Lone Delver Games, $3.00
Fantasy, 2010
Hello, hero. To demonstrate that you can make a campaign out of anything, One of Those Nights is about you, a warrior, leaving Stalwart Pub either willingly or not (depending on your rolls), and trying to find your way to that inn that you are staying at.
For some reason, you have no idea where you are or where the inn is, because you will be asked to make decisions such as go east, go west, whatever without even the name of the street given. Yes, the directions here are the four points of the compass, and to avoid getting too lost and muddled up, you have to keep track of which direction you are heading in the first place.
That’s right, this campaign doesn’t keep track of your choices for you. After a combat encounter, you will be asked which direction you are headed in the first place, and then turn to the corresponding numbered entry.
Also, you will realize it’s good to make a map as you go along, or else you will find yourself wandering around blind and getting really bored and frustrated when you come across the same numbered entries over and over.
This is a campaign that feels very, very lazy, perhaps churned out in a single day or two. There are enemies such as dual-armed stumpies, ghouls, vampires, and bad rolls, but there’s no memorable scene or encounter here. It’s just one hack and slash after another. All this just to go back to the inn? Where is this place? The City of Dis?
It’s a big shame that this campaign is a detail-bereft marathon of boring combat encounters, because the premise is interesting and rife with potentially memorable encounters. Unfortunately, this may be possible if there had been a stronger role-playing element to this campaign. Just think, perhaps you can meet some interesting merchants or swindlers, and your conversation choices with them may unlock fun side adventures or something.
No, this one just wants to throw enemies after enemies at you, and you are at the mercy of die rolls more often than not.
One of Those Nights will likely thrill folks that think fun in gaming means tracking data and calculating numbers like this is some kind of math tournament. If you prefer a better balance of number crunching and story telling, however, this isn’t one of those nights.
