{"id":6566,"date":"2020-03-11T07:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T11:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6566"},"modified":"2020-03-03T07:34:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T12:34:11","slug":"silver-swords-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6566","title":{"rendered":"Silver Swords #2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Eric-christian Alexander\nOSR<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The sorceress Shar\u2019Almana built a vault long ago to hide some magical items that her Lord had no use for, intending to sell them once her service was no longer needed. However, for unknown reasons, she disappeared and her Vault laid unclaimed for centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, so, I guess the jokes on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a review of The Secret Safe of Shar\u2019Almana, an adventure in Silver Swords issue 2, a forty page digest zine. The dungeon has two levels, thirteen rooms over three pages (two digest pages having the keys) and \u2026 is minimally keyed with abstracted treasure. It is a non-entity. A nothing. One tenth of one step above Vampire Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve got an excuse. I saw that this issue had a setting where the Sun kills the Moon and the entire campaign world revolves around that. Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon! If you wanted to make the worlds best pessimist how would you start? Well, with an optimist full of joy. Duh. Of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The adventure here has nothing to do with that. That\u2019s some other article. This adventure has thirteen rooms in a large font spread out over two pages, which includes the map on one of those pages and the intro on the other page. This leaves little room for the room keys. Never fear though, they are minimalist. Yeah, I know, I already said that. Hang in there. It will make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map is one hallway. There are doors off the hallway. Open the door and see a room. No other exits from the room. So you go down the hallway and open the next doorway. To the next room. There are several map styles that one could use. This one is, without a doubt, the worst possible. Yes, even lower in my mind than a strictly linear map. (Hmmm, maybe the \u201clong hallway map\u201d is a sub-genre of the linear map? I\u2019ll have to think on that.) Anyway, the linear map at least can make the claim that it\u2019s part of a plot based adventure and not exploratory and thus is aligned to the assumptions of that plot-based adventure. (Wrong! But it IS an argument that can then be debated.) THis don\u2019t got that. It\u2019s just a hallway with rooms hanging off of it. Minimally keyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How about that abstraction? Go in a room. Find a chest. What\u2019s the chest have? The DM consults the text: \u201cGive rewards appropriate for 2 levels higher.\u201d Or how about \u201clocked chests have at least 1 magical consumable.\u201d Is it becoming clearer, now, how a pessimist is made? Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon! Oh, wait, it\u2019s minimally keyed. Room 4. Goblin Warren. 4 goblins. [stats]. Yes, I feel all of the power of the  poetry of the language exercised in that brief statement. The long line of adventures stretching back to Vampire Queen. Lo, I see them. Lo, they call to me! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, no. They don\u2019t.  It\u2019s minimally keyed. They don\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, you\u2019ve got rooms that have maybe seven or eight non-statblock words in them. And those words are abstracted, pushing the work back on to the DM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has two things in it. First, it has a talking brazier in the first room that is chatty and is you feed it 5# of food it will answer questions. Second, it\u2019s got a room with shattered mirror glass on the floor. If you bring in a big mirror it shows a passage through a blank wall to the treasure room. You know, the one with a treasure 2 levels higher. That\u2019s good content, both of them. There\u2019s something fucking going on. It\u2019s not described evocatively at all, but you can least see some interactivity there, a chance for adventure beyond \u201c4 goblins.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s nothing here. My inner child is, once again, wounded to its core. And I have only myself to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $3 at DriveThru. The only preview is the little flip-book preview, which doesn\u2019t let you see what you are buying. Put ina real preview, so we can get an idea of what we are buying beforehand!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/303785\/Silver-Swords-Vol-1-No2?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, on to more important things. Do I want a Jeep Wrangler with an Ursa Minor top? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/ursaminorvehicles.com\/campers\/jeep-hard-top-popup-camper-package.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or do I want a Ford Ranger with a walk-in cap?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
http:\/\/www.emerystoppers.com\/store\/mcart.php?ID=179<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FCA quality is not good. But the removable wrangler roof means that the tent access is through the INSIDE of the Wrangler since it\u2019s a full Wrangler replacement roof. Ranger is 2 feet long, which causes me a little anxiety in town, but that also means 2 extra feet of storage space for STUFF. Wrangler will let me go more places and NOT having a Wrangler leads to some anxiety about \u201cwhat if I can\u2019t get someplace I want to go in the Ranger?!?!!?\u201d Realistically though, I can probably get every place within my (non-existent) skill level with the FX4 XL Ranger?  And, the Ranger is, I think, substantially cheaper? I\u2019ll do the full cost breakdown today. You can assume KO2\u2019s, winch, recovery gear, etc on both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, that\u2019s right, I just ended my shitty Dungeons & Dragons review is a #vanlife post. Suck it! (Are you a pessimist yet?)
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eric-christian Alexander OSR The sorceress Shar\u2019Almana built a vault long ago to hide some magical items that her Lord had no use for, intending to sell them once her service was no longer needed. However, for unknown reasons, she disappeared … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/silver.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566","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=6566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6567,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6566\/revisions\/6567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}