Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: The Warm Caves of the Ts'ai Dragons

I can't quite believe it, but here we are at the last Adventure Site Contest 2 review. This has been an interesting ride, and I plan to post some follow-up thoughts on the experience after taking a step back and considering what I've learned. It's been eye-opening, frankly, and has made me reconsider how I go about my own dungeon designs. I'll expound further, but congratulations to everyone who submitted something this year. It was a distinct honor to be chosen as a worthy judge, so I hope I've lived up to expectations.

On with the review!

The Warm Caves of the Ts'ai Dragons

Author: Sneedler Chuckworth
System: OD&D
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 5-7

There is no introductory text. The writeup simply plops the reader into a list of adventure hooks. In the first one, an evil wizard offers to train the party's magic-users for free if they retrieve an important document. The second hook is a treasure map to the location of powerful magic arrows. The third and last hook is a report about a dragon running amok in the hinterlands.

So, the first hook sets the tone for the text. The "dread wizard Zothblimzo" desires an arcane treatise written by his hated rival Forxximon, another magic-user. The names are goofy and tricky to pronounce, but I don't mind that so much. It does suggest that Sneedler Chuckworth's adventure isn't taking itself seriously, which can work if handled properly. The unseriousness is reinforced with the subject of the desired treatise regarding "the mating habits of Fire Elementals." Hm. 

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: The Two Spires

The Two Spires

Author: Louis-Joseph Benoit
System: OD&D “3LBB”
Party Size: 3-6 (+ hirelings)
Level Range: 3-4 (total 20 levels)

Situated in a desert and flanked by a cliff, this outpost is visible from afar (and vice-versa). Two 100’ spires dart towards the sky, like shiny needles. They seem linked at their third by a hanging rope bridge. To the East, two domed buildings, a hut and an encampment. A couple hundred people must live there. To the West, a pasture with bushes and eight-legged beasts, studded with white dots in the sand. This outpost was built on the site of a battle won with the Hammer of Glory and is a safe place… for the daring. It is occupied by pariahs of the Copper Men and (recently) by orc mercenaries.

This description of the general area serves as the introduction to the adventure site. Just before this section is a quick reference key for several acronyms the author uses repeatedly throughout the text to indicate certain mechanics for encounters and reactions.

So, we have a desert region with some sort of habitation and a pair of tall towers situated against a cliff. The text then describes the main two factions at play here. The Copper Men are telepathic desert-dwellers who live here in apostasy, raising "eight-legged reptilian horses" and engaging in trade with... (?) Maybe the other faction? That would be the "Praise-Song's (sic) Orcs," a band of neutral orcish mercenaries looking to earn enough money to build a temple. 

 Okay. This is all weird, but good-weird. Gamma World-weird. Keep going...

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: The Calid Cryo-Caves

Continuing with my series of reviews of submissions for the Adventure Site 2 Contest. This one is by a prolific adventure designer with a unique style and voice who offers his material for free, therefore I'm approaching this review with a great deal of respect baked in already.

The adventure's written for the Seven Voyages of Zylarthen (7VoZ) ruleset, which I understand to be a retroclone of OD&D with a sort-of implied Mediterranean/Levantine sword-and-sandals flavor. I have no experience with the system (or OD&D for that matter), other than having read some of Jeff's other adventures, so I plead ignorance if my review gets a rules detail wrong.

The Calid Cryo-Caves

Author: Jeff Simpson
System: Seven Voyages of Zylarthen
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 3–5

A set of twisting tunnels set in the liminal space between glacial frost and subterranean heat hide the treasures of long-dead travellers but also fearsome creatures! Can you survive the sweltering heat, the oppressive cold, and the cramped passages of the Calid Cryo-Caves?

Why is the party even trying to address that question? That's up to you, Mr. DM. They're already here, standing outside a darkened geothermal cave. They enter, stirring up (harmless) bats. The air turns suddenly cold. The striated cave walls brim with fossilized plants and shells. A cryptic message is drawn in the dust. Three cramped passages exit.

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: The Cleft in the Crag

Continuing with my series of reviews for Coldlight Press' Adventure Site Contest. This adventure is written for OD&D, which I confess I don't have much experience with (and none at all in terms of actually running or playing it). I started playing D&D back in 1981 with Holmes Basic, which I understand to be mostly an edit/rewrite of OD&D. I know there are some important assumptions that are different from Basic and AD&D, but that all three systems are comparable from a conceptual point of view.

I did my best to check references against online sources, but if I make any system errors in this review, I plead incompetence and will note them accordingly if someone corrects me.

The Cleft in the Crag

Author: J. Allen/Graveslugg
System: OD&D (3 LBBs plus GH plus custom)
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 4-6

The Temple in the Crag was made long ago by paragons of LAW to seal away an artifact of CHAOS from the world. The Temple and Tomb-Halls are constructed in such a way as to make it nigh impossible for the CHAOS aligned to gain entry. 

The overview explains where the various rules references throughout the manuscript may be found in the OD&D books (very helpful and appreciated!), and gives some suggestions on placing the dungeon and reading the map and key. The designer's notes also describe the tomb and the artifact contained within it as "...purposefully difficult to interact with, likely necessitating multiple trips and employing Sages." This in reference to the builders of the site, who created it with one purpose: Keep everyone out.

The rumors/hooks section contains just two pieces of info: The temple of LAW is a vault for a CHAOS artifact, and lizardmen are kidnapping villagers back to the cleft but no one has the courage to do anything about it. Enter the party.