ASC Review: Great Drum Primordial

Great Drum Primordial (Ethan B.)

AD&D (??) adventure for about four to six PCs of 6th level

I am reviewing these in the order they were submitted. For my review criteria, please check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (two page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews brief.

This adventure does not say what TSR-era edition it's been designed to be compatible with. Reading through it, I'm guessing AD&D due to things like druid spells and carnivorous apes (the latter of which don't appear in OD&D). Regardless, we're going to treat it as such so I don't need to disqualify yet another contest entry out of hand.

So. Let's get to analyzing.

First off, I think it's important to point out to the author that there is no such precious stone as a "blood diamond." Blood diamonds...also called "conflict diamonds"...is the term given to diamonds mined from war zones, and sold (generally in spite of sanctions) to fund terroristm, insurgency, and warlords. It is a political term for a dimaond smuggled by organized crime cartels, the "blood" being on the hands of the people making money off such stones. 

As such, it does not make sense to have the "savage" tribesmen here trade in "blood diamonds."

Next, in AD&D only humanoid tribes have "witch-doctors," a particular term given to a particular type of humanoid spell-caster. If the "savages" have a priestess with druidic powers, she's a druid. Druids are supposed to be true neutral so there would not be a dichotomy between "good witch-doctors" and "bad witches;" druids can certainly be of different temperaments (kindly or maniacal) but they don't represent different poles, only ONE pole (i.e. spirituality). Also, a stone adze is a small, handheld tool. It is NOT the equivalent of a bec de corbin (a 6'+ pole arm)...I'd suggest googling images of both and comparing. Regardless, a druid uses NEITHER.

A lot of this adventure looks half-baked. We're told something about this "fraud" site being created by a "Professor Creptic" to confound his rival "Doctor Starling." But what does that mean? Did he put the savages there? Did he create the drum that drives the apes "apeshit" (an amusingly named procedural ability of the carnivorous apes attributed to a magic artifact)? Then why did he have an expedition to the area that was ultimately slain? And what the hell is this 10,000 g.p. reward for a live ape that was never mentioned before the final paragraph? The set-up in the intro made this look like a rescue mission for Doc Starling!

This adventure site is kind of a confusing mess with some interesting ideas that are somewhat spoiled by what appears to be deliberately offensive language and themes at times. It's sloppily executed and shows a poor understanding of AD&D (a ring of human influence doesn't have "charges") and for a treasure count that should around 90K it provides (maybe) one-fifth that amount. An editor might have helped.

This one gets a one star (*) rating. Sorry.