Hatemaster is the second adventure of the second Phlan series from Baldman Games. It can be played as a stand-alone adventure, but works best as part of that series, where you need to rescue the three candidates for the rulership of Phlan from the clutches of the Black Lord, Bane.

The adventure’s main conceit is to send the adventurers back in time, where they must aid or hinder the efforts of the candidate Colvin Doverson to lead a coalition against a great danger to Phlan. It’s an excellent idea, but the execution is too complicated for its own good.

The major problem is that it has the adventurers assume the identities of historical personages and engage in debate with other historical figures. This would work brilliantly if everyone had a good knowledge of the era and the characters. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be the case. I had a great deal of fun assuming the role of Fzoul Chembryl, who was an important character in the early Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and novels in the 80s, but watching a player fumble about trying to impersonate Lord Manshoon was painful. For the characters where neither the players or I knew who they were, it was very difficult.

There just isn’t enough information in the adventure to properly role-play this, either on the players’ or the DM’s side. The DM does have some historical information, but it doesn’t properly address the arguments and role-playing needed by the encounter. The players have some very basic information, but again it doesn’t help significantly.

This is added to a rather muddled progression of events which goes in this manner:

• The adventurers arrive in the time-zone and are attacked by Phaerimm (who then act as allies for the rest of the adventure).
• The adventurers negotiate with (at least) three representatives of important powers to either help or oppose the plans of the Colvin to stop a threat to Phlan.
• The adventurers confront Colvin in his chambers/on the battlefield and defeat him in combat/convince him of his inferiority to resolve the adventure.

There are three potential ending sequences, depending on whether the party convinced the other leaders in the area to support or undermine Colvin, or if the party were so confused by the matter they didn’t do anything.

These sequences may make sense, but there’s no great feeling that the players’ actions were significant. Regardless on the path they took, they still get to defeat Colvin or convince him of his inferiority. You’ll probably have fun with the combats – we did – but the storyline is less enthralling. I have trouble knowing what’s intended by the adventure; something that isn’t good when I’m the DM!

Overall, Hatemaster is an ambitious adventure that doesn’t quite work as planned. There’s still entertainment to be found, but it’s a disappointing instalment of the trilogy.