ASC Review: Fog Valley Retreat

Fog Valley Retreat (Ben Gibson)

AD&D for levels 5th to 7th level characters

Sorry, Ben...I'm going to be a little tough on this one.

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.

A fog-filled elven shrine of some 21+ encounters. Map by Dyson Logos has a nice layout. The premise of the scenario is that this crumbling temple offers refuge to fleeing noble-types (elves mostly) and the PCs are supposed to go in to find some dastardly quarry. I like evil/twisted elves, and this kind of thing wouldn't be out of place in my own campaign, but I have some issues with it.

First, I'll talk a little bit about "usability." Not usually a big deal in my judging, but I'll note I dislike using "letters" to code encounters. Is it as bad as Roman numerals? No. But it's not a great form of numbering, especially as you're limiting yourself to 26 entries (unless you want to go down the dreaded road of AA, BB, CC...or, even worse, AB, AC, etc.). Just use numbers, people. 

Also, when a person puts a lot of effort into style...as Gibson does, with colored banners and highlighted boxes...it's pretty annoying to read multiple typos in the second paragraph of the text. Also annoying the inconsistencies of formatting...a lot of text is underlined besides magic/special items (despite messaging to the contrary).

Finally, for an adventure that contains a lot of environmental effects (in this case, the pervasive interior fog), devising some way to code the map is more desirable than throwing "code symbols" on the keyed entries. With a map as intricate as Dyson's, I found myself having to flip back between entries and map to figure out the fog layout. 

Minor gripes, but these add up. Text space is spent explaining the reason for the sequencing (not all that necessary) while more important text is missing. What text would that be? How about the movement rate of the avatar...kind of an important thing to know when you have a 13 HD entity looking to avenge itself on the players. How about a movement pattern for the cockatrice? How does it get through closed doors? What is its relationship to the shrine/priests?

Treasure total is solid...just under 165K without factoring the (rather paltry) selection of magic items. However, most of the magic is in the form of huge, bulky, and/or fragile items: 400# crystal chandeliers suspended 20' off the ground, 650 books that must be "handled gently," a half-ton harpsichord, cockatrice eggs that are worth 7K each but which hatch 30 minutes after removal from their heat source (and then peck at you). A LOT of cursed items: cursed statues, cursed tapestries, cursed elven cloaks and boots. Getting the most out of the dungeon is going to require a long and arduous reclamation project/clean-out...which, while an interesting challenge, isn't really what I call "pulse-pounding D&D."

Then there are the monsters. A bunch of 3rd level acolytes armed with clubs. Okay...those guys are nothing but speed bumps. A single cockatrice hiding in the fog...but only encountered on a random encounter table (and, as said, no normal indicated route of patrol). A lot of spectres...a LOT of spectres (the place is filthy with them). For a party with an average level of 6th? That's only a 1-in-4 turn chance. There's one chamber with 16 spectres (automatically hostile if party is carrying a certain tapestry...or interacts with them in any way besides dancing). Um...that's a blood bath at this level.

Then there's the avenging avatar that shows up if the PCs manage to find & slay their quarry (or if they kill the 7th level high priest (he's not that tough for 6th level PCs). It's 13 HD, only struck by +2 or better weapons, has multiple attacks, and magic resistance of 65% (making it 95% immune to 6th level spell-casters). It's unable to enter 5' wide doors or hallways...but since the map has no scale to it (usability again), it's tough to figure out just where this prevents it from going. Also: can it fly (say, to the upper level of its chamber) with those wings? Hard to say, since it has NO MOVEMENT RATE GIVEN.

This is a neat scenario idea that suffers from issues of general usability and some "lack of thoughtfulness." In my opinion, it is by turns both too easy and too difficult and while monetary treasure is in good supply, it is (ironically) frustratingly difficult to acquire while the magic item take is comically low for an adventure of this level.

Two stars (out of five), with a half star added for tight theme. Apologies Ben.

**+

Judgment

What's today? The second? Oh, good.

Between October 1st and December 31st, Ben Gibson ran his second "Adventure Site Contest" (ASCII). Welp, the submission period is past and for the judges (including me) it's time to get down to the judging. Here were the basic criteria for the contest:

1) a small adventure site, pluggable as a hex or side crawl and appropriate for an evening's play.

2) no more than three pages in length (not counting maps and/or cover page); suggested range of encounters from 5 to 25.

3) system must be TSR-era D&D edition (or "a very close retroclone") OR an "old-school sci-fi" game "like Traveller or Stars Without Number."

29 contest entries were received in total; all appear to meet the basic requirements although five of them exceed the recommended encounter range. While this may seem like a minor detail, the point of the ASC is to make a small adventure, suitable for "a satisfying night's D&D session." 30+ encounters is, for me, a couple sessions in length...maybe one "all-nighter" (6+ hours) for a dedicated group that can buckle down (or a hand-wavy DM that skimps over material). But this will be a minor consideration in my judging standards.

Here's the breakdown of adventures:

12 AD&D adventures (including one Oriental Adventures themed)

1 OSRIC/1E adjacent

2 OD&D

2 Swords & Wizardry/OD&D adjacent

1 for Seven Voyages of Zylarthen (nominally OD&D adjacent)

4 B/X

2 OSE/BX adjacent

1 Labyrinth Lord w/AEC (B/X-AD&D adjacent)

1 ACKS (nominally BECMI adjacent)

1 Stars Without Number 

1 for "Classic D&D" (not a system) that I'll probably judge harshly

1 adventure that lists no system which I'll probably disqualify out-of-hand

I will review all the entries here on Ye Old Blog, but only the top eight make the book, and so I will only be recommending that number to Ben. Contestants should be happy to know that my judgments carry no more weight than any other judge, so just because I dislike what you've written does NOT mean you can't win. Bear that in mind if/when my review of your adventure seems...mm..."harsh."

Here are my personal judging criteria:

#1 Adherence To and Use Of indicated system for indicated level range

When a Dungeon Master sits down to run a game of [insert edition] D&D with an adventure module, they need to be able to count on that module working with the system. Yes, there are plenty of DMs that offer Frankenstein, hodge-podge games kit-bashed from multiple sources: that ain't my problem. Does the product match the advertised package? Are you competent at designing for the indicated system? I'm a stickler for this because it is FRUSTRATING to pick up an adventure and find that you have to "fix" problems that a laissez-faire designer has allowed to run roughshod.

A good chunk of this will be looking at treasure ranges offered for PCs of the indicated level range. Gaming takes time...is the adventure worth the time of players interested in playing hard and advancing their characters?

#2 Challenge Over Milquetoast

Assuming the design is competent and the treasure range is good for the system/levels indicated, how challenging is the adventure? Generally, I'm going to favor dangerous environments over pushovers...though if you go too far (say a dungeon full of poisonous critters for a party of low-level characters with no access to neutralize poison) you're going to get dinged. However, all other things being equal, I like adventures that push players and force them to sweat a bit (and cooperate with each other). The chance of absolute disaster (i.e. the infamous "TPK") should always be on the table for the over-ambitious, un-cooperative, and dreadfully stupid player group. Without risk there's no thrill.

On the other hand, risk is no good without reward. Fortune should favor the bold...if the treasure looks weak compared to the danger involved, I'm going to be unhappy.

#3 Creative Theming and Cohesion of Design

I'm listing my criteria in order of importance, and "originality" and "flavor" comes in a distant #3 to design and challenge. D&D is an experiential game...we want to give the players an experience they'll remember. An edge-of-your-seat fight with a goblin horde that forces them to use every resource in their bag can be surprisingly effective even if it's "just goblins." That being said, there is a place for creativity and theming, and an adventure site that links these together is good for verisimilitude which serves to HEIGHTEN the players' experience. If there are disparate creatures in the dungeon, they should have a reason for being together; there should be an interactive quality to encounter design. Does that matter as much as GOOD design and pressing challenges? No. But it does matter. 

This bit also takes into account map readability and usability of format (things that can, generally, be adjusted easily).

SO...that's how I'm going to be judging these adventures. I'd like to get through one per day...which would allow me to finish all the reviews by the end of the month...but I'm not sure my time's going to allow me to keep up with that grind (we'll see). 

I would prefer to review them in sections based on category of system (for example, do a review of ALL the 1E adventures then ALL the B/X adventures, etc.), but I think it's probably more fair to judge them in the order they were received? I mean, John Nash got his adventure in almost from the jump (October 4th)...he's been waiting a loooong time for his reviews. Does he even remember he entered a contest? A lot has happened since October 4th!

Still, the vast majority of adventures weren't submitted till mid-December, with two-thirds of them coming in after Christmas! Tell you what: I will review the pre-December submissions in the order they were received, and THEN I'll do everyone else by category (in the order received). That would give us the following order:

1. Sausages of the Devil Swine (John Nash)
2. The Lair of the Lamia (J. Blasso-Gieseke)
3. The Caverns of Despair (Kurt)
4. The Cleft in the Crag (J. Allen)

After that we'll go AD&D (and 1E adjacent), B/X (and Basic adjacent), OD&D (etc.), and finally the Stars Without Number entry ("Galactic Funtime"), which was the very last entry received and which I confess I'm not too keen to review anyway. Blog posts should...hopefully...start tomorrow.

One last thing. All my reviews will be without playtesting. As I've written (many times) before, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to tell just how good...or bad...an adventure is without playing it. Adventures are designed to be played...D&D is a game that is meant to be played. I will do my best to give analysis based on my past experience, but NONE of these reviews will be based on actual experience of play. As such, folks should take my musings and critiques with a very LARGE grain of salt. Things I think bad might be wonderful in play; things I think look great might be terribly clunky. Only actual play of an adventure will provide a real idea of how well it's been designed.

All right, that's enough. Will try to have the first post up tomorrow.

So, Yeah...Neuromancer

I actually finished reading Neuromancer a couple days ago. So, um, what did I think of it?

Eh.

I mean, it's a decent enough read...Gibson's a good storyteller. But THIS is the grandfather of the cyberpunk genre? Forgive me, but it reads like any futuristic speculative fiction book to me. That is, standard sci-fi fare. Nothing about it particularly says "cyberpunk" to me.

I suppose the idea of a computer matrix was pretty heady stuff back in 1983 (or was it? The film WarGames was released in 1983 and so modems and the beginnings of the internet were already in place).

How about people willing to sell their souls/bodies for the money to (invasively) augment their own bodies? Well, there's nothing all pervasive about "getting chromed" in Neuromancer...only a couple characters have elected for augmentation (organ transplants and cosmetic/geriatric surgery being the real ubiquitous procedures). And so what if they're not shook up about it? Didn't people think it would be cool to be the Six Million Dollar Man or Deathlok back in 1983?

No, Neuromancer seems no more cyberpunk than the 1980 film Saturn 3...and it certainly doesn't feel very "noir" or "hard boiled." You've got a futurist world where there are space ships side-by-side with (the equivalent of) 20th century drug addicts? How is that any different from Harlan Ellison's brilliant short story Run for the Stars (originally published circa 1957). Answer: it's not.

This is simply the Stainless Steel Rat in a more dystopian universe. I'm sorry...color me completely disenchanted and even unimpressed. Having read Neuromancer, I can't for the life of me see how it has come to be considered "the archetypal cyberpunk work." Archetypal?

What is cyberpunk about the Rastafari movement?

I'm starting to think there ISN'T such a thing as "cyberpunk." I mean, there's an IDEA by that name, and people have an idea of what it is...kind of like people had an idea of what "Seattle" and "Grunge" music is/was. But Chrome and Drugs and Computer Hackers can (and do) fit into a lot of SciFi genres. It feels (to me) like a whole mountain of pastiche tropes have been created around an idea that was never anything more than a little piece of SciFi with a clever name...and not even an amazingly original piece of SciFi, at that.

Sorry, Gibson...I vastly preferred The Difference Engine to this.

I am SUCH an idiot!

Johnny Zed is written by John G. Betancourt, NOT Gibson.

I realize I may be completely shooting any literary cred I have left (shit), but I don't think I've read ANY Gibson...well, any of his cyberpunk stuff (I'm a big fan of The Difference Engine). Now, I've TOTALLY got to finish Neuromancer, or I'll look like a REAL punk!

[and, no, Shelly Tracer does NOT use a sliver gun...she carries a custom .38 or "medium pistol" as I'd call it in my game]

Ugh...more responsibilities. And me with only four hours of sleep (again).

Regarding - progress report: close to three more pages written so far today. It's hard for me to focus on WORK work when I'm tired, but the fantasy stuff just seems to flow from my consciousness.

Finally - Neuromancer

AB brought home Steve-O's copy of Gibson's Neuromancer for me to read, something Steve has failed to do for many moons now. I shall be starting it as soon as I finish reading this third Shadowrun novel.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, especially anything vaguely cyberpunkish (Johnny Mnemonic and Ghost in the Shell to those latest Swedish movies about the computer hacker girl...two down, one to go). All for inspiration, of course. But why the films are good for the feel of an RPG (cinematic action), the literature is important for the foundation and story ideas. Neuromancer is, of course, the cornerstone of cyberpunk, so I'm glad I've finally got a copy in my possession.

Have a good week, folks.