I am now regretting my complaint in the discussion thread about it only being 9 pages long (well really 8 pages if you exclude the cover art, which is really cool and all but of course doesn't have any text in it). For one thing I didn't stop to think about the publisher generously giving a "pay what you want" offer for the "Day One" sourcebook which is a whopping 146 pages worth of material ... also ruins of the living land is a respectable 34 pages and also falls into the "pay what you want" category... technically so is " Up the Creek" at 16 pages but.. well I'll get into that on my review of Up the Creek once I've had a chance to finish reading it but I have some thoughts on that one. Given that you co

While you should really consider this to be an 8 page supplement, they do pack a lot of useful information and an intriging scenario into those 8 pages so in my opinion it's well written. Given the importance of the events covered - as the product description states " Decide the fate of the Paris Hardpoint, and potentially drive a wedge between The Church and their most powerful minions! " I really do feel more than 8 pages should have been devoted to it... I'm aware not everyone has the time to write up their own original adventure material (or else you probably wouldn't be looking at this pre published adventure right now to begin with :) ) but if you do have the time the adventure would definitely benefit from "filler material" leading the Storm Knights from wherever they are to the Paris Hardpoint to begin with, more stuff that happens while they're at the hardpoint (though it's worth noting what happens there is pretty big and has major consequences for the campaign such that I can see why the major focus is on the decision that rests with the players.. still some minor "filler" events to go along with it would have been appreciated).

I also wish the "People to Meet" NPC section had stats for said NPC's too.. yes it's true the TORG core rulebook says that you don't need to give every single NPC statistics and given the huge scope of the game world - not only do you have Core Earth to deal with but also 7 invading realms, each one their own individual world - I can see why they would say that. Still, call me old school but it makes me nervous to have to make do with what's essentially just a verbal description of NPC's the PC's may end up interacting with even if just through social skill roll checks. If you have the time you're probably best up writing up stats for them as well .. though in all fairness even with the much longer Burden of Glory adventure you have three NPC's right off the bat with no stats... also in all fairness with both supplements the NPC's the PC's are most likely to engage with in combat have statistics.

One nice thing about this adventure is all the material you need to run it is included in the TORG Eterntity Core Rules book ... having said that I find myself suspecting that if you had the Cyberpapacy sourcebook it would help , if nothing else I'm guessing there's material in that sourcebook you could toss into this adventure to help further flesh it out. This is pure speculation on my part since I haven't yet purchased the Torg Eternity Cyberpapacy sourcebook.. I do remember the aged but still respectable original Torg Cyberpapacy from West End Games being a thoroughly enjoyable read decades ago so I find myself thinking the Torg Eternity version of it would be a great purchase too... I'm certainly very impressed with the TORG Eternity revamp of the original TORG rules.

My apologies for not going into more detail on the events within the adventure itself but ... that would just ruin the adventure for any players reading this review .... for TORG gamesmasters however I can say that I would recommend this as a purchase albeit with some reservations given that the adventure is only 8 pages long.

EDIT AND UPDATE - BUT PLAYERS DON'T READ THIS OR YOU'LL RUIN THE FUN FOR YOURSELF !

It's occurred to me a review really doesn't do that much good if you don't go into the details the adventure covers .. so I will just take it on faith that players will not spoil it for themselves by reading this :)

The dilemma the adventure poses is this - Paris's Effiel Tower is the largest known hardpoint on Core Earth and is of enormous strategic importance to the Core Earth resistance against the Cyberpapacy... the player's actions determine if this hardpoint decides - needless to say if it goes down this is an enormous blow to Core Earth and the resistance against the Cyberpapacy. The players are faced with a moral dilemma... a Host (think artificial intelligence "angel", very powerful force fields and lasers and a hologram of it's angelic "facade" ... Cyberpapacy version of an angel basically) is having a "moral dilemma".. played out properly the players could turn not only this Host but potentially ALL Cyberpapacy Hosts against the Cyberpapacy dealing a major blow to the Cyberpapacy... but if events play out that way you lose the Eiffel Tower.. so it's hard choice time... some players might appreciate the grim realistic sense of "the world isn't a nice place" and being forced into such a choice, really it depends on how your gaming group and gamesmaster approaches this sort of thing... personally I tend towards the "nice gamesmaster who "tilts" things towards the heroes being the champions of the story" sort of gameplay which would incline me when playing this out to let the players have their cake and eat it too... perhaps with clever word play some good skill rolls and/or appropriate drama deck cards working in the player's favor the players get to save the Eiffel Tower AND turn the Hosts on the Cyberpapacy.

Basically the Host has become aware of a plan to summon a demon summoned by a cyberwitch who is apparently sympathetic to the cyberpapacy (!?!), said demon inhabits the Eiffel Tower and turns it into a twisted monstrosity that battles the Host - which leads the Host to conclude it's assumptions were correct and all Hosts turn against the Cyberpapacy but you lose the Eiffel Tower which is completely trashed after it's possession... or the heroes stop the cyberwitch from being able to cast the rituals that turn the Eiffel Tower into an "attack monster" but the Host then comes to the conclusion that it was tricked by the Delphi Council information it received when things don't turn out the way the Host intended and the Host attacks the player characters. Added complication - there's someone within the Cyber Police force permanently stationed outside the Eiffel Tower resistance to keep an eye on the resistance and that someone is part of the plot to animate the Eiffel Tower causing the Cyber Police to storm this Core Earth stronghold and demolish it.

So a lot of cool, interesting stuff going on here but it could use some fleshing out if nothing else in terms of a good backstory for the cyberwitch... WHY is she sympathetic to the Cyberpapacy? And also why is this witch's cabal sympathetic to the Cyberpapacy? I suppose if anyone's good at brainwashing it would be the Cyberpapacy but why wouldn't the Cyberpapacy just burn the cabal at the stake? Then again while the Cyberpapacy is to the best of my knowledge fanatical in nature, the cyberpope (at least based on my memory of the old TORG West End Cyberpapacy material) can be completely hypocritical if it furthers his own personal ends, all the while convinced he's following the "holy path" in his twisted crazed mind... perhaps the cyberpope personally intervened? It's something the gamemaster should give some thought to and perhaps even turn into a future game session for curious player characters to investigate further if the players are so inclined. Sadly I have not purchased the Torg Eternity cyberpapacy sourcebook so the best I can do here is speculate but I find myself wondering if purchasing it would help with this adventure (and honestly it's on my wishlist of books to purchase anyways, I was blown away by just how good the West End version was in the 1990's and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing Torg Eternity's update to this book).

Also , my personal gaming style would to be a bit more flexible ... an ideal situation would be to save the Eiffel Tower but give the player characters a chance to reason with the Host and appeal to it's programming (maybe if the gamesmaster has some extra time and can work in the additional background material the cyberwitch has hard physical evidence on her - orders from the cyberpope himself maybe in say a cybernetic implant in her brain the Host can tap into ... the cyberwitch doesn't have to be alive for this if the PC's took her down I imagine her corpse would do )... ideally a PC from the Cyberpapacy could be made aware of this through say hacking the cyberwitch's implant but otherwise making that info available to the Storm Knights could work too ... or alternately if the Eiffel Tower gets possessed let a PC who can work magic pull off some amazing magical stunt that not only drives the possessing demon out but restores the Tower to normal - the Host still comes to the conclusion that it's original assumptions were correct and it's a win-win. Again I tend towards an optomistic "the heroes can do it all! " approach that might not be for everyone but some points to ponder.