{"id":8386,"date":"2023-01-16T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8386"},"modified":"2023-01-04T10:45:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T15:45:04","slug":"aberrant-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8386","title":{"rendered":"Aberrant Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By directsun\nSelf Published\nB\/X\nLevels 1-4<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
At the bottom of an ancient temple, beyond the mirror’s edge, lies the spot where reality was sundered. Fortune and power await those who learn its secrets. A fate worse than death is reserved for those who fail. You\u2019ve come to plunder the temple between worlds and gaze into its ABERRANT REFLECTIONS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 44 page digest adventure features a mirror themed dungeon with about 22 rooms. It IS a puzzle dungeon but feels less like one than the ham-handed ones. The writing could be beefed up quite a bit to make it more evocative. This is a decent dungeon, especially as puzzle dungeons go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a mirror dungeon. Meaning that there are mirrors in the dungeon that reflect a second dungeon, with the same basic layout as the first. You can, if you figure it out, pass through the mirrors to manipulate the other environment \u2026 such as the big honking room near the entrance stuffed full of treasure! Nice job that \u2026 by putting the treasure room up front, albeit in the mirror universe, you get the players interest fast and they pretty quickly learn their mission: figure out those fucking mirrors so they can get the treasure. Thus, I\u2019m all on board with the core conceit. It\u2019s just a dungeon. With another dungeon behind it and a motivation for reaching it. An appeal to the players, rather than the characters, is almost always going to be a good thing and it\u2019s done here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map supports the mirror play by overlaying some purple text on to the \u201cnormal\u201d map; the purple stuff representing the things that are different in the mirror-verse. The text of the adventure continues this with the rooms having both traditional text and then also purple text to handle the mirror universe things. It\u2019s simple and effective and the purple is easy to read. The lack of numbers on the map raised some eyebrows, but, it is cross-referenced to the page the room is on, one room per page, so, the page numbers essentially serve as a room number \u2026 no harm no foul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Formatting is decent, with bullets, bolding  and whitespace and boxes\/shading. And, of course, the purple text clearly designating the mirror room. Interactivity, likewise, with the core puzzle concept of entering and\/or manipulating objects in the mirror dungeon. This is complimented by Marvin the Morose Rob^h^h^hgolem and creatures which come through from the other side \u2026 as well as a few Things type body horrors. There\u2019s enough variety to keep the party on its toes but still engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My main issue here is one that I frequently have and seldom mention: the quality of the descriptive writing. This is, as I\u2019ve said in the part, what I consider to be the hardest part of writing, so I don\u2019t like to make TOO much of it. But, when its lacking it tends to turn someone I might want to run, or something I am excited to run, in to something I am indifferent to run. And that is, essentially, what we have here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each room starts with a little bit of text, a kind of overview that could be aimed at either the DM or at the players as read-aloud. For example \u201cMirrors<\/strong> flank a black curtain<\/strong> that conceals the passage north. At the west end of the hallway sits an empty doorframe<\/strong>.\u201d Bolded things have section heading down below, but, looking at the text proper, as an evocative description \u2026 meh. Ok. It is, I guess. It\u2019s not bad, but, also, it\u2019s not very evocative, I guess? Perhaps a little too grounded in the facts of the situation rather than the feelings of a situation (I just saw Bodies Bodies Bodies \u2026 Feelings are Facts!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not altogether bored by descriptions like \u201cA grand mirror towers over a stone altar, bathing it in green light.\u201d as an initial room description. Grand, tower, bathing \u2026 and pale green light is always a win. But it is lacking just a little more. Maybe the context of the room? Dust motes? A barrenness by which the mirror and light\/altar is thus the highlight? It\u2019s not bad, but it\u2019s not a stunning example of writing either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, I guess, that\u2019s got to be good enough. This is a decent adventure. It\u2019s not doing anything wrong. Maybe a bit rough for level 1s, with a bunch of 3 and 4HD baddies, but as puzzle dungeons go its a pretty decent. The puzzles are integrated, not isolated funhouse rooms. It feels like a real place. Or, at least, the heightened reality of a \u201cReal\u201d dungeon in D&D. The concept, formatting, and interactivity are good and the writing not bad at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBryce, you\u2019re not excited.\u201d Nope. I\u2019m not. I\u2019m gonna Best this, because I think it deserves it. But, a print copy isn\u2019t going on my bookshelf. Not that you fuckwits give a damn. Directsun is, however, on the short list of people to look out for when new adventures appear by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $8 at DriveThru. You getting all 44 pages in the preview. Rock on man! Directsun knows the score!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/419533\/Aberrant-Reflections?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By directsun Self Published B\/X Levels 1-4 At the bottom of an ancient temple, beyond the mirror’s edge, lies the spot where reality was sundered. Fortune and power await those who learn its secrets. A fate worse than death is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews","category-the-best"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/419533.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386","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=8386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8387,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386\/revisions\/8387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}