Review Of Albion’s Ransom: Little Girl Lost By Pelgrane Press
-== What is it? ==-
Albion’s Ransom: Little Girl Lost is an adventure module for The Esoterrorists by Pelgrane Press. It is written by Ian Sturrock and all artwork and layout is by Jerome Huguenin. This adventure takes the PC to England where they find that a missing persons case has taken a turn toward the outer dark.
I reviewed a printed copy from November 2007. I have not run the adventure I have only read it. The product is 105 pages long with a completely black and white interior with a color cover. There is not an index but there is a detailed table of contents.
-== What I Like ==-
The flow of the first few major chapters is not too bad. It moves in a logical fashion from one section to the next following the flow of the uncovered clues.
The adventure is of respectable length. It will take several sessions to complete the adventure. The supplement explains that Little Girl Lost is actually the first part of a longer campaign adventure called Albion’s Ransom. One issue is that the rest of Albion’s Ransom may never be produced. It will likely depend on how well Little Girl Lost sells.
There is a section on drugs use in The Esoterrorists. The section covers the effects of various drugs and what happens when they are combined. It is nicely done and very detailed.
There are appendices that cover the UK at a high level and discuss various Esoterror related threats. These sections also cover some of the culture that is relevant to the genre. It is a bit sparse but very nicely written.
I really like the cover art. It has a creepy sort of feel that fits the genre well. Jerome really does The Esoterrorists right with this one. The interior art is a bit dark in some places but overall it is not too bad. The layout switches between a darker and lighter borders every few pages. The effect is not distracting and is actually kind of attractive. I think the usability of the product could be increased if the light and dark transitions were done for each chapter. 😉
-== What I Don’t Like ==-
The module has several elements that are not typically encountered in Esoterrorist runs. One of them I will spoil now so don’t read this if you don’t want any spoilers. In the adventure an OV resource turns on the PC. In general this is not standard of the setting. My feeling is that when you only have two published adventures you should not go too far outside of the box. You should make adventures that really fit the genre perfectly. After you have some material under your line then venture to other territory.
I think one of my biggest complaints about the module is that there is a lot of text dedicated to NPC who are really not important to the plot. Some NPC have very long descriptions with tons of interview information that provide very little, if any, critical investigation data. At the end where I felt there could have been more data provided it felt kind of rushed. This might be an editing issue but when I read the module that is how it came off.
The adventure is set in the UK but I felt like it could have also been easily written in the US. I actually think it should have been written in the US for a couple of reasons. One reason is that more material could have been put in to the adventure as less would be needed for the appendices. As I mentioned above I also feel that if you only have two adventures write them both in your primary stomping grounds, the US. Finally, if the adventure was set in a US city any background information could be then used for a campaign city for the PC. It would be less of a visit and more useful as campaign background material.
-== Summary ==-
Even though I was elated about Profane Miracles I was not so happy about Albion’s Ransom: Little Girl Lost. There is not a lot of material for the setting right now but I still have a hard time recommending this product. It sells for $22.95 which feels a bit high but not that out of whack.
I give it 4 out of 10 paws
