Vortex

Just finished GMing this module. It was excellent. Although the layout in the first half is a bit all over the place, which involved a lot of flicking back and forth the content itself is fantastic and by the time the characters enter the second part of the adventure, things are nicely weird.

This probably took up two sessions in total, although this was broken up by side missions which took it up to 4 sessions. If I had bought this from this source I would be giving it a 4 star rating.

Here is the journal of events in my game (SPOILERS) - https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4660139/beyond

The first part of Vortex is the same as the adventure in the new Numenéra Starter Set box (the second half of Vortex is a free download if you bought the box, they tell you which web-address to go to). It has a 32-page Rules booklet, 32-page Adventure and GM booklet, a large glossy map, two dice, and a small cheat-sheet.

But the Starter Set offers 5 new character-sheets. Are there any other important differences?

What the heck. I bought both the box and this .pdf module.

I enjoyed this adventure. Act II is far superior to Act I, which is a little bit of standard D&D fare. I talk about it extensively in my podcast, Plot Points, which discusses rpgs as literature. You can find us on iTunes, or our Vortex talk is here:

http://plotpoints.libsyn.com/14-numeneras-the-vortex-by-monte-cook

So, I'm trying to figure out how the pre-gen character Leve is TRAINED in light weapons. I can't find anything on the character that would give him/her a trained skill for attacks. Is it a misprint, and he's just supposed to read as PRACTICED in light weapons? Maybe I'm missing something, though. Can anyone help?

As described above, this is a two-part adventure originally written for convention play. Both parts are built as sandbox adventures, with a number of locations described and the action left completely up to the PCs and the GM. Part 2 includes quite a few optional (and a few scripted) GM intrusions. Part 1 would work great as an introductory adventure for a group of new PCs (and new players), though Part 2 would be extraordinarily difficult without more advanced characters. As David B. mentioned, Part 2 does ramp up the weird, and it really captures the out-there science-fantasy feel of the Numenera setting. Part 1 is a little more conventional in its scope, though I think it'd still be a good introduction to the setting.

Is it "better" than the adventures in the core book? I don't know that this is a valid question. Vortex does include rules for adapting it for more advanced PCs, though I don't know that it's better or worse than other options. Personally, I'd just choose an order and play...See more them all!

So is this a better starter than the adventures in the Core book???

As someone who GMed official game of Numenera at GenCon, I can say that Vortex Part 1 is fairly safe introduction to Numenera for those who have done role playing before... Part 2 amps the weird up to 11.