Review: A Splintered Peace

A City Torn Asunder

"Splintered Peace" by David Chart, published by Penumbra and distributed by Atlas Games.  Let's take a more detailed look at the book.

There's a three page short introduction to the book and its contents called "Welcome to Marchion".

The book is divided in two parts, "A Guide to Marchion", and "Marchion in Crisis".

Part One, "A Guide to Marchion", contains four chapters.

Chapter One, "History", contains, of course, a history of the city of Marchion, as well as several adventure seeds.

Chapter Two, "Politics", deals with politics within the city, and info about an annual festival.

Chapter Three, "Important People", contains a NPC summary table and 31 prominent citizens.

Chapter Four, "Gazetteer", gives finer details of the city broken down quarter by quarter, and includes short details of local deities.

Part Two, "Marchion in Crisis", contains seven chapters.

Chapter Five, "Running the Crisis", gives some info on the various troubles both within and outside of the city.

Chapter Six, "Signs of the Storm", has some ideas on beginning the crisis.

Chapter Seven, "Attitude Rules", details the various people's attitudes towards other races, and includes an attitude summary table and a chart to copy to keep track of those attitudes.

Chapter Eight, "Fighting the Orcs", shows the major current threat to the city, including 20 tribes of Orcs, a new Orc deity, the current leader of the tribes, and his assistant, and has a small map of their hideout.

Chapter Nine, "Reacting", If racial tension continues in Marchion, the town becomes segregated (at least) and may possibly flare up into riots and rekindling of old racial hatreds.

Chapter Ten, "Acting", details how the reactions of the city inhabitants can be cooled, and how the mayor (if still alive), the community leaders, various public works projects, and the annual festival can be used to do this.

Chapter Eleven, "Aftermath", is =very= short - only a half page of details on what happens if the players succeed, and what happens if they don't.

There's a map of the city on the inside front and inside back covers.  Although this book claims to be a campaign sourcebook, it really feels more like a very large (112 page) module for 8th level (or better) characters.  However, should the players succeed in both averting the Orc threat and restoring at least a "Splintered Peace" to the town, it would serve as an excellent base of operations, and at least a temporary home to return to.  Rebuilding the city and surrounding area from the Orc attacks, the adventure seeds, protecting caravans both leaving and entering the city, and others would give many days of adventure.  Another good product from Penumbra.