{"id":3438,"date":"2017-01-25T07:16:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3438"},"modified":"2019-02-27T09:08:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T14:08:51","slug":"out-of-blackest-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3438","title":{"rendered":"Out of Blackest Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Mattias Narva, Terje Nordin
\nSvard & Svartkonst
\nOD&D
\nLevel 1?<\/p>\n

Residents of the small town of Uriah are concerned. The grave site at St. Athanasius Church has lain derelict for a generation. But even if the ground is covered in dead leaves, and some graves are so weathered that the bones are visible, townspeople have nevertheless continued to visit their family grave sites. Recently, however, ghostly apparitions have been reported\u2026<\/p>\n

This is a nine page single-column graveyard\/catacombs with 22 areas described in a minimal, but functional, manner. It is supported by a decent map and magic items and room descriptions\/details that are just lacking \u2026 but just a little. Overall it\u2019s a decent set up and dungeon and if it were a bit more evocative I could see it being a solid adventure. But \u2026 that\u2019s with my ridiculously high standards. You may indeed find it fine the way it is. As \u201cmini-dungeons\u201d go, I wish they were all at this level of quality.<\/p>\n

This thing only has nine pages \u2026 and three of those are maps and one more the cover. With a page of background that leaves four more for the keyed encounters \u2026 one of which is 50% blank and one of which takes up 50% of the page with a spell description. Using a single-column format, this thing is TIGHT. I wouldn\u2019t call it \u201cminimal\u201d, but it\u2019s about as close as you can get to that word and still be a fully functional adventure.<\/p>\n

The background is all in one paragraph at the beginning of the document, supplemented a bt by a little rumor table. The villagers have seen ghosts in the local abandoned graveyard and are offering a reward to put the dead to rest again. The local graveyards are the real culprits, but they\u2019ve awakened a spectre in the catacombs. Folks looking for terseness need look no further than this intro. It does a great job setting the scene and providing an overview of what\u2019s going on. It, along with the rumor table, do a pretty decent job of supporting the DM\u2019s efforts to run the hook while being almost bare bones. I might quibble some the place deserves another paragraph for a tavern with some major quirk to kind of anchor things. The tavern may be a trope, but if you provided a strong\/evocative\/creative one then the rumors would flow more naturally and you\u2019d have that little bit more …because you know the DM is going to have to do it anyway.<\/p>\n

From here the adventure launches straight in to the graveyard keys, of which there are seven, before continuing with the remainder of the 22 keys for the catacombs below. There\u2019s a decent players copy of the graveyard map, which makes sense since the party can see the entire thing, but I wish there was just a little bit more provided here. It is natural for the players to look at the graveyard from outside of it and say \u201cWhat do we see?\u201d At this point the DM can throw out the players map. You\u2019ve got two choices then. You can describe each of the keyed areas or wait for the players to wander about and describe them \u2026 which I think is a bit cumbersome. It would have been better to have a quick overview description of the entire graveyard. A little scene setter. Closely related, there are a couple of creatures in one of the sections, disguised graverobbers, who come out to scare folks. But if you don\u2019t remember that fact then the characters could walk right by and you\u2019d be left waiting until you got to that particular keyed entry. Noting that encounter on the map, or in the overview, would have a nice little assist to the DM.<\/p>\n

The maps are, otherwise, great. The graveyard proper is a free roam wilderness-type area, albeit small, while the catacombs map is a decent layout with caves and catacombs, a few loops, a river, lots of detail on the map, and about five different entrances to get from the surface map to the under area. Very nice. The map isn\u2019t just a key to the adventure but adds evocative details and creative play opportunities \u2026 at least more so than the usual dungeon maps do.<\/p>\n

The encounters are pretty minimal in their descriptions. Focused. Encounter 4 is \u201cDry Well: A hatch to #12 is concealed in the bottom clay. There are scuff marks from a grappling hook on the edge of the well.\u201d This level of description is, in general, pretty close to the minimum I think you can get away with and still have a chance of having a somewhat decent encounter description. It\u2019s a dry well, we get that from the title. Clay on the bottom \u2026 scuff marks, and a note of where it links up to the lower level. If you will follow along with me for a moment and accept that this is a baseline, then we can judge the rest of the encounters by this one. ANother one is \u201cTombstones. 2 graverobbers are hiding amongst the tombstones disguised as undead. They try to scare away intruders.\u201d Again, very focused, but I will note a major difference that sticks out because of the minimalism: the room title. \u201cDry Well\u201d tells us something about the well that we can use to convey a feeling to the players. \u201cTombstones\u201d gives us nothing but the noun. Adding \u201cWeedy\u201d or \u201ccrumbling\u201d or even \u201cfaded\u201d would evoke some kind of additional vibe in the DM. Likewise, room one is \u201cFuneral Home\u201d, but there is nothing much more provided except it has a stone bench to put a coffin on (I thought coffins were for vampires and caskets were for the recently departed?) and a carved stone skull on the wall. Adding one word to the title could be \u201cRuined Funeral Home\u201d or \u201cBright lit Funeral Home\u201d or \u201cCollapsed Funeral Home\u201d All of these give us just a little bit more \u2026 and that little bit more is what the preponderance of the adventure descriptions are lacking. It needs just a little more. Minimalism is an art. There are NO extraneous words in this adventure \u2026 but it has, I think, crossed the line and left out a few words.<\/p>\n

The creatures are vermin & men, for the most part, which I like. In particular one of the beetles has the following little bit about the poison they spit: \u201cthe opponent su ers extreme pain, chemical burns, blisters and a \u20132 penalty to hit rolls for 1 day, or until the spell cure light wounds is used.\u201d Yes, there\u2019s the mechanical effect, but I really liked the additional little bit about blisters and burns and pain. It\u2019s fucking obvious, of course, if you think about it. But the writers have put just that extra little touch in to help the DM add a little more flavor to their game \u2026 without going overboard. That\u2019s a GREAT touch and it left me wanting more.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some nice magic items, like a religious relic skull that helps you out with turning, nice mundane treasure in the form of things like a silver death mask, a ring that stops aging, and a new spell. In particular, the magic items mechanics are not exhaustively described. The ring stops aging and if you take it off the years catch up with you. The end. The skull allows for turning undead once an encounter. Nothing more. I understand some people want more in the way of mechanics but I think the game has turned too much in that direction and a little more wonder, mystery, and ambiguity is in order. I would note, as well, that there\u2019s an orb that, if broken, animates all of the dead in the graveyard and they go to town to wreak havoc \u2026 ala Death Frost Doom?<\/p>\n

Besides the (missing) descriptive words there are a few other things that could be better. The graverobber gang could use a few more words, maybe on negotiations or deals or reactions or organized defenses, etc. Likewise the adventure abstracts things at times. \u201cPlundered grave goods worth 1,800gp.\u201d Another two sentences for this would have both provided some little bits (hopefully more than \u201crings, lockets, necklaces\u201d) and perhaps some hooks both to follow up on for more adventures or complications that come from fencing family grave goods.<\/p>\n

Anyway, pretty decent adventure. Inoffensive with some good ideas. I\u2019m keeping it. Apologies again, to the designers, for mutilating their \u201cumlaut\u201d names. Sorry, I\u2019m an ignorant american who can\u2019t remember the magic keystrokes. On the strength of this adventure I\u2019m motivated to look and see what else they\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n

This is available at DriveThru.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/187596\/Out-of-Blackest-Earth?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mattias Narva, Terje Nordin Svard & Svartkonst OD&D Level 1? Residents of the small town of Uriah are concerned. The grave site at St. Athanasius Church has lain derelict for a generation. But even if the ground is covered … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-1","category-no-regerts","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/black.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438","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=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5839,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions\/5839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}