{"id":3926,"date":"2017-11-22T07:15:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T12:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3926"},"modified":"2017-11-14T10:32:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T15:32:12","slug":"a-little-bit-of-thievery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3926","title":{"rendered":"A Little bit of Thievery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Ken Sturgis
\nTen Red Crows Press
\n5e\/Any
\nLevel 1<\/p>\n

The players are contracted to steal a magic item at a noble’s fancy party, and are forced to abandon their weapons and rely on their wits to survive. Mayhem required and violence (mostly) optional. Success might bring the ire of an elite with a panache for vengeance and money to burn. Beats killing giant rats in the safety of a basement for a few silver pieces, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cA larceny based adventure for morally ambiguous level one characters\u201d, sez the byline. Sign me up! This is a 5e adventure, but it\u2019s being marketed as easy to convert. It\u2019s lightly stat\u2019d, with a few DC checks. There\u2019s probably enough treasure\/xp, if the party does some looting, for a gold=xp game.<\/p>\n

This is a ten page adventure in which the party try to steal a treasure from a guys house during a party. It is NOT a total disaster. It has some good ideas around focusing the adventure information on the task at hand, the heist, but could use more specifics to ground it for the DM. As written it comes off as Just Another Shitty Little Adventure, when in fact I think that’s a mischaracterization. <\/p>\n

This is meant to be a social type adventure, not a hack fest. It notes that the best path forward is casing the place, asking around, subtly, etc, and that starting fights will cause the characters to get in trouble quite fast. The players are contacted by \u201cThe Spider\u201d, an underworld figure, to steal a rare objects when the local lord holds another of his \u201cI am the richest man in the vale\u201d party. Let\u2019s pay attention to that, The Richest Man in the Vale party. That tells us a lot It tells us a lot about the lord and about The Spider. That\u2019s the kind of specifics that a DM can hang their hat on. Its detail without wordiness. That is EXACTLY what I\u2019m looking for when I talk about evocative and colorful specifics. Not wordiness \u201cI\u2019m the richest man in the vale party.\u201d I had issues with \u201cThe Spider\u201d, thinking it was lame, but the picture provided brings the dude to life, with tufts of hair and long fingers. It\u2019s a good example of art bringing the adventure ot life instead of just being filler.<\/p>\n

The adventure does a couple of other things right also. There are three main NPC\u2019s described, for the party, and all of their descriptions are (relatively) short and focused on the action at hand. Pompous and plump lord, quick to anger, intelligent and cunning. The guard captain who drinks to fight his ennui. Good solid stuff. Could be a bit terser and punchier, but still good and don\u2019t overstay their welcome. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a bit of \u2026 telegraphing? Or perhaps \u201cfacilitation of fun\u201d that occurs. The treasure us on display but guarded. Watching the guard reveals him longingly looking at the drink trays \u2026 turns out he\u2019s an alchi. There\u2019s also a despondent noble in the garden who keeps eyeing the hemlock. In both of these case there\u2019s some fun to be had and the adventure helps facilitate that with the party. If the goal of the adventure is to secretly paint the hose black then the adventure needs to focus on painting supplies, paint, and secrecy. ANd that\u2019s what this does: it provides opportunities. <\/p>\n

Likewise the mechanics for the infiltration of the party are decent. The first time the characters caught where they should not be they are asked to move on. The second time it\u2019s a small DC check. The third time they are removed. It\u2019s not just pass\/fail, but leads to move adventure, quick talking, roleplay, and an escalation of effects. There\u2019s also a small little section on Small Talk, what happens if the party avoids it, and suggestions for how to make, with specific conversation starters for the NPC\u2019s. These are good, and, again, shows the value of specifics in the adventure. The designer is writing for the DM, to make their lives easier. You don\u2019t do that by listing all of the contents of a room but by anticipating the needs ot DM and focusing your efforts in those areas. Pre-heist, there are some rumors to find out in town, as well as consequences; careless characters will find that the local lord knows someone has been asking questions about him \u2026 more opportunities for difficulties during the adventure. And speaking of, there\u2019s a nice little section on difficulties for the characters AFTER the adventure, based on the consequences of their actions during the adventure. Nice integration there.<\/p>\n

But \u2026 there\u2019s clumsiness here which, I think, reveals a lack of familiarity with social adventures. Or, maybe, a life in which the only adventures seen are \u201cthree encounters and a boss\u201d kind of shit fests. Judged on that scale this is a masterpiece. But, it\u2019s lacking in areas that would make it more well rounded.<\/p>\n

For example, there are no party guests of note. This adventure SCREAMS for a small table of 15 guests each with a few words\/a sentence of personality in order to spice up the party portion. And, of course, the subplots that go along with the servants, party guests, and family \u2026 none of which is present. As written it seems like one of those mostly generic 5e\/PF affairs; the extra content, a half page, would have done wonders to bring the place to life. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not overly fond of the descriptions either. The read-aloud is the usual atrocious stuff (although short) that communicates nothing. There\u2019s a \u201cmean guard.\u201d Mean is a conclusion; better adjectives and adverbs would help cement an evocative environment. The outside, waiting to get in, is a good example of this. There\u2019s a line to check in, but the entire thing is written as boring as possible. It comes off as a sparsely populated party. Think, instead of the introduction we get to Gatsby in that latest movie \u2026 that\u2019s a \u201cI\u2019m the richest man in the vale\u201d party! Or think of the bustle and hustle and excitement in the air in ANY of those Jane Austen movie balls. None of that comes across or is intimated in any meaningful way. . <\/p>\n

The entire thing is written in room\/key format. That\u2019s TERRIBLE for an adventure like this. The small talk rules are mixed in to one of the room keys. The \u201ccaught where you should not be\u201d rules are mixed in to the outside guard post. Those things deserve their own separate sections, with a minimal key for the actual rooms. The map, while noting guards on it, doesn\u2019t have a key (what\u2019s the \u201cm\u201d on the map mean?) And the map is SCREAMING for more information, like showing patrol patterns, or some such. And, drawn as a normal 2d\/flat map you don\u2019t get a sense of the roofs, windows, and the like which is critical for an adventure involving a heist. <\/p>\n

Those issues are, however, somewhat mitigated by the short length. It IS easy to find things because there\u2019s not a lot of excessive bullshit to clog things up. <\/p>\n

This is a serviceable adventure and it much easier to run, with more potential, than the vast majority of the dreck I review. I think the designer has some potential. This adventure, proper? Well \u2026 the core is solid but there\u2019s not enough going on at the \u201cparty\u201d to get me interested.<\/p>\n

This is Pay What you Want at DriveThru, with a suggested price of $3. The eleven 5-star reviews seem excessive, but, it is DriveThru. \ud83d\ude42 The preview shows you the entire adventure. That great pic \u201cThe Spider\u201d is on the third page. You can\u2019t miss it. \ud83d\ude42https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/145152\/A-Little-Bit-of-Thievery?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Sturgis Ten Red Crows Press 5e\/Any Level 1 The players are contracted to steal a magic item at a noble’s fancy party, and are forced to abandon their weapons and rely on their wits to survive. Mayhem required … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3925,"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-3926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/littbit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926","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=3926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3927,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions\/3927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}