Pray for Dawn
Pray for Dawn is a sci-fi fantasy post-apocalyptic adventure for Chaos 6010 AD written by Brandon Williams and published by Arcanum Syndicate.
By Aaron T. Huss
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Pray for Dawn is a sandbox-styled adventure for Chaos 6010 A.D. placed within the city of Necropolis and containing a large list of locations and encounters. From there, they refer to the included bestiary list or perform the narrative as listed (which can easily be use as just a suggestion and not a definitive narrative). The adventure has a general overarching storyline, but is kept fairly generic so that the GM can interpret it as needed. This is in the form as narrative text and GM notes. This also allows the PCs to travel through the city as needed, such as if they need to quickly duck into a building to escape a mob of undead.
CONTENT
The Necropolis location guide includes a large list of locations available in Necropolis along with a series of accompanying maps to show the way. The descriptions of each are kept simple and the GM notes contain information on encounters, further details, and narrative.
Cast of Characters contains a listing of the major NPCs applicable to Necropolis.
Creatures contains a bestiary for the more mundane beings that inhabit Necropolis.
OVERALL
Pray for Dawn is an interesting sandbox adventure and amounts to a grind through the city with the seeming purpose of surviving to escape the city and the surrounding lands. The guide seems to cover a very wide range of character levels and can easily amount to many interesting game sessions, as long as your characters survive.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 4 out of 10
The publication quality of Pray for Dawn is very conflicting. There is some fantastic pieces of artwork placed in ideal locations while at the same time there is some decent artwork that could use better placement and sizing. The background of the publication is not only unfavorable for reading, but it looks sloppy as it clearly depicts a textured rectangle that doesn’t fit the page and was instead tiled to fit, although the tiles do not match on each side. The font of the text is a little difficult to read and the entire publication is filled with an excessive amount of white space. Each section is not properly identified but at least the location listings follow an order (which happens to be alphabetical). At the same time, there are some good looking maps and no shortage of interesting artwork (although placement in the creature section is often awkward). Additionally, the PDF lacks bookmarks, which in a sandbox adventure are a definite need.
Storyline: 9 out of 10
Pray for Dawn has a fairly standard sandbox-styled storyline, but is filled with suspenseful situations and the PCs would be wise to proceed with caution. The entire city reeks of horror and hopefully the PCs can survive to get elsewhere. Across the various locations, the storyline does an excellent job of building up to events/encounters within those locations.
Desire to Play: 9 out of 10
If you enjoy playing Chaos 6010 A.D. then there’s little reason why you wouldn’t enjoy a romp through Necropolis, unless you don’t make it out of course. This is a great sandbox location and there is no shortage of interesting buildings to visit with who-knows-what lying within. The encounters attempt to be somewhat unpredictable from one to another and could really keep the PCs on their guard at all times. There’s also a lot of variety from one location to another – not in terms of physical description but the narrative and the encounters.
Overall: 7 out of 10
If you can get past the layout and look of Pray for Dawn, you will find a well-written sandbox adventure with loads of opportunities for fun game sessions and a great representation of life in Chaos 6010 A.D. If you already play Chaos 6010 A.D., I suggest looking past the publication quality and make the best use of the content and maps.