It’s Hammer Time! Symbaroum: Karvosti – The Witch Hammer Reviewed

Title: Symbaroum – Karvosti – The Witch Hammer

Publisher: Free League Publishing

Author: Mattias Johnsson

Artist: Martin Grip

Year: 2017

Genre: Second chapter in the Throne of Thorns dark fantasy campaign for the Symbaroum roleplaying game

Pages: 152 pages

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

Players find themselves ensnared in the conflict as they pursue an ancient secret in The Witch’s Hammer, the second installment in the Throne of Thorns campaign.

The Witch’s Hammer deals with the search for the location of the ancient city of Symbar and serves as the first major conflict of the campaign. From the opening, it’s clear that violence will be inevitable, whether players choose to seek it out or maneuver around it. From an attempted assassination to a siege by Queen Korinthia’s forces, players will quickly find themselves in a precarious situation.

The Witch’s Hammer is the first time players are seriously asked to consider loyalties and alliances as, by the conclusion the world state stands to have shifted significantly. The players will also have likely begun to choose sides, though whether those allegiances remain intact is an entirely different matter.

The adventure is a sophisticated piece of writing, fusing political intrigue, investigation, exploration, and a heavy sense of dread into an experience that will keep players on their toes. Unexpected choices aren’t a problem here as the excellent support for GMs helps to ensure that the story can still continue. Allowances have been made for everything from a prior character death to a part who fails to engage with the ostensible objective and instead responds to the narrative from an entirely different angle.

Derailment of the adventure simply isn’t a concern here as it would be in many other pre-written scenarios or campaigns. The choice to confront the invaders is as valid as the one to throw your enemies off your trail. Unsurprisingly, the section on the aftermath provides robust guidance that allows GMs to update the overall world state in a way that makes sense and ensure the necessary pieces are in place for the next installment while still honoring the choices players made over the course of the adventure.
For GMs already familiar with the campaign’s bigger narrative arc, The Witch’s Hammer feels like a much clearer start than the Wrath of the Warden. There are also clearer opportunities to expose players to factions in conflict, allowing them to develop more nuance opinions informed by that experience.

True to form for Symbarorum, The Witch’s Hammer Succeeds no only at laying out a series of events, characters, of challenges for players to engage with, btu in building a world where the full picture is too vast for players to understand in full, but in which agency, exploration, and investigation are still properly accounted for and rewarded.

Technically, The Witch’s Hammer is can be run as a one-off and would likely remain an interesting and engaging experience. However, absent the groundwork of Wrath of the Warden and without the promise of consequences to come, it’s difficult to say if it would remain as compelling.

The Witch’s Hammer builds on the prior chapter’s introduction by escalating into open conflict and allowing players a chance to exercise their agency in ways that will drive the long-term outcome of the campaign. The layered approach to narrative-crafting, as well as the wealth of information to discover and variety of approaches to take ensure that The Witch’s Hammer will appeal to player’s regardless of playstyle while providing an equally rich experience for the GM.