Review: Dawn of the Artifacts – Darkest Hour

Having a busy run at work, I decided to run the next installment of the Dawn of the Artifacts, Darkest Hour.  I didn’t expect us to take a full four sessions to get through the adventure.  Each scene in this book is a full run unto itself, but given the separate and diverse types of work involved, this actually works to the module’s benefit.  The GMPC that accompanies the runners on this series was once again subdued and removed from most of the module, allowing the players to pilot the story, which was a flaw I found in the first module, Dusk.

The adventure was challenging, although perhaps not as challenging as some of the engagements in the first two books.  There was the obligatory inclusion of another Feral City, but it was good to have an adventure that bounced around Northern Europe, centered on the Allied German States, which is one of my favourite European settings (though no Berlin…).  As usual, the NPCs were actually at a decent level, rather than pushovers and I loved that there was hat-tip to some of the old Fourth World Lore, even though Earthdawn has been shuffled off to another company.  For us setting fanboys/fangirls it was a pretty cool continuity piece.

So, three books in, I have to say, I’m really impressed with the Dawn of the Artifacts series thus far.  They’re well developed, challenging and have involved the players in the a greater overall story arc without giving the players a God complex.  The pre-published adventures have improved considerably since the days of On the Run.

~ by 1nsomniac on June 1, 2012.