So, Father’s Day came and went, and what do I have to show for it? I’m learning how to make beer, that’s pretty awesome. Oh yeah, and it was Free RPG day.
The wise folks at WOTC put together an adventure for Free RPG day, called Bloodsand Arena. The release of Bloodsands Arena is a great move, since Dark Sun is coming out in August.
So, Dark Sun. The setting, as many of us know, is post-apoc D&D, where everything fantasy is turned on it ear. The world is lain waste by abuse of arcane magic, and the gods are absent, having simply left Athas (the world) to rot. In their absence, the world has become a savage desert, races have become at once both more intense and less familiar. That’s a basic primer of Dark Sun.
On to Bloodsand Arena. For a free adventure, this has a lot going for it. First, I’ll talk about what comes in the package. Then, I’ll go over the booklet itself.
The package:
Bloodsand Arena comes with six pre-generated characters on cards giving a decent spread of Dark Sun adventuring: an Elf Battlemind, a Goliath (Half-Giant) Fighter, a Human Wizard, a Human Warlock, a Mul Barbarian, and a Thri-Kreen Fighter. The cards are really great. Using the same format as the Encounters pre-gens, they’re full-color, very readable, and really great for introducing players to not just Dark Sun, but D&D itself. They also have background info, physical descriptions, and descriptive adjectives to assist in roleplaying.
Included is a full-scale double-sided battlemap so you can play it right out of the booklet. It looks good, the arena particularly, because it can readily (like any other D&D map) be used in other scenarios.
The Adventure:
First, it should be noted that you get 2 separate scenarios. What is nice is that both scenarios include multi-step skill challenges, giving a good sense on how to run and run through these kinds of encounters. The plots of these scenarios are pretty solid. They ably do their job of introducing the setting, and giving good hooks to start a campaign in Athas, so that, when the setting is fully released, you’ve already got a campaign running, and you’ve made the decision whether to deepen it with the campaign books, or move on to something more to your particular tastes. This module does what Keep on the Shadowfell did for fourth edition, except it’s a little more ‘low calorie’, and it avoids many of the pitfalls that others have written KotS fell into.
Overall:
Overall, I’m impressed by this module, especially given the price point. I really want to run this one.
I have few criticisms, and since I’m not one to complain over a free meal, I’ll keep my criticisms short. My biggest issue is that the Thri-Kreen doesn’t seem to have a daily power. I’m sure it’s just a misprint, but it’s bugging the bejesus out of me. One of his encounter powers is likely to be the missing daily; I’d just love to know which one that is.
Anyone else get the chance to check this out? What do you think?
[*NOTE* I have heard that some places were actually requiring people to buy a specified amount of product for, or were even selling this adventure. Even now, if you want this FREE adventure, expect to pay upwards of $30 for it. This is obscene to me, and so against the spirit of Free RPG Day. Remember, people, it’s FREE RPG Day, not FEE RPG day.]
BONUS! I felt so inspired reading this adventure, that I went ahead photoshopped images of all the involved characters. Most of the originals that I modified belong to WOTC, with the exceptions of the Young Merlin I used for Suldin, and the Morgan Le Fay I used for Vinara. Those belong to Ken McCracken and Marvel Comics, respectively.
*EDIT* I found the updated characters. Here they are: http://wizards.com/dnd/files/dndxp_characters.pdf
Neat review I hope to find this someday. I’m pretty new to D&D, but I really want to try Dark Sun with my friends to have an excuse to buy the books in August.
Good review. A player in my group managed to snag me a copy on FRPGD. I actually spent money in the store the week before, and the Sunday after in return for the shop owner putting it aside for me.
Unfortunately, the condition of FRPGD is that shop owners can do whatever they want with the items. They pay for them out-of-pocket, so they expect a ROI. That’s why I always try to buy something both on FRPGD and on Free Comic Book Day.
As for the mod, I’ve looked it over a little bit already. Honestly, I’m not a Dark Sun fan at all, but I really wanted the arena map. The guy who picked up the mod offered to run it for our group, so I may do that, but I’m still iffy on bothering with Dark Sun. I’m kind of seeing this as a chance to not buy a few books, though I’ll probably wind up with the monster one because I assume they’ll translate into other settings.