(click for PDF)

Mothership is a sci-fi horror RPG. Think Alien, The Thing, Pitch Black, or Annihilation.

Its calling card is an old school approach wedded to red hot innovation:

• Blazing fast character creation.
• Brutal systems for Combat and Stress.
• Tons of sandbox support and tools in the Warden’s Operation Manual (the GM book).
• An overwhelming amount of adventure support, including both first party books and a deluge of third-party support.

This last point, in particular, convinced me to make Mothership the basis for my current open campaign. Not only is there a ton of adventure support, a lot of it is designed so that you can spend 15 minutes reading through it and — presto! — you’re ready to go. My expectation is that I’ll be able to rapidly build a stable of adventures that will easily let me run the game with minimal or no prep.

I previously shared an alpha version of this cheat sheet. I’ve made a number of corrections based on your feedback, added additional rules (notable the rules for spaceships), and refined the content and presentation to reflect usage at the table.

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED

These cheat sheets are not designed to be a quick start packet: They’re designed to be a comprehensive reference for someone who has read the rulebook and will probably prove woefully inadequate if you try to learn the game from them. (On the other hand, they can definitely assist experienced players who are teaching the game to new players.)

The Mothership cheat sheet, in particular, works very well in conjunction with the GM screen(s) for the game, which are excellent. (There’s both a standard screen and a larger deluxe screen, which each come with the respective boxed sets.)

The cheat sheets also don’t include what I refer to as “character option chunks” (for reasons discussed here). In other words, you won’t find the rules for character creation here.

HOW I USE THEM

I usually keep a copy of the cheat sheet behind my GM screen for quick reference and also provide copies for all of the players. I have two copies of the Mothership rulebook at the table, too, but my goal is to summarize all of the rules for the game. This consolidation of information eliminates book look-ups: Finding something in a dozen pages is a much faster process than paging through hundreds of pages in the rulebook.

The organization of information onto each page of the cheat sheet should, hopefully, be fairly intuitive.

PAGE 1: Basic Mechanics and Violent encounters. (Most of the core game play loops are covered here.)

PAGE 2: Violent Encounters and the Threat System. (See below.)

PAGE 3: Survival. (Most of the miscellaneous rules in the game.)

PAGE 4: Ports & Medical Care. (Stuff to do in your downtime.)

PAGE 5: Ship Stats & Space Travel. (All the rules for operating ships except for ship-to-ship combat.)

PAGE 6: Ship Repairs & Contractors. (Not a big fan of these two sharing the same sheet, but they ended up being two half-pages without good companion pieces.)

PAGE 7: Ship-to-Ship Combat.

Having run character creation for Mothership a couple of times, the sheer speed at which it happens turns the limited number of rulebooks at the table into a significant choke point. I’m going to continue experimenting with how that should be handled, and probably trying to figure out which pages from the PDF need to be printed out to help everyone zip through. (I’ll report back when I know more.)

CRUXES

This cheat sheet has not quite reached its final form. There are still several elements I’m experimenting with. A few things to note:

First, these sheets include my personal house rules. With the exception of the Threat system (which I’ll discuss in a moment), these are marked in blue. Some of these are original rules, others overwrite the published rules. When I release the final version of the sheets, I may or may not do a version which is strictly the published rules of the game, but for now this is my working document and what I’m using at the table. If you want to strip these house rules out on your own, here’s a copy of the Microsoft Word file I used to create the cheat sheet so that you can easily edit it:

Mothership Cheat Sheet – Microsoft Word

Note that you’ll need to track down the relevant fonts.

Second, the sheet includes the Threat system, which I first discussed in Mothership – Thinking About Combat. Based on actual play, the system as presented here has received some refinement (and I’m still tinkering with it).

For the moment, this has also resulted in the “Violent Encounters” section of the cheat sheet appearing on both the first page (paired with Basic Mechanics) and the second page (where it appears with the Threat system for a complete combat reference). Partly this is because I’m still experimenting with the Threat system. Partly because I’m still trying to figure out the final layout of the sheets. And partly so that those not interested in the Threat system can simply remove that page of the cheat sheet and still have a fully functional packet.

I previously discussed an additional crux:

Androids & Oxygen: The rules state that androids don’t consume oxygen when life support systems fail, but there are separate rules for vacuums and toxic atmospheres (which require rebreathers or oxygen supplies). Should androids be affected by exposure to vacuum or toxic atmospheres? My ruling is No.

I have not included a resolution to this particular conundrum on the sheet. In my personal campaign, we’ve been developing a wide variety of androids and I’m still figuring out if different types will have different features and, if so, how they interact with things like the Atmospheres rules and hyperspace travel.

MAKING A GM SCREEN

These cheat sheets can also be used in conjunction with a modular, landscape-oriented GM screen (like the ones you can buy here or here).

Personally, I use a four-panel screen and use reverse-duplex printing in order to create sheets that I can tape together and “flip up” to reveal additional information behind them. (This simple sheet, however, will simply fit directly into the four-panel screen.)

I think my eyes are bleeding.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

I knew I was in trouble with Galal’s Grave when I read this on the very first page: “Enmity between Elf and Dwarf was laid aside to sunder Evil else all was lost.”

Perhaps I was merely rushing to judgment – and there was, in fact, some perfectly good reason for the elves and dwarves to go around separating “Evil” into pieces (rather than doing more logical things, such as eliminating or destroying it). But if there was such a reason, it remains blissfully undisclosed within the pages of this module.

The mislaid cliché and questionable thesaurus-dipping of that passage, unfortunately, is only slightly indicative of a tone which infects the entire introduction of the adventure. The inexplicable “Evil” makes war with “Elves” and “Dwarves”, which are sometimes referred to as “Good” and, puzzlingly, as the “fey”. We learn that the Elves had a hero in Galal, and the dwarves had a hero in Balor – who were both killed when “Evil surprised the force of Good”. (Strangely this happened at a time when the “forces of Good” were both “poised to eradicate the remnants of Evil” and “in the midst of overwhelming odds”). Galal and Balor were buried in “unknown graves”.

PLOT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Galal’s Grave. Players who may find themselves playing in this adventure should not read beyond this point.

You know, I don’t really have any objections to alliteration, per se. For example, I don’t have anything against “Galal’s Grave” as a title. But I have to admit that I’m more than a little skeptical about the adventure starting in an inn named “Gulum’s Gullet”. I mean, honestly, people. We’re in the middle of a G shortage.

This is, of course, where the PCs enter the picture: They come to the Gullet through a number of possible hooks – ranging from the cliched (they’re on their way to a “city filled with adventure” when they stop at the inn) to the bizarre: “It is the 79th anniversary of Galal and Balor and strange lights have once again been sighted around Gulum’s Gullet, an inn within a nearby village. Last year was the 78th consecutive year the lights have appeared. Perhaps one of the graves is nearby?” Perhaps. But other questions abound: Why does the 79th anniversary suddenly have people making the connection? Why is Gullum’s Gullet named instead of the village as a whole? If it was “four score and seven years ago” (87 years ago) that the struggle with “Evil” took place (as we are told on page 2), why is it now only 79 years since it took place?

Anyway. Once you’ve got the PCs in the inn (which is frequented by everyone from peasants to merchants to mercenaries to nobles), they’ll hear a gleeman recite a poem about Galal and Balor. Afterwards the gleeman will tell them that “’tis no secret where Galal is buried” – despite the fact that, two pages earlier, we were told that nobody knew where he was buried. (Which is okay, because, quite frankly, it’s pretty silly for the secret to have been “lost in time” when it happened within the lifetime of your average elf and dwarf.)

If they follow the gleeman’s “exacting directions” they will come upon a path, which they can follow. The only trick is that – at one point – the path branches in two: One path (which has been marked by a boulder as the “path of life”) leads away from the grave. The other path (which has been marked the “path of death”) leads to the grave. This was done by dwarves who were asked to aid the elves in their “deception.” Yeah, those tricky elves – marking the path to a GRAVE as a path of DEATH.

Who am I to judge, though? It’s apparently worked for the past 79 and/or 87 years.

At this point there are several keyed descriptions. Unfortunately, it appears that they forgot to print the map for this part of the adventure and it’s practically impossible to render any sort of connected sense out of it. A few choice bits of illogic do appear, though: For example, an orc shaman who believes that a sentient tree holds a legendary blade demands that the tree hand it over. The tree refuses. The shaman responds by killing the tree and cursing it to act as a prison for the legendary blade. Oh, that crafty orc shaman. He got just what he wanted.

…

… wait a minute.

Anyway, things proceed pretty normally once the PCs are inside the prison tree. Maps for the interior of the tree are included (poorly done as they are), and the adventure reveals itself as a fairly boring and cliched dungeon – despite the interesting premise of locale.

To add insult to injury, it turns out at the end of the day that this is just a false crypt. The real grave of Galal is somewhere else entirely. Ha ha. Gotcha.

To which one is forced to reply:

Who cares?

OTHER WEAKNESSES

Galal’s Grave compounds its other problems with a mediocre lay-out and overall design. Adding to this sense of amateurism, unfortunately, is the artwork of Derek T. Stevens. At times Stevens betrays moments of high quality which are made even more noteworthy by the distinctively exotic character of his work (for example, the pieces on pages 11 and 15 of Galal’s Grave). At other times, however, Stevens betrays his neophyte status (most notably in pieces such as that found on page 8 of Galal’s Grave).

CONCLUSION

I would like to say Galal’s Grave is not without its strong points. I hate telling lies, though, so I can’t.

In the final analysis I’m afraid the conclusion is self-evident: The OGL and D20 trademark licenses have produced some products of truly exceptional quality. Galal’s Grave, on the other hand, represents the other end of the spectrum that we all knew would crop up sooner or later: A poor vision, compounded with amateur production values and layers of cliches deep enough to choke a horse.

Style: 2
Substance: 1

Title: Galal’s Grave
Authors: Jamie Lloyd
Company: Fiend Games
Line: D20
Price: $6.00
ISBN: 1-931275-00-9
Production Code: TLG1501
Pages: 22

When discussing the OGL and similar open licenses, some people will point to adventures like Galal’s Grave and conclude that the OGL is a mistake. “Look at all the garbage!”

I have a different mindset: As Theodore Sturgeon said, 90% of everything is crap.

Look not at the worst that the OGL or science fiction or television has to offer. Instead, consider all of the priceless gems and wonders which we would otherwise not have.

As for the rest of it?

Well, that’s why we have reviews.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

I’ve been thinking about jump travel in Mothership. Here’s a quick summary, as described in the core rulebooks:

• Jump points are rated from Jump-1 to Jump-9.
• Utilizing a jump point requires a jump drive of equal to higher rating.
• For the crew of the ship, the jump always takes 2d10 days.
• Jumps usually seem to take the same amount of time for the rest of the universe, but each jump carries the risk of an unusual time dilation: Ships might disappear for months or even years instead of days.
• The longer/higher rated the jump, the more dangerous and severe the time dilation appears to be. It’s possible that some of the Jump-9 deep space exploration vehicles that have gone missing will reappear a thousand years in the future.

The rulebooks, however, leave these time dilation effects up to the GM’s discretion. I thought it might be useful to instead resolve the mechanically.

TIME DILATION

When a ship performs a jump, roll 1d10 per Jump rating (e.g., if a ship is making a Jump-3, roll 3d10).

For each 1 rolled on a d10, the actual trip duration increases by one step:

• days
• weeks
• months
• years
• decades
• centuries

If you’re making a standard Jump-1, you have a minimal risk of the trip taking 2d10 weeks instead of 2d10 days. If you attempt a Jump-3, on the other hand, there is a 1-in-1000 risk that you’ll roll three 1’s and return 2d10 years later.

Note: This does not change the subjective time experienced by the ship. For the crew, a jump trip seems to take 2d10 days, regardless of how much time passes in the wider universe.

Other Chaotic Effects: At the GM’s discretion, each 1 rolled on the time dilation check instead triggers a different chaotic effect. Examples might include:

• a crew member is replaced by a completely different person
• time dilation is inverted (the trip takes minutes or seconds instead of days) or reversed (they arrive before they left)
• subjective time experienced by the crew is dilated instead
• strange hallucinations or manifestations
• crew is unexpected awoken from cryosleep during the voyage
• the ship arrives in the wrong place

ASTRONAVIGATION

Calculating a jump requires an Intellect (Hyperspace) check. This check is made with [+} if the astronavigator remains awake during the jump, monitoring the astronavigation computers.

Success: You made it!

Critical Success: Roll one fewer d10 when making the time dilation check for the jump. For a Jump-1 trade route, roll 2d10 and only have the ship experience time dilation if both dice roll a 1.

Failure: Something goes wrong! The GM chooses one:

• Double the number of dice rolled for the time dilation check.
• The ship arrives in the wrong place. (1 in 10 chance you arrive back where you started after 4d10 days, having traversed a Calabi-Ricci spacetime loop.)
• The ship is damaged by jump turbulence, roll a Repair (SBT, p. 39).

Critical Failure: You could have killed us all! All three consequences of Failure happen simultaneously.

TRADE ROUTES

According to the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, “regular Jump-1 trade routes seem to wear down the chaotic effects” of jump travel. Navigational calculations become more precise with each additional jump that’s recorded along a route, and ships traveling through the jump point can effectively wear a “groove” into spacetime.

At the GM’s discretion, ships jumping along a route which has been “worn” by regular travel reduce the number of d10s rolled for the time dilation check by one. For a Jump-1 trade route, roll 2d10 and only have the ship experience time dilation if both dice roll a 1.

UNCHARTED JUMPS

Most interstellar travel happens along charted jump routes: Jump points that have well-plotted navigational solutions (even if they shift slightly due to stellar drift) and are known to be stable.

These are not the only jump points in space, however. Once you’re away from planets, asteroids, and stations, it turns out there are many unstable points in the fabric of space which are constantly being created, destroyed, and shifting according to complex spacetime geometries.

The GM determines the base Jump rating of the uncharted route. (This can usually default to the total value of all Jump-ratings along the known path from the current system to the destination system. For example, if you could normally get to the other system through a known Jump-1 route, the base Jump rating for an uncharted route would also be Jump-1. If you would normally need to make a Jump-1 followed by a Jump-3, then the base Jump rating for the route would be Jump-4.)

Plotting the uncharted jump requires an Intellect (Hyperspace) check. This includes identifying the location of the jump point you need to use, which you will then need to travel to (as shown on the table below). If you’re in the Inner System or in orbit around a planet, increase the time required by one step. (Weeks become months.)

Success: Add 1d2 to the base Jump rating. This is the Jump rating of the uncharted route, which is then resolved normally.

Critical Success: -1 to the base Jump rating (minimum 1). In addition, roll 1d10. On a roll of 1, the jump path you’ve discovered is a new stable route. (Depending on the value of the route, selling the location of this new jump point might be worth thousands or millions of credits.)

Failure: Add 1d5 to the required jump rating. If you roll 5, roll again and add the result to the jump rating. If the result is 10 or higher, you have been unable to find any jump points leading to your desired destination.

Critical Failure: You thought you could get from here to there via a safe jump, but you were very wrong. Your Astronavigation check automatically fails. In addition, determine the jump rating as per a Failure, but you attempted the jump no matter what the result is. If the result was higher than the rating of your Jump drive, your ship suffers 1d2 MDMG and emerges from hyperspace in a completely random and unexpected location. (This is a good way to end up adrift in interstellar space.)

I will be making a virtual appearance at Dice Con in Lviv, Ukraine.

RANDOM GM TIPS W/JUSTIN ALEXANDER
Saturday, August 30th – 7 pm

Check the convention program for location and other details.

I had a ton of fun doing this last year, and I’m excited to be returning this year!

I hope the stars align so that I can visit all of you in the Ukraine in person very, very soon!

UPCOMING CONVENTIONS
ArneCon 3 – Minneapolis, MN – October 10-12, 2025
Gamehole Con – Madison, WI – Oct 16-19, 2025
GM Academy @ Tower Games – Minneapolis, MN – Nov 15, 2025
Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo – Oaks, PA – Jan 15-18, 2026

Privateer Press blasts its way into the D20 marketplace with a module of surpassing quality and a setting whose merest hints are inherently intriguing.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

When The Longest Night, Book One of Privateer Press’ Witchfire Trilogy, showed up in my mailbox it immediately drew my attention:

First, it was 64 pages for $9.95 – which, if the material inside was of any quality at all, would make it a fairly great value in the D20 marketplace.

Second, the book’s artwork and layout were extremely slick. In fact, of all the first-time D20 publishers, I would have to say that Privateer Press has put together the best-looking inaugural product so far. (For those of you who don’t care what a product looks like, consider: If someone’s willing and capable of putting together a visually appealing product, it vastly increases the chances that they cared enough to make the actual meat of the product worth biting into.)

Finally, the first page I flipped open to was page 11 – which features a great picture of an “industrial steamjack” (which is also found in the background of the back cover). For lack of a better description, a steamjack is basically a steampunk mecha.

Admittedly, this last element made me more than a little skeptical of the book’s claim that the DM could “easily replace the names of gods, locations, and the like” in order to use the adventure in any campaign world. But it did leave me seriously intrigued about the Iron Kingdoms setting which Privateer Press is introducing here.

SETTING

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for The Witchfire Trilogy. Players who may find themselves playing in this adventure should not read beyond this point.

The first dozen pages of The Longest Night present the merest inklings of the Iron Kingdoms setting, with most of the focus being set upon Corvis – the city in and around which the adventure takes place. A few highlights:

The Iron Kingdoms are most notably set apart from other fantasy settings by their possession of steam technology. The most impressive display of this technology is the steamjack: A robotic entity (which looks a lot like a heavy gear to me, but I’m biased) which is powered by steam and given a brain by magic, and on which the rapid growth of the Iron Kingdoms has been built.

The Kingdom of Cygnar, in which the city of Corvis is to be found, was founded roughly 400 years ago at the end of the Orgoth Empire. Little is known of the Empire, but its ruins and relics can still be found throughout the Iron Kingdoms. Cygnar was ruled by a tyrant as recently as a few decades ago. Fortunately, the tyrant (Raelthorne) was overthrown by Leto, his younger brother. Unfortunately, Raelthorne escaped – and many of his cronies have simply slipped through the cracks.

Corvis, itself, is a port city built upon the junction of two major rivers. It is also built in the middle of a swamp, which has given it a unique architecture: Instead of building out, the city has built up. The lowest levels of the city (the Undercity) have actually sunk beneath the swamp itself, creating a series of what are essentially urban dungeons in which a wide variety of creatures can be found. At the highest levels the rich and powerful can be found, and inbetween is everyone else.

The Longest Night gives us only the meresting inklings of what the complete Iron Kingdoms setting will hold, but what’s here is extremely intriguing: First, Staroscik has laid out a geography which makes it easy to justify dungeon complexes and ruins: Either they’re sunken catacombs beneath the city, or ruins of the Orgoth Empire, or the remnant of a resistance movement. Next, he gives you a number of different places from which to spice an adventure – villains who escaped with Raelthorne’s rule, ancient imperial relics, and so forth. Finally, he wraps all of this up into a great fantasy setting, which is given a very unique character through the light application of a few steampunk elements – not enough to overwhelm the traditional fantasy atmosphere, but more than enough to add a little excitement.

ADVENTURE

Ten years ago a coven of witches in Corvis was executed, with the town universally condemning them to death. The truth, however, was that the trial was the machination of a corrupt politician – Magistrate Borloch — who had first used the coven to gain power and then set them up in order to cover his own back. Actually, there is a deeper truth: Borloch himself had been manipulated by the mage Vahn Oberen. Oberen had set the entire chain of events in motion so that he could act as the witch’s executioner, chopping their heads off with the arcane Witchfire – a blade which would allow him to steal the sorcerous powers of the witches.

Unfortunately for Oberen, things didn’t go exactly according to plan: He did execute the witches, but was knocked unconscious by the powerful forces flowing into him. Borloch rushed the mage away before his identity could be discovered, and Father Dumas, the head of the local church who was seeing to the burial of the witches, unwittingly entombed the Witchfire with them.

Fast forward ten years: Alexia Ciannor, Dumas’ nieceand the daughter of one of the coven members, was only a young girl when her mother was executed. Now, however, she is a powerful sorceress in her own right – and hungry for revenge.

The PCs get involved when Alexia starts stealing corpses, and Father Dumas asks them to find out who’s doing it. The PCs will eventually figure out that the corpses are the jurors from the trial of the coven ten years ago (Alexia is practicing her abilities to create the undead and getting some of her revenge at the same time). This will lead them to the crypt in which four of the witches were buried (the fifth, Alexia’s mother, and the Witchfire are entombed at the Church in Corvis – a warning against all others who would practice witchcraft). There they will learn that Alexia has raised them as well (she is attempting to bring the entire coven back to “life”). This will eventually take them to Alexia’s hideout in the Undercity, but she will escape – leading them to the abandoned Fort Rhyker, where Alexia has slowly been creating an army of undead. The adventure wraps up when Alexia marches her undead forces against the city of Corvis, using them as a distraction so that she can strike at her mother’s tomb – raising her from the dead and seizing the Witchfire. Oberen will attempt to seize the Witchfire at this time, as well, and the PCs will be decisive in determining which of the two sorcerors end up with the blade.

(The reason the adventure is called The Longest Night can be found in the timing of Alexia’s attack: She chooses to strike during the Longest Night Festival – so called because it takes place during an eclipse which blackens the sky for an entire day.)

WEAKNESSES

The biggest problem I found in the adventure was in the initial investigation sequence (during which the PCs are attempting to figure out the identity of the person stealing the corpses). Staroscik needs to strew around a lot more clues in this section if he seriously expects PCs to figure out what’s going on (without, of course, having the DM lead them by the nose from one clue to another). Here’s a rule of thumb that’s always served me well in designing mystery scenarios: Assume that the PCs will miss one clue in three, and you’ll probably have your bases covered. Staroscik, on the other hand, seems to assume that the PCs are going to track down every single bread crumb he plants. He’s wrong, and quite a few playing groups are going to find themselves wandering around without a clue (pun intended).

The only other problem with the adventure’s structure is to be found immediately after the PCs return from the tomb of the first four witches. Staroscik points out that the PCs will have probably figured out that Alexia is somehow involved in all of this (although his exact reasoning here is a little vague – again, more clues are necessary). He then proceeds to stonewall them from actually going after Alexia (the guard will ignore their accusations, Father Dumas will oppose them, etc.) – forcing them to simply follow her until she can lead them to her secret hide-out.

First off, stonewalling the PCs is just not cool. And, furthermore, there’s no need to do it here. If the PCs do go after Alexia, then they can still end up in her secret base by having her take them there. What’s really annoying is that Staroscik actually sets up all the pieces to make this work (including an escape plan for Alexia once they’ve reached her secret base beneath the city), but encourages DMs to stonewall their PCs anyway. Silly and clumsy.

My biggest gripe (as opposed to a serious problem) with The Longest Night is the lack of steamjack stats. This is a major oversight, not only because they seem to be pushed as one of the really unique elements of the setting, but also because Staroscik uses one in the course of the adventure. Although the oversight can be worked around, it shouldn’t have to be.

The only other problems are nothing more than nitpicks, really: The map of Corvis provided (which is done in a historical style – which is to say that it’s more a picture of the city with certain locations keyed) doesn’t seem to really match the description in the text (and a number of locations are left unkeyed). Some boxed text didn’t get boxed (but should obviously be read outloud to the PCs). The maps of Fort Rhyker are very confusing and need to be puzzled out to a degree because the relationships between staircases are not immediately apparent (each floor and section of the fort is printed on a completely separate page). At one point Staroscik claims that a protection form evil spell will prevent Alexia from entering an area – but Alexia’s write-up lists her as neutral, not evil. Minor typos. That type of thing.

STRENGTHS

All right, before I nitpick the product to death, let’s take a look at the strengths of The Longest Night (which are considerable):

First off, as I note above, the setting is extremely well-designed. And, surprisingly, the city of Corvis and its surroundings can be easily included into any generic fantasy world. Removing the steam technology (which is really the only potentially jarring element of the adventure) can be accomplished by simply ignoring it whenever it’s included. (On the other hand, you could include Corvis as a city in which this new technology is just now being pioneered.) Staroscik makes this an even more attractive proposition by loading the city, even in its brief coverage here, with elements and adventure seeds which go far beyond the scope of this single adventure.

Second, the adventure itself – like the setting – can easily be incorporated into campaign setting. Corvis provides a distinct backdrop for the adventure, but Staroscik is careful to keep the structure of the adventure separate from the backdrop – so replacing Corvis with any other city of your choosing is easily accomplished.

And, of course, the adventure is worth playing. Despite a handful of minor structural flaws (which are easily fixed – increasing the number of places a clue can be found and ignoring Staroscik’s advice to stonewall your PCs should take you all of about five minutes), The Longest Night has a great plot, set-up, and cast of characters. It is also an adventure which hits a lot of different notes: You’ve got an investigation, an urban dungeon, a wilderness dungeon, a fortress, and a siege by the undead.

The Longest Night is also distinguished by the simple care with which it has been crafted: For example, Staroscik is careful to provide insight and support into multiple solutions for any problem – including non-combat solutions – looking at not only the short-term, but also the long-term impacts they will have on a game. Perhaps the best example of this is to be found when the PCs enter the tomb of the four witches, in which a tribe of gobbers has taken up residence. This is the same tribe of gobbers which assaulted the caravan the PCs were guarding at the beginning of the adventure – and Staroscik draws a number of different ways in which they can be linked, taking a minor background element and suffusing it throughout the adventure as a whole.

CONCLUSION

The Longest Night is an excellent adventure for any campaign world, and the quality and care which has been shown here is more than sufficient to draw me back for the next two parts in the trilogy.

The strengths of this product have also left me looking forward to Privateer’s release of Corvis: A Guide to the City of Ghosts later this summer. The Iron Kingdoms setting is truly fascinating, and even if I don’t run a campaign there full time, I’ve got my fingers crossed that Privateer will keep walking a fine line which will allow me to incorporate Corvis into another campaign world with relative ease.

And, god help me, I’m even keeping one eye open for their release of the Monsternomicon. Their promise of “unique and useful D20 creatures”, in combination with the monsters shown in this book, have me pleasantly intrigued. (Besides, they actually managed to find a half-way decent name for a monster compendium – and I didn’t think that was possible any more).

In short, to return to the product I’m actually supposed to be reviewing, The Longest Night has left me seriously impressed. You should check it out.

Style: 5
Substance: 4

Title: The Witchfire Trilogy: Book One – The Longest Night
Authors: Matt Staroscik
Company: Privateer Press
Line: D20/Iron Kingdoms
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 0-9706970-0-7
Production Code: WF001
Pages: 64

For the record, although I never wrote a review of it, the Monternomicon is one of my favorite and most-used bestiaries. Privateer Press knocked it out of the park with that one. (I haven’t checked out the 5E version, but have little doubt it’s still worth checking out.)

Oddly, my strongest memories of The Longest Night — which I never found the opportunity to run — ended up being the awkward railroading and undercooked clues, with the result that for many, many years I’ve had a kind of “meh” opinion of the module. I suspect it was because I ended up thinking deeply about those elements of the adventure in a way that ended up fundamentally affecting my thinking on adventure design. (You can see the dawning of the Three Clue Rule peeking out up there. And Alexia was something I was thinking about when writing The Principles of RPG Villainy.)

Rereading my review, however, my focus has apparently done a disservice to the rest of the module in my memory. Maybe I should take the time to finally check out the rest of the trilogy.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.