An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 30 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of editorial, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 22 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

It should be noted that these page-numbers are provided for the single page version – there is a double-page spread version (better for e-readers etc.) also included.

Okay, so, this module is very different from my usual fare; it’s not just a supplement provided for the context of Rising Phoenix’ Scarthey setting – it’s actually a module designed to work as a GM-less solo-adventure for a 1st level fighter or cleric. It can also be run as a regular 1-on-1-scenario, but the primary presentation seems to be one intended for GM-less solo-play.

The module mentions the Stone of Ashirai – a mighty, dark artifact that can influence the difficulty of the module, providing one of 4 effects – this provides some replay value, and you choose one or roll for one before the module actually starts. Two are particularly brutal: One of the effects has vanquished foes potentially return to unlife on an 18+ on a d20, and the other makes you set aside a d20, with the 20 facing up. When an enemy rolls, they use the value facing up, and detract 1 from the value; when you defeat a creature, the value increases by +1, up to the maximum of 20.

For a further difficulty-increase, you can add duskin goblins as allies to the primary antagonists – the process of doing so is randomized, and the goblins’ stats are decent – while I noticed a few minor snafus (rules and formatting – HP are off by one, and feature headers are only bold, not bolded and in italics), you can use these. Formatting for other creatures tends to be off as well. Apart from that, DCs tend to clock in at around 10, with one instance missing the DCs – that one is called out in the errata notepad file, but as per my policy, only properly updated pdfs are taken into account. (As an aside: Why this policy? Because otherwise, publishers can point towards obscure homepages, form threads etc. and claim errata – and that is not customer-friendly.)

These aforementioned gobos do come with morale, which is a nice underutilized touch, imho. (One of the artifact’s effects can add a change here.)

The module then follows essentially a choose your own adventure-book style formula – we get read-aloud text, and after that some choices, with notes to go to other numbered encounters.

Now, unlike in my usual reviews, I will not talk about the plot or the like here – after all, I’d be spoiling the module for the GM-less solo-players that are the primary demographic. Testing the module, I should note that this is a pretty deadly beast – there are a couple of story-game-overs (traps’ll generally just kill you sans save), and the module sometimes uses skill checks where I’d have expected a saving throw – for example when a massive block of stone squishes you. After multiple failures to beat the module, I can discern the primary goal to succeed here: there is one encounter that can net you an uncommon ad pretty cool ally. This is perhaps the most crucial encounter to get, as it changes the action economy slant in the encounters with multiple enemies. I strongly suggest making your character hardy in order to avoid being one-shot by encounters with multiple enemies.

Don’t get me wrong – this’ll still be tough, but once you’ve found this one, you’ll be on track to beating this. Good luck!

Conclusions: Editing is pretty good on a formal level; on a rules-language level, I noticed a couple of snafus, but nothing to wreck the pdf. Formatting in particular deviates quite a bit from 5e’s default conventions. Layout is gorgeous and uses a quasi-Egyptian full-color background, with colored scarabs at the top and bottom. Artworks are pretty copious, and blend public domain and high-quality full-color pieces of artwork. This is a beautiful book. Big plus: While the book has no bookmarks, it does have internal hyperlinking – which is actually better for books like this: You’re not SPOILED by accident if you exert some discipline. But know what SUCKS? You can’t highlight texts in this pdf, or copy it. This becomes an issue when using the goblins for added difficulty. While usually, the encounters simply provide their stats where needed, the goblin stats are in the beginning, and you can’t quickly jump to those – having a single bookmark for that stat, or a “go to goblin/jump back”-button would have been nice. Or, you know, just having the damn common courtesy of being able to just copy the text from the pdf, like pretty much 99.9% of pdfs out there.

Rodney Sloan’s “Death Queen & the Life Stone” is an unpretentious, challenging, choose your own adventure style book using 5e; it’s deadly and not something you’ll beat at first try, and that’s a good thing. For the most part, the story-game-overs for bad choices seemed fair to me, though the very high sudden death chances for encounters with multiple enemies irked me slightly. As noted before, some of these might have warranted an escape DC or saving throw to avoid, but that may be me trying to hearken too close to 5e’s conventions. The narrative won’t necessarily blow you away, but the scenario per se is solid and fun.

So yeah, all in all, I consider this to be a pretty neat, if not perfect offering. Now, I’d usually round up from my final verdict. But not being able to highlight text? That’s really aggravating. My final verdict will hence be 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.

Although Death Queen And The Life Stone was a fairly short adventure I did really enjoy it.

The randomness of die-rolling meant it did take me multiple tries to successfully complete the adventure, not due to poor choices or an overly high difficulty level but due to being overwhelmed twice by relatively low CR encounters (the joys of a single first level character I suppose). Overall the art and descriptive text made this feel like a fairly immersive experience and it definitely had me looking forward to the next adventure in the series.

I do have a few minor suggestions if the creators are checking on on these reviews:

1. Entry 42 asks the player to make a History or Religion check but assigns no target number to the roll
2. Action economy can really slant the difficulty of some of the encounters. Entries 29, 33 and 38 your opponents are all fairly soft and squishy but their damage output means they can potentially take out the PC in one round if they both hit. Entry 34 (and therefore also 45) conversely are painfully easy if you have the item/companion from Entry 26. It might sound boring but from a balance point of view all these encounters might have been better balanced had the number of opponents been reduced, but the opponents hit points been increased. Just my opinion though.

Overall for under $3 it definitely felt like I got my money's worth and I enjoyed my brief time in Scarthey.

I enjoyed this adventure. I think it was very well written.

It was pretty short, good for a short evening's play (a couple of hours), but it really can't be much longer for a lone first level fighter/cleric type without providing rest spots or a supply of healing potions. The way it is written makes sense and forces the character to rely upon its own resources (Second Wind, Cure Wounds spells, and possibly a healing potion if one was purchased during character creation). While I wish it was longer, a first level character would be very unlikely to survive any more combat encounters than were presented here.

There are fifty entries/decision points, some of which are used multiple times (at least in my playthrough).

There seem to be two "mission was a success" endings. One of which provides a patron and hook for the "Forest of Secrets". A player/GM could just as easily use that ending, with modifications, to provide a patron and hook into any future adventure or serve as a kick off for a longer campaign.

My character died in the first run. In the second, I was able to make it all the way through after noticing in the intro that all healing effects are supposed to have maximum effect, and adjusting some of my combat tactics.

The book also provides some suggested varants for future replay which will modify the adventure to make it more challenging.