{"id":4393,"date":"2018-08-25T07:18:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T11:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2018-08-20T10:51:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T14:51:52","slug":"orcs-in-taroduns-tomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4393","title":{"rendered":"(5e) Orcs in Tarodun’s Tomb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Kiel Chenier
\nZero\/Barrier Productions
\n5e
\nLevels 1-2<\/p>\n

A sepulchral tomb.
\nMagical tricks and traps.
\nBrutish orcs guarding a vast underground treasure.<\/p>\n

This eighteen page adventure deals with a small eight room tomb that has been invaded by orcs. Compared to other 5 adventures, it\u2019s a masterpiece. Compared to anything actually good, it\u2019s constrained. It does some nice things with layout, but it comes off as dull and uninteresting, with a \u201cfind the red key for the red door\u201d fetch quest to finish things off.<\/p>\n

The rooms take up about one column per. First comes a little mini-map of the room, and then a bullet point format of the room features. All in a generous easy-on-the-eyes font. I like the bullet point style chosen. Combined with the bolding used it makes it easy to scan and absorb the different aspects to the encounters. Keil has chosen a good format for presenting information. It\u2019s not the only way to do things, but it does work. He\u2019s also got a little bit of order of battle information.<\/p>\n

Ok. Nice guy Bryce is done. <\/p>\n

The map is constraining & simple. I don\u2019t think the map insets work for this. The descriptions are not quite evocative. There\u2019s not much to fuck with. A prisoner betrays you. Useless information abounds. It\u2019s just not that interesting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said in the past that I don\u2019t like Dyson\u2019s maps. I think, though, that it may be I don\u2019t like MOST of his maps. It seems like most adventures that I see that use his maps tend to use the smaller maps. Smaller maps are just not that interesting. There\u2019s not enough space for something to go on. It doesn\u2019t have room to breathe. I recall seeing a couple of larger maps that were ok, but I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible to have a good exploration map with eight rooms. I guess that\u2019s not Dyson\u2019s fault, t\u2019s more the people who choose to write an eight room adventure. And for no reason whatsoever let me name drop now. Kiel. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t find the descriptions evocative at all. Just more like facts. \u201cA holy room devoted to the preparation of bodies for the afterlife. Long tables line the walls, covered in an assortment of embalming tools, and full and empty urns.\u201d Or how about \u201cThe stone walls and ceiling are painted with detailed frescoes of the elven afterlife, showing the souls of elves rising from their bodies towards the ceiling.\u201d Note, that if an elf sees that last room then they have to make a save or be overcome by the frescoes majesty. That\u2019s a nice effect, but it doesn\u2019t match the boring ass description. <\/p>\n

It also engages in the a little bit of extraneous tables & information. It gives names to all of the corpses in one tomb, that has no impact on the game. It\u2019s got a rando orc name generator \u2026 because somehow that\u2019s going to be important to the adventure? They attack immediately in, I think, every case?<\/p>\n

And of course, the prisoner you rescue turns on you. At this point I just kill all prisoners. It\u2019s easier. I don\u2019t recall the last time I saw prisoners NOT turn on PC\u2019s. That should be the new trope, helpful prisoners. <\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no magical treasure? What\u2019s up with that? This dude was an ancient elven hero. And his \u201choard\u201d is 200gp in a chest, some small silver statues, a picture, and a couple of books. Nice hoard? More like \u201cstash in my mattress\u201d maybe?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk 5e. Compared to just about every other 5e adventure on earth, this thing is magnificent. It\u2019s clear and gets in and out fast. But that\u2019s more commentary of the state of the 5e dreck. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s just not much going on here. The map doesn\u2019t allow for it. The room count doesn\u2019t allow for it. The encounters that do exist are pretty simple and straightforward. Yeah, at one point a dead due bangs on the inside of his coffin and asks to be let out. That\u2019s about the only standout.<\/p>\n

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages and shows you next to nothing. You do get to see the hooks on the last page. The first one, with the elf prince trapped in his castle, could be nice if expanded upon.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/248046\/Orcs-in-Taroduns-Tomb-5e?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kiel Chenier Zero\/Barrier Productions 5e Levels 1-2 A sepulchral tomb. Magical tricks and traps. Brutish orcs guarding a vast underground treasure. This eighteen page adventure deals with a small eight room tomb that has been invaded by orcs. Compared … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4385,"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-4393","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\/08\/tarodun.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393","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=4393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4397,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions\/4397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}