{"id":10040,"date":"2025-11-08T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10040"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:33:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:33:52","slug":"huberts-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10040","title":{"rendered":"Hubert’s Hole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
By Nicholas Lemler
Self Published
OSR
Levels 4-5<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Hubert the Halfling was a successful adventurer before settling down and beginning a Shire of his own. After building a home to humble many among even the big folk, Hubert invited his clan to live with him in the hopes of starting a vineyard. Little has been heard in the last week or so, however, and passersby say the place looks ransacked. A group of Expert adventurers could potentially find answers, as well as loot from Hubert\u2019s many adventures within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 26 page adventure uses ten pages to describe about sixty rooms over about three levels in a hobbit hole complex now overrun. It\u2019s got some interesting specificity here and there that really grounds it as a halfling adventure, but in general it comes off as a hack with a few traps in a bland environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do you have an elf adventure FEEL like an elf adventure? How do you make a dwarf adventure FEEL like a dwarf adventure? Well, the designer here managed, in spots to really make this adventure FEEL like a halfling home. At least in places. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a small feat. The number of generic elf tree forts and dour and bland drawf homes that I\u2019ve seen is seemingly beyond number. We have resorted, a great to edal, to treating them like humans with points ears or short humans with beards and calling it a day. Oh, and stick in a few trees or a rock or two, depending. They have never felt alien, or even that different than humans. Even, accepting that they don\u2019t really need to, they\u2019ve never felt that interesting to me in tha vast. Vast majority of adventures. This adventure, however, does a decent job, in some laces, or really bringing in that halfling vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to highlight just three halfling related phrases from the adventure; \u201cLobelia Tumbleberry\u201d, \u201cA breathless halfling named Fredegar Hardbuckle (second cousin, once removed to Hubert)\u201d, and \u201cJar O\u2019 Pennies sits forgotten in a southeast corner.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I frequently talk about the power of language and its ability to reference more than the written word say. The very best in evocative language lets you learn things about the world by implication. More than the written word, the implication of what was written has meaning and lets you springboard off of it. It summons up from the dark recesses everything you have ever known about halflings, large families, and that pseudo-english small village vibes that Tolkien channeled. Sackville-Banningeses! If you can\u2019t channel the personality of each and every one of thirty halflings from that one throw-away-like \u201csecond cousin, once removed to Hubert\u201d then I don\u2019t know man, I can\u2019t help you. Anyway, there are some very nice little halfling vibes, at places, in this. Not a lot, and generally in to the preamble rather than the adventure keys proper, but there are some good examples here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It does a few other things well. \u201cThe stench of trolls in room 11 is strong\u201d, tells us one room. I love a good light\/smell\/sound warning, or, at least, and adventure that thinks about the environment as a whole to assist the DM. The descriptions are \u2026 let us politely say. Focused. \u201cMess of long-since pillaged crates and boxes. Gnawed animal bones spread about floor, primarily near hall east. Old Jewelry Box lies in a broken crate. 30\u2019 x 65\u2019\u201d I like the GNAWED animal bones, and the east hall gives us a hint of what\u2019s to come. Both are nice touches. But, also, let\u2019s look at a general layout\/description:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a room name. That\u2019s good. I might stick in an adjective, but, we\u2019re starting off well with a framing of the information to come. I\u2019m not the biggest fan of room dimensions in a description. I think that  most cases it\u2019s repetition from information on a map, but, also, I know some people, the salt of the earth, like it. But, then  there\u2019s the Occupants and Loot section. I am less than thrilled at these. We can generally intuit if there\u2019s no loot in a room by the description not mentioning loot. The same for creatures, if none is listed in the main textual description then there must not be one present, eh? I get, perhaps, that the Occupants section might just be another way of listing creatures, instead of say, bolding or some such. But I think it\u2019s a poorer choice. The creatures come late in the description and, in most cases, they should probably be up front, or at least near the top,of a description when they are obvious. No sticking in a \u201coh, yeah, ancient read dragon\u201d after a five minute room description. They also, I believe, fit in a little better. They feel more at home when they are in the room description rather than listed at the bottom of the description like this. A little more, naturalism? They generally feel more like they belong and are doing something  there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actual descriptions tend to be quite light. There\u2019s nothing wrong wit being short, but they also feel more than a little hollow. An almost minimalism element present. That description of the backdoor is great. Narrow hallway, dirty shoes, clothes piled haphazardly. And the weasel nest fits PERFECTLY in to that. I\u2019m reminded of an adventure centered around three singing witches. Which actually turned out to be harpies, not withes. Doh! Oh course! I love it when the party is told exactly what something else and then doesn\u2019t see it. Masterful stroke, doing that. The room one guest room is a little meh, but, also, it could be  the entrance (and, to the adventures credit, windows are listed on the rooms, and their state, so you can break in. Yeah!) I think the descriptions are a little too workmanlike for me, a little too fact based to really communicate the vibe of the room. Taking that room five description, the wide table is a nice nod, as is the bones and rotting flesh, a clue as to whats nearby. But its just a little too \u2026 staid? And the room numbers could stand out just a little more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The encounters feel a little \u2026 plain? The doppelgangers in the barn from the screenshot are a good example. There\u2019s a little note elsewhere about them, but the encounter is just a little off. It needs a little vignette, or situation. The weasels are a high point, I guess and the others feel a little like \u201calso, there’s a monster in this room.\u201d Not integrated in, or lacking activity. There\u2019s also little in the way of alerts, for monsters reacting to things or to intrusions. It feels like everyone is just in their room, as a kind of afterthought. There are a few \u201csurvivors\u201d hiding in rooms, and those feel a little more integrated, but not as much as I would like either. As if the room occupants were divorced from their surrounding and\/or environment. There\u2019s just a little too much DM sauce needed. I think I\u2019m looking for something to springboard a more dynamic environment, as a DM. I don\u2019t need to be spoon fed but just a little more to get the a more dynamic play style going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is the first eight pages, with no rooms shown. Traditional room\/key adventures should show you at least a few of the rooms in a preview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/532723\/hubert-s-hole?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Nicholas LemlerSelf PublishedOSRLevels 4-5 Hubert the Halfling was a successful adventurer before settling down and beginning a Shire of his own. After building a home to humble many among even the big folk, Hubert invited his clan to live … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hubert.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10041,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10040\/revisions\/10041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}