Role Playing Games Archives

Frogfolk of Porphyra RPG review by Endzeitgeist

March 26, 2020 by Paco G. Jaen Leave a Comment

This installment of the „…of Porphyra“-series clocks in at 57 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of SRD, with the pdf laid out in 6’’ by 9’’ (A5), leaving us with 54 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This book was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

Support Endzeitgeist Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=433233
You can buy the Frogfolk of Porphyra!for 5E in DrivethruRPG: http://bit.ly/39KiBc7

In case you were wondering: Porphyra RPG is essentially a continuation of Pathfinder 1, fully backwards compatible in the same way as Pathfinder behaved to 3.5, but with several cool features such as scaling feats and the like. Now, it should be noted that this pdf was written before the rules for Porphyra RPG were finalized, a fact that makes this closer to Pathfinder in several ways, so this is something to bear in mind.

All right, so, frogfolk! Who doesn’t love them? I sure as heck love me some gripplis, and indeed, these frogfolk are one of the three races contained herein, with the other two being the boggards and the doathi. We start with the boggards, and indeed, the book begins with a really well-written introduction by Perry Fehr, one that does a rather excellent job of setting the stage for culture and leitmotifs of the boggards, who are said to have ventured to the patchwork planet of Porphyra at the behest of the Great Old Ones, and boggards are resembling humanoid monstrous toads (as opposed to the gripplis being frog-like); the boggards as depicted here are an extremely primal society native to swamplands, and they still feel the sting of the Elemental Lords losing the NewGod war, reserving particular enmity for the Chiuta. The details provided, which include sample names, provide a compelling picture.

Mechanics-wise, boggards get +2 Strength and Constitution, -2 Intelligence, which makes them somewhat lopsided regarding their preferred classes. They are Medium humanoids with the boggard subtype, speed 20 ft., swim speed 30 ft., and get darkvision and low-light vision. This is one of the changes, were the pdf is closer to PF1 than Porphyra RPG, as in Porphyra RPG darkvision has no range, and includes low-light vision. Boggards have hold breath, and get a 10-feet tongue secondary attack; interesting here: This tongue locks you and the target down, but does not interact with the drag/pull rules, instead locking you and the target in place in relation to each other, making the tongue a pretty potent tool; however, since it’s easy to break loose, there is no reliable way to cheese this. Still, theoretically, this would allow a tribe of boggards to use their tongues to limit the movements of targets that they shouldn’t be able to restrict – this does not paralyze them, or anything, but it does allow boggard groups to lock down targets action economy-wise. While this does seem a bit odd to me, it may well be intentional. Still, a certain sense of disjunction did not leave me here. Boggards get marsh strike, and the mind-affecting sonic, Charisma-governed terrifying croak ability, usable 1/hour as a standard action. A target can end up being briefly shaken, and the ability has a caveat that prevents spamming it, but lists no range – I assume as far as can be heard, but yeah, pretty sure there should be a range.

Alternative racial traits include a bite attack (that does not properly specify damage type – Porphyra’s convention is bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage for that), some water-themed SPs…and a really cool one, that allows them to communicate across surprising distances – this one in particular, the toadsong, has some seriously cool repercussions regarding how you can depict them, and sets them apart. Really like it! There also is a replacement for the tongue that lets you make 10 foot 5-foot-steps on a successful Acrobatics check – the DC here is a very low flat DC, when it would have made more sense to at least somewhat tie this to the threatening creatures. Then again, Porphyra RPG has gotten rid of much of the bonus stacking tricks, so yeah. The pdf includes 4 nice, properly-coded race traits and 3 racial feats that scale with levels: Exploding Warts punishes critical hits against you with acid damage; Marshmaster nets you a +2 bonus to AC, initiative, Perception in marshes (later +4), and Toad-Boss Bully provides minor debuffs to creatures you demoralize or hit with melee attacks but only one target may be affected at a given time. I *assume* that affecting a new target ends the previous effect, but this is not explicitly stated.

Doathia are essentially batrachians deep ones, who look like humans, but suffer a -2 penalty to Charisma upon reaching middle age. They get either gills, +1 natural armor, +2 to Perception, or “resist sonic 5” (should be resistance); the bonus types are not codified properly either, and formatting differs from how Porphyra RPG usually does that. Odd: This is not included in the racial traits. Doathi get +2 to any “characteristic” (should be ability score), -2 to Charisma, are Medium aberrations, have darkvision (again, not the Porphyra version) and resistance acid and sonic 5, once more erroneously referred to as “resist.” They have an unnatural aura and a properly codified +4 racial bonus to Athletics made to swim, and may take 10 while swimming. 4 alternate racial traits are included, and I have no complaints there – they are well-balanced and precisely-presented, including easier item activation due to a history of forbidden lore, SPs, etc.. and the pdf also sports some cool traits: My favorite states: “You are fascinated with the Great Old Ones, but their cults are too gauche for your membership.” This nets you mythos spells added t spell list, and made me genuinely chuckle. Hidden Twin is a great racial feat, it lets you summon an invisible monster that later is greater invisible. Ogdoad Legacy nets you limited fast healing and later no breath and acid immunity. Like these!

The grippli,a s depicted herein, get +2 Dexterity and Wisdom, -2 Strength, are Small, have the boggard subtype, darkvision (same issue as before), 30 ft. speed on land and in water, 20 ft. climb speed, +8 racial bonus to Athletics checks made to climb and swim, +4 racial bonus to Stealth in marshes and forested areas. They can also fall in a more controlled manner if not overly encumbered; they always have a running start for jumping purposes, marsh stride, a Con-governed toxic skin (Track: Sluggish-Stiffened, Staggered), kept in check by limited uses, and weapon familiarity with nets. Overall, a pretty powerful race regarding the utility. In the alternate racial characteristics, something has gone wrong – there is one, bughunter, which nets you a +1 trait bonus to hit and damage vermin. That should be a trait, and its cost should not be the vastly superior jumper and toxic skin. Pretty sure that this should be a trait, and have no cost. Grippli also get the cool communication-angle, and toxic skin may be replaced with a skin that is permeable, allowing for bladders storing potions to be smashed and consumed more quickly. This one is really cool. The 4 traits that are presented here, are once more all mechanically-tight and properly codified. There are three racial feats: Poison Spit lets you spit the toxin, but since it’s just 1/day, that may not be the smartest move. Frog Style is a cool (Style) feat that lets you bounce around when critting, with two cool follow-up tricks that allows you to potentially throw and follow foes. Split-Second Leap lets you 1/combat avoid a ranged attack with a Reflex save – I generally like this, but it should not have a nonsensical “per combat” use, and instead specify a fixed duration.

The pdf also presents new racial spells (Porphyra differentiates more between spell-lists, which is one fantastic change). For the purpose of readability of this review, I will put spell names in italics, even though Porphyra RPG’s convention is to not do so. 3 variants of call bugs (pretty self-explanatory what that does) are included; Curse of the Ogdoad is a nasty, permanent curse that afflicts the target with essentially disadvantage on d20-rolls. Key and Jewel points the caster towards the nearest magic item (excluding those in the caster’s possession and those of their allies), which is a great time-saver at the table. Plague of Warts is interesting, in that it is a debuff – but for boggards and aberrations, it acts as a buff. Toe of Frog is a nice little grippli-curse, and Wall of Muck allows for low-level terrain control.

We also are introduced to an array of new magical items, which includes the Batrachonomicon artifact – and yes, it’s a risky tome. The Boggy Bodhran is a buffing hand-drum, and really creepy: Elixirs if Devolution can make anthropomorphic humanoids revert to being animals, with hybrids such as doathi having a 50% chance to become giant frogs or orangutans…A jade frog wondrous figurine can warn you of traps (or move/transform into a frog), and there is a mask that enhances mythos spells. Cursed totems of the Great Old Ones, makes that can plague of warts targets, and there is a web-woven grippli-armor as well. Generally a neat selection! Mundane items, such as snares that may be carried around (damage type not properly codified), a grippli fruit drink (called, of course, “Buu’uurp”), and firefly essence (which is essentially an anti-concealment bomb)…also cool: The custom to make Ghoul Portraits. When someone dies, the family commissions a super-ugly/repulsive portrait – the deceased person does return to hideous unlife, the portrait has a good chance of scaring them away! I LOVE this! Heck, I’d love it, if folks would do that once I’m dead and gone. We also get a siege weapon, a macabre, simple tongue-themed ballista, a drug that can induce astral projection…some gems here that I look forward to using!

The supplement also presents three new archetypes(class options, one for each race: The bloated champion is for the boggards, and is a new cause, which nets Deception and Intimidate as class skills, 1/day enlarge person (self only), and has a theme of becoming more massive; the former ability lacks the proper descriptor as (Sp), which is also missing from the capstone that lets you call a potent ally. Other than those niggles (and no proper bonus types), a cool cause. Grippli arcane archers can choose to become zappers, which are essentially anti-vermin exterminator specialists that can act unimpeded underwater, among other things. The ability to do see duplicates freedom of movement, but is extraordinary, and as such, should specify an activation action. The third option would be the Sothite doathi wizard, who is a disciple of Yog-Sothoth – they lose some weapon proficiencies, but get free action low-range demoralize attempts with limited daily uses, uttering words of Yog – cool. The archetype also gets some esoteric, exotic spells and is a bonded object that may be enchanted as a weapon.

The appendix of the pdf is massive and contains some monster update rules re types and things like Improved Drag, Quicken Spell-Like Ability, a couple of spells and universal monster rules. From giant ants, flies (statblock misses bolding and dragonflies to the leather-winged toads called Mobogo and the dreaded Ogdoad (4 types of these batrachians sires of the doathi), this section offers some fun builds.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting oscillate on a rules-language and formal level between admirable precision and missing some obvious components. Layout adheres to the series’ 1-column standard with purple highlights, and the pdf is all about the content, with no interior artwork. The pdf comes with extensive nested bookmarks that render navigation simple and comfortable.

Perry Fehr (and Mark Gedak) deliver a pdf here that sports a few hiccups stemming from Porphyra RPG by then not being finalized. That being said, the supplement does take advantage of several great rules – from the scaling feats to spell-balancing via categories (such as powerful curses being balanced by being exclusives), the pdf highlights several plusses of the game. Perry Fehr is a great author, and actually manages to make the respective races come to life, feel distinct, so that’s a huge plus for me; at the same time, his rules oscillate between inspired and unconventional to less than impressive. Minor bonus-granting feats? Lame. Similarly, the rules are rather often precise and to the point; at other instances, as noted above, they lack bonus types of sports a few oddities – in short, this is pretty much a definition of a mixed bag; while personally, I consider this to be on the positive side of things, I’d usually round down due to the hiccups. If you are particular about the details, you may wish to round down. HOWEVER, considering the amount of content we get, and the rather cool critters featured in the extensive appendix, my final verdict will round up from 3.5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Visit other GMS Magazine productions:
For our main channel: http://bit.ly/GMSmagazine
For our #podcast: https://goo.gl/M54zau
Follow us on #Twitter: https://goo.gl/moZgvK
Our #Facebook page: https://goo.gl/YkbQIj

RPG Review: Gibbous Moon from Raging Swan Press by Endzeitgeist

February 20, 2020 by Paco G. Jaen Leave a Comment

The 5e-conversion of Gibbous Moon clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/author bios, 1 page foreword, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 19 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

After a page providing an introduction, we receive a new and rather well-dawn one-page illustration of the approach to the module’s main adventure site. Barlow, introduced first in the PFRPG-collector’s edition revision of the module, has also been included in this 5e-conversion. What is Barlow, you ask? Well, essentially, the module comes with a full-blown Village Backdrop-style sample village for your convenience – and I mean that; Barlow is not simply some bland “slot in and forget”-place (though you CAN run the module that way and ignore it altogether). Instead, what we have here amounts to a full-blown installment in Raging Swan press’ beloved series.

In case you are not familiar with my reviews of the series, this does mean that the town not only receives lavish cartography, but also notes for gathering information, bullet pointed subquests, a section for lore, notes for sample names and yes, dressing habits of the local populace. This also covers sites of interest and in this case, several events and notes on local rumors. Law and Order and daily routine of the local populace are touched upon as well and PCs doing the legwork can unearth plenty of further potential hooks for adventuring. If the game is lagging somewhat, local events helps you bring the picturesque village of Barlow to life – and alive it is: What started as an isolated druidic enclave has seen a recent influx of dwarves (originally rescued from redcaps), who brought with them a sense of modernity not known in the rustic place.

Now if you expect yet another nature vs. progress-struggle, breathe a sigh of relief – no, the dwarves are not the bad progress-guys here – they actually do submit to the village’s way of life and thus thankfully deviate from the stereotype. The conflict at the heart of this place is one of change versus tradition – and as we all know, change is inherently painful, but sticking to tradition may lead to stagnation. This is a kind of subtle leitmotif that is part of the whole module. Oh, and have I mentioned that there is an actual dryad in the center of the village? Alas, in the last couple of months, some cattle have gone missing and racial tensions rise, while a grumpy hermit at the wondrous local Clear Water has been less than cooperative. It should be noted that, where sensible, the module references the default statblocks for NPCs, and that the DCs etc. have been properly adjusted to 5e.

Going above and beyond, we even get a mini-woodland dressing for the trek from the village to the hermitage, travel times noted, etc…

Since this is an adventure I’m reviewing here, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

All right, only GMs around? Great!

The adventurers are led to the Clear Pool hermitage after unearthing some additional pieces of information via social skills etc. in Barlow. Once at the hermitage, they can find not only the grisly remains of sheep, but also encounter a savage dire boar. The hermitage, located in cliffs near a waterfall, is presented as series of natural caves with RSP’s trademark attention to detail being reflected in a table of carvings, carcasses to find etc. Speaking of grisly finds – in one of the caves, Viljo, lone survivor of his adventuring team, awaits – he was also sent to this place to recover saintly bones, but his companions have been slaughtered by the resident of this place, a man named Dunstan who subsequently made zombies out of Viljo’s former companions. This would be as well a place as any to note that the survivor Viljo, Dunstan, a dire boar (which is deadly!) and the aforementioned zombies all get proper 5e-stats, with Dunstan’s build actually taking shapechanging and Concentration re spellcasting into account – kudos.

Dunstan, himself once an adventurer and necromancer, was infected with were-boar lycanthropy and is responsible for the cattle thefts – he stole the livestock to quench his lycanthropic hunger and prevent the beast inside from turning upon the local populace. The moral dilemma in confronting Dunstan is obvious. While the man has acted to keep innocents from harm, he has also resorted to theft to do so. Moreover, he has slain Viljo’s comrades, animated them and infected the poor man with lycanthropy as well. He’s not evil (yet) though, and while he is a necromancer, he’s not one of the insane kind – so what do the PCs do? Kill him? Try to negotiate a deal between him and the village? Try to cure him? What is the right thing to do? This openness of the module is commendable and DCs to broker a non-violent solution are presented in detail. Same goes for tactics, if the PCs elect to fight. The pdf also btw. provides scaling notes for the combat encounters. A cure for lycanthropy regarding Dunstan’s particular strain and multiple hooks for further adventuring are also included.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to RSP’s concise and crisp 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked and in two versions – one optimized for screen use and one to be printed out. Both files are small enough to not be a burden on mobile devices. The b/w-artworks and cartography are nice indeed.

Creighton Broadhurst and Jacob W. Michaels deliver a flavorful, gritty little adventure, and John N. Whyte’s 5e-conversion was done professionally and with an eye for details. The leitmotif and shades of gray themes are strong. Can a certain individual be reintegrated into a society already on the verge of change? This little module has lost nothing of its splendor in 5e; it is still delightfully unpretentious while asking engaging questions; it’s well-executed, interesting, and won’t disrupt your campaigns’ tone and flavor. 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

You can buy Gibbous Moon from here.

RPG Review: 101 Cursed Items from Zenith Games by Endzeitgeist

February 19, 2020 by Paco G. Jaen Leave a Comment

101 Cursed Items clocks in at 29 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 26 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

Okay, so, the pdf begins with cursed item rules: Spellcraft 15 + item’s CL after identify et al. to note an item’s base properties, with DC 25 + item’s level denoting the cursed properties. Discarding cursed items is not automatic after remove curse, as the pdf specifies once more, but the pdf also specifies that this spell does not de-curse an item…obvious, but still handy. Intentionally and accidentally crafting cursed items is covered, and the pdf touches upon selling cursed items and where to buy them. The pdf, after this handy recap, presents optional cursed item rules, starting with automatic identification, carefully hidden curses and more complex curse removal scenarios. Degrading magic and particularly resilient cursed items are also touched upon. Nice array of options here.

Okay, so, what kind of curses do we get? We begin with the amulet of chatty fists, which makes the wearer’s hands sentient, obnoxious and chatty…and item whose curse can range from hilarious and kinda welcome to plain funny or gratingly obnoxious, focusing on the roleplaying aspect – something I genuinely liked seeing. Boastful sniper goggles are clearly worn by plenty of anime characters, for the wearer executing sneak attacks is compelled to boost about them. There are figurines of wondrous power that are berserk when activated, and figurines that work properly, but have a chance to turn the user into a figurine for the duration.

On the more mechanical note, the amulet of cumbersome flesh makes sense, as it does act like an amulet of natural armor, but also greatly increases armor check penalty. Boots of endless levitation make you levitate up to 2000 feet…and there are boots that levitate you upside down as well. What about a bracelet of friends that is missing an “r”, thus conjuring fiendish doppelgangers, while delaying the arrival of the target? Or what about a resilient ore that instead increases fire damage and makes the wearer vulnerable to fire? On the plus side, the latter item actually helps against the cold… The ring of delayed shielding stores an ammunition in an extradimensional place, delaying being hit by a blast from it. Clever: The damage is converted to force, preventing abuse. This has tactical value, narrative potential – love it!

The backhand of glory had me laugh out loud, as it essentially pimp-slaps the user (properly codified re damage type etc., mind you) for using some abilities. The robe of useless items also had me seriously chuckle. What about the bag of rabid animals, which does exactly what you’d expect it to? Or the cloak that makes you do a victory dance when you successfully save against an effect (no save)? The ring of the spell store infests the casting of the wearer in-game with microtransactions, demanding to be paid. Another favorite of mine: The rope of motivational climbing, which sets itself ablaze like a fuse, requiring quick climbing. Also explodes at the top. Genius! The shoes of the hurried firewalker similarly made me laugh – they do pretty much what you’d expect them to.

There are also items that are just nasty – like a cursed campfire bead that actually only generates an illusion of fire. Know that dream, where you fall to your death, only to awaken right before hitting the ground? The cape of the waking nightmare twists the sequence, teleporting you up when waking up or attempting to use its effects. Ouch. Or the cloak that baleful polymorphs you into a Fine spider? Some goth ladies I know obviously suffer from the corset of wiry witchcraft, which inexplicably snags on nearby things, making movement more difficult. What about the cursed vest that shrivels your eyes when attempting to use the deadeye deed? Sandals that may cause you to bond with trees akin to dryads? There is a belt that transforms head and torso (and only those) into that of a fish – hope that some water’s around (and this one can make for a really clever investigation angle…). What about horseshoes that transform creatures into tikbalang-like creatures?

The pdf also provides a variety of magical goggles that could dazzle you, cause near-sightedness, and what about a helm that makes you comprehend only one language. Helms and boots of sloppy teleportation are pretty much classics form the get-go, and what about an unreliable handy haversack? But there are also items that can arguably be rather potent when handled properly: Provided you can withstand the effects, the cursed horn of befouled air, a horn of fog variant that produces cloudkill centered on the user, can be rather cool. Rings of both-eye blinking are also clever – they do teleport the wearer, already…but they also force their eyes shut for a minute! Rods of maximum security send targets to a hellish prison, and the rod of wander actually may be better than the item it mimics, as it gets you away in a reliable manner…but sans control of where…

On the twisted side, what about a robe that steals your face, making you featureless (and very creepy) and blind/deaf/incapable of smelling unless wearing the robe? What about boots that let you cling to undersides of horizontal surfaces, but, alas, which get stuck? Super sticky finger gloves, or a chime that opens a portal to a detrimental room? Need an item that will result in a ton of raunchy heckling at the table? The wand of dribbling fireballs has the fireball dribble out, detonating in the user’s space. XD

The pdf does not stop there, though – beyond all these specific items, we also have a selection of 21 common curses and drawback qualities that can reduce item prices. These range from the standards to baleful advertisement curses! EEEEEWWWWW. Did I mention that I really like this book??

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules language level – better than usual for Zenith Games, in fact. Layout adheres to Zenith Games’ no-frills two-column b/w-standard with red headers, and the pdf employs public domain and stock art. The pdf has no bookmarks, which is an unnecessary comfort-wise downside of an otherwise great book.

Jeff Gomez and Charles Kulick, with contributions by Kate Baker, Nik Geier, Kiel Howell, Matt Oatman, Andrew Ready and Maria Smolina, deliver a grand pdf. In fact, this is easily my favorite Zenith Games-book from all the ones I’ve covered so far. The cursed items herein are consistently cool: They are mechanically relevant without being bland; they often are clever, witty, and even funny. You know, in the way that’ll have your players laugh and say “Well played!” while their characters suffer. It’s not just fn and games, though – there also are plenty of different options that feature themes you’d associate with fairy tales, and there are a lot of cursed items herein that your players might actually want to keep around for some trickery. In short, this book is a resounding success with an excellent bang to buck ratio. Usually, the lack of bookmarks would strip the pdf of my highest accolades, but this one is simply too fun, too captivating, to penalize. 5 stars + seal of approval, highly recommended!

Endzeitgeist out.

The Sea Queen Escapes is available from DriveThruRPG.

Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for your support.

Corpus Malicious – RPG Review

October 23, 2019 by Paco G. Jaen Leave a Comment

Corpus Malicious is a 400 pages book by the company Dream Realm Storytellers that explores evil characters, cults and general bad staff for your 5E game. Is it worth the amount of money you have to back in Kickstarter to get your hands on it? Let me tell you!

Please help this channel subscribing to it and leaving a comment.

This is a book for #DnD #ttrpg. In it you can find fantasy races like fallen angels, the remnant (though that can be any race: elf, dwarf, human, tiefling, dragonborn, orcs, gobbling…) and also a lot of magical items, cults, villains, paladins and many other playing character, and non-player character classes.

In this video I give you the review of the initial 40 pages booklet you can get for free before the project even ends.

Hope you enjoy the show!

You can find more about this project in this link.

Visit other G*M*S Magazine productions:

For our #podcast: https://goo.gl/M54zau

Our #Facebook page: https://goo.gl/YkbQIj

The Sea Queen Escapes: Dungeon Crawl Classics #75

July 16, 2019 by Paco G. Jaen Leave a Comment

The Sea Queen Escapes clocks in at 28 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement 1 page back cover, leaving us with 24 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The Sea Queen Escapes was designed for 6 third level characters, with the suggestion, as always, of a well-rounded party as an ideal means to tackle this one. Fighters will particularly appreciate the numerous occasions where they may execute special, environment-specific mighty deeds of arms – at least I did. As always with Goodman Games’ DCC-modules, we do receive pretty darn impressive b/w-maps, but alas, as always, we do not get player-friendly iterations of the respective maps. On the plus-side, two massive one-page handouts that you can give your players does make up a bit for this shortcoming.

As always, we do receive well-written read-aloud prose to set the stage for each room.

All right, and this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

…

All right, only judges around? Great, so first thing: Never show the cover and title to the players – the combination of cover and title are actually a big SPOILER, and can really wreck one of the key-scenes of the adventure.

Second thing: Even though The Sea Queen Escapes has a serious marine/water-theme, it actually isn’t focused on underwater adventuring, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you won’t find it here. (As a plus: Unlike the horrible “Shadow under Devil’s Reef”, it tackles water and the chances to drown with rules that make sense and are fun, so that’s a plus, even if it’s not the core component of the adventure.

Now, the damsel in distress is nowadays a cliché, to the point where the subversion of the cliché has become its own cliché, which, arguably, these days is seen more often than the original angle. The primary hook of The Sea Queen Escapes is just that – the PCs manage to get their hands on a magical token, and are thereafter sent strange dream-missives from a gorgeous queen beneath the waves, imprisoned by a vile wizard, who beseeches them to free her. Interesting here: In contrast to many other systems, DCC actually does have its share of “rescue lady”-angles that have not been perverted/inverted, and as such, paired with DCC’s patron-engine powered propensity for spellcasters to be (even more) corrupt (than usual), the angle, if sold properly to the PCs, may actually work, when in mainstream D&D-iterations, the Ackbar-memes wouldn’t stop – ever.

The Sea Queen Escapes pits the PCs against the defensive measures left by the grand sea-wizard Shadankin, who mysteriously vanished ages ago. Cealheewhalool, the sea queen in question, directs the PCs towards the first of the small dungeons herein – Shadankin’s Sanctum, where jumping from levitating turtle-shell to turtle-shell and grotesque lamprey-men, this is a cool start – I was particularly enjoying the notion of finding jelly-fish diving suits – for the PCs will have to dive into a lake that doubles as a giant hammer-head’s hunting ground to extract a mythic horn from a giant clam shell.

And yes, fighting underwater rules are provided. Indeed, this is one aspect of The Sea Queen Escapes that deserves applause: None of the encounters throughout the locations within are boring or even mediocre – there’s something special going on in each of the rooms, with unique chests, terrain features and hazards providing, as a whole, a sense of a neatly-structured, thoroughly detailed and creative adventure. In a way, it is the inverse of the author’s Stonehell mega-dungeon, which I love for its own merits: If you’re familiar with that one, picture this module as featuring unique terrain features and treasure for pretty much everything.

The sanctum deserves another shout-out for a practice I really loved: You see, the adventure, as noted, has two handouts, right? Well, on each, we can see strange drawings and scenes, which can provide cryptic clues – and make sure that the story starts making sense in hindsight. The scenes do not act as spoilers per se, but cautious players may well derive information from them. Getting the balancing act between too cryptic and exposition dump by another means right is one of the impressive aspects of this adventure.

Speaking of impressive: Turns out that Shadankin had a compact with an entity most potent – blowing the horn summons mighty Tudines, a colossal turtle of island-plus-size, but only once every 3 years – so the PCs better make sure their sojourn into the second of the dungeon locales, which is a sealed complex within the inside of the turtle’s shell, matters. The vault of the turtle is the most linear of the dungeons contained in this adventure, and it makes sense – after all, this place is intended as one o safe-keeping. Giant anemones and box jellyfish acting as deadly treasure chests of sorts may be encountered here – and a warning spells doom for the PCs. Indeed, pillaging the vault will incur the sea curse – a switching of minds that is represented in real life by character sheets being cycled. (And if only one PC fails, an alternative is provided.) I really enjoyed this, as, much like a lot in this module, it is systematically designed to generate an experience that emphasizes player skill over that of the character.

Anyhow, with the key from the turtle’s vault in hand, the PCs make off towards the final small dungeon herein, which is situated upon the isle of Lone Ait – a forlorn place, trapezoidal, and wrecked by the forces of nature; the water surrounding the place tainted with oil and tar-like slick. Indeed, in a nice twist on the traditional elemental oppositions, we have an earth-themed dungeon here, with glowing amber spheres, tether balls that may be used by mighty fighter and the like awaiting – the guardians left here, from living tar to special, strange lizards, are not to be trifled with, and a final warning also is left – but in that final room, the sea queen and her handmaidens, gorgeous and in stasis, await. Freeing them, alas, will have them attack as soon as they’re out of immediate danger – turning into the monsters so aptly-depicted on the gorgeous cover. You see, Shadankin and Cealheewhalool once were lovers, and both adepts to the dark and unreliable arts of sorcery; Cealheewhalool was corrupted through and through, while Shadankin was not – thus, he imprisoned his lover, looking for a means to undo the calamity that had befallen his sea-queen. He never returned.

Thus, the queen of sunken Ru languished, until the wards started to fail, initiating the sequence of events depicted in this adventure. Defeating her will make the PCs friends of the sunken nation of Ru, which is depicted in an appendix of sorts, including hex map and currents – while I adore the depiction of the latter on the hex-map, this section also made me cognizant of a few shortcomings – for one, the currents should have strong mechanical repercussions, and the module could have been so much cooler with a bit more underwater action, particularly one enhanced by such cool ideas.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to Goodman Games’ two-column b/w-standard, with the b/w-artworks as fantastic pieces throughout; the handouts in particular are great, and the maps are awesome; alas, no player-friendly versions are provided for the maps.

I am a pretty big fan of Michael Curtis’ writing – from his Stonehell mega-dungeon to his more well-known work for Goodman games, he knows what he is doing. In The Sea Queen Escapes, I was particularly enraptured by the strength of each of the dungeon-complexes – they all make sense from an in-game point of view, they all have distinct, yet linked themes, and there is not a single boring room to be found herein. And yet, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed by the adventure. It took me a long time to properly enunciate why that is. I loved pretty much everything, so why didn’t this click in the same way as “Blades Against Death”, for example? In the end, my response has to boil down to one word: Scope. While more actual underwater action would have been nice, I did not expect that, and the module doesn’t need it to be a great experience.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but feel that all of the 3 complexes would have simply deserved more room to shine. All complexes are strong and jam-packed with ideas, generating a sense of a highlight-reel; however, they are done very quickly. They don’t have much time to fully develop their themes and atmosphere, teach the PCs and players their unique traits – they happen, awe your players, and then they’re already over. This is nothing bad per se, and for e.g. a convention, you’ll be hard-pressed to find better modules to drive home the weird/metal-fantasy aspect of DCC. This notwithstanding, with a few more pages, a few more rooms per complex, this could have been a milestone for the ages. As presented, we “only” have a pretty darn good module, bordering on excellence, but not wholly reaching it. As such, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

The Sea Queen Escapes is available from DriveThruRPG.

Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for your support.

Frogfolk of Porphyra RPG review by Endzeitgeist

RPG Review: Gibbous Moon from Raging Swan Press by Endzeitgeist

The 5e-conversion of Gibbous Moon clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/author bios, 1 page foreword, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 19 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

RPG Review: 101 Cursed Items from Zenith Games by Endzeitgeist

101 Cursed Items clocks in at 29 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 26 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The Sea Queen Escapes is available from DriveThruRPG.

Corpus Malicious – RPG Review

Corpus Malicious is a 400 pages book by the company Dream Realm Storytellers that explores evil characters, cults and general bad staff for your 5E game. Is it worth the amount of money you have to back in Kickstarter to get your hands on it? Let me tell you!

The Sea Queen Escapes: Dungeon Crawl Classics #75

The Sea Queen Escapes clocks in at 28 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement 1 page back cover, leaving us with 24 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The Sea Queen Escapes is available from DriveThruRPG.

Text Widget

Recent

Search

The 5e-conversion of Gibbous Moon clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/author bios, 1 page foreword, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 19 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

101 Cursed Items clocks in at 29 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 26 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The Sea Queen Escapes is available from DriveThruRPG.

Corpus Malicious is a 400 pages book by the company Dream Realm Storytellers that explores evil characters, cults and general bad staff for your 5E game. Is it worth the amount of money you have to back in Kickstarter to get your hands on it? Let me tell you!

The Sea Queen Escapes clocks in at 28 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement 1 page back cover, leaving us with 24 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The Sea Queen Escapes is available from DriveThruRPG.

Text Widget

Recent

Search

Tags