Never before has the great city of Absalom seen an artist rise in fame so quickly, but when his patrons turn up torn to pieces, more than a few begin to wonder if his renditions are a bit too lifelike.
Gallery of Evil is an urban adventure written by Stephen S. Greer that pits players against a mad artist and his vile works. When the mad painter’s visions come to life, the heroes find themselves entering his crazed landscapes to find a way to stop them from tearing the city apart.
The adventure includes information on the artist and his vile works, as well as details about the city of Absalom and a map of one of its districts.
GameMastery Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, OGL-compatible adventures for use with the world's most popular fantasy RPG. All GameMastery Modules include four pre-made characters so players can jump right into the action, and full-color maps to enhance play.
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coming down to the bottom line, "gallery of evil" is well worth the price.
i started with the bottom line becuese untill you reach it, you have to go through lot's of trouble.
allow me to explain:
most of the adventure is a duengeon crowl. A good one, but still a duengeon crawl. I have orderd an urban adventure, and I fealt that the one hour part of the adventure when your'e actually in the city hadn't provided.
in adittion, some of the scenes could have been handeld better, and i had to do some work myself fixing them.
We played through this adventure in a single one-shot ten hour session (including some pizza, cookies, tons of tea & coffee). Half of the players used the pregen characters, the other two created their own.
LIKED: Maps had a small number of obviously interesting rooms. It was possible to skip the rest of the rooms without loosing anything.
Clever playing obviated the need to fight three of the picture encounters.
The players liked the sense of urgency, and they were totally interested in finding out what had happened to the villain’s competitor who had disappeared. The pictures themselves invited a lot of speculation on how they worked, which was fun.
The DM (me) liked the relatively simple encounters. Each one was a challenge for the players and yet easy to run.
DISLIKED: Many of the encounters involve constructs, allowing no criticals, no flanking, and no sneak attack. A sad day for a rogue.
The first encounters was an instant kill for the fighter who entered the room. We rebooted the adventure, but it took us a moment to get over it. Obviously I had missed the Full Attack potential of these two critters.
Sometimes the sense of urgency the players felt was hard to translate into events. Showing through the crowds in the ballroom with all the distractions and trying to do it by the rules was not too exciting.
BOTH: One of the villains has Improved Sunder and used it to his advantage. This aggravated the players to no end. The DM (me) loved it, because the sorcerer cast Grease on the villain’s weapon, and we had all sorts of grappling, unarmed Disarm attempts, Bull Rush to push enemies away from their weapons, climbing of tapestry as soon as the enemy was disarmed, and backstabbing. Exciting encounters!
Aspects of the module that presented worlds within themselves (like Rod Serling's Night Gallery TV show from those days of yesteryear) could have been expanded upon and would have added to the macabre nature of the adventure.
Overall, a creative exploration of what heroes might do in their spare time in the "Uppity" section of a large city along with some interesting creatures (egotistical elven painters) and magic items (paints and paintings) make this an adventure worth reading and playing!
Reading the blurb for this module excited me. I love urban adventures. In particular, the following line is what made made up my mind on the purchase of Gallery of Evil:
"When the mad painter’s visions come to life, the heroes find themselves entering his crazed landscapes to find a way to stop them from tearing the city apart."
Unfortunately, the adventure doesn't deliver. The heroes go into exactly ONE painting, and the landscape within features a single encounter. A fun encounter, to be sure, but not enough to make good on the blurb's promise.
The storyline leading up to the villain's mansion is very linear. The DM leads the PCs through several encounters by the nose, battering them with "clues" until, finally, their attention is forced to a painting of the villain that they would normally pay no attention to.
The saving grace of Gallery of Evil is the villain's lair at the end of the adventure, and the villain himself. Imron is presented in a unique fashion and, in a way, the heroes get to fight him three times -- a great way to get a party emotional invested in defeating their nemesis without using the old "teleport and fight another day" trick.
Overall a brilliant concept that was implemented poorly. Sorry Mister Greer.
primemover003
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
For some reason this module screams of "Artist's Loving Touch" from Dungeon #68. My players loved this adventure and I'll bet I could bring up some nostalgia for sure using this mod... especially if it's strewn with overbearing jermlaine!!!
As Gallery of Evil is one of the "Urban" series and our group at the time was a galavanting troupe of rakes (a swashbuckler, elven minstrel, a bounty hunting ranger, a jester, a Gallant, and a Brawler) who lazed about a small sylvan town. They called themselves the Salt Barrel Six because the first time one of them died they packed the body in a barrel of salt to preserve it until they returned home to bury the poul soul (the Jesters first PC of the campaign... he would go through 4 all told)!!!
When is the pdf version going to be available to buy?
GameMastery Modules subscribers have had access to the PDF since their subscription copies went out. Non-subscribers will be able to purchase the PDF on the product's retail release date—this coming Wednesday, I believe.
When is the pdf version going to be available to buy?
GameMastery Modules subscribers have had access to the PDF since their subscription copies went out. Non-subscribers will be able to purchase the PDF on the product's retail release date—this coming Wednesday, I believe.
Ah, thanks for the info Vic.
Steve I've been checking constantly to see when it would be available in pdf. So when Wednesday comes.....
Knowing your previous works and what I've heard about it I'm sure it'll be well worth the wait!
I totally love this adventure. It's so easy to get the pcs involved, with those hooks in the module only scratching the surface. In an ongoing campaign it's easy to get them to the first encounter.
I can't see any problems putting this adventure into any city of any campaign world. This should be no problem. Ptolus, Sharn, Waterdeep, Greyhawk, or whatever you have!
Changing the monsters with those you like more? Just change the description of one of those pictures, and there you have it!
The ballroom scene - totally awesome. I can't wait to tell my players "you have 10 rounds, go get him!"
The whole story teems (right word?) with potentially further adventures or sidetreks, and the id portrait will be awesome to have in my campaign world (Ptolus) - so many possibilities!
The flow of the adventure is also superbly done, as it doesn't matter how a given encounter plays out, there's always an easy way to get the pcs on track again without getting them the feeling of being railroaded.
As my players are just hitting 6ht level and start The BANEWARRENS, I will surely use GoE in the near future to give them a break from the Warrens and give them also a chance to attain another level.
Nicely done, and I can't wait to see more! Whenever I am going to change things, I'll let you knwo, because I can imagine as a writer you always like to know how things could be different.
For me as a non-native speaker, this is the very first module, which I don't have to read a secong time, because it seems to be run very easy!
Thanx for this adventure!
Thanks, Dryder! I'd love to hear how the adventure goes for you in Ptolus and the modifications you end up making.
Finally got it! Looks like a great murder mystery. Might actually use it in Eberron since I have a pair of investigator-types that I'm running in Sharn. So far, doesn't look like it needs many modifications, though I guess the Ivy District would have to be moved to some swanky upscale district high in the clouds...and then there are all those ramps and bridges...
Excellent!
My observation so far: the most popular aspect of this adventure I've seen so far from reader feedback is it's portability. Thank goodness for portability.
I just went down to my LGS and picked up U1 yesterday. It was a tough choice between it and D2 (eventually I will be able to collect them all).
All GameMastery mods are beautiful in layout and artwork. Along with well concieved stories. Keep up the great work!
Sorry for the necropost … But how easy is this adventure to scale?
I am looking for something that can be plugged into Westcrown to boost the heroes of the Council of Thieves AP between the end of Bastards of Erebus and The Sixfold Trial.
I feel that second half of the Sixfold Trail is a little tough for 4th level heroes.