Review: Secret Party House of the Hill Giant Playboy

It's Reviewn June! Revebrewary! Octobereview! Janreviewary!

It's August, and here is a quick review.

The adventure 

Secret Party House of the Hill Giant Playboy (hereafter SPHotHGP) is a location-based adventure for Swords & Wizardry, BX, OD&D, etc, released by Jason Sholtis in 2013.

You may know Sholtis from adventures like Operation Unfathomable, as well as blog The Dungeon Dozen. From the latter, years of incomparably high-density weird ideas got fleshed out into a book and then into a sequel. I consider those two of the best books in the entire TTRPG space when it comes to inspiration.

SPHotHGP is 20 pages, released for free. To an extent, it's a pastiche of the classic 1978 module, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Some of the set-up is the same, and there are several little nods. For example, in the 1978 module, the hill giant's name is Nosnra (that is, almost Arneson backwards), whereas in SPHotHGP it's Sadrox... who crudely disguises his identity by calling himself Lord Xordas.

Sadrox/Xordas is the Hill Giant Playboy of the title, and his party pad is a den of iniquity and a hoard of much treasure.

As well as giving adventure hooks, Sholtis writes a great background story about how the evil Xordas acquired his huge wealth and party house, although it's not clear how this would become known to the players.

The content 

SPHotHGP is absolutely full of tables. Find the type, nature, extent, and progress of the party. Determine how the PCs are received. Roll to see what kinds of brawl break out, and what giant-sized and gruesome banquet foods are being served: Megatherium done 5 ways. Sweagledactyl, a swan stuffed in a giant eagle inside a pterodactyl.

There's a fascinating array of evil VIP guests and regulars:

• Raver Ylyach the Swamp Hag and her putrescent servitors
• Zogorion, the surprisingly scheming Lord of the Hippogriffs
• Zhemorna, caterpillar-headed high priestess of the Worm Sultan
• Glurt “Beef” Wellington, possibly the world's handsomest hill giant
• The Piper from Beyond Comprehension
• etc 

And Xordas has a very weird treasure hoard indeed.

The presentation 

SPHotHGP is semi-professionally put together. There's a keyed map, and this being for an oldschool game, inline stat blocks for each key being.

I noticed one unfinished page reference, some stray punctuation, and Glok the ogre captain seems to be incorrectly statted. Content-wise, I liked everything except that the characters and complex are largely reactive, with only a few VIPs having guidance for active agendas. I certainly can't complain about getting a good adventure for the low low price of free.

Sholtis's description is terse but evocative. You can practically hear and smell the place.

A few illustrations by Sholtis also help to really tie it together.

 

Normally I'd leave a link for you to take a look yourself. I found SPHotHGP a while ago on Sholtis's blog, but the download has sadly succumbed to bit-rot. I hope the author will repost it some time, because this is great stuff!

Reviewn June 12: The Undercellars

Every few days in June I’m picking a TTRPG book that’s been languishing on my shelf or hard drive, reading it, and writing a review. I don’t believe in attempting a full critique of game content I haven’t run or played, so my focus will be on discussing the work’s best ideas and keeping criticisms to text-level quibbles.

Today I read The Undercellars, a 7-page dungeon by Joseph Manola. It was a response to a community challenge a few years ago, to use a Dyson Logos map for ‘the condensation of utility, beauty, meaning and originality into a functional and interesting micro-adventure’.

Joseph M’s dungeon could be used for his Against the Wicked City setting, but could equally be plopped down and used as-is in many games. It seems to be for a non-specific old-school or OSR system; anything with GP, AC, and classic ability scores should work. Monster stats are compiled at the end, referring back to their locations. All the monsters have specific traits rather than being bags of hit points, which is nice.

The dungeon’s contents:

The dungeon is an abandoned secret temple complex lying in ruin, with layers of history. There’s a strong implied story, about a family lying in ruin, with its own layers of history. I really liked this dungeon, and the only thing I think it was lacking was a concise explanation for the GM at the very beginning, if its purpose isn’t to be ‘read for entertainment’ (something Joseph M has talked about at length).

The Undercellars has some consistent theming, in particular sleep, hallucination, blood, worship, ruination, and a corrupted family line. There’s history there, with a murderous family, blackmail, cult worship, a covert graveyard, dark secrets, shame and horror, bloodlines and mysteries. It’s all discoverable and more importantly, the dungeon offers actual interactions with player characters, such as the chance to perform an ancient rites and acquire power at a nasty cost.

Everything on the map is keyed, and nothing notable on the map is absent. Even in seven pages, The Undercellars resonates with a feeling that there’s always more to discover. It’s full of evocative details which are great fodder for dungeon adventure:

• Animated skeletons that are desperately trying to get away, and which crumble under an open sky
• Laudanum laced with hallucinogenic herbs “worth 10 GP per dose to an artist or insomniac”
• Troglodytic proto-human ghouls
• Dead cultists lying where they were killed long ago by looters, deepening a sense of history
• Undying demonic object of worship offering magical/chemical indoctrination into the cult
• A monster with deathly cold toxic blood, and another which causes wounds to bleed secrets

One of the set pieces is a big persistent slow beast that can be eluded but is unlikely to be beaten in a straight-up fight, the kind of thing that's an OSR staple. The text includes half a dozen possible ways of dealing with it, scattered throughout the dungeon, which I appreciate. They are some of numerous ties between aspects of the dungeon, giving it a dynamic feel and enhancing the feeling of history.

Minor text quibbles:

This scenario was well-written and textually polished, with nary a typo to be seen (if I remember correctly, Joseph M is an academic writer, which might help). The only thing I noticed was the occasional mismatch of full sentences alongside others that are simplified phrases (eliding ‘is’ or ‘the’ or ‘there is a’).

My favourite bit:

The mysterious, laconic, semi-immortal lotus-eater ‘Dryden’, languishing in a pit.

Where to get it:

On Joseph M's blog: http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-undercellars-playable-dungeon-for.html

Reviewn June 8: Coincackler Well

Every few days in June I’m picking a TTRPG book that’s been languishing on my shelf or hard drive, reading it, and writing a review. I don’t believe in attempting a full critique of game content I haven’t run or played, so my focus will be on discussing the work’s best ideas and keeping criticisms to text-level quibbles.

Today I read Coincackler Well, a two-page ‘Pamphlet Adventure’ by John Lopez (SoloRPG). It's a location for 2–4 level 2 characters to explore, aligned for the Basic Fantasy system, but as the author points out, pretty readily convertible to most old-school ‘D&D-like’ rule sets.

The site is an ancient wishing well, neglected for centuries. Clearly something’s up, given that it hasn’t filled in with detritus or collapsed!

Here's what's up: giant bees, kobold cowboys, wish-sniffing frog princes, and a crazed brownie. Love it!

As any professional writer knows, writing cohesive compressed content is harder than just writing. (See e.g. “I had not the time to make it shorter”, variously attributed but apparently originating from the pen of 17th Century philosopher Blaise Pascal.) Writing just two pages is a big task, so let's see how this adventure manages it!

Trying my hand at GM-less play

I’ve not dabbled much in solo TTRPG and/or journaling play, so I’m not sure how much you're meant to approach this with more of a story-telling, flexible mindset, and how much you're meant to use the actual game/simulation rules from the full TTRPG system (Basic Fantasy) that it has stats for. I’m in particular not clear on whether the player is meant to read ahead in order to perform the GM's role.

The guidance Coincackler Well provides in place of a ruleset and referee is the 'Micro GM Emulator'. It's pretty aspirational, a set of random tables with basic open-ended instructions for interpreting the results ‘within the context of the adventure’. The result feels like a creative exercise (or looking for auguries in stochastic patterns).

I tested it out with the first location in the five-room dungeon, the Old Wishing Well.

A rusty bucket hangs over the stone well suspended on a tattered rope. Buzzing sounds echo up from the well shaft. A dead body lies curled up in a slimy puddle.

We make a What Happens roll for at least one key word per room. Let's take 'rusty bucket'. I got the result ‘foreshadow an event or find a clue’. The fact that this is a result makes me think I am meant to be reading ahead. Otherwise you're going to need to tie whatever you decide back in, and it'll all be murky.

I re-rolled it because I wasn't sure, and got ‘resolve a circumstance’, which is tricky for the start of the adventure. Let’s say I decide to ‘resolve’ the buzzing sounds mentioned in the initial description. I could simply have them stop, but again, it goes to the question of whether to read ahead: do I know if the buzzing is something that can or should stop? What are the repercussions?

I did read ahead, and then decided to use the Micro GM Emulator tool to answer ‘a more complex GM question’ about how to resolve the buzzing sounds the characters hear. I don’t think we need Action, so I roll four dice to get a couple of Theme Descriptors, getting one ‘power’ and ‘lies’. Interpreting that, maybe the characters get the false impression that the source of the buzzing is a swarm of relatively powerless normal-sized bees, their buzzing amplified by the well. This solution of course depends on partitioning of knowledge, which is trickier at the TTRPG table than it is for a story-telling game.

Reading further, there's a twisted wish-brownie at the end of the dungeon, whose ‘ability to hear wishes has been corrupted by his madness. Therefore, he will use an already fulfilled wish from the past as a reward, after retrieving the corresponding coin’. The text gives d6 past wishes, but this actually seems like the kind of thing that would be an interesting test for the Micro GM Emulator. I decided to roll What Happens, How did it go, two Action Descriptors, and two Theme Descriptors.

What Happens: Change a circumstance
How did it go? Distastrously [sic] bad
Action Descriptor: Control
Theme Descriptor: Enemy

Interpreting that, let's say someone in the past wished to draw some powerful monster out of hiding to themselves. So now that’s what the characters unexpectedly get. I'm happy with that.

The dungeon itself

I like the strong theming of Coincackler Well, which has a touch of the ‘Gygaxian dungeon ecosystem’. Colonies of wild bees do take up residence in enclosed spaces, and I can imagine giant bees being tempted by a well. Kobolds are one of those monsters without a single central niche, and this adventure's use of them as giant bee ranchers works well. Perhaps ranchers isn't the right word; the text makes clear that they are more parasitic raiders than symbiotic pastoralists.

• I like that ‘honey-smeared combat’ can attract more bees.
  
• It’s interesting that the well shaft ends up smeared in wax and honey; I’m unclear on whether that’s intended to be natural distribution, or a deliberate trap set up by the kobold bee riders. I guess that’s a question for the Micro GM Emulator!
• It’s also interesting that the kobolds are overtly harvesting the honey ‘for trade’. It’s a very OSR type approach of creatures doing their own semi-peaceable thing, compared to many games which would make them automatically ‘the bad guys’.

It would be useful to have the total numbers of all creatures, which are separated out into a random encounter table, chance-based rolls for creatures at locations, fixed numbers at other locations, chance for reinforcements to join combat, etc. The dungeon is just five rooms, the kind of thing that could be ‘cleared’ incidentally through play, and I know as a GM I would need to know the actual numbers; I have to imagine that GM-less play is also going to need them. In particular, the characters might run into anywhere from zero to sixty or more giant bees. ‘All remaining giant bees are found [in the hive]’. Maybe I'm missing a Number Appearing entry from Basic Fantasy? Or maybe the details existed but were pruned during the difficult process of writing short content?

Minor text quibbles:

• Just one typo I spotted, plus I’m not sure where I stand on the word ‘Gmless’.

My favourite bit:

Interplanar fey frog princes have been attracted by the wishing well’s 2000+ unused wishing coins! ‘A portal to their weird realm exists at the bottom for as long as the coins remain.’ The pool itself has been corrupted by faerie magic, too. Great stuff.

Where to get it:

Pay-what-you-like at DriveThruRPG

Reviewn June 1: Lair of the Lamb

Every few days in June I’ll be picking a TTRPG book that’s been languishing on my shelf or hard drive, reading it, and writing a review. I don’t believe in attempting a full critique of game content I haven’t run or played, so my focus will be on discussing the work’s best ideas and keeping criticisms to text-level quibbles.

We’re starting out strong with Lair of the Lamb, a 54-page adventure by Arnold Kemp of Goblin Punch fame.

The sketch summary is that the White Temple of Vandoh, God(dess) of Wisdom, Patience, Self-improvement, and Sunlight, is keeping the titular Lamb, a huge fleshy beast and horrible holy monster, in its back rooms and feeding it people to harvest its lambfruit.

The PCs are some of the human sacrifices (a dozen generic level 0 characters), making for a classic ‘funnel’ and introduction to dungeon delving. I like this. Leaving out full-blown backstory-having character creation means one less chance for players to get in their PCs’ heads, but it’s a really fast start, and I think the intention is that the players will build up a rapport with the characters who survive. The heightened peril of a funnel makes for exciting play.

It’s overtly a tutorial for new TTRPG players, or at least players new to old-school style. Lair of the Lamb is a ‘teaching dungeon’, not only for OSR play, but as an introduction to the GLOG ruleset. I think it does that pretty well, although at some point you still have to list out all the rules.

Goblin Punch is in my lengthy folder of bookmarks for blogs where I’ve read scattered entries and decided it’s worth reading the whole thing, but haven’t got around to it. I thought I probably had a winner cracking open this adventure, and I was right.

Illustration by Warren D

 

The style:

• It has all the things I like about old-school play. (“A shocking amount [sic] of problems can be solved with enough rope.”)
• The Advice to DMs is gold. It’s like a twelve-bullet-point condensation of great TTRPG advice (despite, or possibly because, of the fact that half of them are variations of the idea “role-playing is ultimately about making meaningful choices”). I'd recommend reading this adventure just for that half page.
• The Lamb is a huge gross monster. It’s a puzzle monster, designed to squish characters into the funnel, but it’s also clearly expected that if the players succeed in escaping the dungeon, their characters will probably find a way to kill it along the way.
• Mystic languages which have minor magical effects just by speaking them. The fact they’re associated with certain kinds of fantasy people says something about what those people are in the implied setting.
• There's some old standbys in use. I’m not a fan of flammable oil, especially in an implied low-magic, low-technology setting (if you can ignite a pool of oil, it’s either refined petroleum or it’s magical). But that’s easy enough to change.

There’s some nasty body horror stuff, but as long as it’s not too much for you, it’s very evocative and grounding in the world. There’s also a small number of very cool (and gross) magic items, and dangerous magical miscellanea. I like the chest that is heavily-sealed in ways clearly meant to contain rather than keep out. It’s not a fakeout or a dare; the fully-detailed horrible entity inside the chest will be a huge problem and the death of at least one character if released, but I can also see how the delve would continue with it around.

The rules:

• Each level 0 funnel character is a set of just 14 statistics, determined with 10 separate rolls. Likewise, the extreme simplicity of monster stats should make for a fast-paced game.
• I really like the idea of unlocking additional class options through play, at least for new campaigns. It might work best per player and/or across campaigns, if people come and go in a long-running campaign or in a series of different games run in the same system. The idea is tied in well to the dungeon, with three or four bonus classes unlockable along the way depending on what PCs do.
• By requiring a player to hit a target number, the level-up system quietly makes it easy to increase awful stats but increasingly difficult to improve an outstanding ability score. That’s an interesting choice.
• The investigation/search/noise keywords is elegant, even if they’re not used completely consistently in the dungeon (there are a few spots where they’re notably absent).
• HP are overtly don’t-get-hit points and come back quickly with a meal. I always respect when a game at least takes a position on this.
• There’s great little mechanics like this: “5 favors: The party's favorite ghoul will join the party.” and this: “Whenever you nearly die as a result of a failed Save, you gain a permanent +4 bonus to that type of Save. The triggering event is recorded on the back of your character sheet (in your Legendarium).”

There were two parts of the rules that puzzled me, but I may simply be missing something, not having actually tried them out in play.

• First, OSR-style play requires ease of escape (as this book points out: “If a combat is too difficult for the PCs, they can always flee”), which in turn demands robust escape rules. But the pursuit rules look incredibly punishing. The PCs usually have a slightly worse than even chance of getting a step ahead of their pursuers, even if they’re not slowed by anything, and on failure they suffer a round of attacks. On top of this, an enemy can use all their attacks against a PC who flees past them. Is the funnel enough to compensate for this?
  
• Second, the encounter system, with its Encounter Die vs Recon/Ambush die, has some neat mechanics but needs tweaking to factor in e.g. different senses. As it stands, the less light you are emitting in the pitch-black dungeon, the more likely you are to be ambushed, regardless of context.

It's worth noting that the adventure is meant to be 'complete', in that it contains all the necessary base rules, and is put in the creative commons.

The dungeon:

The lair of the Lamb in Lair of the Lamb is well thought out and well laid out. It has a slightly patchwork feeling, but there's also a plausible backbone to the main chambers, hints at a history, cunning traps and puzzles, and a consistent tone. I love dungeons with elevation changes.

It's all designed to provide a gradual opening of possibilities, which makes sense as a teaching dungeon. More exploration directions become available of course, but I also mean in terms of what’s attainable with the group’s equipment, knowledge, and possibly allies. For example, the PCs begin trapped in the lair, but with skill can find a way to trade with a ruthless merchant through a crack in the wall, opening up possibilities.

The presentation of information for the GM running the dungeon is generally exceptional. A precis is given beforehand for new sections, like the second-floor ghouls. The last page is an index to some key items in the dungeon, and gives notes about alternative ways to run the dungeon which could be very helpful; I’ve seen professionally published adventures that aren’t anywhere near this helpful.

Spells:

This game has by far the best implementation of Geas I’ve seen in any D&D-like, ever. Precognition is also a great spell. TTRPGs often have trouble with divinatory magic, but I can see this working.

I'm going to have to read up on GLOG magic some more, and try it out. I love the flat power level aspect, the inherently dangerous aspect, and the evocative and novel spells. Only having a semi-fixed number of spells per day is an interesting midpoint between approaches with spell slots/points and those with infinite magic (limited by time, magnitude of effect, or by other means).

Minor text quibbles:

• Lair of the Lamb is rough and ready, riddled with typos, with some NPC names changing, wrong map references, etc. A three-hour editing pass would have found them, but it was distributed for free, so I can hardly complain.
• A couple of the starting professions offer variations by gender, but a large number don’t. Also, if the setting is quasi-medieval, then you probably shouldn’t be able to roll up a male wet nurse; conversely, if we’re applying modern norms, then ‘gypsy’ should not be on the list.
• The ‘advice to players’ leaves a few terms undefined which might trip new players up.
• The text isn’t always sure, from one sentence to the next, whether it’s talking to the players or the DM.

No real impediments to usability, I think.

My favourite bit:

Pacifist polypores!

Where to get it:

https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2020/04/lair-of-lamb-final.html