I prefer this prequel to the original Kill Doctor Lucky! The sinking ship/shrinking game board is a great mechanic to add excitement as the game goes on.
A railroad adventure is one thing, but a railroad that starts before character creation?
Not only do you have to know at first level which Mythic Path you eventually plan to take, but EVERY Trickster has to have been a lost child found by a mysterious Desnan, EVERY Archmage is the orphaned child of Riftwardens, EVERY Champion must be the descendant of generations of crusaders. Basically, there are only six pregenerated characters with associated backgrounds for this AP, and each player chooses one.
Character creation is the player's main opportunity for creativity and customization. Taking away that choice is a very bad move, imo. This Player's Guide has really dampened my enthusiasm about the AP as a whole.
I bought this soap as part of a birthday gift for my nephew, whose favorite PC is an elf ranger who runs with a dwarf fighter. The die inside is very nice. My only quibble with this product is that the "blurb" above about "the noxious smell of dwarves" and "no trees were harmed" isn't printed anywhere on the product. I printed out the blurb and taped it to the back of the soap, but if the humorous description were pre-printed on the wrapper, it would be the perfect gamer gift!
