One Mother of an Adventure! Symbaroum – Symbar: Mother of Darkness Reviewed

Title: Symbaroum – Symbar: Mother of Darkness

Publisher: Free League Publishing

Author: Mattias Johnsson Haake

Artists: Martin Grip and Gustaf Ekelund

Year: 2020

Genre: Fourth chapter in The Throne of Thorns fantasy roleplaying campaign

Pages: 246 pages

MSRP: $39.99 for the hardcover or $14.99 in PDF

Mother of Darkness sees the players, along with representatives from many of the other factions, finally reach the city of Symbar after a long, arduous, and dangerous journey.

Central to Symbarorum is the idea that tabletop gaming is unique, that is it the goals of the players that should drive the narrative as opposed to a predetermined plot. This makes Symbarorum compelling for players, a fascinating case study for aspiring game designers, and an absolutely massive lift for GMs. That’s especially true in Mother of Darkness, where the sheer number of variables in play renders the adventure less a prescriptive guide and more an attempt to worldbuild as robustly as possible to equip GMs for whatever players may choose to do.

Mother of Darkness pits the players against virtually every other faction in their attempt to reach and breach the Symbar. The competition is brutal from the start as Thistle Down is crawling with agents, assassins, spies, and saboteurs. This is not a matter of picking off a few bac actor, for a demand for constant vigilance. It also offers players real incentive to engage of sabotage of their own; after all, why not prove you can give as good as you get?

While there are three routes to Symbar, all offer their own dangers and entering the city alone is foolish, if not impossible. It’s here that the maneuvering, skullduggery, and plain old history that have come to pass suddenly begin to throw their narrative weight around in full as alliances become a necessity rather than a luxury.

The complexity of the adventure is staggering and it’s impossible to underemphasize the level of skill, time, and effort a GM will need to invest in order to ensure everything runs smoothly. Good out-of-game communication is likewise essential, as without a good understanding of the players’ goals, it’s easy for even the most dedicated to GM to be caught off-guard and unprepared.

Unsurprisingly, this feels like the most consequential adventure chapter yet; even if the party’s actions do not immediately impact the world state, it’s likely that the alliances they have entered into —and the consequences thereof— will likely have a major impact on the second half of the campaign.

While the nature of the adventure and its fallout does rely heavily on the party’s actions, the aftermath also includes major world events that occur regardless of what transpired in Symbar. Barring a drastic player-driven deviation, these events ensure some uniformity in the worldstate and help to underscore the dire reality of the situation on the ground.

To some extent, each party’s experience with Mother of Darkness will largely depend upon its GM. More than any other adventure in the campaign to date, Mother of Darkness demands a high degree of skill, organization, and creativity to run successfully. That said, the Symbarorum team have provided an incredibly rich and vast resource for inspiration. With its emphasis on the bigger picture, Mother of Darkness helps GM to shape the narrative into something that honors player agency while still remaining a viable foundation for the next adventure. For an experienced GM and an enthusiastic party, Mother of Darkness is a thrilling experience which offers a rich payoff to the first half of the Throne of Thorns chronicle.