D&D Hoard of the Dragon Queen Actual Play: The Inn of Lost Heroes

Getting caught up on our actual play write-ups for those who are into such things...this is the continuation of our Hoard of the Dragon Queen game, except I decided to slot in the Labyrinth Lord adventure Inn of Lost Heroes.

No dragons here. Except the Dragonborn.

The previous posts are presented below:

Character Creation

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Tommy's Take on The Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay

So, the only Labyrinth Lord products I have ever reviewed have all been by Small Niche Games...and when I posted recently on Google+ about how I needed to do more reviews, Pete Spahn hit me up again about a review, this time for The Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay, a "home base" meant for The Chronicles of Amherth.

Tommy's Take on The Shrine of St. Aleena

Small Niche Games has a new release for your adventuring fun, this time more of a straight forward dungeon crawl.

DISCLAIMER: A digital copy of this product was provided to me as a comp copy for review purposes. Affiliate links posted within this article may provide this blog with store credit to One Book Shelf, which may either be cashed out for funds or (more likely) be used to purchase more products for review on this blog.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The Shrine of St. Aleena is set in The Chronicles of Amherth campaign setting, and is designed to be used with the Labyrinth Lord RPG, but can be set in most fantasy settings and can be rejiggered for your favorite iteration of D&D, especially the older ones. It is designed for characters of 1st to 3rd level, and assumes a party of 3-6 characters, and assumes that you have at least one Lawful character in the mix. It is available in PDF for $4.95 from RPGNow.

This adventure is a bit of a departure from the norm for Small Niche Games. The horror elements that permeate their adventures is missing from here, and it is more of a dungeon crawl (while other adventures tend towards timed encounters and sandboxes).

The backstory for the adventure revolves around a Fighter and a Cleric who were thwarting the plans of an evil wizard known as The Infamous One. The Cleric, Aleena, sacrificed her life to save the Fighter and stop the Wizard, and years later has been Sainted. The Infamous One, still smarting over her interference, has sent a horde of goblins to sack her town and a nefarious creature to corrupt her temple.

How the party gets involved in the adventure is up to you, but a number of suggestions are provided (ranging from divine visions to just stumbling across the temple as the animal life bolts far away from it). There's also a rumor chart (one of which hints at a dragon, which might be enough to scare some people off), as well as a random encounter chart, a few of which can provide friendly NPCs for the party to ally with. Other encounters include a potentially troublesome encounter with an NPC who is trying to hide their identity, a pair of brigands who may opt to join the party (if only temporarily) if the PCs look too tough to rob, a Fighter who is now a shattered shell of his former self, and a zombie encounter that's not quite like your typical zombie encounter.

The dungeon crawl itself has a few deadly encounters, especially for low level types, including a few traps designed to put the hurt on Chaotic characters. The effects of the Corruption are felt all over the Shrine, in some cases even creating monsters for the party to deal with.

If the party is successful, they'll get a low level (but still impressive) holy weapon to fight evil with, as well as a new organization to ally with and likely some bad guys to hunt down when it's all said and done (like maybe the Wizard that started this whole mess).

WHAT WORKS: Top notch writing again, with Small Niche once more providing an exciting adventure with a strong backstory for low level parties. It manages to be a Dungeon Crawl that kinda slaps the "murder hobo" mindset in the face.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: It's a little more "paint by numbers" than what you usually get from Small Niche, but that still means it's several steps ahead of a bog standard dungeon crawl.

CONCLUSION: There is one riddle in the adventure that is VERY D&D/Labyrinth Lord specific, which would make conversion to, say, Savage Worlds or DungeonWorld or something like that a bit more problematic. For my money, Inn of Lost Heroes is still the standard bearer for Small Niche adventures, but if you're in a dungeon crawl mood and you have a low level (heroic) party, The Shrine of St. Aleena will fit your needs nicely.

Tommy's Take on Stealer of Children

In theory, I review games. Haven’t had the time or opportunity to do that in a while. Let’s remedy that, shall we? Starting with the latest release from Small Niche Games: The Stealer of Children.

Yes, there's a REASON the dead guy is in a tree.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This is another Labyrinth Lord adventure from Small Niche Games, set in the Chronicles of Amherth setting. The PDF is $4.95 and is 31 pages long, and you can order a POD softcover for $7.95. The assumed number of heroes is 3-6, of first level.

Now, I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m not a big Labyrinth Lord fan, but I sure do like Small Niche adventures, which have all had a quasi-Ravenloft-ish feel to them, which I DO like.

Set in Leandras Row, The Stealer of Children is a fairly open ended adventure. The PCs are assumed to have come to Leandras Row for their own reasons, when they find a farmer being attacked by an undead warrior. This should set the group on edge, but despite their investigations, they won’t be able to do tooooo much…yet.

Soon, a child turns up missing (hopefully just one), and the group is the only realistic hope of calming the townspeople. If the group decides not to get involved, the kidnappings continue…and if the group still doesn’t get involved, the townsfolk begin to suspect that they may be involved, due to the timing of events. While this doesn’t have any IMMEDIATE ramifications, it will haunt the group going forward.

The investigations have a couple of places they can go, a ruined manor and a stretch of woods. The woods are FILLED with encounters that are short enough, but weird enough, to raise the interest of the group, and they can be spun off into their own adventures after the fact. (Unicorn hunting, anyone?)

Though the adventure is meant for level 1 characters, there are tips for scaling it up for larger characters. I don’t recommend using those guidelines, because more capable parties will be able to handle the adversary of the module without the adventure’s macguffin, which in turn takes away from the uniquely awesome finale of the adventure.

WHAT WORKS: A nice change of pace for a level 1 adventure, with one of the coolest workarounds for a level 1 party having to deal with an enemy that’s immune to non-magical weapons. The encounters in the Tanglewood outside of town are cool and potentially awe-inspiring for a level 1 party.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: Nothing that can’t be fixed with a conversion to Savage Worlds or the AGE system, something other than a D&D derivative (purely subjective, of course.) Oh, the color selection for the cover is just downright ugly. I would have picked something, anything, other than pink, I think. And maybe an art piece that fit the theme more closely (though the art is directly linked to the adventure).

CONCLUSION: Another great adventure with a unique adversary. If I were to nitpick anything about the SNG adventures, it would maybe be the production values, but remember that this is coming from a guy who’s looking at the material from outside the OSR fanbase. The art and layout perfectly matches the aesthetic they are aiming for. For the material itself, I have no real complaints, as the adventures have been unique and interesting, with conversion work being no real problem. Stealer of Children continues to fit that pattern, providing low-level fantasy adventure with a weird/horror twist.  

Tommy's Take on Ghoul Keep and The Ghoul Lands.

I’ve reviewed the previous entries by Small Niche Games, but I hadn’t had a chance to read anything new in a while…until Ghoul Keep and the Ghoul Lands was just released, a gazetteer-style release for The Chronicles of Amherth!

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Ghoul Keep and the Ghoul Lands is $7.95 in PDF format at RPGNow, or for $15.95 you can order the print version and get the PDF for free. Ghoul Keep and the Ghoul Lands runs 132 pages, larger than the entire Amherth setting book, and is set just north of the Duchy of Valnwall, meaning you could easily run the earlier adventures in Valnwall and then move North.

The rules support is for Labyrinth Lord, as usual. The book opens with some important themes to remember, such as Isolation (the PCs, once they get in, don’t have a lot of room to run), Adventurers Are Heroes (but people can only become Adventurers in the capitalized sense if duly sponsored) and Undead Rule The Night (so stay inside when the sun goes down).

The Ghoul Lands are actually the Kingdom of Makaar Mor (a reference to another company’s supplement, Lesserton and Mor). Lorrgan Makaar was ripped to pieces by Valen of Vay, but Makaar survived this dismemberment and now his disembodied head rules his kingdom while seeking out the rest of his body. The Ghoul Lands are surrounded by mountains and is dominated by The Cult of Rebirth. This could be a Ravenloft domain already.

A good overview follows, with a calendar, a section on the tech level (they are about semi-Bronze Age) and the topic of alignment (most folks fall in the area of Lawful-Neutral and Neutral-Evil…few Chaotics or Evils). Women outnumber men five to one and everyone is assumed to be serving the Ghoul King Lorrgan Makaar, from the barons to the nobles to the commoners.

The geography section aims to provide “just enough detail” without mapping out every inch of the world, with the major landmarks even about a paragraph. For instance, the Westwood is an untamed forest uninhabited by humans which holds all kinds of ruins and monsters. The Cowl is a river known for its dangerous undercurrents, hidden debris and quicksand bogs.

Palatz Makaar, the seat of Makaar Mor’s power, has blood red waterfalls that flow into a blood red lake and a large chunk of the city that is now underwater. Each of the five Provinces of Makaar Mor have suitable evocative landmarks with definite room for exploration and adventure.

The Cursed Ward of Valen surrounds the Ghoul Lands and damages (to the death) any undead that tries to cross it.

Adventuring can be…interesting…as warriors and rogues are respected for their prowess, but clerics and magic-users are viewed with suspicion, and clerics preaching of other Gods treated as Heretics. And demihumans are automatically treated with suspicion. Oh, and remember how you have to be sponsored in order to be an adventurer? Well, there’s this whole ritual you also have to undergo that allows you more freedom to move at night. It’s creepy, it involves ghouls, and it has a nasty surprise if you do certain things…that’s all I’ll say.

A dozen plot seeds are provided, with many being open enough to go multiple ways (like Lorrgan Makaar selecting a bride: Do the PCs answer his call to help track her down…or help her hide?). Another seed involves overthrowing the King and ties in nicely with others (like having an evil NPC help the PCs out…leading to the PCs having to deal with the bad guy left over), and even an old prophecy that is left entirely to your interpretation.

The NPC section stats up the Ghoul King, his Barons, The Cult of Rebirth as well as providing information on The Church of Law and Order and The Keepers of the Old Law. Makaar’s Brood as the children of Lorrgan Mor, half-human and half-ghoul, each with their own motivations and goals. The Ghoul Lands even houses a blue dragon, an elder vampire and a swamp witch.

New magic items include the Dead Man’s Draught, which tricks lesser undead into thinking the drinker is also undead, as well as the Cape of Entanglement (which can be a surprising and effective weapon), Herkon’s Ink (which can provide magical tattoos), the Spear of Rot (which injects rot grubs into its victims) and the Sword of the Unliving (which burns the flesh of the living upon touch).

Relics include the Sword of Valen (though both the powers and fate of the sword are shrouded in mystery) and the Skeletine Throne, made from the bones of Lorrgan Makaar’s enemies.

The Flora and Fauna section includes plants like corpsegrass (which can force the dead back into unlife) and ghostmoss (which can heal the dead and poison the living) as well as creatures like bonewraiths (made up of the bones and spirits of fallen soldiers), and half a dozen types of ghouls, including the half-human gahouls.

Ghoul Keep, which is pretty much the entry into the kingdom, is fully mapped out with its traps, treasures and pitfalls, as well as random encounter charts. The Agden Commoner’s Hall is also provided as a base of operations and includes a list of rumors, relevant NPCs and rules for haggling, as well as a series of games used in competition (like arm wrestling and Five Finger Fillet). Plot seeds are also provided for the Hall.

Kalitus Corpi, a sandbox adventure, is also provided. It is an exploration of an evil, ruined temple (how the PCs get there is determined by the GM, though suggestions are provided) that is housing a hidden cult that is in opposition to the Cult of Rebirth, though far from good guys themselves. It also includes a really freaky temple inhabitant that is essentially a four armed undead human rat maggot.

Rules are provided, based off of an old Dragon magazine, to tweak undead in order to make them stronger. Finally, the book concludes with an index.

WHAT WORKS: As is usual for Small Niche Games, they provide a lot of gameable material for a good price. Lorrgan Makaar could easily be a Ravenloft Dark Lord, and I mean that as a compliment. This isn’t a straight forward “let’s go kill the bad guy” supplement, though you can certainly do just that. Raltus the Undying is just absolutely creepy. The lands are detailed enough to get you going while providing plenty of room for you to add your own twists.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: As usual, my biggest complaint is that it isn’t written for a system I’m a bigger fan of, but a little conversion work later and that’s not an issue.

CONCLUSION: My favorite release yet from Small Niche Games. Making an undead kingdom gameable in more than just the “kill everything that moves” sense isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but they pulled that off here. Lorrgan Makaar is an interesting villain who is operating from a position of power while having very noticeable vulnerabilities that prevent him from being unstoppable. You could easily get a full campaign out of this book, either using native-born PCs or travelers from outside The Ghoul Lands.

Tommy's Take on Mutant Future

Yeah, the Post Apocalyptic theme is continuing. Next on the list is Mutant Future, which isn't a retro-clone per se, but is built to be compatible with retro-clone Labyrinth Lord.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Mutant Future, by Goblinoid Games, is available in a free, no-art version as well as a "regular" version, available in PDF for under $7 or a softcover POD version for about $24. As retroclones tend to do, the aesthetic is very old school, with a spartan layout and old school style black and white line art.

It's a post-apocalyptic game based on a D&D retro-clone, so if you know D&D, you should be able to settle in pretty quickly. The game uses levels but not classes, with the 3d6 or 4d6-drop-the-lowest method and uses the six standard Ability Scores, with Willpower subbing for Wisdom. The selectable races are Basic Android, Synthetic, Replicant, Mutant Animal, Mutant Human, Mutant Plant and Pure Human. Everyone except Pure Humans get Mutations, and Pure Humans get a whopping +3 each to INT, CHA and CON. Alignment is used in the game, on the Law, Neutral, Chaos spectrum.

As most PostApoc games do, Mutant Future has an extensive mutations list, divided up into Physical, Mental and Plant, then further divided into Beneficial and Drawback, on d100 charts. Physical Beneficial Mutations can include simple things like Increased Attribute or Echolocation, as well as flashier abilities like Optic Emission and Spiny Growth. Physical Drawbacks include Albinism, Hemophilia and Pain Sensitivity. Mental Beneficial Mutations hit standards like Neural Telepathy, Neural Telekinesis and Possession, as well as things like Weather Control and Killing Sphere, which is DANGEROUS but draining. Mental Drawbacks are things like Weak Will and Phobias. Plants can get beneficial mutations like Carnivore, Grenade-like Fruit and even Flight, while risking drawbacks like Reduced Fertility and Thermal Sensitivity. Each Mutation gets at least a paragraph in explanation.

The rules section proves to be concise, covering adventuring in ruins and wilderness, taking a very “dungeon crawl”-like approach to the ruins section. In fact, probably the biggest departure from early-D&D rules speak is the Technology rules, which covers the condition technological artifacts are in when you find them, as well as your chance of figuring out how to use them.

The Combat section addresses the rule that I hear tended to get overlooked the most in most D&D-style games: Morale rules. These can make all the difference in the world with many encounters. Given that it’s a PostApoc game, rules like firearm rates are included, and charts are provided for Armor Class and To-Hit rolls (remember: Armor deflects attacks in this game, rather than absorb damage).

The Monster section takes up the bulk of the book and is alphabetized. Some of the selection includes Clone Neutralizer Androids (designed to kill excess clones), Ant Horrors (ants with two heads and a tail!), giant bats, Brain Lashers (who look a loooooot like Mind Flayers), Cephalopoids (human squids), Cockroachoids (humanoid cockroaches), Electrophants (elephants who fire arcs of electricity), Eye Dogs (dogs covered in eyes), Gamma Wyrms (wingless dragons who fly via psionic flight), cave men, Giant Land Squids, Medusoids, Eloi and Morlocks, Pumpkin Men, Quill Cats, Skinner Trees, Vomit Flies and Walking Dead. 14 encounter charts are provided, divided by environment. The stat blocks are all provided in a format that allows for easy swapping in and out with Labyrinth Lord.

The Artifacts section is the “treasure” section, complete with random roll tables broken down by various types of weapons, armor, power sources, bombs, foodstuffs and drugs. Warp Field Daggers that pass through armor, EMP Rifles, Blood Agent Grenades (which jellifies the lungs of those that breath in the chemicals left in the aftermath of the explosion), cloning tubes, hologram projectors, and a generalized selection of vehicles.

The setting chapter paints the setting in very broad strokes, focusing very little on how the world got to the way it is, or how it will wind up. It includes a sample scenario (Mine of the Brain Lashers) as well an overland hex map to play around with.

The book includes a short appendix on combining the options fully with Labyrinth Lord, including turning the races into classes. A character sheet and the OGL notice rounds out the book.

WHAT WORKS: Well, there’s a no-art free version. That’s kind of a big deal, and it has bit of support, due in part to the OGL. The monster section has some really cool and unique options, and its compatibility with Labyrinth Lord can allow for some interesting scenarios if you and your players aren’t fantasy (or PostApoc) purists.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: If you don’t like D&D as a base, this probably isn’t going to be your thing. If you want a developed setting, rather than an excuse for hex crawls or dungeon crawls with ray guns and mutant powers, this probably isn’t your thing.

CONCLUSION: If you’re into PostApoc games, you should at least download the free, no-art version. No reason not to. It’s worth it for swiping from the bestiary, in my opinion. Similarly, if you’re into old school D&D, there’s probably at least an odd monster or two that’s worth messing with. For my part, I had a blast with modifying one of my AD&D 2e characters (a bastard sword swinging elven fighter) into a Gamma World character once, transplanting him (complete with bastard sword) onto a PostApoc Earth where he traded horses for motorcycles and chain mail for trench coats. Mutant Future isn’t likely to ever make the rotation at my table, because I don’t really do the D&D base system thing anymore, and there’s other PostApoc games I’m dying to run, but it’s still a very good product that should scratch the PostApoc itch for older school gamers.

Tommy's Take on Chronicles of Amherth

Hey, remember me? Got a new job, been crazy busy. So let me try to jump back into things here with Chronicles of Amherth, a Labyrinth Lord setting by Small Niche Games. As you may recall, I've done reviewed other Small Niche Games adventures in the past, so here we go with their first full setting.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This is actually two books: The Chronicles of Amherth setting and the Atarin's Delve adventure. You can purchase this for $4.95, Atarin's Delve by itself for $2.95 or the entire run of LL material by Small Niche Games for $9.95. The production values are pretty old-school, as Small Niche Games tends to do. Atarin's Delve is a mere 15 pages, and the setting book itself is 77.

Amherth is scaled for characters of 10th level or lower, specifically stating that NPCs at 9th level or beyond are exceedingly rare. Small Niche Games has exhibited a knack for putting PCs in situations seemingly beyond their "level", as it were, and making it work, so it is little surprise that Amherth takes this approach.

Amherth also introduces a pair of great new rules: Latent magic and arcane bleed. Latent spell-casters have a knack for casting spells, they just can't always control it. Arcane bleed, on the other hand, basically helps explain how magic items exist in such a lower-level, lower-magic setting: Latents can unknowingly bleed magic off into items, empowering them. For instance, a latent warrior may bleed power off into his long sword, gradually increasing its bonus. Personally, I have ALWAYS liked the idea of "your sword become powerful during your exploits" over "you find a kewl new magical sword".

Adventuring companies are also a big deal, governed by The Adventurer's Guild, which forces merchants to track all commerce with companies and so forth.

The world itself is painted in fairly broad strokes. Each kingdom gets a page or two of detail, with some adventure seeds to go with it. There are not masses of NPC stat blocks here, just overviews to let you hit the ground running. All of the previous Small Niche Games adventures are namedropped in the Duchy of Valnwall, as well as adventures from a couple of other companies.

The demihumans each occupy their own places, and the author notes that modern peoples have not explored many areas of the world, leaving it open for exploration...(the world is ancient, but a number of cataclysms have rocked it throughout its history, so there isn't a great, unbroken line of history).

There are many new monsters (some of which hail from the previous adventures by Small Niche Games) as well as a number of plants that each have their own unique properties, look a wood that is as hard as metal and requires magic in order to be worked into weapons. As well, a slew of magic items are included, two of my favorites being the weir-skins (which allow the wearers to transform into animals) and the Godmaps, which can "zoom" in on areas and provide a "live" map of the area...including creatures that are moving around.

There is also a page on how Monks incorporate into the setting, for those using Advanced Edition Companion.

Atarin's Delve is a fairly straightforward dungeon crawl, designed as an introductory adventure. It has a couple of plot threads intersecting in it, as the heroes are hired (via letter) to assist an archeologist who has gone missing by the time they arrive.

The adventure lacks some of the charm of the previous Small Niche Games adventures, although the enjoyable backstory threads that make the Small Niche adventures stand out are still present as they are in the others.

WHAT WORKS: I really like the Latents and the Arcane Bleed. Easily my favorite parts of the setting. Ample detail is provided to get your games rolling, while giving you more than enough room to stretch your creative legs. The callouts to the Small Niche adventures was a good thing as well, and I may have to check out those adventures tied to Amherth that aren't made by Small Niche, to see if they have the same "feel". There is MORE than ample value for $5, even if you left out Atarin's Delve.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Atarin's Delve is the weakest Small Niche adventure thus far, but a) I was never a fan of dungeon crawls and b) I really like what has come before. There is a section of the world on floating islands that seems a tad out of place given the "low magic, low level" approach to the setting. I would have liked trade dress similar to the adventures on the Amherth book itself. Just seems like its missing something without it.

CONCLUSION: Chronicles of Amherth never tries to reinvent the wheel, just put some tweaks on familiar D&D/Labyrinth Lord tropes. Small Niche Games provides a setting that not only accomodates their previous adventures, but room for most of your old school or retroclone adventures as well. In fact, I enjoy the adventures so much, that I plan (with the author's permission) to adapt them to Savage Worlds and post the conversion notes on my blog. Check it out if you like your fantasy a little darker and little lower level.

Tommy's Take on Pyramid of the Dragon

I've reviewed the previous Small Niche Games adventures in the past, and found their work to generally be quite good, albeit not with any kind of intention for using them with Labyrinth Lord, their intended system. Pyramid of the Dragon is the latest of these, was released right at the end of 2010, and I am just now digging into it.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Pyramid of the Dragon has a very old school layout, and is a 37 page PDF retailing for $4.95. Small Niche Games definitely choose substance over style, with a spartan approach to visual design. Nothing bad, just nothing flashy. It is intended for 4-6 characters of 5th-7th Level, and does not profess to require any particular character types.

The author tends to make it a point to give the players freedom, be it in a sandbox format or an event format (with timed events set to go off around the PCs, depending upon their interventions). This adventure begins with the PCs witnessing a red and a black dragon doing battle (with the option of getting involved IF THEY ARE INSANE). They are soon given the opportunity to take advantage of the aftermath: picking the dead dragon's corpse clean, finding and raiding it's lair and maybe even taking out the wounded surviving dragon. If, for some reason, the PCs don't bite before then, an alternate hook is provided to draw them in, as there is a powerful artifact floating around in the aftermath of the dragon battle.

Entering the Blood Marsh, the PCs find an ancient temple that the dead dragon used as a lair the surviving dragon believes the aforementioned mystic artifact is hiding in. Interestingly, the PCs have three options for invading the temple: one of which being to strike a deal with the dragon and serving as it's agents on a raid of the temple!

Once inside the temple, we get more of a traditional dungeon crawl, and adversaries ranging from elementals to undead to scorpions. This is still only one leg of the adventure, however, providing the means to find the artifact, but not the artifact itself.

The final leg of the adventure again presents a scenario with multiple outcomes, as the PCs can  ultimately either kill the holder of the artifact or free them from its influence, building to a satisfying conclusion involving a battle against a group of the surviving dragon's followers and the opportunity to make a powerful (and not evil) ally.

There are maps where relevant, though they aren't anything fancy, and every NPC is statted out. Three new, plot relevant magic items are presented, as well as some new monsters, most notably the Froggles, a race of frogmen that serve one dragon (and are forced into helping the other).

WHAT WORKS: As with Blood Moon Rising, the author does a great job of believably putting lower level characters in a situation where they would seem to be completely out of their depth, but fit them into the situation in a completely believable way. The PCs aren't expected to kill a dragon...just whip its followers and deal with the dragon when it comes back in a few levels. As usual, there's plenty of material here for you $5.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: If you're like me and not a Labyrinth Lord guy, this one isn't as easily adaptable as the author's previous two adventures to another system. Not saying it can't be done, mind you, there's just a wider variety of monsters and such that would need to be reworked.

CONCLUSION: Small Niche Games makes the kinds of adventures I would like to play (or run) if I still played (or ran) D&D. I don't know how that stacks up with the "old school" mentality of Labyrinth Lord, but I am continually pleased with both the concepts and executions of their adventures.

Tommy's Take on Blitzkrieg, Bonus Cards and Bookbinder

BLITZKRIEG LONDON

Blitzkrieg London is a new adventure for ICONS by Vigilance Press, set in their World War II setting.

It is designed for people playing Vigilance Force, The Crown Guard or (possibly) The People's Revolution but as long as your PCs are anyone opposed to the Axis powers and operating in Europe, it shouldn't be too problematic to figure it out.

The Eugenics Brigade are about to launch a desperation assault on allied leaders, who are finalizing plans for D-Day, and the PCs are in London providing extra security.

It isn't a terribly complicated adventure, but it is very well organized, and a good bit of two-fisted fun. Over the course of the attack, the heroes will have the opportunity to fight Nazis on land, sea and air, as well as intervene in a superhero misunderstanding between the Crown Guard member Swordfish and a Captain America stand-in (who acts more like the USAGent).

I applaud them for providing tips on scaling every encounter, as well as tossing in extra "mini-challenges" to spice each encounter up. The adventure is only 17 pages (taking away the cover and OGL information), but is very well organized, making it rather user friendly. Unlike the Battlescenes released recently, however, there is little use if you're not wanting to play in WWII, and you will need at least the Eugenics Brigade PDF to get the most use out of this.

Great value for the price, as always.

OSR BONUS CARDS: Fantasy Deck #1

I...could see these not going over real well.

The OSR Bonus Cards are a deck of cards designed for D&D or any retroclone, designed to be doled out to the players and allow them to gain access to small bonuses. I've seen some old school purists go so far as to say that giving players stuff like that actually means the games are no longer even RPGs at that point...that being said, I think they're kinda cool.

The cards are mapped to the standard playing card decks, with Jokers being wildcards. Clubs belong to Fighters, Diamonds to Thieves, Hearts to Clerics and Spades to Magic-Users.

Fighter benefits include an extra attack, an automatic hit or an automatic parry.

Thieves can score an auto success on a thieving skill roll, double damage on a backstab and various bonuses to thieving skill rolls.

Clerics can get an auto success on turning the undead, a free Detect Good/Evil or doubling the range and duration of a spell.

Magic Users can memorize a bonus spell, an auto success on an Intelligence check or a free Detect Magic.

They're a nice product for under $2 and not art intensive, so it won't be a strain to print them out...plus, being mapped to a standard deck of playing cards, you don't even need to print them if you don't want to. Just draw the cards and check the chart.

Great stuff from Small Niche Games once more, but I'm not a grognard.

OPERATION: BOOKBINDER

The third Battlescenes offering from Vigilance Press is a departure from the first two, featuring the PCs versus your choice between Pearl Harbor December or giant Japanese robots.


It's a straight forward set-up, with the PCs being part of an operation to lure the Japanese into a trap...and, as mentioned, you either get PCs vs Pearl Harbor December or a giant robot and soldiers in power suits.

This is probably closer to what Vigilance Press intended with the Battlescenes, as it really is just a big combat scene (on an aircraft carrier in this case), but it does suffer compared to the detail of the previous two (especially when the first one could be easily transplanted outside of World War II).

Still a cool purchase, especially for the giant robot stats and the vehicles included in the PPDF.

Tommy's Take on The Inn of Lost Heroes

The Inn of Lost Heroes is the second adventure by Small Niche Games, written by Peter Spahn for Labyrinth Lord.

No, I haven't suddenly started playing Labyrinth Lord since I reviewed Blood Moon Rising. Like that review, I will be examining this adventure for utility with other RPGs, namely Savage Worlds and High Valor.

The Inn of Lost Heroes is a 38 pag PDF, bookmarked, and largely black and white. As it goes with adventures, please be prepared for spoilers, though I'll try to go light.

Tommy's Take on Blood Moon Rising

Blood Moon Rising is the first adventure for Labyrinth Lord by Small Niche Games. I'm going to be approaching this from a little different tack: I don't play Labyrinth Lord or D&D or any of the retroclones. However, I do likes me some adventures, and good ideas can be stolen for other games.

***WARNING***

I try to go light in spoilers...BUT...it is impossible for me to leave them out completely. If you are going to be playing in this, do yourself a favor and go away.


Seriously.

***END WARNING***

Blood Moon Rising is set up as a "sandbox"/timeline type adventure for 3-6 characters of 1-3 level. Basically, the book gives you a town with NPCs and a backstory, and the timeline of events that will occur during their big festival celebrating an ancient warrior that they all revere.

From there, the PCs interact with whatever they will, until the whole thing is resolved. The action rises, as action tends to do, until the PCs should find it virtually impossible not to realize that something isn't right (in fact, there is a very nice hook on Day One to draw them deeper into events unless they are completely self absorbed).

I love adventures that give you freedom, and this one does from the beginning, not even making any assumptions about the reason the PCs are in the town, just giving you some excuses if you need the help.

The background section gives you the backstory of the village, which has mutated considerably until it has become a very...inaccurate...local legend.

The village of Garanton is pretty small, about 200 people, and utterly normal for the most part...except for the interesting little spring on the edge of town with strange healing properties...until the New Moon...then I wouldn't want to bathe in it.

The Feast of St. Garan is a five day festival celebrating this great warrior that liberated the land, and is presented in the book as a series of events in the manner and order that they will occur, should the PCs not interfere.

The fifth night of the festival is the Blood Moon, hence the name of the module.

We are first presented with the normal order of events, followed by the major events from each day. Warrior types can compete in the Honor Games over the five day period, with the possibility of a title and a sweet, sweet magic item out of the deal. There is also the possibility of Honor Duels, which can be fought using non-lethal damage, to first blood or to the death, if a heated issue spirals out of control.

On Day One, the first Honor Game is held, which is a simple test of strength...but characters can discover some helpful clues about the true nature of the festival from the rocks.

A potential hook is also set in which a local artist asks the PCs to pose for a portrait...but he's fated to go missing overnight.

Day Two likely starts with news of a local farmer's cows being slaughtered and the PCs missing their appointment with the artist, because he's gone missing.

Day two also provides a Test of Nerve in the Honor Game, which has the potential to set the PCs on a collision course with an orc tribe that has become drawn to the area. Overnight, the a farmhouse is attacked by creepy demons (who killed the cattle the night before), further escalating tensions and making the mood somber.

The Day Three Test of Steed can provide slight financial benefit for a participant, but no plot-worthy extras like the first two days.

Day three also ratchets up the tension with the first human casualties, at least one of which is not what it seems.

Day four provides the opportunity for the PCs to uncover the truth about one of the attacks, as well as a possible battle that can turn them into instant heroes. However, the growing darkness over the events are driving people away now, before the end of the festival.

Finally, on Day Five, the Honor Games will conclude and - that night - a nasty group of demons attack the village. If the PCs have stuck around, they have a chance of driving off the demons...if not, the village is slaughtered.

It sounds simple enough, but there's plenty of action and excitement for a rookie party over a few sessions.

Twenty random encounters are also present, which include large, drunken women hitting on the PCs and not taking "No" for an answer, a young warrior being hazed, a fan club for one of the PCs, the possibility of scoring a very special mount and more.

Another series of encounters are present for those leaving the village, including the possibility of investigating the Tomb of St. Garan (and finding the good "saint" to be a sealed away undead Wight), as well as precisely what can happen if the PCs venture to the Demon Gate that is releasing the night demons on the village, and lays seeds for continuing adventures with much more powerful beasties trying to break through the gate (for when the PCs are higher level, of course).

The final resolution of the adventure is up the PCs, depending on what they did and how much exploration they indulged in, as they could uncover the truth about the area's history (effectively ending the annual festival), inadvertantly unleash an undead plague on the land to go with the demonic one, and allow an infernal beacon to draw all manner of evil to the area (if they don't destroy the Demon Gate).

All of the important (and semi-important) NPCs are given stats and summaries, and an appendix provided adds in a new spell (Lesser Charm Monster), as well as a pair of magic items (the Mantle and Sword of St. Garan) and two new monsters (the Night Demons and Demon Grubs).

My thoughts?

I will never run this as written...because AD&D/Labyrinth Lord/OSRIC/etc do not appeal to me.

HOWEVER...I would absolutely convert this to Savage Worlds or High Valor and use it as a potential launching point for a new campaign. For $4.95 you not only get a good sandbox adventure, you get a potential "home base" for PCs with a couple of plot hooks that could spawn into minicampaigns (or full blown epic conflicts in the case of the Demon Gate and what it's holding back) down the line.

Very cool stuff, and worth it even factoring in the necessary conversion work I'd have to do (not that High Valor or Savage Worlds would require a ton of work).

Great stuff...better than most of the modules I remember getting back in the day.