...does anyone have it? A few online retailers in the UK show it as being available at the same time as 'Blood of Martyrs' for DH which is defintely availble as people have it and are discussing it over on the DH boards.

Replicant253 said:

I didn't notice it being for sale in Orc's Nest or Forbidden Planet in London Wednesday when I picked up my copy of Blood of Martyrs.

Strange - Orc's nest posted my copy to me last week...perhaps I got the one you would have bought, Adam? (Mu ha ha ha! )

Here's a spoiler filled quick review - although I haven't even finished reading it yet, and certainly haven't run it!

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

Basically, it's the seven samurai story. The adventurers receive a request for emergency assistance from the Imperial colony world of Damaris, who are about to be on the receiving end of a massive Ork invasion.

The book starts with a decent gazetteer of the Expanse-bound world of Damaris, a chilly frontier planet that is actually more Imperial than many worlds within the Imperium. The planet is way out in the depths of the Expanse, and has to look to its own allies for assistance, as the Imperium isn't wildly keen on protecting worlds beyond its own borders. I like gazetteers, and this is a nice one, with lots of information about the world and its people.

The adventure begins with the players being hailed by the planet and begged for assistance in fending off a large Ork invasion. Assuming they're interested, they are tipped into the high-level intrigues of the planet's inhabitants. There is a lot of politicking in this section of the adventure, as the NPCs and players manuever to get as much out of the desperate planet's rulers as possible. Other Rogue Traders are present on the world, and the players must make alliances with these unreliable characters, while dealing with the internal politics of the planet's rulers too. They must forge a military force capable of holding off the Orks, and at the same time get themselves in a strong position to profit from the situationwhen the dust settles, (assuming the world survives.)

The second part of the adventure is the actual invasion itself, which contains some interesting and innovative mass combat rules. This is a large section packed full of action, and a fairly detailed timetable for the invasion, with lots of opportunity for players to get involved in battles both in orbit around Damaris and on the ground. This is very action heavy, but the players are effectively acting as Generals controlling the world's defences (depending on how much influence they gathered in part one) rather than footsloggers.

...and that's as far as I've got! There's a third section where the players shoot off into the depths of the icy asteroid field around the planet's star system, but I haven't got that far yet.

I like it so far. The art is fantastic...so good in fact that I wanted to see bigger versions of a lot of the pictures, which often seem scrunched up into one corner of a page when they should be half a page...but that's just me! It strikes me that this would be a very demanding adventure to GM, as an awful lot of work would be required for the mass combat sections to keep the whole thing flowing. The book makes the point that anyone acting as GM will get out what they put in, and I would say that's certainly true: this is not a book which spoonfeeds the GM at all. A GM would have to familiarise themselves with the mass combat rules in great detail, and keep a running track of a complex invasion across an entire city. Plus, I could be misreading the city map on page 9, but my version seems a bit incomplete. It lists major structures, but then doesn't have a key to link them to where they are on the map.

Other than that, I really like it so far. It would be a fantastic adventure, especially if the GM goes to town and really prepares it up properly. That's not a criticism by the way: RT is inherently a more freeform and demanding game than DH or DW, and this adventure is representative of that approach.

Thank you for the first impression review, sounds great. Need to pry my group away from DH and get them to try RT but they are not budging at the moment.

Yeah i was in forbidden planet on friday and they had copies of it i just think that for the book size it's abit expensive but then i think most FFG products are expensive (doesn't stop me buying most of them)

I really really need to have a copy yesterday.

Have I missed something? Has the book been released already? I thought that this would be the case only in Feb 2011...

It is available in the UK that is for sure. Surprised not to see more people giving their views on it. Perhaps it is wrapped up under the tree for some lucky people hence the delay in getting to see it.

So once again UK and probably the rest of Europe get the product probably a week or more in advance of North America... Could someone explain this for me? Because unless they changed printers very recently, the books are still printed in China.

Well, they have not arrived in my part of Europe I am sure. We are most often at least 1 to 2 months behind release in the US.

Razorboy said:

Marco Polo must be delivering them.

Sister Callidia said:

I have not seen them in my local store as well. But then again, the shopkeeper of my personal trust has very very incable supplier *sigh*.

FRP games says they have this and Blood of Martyers in stock online.