{"id":8600,"date":"2023-06-05T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8600"},"modified":"2023-05-24T09:11:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T13:11:08","slug":"blub-glub-pit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8600","title":{"rendered":"Blub-Glub Pit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Tiagp da Paz and Iago Ferreira\nPapa-Figo\nOSR?\nLevel ?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In the middle of a forest, which grew where an old city perished in ruins, a pit of stone resists time. Vines slowly wrap it while its dark and wet interior hides the savagery and devotion of fish-like humanoids. Mud and mucus mix chaotically!” Grab your torches and come to explore this dank and dark dungeon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 22 page digest adventure features a kua-toa themed dungeon with about eleven(?) rooms. I don\u2019t know what to make of it. I\u2019d say it leans to the bad art-punk style of things, expect it actually has a keyed dungeon with \u201cDescriptions.\u201dI might call it an art-forward project, except it\u2019s low on art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on the cover I had high hopes. The canonical dungeon, for me, is a hole in the ground that some losers go in to explore\/loot the mythic underworld. Which is probably why I like that first level of The Darkness Beneath so much. Anyway, that cover brings it, doesn\u2019t it? The rest, though, is just bad. All parts of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map is bad. Well, I mean, it\u2019s got that isometric thing going on, which I like. SHowing elevation changes with a couple of steep muddy slopes in the dungeon. But, beyond that, it\u2019s not keyed traditionally. And, while I don\u2019t have a problem with that, in theory, I do have a problem with this in practice. It\u2019s grouped in to a number of zones, six I think. Each zone has a mini-map noting rooms in it. So, we\u2019re flipping to the correct zone, on the correct page (which is cross-referenced, thank Blibdoolpoolp. But, then, we get a weird mix of keying. SOme rooms are Room A, Room B, Room C. Not my favorite, since \u201cRoom A – Mucky & slime guard chamber\u201d brings more descriptive text to the table than \u201cRoom A\u201d. And, then, it goes on to call some rooms \u201cKitchen\u201d or Guard Room. This kind of shit drives me crazy. I don\u2019t want to have to hunt to find the room\/feature I\u2019m looking for while the party explores. So, you can do it, but you have to do it in such a way that I\u2019m not killing time during play trying to find the fucking room the party is appraching. I HATE it when the adventure forces the DM to have \u201cDead air time\u201d hunting for information. The end all be all of dungeon keying is not the traditional room\/key, but, fuck, it also works well and if you\u2019re gonna do something different then don\u2019t lose what traditional keying brings to the table during actual play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It uses randomness badly. Our hooks, genetic as can be, are presented as a table. Why? You really want me to roll on it for a hook? Sure, I can pick, as most sane people will, if they use the designers hooks, but why a random table for them? It smacks of a lack of understanding of what randomness is used for in play. And don\u2019t get me started on the fucking treasure table. When you make it to the final room\/temple then the DM gets to roll on a random tables for what treasure is on the alter.  \u201c2d8 luxury objects, like chalices and mirrors\u201d Fucking great. Wonderful. You do know that the purpose of a published adventure is to bring things to the DM that they can\u2019t do on their own? To save time? To think about it and agonize over it before hand so that, during the play, the DM is able to present the party with something that they actually care about? That would seem to get at the core purpose of an adventure: assisting the DM. But, again, no, Roll on a table for a random treasure item. O can\u2019t express enough how much I hate this. It\u2019s a complete and total lack of understanding of what the purpose of a published adventure is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the descriptions. Ug. \u201cRoom A – Serves as the kua-toas hunting weapons storage.\u201d Well fucking thanks for that. I am inspired. That will result in a great description from me, the DM, to my players. Or, how about \u201cKitchen – In this part of the cave, the Blub-Glub cook their food. What is gathered from the hunting is taken to the kitchen and properly prepared.\u201d Yes, you did just describe the purpose of a kitchen. It\u2019s like saying \u201cBedroom – This is where people sleep.\u201d What the fuck is the fucking point of this? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s all generic. \u201cModerately difficult to fall down the slope.\u201d Just sta the fucking thing for B\/X or Labyrinth Lord. We all know how to convert the fucking thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, it looks like a dungeon. It has a key and descriptions. And that\u2019s about the fuck all it is. It’s like people have never ever seen a real fucking adventure before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $2.50 at DriveThru. The preview is nine pages. You really only get to see the suck ass hooks table and a mini-map. Good luck with figuring out if you want to buy it based on that. And this review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/438142\/BlubGlub-Pit-Dungeon?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tiagp da Paz and Iago Ferreira Papa-Figo OSR? Level ? In the middle of a forest, which grew where an old city perished in ruins, a pit of stone resists time. Vines slowly wrap it while its dark and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/blub.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600","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=8600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8601,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600\/revisions\/8601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}