I love the Iron Kingdoms setting and I'm actually a fan of the Warmachine tabletop miniatures game. I'm also a fan of their newest RPG (the current Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game) to a lesser degree. Their fluff is, in my opinion, top-notch.

This book is not top-notch, and that's because of the intent - not the execution.

Let me explain. The core story is about a warpwolf. It has some fluff differences... but it's basically an extra-scary werewolf. The players fight it over the course of several days.

That's it. That's all the originality, right there. there are some reasonably interesting and detailed NPCs, and a cool setting, but that's not what players remember nor is it what they fall in love with. Players remember the fun they have with what their characters do. They don't really remember NPCs as well.

That's why Bad Moon Rising fails. The stuff that the players do is boring. They fight the werewolf. It escapes. It comes back. It transforms. Each night gets spookier. Each night something else goes wrong. Each night, it's painfully predictable and the entire adventure is fairly long. In short, it's utterly lacking in originality. None of the really cool stuff in the Iron Kingdoms gets used here. Instead, this is an adventure that's totally phoned in. To be honest, I think I've played something similar in Dread, the Jenga horror game. When your $10 adventure has the same plot as a one-shot party game, you're in trouble.

So, the main plot is totally lame. The upside is that there are a decent variety of encounters; thinky players can have their moments, and so can the shooty players. If you've got a badass 'jack marshal then she'll be able to use her Talon Light Warjack, and if you've got a cool investigator noble then he'll be able to do some cool roleplaying. That's good.

The redeeming features are the gorgeous pieces of artwork that fill the short adventure. Wow, it was really fun to look at and the art was all evocative as heck! Major props to PP for making such a visual treat. The graphic design is clean and neat and it's easy to read all the stat blocks.

There's one thing that I hate more than I thought I would... the maps! They've got insanely detailed maps, but you can't print them out! Instead you're forced to look at this pretty picture, then try to sketch it out by hand on your gaming paper. What the heck!? Is it so much to include a full-size at the end of the PDF? Maybe tile the map together? It was so seriously frustrating to run the adventure without being able to use their awesome-looking battlespaces.

Overall, I don't know if I can recommend this book. PP has a cool setting and a decent game, but this one is really phoned in. If you've got veteran roleplayers or gamers (or anyone who's played Werewolf) they'll probably find this trite and predictable. Heck, if they've seen any werewolf movies, they'll find it predictable!

This book was pretty and fun to read. I only wish I had as much fun when I ran it.

Bad Moon Rising is the latest pre-written adventure for Iron Kingdoms RPG from Privateer Press. The adventure, like many of those produced by Privateer Press, consist of a number of scenes, mixing social and combat encounters. And while many think IKRPG is a combat heavy game, Bad Moon Rising has a lot of roleplaying chances as the player characters get to interact with many NPCs. Bad Moon Rising takes the form of a horror murder mystery. So expect some spoilers coming up and if you are players in a campaign, perhaps totally stop reading this review now. The adventure centres around the attacks in a Khadoran outpost by the Circle of Orboros, and in particular the increasing number of vicious attacks by a monster - a Warpwolf. Over a number of nights, the convergence of the 3 moons of Caen progresses, and the ferocity of the Warpwolf attacks increase. The Circle mount more and more attacks from outside of the fort, and all the while a harsh snow storm blows. The characters are of course suspects, and are expected to take it upon themselves to investigate the attacks, to determine the nature of the creature and put a stop to them. As the story continues it will become apparent that there is a dark history to the fort that relates to the current events. Furthermore, a conspiracy will make itself known and lead to a final, bloody combat.

Read the rest of the review at http://darkerdaysradio.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/review-bad-moon-rising-iron-kingdoms.html

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2015/07/06/tabletop-review-bad-moon-rising-iron-kingdoms/

Privateer Press’ products are extremely hit or miss for me. I can’t stand Warmachines or Hordes, but that’s mainly due to the mechanics, the fact I find the models unaesthetically pleasing. Which is okay - every game is someone's favorite; it's just PP's skirmish game is not for me. That said, I love the fluff behind the game and I really enjoy the fiction, with pieces like Murder in Corvis (soon to be a boardgame!) and Blood in the Water. I don’t enjoy the core Iron Kingdoms RPG, but I really like the Unleashed version, especially the introductory kit, as it’s a fun little self-contained piece. So for me, it seems like every time I agree to review something from Privateer Press, I have a 50-50 chance or enjoying it or really disliking it. Unfortunately, Bad Moon Rising is in the latter camp. It’s a highly overpriced, derivative adventure that lacks any semblance of originality. I’ve played the exact same story in adventures for Chill, Ravenloft, Call of Cthulhu and probably even Accursed. It is the most generic and overdone horror adventure plot ever, just with Iron Kingdoms jargon and mechanics thrown in. It’s really disappointing to see the lack of effort put into this, and if I had actually paid ten dollars for this instead of getting it as a review copy, I’d be ANGRY rather than just disappointed that this piece was approved for purchase by the general public.

Basically, Bad Moon Rising is your typical “trapped with a werewolf” adventure. Of course, since this is Iron Kingdoms, it is a Warpwolf, which for most of you, the only difference is going to be in the naming convention. The PC will have to spend several days (in-game) trying to figure out who the Warpwolf is and stop them before they kill again. After a certain amount of days, the Warpwold succeeds, and the fort the characters are trapped in will fall. The adventure really is that cut and dry. Yes, if you’ve played a horror RPG, you’ve almost certainly played this adventure before. Hell, you can go to Kickstarter and find numerous versions of this story in the Werewolf-clone card/beer and pretzel game variants that pop up constantly over there. After only a few minutes with Bad Moon Rising, you can tell just how phoned in this adventure is. Hell, even the name of this piece has been used by everyone from CCR to adventures for Judge Dredd and Shadowrun. You would think Privateer Press would have at least changed the name to something more original. Instead, this merely serves to show how little thought and effort was actually put into this adventure. It’s shameful really. It’s the third Ginger Snaps movie almost cut and paste into the Iron Kingdoms mechanics.

No adventure is all bad and, truth be told, the worst part of this adventure is the lack of originality, creativity and effort put into the piece. Taken on its own, Bad Moon Rising is a fairly serviceable piece that you can make work if your players have little to no experience with horror RPGs and/or werewolf movie tropes. The adventure is long (quantity over quality) and there is a lot of depth given to the NPCs and locations. The adventure is also equal parts roll-playing and role-playing, which is nice. Hack and Slash fans get their fifteen minutes, but so do the people who want a more investigative/talking heads adventure. A good GM can try and make the piece come to life, but I’d advise some heavy rewriting, as it’s very dry and dull the way it is written. Insert a Ben Stein joke here. A little more time in production or with rewrites and Bad Moon Rising could have been a decent homage to garou clichés. I also really like the art in this piece. It’s the best part of the adventure. It’s too bad the maps shown throughout the piece aren’t full size so you could print them off and use with your Privateer Press miniatures. They’re very nicely detailed and would make the adventure far more fun than it is. Of course, the adventure is already crazy overpriced ($10 for a PDF adventure?) so Cthulhu knows how much more PP would have tried jacking up the MSRP of this if they had done that. There are lots of ways Bad Moon Rising could have been improved had there been a modicum of effort put into it. You can tell that by the little things that actually do “pop” in this piece, like the art.

So yes, Bad Moon Rising is not all that bad. I can’t recommend it to anyone due to the paint by numbers level of this piece, coupled with the cost Privateer Press is actually charging for it. It’s as if they wanted to make people angry with how little thought went into this adventure (or respect for the Iron Kingdoms audience). It’s a very long, dull drawn out adventure that you’ve seen, read, played or watched a half dozen times before – each of which was more than likely better than Bad Moon Rising. Pieces like this are what keep me from regularly investing in Privateer Press’ products, because they are either really good or really bad. I will say that Bad Moon Rising is not typical of Iron Kingdoms. It’s not as good as Unleashed, which came out this year, but the regular Iron Kingdoms tabletop RPG is not usually “rehash someone else’s story and hope no one notices.” In fact, this is the first time I can remember it being so. Still, the lack of quality, from writing to QA on down to editorial with Bad Moon Rising was so deplorable, it’s enough to make me very afraid of how bad The Undercity is going to turn out. Of course, I was considering pre-ordering that game, only because I loved the story by Richard Lee Byers it is based on, but that’s really not enough to sink money into something that may be as disappointing as Bad Moon Rising.