{"id":7308,"date":"2021-05-05T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7308"},"modified":"2021-04-26T07:55:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T11:55:18","slug":"tomb-of-the-twilight-queen-5e-adventure-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7308","title":{"rendered":"Tomb of the Twilight Queen, 5e adventure review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By M.T. Black\nM.T. Black Games\n5e\nLevel 3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Centuries ago, the Twilight Queen reigned over the most powerful empire in the world. But her realm now lies in ruins, her people are scattered, and her remains are buried in a grand tomb full of deadly traps and marvelous secrets. A renowned scholar has hired you to enter the tomb in search of a fabled artifact, but you will need all of your courage and ingenuity to survive\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 45 page digest adventure features a twenty room tomb dungeon, using thirty pages to do so. It\u2019s format is fine, for comprehension, but it lacks significant exploratory elements. In the end, tomb adventure is A Tomb Adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tomb adventures are not my favorite, and this is a tomb adventure. I find that they tend toward the linear and are rather confined in what they do, being \u201ctomb guards\u201d and \u201ctraps\u201d with maybe a magical transporter or some such thrown in. This all seems very limiting to me, for an interesting play experience. Or, I might say, it\u2019s the ultimate evolution of plot as adventure. You\u2019re here. Do the adventure. So, I think tomb adventures are hard to pull off right, and this adventure is no exception to that thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tonally, its got 5e down flat. You\u2019re hired by \u201ca goblin scholar called Dr. Otho Ambitriax, who studies ancient history at a local university called the Academy of Systematic Wisdom.\u201d Yup, that\u2019s 5e all right. It\u2019s easy enough to ignore these elements, which I find off-putting, but I know some people like them. I will say, to his credit, on the boat trip to the tomb, that \u201cOtho secures a private cabin for himself but consigns the characters to steerage. He is astonished if they expect anything better.\u201d That\u2019s a very nice detail, and the kind of thing I\u2019m looking for in an adventure. Brief, and so full of promise. And it also represents a lot of what this adventure is missing. There\u2019s little of that specificity and more \u201cset piece\u201d design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s diverge for a bit and talk hooks. You\u2019re hired. It\u2019s one of the most common hooks, especially in modern RPG play. I find that fascinating. A few years ago when YA dystopian was all the rage in movies, books, and TV, I found the same trend. You were born special. You are the chosen one. The ancients gave you this information. I get the underlying themes of youth wanting to be more, especially in their formative years. But you know what? D&D wizards rock. No \u201cI made a pact with a devil\u201d shit. No \u201cI was born special\u201d sorcerer shit. No. Wizards embody the midwestern work ethic. They rip knowledge from the fabric of the universe through hard work. The lack of motivation in \u201cyou\u2019re hired\u201d hooks is striking. It\u2019s an easy hook to throw in, which is why I presume so many designers use it. But, don\u2019t you want to pursue your own goals, as a character, rather than being yet another middle class wage slave in whatever fantasy world you are playing in? And no, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s generational or a problem with Deh Yoots these days. I think it\u2019s just laziness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The format here is fine. It starts with some short boxed text. Sunken floors covered in mist, domed chambers covered in painted gold coins with yellow silk rope hanging down. These are not bad descriptions, at all. I would suggest that they feel CONSTRUCTED, as if a lot of work went in to them to make them what they are. That\u2019s a good thing. It\u2019s better, far better, than the usual garbage we get in adventures. I also think that there is a step beyond this. It does feel constructed rather than \u2026 I don\u2019t know. Imagined? It doesn\u2019t feel \u2026 easy. I think writing a good room description is the hardest skill to acquire, and it takes a lot of practice and effort to do it right. This does it right. Noiw, it\u2019s time to make it better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You get some bolded bullet points following the read aboud, one for each major thing mentioned in the read aloof, so, the ceiling and rope in the domed room. Then there\u2019s some major section headings for treasures and traps and monsters. Up until now the descriptions were doing fine. Good format. The \u201ctrap\u201d section even works. It\u2019s less useful, though to have major sections, when appropriate as this does, that mentions a monster and treasure. It feels like following a paint a by numbers set. A different format for those elements, just integrated in to normal text, would have probably worked better. And, again, better than most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could quibble with a lot of things here. The 5e-ness of a bandit who drinks a potion of invisibility when the party approaches, and the game world that implies. How a hot and smoky room should really be mentioned BEFORE you get to that room, to provide a lead in. A bandit wears slippers of spider climbing, but its in treasure section so is probably missed during the combat, for all it would add. A ghast wears a ring jumping. This smacks of Explaining Why and Justifying, something that has little place in D&D. Just give them kangaroo legs or make the fucker leap without any obvious signs. Or, fuck it, all ghasts now leap. Done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s also scratch marks on the floor hinting at a secret door, which are the sorts of hints that should be in an adventure, especially at this level. And, inscriptions on the walls of one room can stop the attacks in the room. I\u2019m not sure how often people decipher wall inscriptions during combat, but, hey, it\u2019s the sort of thing I appreciate in an adventure. [Also, the statue lightning trap has no warning. There should be burn marks or ozone smells in the air.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s all just a little \u2026 tomb adventure. As a tomb adventure it is a fine tomb adventure. It\u2019s just not very interesting because its a tomb adventure. If you want a tomb adventure then you should buy this one. \u201cExcellent traps and interesting fights\u201d says a pull quote. Yup. De rigeur D&D. I find little joy though. Maybe that\u2019s my problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $3 at DriveThru. The preview is nineteen pages, which is more than enough to get a taste of what you are buying. And, $3? At a good price also. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/353811\/Tomb-of-the-Twilight-Queen-5E?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By M.T. Black M.T. Black Games 5e Level 3 Centuries ago, the Twilight Queen reigned over the most powerful empire in the world. But her realm now lies in ruins, her people are scattered, and her remains are buried in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5e","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/queen.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308","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=7308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7309,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions\/7309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}