The Peasants are Revolting

by Peter Gray
Self Published
OSRIC
Level ... 3?

There is something rotten going on in the backwater Barony of Near-Marsh and the region’s noble, The Countess DeWitt has sent the heroes to investigate.  Green hooded outlaws, maniacal heirs, a village razed to the ground and a lonely tower far out in the marshes all have their parts to play.

This ten page adventure uses four pages to loosely outline a peasant revolt. I have no idea why it takes five pages to describe what it does.

Ready? Got your pencils out? I’m going ti write an adventure for you. Here we go: “Clueless Baron has an evil son and the survivors one HIS villages that he razed are now bandits gathering evidence against him while he tries to find them and kill them.” Git it? Ok, now you owe me $35 a month from my Patreon or something.

That’s it. that’s all you’re getting. From me or this adventure. There are almost no specifics or details beyond what I’ve just typed. Oh, sure, people get names as do places, but nothing more. Quirks? No. Timeline? No. Actions? No. There is NOTHING on those five pages to add to what I’ve just typed. And the last five pages are state blocks. In spite of the adventure having a Role Play not Roll Play section. 

Ok, so, I guess I lied, there are a few specifics. If you ask too many questions when you arrive then evil son sends some henchmen disguised as rebels to attack the party. And in, like, seven days he sends two henchemen in to the swamps to map a way to the rebel hideout, a spy he planted having paid off, with an attack planned by him four days later.

Now, seriously, that IS it. There is nothing more to be gained by grabbing this adventure. I am so disappointed. You see, there I was suffering under the yoke of the adventures backstory, when I came upon this: “Thirteen months ago, Edric was out hunting with his friends and some loyal guards. Drinking during the day and making an early camp they rapidly became drunk and looking for female company, they decided to take some maidens from the nearby village of Lock Lea. Understandably the villagers, already unhappy at the increasing taxes resisted. After a heated battle several of Edric’s men were killed or injured, the village was put to the torch by the remainder, and the villagers fled. Painting the incident to his father as an unprovoked attack by the locals, the surviving villagers have been declared outlaws.” Hey hey! Not bad! If that was the ONLY backstory then we’d have a winner of an introduction. It’s not. You have to suffer a lot to get there, And there’s nothing else in the adventure that even comes close to comparing to it.

Man, you gotta actually DO something when writing an adventure. Right now this isn’t even the outline of an adventure, it’s just an idea. Other than just saying “evil henchmen disguised as rebels attack the party”, you need to do more. Other scenes .her incitements to action. There are not even any NPC personalities. Jesuso Christo, you want the party to go talking to NPCs and gathering information and then you present ABSOLUTELY ZERO in the way of NPCs to talk to or information to gather. I mean, ZERO. I know, I can be hyperbolic at times, but in this case it truly is ZERO. 

I can understand an outline of an adventure. Let’s say you publish a book and each page, or facing pages, is the rough outline of an adventure with high points and such. Not my cup of tea, but I can understan how it can fit in. I can even understand an adventure idea product. One of those “101 encounter to have the road” or something like that. That makes sense to me. Again, not what I would consider an adventure, but I can understand it. What I can’t understand is an idea that takes ten pages to describe … and coming away with nothing more than what a short paragraph might say.

This is $3 at DriveThru. The preview is all ten pages, so, good preview at least.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/523940/the-peasants-are-revolting?1892600