Obregon’s Dishonour

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Bryce Lynch


by Cameron DuBeers
for Brave Halfling Publishing
OD&D + Carcosa
Levels 4-6

THERE’S NO PLACE THEY AREN’T A LITTLE BIT PURPLE! South of the Thaggasoth Peaks lies the mining town of Jaftgong. It is a rough place to spend time, a mining town with slaves and freemen alike toiling to extract rubies from inside the mountains. You and your team of adventurers like this place, there is no itch that cannot be scratched in this thriving community that is growing too fast for its own good. Your purses have emptied and your lusts are sated-for the moment. Now the time has come to make some gold and maybe bust a few heads in the process, and you have begun looking for work. A purple woman has been frequenting the roughest tavern in town, looking for a group of men and women who know how to use a sword. Oh, yeah. There is just one thing you ought to know about her …”

As I type this I am a bit misty eyed. I’m on a long ass plane ride to San Francisco and this is my second module review in a row on the plane. The first was Larm, a pretty forgettable product. The second is this one, an OD&D product that uses Carcosa. The differences couldn’t be more striking and I am reminded once again of the joys of the OD&D style. And for what it’s worth: the vile parts of Carcosa don’t show up.

This thing comes in two parts: a dungeon adventure to retrieve an artifact and a short couple of pages to describe the adventure/actions that happen next. The dungeon, with map, is only about 9 pages and about 25% of the product. The follow-up with only a couple of pages more. What’s the rest? I’m not sure I can completely tell you … a glorious glorious mess? Not in a Judges Guild way, but more in a : I’m going to go on and on about the adventure setup up and include a bunch of support materials. I Love it ! Ok, so, I normally hate super long intros, but this is Carcosa so it’s fascinating to see the alien culture. It doesn’t quite come off as gonzo and alien as ASE1 … uh until the tech starts showing up.
A Champion of Law got in a big battle years ago, kind of won, but had his soul sucked off to the nether realms. Years later his second in command receives a vision form him and sets out to save his soul but to do this she needs to retrieve an artifact from a nearby abandoned monastery and and then go do a ritual on the old battlefield with the blood of someone who loved him. Her blood. She hires the party to help her.

Imagine a conservative sundowner town in some conservative place, say in Ohio. Picket fences, etc. Now imagine they discover rubies right outside of town and it turns in to some Deadwood style boomtown. This is the town that the party is in and get hire from . There is some pretty seething racism in Carcosa, and the boomtown nature is forcing it to the surface as the diverse miners try to coexist with the conservative green man town. This isn’t really explored but what there is does provide the DM some fodder for setting up some encounters in town.

Room one of the dungeon has 40 morlock-like creatures in it. Room two has 128 giants ants, with more appearing every round until 1000 show up. Oh, D&D, how I love thee! (Get it?! Get it!?) How can you not like something like this? Screw you and your lame ass story, the story is getting created right here and right now by the players as they face off against the crazy shit IN THE FIRST TWO ROOMS! It’s sometimes a little hard to pick out the monsters in the rooms, but they range from skeletons and centipedes to a group of mummies looking for the same things the party is. What?!! Yup, and they are not immediately hostile either. This is great! I love it when the party can talk to intelligent creatures in a dungeon, and I love rival adventuring parties in a dungeon; both really mix things up for the party and give them breaks from a pure on hack fest. Making them mummies, with actual names and professions, make the encounter even more gonzo and therefore totally more awesome. If you don’t like this kind of stuff then you have no soul. The map is great. Not really symmetrical, multiple doors in to the same room, multiple hallways and lots of loops. This gives the party lots of options when exploring, allows them to potentially bypass encounters with careful play, set up ambushes … and allows the monsters to do exactly the same thing to the party! It’s one of the better maps I’ve seen in this regard.

Eventually the party will find the McGuffin and go to the battle plain to do the ritual. It;s at this point that their employer will discover her mistake: that lawful guy was actually Chaotic! She shows up through the portal, with a very powerful chaos creature in tow, screaming like a madman that he’s about to summon all the Great Old Ones. Oh yeah, and you know that guy he was battling originally? Well their employer gets a message that he’s on his way to the boomtown with an army to sack it. Moral Dilemma time: Save the townspeople, who are in danger RIGHT NOW and let he crazy guy go, or chase the crazy guy and stop him from summoning Cthulhu, etc, accepting that the town is about to be mostly massacred as it, and its mines, are taken over? Notes are given for both of those options, as well as “the party just leaves” and “the party splits up.” On a very interesting note, the module gives the order of battle for the town conflict, including suggestions on how to model the parties involvement (additional recruits, better morale, etc) and suggests a mass combat system for those inclined to run the battle that way.

This being Carcosa, there are no real magic items, just a variety of tech items. The mundane treasure ranges from moderately interesting (jeweled dagger with emerald inlaid pommel) to boring (400 of jewels.) The new creatures are also a bit of a let down. There are two spawn of The Shub but both are essentially just humanoids with no unusual attacks or defenses. That makes me sad; I would have liked to have seem some more strangeness. The wandering tables do include a motley assortment of the denizens of Carcosa which appreciate.

Its OD&D. It’s Carcosa. It’s light on the vile and heavyish on the tech, with a nice moral quandary thrown in. The parties actions, either way, have consequences. It’s good and I don’t think I’ve done a very good job communicating that.

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

Obregon’s Dishonour

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Cameron DuBeers
for Brave Halfling Publishing
OD&D + Carcosa
Levels 4-6

THERE’S NO PLACE THEY AREN’T A LITTLE BIT PURPLE! South of the Thaggasoth Peaks lies the mining town of Jaftgong. It is a rough place to spend time, a mining town with slaves and freemen alike toiling to extract rubies from inside the mountains. You and your team of adventurers like this place, there is no itch that cannot be scratched in this thriving community that is growing too fast for its own good. Your purses have emptied and your lusts are sated-for the moment. Now the time has come to make some gold and maybe bust a few heads in the process, and you have begun looking for work. A purple woman has been frequenting the roughest tavern in town, looking for a group of men and women who know how to use a sword. Oh, yeah. There is just one thing you ought to know about her …”

As I type this I am a bit misty eyed. I’m on a long ass plane ride to San Francisco and this is my second module review in a row on the plane. The first was Larm, a pretty forgettable product. The second is this one, an OD&D product that uses Carcosa. The differences couldn’t be more striking and I am reminded once again of the joys of the OD&D style. And for what it’s worth: the vile parts of Carcosa don’t show up.

This thing comes in two parts: a dungeon adventure to retrieve an artifact and a short couple of pages to describe the adventure/actions that happen next. The dungeon, with map, is only about 9 pages and about 25% of the product. The follow-up with only a couple of pages more. What’s the rest? I’m not sure I can completely tell you … a glorious glorious mess? Not in a Judges Guild way, but more in a : I’m going to go on and on about the adventure setup up and include a bunch of support materials. I Love it ! Ok, so, I normally hate super long intros, but this is Carcosa so it’s fascinating to see the alien culture. It doesn’t quite come off as gonzo and alien as ASE1 … uh until the tech starts showing up.

A Champion of Law got in a big battle years ago, kind of won, but had his soul sucked off to the nether realms. Years later his second in command receives a vision form him and sets out to save his soul but to do this she needs to retrieve an artifact from a nearby abandoned monastery and and then go do a ritual on the old battlefield with the blood of someone who loved him. Her blood. She hires the party to help her.

Imagine a conservative sundowner town in some conservative place, say in Ohio. Picket fences, etc. Now imagine they discover rubies right outside of town and it turns in to some Deadwood style boomtown. This is the town that the party is in and get hire from . There is some pretty seething racism in Carcosa, and the boomtown nature is forcing it to the surface as the diverse miners try to coexist with the conservative green man town. This isn’t really explored but what there is does provide the DM some fodder for setting up some encounters in town.

Room one of the dungeon has 40 morlock-like creatures in it. Room two has 128 giants ants, with more appearing every round until 1000 show up. Oh, D&D, how I love thee! (Get it?! Get it!?) How can you not like something like this? Screw you and your lame ass story, the story is getting created right here and right now by the players as they face off against the crazy shit IN THE FIRST TWO ROOMS! It’s sometimes a little hard to pick out the monsters in the rooms, but they range from skeletons and centipedes to a group of mummies looking for the same things the party is. What?!! Yup, and they are not immediately hostile either. This is great! I love it when the party can talk to intelligent creatures in a dungeon, and I love rival adventuring parties in a dungeon; both really mix things up for the party and give them breaks from a pure on hack fest. Making them mummies, with actual names and professions, make the encounter even more gonzo and therefore totally more awesome. If you don’t like this kind of stuff then you have no soul. The map is great. Not really symmetrical, multiple doors in to the same room, multiple hallways and lots of loops. This gives the party lots of options when exploring, allows them to potentially bypass encounters with careful play, set up ambushes … and allows the monsters to do exactly the same thing to the party! It’s one of the better maps I’ve seen in this regard.

Eventually the party will find the McGuffin and go to the battle plain to do the ritual. It;s at this point that their employer will discover her mistake: that lawful guy was actually Chaotic! She shows up through the portal, with a very powerful chaos creature in tow, screaming like a madman that he’s about to summon all the Great Old Ones. Oh yeah, and you know that guy he was battling originally? Well their employer gets a message that he’s on his way to the boomtown with an army to sack it. Moral Dilemma time: Save the townspeople, who are in danger RIGHT NOW and let he crazy guy go, or chase the crazy guy and stop him from summoning Cthulhu, etc, accepting that the town is about to be mostly massacred as it, and its mines, are taken over? Notes are given for both of those options, as well as “the party just leaves” and “the party splits up.” On a very interesting note, the module gives the order of battle for the town conflict, including suggestions on how to model the parties involvement (additional recruits, better morale, etc) and suggests a mass combat system for those inclined to run the battle that way.

This being Carcosa, there are no real magic items, just a variety of tech items. The mundane treasure ranges from moderately interesting (jeweled dagger with emerald inlaid pommel) to boring (400 of jewels.) The new creatures are also a bit of a let down. There are two spawn of The Shub but both are essentially just humanoids with no unusual attacks or defenses. That makes me sad; I would have liked to have seem some more strangeness. The wandering tables do include a motley assortment of the denizens of Carcosa which appreciate.

Its OD&D. It’s Carcosa. It’s light on the vile and heavyish on the tech, with a nice moral quandary thrown in. The parties actions, either way, have consequences. It’s good and I don’t think I’ve done a very good job communicating that.

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

Larm

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Moritz Mehlem
Brave Halfling Publishing
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 1-3

Larm isn’t specifically an adventure module. It’s more of a home base village for the party to explore from with three small adventures in and around the village and numerous other small tasks. The concept is a good one but it’s poorly executed in this product. Larm comes off as a boring place full of boring people who need help with the simplest of tasks. Forward, to Boringtown!
There are about 35 locations detailed in the village. These house the 112 people who live in the village. It’s a mixed community that includes demi-humans such as dwarves, halflings, and elves. It has has a decent number of classed inhabitants up to 5th levels with quite a few third level folks. The building are described in basic detail: who works at the inn, their stats, how much things cost, etc. There is generally a single sentence like “she’s the best waitress ever seen in the world” or “he’s a bureaucrat who keeps endless lists.” These are almost all normal facts and don’t generally even fall in to the quirk category. Nothing too unusual or interesting. The best, by a long shot, is that he wife of the militia commander is publicly cuckolding him. This could degenerate in to something cool: he’s a powerful man and in charge of a lot of fighters … what if he gets tired of it and kills the mayor, or does something else stupid? Alas, this is not explored at all.

There are several little hooks given to the DM to work with and they are introduced through a nice little mechanic: notices on a board outside the mayors office. I shit you not. What’s better is the nature of them. “We’re going to all be killed by goblins. Go see the militia commander to help stop them” or “We’re all starving because of the giant rats in the mill. Go kill them.” So … over 10% of the population is in the militia … they drill daily … there are several 5th and probably 10 3rd level prominent people in the village … and they are going to starve to death because of 4 giants rats? Look, I don’t to sound like the guy who bitches because something is unrealistic, or because you called a pike a bill hook, but come on, throw me a bone here! There has to be something at least a bit plausible! Let’s take another example: the village temple. The head of the current temple feels ‘evil’ in the old temple but doesn’t want to risk his people. ‘His People’ refers to the hordes of 1st through 3rd level clerics that man the temple. So, 10% of the village is fighters in the militia and 10% are clerics … but they are still starving to death, live next to an evil temple, and are about to be invaded by 15 goblins.

The three adventures provided involve cleaning out the mill basement, cleaning out the evil temple, and cleaning out the goblins. I swear to fucking god that the next review I do that has someone cleaning out a basement/attic of vermin is going to get a 2 word review: “Sux HaRd!” The mill basement has two rooms with creatures: a couple of giants rats and a couple of centipedes. Now, there could have something cool here. You see, one of the shopkeeps had an apprentice who took a knife with him to solve th problem and was never heard of again. Finding his body, or knife, or some mutated apprentice … any of those could have added some good elements as the party then had to deal with his master, etc. Nope. The module explicitly says there are no remains/signs of him. Cleansing the temple involves LITERALLY a linear route, taking a spiral linear path, room after room, fighting undead, until you reach the of the line. The goblin camp is the most interesting because it’s the most freeform. There’s a map of the camp and a general description of the what the goblins will do and how they will react. There are a couple of interesting non-standard magic items. Candles that give you some effects, a book that gives you a point of wisdom (two, in fact!), and a sword that gives an additional bonus against undead. Those are nice and I wish that their imaginative nature were extended to the village and adventures proper.

What’s a shame here is that this is targeted for new players and DM’s. God help the people whose first D&D adventure is clearing out the millers basement of its giant rats; that’s nothing like the D&D I know and love.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/58647/Larm?affiliate_id=1892600

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Kingmaker

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Eric Jones
for Ludibrium Games
Labyrinth Lord/OSRIC
Level 1

Tragedy has fallen on the Kingdom of Ambarge-the King is dead; long live the King! But the kingdom’s woes have only just begun, for the crown prince, the King’s sole heir, is nowhere to be found. The fate of their kingdom rests on the deeds of a handful of wayward pilgrims that walk a solitary road in a remote land.

Linear! Plot! Great Adventure! Huh .. what!?!? Yuperoo kiddos, it turns out you can do linear, and you can do plot and still have a great old school adventure … for certain definitions of ‘linear’ and ‘plot.’ The party meets a caravan on the road. The master has a sweet gig from some passengers and wants to hire a little extra help. It turns out that the passengers are the deposed prince of a nearby kingdom and his sorcerous mother and that there is a witch and her mercenaries looking for them. This then is the adventure: guard the caravan until it reaches its destination. Simple. And like many of the best adventures, good things come from simple beginnings. Yeah, the plot hook isn’t the best, but compared to most caravan guard missions this adventure is a Picasso.

There are some preset encounters on the road. There are some triggered encounters that go off when something else happens. And then there are the NPC’s. The NPC’s are really what the adventure is built around. There are eight or so that make up the caravan and each gets a good paragraph that describes their demeanor and personality. This is all you need to have a great bunch of NPC interactions during the encounters and during the rest of the trip. They each have motivations and goals. The enemy NPC party gets some descriptions also, although there are only three unique personalities and the remained are generic mercenaries, but even then they get a small write-up on what they want and how they will react to certain situations.

We must now discuss a tricky situation: plot. There are nine pre-set events on the road. A rook flies over. Bandits attacks. Berry bushes. The mercenaries show up to visibly trail the party. The group comes upon a plague cart and a group of locusts attack. Another merchant is met, a dragon shows up to eat a horse, and then finally, the final ford before the caravan comes to its stop. I’ve mentioned all of them so you can make up your own mind if they qualify as plot. These are not odious and could really, in most cases, be counted as pre-rolled wandering monsters. The underlying story, and I use that term loosely, is not enforced on the party. Essentially the story elements show up in three of the events. The rook tells the witch where the party is. Then the witches mercenaries show up visibly trailing the party. Finally, the mercenaries make a final attack at the ford if they haven’t yet been wiped out. So, is it a story/plot/railroad? Well, technically, Yes. It’s also handled very carefully and I don’t feel that at any point the party is forced in to some story line.

Mixed in with these pre-set encounters are some triggered events. For example, the first time the party kills one of the witches men she will send people to parley with the party. Or, what the various caravan members do when the situation becomes dire. Or, perhaps, what happens if the witches situation becomes very dire. These are great. Essentially it expands the motivations and reactions of the NPC’s

This is a great little adventure. The encounters and triggered events are good enough on their own but what really makes them great are the way the various NPC’s react to them. Just about everyone is, in the end, looking out for number one. Like many good dramas the action elements are just ways to encourage social interactions between the actors. There are no interesting magic items, new and interesting monsters, or vast sums of treasure. There is a great adventure in here, and while it technically has a story and railroads the party I don’t think it violates the spirit of the OSR and perhaps even shows how they can be used in a positive way.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/88667/Kingmaker?affiliate_id=1892600

Posted in Level 1, No Regerts, Reviews | 1 Comment

Ironwood Gorge

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Eric Jones
for Ludibrium Games
Labyrinth Lord/OSRIC
Levels 2-5

Along the Old North Road lies the lonely Margravate of Blackmarch. Vile orcs, once a memory in the region, have returned in strength, bringing an end to decades of relative calm. The humble garrison of Bleak Tower, an outpost on the march, is likely to be overwhelmed. Who will deliver them?

This is a GREAT module. No, seriously, it is! I cheated ahead and took a quick glance at the other two modules in this series and the designer/publisher, Eric Jones, seems to be able to produce quality work time and again; a rare quality. It doesn’t have that OD&D feel that I prefer but it is an excellent instance of a Basic/1e module and would be an excellent replacement for, say, B2.

The environment is pretty simple: a small outpost on the edge of civilization is now once again threatened by the forces of chaos who are headquartered at a gorge nearby. Sounds a bit familiar eh? But this product does things that never did. The settlement comes alive with the NPCs present, there are lots of events and reactions from the humanoids, the gorge feels like a real place, and the wandering monsters can easily kill the party. All surrounded by a great deal of local color.

There is so much going on in the home base that I’m not sure where or how to start. Basically, the place comes under a light siege just as the party shows up. The inn, outside the tower/keep, gets attacked and probably burned down, while the small settlement flees in to the tower for safety. Light siege might imply too much … raiding attacks may be more correct, except the orcs DO raid the tower once in awhile. This is wonderful, it puts the party right in the thick of things from the beginning and makes the threat from the orcs very much real and tangible, but just something people talk about. It gets better though: the orcs react to the party! If the orcs get their noses bloodied or the party disses them (camps outside the tower, etc) then them come back in greater numbers. This sort of thing extends further. If the party sends for supplies then there’s a good chance the wagons won’t make it in because of the orcs. Also, as the party raids the gorge the orcs will respond by raiding the tower. This is absolutely wonderful. The parties actions have consequences and the humanoids are not just waiting around to be slaughtered in their caves. This sort of back and forth (the Chicago way?) should make this setting absolutely come alive for the party and also almost certainly freak them out as they now have to take the orcs reactions in to account.

The tower environment is great also. First, the maps looks like those maps out of the old MERP supplements, which have always been near and dear to me. Beyond that there are a great selection of rumors and characters and backstory floating around the tower, not all of which are explained. The lord is a vampire. The chamberlain killed the lord. There is a ghost on the upper floors. Etc. The NPC’s in the tower are almost real people and have much more character than most that you find in products. They have goals and motivations. This is a great prompt for the DM to help run the place and make them seem like real people to the party, and to have them react to the parties actions and initiate actions on their own. Once again, this helps bring the setting to life.There’s also a great appendix in the back with some pre-gens in it that could be used as hirelings or as rival adventuring groups to be found in the gorge.Not just stat blocks, these folks each have a sentence or two that does a great job setting up their personality and quirks. To quote one of the entires directly: “Equipment: crowbar and a small sack full of dry mushrooms on which he is able to subsist for long periods. Bogring is a terror in a melee, stabbing furiously with a dagger in each hand. He hears a running ballad of his exploits perpetually in his head.” That’s great stuff for the DM to work with!

The orcs are hanging out in the Ironwood forest at Ironwood Gulch. The forest has 9HD ettercaps in it. It’s got cockatrice in it. It’s got scouts and refugees in it. It’s WONDERFUL! There are challenges the party can’t overcome and people/creatures in the forest that the party can talk to and get a different set of rumors from. There’s lots of animal-like encounters and the humanoids only consist of a couple of types of orc encounters, which doesn’t water down the term ‘monster’ … too much anyway.

The caves in the gorge are where the monsters hang out. Unlike B2 the gorge feels more like a real place. Ledges that run up the sides of the gorge, rock slides triggered by loud noises and fireballs, and a snaking river at the base with a giant pike in it “ready to greet anyone who suspects a concealed passage behind every waterfall.” There are multiple entrances in to the caves: multiple on the right ledge, multiple on the left left ledge, sinkholes at the top of the bluffs … this is great because it not only lends an air of authenticity it also provides the party multiple ways to approach the caves and for the monsters to react in many more ways than a single entrance would allow for. The caves split up in to roughly four regions: North upper, north lower, south upper and south lower. Each has multiple entrances, as previously noted, and many sections of ledge on the outside of the gorge at connected with crude catwalks. The cave maps are well done, with about 50 areas on the upper level and another 30 on the lower, with a small sub-level having a few more. There are a decent number of loops in the maps that allow the monsters to ambush and for the party to sneak and avoid things. There are natural elements, like pools and sinkholes, as well as rough terraces, stairs, status, secret doors, and class pits/deadfalls. The wanderers in the caves are pretty good also. It tends towards scavengers and vermin, with some orcs (their house after all) and potential rival adventurers. I miss adventurers on the wandering table. They seemed to be a mainstay in the past and seemed to trickle out somewhere. I think they add great variety to an adventure, either through roleplaying or a potentially more varied combat. Some of these have notes associated with them which I like even more … zombies that are likely to attack anything, or the rushing sounds of bats, these things liven up what could otherwise be a tedious encounter.

On to the actual encounters. The caves are home to the orc tribe which has a couple of factions within it: the shamans and the warlords. The party can play off the factions if they are very good, and will need to take care of both leaders to end the orc threat. There are also a group of ogres that keep to themselves, but could be hired by the orcs to either protect them from the party or to make a final push on the tower, depending on how things are turning out. Oh, and the ogres like to try to throw small creatures (halflings, etc) from their side of the gorge to the ledge on the other side! An impossible task, but oh so fun to let the party spy a game of this in progress! There are a decent number of natural traps, deadfalls and springy tree spikes (whats a better name for that trap?) for example, to hound the adventurers. There are lots of natural elements as well, such as empty caves with dripstone columns and a twinge of sulfur in the air. Fungi, scavengers, dead adventurers, clefts in the caves, orcs building a trap, a harpy looking for a lair … there’s a wide but intelligent variety of encounters in the caves and many of them change over time. The orcs setting the trap won’t be there next time if the party doesn’t stop them … but the trap will be. Or the harpy looking for a lair will bring back her kin the next day to set u pa lair if the party doesn’t interfere. These are excellent encounters since they give the feeling that time is passing outside of what the party is doing. The party can also find potential allies in a group of lost dwarves hold up in a worked stone section of the caves, cut off from their homeland and rescue. There’s a group of orcs nearby plotting to take them out … and another group nearby with a doppleganger in it who’s up to no good. There’s just SO MUCH going on in here for the party to interact with … not plot, not story, but hooks for the party to take advantage and roleplaying and creative play opportunities. This realizes the full potential of the Caves of Chaos: fewer humanoid varieties but a much richer environment to play in.

There’s a smatterring of new monsters and new magic items and this brings up perhaps the worst part of the products: it uses standard items/creatures. Orcs, ogres, trolls, etc. +1 shields and so on. These new magic items and creatures are nice but are too few and far between. I much prefer more personalization in both my magical and mundane treasure: a bit more description or history and something more unusual than “+1 sword.” I think the additional personalization of magical and mundane treasure add a lot to the game by making the players more attached to the treasure and by making the setting seem less generic to them. New monsters play a similar role in that they keep the game fresh and keep the players on their toes. I still remember that time 30 years ago when I figured out we had to burn the trolls … that can only happen once with trolls but you can reintroduce those same feelings through new monsters with special attacks and special defenses for the party to wonder and freak out about. A decent part of the magic & mystery of D&D comes from those magical item and monster discoveries. Those are, however, relatively minor points. This is a great adventure module and a worthy addition to anyones collection. I don’t keep a lot of what I review but I’ll be keeping this one, even though it does have a 1E feel than the OD&D feel that I’m looking for … it does what it does very very well.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/88310/Ironwood-Gorge?affiliate_id=1892600

Posted in Level 2, Reviews, The Best | 2 Comments

GT3 – Into the FarDeep

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by John Feldman
for Knightvision Games
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 1-2

The path of the delver leads deep into the ancient Bitter Root Mountain. Deep in the heart of the dwarven mine, Kharnos Dzin, a secret is unfolding. Will the adventurers find the trail of Gilban Pembrooke, the famous dungeon delver? What dark motives lie hidden from the light? Great dangers and the chance for great rewards await those who enter the FarDeep…

This is the third in a series of three modules that detail the exploration of an old dwarven mine in the search a missing retired adventurer Gilban Pembrooke. It’s also the shortest. At the end of the last module there was a big set-piece battle atop a giant waterfall/chasm underground. This adventure starts with the characters following the chasm/waterfall down to the next part of the dungeon.

Maps are a real problem with this adventure. Whereas the last module has confusing relationships between the maps this module instead doesn’t have many maps. There appears to be be between two and three maps that were left out. The Treasury of the Gods, the Cavern of the Comet, and the relationship between the two don’t seem to be shown anywhere. In addition there are clear references later to hex numbering and what’s in specific hexes, but no hex map to go along with it. I _think_ you can get along without the missing maps but you have to work at things to figure them out and make things work right . I don’t like work. That’s why I review modules. The three maps that are present are very very simple ones. Basically they show a trail running alongside an underground river with maybe six or so numbered areas on each map. One of those is essentially a tactical battle map. There is a teeny tiny regional map as well. I’m talking 1/4 of of one column on a two column page tiny. It’s supposed to show some encounters on a regional map, I think, but I can really only read ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ on it … there may be other numbers but the map is too small to make out much of ANYTHING on it.

It’s really hard to figure out what’s going on. I’m pretty sure you climb down the waterfall, explore the treasury. Come to the banks of an underground sea and build a raft. Somehow go down a river. Come up on the hex crawl. Explore some islands. off the coast of the hex crawl and then fight pirates. I think. The encounters seem to be few and far between and are mostly straight-up fights. There are some potentially friendly plant people to interact with and some elemental islands with riddles and some interesting stone statues. All of this leads the party to the pirates which they can slaughter and thus rescue Gilban. I really wish I could provide more information, but I;’m not sure I can. Uh … cultists rush at you. And there are some traps in the lands of the plant people. Most of the adventure seems to be made up of some small wandering monster tables that separate the spare ‘wilderness’ encounters. Of course, without a map, scale OR EVEN AN ACTUAL TABLE you’re left with a heading titled: Random Monsters, with a few entries under it. There’s another good seven or so magical items presented, along with a few new monsters of no special note. The magic items are nice though, I appreciate seeing them. I like the stange and unusual since I feel it lends an air of magic and mystery to a game. A good example are ‘Tear of Palandria’, a tiny fragment of of moon of Palandria. It’s glows blue-white in the presence of the cultists and causes them pain. That’s nice, as is the bracelet that grows in to a shield and the Pitcher of the Gods.

I think this is supposed to be an incredible journey in a fantastic underworld environment. The missing maps and a generally disorganized layout make it very hard though to even figure out what is going on.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/94373/GT3-Into-the-FarDeep?affiliate_id=1892600

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GT2 – Come Hell or High Water

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Jim Baney and John Feldman
for Knightvision Games
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 1-2

What evil machinations lie hidden in the flooded depths of ancient Kharnos Dzin? Whispers in the dark summon the uninitiated … as evil brews beneath the surface of a dead city. Great rewards lie in store, but will adventurers find more than they had bargained for?

This is a pretty vanilla product. These reviews are the hardest kind for me write. There’s nothing to get excited about in the module, either for good or for ill. Fear not! I shall forge on, but my heart isn’t really in it. This is part two of a dungeon crawl. The party has journeyed in to the dungeon in search of and old retired adventurer, Sir McGuffin. In this second module they are now deep under the earth, continuing to search for some guy they don’t know. So, yeah, a few more levels for megadungeon like place.

Let’s start with the maps. There are about 12 maps provided with about 15 or so levels/sub-levels/sub-areas described by the maps. Most levels have just a handful of rooms, maybe eight or so. The way these levels relate is mostly a mess. It is VERY difficult to figure out how some levels connect to others. You have to work hard to figure out how a certain level connects to those above/below/beside it. This is not because of some strangeness with the map, such as in DL1 (kick ass map!) but rather the maps themselves are confusing. There’s no real notation about which stairs connect where and which features take you where. After looking at the maps and the text for over an hour I _think_ I finally have things figured out. But I’m not sure. That’s a major problem and makes these poor maps, since that’s the purpose of the things. Most of the levels have at least one interesting feature on the map … interlocking towers, a crumbling facade, different levels, etc. That’s nice to see. The small size of the levels though seems to work against things … I think. It reminds me a lot of the Skull Mountain module … lots of small levels with just a few rooms per level. They do a good job of showing some features on the map though … stairs on the same level, rubble piles, statues, etc. I like a map with detail. I may be implying that the large number of mini-levels is a bad thing, but I don’t think I mean to do that. It could actually be pretty cool … if you could figure out how things go together. This seems like a great place to note that there are no wandering monsters. 🙁

The actual encounters are not too exciting. Almost all of the monsters are going to be attacking on sight. There are some lost goblins that will talk to the party, and a couple of dwarves but that’s it. Everything else picks up their weapons and attacks or leaps out and attacks. I would have liked to see some more variety in the monster reactions and some more variety in the rooms themselves. By this I mean some puzzle and traps rooms, or rooms full of strange things to explore and play with. Some of the combats are a bit more interesting because of their location. Giant bats attacking as you cross an aqueduct, or flying jellyfish-like things attacking while you are on an open-air platform, and the set piece ending. Other than that … not much. No factions to encourage more role-playing. No foreshadowing of the main villains. The weird radiation aspect is not played up too much at all. I think I actually feel asleep twice reading this thing over. Not a great sign.

The mundane treasure is full of jewelry, arm bands, etc, which I really like, but the magic treasure is a let down. There are really only two new items. One resembles a sword of wounding and is probably too powerful for a 1st-2nd level character adventure. As with the first module, there are good number of new and unusual monsters, fourteen or so. I love seeing new monsters with new special effects. The party never has any idea what they do or what can kill them. A good example here are some cog monsters … the party can get some of their clothing or items caught in the cogs while fighting them, to different effects. More modules need to do this. Replace your humanoids with humans/bandits and spend your imagination making new things to freak the party out and surprise them!

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/89486/GT2-Come-Hell-or-High-Water?affiliate_id=1892600

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GT1 – Path of the Delver

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Jim Baney and John Feldman
for Knightvision Games
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 1-2

Secrets to all things lie in the heart of Bitter Root Mountain … and the only thing between you and its secrets is an army of orcs, a horde of undead creatures, and a secret cult that will turn your blood cold … Dare ye enter?

I’m conflicted about this module. It starts pretty strong but finishes pretty … average? Not average in the mediocre way that many people accept as average but average in a much more complicated way. It has new monsters, some interesting traps, a great beginning, a sandboxy wilderness … and a lot of uninteresting dungeon with a lot of problems for me. I’m pretty sure that this is the first part of a megadungeon, so the good, and potentially the bad, could build on the groundwork laid here.

The hook is not very interesting; just another hired job to go find an old widows husband, a retired adventurer. (I like to replace ‘adventurer’ with ‘mercenary’ when I see it; it tends to make things much more palatable for me.) The surrounding parts of the town ARE interesting though. There’s a bar full of old mercenaries fiercely protective of their own. It’s a great source of hirelings, rumors, and a band of thugs that the PC’s could potentially take advantage of. There’s also a ‘preacher’ with a band of thugs who have been running a confidence scan on the old woman, bilking her out of money in exchange for finding her husband. Now they are getting ready to take her home from her, the reason she contacts the PC. The decaying home has a few secrets of its own. She’s made friends with some pixies … or is she just crazy? And there’s a gremlin living in her husbands workshop; a creature her husband befriended and feels guilty about his disappearance. This is a great combination of characters and hooks. It should really help to bring the town to life for the party and make it more than just a place to resupply. There is also an area with a steampunk feel to it that was a bit of a turn off. I hate tinker gnomes and that crap has no place AS AN ORGANIZED GENRE in my rpg. One or two items, like laser pistols, is fine, but any HINT of anything related to tinker gnomes needs to be PUT DOWN HARD. In this case the infestation is limited to the workshop of the disappeared guy.

Between the town and the dungeon are patrols and lots of wilderness. There are several regions detailed on the hex map, each with their own wandering monster tables and each with their own little story to tell. The patrols are going to try and run the party off, unless they’ve obtained letters of introduction, another nice little hook to get the players moving about and talking to people. Ancient battlefields, gnome villages, and other areas are all briefly described. The end result of all of this is a nice cast for a village/town and surrounding wilderness environs … just the thing you need for an ongoing megadungeon. The wilderness doesn’t quite have the charm that I’m usually after but it’s a solid effort for a generic fantasy environment with a few good details.

And then there’s the dungeon. It has about 50 rooms on the first level and about 25 on the second, with the first being worked stone and the second caves/mine tunnels. There are a couple of loops present but for the most part it’s just a star/hub arrangement. I prefer a cramped map with lots of loops in it. It allows monsters to head the party off at the pass, to set up ambushes, and for the party to do the same, and potentially avoid encounters they don’t want to face. Those maps encourage a more creative and explorative type of play. These maps encourage slogging through the dungeon, opening door after door, and killing what’s inside.

That’s what’s going to happen. Open door. Kill Monster. Continue down hallway to next door. Repeat. The problem here is that there’s not enough variety in the dungeon. The monsters attack immediately. They don’t do anything other than attack. They hang around all day in their dungeon room waiting for someone to come kill them. They aren’t even doing in their rooms most of the time; they just stand there, weapon in hand, waiting for their door to open. There are a great variety of humanoids in the dungeon and I found this puzzling also. I generally prefer that humans/bandits/brigands/etc are used instead of humanoids (so as to not water down the word ‘monster’ and make the vil more palpable) but I’m not completely opposed to orcs and their ilk. But why mix things up? Goblins, orc, hobgoblins, morlocks, kobolds … and not whole tribes either. THAT would have been interesting as the party potentially tried to play one group off of another. Nope, just a room with 4 kobolds in it, or a singular room with 2 morlocks in it. Uh … Did the designer need a 2HD orc? Then just make a 2HD orc. Why mix things up? At the end of the dungeon the party will finally meet the evil masterminds and bring their reign of evil to an end! Uh … what? Yup, Lareth shows up again. You remember Lareth, right? He was in T1/Hommlet. The party goes off to explore a random ruined fortress and in the last room finds the evil high priest Lareth. It turns out he’s behind all of the evil in the region and is running most of the monsters in the dungeon. His discovery is a complete surprise. Most people hack him down immediately and never know what’s going on. Same thing here. At the end of this dungeon the party runs in to some evil cultists who are behind all of the … well, I’m sure they are up to no good in some way. Because there is no build up there is also no dramatic tension or release as the party discovers and battles them. No worrying when they might show up, no horror at the evidence of their evil. Just a couple of dudes in a dungeon room for the party to hack. The dungeon is not great but neither is it completely boring either …

The designer makes some decent inroads in a few areas. The dungeon features a number of door traps. My favorite is a knocker ring held in place by a mouth, which comes alive and bites the hand that knocks. Now that’s cool! Unfortunately there’s not lot of that kind of encounter. There’s also a decent amount of new magical items to be discovered. A hat that holds torches, or a wind-up mouse, for example. I found these excellent and very inventive. They are also almost exclusively found unguarded at the beginning of the adventure, in the old woman’s house. This somewhat dampens the wonder effect I want the players to get when they discover something totally new. There’s also a decent amount of variety in the mundane treasure. Everyone has a small amount of coin on them or some unique treasure/jewelry. ANYTHING done to turn a generic monster in to something more specific is welcome. There’s also a great number of new and interesting monsters present. Book magic items and book monsters tend to lend a feel of … the mundane? to an adventure. New magic items and new monsters bring a freshness to it. What’s the monster do? Can we even damage it? Bring out the silver! Crap, didn’t work! ARG! What’s it doing! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! That’s what you want in a monster encounter. Terror. Fear. The Unknown. There’s a wonderful variety of them in this module … they are just mixed in with the crappy humanoids. 🙁

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86060/GT1-Path-of-the-Delver?affiliate_id=1892600

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CLA1 – Fortress of the Mountain King

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Moritz Mehlem
for Brave Halfling Publishing
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 1-3

Arms, brains, and legs will be put to a test in this module for beginning adventurers. Can the adventurers defeat the MOUNTAIN KING and his brigand gang who are becoming more and more of a nuisance to the militia of Larm?

This is a very basic adventure. The Mountain King and his men have been raiding farms around the village of Larm. The party gets hired to stop him and his band by going to the old dwarf fortress he calls his base. The fortress has about twenty rooms. The inhabitants are a mixture of humanoid types that the Mountain King has, literally, beaten in to servitude. There is a short order of battle provided for what happens if the party triggers the general alarm, as well as a short section on how the Mountain King falls back to present more and more of his followers to the party while he avoids them and/or maneuvers in to a better position. Otherwise the adventure is pretty basic. Enter a room. Kill the monster. Loot the room. Repeat. Oh, there’s a rust monster in the armory. And a small puzzle on a tapestry that leads the party to the old dwarf treasury. That’s about it. Oh, the King is a kobold with kobold sized Bracers of AC3 and kobold sized gauntlets of ogre power. That’s a nasty surprise, and how he stays in power. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I think a mutant kobold would have made me happier. The bracers and gauntlets seem like some attempt at rationalizing things … but then again I also kind of like the idea of monster-only magic items and moronic monsters actually finding and using useful things in the halls they occupy. The magic items are only kobold size, not even a halfling can use them. Other than those two items everything else is a book item. +1 mace. Potions of boredom. Etc.

It’s not clear to me why this module is the way it is. Do small hobby/vanity companies have deadlines also? Why does one go through all the trouble with editing, layout, etc, if the content is not top notch? There’s not really anything interesting in this module Maybe the kobold magic items, or the orc playing cards, or the puzzle to the treasure room, but that’s it and that’s not really enough to sustain engaging and interesting play, especially not when it’s surrounded by room after room of monsters who attack on sight. I don’t understand this. Why not have someone the party can talk to? Or a faction among his men who hate him and want to revolt, or some old dwarf features to explore/play with, or just about ANYTHING other than hacking another set of monsters?

Is this a review? I’m not sure. If the kobold caves in B2/Keep were published as a standalone adventure without the Keep, would it be possible to review them? Certainly this adventure isn’t THAT short, but it is, in the end, just about as interesting. Oh, except there are no women and children in this adventure. That at least provided some fun in each cave in B2. To be clear, I’m not criticizing this adventure because of a lack of women and children in their complex. I’m criticizing this adventure because of a lack of interesting and fun content. Book magic items provide nothing new. Tired old humanoid monsters add nothing new. Room after room of basic humanoid *hack* encounters add nothing new.

I need a cookie.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/58438/Fortress-of-the-Mountain-King?affiliate_id=1892600

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CLA2 – Dolm River

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Bryce Lynch

by Moritz Mehlem
for Brave Halfling Publishing
Labyrinth Lord
Levels 2-4

Your group of adventurers has to play bodyguards for a spoiled brat – unfortunately her father is paying a huge amount of money. The adventurers have to travel downstream the River Dolm where they can learn more about the region between the village Larm and the capitol Dolmvay.

What’s the worst kind of quest your character can receive in a video game? Fetch Quest? WRONG! It’s an Escort Mission. Nobody likes an escort mission. There’s some pathetic little weasel limping along and you get to spend all your efforts protecting them from the idiotic things they do to themselves. I can’t count the number of times I’ve turned around and shot the moron I’m escorting in a video game. This adventure is an Escort Mission … only it’s fun! I know! I was astounded also!

The Mayor of Larm wants you to take his daughter downriver to the capitol so he can marry her off to someone important there. It’s gonna take about ten days on a barge to make the journey. The designer sets the tone quickly: “Now he only needs a handful of able guards for his valuable asset … sorry, daughter.” Oh Fortuna! A scheming cold father! The adventure starts out right! Oh, yeah, and the mayors daughter is a brat of the highest order. She has all three rooms on the barge. And the barge sailors, while able men, are also surrender monkeys of the highest order. It’s gonna be up the players alone to keep her safe. Gold, I tell you! Role. Playing. GOLD. Paris Hilton. Filthy sailors. A river Journey. GOLD. There’s also a line somewhere between Role Playing Gold and Annoying Your Players. There’s no details on the brat or the sailors so the DM is going to have a free hand in finding that line and hopefully not crossing it.

There are six pre-planned encounters on the river railroad, and a 20-entry wandering encounter table will probably provide about seven more during the journey. The encounters are almost all completely delightful. Only a couple involve unavoidable monster attacks. The rest of the wandering encounters are things like a crocodile following the boat … it doesn’t attack unless the party does. Lizardmen who approach the boat and want a bribe. Mermen selling fish. Fun-loving Nixies, or a floating deer carcass full of rot grubs. I think my favorite, as silly as it may seem, it a group of Kobolds that swim towards the boat at night with daggers in their teeth. It brings back fond memories of many crappy old westerns. These are general peppered with interesting details. For example, a mule swims by, peppered by arrows and barely alive. Attached to him is a note, written in blood, that says “Help.” Now that’s a hook! Take it, skip it, but it’s an intriguing encounter that should get the parties imagination going! This module gets it right. The wanderers are more than fodder. They have something interesting associated with each of them, and not just interesting combat.

The set encounters are just as good. A bored but cowardly giant shaking down river travelers for cash. Crazed bullywugs, uh, I mean, buggywull’s, in a scene right out the Kali Temple in “Around the World in 80 Days.” There’s also an attack by a delightful secret society. They hate dwarves, all take dwarven names as aliases, and give themselves numbers. Balin III, and so forth. It’s a pretty cute hook for an evil group. I don’t usually comment on art in a module but the art for these dudes TOTALLY brings it. It’s simple and yet does wonders to set up the encounters. The final encounter is a great Admiral Akbar: they have to deal with an impostor who’s not actually an impostor, and it almost certainly teaches the party a lesson about getting the details of their jobs correct. The programmed encounters have combat options as well and don’t have to be straight-foward combats. There’s a decent variety also, from singular monsters shaking down the party to rapid hordes doing a temple sacrifice, of sorts.

Yes, since it’s a river journey it’s kind of a railroad, but it’s also a fun one. The encounters are interesting and their short descriptions are very well done and evocative. A great many of the encounters can be ignored or skipped by the party, or even used to their advantage.

The mundane and magical treasure provided is not that interesting. Some coin and book magic items for the most part. I most enjoyed the oversized golden crown, with jewels already ripped out, that the bullywug leader wears. Likewise, the monsters encountered are nothing new and mostly straight from the book although many are aquatic and those are generally less well-used and thus may be fresher. The sailors on the boat could have used some personalization also; if the party has to spend at least ten days with them then they a few details of their interesting quirks and personalities could go a long way to help the DM freshen up the adventure and keep the roleplaying going strong.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59584/Dolm-River?affiliate_id=1892600

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