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| Nightmare on Hill Manor |
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| Average Rating:4.3 / 5 |
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A pretty nice little quickstart that showcases many aspects of a Mortals game. I, a first time Storyteller, found this pretty easy to run for a couple friends, none of whom had played World of Darkness before, and half of whom had never roleplayed before. In turn, my friends found the demo very helpful to learning both the mechanics of the game and the roleplaying aspect, while having a great deal of fun at the same time. It's nothing special in terms of an adventure, but it serves its role perfectly as a one-shot demo meant to introduce the game to new players.
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Even if you're not overly interested in the Mortals style of game that this presents, it is well worth getting to become familiar with the rules set for the new World of Darkness. The first thirty pages are dedicated to an overview of the systems, including full write-ups of skills, Virtues and Vices and every rule you'll need to run the module. It also comes with four pre-generated characters. The pre-gens are interesting as a lot of thought went into the backstory for each and there are some very solid emotional triggers for a Storyteller to incorporate into the adventure.
The premise is very simple - a group of mortals investigate something in their apartment building which turns out to be spooky. The author clearly defines the difference between horror and terror from the outset and gives reasons and examples for the use of each. It is a nice touch and the advice here is easily transferable to any other RPG in the genre.
Whilst the actual play of the module can come off as a little dungeon crawl-ish in its execution, the location does lend itself well to the slow transition from the real to the unreal (or familiar to unfamiliar). The story could easily be grasped by a brand new group (I'd argue even those who have never role-played before) and probably would offer a single nights' play. Beyond launching a Hunters game though, I can't see how it could really fit into the mould of chronicle-starter. However, you could tweak the module if you had a particular flavour of nWoD you wanted it to be the catalyst for.
A good introduction to the system, decent characters and a storyline which a first-time ST could fathom after a couple of readings. In all a recipe for a good product.
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It was a pretty fun little adventure to learn the system.
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A Nightmare at Hill Manor transcends what I expect from a Free RPG Day product. I expect a tight little quickstart that features a newly released game the company wants to highlight. I was so excited about the release of Changeling: the Lost, for instance that a bunch of people I knew got an online game going using rules based solely on rules and stats presented in the quickstart which came out a few weeks before the core book.
Hill Manor is something a bit more ballsy. After the short introduction on roleplaying and the World of Darkness setting there is a 28 page boilerplate chapter on the entire World of Darkness core rules setting. Well, not all of it. Since the "adventure" takes place entirely in an apartment complex there are not rules for vehicles and the like. I don't know how they compressed pretty much everything you need from nearly 200 pages of the core rulebook down to 28 but it seemed pretty solid even covering Virtues and Vices, Derangements and an appendix at the end on ghosts. My first new World of Darkness was a free promo download of the core rules which they offered here one October, so while not new it is impressive. If you're hoping to save money by downloading for free or $5 for the paperback not everything is there but enough for the casual player.
I am also very glad that they highlighted the "Blue Book" line of mortals in the WoD so prominently. Nothing is here that is not in the main rulebook. It's a straight-up ghost story free of vampires and the like. There is one template-level character as a non-player character but since players only deal with his ghost it remains a mortals-only game.
Another aspect that improves upon my Changeling quickstart is that the story is presenting in White Wolf's Storyteller Adventure Series (SAS) format with scenes nicely plotted out with non-linear gameplay figured in. The story itself is solid. It's hard to break free from the pack when it comes to haunted house stories but the author presents a number of suggestions for suspenseful gameplay and ways to amp up the fear and terror. Fear and terror are hard to pull off in a game and ghost stories are timeless so it is hard to make them unique and gripping but a good Storyteller should be able to pull it off. Many of the suggestions I saw expanded upon in Glimpses of the Unknown (released later the same year) so that purchase may also be worth your time.
The pre-generated characters were all interesting as well as the allied NPCs. The antagonists were a little one dimensional but which ravening ghosts aren't? You can always improve upon the backstory if you think you can come up with something better. I can see where some players might feel a bit railroaded by the plot as you cannot leave the haunted manor after the start of gameplay but that's a common enough trope in ghost stories of this type. Isolation is a core element.
I would still buy the Core Rulebook if you like what you see here, but for a free download or $4.99 softcover this product really packs a lot of material and is good advertising for White Wolf's brand as a whole.
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I think this is a great intro to World of Darkness for mortals. It has a great horror factor to it featuring an interesting take on the haunted house genre. The characters are trapped in some nightmarish hellscape where ghosts of those who met a tragic end are looking to get revenge on the living. Several optional scenes are included so you can keep players on their toes while they explore.
As they move through the apartment building, they put the pieces together and have to work together to escape. The pregens look good and using them should provide a relatively balanced game. All the necessary rules are briefed here and none of the expanded material is included. This should give your players a taste of NWOD while easing them (and you as a Storyteller if you haven't before) into the system.
Sure, it doesn't get into all the supernatural options for players or adversaries, nor does it touch much on the intricacies of being a Hunter really. It's just normal people in an extraordinary situation. I may even try to adapt this to Fear Itself as it could just as easily be used there. Ok, I'm lazy and everything is laid out and organized here, so I'll go with NWOD.
Just to note, the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is I feel it is a bit heavy-handed at the end when the full explanation is revealed. I usually prefer clues to slowly add up to the big picture rather than one critical piece of information the explains everything.
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I posted a review of this item on the Shadownessence forum, where I described this as the kind of form for which the World of Darkness core rulebook was designed.
This adventure showcases and highlights the best aspects of the World of Darkness Core Rulebook, a book I have reviewed elsewhere, and provided a very effective horror game for my players.
I commend this adventure as a perfect accompaniment to, and first newbie adventure for, the World of Darkness Core Rulebook.
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Ordinarily when a company gives away something for free, you don't expect it to be complete. In this, however, I think that the World of Darkness people gave more than enough for an introductory game. A Nightmare on Hill Manor acts under the assumption that you'll be playing with some pre-made characters (theoretically you could limit skills and such to the skills of those characters) and lets the game master play through a scenario involving those people as they try to escape from a building.
The book offers useful insight and helpful tips for running both this story, and other stories in general. If you'd like to look at World of Darkness and see what it's all about, this is on of the best ways to do it.
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