Review - Event Horizon (White Star Adventure)

Last night in Tavern Chat, Rob G and myself discussed Event Horizon, a White Star Adventure by +John Reyst and +Johua De Santo .

Event Horizon bills itself as Sci-Fi Horror and it hits the mark, so long as you aren't expecting slasher flick horror. This is horror more akin to the Alien(s) series of films and similar works.

Without going to deeply into the story / plot, as that would pretty much kill the adventure for any that plan to participate in it, the story kicks off either with the party being captured or after the party is captured. I'm glad it's presented as an option, because the groups I've played with generally believe in death before capture. Starting off captured is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

The adventure is about survival with a time limit before shit hits the fan. If I were to run this at a convention, I'd like to use a countdown timer as a prop. Set it for 4 hours and have the players watch that clock and understand just how limited their time is. Wish I had thought of that last night during the discussion.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the black hole in space. It's going to mess with reality and warp time. Oh, which means you could suddenly add or remove time from that timer I mentioned. Damn! I'm really liking this.

Did I mention it includes Insanity rules? Something easily portable to White Star in general of Swords & Wizardry.

There is a lot to like with this adventure. The scenes are well described. The adventure pushes the PCs forward while giving them freedom to explore the ship, there's tension and more than simply hack and slay.

While I mentioned using it for convention play (for which I would or would not use the opening scene, depending on the size of the time slot) it also works as en excellent way to kick off a campaign. Heck, if the players survive, they'll have a ship and probably have no clue where they are. Time to explore.

Overall, an excellent adventure. It does require a bit of prep on the GM's side of the table, as you really need to be familiar with the material to run it at full potential, but it should be worth the effort.

Disclosure: Both Rob G and myself were supplied with review copies of Event Horizon for the purpose of reviewing. I'm also a huge fan of White Star. ;)

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