Baron’s Gambit

By Matt Finch
Mythmere Games
S&W
Levels 1-2

Recruited by the Baron of Cat’s Cradle, the characters are tasked with investigating the deaths of some guardsmen in a small hamlet known as Baron’s Gambit. They will end up exploring the ruins of an abandoned temple in search of a strange foe, and uncovering a secret that could make them quite rich … provided they survive.

This 26 page adventure details a small investigation and then dungeon exploration with about twenty rooms over a couple of levels. Aimed at introductory players, it’s got some decent advice and some nice challenges in it that illustrate a more complete understanding of a dungeoneering environment. It also leaves shit out in a frustrating way and someone needs to introduce Matt to updated formatting principals. 

The local Baron is a real go-getter. He’s doing some redevelopment work, but his local dudes he sent died. He sends the party in to straighten shit out before he gets there in two weeks to take charge. Tracking things to the local abandoned temple (sitting on the edge of a village with five buildings) gets you to a dungeon crawl with a few interesting features. 

Right off the bat, nice cover on this one! I mean, it’s not really an accurate reflection of the village, at least not in the way it’s described, but that cover is striking, yeah? And, Matt seems to be a pretty decent DM with a good understanding of what D&D is, as shown by little bits of advice sprinkled throughout. Like, allow the characters to have an impact on the game world. Fuck some shit up, for good or ill, but the impact will really bring the play home to the players,. Absofuckinglutly! And, there’s a cute bit of snark present as well, such as, when the characters are getting the deal from the Baron “And as you know, it’s a bad idea for nameless, landless adventurers to bargain with people who own their own prisons.” I do love a sly grin.

But, more importantly, are the interactive elements. You know, the adventure. The investigation portion here is pretty simple. Poke around and look at the four or five buildings and half a dozen people until you reach the little girl who tells you she saw a little man near the abandoned temple. She IS in the house closest to it, but, also, I would have loved a little bit of “her room faces it” or something. Anyway, I’m not sure an investigation is all that needed when “large ruined temple” sits a hundred feet away. “Whats that you say?! Monsters are coming out of the monster summoning portal?!” 

The dungeon, proper, has a couple of VERY good rooms in it. One involves a one way door, with a possability that the party fucks up their most obvious manner of escape. This is integrated well in to the adventure, with the opportunity for a direction before you get it, possibly, as well as, perhaps, a little lesson in stabbing shit. Another section has a collapsed stairway to the next level. We deal so often with common dungeon features being taken for granted, and some of my most favorite things are when this is upended. That cave adventure in one of those AA’s, or in this case, stairs that are collapsed. Such a simple thing, but showing such a more expansive view of the dungeon … not just the perfunctory room challenge or hallway trap. There are a couple of others as well, but these two just really really stood out for me. Excellent examples of putting interactivity in … and hopefully a lesson to be learned in an introductory adventure for both players and DM.

I am, however, quite frustrated with two things. First, there is a tendency to just leave shit out. Like, to the extent that I’m not certain this thing was playtested. Th reason you are in the village is the dead guardsmen. You’re told repeatedly about the tools they were guarding being broken up.  And, yet, there is not one mention of what happened to their bodies or the tools, for players that want to investigate this. I mean you get told 196 times that an earth elemental attacked them, but not what happened to them. And, then, at the inn, there’s a dude that disappeared recently. Turns out he’s a little central to the backstory. Also, we’re told repeatedly that he left a box of papers with the innkeeper. And, yet, there is absolutely no indication AT ALL about what they are about. I guess why he was in the village? That makes logical sense, I guess. But for being told so many times and then NOT to mention what they actually are? And, then, the various NPC’s are all a little boring. Like, they don’t have any personality to themselves. These are all wildly missed things.  Oh! Oh! “This chest contains an egg, which contains a talking mouse. The mouse remains on the material plane for only 2 hours before it vanishes into smoke.” There’s nothing more to this. Do with it as you will. DId anyone proof it? What the fuck do editors do these days? Spell check? Doesn’t Lotus Notes do that for you? (I wouldn’t know. I, obviously, turn it off)

But, also, there’s the formatting. I was growing a little weary of the paragraph text in this but soon came across a list of bullets for what the innkeeper knows. Great! I was wrong and this is going in the right direction for certain things. No. It’s not. This is almost all paragraph text. We get a long, slow description of a hut collapsing. All so you can, I guess, figure out it has no nails. We get a HUGE paragraph describing all of the things in the rooms, all muddled together, for the DM to pick through to find the elements they need in that moment. It’s padded out with “The room is indeed empty, but there are a few things the characters might observe if they poke around and look at things.” And the phrase “appears to be” is used far, far too commonly. Look, you don’t have to go all OSE on things, but, also, a wall of text paragraph with all of the different room elements, a LONG wall of text paragraph with all of the room elements in it, is not very conducive to running this thing at the table.

If I were having a good day I might be tempted to squeek this by with no regerts. I do really like the core premise and the impact on the area from the characters and the little bits of great interactivity in the dungeon. But the descriptions are not standout and the formatting is terrible, along with the things left out. Who’s decision was it to scatter the fucking maps out of order in three different parts of the book? You put level two on page six, in the middle of the book, and level one on page thirteen? Who the fuck made this decision? No, more than anything else, I want to know who did this and what their reasoning was? I know, it sounds trivial, but, also, it’s such a simple thing … and indicative of other things. 

This is $3 at Mythmere Games.

Baron's Gambit (Swords & Wizardry Adventure) – PDF