This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
The Minotaur
Published by 0one Games
Written by Mario Barbati and Diego Di Dato
30 page PDF; $5
The Minotaur is a 30-page PDF adventure from 0one Games, a new Italian RPG company. Blending elements from both Greek myth and high-fantasy traditions, the adventure nonetheless fits seamlessly into nearly any campaign setting.
The first impression one receives of The Minotaur very favorable, thanks to stunning visual quality. The artwork by Stefano Guida and Alessandro Cioffo, a pair of relative unknowns on this side of the Atlantic, is excellent and the layout rivals that of even the most professional of RPG books. There's even a player's handout and a really nice pre-generated character sheet.
Even more impressive, however, are the maps. The cartography will leave you breathless! In addition to a map of the "dungeon" in its entirety, we get two large, full-color, three-dimensional renderings of rooms that play a prominent role in the adventure. These so called "Battle Maps" are designed to facilitate the inevitable fights that will take place in these locales, and which form natural highlights of the scenario. Certainly, the encounters will be more memorable with these maps.
Unfortunately, we're let down by uneven editing. It's not grammatical mistakes or errors in game mechanics that cause the problem, but rather peculiarities of an uneven translation from the author's native Italian to English. The authors' grasp of English is solid, but there are unusual and inappropriate choices of . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 18, 2002
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