Name: Ghost Archipelago - Lost Colossus
Produced By: Osprey
Publishing
System: Ghost
Archipelago
Genre(s): Fantasy,
Greek Mythology, Pirates
Here we are, the first
supplement for Ghost Archipelago. This one has a few things going on
that makes it a solid choice if you’re going to play Ghost
Archipelago. Let’s get started.
The book begins with an
introduction from Joseph A. McCullough, talking about Ghost
Archipelago, the campaign, and so on. It’s a fun little read but
not really important for this review.
The next chapter jumps
right into the campaign. The campaign is about trying to locate the
pieces of a giant statue that once pointed to the Crystal Pool. But,
things happen, and the colossus was shattered and spread around the
islands. Now, if you can find the pieces, you’ll get a head start
on finding the location of the Pool. An interesting part of the
campaign is letting one player get “advantage” during the games.
Thankfully, it doesn’t unbalance things, just lets them pick which
scenario is played next. I think that’s probably the best way to
give a successful player a reward, without causing them to overwhelm
the other players. The scenarios are going to require a lot of unique
pieces of terrain and some new monsters. However, in the
introduction, the author does point out that you can use proxies or
terrain that’s close enough, because he knows that you’re
probably not going to have all this just sitting around. To give you
a brief list, you’ll need a 10 by 10 inch building, with a small 10
by 10 side board, to represent the base of the statue, and a few
Snake-Men, for the first scenario. The second scenario requires a
precipice (a cliff, they mean a cliff) and some new monster, glider
snakes. I think this one is kind of neat, as you have to climb up
some old rope ladders or scale the cliff. The third scenario is about
getting on to a bridge that’s made from one of the legs of the
colossus, crossing a river with a few fishes inside. This one also
lets you take a small boat, which I am always a fan of. The fourth
scenario is set up around a plateau, with a lot of treasure and some
new monsters on top of it. The fifth scenario is about the other leg
of the colossus and it’s a fun one. Why? Because there’s some
Snake-Men that are trying to knock it loose and make it start rolling
to crush the crews! I suggest queuing up Yakki Sax. For the sixth
scenario, you have a monolith with the eye of Colossus, protected by
the Ancient Guardian. This Ancient Guardian is a unique demon with a
big sword and a bad attitude. There’s also a bunch of old traps
that will be triggered when you roll low on initiative. Moving on to
the seventh scenario, you’re trying to read stuff on the toes of
the Colossus and get to deal with some Snake-Men ambushes. When it
comes to the eight scenario, it’s now the arm and hand of the
Colossus, and you get to fight a giant scorpion and some aggressive
plants. Scenario nine is one of my favorites, because it’s about
killing the Dragon Bull (one of the new monsters, we’ll get into
it) that’s made its lair under the face of the Colossus. The final
scenario is about the heart of the Colossus being protected by a
Snake-Man priest and his band of followers. It’s a water board with
some islands, which means that you get to use small boats. If it
lasts long enough, you get to fight off a Sea Serpent, too.
Whew. Anyway. The third
chapter is very short, just introducing two new Specialist Crewman;
the Bosun and the Topman. The Bonsun or Boatswain, is perfect was for
crews that use small boats a lot, while the Topman is great for crews
that do a lot of climbing in their games.
The fourth chapter is
all about Snake-Men, which will be a theme for future supplements for
the game. This chapter gives us the strange magic of Snake-Men, used
by their priests. While not intended to be used by crews, it’s more
for when you want to have a game run by a GM. This magic is called
blood magic and gives us eight spells to choose from. There doesn’t
seem to be any limit on how many spells the priest can take but I’m
sure that players can figure it out. However, it isn’t intended for
players to use them, but I could easily see someone making up
something for it. If it were me, I’d have them build a crew like
normal, with a Snake-Man Heritor, a Snake-Man Priest in place of a
Warden with four spells, the Snake-Men from the core book as typical
crewmen, and the new Snake-Men from this book (I’ll talk more about
them in the bestiary chapter) as Specialists at 100 gc each. There
you go, a quick and dirty way of making a Snake-Men crew.
The fifth chapter is
the new treasure for this campaign and some new editions for the
general treasure. We’ll start with the treasure for the campaign.
There’s a few things in here that annoy me, the first being the
inclusion of rope as treasure. Why is this treasure? Why not just
make it a normal item? It’s pretty damn useful, so now we have to
travel back to the mainland to get some, or hope that we get it in a
random roll. Ahem. Anyway. The next part of the chapter is a revised
and expanded magical weapons and armor tables. Designed to replace
the tables in the core book, they really give you a lot of new
abilities. There’s boosts to damage, boosts to hit, vampiric
blades, battering shields and weapons, throwing daggers that return,
and a lot of others. If you’re thinking about buying this book,
this is easily the best reason to do so. It’s worth it.
The sixth and final
chapter is the bestiary. It starts with some new critters, like
glider snakes, huge wasps, and giant scorpions. Then there’s a new
type of enemies, plants. That’s right, we’ve got man eating
plants. One try to stick to you and the other spits poisoned spines
at you. Just going to show that everything in the Archipelago is out
to kill you. The next beasty is the Dragon Bull, or a triceratops,
that’s a new saurian. Now for the Snake-Men. There’s the Priest,
and then there’s the Warrior, Hunter, Rattler, Ripper, and Striker.
And that’s all there
is in this supplement. And it’s a good one. For the first one for
Ghost Archipelago, it was a good start.
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