Mired Temple of the Idiot God

Uncredited
Kormar Publishing
OSR 
Level 2?

A washed out temple resurfaces baring secrets of the Deep. The promise of knowledge and treasure is tempting, but perhaps it is better to let some things stay hidden…

This nine page adventure features a simple six room dungeon in an once under the sea temple. Theming is generally light, the dungeon small, and encounters sparse. While not odious, it doesn’t present something very worthwhile either, for more interesting play.

It’s been a long day, living in Reseda, after a short night. Multiple trips to the impound lot, BMV, and lots of pets to take care of, all for others. So, we’re gonna do something light seeing it’s not 7am but rather 10pm. 

We’ve got a temple, once under water and now surfaced again. The general overview text presents us with “Its decorative columns are tangled with seaweed and the roof is a mess of barnacles and fish detritus. Carved above the open entryway in the common tongue is the word: Septulus. The walls surrounding the structure are carved with graffiti depicting headless men, flying spheres of light, and humans consorting with demons.” Along with “the stink of mire and rotten fish.”  So far so good, right? Other highlights of the writing include the ground littered with fish carcasses and mud, and broken bottles and rusted sconces and rotten squid carcass sprawled across a wine rack. Sprawled is a good word choice here. We’re painting a pretty good picture, in general. 

This combines with a relatively decent format of bullet points, nested at times to provide additional information, in an order that is general ‘important things first.” Maybe a little overly generous with the white space, especially to get a six room dungeon to nine pages, but, her, better that than the alternatives, right?

Generally, though, you’re only getting one sentence for each room with any sort of evocative writing, the first, overview of the room sentence. After that the writing becomes a little more literal and fact based. This doesn’t have to be bad, but, in a dungeon with so few rooms and given the sparseness of the interactivity, it comes across as a less than stellar effort. Meaning, i think, that more effort in this area may have uplifted my final verdict of the adventure.

You get four zombies and one ghoulin this. That’s it. That’s your interactivity. Oh, I supposed uncorking a basin to get a magic potion can be thrown in also. Eh, and I guess a forcefield you have to find a way through, OSR style with freeform play. So what there is is decent. 

But there’s not nearly enough here. Just as with this review, there is a sparseness to the place, both in descriptive text and in interactivity, that I’m having a very hard time with.

I find this to be the case with many smaller, lair dungeons. The small environment doesn’t really allow the adventure to breathe at all. As one tomb, among a valley of them, this might be ok. Combine that with a valley full of rovers or other hazards, to explore as you go, and perhaps some faction play then you might have a decent little play area. 

But as a stand alone adventure I find myself not enjoying this much. I get it, one night of play, blah blah blah. But it feels shallow, and empty. As if there should be more. As if the play of the thing is unsatisfying. Could it be the opposite? Sure. But ultimately i think what consumers are looking for are things that help facilitate that satisfying play, and I just don’t see that from this. 

Is it BAD?  No. Not at all. Is it GOOD? No, I don’t think that’s true also. And in a world in which everything is available, from the beginning of the hobby, you have to ask yourself why choose this? Why.

This is Free at DriveThru. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/402275/Mired-Temple-of-the-Idiot-God?1892600