Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Bone Mountain (2011)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="bryce0lynch" data-source="post: 5916641" data-attributes="member: 6688546"><p>by RC Pinnell</p><p>published at Lulu</p><p>Holmes D&D</p><p>for character levels 4-6</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is a PDF-only module that centers around a mountain full of gold nuggets and bones. It strongly invokes a homebrew environment, in a good way, and has many strange & new encounters. There's a sense of whimsy and weirdness, but not in the dark way. </p><p></p><p>Rumors abound. Somewhere out in the wilderness is a mountain covered in gold. Literally covered. The mountainside is littered with gold nuggets so thick you can't walk without kicking one. Then the party comes upon a map to a certain mountain ...</p><p></p><p>Oh yeah, and the mountain is covered with bones also. Oh, and it's essentially alive. And it animates the bones when people leave the paths, like, in order to collect gold nuggets. This place is INSANE and I LOVE it!!</p><p></p><p>This is a short 10-page adventure that focuses on one location: Bone Mountain. The mountain is a kind of animal/creature graveyard and spiritual repository. As a side effect, it causes gold nuggets to work their way to the surface. The mountain protects itself though, primarily by animating the bones when folks leave the mountain paths. There's a small hook (you find a map) and a short little 6-entry rumor table. The rumor table is a pretty good one even though it's short; it's homey and has an air of ... authenticity? to it. The journey to the mountain is really just an advice section (locate it three weeks away from civilization) and a small wandering monster table with six entires. The table is really just a tack-on; the focus of the adventure is Bone Mountain. You should probably use whatever else you have; the bugbears, ogres, spiders and hill giants are not going to be very interesting.</p><p></p><p>The mountain proper has several trails leading up on it, and nine fixed locations. Before getting to this this there is a short section on the mountain itself. There are rules for slower movement moving up the steep paths, and returning back down them, which amount to 50% travel rate. There is also a set of special rules dealing with priestly powers on the mountain. As a home to the spirits of the departed animals it seems priests have several issues. Protection from Good/Evil don't work, turning happens three levels lower, no fly, levitate, etc. Essentially, nothing to let the players skip over the dangerous parts of the adventure and a quick refresher on the special rules surrounding skeletons. There's also a section on how the mountain can drive the players insane ... a certain % change each day, along with nightmares they'll have on the mountain. The environment here is quite challenging. I usually complain about this in modules, however for some reason I don't feel it's as big an issue in this adventure. Perhaps because the skeletons are so integral to the adventure AND it doesn't smack of a magical economy? </p><p></p><p>Finally, there's a section on what to do and what happens when someone leaves the trails. This is in two parts. First, how much gold do they find. Essentially each 120'x120' square (of which there are about a 1000) has 2d12*12 nuggets in it. That's a lot! I hope you know your encumbrance rules ... Second, each square will develop 3-12 skeletons in it, ranging from 2-7 HD, in a slightly random creature layout. The encumbrance, insanity, and skeletons, which reform, are the basic mechanisms for limiting the amount of loot nuggets the party can claim. Even then ... I'm not betting on the mountain. A PC party can be pretty resourceful ...</p><p></p><p>There are nine fixed locations on the mountain. These range from unusual bones to water features. They almost all have the sense of wonder, Weird and whimsy that I'm looking for. Water that does things when you drink it. Giant skulls with strange effects, and almost non monsters at all from the monster manual. There's a cockatrice and a chimera however everything else is a strange new & unique creation of the author. I love it! New creatures can freak out players, especially when encountered in a place that's already full of 'Get your freak on' strangeness. I love to see people running away and trying to sneak back because they don't know what a monster will do. THAT'S old school!</p><p></p><p>This evokes memories for me of the the sense of wonder I had when first playing D&D. Everything is new, unique, and terribly interesting. The party will have no idea how the world works, and won't know yet that chandeliers fall on people and bookcases have secret doors behind them. That's the kind of new, interesting, and evocative environment I'm looking for, and this product delivers. There are some problems, most importantly, how to deal with the potential for the explosive amount of wealth. The insanity, skeletons, and encumbrance (3 weeks from civilization) should help, but the DM is going to have to think long & hard prior to running this one. I'm sure it can be done, but you have to prepared for a major game changer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="bryce0lynch, post: 5916641, member: 6688546"] by RC Pinnell published at Lulu Holmes D&D for character levels 4-6 This is a PDF-only module that centers around a mountain full of gold nuggets and bones. It strongly invokes a homebrew environment, in a good way, and has many strange & new encounters. There's a sense of whimsy and weirdness, but not in the dark way. Rumors abound. Somewhere out in the wilderness is a mountain covered in gold. Literally covered. The mountainside is littered with gold nuggets so thick you can't walk without kicking one. Then the party comes upon a map to a certain mountain ... Oh yeah, and the mountain is covered with bones also. Oh, and it's essentially alive. And it animates the bones when people leave the paths, like, in order to collect gold nuggets. This place is INSANE and I LOVE it!! This is a short 10-page adventure that focuses on one location: Bone Mountain. The mountain is a kind of animal/creature graveyard and spiritual repository. As a side effect, it causes gold nuggets to work their way to the surface. The mountain protects itself though, primarily by animating the bones when folks leave the mountain paths. There's a small hook (you find a map) and a short little 6-entry rumor table. The rumor table is a pretty good one even though it's short; it's homey and has an air of ... authenticity? to it. The journey to the mountain is really just an advice section (locate it three weeks away from civilization) and a small wandering monster table with six entires. The table is really just a tack-on; the focus of the adventure is Bone Mountain. You should probably use whatever else you have; the bugbears, ogres, spiders and hill giants are not going to be very interesting. The mountain proper has several trails leading up on it, and nine fixed locations. Before getting to this this there is a short section on the mountain itself. There are rules for slower movement moving up the steep paths, and returning back down them, which amount to 50% travel rate. There is also a set of special rules dealing with priestly powers on the mountain. As a home to the spirits of the departed animals it seems priests have several issues. Protection from Good/Evil don't work, turning happens three levels lower, no fly, levitate, etc. Essentially, nothing to let the players skip over the dangerous parts of the adventure and a quick refresher on the special rules surrounding skeletons. There's also a section on how the mountain can drive the players insane ... a certain % change each day, along with nightmares they'll have on the mountain. The environment here is quite challenging. I usually complain about this in modules, however for some reason I don't feel it's as big an issue in this adventure. Perhaps because the skeletons are so integral to the adventure AND it doesn't smack of a magical economy? Finally, there's a section on what to do and what happens when someone leaves the trails. This is in two parts. First, how much gold do they find. Essentially each 120'x120' square (of which there are about a 1000) has 2d12*12 nuggets in it. That's a lot! I hope you know your encumbrance rules ... Second, each square will develop 3-12 skeletons in it, ranging from 2-7 HD, in a slightly random creature layout. The encumbrance, insanity, and skeletons, which reform, are the basic mechanisms for limiting the amount of loot nuggets the party can claim. Even then ... I'm not betting on the mountain. A PC party can be pretty resourceful ... There are nine fixed locations on the mountain. These range from unusual bones to water features. They almost all have the sense of wonder, Weird and whimsy that I'm looking for. Water that does things when you drink it. Giant skulls with strange effects, and almost non monsters at all from the monster manual. There's a cockatrice and a chimera however everything else is a strange new & unique creation of the author. I love it! New creatures can freak out players, especially when encountered in a place that's already full of 'Get your freak on' strangeness. I love to see people running away and trying to sneak back because they don't know what a monster will do. THAT'S old school! This evokes memories for me of the the sense of wonder I had when first playing D&D. Everything is new, unique, and terribly interesting. The party will have no idea how the world works, and won't know yet that chandeliers fall on people and bookcases have secret doors behind them. That's the kind of new, interesting, and evocative environment I'm looking for, and this product delivers. There are some problems, most importantly, how to deal with the potential for the explosive amount of wealth. The insanity, skeletons, and encumbrance (3 weeks from civilization) should help, but the DM is going to have to think long & hard prior to running this one. I'm sure it can be done, but you have to prepared for a major game changer. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Bone Mountain (2011)
Top