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today I'm going to take a closer look at one particular pdf that upped the ante quality-wise of what to expect from 3pp adventures: Fire Mountain Games'
Way of the Wicked Book I - Knot of Thorns
This pdf is 100 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page
editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 95 pages of
content, so let's check out Fire Mountain Games' AP!
The nation of Talingarde is a shining beacon of
goodness on a hill, a bastion of faith to the Mitran faith and an example of
purity and goodness. Evil has been conquered and mostly rooted out in this
land, the goblinoids driven beyond the grand wall - and righteous, lawful
Talingarde will burn! For in this AP, the players are the villains!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains
SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion. Seriously, you don't
want to spoil this one!
Still here? After generating villains (sample
violations of laws/reasons have been included), the action kicks in with the
Pcs being brought to Branderscar Prison - to hang or face whatever sentence
(most likely death or a life of forced labor) will await them. Unfortunately
for the nation of do-gooders, complacency and incompetence have taken a hold of
the nations once most tightly-run prison and so a mysterious, beautiful woman
charms her way in, delivers a veil and exits - the veil containing a variety of
tools the Pcs can use for the task she set them - escape from the prison and
rendez-vous with a mysterious benefactor. The escape from prison being their
first task, the PCs will have quite an interesting time - acquiring a spellbook
and freeing an intelligent ogre from confinement and multiple ways to sneak
past guards/overwhelm them included.
After a trek through a dangerous marsh, the mysterious
benefactor awaits the PCs in his mansion - Adrastus Thorn, chosen of Asmodeus
is on an (un-)holy crusade and has woven a dread web of plans and intrigues to
bring the nation to its heels. While he has his own reasons to do so, he offers
the PCs a chance for revenge - all they have to do is prove their worth in his
own training ground (including hellish wisdoms in every room of the mini-dungeon)
and sign a contract in blood. It is also this contract that will counteract the
problem of evil campaigns in which PCs in the end try to kill one another.
Furthermore, potential rivals of the PCs will be foreshadowed here.
Adrastus' first task is to accompany a weapon's
smuggler behind the grand wall to deliver weapons to a horde of goblinoids
under the command of an Asmodeus-sworn bugbear champion - and then tie up the
loose end, the smuggler. The trip proves to be dangerous, patrols scouring the
waters and barbarians offering trade. The goblinoid horde awaiting them proves
to be dangerous as well and a demonstration of strength might be in order. Once
the deal is completed, the bugbear-chieftain turns out to be another of
Adrastus' agents and tasks the PCs with a seemingly impossible task - bring
down Balentyne, fortress at the wall, the gate to Talingarde and open the
fortress to the horde. This opens the final part of the adventure, a
sandbox-style section where the PCs have a vast variety of options to use
social entanglements, cunning, poison, infiltration, dark magics and overall
smart strategies to decimate the people stationed in the fortress. Which is
challenging - the fortress is well-guarded, frontal attacks/lack of subtlety is
not an option, the enemies are smart, numerous, superior to the PCs and the
section is incredibly detailed - reactions to the wide variety of options
presented are given and there are a lot of options open for the PCs to follow -
from using a tryst to their advantage, killing and impersonating actors,
poisoning food etc., all kinds of dastardly activities are included in the
options and a constant and steep count for victory points makes sure that the
PCs won't have an easy time opening the bastion for the goblinoid horde. Their
level of success will have repercussions in future adventures and the attention
to stunning detail, from Branderscar to the end, makes sure that awareness,
being smart etc. are rewarded.
The pdf also includes a gazetteer of Talingarde,
advice for the DM on how to run a villainous campaign, help for the players to
generate villains and a plot-synopsis of the whole AP.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice
any glitches. Not one. Excellent job! Layout adheres to an easy-to-read,
full-color two-column standard and is STUNNING. Beautiful. Awesome. The artwork
(and there's a lot of it) is also full-color and features portraits of all
major players in the adventure as well as e.g. a certain magical item in the
beginning. And they are Paizo-level. I mean it. These pieces of artwork are
STELLAR. The pdf comes with full bookmarks and a printer-friendly alternate
version. The maps are full color as well and just as stunning - from the maps
of Talingarde to the location maps, the only gripe I can muster is that we
don't get extra player's maps sans keys that DMs could print out, cut up and
hand to them as they explore. Content-wise the adventure is a great mix of
railroady sections and the coolest sandboxy infiltration I've read in quite a
while. In fact, the overall writing is stellar and up to the highest standards
you could want. The finale is epic, smart, cool and offers so many ways to
achieve victory it's almost frightening - without being easy, mind you! Fire
Mountain Games have come from the nowhere, put out this little pdf and blown me
out of the water - neither content, nor production values or bang-to-buck-ratio
leave anything to be desired from this stellar, brilliant opening of their villainous
AP. The novelty of an evil campaign and its challenges are addressed and solved
admirably, the scenes feel new and give credence to the overall conspiracy and
just about every aspect of this book can be considered a PEAK PERFORMANCE.
Oh yeah, this is the work of 2 people. Author Gary McBride
and artist Michael Clarke have, with this opening, definitely upped the ante of
the quality one can expect from 3pps, rivaling Paizo's APs in style, artwork
and writing. I have nothing to complain. Nothing. I'm VERY impressed and, would
it be possible, I'd rate this 6 stars. Seriously. If playing evil only remotely
intrigued you, if you ever wondered how nations like Cheliax came to be or how
grand nations came down - stop wondering. Do it yourself. For once not save
them, but condemn them to hellfire! My final verdict will be 5 stars and the
Endzeitgeist seal of approval.
All right, that's it for now, as always: Thanks for reading my ramblings!
Endzeitgeist out.
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