Review: A Haunting in Glass
Today we're looking at A Haunting in Glass by Jesse Winter. It's a 30-room tower adventure for levels 3-5. The page on DriveThruRPG has some recommendations from folks like directsun (author of Aberrant Reflections, one of my favorites) and Joel Hines (author of Desert Moon of Karth, also one of my favorites) so I was excited to check it out.
The setup is that powerful wizard has created a device to turn moonbeams into gold. He holds a big party to show it off, but someone steals the gem that powers it and everything goes awry, crystalizing the tower and everyone it. We are given several hooks that range from tax collecting to strange dreams.
The first 15 pages are spent explaining the background and various special mechanics. It is, perhaps, a touch overwrought. There is a giant device in the tower called The Argent Crucible that is powered by a gem called Tenebrolith. Part of the crucible, called Moonhymn Cantor sings the Hymns of Parnath while a lunar vampire named Nocturne with a sort of alter-ego projection called Hunger is trapped in a tank full of moonlight. The room keys contain three symbols that denote different effects. Certain events cause Lunar Overload that occurs as the tower breaks apart with varying results, which is tabulated on the Doom Counter. It will require a careful read and scrupulous attention during play.
None of these things is bad on it's own, but in aggregate it will be a lot for the GM and the players to wrap their heads around. I hope they're avid notetakers. I think it all could do with a bit of streamlining both from a mechanical and a narrative perspective.
The room keys follow this trend I've been seeing lately with 2/3 of the page devoted to the keys themselves, and 1/3 of the page containing monster stats, NPC notes and special item descriptions. I like it. The layout is easy to follow and beyond that it's just a beautiful book with evocative art throughout that communicates the vibe very well.
Unfortunately I had a hard time getting past the writing. The adventure constantly makes me feel stupid. I read passages like, "Maelstrom of Darkness. The Hunger (shadowy, jagged, abrasive) aspect of Nocturne, which posses the room at her great mental effort. 20' above (room tall to accomodate (sic) the Crucible). If touched, lose a memory." and I can't really parse it, let alone imagine how I would run it. You need to communicate the feeling of a place with vivid language so the GM can create immersion, but you also need to give them a clear understanding of the mechanics of the place in order to run the game. This is the tightrope that adventure designers need to walk. A little too much in one direction and it falls off.
There's a lot here that looks great on the page but would be very difficult to actually run. In the library there's a book: "Outer Antiquities, with a dog-eared page on Parnath, an ancient ruin. Underlined: 'The eldritch hymns, when read aloud, align the mind with the stars' Marginalia: 'Align the telescope?' Sketch: Depicts a missing stanza from the Hymns (sought by the ashen fugue, Area 30)." We're also told "From the shelf, the missing stanza in Outer Antiquities in unknowable whispers."
So I'm trying to make sense of this. The hymns of the book are used to align the telescope. Got that. There's a missing stanza that is somehow conveyed via sketch. Sorta got that. The shelf is whispering the missing stanza in unknowable whispers. Now you've lost me. How can I convey this to the players diegetically when I can barely make sense of it myself? How can the characters learn the stanza if it's "unknowable" and then share it with the Ashen Fugue in area 30? The Ashen Fugue, by the way, has eyes "that blink to an atonal melody." It all sounds very poetic and evocative but it means precious little and does more to obscure the details that matter to the players than it does to enhance them. It's the Patrick Stuart school of writing. Impressively dense and barely gameable.
Also, this is terribly pedantic but I'm a word asshole so I can't ignore it: room 19 is labeled "Arborrery." That's not a word, but "Arboretum" is. And pronouncing it won't make you sound like you're drunk.
There are a few place where the PCs can make some impactful choices. And I think the meat of the adventure is gathering information and sorting truth from lies in order to make those choices. If they do have information, the choices are pretty obvious. Flip a switch that kills the vampire and ends the Lunar Overload that threatens to do destroy the tower and everyone in it, or free the vampire to wreak havoc on the world? Not exactly the trolley problem. But for some of the choices, there really isn't enough information available. There's a device called the Argent Crucible, and using certain items with it has effects like killing everyone in the tower or freeing the vampire. But there's really no way to know that beyond experimentation. And some of those bells can't be un-rung.
The dungeon does have a lot of interconnectedness - items found in one place that can have a profound impact in another, and clues scattered everywhere that will inform interactions in various places throughout. There are also a few very well fleshed-out NPCs, and I think the adventure fails or succeeds depending whether the GM can make them compelling, especially the vampire. And whether they can understand the text itself and successfully convey some of the missing information, probably using the aforementioned NPCs.
There is tremendous creativity here. The custom monsters and magic items are imaginative and mechanically interesting. The situation itself creates opportunities But it lacks discipline. As I said, there are a lot of good ideas but sometimes you have to kill your darlings in the service of usability. A Haunting in Glass would greatly benefit from some editing and some focus. Somewhere beneath all the florid language and manifold special mechanics is a very solid adventure.
On a scale of 2-12, A Haunting in Glass gets 7 stingbats.
What a great review! I almost never see critical reviews; but to read one that is so well balanced and tells the authors exactly what’s awesome and exactly what needs to be addressed, that’s awesome!
ReplyDeleteGreat review, thanks for the write-up. I backed the adventure on Kickstarter and similarly to you I was excited by the comments of some of my favourite creators. What I found inside was confusing. So much so that I've put it away on a 'read later and make extensive notes on' pile.
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