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Review of Beyond Red Crater
Since I’m lazy, I’ll just mostly rehash my previous review of Mall of Doom in terms of explaining this whole “multi-path” thing, since what I said there applies here as well. Those who have already read my previous review, can skip the next two paragraphs.
Let’s start with this “multi-path” concept. BRC is designed in a style similar to an old “choose your own path” adventure novel. In theory this allows for people to play the game as a solo adventure (with one person being both GM and player) or use it as a more traditional module. In practice, solo play is probably more work than it’s worth. This adventure is intentionally designed to be brutal, recommending around ten party members in order to survive. I figure only the most dedicated (obsessive?) of gamers would want to run a table top RPG module with ten characters, playing all of them all by themselves. So do I think the multi-path is a bust? Far from it.
As an introductory adventure for novice GMs, BRC is a freaking godsend. The multi-path structure serves to help guide rookie GMs from one point in the story to another. And it offers multiple variables for just about every encounter, looted treasure, and so forth. “But what if I’m an experienced GM who already knows how to run a game? Can I break with the multi-path structure?” Absolutely! In fact, you’ll likely have to at some point since your players will inevitably want to stray from the path they’re on.
Okay, enough of my talking about the multi-path design. What’s the story about? I don’t want to give away the plot, except to say that there is one, and it’s actually pretty good. It starts as a wilderness trek, with numerous threats along various routes the players might choose. Once the party arrives at the ruined dome, they find themselves in a bit of a time crunch before their window of opportunity closes (for more reasons than they might initially realize). Inside the depths of the dome are secrets, new threats, and the potential to take the campaign in a completely different direction. To tease you with one thing: there’s one path a bit late in the adventure, where the GM gets to randomly determine a number of man-eating mutants that plummet to their doom, and is given a table to randomly flesh out these doomed mutant bastards. It’s excessive and insane, and appeals to the delinquent in me that laughs at the idea of skydiving cannibal religious fanatics randomly falling on PCs.
What else does the module offer? Well, there’s a new warbot that’s pretty neat, and a new monstrous threat that GMs may want to incorporate into their games. There’s also hints and teases at a part of the setting the game hasn’t really explored before. A final frontier if you will. Honestly though, there’s not a lot to recycle in this adventure; once you play through it it’s pretty much done. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, since the adventure is pretty good. And those who have the endurance to run a solo game will likely find this adventure to be better constructed than the Mall of Doom was.
Style: I’m consistently surprised with Mutant Epoch products. On the one hand, editing continues to be problematic, with grammatical errors abounding. On the other hand, there’s an attention for mechanics and numbers that is quite impressive. A table may call for players to roll a d8 and have basic English errors in each entry (an exaggeration!), but there will be entries for each possible roll (not an exaggeration!). I only found one minor error on one of the maps, and overall consider it a pretty good accomplishment for one person’s work. I also still find William McAusland’s art to be quite enjoyable, and layout is minimal but functional. If 3 is an average, I’ll give it a solid to high 3.
Substance: Ultimately, if 3 is an average, I’m going with a solid 4 on this one. The story is good, the maps and visual aids are good, the multi-path structure is better this time, and I think players of the Mutant Epoch will enjoy it. Those hoping to idea mine the adventure for other settings will probably find it good as well, with some minor tweaking perhaps. The only reasons why I’m not giving it a 5 is that I feel it’s not very good for replay and that there’s very little for GMs to use in other Mutant Epoch adventures. Once you’ve played BRC, you’re done with it.
Conclusion: BRC is good for what it is. And while I don’t think it’s as good a traditional module as Mall of Doom was, or as flexible for use in other game settings, it does seem to be a superior solo play module with a rocking story! I’d recommend groups pick up Mall of Doom first, but be sure to pick this one up too as it’s worth it.
