TheBrax;10886375 wrote:
Also, you say that this is the "first" adventure - well that is incorrect. The first DS adventure is in the original box set. That is a fact and if you are doing a review, these are details that effect the readers opinion of, well, your opinion of the adventure. Have incorrect information just makes the review look poorly done.
One thought, though - do we really need a rating? I see utility in neutral, unbiased reviews, which we eventually could turn into a sticky thread - or post on athas.org.
By David “Zeb” Cook
Level: 4-7
Location: Tyr, Desert
Other Notes:
This adventure involves the PCs in the preparations for war with Urik. The PCs help recruit and equipment the army of Tyr as well as lead units of the army when it marches against the invaders.
This adventure has a lot of great complex encounters with multiple outcomes. My favorite: when the party is assigned to investigate who assassinated King Kalak!
The characters have to use lots of different tactics as they interact with all levels of society, freed slaves, merchants, nobles, and templars. Combat is an option in some, but so is blackmail, intimidation, negotiations, and cleverness. This is definitely one of my favorite DS adventures.
Unfortunately, playability of the adventure is limited to the Original timeframe, as the adventure is set during the war between Tyr and Urik. However, a few of the scenarios set in Tyr could easily be adapted for use in other adventures.
Bill Slavicsek
Level: 5-8
Location: Urik, Desert
Other Notes:
Noted NPCs include: Korgunard; Desverendi, Earth Spirit; Malestic, Urik Templar.
The adventure also uses a number of NPCs introduced in Slave Tribes and Veiled Alliance.
A good adventure that begins in Urik, but quickly moves on from there. The party has to flee the city after attending a Veiled Alliance meeting. Their flight through the desert is made more perilous by the creatures of the desert. In addition they are pursued by a number of groups seeking to capture them. At the same time they are plagued by mysterious haunting dreams called arcane shadows.
The flight through the desert offers the PCs different paths to take. Each with its own obstacles. Some of the desert encounters that the DM does not use can easily be dropped into in another adventure. The adventure is playable in any time period, Original or Revised, or even prior to Kalak’s fall, with little chance. For maximum effect this adventure should be played before Dragon Crown if at all possible.
Unlike the first two, Arcane Shadows is not a city adventure, but more a typical D&D adventure. The combat encounters are straight forward, and the roll-playing encounters serve mostly to advance the plot, unlike the more complex encounters in Freedom and Road to Urik.
Suggestions with how to handle specific aspects of the game in 3.5 terms. Maybe a conversion of some of the major NPCs into MC4 format!
The Asticlian Gambit
By Anthony Pryor
Level: 7-10
Location: Tyr, Gulg, Nibenay
Other Notes:
Noted NPCs include: Oba Lalali-Puy; King Nibenay; Mogadisho, Warlord of Gulg; Semponius of Asticles; Habban-Puy, Fetish Keeper of Gulg; Shala Mistress of the Red Moon Hunt; Taibela, the Oba’s Chief of Thieves; Mingon “of Asticles”
This adventure was disappointing. While the plot does have some good points, a mechanic created to fill two sections of the adventure really turned me off.
The adventure’s plot begins with the party being hired by Mingon of Asticles to carry a gift to the Oba, Queen Lalali-Puy of Gulg. In the process they meet both the Oba and the Shadow King, participate in court life in Gulg and the Red Moon Hunt.
Most of the battles are straight forward, with little to distinguish them. Part two involves a number of interesting NPCs from the court of Gulg, which seem to set up an interesting role-playing experience. However, they all end up with the same goal. I think it would have been more interesting to have the court members be engaged in multiple schemes for the party to become entangled in, but perhaps that is too complex to fit in the space constraints of the adventure. A good DM could create his own motivations and schemes for these NPC’s to expand on this section. If the DM would rather just pass through this section quickly, the plots included in the adventure will do so easily.
What I disliked most about the adventure are the flow charts used in place of maps for a dungeon and the red moon hunt. The flow charts rely on random die rolls to determine where the party goes to next, offering the players no choices. Each roll leads to an encounter which is followed by another die roll to determine the next encounter. Because of the random nature of the system, the party could easily have the same encounter over and over again. To finally get to the end of both flow charts is based only on a random die roll which is weighted against the party. This results in the party stuck in a loop of the same encounters over and over again. When I ran the adventure after the third time I just faked the roll, as all the players were thoroughly bored by that point.
Overall, I did not like a lot of this adventure but it is not a total lost. With a lot of preparation, i.e. preparing your own dungeon map, a DM could really improve on this adventure. The adventure is set during the Original timeframe since it involves the feud between Lalali-Puy and Nibenay.
Well, most of the second line of adventure are not good (Asticlian, Amketch, Black spine, )
The adventure in the second Dark Sun box is awfull except for the challenge at the beginning.
The asticlian gambit is the worse DS adventure.
I would not call Astician Gambit the worst. I reserve that dubious honor for the adventure I review below. Black Flames.
Black Flames
By Sam Witt
Level: 3-6
Location: Urik, Yaramuke
Other Notes:
Noted NPCs include: Abalach-Re; S’kin’di, agent of Abalach-Re; Farcluun
This adventure is my least favorite of the Dark Sun adventures.
The plot revolves around the ruins of Yaramuke and the curse of the Black Waters Oasis. The party is sent by Farcluun to search the ruins of Yaramuke for a cure to the curse to the Black Waters Oasis.
There is a horrible railroading of the PC’s to get them to go to Yaramuke. The Wall is a bad plot device to get the villian to hire the PC’s. The artist and author seem to think Dark Sun dragons are like normal D&D dragons with the abilitiy to take human form and transform back at will.
One positive about the adventure is the ending battle is very climatic, though it seems a little overpowering for the low level party the adventure is designed for.
The adventure is set during the Original timeframe since it involves Abalach-Re, thought could be moved to the Revised timeframe by using another sorcererking instead, perhaps Hamanu.
By L. Richard Baker III
Level: 4-6
Location: Balic, Estuary of the Forked Tongue, the Ruins of Kalidnay
Other Notes: Introduces the Shaqat Beetles
This adventure involves the PC’s in the schemes of the merchant-families. The characters hire on as caravan guards to discover the source of a strange new beetle that seems to render psionics useless. Slavers and templars are beginning to use the beetles to subdue psionically empowered slaves.
The adventure begins in Balic and soon moves on from there as the party joins the merchant caravan across the desert. They face intrigue within the caravan, gith raiders, a giant assassin, merchant forts, and finally end up in the ruins of Kalidnay. The adventure climaxes in a battle on top of the ruined ziggurat of Kalidnay.
Overall this is a good adventure. It features interesting NPC’s all with their own agendas. Some directly match with the PC’s some directly oppose but others are indifferent to their quest. They are not straight “good guys” or “bad guys”. Instead they could end up either way, depending on how the PC’s actions affect the NPC’s goals. This could lead to a lot of double-crossing, as people switch sides, and make the adventure unpredictable.
Because the adventure takes place in many different locales, there is not as much detail as some would like. For instance, the ruins of Kalidnay are hardly touched upon. It would be hard for the DM to really bring out the feel of the ruined city without preparing for it ahead of time.
The adventure is set during the Original timeframe, thought could be moved to the Revised timeframe with only small modifications.
By William W. Connors
Level: 6-8
Location: Nibenay
Other Notes:
Noted NPCs include: King Nibenay; Templar Siemhouk; the Zwuun
This adventure is best summed up as a disaster movie. The plot revolves around an attempt by King Nibenay to destroy the Zwuun with a magical ceremony and the Veiled Alliance’s attempt to counter it with their own. The resulting release of magical energy brings shattering earthquakes, acid rain, mutated life forms, and raises the dead buried under the city into zombies. At first, the characters are caught up in the chaos, but soon are drafted to save the city by entering the Naggaramakam to find out what happened to the Shadow King.
The adventure does give the DM two options for bringing the PC’s into the plot. One option assumes the party is part of the Veiled Alliance, and one option assumes they would be working for the templars. The “world shattering” disaster scenes are very chaotic and add a sense of helplessness to PC’s. How do they fight an earthquake or acid rain? For the aftermath, there are three options given. The “we are the world” ending where everyone puts aside centuries of hatred to live in perfect harmony after the disaster. The “we are the world, but” ending, where it seems like everyone puts aside centuries of hatred to live in perfect harmony but one side is really planning to take over the city. The last ending is the one that fits Dark Sun the most. The “nothing has changed” ending, where everyone fights to stay alive in the destroyed city, only looking out for themselves.
There are some problems with the adventure. The biggest one I see is why the PC’s are chosen to enter the Naggaramakam. It has been forbidden for anyone but templars to enter for thousands of years, but some templars agree that it is better for the PC’s to go in unaccompanied by any templars to find Nibenay. It does not make much sense, especially if the PC’s are known members of the Veiled Alliance. Of course this is a plot device, so the PC’s can be heroic and the ones to save the city. Also if a templar accompanied them, the templar would be able to give them all sorts of information about the Naggaramakam, which would make the exploration of it over quickly.
Another problems includes an NPC who is said to be a member of the Order and a powerful psioncist, but he is only stated as a level 5 psioncist.
Also no other product ever mentions this adventure or the destruction of Nibenay that occurs. Later products such as Black Spine, and City by the Silt Sea, take place near Nibenay and have NPCs from the city, but no mention is ever made of the city’s near total destruction.
The adventure takes place in the Original timeframe but could easily be moved to the Revised setting.