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AE01-07 The Silvered Edge of Twilight by Ed Chivers & Will Brolley
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Daniel H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/15/2021 23:47:38

In an effort to maintain a straightforward linear adventure, I'm afraid the author makes some decisions that are not just bad adventure design but are, in a few cases, morally problematic.

Some of the bad design issues are covered in other reviews: key pieces of information happen by NPC plot dumps rather than clues for the players to figure out; the primary antagonist is teleported in and out in order to create a menacing presence, arbitrarily limiting the PC's engagement with her.

Two issues happened with my group that weren't covered in the other reviews, both with moral aspects. The first issue is that, in part 1, my players immediately decided that they weren't interested in working with the Thranish authorities, and instead sided with the Aundairian separatists. As one of my players put it, "we grew up on Star Wars, of course we're going to side with the rebels." They ditched Lukar as soon as the separatists started giving him grief, and ended up killing him when I brought him back with a couple of guards. As written, the adventure assumes that the players are going to work with the Thranish authorities, to the point that there's no way to transition the players to the second half if they act otherwise. My players never bothered to go back to the temple after getting clues pointing to the Eldeen Reaches, and I ended up using some History rolls to justify handing them the plot.

The moral aspect of this issue is that the separatists are described in highly disparaging terms: the NPCs are "thugs," and the boss fight of part 1 is with a "mob" that "is mindless with patriotic furor and will attack anyone that they meet," regardless of how the players handled the other encounters with separatists. This kind of language has been used to discredit liberation movements for centuries; most recently we saw it used (falsely) against Black Lives Matter protestors in the summer of 2020.

The second issue in my group was that, even before finding out about the Lycanthropic Purge, my players wanted to help the lycanthropes, not stop them. In response to the primary antagonist shouting "I saw you working with the agents of the Silver Flame!" my players shouted back, almost in unison, "f--- the Silver Flame!" As with the first issue, the adventure as written doesn't recognize this as a possibility. Fortunately we were playing through very slowly, and had to skip a week, so I had time to rework the plot points and boss fight in the second half.

The moral aspect of this issue is that the Lycanthropic Purge was clearly an act of genocide; not only does the adventure not acknowledge this, it actually celebrates it. Bitten lycanthropes are ordinary people suffering from a dangerous but manageable (and indeed curable) curse. Remember Oz from Buffy? In the adventure, a bitten lycanthrope is described as a "ravening monster that posed an apocalyptic threat of infection"; while the church authorities who slaughtered them "fought this civilization-ending threat" "with courage and silvered steel." The Silver Flame priest acknowledges that "not all [lycanthropes] were beset by uncontrollable savagery and bloodthirst"; but goes on to describe the forced displacement of refugees as though it were voluntary, and then describes lycanthropes as "bent on drowning civilization in blood" and "a plague." This is, quite literally, the language of any 20th century genocide you care to name: an internal, subhuman enemy who poses an existential threat to civilization unless they are completely exterminated. I can't imagine how traumatizing this would be for a player who was a survivor of genocide (or had family members killed in a genocide).

This was so objectionable that, after reading the box on the Lycanthropic Purge out loud, I stopped our session and my group spent a few minutes discussing whether or not we wanted to continue playing the adventure. I'm honestly on the fence about whether or not to flag this adventure for offensive content.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
AE01-07 The Silvered Edge of Twilight by Ed Chivers & Will Brolley
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Creator Reply:
Hi Daniel, First, thank you *so* much for taking the time to write this thoughtful, honest, and insightful review. I (Laura, current AE editor-in-chief) apologize for the delayed response; apparently we're not getting email alerts for reviews, so we just now saw your feedback this afternoon. Second, after sitting down with the adventure in light of your review, you are absolutely right about everything you mentioned. These issues are especially relevant in light of real-world events (including the very-important BLM protests) that have occurred since the adventure was published. So I 100% want to address those in any way I can. I wasn't the lead/developmental editor when this adventure was published, but I still want AE's previous releases to meet a high bar, and we've unfortunately fallen short here in the areas you mention. I took some time to work through it today and made some significant changes. I've uploaded the new PDF (it should be immediately available for download), as well as added a content warning on the product page. The new version removes several occurrences of loaded language and stereotypes, remove the assumption that the PCs will side with Thrane and allow for ditching Lukar, and shift the tone of several problematic sections. Major changes include the following: 1) added Content Warning sidebar at beginning of adventure 2) edited Lycanthropic Purge and Tensions in Thaliost sidebars for tone & lore 3) Scene 3A, Interesting Times: deemphasized combat, removed loaded language, added sidebar about turning on Lukar and siding with Aundair 4) Scene 3B, A Sticky Situation: significantly restructured encounter, give opportunity to side with separatists 5) Scene 4, The Plot Thickens: removed loaded language, made combat with Aundairian revolutionaries avoidable through stealth or social encounter 6) changed Aundairian separatist stat block names I'm very sorry that you had the experience that you did, but once again, I deeply appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns and flagging this for consideration. Best, Laura, editor-in-chief
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AE01-04 Living Legend by Will Brolley & Mark Navarre-Jones
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Daniel H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/11/2021 14:25:23

I'm running the Convergence Manifesto series with a group of experienced, mostly-Pathfinder players who were interested in trying out 5e. I appreciate the way the series has emphasized social interactions and survival rather than combat, and this episode continues that pattern. However, this episode strikes me as much weaker than the preceding episodes. The core problem is the mismatch between the Tale of Mur'taal (which is actually the Tale of Miishka) and the puzzles in the second half of the episode. The first half of the episode repeatedly stresses that the Tale has clues for solving the puzzles. But all it gives players are the names of the puzzles. This is maybe a little helpful with the first puzzle, but not with the second and third. In particular, the resolution of the Tale has nothing to do with the resolution of the episode. The puzzles themselves are also lackluster: the Thelanis flavor text box says that "narrative takes place over common sense" and "time and space are likewise not bound by practicality," but the puzzles are completely straightforward.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
AE01-04 Living Legend by Will Brolley & Mark Navarre-Jones
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Comic Book Adventures Preview #2
Publisher: Avalon Game Company
by Daniel H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/12/2015 12:35:22

I'm a little skeptical of the idea of a solo RPG (without a GM/DM), and the low quality of this preview doesn't reassure me.

The PDF includes (1) a list of contacts and informants, each with a few prerequisites and available missions; (2) a map of "Hero City"; (3) a two-page adventure; and (4) two sample characters.

The text is full of punctuation errors, erratic capitalization, and other errors. The book opens with a comma splice: "Want to play a super hero RPG, but have no one around to game with, well Avalon is here to save you from your boredom." The introduction has further problems: "If you don't not have the listed ally or contact you may not take mission from that contact. You must also meat all listed prerequisites to take on the missions listed."; "It's a new century and that's calls for a new type of hero."

The sample adventure is a generic "rescue the kidnapped rich guy" thing for a brand-new character. As a preview, this adventure doesn't make me want to check out the full game. If there were signs of an intriguing overall plot, I might be willing to overlook all the textual errors. But instead this is strike two.

Since there's no GM, the narrative of the adventure includes branch points based on PC choices or skill checks. The text is formatted as ordinary paragraphs; it would be easier to work with these branch points if they (and the points they lead to) were marked. I can imagine marginal symbols: "If your skill check was successful, go to marker A. If not, go to marker D."



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Comic Book Adventures Preview #2
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Mapping Cards - Industrial Plant
Publisher: Flynnkd Games
by Daniel H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/23/2014 13:26:06

Three pages of this PDF are divided into 9 cards. Each card has the name of a location printed on it: "Front Gate," "Work Shop 1," and so on. That's it. It would take me about the same amount of time to make this in Microsoft Word as it took to check out from RPG Now.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Mapping Cards - Industrial Plant
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Creator Reply:
And that is why it is essentially free. Plus the back cover art took me about 5 minutes which is longer than the download time. This is not a high production item, it is a simple tool, an idea that you may not have thought about. Thanks for taking the effort to look and respond, it is gratifying if not positive.
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