The Beacon of Illumvale

By Geoff Marchiori
Ludum press
S&W
Levels 1-3

Welcome to The Beacon of Illumvale. The Beacon, as the inhabitants refer to it, is a magnificent magical tower within the town of Illumvale that projects a protective magical light much like a lighthouse. In a way it is a lighthouse of law standing strong against the sea of chaos that surrounds it. Illumvale needs protection as it lies on the perilous western border of the province of Byemon with hordes of chaos minions forever attempting to overrun the town

This 111 page adventure describes a town and uses seventeen pages to describe a dungeon with about fifty rooms. In actuality, an over described town with an under described goblin lair assault. 

Ok, so, this town out in the grasslands wants some new guards. You journey out there to the town and get hired. Then you … do nothing? Seriously … there’s not much here in ways of a hook. It suggests that the party stumble over the nearby cave dungeon. Turns out the evil god Fazouli. Phazoli? Whatever, there’s an evil god/cult getting their foothold on. And, you just stumble over the dungeon.

There’s supposed to be this overland journey element, to get to the town, as well as some encounters in the town. But, they are really just a pretty standard wandering monster table without much detail. “These farmers are native commonfolk. Their farms are dotted all around the town countryside.” Well now, that certainly added a lot to my game night! There’s nothing interesting, or idiosyncratic, or even a situation going on. Just a wanderer attacks. Oh, I guess a dragon does fly overhead. That’s interesting, I guess? It’s all just … the normal D&D shit from the books?

The town has a level sixteen wizard in chard. With a level twelve druid and a level twelve cleric also. In spite of this, I guess they can’t really take care of themselves. Oh, they do have city guard patrols running around, each of which has, like, a level five wizard in them, each with a wand of hold person. Did I mention the potter who is a level two fighter? So, yeah, it’s one of THOSE towns. Anyway, about ninety places in town. Each overly described. There is a little note in some of them in how they can contribute to The War Effort. IE: that cleric can identify an evil shamens unholy symbol as Fazouli. Or, the senior sage can be particularly useful to adventurers, but will need funding support from the council. Interesting little bits, but, also, absolutely scattered throughout the text and in no way easy to follow unless you have memorized the entire thing or taken notes and highlighted shit in the index or something like that. 

So, eventually, you stumble over the caves. There’s about a dozen cave rooms and then it leads to an underground temple complex with about forty rooms. The interactivity here is stabbing things. And I don’t mean Caves of Chaos stabbing things. Oh, no, Bre-ark, tossing a sack of gold and so on that is a wonder of creativity compared to this thing. Just wander in and stab something and go to the next room and repeat it. Truly, we live in the best of times. There is no exploration. I guess, there is a room with yellow mold? And a dwarf prisoner to free? Does that count? I guess?  But this is just a hack. In S&W. In which you shouldn’t really be just hacking. 

Room descriptions are long and boring. Boring adjectives like LARGE and BIG. Over described read-aloud … in a room with guards we’re also told there are four bedrolls and a pile of what you presume to be supplies. Perfect. But my favorite is when DM notes are included in the read-aloud. “The door to this room is very sturdy and is locked (the witch doctor has the only key).” Uh. Ok. Or, “Two burly humanoids jump to their feet as you enter. They each have a sword and shield.” Nothing about the room and presuming that the party was noticed. Perfect. “This is the home of a deadly spider.” Great. Repetition. Almost every single one of the descriptions is like that. And then the DM text drags on for multiple paragraphs overexplaining simple concepts. 

It looks purty. Nice clever, decent art … ai generated it seems, but whatever. And someone spent a lot of time on the town and on the words for the wanderers and overland journey. And an extensive appendices for monsters (which don’t get decent descriptions at all) and magic items and guilds in town and … but it’s all for nothing. Because the heart of the adventure is not interesting. Just take a goblin complex from B2 and add some more rooms and make the descriptions, I don’t know, ten times longer with slightly less interactivity and the B2 goblins?

The adventure, the dungeon, that’s the main thing. That’s what all of teh time and effort should be spent on. Sure, create a town supplement. Or, add a town to the dungeon. But, the fucking dungeon had better be fucking great at that point. Is there a place for a lair assault in D&D? Sure? I guess so? But even a lair assault can be more interesting than a simple hack. Re: G1.

This is $7 at DriveThru. The preview is eleven pages and show you nothing of the town or the dungeon. Just the meaningless slog of an overland journey.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/458441/The-Beacon-of-Illumvale–13-lvl-module?1892600

EDIT: I got a long letter from the designer with a list of things to correct. I corrected the page count to 111 pages.