Review: Fraternity of Ash

Mild spoilers for the adventure...

By M.T. Black, the Fraternity of Ash is a mystery adventure set in a small village primarily focused on investigation and social interaction, culminating in a climactic set piece battle. 

This is the first work by M.T. Black other than his Anatomy of Adventure which I've read, but it is impressive. I found it's forty five pages to be outstandingly organized and the prose to be tight. Sometimes unclear text or continuity errors can make both reading and then running mysteries difficult. No such issues in this case. The node map of the adventure helps provide a great organizing framework to facilitate a nonlinear adventure emphasizing player choice. 

I also thought Black's design note at the end of the adventure was a nice touch, acknowledging the influence of Justin Alexander's work on mystery structures and recommending other works. It’s just classy, and demonstrates how much Black does the homework.

This is an extremely well put together product, and I would highly recommend picking it up if you’re at all interested or familiar with MT Black’s work.