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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MonsterMash" data-source="post: 2011442" data-attributes="member: 12974">Morrick Mansionby Patrick LawingerNecromancer Games, 56pp US$13.95Capsule Review.This review has been based on reading the product and preparing it for use in my campaign, rather than a full playtest. Warning the review contains spoilers so is unsuitable for anyone playing in the scenario.A cursed mansion full of strange mutations and a village with some of the clues and allies the players will need to overcome the curse and make their fortunes. The setting consists of a village, Grollek's Grove and the eponymous Mansion itself. This is a fairly simple setting to integrate into an existing campaign as there are few unusual features. The ideal location would be in a relatively peaceful agricultural area on a trade road, within a few days of a port. For adventure hooks there are a number of suggestions for how to tie the product into an existing campaign, such as the PCs either hired to investigate or attracted by rumours to the village of Grollek's Grove and the Morrick Mansion.The curse on the mansion was placed by a rival of its owner who entered into a pact with a demon lord to curse the wedding day of Lord Morrick's daughter and Lord Byron Beval, scion of a family of wealthy merchants from a nearby port. The curse can be caught be getting bitten by a cursed creature or by eating or drinking food from the grounds of the mansion. The DC of the save increases with exposure so characters will initially have little difficulty in resisting, but if they spend much time in the mansion they could succumb. Effects of the curse can be randomly generated using the table and are likely to end in death unless a character has a remove curse, miracle or wish used upon them.The party can encounter a range of NPCs in Grollek's Grove and the mansion itself, some of whom can be useful allies and the majority of whom will not be opponents for the PCs. One element which seems odd given that the village has a number of high level lawful NPCs and an effective system of constables is the existance of a thieves guild. The overall number of guards is not totally clear, but would be at minimum around a hundred, which with a total population of the village is pretty high, but for some campaigns this would explain why the village is peaceful. The encounters with cursed creatures in the mansion have the advantage of the mutations making it a change from just another dire rat or whatever. The curse could also affect characters meaning that players will tend to become wary of encounters after the first few times... or suffer. Treasure levels are higher than I usually use in my campaigns, but this is easy to adjust and they are far from being Monty Haul as there are a number of tough encounters involved. Suggested levels of PCs are a party of 4-6 characters with levels 3-5. Personally I'd tend towards the higher end of the range, but not all the encounters are going to overstretch a party of 4 third levels and a lot would depend on how they approach exploring the mansion. Major NPCs, new monsters, random encounters and new items are listed in appendices at the rear of the book, I like this, but as I know its not to everyones taste I've noted it. The NPCs are useful with full stats for the major ones and enough details of their personalities and how they could interact with the party to help a DM.  Appearance and productionThis is a softcover module with maps inside the front and back covers in the style that Necromancer Games have used which resembles the old 1e modules. The layout is clear and the text tends to use about 90% of the page with the border of skulls which will be familiar to owners of other Necromancer products. The artwork by Brian LeBlanc add to the atmosphere of the product and were clearly done after reading the text, and the maps by Ed Bourelle are clear and easy to use, though there is one mistake on the labelling of the Mansion map. Positives<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Writing Style - I consider this to be one of the better written RPG products I've read</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Coherent module design. The mansion and village hang together well with the few reservations I've noted</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Potential follow ups from the curse</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use of appendices</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maps and illustrations</li> </ul>Negatives<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No detail of Lord Eldorans Mansion</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No additional material on the web (at time of writing)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Size of thieves guild given strength of local law enforcement</li> </ul>OverallI'm giving this a 4, as it is a good solid piece of work and would be useful in many campaigns. Overall probably about an 8.5 out of 10. It has scope for side campaigns around Grolleks Grove and because of the problem solving aspects is not just a kick in the door and kill the monsters type module,  but one that could be used as the basis for a longer capaign.</blockquote>

Verification