There\u2019s trouble right here in Bryce City my friend. Boring details aside, that means I ended up buying about $40 of stuff from my DriveThru wishlist. They don\u2019t fit the adventure category, which is why some of them have been hanging out for awhile now on the list. Dungeon Lord and Wormskin were a part of that buy. Here\u2019s the stuff that doesn\u2019t qualify as an adventure. I promise to not do this very often and staff focused on adventures.<\/p>\n
The Dungeon of Doom
\nThis was promised to be a live action LARP set up as a dungeon delve. I guess it IS that. There are seventeen scenes. At one point The Dread Gazebo attacks. The party has to choose a character to die. Also, another character becomes wounded. Also, someone can get a treasure. I kind of get what they are going for, but the LARP\u2019ing possibilities seem REALLY limited. \u201cChoose someone to die\u201d isn\u2019t really my kind LARP\u2019ing. (I think I have a write up of my kind of LARP\u2019ing over at Fortress Ameritrash.) Anyway, most of the scenes are like the one above, choose someone to die, someone gets wounded, gain a treasure. <\/p>\n
B\/X Essentials – Core Rules
\nI grabbed the txt version of this for free. I think the formatted version is cheap, like $1 or so. I like B\/X, it\u2019s my favorite rules. This is ok, but not enough to make me switch from my copy of B\/X and my Ruffians & Reprobates rules (on my google drive.) Beyond the formatting, I just don\u2019t need the rules anymore. I don\u2019t care about swimming or gale rules or boarding vessels. That\u2019s what Rulings not Rules is for.<\/p>\n
Fantastic Exciting Imaginative – Volume Two
\nI have no idea how two got on my list when I don\u2019t have one. This is aimed at Holmes and it has a hardcore OD&D bend. And while I like the B\/X rulebook I like the OD&D vibe. Unique spekks, magic items and monsters, which remind me a bit of the same sort of vibe that the items, spells,and monsters from Fight On! had. Fight On being one of the best magazines, ever, of course. Unique items with character. No Sword +1 to be found at all!<\/p>\n
Flickpig
\nI recognize Desboroughs name, but I don\u2019t recall what he\u2019s done? He says he\u2019s edgy and people don\u2019t like him? Anyway, i this \u2026 adventure? You play as pigs in a slaughterhouse. You\u2019ve got special abilities and are trying to escape. The map is random and made up of various slaughterhouse rooms and \u201cmonsters\u201d from the people who work there. The room descriptions are quite evocative. The Freezer room is \u201cBlinding white. Slick footing. Breath makes little, puffing clouds. It\u2019s winter in a room. Icicles hanging down and frozen corpses swinging from hooks or sitting in blocks of ice all around.\u201d A little grim for my tastes, but very well written and immersive!<\/p>\n
Homeward Bound – Simple Rules for Player Owned Base
\nThis is more of a \u201cregional setting if you own a manor\u201d than it is a guide for manors. Note the singular. It\u2019s actually ONE base. 27 pages to describe the interior of one manor and the cost to upgrade it. Some shit that can happen\/hooks. Methinks someone didn\u2019t read HarnManor \u2026 the closest village is a two hour walk away. Lots of potential hooks and things going on nearby are the highlight here. So while HarnManor and the 1e DMG (and almost every other supplement dealing with domains) are better at the mechanics, this one has a decent regional setting and\/or plots to then go forward with. That part could be a decent resource if you were interested in a \u201cwe own a manor\u201d campaign. This grows on me a bit every time I read it.<\/p>\n
The Eternal Rest
\nAn inn in an old mortuary, staffed by skeletons. Creepy mortuary setting. Suitably macabre special dinks. You can even sell your body to him (when you die) for use as a servant in the inn for free drinks. Some plot devices are included for the DM to expand upon. But it takes 19 pages to decribe the place and you now know enough, from my review, to run it better than the book describes.<\/p>\n
Town of Split Stone
\n50 pages to describe a town \u2026 with a name for all 600+ people in it. The descriptions concentrate on the people and their lives. What they are up to and so forth. Tat\u2019s the correct approach, although it goes in to far greater detail than need be. Woven throughout the town are five little intrigues, detailed in the potential plots section in the back. It\u2019s well written, in that it concentrates on the people a lot more than the buildings, but has so much detail it feels like a research book that a tv series is going to be built around. \u201cThe historical village of Blandmire.\u201d WAY too much to be useful at a table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s trouble right here in Bryce City my friend. Boring details aside, that means I ended up buying about $40 of stuff from my DriveThru wishlist. They don\u2019t fit the adventure category, which is why some of them have been … Continue reading