Review - The Stennard Courier Vol. 1

 Today I'm looking at the newest release from Nick Baran at Breaker Press Games; The Stennard Courier Vol. 1.

The Stennard Courier is a 'zine that continues to flesh out Breaker Press' grim and grimy fantasy setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  The 'zine describes the town of Stennard one of the principal early locations of a current ongoing series of adventures and campaign materials in what feels like a very old-school fantasy setting.  For adventurers playing in Breaker Press' game world Stennard is likely to be their first base of operations, and a likely starting location with all the features a low-level party will need between adventures.

The Stennard Courier itself is a 40 page 'zine that is absolutely PACKED with; NPCs, rumours, adventure hooks, world building, and commerce.  It's the exact kind of campaign starting point that every RPG box set or GM guide should include to give players and game masters the kind of world that feels full and lived-in to establish the tone of the game.  Within it's 40 pages the Stennard Courier gives 11 detailed locations (with additional allusions to other areas), 11 detailed NPCs (again with more from other Breaker Press products alluded to), as well as 12 separate lists of rumours (enough for an entire campaign), and price lists for 3 local businesses.  As I mentioned before this is the exact kind of supplement that a GM needs to make their game world feel more 'real' and less like a series of disconnected quests or missions.  The overall quality of the writing is outstanding with rich full descriptions of NPCs and their locations laid out in a clear easy to understand format that will make the material extremely easy for a GM to integrate into their own campaign.  The artwork has an old-school aesthetic to it that immediately puts me in the mind of the original Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Overall the Stennard Courier is a must-have for anyone looking for a starting/home location for a low-level fantasy RPG, as well as being an excellent reference for anyone looking to create their own small town in terms of what both completeness and utility should look like.

The Stennard Courier Vol. 1 is currently available directly from Breaker Press Games at: https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/products/34299427-the-stennard-courier-vol-1-pdf

As well as via DriveThruRPG at: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/378456/The-Stennard-Courier-Vol-1--BPGDCZ004?term=stennard

For a small indie business that already has a track record of outstanding releases this might just be their best and most useful yet!

-Jay

Review - Harper's Tale

Today I want to take a look at a 10 chapter, 170 page adventure path for D&D characters of levels 1-10; Harper's Tale.

Harper's Tale is named for lead developer Matt Corley's daughter (and co-lead developer) Harper.  The adventures mix the inspiration and youthful-fun outlook of a child with the sensibilities of an experienced game author to contribute something truly new and unique to the current RPG scene.

The creative team behind Harper's Tale reads like an all-star team of freelance writers and artists currently working in the RPG industry, and it's not just a list of names on the credits page of a book, the quality and experience this team brings really shines through.  Harper's Tale is gorgeously illustrated throughout but I want to call special attention to the fantastic character illustrations by Gwendy Bee, these illustrations are bright and appealing while still conveying a sense of mystery and the fantastic.  In addition to the amazing art I found all of the cartography to be easy to read and use and clearly laid out where I needed it.

The ten adventures themselves are all written by separate writers or writing teams and one of their nicest features is they are structured so that in addition  to making up one ten adventure long campaign they are also all framed so they can be run as individual one-shots.  The central story mixes investigation and adventure as the characters start off by investigating a mysterious illness and follow various leads and clues looking for both the source and a cure.  The adventure path is set in the wilderness but uses many different settings for individual adventures (forests, small villages, dungeons, multi-room buildings) to give the ten adventures a great deal of variety.

In addition to a number of different settings the adventure path is full to the brim with interesting NPCs that not only work well within the narrative but could also be used to seed other adventures, for my part I GUARANTEE my players will meet Professor Piewright at some point prior to actually playing Harper's Tale.

And I couldn't resist the urge to convert and paint my own Sir Cheddar!

Overall I highly recommend Harper's Tale.  There is an absolutely amazing amount of the highest quality content here and the mix of art and writing style really evokes the sense of fantastic mystery, fun, and discovery that I think the best fantasy RPG adventures are capable of.

Harper's Tale is currently available from DrivethruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311843/Harpers-Tale-A-Forest-Adventure-Path-for-5e?term=Harper

-Jay

First Thoughts - The Devil's City

Yesterday I discovered two amazing looking books on Kickstarter I really wanted to bring to everyone's attention.

Matt Corley, the creative mind behind; Tales From The Margreve, Lamp Light's Sanitarium, and Harper's Tale has recently turned his focus to investigative horror set at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century building up from a basic foundation of 5e D&D.  So what I'm saying is, if you like:
-D&D 5e
-Horror RPGs
-Call Of Cthulhu
-Ravenloft: Masque Of The Red Death
-Investigative RPGs
-Horror stories or games based on real (seriously!) world events
...then this is a Kickstarter you owe it to yourself to check out!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/the-devils-city-for-5e

The Devil's City Kickstarter is basically comprised of two books.  First up an illustrated 90 page novella co-authored by Matt Corley and Sara Tantlinger based on a fictionalized version of the story of HH Holmes (I'll come back to that in a bit for those of you not familiar).  Like I said I'll elaborate in a bit but if you're a horror fan, the story of HH Holmes is definitely a case of truth being far stranger than fiction.

The second book will be Horror In The Windy City.  A 5e compatible campaign book that will build on to Mr Corley's existing Whispers In The Dark game.  The author has extensive experience writing horror gaming and he has shown he consistently 'gets it' in terms of writing excellent thinking-person's horror rather than classic D&D hack-n-slay style.

So that's what the Kickstarter is, now let me tell you why I backed it, and why I hope you'll consider backing it too.

From a gaming point of view I've always liked D&D as a game system and it's the system the greatest number of existing players are familiar with, and the greatest number of potential players are open to.  Most of my gaming friends and I have always liked the idea of Call Of Cthulhu and in all fairness it is a good system but in my opinion it doesn't have the familiarity or the ease of use of D&D.  I really think for a ton of gamers investigative games could be a real inroad to discovering D&D outside of the more traditional 'dragons inside dungeons' style of gaming.  As prep for this I'm planing on running a group through Whisper In The Dark in two weeks.  I'll let you know how it goes, and how it works.

From a story point of view the story of HH Holmes has always fascinated me.  Again I have to reiterate, this is a TRUE story from our real world.  I'll give you the truncated version but if it interests you the way it interested me do some research online and back this Kickstarter!
HH Holmes was 1890's version of Jigsaw from the Saw movies.  He built a hotel in Chicago that was filled with secret passages, dead-end hallways to nowhere, and (in a manner of speaking) traps.  In short he built a hotel, invited people to stay there, and then starting murdering them once he got them inside.  I can't stress enough, this is a real thing that happened in an American city just over a century ago!

So there you have it.  An investigative horror RPG set in an only slightly warped version of our own world 130ish years ago.  A talented creative team, a game that manages to be familiar and new at the same time, and an inroad to a whole new genre of gaming.

I hope you'll all check out the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/the-devils-city-for-5e and my plan is next week to write a full review of the novella, and the week after that to provide a review of of my Whispers In The Dark game-play experience (hopefully integrating) Horror In The Windy City's new alignment system.

-Jay

Up On A Soapbox - Let's put one in the win column!

Hi all!

A couple of months ago I got up on my soapbox to complain about late/delayed/false deliver of crowd-funded gaming products http://worlds-in-conflict.blogspot.com/2020/01/up-on-soapbox-thank-you-for-your.html, today I want to share a quick note about a product that arrived looking awesome, and much sooner than I would have anticipated.

Generally I have been very reluctant to back crowdfunds for single RPG books as the shipping cost to Canada tends to be prohibitive.  Having said that a while back I stumbled on a Kickstarter for a Cthulhu-themed D&D 5e one-shot that I thought would be really appealing to some of my players titled "What Happened To Evy Ashwood?"

On a complete whim I decided to back the project, and then I got my survey right as all everything started going crazy with the global pandemic so I figured that although I would certainly fill it out I'd be waiting weeks or even months to receive my book.  I completed my survey last week, my book arrived today!  I haven't had a chance to read through the adventure yet, but the book is physically gorgeous and contains both a 40 page one-shot adventure, and 24 additional pages of mythos inspired items and critters.

A full review will be forth-coming but I wanted to speak up and celebrate a small publisher REALLY exceeding my expectations and delivering a great looking product promptly.

Thanks Midnight Tower!  I am definitely excited to back whatever you have coming next!

-Jay

Review - Companionable Darkness

Today I look at the final (as of this writing) adventure in the Scarthey solo adventure series; Companionable Darkness.

Companionable Darkness is a return to the more traditional structure of solo adventures.  The player navigates through a branching story tree based on their decisions and interacts with a variety of characters, monsters, and challenges along the way.

The story in Companionable Darkness begins with the player character filling the role of a caravan/body-guard.  An incident occurs early on that leads to conflict and the player must lead their NPC companions to solve a mystery and hopefully save an innocent.

I will start off by saying that Companionable Darkness is the strongest entry in the series so far.  My largest criticism of the first adventure in the series is that it was too short, although Companionable Darkness is only a dozen or so entries longer each entry has significantly more story and action and ultimately feels much more filled out.  Other than format my biggest issue with the second adventure in the series is that there was very little bordering on no story at all, this time out there is a decent story being told and a bunch of NPCs to play and interact with to make the world feel more real and lived in.

My criticisms of this adventure would be that once again a few things were missed that should have been caught in editing or proof-reading passes, this time out the issues aren't significant but it would have been nice to remove the distractions.  My only other criticism would be the fact that very early on all the characters are introduced and there is no apparent antagonist, which means the player is just waiting for the inevitable Scooby Doo style unmasking of one of the earlier 'friendly' NPCs.  I have to say though neither of those issues detract from the overall experience and I still really enjoyed my play through.

If someone were going to play only one solo adventure from Rising Phoenix Games I would definitely choose Companionable Darkness currently available from DrivethruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265387/Companionable-Darkness?term=companionable for $3.95.

-Jay

Review - Forest Of Secrets

Following up on Death Queen And The Life Stone is the next solo adventure in the Scarthey line; Forest Of Secrets.

Forest Of Secrets starts off with the character ostensibly engaged in a simple delivery mission to get some documents from point A to point B, before the player makes their first choice choice in the adventure however the true nature of the adventure is revealed and it takes the form of an escort mission.

Forest Of Secrets differs greatly from most traditional solo D&D adventures and/or adventure game books in that rather than a linear narrative the adventure's progress is driven by exploration of a randomly generated map, more in line with how many 'quest' style board games work.  I suspect that whether a player perceives this as a positive or a negative has more to do with personal taste than with objective quality.  I will say the upside to the random map generation is that it feels like it inherently gives the adventure a far greater deal of replay value than most solo adventures have, but the corresponding downside is that there is little to no developing narrative during exploration.

Forest Of Secrets took longer to play than Death Queen And The Life Stone which may feel like a more rewarding experience for some players but personally I found the experience to feel somewhat hollow and less satisfying.  The NPC that you are escorting through the forest is the single most interesting aspect of the adventure but after her introduction she receives no exposition or development until the climax of the adventure.

For gamers looking for a solo adventure more like an old school random dungeon adventure board game this adventure will definitely scratch that itch.  For gamers looking for a more narrative experience that feels closer to a true RPG game this will probably fall short of expectations.

Forest Of Secrets is currently available from DrivethruRPG for $2.95 at   https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/218812/Forest-of-Secrets?cPath=8858_20393

-Jay

Review - Death Queen & The Life Stone

After a lengthy hiatus I've returned to another one of my original RPG passions; the solo adventure.

Rising Phoenix Games has published a Potteresque setting for both D&D 5E and Pathfinder called Scarthey on DrivethruRPG and in addition to a setting book and some traditional adventures they have also published three solo adventures, starting at level 1.

I started off by playing my way through Death Queen & The Life Stone.

The adventure was quite short (only 50 entries) and a successful run took under an hour from start to finish.  First up I have to say the art in general was good with the art of the Death Queen herself being exceptional (makes me want a miniature of that character).  The adventure itself is a traditional dungeon crawl with an somewhat Egyptian theme.  The adventure had a few unique encounters and a mix of combat encounters with a few skill/ability checks to keep things interesting.

Although there was a lot I enjoyed about the adventure there were definitely a few opportunities for improvement.  The first shortcoming I encountered was fairly early on, an entry gives you the option to make a History or Religion check to interpret some information but gives no DC for the check.  The second issue I had was during an encounter with some crossbow armed bandits where two escape options were given but in spite of the stats and combat rules being given for the encounter there was no option or selection to choose if you actually fought and won.  Those were relatively minor but both came early on so it made me a bit concerned more issues would follow (none did for the record).  The only other issue I had was that setting a D&D solo adventure at 1st level meant that in most encounters one or two bad die rolls would result in disaster.  In each early encounter the player fights multiple opponents where the action economy means that a character could go out in a single combat round.

Overall I enjoyed my experience playing the adventure and look forward to the next adventure in the series.  Death Queen And The Life Stone is currently available from DrivethruRPG at  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/217497/Death-Queen-and-the-Life-Stone?src=hottest_filtered for $2.95

-Jay

Review - A Night In Seyvoth Manor (5e version)

Today I'm taking a look at an adventure originally written for the 4th edition of D&D that got an update to 5th edition last year; A Night In Seyvoth Manor.

A Night In Seyvoth Manor is labelled as a "challenge adventure" on it's cover.  I wasn't sure what that meant but was very happy to find out that it's structured a lot like the older tournament modules in that it has a time limit and a scoring system to measure a group's success (or failure).

The titular Seyvoth Manor is basically a villain's haunted house that has two recently abducted innocents that the party is trying to recover before they are lost forever.

The adventure has a lot going for it and depending on what you value different DMs may find appeal in different aspects.  As I mentioned at the start I really do enjoy running groups though tournament style modules as it creates a different dynamic for the players and can create that rare example of D&D play where player's can feel like they're "winning".  As a big movie and horror fan I also really liked all the subtle (and not so subtle) references to classics of the genre spread throughout the adventure.  The adventure contains a number of breakout boxes labelled 'trivia' that will lay out those references so you will understand all of them even if you don't immediately pick them up on your own.  The room maps are brilliant, in addition to being graphically appealing if you purchase the PDF they could easily be blown up into battle maps if your preferred play-style includes miniatures.  The challenges vary from room-to-room and the mix of problem solving and combat encounters should appeal to almost everyone.  Overall I think most groups would enjoy this adventure and find it challenging and fun in equal measure.

Having said all of that I did have a few issues with the adventure.  First up on page 3 of the adventure it references "Several different types of cards are included in this adventure", the cards are in fact not included but are required to play the adventure.  The cards are available either as a PDF or as a physical purchase to be bought separately.  The PDF is a great offering from the author but in my case (I live in Canada) the physical cards were cost prohibitive as the two options would have cost me $40 or $50 each factoring in shipping and exchange.  If you're good with the PDFs this is a non issue.  My other major issue was that I made the mistake of only purchasing the print version of the adventure, the adventure contains 17 separate maps of the rooms and grounds around Seyvoth Manor but does not include 1 map showing the entirety of the manor.  What this means is that each small map includes notations on where it links to the next map (or maps) in sequence but the text is very small in some cases and without the ability to increase the size (as I would be able to with the PDF) it's a bit hard for me to piece together.  My final issue with the adventure is minor but other than the maps and the cover the adventure contains no art.  For many players and DMs this will be a non-issue but for me personally I always find art helps set the mood and immerse me in the setting.

Overall I would still recommend A Night In Seyvoth Manor but I would strongly recommend buying the PDF rather than the print version as that would somewhat address my maps issue.

A Night In Seyvoth Manor is currently available from Drivethrurpg at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/253742/A-Night-in-Seyvoth-Manor-DnD-5E

-Jay