Lone Wolf Multiplayer - Free Download - Murder at the Tourney Review

WARNING! SPOILERS! Murder at The Tourney, a Lone Wolf Multiplayer adventure from Signs and Portents #81 starting at page 32 is a great adventure. You can find it at http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/signsnportentsarchive. The storyline is that the heroes have to investigate an assassination attempt at a knight's tournament in Illion. 

I ran this adventure with a group of five players playing a Kai Lord, Knight of the White Mountain, Summerlening Knight, Drawven Gunner of Bor, and Buccaneer of Shadaki. 

First, the good... 
1) This adventure really captures the "feel" of a night's tournament. I liked how the player characters (Knights) could interact during the tournament. 
2) The "read aloud" text that you share with the players was very well done. 
3) I liked the fact that the plot calls for the player characters to have mercy on an opponent. A true test for most role players, but totally fits into the heroic ideal of the world of Magnamund. 
4) The combat levels throughout the adventure are very balanced are are able to be accomplished by a group of five clever heroes. 
5) The awarding of the magical weapons at the mid-point as well as the celebration at the end both are very well down and worked well a the gaming table. My characters actually felt very honored to receive the praise of the Lord. 
6) I liked how it provided scripts irregardless of how the assassination attempt went - whether or not the target dies, the plot proceeds. 
7) The little boy (actually a Helghast) TOTALLY fooled my players. They thought he was the nephew of the page that was the assassin - this was what the mercenaries were holding over the page's head to make him cooperate.... PERFECT! 
8) There were great roleplaying opportunties throughout the adventure. 

Finally, the bad... 
1) The use of the word "tourney" instead of "tournament" in the title of the adventure as well as the flavor text bothered me. It seemed to break the tone of the story... is this historically accurate at all? 
2) During the Knight's tournament, any player characters that are knights may participate and basic rules are presented. There could have been more information given such as opponent Knight stats and disciplines, as well as some basic rules for progressing through the tournament. How many knights entered? What happens when both knights are unhorsed? Are BOTH out of the tournament? 
3) Half way through the adventure there's an opportunity for the heroes to heal all END and WILL. I thought the time given was too brief to warrant this healing and probably unnecessary considering the only combat they got into prior to that was with a page CS:11 that surrenders once 9 points of damage are done. 

Overall, I feel as if the problems with this adventure care very minor. A very well planned adventure with lots of role playing opportunities.


1LR Review - 18 out of 20 - It's a Solid Hi