{"id":7448,"date":"2021-07-26T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7448"},"modified":"2021-07-14T13:22:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T17:22:14","slug":"the-firing-pit-of-llao-yuyuy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7448","title":{"rendered":"The Firing Pit of Llao-Yuyuy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Fiona Geist, David McGrogan, Zedeck Siew, Adam Koebel\nFree League Publishing\nForbidden Lands<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This eighty page booklet has four adventures from four well known designers. I\u2019m going to review this one differently, doing one review post per adventure, in an attempt to give their fair due, something that I think is missing in my previous anthology reviews. This is this second installment, and the general comments from the first, regarding publisher style, still apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Firing Pit of Llao-Yuyuy (McGrogan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This dungeon uses thirteen pages to describe a 21 room cave complex that\u2019s used by an (evil) dude to make magical pottery stuff. It\u2019s lacking in much interactivity, beyond combat, and is fairly straight-forward, reminding me more of a lair dungeon in tone, if not in size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okey dokey, so, same italics in the read-aloud, same iso-metric map bringing a more evocative vibe to the mapping sphere. And, well, more of the same of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complex is mostly a just an adventuring site, with a couple of off-hand remarks up front about integrating it like \u201cthe party is just passing by\u201d or \u201cseveral villagers have gone missing.\u201d Nothing wrong with just an adventuring site, but, I think the adventure would be stronger to leave them out rather than just have a throw-away sentence. Or, perhaps, use the space of the throw-away\u2019s to expand the \u201cmissing villagers\u201d thing by just a few more sentences to add some depth to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map is is in the same great iso-metric format as the first entry, adding life to what would otherwise be a pretty plain \u201ca couple of chambers with connecting twisty passages\u201d map. There\u2019s a water feature or two and good little vertical piece, complete with pulley and bucket to get to the top\/bottom \u2026 always a fun time! It\u2019s more simplistic than the first entry in the volume, which is one of the reasons why I compare this to the simple lair dungeons so common these days. Larger in number of rooms, but still as straight-forward as they tend to be \u2026 and I don\u2019t necessarily mean linear. And \u2026 one room is missing a key on the map; a dreadful oversight of our erstwhile editor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read-aloud is \u2026 well, I\u2019m not actually sure it\u2019s meant to be read-aloud. It\u2019s in italics (and long. Boo!). It\u2019s formatted like read-aloud. It reads like read-aloud. Well, mostly. Until you reach the entry that says, in the read-aloud, that there are d3 treasures in the room. Editing error? Or, is this meant to be some text for the DM to give them a brief overview of the room? That would explain the over-detail of the read-aloud, destroying the back and forth between the players and the DM \u2026 because then it wouldn\u2019t be over-detail. But, counterpoint, the creatures are never mentioned, which would be be something you should put in the DM focused text. So, I stick by my initial assertion: it\u2019s read-aloud. In italics. Too long. With DM text mixed in. And using boring words like large and small instead of more evocative ones. And, of course, the over-detail. \u201cIt is guarded by a golem called the Child\u201d says the read-aloud. Which both over explaines (The Child) and tells instead of shows (golem.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DM text is added to fuck and back. \u201cThese were painted eons past by the primitive peoples who lived in the region.\u201d Which has fuck all to do with the adventure. \u201cThey leave this room unguarded.\u201d You mean, like, the description says? Or the fact that there are no monsters in the room? No shit sherlock. Look, ok, that\u2019s an over-reaction on my part. A child could squeeze in to a crack. Or, the text tells us, a dwarf, halfing, goblin or other small humanoid. SO \u2026 something child-sized, you\u2019re saying? This is just the typical padding that I would expect in an adventure \u2026 expect in a not very focused and\/or well edited and written one, I mean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which is not to say its all bad. \u201cA large black hole in the side of the mound, below which is a steep slope of scree. Strewn all over the slope and in a huge pile at the bottom are shattered fragments of pottery and clay dust.\u201d There are little bits like that are not too bad. Large and huge are pretty boring, at least large is, but not bad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh! Oh! Another padding tirade! We do get a over abundance of DM text, a lot of it coming from padding and repetition. For example, a watchpost has the usual \u201cdozing watchmen\u201d in it, but we\u2019re told this in three separate places:  lazy servant is posted here at all time, the details of the lazy servant mechanics to see the party\/be dozing, and then \u201cSince nobody ever approaches the mound duties are treated laxly.\u201d \u2026 an explanation and\/or justification of the encounter. This goes a long way to padding out what should otherwise be a shorter amount of DM text. But, hey, it reaches the required page count. This room, in particular, also exemplifies the house style \u2026 never really mentioning the servant, beyond those oblique references, until the end, noting \u201cCreatures: one servant\u201d at the end of the room description. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over and over again this shit happens. When we do get something good, like potters who can\u2019t walk and shuffle about on their fists, it\u2019s done in a way that they DONT shuffle about on their fists. And, ultimately, it\u2019s just going in to a room and seeing a human servant or some humanoid golem. One or two of the golems are mechanically ot descriptivly interesting, but theres little enough to the variety or interactivity to make it interesting beyond this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d rate this far weaker than the Geist entry in the anthology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $10 at DriveThru.\u00a0Preview doesn’t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/310243\/Forbidden-Lands-Crypt-of-the-Mellified-Mage?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Fiona Geist, David McGrogan, Zedeck Siew, Adam Koebel Free League Publishing Forbidden Lands This eighty page booklet has four adventures from four well known designers. I\u2019m going to review this one differently, doing one review post per adventure, in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7442,"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-7448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/mage.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448","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=7448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7449,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions\/7449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}