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Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 1
Publisher: Pulp Hummock Press
by Kenneth [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/29/2023 22:08:42

Ironically, a couple months ago I was kicking around ideas for running a campaign in a northern setting that mashed up Alaskan and Scandinavian lore with fantasy elements. Then, I saw reviews for this online and ordered it right away. I must say it's quite unlike anything else I've seen. The setting is developed in great detail, almost too much, with a rich history and backstory. There are gods, cults, and factions aplenty. The influence of classic pulp fantasy is strong, but it's also infused with generous references to 80s pop culture and fantasy.

The beginning adventure is a bit railroady and is probably the weakest part of the whole package, but it does allow the DM and players to get invested in the setting. From there it assumes more of a sandbox character. The subsequent chapters are full of adventure hooks of all types and power levels, meaning that, in true old school fashion, the characters can easily find themselves overmatched and end up dead. There's still a ton of lore to absorb here, but one can see that over time this will start reinforcing itself and adding depth to the world, building towards the megadungeon climax promised in the the upcoming third volume of this set.

All told, there are tons of interesting locations, NPCs, magic items, and new monsters here. The backstory is a bit convoluted and difficult to follow, but if run over a significant length of time, I think the pieces will fall into place and make for a very rewarding campaign. The level of detail is amazing and the setting itself really shines, becoming a character in itself. As importantly, this is designed for Old School Essentials Advanced and the writing is such that it makes full use of those rules and demonstrates how that game can shine in a long-term campaign. So if you're interested in investing in a campaign setting that is both unique and not over the top gonzo, but incorporates elements not found in your bog-standard European-derived fantasy, by all means check this out. You won't be disappointed if you're willing to put in the effort. I for one, cannot wait for the two follow-up volumes.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 1
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Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm: Volume 1 (OSR)
Publisher: Infinium Game Studios
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/30/2023 21:33:14

Well technically you get all the Pathfinder monsters converted to OSR stat blocks. Except that you don't, really. The issue is that they aren't actually direct conversions most of the time. So you're usually getting really watered down versions of the monsters with limited abilities and often far fewer hit dice. To give one example, in PF the Balor Demon has 20d10+260 HP and an AC 36. Obviously much more powerful than it's original AD&D equivalent, but based on 3e. But here you get 4 balor variants ranging from 4-7 HD worth a measly 175-900 xp. So I guess these are babies? This is pretty much true for everything in the book; you just get low-mid-level variants, often with little correlation to original power levels. On top of this, attacks are not always clear (though you can figure it out) and the aligments are off in the sense that because they just use Law, Neutrality, and Chaos, that supersedes good & evil. All the devils, for example, are listed as Lawful. Again, an experienced DM can figure this out, but it's lazy, poor design that feels like a Bot created it. I wanted stats for all the Pathfinder fiends & Celestials to port over to Castles & Crusades. But this is basically useless as is so I'll just convert them myself from the originals. The biggest shame is I forked out big cash for the massive hard copies. Had they been legit conversions, I'd be delighted. But these are effectively worthless for my purposes.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm: Volume 1 (OSR)
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Journey through Malebolge Book One
Publisher: Spellbook Games
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/29/2023 21:09:52

This expands material from the 1980 Judges Guild module. It has some interesting settings and great villains, but is a bit hard to use. The stats are for some kind of house system that isn't quite any version of D&D and one needs several extra books containing monsters, spells, and magic items. I ended up buying pretty much everything in the line in hard copy because I'm updating a massive Infernal campaign using Swords & Wizardry.

The artwork and maps are lackluster, but there are enougfh evocative settings to counteract these shortcomings. It will be tough for even high level PCs, but there's also some good treasure and interesting magic items. So this is recommended if you're into Infernal adventuring and willing to put in some time to convert it to your system of choice.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Journey through Malebolge Book One
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Dwarrowdeep OSR
Publisher: OSR Publishing
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/21/2023 10:49:32

I'll start by saying I'm a big fan of Gillespie's megadungeons and own all of them in hardcover. So I was very excited to get this one. But I have to confess that I'm a bit disappointed with it. While it has some good elements, for me it just doesn't stack up to the others. I guess my expectations were too high. For one, the broader setting and backstory simply aren't as interesting. And while I understand the rationale for not mapping the whole thing, I have no desire to create a bunch of my own levels using geomorphs. I'm paying $65 or whatever for something I can just run. After mapping a couple levels, I just stopped. One can easily find complete Dwarf themed megadungeon maps on the Internet. Additionally, the room descriptions seem more vanilla than in Gillespie's other products. The rune stuff is nice, but this just doesn't grab me like the other ones and I find it far less useful in a modular sense as well. With his other dungeons, notably HighFell & Archaia, one can easily pull sections out to drop in anywhere. Not so much with this. So if you're really into dwarf-themed dungeons and don't mind putting in a fair amount of work to finish it, this could be for you. But it's less playable out of the box than his other dungeons.
Since you're here I'll give my personal ranking of all Gillespie's megadungeons:

  1. HighFell
  2. Forbidden Caverns of Archaia
  3. Barrowmaze
  4. Dwarrowdeep


Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Dwarrowdeep OSR
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Megadungeon Monster Manual
Publisher: OSR Publishing
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/13/2023 20:46:16

Exactly what it says on the cover. You get all the monsters from Gillespie's four published megadungeons. This is super handy if you're running any of them, as monsters from earlier books often pop up in the later ones and he was limited by space and could not include them all. Plus, if you're doing your own dungeon, you've got a great selection of monsters here spanning roughly levels 1-10. Stats are the streamlined Labyrinth Lord variety, which makes this usable with any OSR D&D adjacent game. A picture is provided for every monster and they are in the style of the author's modules. So if you like AD&D black and white art, you'll dig this. Also includes the treasure type table in the back like the monster manuals of yore. Also, while many of the creatures herein have appeared in earlier editions of the game, plenty are brand new or modified so you'll be getting plenty of value even if, like me, you still own all your 1e stuff. Highly recommended if you play these older games or retroclones or like dungeon crawls.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Megadungeon Monster Manual
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Skullport (2e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/01/2023 22:52:03

Extremely useful if you're running Undermountain or the 5e Mad Mage adventure. Could also be used as a generic "hive of scum and villainy" for any Underdark or pirate campaign. My only complaints are a general lack of illustrations and the fact that the maps can be a bit hard to read. I assume the originals must have been in color.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Skullport (2e)
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Castle of the Mad Archmage Adventure Book
Publisher: BRW Games
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/15/2023 16:37:11

Well, you do get a ton of dungeon jam packed into this product. Unfortunately, it's not particularly inspired, evocative or easy to use. Indeed, mega-dungeons like this help give the whole genre a bad reputation. There's just not much here to get you excited about running it. The back story is vanilla and cliched. The maps are fine, but nothing special. Most rooms have virtually no description; just a name, which more often than not simply describes the contents such as "Skeletons," "Orcs," etc. Any tween from the 80s could come up with that. Even worse, there aren't full stat blocks, just lists of hit points. So you'll need whatever old school monster book/stats you rely on to run encounters then have to calculate all the XP yourself.

As for the dungeons themselves, they're just okay. There are feeble attempts at creating factions, but much of it doesn't make much sense. And he doesn't really lean much into the Mad Archmage trope with a few exceptions. Traps and tricks tend to be underwhelming too. There is a lame effort to insert orc "work crews" into the dungeon that I just ignored. The sample rival NPC adventuring parties are a bit better done and showcase some of the character classes created for Adventures Dark & Deep, the author's OSR imagining of what 2nd edition AD&D might have been. I also like the "Dungeon Dressing" tables, though they could be expanded.

There is a book of illustrations, but they're pretty amateurish. Better than nothing, but since the room descriptions themselves are generally so lacking, cool images would have helped immensely. There are some new monsters and magic items, but again, nothing especially interesting or inspiring.

All of this is disappointing because in watching the author's youtube videos I was really excited to get this product. But it's just kind of meh. You can at least crib thre maps and adapt the dungeons for something else, which is what I'm doing, basically linking this to the far more interesting Undermountain.

So if you want to put in the work, you do get a lot of potential with this for a decent price. But if you're looking for something exciting to run right out of the box, there are far better megadungeon options out there.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Castle of the Mad Archmage Adventure Book
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The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor
Publisher: Zeitgeist Games
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/07/2021 11:29:59

So I snagged this for $4.50 as a pdf when it went on sale here. That's actually cheaper than what I paid to have it spiral bound. Yet it's so mediocre that I still feel I overpaid for it. Supposedly it's the final version of the first megadungeon ever created, Dave Arneson's dungeon for the legendary Castle Blackmoor. The problem is that it doesn't feel particularly old, nor is it at all interesting from a design or tactical standpoint.

It is statted out for D&D 3.5, which is fine since that's the version of the game that was in print when this first came out and the OSR wasn't really a thing yet. But it's kind of hilarious to see the huge 3.5 stat blocks on almost every page for even the simplest of monsters. So while you are theoretically getting over 300 pages of content, in fact it's maybe half that at best. On top of this there are tons of monsters in here that didn't exist in RPG form back in the day like barghests, mephits, half-orc barbarians and the like. Again, not exactly a deal breaker, but certainly detracts from any old school feel. On the other hand, they are strewn across the dungeon in a rather non-sensical way, which does simulate old school products like Keep on the Borderlands.

More significantly, the dungeon levels are pretty small and rather boring. Descriptions are terse, which is common enough, but there's little interesting in here. Poor writing, lousy art and awful editing contribute further to the unprofessional presentation and feel of the adventure. It really reads like a 13 year old kid slapped this thing together. The factions are lame, the villains are uninspired and the whole thing just feels like it was a late career cash grab. I had high hopes of converting this to B/X and running it for a campaign set in Blackmoor but the adventure here isn't worth the time it would take to convert it. I'd have more fun just designing my own megadungeon or using one of the many other published ones out there. Only worth buying if you really want something for Blackmoor using those awful D&D 3.5 stats and mechanics.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor
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The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition
Publisher: The Other Side Publishing
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/18/2021 09:13:10

Very solid and somewhat whimsical take on the "modern" witch. Lots of spells, rituals, and other options. Can be combined with the author's other witch tradition books. One of the highlights is the monster list, which includes things like pumpkin golems and even the notorious pumpkin head demon himself. If you like your witches in the "Charmed" or "Bewitched" vein, this is worth a look. One quibble is that the editing is a bit shoddy with lots of typos and some inconsistencies and repeated entries in the text, possibly due to cutting and pasting from other sources. But alas, that's pretty much the industry norm nowadays.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition
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The Halls of Arden Vul: Volume I
Publisher: Expeditious Retreat Press
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2020 23:49:33

Note: This review covers the complete module.

Among other things, the OSR movement has witnessed the revival of the megadungeon for fantasy gamers. Indeed, at this point there are far more OSR megadungeons than were actually published for the 1st edition of the game back in the 1970s-80s. To their credit various authors have tweaked the classic formula in terms of themes, style, and layout to provide varying experiences for gamers. And it’s true that many of these things are massive and require months or even years of steady play to finish. Yet there always seems to be an inclination by some to go bigger. This is where The Halls of Arden Vul comes in.

In many ways this adventure is the War & Peace, or perhaps more appropriately, The Song of Ice & Fire, of megadungeons. It is ridiculously massive and complicated, with tons of factions, major characters, minor characters, tons of backstory that you may or may not need or care about, and a hefty amount of self-indulgent over-writing that could use a serious amount of editing. As they boast in their description of the product, Arden Vul includes:

2,162 Encounter Descriptions 14 NPC Factions 10 Massive Levels 15 Extensive Sub-levels 7 Dangerous Exterior locations 149 New Monsters 332 New Magic Items 69 New Technological Items 44 New Spells 189 New Books through which PCs can gain a deep understanding of the dungeon

So no matter what you think about the quality or organization, that’s a ton of content. And, you can definitely see that it was a labor of love for the author that clearly took a long time to create. And, again much like the aforementioned novels, a significant amount of the content is pretty amazing. There are interesting villains and NPCs, lots of tricks, traps, and puzzles, and plenty to discover. But as one might expect, it’s all just a bit too much to take in. There comes a point where there are just too many new monsters, magic items, spells, cultures, etc., and one starts questioning if the effort needed to actually run the adventure is worth the money and time invested. To the author’s credit, considerable effort is made to guide the DM by indicating points of connectivity, links to other areas, summaries of each level, extensive random encounter tables, and copious background notes. But that ends up becoming a lot of noise that again hinders more than it helps. For example, most megadungeons give you a base town, some wilderness areas to explore and a few NPCs and background material. That usually takes up 20 pages or so, sometimes considerably less. This beast takes over 100 pages covering such prefatory material and even after reading that you’ll likely be confused about many of the factions and new species because they’re not all clearly described or explained. To get that information you need to go to volume IV. And because there are often sub-species or variants, trust me, you’ll be flipping to volume IV a lot, whether in hard copy or on your pdf.

As indicated above, there are a total of 25 levels and sub-levels, and some of these are truly massive, encompassing nearly 200 separate encounter areas. This does allow for a fair degree of variation in both inhabitants, the physical environment and style of play. So one could encounter your standard humanoids or undead, or a variety of extra-terrestrial races, some of which possess powerful technology, constructs, fishmen, lizardmen, demons and their cultists, or human cults, among others. There are lots of opportunities for role-playing and interaction because of the sheer number of factions and sub-factions. So some players & DM’s may love this aspect. But again, it’s just a bit too much for my taste. I’ve never played with a group that was very interested in factional politics in their games and I generally find that having more than 3 factions or so just becomes too much. Here the factional aspect is “turned up to 11” to paraphrase Spinal Tap. And you’ll have to keep track of a dizzying array of new cultures and names, with particular architectural styles, etc. I’ll admit that this gets a bit easier as you read more and more of the adventure, but I could see it being rather difficult to convey all this to the players and get them onboard, unless they have a particular affinity for that style of play. Moreover, because the various factions and sections of the dungeon are so intertwined, it seems much harder to pull out sections for individual use or shorter campaigns. It can be done with a bit of work, but this dungeon seems much more tied to this setting than, say Barrowmaze, Stonehell or Rappan Athuk.

And the factions vary widely in how interesting or novel they are. I particularly liked the demon-worshiping heqeti, which are a type of amphibious humanoid, but really didn’t care for the varumani, for example, which are a sort of alien-derived troll/ogre mix with several sub-species. Obviously, individuals will vary on new species and monsters in terms of how they might want to use them. I also found the new demon species quite interesting, though in general many of the new monsters have lots of special abilities, which makes them a bit of a chore to run, since you’ll have to keep looking up what they can do. Frankly, sometimes less is more.

The biggest challenge is usability. It’s obviously huge and the simple fact that it stretches over five volumes makes it cumbersome to run. The maps are gathered in the last volume and volume IV contains all the new monsters, spells, descriptions of books, and world information. That makes sense, but what this all means is that you’ll generally need at least three of the volumes or pdfs to play since you’ll have the section of the dungeon you’re in (volumes I-III), plus the maps, and the monsters. As for some of the other issues, as noted above, a major challenge is that the encounter descriptions and background information tend to be way too long, and often repetitive. Many room descriptions run upwards of 3 whole pages. And this isn’t just for boss encounters. Sometimes much of it is simply fluff with a discussion of the previous 3000 year history of a site or individual. That could have just been in a separate supplement. And the super long lists of all the spells in every spellbook found in the dungeon take up tons of space for rather minimal gain, since each spellcaster has their memorized spells listed in the lengthy write-ups provided for virtually every NPC.

The maps, at least in the printed version, are some of the worst I’ve ever seen in a published product. It’s not that they are poorly drawn, but rather not properly cut and formatted. So rooms get cut off in the middle or bottom of pages, letters identifying sites are cut in half, and there are maps that barely take up half a page yet aren’t even centered. So I’d strongly recommend just going with the pdf maps if you can, because they are easier to read and use. By comparison, Rappan Athuk is a model of elegant simplicity. As for the images, they are okay, but not as evocative as say, the images in the various Greg Gillespie megadungeons. And there aren’t really enough of them. In many cases there will be several consecutive pages of nothing but text, perhaps broken up by a long table spread out over several pages. Then you might get a picture of something like a crocodile, or giant crayfish which seems rather pointless since one assumes the typical gamer can easily visualize a crocodile or a crayfish. There are some pictures of more interesting things, but if you’re going to be fairly limited in your images, the ones you include should be really memorable. Another minor, but still annoying, problem is that the author does not calculate the experience point values for monsters in the text, despite including the fairly lengthy stat blocks. It’s not like they were worried about space. Why not include that? Certainly it would be more useful than putting (see new monsters) or (see new magic items) after nearly every entry. Those could have been indicated with an asterisk or something. So this is one more thing you’ll need to do if you’re running this adventure.

So is it worth buying? That will depend largely upon your GM style and the predilections of your players. It is definitely very expensive. But, if you really want to make this the center of your campaign, even if you played on a weekly basis, this would probably take years to get through. So if that sounds like what you want, then the price point isn’t quite as crazy. And that may be the best approach, because it would give the players the best chance for immersing themselves in this world. While it does get to be overkill, there are elements of Egyptian, Roman, and Byzantine culture in here, as well as science fiction & weird fantasy. So a lot of itches can be scratched. A clever DM may find ways to integrate it into their own campaigns. I’m going to drop it into a fairly open area in my campaign world that was the location of an ancient civilization based on Egyptian & Middle Eastern cultures with a focused mission tied to a broader campaign. It’s written for OSRIC, so it’s compatible with all the major retroclones as well as 1e and 2e D&D. So you can certainly plunder it for monsters and magic items as well.

In the final assessment, there is lots to like here and the vision of the author is impressive. But it also feels so personal and tied to the campaign from whence it came, that it becomes a bit of a barrier to play and get invested in. So I’d personally rate it a step below the other megadungeons I’ve referenced in here in part because I think they’re easier to run and more portable, if that makes any sense in the context of megadungeons. So consider it recommended with a degree of caution.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
The Halls of Arden Vul: Volume I
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Monstrosities (OSR)
Publisher: Frog God Games
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/25/2020 20:12:44

Simply put, if you buy only one monster book for your OSR game, it should probably be this one. It has most of the monsters from 1e, as well as lots of new creatures and variations. And unlike so-called "modern" monster books, the stat blocks are not the length of the tax code with a raft of abilities, exceptions and conditions to keep track of. Plus, there's a picture for every monster as well as a mini encounter or adventure hook. These are great for inspiration, side quests, or even to use as interesting random encounters. And there are many clever pop culture references worked into the encounters.

The only real downsides are that the images varey somewhat in quality and because they try to keep it one monster per page, there's often a lot of white space. So they could have added a bit more fluff to the text. But in a book that already runs over 500 pages, perhaps less is more in that respect. And to be honest, this black and white artwork suits the book better than the color artwork they've used in supplements to Tome of Horrors Complete, which should be the second OSR monster book you buy. With those two massive tomes, it's hard to see you ever needing another monster book. My only regret is that I waited too long to buy this so I was only able to get the pdf. Still hoping to snag a hard copy somewhere.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Monstrosities (OSR)
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HighFell: The Drifting Dungeon
Publisher: OSR Publishing
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/03/2019 20:00:28

If you like old school dungeon crawls, this is worth checking out. It is quite similar in tone and style to Gillespie's other efforts, meaning you get a ton of content, lots of maps (not always easy to follow/connect), lots of cool old school images, new monsters, assorted factions albeit not always well fleshed out, plenty of treasure (including gem sizes & quality), and a fair amount of typos. As others have noted, there are numerous references to the author's other modules, including directives to find monster stats there. A trifle annoying, but since I own those and have every intention of buying any future products he produces, it doesn't bother me much. It's true that the "ground setting" of the adventure isn't terribly well developed. But to me, that's not a problem since I'm dropping it into my home campaign setting anyhow. In fact, the drifting aspect is great because you can put it anywhere you want. It also makes this megadungeon a bit more modular than the others in terms of being able to easily come and go at your whim. You can just say "the damn dungeon moved" and come back to it later. You could also easily extract the wizard towers and dungeons on their own if you wanted a shorter experience. Another thing I love about this adventure are all the crazy book titles and random tables for generating your own in such settings. I've already made use of these in one of my own adventures. So while the setting depth and backstory might not be a developed as those of Barrowmaze or Archaia, the adventure makes up for it in broader flexibility and utility. Worth the price for the amount of usage you can get out it.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
HighFell: The Drifting Dungeon
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Castles & Crusades -- Tome of the Unclean
Publisher: Troll Lord Games
by Ken S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/23/2019 00:43:50

I soured on C&C awhile ago and actually forgot I had kickstarted this. So when it came out of the blue a few months ago, I just put it on the shelf. In the past week I finally decided to check it out and the verdict is pretty underwhelming. Sure, there are lots of demons, devils and other denizens of the Underworld. And it did come with a nifty color map that I'll definitely make use of. But the monsters themselves are just okay. They attempt to alter most of the old D&D creatures somewhat, including demon lords and arch devils, but most of the alterations aren't really improvements. A handful of the new ones are cool enough that I'll work them into my own version of the Infernus. Unfortunately the entries tend to be way too long and all the stuff about them in Aihrde, the default C&C campaign setting, is pretty much boring fluff. Frankly, that setting has never been particularly interesting to me. Others may like it, I suppose. C&C's usual spotty editing is on full display here as well. The artwork, like that of most C&C products, is not particularly good. It's not even really old school, but comes off as blurry or half finished much of the time. And a good portion of it is recycled from other books. I will still use this for my Labyrinth Lord games, but it's not really a must own, unless you really want a few new demons and devils, or want to mix them up a bit to challenge your players.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Castles & Crusades -- Tome of the Unclean
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Barrowmaze Complete
Publisher: OSR Publishing
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/12/2018 01:19:37

If you like traps, tricks, and hordes of undead, then you'll enjoy this adventure. It differs from some of the standard dungeons in that it's basically horizontal. There are dozens of small barrow mounds scattered around a larger dungeon complex. There is a brief backstory and a generic, yet fairly useful setting provided that can be easily dropped into most campaigns. There are also some helpful hints on dungeon exploration (bring a sledgehammer) and alternate rules for things like turning undead in this necromantically charged environment. A variety of new monsters and magic items add flavor to the adventure and serve to keep even veteran players on their toes. The author also makes it a "living dungeon" by adding rules for re-stocking and including assorted rival adventuring parties.

In terms of the adventure itself, it is generally a sandbox where parties can go where they choose. But there are potential larger goals and more dangerous foes if they delve into the Barrowmaze proper. While it suggests that beginning characters could play and gain levels while going back and forth from the dungeons, I'd suggest at least 3rd-4th level characters to start. There are lots of traps and lots of monsters. And the special undead turning rules can quickly render clerics, especially low level ones, pretty impotent. On the positive side, there is lots of treasure to be had, perhaps too much in fact. Smaller parties might level up fairly quickly if treasure is counted for experience by your DM.

With respect to extras, the book is full of great old school style pictures, reminiscent of those in Tomb of Horrors. And many are gathered in a single section at the back. Stats are provided for most monsters right in the book, along with those for key NPCs. There are even a few new deities presented that could be easily slotted into most campaigns. The random dungeon dressing, pit content, and other tables at the back will also be of use far beyond this adventure for most DMs. In short, this is a hack and slash extravaganza, with some opportunities for problem solving thrown in. It is technically for Labyrinth Lord, but can be played with 1st/2nd edition AD&D or any of the standard OSR games. And for what you get and how much time it would take to play the whole thing, it's worth the price of the hardcover, let alone the pdfs. Certainly more creative and interesting that the stuff a certain West coast game company churns out these days.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Barrowmaze Complete
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