AD&D for ???
Oh, joy. No expected level range for players. Guess I'll just have to guess.
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.
FFS, the map is upside-down. Though I suppose it's not much of a map: a small "greenhouse" compound of eight encounter areas (mostly one room shacks, sheds, or structures).
Party is hired to acquire plants from a dead alchemist's compound. Probably think a druid would be useful for such an adventure. HA! It's all undead, baby! Wights, ghouls, skeletons, and the titular "crocodile spirits:" an undead, ghost reptile that attacks like a crocodile, but is immune to normal weapons, and ages characters 10 years "when observed" (save versus magic to resist). There are two such of the latter encounter with multiples of these creatures...so, PCs need to make five saves apiece to avoid a potential 50 year age penalty? Hmm.
No level range. Treasure take suggests 4th-5th level party members, which is much too high for 16 skeletons, 4 ghouls, and a single wight. But five ghost crocodiles? Brutal. A 5th level cleric has ZERO chance to turn a ghost (even if these things can be turned...there's no "turns as" noted here). Saves are going to be in the 14-16 range, so you're looking at 30 years of aging apiece. Mm. Restoration spells are pretty expensive. Good thing there's a single potion of longevity! The party members can fight each other over that!
This adventure has an interesting idea, but it wasn't thought through, and the execution is poor. Saving grace is that this one is pretty short: only two pages plus a "monster stat sheet." Appears to have been a rushed, slapdash effort. Would normally get two stars, but I'm knocking a star off for not listing a level range (if you're going to design an adventure, you need to design for a particular level. AD&D is a tiered system folks). One star (out of five).
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Been reading a lot of old Judge's Guild stuff and I wonder if we're not over-reliant on level range guidance. The DMG wilderness encounter tables certainly don't have a level range!
ReplyDeleteThey don't, and a home campaign will probably have plenty of areas of varying danger...one of the reasons low-level PCs should stick close to a 'home town' and not wander into the wilds!
DeleteHowever, when picking out an adventure to run for a group, a DM will usually check to see if it's an appropriate level for the players of their group. If it's too low level, it will certainly be a cakewalk...but it won't yield treasure worth their time. Likewise, a difficult adventure (with commensurate reward) should provide plenty of warnings to lesser PC groups that "this one isn't for you."
You can, of course, do whatever you want with your campaign...create easy adventures with tremendous amounts of treasure or incredibly deadly affairs with peanuts...but that's hardly a formula for satisfying play.
For some reason, I always get excited by adventures that have jungles, crocodiles and lost civilisations and am always hopeful of finding something interesting to use in my campaign. Sadly, Crimson Garden is not what I'm looking for though. Thanks for the review
ReplyDeleteAmazonian jungles filled with cities of gold, etc. hold a fascination for lots of people...myself included. But this isn't that kind of adventure, no.
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