Menagerie of the Ice Lord

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

icelord
By Dylan Hartwell
Self Published
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 3-5

Lord Venator lived in a remote mountain top family estate castle overlooking the snowbound village of Nix. An accomplished and enthusiastic hunter, he bored of mounting stuffed trophies and took to keeping his prey alive in a growing menagerie in his expansive abode. A recent malfunction of the magical cages resulted in widespread escape. The Venator family castle is now overrun with vicious beasts and Lord Venator is thought dead. A brave party of adventurers, suspecting the Ice Lord is dead, hurry to loot the icy abode that resembles the valuable magical crystals with which it may be filled.

This is a one hundred room minimally keyed castle themed around an Ice King who has lost control of his caged animals. It’s got a good mix of unique monsters and magic items and has about? of its rooms with monsters and maybe ½ of the rooms, total, have any sort of description at all. It’s not bad for a minimal keying, and hits several key needed things, but it could use a little punching up in many of the descriptions.

The idea is that there’s this village surrounded by snow. The local lord is a snow elf and once a year he thaws the fields to allow the villagers to plant their tubers. He’s four weeks late, no one has come to/from his castle in awhile, and the village will starve if they don’t get their crops planted.

The village is really minimally described. It has a few NPC’s with a few sentences each as well as a list of the people in the village who worked in the castle and have not been seen. There is just enough here to run the village. I could quibble and say a few “scenes” of a sentence or so each, would have been a welcome addition, as would some interpersonal relations between the villagers. But it’s a decent job for the amount of the text provided. The trip to the castle basically revolves around “do you have appropriate transport for deep snow?” as well as one encounter with a frozen body in the middle of the road.

The castle has 100 rooms and sprawls over several levels. The map is basic but it DOES note which rooms have monsters in them, with an asterisk, which is something more adventures could do to facilitate running them. Making a lot of noise and the map shows a monster next door? That’s a map notation that helps the DM run it at the table. Some of the descriptions are just a room title, like “Full Linen CLoset” or “Empty Closet.” Others have a few words with the room, like “Ornate mirrors line the walls” or “Wall hold paintings of nature.” Those two types of room descriptions probably cover about 80% or 90% of the rooms with the few others having a few more details in them. IE: a second sentence or third.

As minimally keying goes this one isn’t bad. There’s a decent variety to the rooms.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/110195/Menagerie-of-the-Ice-Lord?1892600

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The Shrine of St. Aleena

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

aleena
By Peter C. Spahn
Small Niche Games
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 1-3

The adventure takes place in a cave complex known as the Shrine of St. Aleena which is set in the Chronicles of Amherth™ campaign setting, but may easily be dropped into any remote wilderness region of any campaign world.

This is a thirteen room dungeon, a former holy site overrun by evil. The dungeon proper only takes seven pages, with the wandering monsters taking about five more and the rest of the pages being maps, illustrations, and supporting material in the appendices … including the more lengthy NPC stat blocks. The wandering table is pretty decent, as is the nice description of the area around of the entrance of the dungeon. The dungeon proper is a pretty classic.

This has a vaguely Voldemort villain in it. Evil Bad Guy was killed by a Aleena, who becomes a saint. His evil spirit takes over her shrine as revenge, and his evil presence begins to attract other evil creatures. As a result there’s a sense of corruption in the cave/dungeon mashed-up complex. Evil black tendrils slowly forcing their way in to sealed vaults, snakes in holy sarcophaguses, the corrupted souls of protector spirits (ghouls), and a few classic puzzles to round things out. The pages are averaging about three rooms each, after art, etc. This makes the rooms proper come in at three to four paragraphs each of decently sized font. This is really stretching the limits of what I think you can run at a table without the help of a highlighter. Better to skew non-prescriptive and the let the DM fill in the rest then force a highlighter or a “at the table wumpus hunt” for the details of the room. It’s not exactly pushing in to Wall of Text territory but it is getting closer to that line than I would to see. This is solidly in the non-gonzo category, while still avoiding the Harn-like low-fantasy setting.

The wanderers table here is quite nice, if a bit wordy at a couple of paragraphs per encounter. The variety is nice, like a woodcutter you can recruit that actually a decent warrior, or a medusa, complete with statues, who just wants to be left alone. The only downside here is that the wilderness adventure is not really mentioned at all, so the wandering table won’t get a particularly strong workout unless maybe the party camps in the forest between forays. There’s also a quite nice entryway map/surface map for the dungeon, quite similar to the gatehouse/outdoor area in Stonehell. I really like these foyer-like areas. They do a good job in setting a mood and acting like a transition area to the main dungeon. Plus, it’s got a cave behind a waterfall. I am ALWAYS a sucker for the classics.

Maybe it’s the recent spate of Dungeon Magazines, but I really thought this one was a great example of a classic small exploration dungeon. Maybe a little wordy. Maybe could use a little more imagery of more interesting magic/mundane treasure. But a nice solid little product.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/120051/LLA006-The-Shrine-of-St-Aleena?1892600

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dungeon Magazine #103

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

d103
Glacial Inferno
By Kent Ertman
Level 7

This is full on crap-fest combat-as-sport mode. Pretext after pretext is given for combat. Made with rage. Mad with fury. Mad with pain. The end result of every encounter is that everything in the room attacks the party on sight. Encounters other than “it attacks!” are few and far between and essentially are “NPC feeds you information on what is going on.” Save someone? They attack. Don’t save someone? They attac. Save someone? They give you a bare minimum of information, that, frankly, is irrelevant to the adventure. “Karl is mad and releasing a cold demon!” Oh, joy. And? Let me guess: We need to stab it. If you want set piece after set piece and combat and combat then this adventure is for you! Paraelemental cold ½ dragon/½ harpy attacks you! Joy. It’s rules mastery, for DM & player, as far as the eye can see.

Forest of Blood
By Wil Upchurch
Level 5

This adventure is closer in style to the older Dungeon adventures. There’s a random combat to kick things off, which brings the party to the villages attention, and then an incident which causes the town to turn to the party. A little poking around leads to a small wilderness adventure and then a couple of lair sites to invade and kill things. A fair is underway and a trained killer wolf pack invades, killing 1 villager a round, each, if the party doesn’t engage them. Later in the inn the party sees a local lothario leave with a couple of women, with one stumbling back in, later, talking about an attack by bandits. Poking around turns up some rumors (nice rumor table included) and clues to lead the party to the river. Once there they encounter the two lairs, first of the bandis and then the evil mastermind. It’s a pretty typical adventure. The whole lothario thing, combined with the rumors, bumps this up a bit.

Sinkhole
By Phillip Larwood
Level 4

During the night the inn you are staying in slides down in to a sinkhole. You gather up the survivors (hopefully!) and try to find a way out. You can think of this as some kind of combination escort/exploration adventure with a plane of shadow theming, since there’s some nonsense offered to explain the presence of so many shadow creatures. There are three tunnels off the main cave where the inn lands. One tunnel has a room with an exit, and there’s actually nothing in between that room and the main room, so a lucky party could stumble on to the exit quickly. There are some monsters that wander by the inn, so holding up there is no a snooze-fest. This is terse, even by the standards of the mid-100’s, and the NPC survivors have enough of a personality, barely, to make them interesting to throw in to the fun. There’s a mix of asshats and helpful NPC’s also, so it’s not all a Fuck The Party NPCfest. I wouldn’t normally call something like this a standout, not by current reviewing standards anyway, but compared to the usual Dungeon fare, it’s great. Compared to the modern OSR it’s a more than serviceable adventure with, perhaps, it’s only fault being a lack of evocative imagery in the cavern rooms. There are exceptions, like a mural room with a gate to the plane of shadow, which offers classic “step through the portrait” gameplay. But generally, it’s just cave rooms with either a monster or something else in it. It’s the NPC/Party interaction that is going to bring this to life.

Posted in Dungeon Magazine, Reviews | Leave a comment

Snow

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

snow
By Christina Lea
Peryton Publishing
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 5-7

Those who who squint long enough through Mount Irem’s blinding snow storms can see lights flickering high on its slopes. The people in the town below tell stories of a castle made of ice that glimmers at the high end of Tharg’s run, but, when the weather is clear, no trace of it can ever be found. If it exists at all, it seems to exist only in the storm.

This is some weird wilderness adventure. It’s not, as the blurb above would imply, an adventure in a castle that only appears in the snow storms. It is, instead, an adventure on how to get to the snow castle. Just some wandering through the wilderness in the snow. It’s laid out in a point crawl type of style, without the map, and skews REALLY close to the ‘unintelligible’ side of the adventure spectrum.

Over eighteen pages you get six locations, plus the final “you found the castle!” entry. That is supplemented by four random-ish encounters that can be experienced with the party fails a travel check between the primary locations. The supplemental encounters are, essentially, just a paragraph describing a monster that attacks.

But … I’ve gotten ahead of myself. The way this adventure works is that you’re in a location and you make a Wisdom skill check. The check is your ability bonus plus 1/3rd of your level. Generally, if you roll at least a 15 you go to one of the locations and if you roll a 20 or greater you go to a different location. If you fail then the DM rolls a d8 table. The fail table might take you a location, sometimes with some damage being inflicted on the party, or send a wandering monster their way. Finally, if the DM rolls a 7 or 8 then you have some scary vision and loose a wisdom point, or 1d4 wisdom points.

This is, at best, an outline of an adventure. Site one is “The Crossing”, some crystal rails in the ground that lead east or west. Of the six encounters, two have monsters, one has someone to talk to, and one has a cliff to climb. The other two have nothing at all, just a weird feature that does nothing. The Ice Castle, proper, is the final encounter. The notes say that it’s supposed to be detailed in a sequel. Since this is an older product, I’d have to assume that never happened. There are other possibilities listed. It could be a mirage, a single encounter, or an entire dungeon underneath. This is more than a little disappointing.

There’s not really anything to this. It’s just an empty shell. And don’t give me that “the DM needs to fill it out” bullshit. There’s so little content, and it’s so … obtuse. And not in a good way. Combined with the goofy “wander in the snow until you get to someplace else” point crawl thing, it’s really hard to see any value in this.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/102449/Snow?1892600

Posted in Reviews, The Worst EVAR? | Leave a comment

Tomb of Horutep

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

horu
By Stephen J. Grodzocki
Self-Published
Low Fantasy Gaming
Level … 4?

This is the free example adventure for the “$1 Adventure Frameworks” series. It’s a Patreon series that offers adventures for $1 each. They are meant to be 6-8 pages each, short, one night and side-trek adventures. The example product, Tomb of Horus, suffers some from repetitive and uninspiring text. It also brings some references to the in-house system it was written for, Low Fantasy Gaming, that don’t translate easily in to other game systems.

There’s only ten rooms in this adventure, laid out in a kind of loop with a couple of side rooms. With no hook, rumors, or wanderers, it’s really focused on its core deliverable: a $1 adventure. This isn’t really a problem, except, for the repetition. One room has bronze guardian statues that animate and chase you out. Another room has two stone staues that animate and chase you out. One room has two mummies in it that animate and chase you out. The boss monster room is a mummy that animates. It’s not that any of these are bad, in and of themselves, but the repetition, in such a small space, doesn’t feel like theming. It’s more like oh, look, another room with animating statues. *yawn*” nd let me be clear, I’m not making these comments as a DM but rather as a player. There are few things worse than boring slog fight after boring slog fight of the same monster type, room after room.

It’s not that all of the rooms are bad. Most are pretty straightforward but a couple have something actual interesting going on. There’s a great room is a bridge over a chasm and full of various molds. Then also there’s the first statue room. Big bronze statues, up on pedestals, flanking a door, animating and attacking if someone tries to pass through. It’s one of the better bits of imagery in the adventure; very reminiscent of a certain stop-motion iron golem. Further, they stop attacking if you make an offering in the urns … the very urns the party probably looked through before attempting to exit the room. The lack of imagery in the writing is one of the major flaws here. Everything comes across as a bit generic and lifeless. In the entry room “Six ceramic urns, of faded red colouration, are placed along the walls. They contain pairs of severed hands preserved in embalming fluid.” That’s ok, but is mostly fact based. It doesn’t really do much to inspire the DM or make them want to run the room. The best writing paints a vivid picture in the DM’s head, without a lot of words, that the DM’s own imagination then fill in to complete the picture for the party. Otherwise, what are you paying your dollar for?

The adventure is written for the Low Fantasy Gaming system. This appears to be a fairly typical d20 type system with a couple of tweaks. The issue with this adventure is how those particular are handled within the pages. The treasure is written as “1 Lair treasure” or “2 Valuables”, with references to the LFG pages. “Roll on the DDM table” is something frequently mentioned, as are referencing attributes like “Boss Monster” and “Undead” … with all the usual qualities. There’s always some swagging when converting between adventure types, but this one seems to go out of it’s way to show off some system attributes rather than using those attributes to enhance the adventure.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/260603/Adventure-Framework-01-Tomb-of-Horutep?1892600

Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

Dungeon Magazine #102

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

d102
Cry Wolf
By Nicholas Logue
Level 2

The core concept here is good, but it’s lacking quite a bit to push it over the top. A wolf is near and the village organizes an attempt to stop it, including a rumored poacher and a hunter who hates wolves. Nice hooks, including “curry favor” and “rivalry with the poacher/hunter”, both of which are more personal and appeal to the meta-game of the players running their characters. “Fuck no we’re not going to let that tool hunter get the goods!” One of the big scenes is in a bazaar and there’s a nice table of chaos that can happen in the bazaar, from an alchemist’s tent to a bbq vendor with coals and skewers. What it’s lacking is a few more scenes with the poacher and hunter to build up the rivalry more. It also suffers from “random humanoid syndrome”, where hobgoblins are hired by the poacher instead of just using human thugs. FInally, the last part of the adventure hinges on the party NOT killing the wolf. That may be too much. This reminds me a bit of a REALLY watered down version of “Gone FIshin”

Zenith Trajectory
By David Noonan
Level 6

Looks like the adventure path again. Except this time it’s a stupid and shittfy adventure. Forced combat with an umber hulk. DInner invite to pick up the quest. Forced combat with a red dragon. Forced combat with a cyrohydra. Then a hack-fest in a kua-toa temple … that has no real solid plan on how to respond to intruders. It’s just some window dressing for set-piece battles. Fucking piece of shit.

Posted in Dungeon Magazine, Reviews | 6 Comments

The Cruellest Mistress of All

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

cruelm
By John R. Davis
Self Published
OSR
Level 4

A frustratingly organized sixty-five multi-part adventure, which is in turn part of a campaign arc. A divination, followed by an unrelated orc attack on the town, followed by a tower exploration, followed by a journey to an orc bandit outpost. The first and third parts are related are are the second and fourth, but there doesn’t seem to be any relation between all four. This adventure shines here and there but is plagued by VERY weak connections between the sections and an organization style that is too complicated. It does a decent job with the monsters and treasure. It’s not a shitty adventure. There is something inside trying to get out, but it can’t lift the lid of its own (heavy) problems.

This is supposed to have four parts, with two significant appendixes to help support the adventure. In part one you receive some divinations about the location of a tower. That’s it. “A fearful future may unfold” is about as much motivation as you’ve got to pursue the towers location. You see, you’ve been summoned to a priest who has heard about you and he gives you the divination. Or, if you played part one, you sought the priest out? To get some items you found ID’d? The entire hook here is bizarre and neither thought out or presented clearly. It’s literally pretty much “you get summoned to the priest and he shows you a picture of a place.” It’s just bizarre.

Then, suddenly, the town is attacked by orc pirates. An entire mini-game, ala 4e, unfolds as you try to beat back the hordes through a series of mini–games, earning Victory Points. It’s a kind of abstracted town attack that is generally well done/ It tries, at one point, to even offer pointers to mass combat rules, but then doesn’t support those rules. “You could set up your own mass combat.” Great. Thanks. I thought I was paying you for that help? I can understand wanting to support multiple systems, the OSR having many moving parts, but far better to just pick one and lay out the two sides for the DM rather than just point them, with no support at some rule sets. The rest of this section is a bit bland, but ok. There’s not a lot of “orcs burning things down” or “two orcs beating a man and his family senseless with ripped off legs” and more “three orcs attack” or “eight orcs fire arrows.” Just as in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, a few specific examples would have been better than the mostly abstracted combats and encounters presented. There are, of course, non-combat encounters. You can rally the troops, heal the dying, and so forth, all to earn points towards a victory for the town.

Next is the disconnected visit to the ruined tower. Inside is a decent little dungeon with a nice variety of encounters. Puzzles, traps, hints, things you can talk to. Then, you suddenly find yourself on the high seas journeying to the orc raider stronghold. Once there you meet the leaders and then go in to their “death pits”, either by choice or not, and explore the little mini-dungeon. Once out you visit their shamans island, kill the evil shaman imposter, and end the adventure.

This thing is ALL over the place, with the parts not really connected much at all. In particular, the motivation to check out the tower is essentially nonexistent. The same pretty much holds true with the orc sea journey. “Oh, some of the orcs have a tattoo” and “it looks like that orc is a doppelganger!” is about the extent of the motivation. There is some pretext to “returning the orc bodies/totems to their homelands/comrades”, but is that really something folks will be up to right after a raid? It’s just all strung together VERY loosely. The details provided in these non-dungeon portions (the divination & orc leaders, in particular) is quite weird. There’s exposition on history and events in the past but very little for the DM to work with NOW. The orc tribal meeting hall, in particular, is a lost opportunity. Instead of factions and personalities and little vignettes, it’s just ¾ of a page of description. There’s enough in what’s provided to build on, but it’s going to require work … and I’d prefer the designer do the heavy lifting.

The two little dungeons are pretty decent. Wordy, with exposition, but the core of each is ok. Paintings with secret doors behind them. Clues in murals to secrets and boons. Monsters you can talk to and treasure that is more than just a +1 sword. In particular, this series has a a little section for the monsters with a Personality/Quirk and Motivation/Goal. Even the monsters with “they attack” have enough in this section to help the DM out. The owlbears hoot & roar and, angry at their confinement, want to escape and slaughter orcs. The hydra hisses at its own heads. The tigers enjoy the hunt/kill. The medusa is cautious/weary and is just trying to get by. These sections provide the same kind of cues that the “wandering motivations” table, that I’m so fond of, also provides. It’s just a little bit more extra for the DM to build the encounter off of.

Of special mention is the townfolk listed in the appendix. They also have the motivation/quirk thing going on, a small backstory, and a secret and a boon for the party. It’s a bit wordy, and a summary page would have been good for running them at the table, but it’s the kind of stuff that can really make a recurring NPC come alive in interactions with the party.

This needs a good edit and better ties between the sections. (I still have no idea how the tower & divination ties to the orcs.) If those could be taken care of, and a bit more added to the orc diplomacy section, then you’d have a halfway decent adventure.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184749/The-Cruellest-Mistress-of-All-OSR-version?1892600

Posted in Level 4, No Regerts, Reviews | Leave a comment

Sands of Saqua-Ra

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

sandsof

By Matthew Kline
Creation’s Edge Games
Swords & Wizardry
Levels 6-8

Dune striders set out from the walled city of Jewel each day, carrying sages and sightseers across the desert out into the sprawling ruins of Saqua-Ra. On this day, three expeditions set out but only two came back…

This is a little nine room symmetrical dungeon inside of an old pyramid, complete with shifting sand and mummy. A little wordy for it’s length, it’s fairly inoffensive and straightforward.

A tour group has disappeared while visiting some nearby ruins, after a sandstorm came up. You’re hired to bring em back. AT the ruins you find a newly opened passage, cleared of sand by the recent storm. Inside is a tomb, a mummy, and a curse that can be lifted to restore the tour group from their sand-shapes to their true forms.

This claims to be a mini-dungeon … and that’s certainly true. There’s just not much here to work with, either in quantity or interest. Each of the nine rooms does have something going on. Generally that something is a bit … bland? Or, maybe, blandly presented? There’s certainly room in most adventures for being more clear, but not at the expense of giving the DM something to work with. To be sure, more words are not better; it’s generally DIFFERENT words that we’re looking for. The first room is a great example of this. “… a raised alcove where a statue stands. The statue’s arms are crossed in an X over its chest. There’s a body lying face down at the bottom of the steps.” That’s the read-aloud. The room goes on to say that the statue is in the likeness of the queen and what’s under the body. The read-aloud and DM text needs more adjectives & adverbs. The text is expanded upon, but not in a way that is generally useful to the DM in running the room. Wordy, and more than a little generic and bland.

Certainly there are bits and pieces that are better. The second romo has clay jars filled with ash and bone bits and a trinket or two. A mace and scythe in room one have silver blades and an ornate gold handle studded with gemstones or a head of a large piece of red quartz. But these are the goodies in the room, not the room proper.

One of the traps has a statue on a large copper plate, according to the read-aloud. I might have instead used “metal plate” and then informed the party it was copper when they asked, but that’s mostly a quibble. Instead, it’s a hint of a trap to come, something that far too many adventures don’t provide. Cues from the read-aloud or DM are critical in this regard.

Not much to a review for not much to an adventure. It’s organized fairly well. Has some decent, if bland, encounters, and is short enough to run through in a single night. This sort of expanded upon minimalism, that keeps the generic, is not for me. I wish it took some extra time to go through another edit to make the room descriptions, and creatures, more evocative.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170119/Sands-of-SaquaRa-A-Swords–Wizardry-MiniDungeon?1892600

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dungeon Magazine #101

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

Only two adventures and a shift to combat focused adventures does NOT bode well for my future state of mental well being …

d101
Prison of the Firebringer
By Richard Baker
Level 13

Heh. “Over the centuries he has come to hate Faerun … with a vitriolic ire ….” Preach it brother slaad!

A fire cult, full of slaad, is trying to free a slaad lord (cr21.) It has the pretext of an investigation up front, with many words on several pages, but there is nothing very useful in it. This is really an adventure with a couple of pitched battles followed by two combat-heavy dungeon/lairs. The first three encounters, an ambush, a beholders tower, and a old farm-like compound, fall into the set piece category. That’s not exactly a criticism, but more of an observation. All three present an environment in which a large and ranging combat could take place. “Oh, the farm has seven rooms to describe …” No, it has seven places where combat can start. It’s not an exploratory environment. I like a complex environment for a battle, crashing through floors, pulling down walls, setting hay on fire, etc. It’s the seventeen pages it takes to get to the point that’s more the problem. And that’s just for those three encounters. After that the dungeon starts, which is really just an underground fortress stuffed full of things to hack. Unlike the dynamic 3-d environment above ground the dungeon area doesn’t offer the height and open spaces and is less suited for the sorts of “pulling agro” combats … as anyone holding a doorway can attest. There are some advice sections on how the creatures react … but EVERYTHING is buried in text. How many creatures are there? Time to dig through the text. Key elements? Time to dig through the text. I really like the party coming up to a combat site, formulating a plan, attacking the farmhouse compound, and then the plan going to hell and chaos breaking out. Those sorts of wide-ranging things are conducive to creative play and fun. But endless combat after combat in the dungeon against an organized foe? Slog-fest.

The Chasm Bridge
By Desmond P. Varady
Level 7

Just another bullshit set-piece environment. There’s a chasm in the underdark and a bridge with toll collectors. If you don’t pay the toll you get attacked. If you pay the toll you get attacked. If you go around you get attacked. Not by different foes, mind you, but by the exact same groups. This is really just a side-trek.

Posted in Dungeon Magazine, Reviews | 5 Comments

Lost Lair of the Lizard Laird

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Bryce Lynch

llaird

By Johnathan L. Bingham
Ostensible Cat Design
Swords & Wizardry
Let’s call it … level 1?

…the tribe is willing to release them and forgive the party’s trespass if they will perform a task on behalf of the tribe. Tsoraz Tsoraz believes that he has found one of the entrances to the upper halls of the great kingdom of Saralan Smasah – the Upper Halls of the Sun and Stars. If the party can recover the Scale Heart, one of the Lizard Laird’s badges of office believed to have been part of the treasury at this site; then the party will have earned the gratitude of the tribe and be free to go. If not, then they may well find themselves invited to dinner – as part of the menu!

This is a forty four room dungeon on a non-linear map with a “ruined halls of the lizard man king” theme. It has a decent mix of encounter types but a very … utilitarian way of describing rooms. The utilitarian description is then expanded upon with mechanics that are a touch too verbose for my tastes. The designer is going someplace and I get where they are going. They just don’t make it too terrible easy to get there. Ruined jungle/swamp temple with vines, a crazed madman alone in the ruins, fungas-bug zombies and a final room with a giant fungus/fly/decay pit in a ruined sun god temple with a towering cracked dome … it’s all there. It’s just presented in such a way that doesn’t make it easy to put it together in your head.

Mechanical bits first this time. And I shall start by being petty: there’s no level designation anywhere I can find. The map, taking up most of a page, is nonlinear … thank god. It’s got a decent mix of twists, turns, hallways, loops, secrets and so on … enough to make a party wary about that hallway they passed up, in the dim torchlight. I like a map that gives the party some place unexplored to flee in to. Some place for monsters to come up from behind them from that offshoot they didn’t explore … the impending sense of dread caused by not knowing. That’s what a good exploration-adventure map should do and that’s what this map allows for. The wanderers are just all vermin, snakes, flies, spiders, ants and the like, and the monsters are all book standard except for a few with a fungus infection that regen a little bit. The treasure descriptions are a step up from the normal, with silver daggers with swan hilts and supple knee-high womens leather boots. (Sharing violation Johnathan!)

Back to those monsters, the ones that regenerate because of the fungus. One of the first rooms has evidence of a fire. There are four ant bodies in the room … thus a hint that the ants may have something special about them and the party may need to burn the bodies. Another early room gives the party a hint about a trap later on. You encounter fungus-zombie vermin a couple of times. This sort of interconnectedness between rooms is something that’s critical for an exploration dungeon and something that is almost always missing the smaller plot/lair type dungeons. They give the party small victories as they learn that their actions DO make a difference. Rather than just say “Fuck it!” and hack something and move on they are rewarded for using their brain-noggins a bit. The dungeon has puzzles and mysteries and things to discover … and that’s fun!

This isn’t a bad adventure … but it’s not particularly exciting or inspiring either. I think sometimes people misread me when I talk about those things. I’m not referring to gonzo, or other weird elements like crystal people or so on. I’m generally looking for a writing style, for the fluff/description part of the room, that makes you want to run the room. I think that’s a writing style which conjures up a picture in your head … without droning on. You want to see descriptive text that your mind latches onto and fills in the rest. “Ruined jungle temple” is some pretty plain text. “Crumbling pillars with vines snaking up them and a low mist hugging the ground” is better … but remember, I’m terrible at this. The text in this adventure is a little too utilitarian for me. “A relief of a stylized grinning lizard face is located in the northeast corner of the room.” is a decent example of text from this adventure … followed by three sentences of mechanics for a poison gas trap. Or “The end of the hall is covered in an ornate relief that depicts the sun with several celes al bodies in varying orbits around it.” or “A life-sized statue of a lizardman holding a large snake over its head dominates the room.” These are all pretty … generic? descriptions. Again, I’m not argue for more text, I’m arguing for DIFFERENT text that is more evocative.

It’s a decent adventure and certainly better than average. If I bought it I would not be bitter that I had been ripped off. It just needs a bit more to push it over the top in to excellence.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/116152/Delve-Zine-Special–Lost-Lair-of-the-Lizard-Laird?1892600

Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment