Silvandor and the Shattered Light

By Jack Frank
OnceWas RPG
OSR
Levels 4-5

The elven city of Silvandor has stood for ages, guided by Yavanna’s light. But with the shattering of the sacred artifact that once banished the demon Malthar, a dark change spreads through the Eldertree Forest. A growing cult of lycanthropic elves—the Sereg Ithil, or Moonblooded—claim their curse is not corruption but ascension. Though the Light of Yavanna has been recovered, it is cracked and weak. Before it can be restored, the Moonblooded must be stopped. They gather in the ruined city of Ithol Lael, preparing to unleash a wave of lycanthropy across the land in Malthar’s name. Lady Lorien cannot move against her own people without proof or risking civil war, so she calls upon you—outsiders—to infiltrate the cult, uncover the truth, and put an end to the Moonblooded threat.

This forty page adventure uses about 22 pages to launch a lot of monologue at the party in a series of brief railroaded encounters. It’s a plot!  It’s a story! It’s boring.

I’m unfamiliar with the system, OnceWas. From the adventure, it looks like it’s a basic kind of D&D with some skill checks added in, and an adventure that seems a lot like a late 2e/3e railroad/plot/story thing. Some kind of bullshit DM story is not my bag baby, but I’m going to try and keep those opinions, about how shitty and misguided that entire nonsense genre is, to myself. 

We see the start of the problems with the DriveThru page. There is no description. None. It’s entirely blank. I’ve spoken at length on the Scum of Humanity just pumping shit out to to make money, be it through AI or hand-crafted. This is an age old problem, with scale perhaps changing but not that it exists. But, on the other side, if you’re NOT just grinding out $100 a month by ruining joy, then presumably you’re doing it because you love it. In which case you should be taking your time and really polishing your work. Really trying to put the best product out you can. After all, it reflects not just you, as a person, but presumably the joy you have in the game. I am mystified by folks that don’t do this. I can, certainly, empathize with loathing your creation so much that you want to either burn it or get rid of the chore of working on it by publishing it. But, otherwise, you’re either a grifter or should be taking joy in your work? So, why be sloppy like this?

Speaking of sloppy, here’s a couple of pages of read-aloud from the three room cave with elven werewolf cultists in it that serves as the climax of the adventure. You see where that read-aloud ends, right above “Northern Pool”? I’m certain that that is where the big climactic boss fight is supposed to be. But it’s missing. There’s nothing there. No one cared, not even the designer. Just fucking look it over once you’re “done.” Or, better yet, get one other person to proof-read it. It doesn’t have to be complex. A simple scan of the document should be enough to reveal shit is OBVIOUSLY not right.

Your town is infested with wererats. You’ve got a broken Phial of Galadriel. You go to an elf town. Queen elf tells you they can repair it in three days. While you are guarding it a read-aloud has a werewolf elf steal it. You go to their cave, above, and don’t get the fight details. End. There’s maybe one encounter in the woods with a werewolf elf. You’re not making any choices in this.

Everything is very high prescribed. Read-aloud for everything. The DM notes say the tone is Moral complexity, tragic antagonists, beautiful but fading world, but none of that is really present and/or the DM isn’t really assisted in brining that tone in to play. Which is what proper design should do.

This is $7 at DriveThru. There is no preview. Bleech!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/549236/a5-silvandor-and-the-shattered-light?1892600