Thursday, December 4, 2008

Review of Rite Publishing's The Living Airship by Soren Keis Thustrup

The Living Airship
by 
Soren Keis Thustrup

Published
by

In effort to maintain full disclosure, the following review is based upon a complimentary copy of the PDF, however this was unsolicited and with no expectation of favoritism. The following is based upon unbiased opinion and review.

The Living Airship, by Soren Keis Thustrup, is an adventure for 4-6 player characters, ranging in levels from 7th to 10th, in a campaign that uses Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. Usable in any setting using the Arcana Evolved ruleset, the Living Airship is easily converted from the Diamond Throne with modest tweaks, be it for your own homebrew or Heroes of the Jade Oath, the in-development setting by Rite Publishing, under the Patronage model. For more information about Rite Publishing and their Patronage projects, visit here and here.

While the concept of the adventure is enjoyable and interesting, where Vallorians steal a faen airship, to twist to their own machinations, the designer and developer, Soren Keis Thustrup, in addition to the normal seeds and plot hooks, adds a personal touch by commenting how the adventure was in his original campaign. While it is not an in-depth walk-through, full of anecdotes, it is a nice touch that gives an interesting feel to the adventure.

In addition to the personal touch, Soren also puts the adventure in a place that seems unusual, as the player character's are seeking a hijacked airship within a far away mountain. With a title like the Living Airship, images of swashbuckling amongst the clouds, instead you are swept deep into a subterranean realm. Using the Vallorians, the reclusive, malevolent race of subterranean masters of living weapons and armor, is a nice twist on the "living" in Living Airship, as the idea of this secretive race, with a hatred for the surface, possessing living airships should scare any party.

Wrapped around the classic trope of a dungeon crawl, the Living Airship challenges the player characters to traverse the subterranean realm, overcome the unusual foes within, in a hope to recover the stolen airship before the villainous Vallorians twist the technology into their own vile means. An enjoyable romp through a classic fantasy event with a new twist, The Living Airship is a welcome adventure for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, joining the modest, yet well received, list of adventures for the system.

You can find the Living Airship here, normally listed at $9.99, the adventure is currently on sale for $6.99.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

First I wanted to thank you for the review

second might I suggest a change (this is pure grammer).

"In addition to the personal touch, Soren also puts the adventure in a place that seems unusual, as the player character's are seeking a hijacked airship within deep within a far away mountain. "

might want to remove the "within deeep"

Again thanks.

Unknown said...

First off, thanks for the grammar catch, I don't know if I was having a brain hiccup, or what, but not only did I fix that several times, but I also keep throwing in all these extra withins.

No idea why, just kept fixing it, undoing the fix, rinse and repeat.

Also, you're more than welcome for the review, it is a solid adventure, in a system that could use many more solid adventures, so thanks for creating one.