Part II of Chartreuse Shadows is the compilation Cha’alt After Dark and concerns yet more short adventures. Premise, then branching series of events, or premise, then 6 room dungeon with entries that do not form any sort of coherent whole. It feels, frankly, overdone at this point, and it makes me wish Venger had made a few shorts and then concentrated on doing one ultra-long adventure path, a sort of Gonzo version of Horror on the Orient Express, or a murder mystery, or maybe a hexcrawl. The point is to add some variety. Icecream is fine but you don’t want to only eat icecream.
There’s an opening section on storytelling tips that feels very 90s World of Darkness along with a subset of rules that mechanically reward you getting laid along with an amusing caveat that prevents players from getting the bonus by just endlessly fucking eachother (a 1 in 6 chance of things getting, ahem, complicated so one of the Player characters must leave the party and become an NPC).
Manifestation
You start off on a space-ship, in medias res, go through a portal and you are re-incarnated as adventurers on Cha’alt. You spot a group of sand pirates attack a merchant caravan. I think I may have played in this one? Once again, the simplicity of the scenario is suitable for the ultra-light 2 hour lunchbreak format but it means everything going to be fairly straightforward. The point is that you will likely end up escorting the merchants in exchange for a reward. Irrelevant brothel section with irrelevant table of alien hookers. I have a commandment: If you put this shit in and have it take up a page, make sure it is mechanically active and it affects the rest of the adventure. So either a chance to gain a boon (I guess the fucking rules cover that) or treasure, or maybe you get tricked.
Also TRIM these descriptions. Half a page of description for each encounter is too much. And then the leader of the Skeevers shows up with 3 henchmen (?) and you have a fight or maybe he just kills the guy that buys the crystal he is looking for. The end.
So Beautiful, so Dangerous
In a strange junkyard, under the cursed gaze of some Cthonic Idol, a Sorcerer shows up, and you fight. Cue a d100 table with a list of salvageable tech. Could have been cut out and saved on printing costs.
Girl with the Tentacle Tattoo
Almost a proper adventure. You are comissioned by some asshole to find a woman who can sire the offspring of the great old ones. 3 factions are after her. There’s a creepy encounter on the way, there’s a sleazy brothel, more psionic horror on the way, and a 3 way firefight between the cult of Kthulhu, the Scarlet Brotherhood and the PCs. I don’t know why you’d have the third faction but then not describe or involve it. Should be restructured to be more free-flowing i.e. you understand the three factions and their capabilities and create some sort of opportunity for faction play.
Cha’alt after Dark.
Once again, good premise, lacklustre follow-through. Some weird elf is reportedly promising great rewards to those who participate in his bizarre games in the desert. He and a shittonne of colourful companions throw a glowing orb into the hideous Well of Souls and the PCs and an unspecified number of other randos (again, should have been statted up).
The Well of Souls dungeon proper is three linear corridors with individually entertaining encounters that are not connected in any way. I urge that this style, which was used to great effect in Cha’alt, be tempered with some other, more coherent method. Throw in a couple of riddles, a mystical guardian, something. Opening some ancient door and having a flaming beekeeper emerge from it, to maybe burn to death is all well and good, and good on you for creating an area where putting your hand in a seven-sided cube if you possess the Gemstone of Ultimate Power (not explained in the adventure) will allow you to summon one of 7 prismatic shadow shades, or throwing an obsidean dragon in there, the encounters are well enough individually but without structure you are just repeating The Black Pyramid, and none of it has the same weight to it. This style has been codified sufficiently, now it needs innovation.
The Pervert’s Paradise sex club has yet another d100 risque tables and no follow up about maybe encountering the elf guy there and shooting him. Maybe he tries a ruse? What if there’s some patrons there that could provide an obstacle? Does he have an escape ship? What was his real motivation? The adventure just peters off.
Part III is Chem’amerikazaam, the sleazy demon-haunted sex megadungeon. Here’s hoping it’s a bit tighter. A triptych of reviews for the third part of a trilogy. Hoo booi.
Age of Dusk 