Before I get into the meat of this review, a few words of introduction. First of all, I should mention that the important things, to me, in an RPG adventure are plot and situations rather than mechanics and encounters (a much too frequent euphemism for "combat"). This will be readily apparent in the opinions below.
A few words may also be necessary to explain why I choose to review a French language product in English on an English-language website. The first reason, I guess, is simply that I know for a fact that the number of French speakers here is more important than is often supposed, between the French readers, the French-speaking Canadians and all the others who speak French as a foreign language. Furthermore, I’m led to believe that the "Archipels" product line may well be translated into English in the not so distant future, so this review will have even more relevance then. At this stage I should point out that I did not pay for my copy of "La Guerre des Ombres", it was sent to me for review.
Before you go any further, I have tried as hard as I could not to include spoilers, but a couple of examples are inevitable. So, if you're likely to play this module at some point in the future, do yourself a favour and don't read any further !
The product under review here is "La Guerre des Ombres" (The Shadow War), the first product released in the "Archipels" line. For those who hadn’t guessed, by the way, "Archipels" means "Archipelagos" in French. "Archipels" is a game world and there are nearly a dozen supplements out by now. This specific adventure is aimed at beginning characters of levels 1-2 and is followed by two other adventures : "L’Ombre du Héros" (Shadow of the Hero), levels 3-4 and "L’Eveil des Ombres" (The Shadows Awaken), Levels 5-6, thus weaving a larger and self-encompassed campaign.
As a first release, this adventure faced the difficult challenge of standing on its own as an adventure, of launching a longer campaign and of being an appetiser for the game world. Let’s start with this last aspect : "Archipels" as a game world. I should emphasise that I’m only talking of the game world as it appears in this supplement, not based on the rest of the product line.
First of all, "Archipels" is certainly not your run of the mill fantasy setting. It is both very original, has a distinctive flavour and is, to some extent, "pluggable" into existing campaign settings. The basic premise is that due to a long past cataclysmic war over control of a magic material called Eos, the continents fragmented into islands. Being infused with Eos, the islands started drifting on the oceans, some in regular patterns and other in unpredictable ways. This created recluse societies that have little contact with each other and are strikingly different.
Based on this scenario, the flavour of "Archipels" is dark and poetic and reminds me of some steampunk fantasy in feel without actually being steampunk per se. The actual info on the world, beyond the islands described in "La Guerre des Ombres", is very sparse apart from a short history of the Sundering ("La Césure") summed up above and a list of deities and domains. However, the feel that is conveyed is closer to the French RPGs Ecryme or Rêve de Dragon, or products like Planescape or Dying Earth RPG. It's still D&D though !
"La Guerre des Ombres" starts in Vélène, the capital city of the island of Vendrest, a maritime republic that has pioneered commerce with other islands following similar drifting patterns. The description of the locales is fairly refreshing and even humorous at times, and steers clear from the usual fantasy clichés. The game starts with a heavy atmosphere over Vendrest where several recent events have troubled the tranquillity of the island : warehouses have been burnt to the ground, inland villages have been attacked and pillaged, and many commercial vessels have been lost at sea. Everyone is on edge and rumours of war abound, although war against what or whom is not clear.
In this context, the PCs are drafted and stuck in a team (nifty way to get new characters together) sent to oversee the safety of an inland village. There they will chance upon a discovery that will get them into more trouble than they would likely want. In the course of the adventure, they will traverse the seas and explore another Island, Nemédia, to try and discover who is behind the events in Vendrest.
The overall plot , without being astounding, is above the average of published adventures, and although it could be accused of railroading at times, it features enough options in my opinion to please potential player wanderlust without making them feel too constrained. The challenges are varied and well balanced to let nearly every character concept shine at some moment or other. There is little emphasis on combat, with only two or three unavoidable fights in the whole adventure, which is certainly a good thing in a d20 product !
That’s it for the overall view. I wouldn’t want to spoil the module for anyone by giving more away. However, there are things that I can add without revealing anything significant. There are things I very much liked and things I disliked in the module, so here it goes :
First with the good stuff : this scenario strives to confront players with unusual situations, things that they likely have never faced before (as players). There are several such situations that I liked very much and would gladly steal for my own games, like a miniaturisation scene where they can only escape certain death by ingesting an Alice-like diminution elixir and, in the course of their escape, have to face an otherwise innocuous opponent that has suddenly become a serious challenge. Also, they are plagued throughout the game with the company of a stupid and irresponsible NPC who is technically their superior and can seriously aggravate a lot of situations of not kept in check.
The setting itself has some very interesting locales, in particular one of the better described matriarchal societies I have encountered in an RPG. Since the characters are likely to be male and are supposed to spy on said society, this will inevitably lead to some interesting challenges.
The few combats are given more space than is usual, not only for stats and tactics but describing options, things that could happen and ways to describe it. This can greatly help combat moving beyond dice-rolling and making them memorable. As such it is a very interesting addition to an adventure module. Finally, the last page of the module is devoted to awarding xp based on what the characters did in the various scenes, thus rewarding cleverness as well as action. I have only seen this system used in tournament modules before, but it seems to actually work well and is a welcome initiative.
Now for the not so good stuff : First of all, in trying hard to confront the characters with “new” or “different” situations, the module sometimes goes too far, seriously stretching suspension of disbelief. If I was to run this, I’d have to rewrite some scenes and situations that just don’t ring right to me. It’s hard to pinpoint very specific aspects, it’s just that I’m ill at ease with some scenes where I get the impression it’s just “too much”..
Another annoying plot device, to me, is the excessive use of Deus Ex Machina. Even though it does not necessarily come from unexpected or unbelievable angles, the characters face several situations in which they cannot hope to succeed without outside help. It’s certainly not the bulk of the adventure, but it’s a bit excessive for my tastes nonetheless.
Finally, even though I understand this to be a first part of three, it seems to me practically impossible for the PCs to understand any of what is going on "behind the scene". I’m all for keeping a lot of things hidden from the PCs, but in my experience, when they don’t get any of what’s going on, they get extremely frustrated. The problem is that even with tweaking, there are little options to help them actually understand since even the NPCs presented know or understand very little.
Overall, I’m rating this scenario a 3/5 even though it’s probably more a 3.5/5 in reality. I believe that the issues I have with this module are mostly reworkable and it has a lot of good points to outweigh these negative aspects. Also, for a first product in a new line, it’s better than most.
I haven’t mentioned production aspects since these are not as important to me as they are to others. For a thorough reviewing though, I should point out that the product is priced at 19.21 EUR (126 French Francs) for 79 B&W pages, which is a little steep in my opinion, but I’d say there are at least 8-10 game sessions in there. The text is dense, which means you do get content for money although it makes readability not as pleasant as it could have been. Finally, the artwork is decent but does not strike me as exceptionally evocative. In fact I realised while writing this review that I hadn’t really looked at most of them before hand...
Finally, I understand that this product will
be translated in English under the banner of Eden. Check it out !
