Heart of Nightfang Spire

Title: Heart of Nightfang Spire

Price: $4.99 (PDF), $9.95 (Softcover)

Publisher/Year: Wizards of the Coast, 2001

ISBN: 0786918470

Author(s): Bruce R. Cordell 

System: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3/5

Heart of Nightfang Spire is the fifth of the Adventure Path modules, designed for four 10th-level characters. Completion of the module should yield enough experience for them to reach 12th or 13th level.

The author is Bruce R. Cordell, who wrote the original module (The Sunless Citadel) which was generally well-received. That module was a dungeon crawl with diverse elements and a slam bang fight at the end. Nightfang Spire shares many elements of the Sunless Citadel, perhaps too many.

Let's begin with the design and artwork. This module features the by now standard setup of the Adventure Path modules. The inside covers feature well-designed, textured maps by Todd Gamble. They are a pleasure to use and refer to, and I believe are superior to other d20 publishers' efforts. The interior layout makes use of small text: thankfully, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) has returned to the smaller fonts of the first three modules after the larger ones of the Standing Stone, giving us more content in the same 32 pages. There is also very little white space, and the margins are not large. The boxed text is easy to distinguish while still being easy to read, lacking any of the distracting backgrounds favored by companies like Atlas Games. Important information is contained in sidebars set off from the text. This is frequently useful, as I have found myself flipping back to sidebars to reread them as I read through the module. This design is clean and functional, and it works well. It deserves high marks.

The artwork, unfortunately, isn't as good. The cover picture by Jeff Easley shows three adventurers hovering (by various means) over a tower while being attacked by a scrubbing bubble with two long tentacles and bat wings. (The module notes inside that the creature is the horrific mooncalf, an otherworldly monster from the far side of the moon.) I'll grant that it looks like a very angry scrubbing bubble, but it still didn't remotely strike fear into my heart. It's also unfortunate that the adventuring party has traded in the reliable Krusk and replaced him with Quasimodo, although the scrubbing bubble is putting him out of his misery. All of this action takes place miles above the earth, which is only faintly seen below the massive paralyzed worm that sticks bolt upright from the bottom of the painting. Oh, by the way, the sky is filled with strange swirling colors that don't seem to make a lot of sense. Click here to see the cover. (If anyone has a larger image of the cover, I'd appreciate it if they would mention it in the forums. This small one really doesn't do the cover justice.)

Aside from aesthetic issues, this cover also has a major problem. In the module, the mooncalf lies in wait just inside of the tower to spring an ambush on the players. Any player who sees the cover is going to expect an attack from a scrubbing bubble at the top of the tower. It pretty much ruins the surprise value of the monster, which is intended to be a very shocking initial encounter for the players. I think this kind of cover shouldn't be used in the gaming industry precisely for this reason. Willie Walsh wrote in about the cover on Dungeon #12 on this very issue many years ago, and Dungeon doesn't have blatant covers like this anymore. I wish the module design team of WOTC would follow suit.

The interior art is by Dennis Cramer. I usually like his artwork and this module is no exception. The vignettes and character drawings are evocative and very useful to show to players. I particularly like the picture of Redbone. The poison dripping off her claws is a great detail to show the players and should raise everyone's blood pressure. Another nice detail is the diagram showing how the parts of the dragon key fit together. The big exception is the full page of artwork on page 26 showing the center of the Spire. The big heart is well done, but I'm not sure what the tentacle shaped thing is, though I surmise it is supposed to be a catwalk. The bigger problem is that Gulthias, the master insane vampire, has entered this module after a stay in a glam rock band from the 80's. It's jarring for an insane, power-mad vampire who likes to brood with only a large organ for company for weeks and weeks on end. I don't think this picture sets the right tone at all. This is by far the biggest scene in the module and shows the climax, so it weighs badly on the art as a whole. Overall, the art in the module doesn't aid the roleplaying experience or the feel of the adventure as much as it should have.

Many of those who read the Sunless Citadel wondered about the origin of the Gulthias tree. The questions are answered nicely in this adventure, where the vampire Gulthias has escaped his staking and returned to torment the world. He has returned to prepare his undead cultists to expand the power and reach of the worship of Ashardalon, the great red dragon. Characters must penetrate Nightfang Spire and destroy Gulthias and the nightmarish heart of the dragon Ashardalon or Gulthias and his undead cohorts will grow more and more powerful.

The module is divided into essentially three parts. The first part consists of the approach and the physical spire itself. A variety of lesser undead and remnants of the cult populate these levels, along with an imaginative gibbering mouther and an unlikely demon "ally". The second part of the module covers the catacombs beneath, where characters battle more powerful undead and girallon servitors to assemble the four parts of the dragon key. The PCs then use the key to enter the Core and battle Gulthias and destroy the heart.

First of all, the character hooks to begin the adventure are weak. The characters are essentially expected to just enter the dim defile for some reason and stick around to explore the tower. There isn't really any specific reason for the PCs to explore the tower besides curiosity. Once they get to the tower, it is completely self-contained - essentially the perfect dungeon. Almost all of the action happens inside the spire, with a very few exceptions, which I will discuss below.

As the characters progress through the tower, there also isn't much reason for them to keep going besides Gulthias' attacks. This doesn't really contribute to the dramatic tension. In addition, the characters don't really have any clue about what is going on in the tower. The only way they find out things is by having the denizens tell them things in a fairly transparent manner. For example, the mooncalf will mention Gulthias before dying, just so that the characters know that someone named Gulthias is behind the whole thing. In the spire proper, there is a caged demon who will spill the beans if freed. Instead of the characters learning what is going on through their own experiences, they just get told everything in the first third of the adventure. If the characters bypass this demon or don't listen to him, they'll never really know what is going on. I think a definite way to improve this module would be to foreshadow the events much more clearly. One could have reports reach the players that the Sunken Citadel has been disturbed and an empty coffin found where the Gulthias tree once stood. Maybe rumors of Gulthias returning could crop up in the adventure ahead of time. In addition, since the night hags forage for food, the characters might encounter one of them going about its grisly business. As it is, the module seems a little too mysterious, and the attempts to circumvent this a little too blatant.

Finally, at the end of the adventure, there isn't really a clear next step. Other modules in the series have had fairly obvious jumping-off points, even if they weren't always the best. Looking for Ashardalon or other members of his cult seems like an obvious next step, but the sidebar on this and the cover of a later module in the series make it clear that the players won't fight him until the eighth module when they are something like 18th level. The spire is almost completely self-contained and doesn't have many references to new locations or opponents. Since the next module is based in the Underdark, I presume the PCs are supposed to use the rebellious girallons' food and escape passage to enter the Underdark, but there is no clear reason to go down there presented in the module. The module lacks motivation at both ends, really.

Bruce Cordell makes excellent use of the flexibility of third edition (3e) in designing the possible opponents of the PCs. The PCs' assailants are in general imaginative and sometimes very clever. Every major villain has an interesting twist to them that shows the care and thought that went into this module. Examples range from a gibbering mouth vampire with a unique backstory to an assassin wight who coats her wasted hands with poison. Every important monster encountered in the adventure has some interesting twist that should surprise the PCs. All the monsters act intelligently in combat and when dealing with the players.

The mooncalf is the new monster in this adventure. While the monster itself is reasonably interesting, very little background on its motivations or goals is given, neither in the general description nor pertaining to the specific individual in this module. I can't really figure out what it is doing here besides being new and cool. Perhaps it is designed to tie in to the insane sorcerers of the Speaker in Dreams, but this is just supposition. A little more background or motivation would have made this encounter more interesting to run, with the monster taunting the characters telepathically while it fights.

It's also refreshing to see a possible ally for the PCs in the form of the rebellious girallons. This introduction of Diplomacy and role-playing is always welcome in any adventure, especially when it can be adequately justified, as it is here.

Gulthias is a vampire wizards who seeks to revitalize his cult through the addition of undead cultists. He believes that if his cult grows large enough, Ashardalon will return. Through his connection to the heart, he has unparalleled undead abilities and can grant minor powers to his minions. He also can view 10 different sites in the spire and catacombs. His tactics are presented as him shadowing the PCs and directing his troops to attack the PCs at the most inopportune moments. I think this approach works well, and shows very good design. I like the idea of the reclusive head monster who strikes from the shadows and feel it works well here.

Essentially, Gulthias is a religious fanatic, willing to do whatever it takes to bring Ashardalon back. His primary method is through growth of the cult. For me, this doesn't make him a very interesting head villain.

One minor point that I appreciated seeing in this module was the attempt to more realistically module life in the dungeon. The rebel girallons have access to a passage to the Underdark where they can obtain food and water. In addition, specific mention is made of two night hags who provide the servitor girallons with sustenance. While I think this is still a little impractical, it does represent a big improvement from the Sunless Citadel, and I'm glad that the author took the time and effort to put these little details in. They make the module stronger and create additional options for playing the adventure.

This module is a dungeon crawl in the traditional mode. The players enter a mad wizard's tower and must battle his minions, assemble a plot device (dragon key), and then use the key to enter the villain's lair and defeat him. I have to admit I groaned when I came to the dragon's key. Why in the world would a wizard make it possible for people to enter his inner sanctum? Since he can assume gaseous form or travel through the gazeway, why doesn't he just keep the key in the core? There is some mention that the key is used to sanctify various regions of the catacombs, but this makes no sense to me. (Of course, it doesn't have to make sense, because Gulthias is mad, see?) It seems to be there purely as a plot device for characters to get into the core, and as such suffers from the flaws of all such plot devices.

As another traditional element of the dungeon crawl, there are many traps littering the area. Of special note are the traps that trigger when characters attempt to take the parts of the dragon key. Three of the four keys are trapped in one way or another, so the resident rogue in the party must defuse the trap before the characters can proceed. It's all very predictable and in keeping with a very traditional dungeon crawl.

Another thing about this adventure is that it is in some ways very simple. The characters just have to kill everything in the dungeon besides the girallons (and even they can be killed without real consequence) and gather the keys, finally killing Gulthias. It's pretty much unrelenting slaughter all the way through, because the monsters are all undead and can't be reasoned with. To top it all off, the head monster is insane, and no provision is made for playing him in any way except seeking the total extermination of the players.

The other traditional element of this adventure is the final climactic battle with the boss monster at the end. The characters must fight Gulthias, who takes full advantage of his various abilities. And the heart just sits there. I believe the qualities of the heart are underutilized in the climax of this adventure. Using it as Gulthias's coffin is somewhat imaginative, but all it does in the battle is hover there, and after Gulthias is dispatched, it falls and hits the ground with a splutch. And that's it. No climactic explosions, no holy light from on high, nothing. Just a lot of mummified tissue on the ground.

Like the previous modules, this adventure utilizes the 3e mechanics well. I noticed no clear errors in the rules, and care was taken to anticipate the spells that players might utilize to overcome various obstacles. Also, this module contains a fair amount of treasure, much more so than was available in previous modules. Without a lot of calculation, it seems roughly commensurate with the amount expected for a treasure of this level. There are several powerful armor and weapons (of 2 and 3) and several miscellaneous magic items as well. Of course, this assumes the characters do the standard dungeon crawl thing and sift through the trash and ground of every room they come across. In addition, at several points in the module it tells the DM to roll for magic items on a specific DMG table. I really don't like this advice much - I mean, what am I paying for this module for if it just tells me to roll for items in the DMG?

Also, this module is hard. If your 10th level characters do not have a good grasp of tactical combat and do not work as a well-oiled machine, they are going to get slaughtered. There are just too many combatants with too many special attacks. Also, the hit and run tactics of Gulthias will wear the players down. This module is probably more appropriate for 11th or even 12th level characters.

This module continues the arc of the previous modules, relating directly to events in the Sunless Citadel. Its relation to the Forge of Fury is weak, and the only relation to the Speaker in Dreams is a possible link through the mooncalf. The relation to the Standing Stone is clear, since it was the druids who eventually drove off the dragon Ashardalon.

One problem I have with the module is that it seems too similar to the Sunless Citadel. Both modules involve old fortresses sunk into defiles. They both have a small group the players can befriend fighting a larger group allied with the head bad guy. They both have this insane head monster directing things from a place of power allied with an artifact associated with the natural world. The insane head monster wants to rule the world, but he spends all his time hiding away. They also both end with a climactic battle with the head monster. In some ways, the Sunless Citadel comes off better. There is much more motivation to explore the Sunless Citadel, and these motivations are addressed throughout the module. There are also more power factions there (rats, kobolds, goblins, Belak and his minions) than there are in the Heart of Nightfang Spire. I also believe the final battle with Belak and the servants of the tree is more interesting and varied than the final battle with Gulthias.

This is in some ways a real problem, because you would expect that as the characters go up in level and power that the combats would get more exciting and varied, but it doesn't happen in this case for the final battle.

In addition, the modules themselves don't seem to be getting more complicated. Of course, the modules are limited to 32 pages, so they can't create detail without limit, but perhaps the design constraints are just too stringent on this project. This is the third dungeon crawl we've had out of five modules, and the Speaker in Dreams might as well have been a dungeon crawl for all the control players had over events. I would like to see more variety in the design and goals of these modules.

This is a very competently done dungeon crawl. It has interesting elements and good use of the new flexibility of the d20 rules, but motivation is lacking and it has some of the traditional flaws of the dungeon crawl as well. There doesn't seem to be any real effort to break away from the mold of the traditional dungeon crawl, and that worries me, because the characters for this module should have a variety of skills and approaches. It would be nice for the core modules to cater to as many of these skills and approaches as possible.

If you want a good dungeon crawl for this level, then by all means pick this up. If you don't want a dungeon crawl, I would avoid this. There aren't enough elements that can be cribbed to make the purchase of this module worthwhile if you aren't going to use the Spire itself.

T1 The Village of Hommlet

Title: T1 The Village of Hommlet

Price: $4.99 (PDF), $11.99 (Softcover)

Publisher/Year: TSR / Wizards of the Coast, 1979 / 2013

ISBN: 0935696113

Author(s): Gary Gygax 

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

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Rating: 3/5

Much has already been written about this venerable module which came from the pen of the Great Gygax himself way back in 1979, when AD&D was still in its infancy.  It consistently features on 'best of' lists, and is cited as being a classic by many an internet reviewer, so why is that?  Has it stood the test of time?  And how well does it work with a 'modern' group?

When choosing adventures for my current 'classics' campaign I was in two minds about picking this one. I didn't rate it in the 80s, as my first exposure to it came when I already had access to other low level modules, ones which had ready-made intrigue, and here was a somewhat awkwardly presented affair, which on the surface consisted of a village, a short 2-level adventuring locale, and no plot to speak of.  So I cast it aside then, and gave it no further thought. Fast forward more than 30 years and, with one of my group having already experienced my other low level adventure options, I reluctantly dusted this one off and gave it a chance.

In 1979, all the modules released thus far for AD&D had been aimed at high level parties, the only low level products were B1 and B2, which were designed for the Basic game. The AD&D releases were also mostly adventures that had been used at conventions, designed for tournament play.  T1 broke the mold. Not only was it the 1st low level adventure to be published specifically for AD&D, it was also the first to spend time detailing a game setting - that being the eponymous Village itself. Notable members of the populace were named and statted, and given a few lines detailing their relationships and motives. B2 provided Basic DMs with a Keep to use as a base of operations, but the occupants were left unnamed, and very few had any details beyond raw stats, thus it felt somewhat utilitarian. The simple addition of these extra nuggets gives Hommlet life.

The main adventuring locale is provided in the form of a Moathouse. It is left in the hands of the DM as to how to get the party to it, and to give them a reason for going there.  Those minor details stymied my teenage DM brain, I just wanted a ready made plot so my equally impatient teenage players could just dive straight in without faffing about around town. 30 years later, playing the game with adults, this is really a non-issue - the aforementioned NPC details help provide the story hooks, and with just a small amount of interaction between party and populace, thus the seeds of adventure can be grown! The upper level of the Moathouse is a ruin, and is well realised.  The dungeon level is somewhat more haphazard, and feels more like a relic of the adventures of the time - but once again the key to its success lies in the small details.  Rather than just fill it with nasties and say 'go adventuring', Gygax did with the dungeon denizens just as he did with the townsfolk, he gave them a few lines detailing why they are there and what their motives are.  More nuggets for the DM.

Be warned.  Though it is short, the dungeon is very hard for the party of 1st level characters that Gygax takes pains to stress it is designed for, on the surface it appears to be too hard. Again this criticism is short-sighted, as once again the party (and the DM) should spend time in the town, where they can find an array of NPCs willing to accompany the group, some trustworthy, others very much not so!

The beauty of The Village of Hommlet is that, due to all the little details, it becomes a mini-campaign.  It provides so much in just a few short pages.  My 1E party have now played more than half a dozen of the old classics, which are now back on my shelf.  My pdf of T1 still sees use at the table however.  They have taken ownership of the Moathouse and are rebuilding it, they have made allies in the Village, they are making the surrounding area safe, they care about it.

I5 Lost Tomb of Martek

Title: I5 Lost Tomb of Martek

Price: $5.00 (PDF)

Publisher/Year: TSR / Wizards of the Coast, 1983 / 2013

ISBN: 0880380998

Author(s): Tracy Hickman

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Character levels: 7-9

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Rating: 3/5

The Desert of Desolation trilogy ends with the Lost Tomb of Martek. In it, our heroes need to find the tomb of the legendary wizard Martek in order to finally defeat the evil efreeti that has been ravaging the land. It's a suitably epic climax to the series, but it doesn't quite come off.

Tracy Hickman had done a good job of incorporating both his previously written adventure Pharaoh and Philip Meyer's Oasis of the Lost Palm into an overall structure; the problems with the structure – primarily that the players might never release the efreeti in Pharaoh – are relatively minor and something that he would find a solution for in his later works. Both adventures had been seeded with mentions of Martek, a wizard who had foreseen the release of the efreeti and had put plans in place to see it defeated; all of the business in Oasis about the bride's handmark and the amulet is Martek's work.

Now all the characters need to do is find Martek's tomb and his Sphere of Power. The keys for the tomb are in their possession already – the three Star Gems, so all they need to do is get there. Between them and the tomb is the Skysea – a place where the sand has fused into glass, so the sky is reflected in the ground. To travel on it (as it becomes devastatingly hot during the day), the group need to acquire a cloudskate or skyship, which skates on a thin blade over the glass. It's one of the best concepts in the series, but unfortunately little more is done with it – only random encounters might threaten the group as they're on the skyship. It's a throwaway detail, really, but greatly evocative.

Hickman shifts gears when the group enter the first portion of the tomb, and we get the first major interaction of the adventure: the degenerate descendants of treasure seekers trapped in a magical garden. I'm not very fond of this section: you have the descendants of paladins and the descendants of thieves. They don't like each other, and I feel it detracts from the serious tone of the rest of the series – I don't mind occasional lighter elements, but this feels forced and wrong.

It doesn't help that the big thing wrong with the adventure is introduced here: three NPCs who try to steal the Star Gems and, if they do, spend the rest of the adventure being chased through the tomb as the group try to catch them.

What's wrong with that? Well, AD&D doesn't handle chases well. Fights against single NPCs are typically boring. And there are significant problems with fighting high-level magic-users, as Trifakas is (a 12th level magic-user!) – one or two failed saves and that's it for the party! Or Trifakas.

This wouldn't be such a problem if the next section of the adventure was good enough to stand on its own, but it isn't. Once within the tomb proper, the group still need to go on a treasure hunt for three crystal minarets. The three demi-planes they need to go to find them are great inventions, but only one of them is good for adventuring: the mobius tower, where everything is "time locked" and can't move (save through a few special instances). It's a good example of where theme and adventure potential come together.

Unfortunately, the Black Abyss, where space, time and magic begin to breakdown in fascinating ways, has no actual threat to it save random encounters and the potential NPCs, and the Crypt of Al-Alisk, despite once again being an interesting place at its core, lacks challenge – really, it comes down to working out a single teleport trap to complete.

And wouldn't it be easier to just wait near the door for the three NPCs to get the minarets, then defeat them and take the spoils?

That is the bulk of the adventure. The final section – the Citadel of Martek – involves the group finally bringing Martek back to life, him rewarding them, and finally an epilogue that closes the adventure and series in suitable style.

Tracy Hickman displays great invention in this adventure, but rarely is it employed on things that translate to exciting adventuring; setting-wise there's not much to fault, but the entire adventure feels incredibly light on good adventuring material. This is a great shame, as the first two parts of the Desert of Desolation are superlative.

Production-wise, the maps are very good and most of the (uncredited) artwork is also fine – the weakest part is the cover by Holloway. As with the other adventures in the series, it has two nested covers which have most of the maps printed on them.

I10 Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill

Title: I10 Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill

Price: $6.99 (PDF), $12.99 (Softcover)

Publisher/Year: TSR / Wizards of the Coast, 1986 / 2016

ISBN: 9780880383226

Author(s): Tracy and Laura Hickman

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Character levels: 8-10

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Rating: 3/5

This adventure, while not as well received as the first, ground-breaking, Ravenloft it did have a lot going for it. For starters, it was much more classically Gothic in nature. An old family, an ancient curse, ghosts, a strange and charming young Alchemist by the name of Strahd von Zarovich.

I should point out here that this adventure, while having the Hickmans in the by line, was really just an outline and some notes. Tracy Hickman had left TSR in 1985. The adventure was given over to David Cook, Jeff Grubb, Harold Johnson, and Douglas Niles. Now personally, I can see the sections that were created by Grubb and Niles. I had become very familiar with their works by this point. I honestly believe that if they had started from scratch, this would have been a different sort of adventure. 

Not that I am complaining. I rather enjoy this adventure, significant warts and all. It is more Gothic than Ravenloft I6 was, complete with an epic battle on lightning-streaked moors. 

This adventure introduces many elements that will become central to the Ravenloft campaign setting. The Weathermays, the lich Azalin, the d’Honaires, the Timothys, will all appear again in the Realms of Terror boxed set. 

One thing that won't make that much of a splash though is the big surprise of this adventure; the Alchemist Strahd. Is he the distilled goodness of the Vampire Strahd? Is the Vampire the distilled evil of the Alchemist? Or is there something else?  Like the first adventure, this one has a random plot device. Instead of fortune-telling cards, we get a mesmerist's session. The nature of the two Strahds can be found here.

Or not.

Again, the Alchemist doesn't make a significant impact in the later AD&D 2nd Edition. The Ravenloft campaign setting is all but forgotten in future treatments.  This is not a bad thing, really; the whole Alchemist deal felt like a bit of a retcon in some respects.  Though I can imagine running this adventure now for, say, the 5e players who know who Strahd is would be a lot of fun.

At 48 pages, with more isometric maps, it is larger than the original Ravenloft adventure. There is also a lot more going on. Though fans of "hack n slash" style D&D are going to be disappointed. Oh there are monsters here and they are deadly as hell, but that is not what the adventure is about. Those are just obstacles to the real adventure.

There is a small section of this adventure titled "The Dreams of Barovia" which is rather fun. The idea is that you play I6: Ravenloft and I10: Ravenloft II concurrently. The character move back and forth between one reality to the other. Playing the same characters but at different times and places. For example, the characters fall asleep in Barovia (I6) and wake up in Mordentshire (I10) wearing different clothing. 

I ran it this way back in college. My old High School DM, Bob Grenda and I ran it together for his normal group. We took turns DMing, with me taking I10 while he ran I6. We did it in a marathon session from a Thursday night to Sunday. It was fun but I forgot to tell my roommates and girlfriend at the time I was doing this and they had no idea where I was. This was the early 90s, so before everyone had cell phones. I found my notes, it was 10/26/1991. 

It worked well, but it was really deadly. HP loss and wounds carried over from reality to reality, which really upped the fear.  I'd love to try it again sometime, but I'd make some tweaks.

If you didn't like Ravenloft I then this one will feel like more of the same. But I enjoyed it and there is still a lot of untapped potential in this adventure for me. 

I6 Ravenloft

Title: I6 Ravenloft

Price: $6.99 (PDF), $9.99 (Softcover)

Publisher/Year: TSR / Wizards of the Coast, 1983 / 2013

Author(s): Tracy and Laura Hickman

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Character levels: 5-7

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Rating: 3.5/5

Ravenloft was originally an adventure for First Edition AD&D, released in 1983, and written by Tracy and Laura Hickman's husband-and-wife team. It was part of the "I" or intermediate series of adventures. Most of these were not linked and only shared that they were higher levels than beginning adventures. Ravenloft, given the code I6, was for character levels 5 to 7. 

Ravenloft is not your typical dungeon crawl, and it is very atypical of the time's adventures. There is less of the typical Howard, Moorcock, and Tolkien here, and it is pure Bram Stoker. 

Ravenloft is Gothic Horror—or, more to the point, it is the Hammer Horror flavor of Gothic Horror laid over the top of Dungeons & Dragons. Harker was a milder-mannered English solicitor. The heroes here have fought dragons, goblins, and other real monsters. How can the Lord of Castle Ravenloft measure up to that?

Quite well, really.

I  picked up this adventure when it was first released and essentially threw it at my DM and told him he had to run me through it. It was everything I had hoped it would have been. Remember, my Appendix N is filled with Hammer Horror, Dracula, and Universal monsters. This was perfect for me. 

Ravenloft was a huge change from many of the adventures TSR had published to that date. For starters, the adventure featured an antagonist, Count Strahd von Zarovich, who was no mere monster. Yes, he was an AD&D Vampire, but he was meant to be run as an intelligent Non-player Character.  Before this, the vampires have been the unnamed Vampire Queen of the Palace of the Vampire Queen, Drelnza, the vampire daughter of Iggwilv in The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and Belgos, the Drow Vampire in Vault of the Drow. By 1983, the amount written on all three of these vampires would not even be as long as this post will be. Strahd was different.

Strahd had a backstory, motivation, and intelligence, and he was ruthless. The goal was to destroy him, and that was not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination.

The adventure also introduced some new elements. The dungeon crawl was gone, replaced by a huge gothic castle and a nearby village. The adventure could be replayed and unique given the "Fortunes of Ravenloft" mechanic, which allows key items, people, and motives to change based on a fortune card reading.

Finally, there were the isomorphic, 3D-looking maps from Dave Sutherland, which helped give perspective to many levels of Castle Ravenloft. 

The adventure was an immediate and resounding hit. This adventure, along with the Dragonlance Adventures, also by Tracy Hickman (and Margaret Weis), led to something many old-school gamers call "The Hickman Revolution." They claim it marks the time between the Golden Age and Silver Age of AD&D, with the Silver Age coming after 1983. While yes there was change, a lot of it was for the better.

For me, it was a dream come true. Vampires had always been my favorite creatures to fight in D&D, and I was an avid Dracula fan. I bought this adventure and then threw it at my DM, saying, "Run this!" 

I grew up on a steady stream of Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, and Dark Shadows. That's my Appendix N. So, an adventure set in pretty much the Hammer Hamlet where I get strange locals and have to fight a vampire? Yeah, that is what D&D was to me. You can almost hear Toccata and Fugue in D minor while running it. 

I find that the people who don't like this adventure don't see what makes it great. This is not Lord of the Rings, Conan, or some other Appendix N pulp fantasy. This is Hammer Horror. Strahd has to be played with a combination of charisma, scene-chewing villainy, and absolute brutality. In other words, it is exactly like Christopher Lee playing Dracula.  Even the nearby village is filled with terrified but pitchforks in the ready villagers. 

That is not to say the adventure doesn't have its problems. At times, the Gothic elements are shoved into the Swords & Sorcery fantasy of D&D. And...let's be honest, some of the puns on the headstones in the lowest level are more than cringe-worthy.  If played properly, a vampire like Strahd could wipe out a party, and that is not counting all the other monsters (gargoyles, really strong zombies, werewolves) in the castle. Though Strahd suffers from the same issues that Christopher Lee's Dracula did, completely obsessive that blind him to some obvious blunders. But that is the nature of vampires, really. 

Daggerheart Corebook Set

Title: Daggerheart Corebook Set

Price: $29.99 (PDF), $59.99 (Hardcover Set)

Publisher/Year: Darrington Press, 2025

ISBN: 9798991384100

LEAD GAME DESIGNER: Spenser Starke

ADDITIONAL GAME DESIGNERS: Carlos Cisco, Rowan Hall, John Harper,

Matthew Mercer, Alex Uboldi, Mike Underwood

ADDITIONAL WRITING: Layla Adelman, Meguey Baker, Banana Chan, Chris

Davidson, Rue Dickey, Felix Isaacs, Erin Roberts, Deven Rue, Rogan Shannon,

Mark Thompson, Eugenio Vargas, Chris Willett

System: Daggerheart

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3.5/5

Daggerheart is a standout tabletop roleplaying game that puts narrative, emotion, and collaboration front and center. Developed by Darrington Press, it offers a fresh fantasy experience powered by a unique system designed to create cinematic moments, meaningful choices, and shared storytelling. Everything about the game—from its mechanics to its physical components—supports dramatic, character-driven play.

At the heart of Daggerheart is its dual-dice resolution system, which uses a Hope die and a Fear die. Instead of simple pass-or-fail results, every roll creates narrative momentum. Rolling higher on Hope grants players advantages, heroic twists, or extra narrative control, while Fear introduces complications, consequences, or opportunities for the Game Master to escalate tension. This system ensures that even setbacks push the story forward in interesting ways rather than bringing play to a halt.

The boxed set includes a richly illustrated core rulebook that explains the system, setting, and play philosophy in a clear and welcoming manner. Character creation is guided and flexible, allowing players to define not just abilities but also relationships, motivations, and emotional stakes. Characters are built using modular domains and abilities, giving players room to customize without overwhelming complexity.

A major highlight of the system is its use of cards and tokens. Ability cards, domain cards, and condition trackers help keep mechanics visible and easy to manage at the table. Physical tokens represent Hope, Fear, Stress, and other narrative resources, reinforcing the game’s emotional economy and making abstract concepts feel tangible and intuitive.

The set also includes custom dice, quick-reference materials, and Game Master tools focused on scene framing, pacing, and collaborative worldbuilding. Rather than positioning the GM as an adversary, the system encourages them to act as a facilitator of drama, responding dynamically to player choices and the flow of Hope and Fear.

Overall, Daggerheart is an innovative, story-forward RPG system that excels at creating memorable moments and emotionally resonant adventures. With its elegant mechanics, strong thematic focus, and high-quality components, it’s an excellent choice for groups seeking a more narrative-driven alternative to traditional fantasy roleplaying games.

YouTube Recommendation - Pointy Hat

I don't have traditional television at home. The only reason we pay Xfinity is for internet access. Fortunately, my TV is smart and allows me to access YouTube, and this is how I am able to find and watch the great "DungeonTuber" videos of so many creators such as Pointy Hat.

Pointy Hat, and his "human familiar", are a great resource of TTRPG ideas and information. I especially enjoy his video series entitled "D&D with a Twist". These videos are always very informative, imaginative and give me ideas.

I highly recommend giving Point Hat's videos a watch. As always, like and subscribe to their channel as well. You'll be glad you did.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

Title: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

Price: $19.99 (PDF), $32.99 (Standard Hardcover)

Publisher/Year: Wizards of the Coast, 2006

Author(s): Bruce R. Cordell, James Wyatt

System: Dungeons & Dragons 3.5

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3.5/5

Near the end of the life cycle of D&D 3.5 people were beginning to suspect that a new edition was on the way. They were not wrong, but before that happened we saw some changes in the adventure format from Wizards of the Coast. Certainly a trend to more tactical maps. These last few adventures were all mostly re-visions of some of the classic adventures of old. Castle Greyhawk, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, Undermountain, and of course, Castle Ravenloft.

It is not a new edition of D&D unless we have new take on the classic Ravenloft. This adventure sees Ravenloft back in it's original home; not just in terms of the adventure published by Wizards of the Coast after Sword & Sorcery Studios license, but Castle Ravenloft, divorced from the Demi-Plane of Dread. This is the 3.5 revision of the original adventure.

Like the original I6 Ravenloft adventure, this adventure plunges players into the cursed land of Barovia, a realm dominated by a bleak atmosphere and ruled by the vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich. Adventurers take on the daunting mission of navigating Castle Ravenloft, confronting Strahd, and ending his sinister reign over Barovia once and for all.

The revamped (heh) Expedition to Castle Ravenloft expands on the original with enhanced encounters, new rules, and a more comprehensive campaign that immerses players in Strahd’s haunting domain. The new encounter system of 3.5 takes up the later half of the book, but makes it easy for DMs to plan out how they want to do their encounters. Given we are on the eve of 4e, this means which minis to grab and which maps to use.

The adventure is expanded into a mini-campaign of sorts. And really, that has always been one of the strengths of this adventure; its ability to do more. The adventure can cover 20 sessions, raising characters from 6th level to 10th or broken up into smaller sessions. It can even be run exactly like the original adventure as a straight forward 1 or 2 sessions of "Find the vampire and kill it."

While that is a great bit of flexibility for the adventure, I already did that back in the 1980s. It would be a shame not to use all the new great material here that Cordell and Wyatt (two excellent designers) have done here. There are new antagonists and new locations to explore. 

Barovia itself is a character in this module: a mist-laden, gloomy land filled with mystery, danger, and spectral beauty. Players are encouraged to explore its towns, ruined abbeys, and dense forests, meeting unique NPCs who add depth and lore to the journey. The encounters are varied and challenging, balancing tense dungeon crawls with narrative-driven encounters that test both the characters' skills and the players' wits. And then finally getting to Castle Ravenloft itself. A locale that has lost none of its "charm" over the years. 

We still have the Fortunes of Ravenloft here, among other classic notes expanded for this new adventure. And like the original, Count Strahd von Zarovich is front and center. Not just in the adventure but in the book as well. 

I have played and run the original Ravenloft many, many times. I honestly think this version is rather fun. It stays true to the original while updating the adventure is good AND providing more adventure as well. It is rare when a "remake" can improve, but this one does.

Even if I were to run Ravenloft again under the 1st or 2nd Ed of AD&D, I would still import ideas from this version to those, especially all the locales around the castle and in Barovia. The original adventure kinda just drops you in (not a big deal, works fine) but this one gives you more land to explore, more people to interact with. 

Strahd is still awful, tragic, powerful and one of the more interesting villains in D&D. Castle Ravenloft is still wonderful to explore filled with dangers both obvious and hidden. 

The art is amazing, and really the views of Castle Ravenloft alone in both art and maps makes this must have for any fan of the adventure. 

The adventure/book is divided into five major sections, four chapters and an Appendix.

• Chapter 1 covers Adventures in Ravenloft. An overview of what one should expect to see (or do since this is a Dungeon Masters' book) in the area. While the demi-plane of Ravenloft is not used here, there are area affects due to Strahd and his evil.  This also features our first encounter areas.
• Chapter 2 the Village of Barovia covers D&D's own "Hammer Hamlet." 
• Chapter 3 details the Lands of Barovia. We have more encounter areas here and our "Fortunes of Ravenloft" options.
• Chapter 4 is Castle Ravenloft itself.
• The Appendix details some new feats, a new spell, and various magical items.

Of all the Print on Demand products I have bought, this one might be one of the very best. It is the "Hardcover, Standard Color Book" option and it compares very well to the off-set printing ones of the same era. 

I am pretty sure the idea to divorce Ravenloft: The Adventure from Ravenloft: The Demi Plane was a.) to get a new generation into the adventure in it's "original" form, and b.) maybe part of their larger plans for it moving away from 3.x to 4e. But I have nothing to back that up.

This is a great adventure by all accounts for D&D 3.x. It has everything the original AD&D adventure had and more.Maybe it is my "nostalgia goggles" (as my son would say) but I still prefer I6 Ravenloft.

Expedition to the Demonweb Pits

Title: Expedition to the Demonweb Pits

Price: $14.99 (PDF), $21.99 (Standard Hardcover)

Publisher/Year: Wizards of the Coast, 2007

Author(s): Wolfgang Baur, Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel

System: Dungeons & Dragons 3.5

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3/5

At the very end of Dungeons & Dragons edition 3.5, Wizards of the Coast surprised the game’s fans with a series of large adventures that returned to old, favorite locations from the game’s history, though always with a twist. All four of these adventures, which I’ll be calling the “Expeditions” series for lack of any more official nomenclature, were written by different authors, but shared a common format (unfortunately) and length. I don’t think any of them ended up as huge sellers, but they’re fondly remembered by fans, especially since they’re one of the last real bursts of life in the game before fourth edition slammed the door shut on so much of its past. Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, by Wolfgang Baur and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, was the second release in this series, following Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and succeeded by Expedition to Undermountain and Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. That last book in particular had a large effect on the game’s ongoing metastory (it revealed Tasha’s full identity as Iggwilv), but even beyond that this was a memorable series of adventures due to both its quality and its surprising nature, given that it came from a company who’d largely abandoned the entire adventure module genre several years earlier.

However, one thing people usually tend to forget when addressing this series is that it used roughly the same terrible format that Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave and all other Wizards modules did during this time period, and that this fights continually against the content of these large, sprawling works. The “encounter” format is not exactly the same as we saw before (read my previous article for more information on this), as now some encounters receive only a single page rather than a pair of them, but the problems of this counterintuitive methodology come far more to a forefront in this adventure than any of the others, so it’s relevant to mention this up front. Expedition to the Demonweb Pits would be a fine adventure to convert to fifth edition and use today… with the caveat that the book’s format makes this a momentously difficult thing to do, for reasons that have little to do with the actual story at hand or any of its possible encounters. 

I’m tempted to keep ranting about how much I hate the format—and for that matter, I’ll be doing much more of this below—but I think it’s best to return to it once we have some understanding of the adventure’s content and how much these halves of the work do each other such a disservice. In Demonweb Pits, drow activities have been heating up, and not just on the Prime. Investigating its cause leads players to Sigil, where they meet up with Rule-of-Three from Planescape, and from his prodding end up traveling the planes for a weapon to fight against Lolth. Ultimately, this means that they must head to the Demonweb, which is her layer(s?—it now seems more like the Demonweb Pits are a part of the same plane, but not 100% so?) of the Abyss, multiple times in order to wreck a scheme that involves most of the notable demon lords allying in a fight against the upper planes. 

How players go about much of this adventure is rather open-ended. Yes, they’ll certainly be headed into the Abyss, at least assuming they don’t abandon the whole plot altogether, but aside from this very little is set in stone. Most likely, players leave the Prime for Sigil, head from Sigil to Yggdrasil, make their way to the Demonweb, then to Graz’zt’s capital city Zelatar, and then finally return to the Demonweb in order to disrupt a council of demon lords… or at least their aspects. That being said, there are also probably some trips to the Beastlands and even another layer of the Abyss, and it’s quite easy for these peripheral areas or Sigil and its factions to be expanded into larger, more important parts of the plot. Demonweb does include many, many possible “encounters,” i.e. fights, and even a true dungeon with its visits to the Demonweb itself, but just as much time should be spent roleplaying and traveling. Dozens and dozens of battles are possible, but the vast majority of these are optional, and many opportunities for stealth or cleverness are considered. This is not a dungeon crawl, it’s a planar romp that happens to feature a strange dungeon for players to tackle. 

However, despite Baur and Kestrel’s obvious wish to hearken back to Planescape and move game’s the focus away from battles, that doesn’t mean Wizards was thrilled about this plan. Every single encounter has a nebulously useful map included on its page or pages at the end of each chapter, though as was the style at the time these are labeled and so not something to be used with players (and even if they weren’t, they’re included mid-page with important information). So yes, there are many maps, more than needed or would’ve ever been included earlier in the game’s history, but none of them can be actually used without a ton of extra effort, thereby completely counteracting the ease-of-play goal of this format. Likewise, important information about each “encounter” is included both when it’s introduced within the chapter proper and also during these end sections, meaning that to understand any of these in full you’re going to have to be reading through both and jumping around in frustration.

Beyond this obvious problem, the format adds an additional inconvenience in that it’s organized by location… but many locations will be returned to repeatedly. This makes for a confusing read in which important information for the second session is included adjacent to information needed for the twentieth session. Combining this with the encounter-at-the-end-of-the-chapter format and a lengthy appendix means that any DM is going to be flipping furiously through the pages every single session in order to find what they’re looking for. This is a book that is going to need many, many tabs or bookmarks to make use of, and even so I guarantee there will be situations where you can’t find what you need. If my complaints about the format sound petty, it’s mostly because this is an adventure that I like enough to want to run for the content… but I dislike the format so much that I can’t imagine ever actually doing so when so many accessible and easy-to-use adventures are easily available. 

That the actual content here is so enjoyable is really the tragedy of this release, and I realize I keep getting side-tracked rather than going into it with any depth. Baur and Kestrel’s version of the planes is essentially the same that we saw in Planescape, which isn’t a huge surprise given that Baur had a big hand in the setting’s early releases, and even came up with the concept for Zelatar in Planes of Chaos (he’s at the top of my list for other Planescape designers I’d love to interview about their work, the others being Michele Carter who was one of the editors for this book, David “Zeb” Cook, Rob Lazzaretti, and of course Tony DiTerlizzi—admittedly, I haven’t pursued any new interviews in a while, simply because I hate bothering people who have better things to do with their time). There’s a love for the game’s history evident throughout, and while its version of Yggdrasil seemed a bit smaller compared with what we had in Dead Gods, this is my only planar quibble. The Beastlands are what you’d hope for, and layers of the Abyss are filled with references to what was established in older works like the original Queen of the Demonweb Pits module, Cook’s riff on that “The Harrowing,” and the previous adventure into Zelatar For Duty and Deity, as well as Paizo’s more recent material from the Demonomicon and Fiendish Codex I. Rule-of-Three plays a big role here, and while there isn’t as much time and energy spent in Sigil as might be hoped, that fits the adventure itself just fine and is easy enough to flesh out for any Planescape fan. In essence, this is a Planescape adventure in all but branding, and is in fact better than many of the ones actually released during the line’s heyday. These authors also understand what makes high-level adventures (well, high-level to me, mid-level to crazy people) fun and interesting, it’s just a pity that the apparatus around this is so difficult to navigate. 

In order to increase usability, every single encounter features a map… none of which explains why they’re all pre-labeled, canted, and tiny. As a result, actually using any of these in a real session seems utterly insane, despite how much good work the book’s cartographers did.

As with the other books in the Expeditions series, Demonweb Pits is a lavish hardcover release with wonderful illustrations by numerous contributors and wave after wave of lovely-though-dubiouly-useful maps. As befits such a vast adventure, its appendix also includes two new prestige classes (…yay?), magic items such as a couple new items of legacy (one of which is honestly pretty bad), and a robust listing of new (at least to third edition) monsters including dabus, cambions, several demon lord aspects, and even a new mephit. Oh yes, this reminds me that the one bit of truly non-Planescape planar material in the adventure is the inclusion of the Planes of Mirrors, though this is done quite well throughout, and as with the other “optional” planes from the Manual of the Planes feels like at this point it’s an established part of the multiverse.  

Expedition to the Demonweb Pits could have been the finest third edition adventure, period, but it comes up short due to the formatting, which sucks up the page count with wasted spaces and delivers nothing but confusion and disorganization in return. Nonetheless, it’s a glorious love letter to Planescape and a worthy one to run, so long as you’re willing to put in the effort and fight against both the edition’s ridiculousness at even these medium-high levels and the aggressively awkward structure. There’s more than a whiff of greatness here, and I’d love to play in a party traipsing through this campaign, exploring the planes on a wild chase led by a duplicitous half-fiend and unearthing a devious demonic plot that threatens the order of the entire multiverse—I just wouldn’t want to run it myself.

V20 Anarchs Unbound

Title: V20 Anarchs Unbound

Price: $14.99 (PDF), $42.99 (Premium Hardcover)

Publisher/Year: Onyx Path Publishing, 2014

Author(s): Justin Achilli, Alan Alexander, Jason Andrew, Bill Bodden, Sarah Roark, Matthew Sanderson

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3.5/5

As one might guess from the title, Anarchs Unbound is dedicated to the Anarch Movement – it’s history, philosophy, reality, and technology. It was originally released through Kickstarter, but remains available on DriveThruRPG.

The usual more detailed stuff will follow, but the short review is that Anarchs Unbound is great. I can’t say that Anarchs Unbound is the best V20 supplement, because Beckett’s Jyhad Diary exists, but that seems like a really unfair comparison, given the massive size of the love-letter to the pre-V5 metaplot that was the Diary. So I’ll just say that Anarchs Unbound is the best ‘normal’ supplement for V20.

Anarchs Unbound opens with a ~15 history of the movement (from a strident Anarch point of view, of course). Maybe a third of this is the ‘ancient history’ part of the tale (the Anarch Revolt, the Convention of Thorns, and onto the relative disappointment of Anarch activity in the New World) one third on the 20th century up until about 1990 (the not-really-anarch Soviet vampires and the rise of the Anarch Free States), and then a third beyond that. The material in the modern era primarily focuses on some terrorism and technology-related matters – the effect of the security state after 9/11, the internet, the distribution of the digital manifesto Anarchs Unbound (“WHY DO YOU OBEY?”), and the use of economic warfare by the Red Question collective to force the Camarilla to call of their hounds. It’s a good presentation, with sharp writing and enough detail to weave an interesting tale without so much that it gets bogged down.

The second chapter, “The City Upon the Hill,” talks generally about how Anarch domains are run in modern nights – their aspirations and how they often fail to live up to them (as they quote from the Devil’s Dictionary, “REBEL, n. A proponent of a new misrule who has failed to establish it.”). It’s mostly told from the point of view of what passes for an older vampire among the anarchs, speaking to her childe. She knows that her childe hates her for being the sort of controlling “I know better than you” sort of vampire the anarchs are supposed to be against. And she believes that her childe is generally right in concluding this. Although at least, she thinks, she is aware of it and isn’t as far gone as most of the ‘anarchs’ who have been around for decades. Her commentary is entertaining and biting. The difficulties of supposedly treating mortals better and giving vampires freedom while still having to maintain the Masquerade. How to keep order in a society that reflexively objects to central authority. The failings of community voting and communal responsibility. How the way Anarchs cultivate favors and political goodwill is shaped by the need to avoid the appearance of elder-style prestation games. The general tendency of it all to fall into autocracy anyway. And, in my favorite bit in the book, a rather self-aware discussion of members of the various clans are seen in the Anarch Movement, despite the Movement’s supposedly post-clan ideology. That broad survey is followed by a rundown of particular territories either in the hands of the Movement, or with a significant presence – Boston, California, Madison, Saskatchewan, Venezuela, Krakow, Scandinavia, Liverpool/Manchester, Perth, and Mombasa.

Turning back to the Red Question and Anarchs Unbound, there’s a bit of a strategy guide for how to succeed as an Anarch (or is it all just a trap to prompt elders into overreaction in order to increase support for the Movement?). Strong, violent prince? Provoke them to overreact. Weak Prince? Set the Primogen (the real power) against each other. In Sabbat territory? Good luck with that. All with tongue planted very firmly in cheek. After this POV presentation, there is the usual switch to third-person, this time for a more detailed history of vampires and technology – iterating Shrecknet, Fangster/Fangbook (encoding Thaumaturgy rituals into software to let those with Auspex see vampires-only messages on social media), and then Bloodspot, which let used unknown magic to let any vampire create websites only vampires could read (all of this presumably blown away in the post-V5 metaplot).

Finally, there’s the usual crunch in the back. New backgrounds mostly include links to Anarch social structures, although there’s also one for always having guns on hand (isn’t that what Resources and/or Streetwise are for?). Similarly, the merits and flaws focus on having a good or bad reputation in the Anarchs, although you can also pick up a Sugar Daddy in another sect. More space, however, is dedicated to Disciplines, with 11 combination Disciplines and 6 Elder Disciplines (*insert snide comment about what kind of ST lets players run around as 7th generation ‘anarchs’*). I apparently like Combination Disciplines with witty names, as some of my favorites are Internet Famous (a combo Presence/Thaumaturgy power that issues commands to everyone who follows the vampire on social media) and Suck It Up (a combo Animalism/Protean power that allows the vampire to draw a pool of blood into themself without doing something so crass as crouching down to lick it off the ground).

In addition to the really fun contents, if you’re lucky you might still find around one of the deluxe versions, with ‘stickers’ (“my sire was at Thorns and all I got was this blood bond”) and blood spatter (“Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité ou la mort“) on the back. But the part I got the biggest kick out of was the bookmark which, instead of the usual satin ribbon affair, is a rope – keeping it real, Anarchs.

But whatever the details, I just really liked reading Anarchs Unbound. It had a great mix of hope and humor and pathos. It had characters and situations that were interesting and ideas that could readily spark ideas on how to use Anarchs in a game. I highly recommend it to anyone looking into V20.

V20 Beckett's Jyhad Diary

Title: V20 Beckett's Jyhad Diary

Price: $24.99 (PDF), $62.99 (Standard Hardcover)

Publisher/Year: Onyx Path Publishing, 2018

Author(s): Alan Alexander, Matthew Dawkins, Steffie de Vaan, Joshua Doetsch, Renee Knipe, Neall Raemonn Price, Myranda Sarro, Malcolm Sheppard, Monica Valentinelli

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 3.5/5

I have long expressed my love for the backstory/metaplot side of Vampire: the Masquerade, such as how the Book of Nod and Revelations of the Dark Mother are two of my favorite Vampire: the Masquerade books and The Fragile Path and The Erciyes Fragments are two of my favorite books from the rest of the World of Darkness. So you can imagine I was more than a little excited when I got around to reading the super-fancy deluxe version of Beckett’s World Tour and Metaplot Update Jyhad Diary, which has more pages (~550) of world-building than all four of those put together.

Unsurprisingly, Beckett’s Jyhad Diary is primarily told from Beckett’s perspective, as the Gangrel hops from country to country, first chasing down the Book of the Grave-War and then generally getting sucked into trouble (and, wow, does Beckett get in a lot of trouble … seriously, if he ever invites your character along, running in the other direction is almost certainly the safe thing to do). Other vampires who appear with some frequency (either directly appearing or making notes on Beckett’s writings) include old favorites Vykos (with the appreciated “they” replacing “it” as a pronoun), Lucita, Anatole, Jan Pieterzoon, Aisling Sturbridge, and Hesha Ruhadze.

Each chapter in the diary presents a variety of in-character snippets. The most common content is transcripts of Beckett’s audio recordings of his conversations, followed by more literal diary entries, and printed out emails and chat room logs (the book makes a long-running jest out of Beckett’s lack of understanding of electronic communications). This content includes a decent amount of ‘hand-written’ script material, but not as much as there might have been, because so much of the material is transcripts or emails. Out of that, there were only a couple of places that I had difficulty figuring out the contents of the script – for almost all of it the text was still sufficiently clear, had enough contrast, etc. so that I could read without problem (alas, these eyes are not always the best, and sometimes I have trouble when there’s something like overly-flowery black script on a grey background, as some of the White Wolf books have done over the years).

This is followed by a (much) briefer out-of-character presentation that presents a bit of a god’s-eye view on the situation, along with some suggested ways that a coterie could get involved. There’s also some alternative twists on the metaplot. The former mostly have a “this is stuff that actually happens” vibe, while the latter explicitly are not things that actually happen.

I’m not even going to try to summarize all of the updates (read the book!), but the various locations/plot elements visited include:

• Carna’s Rebellion/Milwaukee;
• Chicago/Helena/Menele/Xavier;
• Washington, D.C./the departure of Vykos and return of Marcus Vitel as an independent;
• The American South/Camarilla reconquest (and maybe losing New Orleans)/Banu Haqim start to join;
• London/Mithras-Coven;
• Jordan/France/The rise of Ur-Shulgi/fragmentation of the Banu Haqim;
• California/crumbling of the Anarch Free States;
• Thin Bloods (including V20 character creation rules, the only ‘crunch’ in the Diary);
• Mexico City/civil war and the general fracturing of the Sabbat/Blood Brothers;
• Montreal;
• Haiti/Egypt/Michigan/Followers of Set/Serpents of the Light/Clan of Death (Samedi, Cappadocians);
• Libertatia (note: not a real place)/East Africa;
• South Africa/Laibon (note: no real rules for playing Laibon, as the V20 Dark Ages-based suggestions don’t line up with Kindred of the Ebony Kingdoms);
• Transylvania/Dracula/Kapula;
• Russia/Death of Baba Yaga;
• Hong Kong/The Usual Tremere/Saulot Craziness/weakening of the Tremere;
• Carthage Must Be Destroyed/Tunisia/True Brujah/Brujah/Baali;
• Macau/India/Eye of Hazimel/Actual Hazimel/wow there are still a lot of Ravnos left;
• Switzerland/Romania/Italy/Giovanni Chronicles V (just pretend IV didn’t happen)/spirits of the Conspiracy of Isaac/Endless Night;
• Romania/Salubri/Golconda/Inconnu;
• New York City/Tzimisce (the Antediluvian, not the Clan)/Well of Souls;
• Jerusalem/Malkav;
• Germany/”The False Caine”/Dylan Bruce/Red Listers;
• Cayman Islands/Constantinople/The Dream;
• Italy/Egypt/Clan of Death (Giovanni/Cappadocians/Samedi/Harbingers of Skulls/Impundulu)/some Followers of Set to join the Camarilla (and we all know how well that will go);
• A Brief History of Beckett/A really, really awkward part where Beckett analyzes vampiric stages of life in terms of Freudian psychosexual development;
• South America/Rasputin/Drowned Legacies (like the Laibon, even more vampires who may or may not be related to the thirteen clans/Caine; note that there are no rules for them);
• Libya/France/Egypt/Italy/all of the bloodlines all at once at a big party/Keminitriri/Castle d’Ombro/Red List/True Black Hand.

In addition to the individual stops, there is a running them throughout the Jyhad Diary about Gehenna being cyclical – there isn’t one Gehenna, there are many, time after time. The overall quality was top-notch, with a decent narrative and good dialogue running through most of the book, but some of my favorite stops were the intertwining content about all of the aspects of the Clan of Death, Dracula, learning more about Carna, the revisiting of Chicago (even if not a lot has changed), the first trip to Mexico City and the crumbling of the Sabbat, and anything that touched on Tremere/Saulot/the Salubri (disclaimer: I pretty much always love anything about that stuff).

As you can tell from my commentary in the list, I thought that the weakest part of the Jyhad Diary (by far) was “A Brief History of Beckett.” It’s … not good. It’s mostly gibberish, in the way that one might expect when trying to apply a nonsensical real-world psychological theory to a bunch of fictional monsters. It also doesn’t seem to really contribute to the book – there isn’t really any history of Beckett, and the smidge about his childe Marie could have appeared in the prior chapter where she appeared. The other weak chapter was the immediately-following one on Rasputin and the Drowned Legacies … possibly because Rasputin isn’t interesting and I have zero need to introduce new, mysterious ‘they’ve been there all along but you just didn’t know it’ kinds of vampire for every continent. It almost felt like the main part of the book wrapped up, and then they added a few more chapters on.

Note that, while there is a table of contents, it isn’t always terribly helpful, because titles like “The Spark of Civil War” or “Azhi Dahaka” may not be useful unless you’ve already read the book and/or have really good recall of the existing metaplot.

Overall, the Jyhad Diary serves as something of a bridge from V20 to V5. It isn’t entirely a bridge, as there’s inconsistency between the Diary and V5 (beyond the usual ‘inconsistent narrator’ question). For example, Stanford Warwick is dead in the Jyhad Diary but seems to be referenced in the V5 Anarch supplement. While the Jyhad Diary’s section on London focuses on Mithras/Coven, that notion seems to have been blown up in V5. Hardestadt is missing, but Theo Bell is still an archon. There are there are big themes of V5 that don’t show up here (like the Second Inquisition and the new version of thin-bloods). I suspect that the Jyhad Diary will feel more connected as more V5 supplements come out, especially the Onyx Path ones (for example, the section in the Diary on the various Cappadocian variants seems to feed right into the Hecate for not-even-on-Kickstarter-yet Cults of the Blood Gods).

I was really happy with the Jyhad Diary. As noted above, there’s some bridging from V20 to V5, but there’s enough of a break that it isn’t really reliable as a guide to how things are now – oddly, we’ll have to see how the forthcoming Onyx Path and Modiphius books shape up before we can look back and see how ‘accurate’ the Diary is. But mostly I just enjoyed the whirlwind tour of all the familiar people, places, and concepts, with a bit of moving the metaplot forward. And I enjoyed it whether or not there ends up being a break in “continuity” with V5. I think it will be a good read for anyone who’s a long-time Vampire fan.

Witch+Craft: A 5E Crafting Supplemental

Title: Witch+Craft: A 5E Crafting Supplemental

Price: $20.00 (PDF), $35.00 (Hardbound)

Publisher/Year: Astrolago Press, 2020

Author(s): Shannon Campbell, Damon Hines, Dillon MacPherson

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 4/5

Are you a fan of Studio Ghibli movies?  Well, I am and the authors of Witch+Craft: A 5E Crafting Supplemental are as well. And this book proudly and openly displays that love.  But I am getting a little ahead of myself. 

Witch+Craft is a full-color hardcover 214-page book.  The theme of the book is decidedly high magic, and a style of high magic infuses all aspects of the lives of the people of this particular vision of the 5e fantasy universe.  This book is exactly the opposite of "grimdark," wherein magic is everywhere and it is a tool to be used to make things better.   I state this upfront because that is the pervasive philosophy of the book.  It works, and it is a great one to have.  But it will have to fit your style of gaming and campaigns.  I knew this on the onset, and lets be honest, the cover gives this away, but if this is not your kind of game there is not a lot (there is some!) that this book can give you.  

That all being said this book is a fantastic resource for anyone that has ever said "can I use magic to make BLANK?" Where BLANK is anything and everything from clothes that clean themselves, to self-sorting spell components, to fire that heats but won't burn, to well...half a thousand things I have heard from my kids in their 5e games.

While I may have started this review with who this book is not for, who it absolutely IS for is anyone that has ever played an Artificer in 5e or an Alchemist in Pathfinder 2e.

What this book doesn't have, despite the name, is a Witch class.  Ah well. 

Introduction

We get the basics of this book. In bold letters right in the first line of the first paragraph we get : 

This book is about making things.

You have to appreciate this. Some RPG books are never quite as clear as to what they are about. This book is also about rounding out your character with Trade Classes.  Though Trade Professions would likely be a better term. You can take these along with your Fighter, Wizard, or whatever levels. I will get into more details in a bit.

Chapter 1: Domestic Magic

Part 1 of this chapter covers the basics of crafting. The six-step process is listed and then detailed. 

1. Blueprint. You propose a project.
2. Challenges. The GM imposes a Difficulty Level based on the specifications of the project. They will also list the base materials required to make the crafting attempt at all. (7 levels total)
3. Preparation. You may prepare for the project in order to improve your chances of success.
4. Craft Action. You begin the project, rolling to qualify your success.
5. Fine-tuning. After the rolls are in, you may choose to expend bonuses to alleviate any potential flaws.
6. Appraising. When all is said and done, the item is created, and its features and flaws known.

The rules here a pretty simple and even elegant in their own ways.  It does add to the 5e system as a new sub-system.  So while old schoolers will not even blink an eye it does feel "added on."  Now this is not a bad thing.  It feels like the best system for detailed craftwork, as opposed to say "just roll a d20 and beat this DC."

Part 2 deals with Trade Class basics.  This is just a tracking system on how you get better with crafting.  Class is kind of a misnomer here since it is not a D&D Class.  Trade Profession might have been a better choice.  These professions/classes can progress through Tiers (not levels) and have different kinds of media they work in; crystals, drafting, living arts, metals, textiles, and wood.

Part 3 covers Techniques. Or how you can do things.  This also covers tools.  They are presented like feats but are attached to the Tiers. For example "Green Thumb" does more or less what you think it does.  The prereq is "Living Arts or Wood."  While presented like a feat, it does not have any "combat" advantages.  Certainly lots of role-playing advantages.

Part 4 is Picking Your Trade Class.  Here are the actual classes/professions. They are based around the media above.  So someone that works with crystals could be Glass Blower or a Mason or a Jeweler. The builds cover what other materials you can work with, what tools you have, and starting techniques.  Each media get three example builds.

Chapter 2: Cape Verdigris

Cape Verdigris is a setting where all of this crafting and domestic magic can be seen in use. It lists places of interest, guilds, shops, and many major NPCs. It is designed to be added to pretty much any campaign world. 

Chapter 3: A House of Plenty

This is a 40-page complete adventure of a different sort.  The goal here is to restore an old manor house to it's former glory using the crafting skills they have learned in this book.  So in TV shows, you are trading Sci-Fi or Shudder for HGTV. There is something interesting here and I really admire the authors' choices here.  

Chapter 4: Spells

This chapter covers 12 new spells to use in conjunction with the rules.  

Chapter 5: Familiars

Also what it says on the cover, this introduces 10 new familiars. Many are fey, others are animals. Greater familiars are also presented here. If you wanted a soot familiar like the ones in "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Spirited Away" then this chapter has you covered.

Chapter 6: Items

Not just magic items but a whole bunch of mundane and domestic magic items as well.  The blanket of napping is an easy favorite. 

Appendices

Here we get a collection of various stats. 

• Appendix I. The NPCs from Chapters 2 and 3 get their writeups here. Why not with the chapters? Easy, in the chapters, you are supposed to be focused on who these people are how you interact with them, NOT what their combat stats are. 
• Appendix II covers unusual trades like healers and wandmakers.
• Appendix III has various boons and flaws of the items crafted. These can be minor, major or magical/dangerous for boons and flaws respectively. 
• Appendix IV is a list of crafting obstacles.
• Appendix V cover crafted treasures
• Appendix VI is Awakened Objects. So lots of monster stats here.
• Appendix VII covers the stats of various objects; HP and AC.

There is a very attractive character sheet in back. The next few pages cover all the designers and artists that helped make this book possible.  There is also a list of Kickstarter contributors. Sadly there are a few typos here with some names cut off, some listed more than once.  Mine isn't even listed at all. 

There is also an index and the OGL statement.

The book really fantastic and joy to look at.  The art is great, the layout is wonderful and very easy on the eyes.

The audience for this book is a little slim.  There is nothing in this book really that would help in combat, defeating the next big bad (unless he challenges you to a bake-off) or any of the things that people typically associate with D&D.  This is much more of a narrative presentation with a lot of role-playing potential.  

One of it's strengths though design-wise is that since the crafting system is not inherently tied to D&D5 is can be lifted out and added to other games with only minor tweaking.  For example, Chapters 1 to 3 could be lifted out and added to something like Blue Rose AGE edition with a little work.  

I would like to recommend this to Old-School gamers. I could something like this working well with a game like Old-school Essentials or The Hero's Journey. But even those games tend to be combat-heavy at times and really don't have much in the way of the need for various crafting. Not to say that some groups or players wouldn't, it's just not universal.

This book is best for the younger D&D 5 player that got into D&D after a steady diet of Minecraft and the ones that loved crafting items in MMORPGs. It is also great for any DM that wants a better handle on making items of any sort.

Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow

Title: Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow 

Price: $5.31 (PDF), $6.00 (Staplebound)

Publisher/Year: Critical Kit Ltd, 2024

Author(s): Tim Roberts

DriveThruRPG Link

Rating: 4/5

Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG is a journaling game which enables the player to take to the skies as a corvidae—crow, magpie, jackdaw, or rook—over multiple landscapes and differing genres, achieving objectives, exploring, and growing as they learn and grow old. Published by Critical Kit, a publisher better known for its scenarios for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The roleplaying game combines the simple mechanics and use of a deck of playing cards typical of a journaling game with five genres—‘Urban Crow’, ‘Cyber-Crow’, ‘Gothic Crow’, ‘Fantasy Crow’, ‘Clockwork Crow’, and ‘Ravens of the Tower’. Each of these presents a different place and time for the bird to fly over, land on, encounter the denizens, and more. Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow is a supplement that takes the game in an entirely different direction, to the edge of Lovecraft Country. As in Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG, the player’s crow will take to the air, here encountering the weird and the eldritch, including cults of Pelicans, tentacled terrors terrorizing boats traveling up and down the river, forests where the trees are dying from a luminously purple rot, as well as notables from Lovecraft Country, including Doctor Henry Armitage and Brown Jenkin.

Mechanically, Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG, and thus Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow is simple. It uses a standard deck of playing cards and when a player wants his bird to undertake an action, he draws a card from the deck. This sets the difficulty number of the task. To see whether the bird succeeds, he draws another card and adds the value of a skill to the number of the card if appropriate. If it is equal or greater than the difficulty number, the bird succeeds. If an action is made with Authority, whether due to circumstances or a skill, the player draws two cards and uses the highest one, whereas if made at a Penalty, two cards are drawn and the lowest value one used. When drawn, a Joker can be used or saved for later. If the latter, it can be used to automatically succeed at a combat or skill check, to heal injuries, or to discard a card and draw again. Combat is a matter of drawing a card for each opponent, adding a skill if appropriate, and comparing the totals of the cards and the skills. The highest total wins each round and inflicts an injury. Eventually, when the deck is exhausted, the discard pile is reshuffled and becomes the new deck.

The play and thus the journaling of Be Like a Crow is driven by objectives as achieving these will enable a bird to advance through his lifecycle. An objective for the ‘Crowthulhu’ setting, might be for example, “A cult of [characters] has stolen [object] from the museum. They are performing a dark ritual with it near [location]. Attempt to stop them.” The player will also need to draw cards to identify the character, the object, and the location, and then as his bird flies from hex to hex across the map, draw cards for events in flight, and then for events when he lands. The player is free to, and advised to, ignore prompts if they do not fit the story, and this may be necessary if a prompt is drawn again, but ideally, the player should be using the prompts as drawn to tell a story and build the life of his crow.

Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow requires the core rules of Be Like a Crow, as well as a standard deck of playing cards. As well as providing the rules, it provides the prompts for events in flight and on land that are standard to each of the roleplaying game’s settings, but what Crowthulhu provides is its own set of tables its objectives, objects, characters, and locations. Two sets of objectives are provided, one for the red suits and one for the black suits, the same again for characters or NPCs, and again for objects and locations for Crowthulhu. Thus locations can be the dreamer’s dimension or the bedsit of an ageing musician, an object could be a scroll of Egyptian hieroglyphics which can be traded with an academic for another object or a miniature flail made tentacles that can be used in an attack, a character a crazed sea captain who talks in riddles or Herbert West, a shamed medical student researching reanimation, and an objective that cats are disappearing from the local area and the crow must find them and prevent further disappearances or a professor at the university has found a dangerous tome and plans to harness its powers, and the crow must go there and destroy it before he can!

Most, if not all of the entries have a Lovecraftian theme, whether that is investigating why a geologist has been acting strangely after he visited a recent meteor crash or encountering Brown Jenkin who will befriend the crow, but his manner is antagonistic and he probably wants you to fail. Many of the encounters involve FEAR, whether that is with a Deep One or a swan high-priest of Crowthulhu. (Crowthulhu itself is not defined in the supplement, being left up to the player’s imagination to describe.) Fear is the new mechanic introduced in Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow. As with other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror, this measures a character’s—or crow’s—reaction to the cosmic horror of the Mythos and ability to withstand its debilitating effects. It comes into play when the Fear prompt is drawn and is tested much like a standard skill or ability test in the game. However, failure means that the crow is fearful and his player must add a tick to his Fear section on the character sheet. Once a crow has any ticks marked off under his Fear, the number acts as a penalty to all of his actions including other Fear checks, representing the traditional downward spiral of the crow’s sanity typical of the genre, though kept simple for the journaling format and style of play. It is possible for a crow to become less afraid. Either by expending a Joker card, which removes all Fear ticks, or potentially just a single one when exploring a new location.

In terms of locations, Crowthulhu: A Cosmic Horror Setting For Be Like A Crow includes its own setting, the Massachusetts town of Rooksbridge. This is the town in the nineteen twenties, supposedly built on a site where witches were executed in the seventeenth century, but is now best known for its relatively isolated location, along with its asylum and its university, which specializes in American history, and of course, has a library which specializes in the occult. From Blasted Heath and Crowdaw River to Independence Hill and Wytch House, has a decently hinted New England, post-colonial feel to it.