Rise of the Runelords: Sins of the Saviors

So far, I've been critical of Mark Wright's offerings in this series, which seem to stick more closely to the plot of the original scenarios (with its different dramatic requirements) than those of the other author. But I have to say that this is the best of his three. Whether that's the nature of the particular scenario being adapted here or the sign of a different approach, I don't know, but I'm inclined to the latter.

That's because there's not so much fighting in this story as in the previous ones, although there is some (notably with the white dragon shown on the cover). Instead, much of it concerns the heroes trying to piece together clues as to where they should go next and then exploring a largely abandoned ruin. This results in more dialogue than fighting, and the scenes in the darkened sinkhole at the beginning work particularly well, especially when the fighter comes under the mental influence of an evil force.

The villains are less effective here than in the previous instalments, but this does at least leave more room for characterisation of the leads. It's not particularly deep, being pared down at the end to a consideration of which of the seven deadly sins each of them is most driven by... which may be going somewhere in the final instalment but here is little more than (for example) the wizard saying “yes, I suppose I am a bit envious” without it being otherwise apparent from his actions.

Once again, the story is more about moving from A to B (which a pre-published RPG campaign typically has to be, in order to work) than it is about the characters doing the travelling. But this one at least makes an effort to try and put things in context and give the heroes something to do other than hitting things with swords.