I went shopping this weekend and came home with a copy of the new Traveller
adventure, KNightfall, by Joe Fugate, published by GDW. I thought that I
might as well put up an initial thumbnail review for those considering buying
it.
m The cinematic nugget format is still a little strange to me. It looks
like it ought to work, the main objection from me at the moment (please note:
At The Moment) is that the flow is too defined. However, I can see where the
players would not necessarily know that, or feel that they are being manip-
ulated more than usual, by the time you overlay the usual random events on
top of the skeleton of the adventure.
The background material is good...I definitely got the feel that I would
be able to describe what a planetary assault looked like with confidence,
and the "flavor" of the descriptive material was right.
SPOILER WARNING: I am about to discuss the great secret of the adventure.
If you don't want to know, abort the message here.
I realize that the secret of the ancients has been common knowledge for a
while. However, personally, I don't care for "artifact technology" games (even
though it is a subplot in my current game), and I'm not sure I like the addition
of an even more Ancient race--the Primordials, to the stew. However, that
objection aside, what was there was handled adequately. I thought the rogue
android to be a bit contrived, and I thought the reward a bit paltry, but like
the matter of the primordials, it's all taste.
Total product Rating: 6 out of 10. I'd probably still buy it if I'd read
it first.
(Still 6 out of 10 is a lot better than Shattered SHips, which I'd have to
rate as a 1.)
Rob Dean