Death threatens the zone - a Mephisto review

The zone is facing significant upheavals. What begins for the player characters as a battle between a Zone Rider and unknown assailants develops into a scenario that will entirely change the zone as part of The Gray Death campaign. Depending on how the players act, they will be recruited by the Zone Rider for further investigations or drawn into the events in other ways because they cannot ignore the coming developments.

The Gray Death is a campaign book that confronts the player characters with a major story arc and, unlike the scenarios in the Zone Compendiums, gives them no chance to ignore it. The campaign offers five locations, each with a starting situation, an overview, various characters, and possible events, similar to the typical Special Zone Sectors. Even though these scenarios still give the player characters a lot of freedom, they always offer conflicts and problems that the player characters have to solve.

However, before the individual scenarios are presented, the game master is first given a detailed overview of the occurrences that led to the events in The Gray Death and of the plans of the parties involved. Even though a single person catalyzes the events, various storylines from the Zone Compendiums are also picked up and continued here. The Zone Riders, for example, appear in an important role, having already been introduced in Die, meat-eaters, die! Elements from Hotel Imperator have also been picked up and continued.

Basically, there is a lot for the player characters to discover. An old steamship, for example, serves as a mobile theater that brings more than just fun to the zone. Characters with an inclination for detective work await a criminal investigation to uncover one aspect of the conspiracy.

There is also a trading post that trades with the mysterious Dawn Army, who are traveling through the zone in their airships. Here, the player characters can learn more about this new power factor.

Finally, they can also investigate the Dawn Army and its activities in The Garrison. With the emergence of their airships and better weaponry, this army suddenly shifts the balance of power in the zone. Even if it promises order and stability on the outside, it also suggests a more sinister plans.

The finale finally begins in the settlement of Dawnville, which is under the protection of the Dawn Army. Here, a large prize of 100 bullets attracts potential participants for the big body bombing tournament. For the player characters, however, this scenario can also open the way into the dark heart of the conspiracy, with several parties coming into play at once.

The final chapter, The Great Death, offers not only a dangerous Special Zone Sector but also a larger mission that encourages the player characters to stop their enemies' plans.

The Gray Death offers a comprehensive campaign with clear objectives. It utilizes all elements of Mutant Year Zero, from the mutants to the animal mutants and robots that have entered the zone to the fall of Elysium 1. All of these previous plots play a role and provide for the wide range of characters that can be used here as non-player characters as well as by the player characters.

These events will undoubtedly change the zone as a whole. Nevertheless, the individual adventures remain true to Mutant Year Zero's approach of offering a basic scenario in which the player characters can operate relatively freely. Only the finale has the strong feel of a dungeon that has to be explored and offers battles that the characters have to fight. But even here, the player characters are offered a variety of options to stand a chance against what is actually an overpowering opponent.

However, playing this campaign only makes sense if you have already played the other campaigns from the rulebooks or do not intend to play them. Otherwise, the chronology will not work. Knowledge of two Zone Compendiums is also helpful here. In this respect, the campaign plays a central role in the overall game and does not miss the opportunity to hint at the future on the last page, suggesting that later sourcebooks are to come.

In my opinion, The Gray Death is particularly suitable if the players, after a lot of initiative on their part, are to be brought to a targeted action by an external development, in this case, the appearance of the Dawn Army. It is also a good idea to play through this campaign very consistently. For those who prefer to play the game completely on player initiative, this campaign volume will impose too many actions.

The Gray Death does an excellent job of organically continuing previous storylines and bringing the interplay between the various inhabitants of the zone more into focus. In this respect, the book is a great, exciting, and compact addition that will fill several game evenings. After this campaign, the zone will no longer be the same as it was before, thanks to the adventures of the player characters and the development that can be derived from them.

(Björn Lippold)