Neuroglyph
First Post
Fantasy role-playing games have seen many changes over the years, but none so profound as what is now occurring within the past several years. There has been a real revolution of new FRPGs breaking into the market, many of them using indie design parameters, as well as a number that have returned to the sensibilities of some might call Old School role-playing (OSR). Dungeon Crawl Classic by Goodman Games is a good example of creating a new game with the OSR retro feel (see the review here). And even Wizards of the Coast is trying to take Dungeons & Dragons back to a simpler and more basic version of itself, and is still hard at work with their community playtesting the as-yet-unnamed edition - codenamed D&D Next.
But within the past several weeks, there have been even more upheaval in the FRPG community, particularly for OSR gaming fans. The sons of Gary Gygax, Ernie and Luke, have made announcements that they are reforming TSR, and releasing a magazine which will bear their father’s name – Gygax! Signing on to the new project are original TSR writers and designers such as Jim Ward, Len Lekofka, and Tim Kask. Of these Old School troopers,Tim Kask, in particular, is no stranger to founding magazines for the gaming community. In fact, it was a young Gary Gygax tapped him to help playtest this RPG called Dungeons & Dragons, and then later to become editor of the Strategic Review – a magazine which evolved into something called The Dragon, an embryonic form of Dragon Magazine, which still survives to this day!
By the way, the first issue of Gygax Magazine should be out now, and features a wide range of gaming articles, as well as cartoons from Phil Foglio (What’s New with Phil & Dixie), Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage), and Rich Burlew (Order of the Stick)!
As it so happens, some of the writers attached to the new TSR/Gygax Magazine project are also part of another company called Eldritch Enterprises. Founded by Frank Mentzner, Jim Ward , Tim Kask, and Chris Clark, this venture has been developing “old skool” [sic] products for both fantasy and science-fiction RPGs for a year or so now. One of their recent releases, Snakeriders of the Aradondo, offers that “old skool” flavor in a new package, a complete adventure with system neutral stats, to allow gamers to convert them to any role-playing game of their choice.
Snakeriders of the Aradondo
Snakeriders of the Aradondo is a fantasy role-playing game adventure module designed for three or more skilled player-characters in any RPG system. The module is written with system neutral statistics for monsters, traps, and other dungeon delve challenges. The adventure has a classic fantasy storyline, and a jungle locale filled with many dangers and horrible beasts. The author provides stats for several new monsters unique to the adventure, outdoor and indoor maps of locales for the characters to explore, two new spells, and details about the world of Makanda which can be used as setting for the campaign.
Production Quality
The production quality of Snakeriders of the Aradondo is excellent, with a solid layout for presenting the material in the module and, frankly, amazing writing by the author. The author’s writing style can only be described as hardcore OSR, stocked with enough descriptions and plot to make sure the game master has enough information and content to run a thoroughly detailed adventure. On the downside, there were no PDF bookmarks or table of contents included in the product – and when dealing with a big 40 page adventure module, some ease of access would have been rather handy.
The illustrations in Snakeriders of the Aradondo were also excellent, and maintained the product’s “old skool” feel. Starkly inked, black-and-white line drawings like the ones seen in early OD&D and AD&D era modules and books lend a truly retro feel. And the artwork was truly useful, not only by enhancing the reading process, but to illustrate the jungle locales and fearsome monsters where the adventure takes place. The cover art by Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage fame) is beautifully rendered and vibrant, and shows two of the menacing new creatures designed for the adventure.
And the maps for the adventure are very much in the spirit of OD&D/AD&D products – the only thing missing is the cyan-blue backgrounds. The line art dungeons on graph paper are crisp and clean, and show a lot of imagination in their design. Outdoor locales are done on large hexmaps, with terrains details and notes fitting the map style. Overall, the aesthetic of the product has that great retro feel to it, and a definite “wow-factor” for fans of OSR fantasy gaming.
The Adventure
Snakeriders of the Aradondo is a solid mixture of wilderness exploration and dungeon delve, set on a tropical island with dense jungles full of dangerous creatures. While the adventure itself is a standard “adventurers-sent-to-stop-evil-thing-and-bring back other thing-in-lost-temple” plot, the depth of detail and content surrounding the plot is what really elevates the module to new level.
The author first provides an overview of his setting, Makanda, and some details on what plot elements need to be included in a setting, should the GM decide to use their own or another published one. There is a section on conversion rules as well, using a generic percentile format, with base lines for statistics given for a AH (Average Human). Given that almost every FRPG, whether OSR or indie style, is based upon dice - and therefore probability - using percentile stats as a baseline allows them to be applied to other game systems universally, and with only a little effort.
[SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading and jump to the end if you think you might play in this adventure. I’ve kept spoilers to a minimum, but there are a few, so scroll down at your own peril!]
While the adventure has a linear plotline, how the characters get involved and how they manage to get to the temple and back is quite sand-boxy. The author even includes detailed of the goals and main challenges that the characters must overcome, and the various options for the GM to customize the trip and the plot. And there is wealth of background information about the history of the temple, its worshippers, and the creatures which guard it now – more than enough information to allow for customization of the story to fit into a wide variety of settings.
And there is a lot that can be customized in this adventure! The route the heroes take, and how they choose to make the trip is entirely up to the players and the GM to work out. Will they travel using the river, or using the jungle trail? What sorts of creatures will they encounter and how dangerous the trip will be is completely open to the whim of the GM, and the author provides extensive notes about the flora and fauna of the jungles around the temple in massive detail. The delve within the temple and the monsters are also well documented, and provide for a number of interesting encounters and mysteries to be solved along the way.
In many respects, all the details and the types of monsters give the adventure a very Howardian sensibility to it – an adventure which one could easily imagine the mighty-thewed Conan hacking his way through it. The jungles are filled with giant serpents, crocodiles, frogs and other slithering reptilian threats, as well as carnivorous plants and savage apes and vampire bats! There is even a bizarre prehistoric race of saurian man-shaped creatures which have devolved into demon worship, and are fanatically guarding the ancient temple and its secrets. And behind it all is a demonic lord seeking release to ravage the world, unless the heroes can get to the temple and stop it before time expires!
Overall Score: 3.9 out of 5.0
Conclusions
I was very impressed with Snakeriders of the Aradondo, and I love how the author kept to his OD&D roots to create an adventure which is both detailed yet simple, familiar yet new. Fans of OSR gaming, whether young or old, will definitely find the details of the adventure, from locale and setting to beasts and creatures, to be very evocative of the style they enjoy. The writing-style, the maps, and the artwork really lend the retro feel to the product that many OSR fans look for in their games. And even non-OSR fantasy gamers are likely to find some inspiration here in Snakeriders of the Aradondo, and fully capable of being converted to anything from Pathfinder to D&D 4E.
Although the price is retails a bit above average for a PDF product, the production quality and authorship make the Snakeriders of the Aradondo well worth considering for any fan of OSR gaming, and a very cool addition to their virtual library. Incidentally, the product is also available in soft cover black-and-white for gamers who want a hardcopy.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
But within the past several weeks, there have been even more upheaval in the FRPG community, particularly for OSR gaming fans. The sons of Gary Gygax, Ernie and Luke, have made announcements that they are reforming TSR, and releasing a magazine which will bear their father’s name – Gygax! Signing on to the new project are original TSR writers and designers such as Jim Ward, Len Lekofka, and Tim Kask. Of these Old School troopers,Tim Kask, in particular, is no stranger to founding magazines for the gaming community. In fact, it was a young Gary Gygax tapped him to help playtest this RPG called Dungeons & Dragons, and then later to become editor of the Strategic Review – a magazine which evolved into something called The Dragon, an embryonic form of Dragon Magazine, which still survives to this day!
By the way, the first issue of Gygax Magazine should be out now, and features a wide range of gaming articles, as well as cartoons from Phil Foglio (What’s New with Phil & Dixie), Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage), and Rich Burlew (Order of the Stick)!
As it so happens, some of the writers attached to the new TSR/Gygax Magazine project are also part of another company called Eldritch Enterprises. Founded by Frank Mentzner, Jim Ward , Tim Kask, and Chris Clark, this venture has been developing “old skool” [sic] products for both fantasy and science-fiction RPGs for a year or so now. One of their recent releases, Snakeriders of the Aradondo, offers that “old skool” flavor in a new package, a complete adventure with system neutral stats, to allow gamers to convert them to any role-playing game of their choice.
Snakeriders of the Aradondo
- Author: Tim Kask
- Editing: James M. Ward & Frank Mentzer
- Illustrations: Jim Wampler (cover); Christopher Clark & Martin Siesto (interior)
- Publisher: Eldritch Enterprises
- Year: 2012
- Media: PDF (40 pages)
- Price: $7.50 (PDF available from RPGNow)
Snakeriders of the Aradondo is a fantasy role-playing game adventure module designed for three or more skilled player-characters in any RPG system. The module is written with system neutral statistics for monsters, traps, and other dungeon delve challenges. The adventure has a classic fantasy storyline, and a jungle locale filled with many dangers and horrible beasts. The author provides stats for several new monsters unique to the adventure, outdoor and indoor maps of locales for the characters to explore, two new spells, and details about the world of Makanda which can be used as setting for the campaign.
Production Quality
The production quality of Snakeriders of the Aradondo is excellent, with a solid layout for presenting the material in the module and, frankly, amazing writing by the author. The author’s writing style can only be described as hardcore OSR, stocked with enough descriptions and plot to make sure the game master has enough information and content to run a thoroughly detailed adventure. On the downside, there were no PDF bookmarks or table of contents included in the product – and when dealing with a big 40 page adventure module, some ease of access would have been rather handy.
The illustrations in Snakeriders of the Aradondo were also excellent, and maintained the product’s “old skool” feel. Starkly inked, black-and-white line drawings like the ones seen in early OD&D and AD&D era modules and books lend a truly retro feel. And the artwork was truly useful, not only by enhancing the reading process, but to illustrate the jungle locales and fearsome monsters where the adventure takes place. The cover art by Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage fame) is beautifully rendered and vibrant, and shows two of the menacing new creatures designed for the adventure.And the maps for the adventure are very much in the spirit of OD&D/AD&D products – the only thing missing is the cyan-blue backgrounds. The line art dungeons on graph paper are crisp and clean, and show a lot of imagination in their design. Outdoor locales are done on large hexmaps, with terrains details and notes fitting the map style. Overall, the aesthetic of the product has that great retro feel to it, and a definite “wow-factor” for fans of OSR fantasy gaming.
The Adventure
Snakeriders of the Aradondo is a solid mixture of wilderness exploration and dungeon delve, set on a tropical island with dense jungles full of dangerous creatures. While the adventure itself is a standard “adventurers-sent-to-stop-evil-thing-and-bring back other thing-in-lost-temple” plot, the depth of detail and content surrounding the plot is what really elevates the module to new level.
The author first provides an overview of his setting, Makanda, and some details on what plot elements need to be included in a setting, should the GM decide to use their own or another published one. There is a section on conversion rules as well, using a generic percentile format, with base lines for statistics given for a AH (Average Human). Given that almost every FRPG, whether OSR or indie style, is based upon dice - and therefore probability - using percentile stats as a baseline allows them to be applied to other game systems universally, and with only a little effort.
[SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading and jump to the end if you think you might play in this adventure. I’ve kept spoilers to a minimum, but there are a few, so scroll down at your own peril!]
While the adventure has a linear plotline, how the characters get involved and how they manage to get to the temple and back is quite sand-boxy. The author even includes detailed of the goals and main challenges that the characters must overcome, and the various options for the GM to customize the trip and the plot. And there is wealth of background information about the history of the temple, its worshippers, and the creatures which guard it now – more than enough information to allow for customization of the story to fit into a wide variety of settings.
And there is a lot that can be customized in this adventure! The route the heroes take, and how they choose to make the trip is entirely up to the players and the GM to work out. Will they travel using the river, or using the jungle trail? What sorts of creatures will they encounter and how dangerous the trip will be is completely open to the whim of the GM, and the author provides extensive notes about the flora and fauna of the jungles around the temple in massive detail. The delve within the temple and the monsters are also well documented, and provide for a number of interesting encounters and mysteries to be solved along the way.
In many respects, all the details and the types of monsters give the adventure a very Howardian sensibility to it – an adventure which one could easily imagine the mighty-thewed Conan hacking his way through it. The jungles are filled with giant serpents, crocodiles, frogs and other slithering reptilian threats, as well as carnivorous plants and savage apes and vampire bats! There is even a bizarre prehistoric race of saurian man-shaped creatures which have devolved into demon worship, and are fanatically guarding the ancient temple and its secrets. And behind it all is a demonic lord seeking release to ravage the world, unless the heroes can get to the temple and stop it before time expires!
Overall Score: 3.9 out of 5.0
Conclusions
I was very impressed with Snakeriders of the Aradondo, and I love how the author kept to his OD&D roots to create an adventure which is both detailed yet simple, familiar yet new. Fans of OSR gaming, whether young or old, will definitely find the details of the adventure, from locale and setting to beasts and creatures, to be very evocative of the style they enjoy. The writing-style, the maps, and the artwork really lend the retro feel to the product that many OSR fans look for in their games. And even non-OSR fantasy gamers are likely to find some inspiration here in Snakeriders of the Aradondo, and fully capable of being converted to anything from Pathfinder to D&D 4E.
Although the price is retails a bit above average for a PDF product, the production quality and authorship make the Snakeriders of the Aradondo well worth considering for any fan of OSR gaming, and a very cool addition to their virtual library. Incidentally, the product is also available in soft cover black-and-white for gamers who want a hardcopy.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 4.25
- - Design: 4.0 (Excellent design & strong “old skool” writing; solid layout with TSR module feel!)
- - Illustrations: 4.5 (Great cover & “old skool” interior artwork; definitely enhances the read)
- Content: 3.75
- - Crunch: 3.5 (Tons of crunch; cool new monsters; system neutral “stats” take a bit getting used to)
- - Fluff: 4.0 (Loads of details; fully stocked environment & delve; evocative pulp fantasy imagery!)
- Value: 3.5 (Toward “pricey” end for a PDF module, but worth a serious look for OD&D gamers!)
Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
