Game: Sanctuary
Publisher: Auran d20
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 22nd, February 2003
Reviewer’s Rating: 7/10 [ Good ]
Total Score: 7
Average Score: 7.00
Sanctuary is an adventure from Auran d20. As you might expect, it’s an adventure that uses the d20 system and this review will contain spoilers for it. If you think someone might run this game for you in the future then you’ve already been naughty by clicking on the link to this review. Go on; back out now before you make it worse.
The rest of us can safely discover that Sanctuary is about a vampire in a castle above a quaint little village. There’s a catch. Some of the villagers are up to no good, are waylaying people and sending them up to the castle. Er. Okay. That isn’t a catch at all. It’s cliche. I suspect at least half of a gaming group will react with “I bet there’s a vampire!” followed by a “and the villagers are in on it!” the very minute the thankless GM describes the rain, the village and the nearby castle. Ah, but perhaps there is a catch after all, I don’t really think it matters if the players start thinking . o O (Vampire!) from the word go, in fact, it might actually improve the game. Sanctuary is designed for a party of third to fourth level characters. How do you think they’ll fair against a vampire equipped with some useful magical trinkets? Not very well. Sanctuary can cope with between four and six players and it’s going to be very tough on them. It’s going to be very tough indeed. It’s designed so that the player characters release that there’s a powerful vampire in the castle, that it’s nearly dawn and the best idea is to get the hell out of there.
Besides, your first reaction to Sanctuary is unlikely to be a disappointed “oh, a vampire cliche game”. Your first reaction is much more likely to be a “Oh! A CD!” And so there is. The 110-paged, black and white, US$19.95 book comes with a CD. There are eight musical tracks; each one composed especially for particular scenes in the book, a PDF copy of the book and some 3D illustrated scenes from the game. That’s fairly impressive. Getting the right music to roleplay to and getting it without fussing must rate among my top tips. It’s good music to roleplay to, atmospheric and largely musical (rather than vocal). The PDF copy is handy for finding things quickly and great if your bookshelf is upstairs but you’re writing notes for the game downstairs on your computer. The 3D scenes aren’t so much my cup of tea even though all the GMs I know now GM from either a laptop or a palmtop. Why not? The music suggests images to the players but the images go as far as showing the players what they see, stealing a little from the imagination. I’m being hypocritical because I don’t have a problem showing players illustrations of NPCs or items they find. Oh well. I think it’s safe to say that something on the bonus CD will suit your tastes and that’s a… well, that’s a bonus.
Sanctuary isn’t really black and white either; there are fourteen colour plates inside that show various maps and floor plans. In this centre section of the book there are pages of black and white handouts to photocopy and give to the players. If I’m buying an adventure then one of the first things I look for are handouts. I can write adventures myself but I suck at the art side – and I’m sure I’m not the only one. In any case, pre-written adventures are supposed to save you time and with the handouts you’re certainly saving time.
It took just a quick flick through Sanctuary to confirm that I was going to like it. The adventure isn’t too linear. Sure, events happen but they’re a result of valid player character actions and NPC reactions. The NPCs have their own goals, knowledge and reactions. NPCs aren’t restricted to rooms in the castle or buildings in the village either. They’ll move around, they’ll move around in reaction to what players do and they’ll be seen by other NPCs as a result. There are shades of grey too, the game isn’t only “Should we go left or should we go right?” or “Should we attack with steel or magic?” decisions. The villagers taking part in the kidnapping think they’re supplying slavers with stock in order to protect their own dying village – how harsh would you be on them? The vampire who’s moved in and dealt with the slavers isn’t making any more demands on the villagers, she’s just taking the offerings they bring – that’s better than most vampires – and she just wants to be left alone. It was one of the Paladin’s bowmen who fired the first shot that led to the massacre of the vampire’s previous “home village”, the villagers there were happy to have her – so doesn’t she have just cause for hating the man? In fact, if the players find the Paladin then he’s dying from a spider bite, not a vampire one. The players can save him if they’ve got the resources, or he might die. There’s no railroading of the plot.
Actually, there’s just a hint of railroading. The game works so much better if the players get captured and locked up in the castle. This will happen when some nasty gas canisters drop down and smash in front of them. You’ll have to search through to the back of the book and rummage around for the saving throw for this gas and that’s one of the book’s few layout flaws. When the players wake without their equipment and manacled in a cell they’ll have to be on top form to get free. There’s no plot device left for them to find and escape. There’s no loose link or crumbly brick. If you, as GM, think one is necessary then you’ll need to put it in yourself. That’s if the players get that far, I think they’ll be lucky to survive the locals dropping boulders on their heads at an inopportune moment earlier on.
The lead into the adventure has the players looking for a dying man’s brother. The brother, a famous Paladin, is off questing to exterminate his evil nemesis. That’s right, the vampire. After a bit of searching the players will track him to the village. Sanctuary isn’t a plug in and play adventure. It needs an introduction; it needs a run up, heck you could take your players from second level to the suggested third or fourth level just tracking the Paladin to the village. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just important to be aware of in this day and age when so many pre-written adventures can run straight out of the gate.
The first section of Sanctuary is divided up into parts, acts and locations. The first two are causal and chronologically ordered and the last, location, is self-explanatory. The notes for DMs are in boxes and bits to read allowed are in italic. The text density is good and therefore the pages can be a bit of a jumble at times but careful use of headers keeps the confusion down. It’s only when the facts and figures you need for the encounter aren’t in the DM’s notes and have been saved for the extensive second section of the book that you’ll find yourself flicking pages around and risking getting lost. Sanctuary is a game that needs careful preparation. The italic read-to-your player bits are all right. They seem to be directed at one non-specific player, the phrase “You and your companions…” is common. I don’t like the use of “You” in the read-to-player bits but Sanctuary doesn’t make the critical error of telling the players what they do – only what they see.
The second half of the book follows after the coloured plates and some wonderful full-paged character sheets for important NPCs. It begins with giving more concise stats for the remaining non-playing characters. Sanctuary claims that it can be played in any game setting and it’s probably true given a fair amount of tinkering. And tinkering is fair; most pre-written games need tinkering before they’re good to go. Sanctuary really needs a suitable coastline for the castle to be up against, it needs to have the kingdom or country that the slavers come from close by. The second half of Sanctuary gives you write ups on such countries, on the deities that the locals will be serving, detailed backgrounds on key characters that are best kept away from the stats when you’re in a hurry. Okay, so the second half of Sanctuary isn’t really a “half”, it’s more of a quarter or a fifth but it does play a critical part in the game’s success.
The book speaks of quality: sturdy bindings, pages of colour, good text density and quality illustrations. I’m no fan of pre-written adventures, as Wyrdlings will know and be fed up of me saying. Although there are maps and tunnels with traps in Sanctuary it isn’t really a linear nightmare. The book presents the key locations, NPCs, motivations and likely events. It does that work for the GM and then leaves the guy running the game with the unpredictable players with the freedom and the ability to put all these ingredients together. It’s a success.
