Back to the acidic mudball
-Review by GM Brad
“In rare moments when the caustic clouds part and the light of Voll’s star is unhindered…the whole world shines like a pearl.” – Adept Faraos, Castyx Dynasty appointed historian.
Imperium Maledictum: Voll Adventures
Cubicle 7 has continued their inexorable march of Imperium Maledictum content with their newest release, Voll Adventures. Adding to the rapidly growing content library following the initial release of Imperium Maledictum, Voll Adventures fills a well known gap, bringing five more pre-crafted adventures to Imperium Maledictum Game Masters.
“It should go without saying, but the contents of this book are for GM’s eyes only.” With this opening line, Cubicle 7 sets the tone, highlighting that there is nothing in this book for players aside from spoilers. In an effort to help maintain the mystery of the adventures for all of the GMs out there, and in case players get too nosy, this review will be high level notes and will avoid getting into any major details – you’ll just have to pick up your own copy here to get into the nuts and bolts of the adventures.
If you're not a GM...turn away. Seriously. Don't make us call the Vigilites.
Voll Adventures evokes the feel of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Editions Ubersreik Adventures.
Walk into the office where I record our actual plays, and you’ll see over 29 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition books lining my game shelves. At seven years old, the system has a tremendous wealth of content, both in print and PDF format. Imperium Maledictum, having just turned two, has a smaller but growing footprint. With the release of Voll Adventures, Imperium Maledictum will now have four physical books out in the galaxy, and it is quite obvious that Cubicle 7 is nowhere near done with this system.
I’ve mentioned in prior reviews that Imperium Maledictum stormed into our group, grabbing hold of our table with an iron fist. When The Tainted Hive, our Imperium Maledictum actual play, first started, we quickly played through the only pre-written content available, Chemical Burn. The Tainted Hive Season 2: Children of Rokarth was then a self written story born out of both the desire to continue the tale of season 1, but also necessity due to the lack of other pre-written content at that time. Now, with the release schedule Cubicle 7 has kept up, GMs in Imperium Maledictum have access to eight different pre-written scenarios: The Blazing Seraph (IM Starter Set), His Glorious Shield, Chemical Burn, and the five scenarios within Voll Adventures.
While reading through Voll Adventures in preparation of writing this review, I was pleased to see variety but also good commonalities in the adventures. With the massive size of a hive city, it would have been easy for all five adventures to tie into Hive Rokarth, but Cubicle 7 have seized this opportunity to further expand our knowledge and footprint across Voll itself. This strengthens the overall tone of Voll Adventures, giving us more to this planet than descriptions of acid bogs and Rokarth, ensuring that GMs who use the pre-written material have a variety of locales for their adventures. In classic Cubicle 7 writing, each of the five self-contained adventures are also expertly crafted to easily be tied into a larger campaign. I’ve personally seen a few ways I could tie at least a few of these adventures into the next season of The Tainted Hive, assuming we don’t play them as one-off missions first.
Voll is not just Hive Rokarth.
Voll Adventures consists of five distinct, unique adventures: The Eye of Voll; Illicit Fabrications; Implacable; Interminable Devotion; and Paradigm Shift. Prior to jumping into these, Voll Adventures includes a brief primer first on the adventures themselves and then again on Voll. I love the call out by Cubicle 7 that Voll Adventures is not meant to be played through in a specific order, or even in full, and the nod that any parts of the adventures skipped or not played can easily be used as parts of or inspiration for a GMs own adventures. Even more helpful for GMs who do not own the Imperium Maledictum Starter Set, the Voll Primer gives an 8 page overview of some key details that any GM will be able to utilize for adventures set on planet.
Two of these five adventures take place outside of Hive Rokarth: The Eye of Voll and Interminable Devotion. The other three are set in Hive Rokarth, but a savvy GM would easily be able to move those to another hive – or even another planet. However, all five adventures feature the need for players to investigate carefully to find results without finding their graves, one of the cornerstones of an Imperium Maledictum game.
The Eye of Voll takes players out to a planetary region that is a caustic waste. With six points of interest, GMs will lead players through their investigation as they race against time and other hunters to find a Rogue Psyker who is “healing” citizens of Voll. With a rogue psyker at the end, this adventure gives some Chemical Burn vibes, but the actual nature of the psyker and the investigation as a whole make for a unique play.
Illicit Fabrications, the second adventure, returns to Rokarth with our first glimpse at the famed and feared Skitarii of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Also known as the “Tech Guard” or the Legiones Skitarii, these cybernetic soldiers enforce the will of the Omnissiah and the Mechanicus, and players may find themselves quickly in their crosshairs during their investigations into a kidnapped Tech-Priest and yet another dangerous bio-substance in the hive.
Third, we have the adventure Implacable, and honestly this is one I am most excited to run. A murder mystery spanning across multiple levels of Hive Rokarth, Implacable introduces the one of the most dangerous entities in the galaxy, the Officio Assasinorum’s Eversor Assassin. Your players will face a race against time to solve the case, as more and more citizens of Rokarth are dying in the process.
Interminable Devotion takes us back out to the wastes of Voll to a venerable and ancient Capitol Imperialis – a superheavy tracked mobile command unit of the Astra Militarum. Following the themes of Implacable, Interminable Devotion is again a murder mystery whodunit, where your players will have to weave through the politics and noise to determine who on board the ship keeps killing the crew.
Last, but most certainly not least, is Paradigm Shift. This is the second most interesting adventure to me, and one I intend to run for my party in the future. Like Implacable and Illicit Fabrications, Paradigm Shift is in a great position to show your players the extent to which Nobles will go to meet the tithe and keep their status within Rokarth.
However, Paradigm Shift also has my attention because it is the first introduction to Beastmen in Imperium Maledictum, one of the mutant/Chaos factions I personally love having within any Warhammer game, fantasy or 40k. As your players are working through yet another case of mysterious disappearances, these monstrous creatures are waiting at the end of the line for the dramatic finish.
Dead Suns Verdict 4.5/5 Skulls
While we stayed vague to avoid spoilers, I can confidently say that Voll Adventures is an excellent addition to any Imperium Maledictum Gamemaster’s collection and you should find it a place on your shelf. While it is obviously tailored to those who want to run pre-written adventures, the book can also serve as a wealth of inspiration for creating your own stories – whether on Voll, or not. With five new adventures, new locales and details on Voll, and the arsenal of Dramatis Personae, there is something here for any GM.
You can pick up your copy of Voll Adventures here.
Thank you to Cubicle 7 for providing a copy of Voll Adventures to Dead Suns Company to review.
Product provided by Cubicle 7 to Dead Suns Company for review. No additional compensation provided to Dead Suns Company for this review.