With The Kathol Rift (1996), the Darkstryder Campaign gets weird. The Rift is a chaotic region of space with a dark history. The area is full of anomalies, thanks to some ancient Force-related conflicts, and, well, it causes elaborate hallucinations. This the Event Horizon portion of our campaign.

First off, maintaining communications with the universe outside the disruptive energies of Rift (and thus, the idea of New Republic back-up, should things get out of hand) requires the creation of a sort of lifeline using re-purposed imperial probe droids. I kind of love this as an ongoing concern. The hallucinations are also a pretty interesting way to subvert things and introduce a little horror into the game.

The scenarios continue to amp up the pressure on the crew, especially now that resources are even more scarce. Of particular note is the mutiny, which brings all the simmering tensions of confined crew life to a potentially deadly head.

The scripting for pregenerated characters continues to be a mixed bag. There are some prompts that seem enjoyable and some that seem downright unsuited for players to handle as they break under the pressures of the Rift. At this point, I have to say that the game is over-scripted and puts too much of a burden on players with certain key characters. At the same time, those certain key characters are central to the story, so not having players take the roles seems like bowing out of the narrative. Its a tricky thing.