Bryce’s Adventure Design Contest

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

Hey kids, spread the word: I’m running an adventure design contest! Write an adventure. Submit it. Get eviscerated! Or, maybe, win a box of cardboard paper towel tubes! Woo Hoo!

Details are over at RPGGEEK, where I’m running the contest. This is where I archive my reviews because I believe that site has the best chance, long term, of not disappearing in to the Internet ether.

http://rpggeek.com/thread/1063645/bryces-2013-adventure-design-contest

 

Now go get your ass in gear for the coveted title of: I Sucked Less in 2013!

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NS4 – Blood on the Snow

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

ns4

by Kenneth Spencer
Frog God Games
Swords & Wizardry
Levels 8-10

The country of Estenfird is in flames. Wild men and beasts have descended in hordes from the mountains bringing fire and destruction into the forested lands below. The hirths of the North have been called forth to defense, but with the heavy snows of winter delaying travel will their arrival be in time to save this frontier realm? Even the heroic Protector of Estenfird, Hengrid Donarsdottir, is hard pressed and has called upon all heroes to come to their aid. It is time to don arms and armor and brave the winter’s wrath to come to the defense of Estenfird in its hour of need.

This is a great high-level adventure in the frozen north, heavily themed for vikings. It mostly avoids the high-level traps that many high-level adventures fall in to and provides some great text that can really help you get in to the mood. It’s not the most original adventure ever made but by integrating the viking theme it comes off as a good attempt to take old ideas and change the window dressing to make them fresh again.

I don’t know why but I really get off on frontier adventures. No the usual “Keep on the Boringlands” stuff but rather a kind of “Settlers in the Pacific Northwest” or “Viking homesteaders” type of adventure. I liked the Death in the Treklant/I series from the Trolls and I like this one also. They invariably involve viking-type people, LARGE combats, and a free form type of play. Two out of those three points also work well in high-level adventures. This particular adventure has a very 13th Warrior feel to it. The local Beast Cult is raiding outlying villages, burning towns, etc … a big mass uprising. The players set forth to gather and rally the Hirthmenn as they make their way to the main town. There they find besieged, get in, participate in the defense, and then infiltrate an enemy camp and rescue someone. Like I said, generally pretty standard stuff. The lower-tech/frontier feel to this adventure feels lot more ‘right’ for this type of adventure though and ‘Thing’ meetings, the Hirthmenn, and even the beast cult all seem to work much better in this then analogous elements do in Generic Fantasy/Boringlands type adventures.

There’s a decent mix of encounters scattered throughout the adventure. These range from some good wandering encounters with nice descriptions that fit the theme to a couple of pre-programmed encounters. For example, the party can encounter The White Stag in a herd, who can lead them past an ambush point. That ambush involves a mixed group of enemies rolling a big log down a hill at the party and then attacking. There’s a big part when the party tries to sneak in to the beseiged town through scattered enemy camps and then a bunch of little mini-vignettes where the party faces various situations during the siege. It ends up with the an attack/raid on an enemy “temple” where they are getting ready to do a sacrifice. All of these encounters have a decent Flavor to Text ratio. Things tend to be described briefly and with a lot of flavor to them. It really gets across a kind of norse/frontier vibe and gives me enough to work with to expand on it, given my cursory background of norse knowledge. The town encounters have things like women guarding children, with the women getting slaughtered when the party rolls up, or the siege of an alehouse, or what happens in the various homes that are sieged. They are very nice.

The problems with the adventure are interesting. It points out in advance that the characters can probably teleport, fly, or do something else to get the town fast. What this does is cut off one portion of the adventure: gathering the Hirthmenn. It makes defending the town all the harder, but you can do it. See, that’s the way to write a nice high-level adventure. The stakes are higher (town under siege) and the while you can use magic to blast your way through the adventure, the outcomes of such may make things harder for you than you’d otherwise find. It ignores the fact of why the name-level pc’s are willing to go do the job in the first place. It also has a forced kidnapping during the siege to set up the adventure endgame. That’s lame. The siege of the town is a little bit of a let-down also, or at least he consequences are. The battles in the town are modified by the number of Hirthmenn the party brings with them. It you brought a lot of dudes then the party faces fewer foes and those foes have been weakened by having fewer HP. It doesn’t really feel though like the Hirthmenn make that big of a difference to the town proper, or that the parties actions make that big of a difference to the towns outcome. They’ll save a group of orphans here or there, but in general there’s no guidelines on outcomes based on the quantity of Hirthmenn and the parties actions. That makes it feel A LOT like window dressing. Nice window dressing, but still window dressing.

I did like the ADVENTURE outcome though. If the PC’s fail then things get REALLY bad in the north. Thor dies and all hell breaks loose in heaven and earth. The description is more than enough to give a decent DM ideas for AGES of follow-ups. If the PC’s save the victim at the end then one night they get to party in Thors longhouse with the man himself, and get some nice mead, venison, and magic to go along with it. That’s a pretty sweet little flavor-text portion for a party! I’m serious man; I would totally dig that outcome if I were playing this adventure. It acknowledges that the treasure int he adventure is light and gives an alternate reward. Nicely Done!

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112802/The-Northland-Saga-Part-4–Bood-on-the-Snow-Sword-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

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GG5 – Dread Crypt of Srihoz

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

gg5

by Jeremy Simmons
Goodman Games
Castles & Crusades
Levels 9-11

For leagues uncounted, a path has followed the tortured contours of a cliff which hangs over the storm-battered shore of the icy northern seas. The eternally damp rock is covered in places by a sickly film of grey mosses and lichens, which is the sum total of all the life forms able to scratch out an existence in this gods-forsaken hell. For atop the cliff stands the entrance to the dread crypt of Srihoz, a vampire of ancient name and deadly reputation. Only the bravest adventurers dare enter this place…

This is a Tomb of Horrors knock off, attempt number 1,3452,984,836,345.

I submit to you, gentle reader, that no other adventure has done more to harm the RPG hobby than the 1975 classic Tomb of Horrors. It seems like this is the only model upon which every high level adventure is based. From its shores a thousand thousand thousand crappy deathtrap dungeons have been launched … and far too many of them in jr high.

This time an evil dude has spread rumors throughout the land in order to lure high level morons to his tomb. You see, he only wants to feed on the most powerful of individuals … after, of course, they have navigated his tomb of deadly traps and creatures so that he can ensure he is only feeding on the strongest and most powerful … uh to ensure that they are sufficiently weakened. Uh .. .and the tomb hasn’t been entered in hundreds of years, even though Evil Dude has lots of minions on the outside subtly spreading his rumors. What that really means is that the designer is too lazy to come up with a real hook for his adventure and that he’s too lazy to come up with an original adventure idea, instead just cloning the Tomb format and pasting on the same tired old ‘Proving Ground’ theme that has been pasted on time and time again by people looking for an easy way to throw whatever they want at a party. Look man, I know it’s a land where elves fart fireballs, but can you try just a little to add a pretext of realism to the adventure? I swear to fucking Hastur, if I see a stasis cage in this adventure …

The map here, just as in Tomb, is not half bad. There’s a lot of variety on it, lots of different sized hallways, lots of same level stairs, secrets, and small tunnels. I like this sort of variety on a map. It lends an air of mystery to the map. The players don’t know how big it is or if they are on the same level or where the hallways lead to. That sort of mystery does a great job of keeping the PLAYERS on their toes and instilling the proper apprehension on them. There are, of course, no wandering monsters. It’s a tomb trap with one master.

Let’s see here … room one is a pit trap. Room two is the usual deadly garden. Room three is a freezy trap. Room four is a storage room full of diseased food. Stasis field trap. Mimic bed. Another storage room. A fire trap. A demon summoning room .. with demons. The problem with all of this is that it’s nothing special. It’s all stuff seen a zillion times before and it’s presented in a manner that adds nothing interesting. Oh, a plant room. Hostile plants. The read-alound does nothing to enhance the imagery of room and is instead just a massive block of text. The best encounter may be one with an undead aboleth, but it takes two whole pages to describe. The treasure is hit or miss, with things like pearl-studded boxes containing gold ceremonial daggers being at least half good.

I’m half convinced that the format uses by Goodman for these C&C products is half the problem with the “Wall of Text” and the inevitably “pay per word” being the other problem.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/57079/Castles–Crusades-Dread-Crypt-of-Srihoz?1892600

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Dungeon Magazine #10

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

d10
The Shrine of Ilsidahur
by John Nephew
AD&D
Levels 3-6

This is a short expedition to a forgotten shrine of twelve rooms. You’re looking at about 24 wandering monster checks to get to the shrine, with the wandering monsters being straight out of the book. The shrine proper is mostly nothing special; just one more of a large number of throw-away adventures. Almost. While it has its fair share of overwrought text, mundane descriptions, and “a xorn just happens to be swimming underneath the room and is attracted by tremors”, it also has at least two interesting things in it. The first is the protector of the tomb. Some poor native idiot keeps the temple up … or at least keeps up the exterior of the temple. He’s far enough away that the party may not suspect him and close enough that the party is sure to encounter him. He bides his time, clears away the jungle growth from the temple, and reset the first trap. I think that’s pretty nice and shows a decent way to integrate some realism and flavor in to an adventure without things bogging down. There’s also a platinum handled gold knife: a magic sacrificial knife with the whole ego/personality thing going on. That’s pretty cool and something I haven’t seen before. (IE: doing it to a sacrificial knife.) Otherwise … the adventure is nothing special. Boring magic items, boring rooms. Yawn. No flavor to speak of.
The Artisan’s Tomb
by Matthew Maaske
ADD-OA
Levels 3-5

Finally, an OA adventure in Dungeon that sucks! But even then it has a different flair. The party meets a ghost who wants you to break in to his tomb and smash a vase so his soul can pass on. He’d do it, but there’s a spirit guardian and he can’t get by it. The whole adventure is only three encounters, so it’s suckatude comes from its short nature and the lame hook of meeting him while camped out one night. It IS a nicely adventure pretext though.

 

They Also Serve
by Robert Kelk
AD&D
Levels 5-7

Ug! An All thief adventure! All signs point to SUCK, Captain! The party travel to a nearby town and raid a thieves guildhall, trying to recover the McGuffin. The wandering monster table for the wilderness isn’t bad; it includes little notes about what the wanderers are doing, which I always appreciate. There are a few too many “they rush by” sorts of descriptions, but overall the wandering table is a decent effort. The guildhall is just another building stuffed full of boring encounters. Mundane rooms, training rooms, quarters, etc. The whole thing is more than a little mundane and boring. There’s not many notes at all about routines, schedules, and the like, which would be better for a caper adventure. There are a decent magic item or two: a bookmark of continual light and a pair of “penetrate disguise” glasses, for example. The whole thing is just too normal and not enough gameable material.
Monsterquest
by Vince Garcia
AD&D
Levels 1-3

You get some pre-gens for monsters who need to sneak in to a fortress to recover the orc chiefs McGuffin. Sewers! Oh yeah! The party then travel to a temple to get the chiefs drinking horn. There’s a decent encounter or two in the temple: jumping biting skulls and the like. This may be good for a one-shot but not much more. The fortress needs to be much more overwhelming to encourage the monsters to not just kill everything, and that means guard schedules, etc, in order to pull off the caper. 🙁
Secrets of the Towers
by Larry Church
AD&D
Levels 1+

This is a large set of towers that are scattered all over the land and are all linked in a certain way. You could put this in the start of a campaign and drop some hints and have a good set of plot devices that reappear again and again in the game. As such this is much more of a campaign resource and because of that one of the most useful things in Dungeon. The towers have a bunch of teleporters in them that link to other towers, twelves in all, for adventure from first level all the way to “name level.” They each have something going on and s such provide a good baseline for sprinkling through a campaign, especially if you spice things up a bit, both in and around the towers that the party travel to.

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Threshold of Evil
by Scott Bennie
AD&D
Levels 14-18

Ug, another high level adventure. You get the climb a mountain, using the absurd Wilderness Survival rules, and not use your magic items to get in to the wizards base. That’s because he’s cast about a zillion wishes to keep people out, so you have to slog on foot. Once there you get to fight clones of the wizard and his minions over and over again, as well as a few Slaad that are conveniently hanging about. There’s nothing fantastic or interesting here, just room after room stuffed full of people for you to kill.

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DCC #71 – The 13th Skull

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

71

by Joseph Goodman
Goodman Games
DCC RPG
Level 4

Thirteen generations ago, the ambitious first Duke of Magnussen made a fell pact with an unknown power, who asked for but one thing in return: the thirteenth daughter born to a Magnussen duke. Now, generations hence, the daughter of Duke Magnussen XIII is stolen away by a hooded executioner riding a leathery beast. As it wings back across the city walls to drop behind the Duke’s mountain-top keep, all who watch know it alights in the Magnussen family crypts, where the devilish secrets of thirteen generations have been buried and forgotten – until now… This adventure module also includes The Balance Blade, a short level 2 adventure in which a wizard’s patron makes a simple request: travel to another plane to retrieve a legendary blade of neutrality. But once the journey is in motion, the wizard finds that not all is as it seems!

This is a time-sentiive exploration of a crypt/cave under a nobles keep to find his daughter before she is sacrificed. It’s a pretty straight-forward affair but with some interesting encounters. It reminds me a bit of my favorite designers, Dave Bowman’s, work, if he were much more verbose. There’s a brief second adventure, unrelated, linear, and predictably, also included. The first would make a good one-shot for people familiar with DCC. The second has some ideas that can be stolen.

Legend abounds that a local nobleman, 12 generations back, made a pact with the devil to sacrifice 12 generations of his heirs in exchange for eternal life with a silver skull. Generation 13 is here and the local worthy is afeared for his daughter, the supposed last to be slain. During a public execution of someone calling for her death, so the prophecy can’t be fulfilled, a figure in an executions hood shows up riding a pterodactyl and swoops in to whisk her away. Guess who gets to go save her?

What follows is a not uninteresting romp through a couple of family crypt rooms and then down to cave whee a river, a hellmouth, and a couple of magic circles await. It’s a decent, but … confining/ adventure? It feels mostly linear in nature even though there are a couple of paths and the cave is mostly one big room with a couple of interesting sites in it to explore. There’s a nce crypt room where shadows linger and ‘attach’ themselves to people. Theres a cool magic circle full of body parts, and a pile of corpses to play with, and a gaping hellmouth in a river, and a silver skull sitting on top of a high pillar that just sits there and does nothing while various things shows up to kill the party. This feels like what its supposed to be: the pact chamber of someone who sold his soul. So while the encounters are limited in nature the interesting ones are quite interesting and the entire thing is set up to allow a classic moment of gaming: tossing the skull in to the hellmouth. That’s a pretty classic moment in genre media, but it feels forced here rather than the natural way that a Mighty Deed tends to come in play of DCC. So, is it bad to pul in a crumbly wall you can push over on to someone? I don’t know. You’re kind of corralling the players in to certain actions by dropping these things in. They’ll take advantage of it and they’ll have a great time doing it, so why does it really matter if it was natural or predicted if no one notices? Similar to jumping puzzles or swinging rope/chain puzzles … they are there to provide a classic moment … which works totally better if the party fires crossbow bolts with ropes in to the ceiling.

The treasure and monsters are typical DCC. That means the monsters are unique and no one is going to know what the hell they do, which I LOVE. I LOVE DCC monsters. The shadows work in a completely different way then they do in D&D and yet they do the same thing. DCC pretty consistently does this, referencing a monster and giving it powers that seem to stem from the same source as the D&D monster but then handling things is a totally different way … that is somehow the same. In the case of the shadows, they ‘attach’ themselves to players and drain strength. But the way it’s described is much more … natural? integrated? I don’t know. I wish I had the ability to look at a monster and do this. My D&D games would be MUCH better and they’d have a much different, classical, feel. Treasure is the usual toss-up. Monetary treasure is poorly described “grave offerings worth 20gp” while the magic treasure and encounters are described much more richly and vividly.

The second adventure ends with the party attacking each other, a party death, and a magic teleport at the end in avery Deus EX manner. It’s linear and generally has stupid encounters. There’s a couple of decent things worth stealing: the tomb at the end of the Last Colossus and a weird magic hallway. Otherwise it’s just “have these encounters in a row and kill each other.” Not too interesting.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/104780/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-71-The-13th-Skull?1892600

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Tower of the Scarlet Wizard

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

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by James M. Ward
Eldritch Enterprises
Generic/Universal
Any level

A mysterious and magical message literally drops into your lap from the very air. Unsettled by the experience, you nevertheless open it. It seems that there is a tower at the center of a nearby town, packed with magical items and untold riches… and it seems YOU have inherited this tower! Well… almost. You are one of several cousins vying for ownership of this magnificent edifice. The task seems simple: convince the servants of the tower that you are the rightful owner. Once all of the tower’s servants have sworn fealty, the tower, and its riches, are yours. It sounds too good to be true… So it probably is.

This is a fun little romp through a weird wizards tower chock full of treasure, magic, and allies … and the tower proper could serve as a base of operations. It’s stuffed with gameable non-standard items and encounters, but could use a little more description in some of the items. One of the best Elder Ent products I can recall.

An old wizard dies and leaves a character his tower … if he can get there first and claim it before one his cousins does. Jim Ward does something amazing: he gets to the point. There’s a VERY brief introduction, about a half page of introduction, and a page handout of the wizards letter to the character. That’s it. I’m amazed. Not to sound too cynical, but I’m been slogging through A LOT of introductory text lately, a problem that plagues many publishers and adventures, and EE is not excluded from that list. Jim however dispenses with that nonsense. He provides a pretty terse introduction, in the large font I find so annoying but that my old eyes enjoy, and then get down to business. And what business!! This is an adventure firmly rooted in the weird & whimsical world of pre-standardized D&D. Ultimately the point of adventure is for the character to gain his inheritance, the tower, which can be used as a pretty spiffy base. And the designer doesn’t gimp the character AT ALL. This place is EXACTLY what the players want when they hear that they are getting a wizards tower. The whole place reeks of the fantastic, with a touch of some kind of 20’s sandlot play.

Attacking the tower from the outside creates large batches of cut flowers, which the locals gather and sell. Kids sit around in a vacant lot and laugh as the characters try to get past the front door. Inside you’ll find a trophy room with lots of monsters heads … including a medusa head in a bag that still works! The stairs scream out warnings as things tread upon them. There’s rooms full of magic spell components. One room has a wall FULL of magic wands … THAT ALL WORK! There’s a zombie parrot that knows things but drinks blood. There’s are brass bees that attack people trying to use magic. There are clockwork creatures all over the place … but almost none of them are immediately hostile. There’s a clumsy clockwork bull that follows the characters around if they activate it … for better or for worse.

The place is FULL of treasure, most of it is just generically described well described although there are hints here and there:gold dust or uncut jewels, for example. I prefer a little more description of my flatware sets. There are a decent number of creatures in the tower but most are not hostile, and that may be the most serious problem with the adventure. That’s not too serious though. In fact, I think this would be a FINE adventure for when the wizard finally gets to the level where he gets his tower. You pull this thing out and *BAM* instant wizard base that also provides some weirdness and exploration to it. It would be really cool to see similar adventures for the other classes also.

I like this. Jim does a good job mixing the classics with the fantastic. A gem on a pedestal releases poison gas. Portions of the tower may never be found, and the treasures remaining hidden for a long while. He gives just enough hints in the very terse backstory to construct the village and its life around the tower. I like that aspect a lot. He doesn’t go on and on. He just mentions something in passing and the core concept is communicated instantly with more than enough flavor to allow a DM to add the additional flavor needed to expand it.

This is worth keeping.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108229/Tower-of-the-Scarlet-Wizard?affiliate_id=1892600

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Dungeon Magazine #9

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

d9

Dear Lord, why did I ever choose to do this?

The Lurkers in the Library
by Patricia Nead Elrod
AD&D Levels 1-3

Six pages that boil down to “a couple of orcs break in to a library.” The library is exhaustively described to a degree where all of the words run together and you don’t get a good picture of what it is. The party stumbles upon a scene In Media Res and are told a tentacle came through a wall and grabbed people. They are expected to look in to things and explore the library to eventually stumble upon the orcs. An effort is made to give the orcs and hostages personalities but its unclear if that’s ever going to come up in play. I suspect that the orcs are just gonna be hacked down. In spite of the length this is, in reality, just the barest outline of an adventure.

The Crypt of Istaris
by Richard Fichera
AD&D
Levels 3-5

Oh boy, a full page of read-aloud! Soliloquy, HO! AND a page of useless background?!! And useless fresco’s on the walls showing suffering?!?! Say it isn’t so! A symmetrical star layout?!?! Hot diggity dirt! Ok, I’m being a bit unfair; it has some bad points but it is virtually chock full of interesting rooms. There’s a nice statue trap/puzzle in room 3, a set piece with piercers in room 4, weird experimented on ogres ala Doc Frankenstein in room 6, weird nozzles and gas in room 7, and a strange ceiling in room 8 … and so on. There’s some bullshit “only 20% of the time” and the like nonsense. This is a tournament module, and so that explains a lot of the set piece type encounters, but it’s also got some nice environments, descriptions, and the like, especially for the time in question. It’s much closer to the positive aspects of C1-Hidden Shrine than it is the crapfests that usually appear in Dungeon.

The Djinni’s Ring
by Vince Garcia
D&D Solo
3rd Level

This is a Choose Your Own Adventure solo adventure with an elf in an Arabian Nights type environment.

The Golden Bowl of Ashu H’san
by Rick Swan
AD&D-OA
Levels 2-4

This is a linear wilderness adventure. You’re on a mission for a village, wander down a trail meeting people, and then end up at he adventure site where the thing finishes up. One of the things I like about the OA adventures in Dungeon, thus far, is how the spirits are much closer and integrated in to the life of the surrounding lands. This adventure is no different. A remote farming village is experiencing a drought and the old head man knows that someone has to go to their sacred site and see what’s up with their protective spirit. As usual, no one in the village s brave enough to go. The party then has ten or so encounters in the wacky & wonderful world of Dungeon OA. There’s a nice fairy tale feel here, with injured animals, old wells, haughty warriors blocking a shrine, and a forceful merchant. It’s exactly the sort of content I like to see in an adventure: whimsical and fanciflul, appealing to some of the old historical tropes. There’s a good mix of combat and role-playing. I approve.

The Ghostship Gambit
by Randy Maxwell
D&D
Levels 3-6

This isn’t really an adventure but rather an encounter with a ghost ship. A port town is having trouble with many of the ships coming in being attacked by a ghost ship. The characters get hired to do something about it. That entails hiring a ship and sailing out, having no encounters, and meeting the ghost ship. Which is actually just some pirate aquatic elves. Eight of them. Adventure over. There’s not really much here, in spite of the page count.

The Plight of Cirria
by Grant & David Boucher
AD&D
Levels 8-12

This is a tedious wilderness adventure followed by a tedious cloud castle adventure. A poly’d dragon hires you to find her mate and hands you a map. The map, a collection of symbols and directions, may be the best part of the adventure, although it’s very simple. You then get to make 80 wandering monster checks over 20 days. This takes you past a number of mundane encounters that tend toward either the environmental or normal. You also pass two monster hideouts, which at least provide a speed bump. It never amazes me how something exotic and fantastic, like a cloud castle, can be made in to something boring. The descriptions are mundane and boring. In the end you kill a couple of demons and wizards. Joy. Boring. There’s a convoluted trap room that you might be able to salvage, but not much else. It’s just a flat and boring adventure with charm, depth, and very very little interesting and gameable material.

Posted in Dungeon Magazine, Reviews | 8 Comments

L1 – Storm of Tears

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

l1

by Chris Fuller
Pacesetter Games & Simulations
AD&D
Levels 8-11

The rain will simply not stop. Crops have failed and livestock has drowned or fled. Farmers and their families have fled to the high ground, but the water is slowly building. The high priest has no answer and the king is desperate. The land is surely under a curse, but from whom and why?

This is an adventure in spooky manor home in the swamps. Demons, were-creates, and a lich haunt it, although its generally run like a lite version of Tegal or a less bizarre version of Shadowbrook. The content is not terrible, but it does suffer from a poor hook and, I believe, sub-stadard treasure. It takes a lot to of GP to make 11th level.

The rains won’t stop and the kingdom is flooded. The high priest thinks its coming from the estate of an old friend of the kingdom and the king wants you to go check it out. Seems a little lame for a 11th level character. This starts 45 wandering monster checks as you slog your way through a swamp on a shallow raft. That’s roughly seven wandering encounters on d8 table … this may be a bit excessive … especially since the wandering monster table is nothing special.

The manor home falls in to a similar category as Tegal, Shadowbrook, and Amber. It may be closest in style to Castle Amber: Both are still mostly functioning as manors but something is a little off … unlike the more bizarre Tegal or Shadowbrook. There’s a butler to open the front door and serve tea … which is actually a wood golem. There are manes in the fireplaces to keep them going, there are were-creatures in the kitchen, the baby is a demon … you get the idea. The place is sprinkled around with attempts at keeping it a bit light: weird book names in the library and funny-ish signs tacked up on the doors and the like. Things go off the fun end a bit as the party reaches the end of the adventure: there’s a huge number of rooms with iron golems in them just before reaching the big bad. The social interaction encounters are good and the adventure needs more content like those. A friendly mimc\i is hanging around as well as a couple of NPC types who can join the party and have some decent personalities. This sort of gameable content is not quite as prevalent as it could be. There are encounters that happen in media res, like demon poker game and te like, but these inevitably end up in “They Attack!” instead of much more interesting interactions and motivations.

There’s a decent amount of weird interactivity that is _just_ bordering on being close to enough. Giant transporter birdcages and things that transform and change the party. This is combined with a mix of decent treasure and boring treasure. Harvesting exotic plants? Sound great! 900 gp? Hmmm … not so great. In fact the entire adventure seems like it should be scaled down to a much lower level. A magic book that teaches you orcish is great … at a lower level. This lacks the whimsical nature os other products and that I especially like in lower-level play and it lacks the treasure and player motivation and gameable material required at higher-level play.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263905/L1-Storm-of-Tears?1892600

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DCC #74 Blades Against Death

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

dccd

by Harley Stroh
for Goodman Games
DCC RPG
Level 4

Punjar: wide-eyed madmen stalk the streets pronouncing the end of days, mail-clad priests crush the skulls of heathens underfoot, and timorous virgins are offered up in sacrifice within sooty temples. But even the greatest of shining temples and the strangest of mystery cults don’t dare to challenge the terrifying finality of Death. Until now. In Blades Against Death, the adventurers cross between the realms of the living and the dead, and wager their souls in a desperate bid to steal a soul from Death’s hoary grasp. To win over the God of Dooms, you must be the most daring, stalwart and cunning and – when all else fails – willing to test your blades against Death! A mid-level adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, Blades against Death offers characters a once in a lifetime escapade. Those that return from the Realms of the Dead will have earned the true title of adventurer, while those that fail will spend eternity in Death’s service.

This adventure brings the Appendix N feel the way I have not seen in some time. The characters find a way in to the afterlife to save a comrade, stealing, sneaking, conniving, and fighting till they break on thru to the other side . It hits over and over again with that N feel and delivers the way few others do.

What do you do when a PC dies? Run back to town and buy a raise dead or resurrect from someone? Hey … I’ve got an idea … why not turn that task in to an adventure ala “destroying an artifact” from the 1E DMG?! That’s what this adventure delivers. There’s a lame-o hook about being hired to play Orpheus, but the adventure points out that the far better hook is to pull this puppy out when someone dies. It points out that death is harsh in DCC, but if Orpheus can go on an adventure to bring’em back alive then the players should be able to also. I LOVE this. It’s like a whole new genre has opened up in front of me: the situational adventure. Adventures aimed at specific circumstances that the party finds themselves in. Yeah yeah, I know there have always been “use this adventure while the party is looking for an place to camp/stay the night/etc” but those have been a) lame and b) not really an adventure about the action in question but surrounding the action in question, if you get my meaning. This one is TOTALLY different though. The players are really going to feel like they have done something when they finish with it.

The adventure has four different sections. The characters hear about a fortune teller who knows the secret to brinign back the dead, the characters have to deal a sword from the moon temple that can cut the chains of death, the characters have to find a gate in to the underworld, and then they have to bargain with death for their dead comrade. That’s a pretty classic set up; only a fool would fail to recognize the classic archetypes of adventure. Cutting the bonds of death and predictions, moon temples and dicing with death … the appeal here is how it takes these classic archetypes and appeal to Appendix N to bring the adventure. Stealing in to the moon temple to steal a special sword that only appears under a full moon and that can cut the chains of deaths. Facing the hordes of temple revelers and finding a way to get the blade. Negotiating the way to the gates of the afterlife only to finally have to face a wager with death itself … I can’t imagine who wouldn’t get excited over that!. It’s all augmented by the language Harley uses. “The overfed son of a merchant”, pitch torches hiss & sputter, pale ceramic masks, sheer walls, masterfully wrought, embroidered curtains: that then is the essence of what I often bitch about. But just attaching an good adjective or adverb Harley is able to IMMEDIATELY communicate the flavor of the thing. It’s imprinted on your mind and your brain fills in the rest. These are not the big words of Gygax but a perfect word that conjures a scene. Just enough detail to let me do the rest. PERFECT examples of what I mean. It gets the DM’s brain working and I’m excitedly conjuring up the scene without any effort in doing so, my mind racing. EXCELLENT job.

It’s also an interesting example of a structured adventure that is not a railroad and not so loose so as to be “scene based.” Getting a special magic sword from the temple of the moon is a good example. It’s presented more of as a place than a railroad. Here’s the temple, here’s the various ways in and out, here’s the routine, here’s who inside, and here how you might handle some of the more common PC ploys, like slaughter, sneaking, conning, etc. It’s really set up to support a more open style of play and doesn’t assume either a hack job or anything else. That’s extended to the Gates of the Underworld portion as well: the various encounters in all the sections don’t really assume combat. The encounter folks generally will talk or interact with the party, which could lead to combat or could lead to something else. This is generally supported by JUST the right amount of room depth. There’s not layers and layers but it’s not just a boring old room either. Combined with the DCC emphasis on non-standard magic items and monsters you get great things coming out of it and a VERY Appendix N feel.

Excellent job! Well worth having!

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108984/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-74-Blades-Against-Death?affiliate_id=1892600

Posted in Level 4, Reviews, The Best | 3 Comments

Dungeon Magazine #8

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Bryce Lynch

d8

It’s weird; the OA entires in Dungeon seem much better than the normal content. Maybe the exotic environment appeals in a way that the mundane can not?

Mountain Sanctuary
By John Nephew
AD&D
Levels 1-3

The party trips over a dungeon entrance buried in rubble. Inside is a small thirteen room dungeon that’s criss-crossed with small mite tunnels. The dungeon is full of giant rats, mites, and pesties, with the associated “big people fighting in small spaces” rules, etc. The non-standard treasure is ok, jeweled lamps, tapestries, etc. The entire point of the adventure seems to be getting the party surrounded by the beasties who attack the party in a coordinated manner. There’s just nothing here … 6 pages for what could have been a 1-page dungeon.

For a Lady’s Honor
by Estes Hammons
AD&D
Levels 4-7

The party is sent to go get a blackmail item from a city councilor. There are ten or so city encounters for those that want to have some random fun, and then the councilors house is described. It’s meant to be a sneak job so there’s lots of “-15% to move silently this” and “-2% to hide in shadows that.” The house is not that interesting and just has the usual enchanted armor, etc in it. But if you take the councilor, and his short write up and the villain, and the city encounters then you could have some content for a city game. The councilor would make a good recurring asshole and the city encounters are not terrible. Not all that original but decent enough for plain content. Laborers, pilgrims, city guards, merchant, unaffiliated street gangs … just enough content to give you a great idea of what like if life in this city. It’s better than most content.

In Defense of the Law
by Carl Sargent
AD&D
Levels 7-10

This is a three level dungeon with forty-three or so rooms. It tries to make itself interesting by introducing an NPC party of LE and LN NPC’s who are also trying to accomplish the same goal as the (presumably) LG party. Thus the players get to see how a different sort of party operates and interact with them through the various encounters the groups may have together, if/when they meet and if/when they join up to. The chaotics are after the Lawful McGuffin and so it’s off to the dungeon the party goes. The treasure is ok but the room entries get long and the creatures are stuffed in to the rooms in a somewhat haphazard manner. While many have names they don’t really interact with others other than “Attack!” and there’s no coordinated response by the occupants. There’s a throw-away description or two but not enough to really matter in a response.

The Wounded Worm
by Thomas M. Kane
AD&D
Levels 4-8

This is a weird little adventure; a kind of cross between a wilderness area and an evil bad guy base. It reminds me of the older MERP supplements, and that’s always a compliment. The whole idea os that there’s an evil bad guy, a wounded dragon, that controls this region and he’s got a whole host of creatures under his control, one way or another, to help hi towards his ends. There’s a pretext adventure hook but I think the thing would be much better if you worked him in over the course of many adventures as the ringleader to a bunch of plots, maybe slowly introducing his minions and fleshing them out a bit more than what’s given the adventure. This would give you a great build-up to a main villain and nice climax sort of adventure for a party. The dragons got some interesting minions, most of which have some sort of personality. It’s the usual ‘nightmare to sort out’ descriptions but you’d have some nice story-arc material if you did.

The Flowers of Flame
by Jay Batista
AD&D OA
Levels 5-8

So, I apologize to everyone I silently maligned when they said “it takes me as long to absorb a prepared adventure as it does for me to make a new one!” I now understand what you mean. This adventure is THICK. The players are used as pawns in a political game, under the pretext of retrieving a a mythical burning flower. This is close to a OA hex crawl, but without as many encounters. You hire guides, meet other parties/government agents, climb the main mountain/glacier, etc. There’s a good deal of improvisation available here for a decent DM as well as a good scattering of encounter type. The adventure is thick with … adventure. More than that … uh … go on a journey to tibet and encounter weird stuff until you get the flowers at a monastery?

Posted in Dungeon Magazine, Reviews | 2 Comments