1st Adventures
1e
Levels 3-5
At the heart of the swamp lies the accursed tower, housing the dark artifact. Adventurers brave enough to journey into this cursed domain must confront the unholy alliance between the Sea Hag, the Wight, and the artifact itself. Their mission is to fight the encroaching darkness, unravel the artifact’s secrets, and free the land from its malevolent fate.
This thirty page adventure purports to be 1e, but is clearly solidly in the 5e era. Purple prose, long read-aloud, and a very combat oriented adventure without the horror one would like to see. Mechanistic, without the glee of D&D.
I like the artwork for the hag in the swamp on the cover. Very evocative!
And now, on to the problems!
It’s obvious that this is, at a minimum, using the 5e templates. And it’s loaded with skill checks. I’m not saying it’s a conversion, but, certainly, it’s borrowing heavily from 5e mechanics. And how much can you borrow before you are a 1e adventure in name only?
We’ve got hooks! Presented on a random table. *sigh* and none of them are anything to look at. The standard please help me stuff, very abstract, in about one sentence. Which is too bad. The core setup with an undead elf noble in a ruined tower in the swamp and a hag running around the swamp corrupting things and luring in people to feed the evil in the tower. Which, I think, leads to a good hook. If she’s got a radius then the next eclipse, or something, could widen that for a bit, threatening the town/village/whatever. I like that “tied to the land” thing better and it plays off off the two roles the two main baddies are supposed to have. I say supposed to, because the hag is hanging out in the tower also. Bleach! Another missed opportunity.
Let’s see here, the synopsis says that the baddies will be “capturing the group of adventurers and throwing them into a nightmarish world of unimaginable dangers.” Well great. It’s one of THOSE adventures. And, I think I can imagine a great deal.
The purple prose is not going to get much better. At one point a chick “turns towards you, revealing a countenance of beauty and an intense gaze that seems to transcend time.” Meh. This goes hand in hand with some DM advice that goes something like “The ambush is flawlessly executed, leaving the characters trapped and overwhelmed by the sheer force of the monsters. There is no chance of escape, and the adventurers will be captured and taken to The Lair of the Sea Hag, where they will confront the next stage of their perilous journey.” Perilous text, am I right?! ?! WHyis no one laughing? Oh well.
Also, that lair of the hag is a small hut in the swamp with no hag in it. You’re tied up with no gear. *sigh* I don’t even know what the point of this is. The opening scene is the ambush, on a coast road, where overwhelming forces capture you and stick you there for you to escape. It’s clearly fucking plot. And not the good plot, but the bad kind of play. No bueno.
Lots of read aloud here. Lots. Lengthy. WIth such phrases as “As you venture in to the atrium …” and “Suddenly, in the distance, you hear the desperate cry of a woman in distress!” I hate this shit. I want the woman crying distress, not the fucking read-aloud TELLING me she is crying in distress. At another point we’re told someone is undead. At another point the read-aloud tells us that the Wight lifts the mask to its face. Or that he lists a black skull mask to his face, a cursed artifact that emanates a palpable malevolence. Nope. Absolutely not. You’re telling people things. You want to SHOW people things.We want them to feel it, visceral. Not be told it.
Oh, and there’s several zombie encounters. At levels 3-5. Go figure. Five is an auto turn? And three is, what, a five or six?
Nothing to see. Move along, move along.
This is $7 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages. Enjoy them hooks and that overwhelming ambush where they capture the party … for no reason.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/457631/the-curse-of-the-swamp-1e?1892600
Tanners Crossing
I also checked out Tanners Crossing, in an attempt to get my Wishlist down to zero. It has fifty bland places in a small village, that are described in a boring conversational style that is padded out, as well as a table or random travelers “Frank is looking for a wife”, thieves, wagon contents, and boring rumors. This was not the village supplement of my hopes and dreams.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/385494/tanner-s-crossing?1892600
Holy guacamole, it’s using the 5e DMsGuild “trade dress”. That alone should’ve been a huge red flag. Also seems to be full of 2e-ish story-gaming excesses, AND the prose reeks of either EASL or AI. Worst of both worlds, indeed.
Using 5e trade dress seems kinda dishonest. Anyone buying this adventure expecting it to be 5e isn’t going to be very happy.
Pretty clearly written by AI.
I was expecting this to be a meme response, but lo! It really is clearly written using an LLM. Bryce were you drunk when you reviewed this?
Cover’s kinda cool.
Fairly cool cover art.
A 1e adventure should NOT have 5e trade dress
A 1e adventure should be written by someone who knows the system
And, if this is a conversion from a 5e adventure then, by god, the writer needs to hire someone who knows the 1e system to do the bloody conversion PROPERLY.
There’s potential energy in “[villager] Frank is looking for a wife” – and hires a wandering band of blood stained monster slayers to make that happen. Maybe a “kidnapping” – but there’s an understanding. Or he’s tongue tried and needs his lines fed to him, so the entire party ends up hiding in the bushes helping him out.
But pick an and present it, so I can run with it immediately instead of brainstorming myself.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on “The Curse of the Swamp.” Your feedback means a lot to us as we strive to improve our adventures.
We understand that our mix of 1st and 5th edition styles might not be everyone’s favorite, but we’re working to create something unique that blends classic and modern elements.
Regarding the language issue, we’re aware of the challenges in providing quality translations. While we aim to offer adventures in both English and Spanish, sometimes we have to rely on tools like Grammarly for proofreading. We’re working on improving our translations.
Regarding concerns about trade dress and writing style, we aim to use the 1e rule system but incorporate additional 5e mechanics and looks that we believe enhance the gaming experience.
Thanks again for taking the time to review our adventure.
Regards
1st Adventures team
Motherfuckers even write a response in ChatGPT Style. Oof.
I also took a shot. Ahem:
I first told chatgpt about the review, then this followed.
Can you suggest a polite reply to the reviewer? Explaining the difficulties of offering the adventure in 2 languages and relying on tools like gramalry for proofreading?
ChatGPT
Certainly! Here is a polite and constructive response you could use:
Dear Bryce,
Thank you for taking the time to review “The Curse of the Swamp.” We appreciate your detailed feedback and your commitment to providing thorough reviews for the RPG community.
We wanted to share some of the challenges we faced during the development of this adventure. Offering the adventure in two languages required significant effort to ensure accuracy and consistency across both versions. Additionally, while we relied on tools like Grammarly for proofreading, we recognize that automated tools can sometimes miss nuances and specific contextual errors that a human editor might catch.
Your insights are invaluable, and we will take them into consideration for future projects to improve the readability and overall quality of our adventures. Thank you again for your feedback.
Best regards,
[Your Name]