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Hej everybody,
I'm back for another city and a pdf I should have reviewed a long time ago - without further ado, here are the mean
This urban noir adventure anthology set in the by now
legendary clockwork city of Zobeck is 94 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page
editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page advertisement, 1 blank page and 1 page back
cover, leaving 88 pages of content, so let's follow Ben McFarland's advice and
get gritty and grimy!
The pdf kicks off with so-called faces of Zobeck, i.e.
characters and creatures that dwell at the dark and dirty underbelly of the
city, from grimy urban fey to drug-addicted mages, enigmatic individuals that
can make corpses disappear, goblin assassins and alchemist who dilute their
potions - all the Npcs featured in this chapter come with their own background,
goals and secrets and all are somewhat influenced by the harsh dog-eat-dog-
realities of life in the grime - if you want an example from literature, think
Thieves World.
Of course, we not only get new NPCs, but also new
places and it is here that the anthology starts to truly rock hard - each of
the locations is iconic and comes with its own, highly detailed map. The Black
Lotus, an opium den led by the enigmatic, kabuki-style painted man who offers
any magical favors you require would be only one example. Of course, we also
visit the black market in the eponymous cartways of Zobeck. Once we're done
shopping with illicit goods, we show up at the neutral ground of the city's
underworld, the botanical rooftop garden of Hommal for a nice tea (or other
substance) we'll visit the old Stross bathhouse/massage parlor, before we,
refreshed, but somewhat disturbed by the glimpse of a shadowfey in the pool, go
to the silken scabbard to relax with the prostitutes there. It is also here,
where we find Tyron, king of fixers, the best of a kind of rogues (new
archetype + new roguish talent) who can get/repair just about anything - for
the right price/favor!
Before we jump head-first into all the adventures
awaiting us, let's check out the traces of Zobeck at the end of the book: 8 new
feats center on urban (and non-lethal - yes!) problem-solving and 16 regional
traits to create e.g. characters who are sons of butchers or gang members. We
also get 4 excellent new spells (including a amoral atonement), 3 stellar new
mundane items (e.g. special paint only visible via a certain lens), a new
weapon quality (disarming) and 6 new magic items, including a black book of
confessionals, a bag of traps and a cloak that makes people forget they even
saw/met you. Excellent tools for those on the problematic side of the law.
That being said, we'll dive into Ben McFarland's contribution
to the adventures with "Everyone Lies" (House M.D. anyone?). From
here on, the SPOILERS reign. potential players might want to jump to the
conclusion.
Still here? All righty! Everyone lies is a take on the
quintessential femme fatale story - a thief has botched a job and wants the PCs
to find his lady and warn her. Unfortunately, that's not all - said thief has
acquired a black book of confessions of a noble and now the secret police also
tries to press-gang the PCs into getting it back for them. Said thief's guild
happens to be the dread cloven nine and this guild also wants the book. The PCs
will have to embark on a investigation that is hindered by all factions,
several brawls and finally meet to girl and keep her safe - unfortunately, she
doesn't have to book with her. The PCs have to plan a heist to get to the book
and manipulate the power-structures of
the city's underbowels to get out of the crossfire - possibly even with the
help of the notorious drakhul! An excellent and quintessentially noir
adventure.
The second adventure, "Rust" by the master
of creepiness Richard Pett has two disreputable merchants contact the PCs -
Mister Corpulent and Mister Doldrum, both more than meets the eye, want to hire
the PCs to put an end to the hauntings of the "night-things" and
claim a treasure of one butcher-lord/minor industrialist that has been disposed
by his workers. Unfortunately, the greedy slaughterman does not rest easy and
neither his new body, nor his automatons and newfound gargoyle-artist allies
want the twisted merchants or the PCs to succeed, resulting in first a
disturbing sandbox investigation and then a showdown in an animated, possessed
slaughterhouse. Backstabbing clients included... Stellar. Richard pett at his
finest - grimy, iconic, disturbing - Mnar, indeed!
Of course, no noir anthology would be complete without
a heist, and Christina Stiles provides one in "The Fish and the Rose"
- the PCs are supposed to steal a magical picture and hand it over to a shadowy employer. Of
course, only a most lethal entrance to the cartways, guarded by a local legend
of a brawler leads to the vault and said vault is guarded as well. However, the
planning of the heist/possibilities for the PCs to find these means of entrance
feel a bit shoehorned - more versatility/ options for the Pcs to plan the heist
as well as a more lethal vault for a more Mission Impossible-feeling would have
been nice. A good adventure, but not on par with the first two.
Next on the line would be "The First Lab" by
Mike Franke, which opens a rather dark chapter in the history of Zobeck:
Kovacs, one of the masterminds (if not THE mastermind) behind the clockwork
knights seems to have experimented with soul removal, infernal creatures etc.
and some of his prestigious creations might be still out there. Worse, someone
has stolen a diary leading to his lab and there still are...things...inside.
The PCs are hired to reclaim the diary and keep their mouths shut. In order to
make up the advantage of thieves, the PCs will have to sell some of their
dreams to the dragged woman. Once the deal's been made, they'll be at Kovac's
lab and will have to deal with the infernal clockwork abominations and
clochworker assassins. Their primary antagonist hiding behind the lab's
defenses - an insane clockworker cleric hell-bent on utter eradication of his
own kind.
Matthew Stinson's "Rebuilding a good man" is
a completely different kind of scenario - Heet Nul, philanthropist, sponsor of
orphanages and downright awesome guy is dying of old age and his heir is a
greedy, evil s-o-b. Fortunately, a devil is currently trying to extort the
painted man, who doesn't take lightly to any such attempts, leaking precious
information to Heet's friend - the devil's lackeys are stealing a clockworker
body and it's up to the PCs to steal it back from them. Of course, that's only
the beginning - they need a specialist to transfer Heet's soul from his failing
form to his new body. Unfortunately the only guy available is in the Silent
Scabbard, drunk and uncooperative. Even worse, the parts are not enough and
potions, a heart etc. is still missing - tailed by the devil and Heet's heir,
the PCs are on a run through the night to scrounge everything together and save
at least one good man in this cesspool of corruption. Even better, each and
everything they do has to be weighed between doing the prudent thing and the
faster thing - Heet's clock is ticking... By far my favorite of the scenarios
in this anthology!
Mike Franke's "Ripper"is a story that has
the PCs press-ganged into a murder-investigation against a serial-killer after
they fail to stop a lynching. The investigation is intriguing, but there is one
thing I really didn't like about it: It's yet another
"possessed-dagger"-story. All right, I can name "Fury in
Freeport" and "Hour of the Knife" from the top of my head and
could probably find more examples that have done this schtick. Not impressed,
in spite of the cool imagery involved.
The final adventure, Christina Stiles' "Flesh
Fails" is more interesting - a love-triangle between two archmages and a
master alchemist has ended rather unpleasantly with an engineered death and now
the PCs stumble into the machinations of one truly powerful antagonist and his
diabolical schemes. In order to find the truth, the PCs will have to do some
research in an exclusive BDSM-club devoted to Marena and finally stop one of
the most powerful arcanists in all of Zobeck! I really liked this adventure,
not only for the mature depiction of BDSM not only being for the evil guys, but
also because the adventure has potential galore to be expanded - the masterplan
of the villain lends itself to further expansion and all in all, I would have
loved for the adventure to be a full-blown mega-adventure instead of a part of
an anthology, but oh well.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not as good as
I've come to expect from Open Design-projects, there are a lot of bold/non-bold
inconsistencies in e.g. the feats. Layout is STUNNING, though - 2-column
standard and the artworks by Glen Zimmerman, distinct, creepy, grimy and dirty
is simply AWESOME and something that truly helps the feeling of this
noir-anthology. The pdf comes fully bookmarked. Streets of Zobeck is a stellar
anthology of locations, characters and adventures that center on the grimy
parts of the city - in fact, the overall details of the setting converge into a
sense of detail that makes the city as much a character as the people who
inhabit it. While I'm not too excited about the traits and feats, the magical
items and especially the characters and locations are simply stellar and should
be considered the new benchmark for urban characters/locations. Add to that a
selection of mature, grimy adventures from the seedy underbelly that mostly
feel distinct and completely different from your usual fare and you get another
excellent anthology from Open Design. My final verdict, due to the one
adventure that falls flat and the editing and formatting glitches, will be 4.5
Rudii.
Of course, there's also the web-enhancement
Alleys of Zobeck
This web-enhancement for Streets of Zobeck is 17 pages
long, 1 page front cover/editorial, 1/2 a page SRD, leaving 15 1/2 pages of
content to add to the adventure anthology, so what exactly do we get?
First of all, we get a
great way to introduce the PCs to Zobeck's corrupt side - coming to the
city on board of a boat, Jaroslav Strauz, a corrupt city official who tries to
have the PCs set up for alleged smuggling/similar crimes - even better, the
set-up makes for a great introduction of the PCs to one of the adventures.
We get an alternate form of lust-domain for Marena and
additional encounters for the respective adventures: The Fish and the Rose gets
an added encounter with two barghests. The First Lab is expanded by full rules
for the creation and modification of clockwork modifications and
"Ripper" gets a new template.
Then, there are new characters (all with their
original artworks!): We get Goldscale, a kobold paladin, a crazy gutter prophet
and a river captain who struck a deal with the unseelie.
Players get even more tools with 5 new feats and 7 new
traits as well as grafts - additional dirty fighting feats and rules for
grafting clockwork hands etc. on your body. Even cooler, we get 4 new magic
items (like a deceptive scarf) and a new incantation to steal memories. The
true winners here, though, are the alchemical smoke bombs and the clockwork
caltrops.
The pdf goes on to provide us 50 common items on a
list and 50 valuable items - neat!
Seeing how important locations are in Streets of
Zobeck, the addition of two fully mapped locations is great - the rampant roach
and Ulmar's rare book shop. Even better, several scenario ideas are provided
not only for these new locations, but also for ones from Streets of Zobeck. The
final cool NPC introduced is the loyal kobold, Blackeye, proprietor of
Blackeye's carriage.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice
any glitches. Layout adheres to the 2-column standard and the artwork sets a
new standard for any web-enhancement out there - all original and of the
highest quality - very impressive. The pdf has no bookmarks, my only and very
minor gripe. The bits and pieces contained herein add even more value to the
anthology and the new characters/introduction encounters are top-notch. Seeing
I have nothing to complain and that the quality is as stellar as possible for
the low price, I'll settle for a final verdict of 5 Rudii - if you own Streets
of Zobeck, you need this.
All right, that's it for now, see you soon and as always, thank you for reading my ramblings,
Endzeitgeist out.
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