Review of Brother Ptolemy & The Hidden Kingdom

Brother Ptolemy & the Hidden Kingdom is an adventure setting for Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition by Nevermet Press. Its goal is not just to provide an adventure for 5th level characters, but to also provide setting info to reinforce the GMs campaign. It easily succeeds in this goal in my experiences running it. The adventure was full of fun encounters and situations, and it set up a lot of foundation for future gaming sessions for my players.

I feel at this point I should let everyone know that this is an actual play review. The first part of it will be more about the product itself in physical form and like a normal review. The second part will have a lot more of my experiences with the running the adventure setting. Expect for spoilers to crop up throughout this review.

[SPOILER ALERT]

The Book Itself



Brother Ptolemy & the Hidden Kingdom (from now on known as Brother Ptolemy) is a 110 paged manga sized soft cover book or pdf. The interior of it is in black and white and contains a several pieces of art inside; however, a lot of them are maps. The art is very appropriate to the subject matter, and the maps are of course very handy for a GM to know what an area looks like. The layout of the book is easy to read, and I feel flows very smoothly. As of this reviews writing, the soft cover version of the book is $14.99, and the pdf is $2.99. I like having a hardcopy of my books if possible so $15 is a good deal to me, but if you like or dont mind digital format $2.99 is a steal for this book.

Chapter Breakdown



Chapter One: Brother Ptolemy & the Hidden Kingdom (Pages 6-20)



The book opens up with the history of Brother Ptolemy and his search for immortality. Brother Ptolemy was a vain man who did not want to lose his youth, and through a search for immortality came across a ritual that made him effectively a living lich. The ritual didnt raise the dead as most necromancy would it instead just made Brother Ptolemy keep living even when old age should have taken him. Too his dismay his hair eventually started to fall out, and more and more physical attributes began to show signs of his unnatural extension of life. Even with the ritual affecting him, he had still become ugly like some undead monster, but immortality he did find. Brother Ptolemy eventually started his cult known as The Hidden Kingdom. The Hidden Kingdom is full of Ptolemys followers that have been embalmed and had the ritual cast over them. They believe that the world would be a better place if everyone shook off normal life and lived as the Kingdom does as sentient undead. Even more unusual is that they try to gain ranks by being a helpful group to the communities they visit or move into. Never mind the fact that the problems they help solve were probably started by them in the first place. Most people see nothing wrong with the Red Monks of the Hidden Kingdom. The Red monks wear their red robes, but also cover their decaying bodies in bandages, and they wear masks over their faces to prevent anyone from uncovering their secrets. This first chapter ends with stat blocks for all the different levels of the Red Monks within the ranks of the Hidden Kingdom.

Chapter Two: The Red Harvest (Pages 21-28)

The Red Harvest is a plague created by Ptolemy in an attempt to spread his ritual to people in mass quantities. Instead it caused crops to die; any infected from eating those crops or through the saliva of an infected person or animal contracted it with flue like symptoms. Eventually they thirst for blood like living zombies, and then they die. Ptolemy wanted converts not for everyone to die. So the Red Harvest became a tool for the Hidden Kingdom to gain converts through acts of kindness. The Hidden Kingdom allows the Red Harvest to spread to a community, and then they show up with plague free foods and water, and the ability to guide the community through the worst of the plague. Little do the people they are helping know, that the Hidden Kingdom is the cause, and not just the cure.

Chapter Three: The City-State of Corwyn (Pages 29-33)



This chapter covers the city of Corwyn which is the stage for the adventure. About a decade previous Corwyn was hit hard by the Red Harvest. The Hidden Kingdom showed up, and provided stability for the city including supporting the farmers hit by the plague. Needless to say many of Corwyns people fully support the Hidden Kingdom in remembrance of not only their help a decade ago, but for the revitalizing project that the Red Monks have started in the community. Since the Red Monks help, Corwyn has become a community almost entirely devoid of criminals. The community is at peace, most people are nice, and at face value life good not look better. The problem is that signs of the Red Harvest returning are starting to appear all across Corwyns land.

Chapter Four: Uncovering the Kingdom (Pages 34-98)



This chapter is the bulk of the book, and contains the actual adventure. The adventure begins with the PCs searching for a merchant-barons daughter named Adalisa. Searching for Adalisa is what leads the characters to Corwyn in its current state of the Red Harvest beginning to take hold again. A large portion of the adventure is the players questioning the locals as to Adalisas whereabouts. This leads the players into several situations where they are running errands for the local shopkeeps, and all the while staying a step or two behind Adalisa. The adventure has the GM keep up with the amount of time it takes the characters to accomplish their errands; spending too much time on them could cause the players to be too late for certain events or minor details may be different than had they been more quick in their work. Eventually the players will connect Adalisas whereabouts to a local mansion that is run by the Hidden Kingdom. After several encounters there against the Red Monks, the PCs will return to town only to be dragged into a court case against them. The players go through the trial, and try to make the community see the Hidden Kingdom for what it truly is. Through 4th editions skill challenge system the players could end up convincing the town and being seen as heroes, or they may not convince them, and be ran out of town told to never comeback.

Chapter Five: Items of the Kingdom (Pages 99-102)



This small chapter includes some of the Hidden Kingdom specific crunch for the adventure setting. There are several magic items written up for the GM that are used heavily by the Red Monks. These items mostly include items the Red Monks use to convert others to their form of living undead such as the actual book containing the ritual that began it all, and the knifes the Red Monks use to embalm new members.

Chapter Six: Feats & Rituals of the Kingdom (Pages 103-106)



The final chapter sees even more crunch in giving us the feats and rituals specific to the Hidden Kingdom. These new abilities include the rituals for creating new members, and other fun new feats such as having a snake-staff familiar.

Appendix A: adventure Hooks (Pages 107-110)



The last pages are for adventure hooks that could be added to the adventure, or ideas to extend beyond the scope of the adventure. Each idea is kept simple and is only a paragraph or two in length. They give the GM a sort of hey what if  idea in hopes that it sparks some additional creativity to be added to the adventure in some way. I find that they do stimulate quite a few ideas even if they do not follow what the author may have figured in the beginning.

Actual Play: How Did Things Actually Turn Out?



So how did things turn out for me as a GM with this adventure setting? Awesome! I dare say it was the best premade adventure I have ever run. I know, high praise, but it deserves it. My first hurdle was that the adventure is for 5th level PCs and mine were 13-15. My solution was to have them come across a dead Red Monk in mask, and had a couple of the PCs dialog go as such:

Oh no. Is this what I think it is? Do you remember when we went to Corwyn to look for that girl?

Oh gawds! Not the Red Monks again. I remember to well.

And so the game flashbacked to the past and the beginning of the adventure. I keep character sheets of every level of my players PCs (thank goodness) and I handed them their level 5 equivalent. I promised them all XP gained would be added to their current PC, and any magic items or specific gear they picked up and wanted to keep would be worked into their current character after the adventure was over either through role-playing, or additional background material.

The most surprising thing for me was the amount of sessions the adventure lasted for. It actually lasted for about 8 sessions of 3-5 hours each. Reading it, and I would assume this review too, would lead one to think it was a rather short adventure, but there are so many chances and room for a GM to get creative that it could easily have stretched into double the amount of sessions it lasted for my group. This leads into how the adventure does a good job of not railroading anything. It does a good job of allowing the GM to add or take away anything they want. I believe this is where the idea of it being an Adventure Setting truly comes into play. Most would assume it is simply the fact that the town is statted out, or that it has a lot of NPCs ready for a GM to be the reason it is a setting and not just adventure, but I believe it is due to the simple openness available for GM fiat and creativity to expand beyond the scope of what the book gives you. Its extremely friendly in that aspect, and allows for a very free-form group of encounters. Have fun if things dont go by the book, it doesnt care, and is made for it.

I absolutely love that this adventures negative outcomes push the role-playing further, and into even more fun situations. All too often adventures have a you must win style of adventure. Do something wrong and it could end the adventure in an odd way with a GM scrambling to save his campaign. For my group the biggest example of this is the final court trial. My PCs failed to convince the town of the Hidden Kingdoms true ways, and it was awesome. This outcome has gone hand in hand with my flashback treatment. My players have been banned from Corwyn for life, and it drives my players bonkers that 10 levels or so ago they were bested. Now they have a dead Red Monk in front of them, and the questions are already arising. Will this make them try to go back to Corwyn? Will they find the Red Monks have influenced another community, and this is their second chance? Where is the headquarters of this terrible group? What members of Corwyns community would back them if need be? It is these types of exciting questions that I found not just at the end of the game, but during. The court trial really shined in making the players take a look at what they had accomplished in the adventure. They had to really draw out their experiences in a vain (at least for my group) attempt to convince the townsfolk of the truth. It made every deed seem worth its weight. The court trial also led me to believe that Nevermet Press really understood how to use skill challenges in their product.

Overall



Brother Ptolemy and the Hidden Kingdom is one of the, if not the, best premade adventures I have ever ran. It is wonderfully priced, especially if you like pdfs were it is a downright steal. It flowed smoothly for my group, brought lots of excitement to the table, and allowed me to add my own ideas to it without breaking a thing. It did not railroad my players or me in any sense, and has even added a lot of life and excitement to my already running campaign. I am not sure what more a GM could ask for from an adventure product.

Ratings



Style is getting a 4. It is a small time publishers product so it is not going to win awards with its art. That being said, the layout is very smooth in its flow, and the writing is truly remarkable. If only every company had authors that could write adventures so well. Ill admit at first I was worried when I saw all the names on the authors list; however, they must all be on the same wavelength because it is almost perfect.

Substance is getting a 5. It is perfect for an adventure. It has a lot of setting info for its location and characters to provide many fun ideas and sessions outside and beyond the scope of the adventure within its covers. For 110 pages in a small sized book, it truly provides hours of enjoyment.