“The Bloody Fix” is the 2nd part of the Great City Campaign Arc published by 0One Games. It is a 60 page adventure written for 3rd level characters by Lou Agresta and Rone Barton. Since I’m reviewing an adventure and need to speak about its content, there will likely be spoilers. If you are not a GM looking for an adventure you probably shouldn’t be reading the review of an adventure.
The adventure is designed to be played alone or as a part of the Road to Revolution campaign arc. “The Great City Campaign Setting” by 0One Games is a recommended resource but not technically required. The adventure style is one of investigation and problem solving as the character try to discover who is killing Kortezian officiers in the fight clubs. The structure is open-ended with many leads on a non-linear path extended from start to finish. There are keyed events that need to occur at different points but players should not feel railroaded in this adventure. Though an investigative module, there are many opportunities for combat (both intended and player-caused) including opportunities for large-scale battles and dungeon-like exploration.
I think the things I like best about the module are the npcs and the tone. There are many interesting, quirking and despicable NPCs for the DM to run. Each is well-characterized with lots of fun details for DM’s to play with as they challenge their players. The adventure is very dark in tone, there is a undercurrent of horror, cruelty and despair that permeates the adventure.
There are a couple weaknesses with the product. First, it seems to ignore the possible ramifications of divination or enchantment magic on the investigative process (though the BBEG’s powers may help disable these problems somewhat). The second problem, I had was that I read this module first before part 1 and before the Campaign Guide, so I felt a little out of the loop in regards to city climate, tensions, and lingo. A Road to Revolution Player’s Guide or Primer, like other companies adventure paths have, would help alleviate this problem. Although, its designed for solo or campaign play, it did not posses adventure hooks tailored to the solo game, or tips for newcomers (again this could be fixed with a primer or player’s guide).
Based on the strength of this release I look forward to picking up the rest of the Road to Revolution.
