My first negative review

By Split Light, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

I'd like to preface this post by saying I have bought nearly every book, and really enjoy this system.

That said, I've just finished reading through the entirety of the Chronicles of the Gatekeeper module in preparation for an upcoming play session.

This is the first FFG Star Wars book that I read through and thought just really wasn't that good. I still plan to run it, but I'm going to have to do a lot of modification and streamlining.

Without spoilers, a few of my criticisms.

1) A lot of go to place X. Do side quests to get your faction up with the locals. Great now they like you and will help you accomplish your quest. (This is my biggest complaint.)

2) The force power really isn't all that interesting. Not sure any of my characters will even bother picking it up.

3) I'll have to tone down the loot. For a starting campaign it's giving out opportunities for top tier light saber crystals, one of which is already modded to a damage of 9 plus extra effects.

4) Many of the side quests seem forced, and like they would be awkward to insert into the game flow.

5) Travel from point A to point B with a list of random encounters. Often the encounters must be forced or seem out of theme.

There are other negatives, but I don't want to risk giving away spoilers, or just spend my post ranting.

There were things I liked. I thought the settings were well well chosen and very Star Warsy. I did like the final chapter, though some of the wandering monster encounters seemed a bit hinky to me. I also liked the overall story arc (or I wouldn't run it.)

I've run one previous module (Jewel of Yavin) and been the player in another. Overall I've been impressed with the quality. I just found this one a bit lacking.

Seems a fair review to me. As with any adventure it will all depend on how it's run, and it doesn't seem to need more than a little tweaking here and there. I was a little disappointed with the big "surprise" near the end. Really? This is your twist? How would they not see this coming? Hm... I have no idea how to add a spoiler block.

I have a similar problem with most pregenerated adventures, SW or not. That's why I (almost) never buy or use them.

I did enjoy and use the one in the EotE Begginer Box, though. Good way to introduce people to the game.

I generally don't run modules, I prefer my own stuff, but based on the synopsis and concept this one just really fit with the story I'm running. With tweaking it wiill certainly work, I just found it a bit lacking.

I personally like the power concept and it's applications. I suppose it just depends on how I interpret the power working in a story, not just the game. It's description in the game is left open, I think, so groups can interpret what it does as they like. I think of it as Sharingan-esque predicting a target's movements before they make them, then beating them to the punch. But it's a power with a pretty narrow range of uses, as it mostly applied to structured encounters, which basically leaves you with either combat or social encounters; depending on the group or the PCs, there might not be much use for it, but I can think of several character concepts that would get a lot of mileage out of it.

I agree, I don't have much use for running it as a contained adventure. However, it's a great idea generator, has some good locations, and useful sample encounters (e.g.: angry mobs).

My biggest beef, with all the modules, is lack of maps. I don't need a grid and lots of detail, but some basic layouts at a high level would improve the utility of the books immensely.

My biggest beef, with all the modules, is lack of maps. I don't need a grid and lots of detail, but some basic layouts at a high level would improve the utility of the books immensely.

I agree, and even when they do provide maps, they're rarely useful. I love the idea of the Defiant Core base from Strongholds, but the map they provided is just about useless to me.

I ran that adventure and my table find it pretty fun. Only negative was the second part that I found too open. I found myself taking several hours of planning asking myself " how am I going to givre them leads in a city that would rather kill the characters or selling them to the Empire instead of helping them?" At the end, I ran throught it but I forced some events to help my PC progress.

As for your negative points:

1- unfortunetely for you, most FFG adventures make you travel from point A to point B so FFG can introduce new planet setting and increase their chance to sell their adventure. As for the side quests, Your players are gonna play wannabe jedi in dark time. They need to save the widow and the orphan, that is part of the setting. Plus, they need to deserve their morality increase.Of course, you have no obligation to use any or all of them.

2- Yeah the Force Power is not that wow, but you forgot that we are talking about an Advanced Holocron. For a group of starting jedi, it is pratically the source of ultimate teaching and power.

3- My group spared the old master and convinced him to became their master so I have no opinion on that matter but if you worry about what a fully modded lightsaber can do, running a Force and Destiny game is probably not a good idea.

Edited by vilainn6

Haven't run this next but it's next in line. Anyways most modules are a to b style mostly because of the universe being very much about travel and exploration. The only real criticism I think I have about this one is the reveal at the end as I don't think any of my players are going to be gullible enough to fall for be russ without some heavy work on my part. This said the potential gear is good but I'd not run this with a starting party given some of the NPC's (such as our final reveal and the potential bounty hunter in ep2) are powerful enough for a more developed party.

Sigh people still don't get what a game changer the power is?

Foresight lets you get automatic successes or Automatic advantages on your first roll or for multiple turns if you have duration upgrades. You can do it as a maneuver or if you really dive into the tree give them to your allies.

Want to guarantee you make a particular check against an opponent well activating Foresight pretty much guarantees you will succeed unless you roll really poorly.

Its only a meh if you don't like automaticly succeeding on checks.

Edited by Decorus

Sigh people still don't get what a game changer the power is?

Foresight lets you get automatic successes or Automatic advantages on your first roll or for multiple turns if you have duration upgrades. You can do it as a maneuver or if you really dive into the tree give them to your allies.

Want to guarantee you make a particular check against an opponent well activating Foresight pretty much guarantees you will succeed unless you roll really poorly.

Its only a meh if you don't like automaticly succeeding on checks.

I was considering running this module in the future. Thanks for the review!

That destroyer droid though... TPK if GM doesn't run it carefully.

That destroyer droid though... TPK if GM doesn't run it carefully.

More importantly, TPK if the players and their characters don't handle it properly. Most TPKs get blamed on the GM, but the players have to realize that they usually are equally responsible.

My biggest beef, with all the modules, is lack of maps. I don't need a grid and lots of detail, but some basic layouts at a high level would improve the utility of the books immensely.

I agree, and even when they do provide maps, they're rarely useful. I love the idea of the Defiant Core base from Strongholds, but the map they provided is just about useless to me.

I agree, that's becoming a serious issue.

Sigh people still don't get what a game changer the power is?

Foresight lets you get automatic successes or Automatic advantages on your first roll or for multiple turns if you have duration upgrades. You can do it as a maneuver or if you really dive into the tree give them to your allies.

Want to guarantee you make a particular check against an opponent well activating Foresight pretty much guarantees you will succeed unless you roll really poorly.

Its only a meh if you don't like automaticly succeeding on checks.

Not to mention the mere narrative ability to see the future of a persons potential actions is extraordinarily powerful and gives the player a lot of personal narrative options.

This combined not just with automatic successes, but advantages, could make a character an absolute nightmare in a duel.