tenfootpole.org

By Extildepo
Verisimilitude Society Press
Swords & Wizardry
Level 4-7

It’s a holiday, so Sapporo at 9am instead of “4 cups of coffee by 9am.”

For half a century, life in the mining outpost of Piktown has been peaceful and prosperous until a strange green glow in the nearby mountain range rekindled a frightening legend from the past. Does this recent luminous phenomenon signal the return of the dreaded Cult of the Green Orb? The Overlord has hired you and your fellow adventurers to stop the troubling green glow!

This twenty page adventure describes a thirty room dungeon. Undead, spellcasters, demons, and even a dragon in what one could call a classic mixed dungeon-crawl. A verbose writing style mixes with classic fantasy elements to provide a nostalgic dungeon experience.

Classic experience indeed. The front doors feature a great statue of a dwarf, carved in to the mountain, backlit with green light. They close behind you when you hit a pressure plate. There’s a dragon literally slumbering in the throne room atop a pile of loot. There’s a demon trapped in a summoning circle. These classic elements are combined with popular fiction elements. There’s a troll head that could be out of The Thing, a gollum-like NPC … friendly until he gets his sanity back, and the Locknaar of Heavy Metal fame. And those were just the most obvious. This all combines to create a charming nostalgic feel to the adventure. No gimps or gimmicks, just fuking with demons and dragons, weird green glows, and the like. The map is decent enough to support an exploratory type play.

Alas the writing and formatting is terrible. Paragraphs do a great Wall of Text imitation, making it hard to wade through them. It’s combined with the usual unfocused verbosity. Room 24 is an Apprentices Lab, or so says the room title. Also, the first sentence of the description is “Here is the typical apprentice’s lab.” Okkkk… I think you just said that? Also, then there’s a description that follows that tells us what a typical apprentice lab looks like. Seventy wasted words, followed by a purple velvet bag hidden in a corroded brazier … maybe fifteen useful words. This is the agony of my existence. The NPC’s back in town are another good example. Trading Post dude is boisterous and barrel-chested with a strong black beard. Good imagery, all self-contained in one sentence. And then we learn he’s in his 30’s, young for his job, and took over from his father, Frank, who was killed by a green dragon named Cylith when the NPC was ten. THEN follows a bunch of read-aloud that contains what he knows about the shit in the area/dungeon. This nonsense goes on for two pages. Name, personality feature sentence, a few in-voice bullet points. That’s all you need. The rest of this garbage text is useless and gets in the fucking way of running the adventure and I HATE it when that happens.

This is one of my favorite room descriptions. Not as good as that Dungeon Magazine empty room thing, that’s still the all time best by far, but this one is good also:

“4. Empty Cells: This is where the prisoners of Azul Rik awaited trial. They are all empty and each cell door looks as though it has been forced open. Some shackles are missing or broken off at the chain. A few bones (some goblinoid) litter the cells. This place was once full of long­dead prisoners of the Iron King, but they were raised long ago by the Loknaar for Zed’s army.”

Nothing. Just nothing. There’s always some fuckwit that needs to disagree, so, please, go ahead, tell me why this is a good description. Empty Cells, forced open, broken shackles, indeterminable humanoid bones. And I’m a shitty shitty writer.

This is $4 at DriveThru. There’s no preview?https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/250584/Cult-of-the-Green-Orb?affiliate_id=1892600

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press
OSRIC
Level 1

The island of Merehurst was once a bustling center for trade. But this was not to last, for in one single deadly night sixty years ago all the people and the animals of the town died – collapsing where they stood. The neighboring villagers of Coombe claimed that the miners dug too deeply into Ynyswel and the spirit of the isle was offended. The island gained a fearsome reputation and only the bravest would dare set foot upon its forested grounds. Yesterday strange lights were seen in the sky over the island and Ynyswel started smoking. The villagers can wait no longer. Brave adventurers must be found who are willing to investigate the Isle of Merehurst to either appease or oppose what lies behind the latest mysterious activities.

This seventeen page adventure describe about 45 locations on a small island: an abandoned village, farmstead, and mine. It’s got a creepy ass vibe and does a great job creating an exploratory environment. If his editor had cut half the words instead of over-explaining it would be a great, solid first level adventure. Oh, wait, it looks like he wrote it AND edited it …

THis thing sets itself up as creepy as fuck. The background information is all mysterious. An entire village dying overnight on the island. Strange lights on the island that can be seen from the shore. No word from the loner family living on the island … it’s a nice erie set up. It’s strengthened by a wandering table that has a fair amount of creepy and weird happenings on it to help with the mood. Crawling hands, dripping blood, a flopping fish far from the water. With a decent DM the party will be shitting itself in no time. In this respect the tension built is kind of wasted on the “normal” wanderers, especially the undead. It feels like that would break tension. But that’s an actual play thing ands easily adjusted in play … more of an academic point of debate I guess I’m asserting? Anyway, it’s got a great creepy vibe n the environment and nice encounters to support it like undead children and the like. I seldom mention art, but in this case the undead kids, creeping eyeballs, and “map art” is all top notch and does a wonderful job contributing the overall vibe of the adventure. That’s exactly what art SHOULD do in a product, and does not in most cases.

The encounters are a great mix of the mundane and the dead. There’s a substantial set of ruins in the village and plenty of room for that giant tick in the overgrown collapsed building, as well as the half-dead. There’s even some room to talk to a few things. It’s not packed to the gills with combat with, again, reinforces that creepiness.

The writing is, again, the downside. It’s not overly evocative, for all of the attempts at creepiness. Dripping blood is not quite as good as oozing blood, which is an issue here; it is solidly in the “workmanlike” category of descriptions. A little more time spent agonizing over word choice would have gone a long way here.

As would, as I said earlier, an editor to challenge on the writing. That assumes an editor would, and I don’t think they do much anymore. Copyediting and other simple suggestions? Writers need challenged. Every sentence, if not word, should contribute, and that doesn’t happen here. A storage room description tells us “As the mine expanded more storage was needed and this part of the new stone building was set aside for that purpose.” It is almost NEVER The case that explaining WHY is useful, and that drops even more when you talk about usage and history and “used to be.” That sentence doesn’t help. It doesn’t help me run the room. In fact, it detracts from it. As I look at the entry while running the adventure I have to wade through it before I get to the actual room description that I need to run the room. This adventure does that over and over again. Stirges are nocturnal hunters who travel in to the northeast when the sun descends — —they’ve learned to avoid the ruins of the city as several of them have recently been killed by the various predators within. What’s the point of that? It has no bearing on the room. If the party is here at sunset do you think I’m going to suddenly remember this detail and make the stirge fly out? If you WANT me to do that then you need a section in the front on day/night changes that will prompt me. No, this is more explaining. It’s fleshing out a world in a kind of computer RPG manner. Richly describing things that will almost certainly never happen. If I was playing Fallout and say some batlike oobs fly out of some ruined building at sunset it would get my attention … but, again, that’s not what is happening here.

Treasure does “spill from pouches” at times, but it’s mostly the usual assortment of +1 swords. Again, workmanlike.

This is $14 at DriveThru. The preview doesn’t seem to work?https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/234226/Advanced-Adventures-40-The-Horror-of-Merehurst?affiliate_id=1892600

By Chris van der Linden
LoreSmyth
5E
Level 1

For centuries, Aelmor Monastery near the port town of Sestone was a safe haven for scholars, monks, and pilgrims seeking enlightenment, its renowned library home to an enormous collection of ancient manuscripts, tomes, and peculiar writings. After suffering a devastating attack at the hands of a possessed monastery elder, Aelmor fell into ruin, its troubled past forgotten. When villagers start disappearing and turn up horribly mutated days later, fear takes a grip of Sestone. What sinister forces are at work? And to what end?

This 36 page adventure details an island and dungeon with 46 rooms. It’s slightly better than the usual 5e garbage, as the page count to room number would indicate. It tries for a creepy vibe but, still, it’s nothing more than a sub-par hack with the usual thin plot to drive things.

Generic hooks and the usual setup: disappearances, bodies, etc. Must be coming from that old monastery on the island where bad things happened! Of course it’s an island, that makes it plausible why the villagers haven’t gone there and yet puts the party close enough that at first level they can make it there. Islands in the harbor: the new sewers. Anyway, hooks and plot are for fuckwits and can always be ignored. The real question is: is this thing worth my time to slog through? As is usual, the answer is no.

I wasn’t completely sure of that answer though, at least when I first dug in. The designers appears plagued by a certain rare form of mistakes. He clearly had a vision for this, and a couple of good ideas, but had no idea how to sustain it.

Lets us examine, for example, the opening scene. A sudden commotion in the town square full of people reveals guy with tentacles bursting from him. In most adventures this would be that well-known (and shitty) “start them off with a fight!” advice. But not here. He’s not hostile. You can even help him some and/or ease his suffering. It almost makes sense! He’s a villager, he’s come back to the village for help. Why would he eat his friends?

This was followed up by a keyed map of the village … that is just that, a key and nothing much else. OMG! NOT a long drawn out description of a general store! NOT a long drawn out description of an inn! Just a map and a notation of which building is which, essentially. It’s almost like … like … the designer knows that doesn’t add value!

Then there’s the “gather information” portion of the adventure. It’s one column with some non-odious headings to help you find information. Hmmm. Not exactly terse writing, but, still, it’s only a column.

Then there’s the NPC descriptions. Here’s the one for a guy who’s got some missing shipments: “his short and stout man is a cunning negotiator and expert appraiser, always on the lookout to make a profit. His left eye has been replaced with a sapphire that he usually keeps covered with a fine purple eye patch. When he gets excited about a deal, he cracks his knuckles and stretches his arms out in front of him. His braided brown hair has distinctive dark orange streaks in it.” I could do without that last sentence, and it could be shorter, but, still, the description is focused on meaningful things. Not his life fucking story, but how to roleplay him. Oh course, the next one is full of batshit studpid trivia like “he lost his beloved dog while fishing during a stormy night”, but, still, there are hints in these things that this is not a lost cause.

Then there’s this attempt at a kind of Lovecraftian dread. Whispers in the darkness, a little bit of subtle madness, the tentacle/corruption thing. Notes are scattered throughout to help the DM with this. I don’t think it really conveys the full impact of what he’s going for … but it’s not shit either. That vibe is hard as fuck to achieve, even in a CoC game, and then throw in swords, fireballs, and a “we kill it” attitude and you can get the sense of the challenge. But his heart is in the right place and while not super effective the advice is not shitty either.

So far, things are ok. Not terrible.

Then the actual adventure starts and it goes downhill FAST.

There’s this island, with a monastery and a couple of levels of dungeon under it. It’s just stuffed full of shitty encounters. I hate to sounds like an old grump, but it reminded me of the “If Quake was done today” video. “Shoot enemies to kill them!” as on screen advice. While walking up some stairs on a cliff were confronted with this little gem: “… One of the bandits is on guard duty, scouting the area about 200 feet ahead of their camp. The adventurers can attempt to make a Dexterity (Stealth) check against the scout’s passive Perception to move closer undetected.” Ok, everybody, make a Stealth check. Why? Uh … just do it. It’s this weird game-like vibe. If captured one of the bandits will relate that there’s this mean gnoll thats a tremendous fighter that took out two bandits single-handedly! Do you think bandits refer to themselves that way? As bandits? “Four of our comrades died when we were attacked a day ago by a pack of gnolls.” It’s all awkward.

The place is just stuffed full of meaningless boring old fights. There’s a ghost … that does nothing, tells you nothing, and is meaningless. And then there’s the text padding. There’s a room titled “Catacombs Antechamber” which gets the following description: “A small anteroom serves as the entry into the catacombs. On the left and right, two wooden doors lead into a U-shaped room filled with sarcophagi. A small flight of stairs directly ahead leads down to the Crypt of Anthomodus. A ghostly presence can be felt in this area. See the “Ghostly Presence” sidebar for more information. If the characters investigate the stone door, read:”

So … it’s an antechamber? And the room looks like it does on the map? The only interesting thing is the ghostly presence sentence. Just all padding.

Also, the adventure gets NO bonus points for putting in the Hand of Vecna. Oh, it’s not CALLED the hand, but it’s the hand. Why no points for the hand? Well, because you have to gimp it, of course. Putting it on means you instantly turn CE. Ug! I hate that shit! You want some curse and shit? Fine. But your moralizing with alignment changes are LAME.

Anyway, long boring room descriptions. Long boring read-aloud. Nothing much going on except for some things to hack down. (mostly.)

Just another boring adventure, with a little bit of window dressing and a faint glimmer of hope that the designer can get better.

This is $7 at DriveThru.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193826/The-Claws-of-Madness-adventure-5e?affiliate_id=1892600

By Ed Greenwood
Frog God Games
S&W
Levels 4-6

The characters will be able to explore the ruins of the keep, which have become a plant colony, and attempt to wrest a powerful treasure from the clutches of the araunglyd, a gigantic sentient fungus. The araunglyd will attempt to thwart the players at every turn, using its drone-like minions to harass and hinder them as they go.

This 23 page mess describes a keep with … 10 rooms? It is ABSOLUTELY a fucking mess. I think it might be another Aliens-type adventure, like Arachnophobia by Usherwood. Take Greenwoods expansive writing and combine it with Frogs utter incompetence when it comes to editing and you’ve got a very special product indeed. This thing is like it’s been through 6 passes of a translator, one of which was old english. There’s a fungus monster in the keep … and he’s got some minions? That’s about as much as I can dig up.

I don’t know who’s to blame. I suspect Greenwood for his writing style and no one at Frog pushing back … and then also an “editor’ … who I suspect didn’t read it at all. That’s the only excuse I can think of. I remind you that the Frogs put out an adventure with the wrong cover .. an no one ever seemingly caught it. It’s cra.

It’s got be be pretty fucking egregious for me to say something, and I’m saying something. “… connecting to underground areas in the Mainmain Cellarcellar beneath.” That’s not an infamous Bryce typo. That’s a$8 adventure with an editor attached. That’s not the only example. This shit happens all over the place. The Speartongue monster has “Hit Dice: 32” Not, that’s not a hit point mistake, as in it has 32 HP. It bears no relation to reality. Someone just put in 32.

The fun starts almost immediately. As you approach there are two birds atop the keep that attack you. This is a four paragraph encounter, for some fucking reason. It starts with this little gem “A mated pair of carrion graw nesting atop the keep see any characters approaching. The graw can’t immediately be seen from below, as they lie on its roof with wings spread and heads down, peering out through the gaps where merlons have fallen away. The graws will swoop to attack as soon as any character moves into the open.A mated pair of carrion graw (giant predatory birds) nesting atop the keep see any character character him” That last sentence looks like notes or something, that was expanded in to the text, maybe, that appears before it? It just ends, with the “him”, without punctuation. And the fucking adventure does this all over the place!

And the format Oh boy. It’s not room/key. There’s just a big bold heading, like “Throne Room” … and then four or five paragraphs of text explaining what is going on. Or “Main Cellar” or something like that … with seven paragraphs of text. From that you have to read it all and figure out what is going on. It’s fucking nuts. It’s not even wall of text, its something else. I have no fucking idea what to call it. No one spent ANY time trying to massage this thing in to something useful. It’s like you tries to have James Joyce write the pre-flight checklist for an airliner … sure, it’s kind of neat in a weird way, but its utterly useless for the purpose of which its intended.

This adventure, for 4th-6h level characters in a game where gold=xp, has 25sp and 148gp of treasure, as well as a Gem of Vitality … which heals you for 1d4hp every round and can bring the dead back to life. It has no downsides/curses, etc.

This is $8 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages and only shows you one page of text … the one with the start of the bird encounter on it. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232207/Quests-of-Doom-4-Nightstone-Keep-Swords-and-Wizardry?affiliate_id=1892600

By Davis Chenault
Troll Lord Games
Castles & Crusades
Levels 5-6

The silver mines run deep under the Unterbrook, unearthed by the clever hands of man and dwarf and the wealth has flowed like never before. But such wealth tends to draw unwanted eyes, and such excavations to cross powers best left asleep. Recently, all contact with the mines has been lost and a brooding silence settled upon the Unterbrook. Even the goblins shun the region. Plunge beneath the mountain’s roots and learn the mystery of the silvered caverns.

This 24 page adventure describes a mine with two levels and 24 rooms. It’s a Tuckers Kobolds kind of scenario, with ambushes and masses of low-HD opponents. In other news, I continue to have no patience for verbose, unfocused writing.

The Trolls may own the printing press, but its an editor that they need. Column long rooms, four paragraphs for an empty room. My intolerance for obfuscation seems to be growing. Building two in a old watch tower. It gets a paragraph of read aloud and then three more of additional information. There is a body in it, long decayed and picked clean by buzzards so you can’t tell what it was. But … we do know it was on guard duty and was killed by snakebite. Well, the DM knows this, the players have no way of knowing. What’s the point of this? The history of every rock and patch of lichen? The room has a cast iron stove in it, connected to a flue that juts out of the roof, with kindling in the room, and salt residue. It’s literal fucking trivia. The adventure does this sort of shit over and over again. It is COMPELLED to tell us the history of every little item encountered, as if it fucking mattered. You know what matters? Running the fucking game. You know what matters? Things the players will interact. Actual items related to actual play. The inability for writers to recognize this is one of the most frustrating experiences you can have. To see something this obvious, that happens over and over and over again. No Exit indeed.

How about a list of normal supplies? Want to know what’s in a room? How about a kitchen? A mining supply room in a mine? Have no worries, Davis is here to save you! Exhaustive lists of mundane room contents are included almost everywhere! Now you too can know what’s in a pantry! Joy! And to think, you’ve lived your whole life knowing this without the padded text of this adventure.

This is bad writing. It’s bad design. It’s some misguided appeal to realism. It has no place in the adventure. It’s only useful if it adds value to the actual play.

And this is to the detriment of the actual play value of the adventure. At one point there’s a steep stair over a chasm. A chasm that doesn’t show up on the map. It’s exceptionally confusing trying to figure out what is going on. Ledge … what ledge? Chute? Chasm? None of it is obvious AT ALL.

I leave you with two choice examples of text from the adventure. The first rivals Forgotten Realms for being incomprehensible. The second describes another point of trivia that has no bearing on the adventure.

Unbeknownst to the Leonhirdz, the mining operation alerted a Therafak (see New Monsters) living nearby. The Therafak bided its time and awaited an opportunity to do something. With the war in the south brewing, the Moorzeepin informed members of the Magdole Gang of the operation and they in turn informed a raiding party of Zjerd that had begun operating in that region of the Unterdrook. A Zjerd war

The kzarkim used several trullmirst to dig out holes in the walls leading from Room 2 to Room 4. They then stacked the planks and lumber over the holes in Room 2 so that they were not readily apparent. The idea was that, if anyone enters the mines and goes up to Room 3, the kzarkim can sneak out of the holes in here and ambush them.

This is $10 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages. The last couple give you a good example of meandering writing style compelled to explain everything.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/240691/Castles–Crusades–Caverns-of-Ambuscadia?affiliate_id=1892600

By M. T. Black, GM Lent, Dave Zajac
Self Published
5e
Levels 1-3

Lord Blackmoor’s son has been kidnapped, and is being held in the crypts beneath an ancient fortress. Can our heroes rescue the boy before he is sacrificed in a diabolical ceremony?

This twenty six page adventure has a twenty five room dungeon crawl. Long read-aloud, lots of explaining and justifications for things pad out what would be normal crawl.

There are four chapters here, where chapter one is “hook, two is “wilderness journey” (IE: two linear encounters”), three is the dungeon and four is the NPC betrayal. As soon as I read the hook I knew the lords sister was the baddy and, sure enough, she turns out to tbe the baddy. Shoulda just killed her to start with.

Anway, Lord Who Cares’
Son has been kidnapped and he wants the party to go get him. He knows the kobolds did it and that they lair in a ruin nearby. In my opinion, he’s getting what he deserves for not slaughtering the kobolds earlier, but whatever. He loves his son so much that he can’t be bothered to send his six guards with the party. “They can’t be spared.” Uh huh. It’s this kind of shit that breaks the suspension of disbelief. “Sure, whatever, I guess we have to if we want to play D&D tonight.” Just give the due no guards, or let the party have them if they are smart enough to ask, or something else. Why fuck around with saying no? I’ll tell you why, because the designer said so, that’s why!

A pit trap takes two paragraphs to describe. Remember pit traps? They used to be drawn on the map as an X with no text in the adventure? Not anymore. Some rooms take over a page to describe. Read-aloud overstays its welcome … while simultaneously saying nothing. “There are two doors, one open and one shut.” I FRIGGING HATE THE SIBBY!!

One of the chief sins herein is engaging in explaining and justifying. “He was a necromancer, which accounts for the high amount of necrotic energy in the crypts.” That’s FUCKING irrelevant It doesn’t matter if it has no impact on the adventure. What’s the explanation for? WHO’S the explanation for? It has no impact on play. The adventure engages in this activity over and over again, justifying shit, noting trivia. Make a DC15 Religion check to know the frescos re related to Bane, god of War … which is nothing but trivia. At one point there’s read-aloud that says something like “as if it were clawing its way out of a nightmare.” No. Just No. Failed Novelist Syndrome. Or how about conditional descriptions? IF the party triggers the tripwire THEN the kobolds will … Again, no, No, NO! This sort of phrasing drives me insane. It’s nothing but padding.

The map is ok. It’s a bit larger DYson map than usual, and has some loops and passages running under others. It’s not an ANTI_exploration map and is good enough for the tactics and mystery needed for a dungeoncrawl map. The magic items are generally boring, with the exception of an item or two, like a faulty mirror of scrying and a magic glaive that gives you advantage on intimidates and has a nice glowing jewel and makes cool sounds when wielded. IE: its a magic item and not just a mechanical bonus.

This is $3 at DriveThru.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/205741/Beneath-the-Ruins-of-Firestone-Keep–Adventure?affiliate_id=1892600

Courtney Campbell
Self Published
OSR

Discover the hidden wilderness game in Dungeons and Dragons! It will bring the actual experience of discovery to your players faces. They will be excited to explore a strange fantasy world!

This eighteen page hex toolkit is something new under the sun. Maybe? I bought it expecting something like Wilderlands. I got something ELSE hex related: a domain play product. Those things are rare as fuck, henc this review of a non-adventure

Pre-1e D&D is a masterpiece of design. You can see how it evolved. Ear worms for people listening at doors. ESP to stop those fucking prisoners from betraying you. Resource play. The spell ist, in particular, doctates the play style. (along with gold=xp.) High level adventures don’t typically work because they are not SUPPOSED to work. By the time you’re high level you should be moving on to other things … doman play.

The first page of the product does a great job explaining its role in the world. Early D&D had a high-level play style where you went in to a hex, with your retainers, men-at-arms, etc, and cleared it of creatures. You set up some points of lights, got some settlers, and taxed the fuckers. TaDa! High level play.

This thing supports that play style. It’s a one-hex overview. That one hex is broken down in to some nini-hexes with features in them. There’s a couple of medium adventuring locations, a demi-human tribe, three lairs, four landmarks,, rumors, and a wandering monster table. Everything has a kind of relation to the description style from Wilderlands. This landmark is the house of an albino woodsman with mongolisn and is a superior warrior. This one is an abandoned herb garden, or a ruined tower, or a talking bird. The lairs are a sunken ship, hill caves and a basalt obelisk. The medium sites are a towerful of bards, a bandit camp, and a volcano with a lost world inside. All have nice little pictures meant to be inspiring. The Medium sites have some floorplans with a true minimal key. “9. Thone. Table.” or “12. Bodies on floor. 2d12 zombies.” The lairs just have a big “notes” section for you to jot things down on.

Nothing here is really put together, or interrelated. That’s all up to the DM. There may be a sentence or two of description of the general area/lair/etc description, but then it’s just he minimal key and picture to inspire you to create something. Sit down for an hour, think, jot notes, and have a big hex for people to clear … up to and including ye old 110 bandits.

It’s an interesting concept. There’s no scale to the maps, so I assume it standard hex sizes. Would it kill ya to put that on the map Courtney? Anyway, I’m not sure how to evaluate it. It’s trying to be useful to a style of play doesn’t really have many supplements for it, so its hard for me to judge … and I LUV judging things. It’s a toolkit, not an adventure. It’s a toolkit for something that I don’t think has any other examples. If you take Wilderlands as your guide, then this supports the DM well. You, the DM, will need to flesh this out just as you would a Wilderlands hex. Riff on thing much more than a standard adventure.

This is $4 at DriveThru.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/247916/Hexplore-Borderlands?affiliate_id=1892600

Steve Jensen
Archaic Adventures
OSR
Level 1

The infamous DarkMoore Inn is closed! It appears the entire staff has been kidnapped, with nothing more than a ransom note demanding gold as the only clue. Despite these dire circumstances King Alangar never goes down without a fight and has placed his trust in his newly appointed Captain of the Guard Thaddeus Ugelcort. Thadeus has set up shop around a corner table at the Iron Dragon Inn where he coordinates the business of the day in the King’s absence. Thaddeus believes the hostages will be found by following up on every rumor, examining every rat-hole, and scavenging the entire countryside. The word is out, all you do is show up and talk to Thaddeus and get paid when you complete each task….what are you waiting for?

This 59 page adventure contains 10 “errands” for the party to undertake, all tied around the plot of the missing employees of an inn. The charm of pre-standardized D&D is impacted greatly by the linear nature.

You go to an inn. Captain of the Guard recites a monologue, assigning you a mission/task. You go do it, earning story XP. Repeat. Single column layout. Paragraphs of read-aloud. The village has a giant castle, two inns and one general store … that sells magic items. The king lives in the castle, in the village with one shop, and is trying to raise the ransom for the innkeeper. It all makes absolutely no sense … unless you imagine it was written by someone in jr high who started playing D&D two weeks ago. THEN it makes perfect sense …

Frogmen attack in the swamp. A weird obelisk raises the dead. A demon on chicken legs appears. An idol summons rattlesnakes to attack. I am FASCINATED by non-standard D&D. Those Unbalanced Dice adventures. OD&D stuff. Even the Fight On! #2/Upper Caves things I love … all have a certain non-de-rigueur element to them that emphasizes imagination over book learning. And I fucking love it.

But man … forced combats. One fight involves a lot of backstabs for your level one characters. Story awards instead of gold/monster XP. Instructions to make everyone level two if they are not .. or bump them from level three to four is they are close. The single column and … stream of consciousness? Event-based? Linear time based? “And then happens and then this happens and then this happens” based writing style is hard as hell to follow as the adventure wears on.

This is PWYW on DriveThru, with a suggested price of $7.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248658/DarkMoore-Adventure-Modules?affiliate_id=1892600

By Kiel Chenier
Zero/Barrier Productions
5e
Levels 1-2

A sepulchral tomb.
Magical tricks and traps.
Brutish orcs guarding a vast underground treasure.

This eighteen page adventure deals with a small eight room tomb that has been invaded by orcs. Compared to other 5 adventures, it’s a masterpiece. Compared to anything actually good, it’s constrained. It does some nice things with layout, but it comes off as dull and uninteresting, with a “find the red key for the red door” fetch quest to finish things off.

The rooms take up about one column per. First comes a little mini-map of the room, and then a bullet point format of the room features. All in a generous easy-on-the-eyes font. I like the bullet point style chosen. Combined with the bolding used it makes it easy to scan and absorb the different aspects to the encounters. Keil has chosen a good format for presenting information. It’s not the only way to do things, but it does work. He’s also got a little bit of order of battle information.

Ok. Nice guy Bryce is done.

The map is constraining & simple. I don’t think the map insets work for this. The descriptions are not quite evocative. There’s not much to fuck with. A prisoner betrays you. Useless information abounds. It’s just not that interesting.

I’ve said in the past that I don’t like Dyson’s maps. I think, though, that it may be I don’t like MOST of his maps. It seems like most adventures that I see that use his maps tend to use the smaller maps. Smaller maps are just not that interesting. There’s not enough space for something to go on. It doesn’t have room to breathe. I recall seeing a couple of larger maps that were ok, but I just don’t think it’s possible to have a good exploration map with eight rooms. I guess that’s not Dyson’s fault, t’s more the people who choose to write an eight room adventure. And for no reason whatsoever let me name drop now. Kiel.

I don’t find the descriptions evocative at all. Just more like facts. “A holy room devoted to the preparation of bodies for the afterlife. Long tables line the walls, covered in an assortment of embalming tools, and full and empty urns.” Or how about “The stone walls and ceiling are painted with detailed frescoes of the elven afterlife, showing the souls of elves rising from their bodies towards the ceiling.” Note, that if an elf sees that last room then they have to make a save or be overcome by the frescoes majesty. That’s a nice effect, but it doesn’t match the boring ass description.

It also engages in the a little bit of extraneous tables & information. It gives names to all of the corpses in one tomb, that has no impact on the game. It’s got a rando orc name generator … because somehow that’s going to be important to the adventure? They attack immediately in, I think, every case?

And of course, the prisoner you rescue turns on you. At this point I just kill all prisoners. It’s easier. I don’t recall the last time I saw prisoners NOT turn on PC’s. That should be the new trope, helpful prisoners.

And there’s no magical treasure? What’s up with that? This dude was an ancient elven hero. And his “hoard” is 200gp in a chest, some small silver statues, a picture, and a couple of books. Nice hoard? More like “stash in my mattress” maybe?

Let’s talk 5e. Compared to just about every other 5e adventure on earth, this thing is magnificent. It’s clear and gets in and out fast. But that’s more commentary of the state of the 5e dreck.

There’s just not much going on here. The map doesn’t allow for it. The room count doesn’t allow for it. The encounters that do exist are pretty simple and straightforward. Yeah, at one point a dead due bangs on the inside of his coffin and asks to be let out. That’s about the only standout.

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages and shows you next to nothing. You do get to see the hooks on the last page. The first one, with the elf prince trapped in his castle, could be nice if expanded upon.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248046/Orcs-in-Taroduns-Tomb-5e?affiliate_id=1892600

By Thom Wilson
ThrowiGames
B/X
Levels 1-2

The god Lupaarus has returned to the peaceful land of Otium, bringing hordes of canine creatures down on the unprepared farmers and unprotected lands. The key to stopping the onslaught is for brave heroes to find the five artifacts of Lupaarus before his minions do—the first of which is guarded by the Dog Witch! Can the adventurers make it to the crypt before their foes?

This sixteen page adventure describes a nineteen room crypt full of undead. Unfocused text and uninteresting encounters combine to form a rather forgettable start to the five adventure arc that this is the first of.

“Roll as often as you want for wanderers.” Why does that phrase piss me off so much? I think maybe it betrays a style of play that does not have a neutral DM.I expect the DM to be an impartial arbiter of the game world … while working to ensure I have fun. To that end I expect them to set up the world rules ands then follow them. Wanderers on a 1d6 every day, or three times a day, or 12 times a day, sets up a system that the DM follows. It’s random, and from such things good times are had as the DM and players experience the game world together, it’s ups and downs. But “roll when you want” betrays a different style. One in which the DM controls the world. They are not the JUDGE of the actions but rather the instigator of the actions. To that belongs the realm of the adversarial DM … something I LOATHE beyond words. (and it could be 4e’s focus on tactical mini’s play is adversarial, and thus a reason I hate 4e.)

Anyway, in a call back to B2, a certain keep in a borderlands area is suffering increasing raids by dog-like creatures. Portents of the doom of an evil dog god returning. The party is sent out to recover the first of five magical gem thingies so the world of man can dismiss the dog deity. The first is twelve days away, in a temple/crypt. The background is mostly abstracted, but the “pseudo-invasion” thing is something interesting that I like in those scandinavian the Dragon” adventures and I like it here, abstracted to hell and back or no. It’s an interesting thing to chuck in to a beginning campaign and help provides a lot of pretext for monsters, troops, etc.

The map here is not so bad. Nineteen rooms is larger than most and several of the areas have smaller loops in them. There’s also a nice bit or two in the encounters, with a red font dripping healing liquid and so on. There are also some Dm Tips scattered throughout. These generally convey the intent of the encounter/thing, That’s nice … almost an explanation of why it is like it is, or what the designer is trying to do with the encounter. Of course, it could also be written better … This concludes “positive Bryce.”

I found the adventure boring. It’s mostly just another site stuffed full of boring undead who attack. Six skeletons who attack. Thouls who attack. Ghoul who attacks. This is combined with a relatively boring adventuring environment. The high priest was trapped in his bedroom for ever and turned in to a ghoul. But that’s it. There’s no flavor beyond that. No insane scribblings, or torn up room. Just that he was trapped in his bedroom and turned in to a ghoul. BORING. Likewise skeletons rise up and attack. The rooms are devoid of joy.

Not to mention its padded out. The text for the ghoul room is:
The former high priest, second-in- command to the priestess, remained behind to help protect the crypt from looters. Unfortunately, he has been trapped in his bedchambers the entire time, becoming a long ago. …A residual spell—cast by the priest before he died—still hangs on the foul creature …

Note the embedded background and the explanation for WHY something is. Removing that gives you enough room to add some colour to the room. Which it, and the rest of the rooms, sorely need.

Undead are sometimes found outside of the room they are in … but by the time you read the room the party is already there, meaning no chance they were outside,. Unless you read ahead with your precog. Or note it on the map while using our highlighter? Or, maybe the designer puts that on map FOR YOU? Alas, no. *YAWN* Room three, a storeroom, tells us that “Food and supplies were once stocked behind this locked door. The charac- ters will find most everything deterio- rated or rotted.” Great, two sentences when you could have told us that with the room title.ARG! But, hey, at least there are +1 weapons to be found …

This is $1 at DriveThru. The preview is sixteen pages. I encourage you to review room one on document page three, or room eight, on page six, and supply your own critique.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/249374/OT1–Crypt-of-the-Dog-Witch?affiliate_id=1892600