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The snowy land of Torassia is certainly off the beaten path for most D&D veterans, both in front and behind the GM screen. Michael Tresca's "Tsar Rising" is a d20 adventure for 3rd Ed D&D that takes players on a wild ride through what amounts to the folklore and culture of 19th century Russia of all places. It's a land that is both warm-hearted and deadly cold, and those looking for some solid adventure outside of Faerun or Greyhawk would be well served to pick this up. The module is designed for an 8/9 level party, and for the most part the encounters are the kind I try to run: those that aren't too difficult IF players give proper thought to the situation and keep a cool head. The party starts in the small Torassian town of Volkov, hired to find a lost caravan. What they find is more than they bargained for as they stumble into a war of succession, a populace resisting the new Imperial monotheistic religion, an economy based chiefly on Mammoth power and a whole mess of monsters.

This would be average module except for the fact the author does a wonderful job of laying out the new land of Torassia, its culture, people, folklore, and creatures. This is NOT Icewind Dale, and it's worth giving copies of the first few pages to the players involving the history of this harsh land. GMs will especially enjoy throwing brand new monsters at the players and seeing how they react, because of this I don't recommend this module for a brand new group. If you've got a batch of veteran gamers looking for something different however, this is a nice change of pace.

The creatures themselves, such as the two-headed eagle-like Dvorlem, represent the theme of the Tsar's newly mandated monotheistic religion clashing with the polytheistic folklore of the people. The Tsar used the new religion to try to hold the land together, but the Old Gods are not amused (as gods often aren't with mortals.) This is a theme that runs throughout the module, the conflict between the Tsar's "modern ways" and the "old traditions" of the peasants. This makes for an excellent story if your players can appreciate more than just a hackfest. It's always nice to see opportunities for players to use their heads for something other than receiving axe blows. Suddenly that Gather Information skill at Rank 5 your Bard has been ITCHING to use may save the party a lot of time, for instance. Your Clerics and Paladins on the other hand will especially have to be careful...

The NPCs are a riot as well, ranging from bucolic bartenders to the Main Bad Guy. Tresca encourages the DM to whip out his or her best cheesy Russian accents to play the NPCs, and there's a great opportunity for some real hilarity here. I firmly believe a module should be as much fun for the DM as it is for the players, and this one is a winner on both sides of the screen (if you can take the puns, there's tons of them, yikes.)

I wasn't too impressed with some of the individual encounters (most are on the easy side) and especially in the middle portion of the game the adventure can bog down at points, but luckily there's a couple surprises that keep the adventure fresh. The major work is going to be in towns, and that's fine with my style of play and GMing.

As far as graphics, the visual work is pretty decent. Maps are clean and well designed, and there's plenty of opportunity to fiddle with encounters based on the group. There's also a couple major league curveballs in the adventure that will be great to throw at PCs, and overall this is a well done module, worth the $13.95. There's a pretty fair amount of material here in 60 pages, enough for a GM to snap out another adventure or two in the lands of Torassia. I'd like to see a follow-up, as there's a lot to this land and its people. Overall Tsar Rising is a worthy effort.

Tsar Rising
Tsar Rising Capsule Review by Jon Mott on 10/01/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Tsar Rising is a d20 that puts players in the snow-covered lands of Torassia as they work to discover the mystery of a missing Tsar. Monsters and magics straight out of Russian folklore give a clever and worthwhile spin to this arctic adventure. Product: Tsar Rising Author: Michael Tresca Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Monkey God Enterprises Line: d20 System Cost: $13.95 Page count: 60 Year published: 2000 ISBN: 0-9708094-5-X SKU: MKY1107 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Jon Mott on 10/01/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	The snowy land of Torassia is certainly off the beaten path for most D&D veterans, both in front and behind the GM screen. Michael Tresca's "Tsar Rising" is a d20 adventure for 3rd Ed D&D that takes players on a wild ride through what amounts to the folklore and culture of 19th century Russia of all places. It's a land that is both warm-hearted and deadly cold, and those looking for some solid adventure outside of Faerun or Greyhawk would be well served to pick this up. The module is designed for an 8/9 level party, and for the most part the encounters are the kind I try to run: those that aren't too difficult IF players give proper thought to the situation and keep a cool head. The party starts in the small Torassian town of Volkov, hired to find a lost caravan. What they find is more than they bargained for as they stumble into a war of succession, a populace resisting the new Imperial monotheistic religion, an economy based chiefly on Mammoth power and a whole mess of monsters. This would be average module except for the fact the author does a wonderful job of laying out the new land of Torassia, its culture, people, folklore, and creatures. This is NOT Icewind Dale, and it's worth giving copies of the first few pages to the players involving the history of this harsh land. GMs will especially enjoy throwing brand new monsters at the players and seeing how they react, because of this I don't recommend this module for a brand new group. If you've got a batch of veteran gamers looking for something different however, this is a nice change of pace. The creatures themselves, such as the two-headed eagle-like Dvorlem, represent the theme of the Tsar's newly mandated monotheistic religion clashing with the polytheistic folklore of the people. The Tsar used the new religion to try to hold the land together, but the Old Gods are not amused (as gods often aren't with mortals.) This is a theme that runs throughout the module, the conflict between the Tsar's "modern ways" and the "old traditions" of the peasants. This makes for an excellent story if your players can appreciate more than just a hackfest. It's always nice to see opportunities for players to use their heads for something other than receiving axe blows. Suddenly that Gather Information skill at Rank 5 your Bard has been ITCHING to use may save the party a lot of time, for instance. Your Clerics and Paladins on the other hand will especially have to be careful... The NPCs are a riot as well, ranging from bucolic bartenders to the Main Bad Guy. Tresca encourages the DM to whip out his or her best cheesy Russian accents to play the NPCs, and there's a great opportunity for some real hilarity here. I firmly believe a module should be as much fun for the DM as it is for the players, and this one is a winner on both sides of the screen (if you can take the puns, there's tons of them, yikes.) I wasn't too impressed with some of the individual encounters (most are on the easy side) and especially in the middle portion of the game the adventure can bog down at points, but luckily there's a couple surprises that keep the adventure fresh. The major work is going to be in towns, and that's fine with my style of play and GMing. As far as graphics, the visual work is pretty decent. Maps are clean and well designed, and there's plenty of opportunity to fiddle with encounters based on the group. There's also a couple major league curveballs in the adventure that will be great to throw at PCs, and overall this is a well done module, worth the $13.95. There's a pretty fair amount of material here in 60 pages, enough for a GM to snap out another adventure or two in the lands of Torassia. I'd like to see a follow-up, as there's a lot to this land and its people. Overall Tsar Rising is a worthy effort.