Christina Stiles

Tales of Zobeck
By Wolfgang Baur Bill Collins, Tim & Eileen Connors, Ed Greenwood, Jim Groves & Mike McArtor, Ben McFarland, Joshua Stevens, and Dan Voyce
Open Design
PDF $19.95
http://www.koboldquarterly.com/KQStore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=53

Tales of Zobeck: Adventures in the Free City is Open Design’s first Ennie-winning patron project. The book recently won a Silver for best ebook at the 2009 GenCon Ennie Awards, so Wolfgang Baur, Kobold Extraordinaire, has decided to release the project to the public. Let me just say that this in one well-deserved award, and this ebook should go to the top of your list of purchases. I haven’t written reviews in a while, and I’m still reading through the book, but I was so impressed with what I’ve read so far that I wanted to tell others about it.

As the 114-page ebook’s subtitle indicates, there are adventures within this fine tome. You get eight 3.5 adventures—well, actually, Ed Greenwood’s piece is an adventure location—for 1st- to 6th-level characters in all by such authors as Joshua Stevens, Wolfgang Baur, Ed Greenwood, Ben McFarland, and others. I’m an adventure junkie and a continuing fan of 3.5, so the purchase of this ebook was a no-brainer for me. Luckily, it delivers in spades.

Reviews of adventures are difficult to make without referencing the nature of the adventures, so some SPOILERS may be present. Don’t read any further if you are a player in a Zobeck campaign—just in case your GM wants to take advantage of this supplement.

To keep the review to a manageable size (and time—I’ve got gaming supplements and fiction of my own I should be writing, after all ), I will only be showcasing two of the adventures in this review. This is not to say that the others are not comment-worthy by any means. I’ve read five out of the eight adventures so far, and they are all good. In fact, I may eventually post about those later.

In short, I’m very pleased with my purchase, and the two scenarios I’m expanding my thoughts upon below are the ones that I would run first out of the group that I have read.

Adventure 1

“A Plague of Shadows” by Joshua Stevens is geared toward 1st-level characters. The characters find themselves in Zobeck during the height of an unusual, strength-sapping plague that is slowly killing off pockets of the city’s population. One area in particular, the Ashmill distract, is suffering the worst and has been quarantined and placed under martial law. Unfortunately, the PCs begin receiving strange dreams of doom from an imprisoned girl-child that lead them to the plague-stricken district to find answers.

The beauty of this particular adventure for me is the ominous tone it immediately strikes. As GMs, we all know long-time players can be jaded when it comes to plots like rescuing the girl and fighting off monsters to save the day. But toss in a fatal, inexplicable plague and watch that ho-hum attitude evaporate like mist. There’s nothing like an invisible threat they can’t be beaten down with a sword or spell to ramp the players up with immediate worry for their characters’ lives. Cruel but effective, I say.

But, of course, all is not as it may seem…

Other cool features that strike me about “Plague” are the cool introduction hook (the received nightmares of doom from an imprisoned girl), a fun chase scene, and a planar tie-in—I just love stuff dealing with the planes! Still, one of the best features of the adventure is the way it highlights the nature and feel of Zobeck itself. The players get real a glimpse of life (and death) in the city as they make their way through the City’s streets in the quarantined section where their investigation leads; they see the nasty side effects of mercantile disagreements in Zobeck; and they gain the chance to make some contacts with important citizens who can influence their future. Basically, I really like that the adventure encompasses all that is Zobeck. It’s a great beginning scenario to use as a campaign introduction.

I did have a few minor quibbles with the adventure, however. I was aghast at the amounts of treasure (500 to 750 gp each) offered to each 1st-level PC to recover the kidnapped girl. These amounts are fortunes for such tyros. I was expecting something more akin to 50 gp each. Additionally, there were a few DC checks on the near-impossible to impossible level (like DC 20 and 25, respectively) for new characters who would likely have a max bonus of +8 (+4 to the skill and +4 to the modifier if they were lucky enough to have an 18 in the appropriate attribute). At this level, I think DC 15s are more the standard, but that may just be my opinion. These are things any GM can change on the fly, so no big deal.

Adventure 5

In “The Madman at the Bridge” for 4th-level characters by Wolfgang Baur, the Puffing Bridge breaks down, causing problems for those needing to cross the river. To make matters worse, whatever has affected the bridge is wreaking havoc on the clockwork men who guard it. The PCs are hired to find and fix the problem.

Baur explains in a sidebar that the adventure was written as a convention scenario. For this reason, it’s more of a series of short, loose scenes that blend into each other. The PCs must face clockwork men, a firebomber, ballista-firing ogres, zombies, hell hounds, a sorcerer, and just an incredible amount of mayhem, on their way to fix the bridge. A useful sidebar helps the GM track the escalating madness in rounds.

What I like about this little scenario is that I can easily envision the fun and silliness that can ensue during play, and this is definitely an adventure that I’ll run. In fact, I can see adding it to my convention toolbox. I also think the scenario would easily adapt to other game systems. I especially LOVE that kobold pre-gens are included for the scenario. Kobolds are a fixture in my home games, and I occasionally have kobold pre-gens for convention or pick-up games myself, so this is just icing on the cake for me!

As I mentioned above, the scenario is written in loose scenes. That really is fine for a convention adventure. However, the scenes are not accompanied by any buildup information, so having read over the scenario a few times now, I still find myself wondering at the bad guy’s motivations. There’s no background section to provide this information, and the summary section is no help there, either; it only hints at scenes to come. I find myself wanting this background and wanting a little more scene buildup—more of an explanation of how the PCs get to one place from the other. It doesn’t help me that the map doesn’t have a direct numbering system connecting back to the scenes. For instance, the PCs are to fight clockworkmen who guard the bridge, which is near the water on the map, but then they are attacked by a firebomber after fighting the clockwork men. On the map, the firebomber’s building not close to the bridge where they fight (though there is a symbol for a clockwork man in front of the building), so it isn’t immediately clear to me how that scene is to take place. In short, the editor in me is crying out for more structure in this piece, while the GM in me is saying the basic foundation is there and the rest is a matter of winging it. Regardless, I’m sure this adventure would be a blast to run. It strikes me as an experience that players would continue to talk about long after the fact.

Existential Lunch

by

Christina Ashley Stiles

MONDAY

            The cafeteria is crowded at lunch hour. The line snakes around the outer glass and into the building proper. I wait patiently, moving inches at a time, until arriving at the drink spouts and ebbing myself a glass of tea. I can see Margaret from where I stand. She’s an older woman in her late fifties, with silver hair and large, fleshy arms. Her white uniform looks like a nurse’s; it fits tightly across her chest and portly waist. Her movements are fluid, not slow, as she passes orders over the counter and wishes the patrons a good day.

            I move up the line, and Margaret nods in recognition.

            “Turnip greens, carrots, and squash today,” she says, while pointing to the vegetables in their respective containers under the protective glass. When I don’t jump at her offerings, she gives me a wink. “Soup, then, right?”

I smile that she remembers my preference. She hands me my large cup, and I edge my way to the register and out the door.

TUESDAY

To my delight, macaroni is the special of the day. My stomach growls just watching the cheesy noodles slide on the plates of those ahead of me. The vegetables look pleasing as well: corn, ocra, and earthy spinach.

Soon Margaret finishes with the customer before me, and she asks me what I’d like. She stands proud behind the selections, reminding me of the primordial Venus statuettes—she a goddess of food, perhaps. She folds her arms about her middle, and stares down at me from her bifocals, and I wonder what great secret this proud, benevolent woman holds. Would it be apocalyptic like Nietzsche? Enlightening like the Buddha? There are others waiting, and I am too afraid to ask her. I point to the macaroni and spinach, and exit stage right.

WEDNESDAY

            It’s been raining. The weather has clogged my sinuses, and I feel like shit. I opt for the soup, hoping it will relieve the pressure. Margaret nods again, and I imagine we’re kindred spirits, though I the younger in search of her knowledge—whatever it is that makes her strong and active despite the mundanity of everyday life, despite time and change.

Still, we are not alone, and I cannot ask.

THURSDAY  

Margaret is not working. I find it difficult to order, as if the rules of edibility have changed. Should I order the ethical mixed vegetables and baked chicken? Or go for the aesthetic chocolate cake fix? I remain undecided. The young girl at the counter waits patiently for my answer. She doesn’t know what I want; I doubt she knows what she wants. She may not even realize the choices. Maybe her own are different, and she’ll just go to McDonald’s after her shift.

            “Soup,” I say, unconvinced it will feed my hunger. Uncertain that it ever has.

FRIDAY         

Ah! Margaret is back. We are alone at last. I smile shyly from my side of the counter, thinking that we are somehow like yin and yang, a Taoist circle separated by meat and vegetables. Margaret is the white of the circle, the enlightened, all-experiencing one—an expert at this game. I am the other half, the confused youth veiled in darkness who seeks illumination.

“What will it be today?”

Today, she says, as if it were somehow different from the one before or after it. “Margaret,” I squeak, “wh-what’s it all about—this life?”

She smiles knowingly. She slowly rotates her head downward. I follow her movements with my eyes. She looks at the veal, the turkey, the green beans, and then the rice. My nose catches the scent of each as we travel the line. Margaret extends an arm to the countertop. It is white, fleshy, and freckled with age spots—human. It rests there, listless, as I await her response from on high.

She breathes a sigh. “Maintenance,” she says finally, shattering the silence triumphantly. Her face beams. Her wrinkles rush to emphasize her green eyes. “It’s all about maintenance,” she repeats with a small laugh.

“Maintenance?” I repeat in awe, as she hands me a plate of turkey smattered with gravy. Realization washes over me.

“Ha, of course! How blind! How profound!” I utter, and then fade into subsistence.