The Wizard’s Tower

By Robert Mills
Trebormills Games
d6? Levels ... Mid?

The situation in Greymarsh has become dire indeed, heroic individuals are needed to rise to the task of defending it. Villages in the Southlands have reported sighting hoards of undead, coming from out of the Deadwood. In addition there are also reports of roving patrols of goblins, orcs and bandits close to the Wizard’s tower. Bertrum Greymane the fifth hasn’t been heard from in two months. It is imperative that contact is re-established with the hermit-like mad mage. Find out what is going on with Bertrum and if he is alive make contact with him, then report back to Greyhold.

This 32 page adventure uses eight pages to describe about seventeen rooms in an underground complex. You’ll ‘enjoy’ stabbing things, stabbing things more in rooms with overly simplistic descriptions, but still padded out. Note that there is no Wizard’s Tower. Or really a hex crawl either?

Ok, undead, orcs and goblins are coming out of the Deadwood. That’s, oh, ten days horse ride away, thirty or so days on foot. Frank the Wizzo lives on the edge of the woods and no one has heard from him. Pretty please go check on him? Ok man, we got a hex crawl! A thirty day hex crawl as a part of the plot? Or a ten day hex crawl on horse? That’s a bit strange, given the urgency that is being communicated. But, sure, ok. 

Said hex crawl involves you rolling on wandering monster tables twice a day to have a potential encounters. That’s it. No hexes to explore. No sites to discover. ROll twice a day and have your wandering encounter. I don’t know that I would use the words hex crawl to describe that. I guess its technically accurate? Maybe? Maybe it’s just a Hex Travel adventure and Hex Crawl means what we traditionally think of it as? Anyway, lame, adds nothing, boring. The adventure suggests that perhaps as many three gaming sessions could be taken up with the journey to the wizards tower, as a hex crawl. Again, that’s not quite what I would expect?

Congrats! You’re now at the wizards tower! It’s being besieged by hundreds of orcs, goblins and undead. Eventually you will stumble across a magic telepathy session that tells you to go to some ruins and explore them. Thus, the adventure of The Wizards Tower is not actually IN the Wizards Tower. It’s in a dwarf ruin nearby. *sigh* 

Now we’ve got kind of an Indiana Jones scene, from Raiders, where the nazis are digging one desert site out and Dr Jones is going in to another site, the real one. Except the siegers are tunneling  in and the party has found the front doors, so to speak. Except there’s no real above ground portion to this, not the big mining operation for the siegers, or, really, any interesting details of the siege at all. Lame.

We now get to the dungeon. Inside we shall be dazzled by such descriptions as “The Orcs bypassed the sealed door by tunnelling into the chamber. Anyone discovering this tunnel will be faced by a picket guard of 2 goblins at the entrance, plus the individuals in room 5.”The Orcs bypassed the sealed door by tunnelling into the chamber. Anyone discovering this tunnel will be faced by a picket guard of 2 goblins at the entrance, plus the individuals in room 5.”In fact, almost every room has a “Bertram did this to room” section to it. FUll of padding and backstory and useless detail. “There is a sealed pit in this room (treat it as magically sealed by Bertrum, unless you have added your own extra tunnels, in which case it could connect to those)” or some padding like “Should the PC’s touch or pick up the treasure they risk angering the guardian of the tomb.” That’s a nothing statement. And that sort of padding is everywhere.

Interactivity involves stabbing things. Lots of things. I think there’s a spider you can talk to, but that’s about it. Just stab things. But, no real order of battle, of course. Maybe a note here or there that the dudes in room 5 are alerted, which is better than nothing I guess.

“A former council room for meetings between the Dwarven elders and visitors. Now used by Bertrum to store furniture and unimportant documents. The room is currently being ransacked by three goblins” That right there is what you are paying your money for. Three gaming session to get to that. You enjoy that right there.

This is $4 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages and shows you nothing, thus, an ineffective preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/472770/gma2-the-wizard-s-tower?1892600