{"id":6841,"date":"2020-08-24T07:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T11:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6841"},"modified":"2020-08-16T16:29:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T20:29:23","slug":"down-and-out-in-dredgeburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6841","title":{"rendered":"Down and Out in Dredgeburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Skullfungus?\nSelf Published\nWorld of Dungeons\nLevel: Any<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to Dredgeburg! You have died and woken up in the city of Dredgeburg, a dark oasis of sorts, wedged in between the many hells of the Underworld. Dredgeburg is a massive city, located deep within the Underworld where it sits in the middle of a fetid swamp. It\u2019s a strange and often dangerous place where anything can happen and where much adventure is to be had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This twenty page supplement sets the scene for a wicked city and has a brief adventure generator. It\u2019s flavorful, even if a little low on specifics and deserving of more \u201ccity\u201d rather than \u201ccity generator.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know. I like city adventures. Some of the most funnest-est-est games I\u2019ve run have been city campaigns. They are near and dear to my heart. The party has a connections to things, or builds one anyway. Recurring content. And all the wackiness that a big city can generate, fantasy world or no. \u201cNew Greyhawks hottest club is Bzoing-a-gong!\u201d So, I\u2019m reviewing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s got three sections. There\u2019s a short section on how to make a character and level them. You can ignore this. It\u2019s got another section that is a kind of adventure generator. Roll on a bunch of tables to get inspiration and use your brain to glue it all together. Then, the longest section at about half the book, describes the city proper. Let\u2019s say, six districts. Each one with three or so NPC\u2019s and two or so places. And then a long list of one sentences \u201cscenes\u201d that kind of describe the tone of the place. Drunk people outside of a trendy nightclub in the Throne district and and old blind woman smoking a pipe in a rocking chair in The Gutter. A mad scream in the distance, and then a laugh. And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NPC\u2019s and businesses are both in the same format. A name, filled by a couple of adjectives\/adverbs \u201cSmall Imp, Big Ambitions\u201d. There is then a brief description, one sentence long  Wears oversized jumpsuit, breathe stinks of smoke, stubby tail wags when excited.\u201d Then a Wnts section \u201cHelp with extending his drug running operation, \u201cJust have to get rid of the competition\u201d Then a small sentence on mannerisms. It works well for both the NPC\u2019s and the businesses. It\u2019s short enough to scan quickly and they are iconic and specific enough to cement them in your head. The last thing in each section is: Ask. This is supposed to be something the DM asks the players for each thing. For the imp it\u2019s \u201cWhat is something truly terrifying about him?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly, this is story game related, where the players get some control over the situation. The \u201cAsk\u201d thing appears repeatedly in the adventure, in just about every section\/specific part of it. It\u2019s the only story game aspect and is easy enough to ignore if you want. It\u2019s pretty innocuous though, and a decent way to get the players engaged more without handing over full control to them. Your mileage on this may vary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, that\u2019s the town. About six quarters and two or three NPC\u2019s and two or three places in each, along with a short list of 10-15 \u201cvignette\u201d things, like the old women in the chair smoking a pipe. The end of the booklet has a section on creating adventures. Let\u2019s see, my adventure inspiration is \u201cIn the Judgement district, a retired pit fighter. My mission is to disguise, An expensive pet ot beast, there\u2019s a hunger motivation, the complication is the target\/client is missing, There\u2019s a tower rooftop in the market district thats important, with the risk being high and the reward being a power relic or spellbook. Mist Tentacle is my two words for further inspiration. I\u2019ll combine this with something from the Judgement district table, \u201cLine of miserable people waiting to be processed.\u201d Now \u2026 create an adventure from that! Seems do-able. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a city supplement and idea generator I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s anything necessarily wrong with it. The location impressions are specific and interesting, as are the sample NPC\u2019s and buildings\/businesses\/events. The idea generator is good enough. Combined you could come up with some good ideas. And the setting, a city in hell, could certainly be replaced with any evil city, from the Draw Meznobalahblahblah to Iuz to whatever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, your value here is going to be derived from how much you want to do yourself and be inspired vs how much you want spelled out for you ahead of time. Are you looking for a book of NPC\u2019s, events, and places, or are you looking for something to help you inspire your own? This is inspiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now you know why I don\u2019t review fluff products, in general. I don\u2019t know how to review \u201cinspiration\u201d products. Yeah, it\u2019s ok, if you\u2019re in to that. Ok, MORE than ok, if you\u2019re in to that. I think, though, this will take a place in my city toolkit. That\u2019s the rough collection of just about every city\/own supplement every published, with parts jerked out and combined, From The Butcher Baker Candlestick maker stuff to Lankhmar (multiple versions) to every other city supplement every published. What\u2019s that orc bar again? The one with the troughs of slop? That one also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $6.66 at Itch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/skullfungus.itch.io\/dredgeburg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Skullfungus? Self Published World of Dungeons Level: Any Welcome to Dredgeburg! You have died and woken up in the city of Dredgeburg, a dark oasis of sorts, wedged in between the many hells of the Underworld. Dredgeburg is a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6837,"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-6841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Cover_A4-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841","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=6841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6842,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6841\/revisions\/6842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}