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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 2008937" data-attributes="member: 8951">Summary:  This product is very competently written and contains a few interesting ideas, but in the end it falls just short of true excellence.   On the surface:  This product contains two 18-page adventures for one moderately low price.  On the one hand, getting two adventures increases the use-value of the product for a DM.  On the other hand, limiting each adventure to 18 pages places an upper bound on the depth and complexity of both adventures.  However, one bonus of having two adventures is that you also get two covers!  Both covers are nice, but the one with the spectre on the cover is certainly the more eye-catching.  Unfortunately, the interior art leaves a lot to be desired.  This is a shame, because one of Fiery Dragon's innovations is the inclusion of illustrated counters for all of the NPCs in their adventures.  Generally, this is a neat idea that gives the DM specially designed counters which are intended to represent the specific NPCs in the story.  This reduces the need for miniatures while also giving players a realistic idea of what the NPC is supposed to look like.  However, when the illustrations are as poor as they are in this product, it is not worth a DM's time to photocopy them, paste them onto a more stable surface (like cardboard), and cut them out.  (Some would argue that it is not worth the DM's time in any case.)  The cartography is similarly sparse and simplistic.<Warning: spoilers follow.>   Innovations:  (For me, this is the most important category when it comes to separating the Good products from the Average ones and the Superb ones from the Good ones.)  The new and interesting idea that (deservedly) gets the most attention from this product is the necromantic engine that reanimates undead in "The Ghost Machine".  No doubt, this is a very cool and creatively inspiring idea.  However, there is another important and useful idea in this product.  "Swords Against Deception" includes an Alert Factor system designed to help DM's determine how prepared the denizens of the castle are in relation to what has happened before.  Although this system is very rudimentary, it is a good idea in an infiltration type adventure like this one.  (Some of you old-timers may recall seeing something like this basic idea in "The City of Skulls" 2nd edition Greyhawk adventure.)     Pros:  One of the outstanding characteristics of this product is how competently the adventures are written from a DM's perspective.  Inside the front cover of both adventures is a table of all the potential adversaries in the module listed with map key, CR, and vital stats.  In general, this module always seems to provide exactly the kind of information that a DM might need, from door break DC's to detailed monster and NPC combat tactics.  I also liked the fact that one of the bad guys is an intelligent mummy with levels in Wizard.  (I was disappointed with the mummy stats as described in the Monster Manual.)   Cons:  The writers seem forced by their page limits to keep the locations overly simple.  This causes particular difficulties in "Swords Against Deception".  The backstory tells us that the castle that the PCs are infiltrating was once the home of a 20th level Sorcerer king.  Yet the castle has only one floor, only 9 rooms above ground, and only 3 rooms below ground.  Pretty tiny castle for an ancient king of such power!  Although this is not such a big deal, both adventures could be difficult to integrate into a home campaign.  Additionally, those players who like to role-play will be disappointed with the almost complete lack of developed NPCs to interact with.  Lastly, the interior art and presentation could really use jazzing up a bit.   Final Thought:  This product would certainly deserve a 5-out-of-5 rating if the writers had been given a bit more space to add detail and complexity to their adventures.  This product really needed to be 48 or 64 pages instead of 36.  However, given their space limitations, these adventures are very well done.  If I could give fractions, I'd give this product a 4.33.</blockquote>

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