One Page Dungeon: Swamp Cabin of the Child-Eater

Made the One Page Dungeon contest by the skin of my teeth! I know what you're thinking-"Froth, how much can I pay you to do the cartography for my next project?" Sorry ya'll, I'm all booked up. Haha but seriously, I don't have any pretenses of winning (I mean, have you seen some of the amazing submissions this year?). Still, I wanted to participate just bc its awesome. This should be a fun little grimy adventure for 4th to 5th level PCs of classic editions and OSR games.

Download the PDF HERE!

Princes of the Apocalypse: A Review

Ever since Rich Baker announced the formation of Sasquatch Game Studio, I have been keeping an eye on them, waiting to see what kind of stuff they will bring to the table. I am a big fan of Mr. Baker's work: Birthright has developed a hardcore cult following over the years, and much of his design for 4th edition is among the edition's best (such as themes). His experience with the game straddles the line from classic editions to the more modern iterations, and after his wonderful design work for the Starter Set adventure, Lost Mines of Phandelver, my expectations were very high for the new D&D campaign, Princes of the Apocalypse. It lived up to them in every way.

Unfortunately, the release of the first campaign book, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, was marred by numerous errors in the text, as well as some wonky formatting that made it challenging for new and experienced DMs to run. I think it got a bad rap, as it is still a very good adventure. I also sympathize with anyone trying to design a campaign of that scope while the rules are still being written. The editing was, I'm sure, a nightmarish process. But, at the end of the day, you are judged on your final product, and while Rise of Tiamat was a vast improvement in every way, its doubtful the Tyranny of Dragons storyline will ever be considered a classic.

 Princes, on the other hand, is a mind blower. I love the layout of this book. Part campaign setting, part player resource, part bad-ass adventure. The cartography is excellent throughout, there are dozens and dozens of new monsters, and there are just a lot of nice touches that really make it something special. For example, chapter 6 is devoted wholly to side treks; a couple to bring your PCs up to 3rd level, but many more that you can use to flesh out the geographical area and give your game that feel of a lot of things going on, not just a linear adventure. I LOVE that it is its own chapter, and I would steal this idea in a minute if I was ever to design something this enormous. There is also some good advice on running the game in different D&D worlds, including Athas, Krynn, and Oerth. The new take on the genasi race is welcome, and many of the new spells are flavorful must-haves.


If forced to criticize anything about the book it would be that the full player's supplement released for the adventure is not reprinted in full. I am not sure the reasoning behind that, but it would have been nice to have had all of the new options in one book. Anyhoo, not that big a deal. I would also say that converting this adventure to a classic edition would be a supreme pain in the rear, as there are so many new monsters and NPCs with idiosyncratic details that it would take forever. Some 5e adventure conversion is as simple as switching out skeletons. Not so here. This is a mammoth, complex adventure, full of new material.

Baker and company have set the bar very high here for whomever WOTC utilizes for their next storyline. This is an epic, well-written adventure with a lot of seriously challenging encounters. I'm quite happy with this purchase and I'll continue keeping an eye on Sasquatch, as these guys really know what they are doing.

Santicore, One Page Dungeons, and General OSR Awesomeness

So I am writing this post knowing that if I just find one reader that has not heard of this stuff, I will make their day. Possibly their year. There are many things I admire about the OSR: the DIY attitude, the absurd amounts of talent, the commitment to keeping forgotten or out of print games alive...but what I think I like the most is the sense of community. When one person calls on another for help, it seems a legion of bad-asses form like Voltron and make something amazing happen. Such is the case with the two free gaming resources I am going to talk about today. The REALLY cool thing about them is that you yourself can participate!

So Secret Santicore was started several years ago and has since been handled and "wrangled" by a literal who's-who of the OSR. The idea is that you ask "Santicore" for something gaming related: a random table, adventure, drawing, etc. This request is then assigned to someone to complete. You don't know who it has been given to. You also reciprocate by taking on someone else's request. The results are then provided as a free download. Over one hundred talented artists and designers participated this year, and I have to be honest, I am completely blown away by how much talent is out there. See for yourself HERE. Previous years are here: 2011 ; 2013 part 1 2 3. 2012 apparently ran into some issues with formatting, and although I have a copy of the pdf, my Google-fu is weak today and since I cannot source it I am not going to upload it.

This year was my first time participating. I asked for "a drawing of some sort of undead with a bursting egg sac full of baby spiders visible inside its ribcage." What I got back from noted OSRtist Matt Adams blew my mind.

HOLY CRAP.

Anyway, I was just overwhelmed by the quality of the submissions and the general awesomeness of the idea. Be sure and follow along the above links or circle some of these folks on G+ for a chance to get in next year's event.

Which brings us to the second thing I wanted to bring to your attention, The One Page Dungeon Contest. This is another chance to submit your material and be included in what is eventually released as a free supplement. There are prizes for multiple categories. It is mind-numbing to scroll through the jaw-dropping inventiveness on display in these compilations. Find them archived HERE. Looking for a one shot for your group? How about 50 thousand of them? Ok that's an exaggeration, but good lord, what an amazing free resource. April 30th is this years deadline. Special thanks should go to Random Wizard for shepherding the contest and archiving previous years material. That's a lot of work.

When I step back and look at things like these, I am just thankful everyday for the dedicated, creative gamers of the OSR. If you find it as inspiring as I have, step into the ring and turn in your own submissions! Be a part of it! Meanwhile, prepare to be blown away as you read through this stuff.