THE KEY OF DELHYREAD
I'm of the opinion that every game line should publish at least one introductory adventure, so that GMs can have some idea of how the game setting is supposed to work in practice. (Well, and because I'm a champion of the time-crunched GM.) This is doubly true for a setting like SLA Industries, which seems to start of with the premise that the characters must either become heartless bastards or else be completely and utterly screwed from the get-go, if not both. Well, this adventure shows that such is not really the case: The Operatives' every move is not so thoroughly watched that they must submit to evil or die, and they can, in fact, have some rather stimulating adventures.
But their lives really do suck.
CONTENT
In this adventure, the Operatives are on the trail of the adventure's eponymous Ebon artifact, which has been stolen from one of Mort's most prestigious museums. As you might expect, the job is far more complicated than it appears: The Ops have just stepped into a whirlwind of paranoia and double-crosses as multiple parties attempt to secure the Key for themselves at any cost. Over the course of the adventure, the Ops will have to contend with Krosstown Traffic gangsters, Darknight Industries agents, Shivers, a Brainwaster who makes his kindred look sane, a serial killer who makes the Brainwaster look sane, and a gung-ho reporter hot on the trail of the serial killer. That's not counting whatever cannibals, killer hogs, and wandering psychos the group happens to stumble across.
And all of this chaos happens on a schedule, too. At least, there's a set schedule of events that will happen, barring interference from the Ops. And the last event on that schedule involves the bad(?) guys making off with the Key. This means that the characters can't get away with wasting time on such things as endless re-tries at research and snooping, just in case they missed that hidden roll the GM made for them:
Player: "I do a Third Eye News archive search for information on the Key."
GM: "Okay. " *rolls secretly* "It takes you five hours. You don't find anything."
Player: "Okay. I try again."
Try that here, and you can kiss the cash goodbye.
The downside to this realistic approach is that if the characters do waste time, or just tenaciously follow a bad lead, the whole adventure could pass them by. Conversely, if they're really on the ball, they could wrap up the adventure before it truly gets off the ground -- by catching the first guy who has the Key, for example.
The latter is highly unlikely, however. As the author himself suggests, this is an adventure that calls for players who are quick on the uptake. And that, too, could prove to be a problem. While the adventure is open-ended, it's also unforgiving. In several places, the text points out multiple the approaches the players may take, then illustrates how all but one of them most likely will end in disaster. Of course, in a setting like this, that's entirely appropriate.
The adventure shows every sign of being well thought-out and playtested. Not only does it point out several probable ways to approach each problem along the way, but it also spends roughly 3-1/2 pages on the probable results of the adventure -- both immediate and long-term. There are plenty of ways this adventure could spin off a whole campaign, or even several campaigns.
A particularly nice touch is the detail given in describing the major players in the adventure, even ones the characters most likely will not meet. It adds an extra layer of realism, making the occurrences in this adventure feel more like a clash of diverse interests and not just a series of contrived combats.
Finally, as prone as SLA Industries seems to be to spreading important information over multiple supplements, I'm happy to report that this adventure seems completely playable with only the main rulebook. (Well, unless you use the carnivorous pig stampede that's suggested as an optional random encounter -- the stats for the pigs aren't in the main rulebook.)
STYLE
This is miles away from the torturous grammar and purple prose of the SLA Rulebook. The text has attitude, but it isn't forced. Moreover, it contains some very vivid descriptions of the appearance of Mort's Downtown areas.
The author's writing also sounds very British. This wasn't a real problem for me as an American, although I did have to make sure what a "lorrie" is.
The layout seems a little chaotic in places but is quite legible overall. The quality of the art ranges from acceptable to very good, and if some of it takes up more space than seems necessary, the content of the adventure doesn't seem to have suffered for it. I'm particularly fond of the back cover illustration, an eerily beautiful little Mort cityscape.
If there's any problem with the text, it's that the details of who's doing what to whom and when and why they're doing it are a little scattered. There is an overall timetable, but it appears before all of the players mentioned on it are described. As a result, I had to re-read several sections several times to make sense of the action.
CONCLUSION
The Key of Delhyread does exactly what it sets out to do: serve as a gritty, brutal introduction to the gritty, brutal world of SLA Industries. If you think SLA is an unplayable setting -- or just too much of an unpleasant one to enjoy -- give this adventure a look. It might change your mind.
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