Minireview: Stolen Land (Pathfinder #31, "Kingmaker" part 1)
Stolen Land is the first part of a new Pathfinder adventure path, “Kingmaker”. This is an interesting one, since to date the adventure paths have been extremely linear (something I’ve harped against at times, too). Sure, it’s understandable that if you want to have a huge overreaching plot and want to cover a lot of ground in a limited number of pages, you need to railroad to some extent and need to just assume the players do certain things. The problem, of course, is that players are notorious for doing everything but the thing the adventure and/or the GM has assumed. There is no real solution to this, as such; if you want a strict plot, you need to assume limited player choice (and lots of GM “push the PCs back on track” action). That can be quite ok, as long as everyone is one the same page and the players cooperate somewhat.
Of course, the “railroad” criticism is one that Paizo has heard, too, and this adventure path seems to be an experiment of sorts in building a “sandbox” adventure path. Instead of a strict linear plot, you have a series of encounters and events, all set in one large “sandbox” world area. In theory, it sounds very cool. Also, judging by this first installment, it may also turn out to be great in practice.
This start off with the PCs all being emissaries from Brevoy, sent into the lawless and ungoverned “Stolen Lands” with writs to explore and tame them (ideally helping Brevoy expand in that direction). This is a nice setup, as it solves the “why are the PCs together” and “what is the PC motivation” things in one go. If they do good here, they may end us as rulers of a new province. Of course, they are not the only such group; four other groups have been sent to other areas. This will probably lead to plot complications in later episodes.
As noted, it’s a sandbox adventure. The PCs are expected to base at a certain wilderness tavern/inn, since it’s pretty much the last bastion of civilization in the area – but nothing forces that. The inn does serve as launching point for some follow-up events, but if the PCs insist on camping in the woods for some reason there are multiple easy ways to involve them in things.
The area given to the PCs to explore and “tame” contains a large number of encounters and events. Some are minor, some more challenging, and some are interconnected to stuff I suspect will turn up again later. The main antagonists are a gang of brigands, led my a mysterious “Stag Lord”. It’s an interesting group of NPCs, and the leader is quite unusual – not quite your normal “big bad”.
An excellent fairly freeform low-level starter adventure, with five more installments to come (which hopefully keep up the good work).
Arcade Fire coming to Helsinki!
This is getting weird, in a most excellent way. Just a week ago I was commenting on IRC about the excellent lineup of summer concerts coming up, and that if Arcade Fire and The National were to come over here, things would be pretty much perfect.
Well, this morning one of the first things I noticed was an into email saying Arcade Fire are coming to Helsinki, in June. They are playing a gig in Senaatintori, of all places. All I can say at this point is… wow. And that at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before The National announce a Helsinki concert, too. :)
Arcade Fire has been the band I’ve most wanted to see live for ages now. With luck I’ll finally be able to.
Someone up there likes me. Unless it’s a cruel joke, and I’ll be unable to get tickets. In that case violence may ensue.
Minireview: Chicago (World of Darkness)
World of Darkness: Chicago is a huge setting/crossover book for the (new) World of Darkness. And I do mean huge… at 400+ pages, you could use this as a melee weapon. Fortunately, it’s both a good book and a (surprisingly) good read, so that page count isn’t a bad thing. Even though it’s titled as a general “World of Darkness” book, it’s really not. It’s a crossover book for Vampire, Werewolf and Mage; while a “normals” WoD campaign can get some mileage out of this, the bulk of the book is for the three main game lines.
After some initial chapters detailing the general history of Chicago, the book splits into three parts: unsurprisingly, Vampire, Werewolf & Mage. The Vampire section is easily the best, it’s a showcase of how to create an interesting (vampiric) political situation for a city without leaning much on stereotypes. The NPCs are interesting and the given political situation is full of options and dangers, without being too much of an instant powder keg. Too many vampire games start off with the good old “the old Price has just been deposed” trope. Well, here that has happened…. but it was some time ago, and the new Price is already entrenched, but not too entrenched. There are tons of PC options both for supporting the current regime and opposing it (and also lots of “don’t care” groups). This book is worth the cover price on the strength of the NPCs in the Vampire section alone, they are quite excellent.
The Werewolf section isn’t quite as strong, but does contain some very cool touches. I especially liked some of the Pure packs lurking in the suburbs, some quite creepy stuff going on there. Also, many of the totem spirits used here are interesting and not at all “nice” (I say that as a good thing). The fact that Chicago has a long and bloody history, both in human terms and in terms of the meat packing and slaughter industry, makes for lots of very nice spirit-world options.
Last and unfortunately also least is the Mage section. While not strictly bad, it’s nowhere are tight and interesting as the previous two chapters. There are some interesting NPCs here, but a lot of the main elements seemed quite off to me. Real names are supposed to be a big deal in this game… but here we have a major faction leader openly using his real name and also being the head of a big corporation. The bad guys, supposed to be shadowy puppeteers who may not even exist, suddenly have a headquarters in some highrise building, and the Pentacle mages actually seem to know who and where they are. It’s quite inconsistent with the game, as originally written. At times it shows quite badly that this book was written quite a while ago, back when Mage was still trying to figure itself out. I’ve been told Mage has improved over time, but here it’s a bit of a mess. Still, there are quite a few nice NPCs here who could be used in pretty much any game.
There is some interconnect between the three main parts of the book, but it’s a bit rough – the Mage section has a nightclub/pub which is portrayed as a major meeting point for supernaturals, but this isn’t mentioned in the Vampire or Werewolf parts. Still, the book does try to provide for crossover use, and succeeds to a point. Overall, it’s a very solid city sourcebook with coverage for the three main supernatural splats. Even if your campaign isn’t set in Chicago, there is lot here you could steal for many other WoD games.
Minireview: Secrets of Kenya (Call of Cthulhu)
The “Secrets of” series for Call of Cthulhu has been a fairly high-quality one (what little of it I’ve read), and this book proves to be no exception to that. Secrets of Kenya (written by David Conyers) provides a look at 1920’s colonial Kenya – a very nice change of pace from the usual U.S. locations. It also ties in nicely with Masks of Nyarlathotep, which has a Kenya episode which – while good – is lacking in detail in places and is mostly based on a fantasy version of Kenya and Nairobi. This book provides a more realistic and historically accurate description, should the Keeper want that. Well, as much “historically accurate” as a Cthulhu sourcebook can be, anyway.
I was also interested in this book since I’ve visited Kenya quite a few times, having spent my childhood in nearby Ethiopia. In fact, my sister currently lives in Nairobi with her family. As a result, Kenya isn’t quite as “exotic and foreign” to me as it would be for most people. It was fun reading about locations that I’ve visited; I actually learned a lot of new stuff from this book. Kenya has an interesting and turbulent history.
The first half of the book gives a historical overview of the country, including a focus on Nairobi (which was a much smaller and rougher place in the 1920s). It’s well-written and there are lots of fun anecdotes scattered here and there, along with various Mythos bits. It seems nicely integrated, the connections the author has made to the Mythos (expanding on some details from Masks) do not seem out of place. The book talks a bit about character creation options – while the default might be to use this book to flesh out Kenya for visiting foreign Investigators, there is also the possibility of having the PCs be locals (either white, brown or black). “White”, “brown” and “black” were actually the categories used back in the day, and racism was automatic and accepted – “blacks” simply didn’t go into many “white” places. “Browns” (Indians etc) has some more freedom, but were also seen as inferior to “whites”. To its credit, the book doesn’t try to ignore the racism, but makes it an important story and plot point.
The book also provides some more general “African” data for use in Cthulhu games: animals, languages, tribes, and a list of general African Mythos sites. The focus stays in Kenya, but you can get some small mileage out of this for other African Cthulhu games, too.
The second half of the book contains four scenarios. They are a mixed bunch… some very nice, some so-so, some utterly deadly, some actually quite survivable.
The first one, “Madness of the Ancestors”, has the PCs getting involved with an archeological dig site. Someone has uncovered new evidence about the possible origins of mankind, and the PCs join the expedition to investigate an accident on the dig site. It’s a pretty good scenario, though it does assume the PCs don’t do some quite obvious things (trying to avoid spoilers here). Some GM gymnastics and modifications probably needed on this one, in order to handle the normal PC groups. This thing is also seriously deadly; if things progress to “end game” the chances of anyone surviving are slim. Or actually, high… but not in a good way. Again, avoiding spoilers. It’s a decent adventure but needs some tweaking in my opinion.
The second one is “Cats of Lamu”, and it’s an interesting and unusual item. For one, it’s not very deadly at all, and the location is also… unusual, as is the possible resolution of the problem. I liked it, maybe because it’s so unusual for a Cthulhu adventure. It’s a smallish scenario and can be inserted in the middle of things (though it’s designed to be run in Lamu).
Third, we have “Savage Lands”, which is perhaps the strongest item of the bunch. A settler’s wife is murdered by a leopard, which has dragged his children off into the bush. The official write it off as a “normal” wildlife attack and declares the children dead, but the man insists that things are not as they seem and that his children may still be alive. Enter the PCs. It’s a fairly strong (and dangerous) scenario, with only a few problems that struck out to me – I got the impression that the leopard was supposed to have dragged the children over a vast distance, which doesn’t seem likely and something that the local authorities would accept as reasonable. Maybe I just misunderstood some of the time and distance scales involved, this may not be an actual problem in the scenario as written. In any case, easy enough to fix if needed.
Last, there is “Wooden Death”, which is a bit weird. A trading agent contacts the PCs, and wants them to investigate strange goings on in the northwest. It starts out nicely enough, but then takes a weird turn which I’m not sure is quite fitting with the tone. It’s not bad as such, just… weird. In any case, this is another very deadly scenario.
The author also provides a support page for the book, with some extra material. Nice touch.
All in all, this is a quality book. While the scenarios won’t all be to everyone’s taste, there is something there for most everyone, and the detail on Kenya seems well-researched and is written in a very entertaining manner. The layout and organization are excellent. Recommended for anyone thinking about running a Cthulhu game set on the Dark Continent.
Minireview: Service, Service! (Paranoia)
Service, Service! provides extra material for GMs who wish to use Service Groups more in their game. Admittedly, this is more useful in a “straight” style game, in the more classic game mode service groups will probably be left mostly as background sources of (mis)info and (dangerous) submissions (like secret societies).
The book is logically split into chapters per service group. Each one contains some general info (including stereotyped opinions of the other service groups), some NPCs, some service services and lastly a short mission related to the service group. The missions range from ok-ish to great – one involving lightbulbs is especially inspired, and has vast potential for mayhem and total confusion. Some of the missions are very specific and only useful in some circumstances, while some are quite general and can be plugged in most anywhere. Should be something for everyone in here.
The book introduces a minor new rule addition in the form of Mandates. A Mandate is a personal service service, and it doled out by a service group. Each mandate has a spiffy title and an extra mandatory duty… which, for once in Paranoia, can actually be useful to the PC. To balance this gasp-inducing fact, the GM has total freedom (of course) to revoke Mandates on whim. If a PC starts to get too much mileage out of a Mandate: whoops, it’s gone, replaced by a much nastier one. It’s a fun little rules tweak; not something absolutely necessary in any sense, but potentially very amusing.
As unfortunately is quite typical for a Mongoose book, the layout here is a bit spotty in places. The font scaling is a bit weird here and there, and some of the illustrations were actually left out of this one by accident (replaced by textual art notes!). This was an actual mishap, as confirmed by the Mongoose guys: the final layout (with pics) had been sent out to (some guy) for final approval, but somehow what got sent to the printers was the previous version (without pics). Oh well, it happens (though Mongoose tends to be more problematic than the norm), and the art design notes are actually quite interesting so it’s not a total loss.
In summary: a full pack of info and mini-missions for, most useful for “Straight” games where the bureaucracy of Alpha Complex gets more screen time. Well written, and some of the mini-adventures rock. In addition, the new Mandate concept can add extra flavor to some games. On the flipside, some layout issues detract from the whole.
New Pornographers coming to Finland, yay!
We have arrived
too late to play
the bleeding heart show
This is shaping up to be an excellent summer for music. I already have tickets to see Rufus Wainwright, Joanna Newsom, Imogen Heap and Roxy Music, and today I heard that Martha Wainwright is also coming to Helsinki in August. Yay! Best of all, today I also heard that The New Pornographers, one of my current favorites, are coming to Finland for the first time in September. Tickets go on sale on Thursday. I’m so there.
It’s funny; just a week or so ago I was listening to advance tracks from their new album and wondering if I’ll ever get a chance to see these guys live. And now I (probably) will. If I’m really lucky Neko Case will be along for this tour, but no info about that yet. In any case… yay!
Snow! Jacuzzi! More snow!
We’re escaping the traditional Vappu celebrations and heading north. Tomorrow evening I hope to be soaking in a spa, then with any luck I’ll be snowboarding at Ruka on Friday & Saturday. Haven’t done any snowboarding at all this year… but hey, this is a good time to start.
All this assuming there’s no new surprise volcanic eruptions, airline strikes or whatever.
Minireview: The Dreaming Void, by Peter Hamilton
I’ll admit I like Peter Hamilton’s books. Though he has his faults as a writer, his book tend to be great entertainment, with some nice ideas thrown into the mix now and then.
The Dreaming Void is the first book of a new trilogy, loosely connected to the “Commonwealth Saga” (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained). Like most of his books it’s a huge brick (over 800 pages in the edition I have), and admittedly it could have been trimmed down a small bit without hurting things. On the other hand, it’s an engaging read; I stayed up quite a few late nights finishing this. So can’t complain.
This is set about 1,200 years after the previous books, and despite that manages to feature a few of the same characters – people are essentially immortal now, if they want to be. Humanity has split into factions following the Starflyer War, not only on the ideological front but also on the evolutionary. Some have uploaded themselves into a post-human state, some are pursuing post-humanity by enhancing the human body as far as it can go, and some are more traditional. Despite everything, life is generally peaceful.
This peace is threatened by the Living Dream movement, who commune (or claim to commune) with a vast… something at the center of the galaxy. Something that reaches certain people via dreams, which are shared onwards by “gaiafield” technology. The Living Dream decides to stage a mass pilgrimage to the Void (as that “something” is called), and the other races in the galaxy demand this be stopped, since it is feared this will cause the Void to expand, destroying countless solar systems in the process. To add to the mess, the old “First Dreamer” of the movement has vanished, and lots of people are looking for him. Now a Second Dreamer has appeared, and nobody knows who that is… and just about all the covert factions in existence are mobilizing to find either Dreamer (for various reasons).
It’s a complex plot sequence, and only slowly becomes coherent. The structure here is familiar from many of Hamilton’s other books: a large cast of characters is introduced, and only very slowly do you get any idea of how they interlock. Adding to the initial confusion is the fact that one of the main story tracks is a fantasy one, detailing a boy named Edeard in a strange low-technology world where everyone has some degrees of psionic ability and gene-crafted animals are commonplace. Forced to flee to the big city of Makkatheren, Edeard becomes a low-rank constable and slowly starts up a war against the ruling criminal gangs. It’s a great story (easily the best storyline in the book), but for a while it’s a bit unclear how exactly it relates to the high-tech space opera surrounding it. Thing do clear up, though, at least to some extent – though the truth behind who or what Edeard is will have to wait until the other books.
The book is a fun mix of far-future transhumanist space opera and several varieties of fantasy. It takes a while to get moving, but Edeard’s story alone is worth the price of admission. The other story lines deal with the identity of the Second Dreamer, and with various factions’ secret agents running around on covert missions. While most of the book goes into setup for the action to follow, it’s (mostly) interesting setup. Some storylines and themes seem to get dropped here after the beginning, but they may resurface later – this is going to be a series of three brick-size books, after all.
