Pete Tamlyn

Went back for a reread and couldn't work out why I can't remember the adventure. Rereading its because its a bit of a meh ending to a fine series. The first two books introduced the AFF system and gave the first two parts of an adventure you could run. This adventure is really very good, exciting, a good mix of action and role-play, lots of chances for the players to free-roam. The final part of the adventure, the last third of this book, feels a bit phoned in. You could argue that by this stage the GM and the players should all be used to the game and need fewer prompts or whatnot, but because the first two-thirds of the book also felt a bit phoned in perhaps it maybe was! The problem is that the first two thirds didnt really contain anything that you couldn#t have worked out or improvised, and almost no fluff to give you a sense of the wide open world of Allansia. Then leading into a final adventure that feels rushed, well, its a bit of a let down. BUT! The final adventure has a lot of good bits. The manticore, the chance for a player to play a goblin or the DM to be able to do a goblin NPC, and the whole goblin village bits are great, and my players would probably enjoy the kind of keystone kops aspect to the Kaad guards scene. The final end game is a full scale battle leading to the big bad end boss, who is well designed in terms of crunch but pretty bland. Of course a decent or experienced GM would fill in the gaps, but this book is aimed at kids and they may need more inspiration - I would have done. So not a perfect end to a fine series, but there's enough there to make this not a complete waste of time. Not worth the price that it commonly goes for, second hand, but if you can track it down at a fair price go for it!… (meer)