When Og went to ring the library's bell in the morning, he discovered they had an infestation of drakes. Although he is a strong, and determined, man, and drakes were smaller than their more well-known cousins, Og knew he was no match for those nesting in the belfry. He would let the master know about it so they could get a band of adventurers to take care of the problem.
The Tale of the Bell Tower Drakes is an adventure written for The Hero's Tale tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG). I received a copy from the author for review purposes.
The Hero's Tale
The Hero's Tale is an independent TTRPG that uses its own system. You can read my review of the gamebook by following this link (review).
The Hero's Tale was designed by Mark, Brendon, and Jacob Hansen. This father and two sons wanted a family-oriented game that was driven more by story. Mark also writes novelizations of the characters introduced in the basic book for the introductory adventure.
I had the opportunity to talk with Mark about their game, books, and other things he is involved in. You can watch the video on YouTube (link).
The Adventure
The Tale of the Bell Tower Drakes adventure is for novice-tier adventurers. Along with being for beginning adventurers, it is written in a manner to make it easier to access for less experienced players and game masters (narrator in this system). Throughout the adventure there are notes and commentary to help guide the narrator on how to develop the story based on the input from the player characters and the ever so random dice. This isn't a railroading of how the adventure should conclude, but advice for how to keep things moving. This includes multiple ways the adventure can be resolved.
To help make the adventure more accessible to the players the hook is well established through the characters' adventurer's guild, The Guild of the Drunken Sword. The guild is in the city of Twynn Rivers. Some general information about the city is given to allow further exploration by the narrator and the players. There is also a concluding hook to the adventure to allow the party to continue the story.
The adventure takes place over six scenes. These include character interactions, exploration, and combat. But the game is written with an emphasis for everyone to be involved in the creation of the story, and the adventure is written towards the interaction of all the players.
Along with providing some information about the city, Bell Tower Drakes includes an adventuring party of non-player characters (NPCs), and other tools for use by the narrator. The characters are fully developed and are there to create more problems for the player characters. However, they are also a nice addition for possible future encounters in the city, or if a player character is lost during the adventure a narrator may have one of the NPCs defect to help the party—allowing the player to continue the adventure.
The adventure also includes some of the resources that would be found in the main game book for quicker, easier reference to keep the flow of the game going.
Bell Tower Drakes should be able to be completed in one or two gaming sessions.
Overall The Tale of the Bell Tower Drakes continues the feel of play presented in The Hero's Tale book and introductory adventure. The adventure is easy to read and provides enough support advice to answer a number of situations that would most likely arise during the gaming session.
The Tale of the Bell Tower Drakes could easily be adapted for other gaming systems. This is due to the main mechanics of the game being focused on the story creation.
The content of the work, both in words and in pictures, all agree with the general desire to have a gaming system that is family friendly.
I recommend The Tale of the Bell Tower Drakes to those who enjoyed the introductory adventure in the game book, and to those who are looking for a fantasy setting that could be introduced to younger gamers.
Here are the links to the items mentioned above in the article.
The Hero's Tale: Fantasy Role Playing for Family and Friends (Review).
A video chat with Mark Hansen (YouTube link).
The Tale of the Bell Tower Drakes is available on Amazon.
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| Mark Hansen |
