War from the Stars

By Joseph Bloch
BRW Games
1e
Levels “Medium” (which is 4-6)

The Eventide Valley has always been a place of mystery for those who dwell in the surrounding lands of the Great Empire. Isolated, backwards, and content to keep to itself, the valley has always been a source of rumor and legend. You have come to this valley to discover its secrets and find yourself in the peaceful shepherding village of Argylby, which has been the victim of raids by a force known only as the Outer Ones. But is there even more going on here than you suspect?

This 27 page adventure presents a short dungeon crawl in a ten room complex with mi-go. Really just a simple hack, there is little going on here of interest, in setting or language.

Buggems, No! Buggems, No! (I wonder if I can have that put on my headstone?) This adventure starts with the party witnessing some flying fungus crabs attacking a farmhouse. After driving them off and getting to the village they are told they come from an old temple. Inside the old temple the party kills ten-ish rooms full of things. Rewarded by the villagers, they are then betrayed as the villagers try to kill them at the feast in their honor. You know, the usual. 

It takes 27 pages to detail these twelve encounters, the opening farm attack, the ten rooms and the villagers attack. 27 letter sized tiny font two column pages. Only about eleven are used for the adventure, the rest being appendix, of course, as these things are wont to do. But, still, thirteen encounters. That’s not even a one page of text, right? (To be clear, the main ten encounter dungeon takes about two pages of text.) And how can this be? 

Let’s look at the first entry for the village! “SHEPHERD. All of the shepherds’ houses in the village have the same floorplan: the ground floor is a barn where the animals are wintered and cared for, while the family lives on the second floor. This is the home of Jakub Massey (F0, 4 h.p.; AL NE), who usually takes his flocks into the Eastern Moors. He is a down-to-earth type unconcerned with larger issues of morality or cosmic wars and is married to Zofia. They have 3 children, and all are members of the Church of Shatur. He has a flock of 200 sheep and 2 dogs to help tend them (AC 7; HD 1+1; 4 h.p. each; #AT 1;DAM 1-3).” Are you not entertained?! This is the prosaic miundantiy of life, explained in great length, adding nothing to the adventure. That is not the purpose of the text in the adventure. The purpose is not to explain to me the life story and motivations and family tree of some random ass dude in the village. Or, twenty random ass homes in the villages. The purpose of the text is to assistthe DM in running an adventure. And, thusly, we ask the question “How does this text contribute to the adventure at the table?” It doesn’t. It doesn’t springboard to anything. It isn’ anything interesting. To be sure, we can toss in an aside or some colorful characters, but, in general, the text should be much more related to things that can or could happen. And that Shepherd entry does none of that. NONE of the village entries do any of that. This is nothing but trivia. A huge amount of time and effort must have been spent on this. WHich could have been MUCH better spent working on the dungeon entries. Or, something interesting in the village. Or very nearly anything else. (Dare I hope … more appendix pages?!?!) Spend your fucking effort on the fucking adventure. Jesus, it seems dumb that I have to say that. (I noet that there is an interesting entry. A local “bad” family keeps to themselves. Their enemies have a tendency to appear all over the village in many pieces. Turns out they worship their gret great great great grandfather. WHich is actually a bar-luge hiding out in their barn over many generations, content, and now kind of likes the family, in a protective sort of way. It doesn’t do anything for the adventure but is, at least, kind of neato)

The dungeon is ten rooms. They are boring. They contain backstory. “CELLAR. Formerly, this room was used in a “descent to the underworld” ritual when the shrine was active, but is currently unused by the mi-go.” Great. So … empty room? Oh, oh! How about a room with a local tinker staying in, a spy and double and triple agent? “He can be found in most places throughout the valley, leading his dog-cart full of various bric-a-brac that he sells at farms and villages, trading gossip, and performing minor repairs to metalwork with his portable metalworking setup” Seems like maybe his entry should not be in the dungeon but in the main text, yes? So you can meet him before? Shit is just thrown in anywhere and everywhere in this adventure. Anyway, go room to room and kill a few things and maybe talk to a brain cylinder. The usual de rigeur mi-go shit but with swords instead of shotguns. 

Yeah you do it! The villagers throw a feast for you and lead you in to the sacred grove, where they get rid of their weapons. You want your reward, right? THEY ATTACK! Oh no! All of the priests in the village know hold person! They are gonna sacrifice you! But you are clever adventurers, right? When you met the head priest you cast detect alignment, right? Not to worry brave DM! “A detect evil spell cast upon Hilbreth or his fellow clerics will not detect any emanations, as ordinary character alignment is insufficiently strong to be detected.” Ha! The old wound! This in spite of the text saying “Maintaining a pleasant façade at all times, even when he is bringing down a knife to sacrifice an old friend to his god, he has a beneficent smile on his face” Humph. But, then again, you can’t have a level 4-6 adventure with evil intent andbackstabby without nerfing detect alignment, can you? 

There’s nothing here. Backstory and trivia. A simple hack. No adventure in the village. None of the greater conflict between religions plays out. No intrigue or warning glances from villagers. Just backstory, trivia, and hacking.

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is only three pages. It doesn’t really show you what to expect in any way.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/504009/adventure-module-e1-war-from-the-stars?1892600