{"id":9890,"date":"2025-07-28T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9890"},"modified":"2025-07-15T09:46:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:46:52","slug":"battle-for-neraka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9890","title":{"rendered":"Battle for Neraka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Simone Zambrunoi
Classic Dungeon Adventures
OSE
\"Low to Mid Levels\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In Battle for Neraka, players assume the roles of the forces of good besieging the temple, aiming to free it from the clutches of wicked cultists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 21 page raid adventure uses about nine pages to describe tenish rooms in an evil fortress. You\u2019ll be storming the backdoor and holding it for 20 rounds while the elf host streams in behind you. It\u2019s warhammer, with some read-aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, so, I\u2019ve played Warhammer, I think, once? And I\u2019ve played a couple of other mini systems a handful of times. And, of course, there was 4e. This is OSR, so you\u2019re not getting those tactical combat choices that 4e provides. My memory of the mini combat games was that it was just moving your dude somewhere and then rolling dice with a couple of modifiers. That sounds like this adventure. At least, if you toss in some bad read-aloud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first thing you\u2019re going to notice is the white text on a black background. I cannot say enough about what a terrible choice this is. It literally hurts my eyes to stare at it and try to read it. I took four tylenol this morning to try and combat it. And then toss in the italics used for read-aloud? Hrumph. There\u2019s also some weird ass font that runs around the edge. I\u2019m not sure what it says; it\u2019s illegible. The first lesson in adventure design must be that a DM must actually be able to read the adventure. No, that\u2019s not a binary decision. It\u2019s just a garbage decision and I can\u2019t imagine how anyone who looked at this would decide \u201cYup, that\u2019s what I should do!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, let\u2019s move on to the map. It\u2019s absurd. There\u2019s a moat, with a long bridge over it, and a fortress on the other side. I think you\u2019re coming out of the forest on your side? Actually, I\u2019m not sure of that. It\u2019s never mentioned. And NONE of what I just said is on the map. The map shows two levels of a corner tower. Part of the second level is \u201cthe wall\u201d, the battlements that the soldiers man. The adventure makes a big deal of evil reinforcements streaming in to the tower to repel the party.  But the battlements? They don\u2019t connect to the rest of the fortress. It goes out of its way to note that there\u2019s a tall wall between the battlements and the courtyard. And no mention of you crossing it, looking in to it, or anything like that. And that battlement does not go past the little tower. But wait, there\u2019s more! Maybe they stream in to the lower level! No. There\u2019s only one door, the one the party will coming in that leads to the bridge over the moat. This is literally cut off from the rest of the fortress. Seldom have I seen work so lazy. Even a fucking pointcrawl would indicate the fucking exits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, so, you\u2019re special forces in the elf army, among the best there is in the host. Your captain sends you on the mission. Fuck yeah man! Glorfindel wants ME to raid the place! Oh, wait, no, generic read-aloud and the most uninspiring command ever to raid the place. NOTHING about this thing is decent. At ALL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rooms have long read-aloud. It\u2019s all in second-person. So, you know, hope you are not invisible or used some clever tactic to enter the room you\u2019re in.  \u201cAs you prepare to cross the bridge, breathing as little as  possible and  shielded  from  sight by the poisonous mists, you hear a dull thud ahead of you. Moments later, a large shape begins to emerge from the fog. A monstrous bipedal figure materializes from the mist, seemingly unaffected by the toxic fumes.\u201d Hey, a forced combat! That\u2019s great! Doesn\u2019t matter what you\u2019re doing, you get attacked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole thing is obviously written for 5e even though it claims to be OSR and\/or generic. \u201cThe large door is very sturdy, and breaking it requires a very difficult Strength check. It is tough to break down due to the considerable thickness of the wood, which grants the door many hit points and a moderate reduction in damage.\u201d Again, just stat your fucking adventure. Just do it. No one cares. The pedants will complain, but they are going to complain anyway. No one is going to care that you put in 5e stats and then labeled OSR. Well, I mean, I will. But I\u2019m a deeply unhappy person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just garbage. No more Classic Dungeon Adventures for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $1 at DriveThru. There\u2019s no preview. Sucker!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/529565\/battle-for-neraka?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Simone ZambrunoiClassic Dungeon AdventuresOSE”Low to Mid Levels” In Battle for Neraka, players assume the roles of the forces of good besieging the temple, aiming to free it from the clutches of wicked cultists. This 21 page raid adventure uses … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-do-not-buy-ever-2","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/529565.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9890","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=9890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9891,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9890\/revisions\/9891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}