Jazirut Alburunz

By Craig Turner
Aspire2Hope Games
Open00/Darkmaster
Levels 1-4

Jazirat Alburunz is several weeks sailing from the nearest inhabited island chain to the North and over a month’s sailing from the mainland to the East. The island has long been uninhabited, the reason for its desertion unclear, some say a curse; others a disease. Now, only a lone nun tends to a monastery, with two castaways are the only humanoid occupants. Adventurer awaits intrepid explorers from the mysterious peak where a golden light can be seen, to the swamps and jungles.

This fourteen page adventure is a small hex crawl on an island with eight locations. There is little reason to explore because there is painfully little going on. 

You’re at an island for some reason. The captain has pulled in to port. The town is abandoned, not a living soul anywhere. The town hall is STACKED with loot. Overflowing chests, etc. If you take any then a giant bronze statue comes to life and chases/attacks you, all Jason and the Argo style, I guess. Oh, but “The Captain is not keen to take the whole hoard due to the weight and cargo space that it will take up.” Like, what the fuck man? It’s fucking gold, silver, and jewels. Literally the most valuable thing you can carry, I’d guess, in most cases. Unless you’re transporting, I don’t know food or medicine. And even then, I think I can put a LOT of chests on the topdeck or in EVERY crewmembers berth. Oh, and if the party is suspicious of the loot then a remember takes so, so as to wake the statue. You’re dealing with it one way or another. But, still, how about we deal with it AND get a lot of loot out it? Oh, hey, yeah, also, it’s
Up to the GM to determine how much loot there is.” Fuuuuuuck You. This whole Up To The GM thing is such a cop out. 

The rest of the seven encounters? An elf chick nun who does nothing. An obsessive bird watching naturalist, who does nothing. A shipwrecked sailor, who does nothing. A swamp with an ogre in it … with no loot. An abandoned village. And a mine that has a map but is otherwise not detailed except to say that there are four ghosts in it, each with a Black Opal. And, no matter how nice a black opal is, I feel like its not worth more than chests of loot. But, that’s it. There is NOTHING going on here. 

Oh, there is an extensive wandering table, the VAST majority of which is nothing or a normal animal encounter. “You see a bird.” Uh, ok. Sure. Oh, and a weather table. How about “A sudden ten degree temperature drop.” And don’t forget the “sudden ten degree temperature increase.” Of course.  

I don’t even know what more to say. How about that ghost/mine place? The ONLY descriptive text we get is “Give the PCs a warning of the arrival of each ghost – a sighting of its unholy glow or a chill sense if it is round a corner out of sight” Yup, sure. And maybe instead of mundane wanderers a table could have been provided. A table in which the designer did a lot of hard work to craft some REALLY good descriptions and portends of a ghost arriving?

This is, at best, just some ideas for an adventure, I guess. There is very little in the way of relationships between the NPC’s, the only real one existing being the naturalist and the shipwreck survivor, who is no longer welcome y he naturalist because the survivor eats bird eggs. There’s no intrigue. There’s no putting things together. There’s not really anything of note to discover when exploring. The gem mine I guess? In fact, I’d say there;s no reason to go inland beyond the abandoned port. You know, the one with all of the treasure?

What is the point of an adventure like this? An outline, the idea for an outline? I mean, I can roll ona table and come up with this. And if I can do it then anyone can do it. The adventure, as designed, should be something that is constructed. It should be put together by the designer. Things to discover, things to interact with, tightropes to walk, literally and figuratively. We’re looking for situations that the DM can work with. But for a situation to exist then there has to be some potential energy. Some tension to exploit. And there is no tension here. There’s got to be SOMETHING to work with. Something beyond what rolling on a table could provide. You can expand an NPC entry all you want with text,or a room, or a hex, but unless it provides for that tension, that setup and situation, then you’ve done no better than just rolling on a table .

This is $5 at DriveThru. There is no preview. Sucker.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/518133/jazirat-alburunz?1892600