6 Packs; Battle’s End review

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88287[1]By Paco Garcia Jaen

This 28 pages pdf by Postmortem studio is their first incursion into the world of adventure writing. The 6-Packs range will cover various systems as adventures are published and their goal is to publish material that can be picked up and played in minutes.

Both the name and the statement speak truth.

This adventure doesn’t just do what says in the tin – well, in the 7th page, but it does it very, very well.

The pdf starts with a nice and handy colour battlemat depicting the inn where the adventure will take place. It ends in the same way, with another location of the same inn. If you print this, you’ll have the location perfectly set up from the moment go, saving a considerable amount of time.

The tokens in page 5 are well laid out and with all the names you need. Very nice that the npc’s and antagonist come in round tokens, while the pre-gen characters come in square ones. The artwork is very clear too, though a couple of the tokens could have done with a little bit more thinking. Nothing that will spoil your fun, though, just a very minor detail.

Kudos to the authors and publisher: The Piracy Notice. If you read that notice and still distribute or obtain this, or any of their documents illegally, you have no heart. Simple as that.

imageThen we go to the adventure. This is where the name 6-Packs comes to its own. The adventure is fast, tough and full of monsters, fighting, spells, npcs, storyline and plenty of opportunities for role play. There are even adventure hooks to continue it once the main plot is over.

Although this is a dungeon-crawler, it is a good one and with a very decent story behind. I know plenty of people who sneer at dungeon-crawlers, but you can’t beat one like this if you need to provide a good encounter for your party in just a few minutes.

The plot, you’re in an inn and suddenly tons and tons of undead swarm around you. The reasons? buy the adventure!!!

The layout is simple and to the point. The font is easy enough to read and the narrative is as fast and to the point as the adventure itself. You literally can’t get it wrong if you just follow it, but it also has plenty of places for the GM to improvise, change events and even add some humour to the evening.

There are 6 npcs with both artwork and stats, monster listing with Swampy Skeletons and Ghouls, and to my surprise and delight, 6 perfectly described pre-gen characters.

I say to my delight because a great deal of thought has been given to all of them. They come with a full page of history and background information as well as the very nice line art work and stats. You can start to play them in just the time that takes to read their biography. Neat!

Conclusion

This is a terrific product. Unpretentious, well thought, good attention to detail, compelling but not over complicated story and a preparation time that could hardly be any shorter.

The pdf is a good purchase, but I’d venture say you’ll be better off buying the hard copy. To be honest, the battlemats alone would make the price worth it.

A good first step for Postmortem Studios and one that will surely set them for a great more to come.

I would gladly give this product 4 stars out of 5.

Battle’s End is available to purchase from:

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