Adventure Site Contest: Review #16 The Barrow Shrine of Corruption

To the dame's question...I'll never tell. But might I have found the author's twitter alt (?)

By: Submitted anonymously (?)

Ruleset: B/X

Recommended Levels: "cautious low-level characters"

The Gist: A nice spider lair in the woods, useful and appropriate for any dark forest hex.  

The author is either down bad and working through it, or perhaps lost a bet and had to write their submission and draw the map using the illustrations of reproductive systems found in textbooks as inspiration.  But for all that, the encounter works and is something I would hold up as what you want to have in your back pocket for (in AD&D) a giant spider's lair.

It starts off with the giant mons...err, mound.  A dead raven is nailed to a door at the southern (?) edge.  The entire setup is practically begging the party to visit its magical realm, and I'm guessing t'aint a party who will refuse.  The interior description does a good job of conveying a location of some antiquity, with tree roots reaching through the earth from above to hang down over the party's field of vision.  Luckily, the monolith at the northern-most point has two big glowing eyes (gems) - they won't miss it.  It's also unfortunately one part of a double trap, like adulthood is for death, and taxes.  Since it's surrounded by the hard bits of former corpses of many types no one can say the monolith trap is of the FU type.

Trap #1 is a good-sized party of gnolls coming up from two trapdoors along opposite sides of the chamber, to cut off the party and hopefully divide them by forcing them into the trigger point for trap #1 - which is another trap door at the base of the monolith covering a deep chute.

Anyone dropping into the chute will be saved by a mass of webbing shortly before they would otherwise land in a spiked pit.  Saved, but not really, as a mated pair of giant black widow spiders live in a cave just above, so unfortunates are "saved" from the fire by landing in the frying pan.  There's not going to be a lot of time to extract anyone who's stuck from the web, and since they can't really see the spikes there's always a chance someone might toss down a torch while dealing with the gnolls above.  This will burn the webs, deposit the unfortunate in the spikes, and leave them wounded while still in danger from the spiders between them and the top.

It's really a nicely thought-out trap.  The glowing "eyes" monolith doesn't lead one's mind to thoughts of spiders, and dealing with the gnolls simultaneously impairs more deliberate rescue attempts.

Anyway, only the larger female is immediately aggressive towards chute-droppers.  If she's somehow dealt with and the cave she emerged from is explored, the smaller male hides as best he can in the dark back of the cave trying to take anyone entering by surprise.

There's good interactivity here - a cocooned bandit begs for his life, promising to lead rescuers to its lair if saved.  If the party hightails it and comes back later with spider-specific prep to clean out the area, he's a drained husk (if any spiders survive first contact).   Of course the party may also still need to deal with the gnolls, requiring accessing their hidey-hole from either above or below using the trap doors in the main chamber or coming upward from the spider cave.  Vertical connections are provided either way, and a nice side-view makes the map structure clear if less of a titter.  

None of the other rooms are especially noteworthy beyond describing the sorts of living quarters rooms necessary to support humanoid life.  The gnoll's treasure is protected by a poison trap, and given the level suggested it's likely there's only so many poison-clearing spells to go around.  I can almost hear the swearing if it's been a bad day for poison save rolls.

Monster Roster: Spiders and golls.  Short and sweet.

Treasure: There's no magic, but the trapped chest with 2,000 gp will be hard to miss.  Probably also the glowing eyes-which-are-gems can be picked up - I don't think anyone's failed to grab eye-gems since the PHB came out in '78.  They're big pieces of amber, worth another 1,000 for both, and have the neat wrinkle that prehistoric scorpions were trapped inside when the amber was made.  If I was in the party I'd probably try to tuck those away for higher levels when maybe magic can do something to make those scorps useful (they'd be very rare at least - who knows what their stats are). Rounding out the loot are six occult tablets of the demon-god the monolith is dedicated to that could bring in another 1,200, for a total haul of up to 4,200 gp.  

While this aspect isn't really played up in the adventure, a DM could run with this demon having a portfolio of corruption/disease and work it into further campaign activity if desired, as a bread crumb trail to another unholy site farther away is left by the author.

Do I think this will work:  Yes, this will be a memorable lair/hex.  All the elements help each other and put pressure on the players.

Do I like it: Yeah, I think this is a really nice entry, even if it was only typed with one hand.  Good job.

Nitpicks:  None.

Adventure Site Contest: Review #15 St. Durham’s Home for Wayward Youths

 St. Durham’s Home for Wayward Youths

By: Trent Smith

Ruleset: AD&D

Recommended Levels: N/A, but nothing here will be a challenge to PCs over early mid-levels (around 4th) presuming typical party numbers of 6-8

The Gist: In the countryside is a reformatory facility for evil humanoid women and children built using platonic gygaxian naturalism.  It's a proper "location" in that it doesn't presume why you'd be interacting with it or attempt to manufacture a reason.  The nature of all the conflicting aims easily breeds organic reasons to interact with it, so as-written it's one of those "static" elements discussed in CAG episode #7 that a DM could stick on a map and let it putter along largely undisturbed until some natural development in the campaign world either flipped it to a dynamic element, or, brought about PC involvement almost certain to change the status quo.  One thread that could flip the location to dynamic at any time is if the orc tribe the adult females came from learned they were still alive and were in the program - they'd attempt to storm the fortifications and retrieve them.

But as written it is a tight, functional, working location that isn't "adventuring" per se, in the sense that an alchemist's shop in town isn't adventuring, or a druid's grove isn't adventuring - there's no lit fuse.  And this is no mark against it by any means.

Most of the potential comes from conflicting aims, both secret and unspoken.  Most of the reformees aren't steadily progressing towards reformation, except perhaps for one demographic (orc females).  The guards don't expect any of this to work, and have a typical prison guard mentality of being there to prevent uprisings and ensure the situation is under control and the humans stay safe (the humanoids aren't their charges though, per se).  The head cleric believes in the mission, intending to effect changes to the humanoids' natures through instilling what we could call the puritan work ethic and rigid discipline - both growth of the personal sort, and correction of the punitive sort (up to and including hanging for physical assaults).  His main assistant is double-faced, playing good cop to his bad cop but secretly worst cop in that she sells "graduates" into slavery instead of attempting to integrate them - which, being lawfully-minded, has been meticulously tracked in a secret ledger that could blow the situation wide open if it became known beyond herself.

The reformees are largely faceless excepting one goblin female who's managing to keep secret being a shaman dedicated to the devil Moloch.

The entire place is a mess of tangled grey and black colors.  Don't come looking for any archetypical do-gooders here.

While the structures aren't fantastic in any way - they're exactly what you'd expect a religious reformatory in our world to look and feel like, with kitchens, workrooms, dormitories, chapels, etc., the building does hold its secrets just as the inhabitants do.  The headman has a secret passage connecting the upper and lower levels opened by pulling on a book with a hindsight-obvious title; the goblin shaman has finagled a secret door in the punishment cells (guessing she's been thrown in there many times) to an excavated cave/sacred space with an incomplete jailbreak tunnel leading off.  The text notes the DM can expand this into a system of caverns if desired, although if doing so the DM should have a motive for the shaman to still be here instead of escaping (several come to mind, the main thing is the DM is prepared to answer this question if needed.)

The exterior is walled and fortified, with corner towers keeping watch over the whole; the guards keep shifts to maintain a 24/7 watch, and reinforcement patterns are noted if trouble breaks out.  It's built to withstand a siege from either evil humanoids or nervous humans.  All normal outbuildings necessary for the location to function are present and described.

Daily schedules for all the mundane inhabitants is provided; a DM will be able to run this like a clock should something create a stir.

Monster Roster: clerics of 6th and 3rd level with four 1st level acolytes; one 3rd level fighter, three 1st level fighters, and 24 0-level fighters with typical arms/armor; 45 humanoid women and children of mixed types and one female goblin shaman of 4th level ability; a poisonous snake.

Treasure: The valuables are worth about 6,800 gp, max, although some of it will pose difficulties getting that in coin value as it's a mix of location-appropriate items such as altar pieces that can be connected back to the home, a bank draft letter where our trafficker deposits her ill-gotten gains, or incense that presumably has a more limited market of buyers.  This is a nice touch reflecting advice in the DMG about making treasure a mix along spectrums of convenience and portability.

Magical treasure includes a scroll of protection from normal missiles, potions of extra healing and sweet water (also known as the potion of player sadness).  The leveled clerics have plate mail +2 and quarterstaff +3, ring of mammal control, +2 scale armor, and a wand of flame extinguishing.  The guard captain has +1 chain mail and broad sword.  

Given that magic mostly belongs to the humans in charge, many interaction scenarios would have a low likelihood of taking possession of these.  So if a DM wants to up the treasure take, using the suggestion of putting extra caverns off the escape tunnel with a challenging monster (and treasure) of some sort could be a solution. 

Do I think this will work: The scenario itself, as crafted?  Yes, it will work without a doubt.  

In an out-of-campaign sense, will this work for all play groups?  No, simply because it chooses to present a subject that's been a heated debate in the hobby for decades (what to do with non-combatant evil humanoids).  I don't think anyone is obligated to shy away from interacting with that subject, and I don't think Trent would be offended by someone choosing not to use it on those grounds.  He addresses the subject with a tremendously even hand, here: it's controversial in human society, it's unwelcome in humanoid society, it's not very effective, and everyone involved is either dubious of the worth of it, an uptight dick, or shamelessly abusing the point of it for personal gain.

But it does interject that entire debate into the campaign world, and there's no way to really keep it there if the subject is considered contentious to those playing the game at the table.  In a best case scenario no one cares and it's just an interesting thing to consider.  The DM should judge whether this is the case however.  It could also generate an argument among players very easily.

Do I like it: Yeah, I like it as a well-done expression of the game.  I personally don't have reformable humanoids in my campaign world, so usability for me is limited without reworking it (very possible to do, and I might).  But I can like something I wouldn't make or use as-is myself.

Nitpicks: None, it's as tight as a drum.

Adventure Site Contest: Review #14 The Red Tower

By: Kristóf Morandini

Ruleset: Swords and Wizardry

Recommended Levels: Suggested for 5th level players

The Gist: If you roll on the 1E DMG random encounter tables often enough, you'll pop a random encounter with a fortress, and eventually one of those will have a MU owner.  Something like this would be perfect to stash away for when that happens...if any of the idea stems inside were completed.  As it is, this work represents the type which is just incomplete enough that the DM likely saves little time making it into something ready to play, and then most people would rather spend the marginal extra time to just have something of their own make.

As it stands, you get a tower that's just survived a small assault.  The owner is missing, and his steward has decided this is likely permanent (he wasn't involved and doesn't know why), resulting in a de facto ownership transfer.  And...that's pretty much it.  To be sure you also get a pretty standard small wizard's tower in terms of layout, room types, and such, but there's nothing here to do unless you write it.

Examples of ideas or details that just stop before giving you something you can game with:

• The tower map provides no distance scale
• Also on the map - black blobs that aren't discussed.  From the text it can be inferred the one in the ground floor shed/weapons room is the debris detailed there, but the massive one in the upper floor gets zero treatment in the text.
• No map is given for the basement
• The sorcerer's disappearance
• the empty camp of the besiegers, and what their motivation was
• What the magical gate-field is created out of - it's not unheard of for 5th level characters to have access to magic items which could potentially nullify different types of magic, but it's just a "magic field" so if they try the DM must decide how to ref that.
• Two secret tunnels are described, one leading into the tower from a well 200 feet away, and the other connecting the tower with a river 600 feet away - so the DM is going to need a map of the locale around the tower unless handwaiving all of this is very vague theater of the mind fashion.  Maps didn't count against the page limit, so there's no reason one couldn't have been provided.
• A cleric is an odd steward choice, it seems like a sentence or two would be needed to address what's a very likely questioning from the players for why, especially given the absence of the sorcerer.  
• "the sorceror's notes" are bolded in the lab entry, but nothing about what is in those notes is given.  

Monster Roster: 5th level cleric steward and a 1st level human fighter valet, a dragon newt.  More hinted at in the area around but not detailed or listed as such.

Treasure: About 1,600 gold worth of sellable treasure, a human control ring, potions of frozen concoction (S&W-specific item), growth and clairaudience.  The ring is very powerful but it's still squarely on the meagre side. I'm a bit more lenient with sites such as this because the DMG makes clear that even if a lair encounter is rolled, no treasure might be found.  So it's as common in my experience to get meagre treasure or nothing when popping a lair encounter as it is to get a nice haul, simply because the treasure type rolls all miss.

If you were going to use this in a non-random fashion, as a placed encounter location, then I'd say you really should rework the treasure (which may naturally occur as part of finishing off all of the incomplete parts).

Do I think this will work: No, what is finished and ready to use here is very mundane.  It doesn't meet the threshold for "working" as nearly anyone would interpret that phrase in a D&D context.  It could be a serviceable random encounter if it were completed and fleshed out.

Do I like it: It's too incomplete to say.  I don't like it in the form it's in.

Nitpicks:  

1) Most of what would go here was discussed above, but the passage from the well is starts under the water level, but the water level is only 2 feet deep (?).  Could be a typo as it's just a strange well and strange passage if intended.

2) I'm not sure if this is a language thing, but the room listed as a "shed" is described as a bedroom - which doesn't make any sense to the typical english usage of the word "shed".

Adventure Site Contest: Review #13 The Nalfeshnee's Monastery

By: Archives of MU

Ruleset: AD&D

Recommended Levels: Hopefully appropriate for levels 8-10

The Gist: Much fun was had writing this entry, and much fun was had while reading it.  It is not really a playable entry, however, as it finishes with a dollop of LOTFP negadungeon .  It also breaks the 4th wall a lot - ironic/sardonic commentary on culture/politics is layered on thick, the minotaurs have a GWAR poster on their cave wall, etc.  Some people will love that, others not.  I don't pass judgement on the style-as-style, but I'd note that I've yet to see someone turn out a string of playable material employing it, and creating strings upon strings of creative material is foundational to running a campaign. The natural limits of meming as a creative school may end at the gates of functional gaming scenarios.  It often seems as though making a style statement is priority #1A, the intent is to make playable material is #1B, and at some point in the process meeting both priorities became increasingly difficult until the author said "fuck it" and leaned hard into #1A to finish the project.  Does this creative school pose a similar mirage to gaming applications as Hickman's novel writing did in the 80s, where gaming had to bend to it to work instead of the other way around? I don't know; I think it would be cool to see that product that still would work if the style were stripped out - which is the test, how are the bones?  I just haven't seen it yet.

I'm sure there are other scene references too inside baseball for me to grok.  I did a google search for horned werewolf and the only thing that seemed relevant was a bit about some cryptid claimed to be seen near Gloucester.   At least I caught the Doom bits.  

As mentioned, playability is high the earlier in the text encounters and locations occur.  The keep is laid out intelligently, it feels like the author wants that to be considered authentic to someone who would care.  The height upon which it rests would normally pair very well with a Type IV demon able to telekinese 500 lbs and make combat terrifying to consider - I was anticipating this until discovering the demon was in the cellars.  If proceeding through the gatehouse with its murder holes and arrow slits, by hook or by crook, an alien garden stands before you in the central yard.  In it are more than a dozen "humans" (the aforementioned horned werewolves) cavorting; the fruit of the garden might help chaotic beings but others can expect only pain.  In the corner is a captured prize - the jeweled skull of a pope, protected by some undead (released by a trap that pisses green slime on those nearby).  This is all very good.

Other minor areas nearer to the gatehouse also make thematic sense with a monastery and feel playable as concepts.  You get the larder/cook, some anchorites, etc.  One issue with higher level characters is the cramped size of the location - area of effects often increase with levels, and many of these encounter locations are tiny in size with many inhabitants (example: 30 anchorites in 450 sq feet of space that includes bunk beds and trunks for each of them).  But that might just be chalked up to not seeing enough of these ideas play out at the table.  

The only real issue I have in the early going is the name of a demon is given away to anyone with the ability to read Demonic script.  For higher levels, some means to decipher this can be almost presumed.  Learning the name of any lower-planar monster is a massive deal, just throwing it up on a statue breaks most game worlds at all concerned with that type of coherence.  I suppose non-goofing players might presume it's fake, but at any point if they find out it's real - and they must employ it expecting it to be real to have a snowball's chance in hell at the end - either the adventure or the game world it's ran in must break.

Another similar point is the chaotic monks; it seems to exist only to be incongruent.  There's so many good underused CE monsters...

From here, the bigger rooms get increasingly memed.  The minotaurs using overbearing on the high bridge is great; their lair felt underwhelming (apart from the GWAR poster).  The vampires are yuppies plotting to urbanize your favorite town.  The large chapel has the cool stained glass floor with the eight-pointed star glazed in along with scenes from the Abyss, but once that visual is ingested there's nothing to do there except descend to your Raggi-fied demise.  

At the bottom are your doom-swords and the sound of hundreds of demons shrieking through the stone walls.  Grab the swords, the doors open, and 665 manes pour out.  The Type IV demon makes 666.  I get it, I get it.  But this is what I mean by it's just a meme written in adventure form.  It's very funny when nothing's at stake.  Are we going for priority #1A or #1B?  

To be fair to the author, he puts right up front that this isn't playtested so the odds of someone grabbing this and expecting #1A aren't high.  I wasn't.  But you still always hope to be surprised, and when there's fun stuff there you really hope to be surprised.

Monster Roster: The monster roster is varied, although not many challenging foes for the level range: leucrotta, bugbears, ghouls, a wight, chaotic monks, vampires, minotaurs, and an ogre magi. 

Then the uncertain variants: horned werewolves, human anchorites (0-level?), animated suits of armor.

Treasure: It's really light for the risk. A few thousand GP of monetary treasure, some +1 suits of armor, a potion of healing, and the aforementioned doom-swords - which are only +1, although granting an extra attack roll if you hit.  But there's nothing here that a 10th level character would use after the adventure was over in preference to their likely already-better gear they came in with.

Do I think this will work: No.  

Do I like it: I want to - there's a ton of great ideas and themes in here when memes are stripped away, even if the bones on the layer beneath that don't work in game-as-game form.  But I get memes and jokes on social media; I don't really want them in game form.

Nitpicks:  

1) bugbears or skeletons in the gatehouse?

2) the beginning says you need to have your Monster Manual to use the product, but the tweaked monsters or other combatants often don't have either stats or a reference there.  Are horned werewolves just werewolves?  Does animated armor match to a monster there (no stats are provided)? Etc.

Adventure Site Contest: Review #12 Lost Vault of Kadish

Lost Vault of Kadish

The patrician choice to not reflexively loopy-doopy

By: Jonathan Becker

Ruleset: AD&D

Recommended Levels: 5-7 characters of 3rd to 5th level

The Gist: Our second adventure location interacting with a desert oasis, and a very fine adventure location it is.  Mr. Becker knows his business and efficiently turns out a tomb location that works by itself and reaches out beyond its initial exploration to hinder and/or harm PCs for the temerity of looting it (presuming this in fact happens).

You know what I like most about this, among the many fine room ideas and no-nonsense writing?  Departing from the checklist mentality that so many have when making pieces for play.  There is no loopy-doopying to be seen in this tomb.  There's almost a functional loopy, but it's incomplete, requires such effort to make it functional that doing so represents a net loss (of time if nothing else), and if completed destroys something beautiful, forever.  Jonathan may not have intended to send a message with this; it might be entirely coincidental; but when mapping a location has reached a point where people would try and force multiple loops on a cathedral floorplan just because every blog in the world seems reflexively check whether loops are present on maps, it's a subtle fuck-you to mindless box ticking. 

Linearity has drawbacks in dungeons.  However, everything is not a dungeon.

Another thing I like about Lost Vault of Kadish is that it can and reasonably might remain lost.  There is no hook, no way to drag players to the spot, it's entirely possible they might be driven off by hostile centaurs before figuring out there's something to find, or, never stumble over the transition point.  (Speaking of the centaurs, having them wear horse skull helmets is low-key dark.)

It's ok in a persistent world if some things are so subtle they're usually missed.  I guarantee you that if the players were to stumble on this long after beginning play in a DMs world - perhaps only on their 4th or 5th visit to this oasis - the very real sense of discovery felt by the players would be a cool moment.  "What?  Was this here the whole time?  How did we miss it?"  The interest felt by flesh and blood people sitting around a table just went up a hundred fold, for this little tomb.  Players should feel how willing you are to let secrets remain buried, in an amused detachment.  

But let's say that the party isn't driven off, they do wander around in the general direction a statue is pointing a spear towards: what happens?  They fall down a sinkhole into a cavern with  a door carved into one side.  They likely have to deal with some scorpions, possibly some blood hawks.  So we open with a little rough and tumble to make sure everyone's engaged.  Then come the series of rooms, which feels just like a desert tomb should.

From there we get the almost-loop; a crevice opened by the shifting earth, and time, that seems to go nowhere really.  We're probably going to eat up some time with looking for doors here, and there are some doors to find.  But that time.  Now, it isn't as if the time penalty is harsh, but those blood hawks outside are normally only active at night.  If you spend a lot of time looking for secret doors, the odds of another encounter happening on the way out (presuming it isn't dark initially) goes up.  Nothing massive, just a touch of consequence.   There doesn't seem to have been much to find here, absent a decision to extend one leg when nothing makes doing so an obvious choice, but if one of the bricked-over old rooms is uncovered then one magical trap farther in is largely nullified.  

Taking the constructed route leads the party to a room with an eternal flame burning in the center - dousing it is the only way to open a way forward.  This is a good use of puzzles; the answer seems obvious when reading it, but practice tells us this will take up a reasonable amount of game time and conversation while almost certainly being solved, and yet still deliver the satisfaction to the players which are the only (barely worthwhile) purpose of puzzles.

After that, there is the trope of danger presenting as beautiful women.  It isn't badly done, but I'd use this opportunity to remind DMs that unless you've woven nine encounters such as these into regular play that weren't dangerous at all to the players, including a subset that benefited the players, then they're not going to be fooled and will just start filling up the "women" with arrows, fire bombs, and assorted spells.  It isn't that I don't like the trope - it's a genre classic for a reason - but the number of DMs who only use the subversion never seem to get that you can't subvert what never happens according to expectations/normalcy.

Next is a room unlikely to be cracked except on the way back.  It has a really cool treasure - an efreeti bottle!  But the efreeti won't serve, even if the bottle is opened.  The text doesn't give any indication the efreeti is bluffing or fronting here, but I'd suggest its better if it is.  Or perhaps that the players can try to subdue it for an even greater reward than normal, for its initial intransigence.  Otherwise it feels like dangling a far better treasure than can be found elsewhere in the location in front of the players while preventing them from gaining it.

Following this is a wonder-room...a large chamber that seems as a night sky.  And also prevents the use of magic.  While it has no immediate or obvious tactical use or need to exist, that's also cool.  However - if things go south with the efreet, luring it here for combat would certainly tip the scales in the PCs favor, provided they discover the room's powers.  And hey - unless they ruin it, the room will exist for a long, long while...I can think of many reasons over a character's career that knowing the location of a secret large chamber where no magic works, would be very useful.

After that is a library of many old books and scrolls, and here is a place for an enterprising DM to seed many more adventure locations, rumors, legends, etc.  Don't be shy about expanding beyond the bare minimum description given here under a 2-page limit.  Players are going to perk up in situations such as these, and (just as with beautiful ladies) it only helps your campaign to typically match the trope whenever lost knowledge rooms such as this are found.  Becker doesn't make extracting such info easy - unless the PCs have comprehend languages immediately available, they're likely going to have to pick and choose a subset of material to take with them for later perusal.  Among the smattering of magic treasure usually present in places such as these is a variation of the spell invisible stalker, that summons a dune stalker (found in the Fiend Folio).  This might (but probably not) tip off wise players of the danger they'll face if looting the place before leaving, and is another opportunity for a natural "ah-ha" moment that levels up the player skill.

Last is the throne room, properly placed, with the skeleton still on the throne.  Players will absolutely be expecting a big fight with undead here; but coyly, the DM only offers them a chance to destroy treasure if they're trigger happy.  Just as with beautiful women, you need to make some dead things stay dead for the ones that come alive to work to maximum effect.

Very delightful entry.  No random encounter matrix - which feels right here.  

Monster Roster: centaurs, scorps, blood hawks, huecuva, efreet, likely a dune stalker.

Treasure: between 5,500 and 7,500 in gp value of monetary treasure. Magical items possible to come away with include: an axe +1, scroll with a couple of good mid-level spells, the very very rare spell for summoning dune stalkers, wand of lightning and potion of longevity.  No issues with treasure.

Do I think this will work: Yes

Do I like it: Yes

Nitpicks:  Only one really - while I think contextually it's clear that the magic mouth happens on the way out if the PCs have the gem in their possession, it's possible to read it that the mouth speaks when PCs take the treasure into their possession in the throne room.  Might be worth a couple of words to exclude that interpretation.

Adventure Site Contest: Review #11 Lipply's Tavern

By: Grützi

Ruleset: AD&D, bitch!

Recommended Levels: 4 to 6 characters of levels 2-4

The Gist: Allright, look.  If we're going to allow Germans into our contests then they can't have a page count, they have to be put on a word count, with a mandatory white space reserve, a no acronym rule, and whatever they turn in must be able to be run by an Italian in less than 60 minutes of table time.

This adventure location does to halflings what the Brothers Grimm did to children's stories.  It took the West 300 years to recover from that, mainly through the herculean efforts of Walt Disney (the man), and it might take the liquor stores in my area slightly longer to restock.  The entire thing is a cunning trap.  It starts with the color choices, proceeds to 335 words of general location conditions, gives you a random encounter table that varies the dice notation by area, and says "making a Ruckus" more often than Bob Eubanks used the phrase "making whoopee" in 21 years of hosting the Newlywed Game. You could trap the souls of chaotic creatures in this layout.  It displays system mastery akin to how Nurse Ratchet displayed a thorough understanding of how to keep mentally ill people calm.

It's a hyper-organized version of this, OK?

Interspersed in all the Teutonism is a wealth of excellent content.  I only have three months to get ready for North Texas RPG Con, so I'm just going to give you some nibbles.

• The poor halfling son who doesn't know his furry-footed dearly departed father worshipped the devil
• Orcs and spiders negotiating treaties of coexistence via shamanic spells, like that bumper sticker come to life
• An e-girl who isn't going to leave until she gets what she came for, but cannot call the manager
• With orcs on location I don't want to think about why the liquid in the tub is brown water, but if you're willing to fish around you can find a skeleton that had a platinum dental plan in life
• OK, OK, the orcs are torturing gnomes, I guess they're not so bad
• The most valuable single treasure in the entire place is nearly a metric tonne of sauerkraut that survived the fire, paired with rare cheese in the cellars

Monster Roster: Massive

Treasure: Also absolutely massive, with monetary and magic riches galore, although collection is in a state of double jeopardy as it's not only what percentage the party will find, but also the percentage of that percentage the DM will find in the text.

Do I think this will work: Yessss....in a similar fashion to how the owners manual of a 2004 BMW Series 5 works in helping you change the oil in your car.

Do I like it: I do, I love it, although unlike the other entries it makes me feel angry and unclean at the same time.

Nitpicks:  

You forgot to bold-italicize the word Ruckus on entry #3 on the random monster table, motherfucker.  What's another empty bottle of vodka on the top of the wastebin though.

Adventure Site Contest: Review #10 Legacy of the Black Mark

Legacy of the Black Mark

By: DangerIsReal (https://dangerisreal.blogspot.com/)

Ruleset: Swords and Wizardry

Recommended Levels: 4 to 6 characters of levels 2-3

The Gist: Deep in the mountains a lost entrance is found to its underworld, drawing treasure seekers who've not returned.  Ircana the Spider Sorceress is rumored buried within, but her degenerate morlock followers still roam this area.  Want to try your hand?

The adventure starts off with a good rumor table, which is always better than a bunch of hooks.  Since other treasure seekers already found out about it, the rumors (which are mostly true) are reasonable for stuff they'd talk about over drinks before setting out, if they'd done some due diligence first. If your players aren't interested in the rumors, no agency is lost.  Rumors for campaigns, hooks for one-shots.

You get a paragraph of general information regarding structure, decoration, condition, and climate up front, and a random encounter table with a handful of traditional monsters (with some cosmetic differences - the zombies are headless, etc.).  There isn't a morlock monster in AD&D; I looked through the two S&W versions I have and didn't see it there, but the monster is a humanoid archetype in its own right so DMs should have no issue with running it I don't think. 

Everything is clear and easy to read; the room numbers always showing inside a circle makes them pop and its easy to track back to your spot on the page when flipping back and forth to the map.

Then entry then describes the tomb/lair itself, leaving the in-between to the GM - which doesn't bother me a bit.  The in-between is what will vary from world to world anyway, and I'd rather get maximum word count on the location.  The entry down allows starting out near the middle of the map instead of on an edge - nice touch.

 Interesting stuff is available right off the get go: in the entry room there's a concealed alcove with some potion bottles; room 2 isn't necessarily the first path which will be chosen but its at least 50/50 and it presents a lot of interaction right off the gate. Players will get engaged quickly.  Players willing to play ball with evil can gain an attribute point and jump locations on the map (and back again) but the merely curious likely get nothing but pain.  It's possible to find and get what you came for almost immediately - which I really like as it keeps players guessing instead of presuming "goal" and "end" are always synonymous  But if you didn't play with evil prior to, you could become a pawn of evil during the encounter.  Enjoyable design.

Among the expected tomb-type rooms, you get neat encounters interspersed.  

• A macabre room of severed heads on hanging chains conceals three vargouilles - nasty always, but especially at lower levels.    

• the remains of previous treasure hunters are found in areas of subtle dangers - will the impulse to loot quickly bring these upon the party?

• The morlocks offer a choice between possible cooperation or violence for a bit more treasure.

• Another encounter room with a crab spider - am I the only one here who's never seen this monster printed anywhere?  It must be a B/X or other clone staple.

Really good little bit, it will play well, it's got its own creepy atmosphere, and is a solid example of How to Write Small.  Nothing here feels incomplete or cramped, it's instead a bite size chunk of a campaign world players will enjoy without it taking over game play for multiple sessions.  This is in type, if not specific construction necessarily, the sort of location treasure maps should lead to and so should be frequently experienced by your players in a campaign.  The tricks and traps are great too - kudos!

Monster Roster: spiders, zombies, vargouilles, a ghost that can seize your will and bend it to her own, centipedes - very satisfying roster.

Treasure: Treasure is nice - there's some magic items here for nearly every class, with the prize likely a suit of mithril chain mail+1 sized specifically for a dwarf.  The money treasure is spread out, so feeds the greed on a regular basis, and totals up to around 11K, give or take.  Players might not find all of it.  But for a low-level party, at least some will likely level after following rumors here.

Do I think this will work: Yes.

Do I like it: Also yes, a really nice job with this one.

Nitpicks: No nitpicks.