{"id":6342,"date":"2019-11-23T07:11:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T12:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6342"},"modified":"2020-02-21T12:50:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T17:50:27","slug":"5e-temple-of-old-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6342","title":{"rendered":"(D&D 5e) Temple of Old Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Matija Pilepic\nEight Pointed\n5e\nLevel 3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Blood on the traitors\u2019 hands never dried. Instead, it flowed from Cup until it bathed the temple and valley in a flood of profane holy blood, thick and dark and hateful. Life withered and rocks crumbled under the weight of sin. And when the last of the murderers\u2019 grandchildren died, Cup of Hands stopped bleeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This fourteen page adventure features twenty rooms in five pages. It\u2019s a delightful surprise of evocative text, interesting situations, and usability. It can also be maddening at times. This designer, their first effort, is about 80% of the way to Rock Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s some backstory here and, in fact, I\u2019ve replaced the normal publishers blurb with a paragraph from the backstory, which I find much more interesting. A gods avatar, murdered, three holy relics stolen, one, the Cup of Hands, flowing with blood, as the blurb states. Pretty fucking badass. The entire backstory, in one column that\u2019s a super fast read, is written in this almost mythic style. It sets the place up well, creating a vibe immediately in the DM that gets them oriented. They then view the rest of the adventure through that lens, that feeling that the designer has imbued in to them, and everyone benefits as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creatures are unique. There are only two stat block present in the adventure, for Blood Bests and Voiceless. Voiceless, with a name that harkens back to the Madlands, are some kind of zombie undead and\/or puppet undead. Blood Beasts are composite creatures, hybrids each different. This is represented by two d12 tables that modify the base stat block and give some physical attributes. A centipede with long rubbery arms, for example, giving +AC and Venom from the centipede, -AC and +Range from the arms. A new stat block format is used, with the intent of being clear. And it IS clear and concise, easy to read. The designer saw something they didn\u2019t like, traditional stat blocks, and did something about it. This is a thinking person. I might quibble some with the random hybrid table. It\u2019s inclusion is good but I might have included a one page summary sheet of fifteen or so beasts, rolled on the table, with their stats already adjusted. I like the option of random, for further expanded play, but I also want something I can use NOW. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a couple of other appeals to randomness in the adventure. Rooms have a 33% chance for a random \u201cevocative element\u201d to be present, like howling wind, etc. Again, I might have just done this up front; the random element adds nothing. There\u2019s also some random \u201cnumber of creatures appearing\u201d in various rooms. So instead of 3 Blood Beasts it\u2019s d4 Blood Beasts. Again, functionally no difference and the random element adds little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, a major feature of this adventure is both the evocative writing and the formatting used. I\u2019ll reproduce the first room here, in toto:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. TWISTING ENTRANCE<\/p>
\u2022 Fat and grotesque vines and branches<\/p>
\u2022 Wet soft ground soaking through boots<\/p>
\u2022 Heavy damp smell sticking to the skin
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Pretty sweet. Wet soft ground, soaking through boots? Fuck Yeah! Fat grotesque vines? Fuck Yeah! The bullet format makes it easy to pick out these individual elements. The strong language imparts the vibe of locale. This isn\u2019t the only way to get an evocative and easily scannable encounter description; there are many paths to that goal. But this one works for this adventure, generally. When you come in the locale for the first time you can hear Blood Beasts feeding on bodies in a courtyard beyond. Fuck Yeah! HEAR! Setting up anticipation and putting people on edge! Excellent use of both language and design principles to create an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well. Usually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bullet format fails at times because of small things. One room is separated from another by thick vines \u2026 but that\u2019s noted in the later room and not the former .. better to note these impediments on BOTH rooms, if you expect people to go both directions, or in the \u201cleaving\u201d room is two rooms are directly connected. There\u2019s also a bullet or two that should be higher up in the list. A black pit in the ground, we\u2019re told, and then later that there\u2019s a Voiceless kneeling in front of it. The pit may be the more detailed feature, but the Voiceless is more noticable and likely what the party will see first. First Things First in encounter description is almost always a good idea. Likewise, monsters could be called out more in the bullets, they sometimes seem to fade in. Mostly, thought, there are points at which things don\u2019t get fully explained. One note tells us that a trap is rearmed, and we\u2019re left to infer from \u201ceyes turned to jewels by electricity\u201d, in a body description, that the trap is electrical. Just another edit pass, perhaps by a third party, would have done the trick, IMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map is another issue entirely. It\u2019s an evocative map, meaning arty. It\u2019s not that\u2019s its bad, or I have no soul, but it’s not as effective as a more traditional map. I\u2019m not saying that a more traditional map should have been used; the more artistic map helps convey the vibe of the adventure and I\u2019m all for overloading and layering a vibe. But there are elements that are not clear. In particular, the connections BETWEEN the various maps. There\u2019s a tunnel in once location, and maybe some stairs in another \u2026 but they don\u2019t come across well AT ALL. Further, it\u2019s sometimes hard to tell is things on the map are \u201cartistic\u201d or real features. Again, more clarity is needed, without, hopefully, resorting to a full on traditional map. (Which I like, but clearly the designer is going for something else in this case.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
English is a Second Language here. I didn\u2019t have a problem with the adventure, it\u2019s language use is pretty good. But it can be jarring to some to see preposition drops or some of the weird english plurals mishandled. Again, maybe an editor would help. And, once again, I don\u2019t think it matters enough to be an issue, at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $4. It\u2019s worth that. The preview is six pages and gives you a good idea of what you\u2019re buying. Nice overview sections with flavour included, as well as room encounters. This is well worth checking out, especially for good, but non-traditional, 5e.
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https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/293815\/Temple-of-Old-Faith?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Also, some jackass gave this 3 stars at DriveThru. Pfffft!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, man, I gotta finally learn how to use wordpress, this <p> shit is killing me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Here\u2019s another sample entry. I feel like the vibe, a pool of coagulated dead people?, isn\u2019t really communicated well. The individual elements are strong, but someone the \u201cmain\u201d vibe doesn\u2019t come across. 
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2. POOL OF DEAD COAGULATION<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Outer wall ruined and submerged<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Smell is overpowering<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 CON DC12 or vomit for d6 rounds<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Severed arm floating, holds a scrollcase with a random magic spell<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 d4 blood beasts lurking below surface
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Matija Pilepic Eight Pointed 5e Level 3 Blood on the traitors\u2019 hands never dried. Instead, it flowed from Cup until it bathed the temple and valley in a flood of profane holy blood, thick and dark and hateful. Life … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5e","category-level-3","category-the-best"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/oldfaith.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342","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=6342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6349,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions\/6349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}