The God With No Name

Panayiotis Lines
Leyline Press
OSE
Level ? Mid?

You cannot touch their face and cannot touch their hair. Their voice sings in the wind of the valley and sobs at dawn. Once a vast primordial sea creature, the God with No Name slept and was buried under the salt and silt as the earth dried around it. As Dwarves came to mine the salt centuries later so too did they unearth the slumbering giant and it’s formless shadow child the void doppler. Still the pure and valuable salt lies here as temptation to any would would dare to venture so deep.

This twelve page adventure uses seven pages to describe about thirtish rooms in an old dwarf salt mine, that is actually a colossal living creature. It wants to be a kind of horror adventure, with a creature stalking you and stealing body parts from you. But it comes across as Yet Another Dull Dwarf Adventure. 

So, yeah, Dwarf salt mine. But, no rules or guidance on salt related shit happening to you. It’s actually the case that you are inside a giant creature. SO, heart, lungs, stomach, etc, will make up the theming of some of the rooms. Oooo, it’s the soul room and if you kill the soul node then a howl emanates throughout the tunnels … Stalking through the place is the void doppler. It’s a good pile, ala The Thing, that rips off your mouth, runs away, and then attaches the mouth to itself. Walla! Now it has a mouth! Repeat with other parts. Also, there’s a crazy elf in it, trapped in rubble, and three trolls upstairs, outside of the mine. That’s your enemy compliment. Look, i don’t need an adventure that has nothing but stabbin, but, also, an adventure that has little to no stabbin really needs to sell me on that conflict. I’m gonna need some tension there. If you’re leaning in to ANY trope, as the central theme of an adventure, to the exclusion of most of the elements of the others, then you really better be prepared to sell me that theme. A few hints. Some guidance. Are you only putting wandering monsters in and the whole adventure is about them? Then you better do something more than say “use the table from the book.” The concept, as always, is supporting the DM at the table … especially when so much of the adventure hangs off of one concept. Don’t have room? Add a page. Or, maybe rumours are not as important in this adventure? More than just saying “use hit and run tactics”, you need some atmosphere here.

And that is something that is lacking. Has there ever been a good dwarf dungeon? One that is atmospheric, I mean? Oh, boy, another colossal empty chamber. Unlike other offerings from Leyline, this one’s writing leaves a lot to be desired. “The main entrance to the mine is a simple wooden construct, dilapidated with age. It gapes jagged and open. There is a thin trace of void secretion around the edges of the entrance within the shadows.” That’s not exactly inspiring with regard to a mine entrance. “This area is blocked off with rubble” or “An excavated area of the tunnel.” There’s nothing here to bring forth ANY type of feeling or atmosphere, much less the sense of foreboding that one would want when being stalked by a solitary creature. “Crumbling statue of ancient dwarf king” or “heavy area of salt deposits.” Joy. I am inspired.

The map is trying a bit too hard to channel a real-world diagram. The core map is an ok affair, if, linear as a mine shaft might be, with small offshoots hanging off of it. But, also, there’s an attempt to make notations on the map, like handwritten things one might find on a real map. These DO NOT work AT ALL. They are small and scratchy and impossible to read with any clarity without trying hard. We have forgotten the first rule: it has to be legible. 

The descriptions here are quite weak. There is little atmosphere communicated. The challenge here is mostly one of the main creature, almost to the exclusion of all other play types/interactivity … but that sort play is not supported at all by the designer. And we combine that with more padding and empty words than Bastard King had, by far. 

This is, by far, the weakest entry I’ve seen from Leyline so far. Well, that’s only two, and the first one WAS quite good. It’s not like this is a piece of shit, it is, just, at best, Yet Another Throw Away Mediocre Adventure. And we don’t do those here.

This is $4 at DriveThru. There is no preview. For shame! Let us see what we are buying first!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/405441/the-god-with-no-name?1892600