{"id":10563,"date":"2026-08-10T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10563"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:28:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:28:35","slug":"tomb-of-the-lich-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10563","title":{"rendered":"Tomb of the Lich Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
By Don J Headrick
Grognard Games
OSRIC
Levels 9-12<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
For centuries the Tomb of the Lich Queen has lain hidden within a vast wasteland of cliffs, canyons and chasms. Now it has been found, and its legendary lost treasures have drawn adventurers from across the realms. Can you navigate deadly traps, fearsome guardians, and age-old puzzles to claim the prize?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This twelve page \u201cdeath-trap\u201d dungeon features eight rooms with a lich at the end. It\u2019s just the usual low-effort dungeon, not particularly challenging, over hyped, and undelivered on. There are Grimtooth overtones, if Grimtooth was a pussy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s eight linear rooms. Do you want a dungeon with eight linear rooms? At level twelve? There\u2019s a map, but I\u2019m not sure why one was even included. You go the only way you can go.\u00a0 In through one door and out through another. Is that a level twelve adventure? Is that worth $6.50?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The marketing blurb says we have a legendary tomb and adventurers from across the realm. I love luv LUV Gone FIshin because of this! A steady stream of others fumbling about, royal currying favor and mud farmers full of pox and starving children desperate for coin. That\u2019s fun! None of that happens here, of course. That would be fun. And imaginative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After several pages of backstory that are meaningless to the adventure you\u2019re dumped in medias res in front of a door. Or, as the adventure puts it \u201cYou have penetrated the pyramid and braved its outer defenses defeating ancient guardians and have finally found the sarcophagus of the Lich Queen \u201c Fortunately, you are still at full strength in every way. Anyway,  \u201cSuddenly gouts of green poisonous gas erupt behind you filling the passage, you have no choice but to hurry into the chamber.\u201d We can see here several classic themes of bad adventure writing. There\u2019s the use of second person writing throughout. This is the \u201cyou\/your\u201d phrasing. This is not appropriate. It is either a crutch for weak writing, which should be improved, or an attempt at immersive dramatic writing, which should not be done this way, if at all. Gouts of green poison gas! Oh no! The entire party is immune to poison, why would we flee? For some reason there\u2019s this idea that you have to force the party. They are there to adventure. You don\u2019t need to force them anywhere. Suddenly, being forced, doors slamming shut \u2026 you\u2019re not writing a movie here. You\u2019re providing a backdrop in which the players, through the party, along with DM are given a place to engage in play. They are, together, creating a narrative, in real time. DONT FUCKING FORCE IT! Shipwrecking the party may be ok for the first level one in a new campaign on an island. It\u2019s not ok later on when the party has the means and desire to make decisions. That\u2019s the fun. Making the decisions. \u201cBeyond the moon door you see\u201d I don\u2019t have eyes you insensitive clod!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rooms here average about a column or so each. This is for fairly basic rooms. Read-aloud over explains \u201cAdorned with frescoes capturing the highlights of the Lich Queens depraved rule. There are scenes of her subjects bowing before her. Depictions of her pacts.\u201d Frescoes, if we must, and then when the party examines them we can respond with detail from the DM an then the party will ask follow up questions and take actions and the DM will respond. This is the core RPG loop. Over-explaning in the read-aloud shows a basic lack of understanding for what an RPG game is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing is padded out \u201cThere appears to be no exit from this room.\u201d Uh huh. Appears is almost never a word to use in adventure writing. It is or it isn\u2019t, from the parties perspective. And from the DMs perspective they have perfect knows. Everything the party has ever experienced in a game \u201cappears to be \u2026\u201d Stating this is just padding. There is little to no theming here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the interactivity standpoint we have this fine gem \u201cIf the players are having an easy go of it, throw some more Salamanders\/Mephits or the Dragon at them.\u201d The height of adventure writing. Lazy adventure writing. What\u2019s the point here? It\u2019s the designers job to write interesting encounters. That\u2019s what we\u2019re paying for. Or, you know, I guess just don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The adventure is marketed as a death-trap dungeon. \u201c Bring 3 characters. You\u2019ll need them.\u201d The first room is a 1d6 pit trap with 1d6 damage from spikes at the bottom. There\u2019s a gel cube in the bottom. I\u2019m not sure this is a death trap. Much is made of the room slightly sloping down toward the pit and maneuvering in the dark toward the pit because of the slope. This sounds oddly specific for an eventuality that is unlikely? Room two is the classic rolling bounder trap in a hallway, with a pit to jump in to avoid it, with a 1d6 damage spike in it also. Again, not sure this is a death trap. And so it goes. Eventually there\u2019s an efreet and maybe a dragon, along with two stone golems and a lich at the end. No one has any treasure, just the staff of power\/wizardry at the end. Also, one room is empty\/a recovery room. This isn\u2019t even grimtooth levels of traps.\u00a0A level nine, not to mention a level twelve, is going to have extensive magics available. I’m not sure a level twelve party would even encounter ANY of these rooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a secret door in a pit, which I always love. This is the non-obvious\/\u2019of course that’s where it is\u2019 thing that is always a delight to see executed in adventures.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s just another low-effort dungeon. You have to really work these things. Every adventure ever in the history of the world is now available for a DM to run. When you\u2019re producing something one must ask if this is possibly the best thing ever? If it’s not then what’s the point? You gotta pour yourself in to these to make them stand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $6.50 at DriveThru. There is no preview. You need to offer a preview so a potential buyer can see a few rooms before they spend money on a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/574184\/tomb-of-the-lich-queen?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Don J HeadrickGrognard GamesOSRICLevels 9-12 For centuries the Tomb of the Lich Queen has lain hidden within a vast wasteland of cliffs, canyons and chasms. Now it has been found, and its legendary lost treasures have drawn adventurers from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10562,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lich.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563","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=10563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10564,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10563\/revisions\/10564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}