A Decent Jump Start and Good Storyteller’s Aid
I purchased Yours to Keep as a pdf. My goal was to compare an official scenario against the idea I wanted to run. What are the expectations of a freehold? What kind of NPCs and conflicts work? What might I be overlooking as I plan a different game? Those were covered really well.
As a standalone adventure, Yours to Keep features plenty to explore and plenty of NPCs to meet along the way.
I regrettably have a couple of concerns. First, the start of this adventure can require the kind of buy-in that some groups won't deliver. Many players will jump on it, but some may not. Without that buy-in, a storyteller may need to really play up a crucial NPC or two. The storyteller can also focus on the the potential for rewards.
Second, there is a wonderful sidebar on page 20 entitled "Instant Dice Pools." Elsewhere, there are short stat blocks for the NPCs. The sidebar and the stat blocks share no common language. I advise taking a moment before your game to match up how “excellent,” “good,” and “poor” in the stat blocks relate to “master,” “dedicated,” “seasoned,” and “average” in the sidebar.
Once you’ve aligned the sidebar and the npc stat blocks, you will also have a fast, useful system for making your own quick NPCs.
Yours to Keep gives you a lot of brief NPC descriptions, a good story with an idea for how Changeling society works, and a brisk overview of the general Changeling setting The five player characters are fully fleshed out and ready for use with the core rulebook. The five player character sheets are each three pages long, fully fleshed out, and ready to play using the core rulebook as well. The NPCs and working example of Changelings in action make for a very valuable resource. This book has some rough spots, but still makes for a great storyteller's resource.
|