{"id":10545,"date":"2026-07-29T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10545"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:36:11","slug":"the-master-of-puppets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10545","title":{"rendered":"The Master of Puppets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Gordy Higgens
Self Published
OSE
Levels 4-6<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The ‘Toymaker\u2019 has gone missing – and nobility across the realm are scrambling to get their hands on his highly sought-after dolls. Hauntingly beautiful, and scarily well made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His workshop is hidden, deep within the \u2018Whispering Woods\u2019. A dark and desolate forest, that locals warn all who dare enter, never return… that is, all except the Toymaker. To find his workshop, you must navigate the pitch black wood, haunted by imprisoned demons, zealous lumberjack wardens, cursed werewolves, possessed dolls, an entitled elf prince and a gaggle of other monstrous horrors. The balance of power in the woods is shifting – will the evils that lay trapped here be released unto the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 52 page adventure presents about thirteen hexes and a couple of dungeons with about thirty rooms total in a dark forest kind of fairytale vibe. Sinister plots abound while the party tries to navigate a lot of competing goals in an adventure built to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, so, as I\u2019m describing what\u2019s going on I\u2019m going to have to ask you put aside certain feelings you have. Like, when I say \u201ctoymaster\u201d or \u201cpuppets.\u201d I know we\u2019ve all been indoctrinated to expect certain things from the use of those themes. I promise this one isn\u2019t like those others. Also, I suspect that the cover art might be a bit offputting. The designer is also the artist, so, hey, sorry man! I think the interior art is fine but the cover, along with the title \u201cmaster of puppets\u201d both sort of lean in to some tonal and historical implications that we are ALL bad people for having but which are true nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s think of a dark forest fairy tale vibe, maybe with a touch of farce in it, similar to Gone Fishin. And there\u2019s a lot going on in this place. The Whispering Woods are a kind of dark forest\/mirkwood stand in. All ancient and old and dark and foreboding with rumors of ancient battles and demons. And that the woods will whisper to you. There are woodcutters in the forest, who were once a kind of border guard keeping an eye on the woods but over time are perhaps a little financially focused. Especially since their funding was cut. Funding? Yes, the elves used to fund them. Let\u2019s think a more Fey-like elf than a Tolkein-elf. ANyway, the border guards get their funding cut and now the mission has degenerated. Why does it need border guards it\u2019s a literal demon forest, the trees are demons. Some old elf king defeated an invading demon army long ago and turned them all to trees. His magic axe, along with his bloody handprint, is embedded in a tree stump in the middle of the woods. Also, the trees can\u2019t be cut down. Let\u2019s think a super strong ironwood. In to this comes the Toymaker, who lives in the woods and makes wooden dolls. Expensive wooden dolls. That everyone just loves to get for their rich ass trust fund kids, like some fairy tale stanley cup. Yeah, he figured out a way to cut down the trees and makes dolls from them and lets the border force sell the remaining wood. Also the dolls whisper things, an attempt by the toymaker to embed his little chukies in to the nobility in order to influence them and gain power because, yeah, the demon from the tree is now in the doll, kind of, bound by the doll clothes. A couple of the dolls get loose and the toymaker goes looking for them, only to get killed by some werewolves in the forest. Werewolves that are turning the border guards and whose curse starts from a different fey-elf that was kicked out of elflandia, is 143 in line for the throne, and now wants to take over the wood and thinks that a perfect way to start that is kicking everyone out starting with the border guards. I think I just wrote a page on that shit? And theres more people\/groups running around in there. A slightly different framing of the toymaker would have hit better, but it all kind of makes sense in an evil consequences kind of way and is not as \u201cpretext\u201d as the length of description might otherwise imply. These are just things following from others naturally, if pushed just a little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hooks are the usual lame hired\/dream shit, but the first one reads \u201cA local Count wants the doll he ordered for his daughter’s birthday, but the Toymaker failed to make his delivery last week.\u201d This one, I think, could have been pushed more and be the center of the adventure, much the way Gone Fishin was. A little expansion, a little more farce. And it\u2019s gonna fit in well with people you meet in the forest, cavalier mercenaries who are sent by THEIR patrons to get toys for THEIR kids. A little push here in the writing, the absurdity, a tinge of evil, future chukie foreshadowing, insane offers, this would have lent a nice opening vibe that would frame the rest of the adventure instead of having just some genero stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a decent number of NPC\u2019s in this. They are well organized with wants, needs, knows, offers to the party, along with short little descriptions like \u201cWild red hair. Always shouts, unable to speak at a reasonable volume\u201d or \u201cA nude, 2\u2019 tall, crudely made wooden puppet. Exclaims \u2018oh boy!\u2019 frequently.\u201d Perfect little nudges for the DM. You can talk to a lot of people and things, including a termite queen who can be particularly useful in a forest full of evil wooden chuckies. Not everyone is friendly, and a lot of the situations are tense and almost all can lead to some combat, but the talky talky option is there for a smartie partie. Think of the cavalier mercenaries, as an example of talking and fighting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magic items are decent. \u201cRoyal Ceremonial Sword – +2 Elven Glass Blade, with gold leaf details. Used in knighting ceremonies. On a critical hit (19-20) it shatters, doing maximum damage. Repairs itself in 1d6 turns\u201d and \u201cThief\u2019s Lantern – Emits an area of light only visible to the wielder, and others that touch them.\u201d These are nice little examples. Interesting effects to be sure. Useful, fun, unusual. They FEEL magical, especially the lantern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The entries start with a little overview that could be a read-aloud (In fucking italics! Don\u2019t do that!) with certain words underlined and bolded (I\u2019d do one or the other, not both) and those bolded\/underlined words are then followed up with in their own sections with more details. A Sentence or two for each keeps them each to scan and run. Descriptions are not winning awards but are still pretty good. \u201cA large open-cut marble quarry. Filling with water from a spring on the northern cliff face. A dull glow emanates from the loudly bubbling depths. Red handprints cover a nearby marble boulder. \u201c I don\u2019t like \u201clarge\u201d, but, not a bad little description and it hints at many things to follow up an examination on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is A LOT to get in to trouble with in this, mostly from the party fucking around. Not in a Museum Tour kind of way but just the party doing normal shit. The locations can be fantastic, like a buried titanic statue you enter through a mouth, filled with stac\/tags inside. Some of the wanderers seem rough, like 2d6 werewolves, but, hey, it\u2019s OSR. You\u2019re going to be doing a lot of freeing people, questioning them, and so on to get information you need to find the workshop, itself a twenty room dungeon. All without getting screwed over by the captives and\/or people you meet along the way. Can you, having discovered termites, put together that this is an excellent resource to take advantage of in a wood themed adventure? If so, the designer was ready for you. Or, you can just stab them. How shall you navigate the mercenary knights? \u201cContract knights, mounted on warhorses. Equipped with expensive weapons and armour. Annoyed they couldn\u2019t just pay someone beneath them to fulfill their quest \u201c Overemployment has always been a thing man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $10.50 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages, showing rooms keys. Great preview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/569545\/the-master-of-puppets?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Gordy HiggensSelf PublishedOSELevels 4-6 The ‘Toymaker\u2019 has gone missing – and nobility across the realm are scrambling to get their hands on his highly sought-after dolls. Hauntingly beautiful, and scarily well made. His workshop is hidden, deep within the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-the-best"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/569545.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10545","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=10545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10546,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10545\/revisions\/10546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}