Publishers: Cubicle 7 Entertainment and Games Workshop
Author: Elaine Lithgow
Illustrators: Dániel Kovacs, Runesael Flynn, JG O’Donohue, Rafael Teruel, and Sam White
Year: 2020
Genre: Introductory Soulbound roleplaying adventure
Pages: 23
Price: Free in PDF at DriveThruRPG
Crash & Burn fuses dramatic sensibility and exciting combat to create a first-rate introductory scenario for the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound system.
In Crash & Burn, players find themselves tasked with protecting the survivors of a devastating airship attack while guiding them through the hazardous Kindling Forest as they attempt to reach salvation in the form of a surviving ship. It’s a thematically-intense scenario and one that asks players to make tough choices almost from the get-go. Is it more important to rescue survivors or can you spare a moment to save the supplies to mend their wounds? Do you prioritize the trapped crewmen or their brethren doing battle against the very forces that downed the ship? It’s these kinds of questions that make Crash & Burn such a compelling scenario.
While combat-heavy, it’s not to the detriment of other problem solving or socializing skills. There’s room here to let players of all builds shine and opportunities for truly memorable roleplay. The combat emphasis may also make it more appealing for groups coming from more combat-focused games, including 40k itself.
As a system, Soulbound stands out for both its trust in its GMs and for its willingness to provide guidance. Never heavy-handed or overly prescriptive, many of the precepts that drive these hints are rooted in time-tested practice for good interactive storytelling. Even looking at the way the game structures backstory delivery —as passable tests with NPCs and in organic narrative across the adventure— there’s a nice flow of detail, effectively preventing the dreaded infodump. Newer GMs of all stripes would do well to take into consideration the suggestions sprinkled in across Crash & Burn.
As anyone who has ever played a video game with a poorly scripted escort mission knows, when it comes to guarding NPCS, balance is everything — especially where combat is involved. While the scenario treats these NPCs as minions for the purposes of combat, it does offer players up to three rounds to revive anyone accidentally downed in the fighting. Though this keeps the pressure high, it’s not so unforgiving as to penalize a party actively trying to keep survivors alive for the crime of a bad roll.
Information is well-laid out and the PDF is both visually-appealing and easy to navigate. As a twenty-five page document, it’s easy enough to scroll through on screen, though a hot-linked table of contents would certainly improve the experience of actually running the scenario.
Crash & Burn is a tidy package bringing new players a taste of what Soulbound has to offer as both a setting and a system. Striking a balance among roleplay, combat, and exploratory interests, the scenario offers players of all builds a chance to enjoy the spotlight without getting so grand in its ambitions as to be overwhelming. Though not designed to be run without the aid of the core rulebook, the scenario is a no-brainer for anyone interested in the world.
