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The Arcane Font of Hranadd-Zuul |
[REVIEW] The Arcane Font of Hranadd-Zul (2023)
by Daedalus
Self-published
Levels 2–4 “plus henchmen”
Hello, and welcome to part SIX of **THE RECONQUISTA**, wherein entries of the scandalous No Artpunk Contest II (banned on Reddit but the top seller in the artpunk category on itch.io) are subjected to RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT. As previously, the contest focuses on excellence in old-school gaming: creativity, craft, and table utility. It also returns to the original old school movement in that it assumes good practices can be learned, practiced and mastered; and there are, in fact, good and bad ways of playing. Like last year, these reviews will assume the participants have achieved a basic level competence, and are striving to go forward from that point. One adventure, No Art Punks by Peter Mullen, shall be excluded since Peter is contributing cover and interior art for my various publications. With that said and solemnly declared, Deus Vult! Let Destiny prevail!
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A shrine known for a font that can grant magical powers for a price has become the focus of multiple competing groups. A magic-user, looking for the font’s energies, has been captivated by an evil plant monster, and serves it loyally. A band of grimlocks want to destroy the plant to worship the font as a manifestation of their god. A drow swordswoman has escaped here with a macguffin, and is pursued by a humanoid band who want her dead and the macguffin for themselves. The plant monster wants to enthrall and feed on more victims. This adventure uses a Dyson Logos map for a small dungeon adventure with 25 keyed areas, and lets loose the PCs among the factions.
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Designed to be messed with |
The faction conflict is central to the adventure, and it is impressively developed. There are opposing forces active in the area, they are on the move, and some of them also have bases to fall back to. This is quite outstanding, although as it tends to be, the dungeon is too small for this scope of intrigue. It is a grand play on a small stage – to work properly, it would need a place that would be three or more times as large, with generous empty space between the keyed areas.
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Discovering the Ruined e-Thot Room |
All things considered, this is a decent adventure, but it would be a better one if it had a larger sscope, and especially if it wasn’t trying to be so helpful. There are strong elements in the factions, the exploration, and the generally well-written text, but in the end, we return to the eternal wisdom: less is sometimes more. Would I use the adventure as it is? No. Would I be interested in a new one that fixed its issues but kept its good points? Definitely.
No playtesters are credited in this module.
Rating: *** /
*****
I really dislike the "make a bad decision once and your character is forced to practically become a violent NPC that kills the rest and then himself". This is bad design, and seems rushed. I would tweak it to make the character obsessed with death, and gradually become murderous. For example, fail a save and start seeing your death around every corner, cannot rest property, be attacked by ghosts and shadows that turn out to be your buddies, need to save every time the opportunity presents itself to jump into the void, etc.
ReplyDelete...on the other hand, it is clearly telegraphed and, if not realized in time, will serve to educate the players well.
DeleteI wouldn't worry about it in these cases: it is low-level gaming with disposable characters, and an obvious gamble. Live a little, win big or lose big. I tend to start developing self-preservation instincts for my characters after four or five sessions.
DeleteIt is definitely a killer, though. I seem to remember Dark Tower having something similar, and that's in one of the most vicious high-level modules for tough characters and highly skilled players.
Banned on Reddit? Why?
ReplyDeleteFor being too awesome, of course.
DeleteThat, and some people on the woke Discords didn't like Prince, and one of their guys on the r/osr mod team banned him along with the announcement. The announcement post was later quietly reinstated, but Prince remains banned. It is a scummy affair.