tenfootpole.org

This is the first in a series of modules from Pacesetter which promise to be sequels to some the classic adventures of old. Many of the old products had adventure hooks and paths that lead off to other areas for the DM to expand the adventure. As the name implies, this module is a follow-up to the old TSR product B1 – In Search of the Unknown. Recall that in that product the dungeon complex, and a fantastic on it was, was constructed by Rogahn the Fearless & Zelligar the Unknown. Those fine fellows were mentioned as having left on a quest and never coming back. In looting their dungeon the party has discovered journals which detail the duo’s plan to set off and give chance to the barbarians they had been fighting. The party must set off on the trail of the find a ruined city, and rumors of wealth. The tie-in to the old module is a good one however the hook is a bit lacking. “Wouldn’t it be nice to find out what happened to those two guys who’s house we just looted?”

The journey to the ruined city in the barbarian lands will take about 10 days, which implies that the first B1 was really on the edge of the civilized lands. There are no wandering encounters on the overland journey however there are three pre-set encounters. The party will meet a rabid hill giant and a group of giant snakes, as well as a group of evil dwarves pretending to be nice. This last encounter can give the party a map which leads the to the small tomb of a forgotten king. Another optional encounter is a small outpost now inhabited by giant spiders. Each of these can be challenging encounters for a group of 2nd-4th level characters, but give the nature of wilderness encounters, lots of time to rest and recover, they should be manageable. In particular I like the idea of the dwarves having a small hook to their own adventure. This kind of detail is what can make encounters come to life. You’re not just hacking down a random group of humanoids, they had a reason to be where they were. There are a few environmental tricks/traps in the crypt and the outpost, but for the most part they are straightforward encounters.

The majority of the adventure will be set in the ruined city of Shard. The area surrounding the great spire has been divided in to eight zones, each with their own inhabitants. Scattered throughout the zones are the rings the party need to gain entrance to the spire. The zones themselves are not too large, maybe a thousand feet on a side, however they are large enough to allow the party to sneak about, scout, and not necessarily have a pitched battle with the inhabitants of each of the zones. Each of the zones could be thought of as a a decent-sized lair dungeon/stronghold and would probably serve as modules in their own right, give their size & detail. There’s a zone of orcs, goblins, gnolls, and cultists, along with a a couple of abandoned zones full of beasties and a rogue druid who all of the other zones fear. This concept is one that I like. By providing different factions the party is not immediately forced to fight everyone they meet. They all have their own goals. The party can explore, negotiate, trade, scout, and fight pitched battles. In some ways it reminds me of one of the favorite FPS’s, Far Cry. It would give you a goal “get from where you are now to that point way over there” and put some obstacles in your way. You could sneak around the enemy encampments, take them out with stealth, run through like crazy, or kill everything in sight. The freedom this gives a player leads to some of what makes RPG’s special. Again, these humanoids have other motivations than being sword-fodder for the PC’s and this detail will lead to memorable encounters, even if the party does hack them down later. Since the zones tend to be lived-in places there are not a lot of tricks/traps, although there are a few hidden places and secrets for the party to root out, including at least one major one.

Gaining access to the central spire will lead the party to the ruined city underneath. This is very briefly described and really only has one major encounter area: The Dead Temple. Within this environment the party will face many undead and learn the fate of Rogahn and Zelligar. Again, it’s a pretty straight-froward exploration with not much in the way of tricks & traps. Learning the fate of the two adventurers should provide a pretty sweet payoff, especially if the group os familiar with the original B1. Finally, the climax of the adventure is a pretty good one, describing one of those classic situations that people in books usually get in to. It is ABSOLUTELY not a railroad though. Almost any party should recognize what is going on and the decisions they have to make, and their part in what unfolds, should make for a memorable encounter in the best of the OSR tradition. I hesitate to say too much however I will say the dynamic due were pretty bad ass, even if they were only 8th level,  and and a time stop was involved.

This is a pretty good adventure and it should fill up quote a few sessions. While the trick/trap quotient is not very high, it must be said that this is not really a traditional dungeoncrawl either. There’s a lack of wandering monsters also, however there are a few new monsters and magic items. It would have been nice to see a few more, or have the ones that are new be more of a focus of the adventure, but I think I can forgive that in a low-level module. I enjoyed the living feel of the module inhabitants as well as some of the side detail, such as the dwarves treasure map. The potential for a clever party to live by it’s wits is always appreciated. It does a good job of being a sequel without making that the entire focus of the adventure or being too close to the original product. I can certainly recommend it.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263887/B1-Legacy-of-the-Unknown?affiliate_id=1892600

This module revolves around the retrieval of 2 powerful magical daggers, called the Kingslayers, and then the attempt to destroy them. The daggers are intelligent magical items and don’t want to be destroyed. This little twist, so obvious from LOTR, actually surprised me a little. While the 1E DMG has some suggestions on artifact destruction I don’t recall ever seeing an adventure that focused on that aspect. But, Old Dude is old, so maybe I just can’t recall any.

Ages ago the Mind Flayers created a little set of paired daggers called The Kingslayers. The daggers were forged to sow destruction in the above-ground lands by enabling/compelling the death of kings & rulers. In the ensuing chaos the Mind Flayers would keep the upper lands off balance until they could see their conquest plans to fruition. The daggers were successful in what they did, and many a ruler fell to them. Finally, hey were captured and placed in a valley, guarded by a group of elves. And thus the danger passed. Until, of course, the contact was lost with the elves. The Mind Flayers have regained the daggers and are preparing to set about their dastardly deeds again. In the first part of the adventure the party is sent through the underdark to retrieve the daggers, while in the second part they are sent to the plane of Limbo to destroy the daggers.

The first part of the adventure is relatively straight forwards. After surviving an ambush by an NPC party at an inn, the group will head through the Great Marsh, which is really just a set of wandering monster checks, 24 in all, in order to encounter the six groups on the wandering table. The most interesting are a Faerie Dragon and a pack of Vargouille. After trekking through the swap the party gets to an entrance to the underdark and sets off via boat. There’s a drow checkpoint which is an excellent opportunity for roleplaying, as well as a waterborne encounter with some cave fishers. Finally reaching dry land, the party navigates around a purple worm and in to an old dwarves outpost/dungeon now inhabited by Derro and their two Mind Flayer masters. It’s a pretty short affair, with only about 15 rooms. The Mind Flayers will be launching hit & run raids on the party with their psionic abilites, but eventually the party should kill them off and recover the daggers. The ambush at the inn is interesting because it’s with another NPC party; I’ve always been intrigued by those charts in the 1E DMG on NPC party creation. The cave fisher encounter is another nice one, and should prevent some interesting challenges to the PC as they party members are reeled up towards the ceiling. Finally, full 1E psionic Mind Flayers, with their servants, should prove a new & interesting foe for PC’s which haven’t encountered that type of thing before.

The second part of the adventure involves a trip through the astral plane to Limbo in order to unmake the daggers. As such you’ll need the Manual of Planes in order to get the full use out of this section of the adventure. You could wing it without it, however the spell changes and other different effects are part of the fun of an adventure on the planes, so I’d recommend using it. The party and their Githzerai guides are ambushed in the astral plane by a group of Githyanki right before traveling to Limbo. Once in Limbo they should be at the fortress which they need to explore to destroy the daggers. The keep has three levels, but, being on Limbo, it’s entirely random. We get a set of tables describing corridors and rooms, and what shows up on the other side when a door is opened. It’s entirely random, except for one encounter set encounter on each level, which is placed on the random table (a 12 on 2d6.) Otherwise it’s random rooms & corridors. On level1 all of the inhabited rooms are full of dark creepers. On Level 2 it’s Gambados, Gorbels, and Gibbering Mouthers. Level 3 has Gibberlings. On each level the party will wander about, encountering creatures, until they find a stir to the next level or the Special Encounter for that level. The special encounter will have an item that the party needs to unmake the daggers. Once all three are collected then the party can use the forge, in the third levels special encounter, to unmake the daggers. There are a couple of Slaad involved, as well as a couple of new monsters and new magical items.

I mentioned above that the daggers are intelligent and don’t want to be unmade. There are a couple of sections in the module where advice is given to the referee on how to play the daggers. They are probably powerful enough to dominate anyone who picks them up/uses them, and while being unmade they are powerful enough to influence chaotic characters in the same room. I enjoyed this aspect of the adventure. I suspect that not enough attention is really payed to our intelligent/ego friends. It certainly adds a unique aspect to the objects which goes a long way towards making each magic item unique & wonderful in it’s own way. Otherwise this is a really a two-part adventure. The first is a straight forward little adventure with a a couple of tough psionic Mind Flayers at the end. The second is a slog through a random keep on another plane, with all that both of those imply.

This is a tournament module. According to the introduction it was originally written for GenCon 22, in 1989, and then updated and released for the 3rd North Texas RPG con in 2011. The module is divided in to two parts in order to accommodate two rounds of play. My only other experiences with tourney modules are the C1/C2 series, as well as the expanded ‘conversion’ modules, such as the S series. The difference between the two is one of linearity. Tournament modules, must, by their nature, be rather linear and constrained. The expanded S series took the their convention roots and expanded in to something more exploratory and less linear. Storm over Skyreach is certainly a real tournament module, complete with pregens and scoring. It can easily be used as a linear dungeon for a group over a couple of sessions. In fact, it may be LESS linear and more interesting than many 4E and 3E modules.

The backstory revolves around an evil wizard. A few years back he raised a couple of armies, which contained some dragons not seen before, and set about  subjugating the surrounding area. His dragons abandoned him and he lost the war he started and disappeared. It was rumored he had a hide-out high up on Skyreach mountain, however the existence of a barbarian tribe, and war-weariness, made following-up difficult. Now, 50 years later, one of the wizards Storm dragons has been sighted in the area which is renewing fears that he wizard is once again gearing up to cause trouble. The party is sent to find and investigate the Skyreach lair.

After a brief roleplaying encounter with the king the party journeys to a village to rest overnight on their way to the mountain. A ruckus starts outside when a skeletal figure on a winged black horse shows up [I think I had that micronaut when I was a child!], complete with skull in hand, and shouts threats and starts a building on fire. A building with a child in it. Oh, and he turns a stone giant statue to life in the courtyard. Did I mention he also shoots some Shadows out of his skull? That’s a nice warm-up situation for the party!

More role-playing encounters happen with the barbarians tribe, and some wilderness encounters getting to and up to the mountain lair. There’s a great moment with a ring of delusion which is found at he top of a cliff. Nice! Here’s a helpful adventuring tip: don’t experiment with newly found items when you are in potentially perilous situations, like on top of cliffs or in the middle of lava fields. There are a couple of cave encounters prior to reaching the mountaintop lair. The first portion of the module ends with an encounter at the top of the mountain with a Storm dragon. The first half of the module has a few role-playing encounters, a few puzzle encounters, and a few combat encounters. I found it interesting and not at all boring. It should be a nice 3 hour challenge of a group. This first half does have a couple of issues. First, the skeletal figure on the horse flies off before the party can react. This is good from a ‘previewing the villain’, after all, we don’t want another Lareth situation do we? Better to get the party worked up over the Big Bad. I can’t help shaking the feeling though that it’s a bit of a cheap shot. Secondly, there’s a section where the party is knocked out and captured. This is less of an issue in a tournament module, since it’s most;y a series of set pieces anyway, however it still leaves me a bit anxious.

The second half of the module is meant to be round two and has the party exploring the wizards lair. It feels smaller and shorter and much more straight-forward in a ‘dungeoncrawl’ kind of way, even if it is a simple one. There are fewer puzzles, fewer interesting situations, and, IMHO, less fun. It feels like a tack-on rather than the focus of the adventure, which is what the backstory sets it up to be.

Yes, it’s linear, but it IS a well-written tournament module. Meaning that it has plenty of role-playing encounters, tricks, traps, and interesting situations for the party to navigate. It also, necessarily, has a ‘correct’ way to play, since the parties actions have to be scored. It does give some good advice to the tournament GM in running the party, managing their creativity, and limiting the amount of frustration the party may feel.

If this were a 4E module then it would probably be the greatest module ever published, given the non-combat encounters and exploration options. As it is, it’s an above-average OSR module and an excellent tournament module.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263917/TM2-Storm-Over-Skyreach?affiliate_id=1892600

This modules presents difficulties for me, on several fronts. After a great deal of consideration I have finally come to peace with it, or at least I believe I have. Essentially, it’s a manor home murder mystery followed by a dungeoncrawl. I’ve seen a lot of published dungeoncrawls and that portion is neither a whole lot better or a whole lot worse than the vast majority. What you don’t see a lot of is murder mysteries … and with good cause.

I love me some Poirot, but there’s probably two reasons for the lack of murder mysteries, especially at higher levels. First, the party will almost certainly have access to spells and abilities which making the hiding the truth difficult. Know alignment, detect lie, esp, speak with dead, etc. It’s very hard to keep secrets in an environment like this. This is dealt with by a simple statement: don’t let the party have those spells/powers in this adventure. No mystery-breaking spells means the adventure doesn’t break and the games afoot! Beyond this, the villain has gone through EXTRAORDINARY steps to prepare his workspace, the manor, and get everything in order. Memory drain potions, two or three other specialized magic items in the same vein, secret doors and passages, magic to FURTHER obfuscate those secret doors & passages. Minions who specialize in secrets & sneaking, etc. This guys done a lot of leg work; he probably deserves to get his way based on the amount of prep work he’s done.

Which leads to the second major issue: player agency. The players presumably worked hard for those skills/powers that were just taken away, and the DM just took them away during the one time when they are to be most useful. Uncool of the DM. The PC’s have to be able to use what they have and forcing them down a certain path and making them rely on their deductive abilities is a major no-no. I’m sure everyone can relate a story where their carefully dropped and most obvious clue was completely ignored by the party, leading to many frustrating hours of play for everyone. That. Is. Not. Fun.

We have a Manor home full of residents & servants. There’s a LOT of NPC’s in this adventure; 39 named ones who are supposed to be in the house. There’s a large marriage celebration that the party attends. A BIG snowstorm develops, forcing some guests to stay the night, including the party. Some people get murdered by a vampire. The party is under suspicion, and there is an investigation in to the deaths. There are a lot of pre-programmed events that happens, based on a timeline. Again, player agency is undermined.

Finally the party is supposed to figure out who’s behind things, which a major push in the right direction if they are having trouble. This leads to part two, the dungeoncrawl. The dungeon ties in to the manor home very well; hidden floors and Ah Ha! moments lead to entrances … assuming the party is not disgusted by the their earlier lack of success in searching. The ‘dungeon’ is full of undead and the villains minions, none of which I had a major problem with. The traps are not that unusual and I didn’t really see anything I would call an OSR Trick.

As written, I’m not sure I’m happy with this product. If the DM played the murder/investigation party briskly, and didn’t allow the party to waste time and become frustrated, then it may serve as a decent introduction to the small dungeon. IE: a good locale and hook to get the party to go adventuring. It’s going to require a very good DM to get the party moving correctly, not railroad, complete the set up. Allowing the party to investigate at their leisure, and not providing some good player knowledge, will surly lead to ruin, IMHO.

Quantum Ogres:
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-ressurecting-quantum-ogre-and-having.html

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/264076/V1-The-Vampires-Curse?affiliate_id=1892600

Realm of the Technomancer is a double adventure. One side of the book has an adventure for Labyrinth Lord while the other side of the book has an adventure for Mutant Future. It just so happens that these are essentially the same adventure, re-stat’ed and re-described depending on which game the characters are in. In the Labyrinth Lord adventure the PC’s are contacted by villagers who are having some troubles with the (secret) underground portion of their village. This is essentially the same as the Mutant Future version: the underground complex associated with the village is having some trouble. Thing have gotten weird and the villagers want the party to investigate. The village depends on the machinery/magic in the tunnels and they need the party to succeed.

It should become obvious to the party that realities have become mixed. In the Labyrinth Lord version it turn out that a group of Morlocks from a post-apoc time stream have somehow mixed their homeland with that of the Labyrinth Lord villagers. Same set up in the Mutant Future version, except instead of post-apoc Morlocks we get fantasy/magic Morlocks. The two adventures have the same idea, the same basic map, and the same basic encounters with the same basic monsters. The Morlocks are given a little more flair: technoweapons in the LL version and Spears, crossbows, and magic in the MF version. In addition the room descriptions and trappings are localized for the game system, but otherwise the adventures are the same.

The adventure is pretty basic. The tunnel complex is pretty linear and their are only about nine keyed locations. There is a brief section regarding scaling the adventure which is always appreciated, especially since this one provides some non-obvious scaling tips. What would otherwise be a pretty standard ‘clean the tunnels’ adventure is added to by a couple of elements. The first is the Technomancy Mishap tables. Whenever technology and magic are used in the same place then there’s a pretty good chance that something bad will happen, and a slight chance that something disastrous will happen. This should provide a good amount of fun is taken the right light. Taking the PC’s toys away from them has some serious GM fiat issues, Most of the mishaps are not very serious, however there is a slight chance that something VERY BAD will happen. Like a magic item being drained of power of a number of them exploding. This is probably too much for me to drop on the party out of the blue; I like the ‘warn and suffer the consequences’ style of play.

The second interesting element is some of the dungeon dressing proper. Just about every room has something interesting in it for the players to screw with. Some of these are seriously creepy, like the rotting severed head of a gnome wrapped in wire and grafted to pipework who’s eyes continually roll in their sockets and whose mouth whispers nonsense. Others are more environmental, like a slippery & mud covered sloping tunnel. These elements really spice up the adventure and each one is well worth stealing to put in your own game if you’re not going to run the module.

The end of the adventure is interesting also. The Morlocks are trying to return themselves home and the final fight _probably_ has the party trying to prevent this. After all, any party worth it’s salt will usually try and stop anyone they attempting to complete a ritual. Unfortunately … the Morlocks completing the ritual is probably the best outcome. Yeah, things are bit harder for the villagers in the short-term, but live should return to normal. If the party causes the ritual to fail, well, things can get quite a bit worse for both the villagers and the party.

I should also mention that the module is chick full of new goodies. Several new monsters, new magic items, new technology items (with limited ammo that can’t be recreated.) This is always welcome in any module, as it keeps the party guessing, both about their adversaries and about the loot; the sense of wonder and the unknown is one of the most important parts of old style gaming.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/90120/Realm-of-the-Technomancer?affiliate_id=1892600

The Northlands saga is a bit of a different beast than most published materials. It’s quite a bit looser than most published adventure modules, yet quite a bit more specific than most sandbox/setting related materials. Essentially, it’s a Vikings vs. Evil Eskimos adventure. The party is given the opportunity to join a viking treasure expedition to the far north. The Long Serpent, a viking ship, has just returned to port from an exploration/resource gathering trip with a large portion of it’s crew dead, but also with some pretty interesting treasure. another expedition is organized and the party joins. On the way to the north a couple of programmed encounters happens, one of which leaves the party in charge of the expedition. Reaching the shores of the frozen the party then …

What happens next? Well, things could go a few different ways. The party could tool about and hunt seals, whales, and other assorted wildlife. They could also hunt a cult of evil eskimos. What the DM is presented with is a the bare bones of a wilderness area. There’s one ‘good’ village and five evil villages. Each village except for the last is very briefly described; basically how many warriors, dogs, slaves, and women/children. The last village gets a little more, but no maps are provided for any of them. The party is led to believe that the evil villagers have vast amount of treasure, which along with the revenge motive, is the basis for the adventure. Only the last village/temple actually has any treasure though.

And that’s just about all there is to this product. It’s clearly VERY opened ended, just providing a framework for the kinds of action that could take place. How will the party, and the 20 sailors/vikings on their ship deal with the evil villagers? What do the villages look like and what will be the plan of attack, if any? How will the villagers react? What kind of framework will the party use to gather treasure/resources? All in all, it’s very much has the feel of 13th Warrior crossed with Vault of the Drow. “Here’s a bunch of primitive people in some tersely described area. Go get rich and seek revenge.”

We are provided one general map of the layout the villages; how they relate to each other geographically, and one map of the main evil village which shows a bit more information on the huts and so on. a small amount of data is provided on the history of the region and how the peoples came to be here and how the evil cult got started.

If you’re looking for that kind of the general overview of a small area, with an open-ended adventure seed then this will fit the bill. If you are looking for an extremely detailed setting in the far north, ala the MERP Lossoth supplement, then this is NOT for  you. It’s certainly nothing like a traditional dungeon adventure and is clearly a wilderness adventure; something like Isle of Dread if that product contained A LOT less detail. That’s not in and of itself a bad thing as long as you know what you’re getting in to. It’s really a kind of adventure seed that’s quite a bit more fleshed out than most.

There is one encounter I take issue with. One of the programmed encounters causes he captain to die, putting the party in charge of the expedition. I understand WHY this was done, so the party can do what they want, but I’m still a bit uneasy about it. A certain part of me thinks that if the captain was left alive then it could have provided some interesting roleplay moments as the party seeks to EARN the trust of the crew and perhaps tangles with the captains motives, especially of the party were co-leaders of the expedition.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/175454/The-Northlands-Series-1-Winters-Teeth-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

There’s something about this module that makes it appealing and I just can’t figure out what. On the surface it’s a rather straightforward affair. Go to a village plagued by evil. Go to ruined manor house. Explore. Kill bad guy. Nothing much. But in reality it seems to have so much more.

The module runs about 28 pages of heavy stock. It contains three primary adventure areas: a small village, a graveyard, and a ruined manor house. The players get a player handout from the village sheriff asking for help. On the way to the village they meet some refugees and Ye Old Rumor Table is broken out. I love rumor tables, and fleeing refugees are a great way to distribute them. Hitting the village the players are confronted by the following BOXED TEXT: You know you have reached the outskirts of Sheridan Springs when you pass an unkempt cemetery on your left. As you get closer to town, you see that several houses have been boarded up and abandoned. Those that are still occupied all have their windows closed and curtains drawn. There are very few people on the street. At the towns center the road widens around a well and a stone monument. The blacksmiths shop and Harold Johnson’s Inn seem to be the only businesses open.

Yeah, it’s boxed text and boxed test sucks, but it’s VERY good boxed text. It conveys the feeling of the town and mentions every single area of interest in the village. In particular I like how the stone monument is mentioned in passing. It reminds me of the way dungeon environments should be described: a passing reference to several objects which the party needs to ask further about to get more information. I don’t wish to imply that all of the BOXED TEXT (which is actually bolded text, not boxed) is this good. In fact quite a bit is not. “Still hot stew” and “a corridor used by former servants to run errands” both serve as counter-examples of BOXED TEXT not doing what it should. The module is trying to be a ‘pick up and play with no prep’ affair, so at least he boxed text can be justified, but still quite a bit of it is bad and/or overly long.

That aside, did you catch the name of that inn, Harold Johnson’s? The sheriffs name is Olob. These sorts of things remind me of the way I run a game when I start to get a bit loopy after too many hours of DM’ing. I love it. It brings a feeling of authenticity and familiarity to the module. The inn is another good place to scrounge up rumors, so the rumor table is pulled out again. It seems the village is suddenly plagued by evil. Did I mention that the villagers recently turned up a small stone obelisk while clearing fields and have moved it to the center of their town? Again, hint of a real home campaign. These villagers are simple people, real salt of the earth. You know: MORONS. There’s nothing I love more then making my villages full of mud and dirt and morons. Why did we put the strange obelisk with weird runes in the center our village? Seemed like a good idea at the time …  Well, it turns out that’s really the end of the obelisk. It doesn’t really play a part other then being an ‘evil magnet.’ Sure, the party can get rid of it, but that’s not really the adventure.

The cemetery is another locale that can be briefly explored. Very briefly. I only mention it because I found it quite amusing. Two orcs are down in a grave digging up a body. They left a skeleton on guard. “The skeleton was a poor choice to leave on guard. It can be surprised on a roll of 1-4.” Ok, it’s subdued, but I liked it. 🙂

Finally we come to the manor home. Turns out the last mayor liked to experiment with portions and went and blew himself up. Getting to the manor house could be an issue: a nice wandering table is given, complete with Owlbear and a walking evil tree! Unfortunately, the map scale is a bit large and the DM is instructed to “roll for monsters as he sees fit.”

The manor is small, with two stories above ground and one below. It is, however, quite charming. The party is not really channeled in to any specific area and the central corridor systems allows for the party to explore the rooms ad-hoc. There’s generally only one intelligent monster per level, with a few vermin and undead thrown in. It’s the details though that make the difference. A room the orcs have to run through to escape the stirge in the chandeliers … complete with orc corpses lying on the floor. Disturbing portraits and a nice spooky encounter in the master library round things out. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the book on cannabis cultivation. Yeah, it’s sooooo high school but then again that kind of playfulness is part of what makes life fun. I LIKE the monster mix. vermin are always welcome, and restricting itself to just a single type of humanoid, Orc, both seems more realistic (or at least doesn’t make me say WTF?) and also makes it quite easy to replace them with bandits. Finally the Necromancer and his undead, while a trifle overused in modules, were presented with enough uniqueness, through the details, to make them not only inoffensive but in some cases downright interesting encounters! The module only has a few magic items, as a low level module should. In addition they tend to be potions and unique items. I like both of these choices. I want my magic items to be unique and full of flavor, not just “shield +1” or “cup of cure light wounds”.

The adventure is not the most unique however the devils in the details and I found the flavor provided for the DM to be more than enough to bring the thing to life in my mind and overcome the “Yet another manor house” adventure barrier. Plus, I love idiot villagers and the thought that they would bring back some mysterious obelisk to put up in the center of their village.

Insidious used to have module code TSR1 and list itself for use with AD&D. My second print run copy is now labeled DCG1 and lists itself for use with 1st Edition Advanced. A charm against the trademark troll, no doubt.

There are at least three versions of this module. Normal ‘ol DCC7 is a third edition adventure, while GG3 is for Castles & Crusades. This version is by Black Blade Publishing, under license, and is for the First Edition of the worlds most popular fantasy roleplaying game. The trademark troll strikes again! I have absolutely no idea why this DCC is so popular; the reasoning completely escapes me, unless it was an experiment in systemless design so they could release modules for every game system simultaneously. In any event, the credits lead one to believe that Black Blade just converted the adventure to OSR and that’s it. I hope that’s the case for the mad archmage’s sake.

What we have here is something very evocative of Saltmarsh. There’s a lighthouse that people think is haunted. There’s a ruined house attached to the lighthouse. Both have been ‘haunted up’ by a group of smugglers that dwell in sea caves underneath. And there are fish-men, Locath in this case, that are involved also in another connected cave system. That’s four adventure areas and maybe 60 keyed encounters. covered in about 32 pages with a ‘double module cover’ ala Queen of the Demonweb Pits. There are three player handouts, all on one page for easy photocopying.

There’s a village quite nearby, with a thousand feet or so, with a population of 550. It has about six businesses described, including the local alchemy shop. An inauspicious beginning, even if the town is described at the end of the module. The village lacks any sort of flavor at all; if you’re going to use DCC7 then I’d suggest transplanting in some Harnic village or town.

The lighthouse has four rooms, one per level, with a very simple wandering monster chart. Basically you get to experience two spooky illusions and then a real undead haunter before making it to the top, wherein the first clue lies to the actual events going on. The ruined manor home also has a rather simple wanderer chart to go along with it’s 12 keys. Gnolls, scorpions, weasels and a harpy lurk about. There’s not much going on, although a thorough group will pick up a clue for a magic item discovered deeper. Well, not much going on except for the BOXED TEXT. I did mention the BOXED TEXT didn’t I? I wouldn’t want to forget the BOXED TEXT. The BOXED TEXT is in just about every room in the module. I loathe boxed text.

The first dungeon level is more of a ‘basement of the house’ level, complete with evil demon temple and prisoner cells. I like prisoners in dungeons but this cell area has a problem. You see, there’s an Iron Flask in one of the cells. If the party opens the flask then we’re given instructions on what happens as the creature appears. If they don’t open the flask then the creature is sitting in the middle of floor is a cloak over it. Wait, what?! If I open the flask then the monster appears but if I don’t then it’s sitting on the floor? Clearly, something is amiss here in the design, something being left out or being lost in the translation or original concept. Otherwise, it’s giant rats, dark mantles lame wanderers, and the temple with a couple of devils and an undead.

The second dungeon level is the home of the smugglers and the module makes a big deal of the tides. Two high tides and two low tides a week, with the high water line marked on the map in multiple places. Great! Good detail! Except of course for the fact that several of the smugglers rooms are below the high tide mark. The smugglers storeroom? Below water twice a week. The leaders opulent bedchamber? Below water twice a week. Long-term prisoner storage? Guardroom? Treasure chamber? All below the high water line.

Finally we get to the Locath caves. They throw pots of green slime at the party. Look, I don’t mind gonzo, in fact I LOVE ASE1, but either do gonzo or don’t. If you just toss in some half-ass gonzo like this then it feels like a cheap shot. Otherwise it’s caves full of Locath and their leader. Joy.

This thing is a hack-fest. Almost every room has an encounter in it. In fact there are about 31 creature rooms and 5 traps rooms. Not a lot of room to maneuver around with your bloody battle-axe doing your talking for you. I’ve heard people talk about this module in glowing terms but I’m at a loss as to why. Yes, there are no ancient dragons in 10′ rooms, however that’s a rather sad commentary on what it takes to be a good design. More puzzels! More factions! More complex maps! More weird! Alas, those are not present in this product.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1781/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-7-The-Secret-of-Smugglers-Cove?affiliate_id=1892600