Search
Review of Dark Symmetry Campaign Book
Blurb from the publisher: 'The Rise of Darkness.
An Imperial expedition on Pluto has unleashed a wave of darkness and despair upon humanity, spreading madness and corruption. While the worlds of mankind fall to ruin, a handful of determined investigators stumble across conspiracies that threaten to tear civilisation apart.
Two campaigns: This book contains two distinct campaigns set in the Dark Symmetry era, exploring the early years of the Mutant Chronicles setting.
The Fall of von Hölle: In the days following the emergence of the Dark Symmetry, a missing heiress, an emergency call, and the agenda of a madman all lead to an unsettling discovery and a vile conspiracy.
The Dark Symmetry Campaign: At the height of the First Dark Legion War, a series of seemingly innocuous events in Luna City reveal a dark scheme that spreads across human civilisation.
Pregenerated Characters: Six characters designed to work with the premise of the adventures.
Doomtroopers: A selection of items used by the Cartel’s elite warriors, who were founded in the height of the First Dark Legion war.'
What you get: Your EUR 48,99 buys you the full-colour 216-page Dark Symmetry Campaign Book for Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition Roleplaying game in both softcover and pdf format. Those preferring the pdf version only can obtain it for EUR 12,99.
The book contains two interlinked adventures (more accurately: one prelude adventure and the full adventure that follows it, weighing in at 13 and 25 pages respectively), taking place at the exact time the Dark Symmetry emerged in our universe. It is linked to for the Mutant Chronicles RPG Models: Dark Legion Set, seeing how Fabien von Hölle, one of the three miniatures in the set, is one of the primary antagonists. More importantly however, the book includes the Dark Symmetry campaign, a 165-page campaign that breaks down in six distinct parts (one may even call them adventures), and which takes place 150 years after technology started failing. The two story arcs do not appear to be connected. Appendices include six pre-generated characters of all persuasions relevant to the Dark Symmetry era (no Cybertronic, Whitestar, or Brotherhood characters), as well as Doomtroopers and a rich two-page index.
Spoiler warning: As much as I am not going to describe, let alone detail the adventures, parts of the scenarios might be revealed while discussing the strong and less strong points of the book. If you intend to participate in any of these scenarios as a player, stop reading now.
The strong points: Dark Symmetry addresses the issue that many settings have, where the cool things happen in the past in an age long gone, with the characters being unable to participate. Here, the characters are in the thick of it, when it happens, as it happens. If that doesn't mean much to players that are already aware of the premise of Mutant Chronicles, think the wonders it works for players who are handed pre-generated characters, are given a non-specific description of the setting before the fall of humanity, and start playing when the proverbial shit hits the fan. That’s fantastic!
The first two adventures are sort of small scale in relation to the incredible violence and madness that the Dark Legion later brings upon mankind, they are however potent and visceral. They are both investigative in nature with many noir elements. The first one, Straffar Gatan 39 (Punishment Street for the non-Swedish speakers), is based on the haunted house archetype, the twist being that the house gets more haunted by the second while still being occupied by normal inhabitants. Gradually both adventures turn into slaughterhouses, and I mean that literally. One of the things I love about the setting is its gory horror; the Dark Symmetry effortlessly delivers material that in the hands of a good GM (maybe a GM with the Syrinscape Fantasy Player and Adventure Scents at his disposal) will be horrifically memorable. The writing is good, the pacing is good and the rather free-form nature appears to suit the genre. The showdown at the end of the second one (The Fall of von Hölle, which might sound as a name but literally means 'from Hell') is tight, with the sort of biomechanical monstrosity that has haunted many a man's dreams.
The campaign is a totally different beast. It borrows elements from as many horror and sci-fi movies and series as you can imagine, Alien being a prominent one. It cannot be played with the same characters, unless you file off the names and backgrounds while keeping the skills and crunch identical. Its six parts take place in wildly different locales and are of a patently different flavour. Appetite For Destruction (42 pages long) is practically a campaign in itself with the Luna PD firmly in the spotlight. It is patently freeform, even though it will start becoming more structured as the game progresses. If you have time at your disposal you can drag things out quite for some time with themes similar to the ones explored in the book before moving on to the second part. That would be Going Underground, a short 12-pages affair that explores an underground tunnel network in the city. The adventures there, while not grandiose in scope, can create many offshots for the future. Journey To Mars (10 pages) will see the characters visiting another planet as escorts to a dangerous biological weapon, while The Deregulation Zone (45 pages) could have easily had a sourcebook dedicated to it, describing an incredibly dystopic (or utopic, if you have incredible amounts of money) implementation of the most laisser-faire incarnation of capitalism. Those knowledgeable of Atlas Shrugged, will delight (or shiver) with the Atlas Corporation which owns Atlas Mugged, Atlas Frugged and Atlas Drugged, amongst other commercial interests. The Deputy (13 pages) is a reality show based on The Apprentice and hosted by Donald Trump himself, the ultimate human baddie (due to delusion, as it appears) in the whole campaign. Just because he is called Don Stevia here does not mean that he lost the facial expressions… or the toupee. The Citadel on the other hand (9 pages) is the typical dungeon crawl where you shoot everything that moves while trying to achieve the underlying objective. It is a fitting culmination to a long campaign that ends only if your GM wants to. For those who purchased the Dark Legion Campaign Book, the campaign may continue there.
I enjoyed the writing and the sociopolitical commentary that is included in outbursts of parody. You might rethink what’s into fast food and whether you truly want to eat that. There’s Milton Feedman, a hot-dog seller extolling the virtues of capitalism while providing hints to the characters. Trump as himself is rather convincing, but then again he always is irrespective of parody medium. There’s all sorts of pop references, like the Deadly Half-Dozen, the name of a team competing in a television programme. I am always happy to find eggs like this in Mutant Chronicles; it is sort of its trade mark.
I will make a special mention to The Deputy part of the campaign. This is effectively a ‘safe’ adventure, a series of tests that the heroes must pass in front of the television cameras. Those who played the old adventures Challenge of Champions (there were three or four of them) in Dungeon magazine, will understand their style immediately. I had missed adventures like that, and I admit I was pleasantly surprised to find them in a campaign book like this. Truly, each part/adventure is different to the others, keeping the adventure fresh. This is imperative, mind you. This is not a campaign to finish within a couple of sessions. Depending on how much you want to explore the setting before nearing its conclusion, it can easily go from six to twelve sessions, especially if you incorporate elements from the sourcebooks in it.
I recommend reading through the campaign numerous times from cover to cover before concentrating on the part at hand. There are many hints here and there, imagery that you can insert and things you can do to keep the form and style consistent, so that the change of scenery and genre is perceived as positive and not as a lack of focus. It will be a pity to arrive at the end and decide, as a GM, that you should have done some things differently during the previous parts. In any event, it is enjoyable even as a read. You can definitely mine it for ideas through extrapolation, use alternative takes on its locations elsewhere, mask its NPCs etc. I also enjoyed how well the campaign works with the Source Books of the game line, particularly the Luna & Freelancers Source Book. With the information on the Source Book the Campaign Book will truly shine, while through its interaction with the Campaign Book, the Source Book gets a life of its own, with a lot of story arcs, points of interest and NPCs blooming.
The pre-generated characters are well-written and more memorable than one would expect. Each character’s background is adequate to have him properly portrayed, even though it is rather shortish. I am kind of torn for each of the pregens having a broad physical description but not a picture. A player can fine-tune the details of his character as he wishes; that can't but be a good thing.
The pdf is again an exercise in perfection, and in line with Modiphius’ releases in the main rulebook as well as other RPGs like Dust Adventures. Everything is right where you expect it to be, including bookmarks for every single chapter and sub-chapter. The art is kind of brighter; I presume the excellent quality of the printed version’s gloss paper has something to do with it.
The weak points: There are many shadows concerning motivation and consistency in both the two first adventures as well as the full campaign. In Straffar Gatan the investigators remain in a building that progressively becomes a never seen before horror show within the course of a few hours. Chances of them leaving in haste: very high. After all, up to that moment the supernatural does not exist in the setting whatsoever. Yet the adventure does not address this issue at all, even with the counterproductive 'they can't'.
There are numerous situations like this in the book, where as a GM you will have to provide your personal touch for the whole thing not to outright collapse. In a space station, the characters will shortly fill the role of a pawn amongst two warring factions. Yet, and even though it is obvious that things cannot end well there for the heroes, the next chapter takes it for granted that one way or another the heroes made it. Even worse, it brushes off within a couple of paragraphs that they might not have made it without the cargo, the single most important piece of the adventure. In fact, a big chunk of the next adventure takes for granted that the cargo survived. This, unfortunately, is not serious adventure-building. If there is a case to be explored, that should be what is the most likely outcome, luck included, not the writer’s wishful thinking. An adventure should be designed to accommodate the most plausible outcome in order to help the GM, not take the characters on a tour de force through GM fiat outside of genre considerations.
Character portrayal at instances appears to be violently shoved aside in favour of relentless action. The second act of the first adventure is about the characters facing three action scenes in a world that is collapsing around them before reaching their destination. One involves planes crashing in the sky, the second children getting burnt within a school bus, and the third is about participating (or avoiding) a riot. Seeing how the characters are affiliated to the Luna PD, they are exactly the sort of heroes to be there. This is their job. Yet, the adventure expects them to immediately quit the premises of each event immediately after saving the day, not once, but thrice. I repeat: the adventure expects police officers to quit the scene of a burning school bus after having saved some (or all) of the children, without ensuring the children’s proper protection in a world where everything goes haywire. If, for any reason, the characters decide to do their actual job and stay there, a big chunk of Luna will be destroyed by the dark Symmetry because the cultist acted unhindered. So PCs need to act totally out of character thrice, allegedly in the name of the genre, in order for the adventure not to end in a disaster. Again, not the cleverest adventure design.
Then there are the factual issues, stemming from a combination of information found in the campaign itself as well as other sourcebooks. There is the Giant Eye show, whose production team, production location, or even location of transmission is not known by Capitol, its parent company. How is that even possible? The GM is not informed about how the alleged pirate show is actually aired through the corporate system (cable? satellite? other?), why it cannot be traced, why it cannot be subjected to ratings, metrics and a more efficient commercialization, or even for how long is has been airing, at what time of the day and at what frequency. If it is a pirate transmission, does it undercut another existing programme and which one? Setting all this inanity aside, and the fact that in the end the programme is in reality produced inside a Capitol building, said building allegedly does not have an 192nd floor… yet, it does, and nobody noticed. Nobody took the staircase to notice a one-floor gap between floors 191 and 193. Nobody looked at the building from the outside. Floor 192 does not have doors to the staircases, yet it can be accessed by jamming the elevator between floors 191 and 193. Is this even remotely for real?
Entertaining as the contemporary references to Donald Trump are, I am worried that the product might not age well. In five year’s time, will the Easter eggs be still as funny or relevant? Will future readers understand the double irony of Trump, sorry, Stevia, promoting a policy of appeasement reminiscent of Chamberlain and Quisling, two of the most widely hated politicians of the 20th century? I am not convinced.
The Dark Soul Source Book has an excellent chapter dedicated to Citadels. Notwithstanding the caveat ‘there is no such thing as a typical Citadel’, I was expecting the last part of the campaign to borrow heavily from that chapter in order to make things memorable. Heavily ruined and practically bombarded or not, storming a Dark Symmetry citadel should be an awesome kick-ass experience for the ages, correct? Well, not here. What is presented as the citadel looks and feels a lot like the dungeon of the week. The map is linear (no branches in any corridor at all), while the room placement would make even the most fervent heretic doubt the intelligence behind the Dark Symmetry. Cool as the principle of ending with a heroic, desperate, balls-to-the-wall attack against an enemy fortress, the whole thing is simply not convincing as is. Redo the map, refit what the heroes see (how often will anybody storm a citadel to start with?), make it memorable. Attention: do not increase the difficulty or fatality of the place. Things are hard enough already, not only in that last chapter but in the campaign overall. The fact that characters are expected to survive all this stuff is rather amusing. Hint: some might, some might not. Be more prepared than what the campaign implies.
The maps overall could have been better conceived. In fact, there should have been substantially more maps in the product. Those with Campaign Cartographer 3+ will not have a problem in either improving the existing maps or creating new ones, the rest however will have to improvise a bit.
I noticed around a dozen typos in the book, one in the title of the first adventure. Funny, but definitely nothing serious.
Just like the main rulebook and pretty much the rest of the line, there is no colour coding in the margins to find things more easily, separate the adventures visually and reduce page-flipping). The title number and mention in the bottom of each page is unfortunately not enough. I have no explanation for it; it’s a pity.
Conclusion: If somebody told me that a setting’s first adventure and campaign would be about some of the most important things that happened there, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, that’s exactly what Dark Symmetry does. No matter how much time you will need to invest in order to make the adventures’ details shine, this is a solid first campaign.
For more info on the Dark Symmetry Campaign Book and the Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game visit the Modiphius Entertainment website at http://www.modiphius.com.
Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of the Dark Symmetry Campaign Book that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being) and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.
