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