{"id":8514,"date":"2023-04-08T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8514"},"modified":"2023-03-27T10:50:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T14:50:41","slug":"the-pallid-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8514","title":{"rendered":"The Pallid Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\nBy Todd Leback\nThird Kingdom Games\nOSE\nLevel ?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The world of Absalom is one of constant change, where Law and Chaos are more than abstract philo sophical ideas but are instead metaphysical realities that shape the very world itself. Absalom is dominated by Cycles, each lasting between two to four hundred years. Each Cycle is divided into an Apex \u2013 when Law holds sway \u2013 and a Nadir \u2013 when Chaos sweeps over the lands, driving back the light of Civilization Cycles are marked in the beginning by the Apex and ascent of Law, and the end by the Nadir. During each Apex the civilizations of Man do their best to expand their domains and bring law to the land; these civilizations often shrink, or even crumble, during the Nadirs as barbarians, beastmen, and worse fall upon the kingdoms of Man<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 52 page adventure presents four hexes in the land of Faery. As in old school\/Narnia-ish faery. I get where dude wants to go, but, I ain\u2019t on board for this entry in to his hex crawl series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dude has a series of hex crawls, it looks like. Maybe two regions out and a magazine\/zine with some more in it? Looks like, in the existing crawls, there are two locations that can teleport you to Faery, so this thing details that: The Pallid Fields. You have to think of a kind Narnia, including the snow. So, folklore fey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not sure this was the correct first thing from this dude for me to review. It being a pocket dimension sort of thing, it might, perhaps, not represent the bulk of his work. But, it\u2019s what I\u2019ve got, so let\u2019s use this to generalize the fuck out of everything else instead of merely checking it out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The designer does a couple of interesting things for a hex crawl. First, he explicitly notes which features in the hex (6 mile hex) can be seen from a distance. Not bad. As I\u2019ve mentioned many times before, seeing something far away gives the players a goal to work towards. \u201cWhats the glowing red in the distance at night?\u201d It\u2019s accomplished here by a second, players, map. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m down with all that, but, at least letting the DM know what you can see is a good idea. Secondly, he lists resources in a hex. \u201c(Rare woods, 1) and (ore, 2)\u201d A little flavourless, but, I get the intent in a hex crawl game as you dig around for resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s about it for the good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s an overall lack of cross-reference in this. Folks names and interactions in hexes are tossed around pretty freely, but the DM is left to themselves to find the person to get more information about them\/the situation. Not cool. I\u2019m down with a living breathing world with lots of interactions away from their homes, but that needs to be supported. And, then, in an opposite way, things that can show up everywhere are noted \u2026 in their own hex. The chief example is the wise owl. At the end of his description, in his own hex entry, it notes that there is a 1-2 chance that the owl comes to visit you, no matter the hex you are in, if you are a newcomer. Absolutely not! We put that shit on the wanderer table, or as a note or something. We dont\u2019 fucking bury information about other hexes in some rando hex. Let us imagine a megadungeon. A thousand rooms. Room 876 has a minotaur in it. The description notes that if anyone enters room one of the dungeon then the minotaur teleports there immediately. Well, how the fuck am I supposed to know that while running room one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s other things. You can run in to lots of random fey, knights, or nibbles. There\u2019s an in-depth generator but no real handy list to run to. The wanderer table is frustratingly confusing. \u201c12 guards.\u201d Uh \u2026 more info please? What the fuck is a guard? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, by far, the main attraction for a hexcrawl, and main issue, are the hexes proper. They kind of suck balls. And not in a good way. If you like a bitter acrid taste, then they are sweet and lavender. Make up your own description of sucking balls that you don’t like. Go with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I covered this in depth in my Wilderlands\/Isle of the Unknown review. You need a situation in a hex. You need to describe that well, in such a way that the DM can riff on it. More than any other type of writing, the hex crawl description MUST be riffable well. You can\u2019t describe an entire hex, an entire situation, in one short paragraph. That\u2019s what adventures, proper, are trying to do. But, in a hex crawl, you are essentially describing (potentially) dozens and dozens of adventures. Little summaries of the,, anyway. SO, you need to give the DM enough information so they can spin something up from the description. Something that the players are gonna get involved in (or, that is going to get involved with the characters) and also something that inspires the DM to expand it. And, maybe, links in to other hexes, potentially. And you need to do that over and over again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This don\u2019t do that. One hex has a tree. You can use the wood to create better magic wands. Yeah. Here\u2019s a hot springs. Sometimes people show up to camp there. Here\u2019s the stone circle you teleported in to. Here\u2019s the salt lick that elk sometimes hang out at. Here\u2019s a spring. If you drink from it you might lose your memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are not situations. At best, these are little diversions. There\u2019s no real interactivity here, and you can almost entirely count of cross-hex situations or possabilities. One hex has te owl, who has a berry that lets you in to the fey dukes palace and another has an ent that has the fey dukes heart hidden in a box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are really no situations to speak of in this. And, thus, no adventure to speak of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $7 at DriveThru. You get no preview, Bill. Use your Standard Oil money on that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/422121\/The-Pallid-Fields-Hexcrawl-Second-Edition?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Todd Leback Third Kingdom Games OSE Level ? The world of Absalom is one of constant change, where Law and Chaos are more than abstract philo sophical ideas but are instead metaphysical realities that shape the very world itself. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8512,"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-8514","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\/2023\/03\/pallid.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8514","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=8514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8515,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8514\/revisions\/8515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}