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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010749" data-attributes="member: 1129">An Evening's Entertainment is two adventures for 3rd edition rules. The review below contains spoilers so GMs only.The first adventure, The Sign of the Mushroom, is for 1st to 3rd level characters. This adventure was to me, an extreme let down. Have you seen Aliens? Would you have been satisfied if the Aliens had all been wiped out after the first encounter? If you answered yes, then this module is perfect for you.It has the players come to the Inn, the Sign of the Mushroom, only to notice that there is something wrong here. Something that they need to investigate. As they move through, they find more and more signs of struggle and death until they come upon the enemy, the new creature, the Skull Beetle, a monster that uses numbers and has a massive swarm, thriving in the caves where mushrooms were harvested by the owners for their stew.There needs to be boxed text for the GM to navigate the adventure. In addition, some GM's may feel uncomfortable using a Will saving throw to showcase the 'horror' of the situation, a check that makes the characters shaken if they fail. If the GM is running this for 1st level adventurers, it might be appropriate but if so, it also sets a bad example. “Yeah, I cut off the NPC's head and spatter the blood around so that the enemies all have to make Will saving throws or be shaken.”The second adventure, The Hearty Draught, also takes place at an Inn. The party becomes  part of the background as old grudges heat up and party members themselves may find old memories resurfacing about things their fellows did wrong to them in the past. This leads up to the good old bar room brawl, but the real question is, why did this happen? The people who didn't drink weren't effected by these problems which in theory, leads the party to Carec, the brewer of the drinks at the inn. The party will get to do some exploring and some options are presented for the GM to help move the party in the right direction, but the adventure stays a little too ambiguous by not providing several direct solutions the party can take outside of combat. It's almost a do it yourself adventure which isn't bad, but it should follow the vignette methods more closely than of Eden's d20 products rather than trying to be a full adventure.Those looking for some new game mechanics get a few relating to alcohol, for instance a cantrip to neutralize alcohol. More interesting with some potential long term effects for a campaign is the Brew Ale item creation feat that allows the caster to craft alcohol that has the effects of an emotion spell on it.The PDF comes in two types, a full color version and a printer friendly black and white version. The art is top notch, coming form the talented brush of Christopher Shy, the mainstream artists for Ronin Arts products. The black and white version, on my ink jet, came out a little blurry on details. Format is in landscape, something a print publisher has finally decided to try with Redhust by Human Head Studios. Thumbs up to Ronin Arts for starting the trend.The adventures would make a nice diversion for standard hack and slash encounters but need to be more fully fleshed out and the first one really needs to be touched up in terms of originality. How about some mushroom men come to take vengeance for those seedlings that they planted long ago under the Inn that have been harvested? If you stick with the bugs, how about  expanding the adventure in true Aliens style rea so that there are other types of bugs and more environmental hazards that the player's have to avoid like a killer winter where they can't travel outside?There's potential here, but GM's are going to have to shake and stir it for maximum use.</blockquote>

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