I purchased this book initially because putting twists on monster stories seemed an interesting premise to me. I've prepped and run two adventures from it: Ghastly Grins (Which has to do with a Dullahan) and Galateya's Will (based of the greek story of pygmalion). One story worked as intended, the other was rife with inconsistencies. Please be warned that my review below has some minor spoilers. I would not read this if you are a player.
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I feel strongly that Ghastly Grins needed an editor to go in once more and fix inconsistent information: There were times where statblocks didn't add up to what was said in the story text, and information within the story itself was conflicting at times. Overall, I loved the bones of this adventure, but I had to do A LOT of work to fix it and make it work at my table. I ended up changing the culprit, because the original villain was too predictable, and I added some layers of intrigue into it which made for an extremely fun arc, that my players and I had a blast with.
- Galateya's Will was an interesting adventure. It was well written and had an interesting, yet thoroughly despicable villain. I didn't have to do much work to prep and run it which I appreciated greatly. My party had mixed feelings on this adventure however because of the nature of the evil committed in it. Mallion, the villain of this tale, does some throughly evil things to create his golems, keep them in line, and is deplorable in how he gets rid of the creations he is displeased with. The theme and premise is frankly disturbing because it touches on themes of narcissism and abuse that are much more tangible and concrete than simply fighting off a horde of undead. While taking out Mallion seems like a black and white choice, the gray area comes in with his creations, as you can come into conflict with them but later on realize how tragic their situation really is. Loved the premise and it can end very well, but dang is it deep.
Overall, I'll give it a 4 out of 5. I was going to give it a three, but writing this review did make me realize I enjoyed the adventures played, and while I had to do a lot of work on one of them, I still got a good amount of usefulness out of it, which is what a DM needs when they are seeking for adventure hooks and seeds to build off of.
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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