From page one, Jerimond’s Orb has problems.

Review Originally Appeared May 21st, 2001

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

I knew I was going to have problems with Jerimond’s Orb right from page one, when I read the following boxed text, which is specifically meant to be read aloud to the players (excerpted):

“My name is Arawn. I remember traveling home to Treefall, to my father’s inn, and then… darkness. […] Please, let me go home to my village. My mother and sister must worry for me. Arawn has no recollection of the encounter with the PCs, the beast he became, or anything that occurred after sunset the evening before.”

Dropping spoilers into the boxed text due to a layout error is a small thing, but it denotes a lack of attention to detail. This opening section of the adventure also betrays another pervasive problem: The assumption that the PCs will do completely illogical things to further the plot. This is one of the worst things a module writer can do, because it practically guarantees that the PCs will take actions which will either derail the adventure (thus rendering the module worthless to the DM) or force the DM to railroad the characters into the proper course of action (thus rendering the module worthless to the players). Specifically, Arawn shows up in the form of a terrible monster – which attempts to attack and kill the PCs. The adventure specifically assumes that the PCs will leave this monster alone and – at the same time – keep him around until morning (when he changes back to his human form).

You know, I’ve played RPGs for more than a decade – and I have never had the PCs in my games leave a homicidal monster alive. (Particularly in D&D, where you really have to go out of your way to capture an opponent alive.)

PLOT

Fifty years ago a wizard named Jerimond left a magical orb to protect his hometown of Treefall. The orb was designed to enhance the natural luck of any creature or area. If the orb is stolen, however, those who it once benefited will fall under a terrible curse: Condemned to turn into beasts (known as mathorn) when the sun sets and remain that way until dawn.

The orb was placed on a statue in the center of town, and has long gifted Treefall with good luck and plentiful harvests. A few days ago, local bandits stole the orb (which Jerimond used as part of a key-and-lock system to secure the treasure stashed at his old house). Now the crops are turning bad and random villagers are turning into vicious monsters.

When the PCs arrive in town, they will quickly have four mysteries to sort out: The missing orb, a dead girl, the plague of monsters, and the local bandits. All four, of course, have their red herrings and true clues – and all four, of course, turn out to be connected to one another.

CONCLUSION

Although Jerimond’s Orb is not without its strengths – most notably the interesting cast of characters that Ree Soesbee introduces – it’s dominated by its weaknesses. Its largest flaw, unfortunately, is the general lack of forethought and planning which Soesbee shows in constructing adventure. Time and again the PCs are asked to do irrational things, make illogical leaps of reasoning, and stumble upon the “correct” course of action.

All the building blocks of a good, solid adventure are here, but they are sadly disarranged and out of sorts. To render Jerimond’s Orb worth playing is an effort which its underlying quality most likely does not justify. There are better things to spend your money on.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Author: Ree Soesbee
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Line: Adventure Boosters
Price: $2.49
Product Code: 8305
Pages: 16

Reading this review 20+ years after writing it, I’m left a little confused by ranking of Substance 3. But since I also haven’t revisited this adventure in just as many years, I guess I’ll trust past-Justin’s assessment.

The reprint of this adventure in the Adventure I collection notably corrects the boxed text errors mentioned in this review.

Next AEG Booster Review: Kurishan’s Garden

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Out of Body, Out of Mind fails to think things through to their logical conclusions. A poorly conceived premise, killer traps, and an irrational set-up seriously undermine this module’s positive qualities.

Review Originally Appeared May 21st, 2001

PLOT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Out of Body, Out of Mind. Players who may find themselves playing in this adventure should not read beyond this point.

The plot of Out of Body, Out of Mind, in brief: Six hundred years ago this area of the world was a turbulent mass of fighting warlords. Then, one of their own numbers – Tirna’gael – gained in sudden strength and struck out against his fellow warlords, quickly coming to dominate the entire region before his death. The newly formed Order of Garadon entombed the warlord in his citadel: A castle of stone which hangs over the simmering cauldron of a volcano.

Although it is believed that the source of Tirna’gael’s power was the ring he wore, the Order of Garadon had actually discovered that Tirna’gael had become the host of a nescent – an invisible and incorporeal demonic entity which exists by possessing mortal bodies. The Order trapped the nescent by slaying the Tirna’gael host body and imprisoning it within an antimagic field.

Rumors now fly that the tomb – which has long been secured by mystic guards – has been broken into. The PCs are dispatched to stop the robbers. Unknown to the PCs, however, is that there is no robbery in process – and it is very likely that they will break the ancient seals on the nescent’s prison through their carelessness.

WEAKNESSES

All right, where to begin?

Let’s start with the premise… which makes no sense. First off, why wouldn’t the Order of Garadon brief the PCs about the true situation? More importantly, why isn’t the Order of Garadon sent in the first place – rather than handing the job over to the clueless? Second, if rumors are already flying about the break-in, why are the PCs dispatched to go to the prison in order to prevent the robbery that’s already happened from taking place?

Once the PCs reach the prison, these illogical premises continue unabated. For example, the mephits which were set to guard the prison don’t wake up until after the tomb has been opened and the nescent released. Apparently the author never understood the irony behind the saying “closing the coop after the chickens have flown.”

Nor is this the only variety of flaw in Out of Body, Out of Mind: Area 7, for example, has a killer trap. That trap can be avoided if a couple of die rolls are successfully made – otherwise it will most likely wipe out the entire party. The trap in area 9 is similarly designed so that escape is nearly impossible.

Out of Body, Out of Mind also uses the technique of keying multiple areas to a single set of text. I appreciate this technique when it is used appropriately. Unfortunately, it is not used so here.

STRENGTHS

Although outweighed by the adventure’s flaws, Out of Body, Out of Mind does have a few notable strengths:

First, Kapera creates the nescent by using the template rules. This idea of using the template as the monster is intriguing, and an interesting design point. I’m not quite sure if it works, but it’s noteworthy.

Second, although it is illogical for the mephit guardians to wake up only after the damage is done, once that happens Kapera introduces a rather interesting dynamic: The nescent will attempt to possess one of the mephits and control as many of the others as possible through its command lesser creatures ability – creating two factions within the fortress. This creates an interesting dynamic for the second half of the adventure (with the PCs trapped in a fortress full of fighting mephits), and if it had been more fully developed could have resulted in a truly fascinating adventure.

Of course, as interesting as it is, it only introduces a new problem into the adventure: Why would you set guardians over the nescent who can be controlled by the nescent? That’s like manning a prison with guards you know have been bribed by the prisoners.

And, at the end of the day, that’s the biggest problem Out of Body, Out of Mind has: The strengths it has are immediately undermined by the faulty foundation on which they have been built.

There are some salvageable elements to be found here, but they are deeply buried beneath the chaff.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Author: Patrick Kapera
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Line: Adventure Boosters
Price: $2.49
Product Code: 8306
Pages: 16

Next AEG Booster Review: Jerimond’s Orb

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

Look, the robbers are living right next door to the man-eating ghouls! The Crypt of St. Bethesda is a textbook example of how not to write an adventure.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

Let me just cut to the chase on this one: The Crypt of St. Bethesda strains credulity beyond the boundaries of sanity.

You’ve got a band of robbers living right next door to man-eating ghouls. Man-eating ghouls who wander through the lair of a giant spider. Giant rats which compete with a carrion crawler over the food provided by an inn’s garbage dump. And all of them live within shouting distance of a pseudo-undead on a killing spree to replace its decaying host.

And all of them live in the basement of an abandoned church!

Ummmm….

(Actually, now that I think about it, it sounds like a bad premise for a sitcom.)

Add in the dash of an illogical adventure hook (which the author knows is illogical because he spends nearly two pages discussing exactly how to force your players to swallow this ridiculous pill – and only succeeds in making it more ridiculous), and you’ve got a truly… ummm… memorable experience.

This one’s a very big dud, folks. Pass it by.

Style: 3
Substance: 1

Title: The Crypt of St. Bethesda
Author: James Macduff
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Line: Adventure Keep
Price: $2.49
Product Code: 8307
Pages: 16

Because these adventures are so short, the reviews are also short. When I started reviewing them, I actually grouped multiple reviews together to give them a little more bulk. But it turned out that messed with people’s ability to find them through RPGNet’s search function, so as I continued my reviews of the series I started doing them one at a time. Even if they were brief.

Next AEG Booster Review: Out of Body, Out of Mind

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

The conclusion to the trilogy which began with Death in Freeport and Terror in Freeport, Madness in Freeport brings the same strengths and weaknesses to the table.

Review Originally Published October 8th, 2001

PLOT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Madness in Freeport. Players who may end up playing in this module are encouraged to stop reading now. Proceed at your own risk.

Madness in Freeport, the final installment of the Freeport Trilogy (following Death in Freeport and Terror in Freeport — which are reviewed here and here), takes place over the course of three days as Milton Drac’s sinister plans begin to come to fruition and the PCs must work furiously to stop them.

Madness opens with the Grand Lighthouse Ball – a celebration to which Drac invites the PCs under the pretense of applauding their recent accomplishments. In reality, however, he’s brought them there in an attempt to set them up for a fall (just as he’s set up everyone else who has ever posed a potential threat to him). The PCs must resist Drac’s manipulations, while still using the opportunities of the Ball to further investigate the truth behind Drac’s plans for the Lighthouse.

If the PCs are successful, they will discover that they need to acquire an ancient artifact – the Jade Serpent of Yig – in order to counteract the foul summoning ritual which Drac is building the Lighthouse to attempt. The PCs will then be able to trace the resting place of the Jade Serpent to the cache of the infamous pirate Black Dog. Seeking out this hidden cache, they will discover an ancient, sunken Temple of Yig.

Once they have acquired the Jade Serpent from the Temple of Yig, they return to Freeport. But they may already be too late, and a furious chase through the Lighthouse ensues until the PCs reach the Big Finale.

LOW POINTS

Madness in Freeport shares its primary flaw with Death in Freeport and Terror in Freeport: Once again, the strings which hold the adventure together are far too weak. The success of the module hinges time and time again on the PCs reading the author’s mind or making a lucky dice roll.

For example, it is absolutely crucial that the PCs discover the location of Black Dog’s Caves (where they suspect they can find the Jade Serpent of Yig). In order to accomplish this, they must make a Gather Information skill check. A complete chart of possible responses is given (ranging from DC 10 to DC 25) – but, essentially, they have to make this skill check at DC 25 in order to find out what they have to do next.

This is bad design. Plain and simple. The module writer practically admits as much in the very next paragraph, where he tells the DM to essentially ignore the die roll if the PCs don’t make it. If that’s the case, why the heck are you bothering to have me roll the dice, anyway?

Essentially, any DM wanting to run this adventure is going to have to modify it substantially in order to strengthen the flow of the plot – or he’s going to have to simply accept the necessity of railroading his players through it.

Another major flaw comes at the adventure’s end, when the author attempts to claim that the PCs (having killed Drac) will not have their story of what happened believed. Unfortunately, this just doesn’t make any sense. For starters, the PCs are already acknowledged heroes of the city. And, furthermore, a huge crowd just saw the climax of the adventure. In other words, the PCs not only have a lot of personal credibility built up in Freeport – they also have a massive amount of corroborating evidence.

Madness in Freeport, unfortunately, also shows a relatively sloppy handling of the rule system. For example, in the Lighthouse at the end of the adventure Simoni asserts that it takes a guardman two rounds to run to the top of a fifty foot stairway (this is crucial, because he’s going to alert others to the PCs’ presence). Unfortunately, Simoni is wrong – the guard can move 60 ft. per round while running. He’ll reach the top of the staircase in the same round he starts running.

The other low points in Madness in Freeport take the form of “that was good, just not as good as it could have been”.

For example, the Grand Lighthouse Ball at the top of the adventure is a roleplaying-intensive sequence. It’s handled well enough, but Simoni would have benefited from taking a look at Penumbra’s In the Belly of the Beast — which handles that type of scenario in a far better fashion.

Similarly, the sequence in the Sunken Temple of Yig is good insofar as it goes – but it suffers from trite tricks and one-note religious symbols, rather than exploiting the situation for some actual depth and mystery.

HIGH POINTS

Madness in Freeport primarily succeeds for two reasons:

1. Despite the flaws of execution, the story itself is a good one.

2. The adventure capitalizes well on the groundwork laid by the first two adventures in the Freeport Trilogy. Assuming the DM can stop the PCs from losing the thread of the adventure, everyone should enjoy themselves immensely as the mysteries of Death in Freeport and Terror in Freeport are finally resolved while ancient evils are defeated.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, Madness in Freeport delivers a solid conclusion to the Freeport Trilogy. That being said: If the Trilogy had been released in today’s D20 market, rather than the virgin territory of August 2000, it would most likely have been widely ignored. The production values of Madness in Freeport simply don’t compare well with the other D20 products out there, and the module possesses too many flaws to distinguish itself from the competition.

To put this in context: When I compare Death in Freeport (the first Green Ronin module, released in August 2000) to Three Days to Kill (the first Penumbra module, released in August 2000), the comparison is highly favorable. However, when I compare Madness in Freeport to The Tide of Years, it becomes apparent that Penumbra has worked steadily to improve the quality of its offerings – while Green Ronin, for all intents and purposes, is still putting out the same old stuff.

So, while I still offer my endorsement of Madness in Freeport as a conclusion to the Freeport Trilogy, I also reserve judgment to the extent that, if this is the best that Green Ronin can produce in the future, then I probably won’t continue to categorize Green Ronin as a top-notch D20 publisher.

Style: 2
Substance: 4

Author: William Simoni
Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing
Line: D20
Price: $10.95
ISBN: 0-9701048-3-9
Product Code: GRR1004
Pages: 46

In retrospect, I’d knock at least one point off of my Substance rating above. My memory is that this was quite mediocre, and reviewing my prep notes for the adventure reveals that I ended up rewriting almost all of it. (Which isn’t a good sign.) Conceptually great; execution mostly a whiff. The best bit is the Grand Lighthouse Ball, and even that I had to heavily reorganize and remix to get it into a format I felt comfortable running. On the other hand, the process of figuring out how I wanted the Grand Lighthouse Ball organized was, if I recall correctly, the beginning of the process for developing my social event scenario structure, although it would take several more iterations over the next seven or eight years to work all the kinks out.

There was actually a significant gap between my reviews of Death in Freeport and Terror in Freeport, which were published on the same day in February 2001, and my review of Madness in Freeport, which didn’t appear until October. Some of that gap is explained  by Madness in Freeport being released at a later date, but that’s not the whole story here. I think this is one of those books I read, meant to review, but I didn’t actually get the review written in a timely fashion. If the gap between experiencing a piece of media and writing the review takes too long, then I generally find I can no longer write the review. The material is too stale and too many details will have slipped away from me.

I do remember that people kept asking me when my review of the third book in the Freeport Trilogy would be released.

Looking over my documents, I started putting together my prep notes for the Freeport adventures starting in mid-October of 2001. It’s probably not coincidental this review was published at the beginning of the month. I’m guessing that, having decided to run the trilogy, I re-read the whole thing. And then, with Madness in Freeport fresh in my mind, I also seized the opportunity to finally write up the review.

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

The sequel to Death in Freeport, Terror in Freeport brings the same strengths and weaknesses to the table.

Review Originally Published February 12th, 2001

Terror in Freeport picks up exactly where Death in Freeport left off (my review of the latter is available here) – which is only logical, since it’s a sequel.

In terms of its strengths and weaknesses, Terror is very similar to its predecessor: It’s picked up a few new flaws (weaker boxed text, repetition of material), but it’s also picked up a few new strengths (more adventure material, better lay-out).

PLOT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Terror in Freeport. Players who may end up playing in this module are encouraged to stop reading now. Proceed at your own risk.

A couple of months have passed since the events of Death in Freeport and the PCs are approached, once more, by Brother Egis: He’s sure that the serpent people are still active in Freeport, and has come to believe that someone is working behind the scenes to undo everything that the PCs have accomplished. The plot which begins to unravel from this simple seed is so delightfully convoluted that the author, Robert J. Toth, has included sidebars entitled “The Real Story” throughout the adventure to make it easier for the DM to keep track of everything that’s going on.

Things open with another round of investigation, starting with a secret residence that Milos (the main villain from Death in Freeport) kept under an assumed name. Investigating the rented room will not reveal anything (although if the PCs make some lucky search rolls they will uncover a set of documents which will be very important in setting up Madness in Freeport, see below). Shortly after they start investigating, however, they will attacked and – if they follow one of the would-be assassins successfully – he will lead them right back to the bricked up temple building from Death in Freeport.

The temple is supposedly being cleaned out by Councilor Verlaine, but if the PCs successfully investigate they’ll discover that the Temple is still inhabited by serpent people – who are transferring the contents of the Temple into the basement of Verlaine’s mansion! A series of subsequent investigations and diversions will make it appear that Verlaine is in league with the Brotherhood, but – in fact – he’s being set up by his boss, Sea Lord Drac – the ruler of Freeport.

The Brotherhood then attacks Egis’ Temple, some more craziness ensues, and the PCs triumph. Along the way they finally get to talk with Thuron, the head of the Temple – but at the end of the adventure it’s suddenly revealed that Thuron is one of the serpent people, too! Fortunately, he’s one of the good serpent people. (Made ya look!)

Finally, the big whammy is laid on the PCs (setting the stage for Madness in Freeport): K’Stallo reveals that the diagram the PCs discovered way back at the beginning of the adventure are the plans for the Lighthouse which is being constructed in the harbor – a Lighthouse which is being carefully prepared for a demonic ritual which will see the Unspeakable God of the Yellow Sign reborn into the world once more!

LOW POINTS

Terror in Freeport possesses the same primary flaw as Death in Freeport: The links which hold the adventure together are far too weak. A missed die roll here, a failure to read the author’s mind there, and the adventure is hopelessly derailed without even a glimmering clue regarding how to get it back on track.

To this, a few other weaknesses are also added: The boxed text is generally much weaker than in Death in Freeport, and on at least two occasions it makes decisions for the PCs (something which I simply can’t stand). The pregen PCs from Death in Freeport are reprinted here and, although they’ve been advanced to third level, I consider this an even greater waste of my space and time. Finally, during a sewer sequence,  the map of the sewer fails to match the description in the text.

HIGH POINTS

The biggest advantage Terror in Freeport has is that it is a sequel to Death in Freeport. The same sense of lurking horror and hidden mystery lurks within these pages, and even as some of the mysteries left lingering in the shadows of Death are brought into the light, even more sinister mysteries are shown to lie behind them. Terror raises the stakes elegantly and naturally – drawing the PCs into higher circles of power, and showing that the corruption and horror they had so briefly brushed against before becomes even more terrifying as the full scope of its truth becomes revealed.

Other positives: Adventure seeds for getting players involved in Terror in Freeport are included (in case they didn’t run through Death in Freeport) – even though I can’t seriously imagine running a group through Terror that hasn’t been through Death. In general, Terror is a far meatier adventure than Death, although this is largely due two factors: First, Terror draws upon the background in Death (so that it has a larger number of actual pages in which to describes its adventure). Second, Terror is for higher level characters – so the PCs can handle a bit more breadth and depth than they could before.

CONCLUSION

If you liked Death in Freeport, you’ll like Terror in Freeport. If you didn’t like Death in Freeport, you probably won’t like Terror in Freeport. And if you haven’t read Death in Freeport, then you’re probably best advised to check that out first.

Support the reviewer’s plan for world domination: Click here to order Terror in Freeport through an affiliate link to Amazon.com.

Style: 3
Substance: 4

Authors: Chris Pramas
Company: Green Ronin Publishing
Line: D20
Price: $7.99
ISBN: 0-9701048-2-0
Production Code: GRR1003
Pages: 32

It’s been a long time since I cracked the cover on Terror in Freeport, but I have only the fondest memories of running this module. (Unlike Death in Freeport, I’ve only run Terror in Freeport once, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the module itself and shouldn’t be held against it.)

Taking a peek at my prep notes, it seems that I made virtually no adjustments to the module. It looks like I modified the hook to incorporate a patron who’d been established in my campaign; fleshed out the the tracking section with a Gather Information table; added a cool trap from the Traps & Treachery supplement published by Fantasy Flight Games; and modified Thuron’s story to align it to the cosmology of my own campaign world. Everything else is just stat blocks and handouts.

My point is that sometimes you can have fond memories of an adventure as you experienced it at the table that have little or nothing to do with the adventure as it was published, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Terror earns my nostalgic accolades.

Perhaps my strongest recommendation is that I hope to some day return to these modules and run them again.

Next Freeport Review: Madness in Freeport

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