The Mortality of Green
by Stephen Chenault
The criteria I use to evaluate a d20 adventure includes the following:
1. Interesting and varied encounters: I look for unique encounters, allowing for a variety of role and roll playing.
2. Motivations for NPCs and Monsters: or some detail of how they interact with their environment or neighbors.
3. Logical: the adventure should obey a sense of logic that clever players can use to their advantage.
4. Writing Quality: this includes foreshadowing, mystery, and descriptions that bring locations and NPCs to life.
5. Ease of DMing: Clear maps, friendly stat blocks, skill check numbers, player handouts and illustrations.
I don't give much weight to text density and cost per page... I'd rather pay a lot for a small clever mystery than pay a little for a huge repetitive monster bash.
I don't give much weight to new monsters, prestige classes, and magic items... they can add a little variety to an adventure, but to me they are minor decoration.
THE BASICS: (not exactly spoilers)
The adventure is 24 pages long, cover price of $6.95 American.
2 pages of credits/legal/advertising
2 pages of maps
1 page player handout
1 page of town adventure
18 pages of wilderness adventure
The adventure is designed for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5. The adventure consists mostly of a cross-country pursuit of a villian and his cohorts through sylvan woodlands.
Approximately 5 combat encounters
Approximately 5 non-combat encounters (negotiation, role-play).
Approximately 3 environment encounters (things to examine)
The combat encounters are appropriate to the character level.
The adventure is set in Troll Lord's World of Erde setting, with some predefined towns, roads, and locations. With minor DM preperation it could be dropped into any world or tweaked to fit with existing landmarks. The adventure is a 3E update of a 1E adventure.
THE SPECIFICS: (Some Spoilers Follow)
1. Interesting and varied encounters: (4/5) Each encounter is unique and requires different tactics by the players for the best resolution. There are some early decisions to be made on whether to pursue the villian or seek out authorities. There is an encounter that requires patience and good questioning with a difficult bystander, another which requires negotiation and possibly bribery with known enemies that can provide inside information or perhaps become allies. The combat encounters, while few in number, become much easier if the players use good tactics.
2. Motivations for monsters and NPCs: (5/5) All of the enemies actions obeyed a consistent logic. Thoughtful players may enjoy picking up clues and speculating about thier opponents.
3. Logical: (5/5) Everything follows a good internal logic. The adventure is short and straightforward, so this category should not be weighed too heavily.
4. Writing Quality: (4/5) The quality of the writing is excellent. The plot is compelling and the motivations for the players are strong. The adventure captures a great feel of mystery and fantasy. There is bolded text which can be read to the players, however much of this text explicitly describes players feelings. Although I find this only slightly bothersome, it is a major annoyance for many DMs... (you'll know if this is you).
5. Ease of DMing: (2/5) The map, which is located in the center of the book, has no distance scale, and no numbered encounters. Although it is fairly easy to match encounters to map locations, it is more difficult than it had to be, especially since some mapped locations have no write-up. The monster statistics are included with the text, which is nice, except that the statistics are not even close to those in the Monster Manual. There was a player handout which was effective and entertaining.
PLAYTEST RESULTS: (Major spoilers)
My players really enjoyed this adventure. They bit at the adventure hook faster than I've ever seen them before. They enjoyed the role-playing encounter with the Gnome Ian. Most of this was due to the high quality of Steven Chenault's writing.
Each of the major villians was so very far removed from Monster Manual statistics that I re-wrote them, and ended up with an adventure appropriate for 5th-7th level players:
The villian "Gristlebones" had no ranged attack and no ability to move. A single halfling commoner standing 30' away could eventually kill the main opponent simply by throwing rocks! Instead I used straight Treant stats and gave him a few nesting stirges to discourage attacks from levitating or flying player characters. The villian Quagmire was described as a troll, but did not have regeneration or several other key troll abilities... I rewrote Quagmire as a straight troll with 2 levels of barbarian. The villian "Gilliam" was a 'Dark Faerie', and rather than introduce a new race to my game, I used the statistics of a Pixie with 3 levels of Rogue. Finally, the Ungern was another new race that I did not want to introduce to my campaign, instead I used Orc cavalry (Orc Barbarians riding Dire Wolves).
I included two ordinary trolls during the first encounter, (looting a tavern and getting drunk), in order to give the party a taste of what they were up against. The white druid Cornelius was already dead rather than greviously wounded, and the players had to use spells to find out his information (speak with dead, speak with plant)... Cornelius revealed that he was killed by an invisible attacker. With Gilliam afoot, and permanently invisible, the party was afraid to sleep--lest they be coup-de-graced in thier sleep. This provided a great deal of tension in the mid-point of the adventure. The rest of the adventure was taken as-is, with the inclusion of Orc wolf-riders instead of Ungern. The players did not mind at all that some normally "good" fey were evil in the game... Gilliam's scarred face and Gristlebones' twisted trunk seemed adequate evidence to the players that each of them had suffered in the past and had turned evil over time.
FINAL WORD:
I am pleased with the adventure, and my players had a blast. I am rating it a very high 3/5... The kernel of the adventure and encounters was worth a 5, but the work necessary to make it playable knocked the score down significantly. If you always end up tweaking adventures and customizing monsters for your group, I highly reccomend this adventure (4 out of 5). If you like to play straight from the book with no prep time, you will be very disappointed (2 out of 5). As it is, I split the difference, but hopefully you know your tastes and can decide if this adventure is for you.
by Stephen Chenault
The criteria I use to evaluate a d20 adventure includes the following:
1. Interesting and varied encounters: I look for unique encounters, allowing for a variety of role and roll playing.
2. Motivations for NPCs and Monsters: or some detail of how they interact with their environment or neighbors.
3. Logical: the adventure should obey a sense of logic that clever players can use to their advantage.
4. Writing Quality: this includes foreshadowing, mystery, and descriptions that bring locations and NPCs to life.
5. Ease of DMing: Clear maps, friendly stat blocks, skill check numbers, player handouts and illustrations.
I don't give much weight to text density and cost per page... I'd rather pay a lot for a small clever mystery than pay a little for a huge repetitive monster bash.
I don't give much weight to new monsters, prestige classes, and magic items... they can add a little variety to an adventure, but to me they are minor decoration.
THE BASICS: (not exactly spoilers)
The adventure is 24 pages long, cover price of $6.95 American.
2 pages of credits/legal/advertising
2 pages of maps
1 page player handout
1 page of town adventure
18 pages of wilderness adventure
The adventure is designed for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5. The adventure consists mostly of a cross-country pursuit of a villian and his cohorts through sylvan woodlands.
Approximately 5 combat encounters
Approximately 5 non-combat encounters (negotiation, role-play).
Approximately 3 environment encounters (things to examine)
The combat encounters are appropriate to the character level.
The adventure is set in Troll Lord's World of Erde setting, with some predefined towns, roads, and locations. With minor DM preperation it could be dropped into any world or tweaked to fit with existing landmarks. The adventure is a 3E update of a 1E adventure.
THE SPECIFICS: (Some Spoilers Follow)
1. Interesting and varied encounters: (4/5) Each encounter is unique and requires different tactics by the players for the best resolution. There are some early decisions to be made on whether to pursue the villian or seek out authorities. There is an encounter that requires patience and good questioning with a difficult bystander, another which requires negotiation and possibly bribery with known enemies that can provide inside information or perhaps become allies. The combat encounters, while few in number, become much easier if the players use good tactics.
2. Motivations for monsters and NPCs: (5/5) All of the enemies actions obeyed a consistent logic. Thoughtful players may enjoy picking up clues and speculating about thier opponents.
3. Logical: (5/5) Everything follows a good internal logic. The adventure is short and straightforward, so this category should not be weighed too heavily.
4. Writing Quality: (4/5) The quality of the writing is excellent. The plot is compelling and the motivations for the players are strong. The adventure captures a great feel of mystery and fantasy. There is bolded text which can be read to the players, however much of this text explicitly describes players feelings. Although I find this only slightly bothersome, it is a major annoyance for many DMs... (you'll know if this is you).
5. Ease of DMing: (2/5) The map, which is located in the center of the book, has no distance scale, and no numbered encounters. Although it is fairly easy to match encounters to map locations, it is more difficult than it had to be, especially since some mapped locations have no write-up. The monster statistics are included with the text, which is nice, except that the statistics are not even close to those in the Monster Manual. There was a player handout which was effective and entertaining.
PLAYTEST RESULTS: (Major spoilers)
My players really enjoyed this adventure. They bit at the adventure hook faster than I've ever seen them before. They enjoyed the role-playing encounter with the Gnome Ian. Most of this was due to the high quality of Steven Chenault's writing.
Each of the major villians was so very far removed from Monster Manual statistics that I re-wrote them, and ended up with an adventure appropriate for 5th-7th level players:
The villian "Gristlebones" had no ranged attack and no ability to move. A single halfling commoner standing 30' away could eventually kill the main opponent simply by throwing rocks! Instead I used straight Treant stats and gave him a few nesting stirges to discourage attacks from levitating or flying player characters. The villian Quagmire was described as a troll, but did not have regeneration or several other key troll abilities... I rewrote Quagmire as a straight troll with 2 levels of barbarian. The villian "Gilliam" was a 'Dark Faerie', and rather than introduce a new race to my game, I used the statistics of a Pixie with 3 levels of Rogue. Finally, the Ungern was another new race that I did not want to introduce to my campaign, instead I used Orc cavalry (Orc Barbarians riding Dire Wolves).
I included two ordinary trolls during the first encounter, (looting a tavern and getting drunk), in order to give the party a taste of what they were up against. The white druid Cornelius was already dead rather than greviously wounded, and the players had to use spells to find out his information (speak with dead, speak with plant)... Cornelius revealed that he was killed by an invisible attacker. With Gilliam afoot, and permanently invisible, the party was afraid to sleep--lest they be coup-de-graced in thier sleep. This provided a great deal of tension in the mid-point of the adventure. The rest of the adventure was taken as-is, with the inclusion of Orc wolf-riders instead of Ungern. The players did not mind at all that some normally "good" fey were evil in the game... Gilliam's scarred face and Gristlebones' twisted trunk seemed adequate evidence to the players that each of them had suffered in the past and had turned evil over time.
FINAL WORD:
I am pleased with the adventure, and my players had a blast. I am rating it a very high 3/5... The kernel of the adventure and encounters was worth a 5, but the work necessary to make it playable knocked the score down significantly. If you always end up tweaking adventures and customizing monsters for your group, I highly reccomend this adventure (4 out of 5). If you like to play straight from the book with no prep time, you will be very disappointed (2 out of 5). As it is, I split the difference, but hopefully you know your tastes and can decide if this adventure is for you.
