trancejeremy
Adventurer
Since it's not in the database yet, might as well post this here for the time being
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Hell in the Hedgerows
Pinnacle Entertainment Group
80 pages, softcover
$15
Blurb:
"This all-new adventure collection for Weird Wars contains four
screaming sagas of war-borne horror. It all starts in the hedgerows of
France, then moves inland, eventually taking players into the heart of
Germany herself! Designed to be played as stand-alone adventures or as
a short campaign, Hell in the Hedgerows introduces new characters to
the weird part of the war. If they survive their first contact with
the supernatural, they'll be dragged into even more precarious
situations. Survive that and they might just be contacted by the OSI
for "special duty." It's an honor, soldier. One to die for."
ISBN: 193085505-2
Cover pic at:
http://www.peginc.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/13002HellinHedgerows.jpg
Or in a thumbnail version....
http://www.peginc.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/13002HellinHedgerows-TN.jpg
Hell in the Hedgerows is an adventure anthology for Weird Wars: Blood on the Rhine, from Pinnacle games. It's a softcover, 80 page book, and is reasonably priced at $15. It consists basically of 4 adventures, plus errata for Blood on the Rhine, plus some pregenerated characters. While this is a nice touch, unfortunately, the pregenerated characters and one of the adventures is available from the Pinnacle web site. Nice that I don't have to print it out, but kind of a waste, as it's not all new material. The side margins are also a whopping 1 3/4", again, something of a waste, though some of it get used for illustrations and tables/sidebars.
The four adventures are "Hell in the Hedgerows" by Shane Hensley, "The Golem" by Mark Metzner, "Test of Worth" by Otto Cargill, and "Schloss Fenris" by Gareth-Michael Skara.
The first adventure (15 pages or so) is probably the best. Essentially the characters are sent to secure a small french town recently abandoned by the Germans. They then deal with various problems. Combat mostly, some investigation, some exploring, some role-playing. I found it to be the most enjoyable. The downside side is, the adventure is a bit sketchy. Except for some germans, no NPCs have any sort of stats, just descriptions. Since at least 1 will appear in a combat situation, maybe more, this is hard to excuse. Still, fairly enjoyable.
The 2nd adventure, The Golem, is available for free on Pinnacles website. Or was, at one time. It's fairly short. Again, this is set in France, but in this case, in part still occupied by Germany. The PCs are sent there to help save a town from rampaging Nazis, who seem to be looking for something in particular. Not very complicated, and the details of the town are basically non-existent. That's my main problem with this adventure. Not bad for a freebie, but way too shallow for a adventure you pay for.
"Test of Worth", the 3rd adventure, is fairly large, at 22 pages. This one is rather difficult. The players must travel through occupied france, to a concentration camp. There, they have to rescue a spy/special agent. Rather than typical site based adventures, this one is handled by 'Scenes'. Well all adventures in the book use that terminology, but this is the first one where players have little say in what they do, but rather move from scene to scene, more or less by DM fiat. Rather than a military adventure, it's more like a spy movie. It's fairly interesting, though.
The last adventure is "Schloss Fenris", also around 22 pages. In this adventure, the PCs are again more like spies, and are sent to a german castle to assassinate a top Nazi. Things don't go as planned, and they get shot down on the way there. So they have to make their way to the castle, and on the way, encounter lots of nasty things. As a note, this one says you need the air combat rules from "Dead from Above" to play completely, but you're not missing much if you don't. (As the combat is a ghost plane vs. a air transport plane...)
This is probably the worst adventure of the lot. For one, the author gets cute with the names of the NPCs (from one of the most famous movies of all time). For another, it's insanely tough. It's also too much like a D&D adventure, hack & slash, and way over the top when it comes to monsters and magic. They fight zombies, trolls, witches, werewolves, dire wolves. The PCs find a wand of magic missiles & a magic ring, for crying out loud. This is not supposed to be D&D just because it's d20. The last part, the assault on the castle, is extremely barebones.
Another thing that bugs me, is that part of the adventure is a moral delimna revolving around a werewolf. The text states that although the players might, the characters have no way of knowing about werewolves unless they make a knowledge (arcana) check. Yet, werewolves are nothing new - there were several horror movies involving werewolves before the time the adventure is set (1944), including the extremely popular "The Wolf Man" starring Bela Lugosi, Claude Rains, and Lon Chaney Jr, which came out in 1941, just a few years before. Also, the OSI people at the of the mission warn the characters about werewolves, and tell them to take silver bullets. But they won't warn the team to not be bitten by werewolves? (Or come up with some sort of antidote, or give them belladonna or wolvesbane, or whatever is supposed to possibly cure it)
Individually, most of the adventures are okay (except for the last), but collectively, they don't work together very well. The first is a regular military adventure, the second more as investigators, the third as spies, and the last as commandos. The difference in power level between adventures is also pretty great. So, despite what the back says, this would not work at all for a short campaign.
Especially the 4th. I mean, after the 3rd adventure, the PCs are offered a chance to join the OSI. So right off, would they be ordered to assassinate the #2 Nazi? I don't think so. Even the 3rd is a stretch. Spies are specifically chosen to fit in well in a given place, and are trained well. So, they're not just picked at random from the military. Especially if you use the pregenerated characters - they just do not look like a bunch who could make it through occupied france without anyone noticing they are American, not French or German. I mean, c'mon, one of the pics of the pregenerated character has a guy with a piece of grass in his mouth and bears a remarkably resemblance to Ron Howard's Opie from the Andy Griffith show.
The time frame is also off. The first adventure starts on July 25th, 1944. Yet the next two are set in 'late July, 1944', which means the first adventure would have to take almost no time to complete. If the PCs start off as regular soldiers, they will almost certainly only speak English. So somehow they mysteriously learn French & German in a few days so they can be sent behind enemy lines? No one would send people on a spying mission if they didn't speak the local language.
Aesthetically, it's pretty much like most other Pinnacle books. One thing that is noticeable, is that there isn't much artwork (about 19 pieces, in total), and much is actually repeated in either Blood on the Rhine, or the free download of the Golem (about half). Most of the it is very bad or crudely done. Has a fair amount of maps, but mostly just for important locations. The cover looks like something from the old movie "Wizards". (A B&W version appears inside - the cover version was colored very nicely, the difference is so great, I didn't realize the interior version was the cover at first)
All in all, not a terrible book. The first 3 adventures are solid, and the last, while I thought it was terrible, parts of it can be salvaged for use in other adventures - in particular, it features a map of a small Nazi castle.
On the other hand, I would have preferred an actual campaign, based on the adventures of a small squad as it moves through France fighting the Nazis/Germans. Since playing in WW2 is something of a new experience for me (and many others), it would have been very helpful. This book is more suited for a series of 1 shot games, with differing characters. Not an ongoing campaign.
So, I'd probably give this a 2 1/2. Not terrible, but below average. Pinnacle could have done a lot better - this product seems a bit rushed.
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FWIW, some of the people on the WW mailing list seem to love it, so perhaps I have a different idea of what WW adventures should be like. Still, I think they do rush characters into the OSI too quickly, and the end mission is just psychotic...
------------------------------------------------------
Hell in the Hedgerows
Pinnacle Entertainment Group
80 pages, softcover
$15
Blurb:
"This all-new adventure collection for Weird Wars contains four
screaming sagas of war-borne horror. It all starts in the hedgerows of
France, then moves inland, eventually taking players into the heart of
Germany herself! Designed to be played as stand-alone adventures or as
a short campaign, Hell in the Hedgerows introduces new characters to
the weird part of the war. If they survive their first contact with
the supernatural, they'll be dragged into even more precarious
situations. Survive that and they might just be contacted by the OSI
for "special duty." It's an honor, soldier. One to die for."
ISBN: 193085505-2
Cover pic at:
http://www.peginc.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/13002HellinHedgerows.jpg
Or in a thumbnail version....
http://www.peginc.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/13002HellinHedgerows-TN.jpg
Hell in the Hedgerows is an adventure anthology for Weird Wars: Blood on the Rhine, from Pinnacle games. It's a softcover, 80 page book, and is reasonably priced at $15. It consists basically of 4 adventures, plus errata for Blood on the Rhine, plus some pregenerated characters. While this is a nice touch, unfortunately, the pregenerated characters and one of the adventures is available from the Pinnacle web site. Nice that I don't have to print it out, but kind of a waste, as it's not all new material. The side margins are also a whopping 1 3/4", again, something of a waste, though some of it get used for illustrations and tables/sidebars.
The four adventures are "Hell in the Hedgerows" by Shane Hensley, "The Golem" by Mark Metzner, "Test of Worth" by Otto Cargill, and "Schloss Fenris" by Gareth-Michael Skara.
The first adventure (15 pages or so) is probably the best. Essentially the characters are sent to secure a small french town recently abandoned by the Germans. They then deal with various problems. Combat mostly, some investigation, some exploring, some role-playing. I found it to be the most enjoyable. The downside side is, the adventure is a bit sketchy. Except for some germans, no NPCs have any sort of stats, just descriptions. Since at least 1 will appear in a combat situation, maybe more, this is hard to excuse. Still, fairly enjoyable.
The 2nd adventure, The Golem, is available for free on Pinnacles website. Or was, at one time. It's fairly short. Again, this is set in France, but in this case, in part still occupied by Germany. The PCs are sent there to help save a town from rampaging Nazis, who seem to be looking for something in particular. Not very complicated, and the details of the town are basically non-existent. That's my main problem with this adventure. Not bad for a freebie, but way too shallow for a adventure you pay for.
"Test of Worth", the 3rd adventure, is fairly large, at 22 pages. This one is rather difficult. The players must travel through occupied france, to a concentration camp. There, they have to rescue a spy/special agent. Rather than typical site based adventures, this one is handled by 'Scenes'. Well all adventures in the book use that terminology, but this is the first one where players have little say in what they do, but rather move from scene to scene, more or less by DM fiat. Rather than a military adventure, it's more like a spy movie. It's fairly interesting, though.
The last adventure is "Schloss Fenris", also around 22 pages. In this adventure, the PCs are again more like spies, and are sent to a german castle to assassinate a top Nazi. Things don't go as planned, and they get shot down on the way there. So they have to make their way to the castle, and on the way, encounter lots of nasty things. As a note, this one says you need the air combat rules from "Dead from Above" to play completely, but you're not missing much if you don't. (As the combat is a ghost plane vs. a air transport plane...)
This is probably the worst adventure of the lot. For one, the author gets cute with the names of the NPCs (from one of the most famous movies of all time). For another, it's insanely tough. It's also too much like a D&D adventure, hack & slash, and way over the top when it comes to monsters and magic. They fight zombies, trolls, witches, werewolves, dire wolves. The PCs find a wand of magic missiles & a magic ring, for crying out loud. This is not supposed to be D&D just because it's d20. The last part, the assault on the castle, is extremely barebones.
Another thing that bugs me, is that part of the adventure is a moral delimna revolving around a werewolf. The text states that although the players might, the characters have no way of knowing about werewolves unless they make a knowledge (arcana) check. Yet, werewolves are nothing new - there were several horror movies involving werewolves before the time the adventure is set (1944), including the extremely popular "The Wolf Man" starring Bela Lugosi, Claude Rains, and Lon Chaney Jr, which came out in 1941, just a few years before. Also, the OSI people at the of the mission warn the characters about werewolves, and tell them to take silver bullets. But they won't warn the team to not be bitten by werewolves? (Or come up with some sort of antidote, or give them belladonna or wolvesbane, or whatever is supposed to possibly cure it)
Individually, most of the adventures are okay (except for the last), but collectively, they don't work together very well. The first is a regular military adventure, the second more as investigators, the third as spies, and the last as commandos. The difference in power level between adventures is also pretty great. So, despite what the back says, this would not work at all for a short campaign.
Especially the 4th. I mean, after the 3rd adventure, the PCs are offered a chance to join the OSI. So right off, would they be ordered to assassinate the #2 Nazi? I don't think so. Even the 3rd is a stretch. Spies are specifically chosen to fit in well in a given place, and are trained well. So, they're not just picked at random from the military. Especially if you use the pregenerated characters - they just do not look like a bunch who could make it through occupied france without anyone noticing they are American, not French or German. I mean, c'mon, one of the pics of the pregenerated character has a guy with a piece of grass in his mouth and bears a remarkably resemblance to Ron Howard's Opie from the Andy Griffith show.
The time frame is also off. The first adventure starts on July 25th, 1944. Yet the next two are set in 'late July, 1944', which means the first adventure would have to take almost no time to complete. If the PCs start off as regular soldiers, they will almost certainly only speak English. So somehow they mysteriously learn French & German in a few days so they can be sent behind enemy lines? No one would send people on a spying mission if they didn't speak the local language.
Aesthetically, it's pretty much like most other Pinnacle books. One thing that is noticeable, is that there isn't much artwork (about 19 pieces, in total), and much is actually repeated in either Blood on the Rhine, or the free download of the Golem (about half). Most of the it is very bad or crudely done. Has a fair amount of maps, but mostly just for important locations. The cover looks like something from the old movie "Wizards". (A B&W version appears inside - the cover version was colored very nicely, the difference is so great, I didn't realize the interior version was the cover at first)
All in all, not a terrible book. The first 3 adventures are solid, and the last, while I thought it was terrible, parts of it can be salvaged for use in other adventures - in particular, it features a map of a small Nazi castle.
On the other hand, I would have preferred an actual campaign, based on the adventures of a small squad as it moves through France fighting the Nazis/Germans. Since playing in WW2 is something of a new experience for me (and many others), it would have been very helpful. This book is more suited for a series of 1 shot games, with differing characters. Not an ongoing campaign.
So, I'd probably give this a 2 1/2. Not terrible, but below average. Pinnacle could have done a lot better - this product seems a bit rushed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FWIW, some of the people on the WW mailing list seem to love it, so perhaps I have a different idea of what WW adventures should be like. Still, I think they do rush characters into the OSI too quickly, and the end mission is just psychotic...
