{"id":7547,"date":"2021-09-25T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7547"},"modified":"2021-09-15T11:17:01","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:17:01","slug":"maze-of-the-screaming-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7547","title":{"rendered":"Maze of the Screaming Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Brian Rideout\nDeathtrap Games\nOSR\nLevels 5-7<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Ninety-seven years ago the Cult of Malphas created the greatest library of Arcane Lore ever collected : the Maze of Yes’od-caj. They invited Sages and Luminaries from all over to witness its consecration. When the guests arrived, the cultists set upon them, beheading every sage and trapping their minds inside their undead skulls to serve as the source of the library’s lore. One sage avoided the slaughter and took revenge, poisoning the Cult with a killing spell, sealing the library to all but himself. Now, a century later, the doors to Yes’od-caj are open, and something stalks the streets, collecting the heads of the wise and holy\u2026 And there is Forbidden Lore and lost treasure ripe for the taking\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 52 page adventure uses 22 pages to describe a 22 room dungeon. It\u2019s trying to pull off a \u201ctrapped in a maze\u201d thing, with a couple of options to get out. It\u2019s got a couple of decent ideas, and a nice \u201cbargain with a demonlord\u201d encounter, but overall comes off a very samey in almost every room. This combines with some long winded read-aloud to produce what, I think, would be a dreary exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, let\u2019s talk about those encounters\/rooms, since that\u2019s what a substantial portion of my negative feelings on this one come from. There are two environmental conditions in the dungeons. The first level (15 rooms) has a bunch of \u201cscholar\u201d skulls embedded in most room walls that scream gibberish. (This is meant to be satire about some specific online forum, but \u201cthe conversation has moved from scholarly discussion to furious shouting\u201d could describe every online forum.) Because of this screaming, every party member must make, every two turns, a save vs spells or be confused for 1d4 rounds. I get the desired impact, but I also think this is quite a tedious mechanic and could have used more thought on how to implement it. On the second level (eight rooms), most rooms have a fine layer of dried poison dust on everything, which forces saves if kicked up through searching, fighting, etc. Again, I like the concept, but again, I think it might be a bit much. I like the push your luck aspect, but the concept here would seem to encourage an avoidance of interaction with the environment \u2026 not a good thing. Finally, something like twelve of the rooms on the first level (fifteen rooms) are essentially the same room encounter. A bunch of skulls on the wall, screaming at each other. That save vs spells effect. They each have some treasure in an alcove underneath them and they each have some kind of words of wisdom carved in to the wall above them. The formula for Gaseous Form potions, or some spell, or some other \u201cword\u201d treasure. In a couple of the rooms something drops down on your head to ambush you. You go in, collect some loot, question the skulls to get a clue about the riddle for the exit (you\u2019re trapped inside, remember) and then rinse and repeat. In all of these cases, to one degree or another, the designer has taken a good concept and just repeated it just a little too much. There is a sameness to them that begs the question: why not just have fewer rooms? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against this samey-samey interactivity are three other encounters that DO stand out. First, we\u2019ve got two linked rooms. The undead bad guy can be talked to and will let you out if you kill some NPC roaming around in the dungeon. She\u2019s the second part of this linkage. So, a little bit of talking, some negotiation, and maybe a showdown with the bad guy \u2026 or killing the NPC so the bad guy can take her skull. Second, we\u2019ve got the \u201csecondary\u201d exit on level two. It\u2019s guarded by a giant ooze. The idea here is that you put a giant monster in front of the exit and force the party to make a choice: stay inside and dea with the skulls\/baddie or risk the fight with the monster guarding the exit. Except \u2026 this isn\u2019t really telegraphed at all. And the monster hides on the ceiling. And, it\u2019s not really an impressive creature to be feared \u2026 I mean, it\u2019s an ooze. Yeah, sure, maybe it has a lot of HP and kills people, but, it\u2019s not TELEGRAPHED that way. Which is its purpose. Finally, we\u2019ve got the demon lord. In an evil chapel you can sacrifice some treasure and\/or people to summon a demon lord and ask for favors. Including getting you out, or a variety of other things. And there\u2019s a book that explains what you need to do and a variety of \u201cReward\u201d levels. This, then, is a classic push your luck. Look, right there, you can get out. All you have to do is summon Bob and promise him X. Oh, and want a stat bump, or XO, or something else? He\u2019s ready and willing to respond, assuming you offer enough. That\u2019s a PERFECT D&D encounter. You are making a choice. And, it probably leads to further, longer-term in-game complications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I should cover the text a bit. We\u2019re looking at longer read-aloud, multiple paragraphs \u2026 although many of them are single sentences. Again, read-aloud should be kept short. Further, the read-aloud over reveals information, citing things like \u201cthe bronze plaque appears burned\u201d and other details that, ideally, should be left for the party to investigate and learn about. The back and forth between party and DM is a critical part of the game, the heart of it, and over-explaining in read-aloud kills that interactivity. Finally, the DM text can off backstory and justifications for whats in the room, neither of which add anything to the game. I would normally add \u201cand that makes it harder to scan and locate information \u2026\u201d but, in this case, since the vast majority of the rooms are essentially the same, that\u2019s not an issue. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut, but, it\u2019s a satire of an online forum!\u201d \u2026 being sold as an adventure. If you want to be an adventure, castle greyhawk, then you have to be an actual adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $4 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages and, unfortunately, doesn\u2019t show the buyer anything interesting to help them make a purchasing decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/368087\/Maze-of-the-Screaming-Heads?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Brian Rideout Deathtrap Games OSR Levels 5-7 Ninety-seven years ago the Cult of Malphas created the greatest library of Arcane Lore ever collected : the Maze of Yes’od-caj. They invited Sages and Luminaries from all over to witness its … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7542,"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-7547","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\/2021\/09\/maze.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547","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=7547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7548,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547\/revisions\/7548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}