Have you read Terry Pratchett's Nation? Spoiler alert in the link. There are all sorts of ancient ruins and strange locations. Would you? If a bunch of Vikings started poking around your town during the annual Christmas concert you might very well be annoyed.Ĥ. They're holding a ceremony and they don't want to be interrupted. Not nessesarily rational by our standards or the PCs, but they have reasons for doing the things they do. If you're going to make them people, make them smart people on their home turf. In the module, they're constantly, mindlessly hostile. Not to introduce some ethical conflict - the goblins probably still want to cut your throat and feast on your innards and you probably don't want them to - but to introduce more methods of solving problems.ģ. Side Note: Most of the time - unless your setting is a mythical heroic battle between Allegorical Good and Evil - you should consider making everyone people. Who doesn't? (except for the chameleon bit, that might be unique). They ride giant chameleons, hold dances, raise children, trade, make war, make peace, and do foolish things while drunk. Don't make them Polynesian people - unless you're willing to put in adequate research time, and let's be honest, you're not - but just people. Sure, in a group fully versed in the weird gonzo world of OSR homebrew might not read it that way, but typical new players, having seen the Lord of the Rings films and not much else, won't take a nuanced view.Ģ. Here's how to mangle it into something less. They are also under the sway of a (white) interloper who has tricked them into believing he is their god. The green, native orcs – the kara-kara – borrow the language, art, technology, environment, music, and weapons of ancient Polynesia, but they are also presented in an entirely negative light, as brutal and fanatical savages. Doesn't take more than a look at the cover to see why. X8: Drums on Fire Mountain TSR, Phil Gallagher & TSR UK Design Team, 1984 There's a bit of setting info on the archipelago but not enough to use more than this island. It couldn't be the core of a campaign, but as a one-off location - or an emergency funnel after a TPK or shipwreck - it's very good. I might have read too many of these modules, but I actually chuckled at the little jokes and dry humour in this one. Because of their piratical rules they aren't fighting. newly arrived goblins in the ruins of an old town. There's a convenient "all NPC" chart at the back of the module so the GM can track how many orcs, goblins, and giant rats have met their end at the hands of the PCs. The island apparently has only goats, rats, and a lone hermit for wildlife. ![]() Since this is an introductory adventure, I'm perfectly fine with it. Player handout maps of buildings are provided as charming little drawings on leaves. All the locations are clustered on one corner of the island, so a zoomed-in map would have been nice, but it's not a huge issue. Locations are numbered and a key is provided next to the map, but it's not terribly easy to spot what's what. North, for some reason, is on the left side of the diagram. The island is about 1.5 miles tall and 1.2 miles wide. Take away the initial premise and how does the adventure hold up? Of course, this doesn't work in a standard tropical island hexcrawl mashup. Muck around with magical items, become a Magic-User. Stab a bunch of people in the kidneys, become a Thief. They have nothing - no weapons, no tools, not even a character class. It's an origin adventure, and a fairly good one. Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: No N4: Treasure Hunt TSR, Aaron Allston, 1986 Skull and Shackles - The Price of Infamyġ0. Skull and Shackles - Island of Empty Eyesĩ. Skull and Shackles - Raiders on the FeveĨ. Skull and Shackles - The Wormwood MutinyĦ. The module isn't mangled as is Īgain, I'm focusing on utility to my potential islandcrawl. ![]() I'd need to rewrite, copy-paste, edit, and substantially rework this Might need to add things, but I don't need to rearrange or remove I don't need to edit this module to run it in a wavecrawl-type game. ![]() Invisible walls that gate certain areas or otherwise limit player Most common tropes for island adventures: volcanoes, dinosaurs, and but I've found these two sections are a good barometer for how The module might contain other stuff and the other stuff might be very Going to focus on the map and hex key and the random encounter table. I've reviewed 7 adventures here and 8 more here. I wanted to build an archipelago of tropical OSR island hexcrawls, similar to Dan D's " Distant Lands of DIY" map.
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