AlexofBarbaria
Explorer
Gods has an official Discord now, if anyone would like to chat about the adventure with a No Politics rule in place 
Join the Pulp Hummock Press Discord Server!
Join the Pulp Hummock Press Discord Server!
OSR Does anybody know anything about this OSR adventure: Gods of the Forbidden North?
- Thread starter Libertad
- Start date
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
That highlighted section is ... wow.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
All written works have politics in them. "Not having politics" is just saying "our politics are the status quo."Gods has an official Discord now, if anyone would like to chat about the adventure with a No Politics rule in place
Libertad
Legend
The linked Discord already has someone violating the "no politics" rule and hasn't really been criticized for it yet as far as I saw. It was when someone posted their own YouTube video about the removal of drow and orcs. The video maker also talked about Jeremy Crawford making changes to remove comparisons of orcs and lizardfolk to indigenous people, disagreeing with Crawford's assessment, and are liking YouTube comments complaining about Wizards of the Coast going woke.
The author definitely has political views in his work, and he is attracting a specific kind of reactionary group to his community. If "no politics" was actually enforced, then people wouldn't be able to talk about major aspects of the book's setting.
The author definitely has political views in his work, and he is attracting a specific kind of reactionary group to his community. If "no politics" was actually enforced, then people wouldn't be able to talk about major aspects of the book's setting.
Afroconan
Explorer
That's not even a third of it.
Jahydin
Hero
Here's a pretty in-depth flip through and review.
I own a lot of OSR adventures. This one is certainly the most well done in terms of art, setting, and scope. Unlike others, I find the lore to be intriguing and look forward to playing it with the Hyperborea rule set. @Afroconan has me a bit nervous there's more than just a canonically "good" church though, so maybe they can elaborate more for potential purchasers?
Curious to hear from others that have or are currently running it though if it's actually as good as it looks.
I'm curious also on actual game play. I've seen a lot of reviews, but haven't seen one that actually had played through it yet.
I've got the first two books in pdf (bought before info in this thread came to light). I was intending to use them as material to add to a home brew campaign, and frankly, after reading through it, I just can't find anything worth borrowing to add into my campaign. The artwork looked like a "northern witch king" campaign, with not-ringwraiths, but its not really that, and it doesn't fire my interest as a campaign setting or for parts. I, needless to say, won't be sending them another dime for anything.
AlexofBarbaria
Explorer
I have read Vol. 1 and about half of Vol. 2.
It looks well-designed to me. I love the XP and treasure breakdowns and chapter summaries. It's very well organized and laid out. It's MUCH easier to get a handle on the overall setting/plot than it could have been in a work of this size. I appreciate not having to count the treasure myself to make sure there's enough to support advancement in a GP-for-XP game. Great job!
When evaluating hexcrawls I like to look for broken/missing references. E.g. Hex 16A says these villagers are feuding the villagers in 24C. Flip to 24C and there's no mention of this there. These are common in hexcrawls, even ones considered very good, like the Land of Nod series. I didn't find any here. This tells me the author went back and forth over the entries several times, improving the links between them and making them consistent. There are a few throughlines that could turn into full-blown sidequests. Quite impressed with the hexcrawl.
On the downside, there's not enough support for the players to take a hard left from the plot and say, immediately leave Valkengrad to make Skaalburg or Kangkul their base. These are presented as the trio of major settlements, but we get 50 pages on the first city in Vol. 1 (along with 2 more LONG adventures there in Vol. 2). The other two towns get 1-2 page sketches. That's disappointing.
One of the Valkengrad adventures in Vol. 2 is a 70 page investigation for a kidnapped orphan. Reminds me of a Call of Cthulhu campaign from 1994. Wish that were cut down and the space used to flesh out the other two towns more.
It looks well-designed to me. I love the XP and treasure breakdowns and chapter summaries. It's very well organized and laid out. It's MUCH easier to get a handle on the overall setting/plot than it could have been in a work of this size. I appreciate not having to count the treasure myself to make sure there's enough to support advancement in a GP-for-XP game. Great job!
When evaluating hexcrawls I like to look for broken/missing references. E.g. Hex 16A says these villagers are feuding the villagers in 24C. Flip to 24C and there's no mention of this there. These are common in hexcrawls, even ones considered very good, like the Land of Nod series. I didn't find any here. This tells me the author went back and forth over the entries several times, improving the links between them and making them consistent. There are a few throughlines that could turn into full-blown sidequests. Quite impressed with the hexcrawl.
On the downside, there's not enough support for the players to take a hard left from the plot and say, immediately leave Valkengrad to make Skaalburg or Kangkul their base. These are presented as the trio of major settlements, but we get 50 pages on the first city in Vol. 1 (along with 2 more LONG adventures there in Vol. 2). The other two towns get 1-2 page sketches. That's disappointing.
One of the Valkengrad adventures in Vol. 2 is a 70 page investigation for a kidnapped orphan. Reminds me of a Call of Cthulhu campaign from 1994. Wish that were cut down and the space used to flesh out the other two towns more.
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