NonZero Sum Games

Monthly Archives: September 2018

An Ogre and His Cake—A DMs Guild Review

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To date, my DMs Guild reviews have focused on digital copies of people’s work. Today’s review will be different in that I will review both a digital and paper copy of the same work. An Ogre and His Cake by Christopher Walz and Emmet Byrne is available as strictly a digital download, a print-on-demand (POD) copy, or both. I will try to persuade you to buy both the digital and POD versions of this great adventure.

An Ogre and His Cake

An Ogre and His Cake

An Ogre and His Cake

Writer: Christopher Walz

Publisher: DMs Guild

Cost: Depends—Anywhere from $0.00 to $14.95 depending on options

Product Length/Inclusions: 24 pages. The digital version includes the color and printer-friendly versions and 8 maps and several kid-friendly character and spell sheets including 4 pregenerated characters.

As you can tell from the cover, An Ogre and His Cake is an adventure designed for kids. Young kids. The officially recommended age for D&D, according to the publisher, is 12+. Chris and Emmet have created this adventure to be suitable for children as young as 5. Of course, as the DM, you should use discretion. You will understand your players better than the authors. But, this adventure would be okay for children.

In this adventure, the players will join Massie Littlefoot, a 12-year old halfling, for her birthday party. But when they arrive they learn that something terrible has happened. Massie’s birthday cake was stolen by a monstrous ogre named Clonker who lives in the nearby forest. It will be up to the players to recover the cake and save Massie’s party before it is completely ruined.

The players will investigate the scene at the bakery and follow the clues into the forest. From there they may encounter pixies, a hippogriff, a doppelganger, and even a small gang of goblins. And of course, they will encounter the titular character, the ogre known as Clonker. Is he truly the monster that the town, Lenimere, assumes he is? That’s up to the brave heroes to discover and resolve.

Why It’s Great

Now that I’ve given you a brief overview of the adventure I need to provide some of the reasons it is worth buying—and I’m advocating that you spend the $15 for the digital files and the premium heavyweight softcover book as I did.

When I review DMs Guild product I generally look at five main factors: Originality, Writing, Production, Design, and Cost. If the product is a compelling adventure (or reason to use it) that is well-written with an aesthetic design and balanced encounters that explore the three pillars of roleplaying, then I’m always inclined to give a high rating. Cost is relative to the other four factors. It’s one thing to know the cost of something and another to recognize its value.

Originality

Initially, you will probably think of Shrek when you start to read An Ogre and His Cake. Clonker is mild-mannered but he’s also temperamental and has few friends. Where this adventure is compelling and convincing is in Clonker’s motivations. Unlike Shrek, Clonker doesn’t embrace his loneliness. He wants friends. But the reputation of ogres precedes him, and his angry outbursts don’t help matters much. He happens to share a birthday with Massie and just wants to be celebrated too.

Clonker

Does Clonker look like a terrifying ogre to you?

Writing

I’ve reviewed a few of Christopher Walz’s adventures now and he consistently delivers easy-to-read products. He did well with explaining how to use this adventure and gives great advice on how to run it for kids. Each encounter is vivid and memorable. The kids you run this adventure will remember it for a long time. The nitpicker will find a few spelling mistakes here and there. But I can forgive them as they are few and far between. And inconsequential.

Production

Quite simply, Emmet Byrne nailed it with the production. This book is beautiful. He and Rob Walz (Chris’s brother) created amazing art and maps. And the character sheets for kids are among the best I’ve ever seen. My favorite character sheet is the color form-fillable ones. They’ve done a great job to simplify an otherwise complex character sheet for young players. You obviously won’t receive these forms if you purchase only the POD version of the file. So, I encourage you to buy both. They are not specific to this adventure. You could use them for all your players’ characters. I’m going to. My kids bring friends over a lot and these are great for new players.

Speaking of the POD version. I chose the premium heavyweight paper and received my physical copy within a few days. I love it. The colors are amazing. My 3-year old son saw it and asked me to read this book to him. My gosh I can’t wait until he has the attention-span for roleplaying. This will probably the first one I run for him. The adventure is a bit on the short side for a printed version so displaying it on a shelf won’t have the same effect as a thicker book with a printed spine. But that’s not why we buy physical books, right? At least not the only reason.

Character Sheet Fillable

Look at this custom character sheet! It’s fillable and when you click that “What I Look Like” box you can upload a picture!

Design

I’ll admit, running games for kids is tough. They tend to catch you off your guard a lot by asking unexpected, but creative, questions. I love that Chris suggests you never tell the players they cannot try something and adhere to the “Rule of Cool”. Basically, if it sounds cool you should not only allow it but also encourage it. This will make it fun for them. Each encounter in this adventure can provoke thoughtful reactions from the players. Even the final showdown could lead to befriending Clonker or enraging him into battle. The encounters are all scalable for weak or strong parties. Furthermore, to tone down the violence in an inherently violent game, you can decide that any monsters or NPCs who lose all their hit points simply run away. No need to be gory if you don’t want to be.

Cost

Cost is one of the most subjective parts of any assessment. My discretionary income is not the same as yours (most likely) so if I say $15 is inexpensive it may be true for me. But maybe not for you. Instead, I will tell you whether I think the $14.95 price is justified for this product (the premium heavyweight softcover book as well as the digital PDFs with all additional downloads).

It is. First, the print quality is professional. Not professional like you sent it to Office Depot for printing and binding. I’m talking it’s on par with what you’d buy from a retailer. The print on the pages doesn’t smudge and the colors are as vibrant as they are in the PDF. Secondly, the versatility of the kid-friendly character, inventory, and spell sheets means you have ubiquity to use them in ANY adventure where you’ll have young players at the table. The maps are perfect for printing and handing to the players (there are player copies and DM copies). Or you could load the maps into a virtual table top program like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds.

But most importantly, the price is justified in that the creators of An Ogre and His Cake give 100% of their profit to Extra Life. If you’re unfamiliar, Extra Life is a charity that raises money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Let me be clear about this. DMs Guild still takes their cut and the costs required to produce a printed copy and deliver it to you (you’ll pay the shipping) but Chris has set this product page up so the profit that he, Emmet, and Rob would normally see goes straight to Extra Life. It is a one-step process. These guys have foregone a good amount of money for this cause.

An Ogre and His Cake by Christopher Walz and Emmet Byrne

Please note, this review is NOT based on a complimentary copy as so many of them usually are on this site.


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The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox—A DMs Guild Review

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I’ve written a good deal about solo adventures already and one thing I hear a lot is concern over binary decisions. Either you open the door or you don’t, for example. While that is an overly simplistic way of viewing solo adventures (and not entirely accurate) I understand the concern. The choices we face in life are myriad and we want that reflected in our roleplaying too. What if I want to just walk away from the door?? This is where The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox can help you.

Solo Adventurer's Toolbox

Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox

The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox by Paul Bimler

Writer: Paul Bimler (aka “5E Solo Gamebooks”)

Publisher: DMs Guild

Cost: $14.99

Product Length: 167 pages

The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox is a resource for quest generation, random interactions, NPC generation, and even random dungeon generation. It covers both urban and wilderness settings. You will even find advice for roleplaying in the solo format as well as how to deal with monster tactics. Looking for downtime activities for your PC in between sessions? You’ll find it here. The author even includes an entire chapter on an example of solo play using the system contained within this toolbox.

How to use The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox

Giving a complete tutorial on how to use this product is beyond the scope of this review. In summary though, you would present your PC(s) with a question and use the tables contained herein to resolve that question. For example, you could start with deciding whether two PCs had known each other for a long time or had only recently met. Using the question/answer mechanic would have you roll and check that result on one of the provided tables. You simply continue along with this mechanic until you are satisfied. It will provide you with the basic framework and then it’s up to you and your imagination to fill in the details.

Perhaps your two PCs (or more if you feel like it) just met up a few weeks ago when their paths crossed while investigating a stolen tome from a temple devoted to Kiltzi. As they have similar goals, they decided to travel together to increase their chances of success. Now we have a reason for being where we are. But where will we go? What will we do next? Well, that depends. There are several tables we could use to figure that out. We’ve only scratched the surface.

Is that it?

No. Of course not. There is A LOT in this product. But everything is that simple. You can literally roll dice to generate a dungeon. The results will describe how large it is. How quiet, or not, it is. It’ll even help you identify its original purpose and that a “passage goes 15 ft and ends at [a] door”. From there you flip to the Door Table to get the details on that.

As you have no doubt already surmised, there are a lot of tables in this product. And lots of tables means lots of rolling. Furthermore, lots of rolling means lots of referencing. You may roll on several tables when you’re navigating a darkened dungeon that you wouldn’t otherwise need to do if you were playing in a traditional session with a DM describing your surroundings for you. It’s important to realize for a rich and engaging solo session with limitless opportunities that you’ll be making heavy use of the question/answer mechanic. The only way to resolve that mechanic is by chucking dice.

Speaking of DMs

This product is specifically marketed towards the solo gamer, a player who wants to play but cannot find a game for whatever reason. To be sure, The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox is nice for a player. But, if you ask me, it’s a must for a DM. How many of you DMs have been caught standing flat-footed when your friends ask if you can run a session in a couple of hours? You haven’t prepared anything and the one-shots you’ve read you either didn’t like or you’ve already used. Fear no more. Crack open the Toolbox and spend an hour rolling dice and you’ve got an ad hoc adventure ready that your gaming group will likely never know you rushed to throw together at the last minute.

I would say it’s great for the procrastinating dungeon master but that would be silly of me. Dungeon masters never procrastinate…amirite?

Final Thoughts

This a brief review on an incredibly detailed product. Paul has written a fantastic product that is a great tool for running solo adventures as well as one that is useful for putting together more “traditional” adventures if you’re feeling like letting some random rolls generating something special and unique (or if you’re pushed for time or having a creative block). As with all of his products, the production value is stellar and the design of each and every chapter is well-considered.

At first glance, you may balk at the $14.99 price tag and that’s understandable. But if you consider how many times you will reference this product the value is tremendous. It’s a great looking product and extremely versatile. This should be on your short list to purchase. You don’t have to be a solo enthusiast to get a lot of mileage out of The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox!

Pros

  • Options aplenty
  • Beautifully produced
  • Well-written
  • Great for more than solo play

Cons

  • No links within the PDF to other tables/pages
  • Easy to go down the rabbit hole with options

 

Thanks, Paul Bimler, for the review copy of The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox.


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Deities Domination by Muffin Games

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I’ve been interested in a board game by Fedja Buzancic of Muffin Games for well over a year now. I got to see early drafts of the rules and see the game grow and develop in that time. I am so happy to see Deities Domination by Muffin Games is making its way to Kickstarter next week (September 18, 2018 at 10:00 AM EDT, to be exact…mark your calendars!). I’ve had a chance to play the game several times and I hope you find my thoughts insightful. More importantly, I hope this leads you to supporting Muffin Games. Fedja has been working on this game for a long time and has put a lot of thought into its mechanisms and theme.

Deities: Domination

Deities Domination goes live on Kickstarter on 9/18/18

Deities Domination by Muffin Games

Designer: Fedja Buzancic

Artist(s): Marius Jansuonis, Sebastián Koziner, Filipe Ferreira

Publisher: Muffin Games

Players: 2-4 (Fedja has assured me the 2-player variant rules will be included)

Prominent Mechanisms: Deck building, modular board, variable player powers, resource management, and area control

Theme: Deities Domination is a civilization game based on four different mythologies: Slavic, Greek, Celtic, and Nordic. Each god/goddess from the four clans are struggling against each other to claim an empty throne. Once friendly to one another, they are all now self-interested and will stop at nothing to seize control. Whether they seek the throne through benevolence or malevolence is up to you and the strategy you take. There are multiple paths to victory and there is no single “right way” to play the game. Different clans lend themselves to different strategies as do the individual gods/goddesses (three per clan). And, of course, player preference plays a huge role strategy as well.

What’s in the Game?

This is based off a review copy that Fedja sent me, so all of this is subject to change. Knowing what I do of the game so far suggests that the game components are mostly finalized. But once again, it is a prototype and a mass-produced game will likely look different even if only in quality. Deities Domination by Muffin Games plays using a modular player board with several different terrain types. The players will have a card representing which deity (and clan) they will play as. There are several components to represent heroes, boons, crops, villages, castles, shrines, temples, track tokens, and tributes.

*This is what came in the prototype. Muffin Games has done some right-sizing where it concerns components so you’ll likely see fewer components in the final game. Truth to tell, we had more than we needed in every game we played.

  • Rulebook
  • 24 Terrain Tiles (grasslands, northlands, forests, mountains, orchards, and coastline)
  • 12 God cards (Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Thor, Odin, Loki, Morrigan, Lugh, Dagda, Veles, Jarylo, and Marzanna)
  • 25 God Power cards
  • 56 Base cards (the game will have 36 Base cards unless certain stretch goals are unlocked)
  • 15 Shrine cards
  • 21 Village cards
  • 24 Monster cards (there will only be 21 in the final game after Muffin Games removes some redundant Dire Wolves)
  • 1 Monster Lair board
  • 4 Player Tracker boards
  • 10 Battle Dice
  • 25 Tributes
  • 25 Tribute Tokens
  • 4 Tokens (per player)
  • 5 Heroes (per player)
  • 10 Boons (per player)
  • 15 Crops (per player)
  • 12 Villages (per player)
  • 3 Shrines (per player)
  • 3 Castles (per player
  • 1 Temple (per player)

How Do You Win?

To win is simple: collect the most victory points. You get 1 victory point per Tribute token. There are several ways to earn Tribute tokens. You can build things to earn victory points. Or you can cash in fervor (a resource required to build structures) for Tribute and 5 Tribute can be exchanged for 1 Tribute token. You can also battle monsters to earn Tribute.

You can also win by building villages and shrines, by building castles and fighting monsters, or by building a temple. Of course you can blend those strategies to your liking as well. The first player to collect 12 victory points wins.

So, Is It Good?

Well, I have already answered that…especially if you follow me on any of my social media channels. But yes, I quite enjoy this game and I’m happy to tell you why.

Theme

Give me anything to do with mythology and my interest is immediately piqued. Give me options around the selected mythologies and I’m all but hooked. I was already familiar with Greek and Nordic myths and even Celtic to a lesser extent. But Slavic myth is new territory for me. Of course, I’m not going to walk away from the game with the ability to write a dissertation on the subject. But it’s refreshing to see something new.

I prefer the cover art style to the interior art but both styles work well and fit the theme. The theme really supports the game’s mechanics as well.

Mechanics

I’ve got to be honest, when I saw how many mechanics were in this game I got a little overwhelmed and not a little nervous. I tend to play more with my kids than with anyone else and I got concerned that there would be too much going on in the game for them to be able to focus and develop a good strategy. I was wrong. A lot of the mechanics didn’t exactly need to be explained to them. Deck building, for example. The players start with 9 Base cards and you add the appropriate God cards to that deck. Done.

You can gain Shrine and Village cards during game play to continue to build that deck and during Action Phase of your turn you can trash* any number of cards from your hand you want. Trashing cards is important because it’ll stop you from drawing unwanted cards repeatedly. If you’re not focusing expanding the map you don’t want to keep drawing that ability.

The resource management in Deities Domination is great too. You have 3 abstract resources to manage: Fervor, Power, and Growth and you can have no more than twelve of each. Then there are tangible resources such as Crops, Boons, and even Heroes sometimes. For example, Crops require growth and a played card from your hand and building a Village requires a Hero, a Boon, 3 Crops, and 2 Fervor. Building that Village awards you a Village card to add to your deck (deck-building again) and 1 Victory Point. Now that you have a Village on a particular spot on the map, you can now gain Heroes on that same spot (by playing the appropriate card, if you have it) and no one else can build on that spot (area control).

Variable player powers come from your chosen God card. For example, I chose Loki in one of my sessions. Loki gave me the ability to convert another tribe’s (player’s) boon to my own or move one of their crops to any other space on the board. I could even sacrifice a hero to gain 6 Power! But I also got a clan benefit since Loki is Nordic. Any Boons and Crops placed on Northlands cannot be destroyed. I nice benefit in a civilization game to say the least!

*Note: You do not have the trash cards ability in a 2-player game.

Engagement

Engagement is something else I was worried about after seeing how much is going on in Deities Domination. But despite this, the turns moved quickly, and players are eager to advance their strategies. We found ourselves watching each other’s moves intently and quickly adjusting once anyone might’ve telegraphed what their short-term plan was. By and large, there was little downtime between turns and the action kept on trucking.

Interaction

In the early stages of the game, Interaction is on the lower side. You have Base cards and a few God Power cards. But you’ll only draw six cards into your hand each turn. Most likely, you will be focusing on gathering your own resources in the early stages of the game. Once you start collecting Village and Shrine cards and building structures you may likely want to start focusing on what others are doing and potentially spoiling things for them. Or, in the case of playing benevolently, you may decide to give your opponents resources (there’s a reward and thus a strategic reason for doing so). For the most part though, you won’t do things like trading or negotiating between yourselves.

Replayability

I’ve played this game at both the 3-player and 2-player level and it’s been a different experience every time. The modular board for one thing makes each session unique. You always start with six grassland tiles but then the remaining tiles are shuffled and played in the order in which they’re drawn. If I’m playing as a Nordic god but can’t seem to get a northlands tile into play, then my strategy will have to change. Likewise, some gods are more militant than others. Thor works best if the player focuses on battling monsters and he has no God power cards. But he permanently gains two Battle Dice whereas others start with none.

The game is too long for a filler but you’re unlikely to spend more than a couple of hours on a given session.

Components

This is where I want to be careful. And where I want to be clear. This was a prototype. So, while the nature of the components is wonderful I cannot—I will not—comment on the quality of those components or their physical design.

Each of the components, I can tell, has been carefully designed and considered. Each is necessary for this game to work as it does. You will rely on some more than others depending on your strategy, but I would not say that any single component is more important than another. Fervor may have a slight edge since it can be cashed in for Tribute tokens at a 2:1 ratio and tokens can be cashed in for Tribute cubes at a 5:1 ratio. A cube, you’ll recall, is worth one Victory Point and collecting the most VPs is how you win. However, Fervor is required to build every structure in the game too, so you will have to manage this resource wisely.

My Final Thoughts

Overall, Deities Domination by Muffin Games is firing on all cylinders for me. It ranks high in engagement, interaction, and replayability. On a 5-point scale for complexity it sits somewhere between 2.5 and 3.0. The sweet spot for many a gamer. This is an ambitious first game for Muffin Games and I have enjoyed watching Fedja’s passion and his reception to feedback and constructive criticism.

Another dimension that I want to touch on in my final thoughts is in service. Often in gaming we consider just the game. But the publisher behind the game can be just as important. I have every faith that Fedja and Muffin Games will run a wonderful Kickstarter campaign. The money I use to back it will be put to great use (which includes a well-deserved profit). I anticipate strong and frequent communication regarding the project’s status upon a successful campaign and expect that any delays in fulfillment would be due to forces outside of Muffin Games’s control. Furthermore, I can assure you that Fedja Buzancic is as dedicated to service quality as he is to creating great games.

Pros/Cons

Pros

  • Lots of Replayability
  • Multiple paths to victory
  • Beautiful art and theme

Cons

  • Narrow player count
  • May look overwhelming to new players initially

For an overall rating, I give Deities Domination by Muffin Games a 4.7 out of 5.0. This is a solid game that I’d always be willing to play so long as I had the time and right player count.

For more updates, check out these links:

Deities Domination

Player 4 loves Deities Domination and so do Players 1, 3, and 5. Player 2 didn’t play and Player 6 is too young to play (he’s 3).

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Creature Feature Quarterly Volume 1

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Growing up in the 80s with older brothers meant I got exposure to things that maybe a typical child my age wouldn’t have. I got to watch ridiculous movies like Creepshow, The Curse, Pumpkinhead, and Halloween. Of course, my favorite was probably Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger wasn’t just a menacing terror. He reveled in his sadism and that made him all the more monstrous to me. Sliding into the 90s meant watching Tales from the Crypt every Friday night. I guess I’ve always been fond of monsters. That penchant has stuck with me all these years later and with Jeremy Hart’s Creature Feature Quarterly Volume 1 I can continue to scratch a familiar itch.

Creature Feature Quarterly Volume 1

Creature Feature Quarterly Volume 1 by Jeremy Hart

Creature Feature Quarterly Volume 1

The Creature Feature Quarterly is a compendium of thirteen unique creatures developed by Jeremy Hart. Each creature has a full two-page spread with an inked drawing and stat block on the first page. The second page has a description, lore, ecology, adventure seeds/hooks, and a size comparison. With thirteen entries you can essentially include a new and interesting creature in your weekly game without using one twice. All but one is evil (lawful, neutral, and chaotic are all represented). Only the arboreal stalker is neutral.

Similar to the horror comics Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, the art in the Creature Feature Quarterly is heavy on inks and grotesque features. It’s a distinctive style that you either appreciate or you don’t. I fall into the former camp. But regardless, it’s not the art that sets this product apart. My favorite part of Jeremy’s work is all the background information he’s created.

Blade Wraith

The Blade Wraith wields a wicked sword!

One of my favorite entries is the Blade Wraith, a chaotic evil undead creature with a challenge rating of 6. The sword it carries is absurdly large and serrated to the point of impracticality. But, wow, is it menacing! No PC in his right mind would try to wield it, despite its near weightlessness. But it’s still a great plot element. You could tone down its sinister looks and make it the perfect MacGuffin or cursed item. The background lore for this creature is detailed enough to develop a multi-session campaign. The provided seeds are just additional arrows in the quiver. With this much ammo your sure to have a lot of opportunity to provide some great gaming experiences. Indeed, it is much the same for each of the entries.

A Note on the PDF Version of the Creature Feature Quarterly Volume 1

I used a complimentary copy of this file to create this review. However, it should be noted that Jeremy also offers this file in a print version as well. He recently sent notice that he revised the file for A4 setup for printing as the formatting was not great on letter setup. I’ve watched the videos of the physical version of his CFQs (he currently has 2) and while I can’t say definitively, I think this is where his product shines the most. The layout is optimized for the DM to show just the creature without giving away the stat block or the creature name. You can print the file off (I’d recommend a laser printer that uses toner instead of a printer that uses ink cartridges…these files are heavy on the black) and get a passable copy. But the quality of what Jeremy sells in print looks really nice!

Like I said though, $3 for thirteen creatures is an amazing price. If you go back to my earlier comment of one creature per weekly session then you’re talking less than a quarter per game. Be sure to check it out from DriveThruRPG here!

I give it 5 stars for its inexpensive cost, nostalgic art style, unique creatures, and usefulness. It’s a great tool for your kit!

 


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Cosmic Patrol: A Rocks Fall Review! by Devon Trube

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Hey everyone and welcome back to the written edition of the Rocks Fall Podcast! Your home for the best game reviews, creator interviews, and actual play in the podcasting (and written) world! I’m your host, Devon, and this week we’re talking about Cosmic Patrol!

Cosmic Patrol by Matt Heerdt and Catalyst Game Labs

Cosmic Patrol

Cosmic Patrol

  • System Name: Cosmic Patrol
  • System Creator(s): Matt Heerdt and Catalyst Game Labs

Flow of Gameplay:

The basic flow of gameplay for a zero session, and every other session thereafter (minus the character creation), is this:

  • Create a patrolman or, character
  • Select a mission brief. These are basically intro plot hooks to get the patrolmen invested in the campaign or the one-shot. Several are included in this book but players are encouraged to bring their own to the table for the crew to pick from.
  • Choose a lead narrator. Yep, this game does not require a GM. The party can flip a coin or roll a die to see who gets to GM, or narrate, first. This can then switch off at the end of every turn, or round, or gameplay, as the lead narrator role passes to the left.
  • Blast off to the stars and try not to get killed by any Venusian robots.
  • AND THAT’S IT! The book goes more in-depth about the flow of play but this is literally all you need to do to start a game.

Character Creation:

This game uses the standard d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 array of dice. Stats are connected to dice that are used in the game. The stats are basic and familiar to anyone who has played a tabletop RPG before. They are:

  • Brawn (or strength/endurance)
  • Brains (smarts/science, etc.)
  • Charisma (easy enough)
  • Combat (fighting skills)
  • Special (specialization in a chosen field)
  • And, Luck (a static number akin to critical hits in other systems. If the patrolman rolls a number equal to their luck in any other roll it is counted as an automatic success).
  • To start the process, the player must pick a
  • Character theme
  • Assign stat dice to certain stats
  • Pick your armor, weapons, and starting equipment
  • Create your player cues (used to move the narration along)
  • And then put it all together on a character sheet. It is a fairly simple twist on standard character creation.

Art:

It is simplistic and pulpy with enough detail to wow without the need for full color mural art taking up space in the book. Basically, it gets the point across without having to invest as much as, say, Wizards of the Coast or Paizo does in its artwork. This also lowers the cost of the book considerably so the buy-in is relatively low compared to other games. The first half of the book is thin on art but the last half is full of fun black and white sketches to look at.

Crunchiness:

This game is so smooth, almost no rules exist! This ruleset allows players to pretty much do anything and go anywhere in a collaborative fashion unlike any other system I’ve read. The next closest is probably FATE but this is even lighter on rules.

Setting/Lore:

Overall the setting is vague but the concept laid out in the book is enough to get the mind going to build your own setting. For me, that freedom is part of the charm this game has. There is a nice timeline of the setting’s history on pages 25-29 that sets up the player character’s starting point nicely. There is a lot of information in the book about the area players start in and almost none about areas outside the known galaxy, which gives players the freedom to do whatever they want, wherever they want.

Supplements:

From what I could find, this game has three supplements: The Moon Must be Ours, Beyond the Gravastar, and Into the Cosmos. There are several Free RPG Day modules that can be found on DriveThruRPG (linked in the description). I’ll update this if I get around to looking at them. Near as I can tell the publisher does not have any plans for a forthcoming release.

Wrap-Up:

Pros

While the book is small, this game is essentially a huge sandbox that players can dig in as deep as they want to go. Seriously, this game’s scope of play can be almost limitless due to the vagueness of the direction given by the authors. Think “No Man’s Sky” but with a party of adventurers and more action. Limitless. The collaborative storytelling with this system is interesting as it does not have a constant GM. This can help with GM burnout and add an interesting layer to any session. The art is beautiful, if minimalistic, and the game has a pretty interesting character, or patrolmen, generator.

Cons

This system is not for everyone. It’s vague and it leaves a lot up to interpretation. At one point in the book it actually says that fun needs to come before rules so feel free to break them. As much as I agree with this, that mindset isn’t really for everyone. The lack of a GM may lead to confusion at first or possibly a less cohesive story. If you cannot play without a GM or if you want to just be a GM then this system, in its original and unaltered form, isn’t for you. The thought of switching to a new GM every turn sounds a bit too chaotic for me but the party can decide how best to go about this in a way that makes everyone comfortable because the rules also allow for a constant narrator, much like most other RPGs. The art is minimal as well which can be a bummer for some folks who appreciate that in a core rulebook.

Overall:

I wish I could have found it when it released back in 2011. With only 135 pages, this game has opened up a sandbox as limitless as the actual universe and I’m ready to play. Overall, I loved this system. Give it a shot!

Where to Find It:

Free quick start rules and blank forms are available on the publisher’s website (linked in the show description with links to where you can find us on social media). The game can be purchased as a PDF through DriveThruRPG and physical copies can be found online in many places as well!

Thank you all so much for reading!

One last thing: are you a creator wanting to get your work out to reviewers? Rocks Fall! has a P.O. Box! If you would like your work considered for review on our podcast, send us a sample at:

Rocks Fall, C/O Devon Trube
P.O. Box 61162
Reno, NV 89506

Happy gaming everyone!


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The Saviour of Sharn—A DMs Guild Review

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In late July Wizards of the Coast announced that you could buy Eberron 5E content via the DMs Guild. The response was overwhelmingly positive and creators clamored to get content out as soon as they good. I was happy to hear that Paul Bimler was creating a solo adventure called The Saviour of Sharn.

The Saviour of Sharn

The Saviour of Sharn by Paul Bimler

I read the first few pages of the adventure (the Introduction and What You Will Need sections) and decided I’d play a non-traditional character. He’d be older than most of his level, a 35-year old human. He didn’t serve in The Last War because he was a businessman. His business wasn’t exactly legal but he paid the authorities to leave him alone and he kept the streets of his territory free of violence and other petty crimes. And he never refused a favor for a friend. What he didn’t expect was for one of his top lieutenants to betray him. He didn’t expect his wife would join him. Fueled by a desire to regain his dignity, he passed on operations to a competent successor and took an oath of vengeance against dishonorable organized crime syndicates. There should be honor among thieves.

Pherick Marzell decided he wouldn’t rest until he achieved vindication. Even if it took years!

The Saviour of Sharn

Coincidentally, the adventure opens with you being recruited by Kamiel Makker. Kamiel is a halfling that runs Automaton & Construct Repairs in Upper Dura and his income isn’t exactly “reputable”. He wants you to investigate why someone has bought all warforged body parts from his brother, Taviel, who runs a junkyard. Someone, he suspects, is amassing a warforged army and that army’s intent cannot be good! Kamiel will try to impress upon you the nobility of becoming the “saviour of Sharn” and depending on your character, that may be motivation enough. But Pherick saw this as an opportunity to stop someone’s evil (or evil-er) schemes.

Paul does well to touch on two of the three pillars of adventuring. You will explore twisting tunnels that split and turn unexpectedly. You will also find plenty of traps, puzzles, and monsters. As for social interaction, well this is a solo adventure. It’s not designed for that. You will have some opportunities to roleplay your character’s decisions. Obviously there won’t be completely open-ended scenarios but you at least get to decide whether to turn in a pickpocket or to use her to your advantage.

My Reaction and Rating

As with Citadel of the Raven, The Saviour of Sharn is an engaging solo adventure with a compelling hook and convincing encounters. This adventure is more challenging than his others that I’ve run through. I’d gotten 23 of 26 maximum progress points before I made a bad decision and failed my dexterity save. I plunged headlong into an abyss and died. But each moment of this adventure was fun and intense. I got a lot of enjoyment from the adventure despite losing. It suits my character that he died though. He didn’t have good intelligence or dexterity. He chose poorly and there was a consequence for that decision.

I give The Saviour of Sharn by Paul Bimler 5 stars. If you’re ever in a mood for some solo play and want some good exposure to Eberron, this is a great one to grab!

Thanks, Paul Bimler, for the review copy.

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Storm King’s Barrows—A DMs Guild Review Synopsis

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Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North is a DM’s Guild product with ten dungeons in the northern Sword Coast area. This is a summary of the overall product. I will not cover the individual adventures in this post. If you’re interested in them, you can read them at the links below. In fact, I encourage you to do so.

Storm King's Barrows

Storm King’s Barrows

Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North

Writer(s): Jason Bakos, Matt Butler, Andrew Dempz, Christian Eichhorn, David Flor, Edward Gioffre, Darren Parmenter, George Sager, Rob Twohy, Christopher Walz, and Micah Watt

Publisher: DMs Guild

Cost: $14.95

Product Length: 135 pages

Type: Adventures

Level(s)/Tier(s): 1st-15th/1st-3rd

 

First things first. This review is of version 1.3 of the product so if there are any inconsistencies between any factual comments I make regarding Storm King’s Barrows and what you believe to be accurate, please ensure you are referencing the same version I am. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me! There is an ink-friendly version which you will want to take advantage of if you plan to print any of these adventures on your home printer as the background for the high-res PDF is sure to be an ink hog.

General Information

Like I stated in my opening paragraph, Storm King’s Barrows is set in the northern parts of the Sword Coast. Of course, with a little DM ingenuity you could drop any of these adventures into just about any setting that you wanted. I imagine the one that would be most challenging to a setting other than a tundra would be Christopher Walz’s The Great Worm Caverns (check the 4th review in the series for more). As I have already written five separate reviews for this product I won’t belabor any of the nitpicking details that I might have called out in my previous articles. Instead, I will assess the product as a whole and give it my final rating.

Actually, let me start with my rating first. Then I will follow up with justification after that.

5-stars for Storm King's Barrows

5-stars for Storm King’s Barrows

Justification

How did I decide to award 5 stars to Storm King’s Barrows? Through careful consideration, of course! But no, seriously. Let’s start with the authors and their work. Each of them is a competent writer and every story in this compilation is compelling and convincing. They all make good use of a wide range of mechanics (from Arcana checks to cover to springing traps). Some are heavy on roleplaying and some are wonderful puzzles. Some will challenge greenhorn PCs while others will stymie even the veterans. There are lots of unique NPCs and treasures for characters to meet and earn. Not only can they make use of them in these adventures, they might even prove convenient in subsequent adventures! These are all truly inspired works and the authors took pride in their work.

Editing

Ken Carcas and Robert P. Davis had their work cut out for out for them with editing. I’ve never edited a DMs Guild product like this but I have served as a mentor to college students who were only months away from graduation. I can say that it is not easy to tell someone when the work they have spent countless hours on has fallen short of the mark. Or to tell them that perhaps they did not put forward their best effort. But that’s the only way to be truly successful. To push yourself and to be pushed. Ken and Robert clearly pushed these creators to do their best and the final product reflects that.

Art

Artists Luke Instone-Hall and Christian Eichhorn did a phenomenal job in creating wonderful handouts, maps, dungeons, and drawings for this adventure. These are all available in the PDF version of the file as well as separate high resolution graphics which are perfect for printing or using in virtual tabletops.

Cost

Finally comes the price. $14.95 is wonderful price for so many great adventures. Ten of them to be exact. If you were to break that down to a cost per hour of enjoyment, you’d be talking pennies. Storm King’s Barrows is MORE than reasonably priced.

You may recall that in the previous entries for Storm King’s Barrows that I gave each adventure only 4 stars for cost since they weren’t free. Upon reflection, I feel this isn’t the best approach. Free is obviously a better price for a consumer than is anything priced at ≥ $0.01. But there is a fine line between knowing something’s cost and knowing its value. $14.95 is an incredibly justifiable cost for the value you get.

Final Thoughts

There are a couple of more things I should include in this synopsis. First, Christian Eichhorn deserves a huge congratulations. Not only did he write one of the adventures and submit art for this project, he was also the offical “Dunegeoneer’s Pack Lead”. I’m not entirely sure what all that entails but it sounds like it should rhyme with “herding cats”. To make a product of this magnitude requires a gargantuan effort. He tied together all the loose ends and streamlined a great compilation of adventures. It should be added, in print, to your shelves right next to Storm King’s Thunder at your earliest convenience.

I know. It’s not currently available for print-on-demand. I know it’s not even formatted for that. Yet.

I also want to include a couple of things that did bother me about this work but I didn’t feel it was appropriate to do so in the individual reviews beyond a simple passing statement.

Spelling and Grammar

Let me first clarify something: the mistakes were minor and infrequent. But noticeable enough to call out. Sometimes it was a simple keying error with a missing space between two words. Other times it was either transposed letters or just a simple oversight. That’s bound to happen in a work this long. However, I would like to see them corrected if this were to ever go to print. Another thing I took issue with was foot vs. feet. A room is 30 feet by 30 feet and not 30 foot by 30 foot. As an example, “he hit me with a 10-foot pole!” is appropriate. “The pole he hit me with was 10 feet long!” is also appropriate.

Maps

I’ve already told you the maps are a great quality. I’m not complaining about that. My nitpicking issue is that all of the adventures go to great lengths to describe their dungeons yet all of them have the dungeons at the end of the adventure. For whatever reason, I like them included sooner. Perhaps its so I could study them prior to reading about their locations. They are all included as separate high-res downloads so including lower resolution pieces in the body of the adventure would have been nice.

Average Party Level

Each adventure has some kind of acknowledgement of the type of PCs it is geared towards. However, some say something like it “can be run for 4-7 7th to 15th level characters…it is optimized for 4 characters with an APL of 7″ while others might only say “it is optimized for 4 characters with an APL of 7” ONLY or “can be run for 4-7 7th to 15th level characters” ONLY. I’m not sure why they weren’t all consistent and either include both ways of communicating the target PCs or just one. I like consistency.

None of those are strong enough to pull a full star (and I prefer not to give a partial star in a final rating since I can’t do the same on DMs Guild) from the overall rating even if you consider that some individual adventures might’ve only gotten 4 stars. Indeed, if I may borrow a cliche, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Go buy Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North right now. It’s worth every penny!



Thanks again, Christian Eichhorn, for the review copy of Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North. This is one hell of a product!

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Storm King’s Barrows—A DMs Guild Review (part 5)

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Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North is a DM’s Guild product with ten dungeons in the northern Sword Coast area. This is the fifth in a five part series of reviews. I will cover The Vault of the Undying by David Flor and Yancazi’s Crypt by Darren Parmenter in this review. Each dungeon will receive its own standalone rating and I will also give an overall rating for the entire Storm King’s Barrows product upon completing the series.

Storm King's Barrows

Storm King’s Barrows

Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North

Writer(s): Jason Bakos, Matt Butler, Andrew Dempz, Christian Eichhorn, David Flor, Edward Gioffre, Darren Parmenter, George Sager, Rob Twohy, Christopher Walz, and Micah Watt

Publisher: DMs Guild

Cost: $14.95

Product Length: 135 pages

Type: Adventures

Level(s)/Tier(s): 1st-15th/1st-3rd

 

First things first. This review is of version 1.3 of the product so if there are any inconsistencies between any factual comments I make regarding Storm King’s Barrows and what you believe to be accurate, please ensure you are referencing the same version I am. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me! Additionally, this product comes with high-resolution maps for each adventure (.png format) as well as a Map of the North. All of these maps are also at the end of their respective adventures. And, finally, there is an ink-friendly version which you will want to take advantage of if you plan to print any of these adventures on your home printer as the background for the high-res PDF is sure to be an ink hog.

Storm King's Barrows

This map of the North does not reveal the dungeons’ locations. However, the product comes with a marked version.

9. Storm King’s Barrows: The Vault of the Undying by David Flor

Storm King's Barrows—The Vault of the Undying

Storm King’s Barrows—The Vault of the Undying. An adventure optimized for APL of 7-8 for five characters

Tremors near Raven Rock have uncovered a forgotten crypt. Drawing the attention of many a fortune seeker, the crypt is buzzing with rumors of terror and impossible entry. Can your characters access whatever treasure lies with The Vault of the Undying?

Originality (5 stars)

So what is this Vault of the Undying? When I read the title I presumed it would be a vault filled with undead creatures…you know, a playground for clerics and paladins. But I was wrong and pleasantly so. The “Undying” is a necromancer called Vasha. In a classic monkey’s paw wish fashion, Vasha vied for eternal undeath. He was granted this request upon completing his ritual. But what he hadn’t counted on was being sealed inside a crypt. A lot of good immortality does you if you’re confined to a prison for eternity, yeah?

Vasha wants out but the only way to get out is someone lets him out. This isn’t as simple as saying “Vasha! Vasha! Vasha!” Someone will have to open the vault from the outside. But once they do, they’ll soon discover that letting Vasha escape is a bad idea. Oh, and he hasn’t been exactly idle these last 100 years of imprisonment either…

Writing (5 stars)

David Flor has written a wonderful adventure that is highly detailed and easy to read. You will have no problems seeing the forest despite the many trees.

Production (4 stars)

The production of this entry is on par with the rest of the entries as I have stated in previous reviews. The map is high quality and the formatting is intuitive.

Design (5 stars)

The Vault of the Undying’s design is thoughtful and well-considered. As I read this adventure I was keeping a rough list of all the checks, saving throws, spells, conditions, etc. that David mentions and while the list is not an exhaustive one of everything that 5E has to offer, it is incredibly inclusive and varied. I loved that he incorporated so many different mechanics into this adventure. It gives it tremendous depth and versatility (lots of opportunities for success and failures). There are also good McGuffin’s and red herrings in this adventure too. Be careful!

Cost (4 stars)

Storm King’s Barrows costs $14.95. It may seem prudent to take that price and divide by 10 to calculate the appropriate cost per adventure. However, I believe a more useful means is to go by page count. The Vault of the Undying is 9 pages long. So this adventure has an allocated cost of $1.00. This is a great price for this adventure!

Overall Rating: 4.6 Stars

10. Storm King’s Barrows: Yancazi’s Crypt by Darren Parmenter

Storm King's Barrows—Yancazi's Crypt

Storm King’s Barrows—Yancazi’s Crypt. An adventure optimized for APL of 10 for five characters

Legend has it that Orfeon Yancazi, a Demogorgon devotee, had a change in his convictions and overthrew his master. Yancazi’s Crypt, aka “The Warlock’s Crypt”, is somewhere in The Crags. It has a storied reputation of being a place that only most ardent fanatics seek out. These people make regular pilgrimages to the area. The owner and operator of The Inn of the Resting Warlock, Victor, knows as much about the Crypt as anyone the characters will encounter. In fact, his knowledge runs so deep that it will be a good idea for the characters to enlist his help as a hireling. Especially of none in the existing party speaks abyssal.

Originality (5 stars)

I love the incorporation of Demogorgon in this adventure. The intrigue behind Orfeon Yancazi is excellent as is the fervor of the pilgrims who trek to this site. The Crypt itself is also a fun dungeon that almost has a personality all on its own.

Writing (3 stars)

Yancazi’s Crypt is one of the more challenging reads in Storm King’s Barrows. I found myself rereading passages that were somewhat complicated or because they weren’t gripping my attention like many of the others in this compilation. However, my biggest concern was the errors. There were far more mistakes in this entry than in any of the others. There was an instance where I wasn’t sure if the author wanted to communicate how creatures of The Crag try to avoid Yancazi’s wraith or his wrath. There are missing apostrophes, missing spaces between words, subject verb disagreements, and several opportunities where the author could have used more concise language.

Production (4 stars)

The production of this adventure follows the same format as all the others in Storm King’s Barrows. As with all the others, the production is solid. The maps and art included in this adventure are great and are also available as external downloads. Once again, I just wish the maps weren’t the last thing the reader comes across in the adventure.

Design (4 stars)

Yancazi’s Crypt had the potential for top marks where it concerns design. Where it loses it for me are primarily in the DCs for all the checks (around 40 of them in all) and in the author’s ambiguity.

The DCs span the range between 10 and 30. I’m not sure if this adventure is meant to be overwhelming or simple for the characters. Checks with a DC of 10 are almost freebies but a DC of 30 is still pretty challenging even for 10th level characters.

A second issue I take with the design was the mention of things that were outside the scope of this adventure. For example, Darren puts a reasonable amount of effort into describing a book collection that adds little to the adventure and tells the DM it is up to him/her to decide the exact nature of the collection. He also tells us about a potential cure for Yancazi’s chronic pain but that the “application of this research and ritual is left to the DM to devise as it falls outside of the presented adventure.”

I’m confused why it’s mentioned at all in that case. DMs understand they can adapt any part of an adventure to suit their games. The author would have done better to omit these sorts of things altogether or to give us his explicit thoughts. Let US decide whether to follow things to the letter or not.

Cost (4 stars)

Yancazi’s Crypt is 18 pages long. So this adventure has an allocated cost of roughly $1.99. This is one of the longer adventures of Storm King’s Barrows so this cost is not out of line for what you get.

Overall Rating: 4.0 Stars

 



Thanks, Christian Eichhorn, for the review copy of Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North.

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Chris Goodlet Joins Our Extra Life Team

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Last week I announced that Branden Robertson has joined the Team NZS Extra Life team! Today I am happy to report that the team continues to grow. Chris Goodlet (on Instagram as @goodletchris) makes the seventh member of of Team NZS.

Living in West Virginia with his wife and children, Chris is a data management specialist and a pastor of outreach and missions for his church.

Chris loves the board game community and his church’s game night is what got him into the hobby. Gaming has helped him have some great interactions with others across the table from him. He is originally from Uniontown, Ohio and has been married to his wife for 15 years. They have three beautiful children. His wife and his children encourage him to challenge himself into being a better man. He also shared with me that his family helps keep him level. Given the pic below, I’m curious how zany Chris would be without that fun-loving family at his side!

Chris Goodlet has joined our Extra Life team!

Chris Goodlet has joined our Extra Life team!

Where to Find More About Chris

You can find Chris on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/goodletchris/

His Extra Life page is https://www.extra-life.org/participant/319474. He is playing for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in general. He has currently set his goal at $100 and I have all the faith that he will meet that goal.

On behalf of the whole team, we’re excited to have you, Chris!

If you’d like to contribute you can click Chris’s link above. Our overall team progress is below. You can help us make a difference. As it stands now, our team goal is $1,550. This is enough to cover three children’s Emergency Room visits.

With our current numbers we have the following representation across North America:

  • Ontario, Canada—1 Gamer
  • Pennsylvania, USA—2 Gamers
  • West Virginia, USA—1 Gamer
  • Illinois, USA—1 Gamer
  • Nevada, USA—1 Gamer
  • Georgia, USA—1 Gamer

Is your state or province represented? Or is it UNDER-represented? If so, email me at patrick@nonzerosumgames.com and perhaps you could be our 8th team member! We’ve got over 3 months left to raise some money and we’d love to have you join us too!

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Storm King’s Barrows—A DMs Guild Review (part 4)

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Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North is a DM’s Guild product with ten dungeons in the northern Sword Coast area. This is the fourth in a five part series of reviews. I will cover The Great Worm Caverns Rock by Christopher Walz and The Tomb of Mild Discomfort by Jason Bakos in this review. Each dungeon will receive its own standalone rating and I will also give an overall rating for the entire Storm King’s Barrows product upon completing the series.

If you want to read Part 1 of the review which covers Breve Heeros Onli! by George Sager and Geshmalig’s Tomb by Christian Eichorn you can find it here: http://www.nonzerosumgames.com/storm-kings-barrows-a-dms-guild-review-part-1/

Part 2 of the review contains Grotto of the Death Giant by Eddie Gioffre and Saving Barbadoo’s Mine by Matt Butler. You can find it here: http://www.nonzerosumgames.com/storm-kings-barrows-a-dms-guild-review-part-2/

Part 3 of the review contains Stone Giant’s Lost Rock by Micah Watt and The Barovian Book of the Dead by Andrew Dempz. You can find it here: http://www.nonzerosumgames.com/storm-kings-barrows-a-dms-guild-review-part-3/

Storm King's Barrows

Storm King’s Barrows

Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North

Writer(s): Jason Bakos, Matt Butler, Andrew Dempz, Christian Eichhorn, David Flor, Edward Gioffre, Darren Parmenter, George Sager, Rob Twohy, Christopher Walz, and Micah Watt

Publisher: DMs Guild

Cost: $14.95

Product Length: 135 pages

Type: Adventures

Level(s)/Tier(s): 1st-15th/1st-3rd

 

First things first. This review is of version 1.3 of the product so if there are any inconsistencies between any factual comments I make regarding Storm King’s Barrows and what you believe to be accurate, please ensure you are referencing the same version I am. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me! Additionally, this product comes with high-resolution maps for each adventure (.png format) as well as a Map of the North. All of these maps are also at the end of their respective adventures. And, finally, there is an ink-friendly version which you will want to take advantage of if you plan to print any of these adventures on your home printer as the background for the high-res PDF is sure to be an ink hog.

Storm King's Barrows

This map of the North does not reveal the dungeons’ locations. However, the product comes with a marked version.

7. Storm King’s Barrows: The Great Worm Caverns by Christopher Walz

Storm King's Barrows—The Great Worm Caverns

Storm King’s Barrows—The The Great Worm Caverns. An adventure for PCs level 9-11 (optimized APL is 10 for five characters)

The Great Worm Caverns by Christopher Walz is another adventure in Storm King’s Barrows to give us some exposure to the Uthgardt barbarians (the first being Geshmalig’s Tomb by Christian Eichhorn). But this adventure focuses on a dying tribe’s nefarious chieftain, Wormblod. He’s as unlike the Battle Father as you could imagine. He is vile and he is greedy. Furthermore, he’s aligned with the white dragons. It gets worse, Wormblod’s tribesmen cannot pass into the afterlife and all too many are left to wander between life and death.

Under Wormblod’s leadership, The Great Worm tribe has atrophied and is only barely hanging on to its former glory. That legacy can still be saved but the heroes can act fast and decisively. Of course, preserving the legacy ultimately leads to the tribe’s dissolution before it can be further bastardized by a corrupt leader. They will need to brave their way into the Caverns battling frigid temperatures, perilous waters, undead, and even a zombie polar bear! If they’re skilled enough to survive all those nasty gnarlies then they get to face Winterhorn, an adult white dragon.

Originality (5 stars)

Whenever I think of a couatl I rarely think of anything other than some sort of a Mesoamerican setting (such as the jungles of Chult). But Chris has successfully pulled off a convincing arctic couatl. The species, extinct these days, was once a protector of the prehistoric humanoids of the north. Zombie polar bears and frozen echos (those spirits trapped between the living and the dead) are nice additions that breathe life into this adventure too. A victorious party will live to see the couatl seal off the Caverns with magical wards before fading away forever.

Writing (5 stars)

This is the third product I’ve read from Christopher Walz (see The Call of Atropus of you’re interest in a Lovecraftian adventure) and his writing nearly flawless. He is able to straddle the line between prose and technical writing without it feeling disjointed or awkward.

Production (4 stars)

The production of this entry is on par with the rest of the entries as I have stated in previous reviews. The maps are high quality, the formatting is intuitive. The Great Worm Caverns includes some art and a rare wondrous item which is really convenient tool to have in your arsenal!

Design (5 stars)

When it comes to design, I believe that one of Chris’s best strengths is his use of the environment that the characters are in. I love a good adventure that is as much a pressuring and unforgiving environment as it is a dungeon crawl. Chris gives us both in The Great Worm Caverns.

Cost (4 stars)

Storm King’s Barrows costs $14.95. It may seem prudent to take that price and divide by 10 to calculate the appropriate cost per adventure. However, I believe a more useful means is to go by page count. The Great Worm Caverns is 15 pages long. So this adventure has an allocated cost of $1.66. This is a great price for this adventure!

Overall Rating: 4.6 Stars

8. Storm King’s Barrows: The Tomb of Mild Discomfort by Jason Bakos

Storm King's Barrows—The Tomb of Mild Discomfort

Storm King’s Barrows—The Tomb of Mild Discomfort. An adventure optimized for APL of 6 for five characters

The Tomb of Mild Discomfort is every bit the silly nod to The Tomb of Horrors that the title suggests it is. Sometimes a good dungeon crawl is all you really need and that’s what Jason Bakos’s adventure is. Sure, there is enough background to provide the semblance of a story but sometimes, the dungeon is enough. Billed as “a thinking person’s adventure” by Gary Gygax, The Tomb of Horrors was designed to test the skill of expert players. The Tomb of Mild Discomfort has a slightly more humble, but no less important, goal: entertainment.

The demilich Acererak has created the Tomb after promising to do so for Queen Azaria (he did kill her so it’s the least he could do). Many know of Acererak’s sadistic side but there may be some who never realized he also had a sense of humor. It was the latter that drove him to create The Tomb of Mild Discomfort. While the players may not find any one particular thing all that deadly, this is still a challenging adventure. The adventure doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should the players. But I caution your thinking if you presume the adventure is a simple stroll through the park.

Note: you may want to own Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for this adventure. It’s not a must. But it would be helpful. However, you absolutely need a caster for this adventure!

Originality (4 stars)

Jason has done a great job reinterpreting Gygax’s death dungeon and created something that is fun and challenging at the same time. If you or your players choose, you could give the NPCs in this adventure larger roles in your campaign. I don’t know that I found them compelling enough that I’d die for them to make an appearance later but they certainly could be useful.

Writing (5 stars)

Jason is a competent writer. Describing rooms full of traps largely devoid of character interaction without devolving into a sterile and uninspired style is no easy task. This author gives his readers an easy read on what could otherwise have been a tedious and monotonous experience. Furthermore, he’s added enough humor to give the party a fun time.

Production (4 stars)

The production of this adventure follows the same format as all the others in Storm King’s Barrows. The production is solidly done with good maps and art included in the file and as external downloads.

Design (4 stars)

Even though it is a reinterpretation of a classic dungeon Jason has done well with his traps. I am particularly fond of Mitsos’ Skull. It reminds me of what it’s like to play with a kender in your party. Only this trap may be slightly easier to disarm. Where it may fall short for some players is in roleplay opportunities. It may be hard to smooth-talk your way out of a trapped ceiling or charm your way past a helmed horror.

Cost (4 stars)

The Tomb of Mild Discomfort is 12 pages long. So this adventure has an allocated cost of roughly $1.33. Its value far outweighs its cost (it’s a good deal!).

Overall Rating: 4.2 Stars

 



Thanks, Christian Eichhorn, for the review copy of Storm King’s Barrows: Tombs and Crypts of the North.

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