The Unleashed Evil

By Simone Zambruno
Classic Dungeon Adventures
OSE? Generic/Universal?
Levels ... 0? 2?

Here, characters without heroic skills or amazing powers and weapons (but now with a hint of experience and awareness…) must face undead creatures, traps, and ancient mysteries from the lower level of the mysterious temple they discovered in The Lost Temple.

This adventure is trash, from start to finish. It is one of the most sloppy adventures I’ve ever seen, in addition to making all of the usual mistakes layered on top of a boring set of encounters. 32 pages with fourteen rooms. I have so many fucking regrets.

This adventure is on a one level map. It has fourteen rooms on it. The encounter keys go as such: one, two, three, six, six, nine, six, and then comes a heading saying “level 2” and then the keys start over from one through fourteen. I don’t know. I odn’t think there is a second level? Maybe the map is level two and the initial keys are modifications to the map in the firs adventure in this series … not included? I have no fucking idea. It’s not a Veil of Maya type thing or anything. It just … is. 

The adventure intro tells us that this adventure, as the first one, is ideally suited to zero level characters. It then throws a ghoul at them immediately. No, this is not a funnel, you have a single character. There’s also a weight in the dungeon, potentially. It also tells us that the second two adventures are for mid-level characters. I guess you jump from zero to mid? NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE TO ME! The pregens are level two. Also, a wight?! At level two even?! In a plot adventure where you’re supposed to be overcoming obstacles?

It’s listed as the OSE system and then makes a point of touting itself as Generic/Universal. But, hey, there are character tokens everyone! And a soundtrack on a per room basis! You fucking enjoy that shit, right?!?! 

The text here is in a white font on a black background. ANd it’s in some hard to read font, doubling down on the hard to read thing. And then it ups it even further by using long sections of italics. I don’t like long sections of italics. I think they are hard to read. On top of a fancy font being hard to read. On top of white text on a black background being hard to read. “First, make the adventure legible …” 

The initial read-aloud is absolute garbage. “The village gathers in the appointed place for Beltane activities.” That is nearly a platonic example of abstracted text. Appointed place. Beltane activities. Name the fucking names! It goes on to tell us that there are sudden screams, coming from the millers house, where his three year old was left sleeping in the care of an aging nurse. In the read-aloud. What the fuck man?! Maybe in a Memoir 44 intro or as a part of a con game, but not in a home game. DId I fail to mention the page long read-aloud in the leys proper? In the requisite italics text fancy font white color on black background. *sigh*

One of my very favorite rooms has read-aloud that says “Sinister chains hang from the ceiling. You neither understand or wish to investigate further.” Uh. Ok. No? That’s it for the room, by the way. There’s nothing more. 

Oh, oh, how about this for a room description! “Here, chaos reigns supreme! A chair lies overturned in the corner next to a small table and several scattered books.” Uh …

There’s nothing here. No evocative descriptions. Shitty read-aloud. An adventure of stabbing and simplistic traps. Sloppy formatting, to extreme levels. “Seems to be” “Appears to be” “As you step in …”

This is the kind of thing that makes you wish you could exclude publishers in your DrriveThru explorations.

This is $1 at DriveThru. No preview. SUccccccckkkkkker!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/500958/the-unleashed-evil?1892600