What do you guys think of the Chaosium's monograph The Vault

[Amongor]

I'm about to purchase the Vault and would like to get the opinion of anyone who has gone thru it or read it.
Spoilers are ok as I am the keeper.

[cjbowser]

Here is a thread you might want to read. Make sure to follow the links:

Vault #1
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[Amongor]

I got a bit too excited and purchased this before reading the reviews .
I'll just have to see for myself if the product is really that bad.
Thanks for the reply cj and I'll post my review of the product after I've a chance to read it.

[revnye]

I too bought the Vault and the other monograph by the same author, Rise of the Dead, without reading any reviews last year.

I read Rise of the Dead hoping for a good one night zombie scenario. It turns out it was a scenario made for convention play that railroaded the characters through set scenes. The survivalist characters have fewer firearms than I personally own. Most of the 48 pages are taken up by the pre-generated characters, exceptionally detailed maps of a house that the characters will only spend the first scene (out of 6 or 8) in, and other drivel. There are something like 8 pages of actual scenario in the whole thing. While the scenario itself isn't horrible, the fact that it is totally linear was a a big drawback, in my opinion. Then I read those reviews of Rise of the Dead and the Vault. I've never even gotten around to reading the Vault, as I assumed I would find the same kind of shlock. Maybe I'll do that today...

Maybe I can alter the scenario and de-linearize it. That way I can use the nice maps, etc.


Edit: I spent some time reading The Vault today and it is incredibly linear, right until the final scene. At that point it becomes very open ended as the players can wander all about trying to finish the scenario. It does contain a lot of wonderful handouts. I just looked up how much I paid for the PDF during one of the 30% off sales and am still not convinced that it was a good value. I see why the writer says it contains harsh material, but totally disagree. I've written scenarios with much more adult/harsh material. I could see where players could be frustrated by the scenario and how some might find it harsh or disturbing.