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MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence

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MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence
Publisher: Highmoon Press
by James G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/26/2006 00:00:00

Truly top-notch writing elevates this work. The entity (I don't do spoilers) in the maze, was, to me, lacklustre, but the maze itself is mainly a McGuffin
in any event; the setting is the real prize here. Even if you don't use the product directly, it is easily worth the price just for the read alone. I give this work an unqualified 5 stars just on that merit alone.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The writing is absolutely superb!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing. The sole criticism is that hack-and-slash style purists will not really have that much to do in this scenario.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence
Publisher: Highmoon Press
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/12/2006 00:00:00

Maze of Screaming Silence is a 100 page d20 pdf adventure product. Originally this adventure was released by MonkeyGod Enterprises, and is now released in pdf form by Highmoon Media Productions under the MonkeyGod Presents line of products. Maze of Screaming Silence is both a d20 adventure and a city supplement, with the City of the Damned being detailed quite extensively in the text of the product. This adventure is written for the 3e rules, and is suitable for characters of 3rd or 4th level. The contents, as the disclaimer for this product indicates, is for mature audiences only.

The product comes as a single, fully bookmarked pdf file complete with an extensive table of contents. No print version of the product is supplied. Artwork within the pdf is good black-and-white work, some of which depicts graphic violence (severed heads in a pool of blood, for example) and is one of the reasons behind the mature audiences disclaimer. There's an ample supply of artwork within the pages of the pdf that enhance the feel of the macabre, yet often humorous content. Writing and editing is good, though the writing style is rather informal and filled with several flippant remarks that probably don't do the adventure or its content any justice. It's difficult to set a theme based on the 'mature' content when the adventure is filled with remarks that undermine it. Nevertheless, these can easily be ignored despite them occasionally being off-putting. Several maps are provided, all which are clear and easy to read, although more maps would've been useful for some of the locations presented in the City of the Damned and surroundings. As mentioned already, this adventure is for the 3e ruleset, and as such the numerous stat blocks use the format of this ruleset.

Maze of Screaming Silence starts by presenting and overview of the adventure, and provides a handy table summarizing the ELs of the various encounters within the product. The adventure is largely a PC driven one, in the sense that once the adventurers arrive in the City of the Damned, the gateway to the maze, they are largely left to their own devices as there are no 'events' in the adventure. What the PCs do and get up to is entirely up to them, and what they make of this adventure is again entirely up to the PCs. The City of the Damned is detailed enough that there is plenty to do and experience before actually hitting the maze and attempting to survive it. The product presents essentially two ways in which to run the adventure - the first by using an overriding plot arc that is presented, and the second merely for the challenge of the maze itself. I'd certainly recommend the former, as it's more interesting and presents more motivation and roleplaying opportunities for the players than the latter.

The adventure is set near a remote outpost of the Empire of the Yagga Kong, a brutal group of people that live high in the mountains of the Wall of the World. Full details are provided on the history of these people, the origins of the maze, the culture and society of the Yagga Kong, and generally enough for any DM to allow the PCs to experience a new and certainly unique mountain culture. Given that the PCs are travelling high in the mountains, they'll need to cope with numerous environmental factors such as cold and thin air for which rules are provided and summarized.

The introduction to the adventure is a dream sequence involving multiple players, the end result of which leads the players to an oracle and from there admittedly very vaguely to the Yagga Kong. I liked how this sequence was presented, although in the old end it could've been more succinct in leading the players to the Yagga Kong and the City of the Damned. The main body of the adventure beyond the introductory sequence, deals with the City of the Damned and several locations within the vicinity of this location. There the PCs can do whatever they wish, and generally, considering the sense of humour of the Yagga Kong, how they wish as well. The Yaggo Kong are not adverse to killing slaves, for example, and PCs will be get to know people that collect decapitated heads and even teeth.

The City of the Damned is presented in two sections detailing typical encounters in the city (day and night), and site-based locations for the important parts of the city (more town-sized, despite the name). PCs should find this an interesting experience, and certainly one to remember if played right. Creative DMs will have a field day running these encounters and locations, and should be able to instil a sense of danger and dread in the PCs as they pass through the city. Almost a dozen encounters for days and nights are presented, as well as a dozen different locations that each provide an interesting roleplaying experience. The City of the Damned is well detailed and an interesting place, and should be easy to insert as a strange city in another remote corner of a campaign setting.

The Maze of Screaming Silence itself was quite disappointing. Given that the adventure has the maze's name as title, it was actually a rather small part of the adventure, a very short part of the adventure, and certainly in the end nothing to really write home about. Unless the PCs spend a lot of time in the City of the Damned, the maze is quite quick to get through and handle, despite the presence of the Thing in the Maze. It is also rather surprising to find that only once every century, as the module tells us, the maze is actually beaten. If one considers the maze and the City of the Damned as two different parts of adventure, the City of the Damned far outstrips the maze in terms of enjoyment and potential for roleplaying.

The adventure provides ample advice on how to conclude the plot presented that draws the PCs to the lands of the Yagga Kong. DMs will find this a good ending, although may potentially wish to do more with it. The adventure and location offer a lot of potential for expansion. The latter parts of the pdf present numerous appendices which include detailed NPC statistics for the various NPCs in the adventure, and advice on scaling the adventure for higher level parties. The statistics of the NPCs are, however, also included in the text of the adventure, which means you annoyingly get them twice within the product.

Maze of Screaming Silence certainly presents a different kind of adventure experience in the City of the Damned and the Yagga Kong. The maze itself is disappointing in that it's short, not terribly unique, and could certainly have done with some interesting elements to make it live up to the name the adventure paints it as to be. The City of the Damned is a richly interesting and devilishly vile place, although in a sense has a lot of 'overkill'. It is possible that adventurers will quickly grow used to or bored with the ways of the Yagga Kong. Overall, though, an enjoyable experience for a short adventure that shouldn't take longer than a session or two to complete, depending on the involvement of the players.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The City of the Damned is an interesting place with lots of options for players to explore and take part in. The Yagga Kong are an interesting people and should provide for unique interaction between PCs and their culture. The adventure does well at presenting something different that should be an enjoyable experience for both DMs and players. Presentation and artwork was very good.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The product contains double stat blocks in that stat block are presented in the text and in the appendices. The informal tone of writing in the adventure can be off-putting in places is you wish to establish a proper theme to the City of the Damned. The maze itself was disappointing in its originality, creativity and length. One or two minor editing errors, but nothing significant.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence
Publisher: Highmoon Press
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/22/2006 00:00:00

MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence is an adventure/sourcebook released through Highmoon Media Productions. The zipped file is just under 10.5 megabytes in size, containing a single PDF of just over 11 meg. The PDF has bookmarks and a non-hyperlinked table of contents. It is one hundred pages long, with a front and back cover, two pages of geographical maps, a page for the credits/legal/table of contents, and a page for the OGL.

As a note, this is a 3.0 product, not 3.5.

The book?s only color artwork is the cover. The rest of the art, which is moderately prevalent throughout the book, is in black-and-white. Each page has skull borders around, alternately, the top and left of the page, or bottom and right. No printer-friendly version is included.

The product?s introduction explains the backdrop for the book. The majority of the book deals with the remote mountain country known as the Empire of the Yagga-Kong. A reclusive people, the Yagga-Kong are hideously chaotic evil, engaging in all sorts of terrible vices and even insanities as a normal part of life. Every so often, they have a game wherein people enter and try to survive the Maze of Screaming Silence. Most everyone dies, but the few who emerge can win a fortune, based on how long they stayed inside. Several pages of back-story are then given as methods of pulling player-characters in.

The next portion of the book covers The City of the Damned, the largest city in the Empire. A few pages of introduction are given to underline how decadent and malevolent the City is, before the product moves into daytime and nighttime encounters. Most of these are designed to shock and horrify the PCs, and they do a fairly good job of it. Following this are descriptions of specific places in the Empire, including several locations outside The City of the Damned.

The next portion of the book covers the Maze of Screaming Silence itself. This assumes that the PCs have signed up to participate in the ritual, either for riches, or to fulfill the presented back-story. A brief section then covers ways to conclude the adventure.

A series of appendices round out the product, including one with the stat blocks, descriptions, and role-playing tips for major characters in the product, along with notes for scaling the adventure, what happens if they ever return to The City of the Damned, and a few possible further adventure seeds.

All in all, MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence sets out to present a vile city filled with vile people, and it does it quite well. It is easy to see the PCs never wanting to come back to the Empire of Yagga-Kong, unless it?s to raze it to the ground and kill everyone. Player-characters will likely find much more than they bargained for in the Maze of Screaming Silence. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The characters in this product do an excellent job of coming across as wicked to the point of repulsion. This book describes a place and a people that the PCs will love to hate.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The book tends to repeat stat blocks of characters who show up in multiple places. If it gives their stat blocks and information in the appendix, then it shouldn't reprint the stat blocks at the adventure locations or city locations where those characters appear. Also, a printer-friendly version of this product would have been good<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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