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The Pit of Loch-Durnan
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<blockquote data-quote="Justin Bacon" data-source="post: 2008884" data-attributes="member: 3795"><p>The Pit of Loch-Durnan has a lot of problems:</p><p></p><p>The biggest and most glaring problem is apparent the instant you open this book up: The lay-out is atrocious. The illustrations are god-awful. The entire product reeks of amateurism from one end to the other. Radically different fonts are rammed up against each other; bold, italic, and underline text is rampantly overused; paragraph spacing is inconsistent at best, illegible at worst; and on and on and on. The only point of solace in the entire sorry mess is the front cover: If the entire product has been as good as the cover illustration there would have been spontaneous dancing in the streets when this module was released. (I may be exaggerating slightly there.)</p><p></p><p>The names of the NPCs here are of the "silly fantasy" variety. I mean, seriously: Gormon? Warphit? Sheepo the Goblin? Tippi the Ghoul? On the plus side, they’re pronounceable (unlike so many bad fantasy names). On the down side, I felt like I had been teleported into some sort of bizarre Sesame Street of Horrors.</p><p></p><p>The premise of the adventure, while playing with some interesting themes, is also incomprehensible: Why does the demon want the PCs to kill the goblins who are serving it? In fact, why does it want to invite adventurers into the Pit -- the only place where it can be destroyed?</p><p></p><p>Like I said, the themes being played with here -- notably the betrayal of the adventurers by the "innocent townsfolk" are intriguing (although they have been done before). But the actual execution is poorly done: As written, the PCs won't realize that they've been betrayed (in no small part because there's no logical reason for the betrayal) until AFTER they've destroyed the demon. This takes a serious edge of the adventure, and also provides serious moments of anti-climax.</p><p></p><p>The module is extremely inconsistent: NPCs know things without any explanation of HOW they know them. NPCs do things without any clear reason for doing them. Maps don't match the text; text doesn't match the maps. One room description doesn't match another. And so forth.</p><p></p><p>The Pit of Loch-Durnan isn't a complete waste of your time: With enough elbow grease you can polish it up into a very serviceable product. But that's an important caveat: The Pit of Loch-Durnan needs a lot of spit and polish... and patching... and reconstructive surgery.</p><p></p><p>[Elements of this review are rewritten from my RPGNet review of this product.]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Justin Bacon, post: 2008884, member: 3795"] The Pit of Loch-Durnan has a lot of problems: The biggest and most glaring problem is apparent the instant you open this book up: The lay-out is atrocious. The illustrations are god-awful. The entire product reeks of amateurism from one end to the other. Radically different fonts are rammed up against each other; bold, italic, and underline text is rampantly overused; paragraph spacing is inconsistent at best, illegible at worst; and on and on and on. The only point of solace in the entire sorry mess is the front cover: If the entire product has been as good as the cover illustration there would have been spontaneous dancing in the streets when this module was released. (I may be exaggerating slightly there.) The names of the NPCs here are of the "silly fantasy" variety. I mean, seriously: Gormon? Warphit? Sheepo the Goblin? Tippi the Ghoul? On the plus side, they’re pronounceable (unlike so many bad fantasy names). On the down side, I felt like I had been teleported into some sort of bizarre Sesame Street of Horrors. The premise of the adventure, while playing with some interesting themes, is also incomprehensible: Why does the demon want the PCs to kill the goblins who are serving it? In fact, why does it want to invite adventurers into the Pit -- the only place where it can be destroyed? Like I said, the themes being played with here -- notably the betrayal of the adventurers by the "innocent townsfolk" are intriguing (although they have been done before). But the actual execution is poorly done: As written, the PCs won't realize that they've been betrayed (in no small part because there's no logical reason for the betrayal) until AFTER they've destroyed the demon. This takes a serious edge of the adventure, and also provides serious moments of anti-climax. The module is extremely inconsistent: NPCs know things without any explanation of HOW they know them. NPCs do things without any clear reason for doing them. Maps don't match the text; text doesn't match the maps. One room description doesn't match another. And so forth. The Pit of Loch-Durnan isn't a complete waste of your time: With enough elbow grease you can polish it up into a very serviceable product. But that's an important caveat: The Pit of Loch-Durnan needs a lot of spit and polish... and patching... and reconstructive surgery. [Elements of this review are rewritten from my RPGNet review of this product.] [/QUOTE]
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