Abbotsmoore

By Stuart Watkinson
Self Published
OSE
Levels 1-3

What was once a sprawling expanse of magical innovation is now a few scattered buildings covered in muck. Yet, the magic these ancient folk wielded can still be found throughout. It weaves through everything in this forsaken stinking bog. Explorers come from far to sift through the ruins and try to pry open the cold stone doors. Some succeed, cracking open the old tombs to find contraptions, spirits, and long-lost knowledge. Giant reptiles and relentless insect await those who visit, and others lurk out there in the sodden landscape. Beings of power, cruelty, and deception. To come across them is to come across death, or worse. Deep in the swamp stands a cathedral looming over the fetid vestiges. There the Abbot waits.

This 32 page adventure presents seven encounters with “tombs” in a swamp, with a quest giver in one to get you going. It’s not the greatest framing for an adventure, and the descriptions can be cringe at times and generally overstay their welcome by quite a bit.

The Legion of Gold is the Gamma World module I grew up with. I believe that part two is the exploration of the bunkers. A bunch of underground bunkers,maybe four rooms each, that you break in to and explore and find, like eight or ten different things going on. Empty. Travellers, batt-like Obbs. This thing has the same energy as that. While labeled a hex crawl it is really just seven one or two room locations with some shit going on in each. Even with spreads involved, 32 pages seems like a bit much.

There are a couple of empty hexes, two, I believe, to be exact, in the nine hex map. And, along with those, is a table to help fill them with something. “Complications” the adventure calls them. “A dead explorer floats by, covered in leeches.” Well, ok. Nice window dressing, I guess, but not really a complication? More interesting, it has an option to have other explorers around when you visit the locations. “Crawling over Everything” is the heading. 1-4 more explorers are running all over the same place you are, rolled for in each hex! That’s kind of an interesting approach to things. There’s also nothing to them beyond that; I would have enjoyed a simple list of fuckwits and their issues. 

Taking a look at what I think is the read-aloud, we get things like “These heavy stone doors have stood open for centuries and are the only thing that indicate this is anything more than a pile of rubble. A foul smell wafts out from the dark passageway ahead.” I’m always down for a good rank wafting smell. But, stood open for centuries and the only thing that indicates are both conclusions. And conclusions should generally be kept out of descriptions. We want a description that leads the PLAYERS to think “wow, that doors stood open for centuries.” This is the very basics of showing instead of telling. You’re telling us that the door has stood open for centuries instead of showing us that the door has stood open for centuries. (Also, shame on all those other explorers. They’ve been digging around here in swarms for centuries and haven’t mined these places for all their loot yet?! Pffft!) In another place we get this “The silence is painful. You have entered the heart of the Monastery. Whatever tales you have heard,

whatever gossip, you will now have to decide for yourself what is true and what is a lie.” Ok, sure man. We don’t use first person. And, as general life advice, listening to The Cure for awhile will help until you transition to a I Feel Love remix. 

It suffers, as well, from the generic/agnostic syndrome. “A pouch made of a smooth material containing diamond dust” with no more details. General monster stats that are CLEARLY modeled on B/X, but then also obfuscated further to “unarmored” AC’s. This sort of aggressive genericism does nothing to help an adventure. Specificity is the soul of the narrative. If I’m buying a  generic/agnostic thing then I’ve already made the decision to restart … why not help some? 

And then there’s a GREAT bunker, err, I mean tomb? It’s got three great big giant stone heads next to each other, along with a great art piece. Along with the requisite strained read-aloud that ends with “The black hole in its neck draws you, calls to you even. With each step closer, the stench of a thousand rotten corpses is exhaled upon you.” I’m still down for the stench and I’m still NOT down for the first person description. However … all three mouths lead to doom. Two teleport you far away, effectively ending a PC’s career, at least for this evening, while the third just kills you. There is no hint. The draws you to it, and  seeing another explorer enter a mouth when you enter … these encourage the party to take themselves out. I guess, as a one-shot at level one thats chill? Never get attached to your level one. 

There are some great magic items in this though. The same abstraction that hampers many parts of the adventure works in the magic items favour. A magic eight ball like thing. A croc jaw as a sword, a tooth necklace giving you some animal-kin. Nicely done items with a touch of naturalism and mystery about them. 

This is a pretty basic adventure. Just seven places to explore framed by the Abboot giving you quests to go find things in them. STrained read-aloud and a need to edit, along with a need to discover the BOLD key, would help comprehension and finding details quite a bit. 

This is $5 at DriveThru. No preview. Booo! BOOOO!!!!!!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/498785/abbotsmoore-the-abbot-trilogy-1?1892600