Interludes and theme boxes!
Written: Feb 23 '04 (Updated Oct 20 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Customizability; flexibility; wealth of good material
Cons: Some minor gaffs here and there
The Bottom Line: If you like the d20 system, this is a fantastic adventure for low-level characters. It makes a wonderful start to a longer campaign.
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| owling's Full Review: Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside Books |
Interludes is an adventure module for a roleplaying game. It's a d20 supplement, which means you'll need the Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook, third edition in order to run it (it came out before edition 3.5). I'll try to avoid too many spoilers, but it's hard to review an adventure module without giving away a couple of things. So if you think your game master (GM) might run this for you, it's probably best if you don't read this.
Interludes is set in Thunderhead Games' (Now Mystic Eye Games) Bluffside: City on the Edge campaign setting. While it would make sense to use them together, you can have a lot of fun with Interludes even if you don't have Bluffside.
Customization
This adventure has these great little things called "theme boxes." You check off the ones that are appropriate to your group, and it lets you fine-tune the adventure to your party. Have a group of first level or fewer characters? No problem. Third level or more characters? They can handle that too! Extra divine or arcane spellcasters? Multiple fighters? Multiple rogues? For people who like to play with non-traditional parties, it's one of the few adventures you'll find that you can adapt easily to your group. There were a couple of theme boxes that got misused a little, however (they contained information that you need even if you aren't using optional theme box types).
Aesthetics
The organization and layout are clear and easy to read. The table of contents is fabulous - it lists everything. Every time a check of some kind is called for in the text, it's set off in a box so you can't miss it. Information meant to be read to players is offset and in bold.
Maps are simple and useful. The ornamental side-designs along the pages are beautiful. The art isn't drop-dead gorgeous in most places, but it is good and appropriate. There are some typos and mistakes, but they aren't all that frequent or annoying.
Material Provided
You'll get a lot of use out of this little book. Not only will you find a full night of adventure and the seeds of much more, but there are 12 new creatures (including a rather fun little creature that makes a great familiar), 2 spells, 11 items, 2 prestige classes (both of which are interesting and suggest fun plots), 2 feats, more than 30 NPCs, and more! (I'm not the best person to assess things like whether the prestige classes are balanced or not, so I can't really go into that.)
The items, spells, wandering encounters, creatures, and so on make sense for the area. The location has its own ecology, and it's one that colors everything. This makes the setting interesting and memorable.
Plot hooks, rumors, and people: Plot hooks and rumors are frequent and set in simple list form. It's so nice to see an adventure that doesn't try to anticipate conversational directions (which always fails!) and instead provides the means to respond to your own player characters (PCs).
Small plot problems: First, there's a priestess in town who's looking for a lost temple. There's someone from the town who knows where the ruins are. There's no reason suggested for why he hasn't told the priestess about them. Second, if the party takes the diplomatic out to the plot, which is better for them plot-wise, they're likely to miss all the interesting stuff in the temple ruins.
Free Will
I hate adventures that railroad parties or dictate PC feelings or actions. This adventure almost entirely avoids this! My only problem is with the assertion that the villain must get away to become a recurring villain, and it's easy enough for a GM to decide that he doesn't have to follow that directive since it comes at the end of the module.
Additional Playtest Notes
NPC information is scattered; this makes the GM flip back and forth a lot. The adventure does include four NPCs that can be used as pre-generated PCs.
The adventure could use a suggested experience point award for the diplomatic solution to the goblin plot. This would help to keep the violent solution from being much more beneficial to the party. I estimated an exp award, but it would have been nice to have guidelines.
Because the main plot is fairly time-critical, your party is unlikely to wander around and find out about all the spiffy plot hooks until after the adventure is completed. So this supplement is most useful as a start to a longer-running campaign. It would be a shame not to make use of all the really neat plot hooks scattered throughout!
Consider my rating to be 4.5. The adventure isn't perfect, but it has some innovative ideas, and is much better than most of its kind.
Review originally posted on my website, Burning Void
Recommended:
Yes
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owling
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Member: Heather Grove
Location: Maryland, USA
Reviews written: 689
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About Me:
Too many boxes to unpack, too few shelves...
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