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Review of Cha'alt
Introduction
Cha'alt is a unique RPG product. It's a campaign world, a small sandbox of interesting locations, a megadungeon, and even a dash of game system all rolled into one 218-page book (I only have the PDF). The campaign setting is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi fantasy desert world. Think Dune meets Gamma World, with a healthy dose of Lovecraft thrown in as well. There be demons here, gargantuan sand worms, and slumbering ancient gods beneath the irradiated desert sands.Adventure Locations
The one-page map of Cha'alt shows 12 locations to be explored, however only four are fully detailed in this product. Perhaps the rest will be left to future products from Kort'thalis Publishing, or maybe it was the author's intent to give GMs room to create their own campaign. As it is, all of the locations have interesting descriptions with enough detail and plot hook to get any GM's creative juices flowing so they can create their own encounters or mini-adventure. The four locations that are expanded upon in this product include: beneath the city of Kra'adumek, the giant Purple Demon Worm (yes, it's a location), the Gamma Incel Cantina, and the Black Pyramid megadungeon.While the city of Kra'adumek is described, there are no maps, NPCs, or encounters in the city itself. Instead, a Cha'altan introductory dungeon crawl awaits the players below the city. This 17-encounter dungeon is mapped beautifully and recommended for character levels 1-3. The hook provided to get PCs into the dungeons of the Demon-Worm priesthood is a clever one: the PCs have been psionic slaves of the Demon Worm for many years, as was the rest of the city's populace. Now that their minds are at least temporarily free, the PCs have nothing but the clothes on their backs and the knowledge that equipment, wealth, and even revenge are beneath the city in the small dungeon complex controlled by the Demon-Worm priests.
In a twist of fate, the catatonic Demon Worm itself is frozen outside the city it had enslaved with its psionic mind control. The gaping maw of the colossal, frozen worm is an entrance to the second, fully-detailed location in Cha'alt: a 23-room dungeon crawl inside the belly of the beast, literally. The encounters inside the worm are highly varied in a random, funhouse sort of way. Just to give you a taste, there is a poker game between 4 humanoids and a gaseous alien, a magic cube that forces party in-fighting, a demon who wants to make a deal, a photon torpedo waiting to be detonated, and a smooth-talking wizard trying to get laid.
The next location detailed in Cha'alt, and the only one that is not a dungeon crawl, is the Gamma Incel Cantina. This is Grand Central Station for the space-faring profiteers intent on raping Cha'alt of her only natural resource: the spice mela'anj. This seedy night club, gambling hall, and strip club offers loads of role-playing opportunities for your players, if they are so inclined. There are no fewer than 69 NPCs described in nine different mapped locations inside the cantina. And if your group needs a little nudge toward the Black Pyramid after a few hours of carousing, a mysterious, self-proclaimed Queen shows up and begs the PCs to save her sick daughter by stealing a magical orchid from the Black Pyramid. Will your players take the bait?
The Black Pyramid
This leads us to the final location and crown jewel of Cha'alt: a 111-room, three-level megadungeon inside the infamous Black Pyramid. This thing is like a campaign setting unto itself. Its got its own rumor table, time dilation effects, wandering monsters, random NPCs, and new gods that only exist inside the pyramid.Like the previous dungeon crawls, each room in the Black Pyramid presents its own unique situation, encounter, or oddity, except cranked up to 11. This is the very definition of gonzo, to wit: a madman's playhouse with a malfunctioning execution droid, a Polynesian tiki bar inhabited by Ra'ad Zerling, a monstrous ooze creature protecting a depressed supercomputer, a room where black-robed zealots are torturing each other on camera to rid their bodies of invisible alien parasites, a room where surgeons are about to perform dissections on three young adults with psionic powers, a 1960s fallout shelter, a room full of anthropomorphic fruit that are getting all juiced up to kill, an overweight podcaster interviewing Korg the Conqueror about the Za'avek massacre. And all that weirdness is just a selection from the first 14 rooms. There are 111, folks. The creativity that went into this is staggering.
There is no over-arching metaplot inside the pyramid from what I can tell. But its not all totally random either. There are some elements that tie rooms to each other. For example, a powerful being in one area may be looking for a particular item that is located in another part of the pyramid. Also, factions in one location may be at odds with a nearby group. Its up to the players to decide whom to help and whom to fight, if either.
Game System
So you might be wondering what game system this product utilizes. The publisher says that Cha'alt is compatible with both Old School and 5e D&D. And Kort'thalis' own game system, Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, is included as an appendix, though its only about three and a half pages of text with no tables. How does this all work? In my opinion, it works just fine. The Crimson Dragon Slayer system is just a stripped down and simplified Basic D&D with ascending armor class and no ability scores. Its actually quite ingenious: skill checks, saving throws, and even a fighter's to-hit rolls are all modified by the character's level, not ability scores. For this to work, all PC levels are capped at 10.Keep in mind, this is not a completely self-contained game. You still need to have a list of spells from another game if you want to play a wizard. Also, at 5th and 10th level players gets to pick a feat (ala 5e), but that can be chosen from your favorite player's handbook or made up on your own.
To be clear, you don't have to use this system to run Cha'alt if it doesn't appeal to you. Each NPC and monster in the book is given a simple and straight-forward stat block which can be used to run any Old School D&D system, or even 5e provided that the DM is comfortable playing without ability scores for monsters and NPCs. Every stat block in the book provides ascending AC, hit points, static saving throw, hit dice, attack bonus, number of attacks, and damage. In addition, if a creature has any treasure or special powers (and most do), those are detailed below the aforementioned stats.
Cha'alt also provides a number of house rules in the form of tables sprinkled throughout the book. For example, in the campaign setting section, there is a 30-row table of random mutations which could be inflicted on PCs with too much radiation exposure. There is also a 12-item list of random treasures to be found and a table of critical failures (roll of natural 1). However, my favorite is a table of 12 different psionic powers, their descriptions, and their cost in hit-point drain to utilize.
