The Bridge of Ptelemegesser (Peter McDevitt)
B/X or OSE (B/X) for...huh? (no level range listed)
Well, at least it's short.
For my review criteria, you may check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (three page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews short.
One page plus a map. Seven numbered encounters. Even though it calls itself an "adventure site" (and to be fair, Gibson suggests an encounter range of "5 to 25"), this is too short, too devoid of adventure to really be an "adventure site." It's more of a single encounter scenario...at best I might classify it as a "lair."
Site is written to be dropped into a mountainous area when PCs are "hexcrawling." This suggests a group of 4th/5th ("Expert") level characters. Group finds a long, stone bridge spanning a gorge with a drop of some 140' into a narrow lake. But there's a giant rhagodessa hanging on the bottom of the bridge, waiting to ambush the last crossing party member (or the "lone scout") and drag them back to its lair: a cave some 50' below the bridge in the cave wall.
As a single encounter of a larger adventure this is pretty good...though bridge encounters are the kind of thing you can only ever do once, or they get old (see the pterodactyls of X1 or the Tasloi throwing boulders in I1 for other examples). This one is creative and probably won't elicit too many boos-hisses when you spring it on the players (they were looking for pterodactyls...how were they supposed to know the threat would come from underneath!). I like it, and could see myself dropping it somewhere.
But it's not going to provide "an evening's entertainment." Even if the PCs decide to explore the other two (connected) caves, there's just not much here to occupy their attention. Treasure is weak...maybe a couple thousand? Not much for a party of 4th-5th level characters (which, again, seems about right for this encounter).
This one should probably get ZERO stars out of five, because it's incomplete (in my opinion). However, it's within the guidelines set by Ben, and it's a fine little encounter. I'll give it two stars (out of five) because it's a creative bridge encounter, with the caveat that the "work" needed to make it a playable adventure site is "filling out more adventure site."
However, it also gets a "-" ding because the stat block is wrong for the giant catfish. See page X31 for corrections.
**-
Thank you for the review. In my mind's eye this was a more full-bodied adventure site. When I actually set it to paper it turned out to be a page shorter than I had hoped. I considered filling it out with some more caves but decided the original concept was a tighter package, even if its not a true evening's entertainment.
ReplyDeleteAlso I noticed I forgot the level range right after the submission deadline passed. I've been waiting for weeks for you to ding me on that! Good catch on the giant catfish stat block too.
You’re welcome! It’s a great lair/encounter to drop into a wilderness…just a bit short for “an evening’s play.”
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