Minireview: Haarlock's Legacy Part II - Damned Cities (Dark Heresy)
Damned Cities is the second part of the Haarlock’s Legacy trilogy of adventures for the Dark Heresy game. The whole thing is actually slightly more than a trilogy, since the adventure included in the Disciples of the Dark Gods book, “House of Dust and Ash”, is also part of this storyline.
I’ve really liked the first installments of this series. The House of Dust and Ash was great (if deadly), and the first adventure book in the actual trilogy (Tattered Fates) was also high-class. Both of those did share one common flaw (or “feature”, at the least): they had extremely deadly portions to them. Expect PC casualties if you run those without modification. They are also a bit complex, so some amount of GM prep is necessary.
This whole series is somewhat freeform. While the general expectation is that you run either House of Dust and Ash or Tattered Fates as the intro, then the other one of those two as a follow-up, and then this one… nothing forces that sequence. As all of these are standalone scenarios with just some plot lines and themes linking them together, the GM is free to combine them in any form that feels natural, or to add some extra scenarios in between. I like the format, it’s very flexible. The upcoming last part is meant to be played last, however, since it is apparently meant to tie off the storyline.
Damned Cities continues the storyline of the Acolytes (PCs) chasing down the trail of the vanished Rogue Trader, Erasmus Haarlock. Haarlock has killed off most (all?) of his bloodline, and has also left deadly traps all over the sector and apparently organized some sort of grand plan, which is now slowly activating with various countdown times winding down.
This time around, trouble brews in the decaying formerly-grand Imperial city of Sinophia Magna. A series of brutal murders has upset the balance between the local nobility and the powerful criminal gangs, and the whole place is on the verge of sliding into anarchy. Something about the murders has triggered the interest of the Inquisition, and the PCs are sent to investigate. Mayhem, shootouts, insanity and heavy rainfall ensues.
It’s good stuff. While primarily an investigation piece, there is room for lots of action here too. It’s very freeform, almost a sandbox (with rain replacing the sand). The GM is given a host of interesting NCPs and a general timeline, with some helper events to spring on the players in the event that they bog down. It doesn’t feel quite as deadly as the previous installments, but that’s just a gut feel – there’s plenty of danger here. The PCs need to figure out the killer or killers, and the possible tie to Erasmus Haarlock, before things get… interesting. Where “interesting” means “very, very bad”.
Despite the fairly slim page count, the book is nicely organized and a lot of thought has been given to how the GM can best use the material. There are lots of GM helper ideas and events, with discussion on when and if to activate various subplots, and the NPC descriptions are very nice. I also liked the discussion on general themes and motifs for the whole series; the use of clockworks, countdown times and such as symbols, etc.
So far, I’ve liked this series so much I’m almost considering running them myself. Scary, that.
Dragon Age finished
Well, I finally finished Dragon Age: Origins. With the zillion things demanding their share of my free time, it’s pretty rare for me to actually finish a computer game – most of the games I like are long and complex affairs, and… well, they take time. I think the previous “big” game I finished was Half-Life 2 (including episodes 1&2).
Playing through Dragon Age took me a whopping total of 69 hours of play time. It’s a huge game, just like the game it’s the “spiritual successor” of: Baldur’s Gate II. Since BG2 happens to be one of those other big games which I have actually finished, and also one of my all-time favorites, it’s fitting to compare the two a bit.
So which is better? I honestly don’t know. I loved both. BG2 has a slightly more unorthodox plot and has more weird plot twists, but Dragon Age’s plot switched to high gear during the end section. While the beginning was a bit predictable and by-the-numbers in places, the end was pretty awesome: it forced you to make a lot of honestly difficult choices, both morally and tactically, often with no really “good” choice available. The end part delved heavily into realpolitik, and overall Dragon Age is a much more “gritty” and realistic game – as far as action-adventure fantasy games generally are, anyway.
Both have excellent NPCs, but I guess Dragon Age wins simply because the NPCs have full animation and (good) voice acting.
Both have interesting tactical combat, where the more difficult fights will kill you dead if you just wade in. On the other hand, neither featured frustratingly impossible battles of the “aaargh, let’s reload that for the 50th time” sort. Overall, nice balance.
Both have lots of variability in how they play out, depending on player choices. I think Dragon Age wins here, there are tons of subplots and even main plot variations that depend completely on what you do. This contributes to a great replay value; even though both of these games will eat up a humongous amount of time, paradoxically both are also games that tempt you to play them again. I played BG2 about halfway through the second time, and I’ll probably give Dragon Age another go too, this time with a different character and main companion selection (played as a mage this time).
I’m keeping Morrigan, though. She’s an amoral antisocial bitch, but she’s fun.
So. Fantastic game, jumping to my “all time favorites” list. It’s not perfect, it’s a bit predictable and cliched at times… but it’s quite a ride.
Minireview: Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark is the first book in Charlaine Harris’ “Sookie Stackhouse” series of books. Like many others, I first encountered this series via TV; the awesome new(ish) series True Blood is based on these books and turns out to be a fairly faithful adaptation. The first series covers this first book, and I expect the second to cover the second one.
It’s fun to contrast this book + tv series versus another one in the same(ish) genre: The Dresden Files. That’s also a series with a “modern supernatural” theme, and was also made into a (short-lived) TV series. With Dead Until Dark, I have to say that both the book and the series are really good; I actually like the series a bit better, since I love the actors, visuals and general “look and feel” there… and I’m a fan of Alan Ball (the series creator, also responsible for Six Feet Under). There are differences; some characters and subplots are slightly different between the book and the series. The series has a bit more subplots going on, but that’s only natural since it’s 12 episodes which cover the plot of one not-too-thick book. Still, both stories are the same, and the general feel is the same in both.
Contrast to Dresden Files. There I also started reading the books after first seeing the series – but the quality levels are vastly different. I’m now a big fan of the books… but the series was (at best) mediocre. It skipped much cool stuff (Susan, Harry’s no-technology house, the Blue Beetle, Bob the Skull as written in the books), and substituted it with lots of “safe for TV audiences” crap. In other words, the series erased most of the gritty and unusual stuff from the books, and absolutely failed to take any risks whatsoever. And it failed, resoundingly, getting canceled after one season. It’s not absolutely horrible… but it was extremely mediocre, and nothing much like the Dresden Files books (which rock).
True Blood is a lot of things, but safe it’s not. It’s an HBO series, so they can push the envelope with sex and taboo subjects much further than mainstream TV can. And hey, Alan Ball is no stranger to TV controversy, Six Feet Under was also very far in the “not safe for general TV audiences” direction. And that’s also why True Blood works, and is a worthy adaptation of this book.
So far I’ve mostly contrasted books versus their TV adaptations. So what about the book itself? Well, it’s fairly well written, and the main character (Sookie Stackhouse) is fun. Sookie is a waitress in a Southern small-town bar, and is burdened with a “condition”: she can read minds. Far from being a “cool superpower”, this has turned her life to hell. Sex and romance has been impossible (knowing what the guy is really thinking all the time is a cold shower), and she’s generally gotten a “weirdo” stamp. However, she’s no angsty teenager, and has more or less come to terms with her unusual life.
Now, in this world vampires have recently “come out of the coffin”, made themselves public and gotten official recognition as people. They are still objects of mystery and sometimes lust (their blood is somewhat addictive), but they do now and then circulate among normal humans. They are a new weird minority.
The book begins when an honest, real vampire walks into the bar where Sookie works… and she discovers that she can’t read his mind. Stuff happens, and soon Sookie is in the middle of a murder spree, romance and other good stuff.
This is no Twilight (this book predates the whole current “vampire” craze by almost a decade). The main characters are adults instead of mopy teens, the writing is decent, and the vampires here are actually dangerous creatures instead of safe, teen-girl infatuation targets. Sookie would kick Bella’s useless bitchy ass in a minute.
The story veers dangerously close to “romance novel” territory at times, but the author usually manages to steer the story in non-stereotype directions. There are fun surprises and side characters, Sookie is an interesting and personable main character, and the deep Southern small-town vibe works nicely. I’ll probably read the other books too… but I’ll also probably wait to see the TV version first.
Minireview: Spirit Slayers (Hunter: the Vigil)
Spirit Slayers is the last of the support books for Hunter: the Vigil. Despite the somewhat confusing name, this is (mostly) a book about werewolves, and mostly as antagonists. The title comes form the fact that in the new Werewolf game, werewolves and spirits have a very symbiotic and also somewhat antagonistic relationship. This book attempts to present both werewolves and spirits, and the role of hunters as “spirit slayers”. This duality, while an understandable design decision, somewhat dilutes the book.
It’s not a bad book by any means; the material on werewolves is quite solid and presents them as primal beasts who also have a very human side, and therefore have the potential to also be allies… or at least neutrals. The book follows the same format as the others; we’re given some historical explanations for what werewolves are, so the GM can tailor his/her werewolves as “something a bit different”. Then there are some new Compacts and a new Conspiracy. None of those are really brilliant, but all are quite ok. The Conspiracy, “Les Mysteres”, is perhaps the most interesting, as it presents a disparate group of people who have a tight bond with spirits (much in the Voodoo/Loa direction but not limited to that).
The rest of the book contains simplified rules for werewolves and spirits… and here the fact that the book tries to cover two aspects becomes a small problem. The werewolf rules seem ok, though they are very compact… but that leaves precious little room for rules on spirits. Since spirits in the new WoD can be quite complex entities, this makes the ultra-simplified rules here not worth much. In practice, a GM will probably need at least The Book of Spirits to make sense of things.
The end has the usual GM advice on how to these critters in a game.
While perhaps the weakest of the Hunter support books, that’s purely because it tries to cover a bit too much ground. The writing here is excellent and the ideas presented mostly interesting.
As a whole, the new Hunter game like is very good. It does what most people expected the first Hunter to do, and it does it well and with style. If you’re looking for a monster-hunting game, you’ll want to take a good long look at this one. I can’t find much to criticize in it as a game line (other than it’s a bit short, a book or two extra would not have hurt).
Minireview: Second Edition Technical Manual - Terranovan Technology (Heavy Gear)
The 2nd edition Technical Manual is one of those near-must-have books if you’re running a Heavy Gear game. Far from being just an equipment list, it’s a compendium of the technological and scientific methods generally used on Terra Nova. The detail level here is incredible, the book goes into miniscule detail on many levels of arms, armor and general tech construction. Sure, you don’t absolutely need all this in a game – but it provides a great extra level of realism if you can actually describe some of the materials and technologies used.
The book starts with basic materials and construction info, and goes on to detail and list actual equipment, with side treks into various sub-areas as needed. This book doesn’t contain lists of gears; there are other books for that. This details pretty much everything else, from guns to communication equipment. The back of the book does contain a very detailed schematic of an example gear (a variant of the popular Hunter model), with cutaway views, pictures of the control joysticks, etc. I don’t remember seeing this stuff in the previous books; it’s really nice to have pictures to show to the players about how a gear is actually piloted and how a pilot fits into one.
The second half of the book contains the “Vehicle Construction System”, a mechanic for constructing pretty much any custom vehicle you want into your game. It looks medium-complex, but not too bad. Great stuff if you want to keep track of Threat Levels, and/or figure out how much something might cost and how difficult it might be to build.
A pretty awesome book, all in all, if you want to bring some extra level of technical detail into your Heavy Gear game or if you want to design some custom vehicles with full game stats. This is also a useful book for players of the miniatures game: all the various weapons and armor options are described here (with nice pictures), and that aforesaid cutaway view of a gear is nice extra detail.
Minireview: Masks of the Living God (Pathfinder)
Masks of the Living God (by Jason Bulmahn) is the second part of a new Pathfinder adventure trilogy which began with Crypt of the Everflame. I really liked that module and thought that it was an excellent 1st level starter adventure… and I’m happy to report that this “part two” keeps up the good work.
Here the PCs follow the clues about a new somewhat menacing religion centered around a “Living God” (clues found in the previous adventure), and find that the nearby city of Tamran houses a chapter of that cult. Here it’s assumed that the PCs will try to infiltrate the cult, posing as new recruits – but enough info is given here to fuel a more straightforward assault too (or a sneaky thief-style approach). Since the default is infiltration, a lot of good info is given here about NPCs and the normal operating procedures of the cult.
I always appreciate adventures which are something other than just “see-monster-kill-monster”, so this one gets high marks from me. The straightforward violence option would probably result in a total party kill anyway; both because they’d be fighting a full cult, and because the authorities (such as they are) would probably look very dimly on an armed assault on a (supposedly peaceful) religious cult in the middle of town. While infiltration is probably the most fun option, I can see a sneaky spy approach working pretty well too. The cult headquarters is well mapped out, and the key NPC personalities should help in fleshing out the place.
The adventure provides clues which lead on to the next and last part, the upcoming City of Golden Death. Based on the high quality of these two first installments, I have high hopes for that one. Regardless of that, these two should provide a very nice kickoff to a Pathfinder campaign, should you need that.
Minireview: The Infernal Syndrome (Pathfinder #28)
With The Infernal Syndrome, Paizo’s Council of Thieves adventure path moves into its second half. Written by Clinton Boomer and James Jacobs, the basic idea here is pretty fun: an ancient mansion in the city has been powered by an imprisoned devil, and the mechanism in charge of that is slowly breaking down with bad consequences for the city around it. Unfortunately, like the previous installment in this adventure path, this too ends up being one big dungeon crawl. It’s not a bad one, but still… one of the major points of this adventure path was supposed to have been the city setting. Even though the first parts used that to good effect, these middle ones could pretty much have been set anywhere. The city is supposed to slowly be sinking into anarchy, but here that’s only on the “tell, don’t show” level. Sure, the GM can add stuff to make that point, but… Curse of the Crimson Throne did that sort of thing much better, there the city really did feel like it was at the verge of collapse.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t bad, and the city around the mansion(s) does figure into things; it’s just seriously underused as a setting element. There’s more combat here than I’d like, but that’s a standard complaint I have about almost all “D&D”-style pregen adventures. It’s natural, these games are mostly fantasy combat simulators… but still. It gets a bit old.
To the writers’ credit, many of the encounters here can be solved by other means (than combat, that is), and some of the encounters are quite interesting. It’s an ok adventure module, but fails to really be anything special.
Minireview: White Night, by Jim Butcher
Another installment of “Harry has a bad day (or three)”. White Night is the ninth book in the Dresden Files series, and it continues to uphold the “high-quality entertainment” label. I swear, they must dust some crack cocaine on the paper during the printing process, nothing else explains the sheer addictiveness of these things.
This time round, it’s a spate of murders (made to look like suicides), apparently targeting the Chicago supernatural community’s low end of the power scale. After one more low-power mage gets killed, Murphy pulls Harry into the mess – this time unofficially, since officially the cases are clear-cut suicides. Initially puzzled by the whole thing, Harry slowly uncovers clues. Unfortunately, all the clues seem to point towards his vampiric White Court brother, Thomas…
Well, of course things aren’t that simple. The stakes mount, and the end is explosive (to say the least). The power level is generally high here; Harry is now a Warden and is starting to be in the heavyweight leagues of the supernatural community. This of course reflects in the enemies he attracts. We find out some new things about Mouse the Temple Dog, and Molly is starting to grow up and test her limits (not always with the greatest of success).
What can I say… another good book in the Dresden Files series. Sure, it’s pure entertainment, but it’s well-written and keeps up the pace nicely. Now and then, “just entertainment” is just the thing you need.
