If you don’t think this is one of the most awesome things ever, then I don’t know what to do with you<\/p><\/div>\n

Dark Eden opens up into a planet-hopping series of adventures which will take you to a variety of locations. Because of the importance of your mission, players will struggle to feel like they are making crucial choices during the first half or so of the campaign. The locations you explore are varied in terms of environment, aesthetic, and political makeup. Each of the locations has a variety of layers to peel back as you uncover secret plots evolving around you. However, the official adventure doesn\u2019t give as much room as you would like to explore and peel back those layers. The set goals are so important (like saving the world) that you end up feeling shuffled around from place to place by a crowd of NPCs, even if each of them is interesting and memorable.<\/p>\n

There are multiple points where the characters are ordered to do certain things, and the book doesn\u2019t contemplate what happens if they don\u2019t comply. One powerful character orders the party to escape as she stays with her bodyguards to hold off the enemies. Isn\u2019t it entirely reasonable that you would ask her to leave the guards to fight and come with you? Wouldn\u2019t those guards agree that it\u2019s the best plan, even possibly against her will? It makes for a dramatic scene in context, watching a likeable character fight to her last so the last hope of mankind can makes its escape. It would just make for a better one if the strings were less visible.<\/p>\n

Despite these funnel points, Dark Eden does have occasional subplots that help develop the intrigue if your players choose to investigate them. Individual interactions and locations are full of interesting moments; it\u2019s really the campaign as a whole that\u2019s on rails, in a pretty literal sense. Given the diesel-punk aesthetic, one of the main methods of travel is by train, and the sacrificial scene from before takes place on yet another moving train car. There are a lot of things happening around the players, but not because of them or even to them in many cases. The early campaign is a sightseeing tour, but you can\u2019t help but feel those sights are awesome. You get to feel the scale of the world, fight off dieselpunk gangs, and peer into the lore of the Final Seal in an attempt to understand your mission.<\/p>\n

From there to the campaign\u2019s completion, your characters take a direct part of some of the formative events for the entire Mutant Chronicles universe. Along the way, you get to uncover political schemes, explore the dark places keeping the secrets of the universe, and battle through the forces of the Dark Legion in an epic last stand. As the adventure goes on, options open up and gain variety, especially in the latter portion. Things really kick off when players get the Final Seal and the Dark Soul (the dread power behind the Dark Legion) realizes it\u2019s under threat. Everything ramps up from there into a grand final conflict, and the energy that takes you to the climax builds fantastically.<\/p>\n

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That last stand is wonderful, taking many of your accomplishments into account and giving you time to build up, make alliances, and prepare for the final battle. This battle is more than just a fight with mass combat rules. It\u2019s an adventure all to itself, being a protracted set of tactical decisions and encounters which take real input to be successful. By the end of it, your players will have earned their victory, died trying, or seen themselves converted into the Dark Legion itself. Spoilers end.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along the way, there are a multitude of individual encounters that involve a lot of creativity on behalf of the players. A radiation cloud stands out as a simple example. It takes up a paragraph or so but puts the players in a tough position: do they prepare for it and risk going through it to their destination, take some time to go around without knowing if the wind will change for them, or wait it out and take even more time? There are still points along the way that need to be followed, even up to the end, but the encounters make room for many character types to shine, sometimes in surprising ways. Dark Eden also uses the environment to its advantage, giving a real granular feel to different environment types. Survival elements will make the players use all of their wits and skills to make it through.<\/p>\n

Beginning to end, Dark Eden is an epic adventure and a serious investment in time. Depending on how fast you get through certain sections, be prepared to be playing this adventure for a good few months at the least. Given that you are fighting for the future of the human race itself in Mutant Chronicles, this is an entirely appropriate choice.<\/p>\n

The art direction (props to Mischa Thomas) goes a long way to reinforce the feel of Dark Eden. The book feels like a WWI era mission briefing. Worn and mechanical, the maps look like they were carried by a soldier for untold miles and splayed out on a mission table. Pages are lined in the cogs and mechanisms that would be the Mutant Chronicles\u2019 technological makeup. The maps are also incredibly useful, making use of different styles and tactics to explain areas\u2019 layouts. In every area where space matters, you will be sure you have a clear idea of how everything is laid out.<\/p>\n

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Not all of the art is consistent, using multiple styles to depict people. They all stay within certain boundaries, feeling appropriately washed out and even changing given areas to show more art direction. The priest of the Brotherhood is shining and clean, making a stark contrast to the dusty mutants on the boundaries of civilization. Some pieces are even deliberately evocative of 80s RPG books, with all the ridiculous action that you would expect. All of them are tied directly into the story, so those of you who use electronic assistance to set the mood will have resources tailor made for you.<\/p>\n

Appendices provided at the end of the book also have separate, useful information, like enemy stats and setting placement to get you oriented to the timeline. More interestingly, they have extensive subplots to get you connected to the other adventures. You can integrate these subplots directly into the game if you want to give people more freedom to explore.<\/p>\n

The appendices also include four pre-generated characters to help get you directly into the action without having to take the time to learn character creation rules. Their back stories are far\u00a0 from extensive, but the simple characterization is intended to provide a largely blank slate for you to make your own. They are high-level characters, so getting your head around their abilities will take some time.<\/p>\n

Dark Eden<\/a>
\nDesigned by:<\/strong> Jay Little
\nPublished by:<\/strong> Modiphius Entertainment
\nPlayers:<\/strong> 2+
\nAge Rating:<\/strong> 13+
\nTime:<\/strong> 10+ Sessions
\nMechanics:<\/strong> Roleplaying, Metanarrative Currency
\nWeight:<\/strong> Medium
\nMSRP:<\/strong> $25.99 (PDF)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Far into the future, mankind fights a losing battle against the Dark Symmetry, an evil force from beyond the stars that has been our sole enemy for centuries. This warped and twisted power corrupts both machines and people, ruled over by the vile Dark Apostles. Technology has stalled out into a dieselpunk, industrial era aesthetic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":127393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","game_tag-mutant-chronicles-dark-eden","platforms-role-playing-game","topic-tabletop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n