UA - Short Reviews for Short Designs (SSfSD)
Harri Polsa
Hello, hello, hello, again
I've been playing these new shorties by various authors,
some are 'vanilla', some are not. Let me start this set
of reviews by saying, that I personally prefer a bit
longer designs, so my overall ratings will be somewhat
on the lower scale (so, what else is new...). I find it very
difficult to review comparing these shorties to some longies
I like. Ratings are for Mycroft's. Now, on with the show!
War Story - 6
A nice, atmospheric design. Swamp had a bit too much
fighting, and I kept running away (with solo characters,
that is my most often used tactic if it is possible). My
biggest problem was that I don't seem to like the
Planescape setting. But in this design, the setting was
not in a major role, the character duReign was, which
was a good point. I always prefer a character oriented
design over... well, almost anything else.
The ending was quite surprising, and somewhat cynical.
Me being a foolproof romantic (honestly! :)) found it
to be somewhat sad, but very fitting and believable
nevertheless.
However, the design suffers from a Guybrush
Threepwood-syndrome (blame the gaming industry for
all these 'syndromes' I come up with :D). GT-syndrome
in this case was, that duReign was telling about his
adventure to someone, this was clear, yet he died
during the adventure a few times. Giving some
additional flavour to the story, hmm? :)
Also, asking questions in the past tense in the
1st person sounds a bit silly.
Assault at Kinnia Bay - 4.5
The rating is very low, but it's mostly because this
was such a short design. What was there was well done,
and worked perfectly as a prequel (or even as the first
dungeon modules) to some possible larger design in the
future. It stands in its own, but only if considered the
'vanilla' rules. There really was nothing 'wrong' with it,
it just left me to wish for more. And comparing to these
other reviews, you might want something more from
this review. :)
the Royal Guard - 5
I expected quite a lot from this design, having said it
in this very list, that I'd love to see a 'detective' design.
This one could have been, but it wasn't, so forgive if I
sound a bit disappointed. :)
Personally, I don't like 'journal entries'. And the first
event in the game tells me to read a journal entry, so
does this affect my overall feeling? Well, not really,
the entry was well written, but oh, how well that
could have been done in the actual UA!
The actual game, then. I won't reveal anything
specific, just some general points. First, the point
James already mentioned, the 'luck' in getting the
money. This is not as bad as it may sound at first,
but if some more thought is given to the situation,
it becomes very odd. Think about it, the queen dies
if my character does not have enough money. Now
seriously, why can't I just go to the royal treasury
and grab the amount needed?
Another point is the use of 'password' event in the
end. That event type is very tricky, and it takes quite
a lot of thought to use it properly. Example, I knew
who was responsible, but I only gave the person's
-name-, not title and name. So, when I'm told, that
it does not fit, I become confused. 'Why not?', my
character asks and goes in search for more evidence.
Finding none, he peeks into the editor. Oh well...
I think the question was not needed, I already had
the evidence, so text events could have been used to
solve the situation.
And it was short! Dang. Still no long, thought
provoking detective designs...
Lost Treasure of Dah'lberg - 2
Okay, only a '2'. Okay, the designer admits this being
his first. Okay, I should be gentle to a first time
releaser. But I am not.
This reminds me of something released years ago, when
UA had taken its first shaky steps. The dungeons were
awfully simple, filled with combats and those horrible
monsters known as 'bugs'. I actually gave the '2' because
the design didn't take itself so awfully seriously, it was
somewhat funny (now doesn't that sound bad) on occasion.
In the text file, the author mentions the bug about Falandil,
saying it is only a minor bug. Playing the first time,
entering his house was basically the first thing I did (the
door was not labeled or anything). Suddenly, the guy talks
to me about things that never happened and sends me
-back- to a place I've never been in! I didn't think that
was a -minor- bug. Solving the game from that point on
was just a number of combats (though the author says
this in the text file: a hack'n slash with no hacks :D), I
don't know about their difficulty, I had my party
of 16+ level characters for this one.
So, bugs. Yes, quite a lot. Most annoying were the
'transfer modules' that threw my party into wrong
places or didn't even exist! (I could not exit the
beat-up (?) town (?!?) without editing) Some monsters
appeared in unreachable places. And the famous
'sign in yer every direction'.
My recommendation to Steve, the author, is to play
plenty of designs made by others (he admits not having
played that many, and it shows) and doing some more
playtesting, before releasing a design. I don't want to
scare you away or anything, just trying to give some
constructive criticism. :)
Blessed be,
Harri Polsa
hyp...@netti.fi