"Meet me in the back of the Iron Minstrel two hours before dusk. We have a special assignment for you."
"The Periapt of Famidon" is the second module in Wyverns Claw Designs Thievery 101 series after "Joining the Watchers". They are unique in that these modules are specifically geared towards being run with a single character in a solo adventure. The Thievery series focuses specifically on the rogue class.
The Premise:
This adventure covers a young rogue's first job for his thieves guild. Most of the time, this important event in a rogue's career is glossed over in emphasis of the adventuring party's goals. However, Thievery 101 details the events of a young rogue's career before they joined a group that can be done outside of normal game time to flush out the rogues character especially if they happen to be of a more criminal bent.
What Ya Get:
Thievery 101 is available as a eighteen page Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file. You'll want to have a fast internet connection or a good chunk of time that you can tie your computer up with though if you want the "High Quality" version. You have the option of lower filesizes and I suspect that the level of compression has been increased. The files are zip-compressed so you will need a program such as WinZip to open them.
Cost:
Thievery 101: Joining the Watchers will set you back a cool $2.95 USD. Payment is made via PayPal so you will need an account set up with that service before you can purchase it.
Appearance:
The adventure is professional quality work right up there with WotC and any other commercial company products. Text is arranged in two columns per page with the standard grey boxes denoting in-game narration. Sidebars are included for additional information for the GM and they are easily read. There is, however, some minor typographical errors but nothing that detracts from the adventure itself. Thievery is fully illustrated in black & white with a color cover this time and all the artwork within surpasses the quality of the art from the first module which was extremely good to begin with. The choice for a cover image was excellent as it is not only nice to look at but can be used as a visual aid during the adventure to show what the periapt looks like.
The Adventure:
SPOILER WARNING: I will be discussing the plot of the adventure in this review. I am going to try to remain vague about some of it as to not completely ruin everything. If you are planning on playing in this adventure or have reason to believe that your GM will be running it, you may want to stop reading now. Nobody likes to have their fun spoiled (most people don't anyway).
The Periapt of Famidon picks up after the events in Joining the Watchers as the player is contacted by their Eye for their first assignment. They must retrieve the periapt from a local moneylender named Felipe Hurnst who has an interest in ancient items. Their job is to get into the well secured building and find the periapt and return it to the Eye. Unknown to the player, however, is the evil history of the building that even Felipe is not aware of. To compound issues even more, the plotting of the rival faction in Kingsreach has started to make the guildmaster suspicious of a leak within the Watchers. If the player is successful in recovering the periapt, the politics of the Watchers will become far more dangerous.
Wyverns Claw has done two things extremely well with this adventure that I appreciate. The first is the obvious attention to detail that they give Felipe, his family and their shop. Even if you don't intend on using the adventure, this provides you with a fully detailed moneylending shop with fleshed out NPCs that can be used in any setting. The second is the pacing of the plot. The Periapt of Famidon is a pretty straightforward adventure with a few twists to keep it interesting, but the true interest is in tying the results of the adventure into the overall metaplot of the powerplay within Kingsreach. Even though players won't know, their actions are having an impact on the overall action. I strongly suspect that the player will become far more aware of these political maneuverings as they progress through the next three modules in the series.
Also amusing will be the player who expects a reward for carrying out the assignment. What they will gain, however, is far more valuable than treasure. They will gain a promise of more important assignments as well as a healthy dose of respect from their Eye. I, for one, encourage this type of rewards because I've seen far too many games ruined because the rogue/thief was only in it for mercenary reasons that often put them at odds with the other players.
Overall Impression:
This is easily worth the $2.95 that they're asking for this product. One thing I like about Wyverns Claw's approach is that their adventures tend to focus more on characters rather than the group-oriented "el-cheapo" adventures from other companies. While this does limit their usefulness to a single player, the benefits that can be gained from establishing some of the nuances and atmosphere of the world before the players join as a group can be very beneficial in immersing the players into the world you've created for them to play in. This is a wonderful product and I'm very much looking forward to the final three modules in the Thievery 101 series.
MetalMan signing off.
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