{"id":7719,"date":"2022-01-08T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7719"},"modified":"2021-12-26T09:50:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T14:50:39","slug":"fractious-mayhem-at-melonath-falls-no-artpunk-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7719","title":{"rendered":"Fractious Mayhem at Melonath Falls (No ArtPunk #8)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Number seven(?) in an eight-part series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a compilation of the best eight entries from Prince\u2019s recent No ArtPunk contest. Basically, you had to use published monsters, magic items, etc, with one unique allowance allowed in each category. Settle in, I\u2019m reviewing one adventure at a time. Also, I admit that an orgy of women, wine, bread, circuses, and self-absorbed loathing kept me from reading Prince\u2019s commentary earlier. So I\u2019m going in to this blind. Let\u2019s see what \u201cwinning\u201d entries look like, shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fractious Mayhem at Melonath Falls\nTrent Smith\n1e\nlevels 3-5<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This eighteen page adventure features four interconnecting cave systems around a waterfall with about forty or so rooms. A monster lair assault ala B2. It\u2019s dense. It makes no apologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throw a dude a fucking bone Trent. Ok, so, let\u2019s say your write the amazing adventure ever published. But you did it exclusively in iambic pentameter, in Inuit. And when people are like \u201cDude, can I get a version I can run?\u201d you take a brief moment to glance at them and say quietly \u201cfuck you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not the worlds greatest adventure. There is no explicit \u201cfuck you\u201d in it by the author. What it is, though, is a good adventure that is plagued by usability issues. And while I can\u2019t be certain, it seems logical to assume that Trent knows about usability issues and has made a conscious choice to not worry too much about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This all means that I\u2019m not running this adventure. Hey, this bottle of wine rates a 96 on Wine Review and costs $900\/bottle. Or you can have this bottle that rates a 95 and runs $3 at Aldi. Look, that\u2019s not a perfect analogy but you get where I\u2019m going: why put up with X when I can have Y that is almost the same thing? Every adventure ever written is now available to a DM. This isn\u2019t an appeal to the massive production values of the overly laid out monstrosities that haunt certain segments of the hobby. But, presumably, we share out works with others because we\u2019d like them to get some use out of it. If they aren\u2019t going to use it then what\u2019s the purpose? Creation for the sake of creation? Sure. But that\u2019s not an adventure. That\u2019s a personal art project. It\u2019s 2022. It\u2019s time to beef up our formatting\/layout\/usability skills \u2026 just a little. I\u2019m a firm believer that you can get to about 80% in about a week. Spend a week for a big step up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be obvious where this review is going. I like this adventure. It\u2019s a more intelligent B2, with a lot more depth to it. Four interconnecting cave systems with multiple paths through it. The maps have a good deal of variety and depth to them, loops, multiple paths, halls running over or under others. And the verticality of the waterfall itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve got a pretty traditionally lair complex. You\u2019ve got the beast caves, made up of bullywugs and giant catfish\/frogs\/etc. You\u2019ve got the rando monster cave ala the Owlbear in B2. Hook horrors in a cave cut off from the rest of the system. Then you\u2019ve got the Xvart lair, with a fully fledged Xvart society. Women, kids, MU\u2019s, stevedores, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are gonna FUCK. YOUR. SHIT. UP. They busting out of secret doors. They got an order of battle. They ain\u2019t taking no shit from the party. It\u2019s quite the complex environment, replete with wererats doing their conspiracy shit, prisoners, and the like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s all wrapped up in what is essentially a wall of text. I\u2019m looking, right now, at a full colum of small text that describes the secret room of the wererat boss. It\u2019s furnished with a bed, lounging chair, brazier, desk, rug, and chest, the text tells us. And then a LONG paragraph about how the assassins guild views him. And then one that starts by telling us that thened, chair rug and brazier are remarkable, though the rug has a resale value of 500gp, it\u2019s encumbrance value. And on and on and on it goes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we have here is minimalistic descriptions. The classic minimal description. Bed, rug, chair, brazier. But then, when something IS remarkable, then EVERYTHING about it needs to come out. Rooms are large, chambers are empty. Descriptions aer not evocative. But the entire thing is DESIGNED. This IS a xvart cave lair. The descriptions are not laundrylists of room contents. It\u2019s not expanded minimalism. It\u2019s a weird mix of minimalism and then picking a topic in the room and expanding on it, hidden depth style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s fookin DESNSE. And you\u2019re not gonna get ANY help from the designer in running it. It is what it is and you\u2019ll gonna have to live with it. Take it apart. Highlight the fuck out of it. Take copious notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I don\u2019t do that anymore. That\u2019s not what an adventure is to me. I\u2019ll pick something else, equally good or better, that is easier for me to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru, with a suggested price of $10. Proceeds are going to the Autism Research Institute.
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/379533\/No-ArtPunk-Vol-1?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Number seven(?) in an eight-part series.  This is a compilation of the best eight entries from Prince\u2019s recent No ArtPunk contest. Basically, you had to use published monsters, magic items, etc, with one unique allowance allowed in each category. Settle … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7698,"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-7719","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\/12\/noart.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719","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=7719"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7746,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719\/revisions\/7746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}