Pyramid Review
Wicked Fantasy Factory #1: Rumble in the Wizard's Tower (for the d20 System)
Published by Goodman Games
Written by Luke Johnson
Cover by Slawomir Maniak
Illustrated by Nick Greenwood
32-Page Saddlestitch Book; $10.99
The market is not exactly short of low-level adventures for the d20 System, so when a new one appears, it really has to justify its place on the shelves at your local gaming store or indeed in your gaming room. Wicked Fantasy Factory #1: Rumble in the Wizard's Tower is the first in Goodman Games' Wicked Fantasy Factory line. It is designed to give a playing experience beyond that of mere dungeon exploration, monster slaying, and treasure acquisition. Instead, a Wicked Fantasy Factory adventure aims to provide an outrageous, big-thrill ride, a sword-swinging, spell-slinging, mace-mashing, bone-breaking, slaughter-spewing adventure of legendary proportions. It is meant to be an "XTREME!!" affair, full of "phat lewt" and other irritatingly youthful colloquialisms.
How does a Wicked Fantasy Factory adventure make this possible? It adds a series of new mechanics that push the game toward a more cinematic feel. The first of these is the Finishing Move, an extra ability that can be either melee, missile, or magic based. It's used to kill an opponent in the flashiest method possible. It's up to each player to describe his character's move with a suitable amount of flair, for example, kicking an opponent into the air and slicing him in twain with twin blades.
Use of . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 29, 2008
Copyright © 2008 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.