This is my ‘ToDo’ reviews list. Except maybe the old stuff. I don’t like reviewing older stuff. I’m not begging, I’m more just organizing the six separate ‘buy’ lists I have and informing people what is on my list.
“It’s on the list” … unless it’s not, in which case you should mail me your request.
Oh man, I don’t know.
Hope you haven’t stopped permanently… I enjoy reading your reviews.
I hope so too. This site is a great resource for checking out OSR adventures. You warn me about the shit ones so I don’t buy them! 🙂
And so do I.
I emailed you about a complimentary review copy of Liberation of the Demon Slayer a couple weeks ago. Let me know if you’re interested…
VS
More reviews on Google+ ?
Hey. You don’t know me… and I don’t know you… but I love your reviews.
I appreciate your (colorful) frankness. If you ever find yourself exhausted from reading ODD / OSR dreck, lacking inspiration to do another review, or just plain burnt out — because I can imagine that running this blog for so many years has got to have it’s low points — please do me a favor and take a short break, then come back to this very post, and soldier on!
I find your reviews immensely valuable, and your review insights point out many pitfalls I can avoid when creating my own adventures. Well done, sir. Well done.
Not yet any review of Beasts & Barbarians ? This is (based on the Savage Worlds) the best universe for Sword & Sorcery I have ever seen. I wrote a bunch a reviews about many of their products : http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=96199&customers_id=886920
Hey Bryce, allow me to make a suggestion. You probably already know that WotC is going to release Tales From the Yawning Portal in April, containing seven old-school adventures adapted for the D&D 5E rules. It’s an official bridge between old and new! The adventures are:
– Against the Giants
– Dead in Thay
– Forge of Fury
– Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
– Sunless Citadel
– Tomb of Horrors
– White Plume Mountain
Why don’t you review (or re-review) the old ones as the launch of the book approaches? And after the book is released, you do a review comparing the old and new, what’s better and what’s worse! That’d be awesome!
Anyway, suggestion made!
Keep on keeping on.
Hi Bryce, I’d recommend taking a look at the Treasure Vaults of Zadabad, and possibly the prequel Well of Souls. I think that TVoZ is amazing, and I’m surprised I don’t see more reviews of it. I wrote my own review on my own blog, but I’d be curious to see your take.
Added to the queue!
And,I need to do a much better job responding to people …
Any plans to review the Hyperborea modules?
– Ghost Ship of Desert Dunes
– The Mystery at Port Greely
– Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess
– Beneat the Comet
Well, I guess now there are! 🙂
Some products to consider:
DCC 91 Journey to the Center of Aereth
DCC 91.1 The Lost City of Barako
adedded
I just found some new and different OSR-style adventures. Somebody has begun translating Danish OSR-adventures to English. Some are at DMs Guild, others at Drivethru.
Try and check out these two:
* Palace of Sweet Dreams (at DMs Guild)
* The Flooded Temple (at DriveThru)
Hey Bryce, if you want to check out “The Invitation From The Blue Baron” that would be cool! I’m curious to know your thoughts on the adventure.
You can get it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-hlnlR7qn5XSjRiS0FHSnBWYkE/view
and here: http://drivethrurpg.com/product/214418/An-Invitation-From-The-Blue-Baron-A-Collaborative-Dungeon-For-Blueholme?src=hottest_filtered
Elevator pitch: This wonderful forty four page adventure that you hold in your hands was written for Blueholme Prentice rules ™. The book was a collaborative effort between some of the brightest minds in the Old School Role Playing community. Detailed within this book is a twenty two room dungeon, new monsters & spells, and all kinds of interesting twists. The Blue Baron holds his masquerade party annually, and because of this we have added a pile of random tables, which should easily allow replaying this adventure with different results! Grab a few sets of dice, some pencils, paper and few friends and delve into the masquerade.
I know these aren’t strictly traditional OSR, but they are OSR adjacent, neo-OSR, quasi-OSR, 4th wave OSR, etc., so here goes: Crimson Dragon Slayer edition 1.11, Slaves of Tsathoggua, Stairway of V’dreen, and the dungeon map/toolbox aids The S’rulyan Vault and The S’rulyan Vault II.
I only have one suggestion to make.
N3: The Destiny of Kings
One of the very few 1st Edition DnD scenarios to be upgraded and reprinted for the 2nd Edition and it’s not tied to any of the major settings…
Another suggestion, though I do hope at some point you get round to the one above.
Hard Light, it’s a ‘Keep on the Borderlands’ type scenario for the Stars Without Number reworking of D & D.
Thanks for the ‘Hard Light’ Review, any chance fo the other suggestion “Destiny of Kings”?
I don’t see Destiny of Kings in the comments, or on DriveThru?
Here is a link to the first edition on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/110268/N3-Destiny-of-Kings-1e-1986
And the update for 2nd Edition D & D
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17361/N3-Destiny-of-Kings-2e
I want to add my vote for you to review old / classic modules. You say, there are enough reviews out there on them. I think nostalgia makes it hard for other reviewers who played them as kids to do them justice. Also, there is something special to your style. One example I know of is your contrarian view on Tomb of Horrors, which typically gets rave reviews elsewhere.
I think some of them are famous due to having shaped the hobby. Think about paintings from the early renaissance that introduced perspective into art: even though on an absolute scale the execution was flawed, this made them meaningful in a way the thousands of later works with slicker execution can never be. Likewise, the first social investigation adventure, the first with a timeline of unfolding events, the first with an antagonist who is not just waiting in the last room, like the original Ravenloft, broke new ground. You appear to be uninterested in the historical significance of these adventures, judging them rather on their merit for playability, wonder and fun. It would be valuable to get a review on them from that point of view.
If that is still not an option for you, I’d like to request reviewing the 5e Adventures WotC puts out, like Tales from the Yawning Portal, Tomb of Annihilation, etc. These are quite expensive to buy, and I believe you would provide a valuable service to your many readers who trust your judgment.
Dungeon Full of Monsters by RedBox Vancouver
A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island, & Dark of Hot Springs Island
The Field Guide was not an adventure. It’s the player’s guide to the adventure (Dark). It’s also, in my opinion, pretty contrary to the spirit of said adventure itself and not particularly useful to most GMs. Whereas Dark is a GOAT adventure setting IMO.
I wrote a review of each one:
Dark of Hot Springs Island: http://artifactsandrelics.blogspot.com/2017/07/pre-review-dark-of-hot-springs-island.html
A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island: http://artifactsandrelics.blogspot.com/2017/08/more-mini-reviews-pirates-of-drinax.html (the third mini-review)
Good Reviews. And good DM advice in your Sociopaths recap.
I’d love to hear about Dungeon Full of Monsters as well 🙂
Bryce,
do you have any plans to review Tomb of Annihilation from WotC?
Also, I second Hot Springs Island.
Hmmm, I had not. I’m allergic to ToHorrors. But, I’ll put it on the list. All three.
The Isles of Mist is a bunch of free materials: an island hexcrawl, some mini adventures, and the Thedron Barrows, a dungeon with factions. The island maps are beautiful. Hopefully worth your time to review.
Mistress of the Ghost City?
by Alphonso Warden? Ok, it’s on the list.
I’d like a review of Hot Springs Island as well. Also Mortzengersturm by Hydra Collective. Also World of the Lost by LotFP
If you are planning to do Pathfinder products, I’d love a review of Fen of the Five-Fold Maw (by TPK Games). My reaction to it was very different to Endzeitgeist’s review on Drivethru, and I’d really appreciate your take on it.
I hate you ‘Jeff.’ I declare, publicly and forever, that I now hate all ‘JEFF’s!
Oh man, just when you think you’ve hit rock bottom a Jeff comes along and suggests something like this.
I would love to know your thoughts on the most recent edition of The Lost City of Barakus
Seconded on Barakus
This one and Stoneheart Valley from Frog God games.
both on the list now
Hi Bryce !. I enjoy very much your reviews . Because of them , i’ve discovered: Fight on ! Magazine, Stonehell Dungeon, and too many other jewels of the OSR.
I would like to read your reviews about City of Dark Trolls (Fight On! Issue 14) , about the second half of Stonehell megadungeon ( into heart of Hell ) and finally about DCC module Journey to the Center of Aereth and its two suplemments.
Regards from Spain.
A couple more:
Frostbitten & Mutilated
The Gardens of Ynn
I thought Frostbitten was more of a setting?
And Gardens is just a random generator?
Frostbitten is…but it is pretty glorious and adventure oriented, similar to DCO.
Ynn- not sure; thought it was a point crawl similar to Slumbering Ursine Dunes
The Complete Roslof Keep Campaign
I’d like to suggest Tomb of the Lovelorn, it’s in the same series as The Flooded Temple, Grave of the Heartless and The Dragons Heart and from the preview looks to be one of the more intelligent dungeon scenarios out there.
@ Bryce, I’m curious why you’re bothering to review Pathfnder adventures at all. Pathfinder is the antithesis of old school. I can grudgingly understand why you review 5e products but Pathfinder? Don’t get it.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/TransformersGeneration2
???
I’m an idiot.
Ahh! Got it
Bryce, I love your reviews. I just wondered if ou had ever read the “Jaunt” series by Roan Studio
No vested interest on my part, I was just curious as to your opinion.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/8657/Roan-Studio
I just added a few to my list.
I just came here to suggest that too! Nice maps.
You might want to check out Mines, Claws, Princesses
http://knights-n-knaves.com/thescribesofsparn/KK2-FINAL2-opt-a.pdf
I’d like to see you tackle the official BFRPG adventures: BF1 Morgansfort, BF2 Fortress, Tomb, and Tower, BF3 Strongholds of Sorcery, and so on. They’re all free at http://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html. As they’re for one of the first clones, and they don’t get talked about much, I’d like to read your take on them.
Also the later DCC adventures, since you seem to have stopped with those.
Tomb of the Necromancers, for Crypts & Things, since you liked Blood of the Dragon so much.
Lixury Palace of Bones
I think ‘Something Stinks in Stilton’ by the Melsonian Arts Council and ‘Sacrebleu’ might be up your alley.
You may want to read and review this lil’ fella – it seems to fit your ethos and style well.
Sacrebleu by Tito B.A.
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/243550/Sacrebleu?src=hottest_filtered
I’d like to see your thoughts on these:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/132949/In-the-Wake-of-the-Zorkul-No-Art-Version
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/127617/ZH01-An-Overwhelming-Sense-of-Loss
I’d appreciate your thoughts on Shattered Heart Adventure Path #1, The Ties that Bind, by AAW Games. It was written for Pathfinder but there is also a 5th edition version. Endzeitgeist loved the Pathfinder version but is clearly biased (understandably so, in the circumstances), so a more objective review would be great.
Bryce, you should removed the Dungeon Magazine tag from this review https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=2219
Thx!
Found another one. Add the Dungeon tag to Dungeon Adventures 40 https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=2545
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/245450/Name-Not-Found?src=newest_free_titles
Heir and Back Again
That better not be a pun …
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/235454/5E-Heir–Back-Again
(un)fortunately not?
For something a bit different, you might review Kellerin’s Rumble (available for free download at Malrex’s Modules). One sentence summary: PCs get to interact with a James Bond villain (complete with crocodiles).
There have been a lot of official DCC adventures published since your last review of a Goodman product. As a DCC fanboy, I’ve really enjoyed one (Enter the Dagon), been underwhelmed by most and disappointed by a bunch. I’d be interested to hear your take.
Edgewise: If you’re willing, I’d be interested in what you found good and not good at table. Have you written about any of this on a blog or forum or google plus, etc?
as a rule of thumb all stroh adventures are really good. i also have enjoyed shadow under devil reef by hook and curtis’ shudder stuff.
‘Do Not Let Us Die in the Dark Night of this Cold Winter’. Some sort of survival-type wilderness thing where the players can save a starving freezing village? Looks really interesting. You should check it out Bryce!
Hey Bryce, I know it’s more of a survey than an in-depth review, but would you be up for hitting some of the more recent One Page Dungeon Compendiums? They’re grab-bags of great/mediocre/crap, but I love stealing ideas and maps from them.
I’d be interested in a review of Necromancer Games’ Tomb of Abysthor, either the original d20 version, the Pathfinder version or the Swords & Wizardry version (for the latter two the Tomb is part of the “Stoneheart Valley” product from Frog God Games). It appears to be highly regarded, and has a lot of stuff in it I like, but there are also a few bits that I strongly dislike (mostly the entries which include the phrase “Lawful Good characters who …”).
I can say that it is one of the most fun dungeons I have run. It has a very good balance of exploration, combat, and sense of wonder; it is just large enough to feel expansive without being overwhelming (which Rappan Athuk tends to be); and it has a good variety of content. It hits a lot of sweet spots, and it has worked nicely in practice. There is one level (Abysthor’s tomb) which is kinda linear and gimmicky, but otherwise, it is very solid.
I want to like Necromancer/Frog God adventures, but find them uninspiring and boring and very mundane ( other than the hex crawl classics line). There is a certain flatness and density of text I find hard to overcome.
That’s my impression too. Walls of text everywhere, and no solid reasons to believe it’s worth the time. Even the art looks pedestrian and samey. It’s a shame, because the production values seem good and we all want to like their stuff. Prices don’t help either.
The Mortuary Temple of Esma, by Anthony Huso (he of Night Wolf Inn).
The Weird That Came to Brigdoltan, a Dolmenwood adventure.
And by my previous post, I MEANT The Weird That Befell Drigbolton, a Dolmenwood adventure
https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=3584
Whoops, I sure missed that. Thanks.
The Dragon’s Secret by Jennell Jaquays.
Given you regard her as the greatest living adventure writer (and I think the case can be made), I’m surprised you haven’t reviewed this yet.
A sample from the Hexed Places series. (Minimal hexcrawl, on rpgnow.)
Found a PWYW one that looks decent at first blush:
https://www.rpgnow.com/product/250834/City-of-Illanter-Kellerins-Rumble
…perhaps the message is getting out there.
I enjoyed the review. Thanks!
You are a force of nature (in a good way like the tides, not at all like flatulence or dead fish)
Thanks for the suggestion squeen! 🙂
It’s been a while since you’ve reviewed any DCC adventures. I loved Enter the Dagon, but I have been disappointed by a number of other recent releases.
If you have a chance you might really like Ben L.’s “Through Ultan’s Door” Issue#1 – it’s 90% a 30 room dungeon crawl.
https://throughultansdoor.bigcartel.com/
I also admit this is a bit self promotional as I played through this dungeon with the author GMing and later drew the map in the zine.
How about The Castle That Fell From the Sky. http://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-robertson-and-jimm-johnson/the-castle-that-fell-from-the-sky/ebook/product-23854671.html
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/257155 – latest Hill Cantons product
In the same vein: https://www.rpgnow.com/product/256916/Witchburner . Second-latest Hydra product? I just grabbed this along with the newest from Dying Stylishly, a thematic kin to Gardens of Ynn: https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257113/The-Stygian-Library .
A review of the (deliberately wordy) Witchburner could be combined in a compare and contrast with the shorter (and randomly generated) The Village and the Witch.
I know you’ve been avoiding 5e reviews recently, but what about Dungeon of the Mad Mage? Megadungeon, Undermountain, 23 dungeon levels for characters from levels 5 to 20, different themes on each dungeon level… and even a derelict Spelljammer vessel! I’d really like to see your point of view on this one, so there goes my suggestion!
Thanks!
🙂
JD1 Cess-Pit of the Bog-Mother and JD2 Darkland Moors are small modules by TSR artist Jeff Dee. I haven’t heard much about them either way, and I’d be curious to see what sort of adventure chops Dee has.
Also, Malrex (“Red Prophet Rises”) has a new one: Standoff at Sandfell Sea Fort.
Another thing you might want to check out is Dead Planet for Mothership – It’s a couple adventures and adventure generators – a bit a kit, but it’s fun and clever. Also gotta be a change of pace after all these drippy 5E things – space horror pastiche!
The Book of Terniel for…Pathfinder. I would actually run this thing! (a PF adventure no less). There are some things that can be done better, but the layout, flavor, internal consistency, player agency, and formatting are excellent and work harmoniously together- really done with the GM and play at the table in mind. I feel like more adventure writers should read this thing just to see what a good layout looks like for adventures.
ok, but this if this is a troll … I’m reposting the midwestern truecoat movie clip again.
Not a troll.
ok, a week fromtoday
Sadly the publishers future offerings went in the opposite directions; I think likely trying to emulate Paizo and others. Ugh!
Gah! Fuck you Evard, why you have to ruin my day with the news that the follow ons sucked? This thing is clearly one of the best PF adventures I’ve seen, easily.
Well, the “ good news” is that the publisher seems to take feedback pretty well. This was his response to my feedback on DT:
“Gotcha. I did try out some different things. The shorter read-alouds with supporting bullets is a good example, and I prefer the prior (Terniel) style to the latter (Sunken Temple), which I’ll use in the future. Part of the reasoning for longer text was an attempt to invoke specific atmospheric themes. The artwork was handled differently as well, I had everything up front vs ordering up specific pieces as the project continued. That wasn’t a conscious choice, just a bi-product of my process. I really appreciate the feedback, and will incorporate your thoughts into future work.”
Since I like to find weird and interesting stuff for you to review…”Darkmoor RPG: Once Upon a Time there was a Swamp”…the Darkmoor description is fascinating…
“Darkmoor is a game set in a self-deprecating fantasy universe, full of action and magic, where anything is possible! Giant apes and huge, colourful pandas train in the art of kung fu in remote monasteries in preparation for the Steel Fists Tournament. Huge robot toys chase one another through different parallel dimensions waging an automated miniatures war. Coins, jewelry and all kind of possible treasures pop out of the monsters you just killed in dungeons created by crazy robot butlers
Have no clue if this thing is any good…but that’s some crazy gonzo shit.
Bryce, Pacesettergames is having a sale right now. All PDFs are $2 piece. I know you’ve reviewed a few of their modules before but there’s a bunch more. You might want to take a look
http://www.pacesettergames.com/
I’ve never heard of any of these!
Bryce, Pacesetter Games is currently running a sale on all of their modules. PDFs are only $2 each. Might be worth grabbing some to review. http://www.pacesettergames.com
Well, that’s odd. Posted twice an hour and a half apart lol
I still maintain if you want to be taken seriously as a reviewer you need to review material such as Dark Tower, Caverns of Thracia, WG4, and so on so that folks who know exactly how good such material is can judge YOU on your reviews.
The only way he can be taken seriously as a reviewer is to review the classics? Yeah, okay. I keep waiting for your drum to break so I won’t have to keep hearing you beat it anymore.
Suck my drum.
Clever. Why don’t you Darwin Award yourself, you waste of skin
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes? No reviews but it looks Brycey.
Bryce, can you resist doing a review of RPGPundit Presents #59? (You will understand why when you read the title.) Or is that one safely left to the Prince of Nothing?
I was on the brink of failing my saving throw; too bad I have already reviewed parts of this series: https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2017/10/review-rpgpundit-presents-1-3.html
I’ve sworn off Pundit stuff until I hear someone say he’s written something more serious. The last few forays in to Presents have each seemed like one little idea expanded upon a little … “there’s a castle with a guy living in it”
“While the source material could theoretically be interesting it is conveyed with textbook bluntness that utterly strips it of any potential to inspire or amaze. The best that may be said of it is that it is functional and executed with a workmanlike efficiency that makes it easy to adapt it into one’s homecampaign. Like a reverse King Midas, Pundit’s touch never fails to turn gold into lead. Try again. 3 out of 10. ”
Apply judiciously where needed.
Bryce, have you had the opportunity to look at « What Ho, Frog Demons », Hill Canton’s latest release?
Another thing that might interest you is « Witchburner » by Luka Rejec
on the list now, both
I was wondering if The Pretty Girl is up for a review? The Tar Pits of the Bone Toilers. Happy to send a complimentary copy.
I shall inquire, but work is hitting her with 12 hour days, so lets not hold our breathe’s
If you would . . . https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265138/Off-Track-The-Uncharted-Swamp
on the list now
Requesting “Horse-fondlers of Greater Aione” by William Morris.
Fight on! Issue 14 seems to have slipped by you. Wpuld esp. like to read what you think of the Troll lord level from the megadungeon A Darkness Beneath wich can be found it that issue.
Well, the FO website appears broken, I don’t see #14 listed there anyway, just 13, and the message boards seem to imply the troll are in 15?
http://www.lulu.com/shop/ignatius-umlaut/fight-on-14-pdf-version-20122013/ebook/product-21411519.html
No, the final level (don’t know what it’s going to be called) is supposed to go in #15, when (if?) that ever is released, but the Troll Lord Citadel is in #14.
Thanks for the assist. I swear I looked and couldn’t find it. I’ll grab it.
A Fabled City of Brass, by Hudson (he did Night Wolf Inn). It looks gorgeous enough, but reviews are sparse.
It’s not Hudson. It’s Huso.
Yep, looks like an Autocorrect in action!
FYI: Looks like there is a duplicate menu item for this page in the drop-down “About Byrce”.
Looks like anything with an & or ‘ in the title got dup’ed somehow. See what I can do today.
The Dreaded Tunnels of Ruxabar.
It’s currently free on DMsGuild … An 5e Adventure for levels 8 to 9 … maybe worth a look 😉
Hey Bryce, you tagged the adventure linked below as a Dungeon Magazine adventure and it isn’t
https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=3674
Thx. Fixed.
In your recent review of The Dog Who Would Not Bark, you wrote: “I’m interested, lately, in lower page count adventures. In contrast to the overwritten stuff that seems to dominate the market these days I was thinking about the opposite end of the spectrum. What was G1, like, eight pages or something? [..] Finally, just how hard is it to make an adventure for publication? How much effort is it to get something short, dense, and at least adequate in a form that other people can use?”
I’d like to respectfully submit my first published work for your consideration in this category:
The Quest for the Dungeon Terrier
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268182/Q1–Quest-for-the-Dungeon-Terrier
I love reading your reviews, so I submit this in full knowledge that you are likely to rip it apart, but I hope I’ve learned enough to not make you sick by reading it. Also, it is PWYW, so please don’t pay for it unless you actually want to.
Thank you for reviewing my module! I’m glad to hear the feedback, and I will work to improve it and future publications.
Direct link: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=5878
You might want to look over “Curse of the Lost Memories (5E)” (Griffin Lore Games) it claims to be the start of an ‘adventure chain’ (groan), but I like the vibe of this one, anything that actually mentions the term ‘murder hobo’ in a contextural reward situation might be worth looking at
$20 and 220 pages for the PDF … this may take a couple of weeks; I’m running con games this weekend.
The Winghorn press modules are pretty popular among the 5e crowd right now. I’ve played and read a few of their modules. While I would not DM these modules myself, they’re sort of interesting. The writers claim it is possible to run them on the fly, without reading the module ahead of time (very unusual for 5e stuff!). The writers could use some pointers on making them flow better. I’d like your take on one or two of them.
Have a look at “Winter’s Daughter”, the latest from Necrotic Gnome. Regardless of the content of the adventure, Gavin has done some interesting things with layout and design that I think will interest you.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/270795/Winters-Daughter-OldSchool-Version?term=winters+daughter++
I see why you suggested it, Chris S! Makes sense.
Along the same lines, Bryce, I’d like to hear your take on “The Antrhopophagi of Xambaala” from North Wind Adventures.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248582/The-Anthropophagi-of-Xambaala
Full disclosure: I have done work for North Wind, including on this product.
I can hear Bryce already complaining about the preview. It doesn’t show any of the meat of the adventure. However, that town map is nice.
Contrast that with the preview for Winter’s Daughter which is twice as long and gives you more of an idea of what you are buying.
The “Winter’s Daughter” preview is nice, that’s for sure. Is all of that at the publisher’s discretion?
Not sure but I assumed (you know what they say about that) that previews are set by the publisher.
What about Courtney Campbell’s Dread Eerie?
To the End of Time – an Epic One-Shot by Richard Jansen-Parkes of Winghorn press, looks to be an interesting way to ‘end’ campaigns, with the hero’s plucked from certain death, just long enough to perform one last, critical task.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/207506/To-the-End-of-Time–an-Epic-OneShot
I just heard about Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations, which describes itself as “These sites and structures aren’t full adventures. Instead, you and your players build your own stories in these fantastic locations, then you populate them with the monsters that fit your story.”
I wonder what Bryce thinks about whether this is useful for GMs and whether it actually manages to do what it claims it does.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/186334/Sly-Flourishs-Fantastic-Locations
You might want to look at ‘Distress Call’ by Angry Golem Games.
This adventure was originally written for Starfinder, but has been converted to Stars Without Number. Looks to have an interesting plot, not so good hooks, a foreign language to English translation issue in it’s original form.
Sadly the preview does not show any of the adventure itself, just the table of contents and a single full page illustration that was not in the original story.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/272353/Distress-Call–SWN-Compatible
Mr.Bryce,
Two of the people who helped designed the Balder’s Gate series of video games recently put out this. I am curious to see how professional video game designers will do by your review standards.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/269398/Heroes-of-Baldurs-Gate-5e?src=newest_in_dmg
I humbly submit my very first published product. It is a low-level crawl through a frozen wasteland, it was made in the pamphlet dungeon format, so it is literally just a single, front/back, A4 sized adventure. I tried to make something that can be ran almost immediately with almost no prep time.
The Frozen Province
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/273859/The-Frozen-Province?src=newest_since
(Im a sucker for your reviews and a I tried to apply a lot of what I learned here)
Two requests: (i) Shotglass Adventures Volume 1, from a successful kickstarter, now on DriveThruRpg; it looks promising but pricey; (ii) In the bargain basement, Krillo’s Tomb (also on DriveThruRpg).
on the list.
A scenario that begins with the PCs being asked by a pair of Goblin children to save their clan.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/275682/From-the-Mouth-of-Babes
Added
I’m sure you’re aware of these, Bryce but in case you aren’t..
Three new Advanced Adventures from Expeditious Retreat Press
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/274219/Advanced-Adventures-41-The-Forgotten-Grottoes-of-the-Sea-Lords
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/274221/Advanced-Adventures-42-Dead-In-The-Water
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/274222/Advanced-Adventures-43-The-Warrens-of-Zagash
Yeah, I added them.
It might be a bit out of your scope since it is more than just an adventure, but Silent Titans looks extremely cool and I would like to know if it is worth my group’s time.
Bryce: I enjoyed your interview on False Machine. You were more “urbane” (if that’s the right word) than I expected.
When you described you sorting method for reviewing products (inversely by price) I understood why the Fabled City of Brass has yet to make an appearance. I’ll stop holding my breath.
Me too. You also had way more radical hair than I expected.
Hey Bryce, If you find the time I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a look at my adventure.
It was written for a little contest in your new forum and squeen suggested to bring it to your attention … so here it is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/141P_gPYoNaNLBRXD44FpUGwn6FyGlB-I/view
Since you seem to like Tunnels & Trolls adventures, I think you should check out both “The Dungeon of the Rat” and “The Skolari Vaults”. They are new(ish), apparently fun and well regarded by the T&T community. Yes, there is a T&T community out there–
A new megadungeon was just released today at DriveThru (with pretty much zero fanfare). It’s cheap at 10$, but pretty big. It’s called Gunderholfen.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265629/Gunderholfen
I was just about to suggest this one as well.
I know it’s kinda petty of me, but having a map or two up front in the preview would go a long way towards helping me decide to splurge on this one.
I think I am a map bigot.
There’s a map pack for that one too. It can be previewed: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/276045/Gunderholfen-Map-Pack
Thanks! Looks pretty good.
Bryce, you have a spammer loose, a vampire spammer no less. Multiple posts from this asshat. Stick a sparkly stake through his heart. One example is linked below.
https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6026#comment-8562
Thx!
Guy Fullerton has a new one out. His “Many Gates of the Gann” was pretty damn cool, so I’m curious to see if you think this one holds up.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/277684/The-Withered-Crag
I just finished reading through Skerples “Magical Murder Mansion,” which is subtitled “A Challenging Funhouse Dungeon.” It reads as an excellent adventure, exactly the sort of thing it claims to be – just like “Tomb of the Serpent Kings” claims to be (and largely is) the canonical beginners’ dungeon.
It’s also an interesting counterpoint to my own “The Magician’s House,” since they are both romps in the house of an absent wizard. They are very different, though…Skerple’s take is more old-school in every way, as well as more deadly. Bryce, I think you’ll like it. Check it out.
Just putting in my two cents. Your reviewing style is excellent — even when you don’t like something, I read one and I know exactly what I will find useful in the product.
– 100 Bushels of Rye. I have this one, and never had a chance to run it, even when I was running Harn in the dim recesses of Time.
– The One Page Dungeon contest entries. Just a sentence or two is fine. My own entries are usually pretty crappy, but there are always one or two real gems every year, and a lot of them have interesting ideas buried under the dross.
Two more suggestions, both to be found on DriveThruRPG: (i) Everyone Plows the Graveyard Farm, which I suspect you might like; (ii) No Rest for the Wicked, which has a load of old waffle as a preview rather than details of what the adventure is actually about.
added to the list
Some of the recent things I’ve bought (and liked) that I haven’t seen here yet:
Patrick Stuart – Silent Titans (beautiful art, purple prose, good riddles)
Ben Laurence – Through Ultan’s Door #2 (just out)
Zzarchov Kowolski – City of Tears (great vibe, the labyrinth, like most, might be boring in play)
Zzarchov Kowolski – The Punchline
Anthony Huso – Mortuary Temple of Esma (my favorite of his)
Anthony Huso – Zjelwyin Fall
Anthony Huso – A Fabled City of Brass
Gabor Lux – Echoes from Fomalhaut 5
Gabor Csomos – Lost Valley of Kishar
The new Greg Gillespie megadungeon, HighFell, is out. You were enthusiastic about Barrowmaze but much less so about Forbidden Caverns, and I’m curious to see where you come down on this one.
Yes. Interesting author but no preview. Riddled with grade school typo’s I can just about handle on a labour of love but he’s also asking top dollar even for a PDF so you’d hope that’s not an ill omen. I second the motion.
Yeah another vote for this one as there is no preview so I have no idea what it’s like. I find it hard for myself to pay $35 for a pdf, it just feels a bit pricey not having a physical object in my hands dishing out that amount of cash. If you’ve got awesome (and expensive) art in a product I can sympathise with the price tag to some degree, but as I understand it that’s what the Kickstarter is there for.
Ok, I just bought $53 worth of expensive shit based on these last few comments. I’m just gonna go ahead and blame all of you in advance.
I’m responsible for the Silent Titans, Ultan’s, Anthony Huso, Gabor, etc. suggestions. I thought I was signed in, but it didn’t take. Just so you have a name to blame. You’re right, lot of it is expensive. I’ve bought all of it over the past year, some of it just recently. Silent Titans is cool, but I’m wondering how difficult it will be to actually run it at the table as is. Anthony Huso’s stuff is only on Lulu (I think). It’s high-level AD&D with the exception of Zjelwyin which is a low-level astral plane adventure. Cool Fiend Folio monsters, but the abstraction of astral adventures is tough.
I didn’t make the Highfell suggestion, but I’m curious about it. I own (and like) Barrowmaze, but I just ran a sky fortress adventure of my own creation in my local game, so I’m not ready to shell out for another one just yet.
I agree about Silent Titans being a bit rough for the table. It’s unfortunate because it’s clear that while Stuart was being experimental with the structure, he was doing so in order to increase usability. But the bullet point lists are too long (bullet hell) and the indentation is hard to see, and the maps are hard to decipher. Too bad because there are a lot of excellent ideas that don’t quite reach fruition IMO.
I really wish “RPG inspiration books” were a common product. The concept gets brought up every time there’s a debate about the value of out-of-the-box utility/gameability, but I think Stuart could truly thrive if he didn’t have to worry about fitting his ideas into the framework of an adventure module.
This comes down to the whole question of whether people get gaming materials to read or to use. Personally, I’ve seen too many of the former and I just wouldn’t waste my money on inspiration alone. Good ideas are easy but execution is hard. I’ll pay for good execution every time.
There is a super simple and pretty innovative adventure called Halflings and The Hive on Exalted Funeral’s page for free. It’s one of the FreeRPG day offerings. It might be available elsewhere. It’s incredibly short and it is filled with useful and unique looking ref-aids. It took me a few minutes to comprehend that it was an adventure the first time I looked at it, but once I was able to wrap my brain around, it looked like it would be incredibly easy to have have a good session with or just completely run on the fly. I am curious what your take on this one is. It’s free so if you want to sneak in an easy one between the expensive, gigantic modules you just bought, this might be a good one.
Thanks for tackling HighFell so fast. I’d really like to see some coverage of this Melan work: sounds intriguing.
https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2019/07/module-nocturnal-table-now-available.html
Curious about this one…came across it while browsing the depths of DTRPG…
Frozen Fortress of the Winter Warlord
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/128327/Frozen-Fortress-of-the-Winter-Warlord?filters=44827_0_0_0_0
And because…I just have to with Bryce…the best selling 5e adventure on DTRPG…at a whopping 40 bucks (and 4 5 star review heh)
Calls from the Deep
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/280922/Call-from-the-Deep
Also this:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/272385/Eyrie-of-the-Dread-Eye-5E
Descent into Madness: First Steps
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/284503/Descent-into-Madness-First-Steps
(Which is a sequel to “The Sunken Fort”)
-and-
Mad Mask Spire
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/281441/Mad-Mask-Spire
Full Disclosure: I was in the original campaign these were run for, and am the other author in that publishing group.
You may enjoy the 100 Clones of Timothy the Wise. It’s a Five Cataclysms adventure, and it’s extraordinarily gonzo. Maybe one of the most gonzo things I’ve ever seen with a hyper-Vancian patron.
What about this thing…advertises itself as a beast of a dungeon, has 5, 5 star reviews…and an automatic disqualification for me cause i fucking hate unnecessary ap’ost’rop’he use.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/284600/Chaalt?src=also_purchased
oh it’s a Venger thing too…that explains the apostrophes
Hole in the Oak?
Seconded. Hole in the Oak is great. Very imaginative
wot about Geoff McKinney’s AD&D modules
Here’s one for ya, Bryce. It’s a freebie. https://www.thebluebard.com/post/palace-vulre
Cause you hate me? I took a look.
It’s an interesting format, but you can’t get the sense of the room easily. You have to look at five or six columns to figure out what is going on and get the room and relate it to the players. I suspect it makes more sense as a “personal note taking” format. IE: you already know what’s going on and your memory just needs prompting.
I thought you’d find the format……interesting. Still, the maps are nice (for me anyway)
Same author, looks interesting.–http://www.lulu.com/shop/anthony-huso/geir-loe-cyn-crul-digital/ebook/product-24229481.html
Curious about this new one, which has received a bit of buzz. Conceptually interesting, at the least:
Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/286792/Trilemma-Adventures-Compendium-Volume-I
I know Bryce doesn’t want to review the originals, but I think it would be great to see his take on some of the early modules, especially the hot messes like UK1. Or at the very least, if he’d review some of the non-TSR classics that he name drops all the time, like Kegals and Thracia.
Oh yeah. Bryce, ever consider reviewing some of the one-off modules that were published in Dragon magazine? I know, I know, it takes a certain bit of sadism to suggest this to you, but you might find some hidden gems, like Citadel by the Sea in issue 78 (it uses humanoids [orcs] to great effect).
Bryce you might want to look at Tower of the Moon, a werewolf themed adventure with at the moment only one detailed review suggesting good ideas, and disorganized room presentation.
It’s a Pay-what-you-want on DriveThruRPG
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/289553/Tower-of-the-Moon
Here is the review I mentioned on Beyond Formalhaut
http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2019/10/review-tower-of-moon.html
Yeah, I actually wrote a review of it yesterday morning. It should pop in about a week or so.
You might want to have a look at a scenario called ‘Goddess of the Crypt’ available at the blog Magick is Free, lots of inventive grotesquery.
https://magickuser.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/magick-is-free/
I’ve heard good things about this one:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/248582/The-Anthropophagi-of-Xambaala?term=anthropophagi
This sounds very interesting:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/246611/Stjernheim-The-Siege-of-Deepknell-Hold?filters=0_2110_0_0_0
He did it already: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=4509
Hey, how about Grinding Us, the sequel to Grinding Gear & Forgive Us . . .
I recently found my signed copy of Gary Gygax’s Necropolis. You should review that one. Haha, no I’m not that cruel! It’s a 280ish page hardcover adventure in a bunch of pyramids written in a wall of text like only Bryce could enjoy.
Here’s a quote from the final dungeon, for your amusement: “Features in Areas B, C, and D are time-wasting annoyances. E, F, and G are meant to eliminate bad play early on by removing characters run by inept participants in an adventure that demands at least competent veteran, possibly expert, ability.”
I’m interested in your thoughts on Swordfish Islands’ new 5e adventure, The Tomb of Black Sands. The PDF is $5 on their website, $7.50 (on sale) at DriveThru. It looks really cool. Anybody pick this up yet? I don’t play 5e, but I’m sure I could wing the conversion on the fly.
https://shop.swordfishislands.com/the-tomb-of-black-sand-digital/
To save you from any more of the Plague, Famine and War series, might I suggest the recent flurry of DCC Lankhmar adventures. You might like #1, Gang Lords of Lankhmar (Harley Stroh).
Bryce, how about blocking this Lord Mark turd? He has to insert his vampire bullshit into every one of his responses. It’s badly disguised spam, nothing more. https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6301#comment-9270
I thought he was mocking the vampire spam thing (and weirdly, that is a thing which exists) by doing a character schtick…
Bryce! I think you’d rather enjoy ‘Descent into Madness: First Steps’. Huge wacky dungeon with *gasp* map inserts for separate zones, AND monster stats right in the room descriptions!
I too would be interested in your review of « The Tomb of Black Sand »
Melan’s Castle Xyntillan is out!
https://emdt.bigcartel.com/product/castle-xyntillan
Slick marketing move forcing those with no self control to pay for the full Hardback+PDF as the only initial option.
I’d buy a physical product all day any day over a PDF so there’s nothing “no self control” about it for me. Having said that, not sure why he doesn’t offer PDF right from the get go. He makes quality products but not sure I want to drop what would be for me, $66 on any one product. Maybe I can sell some old TSR stuff I’ll never use to fund it. Hmmmmm
I’m looking forward to your review of Castle Xyntillan.
In the meantime, have you ever read The Lost City of Barakus by Frog God Games (the Swords & Wizardry version)?
Hmmm, no, I’ll add it.
Barakus is one of my favorites, although in fairness I haven’t actually run or played in it yet. I’m planning to use it as the central starting point for a future campaign, adding The Shattered Circle, The Red Prophet Rises and some homebrew to the sandbox.
I just got Xyntillan in the mail today. It’s pretty great. Oh yeah, and Kent’s in it.
Melan hand delivered me a physical copy in Ohio. I should have a review soon.
Any chance of some love for DCC? It’s been four years since you’ve last reviewed a Goodman games adventure, and you tend to like them. Also, there’s a lot of third party adventures and they seem shamefully underrepresented – especially compared to 5e, which I dare say doesn’t produce nearly as much good content. How about some DCC Thursdays? 😉
I would like to see more DCC materials, too.
Add my voice to that. More DCC reviews please. I’d much rather read those than 5e and Pathfinder chaff.
Most DCC adventures these days are crap and formulaic. No one seems to be able to write anything other than funnel adventures, and anything not written by Stroh is usually some form of mediocre.
I have it, but haven’t read it yet. Curious for a review of Lost Treasure of Atlantis: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296269/The-Lost-Treasure-of-Atlantis?src=hottest_filtered
When are you going to review Black Maw, so I can say “Almost as good as WG7 Castle Greyhawk!”
You wound me sir!
Bwahahaha! Troll level over 9000 unlocked!
I had mostly the same reaction as you did with that module. I was baffled at first, then eventually realized it wasn’t the real thing. Dammit Lorraine Williams, why you have to do that!
I don’t see a review of the 2nd half of Stonehell. Am I just missing it somewhere?
It’s pretty good! I have used components in my games and it’s run very well. It’s hard to find higher level, well designed, dungeons and this is definitely up there!!
Thanks! Do you know what the approximate level range is? Also, is it as stingy on treasure as the first half? I thought it was ridiculously light for, as Bryce would say, a gold = xp game.
How about The Sky Tree by Sharp Mountain Games? The cover looks very interesting.
Geoffrey McKinney is a goddamn, mad genius. A 78-level B/X megadungeon of roughly a thousand rooms, for character levels 1-10. All in two-page spreads per level (map/key). The entrance is the Cave of the Unknown from B2 with connections to the Caves of Chaos. The entire thing is in the preview. The only downside I see is no stat blocks, but anyone can easily whip up 12-15 single-line stats in 10 mins before play.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/295151/Mikes-Dungeons
Hey friend, I’ve been an RPG writer on licenced products (Dragon Age RPG, Star Trek Adventures, etc) for about six years now, and this is my first foray into producing me own self-published work. I’m fully prepared for any review have criticisms, but I expect to take them on board moving forward.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/299115/Face-the-Music–5e-Encounter
I’m grateful for any review that appears on my products, and I’m immensely thankful for your time.
If you have any questions, or you want a complimentary copy, feel free to DM me at @ozmills on Twitter or email ozmillsrpg@gmail.com
Best of luck!
Oz
Spencer Crittenden (of HarmonTown and HarmonQuest) wrote a 5e module called Color of Chaos – https://www.dmsguild.com/product/296456/Color-of-Chaos – I’m leery about trusting the reviews that have popped up on DMsguild because it sounds like those people are just fans of the shows, but I’m genuinely curious if this module is any good. I hope you will be too now that I’ve pointed out this adventure’s existence!
LC1: Assault Against the Menace on the Mountain, by Big Dragon Games. Came out in 2013, you did the other three modules they’ve put out to date, but not this one. “A Roman-themed module based on the story The Very Old Folk by the master of pulp horror H.P. Lovecraft”.
Autarch’s “Secret of the Nethercity” would be nice. Looks like a decent-sized crawl, with a rather wide level range.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/294819/Secrets-of-the-Nethercity
Took a look at this one…I wasn’t super-impressed. It’s big and there’s a lot going on, but it’s mostly combat and traps IIRC. It makes a nod towards faction play, but I thought it fell short on that score.
I’ve been running this one for a while, and it’s honestly kind of a slog. Push open a heavy stone slab door, get paralyzed by a mummy, throw fire at the mummy, take treasure, repeat.
Still wouldn’t mind seeing it reviewed, though.
An oldie that seems to have slipped under your radar, by Shane Ward, who you’ve reviewed a number of adventures by: The Lizardmen of Illzathatch.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/140087/The-Lizardmen-of-Illzathatch
I do like Sly’s Lazy DM advice series; wondering how the adventure he penned stacks https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/296843
I’ve got Lizardmen, Sly/ Flourish, Nethercity, Face The Music, geoffry’s Mike’s dungeon, and the rest added to my ToDo list, officially. They should be showing up shortly.
Thanks to everyone for keeping an eye out for product! That is, surprisingly, one of the hardest parts of this.
Petey’s Pork Pie Emporium has been a ride to read and is on my to-run list. Has interesting ideas and bizarre art. I got it because of a youtube flip-through of the pdf. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/284010/Peteys-Pork-Pie-Emporium-Dwiergus-1
Glad to see you enjoyed it! Did you ever get to run it with your players?
Would love to see this one as well.
I’d love you to review Magical Murder Mansion by Skerples, and maybe the new Frog God Games version of Tegel Manor, especially in comparison to Castle Xyntillan
Yaaassss
Having just flipped to Tegel Manor, it does seem to be one of Frog God’s better recent efforts.
Just realized that Gabor Lux is one of the credited authors for Tegel Manor too. No wonder this thing is better than most other frog god offerings (I know people love RA but my ADD kicks in with most of the “lots of text and 500 pages” type endeavors, much less so with this behemoth).
It’s always interesting to download a bundle from DTRPG…just did with their AU Bushfire related bundles (always a good thing to do…plus it’s a good deal for a lot of content, though the content is likely crap). Will let you know if anything sparkles in the pile.
Uh, i received a post about the review of some adventure called “Lair of the Shorlee Wyrm”, but clicking the link got me a “not found” message and indeed that review seems to be nowhere in the blog that i can see. Any idea of what might be going on?
The Grande Temple of Jing, because I am both a sadist and a masochist. This thing has me so perturbed, can a product be really good and really awful at the same time?
Here’s some oddballs I recently stumbled across while browsing DriveThru that didn’t turn up when using your site’s search:
PO-1 The Stolen Child
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/134488/PO1-The-Stolen-Child
FM-1 Baba Smerta
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137402/FM1-Baba-Smerta
FM-2 The Temple of Asibare
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/138888/FM2-The-Temple-of-Asibare
HS2 The Forsaken Burial Vaults
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/142705/HS2-The-Forsaken-Burial-Vaults
YS1 The Outpost of the Outer Ones
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145681/YS1-The-Outpost-of-the-Outer-Ones
added
Add the the new Skerples and FGG Tegal Manor too!
You’ll probably hate me for this, but could you add Citadel by the Sea, a module found in Dragon issue #78, to the list? It’s probably one of the best of the modules that were published in Dragon before they created Dungeon magazine. On the other hand it probably has the same three column bloat problem that Dungeon had.
No reason for him to hate you because of this one: it’s a solid adventure (and he won’t have to read 50 issues of Dungeon to find that out). I’d love him to tackle the Dragon magazine run: there was only about three dozen total, and some of them were quite good: a much higher hits ratio than Dungeon.
Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride by John Stater!!!
So, I just bought this because the preview alone convinced me. Thanks for finding this, whoever you are.
You are very welcome!
Trilemma. One of the best hex crawls I have read.
How about this one, Bryce? You’ve favorably reviewed other Rosethrone stuff in the past >> https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/280123/The-Chantry-of-the-Deepflame
tldr: Magnificent. Unrunnable. at 244 pages it should be a third again longer.
Wait, are you saying the module needs to be longer??? That’s a first.
Chantry of the Deepflame is 244 pages?!
Yep…less text density than most modules though.
Publisher here – I don’t know if it should be longer, but it definitely could be better organized and could use a couple more editing passes. It was years in the making and I finally just pushed it out the door… Unrunnable? Maybe. I think there’s some good ideas buried in there but, yeah, I think you’d have to really want to tackle it to make it work. Maybe someday I’ll revise it and others to make them more “table friendly”. As always, Bryce, your input is hugely appreciated, even when you hate something 🙂
Can John Stater and the mummy bride deliver us from the swarm DTRPG drek?
John Stater has nothing to do with The Mummy Bride. He only reviewed it.
“The Halls of Arden Vul Complete,” the long-promised megadungeon from Expeditious Retreat Press that is… checks DTRPG… over a hundred bucks for the pdf and over a thousand pages…
(Honestly, Bryce, given the price of this thing, I would understand if you decide not to review it.)
If Bryce won’t give an honest review of it, who will at that price tag? Not entirely a rhetorical question.
We can all probably guess what Bryce’s review for this would look like. It’s ERP, so unless it’s very different in its formatting from the dozens of other modules they’ve released, there’s likely large blocks of DM text with important info buried in window-dressing and lore. Real highlighter-land (which is not the worst thing imo).
That said, I plan on picking up the POD when they (multiple books) drop because the artwork I’ve seen is absolutely beautiful. You can get the PDF of the maps for free on DriveThru, and I have to say, that some mega-dungeon. Like Tim Hartin on steroids, and cocaine, and LSD. Pretty drool-worthy.
I’d love to be proven wrong and find it to be tight and easily runnable. ERP’s stuff usually has tons of cool things content-wise and they definitely understand the system they’re writing for, so it’s going to have that going for it. I bet Allan Grohe will do a fair write-up of it.
I’m a sucker for megadungeons, so I’ll probably get it once it comes out in print. It’s gonna be a lot of money, but those maps are very, very pretty.
Just going by the maps, it looks like there’s quite a lot of above-ground content. Not sure how much use I’d get out of that part of it.
Arden Vul…at $109 just for the pdf Bryce would certainly be taking a hit for the team.
Prediction: praised as great accomplishment, but rarely played except as a one-off and mostly bought as a shelf queen by megadungeon completists.
He’s got a Patreon. (Yellow Button on left)
Huh? This is *my* prediction of the book’s ultimate reception, not a prediction of tenfootpole’s review conclusion. If you care for his, by all means, donate away. I don’t need to.
Ah good call. Arden Vul and FGG Regal Manor vs CX would still be sweet
wot about Castle Triskellion?
https://www.and-mag.com/category/download/castle-triskelion-download/
Arden Vul in about a week. I’ve added Trisk & Regal
Can you read 1200 pages properly in a week and write a decent review? What a machine! (I’m assuming you have a real job as well…which might not be such a sound assumption these days).
I did say “about.” 🙂 Plus, I have no job anymore.
Dude, you lost your job?! Say it ain’t so
You know what they say? “Recession is when my neighbor loses his job, depression is when my favorite RPG review blogger loses his.”
Dang!! Sorry to hear that Bryce. Hope things turn around quickly for you.
Eagerly awaiting your review of the Halls of Arden Vul but really sorry about your job loss…
On another note, have you eventually read The Lost City of Barakus by FGG (the Swords & Wizardry version)? I can send you the pdf if you want.
I would love to see a Castle Trisk review. Dude looks like a good guy blogger trooper. I hope its good!
You might enjoy this more than the Adventurers League titles. It’s more of a classic dungeon crawl… https://www.dmsguild.com/product/293544/
The Hoard of Delusion looks really good to me.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/302841/Hoard-of-Delusion
Seconded
Thirded. Bryce please add to list if you haven’t already
ok. Will do. I took today off. I’ll get back at it tomorrow, which means it pops in about a week.
I can not wait for the Arden Vul review. You put serious effort into your writing and for that to be applied to a dungeon of this size?
I seriously count the days and check first thing every morning.
You are awesome and in these times ? Your work means a great deal to me.
Yeah, considering the asking price for Arden Vul, I’m relying on Bryce’s honest appraisal to decide whether I jump in for this one. Is this thing a beautiful beast full of awesome stuff but suffers from being almost unplayable and requires major highlighting? Or does this tick all the boxes?
Another one for Castle Triskellion too.
No PDF is worth that. There are plenty of dungeons of great quality. This reminds me of the “Worlds Largest Dungeon” gimmick back in the 3E days.
I agree. There seems to be an upward trend in PDF prices recently. For me, it doesn’t follow that if 50 pages = a $10 PDF, that 100 pages = a $20 PDF and so on, which seems to be the logic being pushed here. I’ll pay good money for a print version, but it just doesn’t feel right to charge a bucket load for something with no actual physical production costs.
Well…I keep thinking…how many hours of play would a 1000+ page adventure be? Depending on the writing and content, it could last a long time. A movie costs about $12-$14 where I’m at and it can be 1.5 to 2 hours in comparison. Would a 1000+ page adventure last 80+ hours? Probably would for my group (but my players are slow and take their time).
The amount of art thrown in there, I’m sure it cost a small fortune. I agree, the price is high, but I don’t necessarily think it’s unjustified due to the costs to prepare it (editor, layout, mapwork, art, etc..). I would of rather seen a Kickstarter for this so that prices would of been lower, but without a Kickstarter, I’m not one to fault the price knowing some of the costs that go into this sort of thing.
Killian’s your typical internet dumb ass who thinks he’s an expert on shit he’s never done. Anyone who’s ever published a module knows that the *least* scalable part of a module is the cost of editing, art, maps and layout. The cost of printing an incremental page is nothing compared with the cost of editing, art, maps and layout for an incremental page. This means a long, elaborate module like AV will be expensive to produce even in PDF.
“No physical production costs” = “I don’t think time is worth anything”
Presuming the amount of time per page is efficient, the more time is spent producing more pages should certainly reflect in the price. People who don’t value their own time certainly won’t value mine. Which is probably why so many modules suck so badly.
Page count has little to do with product quality, usability or worth. In fact, most products that are long are stuffed full of crap because people are going by word count and are utterly not built with the GM in mind. A product like DCO provides years worth of gaming and is very user friendly without ever getting into the numbers game.
It’s pretty simple Anonymous and EOTB, it’s economics 101: Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility.
Pretty sure that Economics 102.
(…or I slept in that day. Yeah, probably that.)
As usual, when dumb internet neckbeard is wrong, he shifts the goalposts and smokescreens with Big Words/Concepts. Killian initially justified his price resistance with a point on relative production costs of paper/PDF, which was quickly exposed as wrong and uninformed, so then he switched to how he’s not paying proportionately more for a longer adventure, which is fine, but not his original point.
As for Evard’s quality over quantity argument… that’s not what anyone’s debating here.
Looks like you can buy them now in volumes. 300+ pages for 30$ for the pdf. $55 for hardcover
There’s also a bundle option for people who want to get the pain over with as soon as possible, which I very much appreciate.
I don’t know if you do reviews of introductory adventures included with rulebooks but MÖRK BORG’s sample adventures (Rotblack Sludge) has got to be as close to Bryce Lynch’s platonic ideal as anything I’ve seen.
The Lighthouse of Anan Marath, for S&W:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/304474/The-Lighthouse-of-Anan-Marath–Swords–Wizardry
Hope you get around to this one – I had a lot of fun writing it!
Lorn Song of the Bachelor by Hydra Cooprerative. Thankfully 48 pages, reads like a breeze, requires no highlighters.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/295976/Lorn-Song-of-the-Bachelor?
Also adding the Ghoul Prince and all of its 28 pages, by DIY https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/238775
Mammary Tube by Benoist
This one is free right now https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/310162/Beneath-the-Remains
This *better* be as good as the Sepultura album, otherwise the Thrash Metal Gods will be angry! 😉
Best Left Buried is an OSR rpg that’s not quite D&D but it’s close, and it has a couple of adventures that I’ve considered running: The Missing Sea & Spy in the House of Eth (by Zedeck Siew). The former contains conversion notes for running it with other D20 systems, but you can usually just guess what’s going on. Both adventures feature hexcrawls on smallish areas, the former a drained sea with a dying leviathan god and the latter a mangrove swamp town whose automation has hell leaking in.
There are a few other adventures for it released, Spoils of the Gorgon Coast is a build your own decadent collapsed citystate generator by the Goatman’s Goblet blogger and Behind Closed Doors a warhammeresque adventure by the Ant-lerr blogger, although i otherwise don’t know anything about these.
How about “The Wandering Glade” in Echoes from Fomalhaut #06?
I discovered “Bring Me Her Bones.” It is more deserving of a review than most.
Thanks!
Castle Broken, POD on Amazon.
In the slightly older and probably overlooked department, we have The Dragon’s Breath, for OSRIC:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_info.php?products_id=219823
Goodman Games has a lot of Grimtooth Stuff, I’d love to read a review of yours in regards to Grimtooth’s Museum (88.5 I believe?)
There’s a couple of 5e conversions I’d be interested in getting your take on:
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus: Zach Howard’s (Arch Zenopus) 5e conversion of the Holmes Basic sample dungeon. There’s no map (yet), but he links to Wizards’ online pdf of the original. This is pretty cheap on DMs Guild.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/301308/The-Ruined-Tower-of-Zenopus
The Sorcerer Under the Mountain: This Newt Newport’s (Crypts & Things) 5e conversion of his own sample adventure in his recent British-style S&W clone, Tales from the Sorcerer Under the Mountain. The 28-page standalone 5e conversion is more expensive as a Pdf than the 200+ pg Tales, so I’m interested if the 5e one is worth it. I like Crypts & Things, but I don’t need another S&W set of rules just to get an OD&D adventure.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/300639/The-Sorcerer-Under-the-Mountain
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus: Zach Howard’s (Arch Zenopus) 5e conversion of the Holmes Basic sample dungeon. There’s no map (yet), but he links to Wizards’ online pdf of the original. This is pretty cheap on DMs Guild.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/301308/The-Ruined-Tower-of-Zenopus
The Sorcerer Under the Mountain: This Newt Newport’s (Crypts & Things) 5e conversion of his own sample adventure in his recent British-style S&W clone, Tales from the Sorcerer Under the Mountain. The 28-page standalone 5e conversion is more expensive as a Pdf than the 200+ pg Tales, so I’m interested if the 5e one is worth it. I like Crypts & Things, but I don’t need another S&W set of rules just to get an OD&D adventure.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/300639/The-Sorcerer-Under-the-Mountain
Sorry for the duplicate.
The Empire of Ghouls for 5e. How well has this lovely dungeon adventure involved as it’s evolved into a monstrosity of a book and adventure compared to the original?
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/313285
Echoes From Fomalhaut #07 From Beneath the Glacier is out and contains three adventures. Bryce, take a break from reviewing crap and look at these please.
https://emdt.bigcartel.com/product/echoes-from-fomalhaut-07-from-beneath-the-glacier
What appears to be crap is where the fresh gold and talent is! You never know, thanks for digging Bryce
Perhaps, but the ‘fresh gold and talent’ to ‘crap’ ratio is woefully low. Still, I am grateful to him for wading through piles of chaff to find those all too rare stalks of wheat. Gabor Lux/Melan is a great palate cleanser when seeking quality.
Here is a Play Test Version of “Ravenloft: Prey of the Black Wolf” for 1E/2E and 5E. I ran this for both my 1E/2E AD&D and 5E D&D groups. The 1E/2E group has about 2 more sessions to go.
My suggestions for improving it were mainly spelling, layout and editing and map based. The game play went fine in both groups. This is due to be released May 24th:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a4swiu26a95vlzx/AADEVN0mPUlIy4Rd2Hargg9ba?dl=0
The Official Version of the “Ravenloft: Prey of the Black Wolf”, is now out! It’s $15:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/314883/Ravenloft-Prey-of-the-Black-Wolf
Requesting a review of Arnold K’s new dungeon, Lair of the Lamb. It’s free.
http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2020/04/lair-of-lamb-final.html
If, as a general rule, you’re willing to review this kind of stuff, it would also be nice to see a review of Alex Schroeder’s Caverns of Slime (The Darkness Beneath, level 13).
https://alexschroeder.ch/pdfs/Caverns%20of%20Slime.pdf
I just picked up “Gatehouse on Cormac’s Grag” by David Bezio for Swords & Wizardry White Box, levels 1-3. It’s $3.99, 39 pages, two-column with large font. Features a small wilderness area, town, and titular gatehouse with multi-level dungeon with 134 keyed areas. Seems fairly vanilla, but there’s some neat stuff there – still going through it. Worth a look.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/315159/Gatehouse-on-Cormacs-Crag?term=gatehouse+of+cormac%27s+crag
He did back in April!
I know Arnold has been editing it for publication dont know if he revised in light of the review
If A Single Small Cut wasn’t too old to review, why not do Raggi’s Better Than Any Man? Currently PWYW
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/116452
There’s a new Dungeon Age adventure for 5E/OSR, The Obsidian Keep. You’ve like some of their other work.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/316699/The-Obsidian-Keep-A-Dungeon-Age-Adventure-5e-and-OSR-versions
I’ve been enjoying my recent Kickstarter copy of Lazy Litch’s “Willow.” It’s a 36-pg (incl. cover and end-papers), digest-sized adventure/setting zine. He calls it a micro-setting, but to me, this is an adventure. Trade and travel have ceased in the gloomy, isolated fishing village of Willow due to some dangerous mystery upriver. It has a small-area hex map, multiple adventure sites, notable NPCs with a relationship chart, hooks and rumors, multiple factions, new monsters, and a 15-day timeline of events to drive action. The developing mystery and the timeline are what makes this more than a setting to me. Stuff is about to go down.
It’s $7 on DriveThru. The preview doesn’t show much, there’s no level range given (maybe 3-5?), and the keyed-areas could be formatted better (single-column). That said, I still think it’s worth people checking out. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/316522/Willow?term=willow+lazy+litch
This one sounds interesting…weird mushrooms and all that….but no preview. Have you done this one (I looked and didn’t see it). https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/313219/So-Youve-Been-Thrown-Down-A-Well?src=hottest_filtered&filters=45582_0_0_0_0
A Shadow over the Greatwood looks promising; you have enjoyed some of the author’s previous works. The premise is interesting, the preview shows worthwhile material, and there seem to be goblin allies of convenience, but still less than honest (which is how I like them).
Just stumbled across this while surfing oldest-of-school miniatures nostalgia-pr0n:
https://images.reapermini.com/static/content/dungeondwellers/DD1_Vanishing_Blackguard_v3_high.pdf
What do you think?
Hi Bryce,
Do you plan to review Dark City Games adventures?
http://www.darkcitygames.com/display.php?series=law&id=11
Thanks,
George
bryce have you considered to do a list of horror-fantasy or better said horror themed d&d or d&d adjacent adventures?
It feels kind of gross to recommend my own book, but you liked The Vanilla Adventure. Plus Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood just got nominated for a 2020 Emmy. It’s definitely not the platonic ideal of a Bryce adventure, but it’s different enough from the norm that you might get a kick out of it.
Shout outs to the Vanilla Adventure and congrats on the Emmy nom
If 100 pages is too many, how about the 20 or so of Beneath the Ruined Wizard’s Tower (free on
DriveThru)? Or Pride and Prejudice, because if you are moving into romance novels, at least make it by a great author.
Can I put in a request for either of the new LotFP adventures? Preferably Fermentum Nigrum Dei Sepulti.
The Brazen Bull, one of three adventures in Rats in the Walls and Other Perils.
I’d like to request a review of A Wizard by Donovan Caldwell. I can’t make heads or tails of this one. It is currently available on itch.io.
Secrets of the Nethercity for ACKS. It’s a kilodungeon, not a megadungeon. Looks great.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/294819/Secrets-of-the-Nethercity
Darkness At Nekemte.
From the guy that brought us Gunderholfen
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/317631/Darkness-at-Nekemte
Thanks for the heads up on this.
Joseph Robert Lewis from Dungeon Age has a new PWYW adventure out for levels 1-3. It’s a linear voyage on a flying ship across a desert. I’m picking it up because making ship voyages not feel boring or railroad-ish can be tough and I think this might be able to be re-skinned as an ocean adventure. You’ve liked everything else he’s done so it should be a no-brainer.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/322651/Desert-Angel-Fiasco-A-Dungeon-Age-Adventure-5e-and-OSR-versions
SP1 The Endless Tunnels of Enlandin is from Basic Fantasy RPG via their website and is free! How is it?
2020 sucks but people have come together to submit a bunch of one page dungeons!
I know its a lot of work but this level of community effort should get more spotlight!
The 2020 one page dungeons have been compiled and are free on the contests website.
Help us Bryce.
https://www.dungeoncontest.com/
You’re welcome.
Looks very interesting and the art and format grabbed my attention:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/324122/GoldGlory-Garden-of-Bones?src=newest_since
Not sure why Diogo Nogueira,is acclaimed though….i thought he was an MMA guy 🙂
I request the broken castle forest module by gene widel
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zytfH3vo4ABJBvag5qUb4vD2tEiDNXgi/view
He also released a book but its only in print right now
I hate to ask for my own work to be reviewed, but I did something ambitious and I’m eager to see what you think of it. Orig. inspiration: reaction to Revelry in Northgate review on your site. Then I “reloaded” the adventure with more content after playtesting it.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236883/The-Lost-Lush-RELOADED
Pub-crawling adventure that duplicates the tipsy weightlessness of late-night wandering from dive to dive on filthy cobblestoned streets, drunk, battered, nauseous, but still on a mission.
Bryce, please do this one! You liked Karel’s Statues a lot (and so did I after your recommendation) and this one sounds very interesting too.
Aw, thanks! I feel like less of a putz if somebody else is advocating for The Lost Lush Reloaded to be reviewed.
If you have your own blog or you just want to email me a paragraph of reader-response (or how Lush played at your table), send me a message at MachuvMajMN@gmail.com and I’ll reply with a free review pdf.
I wrote a Murder Mystery adventure that takes place entirely on a ship. I would love if you would review it!
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/316958/Murder-on-The-Primewater-Pleasure
How about this one, Bryce? Someone above also mentioned it, I think
Secrets of the Nethercity
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/294819/Secrets-of-the-Nethercity
Another ACKS product? That would be great, since the comments last time were very educational.
I’d like to see a review of Rob Kuntz’s “The Original Bottle City”. I’m having a hard time finding a decent analysis of it, which surprises me, considering its pedigree. The fact that it’s a higher-level adventure is interesting as well.
Apparently there’s two editions, with the later one being by Black Blade and having 44 pages (as opposed to the first release’s 32).
I request a review of JN2 by JD Neal its free on the Basic Fantasy RPG website. Its called Monkey Isle. You liked his Sage of the Giants adventure
There is a review in Fight on! #7.
I would like to request a review of Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting . I hear its the next hot springs island with a focus on layout and usability.
This looks interesting:
https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/330694
I’d like to see a review of the Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse, which is a (free) 5th edition adventure that “is meant to be run at a glance with minimal preparation and a natural delivery”.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/215629/The-Secrets-of-Skyhorn-Lighthouse
I’d second that. I just took a look through the preview, and it does seem to be a novel approach designed specifically to make it easy to run at the table.
Kelsey is a good designer
I suspect we’d get a mixed review. On the plus side, the layout makes it extremely easy for a DM to pickup and use on the tabletop. Very rich NPCs, good interactions, etc. On the other hand, it’s extremely linear.
Despite my extreme indifference and disinterest towards 5e, I grabbed a copy of this. Bryce says the designer is good and it’s free. For me, it’s worth a look at the very least.
TSR’s B4 The Lost City by Tom Moldvay seems to get alot of love among the OSR crowd. I would love to see a Bryce review of this.
A review of Dyson’s Delve, the free mini megadungeon by Dyson Logos would also be good to see. That too is a popular OSR product that I haven’t seen many reviews of.
Bryce doesn’t review old TSR stuff. Some of it I think he should but he doesn’t
Two that look interesting:
– Xanadu: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/332813/Xanadu
– The Evils of Illmire: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/the-evils-of-illmire-pdf
I request Gradient Descent and Pound of Flesh by Tuesday Knight Games
They are for Mothership by the people who did Dead Planet
I ran that module to great effect from the portal in Operation Unfathomable based on your recommendations. The usability in Dead Planet is spotttt on
Would love to see how they have done with other products
Gradient Descent looks awesome. I like it more than Pound of Flesh, which looks pretty good. But you can’t see GD yet (as of 11/2/20) unless you’re backing the Kickstarter, like me and (apparently) you.
Also, they aren’t QUITE done by the same people. Sean McCoy has his hand in all of them, but he’s not the principle author of any of the adventures. Jarrett Crader is an editor for all three. GD was written by Alan Gerding while the other two were written by Donn Stroud. They’ve all got that Mothership feel, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Crader is the glue that holds them all together.
As an extra bonus, there is no fucking hot pink text in Gradient Descent. Unfortunately they are still apparently allergic to bookmarking the PDF because they want you to have that old timey PAPER feeling. Style trumps usability, from time to time, with the Mothership line.
Gradient Descent was written by Luke Gearing, not Alan Gerding.
What the hell, did I type that on my phone? Yes, I know you’re right
Bryce, you have a spammer loose. See the Recent Comments sidebar above
Anthony Huso’s Dream House of the Nether Prince:
https://www.thebluebard.com/post/don-t-everyone-rush-at-once
High level D&D, as it was meant to be.
Physical only?
Based on the blog, hardcover only for now. PDF in the future
Anthony’s adventures are no joke. I’d recommend his Mortuary Temple of Esma which is in PDF. I think that’s his best one yet. The Dream House looks cool, but it’s serious cash and I don’t have a party that high at the moment.
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/anthony-huso/the-mortuary-temple-of-esma-digital/ebook/product-1z9nnm8w.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Worth the dive in; this thing has high production values. Any DM interested in running high-level, planar adventures should think about looking to get this.
Request: King for a Day
Every review I found for this monster was positive, so I picked it up and tried to read it. I’ve absorbed bits and pieces, but I keep bouncing off the organization. I think it’s good? I really can’t tell.
There are over 200 NPCs with factions and tons of possible events. The backstory has potential, and the setting is rich with early medieval low fantasy. But everything is alphabetically ordered, and all the event descriptions expect you to be familiar with the NPCs, so it’s hard to know where to start in this 370 page tome.
I want The Best RPG Adventure Reviewer to tell me if I should spend the time to get a master’s degree in this adventure or print it out just to burn it. I’ve already spent the money, but my time is even more precious. I was looking for something to run with Wolves of God – King’s setting is a good match.
@ Bryce, I know you don’t review settings and I’m not asking you to review this but if you don’t know about the product linked below, you might want to check it out. I know you are a Gamma World fan and this looks very interesting.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/285984/Barbarians-of-the-Ruined-Earth-Standard-Cover
If you did want to review it I certainly wouldn’t complain though 😉
Off topic comments: IN spite of loving Thundarr and The Warlord (and, obviously, Gamma World/MA) I get turned off immediately when I see Thundarr and Pirates of DW referenced in a product description. I don’t know why? Maybe, somehow, I have connotations of “cinematic” indy adventure instead of more RPG adventure when I see those associations being made?
Into the Rad just showed up on DriveThru also, I think? Looks like solo “into the odd” setting?
I usually treat myself to an “everything else” DriveThru non-adventure buy around this time of year. I’ll pop them both on and maybe do a short post on all the shit that are not advenutres that I bought
For me, Thundarr in a post apoc game means savagery, super-science, and sorcery. I think the cartoon has tons of inspiration in it but I guess it depends on the type of game you want to run.
Oh, I agree, for sure. But when a GAME references it I have some other (negative) mental association, for the play experience. idk.
Barbarians guy did a free adventure pdf on his blog!
I really liked Hubris, curious to hear how his adventures are!
Links here
https://wrathofzombie.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/the-lab-of-dr-chaostrum.pdf
https://wrathofzombie.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/barbarians-of-the-ruined-earth-and-the-raid-on-the-blistered-bunch.pdf
https://wrathofzombie.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/the-lab-of-dr-chaostrum.pdf
Here is mine; The Wretched Hive, a 27-page OSR “hex dungeon”. I’d love to hear your thoughts”
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/314393/The-Wretched-Hive
And here is the pitch:
A titanic insect god, constantly giving birth to endless larvae. An assassin whose task is to poison the enemies of her faith. Twisted hybrids, half human and half bee, created by devilish biomancers. A pagan cult whose temple was invaded by demons. And these are the good guys! Welcome to the Wretched Hive!
If you can have a check at “Descent into Madness” kilodungeon from the Five Cataclysms crew I’d be delighted.
Request
The Storm’s Impending Rage and Hope Cross Village from Rosethrone Publishing.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/335320/The-Storms-Impending-Rage?manufacturers_id=11655
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/335939/Hope-Cross-Village?manufacturers_id=11655
The preview for this one looks interesting- it seems to be done “differently”: The Barrow.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/337531/The-Last-Barrow?src=hottest
This definitely requires a Bryce review:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/319114/The-Banquet-of-Dust?src=newest_print
I mean…
“There are over 100 pages of adventure spread over six maps and pupulated by new creatures and new magic.”
That typo is positively Lynchian
Request: “Hideous Daylight”: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/333639/Hideous-Daylight
Thanks!
Look, a free Patrick Stuart Adventure:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ed2EeWTTYTeG_z9N7Pk3vrctCXD-9WUh/view
Here’s what I would like: Bryce takes a two week holiday from reviewing. But he does not get to rest. Instead, he spends these two weeks reorganizing the “My favorite of the new old school adventures” page into a series of subcategories e.g. Exemplary Layout . . . Evocative Language . . . Adequate Treasure to Actually Level . . . Jaquayed Maps . . . Satisfactory Hooks . . . Worthy Page to Room Ratio . . . Kuntzian Depth . . . Best Adventures Ever etc. etc. This way it’s immediately obvious why any particular adventure has been chosen for “Best”; furthermore, Bryce can now reference these lists in future reviews for someone who doesn’t understand what, say, “evocative language” means.
This would make the “favorite of the old school” page immensely more useful for aspiring authors, and also, perhaps, for DMs looking for a good adventure. If he gets especially ambitious, he could also organize the best adventures by environment, level, system, social/wilderness/dungeon—but I actually think that’s less useful than the reason Bryce used for determining it one of the “Best”. Anyway, this would make me happy to see, and I think you should seriously consider doing this.
The Palace of Unquiet Repose
I’d love to hear your thoughts on two of my modules. You haven’t been a big fan of my previous modules, but perhaps you’ll like these better, as they are more sandboxy and perhaps a better fit to your preferred style:
Here they are:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/322051/Throne-of-Gondira
You have heard the wild tales of fabled Gondira, a city built by the sons of giants, with a palace of white marble and gates of beaten gold, now hidden by the jungle and haunted by white apes who walk upright like men.
Can you penetrate the steaming jungles of the south to discover the lost city and bring back its treasures, or will you die before you can set eyes upon the throne of Gondira?
(Written for 5E)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/342260/Land-of-the-Silver-Lotus
“Sail due east from Iraab, O traveller, to the verdant isles where pale blossoms sway in the moonlight to the throb of native drums. But beware the treacherous hidden reefs, which can shatter a ship and send you to a watery grave before you even set foot on dry land!
If you can make landfall and offer a satisfying bribe to Tiku, the decadent Pygmy King, there are great riches and marvelous sights awaiting you deep within the inland jungles. That is, if you dare to venture past the bleached bones of countless fools who have gone before you into the places that are taboo …”
(Written for Pathfinder)
I’ve added them to my ToDo list.
I’m not overly fond of plot, but don’t insist on open world design. Was that it? let’s find out!
Bryce, is your gmail address still valid? Trying to reach you about Knock zine. Thanks
Please respond Bryce, and check out the Knock Zine. Olivier your…
WORK IS FANTASTIC
I don’t think Bryce reviews zines, does he?
If the zine contains an adventure he might review the adventure. That’s what he did for Fight On magazine
Not so much for Bryce to review it, more so to read and enjoy. It made me happy and its good work.
I am sure Bryce is aware of Knock: the zine includes two articles written by him
I’ve done various things over the years to force myself to write my book. Once, I wrote some blog posts for rpggeek; that’s where they come from.
Hey Bryce, if you’re looking for stuff to review that’s not shovelware, can I suggest “Crypt of the Mellified Mage” and “The Spire of Quetzel”. Both are adventure compilations for Forbidden Lands, a pseudo-OSR game. What makes them both interesting is that the publisher recruited a bunch of big names from the OSR scene (Patrick Stuart, David McGrogan, Chris McDowall, etc.) to write the modules. Might be interesting.
Thanks! Added!
Barrow of Sorn:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344994/Barrow-of-Sorn
$1. Short, terse reasonably evocative writing; pretty good layout; easy to scan and run. Not going to blow minds but some interesting things in it, well worth $1 as a good low level intro adventure.
This one looks good : https://magickuser.wordpress.com/2020/08/05/hidden-shrine-of-setebos/
For ITO. It tries hard on ergonomy. The “mood” entry partially works IMO but is interesting. Some cool tables and many good ideas.
Love to hear your opinion on this one.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/341396/The-Palace-of-Unquiet-Repose-OSE-Version?src=hottest_filtered
I request Stonehell part 2! I think it came out when you were on break and its where things get strange 😀
This small one looks cool https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/341263/Zaratazarats-Manse
Gus L is making adventures again! Rejoice!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/18552/Ratking-Productions
Priced at 1$ too!
Cool!
Not sure if bestiaries are your thing, but I recently released this one that is pwyw but also donates to charities if money is sent its way! It’s beasts and dragons almost exclusively, but has magic items and subclasses as well!
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/344859/Eoth-Khalstans-Revised-Encylcopedia-of-Great-Animals–Draconic-Beings
This is massive but maybe you could review the first adventure in the series.
https://greyhawkonline.com/riveradventure/
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
You asked for it, you got it. Toyota
*sweats with nervous energy
Here is something: The Hidden Shrine of Tmocanotz (S&W), from Frog God Games.
I would purchase and review it, but having had stuff published by FGG, it would not be the right thing to do.
Rappan Athuk you mean?
Cloister of the Frog-God (in RA), bits and pieces in Tegel Manor, and material in Wilderlands of High Fantasy.
Very cool! I did not know you worked on 3e wilderlands! How much of the recent published Tegal Manor is you?
Bits and pieces remain, but the bulk of the new version is Bill Webb and Thom Wilson. Cloister was actually assembled from bits and pieces of recycled Tegel content (mostly my ideas for the dungeons, and two mini-dungeons originally developed for the wilderness areas). In fact, a blog post on this is forthcoming *very* soon!
I hate to shill but I do so only because I want advice on how to improve.
I wrote ‘Sulphur and Snuff, A Devilish Performance’ and released it for free on my blog very recently. It’s a rather dark horror-heist/rescue dungeon for OSR games.
Johan Nohr, the MORK BORG artist and graphic designer praised the visual-style/map and another commenter said that ‘this is better stuff than many published dungeons’. So I guess I haven’t written garbage like I thought I had.
https://foreignplanets.blogspot.com/2021/02/sulphur-and-snuff-horror-dungeon.html
I be extremely grateful for any advice (from anyone).
ack
To gross? I understand. I almost gave up because of how vile the content was. “ack” can I quote you on that?
Hehe. That’s IT speak for “I acknowledge” IE: I will do it. 🙂
Uh oh. I would have been happy with “ack” – Bryce Lynch (tenfootpole). I’m nervous now! Let the nervy quadruple-checking begin!
For a change of pace, may I recommend Night of Blood for WFRP?
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/259967/WFRP-Old-World-Adventures–Night-of-Blood
This is proper old school Warhammer, an adventure originally from 1987 by Jim Babra. It only has some 7 pages, and is basically a one-shot in a scary inn. Surprisingly sandboxy and open-ended.
The Hidden Colony of Layanaka is a Caribbean themed dungeon set in the Sola Archipelago. Once a colony of refugees from a Prison City this place is now in ruins victim to a terrible parasite.
This is an interesting new adventure available on drivetrurpg: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/347216/The-Hidden-Colony-Of-Layanaka
Heya, I’m the author of the adventure so I’m seconding this review 😉 ! Would be great to know what you think. If you want I can send you a review copy for free!
Please review Descent into Avernus just so I can hear you tell us all the reasons why it sucks, badly!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/312984
Castle of Mirrors. Something to get rid of your Ennui, Bryce.
Second
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/258599/Forbidden-Lands-The-Spire-of-Quetzel?src=hottest_filtered
This is an interesting product, with 3 adventures, one by Patrick Stuart.
Ehh, 4…interesting authors too:
The Spire of Quetzel by Patrick Stuart (Veins of the Earth)
The Bright Vault by Chris McDowall (Into the Odd)
Hexenwald by Ben Milton (Maze Rats)
Graveyard of Thunder by Karl Stjernberg (Rad-Hack)
on its way
Necrotic Gnome just released a bunch of adventures:
https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/new-old-school-essentials-adventures
Speaking of Ben Milton, would also be interested in your thoughts on The Waking of Willowby Hall.
Necrotic is on its way and i’ll add Willowby to the list
Thank you for being awesome Bryce!
Requesting Baklin by Gabor Lux
ALERT CITY ALERT
I’d appreciate it if you took a run at the initial batch of Lankhmar modules that have recently come out. Can get much more of an OSR base than that, but of course the devil is in the implementation; lord knows the old TSR modules for the setting didn’t cut it.
Halls of the Blood King, by Diogo Nogueira
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348880/Halls-of-the-Blood-King
I’ve heard only good things about it ’til now. But I want to know if it’s 10 ft. pole material.
It’s coming
The High Moors looked pretty intriguing from the preview — a hexcrawl with some weird elements and stuff to poke and prod. Just turned up recently.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348934/The-High-Moors-OSE
That looks familiar, I think Bryce already reviewed it. Oh yeah, here’s the link
https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6631
The OSE version was released a few days ago, it was 5e-only before.
Doh! How did I miss that?
Requesting:
Ben Miltons Labyrinth
Gradient Descent and Pound of Flesh by Mothership
You have reviewed Gabors Echoes before but I am curious of your review of the Hexcrawl in issues 3 and 4. How does Gabor stack go against John Stater and Nod?
Also requesting a recent issue of Nod by Stater, has the quality kept up?
Candlekeep Mysteries. It’s an adventure anthology featuring a number of authors I’ve never heard of. Just curious where WotC proper is at the moment.
In a deep, dark place surely.
New NOD 36 is out! First in 2 years I think from Stater he worked on a new mapping style and layout too!
What you think? Halfling hexcrawl, filthy hobbitssZZ
Please review a simple dungeon by Micah Anderson. It’s free.
https://micah-anderson.itch.io/a-simple-dungeon
Adding to the above, the guy loves the idea of his dungeon being reviewed! Here’s a quote: “Saw someone linked A Simple Dungeon on a review request thread for tenfootpole and I gotta say I’d rather be fucking shot than have Bryce review my shit”
https://mobile.twitter.com/micaholism/status/1378765960505606146
There is a new Dungeon Age adventure that might be worth your while: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/354011/Witches-of-Frostwyck-A-Dungeon-Age-Adventure-5e-and-OSR-versions
Gabor’s Castle Sullogh (EFF#8).
I put this on my list, but, really? You think Melan write something bad?
Baklin? City Sups are mad hard
More than that though, its interested to see your anaylsis on why its good.
Godfather good movie yeah OK Bud but why. Thats my eye go to
Also shout out to Nod 36. I hear he is good but its his first in 2 years?! The people need to know you know
Nope. I just read it and was pretty enthusiast. The first short adventure is also pretty fun
I sense a challenge.
Gabor is Unbalanced Dice Games confirmed
It would be an honor if you reviewed the adventure I posted to my blog here:
https://captainahabsleg.blogspot.com/2021/04/she-who-is-fortress-in-dark-water.html
Castle Roan looks amateur but possibly charming
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/355163/Castle-Roan
It does look charming, doesn’t it!
Did you know what was inside before you suggested I flagellate myself?
I cant wait for the Nod review. Save us Stater, show artpunk the way
I oculd have sworn I did this. I’ll reprioritize it
I am as ignorant of it as you are.
Great news! NOD 36?
This makes me wonder what has been lost to Brycedom for all time.
Masterpieces of criticism, written yet not scheduled for release or nay pray for the phantom submit button.
It tells us everything is okay.
But pray tell, when the time comes.
And it does for us all.
Nothing is ok.
Except dogos
I’d be interested to read what you think of my adventure, Ominous Crypt of the Blood Moss. I’m always looking to improve my adventure design.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/319604/Ominous-Crypt-of-the-Blood-Moss
Would love to see what you think of my zinequest adventure if it tickles your fancy! https://olobosk.itch.io/trashplanetepsilon5
Mothership has some interesting modules with some different design choices- how about Gradient Descent?
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/332853/Mothership-Gradient-Descent
Gradient Descent is an interesting one to consider because it’s kind of like a sci-fi megadungeon.
I have another adventure out. It was written mostly-currently with _The Pit in the Forest_, and is similar in some ways while being a bit more open and ambitious.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/353923/The-Bleak-Holdfast-of-the-Heartless-Queen
The black wyrm of brandonsford .
holy fuck, im two pages in and this one seems good!
I took a look at the preview and bought it – looks really good so thanks for the suggestion Mage Hand.
The author’s previous adventure got a “no regerts”; this one might be “the best”.
I knew you would like it
(I didn’t write it or anything.)
I’d love to see “In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe.” Thanks!
https://gelatinouscubism.itch.io/in-the-shadow-of-tower-silveraxe
Got to ask for Baron’s Gambit by Matt Finch. Bundled with the S&W boxed set KS.
Ohhhhhh! New FINCH
Its been a minute dudes a master but has stepped away from modules.
Not a super big fan of the underdark ones Cyclopean Deep but its hard to tell how much is frog god/ the editors with some stuff. I think the new Iron God is way worse for example
From my periodic deep dive into DTRPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357751/Stories-from-the-Slough?filters=0_2110_100_0_0
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357132/Sparkless?filters=0_2110_100_0_0
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/356517/Medusa-and-the-Cursed-Forest?filters=0_2110_100_0_0
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/356191/The-Bone-Alchemist?term=The+Bone+Alchemist
From The Smart Party Podcasts blokes
Silveraxe. https://gelatinouscubism.itch.io/in-the-shadow-of-tower-silveraxe
NOBBOC!
NOBBOC! I’m drunk NOBBOC!
Cheers!
The Haunted Hamlet and other hexes. Not sure you can find it in pdf(?) it was a zinequest thing. Not perfect according to your standard, but still really well done with cool ideas, short, concise, with substance.
.
Requesting new Through Ultans Door issues!
I think Stories From The Slough would be a good choice.
New Dungeon Age adventures! A big one another about orbital space vampires. I know you like yourself some Dungeon Age, Bryce.
The Wild Wolves of East Wood, seems to be trying to do the right things, but the presentation is a but too cutesy for my taste.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/278360/The-Wild-Wolves-of-East-Wood–5E-Compatible
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/358910/The-Darkest-House?src=hottest
Expensive- curious to see how innovative it is, and Bryce’s take on it.
I just got the new Matt Finch, Death Ship of the Roach Princess, in the mail today. I gave it a read through and think it’s worth a look. It’s a low-level puzzle/trap adventure with inter-dimensional, planar elements.I liked it. It’s a cool weird fantasy take on classic sword and sorcery. It’s a good example of low-level D&D not having to be boring, rats in the cellar or kobolds in a hole affairs.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/346989/Death-Ship-of-the-Roach-Princess-Swords-and-Wizardry
It’s depressing to see reviews of so much clumsy offal when there’s more intriguing stuff out there then ever. There’s 4 issues of Ultan’s Door you haven’t looked at. There’s tons of new OSE stuff.
Why are you doing this to yourself man? It’s positively masochistic.
Speaking of masochistic … I wonder if is that business card I recently gave out will be followed through on?
but, in all seriousness, I’m getting rid of my ToDo list. Then It’s off the blue skies and green pastures forever!
This is a joke yeah? Your To Do List and responsiveness to us is one of the reasons I found you and keeps me coming back.
Honestly Bryce you are the cool town
Hi, how are you?
How can I send a pdf to you for review our module?
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/364439/The-Pit
Regards!
He does not take PDFs! Bryce buys everything himself to stay impartial! He is more than willing to review your stuff though.
His tips have given many commenters on here the tools to be good module writers! Some have even ended up on the best directly from this site!
I think Graveyard Worm is one example? Ben Milton is another for sure. Too many to list!
Necrotic Gnome’s The Isle of the Plangent Mage
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348884/The-Isle-of-the-Plangent-Mage
Curious if it lives up to the general quality level of the rest of their releases. Thanks.
Holy Mountain Shaker is also out now: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/363966/Holy-Mountain-Shaker
Temple of 1000 Swords by Swordlords Publishing
(The creators of Hideous Daylight.)
Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen–Dragonsfoot #25: https://www.dragonsfoot.org/ft/
The Siege of Timberhollow, the cover gives away that it’s a wolf based adventure, but the preview what’s inside seems to be doing the right things.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/366457/The-Siege-of-Timberhollow
This looks interesting
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357799/Tomb-Robbers-of-the-Crystal-Frontier?filters=44827_0_0_0_0
Very curious about this one:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/358825/In-the-Shadow-of-Tower-Silveraxe
I love a good starting site kind of module and hope this one turns out solid.
The sequel to “Prey of the Black Wolf” by Dark House Rules Games, is out now. “Clan of the Black Wolf” is up on DMSGuild today!
$15 and no preview? Yeah, pass
I’d like to suggest ‘The Weathered Well’. The preview covers the introduction to the adventure and the author clearly lays out what type of adventure it is and gives some general advice to the GM on how to run it, including clear instructions to read the thing through a few times before attempting it.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/364705/The-Weathered-Well
These have all been added to the list.
Probably not the place to do this, but is there any chance of you doing an index of the Oriental Adventures adventures from all the Dungeon Magazine reviews that you did? Possibly with a simple one, two or three star rating?
The Beast of Graenseskov looks interesting. Apparently it focuses on mystery and exploration.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/180558/The-Beast-of-Graenseskov-An-Introductory-Ravenloft-Adventure
Looks like a Brazilian Publisher doing OSR stuff:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/361137/The-Cursed-House?src=hottest_filtered
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/364439/The-Pit?src=hottest_filtered
I’m working through the requests
Woo love you Bryce ! New Gus L and Luka OSE adventures on DTRPG too!
We’re proud of this, but like anything, it has its flaws. We’d be interested in what you thought. Also, got my meds sorted out and promise I won’t say a word except to silently agree…
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/135316/The-Ruined-Abbey-of-Saint-Tabitha
No agreement is needed! We hope you can find the adventure design helpful though!
https://into-the-dark-rpg.blogspot.com/2016/07/bryce-lynchs-adventure-design-tips.html?m=1
I made this 14-page mistake. It’s supposed to be an open-ended, 1-2 session city adventure. Heist movie aesthetic.
DrivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/366643/
Itch: https://notsupposedtogetjigs.itch.io/the-fight-job
Would love your thoughts/derisive comments.
Please consider looking at this one, “The Blackapple Brugh”.
https://basicfantasy.org/downloads/KH1-The-Blackapple-Brugh-r16.pdf
Thanks.
Echoes in the Graveyard for Mothership
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336695/Echoes-in-the-Graveyard
https://mattumland.itch.io/echoes-in-the-graveyard
That Desert Moon of Karth sandbox space western zine, interested if it works
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/363849/Desert-Moon-of-Karth
Requesting Fortress of the Ur Mage
Its the FOURTHCORE guys 5e adventure, they have nerd credited can they keep up?
Also requesting their CC1 adventure if you have not, thats FOURTHCORE though. 4e trap dungeon people really like
Link is at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170894/Fortress-of-the-UrMage
Btw
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/370241/SOS9-Beneath-Bernhold?src=newest_since
This thing for the cover alone….and the interesting maps and the way the “blurb” is written.
I’d like to request a temporary moratorium on 5e reviews, please.
Ok. I write about five reviews ahead of time, to account for ennui, so after those clear out I’ll cut em out for the foreseeable future
Thank the gods!
Two new dungeon age adventures
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/354011/Witches-of-Frostwyck-A-Dungeon-Age-Adventure-5e-and-OSR-versions
Other one is grave Titan harvest
Also interested in holy moutian striker by Luka (the UVG guy)
Also more Kelsey Dionne reviews would be cool
Rosethorne publishing also a champ
Gradient descent is the mothership megadungeon
WE LOVE YOU YOU MAKE LIFE OK
Since I like to give Bryce headaches:
Some 5e stuff:
1. Domain of the Nameless God: 11 5 star reviews! Promises many PCs deaths and ways to die!!!
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/313854/Domain-of-the-Nameless-God-5e-horror?src=also_purchased&filters=0_0_45393_0_0_0_0_0
2. Shore of Dreams…30 5 star reviews!!! Many proclaiming to be the best 3rd party adventure ever run!!!
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/232354/Shore-of-Dreams?filters=0_0_45393_0_0_0_0_0
3. Trust No One…i mean, assassins, factions, and the title…another 5e adventure. By Keith Barker (Eberron guy)
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/254452/Trust-No-One?filters=0_0_45393_0_0_0_0_0
Perhaps all these will highlight 5e qualities that we can quantify?
You are a horrible human being
Get a room you two … where the middle finger can stroke the tentacles
A bit curious of Shore of Dreams myself. Sounds Amazeballs! but is it?
It’s shit. I’ve reviewed it for my Czech-language blog
(google translated here:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&u=https://zpatky.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/recenze-pobrezi-snu/)
But it’s shit in a very ridiculous fashion!
I see what you did there
Bloom by Daniel Hallinan (for Mothership).
In an attempt to rescue Bryce from self-imposed purgatory, may I second Holy Mountain Shaker and add Date of Expiration.
For a savior I doubt Luka is it for Bryce
Bryces history with him has much to say.
Others can delve more.
God effort
Hi Bryce! Would love to see a review of my Nordic folklore-inspired dungeon for Knave.
Cheers!
DrivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/370215/The-Frozen-Temple-of-Glacier-Peak
Itch.io: https://ialath.itch.io/frozen-temple-of-glacier-peak
I don’t know if you’ll ever get to it, but Pound of Flesh, for Mothership rpg is really inspiring & ambitious. Not as huge /daunting as Gradient Descent either.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/288945/Mothership-A-Pound-of-Flesh