|
R. Talsorian's
Race for El Dorado honed my appetite for Dream Park
products, so when The Curse of the Khalîf crossed my path, I
eagerly picked it up. My former acquaintance with the genre,
historio-mythical Arabic something, is rather sketchy, mostly childhood
memories of Hauff fairy tales, Ali Baba and the less racy Arabian Nights
stories. For reasons that don't detract from the book, The Curse of the
Khalîf doesn't help that.
Dream Park
The Curse of the Khalîf is an adventure in the Dream Park
line. For those of you who have read my review of
Race for El
Dorado, some of what follows may be a little repetitive, so skip the
next section.
You'll need the Dream Park (q.v.) rules for the game mechanics, but
there is a short section in The Curse of the Khalîf explaining
the setting: The Dream Park is a gigantic, multi-area, near-future amusement
park/TV stage. Using hologram projectors, virtual reality goggles, actors and
high-tech animated puppets, the directors can create a near-perfect simulation
of just about any adventure genre and style &emdash; fantasy, science-fiction,
whatever. Ordinary people pay to run in a Dream Park adventure (the game has
apparently been written before the advent of casting shows), which is
broadcast worldwide on TV.
So playing Dream Park is role-playing once removed, because you
don't play a character in an adventure, but a character playing a
character in an adventure. I don't have the book either, so please
look up the reviews for Dream Park in RPG.net.
The Story
The Curse of the Khalîf is just about as "railroady" as
Race for El
Dorado, but I think that's a feature, not a bug, since the story is
supposed to follow the script of some unseen semi-NPC Dream Park directors.
As with Race for
El Dorado, the freshly be-turbaned but almost un-briefed PC actors are
dropped right into the cocoa. I wonder why they have to find out that
they are supposed to be guarding the caravan raided by thugs. They could have
been told before entering the game area without any negative effects. Heck,
there is even an NPC actor who tells them if they don't react promptly
to the attack. But this is a trifling issue, because the ensuing fight is
just an introductory scene to give the PCs an opportunity to show their
prowess.
The caravan arrives at its destination, the capital city of Zalîm, next
day and the guards are dismissed. They are allowed a night on the town, which
I find rather un-dream-parky. Although they might pick up a hint or two about
the plot to come, it gives them an opportunity to draw out the adventure with
actions that don't concern it. Whatever they do, on the following day the PCs
are invited to the palace by the royal guard, because the Khalîf
needs their help: The princess, his only child, has been abducted by some evil
cult and there seems to be a traitor in the palace (ooh!), so he doesn't dare
send the military.
Needless to say, through the course of the next 22 pages the PCs get help from
a sorcerer, bust the cult headquarters, battle genies, demons and whatnot, and
finally rescue the beautiful princess, the Khalîfate and everything. I
can't elaborate on that without spoiling the fun of prospective players, since
the plot has a major twist.
The Source Material
The remaining 14 pages of the book are source material, NPC statistics, maps,
and background on the world of the Khalîfate. This is a kind of
alternate history, where Arabian fantasy is real. The Arabic empire of the
Khalîfate spans the old world from Tangiers to India and from Britain to
the Horn of Africa. To the north are barbarian hordes, in the east there is
an isolationistic Japan and unending struggle among four chinese states,
nobody cares about sub-saharan Africa, and the semi-mythical new world beyond
the great sea is out of reach. Caravans cross deserts and steppes filled with
lost cities, demons and genies battled by guards and magicians.
Surprisingly, most of the world, including the Khalîfate, is
polytheistic. William Moss doesn't mention any kind of monotheistic religion,
which, like Islam, could have unified the squabbling Arab tribes and could
have driven them to conquer most of the known world. This doesn't sit well
with me. Maybe I can't remember most of my Arabian Nights, but do they really
do without the ubiquitous reference to Allah the Merciful the Beneficient?
However, this is a small matter and easily remedied to any GM's likes.
Out of the Bottle
Despite the author's labours, the world of the Khalîfate remains rather
skeletal, in my opinion. Much more useful I find the five adventure ideas,
fleshed out in a few words, that either stand alone or constitute sequels to
the plot of The Curse of the Khalîf. This falls squarely beneath
the heading of directly helping the GM. If I may generalise from just two
adventures, this is what I would call the strongest point for buying Dream
Park material. Throughout the book, the author gives explicit and concise
advice on how to run the adventure, what to avoid or play up to, and what to
do next. True, you can compile your own notes, but this takes a lot of time
and the actual author of the adventure is much less bound to overlook
something vital. Since I'm a slob, I like my adventures to have such a kind
of genie from a bottle.
Verdict
The Curse of the Khalîf is a solid adventure, given the
peculiarities of Dream Park. If you tone down its cinematic style and
add a little realism, you can use it with just about any game system. The
setting, though, is totally Arabian Nights, and I'm not sure if the adventure
could be included in a non-Arabian-myth campaign. Production quality is good,
with the exception of the illegibly red-brown-yellow smear on the inside
covers, which easily qualifies as the worst map I've ever seen in a serious
RPG product.
|
