{"id":6057,"date":"2019-06-17T07:11:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T11:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6057"},"modified":"2019-06-15T12:02:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T16:02:26","slug":"beneath-the-temple-of-edea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6057","title":{"rendered":"Beneath the Temple of Edea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
By Vance Atkins\nLeicester's Rambles\nB\/X\nNo fucking level stated<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This twelve page single-column adventure features a sixteen room linear dungeon with hobgoblins-ish enemies. A few nice features can\u2019t save it from itself or the mish-mash of text that makes up each room. It\u2019s a monster! kill it and move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a small temple with six encounter areas and then an underground cave with the rest. The temple is a highlight, with statues holding lamps (nicely illustrated by an included photo, btw. Art that compliments an adventure is rare and this was the perfect art choice for this feature.) With four or so rooms per page the writing is kept relatively tight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s doing something weird with the writing though, something that\u2019s off putting and I can\u2019t quite put my finger on it. I\u2019m kind of referring to it as a meandering style. I can\u2019t exactly figure out the specifics, but its a loose writing style, with the focus of the writing, and organization, on things other than the rooms subjects? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a loose phrase of two in the writing that\u2019s obvious. \u201cExamination may show that \u2026\u201d well, no. First you\u2019re using the word \u201cmay\u201d and second you\u2019re phrasing this as an if\/then. IF you examine the door THEN it [may] show that \u2026 It\u2019s much more solid writing to say that there are scorch marks around the handle. (Which is a hint to the lightning trap on the door. I like trap hints for players who pay attention.) In another point there\u2019s some commentary that a certain thing \u201cmay make it a dicey proposition!\u201d A loose comment or two isn\u2019t all that bad and if sprinkled wisely can provide a little humor\/prodding to the DM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this isn\u2019t what I\u2019m talking about when I say it\u2019s a meandering style. There\u2019s weird background padding padding showing up before important room elements. Longtime readers will note that I prefer that obvious things occur higher up in room descriptions. The towering statue glowing red and shooting lazer beams from its eyes should be the first thing mentioned \u2026 unless there\u2019s something else even more obvious when you walk in to the room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Room 5, the monk living quarters, is a good example of this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Manse – Up a short flight of stairs is the former residence of the temple monks. Its occupants were killed or carried off during the incursion from \u2018below.\u2019 The sparse furniture and fixtures here are overturned or broken and show more signs of struggle. There is nothing of value left beyond some cookware and thin clothing. One of the \u2018guard lizards\u2019 for the hobgoblins in the caverns (below) has wandered in here in pursuit of rats and is tearing apart the decaying corpse of a dead monk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Up a short flight of stairs \u2026 the former residence. Killed or carried off. The guard lizard showing up last. Better would be a guard lizard eating decaying corpses in a ransacked living quarters, or something like it. The adventure text is almost conversational the way it meanders from the room approach (obvious from the map) the background, former room use, decorations, and then finally the obvious thing. And multiple rooms are like this in the adventure. They lack a strong focus. They are not overly long, but the writing feels loose and the interactivity feels empty, not a good combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map is essentially linear. It does have a nice feature or two, with same level stairs and some escarpments to liven things up. But a linear map is a linear map. There\u2019s little room to explore, you just kill what\u2019s in the room and move to the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I find these small and linear adventures quite unsatisfying. I know this is how many people run their home games, but as a prepared adventure it just doesn\u2019t seem worth it. Then you add some substandard text and, well, why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru, with a suggest price of $1. The preview is five pages and shows you the map and the first six rooms. It\u2019s representative of what you should expect, so good on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/279318\/Beneath-the-Temple-of-Edea?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Vance Atkins Leicester’s Rambles B\/X No fucking level stated This twelve page single-column adventure features a sixteen room linear dungeon with hobgoblins-ish enemies. A few nice features can\u2019t save it from itself or the mish-mash of text that makes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6055,"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-6057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/edea.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6057","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=6057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6058,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6057\/revisions\/6058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}