The Proving Grounds is launching. The alpha and beta are done, and after years of waiting the early access event begins before Jen and Sam’s eyes…
It’s not quite what they expected. Not what anyone expected. The whole world has been turned into a free for all fight with only a few pools of society scraping by as any character that dies stays dead. And it only gets stranger when they are recruited by a Game Master and set on a collision course with the event’s invading barbarian warlord himself, Tobin Ironblood.
They are Heralds now, their characters empowered to make this an event the world will never forget. Ironblood has his own group of players and the world is caught in the middle. The Heralds seek to end the event discretely for the sake of a player base that is suffering, while the other side works to keep it going for greater glory.
Yet Jen has misgivings. Things are not adding up. Players are upset and their GM guide is cryptic and often unhelpful… but for the sake of the new game world getting its footing, to let all those that have died return, the Heralds soldier on. They have their mission and their target.
My Opinion: This 322 page story, $3.99, is available on Kindle Unlimited.
Set as a parallel story to Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds, author Wade Adrian, say ‘it takes place at the same time but from the perspective of a group of players enlisted to work against the protagonists of the first one and sheds new light on a number of events that you might already be familiar with, or can see from Tobin’s side in Ultimatum if you’re not.’
If you’ve read Ultimatum, these are the other guys. The group of players that have been given the task to motivate other players to kill Tobin. You don’t have to have read the other novel to enjoy this one but it adds a lot of context.
Score: 6 out of 10