{"id":4042,"date":"2018-01-29T07:13:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T12:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4042"},"modified":"2018-01-23T10:16:40","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:16:40","slug":"spores-of-the-sad-shroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4042","title":{"rendered":"Spores of the Sad Shroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Karl Stjernberg
\nSelf Published
\nOSR<\/p>\n

A spore-filled series of caves where everyone is sad, sad, sad!
\nConsole sad fungoids, argue with a gargoyle, risk getting your skin melted off and replaced by a moist, spongy matter! All that and more, in Spores of the Sad Shroom!<\/p>\n

This sixteen page adventure details an eleven room dungeon full of mushrooms. Nice detail, terse writing, great treasure, freaky effects all bring the mushroom vibe. It\u2019s just a tad too \u201csystem neutral\u201d and a bit short, otherwise it would be a home run.<\/p>\n

This thing brings the detail, that\u2019s for sure. Or, rather, it brings the specificity. I\u2019m a strong believer that being specific in your dungeons really cements a scene in the DM\u2019s head and allows them to expand upon it. That allows the designer to communicate far more than the actual text they write. At one point, if you talk back, this could happen: \u201cAn angry mushroom-brute takes one gigantic step out of the wall and cracks its knuckles, loudly. It insults trespassers and gut-punches anyone standing up to it.\u201d That\u2019s a good example of being specific. It really cements the entire scene and communicates the flavor. It does it in just two sentences. It doesn\u2019t drone on with details, or text, or meaningless backstory. It\u2019s an icepick to the brain of an idea. This adventure does that over and over again. It\u2019s one of the more terse written written adventures AND one of the most flavorful. In fact, I\u2019d say this is pretty close to perfect as you can get and still use sentences. There may be other formats, like bullet point phrases or \u201cimpression words\u201d (used to such great effect in Hyqueous Vaults) that can also be used, but, for sentences, this one is close to the top. <\/p>\n

Looking at just the \u201cwhat happens if you talk back\u201d table, you get anxiously apologizing mushrooms who explode, wailing in emotional pain mushrooms, kill me and eat me mushrooms, the knuckle-cracking mushroom, an especially emo mushroom, and a NPC henchman mushroom that steps out. That\u2019s a great deal of detail, and doesn\u2019t even cover the table at the rear to help with the inevitable \u201cI eat a mushroom\u201d character action. <\/p>\n

At one point there\u2019s a river and the text offer three possibilities on where it goes if the characters want to further explore it. All three are magnificent and you could build a lot of fun around them. \u201cThe other evil manta rays are jerks!\u201d<\/p>\n

The treasure can be great. From mushroom effects to hollow magic swords, gobets to be repaired, fingernails and eyeballs (ala Vecna) it reveals in the OD&D non-standard vibe that I love so much. <\/p>\n

No everything hits on all cylinders though. Most of the rumor table is, in contrast to the rest of the adventure, a little generic on detail. \u201cA great evil was sealed down there.\u201d Uh, yeah. Ok. That\u2019s a good example of NOT being specific to the detriment of imagery and helping the DM.<\/p>\n

Further, the adventure is almost systemless, needlessly I think. It doesn\u2019t really provide stats for almost anything, except for a couple of new monsters. \u201cGargoyle\u201d you get to go look up in your own system. Further, there are areas that could be trapped, or, another adventure, have some mechanic associated with them. In one area you pull a sword out of a mushroom and are sprayed with sticky liquid. That\u2019s the extent of the mechanics. \u201c you are sprayed with sticky liquid.\u201d I really like lightweight mechanics \u2026 but I\u2019m colder on \u201cno mechanics at all.\u201d The original mind flayer and his 1d6? That\u2019s fine. Older D&D versions, clone or not, are close enough that this could have been for Labyrinth Lord and it would not have detracted from it. <\/p>\n

It’s also short, at eleven rooms. It feels like you just get in to the swing of things and then its over. <\/p>\n

All of that old D&D mushroom art, from Sutherland and his ilk, sure seem to have had a disproportionate impact on the OSR. It strikes me that a higher percentage than normal of mushroom adventures are pretty good. Maybe it\u2019s the permission to be more fantastic and less Tolkein?<\/p>\n

This is $6.66 at DriveThru. The last two pages are representative of the product. There\u2019s a bit on mushroom commenting on the party \u2026 and the repercussions of giving them lip back, as well as the first three or four rooms. It\u2019s a good preview.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/230641\/Spores-of-the-Sad-Shroom??affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karl Stjernberg Self Published OSR A spore-filled series of caves where everyone is sad, sad, sad! Console sad fungoids, argue with a gargoyle, risk getting your skin melted off and replaced by a moist, spongy matter! All that and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4041,"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-4042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/sporesad.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042","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=4042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4043,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042\/revisions\/4043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}