{"id":4436,"date":"2018-09-22T07:17:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T11:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4436"},"modified":"2019-01-21T13:17:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T18:17:44","slug":"saving-saxham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4436","title":{"rendered":"Saving Saxham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy JR Lewis
\nDungeon Ag Adventures
\n5e
\nLevels 1-3<\/p>\n

The village of Saxham has been struck by a terrible curse! Or perhaps it\u2019s being terrorized by demons, ghosts, and the undead? Or\u2026 was there a terrible storm? Maybe? No one seems to know exactly what happened here. But the villagers are terrified, bizarre monsters roam the forest, and strange lights strike the woods every night at midnight\u2026<\/p>\n

Fuck me. An eighteen page 5e adventure that doesn\u2019t suck. Good magic, good NPC\u2019s, good information transfer (mostly) and a setup that\u2019s not the same as every other adventure under the sun. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s a damn sight better than most 5e. I\u2019d run it.<\/p>\n

Twice now I\u2019ve seen .. \u201cgentle?\u201d 5e adventures. I\u2019m playing in a 5e game and when confronted with an evil artifact controlling people, three kids with black eyes speaking in unison \u2026 and then when they started to crackle with blue electricity I blew out one of the kids throats, killing him. Turns out I was supposed to save the kids. IE: find a non-violent solution. This adventure is similar, with aspects of the \u201cthe dragon is actually the good guy\u201d trope. This is a different play style. While I\u2019m always a fan of letting people talk to monsters, the whole \u201cultra-violence is not the answer\u201d 5e style is new to me. I think it\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s your spoiler, which I\u2019ll actually warn you about for once: everyone in the village died from plague. 30 years later, the ghost of the village priest is bringing their bodies back to life, but it\u2019s a three day process during which they _resemble_ evil treants and then evil zombies. Left alone, everything will work out ok. But we\u2019re not leaving things along, are we? We\u2019re adding the PC\u2019s ….<\/p>\n

Thus you\u2019ve got this village with moron villagers saying things that don\u2019t make sense, confused about their surroundings, \u201cevil\u201d shit walking around in the woods, and even a couple of factions. There are some elf druids ready to burn down the world, or at least the woods and village, to stop the blight, and then some faeries that would be unhappy if their woods are burnt down. There\u2019s even some goblins to talk to. It can be a VERY social, and non-violent, adventure, if you can not blow out the throat of a small child with your magic missiles.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a good summary at the beginning of what\u2019s going on, the NPC\u2019s get a little memorable description in a couple of sentences and then bullet point information to convey to the party, all in their own voices. The magic items are flavourful and non-standard and even tend to the non-mechanical, making them more wondrous than the usual +1 sword fare. I\u2019m overcome by a magic ring faintly smelling of patchouli. Always. \ud83d\ude42 I\u2019ll chop off my hand for Vecna in a heartbeat, but that ring .. man \u2026 patchouli? IDK .. And THAT’S a magical fucking experience. Even the wanderers in the fort are great, from a sickly bear whose belly bursts to an rotting animal carcass covered in ants. And the fucking monsters? ONE FUCKING LINE EACH. Yup, all stats on one line. It\u2019s like the designer actually plays D&D! And those goblins and elves? Great. Friendly goblin looking for his sons and a shit-head elf druids. Perfect! Who doesn\u2019t love some arrogant fucking elves in their game?!<\/p>\n

There are issues, of course. First, the nature of the village is a little light, or, rather, how the villagers are coping. It\u2019s in there, a little, with their confusion, etc, but maybe not as much as it could be. This is going to be a major part of the parties questions and interactions with the villagers, so a little more guidance\/resources in that area would be good.<\/p>\n

Second, there\u2019s a \u2026 disconnect? Between the map and the descriptions in the adventure. The map is nice, locations are numbered, and a little key on the map says that #2 is the weasel mound, for example. But the adventure heading (which is large and bold, Yeah!) says \u201cRoad to Saxham. Well, yes, that\u2019s technically correct, but not quite what I was expecting to see. #2, Weasel Mounds, or some combination thereof is what I would expect to see. Then there\u2019s an entry called \u201cOvergrown Fields.\u201d Well, yes, that is the next thing you would see if walking up the road to the village, and there is a field drawing on the map, unnumbered. Thus the text is laid out in a kind of \u201cwalking tour\u201d format, if you start at one end and walk to the other. It IS an open area, so it\u2019s not a linear adventure, but the text is laid out as it were, if that makes sense. Traditional number\/key would have worked, as would maybe matching the section headings to the words on the map. There is a vague feeling of being lost in the text, which I think stems from this organization decision. But it IS close to the line, as if I\u2019m almost there in understanding things.<\/p>\n

But, still, it\u2019s quiet and fresher than most and rewards the thinking player who doesn’t blow out kids throats with magic missiles at the first sign of crackling blue electricity. I\u2019m gonna grade on a 5e curve and give this the Best tag, understanding that I may have had No Regerts if it wasn\u2019t on a curve. It\u2019s not the usual dungeoncrawl with weird elements and that\u2019s nice to see also.<\/p>\n

This is PWYW at DriveThru with a suggested price of $3. The preview is nine pages and gives you a good sense of the actual adventure and the writing style. How the NPC\u2019s are presented, the confused villagers, the section headings\/maps, and on so, although you miss most of the social stuff with the elves\/goblins\/ghost\/etc.
\nhttps:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/252050\/Saving-Saxham-A-Dungeon-Age-Adventure-5e?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JR Lewis Dungeon Ag Adventures 5e Levels 1-3 The village of Saxham has been struck by a terrible curse! Or perhaps it\u2019s being terrorized by demons, ghosts, and the undead? Or\u2026 was there a terrible storm? Maybe? No one … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-1","category-reviews","category-the-best"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/saxham.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436","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=4436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5092,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions\/5092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}