{"id":2956,"date":"2016-03-28T07:13:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T11:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2019-02-24T10:05:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T15:05:39","slug":"the-amulet-of-shinkara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=2956","title":{"rendered":"The Amulet of Shinkara"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shinkara\"<\/a>
\nBy Stan Shinn
\nRogue Comet
\nD&D 5e
\nLevels 1-3, 4-6<\/p>\n

Before you spiral stairs, descend into a cobwebbed and vermin-filled grotto: the perilous lair of the orcs. The raiders of the Orc Lord Sharg have long menaced the local shires of Tenamen, but their thievery has now gone too far. Sharg\u2019s Orcs recently stole the glowing green Amulet Of Shinkara whose unique healing properties alone can restore the ailing Lady Alana of Tenamen. You are oath bound to retrieve the amulet to save the princess. The 1,000 gold piece reward for the amulet\u2019s retrieval certainly bolsters your willingness to descend into the skull-littered chambers below! Can you survive the unknown perils below and find the stolen amulet in time?<\/p>\n

This is a decent adventure. I\u2019m going to nitpick it to death because of the chosen \u201c1-sheet\u201d format. If I paid $5 for it (and I did) I wouldn\u2019t feel cheated. Oh course, if it were better then I\u2019d look FORWARD to running it \u2026. \ud83d\ude42 I stumbled upon these while giving some indiegogo money for a cut down\/basic set of the 5e rules. If I was going to buy the rules I decided I might as well get a preview of the writing style.<\/p>\n

This is a 1-sheet adventure, front & back, which details an orc cave and has a couple of extra columns of text to provide some context and pretext for going adventuring in them. These sorts of limited page count adventures give me fits in reviewing. I feel like I pick them apart on details \u2026 but they, by their choice of formats, invite this, I think. Which isn\u2019t a criticism at all for their chosen format. I think that the 1-page and\/or 1-sheet adventure has a lot of merit. It requires a focus to pull it off and that focus should, I hope, reflect further when the designers move into longer products. With only a page you have to choose your words for maximum impact and I\u2019m ALL about maximum impact. I also feel like I end up writing reviews that are much longer than the adventure. To his credit Stan has crammed A LOT into this. It\u2019s got multiple possible \u201cplotlines\u201d, is statted for two different levels of adventurers, contains reference data, and includes some intrigue and\/or factions in the dungeon. It\u2019s also one of the most OSR-like adventures I\u2019ve seen for 5e, not that I\u2019ve seen a lot.<\/p>\n

Let the nitpicking begin!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a little section of boxed text to start the adventure off, followed by a short couple of paragraphs of player background. These both seem to do the same thing in the adventure. There\u2019s enough information in the read-aloud to either use it verbatim to start the party in front of the dungeon stairs, or to use the information in it to expand it a bit in a hook you can roleplay. The players information section, which is about 1\/18th of the entire text, is mostly \u2026 oh I don\u2019t know. Irrelevant? Adds little? There are a couple of nice bits in it about multiple bands of mercenaries being sent out and rumors in a little village that could be worked into more by the DM (that’s a good thing.) The most lengthy section of it through, the background of the lady\u2019s illness and\/or reason you need to go looking, don\u2019t really add much interesting to the adventure. The \u201cmultiple groups of mercenaries\u201d lets you add some more factions and kind of \u201cgold rush of killers\u201d aspect to the adventure. The rumors in the village let you add a kind of village on the edge of ruin aspect to the adventure. But the background on the illness and the \u201cthe orcs stole it\u201d don\u2019t really add much in the way of content you can expand upon.<\/p>\n

SImilarly the DM\u2019s background. It\u2019s a mix of text, tables, information that\u2019s useful and information that\u2019s not. A small random monster table has JUST enough extra data. \u201cTreacherous rivals seeking amulet\u201d is enough to run a decent wandering encounter. There\u2019s a small section of rumors and a small section on generating a random storyline. Both are related, so the rumors may be true or false depending on which plotline and\/or complications you roll\/choose. And \u201cplot\u201d is a strong word here. It\u2019s really just some extra stuff like \u201cwho actually has the amulet\u201d and who ordered the theft, if anyone, and or is the amulet a fake. As always, I would probably choose ALL of the complications and run them at the same time. Chaos is a good thing, after all, it\u2019s all just a pretext for having fun. I\u2019d say it\u2019s all targeted at making the adventure LARGER. What happens after the adventure, what does the amulet actually do, and so on. I appreciate it. The section rubbed me the wrong way at first and it was overly something quite minor. The first sentence of the section says that the party can dispatch a messenger boy to tell your employer of your finding about the caves, before you enter. It\u2019s like, two sentences long. And I wanted to hate everything in this section because of it. SHould that one paragraph be stricken I\u2019d say the entire section does a wonderful job of expanding the adventure context while retaining focus. I don\u2019t know, sometimes I can be an ass.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a couple of sections that follow that add little to the adventure. \u201cVisuals\u201d says \u201cThe GM may want to prepare a map of the lair.\u201d Well, yes, and I may want to buy chips & soda also. It\u2019s really just filler text. The next section is on 5e stats and I really have a hard time understanding why it\u2019s in the adventure. Basically, it says \u201cgo look in the SRD for the stats\u201d for each and every entry, and lists the CR & XP. Everyone in awhile there\u2019s a note to the effect of \u201cShagrat: treat as ogre for stats.\u201d Decent, but probably doesn\u2019t need to consume as much space in the adventure as it does and could be included in the room stats.<\/p>\n

The descriptions are generally pretty good. \u201cLit poorly by greasy cancels burning in upturned skulls of humans, elves, and sheep.\u201d That\u2019s pretty nice! Orcs gambling for shanks of mutton and babies playing with human bones and slugs is a nice touch also. The room descriptions are at their best when they are proving that degree of interesting \u201cquick hit\u201d detail or when they are detailings factions, etc, like the blinded orc in love with a beautiful nymph. They are at their worst when the provide mundane detail or history, or things that can\u2019t easily be introduced into play. \u201cA cave descends from the valley above and into the lair.\u201d Or \u201cThe orcs usually let garbage fall where it may, but when they must they force (blind orc) to shovel it into the refuse pit. There\u2019s also a nice bit where the shamen torturer kills people through torture and then brings them back to life to torture them some more. That would be excellent if it could be worked into the adventure in a better way. As written the two shepherd prisoners who relate it just give the party extra moral authority for their slaughter. Maybe a bit about the ors claiming to be misunderstood or something, until the secret gets out? I guess if the party come in by bluffing their way and get a tour it might happen, or the blind orc could grump a bit, but those seem like a stretch. Maybe you MEET the orc shoveling the filth, with his sewn shut eyes.<\/p>\n

The map is fine and complex enough for an adventure of this size. The treasure, except for the titular amulet, is not that interesting and is disappointedly abstract \u201c3 pieces of jewelry worth 150gp.\u201d Compare that to the full suits of armor with Wolf Head helmets from the Death House portion of Curse of Strahd. Which would you rather have?<\/p>\n

I wish the adventure text was more like the good examples I cited, all slugs and human hands baby toys and greasy cabled in sheep and human skulls. If there was one bit of criticism or advice I had it would be something related to that, more focus in that area. I don\u2019t have a problem paying $5 for a good sheet of paper, I think the issue comes in when folks don\u2019t understand what they are getting for their money, when they are gambling. Somehow gambling $5 on a 20 or 30 page adventure seems ok but not on a 1-sheet adventure, I suspect. As it is this is kind of borderline in my \u2026 tastes? I like the basis of the experiment, in 1 sheet, I like the background\/DM sections, I like parts of the rooms. I just wish the treasure was more interesting and, in particular, the room descriptions\/encounters were more consistent in providing that \u201cquick hit\u201d gameable flavor that I\u2019m always looking for.<\/p>\n

This is available at DriveThru, as a bundle:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/216225\/5e-World-of-Redmark-Adventure-PDF-Collection?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Shinn Rogue Comet D&D 5e Levels 1-3, 4-6 Before you spiral stairs, descend into a cobwebbed and vermin-filled grotto: the perilous lair of the orcs. The raiders of the Orc Lord Sharg have long menaced the local shires … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2954,"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-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/shinkara.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","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=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5702,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/5702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}