John Cooper
Explorer
SCOURGE OF THE HOWLING HORDE
By Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel
Wizards of the Coast product number 953827400
32-page softcover, $14.95
STANDARD SPOILER WARNING: This review is about an adventure, so if you're a DM, read on. If, however, you're a player whose DM might be considering having you run your group's PCs through this adventure, read no further than this green area. You wouldn't want to ruin the experience, would you? No, of course not. Off you go, then!
Scourge of the Howling Horde is a new adventure for 1st-level PCs, and is also specifically written for first-time DMs. It's a rather simple "go fight a goblin tribe in their cave network" adventure, with a few added things thrown in here and there.
The cover artwork, by Simone Bianchi, is a painting of five goblins in threatening poses, reminding me somewhat of the antics of professional wrestlers. Unfortunately, the definition is rather poor, and it's difficult to tell at first glance which body parts go to which goblin, as their poses overlap each other (the secondmost goblin has his morningstar-wielding hand and arm practically wrapped around the neck of the foremost goblin, for example, making the foremost goblin's arms look mismatched - it isn't until closer examination that you realize that those arms aren't both his). Also, while I don't mind hairy-armed goblins, Simone's attempts at rendering arm-hair makes it end up looking more like spines or quills. It's not the best cover artwork I've ever seen, but it certainly gets across the concept that the PCs will be fighting goblins, so in that respect it serves its purpose.
The interior artwork consists of a scant 3 black-and-white illustrations by Carl Frank: a couple buildings from the town of Barrow's Edge on page 7, a goblin on page 11, and Darax the hobgoblin on page 28. Each is a rather simple drawing with some basic shading, but I credit Carl with paying close attention to the written descriptions of what he's illustrating, as the depictions are spot-on, from the details on the buildings to the specific weapons and armor carried and worn by the goblinoids.
Cartographer Mike Schley also provides 14 black-and-white maps, although technically I suppose it's more accurate to say that he provides two maps - one on the inside front cover and one on the inside back cover - with the 12 separate areas of the goblin lair on the inside back cover blown up into individual maps for the "encounter page" areas detailing each of those sections of the lair. This is the same format that was first used in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, only here, some of the "2-page encounter spreads" are just a single page. Surprisingly, there isn't a map of the town of Barrow's Edge - since this adventure is intended for first-time DMs and even suggests that the town can be a "home base" for the PCs at the conclusion of the adventure, I was kind of expecting at least a half-page map of the layout of the town, with maybe the important buildings identified. That's just the sort of thing that a newbie DM would find exceptionally helpful, and my only guess is that they just couldn't make room for it. In any case, the maps in this adventure are well done: easy to read, and matching the written descriptions of the areas they represent.
Unfortunately, the rest of the text in this product is not as clear to read, due mostly to a poor choice in "background pattern" on the pages that hold the goblin lair area maps. The gray is splotchy and a bit dark, making parts of the black text difficult to read; this is especially true of the "Terrain Features" sidebars (which hold the "map chunks" from the goblin lair map in the back), which are a much darker gray in tone. Add the fact that the "Terrain Features" font size is even smaller than the text on the rest of the page, and you've got a perfect recipe for eyestrain. That combination was not the wisest one that could have been made.
The adventure itself is rather simple, like I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review: the PCs stumble across a goblin raid on a caravan, fight off the goblins, and escort the wounded elf guards and their halfling trader boss back to the town of Barrow's Edge, where they are hired to find out why the goblins - who up until recently have been living in peaceful coexistence with the town - have suddenly been attacking caravans on the road. The PCs track the goblins to their lair, and then work their way through the lair, fighting off goblins, hobgoblins, the occasional zombie and skeleton, a bugbear, a dire weasel, and eventually the cause of the recent goblin shenanigans: a black dragon wyrmling who's using the tribe to build herself a nice treasure hoard. Of course, the adventure's simplicity makes perfect sense when you consider its target audience: first-time DMs who can use a little help in running their first adventure. As far as that goes, Gwendolyn does an excellent job providing the neophyte DM with all of the help he should need; she provides page numbers in the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide where specific information can be found, gives reminders about how some of the concepts (like damage resistance and hardness) work, and so on.
However, in some places the adventure is too simple: specifically, the stat blocks. One thing new about the stat blocks in this adventure is the complete removal of any indication of Hit Dice. Hit points are provided on the very first line of the stats (something I noticed they had done with almost all of the stat blocks in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft), and Scourge of the Howling Horde even takes it one step further by adding a number of "check-off boxes" the DM can "X" through as the creatures take damage, but nowhere do the stat blocks state how many HD a given creature has. This is troublesome for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a "dumbing down" of the stats, removing crucial information that's needed to ensure that the stat block calculations were done correctly. (Sadly, past experience has shown that cannot be taken as a given.) It's the same reason I dislike the fact that AC values no longer have the AC breakdowns (-1 size, +3 Dex, +4 armor, +2 natural - or whatnot). Secondly, there are times the DM needs that information, like any time a player has his wizard PC cast a sleep spell on enemies. Sleep affects 4 HD of creatures; how is a DM - especially a first-time DM, like the ones that this adventure is targeted for - supposed to figure out how many enemies are affected if he isn't given the number of HD each potential victim has? I just hope this was an oversight in this one particular product, and that the powers that be at Wizards of the Coast haven't decided that we no longer need to know just how many HD the creatures in their products have. (Hopefully this isn't a taste of things to come in 4E!) I guess we'll find out as they release future products.
In any case, the stat blocks themselves were not particularly well done, either. You'd think that a product designed to help new DMs - and a product that only has 32 pages, and a total of only 20 stat blocks in all, all of which are of low-level creatures (and therefore the least complex stat blocks in the game) - would have top-notch, high-quality stats, wouldn't you? Well, you might have thought that, but you'd have been wrong. I'm not sure who's responsible for the stat blocks in this product - author Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, development/editor Bill Slavicsek, design manager Christopher Perkins, development manager Jesse Decker, or editing manager Kim Mohan (or a combination of any or all of the above) - but whoever it is, they didn't do a very good job of it. Here's my "unofficial errata" for Scourge of the Howling Horde:
From a proofreading/editing standpoint, there were also quite a few mistakes getting through in a product with this small of a page count. Several spell and magic item names were not italicized, "goblin" wasn't capitalized (when used as the name of the language spoken by goblinoids), there were a few parts of some stat blocks that had words that should have been in bold font but weren't, sentences with incorrect words (reference to the inside front cover was made when it was the inside back cover that was being indicated), and a sentence missing a word. There were also a bunch of typos/misspelled words: "warn" instead of "warm," "M'am" instead of "Ma'am," "PCS" instead of "PCs," "tigger" instead of "trigger," "effect" instead of "affect," and the winner, "sparing" instead of "sparring," which appeared on five different occasions (every time it was used, actually); apparently nobody associated with this product - author or editors - is aware of the proper spelling of the word "sparring." (I found that particularly odd, as "sparring" is not something too out of place in a D&D game.) There were also a few places where some odd assumptions were made; for example, the tunnel text on page 27 assumes the PCs are all Medium size, but this is not necessarily so, given that halflings and gnomes are core races. Finally, on page 6 there's a suggestion on how to quickly assign skill points to NPCs, but while the "generic rule" used is to grant a +5 bonus to relevant skills, the example used grants a +4 to a stablehand's Handle Animal checks. I don't see how that can be anything but confusing to a new DM trying to learn the game.
All in all, I commend the thought process that went behind the design of Scourge of the Howling Horde; it's about time Wizards of the Coast decided to create a 1st-level adventure with the neophyte DM in mind. Unfortunately, the end result is not all that it could be, and I really can't recommend the adventure for a new DM just learning the system; riddled with errors as it is, it's liable to confuse him more than it helps him. (Incidentally, I still recommend Of Sound Mind as the best low-level adventure for a brand new DM to sink his teeth into, even if he doesn't intend to use psionics in his campaign; I understand it's even being - or maybe has already been by now - updated to the 3.5 rules.) In the end, I rate Scourge of the Howling Horde at "3 (Average)" - good concept, decent if by-the-numbers adventure, helpful reminders and suggestions for the neophyte DM, but poor stat blocks and a difficult-to-read background make this product a much lower value for the money.
By Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel
Wizards of the Coast product number 953827400
32-page softcover, $14.95
STANDARD SPOILER WARNING: This review is about an adventure, so if you're a DM, read on. If, however, you're a player whose DM might be considering having you run your group's PCs through this adventure, read no further than this green area. You wouldn't want to ruin the experience, would you? No, of course not. Off you go, then!
Scourge of the Howling Horde is a new adventure for 1st-level PCs, and is also specifically written for first-time DMs. It's a rather simple "go fight a goblin tribe in their cave network" adventure, with a few added things thrown in here and there.
The cover artwork, by Simone Bianchi, is a painting of five goblins in threatening poses, reminding me somewhat of the antics of professional wrestlers. Unfortunately, the definition is rather poor, and it's difficult to tell at first glance which body parts go to which goblin, as their poses overlap each other (the secondmost goblin has his morningstar-wielding hand and arm practically wrapped around the neck of the foremost goblin, for example, making the foremost goblin's arms look mismatched - it isn't until closer examination that you realize that those arms aren't both his). Also, while I don't mind hairy-armed goblins, Simone's attempts at rendering arm-hair makes it end up looking more like spines or quills. It's not the best cover artwork I've ever seen, but it certainly gets across the concept that the PCs will be fighting goblins, so in that respect it serves its purpose.
The interior artwork consists of a scant 3 black-and-white illustrations by Carl Frank: a couple buildings from the town of Barrow's Edge on page 7, a goblin on page 11, and Darax the hobgoblin on page 28. Each is a rather simple drawing with some basic shading, but I credit Carl with paying close attention to the written descriptions of what he's illustrating, as the depictions are spot-on, from the details on the buildings to the specific weapons and armor carried and worn by the goblinoids.
Cartographer Mike Schley also provides 14 black-and-white maps, although technically I suppose it's more accurate to say that he provides two maps - one on the inside front cover and one on the inside back cover - with the 12 separate areas of the goblin lair on the inside back cover blown up into individual maps for the "encounter page" areas detailing each of those sections of the lair. This is the same format that was first used in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, only here, some of the "2-page encounter spreads" are just a single page. Surprisingly, there isn't a map of the town of Barrow's Edge - since this adventure is intended for first-time DMs and even suggests that the town can be a "home base" for the PCs at the conclusion of the adventure, I was kind of expecting at least a half-page map of the layout of the town, with maybe the important buildings identified. That's just the sort of thing that a newbie DM would find exceptionally helpful, and my only guess is that they just couldn't make room for it. In any case, the maps in this adventure are well done: easy to read, and matching the written descriptions of the areas they represent.
Unfortunately, the rest of the text in this product is not as clear to read, due mostly to a poor choice in "background pattern" on the pages that hold the goblin lair area maps. The gray is splotchy and a bit dark, making parts of the black text difficult to read; this is especially true of the "Terrain Features" sidebars (which hold the "map chunks" from the goblin lair map in the back), which are a much darker gray in tone. Add the fact that the "Terrain Features" font size is even smaller than the text on the rest of the page, and you've got a perfect recipe for eyestrain. That combination was not the wisest one that could have been made.
The adventure itself is rather simple, like I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review: the PCs stumble across a goblin raid on a caravan, fight off the goblins, and escort the wounded elf guards and their halfling trader boss back to the town of Barrow's Edge, where they are hired to find out why the goblins - who up until recently have been living in peaceful coexistence with the town - have suddenly been attacking caravans on the road. The PCs track the goblins to their lair, and then work their way through the lair, fighting off goblins, hobgoblins, the occasional zombie and skeleton, a bugbear, a dire weasel, and eventually the cause of the recent goblin shenanigans: a black dragon wyrmling who's using the tribe to build herself a nice treasure hoard. Of course, the adventure's simplicity makes perfect sense when you consider its target audience: first-time DMs who can use a little help in running their first adventure. As far as that goes, Gwendolyn does an excellent job providing the neophyte DM with all of the help he should need; she provides page numbers in the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide where specific information can be found, gives reminders about how some of the concepts (like damage resistance and hardness) work, and so on.
However, in some places the adventure is too simple: specifically, the stat blocks. One thing new about the stat blocks in this adventure is the complete removal of any indication of Hit Dice. Hit points are provided on the very first line of the stats (something I noticed they had done with almost all of the stat blocks in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft), and Scourge of the Howling Horde even takes it one step further by adding a number of "check-off boxes" the DM can "X" through as the creatures take damage, but nowhere do the stat blocks state how many HD a given creature has. This is troublesome for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a "dumbing down" of the stats, removing crucial information that's needed to ensure that the stat block calculations were done correctly. (Sadly, past experience has shown that cannot be taken as a given.) It's the same reason I dislike the fact that AC values no longer have the AC breakdowns (-1 size, +3 Dex, +4 armor, +2 natural - or whatnot). Secondly, there are times the DM needs that information, like any time a player has his wizard PC cast a sleep spell on enemies. Sleep affects 4 HD of creatures; how is a DM - especially a first-time DM, like the ones that this adventure is targeted for - supposed to figure out how many enemies are affected if he isn't given the number of HD each potential victim has? I just hope this was an oversight in this one particular product, and that the powers that be at Wizards of the Coast haven't decided that we no longer need to know just how many HD the creatures in their products have. (Hopefully this isn't a taste of things to come in 4E!) I guess we'll find out as they release future products.
In any case, the stat blocks themselves were not particularly well done, either. You'd think that a product designed to help new DMs - and a product that only has 32 pages, and a total of only 20 stat blocks in all, all of which are of low-level creatures (and therefore the least complex stat blocks in the game) - would have top-notch, high-quality stats, wouldn't you? Well, you might have thought that, but you'd have been wrong. I'm not sure who's responsible for the stat blocks in this product - author Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, development/editor Bill Slavicsek, design manager Christopher Perkins, development manager Jesse Decker, or editing manager Kim Mohan (or a combination of any or all of the above) - but whoever it is, they didn't do a very good job of it. Here's my "unofficial errata" for Scourge of the Howling Horde:
- p. 3, Goblin Raiders: Ride should be +5, not +4 (0 ranks, +1 Dex, +4 racial; the -1 armor check penalty for carrying a light wooden shield doesn't come into play with the Ride skill).
- p. 5, Glarr, Goblin Druid: Produce flame attacks should be at +3 melee touch, not +2 (+0 BAB, +1 size, +2 Str). Thrown spear attacks should be at +2 ranged, not +3 (+0 BAB, +1 size, +1 Dex).
- p. 5, Bloodfang, Wolf: This is Glarr's animal companion, but there's no indication what trick she knows.
- p. 8, Thamior: This isn't even a full stat block, merely a list of the spells currently prepared by one of the friendly folks in town. However, even it has an error: Thamior is a 1st-level wizard, and thus should have 3 0-level spells/day, yet there are two "check-off boxes" by the spell prestidigitation, which, along with detect magic and read magic, gives him a total of 4 0-level spells prepared. I'd delete one of the prestidigitation boxes.
- p. 12, Guard Dog: Fort should be +4, not +5 (+2 as a 1-HD animal, +2 Con).
- p. 12, Goblin Sentries: Ride should be +5, not +4 (0 ranks, +1 Dex, +4 racial).
- p. 14, Goblin Guards: Ride should be +5, not +4 (0 ranks, +1 Dex, +4 racial).
- p. 15, Big Bronk the Bugbear: He only spent 9 of his 12 skill points. The problem here, as I see it, is they gave him the same skill point values as the bugbear in the Monster Manual, but gave this one a +1 light wooden shield which, being of masterwork quality, eliminates the -1 armor check penalties to Climb, Hide, and Move Silently. I suggest bumping each of those three skills up by one point.
- p. 18, Hobgoblin Warrior Skeleton: As an undead, it drops the "(goblinoid)" subtype. AC should be 18, not 16 (+2 Dex, +4 chain shirt, +2 natural). Flat-footed AC should be 16, not 14. Wis should be 10, not 9, and Cha should be 1, not 8 (in accordance with the skeleton template); thus, Listen and Spot should both be +0, not -1 (+0 Wis), and Will should be +2, not +1 (+2 as a 1-HD undead, +0 Wis).
- p. 18, Hobgoblin Zombie: As an undead, it drops the "(goblinoid)" subtype. AC should be 12, not 11 (+2 natural). Touch AC should be 10, not 9. Flat-footed AC should be 12, not 11. Speed should include "(can't run)." Wis should be 10, not 9, and Cha should be 1, not 8 (in accordance with the zombie template); thus, Listen and Spot should both be +0, not -1 (+0 Wis), and Will should be +3, not +2 (+3 as a 2-HD undead, +0 Wis).
- p. 20, Monstrous Hunting Spider: Speed should include "climb 20 ft." Spot should be +8, not +12 (0 ranks, +0 Wis, hunting spiders get a +8 racial bonus, which shouldn't stack with the +4 racial bonus that all monstrous spiders get).
- p. 21, Goblins, Male and Female: Ride should be +5, not +4 (0 ranks, +1 Dex, +4 racial).
- p. 3, Goblin Cook: Judging from his hp and CR, I'm guessing this is a Ftr1, in which case he should have a second feat listed (his fighter bonus feat). Ride should be +5, not +4 (0 ranks, +1 Dex, +4 racial).
- p. 23, Lesser Gray Ooze: Judging from its BAB, this guy must have only 1 HD. Ref should be -5, not -4 (+0 as a 1-HD ooze, -5 Dex). Will should be -5, not -4 (+0 as a 1-HD ooze, -5 Wis). Why is there no "Immune: ooze traits" line? For that matter, why doesn't this poor little guy have improved grab and constrict attacks? Granted, it's only a "lesser" gray ooze, but it's as big (Medium size) as a "normal" one. (I'm guessing the reason was "because there wasn't room for those lines if we wanted the stat block to fit on the page.") Reflex save for acid should be DC 15, not DC 16 (10 + 1/2 HD + Con bonus = 10 + 0 + 5 = 15).
- p. 24, Shrieker: I'm not sure why an immobile plant with no Strength or Dexterity scores has a BAB and a Grapple value, but I notice the "Shrieker" entry in the Monster Manual has those as well.
- p. 25, Urrtarr, Hobgoblin Wizard: Grapple attacks should be at +0, not +2 (+0 BAB, +0 size, +0 Str). Staff attacks should be at +0 melee, not +2 (+0 BAB, +0 Str). Staff damage should be 1d6, not 1d6+2 (+0 Str). Dagger damage should be 1d4, not 1d4+2 (+0 Str). The "Urrtarr's Deal" section describes her color spray and sleep spells, but her stats list burning hands instead of sleep.
- p. 26, Elite Hobgoblin Guards: "Str 13" should be "Str 13 [17]" (to show the effects of the potions of bull's strength, like the rest of the stat block does). And this isn't a stat block problem so much as poor design, but why the hell don't these two "elite" hobgoblins have the brains to actually use the +1 studded leather armor and the +1 longsword they have locked away in their treasure chest? It's not like they can't use it - they're each wearing studded leather armor and wielding a masterwork longsword. Idiots!
- p. 29, Darax, Hobgoblin Fighter: Judging by his BAB, he's a Ftr2. Therefore, Fort should be +5, not +4 (+3 as a Ftr2, +2 Con). Grapple attacks should be at +4, not +3 (+2 BAB, +2 Str). Longbow attacks should be at +3 ranged, not +4 (+2 BAB, +1 Dex). Longbow damage should be 1d8, not 1d8+1 (it's not a composite longbow, so he doesn't get his Str bonus, which is +2 in any case). As a Ftr2 with a -1 Cha penalty, he can't have Intimidate +6; he can only spend a maximum of 5 ranks in it (Ftr 2 + 3), which would result in Intimidate +4. Since he spent 2 points each on Listen and Spot, that leaves one skill point unaccounted for - spend it wisely! Skills should also include Move Silently -3 (0 ranks, +1 Dex, +4 racial, -8 armor check penalty).
- p. 30, Noak, Black Dragon (Wyrmling): Skills should include Survival +0 (+2 following tracks) [0 ranks, +0 Wis, +2 synergy bonus from Search]. Her water breathing and immunity to acid are not noted in her stat block. Likewise her creature type is missing the "(Water)" subtype.
- p. 32, Noak, Black Dragon (Very Young): She now has 52 hp, yet there are 56 "check-off boxes" indicating her hit point total. Claw attacks should be at +4 melee, not +6 (+7 BAB, +1 size, +1 Str, -5 secondary attack). Claw damage should be 1d4, not 1d4+1 (half of a +1 Str bonus is rounded down to +0). Breath weapon should be a 40-foot, not 30-foot, line of acid. With 7 HD, she should have 3 feats, not just 2. Since she can only spend [7 HD + 3 = 10] 10 ranks on any one skill, Hide can only be a maximum of +14, not +16 (10 ranks, +0 Dex, +4 size). Even assuming that she spent a full 10 points on Hide, she still only spent 42 of 50 skill points. Skills should include Survival +0 (+2 following tracks) [0 ranks, +0 Wis, +2 synergy bonus from Search]. Her water breathing and immunity to acid are not noted in her stat block. Likewise her creature type is missing the "(Water)" subtype.
From a proofreading/editing standpoint, there were also quite a few mistakes getting through in a product with this small of a page count. Several spell and magic item names were not italicized, "goblin" wasn't capitalized (when used as the name of the language spoken by goblinoids), there were a few parts of some stat blocks that had words that should have been in bold font but weren't, sentences with incorrect words (reference to the inside front cover was made when it was the inside back cover that was being indicated), and a sentence missing a word. There were also a bunch of typos/misspelled words: "warn" instead of "warm," "M'am" instead of "Ma'am," "PCS" instead of "PCs," "tigger" instead of "trigger," "effect" instead of "affect," and the winner, "sparing" instead of "sparring," which appeared on five different occasions (every time it was used, actually); apparently nobody associated with this product - author or editors - is aware of the proper spelling of the word "sparring." (I found that particularly odd, as "sparring" is not something too out of place in a D&D game.) There were also a few places where some odd assumptions were made; for example, the tunnel text on page 27 assumes the PCs are all Medium size, but this is not necessarily so, given that halflings and gnomes are core races. Finally, on page 6 there's a suggestion on how to quickly assign skill points to NPCs, but while the "generic rule" used is to grant a +5 bonus to relevant skills, the example used grants a +4 to a stablehand's Handle Animal checks. I don't see how that can be anything but confusing to a new DM trying to learn the game.
All in all, I commend the thought process that went behind the design of Scourge of the Howling Horde; it's about time Wizards of the Coast decided to create a 1st-level adventure with the neophyte DM in mind. Unfortunately, the end result is not all that it could be, and I really can't recommend the adventure for a new DM just learning the system; riddled with errors as it is, it's liable to confuse him more than it helps him. (Incidentally, I still recommend Of Sound Mind as the best low-level adventure for a brand new DM to sink his teeth into, even if he doesn't intend to use psionics in his campaign; I understand it's even being - or maybe has already been by now - updated to the 3.5 rules.) In the end, I rate Scourge of the Howling Horde at "3 (Average)" - good concept, decent if by-the-numbers adventure, helpful reminders and suggestions for the neophyte DM, but poor stat blocks and a difficult-to-read background make this product a much lower value for the money.
