Why did I go into this trilogy assuming that it wouldn't be that great? Maybe in general I'm a little "glass is half empty" on d20 products lately. Maybe because Death in Freeport came out so quickly on the heels of the Player's Handbook, I assumed it and those following it couldn't be that great. (I mean, how could anyone write a good adventure without the aid of the Dungeon Master's Guide?) I breezed through Death in Freeport when it first came out, and then waited considerably to look at the others. Only now did I sit down and read them.

These are good.

Maybe I just wasn't expecting the first d20 adventure trilogy to be an investigation/mystery-style adventure (which they all are -- one big mystery, in fact). In any event, I recommend you pick these adventures up. They're not perfect, but if you like city adventures, instead of or perhaps as a break from more straightforward adventures, you'll like these. Oh, there are fights, traps, and all the rest, of course, but "dungeon exploring" or "monster hunting" is not the focus here.

First, let me say that I'd be tempted to give all of them even higher ratings if they were just meatier. Somehow -- because of the amount of text on a page, because of the ad in the back of two of them, because of the pre-generated characters (which I personally never like), or whatever -- I'm left feeling like I didn't get as much for my money as I could have. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's great that the first two, at $7.99, are cheaper than the d20 standard $9.95, but these are all one- or maybe two-session adventures (Madness in Freeport might be three). I've come to expect more from 32 or 48 pages than that.

I like 'most everything about Death in Freeport except for the very beginning. It starts with a fight, and that's not at all a bad thing, but it's too forced. It presupposes too much -- first and foremost, that the PCs will win the battle against the press gang, which very well might not happen. Second, it assumes that the players won't think, "Oh, this is the adventure hook," and actually GO WITH the sailors.

But that's pretty minor. It's a good adventure. The investigation is handled well, the NPCs are interesting -- which is important in a city adventure -- it's got an obviously Lovecraftian feel (which is a good thing in my book; it might not be in yours), and the mechanics are handled pretty well (it mishandles Encounter Levels, but that's a quibble for something that came out before the DMG). I'm particularly impressed at the handling of skill checks.

The beginning of Terror in Freeport has its own different problems. A cleric offers the PCs some small change to save the world (not exactly, but you understand). It's been done. In fact, the whole thing has the feeling of "I've seen this before." And the place I've seen it was in Death in Freeport. This is more investigation, more secret cultists, more Lovecraftian serpent men. It's a fine adventure, but it falls into the same trap as many sequels -- it doesn't explore new ground. The encounters are handled well, and I think the adventure would be easy to run (the Rock and a Hard Place encounter seems particularly well handled, with a detailed description of what happens round by round -- I'd like to see more of this kind of encounter treatment in all adventures).

The start of Madness in Freeport is long, but fresh and interesting. The PCs are invited to a ball. This really takes a lot of preparation and readiness on the DM's part, because there are lots of NPCs here with different secrets, motives, and goals. Interesting, and challenging. The adventure could have been more helpful with this setup (perhaps a quick reference chart of NPCs and their motives?), but the whole thing already took up more than 15 pages of the adventure. The adventure is exciting, but ultimately it gets knocked down a notch for me because it railroads the PCs a bit too much. The other two adventures allow for at least a little player initiative and free-form play. On top of it all, this fact makes the really tough ending all the tougher because the PCs have been dragged along with the plot, getting little chance to rest.

Overall, Green Ronin shows a good grasp of the d20 System. Good use of NPC classes. Nicely handled Gather Information and other skill checks. Good use of stats in general, and monsters from the Monster Manual (particularly some of the newer ones like the tojanida that don't get much exposure). Occasionally, the set-ups for the encounters are a little contrived (in the Rock and a Hard Place encounter I mentioned previously, there's no listed chance for the PCs to hear the villain coming up behind them to set off the trap). Also, be aware that you can't play these adventures one right after another -- you'll have to put other scenarios in between them to get PCs to the right levels, particularly between the second and third titles.

As you can see, I gave Death in Freeport the highest rating. Perhaps that isn't entirely fair -- there are things that both of the other adventures do better than it does. But it was first. It set the mood and the course of the whole adventure (for, make no mistake, these three products are really only one extended adventure), so I give it a lot of credit for that.

One thing is for sure -- I like Freeport. I like the feeling of this city, where orcs walk the street and cultists skulk in the corners. I think it was smart of Chris at Green Ronin to set the first three adventures (and more, from what I understand) in a single locale that players can really get to know and care about. It's also very easy to drop Freeport into any other campaign setting.

One last thing. Cover artist Brom has no bigger fan than me. Seriously. However, I'm tiring of second-use Brom covers that have no relation to the actual adventure from Green Ronin and other companies.

Okay, now I'm done.

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