendix 3 contains the rules for Insanity. If you were planning to buy this adventure just for those rules, but already have the d20 Call of Cthulhu, don’t bother. Fortunately these rules are Open Source, so anyone can use them if they so desire. Essentially, Sanity is a resource similar to Hit Points. A characters maximum sanity is 99 – their ranks in Knowledge (forbidden lore). If the sanity score ever drops too low, characters develop temporary or indefinite psychological disorders. (While this models a slow spiral of decreasing sanity very well, I wish someone would make a Sanity Mechanic that was more consistent with the rest of the d20 system, perhaps using the saving throw as a model.)

Appendix 4 contains several charms that the investigators may be able to use. None of these seems unbalanced, and they are all appropriately flavored.

Appendix 5 contains all the maps, some of which are repeated from earlier. As mentioned before several of them come in two versions.

Appendix 6 contains handouts of letters, faxes, photographs, and e-mails. These are nice to have, but not necessary.

This adventure comes with a lot of extra material for the over-worked GM. I think it would work well as a one-shot, but could see some who would prefer an ongoing campaign. The electronic features are especially well done. The premise of the adventure is solid, and the conclusions are satisfying. 4 stars.