Smoo

Always on your day off is a pretty short scenario from a newcomer designer. This has been encouraged in the community; making your first scenario a short one that is. Anyways, Aoydo (um... is the capitalization in the title intentional or is it a typo?) is a charming little scenario that proclaims to be for parties in the level range of 1 to 100. Huh, let's see how that works out.

 

Oh, the scenario completely wrecks my party. Why? It is not really a story-driven scenario. It does not matter who the PCs are. Anyway, the story begins one morning when a strange man has suddenly materialized into your home. He offers you a job. Apparently a distant retreat for writers is being plagued by ice goblins. Since the NPCs consists mostly of these eccentric writers their dialogue is very, very sparse if somewhat humorous. Nonetheless, after walking amongst these strange mumblers all I could think of was: "Why am I even helping these people. I am getting paid, right?" And speaking of dialogue the messenger's (the strange man I mentioned) dialogue does not change at all. You can ask him who he is about a hundred times and nothing will change. Not a big deal, but also not hard to fix.

 

The actual gameplay consists of killing the denizens of the two hostile dungeons: The ice goblins' cave, which are not that hard to deal with, and a hilarious bonus dungeon. It is inhabited by feral what!? Then there is also a hidden location you must discover in order to actually beat the scenario... No wait, no matter what you do you cannot win this scenario. Maybe that's why my party needed to be retooled.

 

To make a long story short, Aoydo is a fun little scenario, but it does not have any substantial content in it to justify a rating higher than:

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

Eh, what is there to say about Out of Sight]? It is short, but well-made. That pretty much says it all. There is maybe fifteen minutes of playtime, assuming you do not have to reload that much. Much like in Thralni's scenario HIM, the story begins with the player falling down into a dark forbidding place of doom. So the player must get back to civilization and that is the whole story.

 

Of course the player must face obstacles in order to get to his/her goal. Actually it is more like an obstacle... Two times. The obstacle being a horrendously dangerous monster from... I was not really paying attention. It does not matter where the monster came from. It is there and it wants to kill you. That is all you need to know. As for the actual fights: they are not that hard. The monster does pack quite a punch and it has multiple attacks, but it is alone and should not be too difficult to deal with... Unless you are alone too, and unless your singleton is not much of a fighter.

 

Moving on, there are six zones for you to explore and, surprisingly, there is an adequate amount of places to explore. However, what you will find is, mainly, herbs. But since there are no outdoors, spell casters do not replenish their spell points at all, so the herbs do come in handy. But then again, there are only the two fights and one of them is right at the end, so spell points should not be a problem. Maybe the herbs could be used to replenish the spell points that players would squander on casting "Light." Wait a minute...

 

Nikki, why did you remove the "Light" spell? "For atmospheric reasons?" If you wanted to make use of atmospheric lighting why not simply make the areas "always dark" using the editor? Oh wait, you did that too. Yet you did not take away my torches and such. Whatever.

 

Bottom line: OoS is well-made, but too short to merit anything higher than:

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

Gluckluck is another insanely silly scenario from Enraged Slith. The story begins with... I got thrown into Avernum for being ugly? Awww. Now I am totally bummed. Anyway, the scenario is set in Avernum and the player must first escape from a troglodyte prison and then... Wait, what? How did? Okay, the plot makes no sense, even less so than in Slith's previous scenario, Kill Them Dead. Personally, I liked the insanity.

 

Even though, the plot is ludicrous beyond belief, the scenario's other aspects are solid. The combat is appropriate for the level range, it even had a couple of retreating fights against a massive number of hitpoints which I hated at first, but it was oddly satisfying when I made it through them. You gain a bunch of levels. There is enough loot, especially the unique kind, to satiate my hoarding need. As a downside, the scenario is pretty short, but what else is new? Regardless, Gluckluck did not feel that short and maybe if it would have been longer it would have outstayed its welcome.

 

Even though I liked it, I must emphasize that if the humor of the scenario does not suit your tastes, you probably will not like Gluckluck as much as I did. If you have not cracked a smile in the first few minutes then this is not the scenario for you. However, what turned Gluckluck from average to good in my books was the appearance of the bat familiar. It was... You just have to see it.

 

The ending, like every plot element, comes out of nowhere. I think I might have been angry with how abrupt it was if not for the awesome pictures accompanying the final sequence. To sum up, Gluckluck is short, but fun.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

Ah, now here is a sequel that did not need to be made. Who really wanted to see the return of the Smileys? Nonetheless, since the scenario is here I might as well try to look at it objectively and not be a big poopoo head.

 

TTFUD2's biggest flaw smacks you right across face once you enter the scenario: lack of polish (typos in the intro. Maybe this was fixed?) and lack of content. The outdoors consist of two outdoor sections which are weirdly rectangular in shape. Seriously, that is an odd shape for a valley. The outdoors are also pretty empty, you get two encounters of fauna (Yay! I saved the sheep!) and two of the local bad guys. What do you get for hunting down these enemies? Nothing.

 

Actually, the bad guys in the outdoors are leftovers from the prequel, since the bad guys in this scenario are... As a matter of fact it is not that clear. You can side two factions, The Empire and the Smileys. Both of them basically just say: go kill the other guys. Why? I honestly did not care and saw no reason why I should have. So I just sided with the Empire since I started out on their side and King Smiley failed to motivate me. Seriously, he could have at least said something like "All we want to do is frolic around in happiness", instead of the lame "Yup, the Empire wants to kill us, so go kill them!" line I got. Can't we all just get along?

 

To add to the mediocrity I found no shops, no loot nor did gain any levels (at least I think I didn't). Much like TTFUD this scenario is also very short. On the other hand the Easter egg dungeon added a little flavor to the mix and I guess I am still sort of amused by the whole smiley/frownie thing, but that is not enough. It is better than the prequel, but just barely.

 

Rating: [rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

 

No wait! I sided with the Empire because there were glowing pentagrams in King Smiley's throne room! Clearly the blob is evil!

Actually, it might be a little bit of both. You see, that special spell thingy only activates when Lord of Wargs is trying to flee to the room with the healing pool and someone is blocking his way. I only now realized that that "someone" might be the soldiers with the player or even other enemies. I may have to do something about that.

What level are your people now by the way? You always use the same party, right? Just curious since I'd figure they'd be well beyond Mad Ambition's level range.

Blades of Rogue was the roguelike scenario. You can find it at The Database and it's in TrueSite. I suppose you could also find it at Niemand's site...

No, they work. I have used them before. The documentation is a bit unclear, though.

 

From the Appendix:

 

short friends_nearby(short range) - This can only be called in a creature’s script. Returns the number of characters within range spaces that the character can see and which are friendly towards the creature in question.

 

Boldness is my clarification. The same thing applies to enemies_nearby too, naturally.

Twilight Valley was one of the three scenarios that don't have combat in them and which were released around the same time. Because this "time" happened to be the second 1/10 contest, Twilight Valley is not the lengthiest of scenarios. However, it is (still!) Nikki's longest scenario. Some feat that is.

 

Nikki was aiming for pretty when he was designing TV and he succeeded. The towns and the outdoor section are pleasing to the eye. Custom graphics are used in all sorts of tiny places like in new lamps and trees. The custom graphics for NPCs aren't as successful. The villain looks more sissy than menacing, the Geneforged woman didn't quite fit in and Roxy is a green-haired anime woman. *Shudder*

 

Nikki fancies himself a writer and it shows. The dialog and descriptive texts are all well-crafted. There's a nice balance of drama and some humor.

Nonetheless, the plot is rather interesting and I actually enjoyed finding out what's going to happen next. I just wish next time Nikki will cut the length of the cut scenes a bit. Especially the one with Tovas' diary was too long.

 

So TV doesn't have any combat. Is that a handicap? I say no. It's a story scenario and an entertaining one at that. However, because of the lack of combat and lack of puzzles the player doesn't really do much. There's only the dialog and moving from point A to point B.

 

Fortunately, that is enough for this scenario.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

I'll just go ahead and split this review in sections for each separate tale. Right after I say something about the frame story: (the player is bard on his way to a hard to please nobleman) Twas nice. I liked the Frostbite reference and the fact that the player's party of four is destroyed at the beginning of the scenario and then reconstructed in the end. I didn't know you could do that.

 

Knight's Tale: My favorite. You play a knight of a monastic order on a quest for revenge... well sorta. I liked the narration and the hopelessness of the ending. Sure the combat wasn't very hard, but the Knight is "THE MAN" while his enemies are "the not." Also, it felt like there was more to do in this tale than some of the others.

 

Merchant's Tale: Also pretty swell. You play a merchant (or more like a courier) delivering certain merchandise to shady characters, but unfortunately nothing goes as planned. The trick here is that the combat is basically unarmed combat all the way. I say basically because the player is given a weapon of sorts.

 

Bounty Hunter's Tale: Meh, didn't much care for this one. It might be that I have something against playing a morally ambiguous character, you know, if it's forced. The bounty hunter is a right idiot. He basically

 

 

 

 

and then blames it on a rich man's greed. Plus the ending was really anti-climactic.

 

Prisoner's Tale: Least favorite tale right here. The story was kind of compelling, I suppose, but it felt detached from the other four tales. I would have preferred Sly's Tale. In addition to the detachment there's the fact that the player doesn't really do anything: You read a wall of text. Press enter. Read another wall of text. Take a step. Read text. And so forth.

 

Priestess' Tale: Alright, I guess. Priestess in a monastery. Something baaaaad happens. She copes. Minimal fighting. I think it might be just one and you're supposed to lose, but you totally end up kicking the guy's backside. Similar problem with not enough to do as in Prisoner's Tale but not as bad here.

 

After playing Knight's and Merchant's tales I was ready to say this was one of the "best" scenarios out there, but the tales of the Bounty hunter and Prisoner were a slight disappointments so:

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

 

And since the level range for the Tales is 1-1 the souvenirs are way overpowered. Ouch!

For the record Ephesos: I don't think you can hit on any of the women in The Staff (Slack's latest scenario). Anyway, on to the review.

 

First I'd like to mention that if I had played Wizardry 1 I would probably like Proving Grounds more. Since I have not, I can only say that these types of games simply do not work in the BoA engine.

 

Since I know what kind of game Wizardry is, I will accept the dungeons for what they are: boring and repetitive. Looking for secret doors all the time is not fun either. Since PG is a combat oriented scenario my party gained about ten levels. I think the author should visit the Louvre (Blades Forge?) and at least change the graphics for the weretiger. And the "giant toad" dropped a slith spear. Paying for training was a nice idea.

 

The thief script was okay. Otherwise I didn't see any flashy tricks.

 

Combat is boring and repetitive. I'm not really a fan of the BoA-style combat to begin with. The fights were mostly easy. In the end some of the dragons and spell casters blasted my fighters to smithereens, though. If I really want to say something positive, I got plenty lot of healing potions out of all this.

 

Oh, and the boss fight was too easy. The baddies could not leave the room, so I hasted my fighters and blasted the enemy full of arrows and retreated out of sight. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

I should not even bother talking about plot or characters. If you've played Cresent Valley (sic) you know what kind of characters the author can conjure. He does not reinvent himself in this one.

 

I don't know why I rambled on this much since the scenario is not worth wasting your breath on. Play it only if you like killing zounds of enemies, I don't so:

 

Rating: [rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

 

(Now if this would have been a well made Eye of the Beholder remake I would have praised it like mad.)

I generally don't like stealth/sneaking games (which is why others seems to think better of this scenario than me), but it was nice to see how Niemand rigged the engine to suit the needs of a stealth game. For example: if someone sees you picking locks they'll get mad, when you kill a bandit he leaves behind a beautiful corpse and when you attack someone who isn't hostile the rest of the town won't telepathically know about. This in itself is pretty awesome.

 

That's about it in terms of pros. Downsides in A Visit to the Madhouse include the plot, which isn't exactly bad, but it really is just an excuse for a stealth mission. The outdoors were also a bit too big and empty. At first I thought they were completely empty, but then I ran into some kobolds, but that is not good enough; twenty-four hour designing time or not!

 

Technical tricks aside, AVttM isn't anything special, but it is worth a play-through.

 

Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

 

Oh, and it's set in Avernum. That's always a plus.

The outdoors and towns look really pretty with the trees and all. I especially liked the town in the massive tree. I couldn't find any bugs with the version I was playing which, for the record, was one of the early version. I think the dragon was still Klortis (or something).

 

The combat wasn't all that interesting and personally I didn't like how Ephesos handled the showdown with Kharpev.

 

 

 

 

Plot wasn't all that intriguing for me. For one thing it seems that when things finally start happening the scenario ends. Curse you sequel hook! Another thing, there is a valley of druids not in the Empire's iron grip? How did they pull that one off? Order of the Flame (the enemy) felt stupid from day one. There's something about a horde of vicious lizards that got me thinking: Huh? I mean, were they controlled by the dragon or are they just naturally intelligent?

 

Oakleaf was nice enough although I don't get how the other druids think so little of him. The villain is a crazy dragon (or is it a drake lord?). What is it with crazy dragons? There's the one in Bahssikava and now this? Dialogue was nicely written, although I would have hoped more pointless random talk with locals... I always do.

 

Druids of Krell is definitely worth a look. I just hope the sequel Ephesos is going on about does not include the fantastic rise of Kharpev the dragon. Actually, I hope he would just make the sequel; or maybe the story works better this way.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

For the record, I loved Frostbite when I first played it, but I have not played it a second time. Maybe that says something about the scenario. Anyways...

 

The intro alone had me captivated: This is going to be good. I am always glad when I am right. Be it the snow or the use of height but there's just something hauntingly beautiful about the scenery which Frostbite provides. I can't really say that I went "meh" at all. Even the goblin caves were interesting.

 

Be warned that Frostbite forces the player to use a singleton. If the scenario is entered with a party that has more than one character, the rest are erased. The player should also use the "Prefabricate party" special ability so that the combat is rightly balanced. Although I must confess that I did not use that ability. Ahem.

 

Speaking of the combat: Yes, it is hard. Like in Dilecia I chose to quit playing for close to a week on several places because I was frustrated about the combat. But there's nothing more rewarding than FINALLY beating a battle after the umpteenth attempt. If there's one thing that truly bugged me about the combat is that at the beginning the fights consist mostly of, what I like to call, "Now-the-enemies-are-suddenly-all-around-you" - fights. There is really no way to be prepared other than loading a previous save game and trying again, this time knowing when the enemy will appear. In the final fight against the banshees Lazarus felt that it was necessary to point out that I was surrounded by the baddies, but seriously: when wasn't I surrounded?

 

That final banshee fight taught me one thing: the new alchemy system is my friend. While some potions are indeed quite useless, the rest can be real life savers in certain situations. The scarceness of some of the ingredients makes it important to figure out what potions are most useful. Overall the alchemy was very fun!

 

Even though combat is a prominent part of Frostbite, I still consider it a story-first scenario. The premise is that the player is a part of a group of soldiers/volunteers who are hunting a mythical beast on the frozen mountains. What makes Frostbite enjoyable for me is that it's a survival story. Right on the starting line the beast kills a couple of the group members, in fact the player never even sees them. After that scene I was a little concerned: will Lazarus kill enough party members to satisfy my need of slaughter?

 

But slaughtering characters is boring if they're soulless, 1-dimensional dummies. Fortunately every NPC has a personality and some back story. I was actually hoping for the deaths of some while wishing others would survive. While some plot twists were unexpected and entertaining (the wake up after using Cryoprev comes to mind.), the fates of some characters was predictable.

 

 

 

While Lazarus does reveal the origin of the Beast and it is satisfying, the Beast still remains the weakest character.

 

I was going to complain about the hypothermia/fatigue system but it works reasonably well. I'll finish by saying who should NOT play Frostbite. If you absolutely hate it when you have to try a fight more than two times, you should not download Frostbite. If dying is not a problem then I wholeheartedly recommend this scenario.

 

Rating: [rating]BEST[/rating]

I have only one real problem with Witch Hunt: it does not do anything particularly well. Most parts of it are adequate and the again some parts are lacking. For example, the friendly town is functional, but the enemy town was pretty bland. The outdoor section suffered from an abundance of random outdoor encounters. Just when I had defeated an enemy group of 3 fighters and an archer, two similar groups attacked me. I'm exaggerating a bit, but not by much.

 

Overall Witch Hunt is combat heavy. It's not a problem in the bandit camp but three unavoidable preset outdoor fights are a bit too much. Because of the frequent fighting the player levels up quite a times for a scenario this small. There aren't any special tricks in the fights other than when you have to fight with your bare hands. Yes, the scenario does take your gear away, but it is meant for LEVEL ONE PARTIES, so there's no need to complain about it. Still, an in-game warning would be nice if the player enters Witch Hunt with a party whose level range is considerably higher than the recommended 1. Not everyone reads the readme, you know.

 

As for the plot; meh. A bandit problem. It works well enough and at least the villain's motives are revealed but other than that there is not much to say about the bad guys or the good guys. The final fight, while entertaining, made me scratch my head and wonder "how did she pull that one off?"

 

Witch Hunt is certainly not terrible. It's just very small and somewhat bland. It is certainly worth a look.

 

Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

 

Edit: Actually, I might be remembering it wrong, but do later versions of the scenario still take away and destroy your equipment?

Darkness is a scenario designed in twenty-four hours for the first Twenty-Four hour contest.

 

For a 24-hour scenario, Darkness is surprisingly long. I for one was surprised when it kept on going after the second level. As an aside, for a scenario designed by Ephesos, Darkness is not stunningly beautiful. But ugly it ain't either. It's just Avernum and Avernum isn't supposed to be beautiful. Still, I am certain that with a little more polish Darkness could have looked better.

 

What I liked: There was a nature lore check: it's always nice when a designer bothers to make something like that. I liked how the Chitrach cave was only partially lit. It was also nice how the chitrachs avoided my party. The final fight had some interesting tricks. The dark mist was also pretty neat.

 

What I didn't care for: It seemed to me that I could not free the chitrachs that were held captive. The big bad was kind of cliché. My biggest complaint is that my party, whose level was within the level range, did not gain a level while playing Darkness. Unless a scenario is a "story only" scenario then I feel that I should gain at least one level.

 

Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

Avatar has a few problems: 1) The combat is boring, but there's a reason why it's boring: the player is a nigh-unstoppable paladin and his enemies are mere serfs with pitchforks. The justification does not remove the problem of boring combat, though. 2) The narrative with its GOD!!! and HIM!!! and all the POINTS!!! it's trying to make. I thought it was a bit too much. 3) The scenario is too short to make me care about or even understand the paladin's (Player Character) point of view.

 

On the plus side, Avatar has a stylish cap and a very stylish cap. These two items, as far as I can tell, are absolutely pointless. There is that and the fact that the designer is TM who always makes his scenario visually pleasing.

 

Overall, I did not really like Avatar, but it is not bad.

 

Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

You know, Quarhag Pass has about the same level range as Mad Ambition and It's not nearly as difficult. *nudge nudge*

 

Also, I always kill the spell caster first and as quickly as possible. So I hope you learned something from Outpost Valley... Yeah!

Actually, Magus of Cattalon is currently up to version 1.0.3. I suppose I should provide some keywords...

 

MoC: Avernum Universe, Branching Plot (Kinda), Long (At least compared to MOST scenarios out there). There should probably be some mention of the plot twist in the beginning; you know, without actually saying what kind of twist it is since that would be spoiling it. Out-of-the-blue-plot-twist? Nah...

 

Outpost Valley: 24-Hour Scenario, Avernum Universe, Combat Heavy, Dungeon Crawl, Town Only.

Kill Them Dead is just plain silly. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the player. It seems to me that Enraged Slith didn't really know what he was going for when designing it. He just made the stuff up as he went along and mostly this works just fine.

 

KTD is a small scenario. You enter a fort run buy a fat nobleman and he orders you to kill the monsters from a nearby cave dead. He does it with a nice (silly) custom image. The cave is your average two-part dungeon crawl. Well, it would be if it weren't for all the ridiculous situations that the party faces there: BEARS, ticklish ogres, weird (and somewhat annoying) bats et cetera. Some of the stuff is pretty amusing, some weird/silly and none of it is downright bad.

 

Speaking of bad, there are also the bad dude points. There are maybe a bit short of a dozen situations where the player is presented with a situation with two options: the bad dude option (in most cases the stupider option) and the um... non-bad dude option. On my first play through I wound up picking the choices that I thought would be appropriate and wound up getting only one or two bad dude points and lost all my money in the end. How was I supposed to know I was expected to aim for being a bad dude? No-one told me! Wah! I guess I'm just not cut out to being a bad dude.

 

If I want to nag about one thing it is the combat. I mean seriously, I'm not sure if I wound up playing with a party whose level range was +10 over the recommended and I still can't say I had it too easy. Easy, yes. But not too easy. And no, I don't just suck... I'm just not a bad dude. Wah!

 

Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating] (but in an insanely silly way)

 

And the Wall Ogres are way, way too weak.

Embers of Rebellion has (much like Druids of Krell) very pretty trees. The outdoor forests certainly look lush and even impassible which, I should add, is very unrealistic. The scenario also uses height in an esthetically pleasing way, especially in Fort Whatsit.

 

Some of the coding tricks used in combat were pretty neat. I am not a big fan of cut scenes and the ones in EoR were maybe a bit too long, not that they are very long.

 

The plot begins with a simple courier mission and after the delivery is done, the scenario morphs into a standard rebellion scenario. That's belittling EoR a little. The plot did keep me interested but it really adds nothing new to the basic "Them rebels sure do hate the Empire" routine. On the up side Embers had enough side quests for my taste.

 

I had a pleasant time talking to the good people of Yris. The amount of dialogue satisfied my needs and EoR had a suitable amount of humor to boot.

 

Embers doesn't have much combat actually. Until the player reaches the final dungeon with most of the fights, there won't be much blood shed if any. Two fights can be found both of which are really easy to ignore.

 

In general the combat was well balanced for the given level range. It certainly wasn't too easy but I won't go as far as to say it was difficult.

 

Overall EoR is a short scenario, although a bit longer than the newer scenarios. It shouldn't take more than an hour to finish. Still, the hour spent with the scenario is quality time with the boring parts cut out. I highly recommend.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating] Almost "best", but not quite.

HIM: The Wolf at the Door starts off where HIM number one ended; that is when spoiler is spoilered and spoiler spoiler. Seriously, do not play this scenario if you have not played the first installment of the trilogy. Yes, trilogy. I'm spinning in my grave already. I hope Thralni plans to combine the three scenarios into one when he is done with them. Anyway, HIM-1 was a nice small atmospheric adventure and HIM-2 two is even more so, on both counts it would seem.

 

We begin by wandering through some spooky woods, encountering grizzly sights while we're there, and notice that there is a town nearby. So we head on there and encounter even more grizzly sights - to be more precise the party encounters a devastated town with blood everywhere, but no bodies. So the first half of the scenario is spent pondering who or what could have destroyed the town. Eventually, the enemies show up and up to this point I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Not that the latter part is bad in any way, for example I enjoyed the church with its slightly more creative door-bashing puzzle. And I heard no custom music, since I own no Macintosh.

 

The problems started when I found the particular clue that said something about toxic gas infecting miners. I responded to that info with a chuckle and "infected" people? What is this a modern zombie story?"

 

 

 

 

But a bigger issue occurred when the enemies finally revealed themselves, the party is expected, actually outright forced, to retreat to the rooftops. But here's what happened in detail:

 

I was running towards the rooftop access when two baddies emerge from the alleys! "Oh noes", I exclaimed, and proceeded towards my goal in a straight line. Yet they caught me and started gnawing my rear guy's buttocks. "Alright", sez I. Time to fight! However, every time I kill a baddie another pops up inches from my party! I hate it when games do this! It does not make any kind of sense. There cannot possibly be an unlimited amount of enemies in town! Maybe I would have avoided this problem by entering combat mode earlier, but I did not even consider it because (I had read the Readme) I knew the combat wasn't real combat.

 

Then there is the rooftop sequence. It is an imaginative an rather well-executed sequence, but the whole energy thing is a bit silly. How long, exactly is the party going to rest? If it is no longer than a few minutes then implementing a specific rest option is completely unnecessary. If it is an hour or more than there really ought to be more severe consequences from it, apart from the hypothetical time running out. Speaking of time, apparently HIM-2 has a custom difficulty setting that shrinks/stretches the time limit of the scenario which might add to the replay value for some players.

 

My biggest complaint about HIM: TWatD is the size: like the original HIM, HIM-2 is ridiculously short. It did not bother me much in the first part, but here it slapped me across the face. Right when I thought I was getting somewhere the scenario was over. So what we have here is not exactly the beginning of the story and nowhere near the end of it. This is why I am conflicted about the score.

 

What is here is certainly good, but it is only one third of the story and thus I am unsure if it deserves to be called "good". But in the end, I suppose it does, since what little there is is certainly good enough.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

Place an entire (almost) scenario on a boat? Why, who is this crazy man with his crazy ideas? It is Ephesos, the man once knows for his hatred of undead. but surely this man would not make a scenario about undead... again.

 

Yes he would and he did a good job of it too... again. Adrift is a spooky, ghost/splatter story. The party gets marooned on a deserted island and a mysterious boat picks them up. Wackiness* ensues.

 

If there's one thing I like about Ephesos' scenarios it's the details. They're everywhere. It's also nice when a designer bothers to create alternative ways to solve the problems of the scenario. Personally, I've yet to play the scenario a second time (and still haven't), but I'm pretty sure you can kill the Helmsman (a pleasant chap by the by). Aside from him and hordes and hordes (not that many hordes) of undead monstrosities there is only one friendly character: Samantha L. Jackson... Yeah.

 

Combat was well-executed, not too hard not too easy. Magic-users need to be careful with their mana, is it mana in BoA? Energy? Anyway, there is a fight that requires some thinking: the deck-fighting. I think I managed to cheat my way through it, but hey, I had fun doing it!

 

At any rate, Adrift is a competent scenario if a bit short, but that's what we get these days. Still the player gains some levels and gets nice loot. Good show.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

 

* There is no wackiness unless you count a Snakes on a Plane reference. Haven't seen the movie, didn't care for the reference.

I think I like Aphobia more than I should, but it somehow put a goofy grin on my face for most of its duration. Aphobia's combat is challenging. Its design is flawless. However, the best part is the plot which I won't spoil at all. Playing Aphobia through only takes about fifteen minutes so it is not even a waste of time if you don't enjoy the plot. Although I have to say that the ending was a bit abrupt, but that's about the only complaint I have.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

I never registered BoE, so Roses of Reckoning was all new and exiting to me.

 

I don't like the way TM threw random googled images around in RoR. Other than that RoR is a pretty solid short scenario in terms of design. The towns were all neat and tidy.

 

My party wasn't a starter party when they entered RoR and I can't remember exactly what level they were but it was low nonetheless. I still got killed a couple of times, so I can't blame the fights for being too easy. If you hate undead don't play RoR. The baddies are 100 % undead. Nonetheless, combat is the only true selling point Ror

 

The female vampire had crazy mood swings. At one point she's remorseful and at another point she just wants to kill the player as well. The story progresses because TM forces the player to care about the fate of a widow. Couldn't this have been done any other way?

 

RoR is short and not painful to play, but it's not terribly exciting either and all players who don't want a lecture about morality should avoid RoR like the plague.

 

Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

There's comes a time when after ten minutes of game play you have to ask: what was the point? Well Bonus Army has the player playing a forced singleton in a world where the Humbas are fighting the Fumbas, or something. The player is a captain on the losing side in a fort that's under siege. Then the player is contacted by mysterious people and wackiness ensues, and by "wackiness" I mean horrible dramatic moral dilemmas, "and by horrible dramatic moral dilemmas" I mean you will have no impact on the story. The problem is that the player once again has no say in what happens. Once again TM sits the players on a roller coaster ride and hopes that they will enjoy the ride. The ride is, unfortunately, ridiculously short. I honestly didn't get anything out of it.

 

Rating: [rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]