Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

[ghost-angel]

The Upside:

 

Shaper Than A Serpent's tooth is the third adventure book Hero published for the Champions line under fifth edition. It's also the longest single adventure. As a whole and if run strait it can take from 3-6 sessions to complete. The book itself is divided into three chapters, the three parts of the adventure and a final chapter on the villains themselves.

 

So who are the villains? Just like in Champions Battleground the workings of the book center around the workings of one mastermind. In this case King Cobra. The book makes use of the VIPER organization, so having the VIPER sourcebook on hand is helpful.

 

I'm going to go into as much detail as possible and give as little away as possible as there's a bit of mystery in this adventure.

 

Chapter 1 - Showdown At Snake Gulch. The first part of the adventure shows the heaviest use of the VIPER organization. Our heroes start out investigating and eventually attacking a VIPER nest. This part is the ony part that can be taken out and used as a stand alone adventure - it's a good investigate and shutdown the evil organization scenario. It can take from 1-2 sessions depending on how much investigating you want to involve in the game. The book assumes about one session as part of the overall story arc, but every group has a different approach to things. The seeds for the rest of the book at planted here, as this particualr facility is where King Cobra got his start.

 

Chapter 2 - The Ophidian Plague. Part two starts out with the cleanup of part one. The heroes have a number of possible leads to investigate, but not a lot of time as only a few days of in game time pass before the world wakes up to The Ophidian Plague, a virus that mutates people into berserkers with snake like features. The heroes have to race against time to contain the plague and figure out a cure. The section is divided into three major plot arcs: Investigation from part one, the outbreak of the plague, the lead on the cure. And even within those sections there are several sub-sections that can be used or skipped as the GM sees fit. First is containing the plague, rescuing uninfected people, fighting infected supervillains, ambushes, and finally tracking the criminal that has a link to King Cobra: Cybermind - where the PCs have to find him and get a handful in the bargain. All that action leads right into part three in a non-stop action fest. All told, this chapter can take 1-3 sessions depending on how much the GM wants to involve.

 

Chapter 3 - The Coils Of The Cobra. Without so much as stopping to check their watches the heroes are plunged headlong from the last part of Chapter Two into Chapter Three, with a chase scene through the sewers (how Superhero is that!), As they chase down their quarry they encounter an underground jungle to fight their way through, and finally the evil mastermind's base itself! This non-stop pace can be done in one session, but would most likely take two full sessions. After all this the heroes should have the cure. The adventure doesn't include administering the cure in any detail, but it does touch on how you could hand that, as a handwave or even a further adventure. The conclusion also provides a number of plot twists at the end you can use in the aftermath of all the events.

 

Chapter 4 - King Cobra And COIL. This chapter is simply the character write-ups for the master villain, his henchmen and some notes on his organization and motivations. We get seven total write-ups: King Cobra, his inner circle and a COIL Agent. Also at the back of this chapter are the maps from the adventure reprinted for easier copying. And Combat Records sheets for each encounter are included to help track and expediate combat.

 

So, how does this adventure stack up? Really well as a matter of fact. There are investigations, mysteries, plot twists, combat, chase scenes, and enough options, side notes and extra information to really make this a scenario your PCs won't soon forget. The setting is generic, though there is a short section starting in Chapter Two on how to use Millenium City (the Champions Setting default home city).

 

The adventure is so good, as a matter of fact, that it would take very little work to adapt it to a completely different genre! Tweak a few things here and there and you have the makings of a Modern (Dark Champions), Pulp, or Cyberpunk adventure. Things to change are the organization (unless you have VIPER in your other genres; the VIPER sourcebook provides notes on how to incorporate them), making King Cobra and his inner circle non-supers, and some minor details of technology. That's how well written this adventure is.

 

If you need a good long adventure for a group of PCs, I'd pick this up and see what you can do with it in your own campaign.

 

The Downside:

 

To get the full effect of this adventure book you will need the VIPER Sourcebook, as it really does work best involving VIPER. Doubly so if VIPER is an ongoing threat in your game. If you don't use VIPER it will take some, not a lot, work to remove the references. That's it, that's the downside. Not much here that's actually detrimental to the adventure itself, I found it pretty engaging just reading it.

 

The Otherside:

 

Can this be used by non-Hero gamers? Absolutely, in fact most of the adventure itself it generically written, you can take it and plot it into any Super (or non-super) setting with some work. A bit of adaption on the part of the main villains would be required it you're using them.

 

So, final word on this adventure? It's good, I like it a lot. It could make an exciting series of game sessions even if you never reuse the villains here again. Cleanly organized and layed out, the timeline of events makes sense and comes with options to speed it up or slow it down a bit if needed. The challenges are deisgned to be tough or easy depending on where your PCs strengths are.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

The RPG.Net post will go up on Friday, as usual for my reviews lately. Of course, if you're reading this you realize the cool people who hang out here read it early

[Shaft]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Thanks for this review. I kept humming and hawing over it, but given your reviews on other products, I'm quite sure I'll pick it up now.

[mattingly]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Chapter Three, with a chase scene through the sewers

I ran this adventure for my players when I first got the campaign started several years ago, and before anyone knew about this adventure (in fact, I think it got published just after character design time) two players showed with characters that had a KS: Millennium City Sewers! Quite funny.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Thanks for this review. I kept humming and hawing over it' date=' but given your reviews on other products, I'm quite sure I'll pick it up now.[/quote']

 

I'm getting a reputation ... sweet.

 

I reviewed the adventures pretty quickly because there were no reviews on them and because they rock on toast. My secret hope (a far fetched hope I'm afraid) is that my reviews of the adventure books suddenly cause people to buy them like mad so DOJ will write more - because they have a knack for writing some really cool scenarios.

[Spidey88]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Count me among those who think this adventure kicks some serious butt.

 

I've always considered the fact that my opinion about this book was very byassed, considering my love of (many would say obsession with) cold-blooded creatures of all sorts - it's nice to see that others hold this book in high esteem too.

[Spence]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Me too me too

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

I'm another Serpent's Tooth fan. I really like the new King Cobra and his flunkies; Cobes and Interface both make good 'master villains' for teams not yet ready to face Doctor Destroyer or Takofanes face-to-face.

[Hermit]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

When I ran this adventure, the group had a blast. Slither was openly declared "too gross for consciousness" and taken out. One character's no need to breathe LS turned out to be VERY handy, and the players were very pleased with their performance by the end of it all. Actually, they nipped COIL in the bud for the most part, only two baddies getting away.

[Shaft]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Quick Question for those who have read/run this adventure: What is the recommended power level? Does it play well with Street level Supers?

[Spidey88]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Shaft:

 

It's intended for a conventional power-level game (200 base, 150 disads) with 6 players: you've got the option of using the Champions if you like (perhaps with say, Kinetic thrown in).

 

I'm running it with four characters, all at around 500 points (300 base, 150 disads, + XP). I may beef up the villains in particular areas to cover some of the capabilities of the PCs, but I shouldn't need to do much to challenge the players.

 

How do you define "street level" anyway? Crimefighting focus, or point totals?

If you're dealing with lower point levels, then you might need to scale the villains down a bit - but tips are given on how to do so, and the plot is robust enough to cover a lot of mucking around.

[Balabanto]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Actually, I didn't like the revised King Cobra and his flunkies.

 

I loathed Gorgon, who is incredibly powerful as well as virtually impervious to the attacks of most starting characters.

 

Krait is flat out broken, I don't believe anyone should have the ability to go first, drain your speed and DEX, and keep all of his levels in DCV while you attack. Quite frankly, that sheet should be burned at the stake.

 

Taking away King Cobra's potions and giving him the power directly? Another bad move. 100 new agents an hour? Gimme a break!

 

Resetting these guys to zero was, while necessary, do-able in a better way. The Brawling Balabanto feels that they should have stayed truer to the origins of the original characters. They already had the rights to them, there was no need to mess with things this much.

 

If you can do it with FOXBAT, for gods sake, you can do it with King Cobra.

 

There is a tendency in 5th edition to "Ultimize" villains in the same way that Ultimate Marvel does. Quite frankly, more powerful doesn't mean better, and good storytelling and writing will win over more powerful every time.

 

I didn't like this sourcebook. I can't even use it. The power level of my game is too low for it because I didn't upgrade my PC's power level when the edition switch happened. Nor will I. They took close to 15 years of universal standard when the change happened, and threw it out the window. Now people just build stuff with what they THINK the character should have instead of thinking about game balance vis a vis the average group of player characters.

 

I don't consider that "right-thinking." A good GM cares about his players. A good game designer keeps things simple and eliminates voodoo math so the GM can run the scenario easily.

 

Consider me on the side of the dinosaurs, but I was so disappointed in this sourcebook that if I didn't feel honor-bound to support the company to make sure people know and love Hero System, I wouldn't have put out the money for it.

[Shaft]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Shaft:

 

It's intended for a conventional power-level game (200 base, 150 disads) with 6 players..

 

How do you define "street level" anyway? Crimefighting focus, or point totals?

If you're dealing with lower point levels, then you might need to scale the villains down a bit - but tips are given on how to do so, and the plot is robust enough to cover a lot of mucking around.

 

Thanks for the detailed response. Rep is forthcoming.

 

I tend to run my games with 355 pts or 375 pts (200 base, 150 pts in disads, 5 pts in quirks, and I allow PCs to take the normal characteristic maxiama without counting it against the disad total-0 effectively bribing them with 20 pts if they choose to pay more for characteristics exceeding the maxima (I also tell my PCs to stay at SPD 4). I also have a 60 pt cap on attack powers & 20 active pts per category in defense. I charge characters for weapons and gadgets, though I do let them use devices they pick up with the expectation that they discard at the end of the session or pay for it later with points (Independant disad not allowed).

 

This works very nicely to generate high powered street level heroes. such as Daredevil, Spidey, Wolverine or Bat-family members. I tend to avoid superfantastic technology (like teleportation rings or forcefield belts), though I tend to have cyberpunkish/near future tech (like power armour or cybernetics). Aliens do not exist (except for mysterious ones like Predators or Greys, who have no interest in welcoming us into a Galactic civilization, much less forming one) though extradimensional beings such as demons have been known to appear (though this is generally disbelieved).

 

(For those of you who have read Viborra Bay, I was able to use it nearly as is).

 

This limits the choice of supplements I can use since many superhero modules tend to involve fantastic technology (Dr VillainGod is stealing the UberForceField from the World Police. He does this by teleporting his army of mooks into location X... etc...). On the other hand, it makes it easy to adapt espionage or action modules.

 

Viper storylines can go either way, hence my hesitation.

[Shaft]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Actually' date=' I didn't like the revised King Cobra and his flunkies... Resetting these guys to zero was, while necessary, do-able in a better way. The Brawling Balabanto feels that they should have stayed truer to the origins of the original characters. [/quote']

 

Can you just adopt them to be more in keeping me with your power level? I do that a lot for my games (in my case, usually just scaling the power levels and SPDs).

[Spidey88]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

A few comments/questions for you, Balabanto (and rest assured, I mean this genuinely and innocently, without any intention to arouse your ire). I would simply like your opinion. Obviously, we fall on the opposite side of the tracks in regards to this book, and I'd like to hear more of what you have to say - your critique may improve how I use the book. As I freely admit my love of reptiles may have resulted in me seeing things with rose-colored glasses, and caused me to miss issues I might have had with the book otherwise.

 

It would seem that the issues you have speak as much for your opinion of HERO books in general these days as much as issues specifically with this book. Am I somewhat correct in this assumption? If that is true (again, assuming I'm right), would you feel that the power levels of the villains, in general, is on par with the higher power levels my group uses? (as mentioned before, we're at 300 base points, up to 150 disads, and around 50 xp. Average high-end attacks cap around 15d6 or so, though I haven't enforced hard limits.) Eg. Gorgon IS very powerful, but I'm fairly sure my PCs could whoop her in a single turn (ie. within 12 phases), with focused attacks and sound tactics + teamwork, and end up badly bruised but still whole. I can't expect you to know the specifics of my players, but what things would you see as problems, even dealing with high-powered PCs?

 

 

Again, an honest question as opposed to veiled criticism of your opinions: had any of the villains presented in this book, aside from King Cobra, appeared anywhere else before? I don't recall seeing them anywhere else - but I admit my experiences with books previous to 5th ed. are fairly limited.

 

What exactly do you mean by "voodoo math"? I didn't quite follow you there. I assumed you meant "overly complicated power constructs", but I wasn't sure.

 

Your opinion of the villains aside, how did you feel about the overall plot of the story? Interesting, compelling, or something considerably less positive?

[Spidey88]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Incidentally, Shaft:

 

If mutated snake-men (some very obviously so) are too wierd for your campaign style, you might have a lot of work to do changing the villains around...

[Balabanto]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

A few comments/questions for you, Balabanto (and rest assured, I mean this genuinely and innocently, without any intention to arouse your ire). I would simply like your opinion. Obviously, we fall on the opposite side of the tracks in regards to this book, and I'd like to hear more of what you have to say - your critique may improve how I use the book. As I freely admit my love of reptiles may have resulted in me seeing things with rose-colored glasses, and caused me to miss issues I might have had with the book otherwise.

 

It would seem that the issues you have speak as much for your opinion of HERO books in general these days as much as issues specifically with this book. Am I somewhat correct in this assumption? If that is true (again, assuming I'm right), would you feel that the power levels of the villains, in general, is on par with the higher power levels my group uses? (as mentioned before, we're at 300 base points, up to 150 disads, and around 50 xp. Average high-end attacks cap around 15d6 or so, though I haven't enforced hard limits.) Eg. Gorgon IS very powerful, but I'm fairly sure my PCs could whoop her in a single turn (ie. within 12 phases), with focused attacks and sound tactics + teamwork, and end up badly bruised but still whole. I can't expect you to know the specifics of my players, but what things would you see as problems, even dealing with high-powered PCs?

 

Gorgon's colossal STR in combination with that Killing Attack leads to instant weed whacking. Keep in mind, this part of the adventure is "Race against time." So, when you have a character throwing out a big KA virtually every phase, and using the PC's as weapons against each other with a grab and squeeze +smash, it's either double your pleasure OR Stun Lotto, and she will likely have the advantage of surprise. Remember, the most powerful twink in the game is still as many dice of KA as you can possbily generate.

 

Again, an honest question as opposed to veiled criticism of your opinions: had any of the villains presented in this book, aside from King Cobra, appeared anywhere else before? I don't recall seeing them anywhere else - but I admit my experiences with books previous to 5th ed. are fairly limited.

 

This was actually PART of the problem, Spidey. There were a million villains they could have rebuilt that they HAD the rights to and didn't.

 

What exactly do you mean by "voodoo math"? I didn't quite follow you there. I assumed you meant "overly complicated power constructs", but I wasn't sure.

 

Krait runs on the following principle. I have a super-high DEX, AND I Dex and SPD drain my opponents. You're failing to take the combat system into account. If I delay or hold my action, and wait to drain them until a phase where their SPD doesn't cross over, like, say, phase one, they don't get to go again until their SPD crosses over with another. This means I'm likely to get another action immediately, where I can drain their DEX + SPD again. That character is OUT OF THE COMBAT, possibly the scenario if you're running a race against time deal.

 

Your opinion of the villains aside, how did you feel about the overall plot of the story? Interesting, compelling, or something considerably less positive?

 

I also didn't like the story. It felt railroady and optionless. The only thing it takes to totally destroy this plot is Mind Scan and Tunnelling.

[Spidey88]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the response!

 

While I don't necessarily agree with everything you've got to say, you've certainly given me a lot of food for thought - and a lot of info I'll likely need to consider once I get to the point that I'm using KC and his inner circle.

 

I'm not a huge fan of killing attacks in my campaign as is (silver/bronze-agey feel), so I was probably going to nerf Gorgon a bit anyway. She didn't strike me as too much of a problem, though - since we've got a) more than one character able to deal with her grapples just fine (one can desolid and is super-strong, my GMNPC has a stupidly high contortionist roll, martial escape + 45 STR, and another PC can die and get better soon after, not to mention teleport), and my house rules are such that only body damage that gets past defenses has ye olde stun lotto applied (coupled with the fact that I made sure everybody has at least some resistant defenses).

 

I can definitely see the issues you do with Krait - I'll have to be very careful with him if I use him as-is. Very nasty, indeed! That whole BOECV thing makes things extra nasty - I may need to nerf him good (charges lim might be enough); though I'll probably still keep him, as I thought he'd be interesting to toss against a couple of our characters who are very DEX-reliant (corresponingly avoid the others with lower DEX to begin with). I also might say that someone with a reduced speed would just go on the next phase that he would normally with said reduced SPD, regardless of whether or not it crossed over with the old SPD or not - assuming it didn't mess things up too much. I'd rather that than gimp them for multiple turns for having a SPD just one lower!

 

As for new villains? Oh well. I liked 'em well enough. I honestly don't think we've ever seen any members of KC's inner circle before, so it seemed like an appropriate time for new characters to me - but, hey! Different strokes for different folks, after all!

 

As for the railroad-itude? I didn't feel it so much - it seemed a lot better than many other modules I've seen. The choices given to the PCs seemed to make sense to me, at least - and to be honest, I think Mind Scan wrecks a lot of adventures anyway!

 

Thanks again for the input! Like I said, you've given me a lot to consider.

[Shaft]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Incidentally' date=' [b']Shaft:[/b]

 

If mutated snake-men (some very obviously so) are too wierd for your campaign style, you might have a lot of work to do changing the villains around...

 

Science gone bad is a recurring theme in my games. The general rule is the more powerful the power, the greater the side effect.

 

One of the PCs in one of the games is LockJaw, a Viper Agent who got infused with crocdile DNA. Imagine Frank Castle with Killer Croc's powers.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Aside from thinking this adventure would likely end up killing a team of newly minted 350 point heroes from attrition, my main mechanical complaint was the Gorgon fight.

 

In and of herself, Gorgon isn't *that* bad. . . but giving her a surprise attack from underwater? You could *very* easily end up with at least one PK right there, if she hits even once and the party can't follow her under water. An 80 STR grapple isn't fun ever, but when your also busy drowning? Ouch. Especially with the +6 OCV for Sweep, which means she doesn't even have to target people one at a time. . .

 

( Krait doesn't bother me in the slightest, because he's a 750 point villain who has notable weaknesses. Specifically, he doesn't have many really damaging attacks, and virtually everything he has uses END by the ton )

[ghost-angel]

Re: Review: Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

 

Aside from thinking this adventure would likely end up killing a team of newly minted 350 point heroes from attrition, my main mechanical complaint was the Gorgon fight.

 

In and of herself, Gorgon isn't *that* bad. . . but giving her a surprise attack from underwater? You could *very* easily end up with at least one PK right there, if she hits even once and the party can't follow her under water. An 80 STR grapple isn't fun ever, but when your also busy drowning? Ouch. Especially with the +6 OCV for Sweep, which means she doesn't even have to target people one at a time. . .

 

( Krait doesn't bother me in the slightest, because he's a 750 point villain who has notable weaknesses. Specifically, he doesn't have many really damaging attacks, and virtually everything he has uses END by the ton )

 

There are several suggestions in the adventure on how to deal with this outcome.

 

Not to mention a mentalist in the group could make pretty short work of Gorgon in a high tension fight for life fight. Handled properly Gorgon is a threat, but not an instant PK.