[Review] Spears Of The Tisangani

[ghost-angel]

The Upside:

 

Spears Of The Tisangani is the first in a series of short PDF adventures intended for Pulp Hero. It's built to be a single session adventure, enterprising GMs could easily expand it to two or three sessions easily. Or groups who like to spend a lot of time planning things out could stretch it out.

 

Part One - The Telegram And The Map. The PCs are invited to a colleague's house where they learn of a missing piece to the puzzle of an African tribe thought not to exist by many. Through the first part of the PCs acquire the map, in two pieces, and prepare to head into the jungle to find this hidden tribe. Part one has two short encounters, one at the beginning and one near the end. The first encounter is to illustrate someone else wants the map. The second encounter reveals a bit more about their adversary, and is another bid to get the map off the PCs. There are two opportunities here to extend the adventure. The first is on the boat ride to Africa, where you can have an entire session around the boat, or multiple sessions if something goes wrong and they have to get back on track. Or you can just make it uneventful, mark the time on the calendar and continue. The second is during the second fight scene. If the attackers win and steal the map you have a chase scene on your hands, if the PCs win they get supplies and continue on to part two. Both fight scenes are intended to be light and fast, they aren't challenges to the PCs (though don't make them too easy), so much as delays and revealing some underlying plot points.

 

Part Two - Into The Jungle. Next the PCs have to get to the hidden village, which has only one approach - by river. Part one is a trek to the river. Then a boat ride down the river. And another trek up to the Tisangani Kingdom. Only two encounters are set to occur, one with some rapids on the river and a damsel in distress. There are several opportunities to expand the adventure here, first is the trek to the river which can be filled with as many or few challenges as you want. The river encounter is a meeting with some rapids, a good tense moment, beyond that nothing else happens unless you want it to. The final encounter is on the way from the river to the Tisangani Kingdom, the damsel is the Tisangani Princess, who has left home to find help with a small problem she's having.

 

Part Three - In Tisangani. The princess takes the PCs to meet her father, where they are given a heroes welcome for rescuing her. This is near the final encounter so events take a downturn before the Heroics can really start. First, the PCs are captured as the kings war leader starts a coup. If the PCs can't get out of their cell, they are rescued by the princess, either way there are a few intense moments as they hear the rebellion going on in the streets, and finally meet the adversary who tried to stop them in Part One.

 

Part Four - The Big Finale. The climax comes as the PCs fight to defeat the rebels, save the king, get the girl, find a lost civilization, are lavishly rewarded and head back out on their way with proof of the Tisangani's existence. Once they win (and they're Pulp Heroes, of course they win!) the written adventure is over. The route back is as easy or dangerous as you want it to be, if you even mention it and don't just skip back to their colleague's place with the proof.

 

It's paced well, with several small encounters to challenge the PCs, and an appropriate Pulp climax with one big fight.

 

The Downside:

 

There's not much of a downside, the adventure is well thought out, well paced and easily picked up on the spot for a one shot.

 

Given it's a PDF Only product, a few more provided handouts would have been cool to see, like a page with an authentic looking Telegram from part one, and a map of the palace where the climactic fight takes place. But, these don't feel missing from the product, they'd just be some cool extra material.

 

The Otherside:

The presentation is system independent. The only Hero System information are stats for some foes to fight in the side bars, and the main bad guy at the end. Beyond that anyone running a pulp adventure in their system of choice could pick this up and run it at a moments notice, you'll just need to build some mooks, a few appropriate African animals and a suitably challenging main adversary.

 

The adventure was vetted through two convention runs as mentioned in the Special Thanks at the beginning, so it's entirely possible to run the whole thing in a 4-6 hour block. It also comes with enough suggestions to expand the adventure to multiple sessions. It can easily be dropped into an ongoing campaign, or used as a one off.

[JohnTaber]

Re: [Review] Spears Of The Tisangani

 

Great review! Thanks!

 

I am considering the purchase of Spears as well as several others. It is nice to get a preview of what to expect.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spears Of The Tisangani

 

Glad you like

 

I plan on doing them all over the next couple of months. They're short and cheap, unlike the books I can review an HPA in about an hour or two. if I'm feely cheeky I might playtest one or two.

[Sociotard]

Re: [Review] Spears Of The Tisangani

 

I ran this the first time I ever GMed, and it went well. It was loose enough I got to add stuff in (I looked up some actual african riddles to add in. Too bad all the players had already heard them.)