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Spires of Altdorf is the second adventure-sourcebook in the Paths of the Damned series. Included in this 96 page black and white book, is a description of the city of Altdorf as well as an adventure that pits the players against the forces of chaos.
Interior art is handled by Tony Parker and Christer Sveen. Art is fair but not the best I’ve seen from Black Industries. It’s like they have two speeds, fair and awesome. Many of the NPCs introduced in the series are done up as head shots. The city has a few illustrations, my favorite being the overview on page 4.
Layout is standard two-column format. Layout is a little tight thanks to the borders surrounding the outer edge and upper and lower parts of the page, leaving only the interior border free. Borders however, are not wasteful in terms of amount of space taken up. The font was easy to read and numerous sized headers were used to draw attention to new sections in the text.
While the book contains no index, it does have a table of contents that covers not only the city and the five chapters of the adventure, but many of the subheadings under each section. For example, while looking at chapter four, The Shadow Of Fire, you’ll see each event that happens and what possibilities are covered under those events. It starts with the Burglary and ends with the Secret Shrine.
Overall production values, readability, white space use, format, etc… strike me as average for the BI 96 page books. Part of the problem is their own formatting in other books. They have a different line that’s $5 more but is 32 pages longer and in full color. The more expensive books are more then double the size. Art seems to be better in those full color books as well. Not overpriced but not a bargain.
Altdorf is an old city of the Empire. A former powerhouse in it’s own right, it’s been reduced to being called The Great Reek. This isn’t to say that the city doesn’t still have it’s share of sights or things that players would be interested in.
First of those are the magical academies. These institutions are briefly covered here, including ways to get into them and ways to use them in the game outside of the adventurer here. Owning Realms of Sorcery would be a solid assistance here as that book has some of the same information but also contains more details, especially in regards to the history of the colleges and some of the more notable individuals each college includes.
Other important structures like the Temple of Sigmar and the Empire House, the administrative branch of the Altdorf Watch, are included.
The main thing lacking in all of these locations are detailed write-ups of the characters that patrol these locations with the description. Also missing are any maps that a GM could use with his Warhammer miniatures or even maps similar to those found in other products like Way Station Inn.
While there is an overview map of the city on page 22 with thirteen mapped locations, it’s a far cry from being a complete view of the city and the map is a far cry from being highly detailed. The good news is that it leaves a lot of room for the GM to customize and change as he wills. The bad news is that because only the first 36 pages are dedicated to the city that the depth and width of the coverage is not there and it relies instead on the GM getting the ‘feel’ of the city to the players.
In that aspect it does a fair job of providing the GM several tools. For one, there are tables that give the GM ideas on combat obstacles to throw at the players, or chance meetings for those who loved the old Runequest Cities supplement. Ideas on using local color as well as starting off adventures under adventure initiations provides the GM some more methods.
The first gaming chapter, Farewell Middenheim, follows the Ashes of Middenheim’s flaw of being very much a go here do this deal. Pretty much regardless of what the players do, they’re going to come under attack by beastmen and it’s going to put them in a situation that happens at night and force them to rely a bit on Wolfgang. One of the things as a GM I like about Spires is chapter three. Here, the players are pretty much left out in the cold in terms of being told what to do. It’s the opposite of railroading and might even paralyze players unused to having so much freedom.
Such an event is also not easy to game master. Emphasis one area too much and the players may become suspect. Don’t use another area too much and the players may pass it over. As the text notes, “Political adventures are not the easiest kind to run.”
Thankfully, there are tools for GMs. These range from visual aids like the NPC Relationship Map that shows how the NPCs are connected with one another and includes everything from contacts and acquaintances, to friends and opponents. It’s a nice mix of characters and really gives a GM the opportunity to shine if he’s comfortable playing out different roles.
One of the best things about it is that there is more than one way to “win” although some methods will result in better endings for the characters than others. This allows the players to complete their mission without having to follow only one path.
In addition to the role playing opportunities, chapter four presents opportunities for the players to do some investigation as they suffer a burglary and must find out not only whose done it, but why.
For those who want more combat in their games, chapter five describes Carlott Selzberg’s efforts to kill the players. This involves some battling against chaos demons of minor power as well as mutants.
The book does include a few handouts and pregenerated characters. The pregenerated characters come two to a page and each have the traditional format for Warhammer characters and even have little check marks to show where advances have been taken. Recommended experience points are listed on a chapter by chapter basis.
While not an inexpensive adventure, Spires of Altdorf allows the GM to take his players through different turns and allows a wide mixture of role playing, investigation, and combat that should satisfy all the requirements for an adventure.
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