{"id":9241,"date":"2024-07-03T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9241"},"modified":"2024-06-18T10:00:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T14:00:05","slug":"the-god-with-no-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9241","title":{"rendered":"The God With No Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Panayiotis Lines
Leyline Press
OSE
Level ? Mid?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You cannot touch their face and cannot touch their hair. Their voice sings in the wind of the valley and sobs at dawn. Once a vast primordial sea creature, the God with No Name slept and was buried under the salt and silt as the earth dried around it. As Dwarves came to mine the salt centuries later so too did they unearth the slumbering giant and it\u2019s formless shadow child the void doppler. Still the pure and valuable salt lies here as temptation to any would would dare to venture so deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This twelve page adventure uses seven pages to describe about thirtish rooms in an old dwarf salt mine, that is actually a colossal living creature. It wants to be a kind of horror adventure, with a creature stalking you and stealing body parts from you. But it comes across as Yet Another Dull Dwarf Adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, yeah, Dwarf salt mine. But, no rules or guidance on salt related shit happening to you. It\u2019s actually the case that you are inside a giant creature. SO, heart, lungs, stomach, etc, will make up the theming of some of the rooms. Oooo, it\u2019s the soul room and if you kill the soul node then a howl emanates throughout the tunnels \u2026 Stalking through the place is the void doppler. It\u2019s a good pile, ala The Thing, that rips off your mouth, runs away, and then attaches the mouth to itself. Walla! Now it has a mouth! Repeat with other parts. Also, there\u2019s a crazy elf in it, trapped in rubble, and three trolls upstairs, outside of the mine. That\u2019s your enemy compliment. Look, i don\u2019t need an adventure that has nothing but stabbin, but, also, an adventure that has little to no stabbin really needs to sell me on that conflict. I\u2019m gonna need some tension there. If you\u2019re leaning in to ANY trope, as the central theme of an adventure, to the exclusion of most of the elements of the others, then you really better be prepared to sell me that theme. A few hints. Some guidance. Are you only putting wandering monsters in and the whole adventure is about them? Then you better do something more than say \u201cuse the table from the book.\u201d The concept, as always, is supporting the DM at the table \u2026 especially when so much of the adventure hangs off of one concept. Don\u2019t have room? Add a page. Or, maybe rumours are not as important in this adventure? More than just saying \u201cuse hit and run tactics\u201d, you need some atmosphere here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that is something that is lacking. Has there ever been a good dwarf dungeon? One that is atmospheric, I mean? Oh, boy, another colossal empty chamber. Unlike other offerings from Leyline, this one\u2019s writing leaves a lot to be desired. \u201cThe main entrance to the mine is a simple wooden construct, dilapidated with age. It gapes jagged and open. There is a thin trace of void secretion around the edges of the entrance within the shadows.\u201d That\u2019s not exactly inspiring with regard to a mine entrance. \u201cThis area is blocked off with rubble\u201d or \u201cAn excavated area of the tunnel.\u201d There\u2019s nothing here to bring forth ANY type of feeling or atmosphere, much less the sense of foreboding that one would want when being stalked by a solitary creature. \u201cCrumbling statue of ancient dwarf king\u201d or \u201cheavy area of salt deposits.\u201d Joy. I am inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The map is trying a bit too hard to channel a real-world diagram. The core map is an ok affair, if, linear as a mine shaft might be, with small offshoots hanging off of it. But, also, there\u2019s an attempt to make notations on the map, like handwritten things one might find on a real map. These DO NOT work AT ALL. They are small and scratchy and impossible to read with any clarity without trying hard. We have forgotten the first rule: it has to be legible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The descriptions here are quite weak. There is little atmosphere communicated. The challenge here is mostly one of the main creature, almost to the exclusion of all other play types\/interactivity \u2026 but that sort play is not supported at all by the designer. And we combine that with more padding and empty words than Bastard King had, by far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is, by far, the weakest entry I\u2019ve seen from Leyline so far. Well, that\u2019s only two, and the first one WAS quite good. It\u2019s not like this is a piece of shit, it is, just, at best, Yet Another Throw Away Mediocre Adventure. And we don\u2019t do those here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $4 at DriveThru. There is no preview. For shame! Let us see what we are buying first!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/405441\/the-god-with-no-name?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Panayiotis LinesLeyline PressOSELevel ? Mid? You cannot touch their face and cannot touch their hair. Their voice sings in the wind of the valley and sobs at dawn. Once a vast primordial sea creature, the God with No Name slept … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/noname.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241","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=9241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9242,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions\/9242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}