{"id":4452,"date":"2018-10-03T07:25:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T11:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4452"},"modified":"2019-01-04T11:53:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T16:53:09","slug":"under-the-temple-crypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4452","title":{"rendered":"Under the Temple Crypt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Extildepo
\nVerisimilitude Society Press
\nSwords & Wizardry
\n4-7<\/p>\n

This dungeon assumes that there is a temple somewhere with a mysterious walled-in doorframe in the basement crypt. The walled-in doorframe predates the temple itself and leads to ancient subterranean structures that hint of an older civilization as well as an expansive underworld.<\/p>\n

This wight page dungeoncrawl has a twenty-ish room ruined city\/underground area. It stands out for being mostly inoffensive, a wonder in and of itself these days. The writing is a mix of workmanlike facts and decent imagery, leading to an inconsistent vibe overall. A little polishing of the text would have elevated this quite a bit. Still, I\u2019m not mad at it.<\/p>\n

This one is close. It\u2019s got a pretty decent \u201cdrop in dungeon\u201d premise, being behind a bricked up doorway. The supporting map is ok, with lots of varied terrain, tunnels and hallways, under and over tunnels and so on, especially for its small-ish size.<\/p>\n

This is just a basic little dungeoncrawl in a mixed dungeon, both in creatures and in setting, from caverns to mini ruined underground city portion. It\u2019s quite successful sometimes in the writing. Overall you get themes of decay, dust, fallen stone block and crumbling ruins. This is built up through repetition and the artwork present, both of which are good techniques. Ornate pillars with stylyze reliefs of animals, large and sticky cobwebs hanging from pillar to pillar, slowing movement and obscuring vision. A green and purple luminescent glow emitting from behind a broken wall \u2026 thats room two and it\u2019s a pretty good description. I can imagine it, and more, and because of that I can EASILY build on it for the players. There\u2019s more than one room that reaches this great height of writing.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s much more usual for the writing to be more workmanlike, and less evocative. \u201cThis crypt is typical of the times.\u201d, \u201cThese dead priests still wear their ceremonial robes and stoles\u201d, \u201cThis once opulent sanctuary is now a ruin.\u201d or \u201cThe entrance to this building is open and arched.\u201d It\u2019s all very workmanlike, and more than a little bland. A bathhouse has pools of black liquid. BORING WORD CHOICE. Another room has a dozen large ceramic urns. Give it some life man! \u201cThis is the lair of a fearsome troll.\u201d is not an evocative room description.<\/p>\n

This extends to the creatures. There\u2019s a giant spider who attacks. There are ghouls who attack. Various creatures. They just don\u2019t have much life in them. Ghouls from a ruined city? Those should erudite ghouls, or an inquisitive spider, and so on. They need a little life to them. Not everything has to be something you can to, but it needs a adjective or adverb, some kind of descriptor to bring the thing to life.
\nSo, it\u2019s ok. It doesn\u2019t overstay. It\u2019s got a decent map and a few good descriptions along with some things to poke at that contribute to ok encounters. It tends more to the bland side, but, again, I have overly high expectations. It\u2019s close. Some refinement, especially around word choice, would send it in very good territory.<\/p>\n

This is $1 at DriveThru. Note that the level range is NOT in the product description, only on the cover. Boo! The preview doesn\u2019t really show you anything more than the map.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/252018\/Under-the-Temple-Crypt?affiliate_id=1892600<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Extildepo Verisimilitude Society Press Swords & Wizardry 4-7 This dungeon assumes that there is a temple somewhere with a mysterious walled-in doorframe in the basement crypt. The walled-in doorframe predates the temple itself and leads to ancient subterranean structures … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-4","category-no-regerts","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/tempcry.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452","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=4452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4792,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452\/revisions\/4792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}