{"id":4072,"date":"2018-02-24T07:14:09","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T12:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4072"},"modified":"2018-02-12T11:45:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T16:45:26","slug":"the-isle-of-klamacki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4072","title":{"rendered":"The Isle of Klamacki"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Jay Kemberling & Joel Logan
\nA Hole in the Ground Terrain & Games
\n5e
\nLeven 1<\/p>\n

They have all been convicted of various crimes. Let your players come up with what they were rightly or wrongly convicted of. They are told they must keep a lighthouse lit for the next five years upon the island as their punishment. A supply ship will come every six months to bring them provisions for the lighthouse. They are told to stay within the walls guarding the lighthouse and not to venture onto the island for great evil awaits them there.<\/p>\n

This seventeen page adventure has the characters stuck on an island. Two individuals offer them an escape, if they kill the other person. It\u2019s quite long for what it is, offering really just two encounter areas. It\u2019s a good idea, easy to read and run, but needs to be fleshed out more.; it seems too small\/lite.<\/p>\n

I reviewed a different adventure in this series and wasn\u2019t very impressed. The folks there suggested I look at this one, one of their favorites. I can see why. It\u2019s quite different in tone and organization from that earlier offerings. The background is short, only about two paragraphs, and describes lovers cursed, and that one must die to break the curse. Nice classic set up. As the intro implies, the party starts on the island. Being PC\u2019s they will no doubt explore where told not to, and this encounter one or both of the NPC\u2019s and be offered an opportunity to escape if only they would kill the other, freeing the NPC from the curse. A melancholy affair, I salute the adventure for getting in and out fast with background and the classic trope. <\/p>\n

The unique magic items are ok, with unique effects but somewhat generic descriptions. A line of \u201cWoW\u201d would go a long way there. It adventure also does a decent job of making Question & Answer time easier for the DM. For each of the three main NPC\u2019s (two accursed lovers and a lighthouse keeper) we get a small section description questions the party might ask and their response. It\u2019s easy to pick things out, even though it is in \u201cread aloud\u201d format. The read-aloud doesn’t really add anything, and therefore it could have been in \u201cDM text\u201d format, saving considerably on space.<\/p>\n

It also provides some guidance with common PC activities. Want to build a weapon? Or hunt? The adventure provides some short guidelines, as well as one or two obvious gimme\u2019s for PC\u2019s, like \u201cA dwarf will recognize the stonework as elven.\u201d THis is good adventure design: anticipating the most frequent issues the DM will have to face and addressing it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s short, with only two real encounters: each of the former lovers. You may visit each multiple times, but it\u2019s just those two. Other than the length and weakness of writing (which I\u2019ll get to shortly) this is the primary issue with the adventure. It\u2019s more of a side trek, in Dungeon Magazine terms. In fact, I\u2019d say it could EASILY be a one-page dungeon and loose very little.<\/p>\n

There ARE some long read-alouds. Again, you get three sentences, at most. More than that and people stop paying attention. Don\u2019t believe me? Go find the WOTC article on the subject. It\u2019s linked in my \u201cReview Standards\u201d page.<\/p>\n

I would note also that he writing addresses the characters directly, which is never a good idea. This is done, generally, to build tension and communicate flavor and I think it\u2019s a TERRIBLE way to accomplish that. \u201cIn your weakened condition \u2026\u201d or \u201cYou make your way to the center of the bottom level \u2026\u201d Nope. Do not. I hug the wall, like I always do, awaiting DM treachery. These attempts at first person writing don\u2019t get the party in the mood, they do the opposite in yanking them out of it.<\/p>\n

The read-aloud is also abstracted. \u201cThe lighthouse looks old.\u201d That\u2019s a conclusion, it\u2019s abstracted from something. Better to write and describe the lighthouse in such a way that the listener\/reader comes the conclusion it\u2019s old. AGain, I\u2019m not looking a novel here, just a short replacement sentence that communicates the vibe that the lighthouse is old, for example. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a moral issue in this adventure, and those are always hard in D&D. It\u2019s supposed to be a fun game; there are indie games available for exploring your childhood traumas. Two accursed lovers. Both want you to kill the other. Both offer you an escape from the island if you help them. No one really evil. That makes the choice hard. A little more in the \u201cChris was obviously evil, at least at one time\u201d category, or a clear third option (there is one of those, but it\u2019s not exactly clear to the party, I think) could help the designer out of that bind.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say this is a good adventure, it\u2019s a tad short and the writing a bit long. But it\u2019s not exactly a bad adventure either. Given my recent 5e reviews that alone is a compliment. A one-page version of this would be a nice thing to experiment with. The vibe reminds me a bit of the Metagorgos adventure I reviewed \u2026 in the last year? I don\u2019t feel ripped off, and while I think the themes interesting, there\u2019s not enough to capture go forward with running it, I think. But … I’m also interested enough in the publisher to check out some of their other offerings. <\/p>\n

This is $1 at DriveThru. The preview is only two pages, with the second page showing you that short little background at the end of it. A third page, showing an encounter, would have been helpful from a \u201cmake a purchasing decision\u201d standpoint.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/225869\/Off-the-Beaten-Path-Vol-I-The-Isle-of-Klamacki?affiliate_id=1892600<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jay Kemberling & Joel Logan A Hole in the Ground Terrain & Games 5e Leven 1 They have all been convicted of various crimes. Let your players come up with what they were rightly or wrongly convicted of. They … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4070,"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-4072","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\/02\/klamacki.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4072","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=4072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4073,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4072\/revisions\/4073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}