The Bridges We Burn is a campaign set in Numenera using the cypher system. It’s a licensed product from Monte Cook Games, but is a self-published work by Janek Sielicki (Facebook link). I was given a PDF copy for review.The Bridges We Burn is 100 pages with almost 80 pages of information a game master (GM) can use to create a series of adventures covering a lot of game time. The author estimates 25–30 hours. With a little planning, a GM can specialize the encounters, and adventures, to fit the style of play suitable for their players, which could adjust time both lesser and greater. It also has enough information to allow for more after you complete this setting. It also is not an entry level adventure.
The setting builds off material presented in the Numenera Core Rule Book and the adventure The Devil’s Spine. The Devil’s Spine is not required to run this campaign. But, you might want to consider it, or another adventure, because this is based for tier 3 characters. You will want to have the Core Rule Book and there is also information drawn from the Ninth World Bestiary and the Technology Compendium. Neither of these are absolute needs and information is presented to allow using core material.
The book is information for the GM to run the adventures. I’m not going to go into details about the encounters presented because I don’t want to give any spoilers or information that would spoil the fun of playing through the adventure.
Storyline
The Bridges We Burn is a title dealing with the consequences of the choices made during the adventures presented. It is not a literal statement of burning bridges, unless a GM wants to add that for dramatic affect.
Most of the events take place in and around the city of Uxphon. This gives leeway to work on the location and make it your own. The adventures here will allow a GM and the party to personalize the setting depending on how they participate and create the story being told—and the consequences for their actions.
The main story is broken into 5 chapters, or major events. This doesn’t mean an event is a single encounter, rather a series of encounters based around a major event used to move the overarching story forward. The events can be ran with different levels of depth.
GMs can personalize the depth of each chapter to create adventures fitting the style of play most enjoyed by their group. Through the entire campaign there are opportunities to use a variety of skills along with fighting. There are also locations that can be expanded to fit settings groups are more interested in playing in.
If you have a group that prefers playing dungeon crawls, court interaction, cross country adventures, and fighting in the streets, there are places where these can be expanded out to meet the level of desire of the players for each. On the flip side, this means if your party is tired of any particular setting, you can scale it back. You are not locked into having to run adventures that in lockstep through a series of encounters to meet a final goal.
The Bridges We Burn is a good solid meaty skeleton of an outline which allows the GM to dress up the encounters, adventures, city, and world to one suiting them and their group.
Artwork
Art in The Bridges We Burn is done by Filip Gutowski. It adds a wonderful touch to get a feel for some of the events and setting. The artwork has a little bit of a comic book feel, which for me was perfect for an RPG setting. I have seen other work of Mr. Gutowski and this is another good showing.
There is not a lot of Gutowski’s art in the book. Keeping artwork down does mean cost of production is lower. And to compensate the artwork is also highlighted on nine pages near the end of the book. An added benefit of having the art situated this way is it provides pages that can be presented to the gaming group without worry of exposing text of the adventure.
Overall
The Bridges We Burn is a solid work presenting a solid storyline. Each chapter is clear on what needs to be taken away from the event. It allows opportunities for players to get involved at levels they desire and deal with the backlash or rewards from their actions. This gives the ability to play the adventure with different styles of adventuring parties.
I like this style of presentation because it’s what I have done with my gaming group in the campaigns I’ve run over the years. However, I also know that if you have a group, or a player, not used to having to deal with consequences they can’t walk away from, there might be some backlash from them (I’ve had that).
I would not recommend The Bridges We Burn for a novice GM. This isn’t a detailed room by room adventure. It is a good story needing preparation to run by the GM. There is also a level of follow-up as the adventures unfold to keep continuity based on what the players did earlier. This doesn’t mean someone wouldn’t be able to do it if this was their first go at running a game, it means I would work with a new GM to cut their teeth on something that gives them more absolutes to learn how to run a party of adventurers.
I would recommend this for a group running a game based in Numenera. Sielicki has a great feel for the setting. It is clear he has submersed themselves in the world and the system to provide a story that will provide fun at the level expected of 25–30 hours. But, there are adventure seeds embedded in the story that would allow this campaign to continue, easily continue. A GM could start here and with the outcome from character activities would be able to continue the game for a long time.
If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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