Review 27: Warlords of ATOZ
Sean Connery in a red diaper. Now that I have your attention, you can hear my thoughts about Warlords of ATOZ, a level 3 Mutant Crawl Classics adventure written by Jim Wampler. The module includes art by Peter Mullen, Friedrich Haas, Cliff Kurowski, Jesse Mohn, and Stefan Poag (who also did the cartography). I've run this one a few times, mostly with Mutant Crawl Classics, but I've also used it for a playtest of a hack that I'm working that is a combination of MCC and Cairn. More on that one soon.
The basic premise of this adventure is that a group of technologically advanced raiders have begun destroying nearby villages and capturing pure strain humans. Refugees come to the PCs village, begging for aid, so naturally the village elders ask the PCs to go track down these raiders and investigate (and possibly end) the threat.
Getting it to the Table
In practice, I have found that this module is great for one-shots or convention games, as it is fairly contained and easy to trim to fit a time slot. It is also relatively short to begin with, just about 12 pages. While it does suffer from some of the Goodman Games house style, it is not overloaded with background and history-- just about everything given to the GM is something that will have an impact on play.
Part one details the introduction to the adventure, with the party learning of the threat to the north. There's an excellent rumor table to help set the tone and let the party know what they can(?) expect, and then they're off into the jungle until they find the trail of the warlords. The actual journey section is a bit linear, and is obviously intended just as a means to get the party to the adventure site rather than to be a full wilderness exploration. There are two encounters that happen before they find the warlord encampment. The first is an innocuous encounter with some giant grasshoppers, notable in that in includes a procedure for subduing one for use as a mount. This can easily be trimmed if you want to save time, as it doesn't impact the rest of of the adventure. The second encounter has the PCs sighting the group of warlords and their prisoners; the source of the trail they've been following. This one has the potential for a TPK as it is a large group of enemies; it assumes that most parties will attempt to simply follow them to their camp, with a roll every hour to see if the PCs are noticed.
The groups I've run this for have taken various approaches, but nearly all of them ended up in a fight with varying degrees of preparation. Some have laid traps or ambushes, some have attempted to free the prisoners to even the odds, and one group stampeded some giant grasshoppers into the warlords. In any event, killing some warlords gives the PCs some nice weapons and gear, which can prove very useful in part two.
Once they reach the actual encampment, the adventure opens up a bit into a less linear deal. The PCs have a clear view of the odds (which are not good), and they are left with the decision as to how they will get past the huge number of warlords and into the temple. The adventure includes helpful procedures on how to make rulings on the sneak attempts. Wise players will use the gear they obtained from the previous encounter to disguise themselves.
The final section details the temple itself (a loving homage to the giant head from Zardoz), and then it becomes a slightly more standard MCC module, with encounters and loot and fun artifact interactions detailed in each keyed area. Everything culminates in a very cinematic boss fight with ATOZ himself, in the form of a soft-light hologram of an ancient one with four hard-light hologram guards-- also the temple has lifted off and is hurtling through the air the whole time. There is a table detailing the results of trying to mess with the flight controls, which caused some particularly fun complications for the group that was attempting to take control of the temple while the fight was still ongoing.
Once the fight is over (for better or for worse), the module suggests some possible hooks for further adventuring; this can be a good way to get your players to an entirely new part of the world, since they just rocketed for miles in a giant golden head.
What Worked?
- Short and to the point. This is in essence an oversized encounter-- following the slavers to their camp and seeing what kind of threat they pose to your village. It doesn't go overboard with background and the "why" of what's happening, but leaves the GM plenty of room to work it into their own campaign.
- Combat isn't everything. There is thought given to alternate approaches rather than just going in with weapons drawn.
- Info where you need it. Stat blocks for enemies, artifacts, and devices are included where they are encountered rather than buried in an appendix.
What Didn't Work?
- Fluff encounter. The first encounter with the giant grasshoppers is just sort of "there", and while it does provide opportunity for creative players to use it to their advantage, I would have liked it to be a bit more connected to the rest of the situation. Perhaps some warlords were trying to acquire some more mounts.
Final Thoughts
This is one of my favorite MCC modules simply because it doesn't waste time getting interesting. It's a great way to show players what weirdness is in store for them with the system, with plenty of ways to get around the obstacles with clever thinking (or useful mutations). I would highly recommend this one for the convention circuit, especially with a stack of fun pregens.
You can get Warlords of ATOZ at the Goodman Games web store. Thanks for reading!