{"id":6844,"date":"2020-08-26T07:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6844"},"modified":"2020-08-16T18:18:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T22:18:53","slug":"sea-caves-of-doom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=6844","title":{"rendered":"Sea Caves of Doom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By James Abendroth\nBlack Guard Press\nTrophy\nLevel ?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Ruined lair of a bloodthirsty cult. Home to a pirate’s treasure. Anyone who dares explore these sea caves puts their life in Fate’s hands. Do your treasure hunters have what it takes to venture into the Sea Caves of Doom? Do they have what it takes to make it back out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look man, it\u2019s in the OSR section DriveThru \u2026 what exactly am I supposed to do when indie games show up like that? I guess, maybe “Rooted in Trophy” or “A Trophy Incursion” is supposed to tell you what the system is? I guess I thought that was just the publishers “line” for these adventures. Meh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sixteen page adventure describes five rooms in a indie storygames system. At least I think it\u2019s a story game. The system is in some $7 zine and the \u201cadventure\u201d has some notes that make it seem very scene based. That, plus, the sixteen pages for five rooms. Still, it has some decent ideas deriving, I think, from the story game concepts but relevant to evocative writing and interactive adventuring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a story game system and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m qualified to review a system that far away from B\/X. And thus, how do I review this adventure, WHICH WAS IN THE FUCKING OSR SECTION OF DRIVETHRU!!!!   So \u2026 not super happy about that. I mean, I was looking for an OSR adventure to review. Is an indie game system an OSR adventure? Is it fucking compatiple IN ANY WAY with B\/X? No? Not OSR sez I. Shouldn\u2019t be in the OSR section sez I. Fucking rip off sez I. Not happy sez I. But, it\u2019s got a few interesting things about it so I\u2019m going to talk about that. If you like story games then, I don\u2019t know, buy this? Most 3x\/5x D&D is story game anyway, so scene based stuff isn\u2019t really THAT far of a stretch. I suspect some enterprising young lad could convert this to a 5E adventure with various scenes, or at least \u201cfake scenes\u201d called \u201clinear dungeon\u201d pretty easily. Maybe I will? I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ll ad it to the fucking ToDo list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, let\u2019s look at room one. It starts as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOverview: The entrance to the sea caves is barely visible just above the waterline at the base of a crumbling seaside cliff. Large, jagged rocks thrust above the waves, hinting at even more flesh and boat rending stone below the surface.\u201d Ok, that\u2019s not a bad start, imagery wise. Barely visible just above a waterline on a crumbling seaside cliff? I\u2019ll buy that. Up until this point it could almost be read-aloud but then switches to \u201cThe rocks attract fish trying to hide which attract seals which attract sharks, although the last don\u2019t need such mundane reasons to haunt the area as ancient magics still linger and draw them close. The tide here is as vicious as the aquatic occupants and batter anything not accustomed to the currents against the rocks.\u201d This is a switch to \u201cexplainer\/god mode\u201d description.From a design standpoint I suspect that, even in the story game system, one type or the other of description would be appropriate but not a mixture of both. But, let\u2019s ignore that, and look at the scene the designer is trying to imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crumbling seaside cliffs. Seacaves barely visible above the waterline with water\/wave lapping up against it. Jagged rocks in the water with seals on it \u2026 that alone would not be bad. Seeing seals, diving and eating fish, would normally be a good clue for the party to ask more questions \u2026 hinting at but not explicitly telling the party that there are seal predators on the loose. That\u2019s exactly the kind of hint of a trap\/monster that good adventures contain. It\u2019s not exactly what the designer is doing here, with the mixed meta flat out stating sharks, but ignoring that then the \u201clittle vignette for the party to see\u201d is pretty evocative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What follows is then a set of bullet points for \u201cmoments.\u201d It feels like this means something in the system I know nothing about, but, let\u2019s look at those moments anyway: \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The entrance peeking above the surface for a moment before being submerged again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Water rushing toward the jagged, unyielding rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The boom of water violently smashing again stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 A triangular fin breaking the surface of the water nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Sea spray coating clothing and skin<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can see, from this, imagine if you will, a series of \u201cevents\u201d in this room that are happening to the party. Or things for them to see. That lapping water at the cave entrance. A BOOM of water r someone getting splashed. As a series of little things the party could see or experience I\u2019m a big fan of these moments. You can imagine what they might be like in a chasm room, or so on. A series of window dressing for the DM to toss in. Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After this things get more boring with \u201cprops\u201d just describing things in the room. Oyster shells on the jagged rocks a little rowboat, etc. Nothing much interesting there. Traps continues in the same vein, Sharks and Unpredictable currents. That\u2019s ok, I guess, as an obstacle or challenge section for the room, but nothing that unusual. There\u2019s a treasure section also, but, what I really want to focus on here are the descriptions of both the treasure and the monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAn ancient amulet of a petrified sharks tooth the size of a dagger with the image of a single eye carved in to it.\u201d Hey, that\u2019s a pretty decent magic item description. Non traditional dagger. The single eye thing. Petrified. Nice! And then, for the monsters, a shark: \u201ca stream-line fish as long as a man with sharp find and mouthful of jagged razor sharp teeth. A murderous hunger fills its otherwise dead, soulless eyes.\u201d Good description! That\u2019s full of shit I can steal as I describe combat with the shark to the party, from staring at it in its dead, soulless eyes, to the hunger thing, to the man-sized, to the jagged ror razor teeth. Those sorts of descriptions are very visceral and help me convey a vibe to the party. And that\u2019s what the monster description is supposed to do. Nice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, as an adventure? Meh  \u2026 I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s for a story game I know nothing about. But I\u201dM NOT HAPPY it\u2019s in the OSR section. If you were looking for a B\/X adventure then you just wasted your $3 \u2026 and no one feels good thinking they were tricked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $3 at DriveThru. The preview is five pages. You can see that first sea cave\/shark encounter. I\u2019d encourage you to check out the preview for that reason alone. You can see how the moments and shark description and actions could be used\/stolen for some kind of system for a real OSR game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/323109\/Sea-Caves-of-Doom?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By James Abendroth Black Guard Press Trophy Level ? Ruined lair of a bloodthirsty cult. Home to a pirate’s treasure. Anyone who dares explore these sea caves puts their life in Fate’s hands. Do your treasure hunters have what it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6843,"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-6844","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\/seacaves.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6844","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=6844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6845,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6844\/revisions\/6845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}