For the last three years, I've run a Planescape¹ campaign through almost all of its modules. Now, after successfully finishing it, I want to look back and review these adventures, highlighting the pros and cons of each one.

Each module will be rated in three categories, up to 3 points in each:

• Presentation: how easy is to understand and run the adventure.
• Openness: how open the adventure's scope is, regarding the freedom of choice.
• Quality: Overall quality of the adventure, including the originality and richness of its content, and players' enjoyment.

The full list of currently published reviews is available under the planescape tag.

Harbinger House

From Sigil to the Outlands and back again, the heroes must piece together a puzzle that could shake the Cage to its foundations. A dark secret of the multiverse waits to be discovered in the lunatic asylum called Harbinger House, and only the player characters can shape its power - for good or ill.

• Designer: Bill Slavicsek
• Source: Harbinger House²
• Party: 4-6 characters of 4th-7th levels
• Play-time: 5-7 sessions
• Locations:
  • Sigil
  • Outlands / Ecstasy
  • Outlands / Curst

Overview

Another expansive adventure from Bill Slavicsek, following right after my previous review of his other adventure — Doors to the Unknown. As you may remember, that one wasn't one of my favorites leaving much to be desired. Well, I'm happy to say, that today's installment is magnitudes better in all regards, being a serious contender to the top ten Planescape modules. That is, if you are fond of city crawl and investigation, of course.

Due to the complex nature of the adventure and to keep some intrigue, I'm not going to dive into the minute details of the underlying mysteries, intrigues, and plots. Instead, I'll try to focus on the overview of the main events, locations, and highlights of each chapter.

Chapter I: The Streets of Sigil

There is a murderer on the loose in the Cage, targeting exclusively its lawful denizens. If that wasn't enough, other unusual events are happening in the city: the dabus act weird and nervous, a strange new cult has appeared, worshipping the Lady of Pain… The characters are thrown in the mix by the way of one of the three Quick Starts suggested in this chapter.

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📝 NOTE: While exploring the city, the characters might encounter some important NPCs that live in Sigil (for example A'kin, the proprietor of "The Friendly Fiend" shop). If you want to enrich your knowledge about these personas, or even integrate some other ones, you might want to check out the "Uncaged: Faces of Sigil"³ supplement.

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The whole chapter is structured around getting the clues, exploring the crime scenes, and stumbling upon random encounters in the process of chasing the law-killer. To make it easier for myself, I've created a simple flowchart of the past and upcoming events, to keep it straight and not misguide the players by an accidental mix-up.

This part of the adventure provides a pretty good detective experience for the characters and doesn't hold their hands much in deciding where to go next and whom to ask about the ongoing events. While not immediately obvious, the Cult of the Lady is also tangentially related to the investigation and will play the key role in the climax of this chapter, providing one of the most memorable and bone-chilling spectacles for the characters who witness this event.

Chapter II: On the Outlands

After the dust settles, the characters depart to the Outlands⁴ chasing after Sougad the Lawshredder, wielding information provided by Factol Ambar and/or some other involved NPCs. They might also involve themselves in the search for Trolan the Beloved, the creator of the ill-fated Cult of the Lady.

The first part of this chapter will bring the characters to the serene gate town of Ecstasy, where the Lawshredder's hot trail leads. Just like in Sigil, the City of Plinths provides the characters with a tapestry of clues, witnesses, and stories that might help with the investigation. Unbeknownst to the characters, the law-killer is ready to make his next move right here, completing the next step in his mysterious bloody ritual.

Continuing on the other lead, the second part of the chapter describes the situation in Curst, the Walled City, where the mad bard Trolan preaches his newfound religion. The characters should act swift and smart though, for a group of Anarchists already preparing to assassinate the bard. Did the characters manage to save Trolan or not, now they must escape Curst, fighting through the Wall Watch bribed by an emissary of the main antagonist of the adventure (yet unknown by the characters).

Chapter III: Harbinger House

The climax of the adventure brings the party back to the Cage, to the eponymous Harbinger House, a mysterious mental asylum run by the Believers of the Source, hosing potential powers-to-be (at least, that's what Godsmen believe). This madhouse is a labyrinthine mansion that the characters must traverse to finally find out what's going on, and (hopefully) prevent the murderous psychopath from rising to godhood.

Harbinger House is a fully-fledged dungeon, full of crazy denizens wielding unexplainable superpowers. Some can be friendly, but some can as easily decimate the party if the characters aren't careful enough. Mapping the insane portal-riddled geometry of the house is another challenge the players must face. There are even portals to other planes here, making this place somewhat similar to the Mortuary, as it was presented in the Eternal Boundary adventure.

The final battle is big and epic, colliding multiple sides with their own agendas together and making the finale the highest point of the whole adventure. The planned actions of all DM-controlled forces are pre-written, but the characters might act as they will, influencing the outcome of the conflict through their decisions. In fact, the adventure lists five main possible outcomes of the battle, depending on what the player characters did or didn't do. Some of these outcomes are so drastic that the Lady herself decides to get involved.

Since the aftermath of the adventure is undecided, I won't say much else. You've got to see on your own how your group would forge the fates of those involved!

Presentation

🖋️🖋️🖋️ superb

The author tried to make running this adventure easier for the DM. All important NPCs with their stats and motivations are listed in the introduction, alongside factions' opinions regarding ongoing events and some other important information.

The map assortment is rich as well, including not only the final "dungeon" of Harbinger House, but also street layouts of Ecstasy, Curst, and the whole Sigil region where the action takes place. The only downside I can mention is the absence of the grid on Harbinger House maps. The scale is given at least, so you could measure the distance pretty easily, or even overlay your own grid on top.

The experience awards are listed, depending on what goals the characters have managed to achieve. There are even different goals for differently-aligned characters.

There's also an abundance of bespoke illustrations depicting the most intense scenes of the adventure and useable as additional handouts. As a matter of fact, all illustrations here are full-page sized and printed in full color. You can feast your eyes on them at this Vintage RPG page.

Openness

☀️☀️ semi-linear

While allowing the party relative freedom of actions and decisions, the adventure has a rigid skeleton of the main plot underneath this veneer. Nevertheless, the exact details of the upcoming events could still change by the will and hand of the player characters. And, in most cases, the plot will endure. Even if the party fails to save Trolan in Chapter II, the adventure still can go on, though the characters will face some additional hardships as a result. It's a challenging task to balance the thrilling plot with the open-ended approach, and I think that Harbinger House did this job well enough.

Quality

★★ good

Interestingly enough, while I very much enjoyed running this adventure, the players' opinions were all over the place, from very high down to low ratings. Maybe it was because of previously mentioned linear parts of the module, maybe it's just a matter of taste for investigative city crawls, I cannot say. So, your mileage may vary, but you'll never know until you try it yourself!

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1. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17267/Planescape-Campaign-Setting-2e?affiliate_id=850783↩

2. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17277/Harbinger-House-2e?affiliate_id=850783↩

3. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17285/Uncaged-Faces-of-Sigil-2e?affiliate_id=850783↩

4. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17301/A-Players-Primer-to-the-Outlands-2e?affiliate_id=850783↩