1 on 1 Adventures #1: Gambler's Quest

[Crothian]

Welcome to 1 on 1 Adventures, action-packed senarios designed for 1 player and 1 GM.

This module includes 24 adventure-packed pages, complete with detailed maps and descriptions, forming a ready-made adventure for the smallest gaming group. Although it is designed for a Rogue level 2-4, with some minor scaling, Gambler’s Quest is suitable for use with a traditional four-player party.

If you enjoy this module, look for more releases in the 1 on 1 Adventures line from Expeditious Retreat Press.

Something is amiss in the town of Rhiannon. Recently raided by a band of vile creatures, the citizens of Rhiannon were shocked to find their lord at the root of the incident. And now Lord Kent is holding a competition for “all walks of life with a propensity for the gambling arts.” Will the PC aid the citizens of Rhiannon and uncover the truth about the mysterious Lord Kent? Or will the PC take this opportunity to line her own pockets?

Either way, the answers lies inside the walls of Lord Kent’s keep and the gamblers within.

 

[Crothian]

Gambles Quest

Gambles Quest

Modules seem to be a good place to see a company shine. It is most often the clearest example of how the writers see the game. D&D has many different playing styles and ways groups play. I like a good adventure. I enjoy well crafted Dungeon Crawls to the plot and character heavy role playing driven ones. I like to read what ideas other people use to craft an adventure and to see how they bring it all together. Gambler’s Quest is a new adventure by Expeditious Retreat and it is interesting and a good read.

Gambler’s Quest is a twenty four page adventure. The PDF is put out by Expeditious Retreat who are well known for their Magical Medieval Society series of books. The book is black and white with borders and some good art. It does consume a bit more ink then average with the borders but it is not that bad as all things go. The book is well organized and book marked making it easy to use from a computer or laptop.

Gambler’s Quest is a solo module. That is the module is designed for a single player and a rogue one at that. That will make the module a little less useful for people. It is possible to make this for a group of players but it will not work as well. The module is well written and really does a nice job of crafting an interesting adventure with lots of possibilities and options for a rogue character. The character should be a rogue as that is what the module is designed for but it can work with other characters. The rogues skills are a highlight of the module, many encounters are designed to be able to use stealth and cunning and not just brute strength. Any other class will have problems in the module, a bard might be the second best for this adventure though things like trap finding might be a problem. The adventure does have good advice for scaling it for higher levels. The adventure is designed for a character of second to fourth level. They do have advice for characters up to seventh level and for multiple players to be run through it.

The adventure is nice and simple. It really allows for a lot of player freedom and lets a rouge be a rogue. The adventure starts when the player either gets invited or finds out about a gambling event a lord is hosting. The module has good rules for gambling allowing a rouge to use many of his skills like bluff and sense motive for instance in the game. There are rules for gambling in here using a specific game. The rules allow for cheating, lying, and everything one would expect in such a competition. While the gambling is not going on the character can try to access other parts of the castle and learn lots of interesting information form the many NPCs here. There is a lot of good opportunity for role playing and solo investigation. The character should be able to get some good information and make quite a bit of money along the way. The gambling part is just the beginning but can really be fun for the right people. There are other things going on here and the character has a chance to really impress some important people.

I have run many solo adventures and even a long running solo campaign. I have found that in these games character interaction is important and it is good to be able to offer the character plenty of options. Sometimes with out a lot of different people to talk with a solo player character can be at a loss for what to do. This module has plenty of both: character interaction and options for the character. This seems like a really good and fun solo adventure. The plot is nice and complete and it has many options for the player. The NPCs are well defined and written up and I really like that there is a lot of non combat solutions to be had.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So many "rogue"/"rouge" flip-flops!

I'm interested in this module, but would like to know more about what it's, well, about.

 

[MonsterMash]

I do like the idea of releasing adventures tailored for one on one play (to me solo is one player without a GM) and the Rogue is one of the best classes as a combat heavy type of scenario will not necesarily work without healing (and needs a character to be high enough level to avoid the one crit and you're dead situations).

Sounds interesting.

 

[Crothian]

The modules is about a gambling event. The character either gets invited or finds out about it in another way. There he explores around the castle and with luck impresses a certain nobleman who has a little job for such a character.

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[TransmuteMe]

Gambler's Quest, by William L. Christensen

There is a little bit more to it than that, but if we told you we’d have to kill you. Seriously though, there are several options for including the gambling competition in a game: the default hook is that the character is hired by the mayor of a small town (Rhiannon, fully statted) to reclaim some stolen treasures (the mayor believes Lord Kent is responsible for the recent raids, and he wants his stuff back) and discover Lord Kent’s intentions. The character (perhaps being known in town for her “propensity for the gambling arts”) goes to Lord Kent’s keep under the guise as a competitor in the gambling tourney. In between gambling sessions the character can sneak about, get into trouble (if she’s not careful), and try to reclaim the stolen treasures and discover the secrets of the keep. The castle is full of secrets, and characters might learn about a cult, an ancient artifact reputedly hidden in the region, and a wanted assassin to name a few (oh yeah, and the items that the character has been sent to find are hidden and locked up about the castle in the possession of several beasties/ bad-guys). The adventure should be coming out in print shortly, but you can still buy it online at RPGNow and at DriveThruRPG. Anyway, I had a great time writing it and playing it (my fiancée insists that it’s the best game we’ve ever played, but then she may be biased). It is designed for a DM and one character of 2nd to 4th level (although it can easily be modified and scaled, and I’ve included some tips on how to do so within the module), and makes for a great two or three sessions of game play.

William L. Christensen
Author of Gambler’s Quest

 

[Anio]

Gambler's Quest - review by Jason Lund (Anio)

Gambler's Quest is an adventure written by William L. Christensen for Expeditious Retreat Press and priced at $5. This adventure is designed specifically for rogue characters of second to fourth levels and meant for one DM and one PC, though is scalable for various levels and more PCs. This product provides two PDFs consisting of a one-page PDF of the colour cover and the twenty-four-page adventure (including 1 title and credits page, 1 map page and 1 OGL page).

As is to be expected from an adventure written for a solitary rogue, there are plans within plans and plenty of opportunities to sneak, steal, cheat and think your way through to a fortune. A four day gambling competition, organized by a local lord with dark intentions, is the centre piece of this adventure and after proving his/her worth during the competition, the PC is given the opportunity for greater rewards: just the sort of thing to entice a rogue into greater risk. I particularly like that my (admittedly) high expectations of the adventure were generally met; this adventure is far more than just hack and slash and requires the rogue PC to think their way through several situations, even if only to gain greater reward from any given situation. More than just providing reasons to roll more dice (though there are an abundance of opportunities for using several key rogue skills), this adventure challenges the player as much as the character and should make for an entertaining couple of sessions.

Solid and clear advice is provided for scaling the adventure, along with several alternate introductory hooks and, despite being written for a solitary rogue, means of molding the adventure to suit a group of adventurers rather than a single PC is provided, thereby improving it's usefulness to potential DMs. The adventure is comprised of several key components, including stats for all NPCs in the area that they are likely to be encountered in, statistics for the town and keep described in the adventure, wandering encounters for the keep in which the gambling contest is held as well as details of all tricks, traps and monsters. The standard of boxed text descriptions of each area is used along with notes for a DM that highlight important NPCs, traps and treasures. At the end of the PDF, simple advice is given for several possible conclusions, in addition to adventure hooks for a follow-on adventure should the DM intend on running the PC/PCs in a campaign rather than a one-shot adventure. The back of the adventure also lists all of the NPCs in one place and notes their likely encounter area, as well as providing a pre-generated rogue character for a player should this product be used as a one-shot adventure.

The strength of an adventure can often be measured by the plausibility of its NPCs and the flexibility of its events (as well as it's "Fun Factor!"). The NPCs in Gambler's Quest have been created with a solid idea of what makes a good NPC. Descriptions of the main NPCs are provided, but more importantly, their motivations and their resources to achieve their goals have been simply but effortlessly weaved into the adventure without forcing bizarre leaps of logic for a DM and PCs. The author also avoids forcing a PC down a linear path. From beginning to end, several alternatives are featured and a general sense of openness pervades this fun adventure, allowing for the feeling that the PC is not treading a tired path already well worn by others. It is highly unlikely that a PC, through their choices, will "break" the plot, and though the author has only had to contend with a single set of skills, it is still something far too common in adventure writing that a group of PCs *must* step from points A to B to C to complete the "grand quest". Thankfully, Gambler's Quest does not fall into this trap.

The layout is simple and clean, with relatively few editing errors that neither hinder usability nor confuse the descriptions. The artwork is generally good, in black and white, and provides thematic synergy with the text as well as helping to ease readability. A single map of the keep belonging to the main villain (or main employer, depending upon the PC's choices) is included at the back of the adventure. The PDF is completely bookmarked and printer friendly.

Summary

Though Gambler's Quest is not ground breaking, it does several things very well. NPCs make sense, the plot is simple and interesting without being dependent upon setting, the mechanics are spot on and the path for a PC is flexible and non-linear. Advice is given for several introductory hooks as well as for several likely conclusions and flexible hooks for the next adventure are provided. The artwork is good without being overbearing, the layout is easy on the eyes and the PDF is completely bookmarked. In short, this is a good little adventure and well worth the $5 price tag.

Review by Jason Lund (Anio)