{"id":7071,"date":"2021-01-02T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7071"},"modified":"2020-12-22T09:51:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T14:51:43","slug":"blackacre-orchard-adventure-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7071","title":{"rendered":"Blackacre Orchard, adventure review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Tyler Thompson\nSad Fishe Games\nZweihander\nLevel ?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
An estate improperly acquired, an orchard besieged by vengeful spirits and decay, a labrynth of trees and a haunted house.\u00a0 Blackacre Orchard was once the producer of the finest apples and cider in the Marches, but no longer- now it lay abandoned, with foul beings prowling its tree rows and manor halls. \u00a0 The estate much be purged of such evils, or the evils appeased with the life of the one who wronged them, if the cider is the flow freely once more.\u00a0 Whether the new owner, Tostein, or the widow of the prior owner, Amalia, survives the night depends on the actions of the player Character, but either way a warm cup of cider awaits them once the job is done.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s the New Year! Let’s start it off right, shall we?! I see a lot of Zweihander flooding my feeds … for the past fucking year. Let’s take a looksee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 28 page adventure details a haunted orchard and cidery with a dozen or so locations. Abstracted. Devoid of interesting writing. Engaging in the typical issues with writing. I wish I wish I hadn\u2019t killed that fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t even know where to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map to this is half numbered. Meaning that dude took a Dyson map and numbered about half or so of the rooms and then, rather than numbering the rest, tries to describe them in the text. \u201cThe smaller room on the floor is a \u2026\u201d Why people do this I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s fairly easy to throw some numbers on a map. And some numbers WERE thrown on the map in this case. But not all of them. Which leaves the DM to number and highlight themselves or try and navigate the text during play, hunting for the room descriptions in long paragraphs of text. I\u2019d love to fuck know why people do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some dude wants you to take care of ghost\/curse problem in his orchard. There\u2019s no reward mentioned AT ALL. IE: a lack of care on the designers part with not even the basics being covered. The dude is gruff, short with the party. Hesitant to describe the events on the property. What the fuck? Why do designers do this? Ok, dude, Fuck You, I guess we won\u2019t go investigate your orchard if you can\u2019t be bothered toat least be polite to the people who are doing the job, evidentally for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The descriptions are abstracted, everywhere. \u201cLocal authorities\u201d or \u201clocal leadership\u201d is mentioned several times. Just give thema fucking name and three words of personality! \u201cThe nightmare phylactery is above the staff in the loft.\u201d What is the phylactery? Fuck You, that\u2019s what it is. No detail. None at all. Instead we get sentence after sentence of \u201cThe guesthouse was once where \u2026\u201d and then \u201cUnfortunately much time has passed and now \u2026\u201d IE: the adventure is focused on telling a literary tale, creating a setting guide, rather than actually being an adventure to be used at the table. \u201cIn each bedroom a Tenebrae resides \u2026\u201d and that\u2019s it. No description. No Ghosts of the Sins of the Past. Just generic monster shit. This is what drags horror adventures down, especially. Generic ghost instead of a realized PERSON that can bring horror to the encounter. It\u2019s just fucking abstration. And there\u2019s nothing good about abstraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get to the house, at night, you have to endure a maze of orchard trees. Roll on a 10 entry table until you get a 10. If you get a 10 within the first five rolls, then ignore it, we are told. About six of the ten entries are monsters. So, just fight random abstracted baddies in the orchard until boredom threshold is reached. Why? WHY?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s little in the way of interesting writing. I think only one thing I found interesting. The widow of the former owner is now a drunk, in town, and will accost the players. SHe will get increasing agitated with them. Having encountered persistent people with increasing agitation before, I can tell you that THIS encounter is a good one. The entire adventure needs more evocative writing, less abstraction, more actual play, and some thought to the actual adventure mechanics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, get a single rat buried in the middle of a wall of text paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such is life …<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The preview is the entire thing, which is good. But you don\u2019t get a level range, anywhere in the product, which is bad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/330906\/Marchlands-Pocket-Adventure-Blackacre-Orchard–Adventure-for-Zweihander?src=newest_community&filters=45582_2110_0_0_0?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tyler Thompson Sad Fishe Games Zweihander Level ? An estate improperly acquired, an orchard besieged by vengeful spirits and decay, a labrynth of trees and a haunted house.\u00a0 Blackacre Orchard was once the producer of the finest apples and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7070,"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-7071","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\/12\/orchard.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071","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=7071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7072,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions\/7072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}