It should be noted that I was given these adventures by Mark free of charge, for which I am very grateful. These all look like a blast, but for this review I'll focus on this specific adventure.
The PDF is black and white in a two column format which is pretty standard for OSR publications.
The adventure takes place in a coastal city, and a dungeon lurks beneath it. It is a straight-forward setup that I have used in other campaigns (namely Empire of the Petal Throne). I do love Undercities and dungeons beneath settled areas. They remind me of the film As Above, So Below. If you've never watched it, check it out.
The included dungeon maps are that nice nostalgic light blue and white, and while the layout of the dungeon isn't super complex or novel it is clean and easily read. The map should be easily to map out on graph paper for the players.
Rumors can be easily heard about the Sinister One, and his bands of Bugbears, Lizard Men, and Orcs running a slave trade. Townsfolk have gone missing in greater numbers as of late, prompting the need for desperate and reckless adventurers to explore the depths below to find those kidnapped by this nefarious organization. This slave trade could lead the group to other locations if the GM wishes. It would be easy to include wagons loaded with slaves that head off to other locations to be sold off to the highest bidder.
A rumors table, random tavern events, and random encounter tables are a nice old school touch that are useful and easy to read. Some of the results are rather crass and humorous. :)
The included art is black and white and it reminds me of the TSR Choose Your Own Adventure books from my youth. I do appreciate good B&W art!
The stat blocks and NPC speaking lines are bold, as well as text that NPCs might utter to the players.
A sample stat block is included below:
(8) Skeletons (AC: 7, MV: 120 ft, HD: 1, HP: 8 each #AT: 1, D: 1d6, SZ: Man Sized, MR: Standard, SD: Immune to cold, sleep, charm, hold and other mental based attacks, AL: Neutral, Level/XP: 1/15 + 1/HP)
The hanging dead? troll encounter is a fun one. I think I would have its appendages have a life of their own. (Evil GM Cackle)
Snoot's Rock n' Roll Pit Fight Arena is a bit silly, so you might want to modify this encounter. I think some more standard bards could foot the bill here.
There are a good many NPCs included in the adventure and that is cool to see. They are described well.
As with most adventures a GM will need to read through the adventure, make notes, emphasize parts of the text that need to stand out more, etc. You know, standard GM prep work for running a published adventure.
The art for Cavern of the Snare Beast is really evocative. Just look at that evil bastard! Woah!
There is a good amount of treasure, and useful magic items littered here and there in the dungeon IF the player characters can manage to find them.I love the My Giant and Me encounter. I want a giant pet spider now! The art is also very evocative with a Dwarf holding onto a chain leash that holds his eight-legged pet in tow. The art is included over there. <---
While there isn't a ton of art included, almost every piece is impressive. Some of the pieces are a bit too "cartoony" for my tastes, but I do like most of it. The pieces I am including here are my favorites.
This adventure looks like it will kick a party's ass if they are the types that just go toe-to-toe for every encounter. They will need to use magic items, have a good amount of healing and offense, and a good amount of luck to get through it all I think. Good luck, it looks like a fun challenge.
One of the rooms has chess pieces that animate and attack. I love this idea. It reminds me of battle at the end of Time Bandits and that one scene in one of the Harry Potter flicks.
Wendell Hobblefoot (an evil Halfling) literally rules the dungeon and I like that twist, but his art is a bit on the cartoony side as well.
New monster stats are included in an appendix, as well as pregenerated characters to use for the adventure. I wish more adventures included those.
While this adventure seems to be on the short side (at 36 pages) it is densely packed with encounters and what appears to be a lot of over-the-top fun. If you want a more gonzo adventure this can cover you, and if you want to slightly tweak it for a more serious game that is easy to do as well.
It appears like this adventure could possible take up to 2 to 4 sessions to play it all out, but I'll need to playtest that. Maybe I'll get to use this in my solo campaign, or at my local convention that I run games for twice a year.
I hope to review the rest of the Maximum Mayhem Dungeon adventures, and perhaps get a review up on my RPG YouTube channel as well. Only time will tell though. Have a good one. -Tim
Looks awesome! I linked people to this review this week on my blog and podcast. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHey Jeremy, thanks for sharing this. :)
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