Author: Steve Honeywell
Publisher: Dog Soul Publishing
Format: Fully bookmarked Color PDF
Size: 97 pages + 73 map pages
Price:[ $11.00
What you get: The 97 page adventure PDF, and the 73 page PDF of all the maps, pre-tiled and ready to print in large, miniature scale format.
When I’m playing a game set in the modern world, I want things to be as realistic as possible. Even if the PC’s are casting spells, and chasing monsters, it helps the feel of the game if there’s still some level of realism. I still want the world to be basically the same. There should still be a president. My character should be able to shop at Wal-Mart. History should be more or less the same, with a few supernatural quirks added in.
One thing that helps add that feeling of reality is when a product is based on a real world location. White Wolf figured this out early on with their “Someplace by Night” line. Dog Soul Publishing has also figured this out, and made good use of the effect in their product Urban Legends – Oak Island Money Pit.
If you’re a fan of real world conspiracies and unsolved mysteries, then you may be familiar with the Oak Island Money Pit already. If not, don’t worry. Author Steve Honeywell has done a very thorough job of covering the history and mystery of this Canadian urban legend. For those unfamiliar with the tales, here’s a synopsis in a nutshell. In 1795 a visitor to Oak Island, just off the shores of Nova Scotia found what he believed to be a buried treasure. Since then, numerous people have spent ridiculous amounts of time, energy and money trying to find what is buried on the site. Bizarre coincidences, rumors and problems have thus far kept anyone from finding anything of value, but they have found just enough cryptic clues to keep them trying up to the present day.
This book presents all the information a Gm would need to incorporate the Oak Island Money Pit into their d20 Modern game. Essentially a large, open-ended adventure, Honeywell has added enough twists and turns to allow the Gm to expand this into a mini-campaign. One very nice touch is the wide variety of possible treasure contained in the pit. Honeywell includes all the current modern theories about the pit’s contents, including Templar treasure, or the wealth of Sir Francis Bacon, but he has also added enough supernatural possibilities that would make Oak Island an interesting locale for a game featuring more supernatural fx elements.
Research is always a big part of any modern adventure, and Honeywell has made sure to include plenty of history and rumors, along with appropriate DC’s to find this data. Even better, if like me, you allow your players to access the library or internet if their PC’s access the same materials, you’re in luck. Honeywell has helpfully included an excellent bibliography of books and websites that could make great props and resources when running this campaign. When my players wanted their PC’s to research the island, it helped set the mood, as well as focus the investigation to allow them to scour the listed websites.
Adding that focus to the adventure was important, because this adventure is very loose and open ended. Three basic plot hooks and a timeline of events are all the GM has to work with for this adventure. Once you get your PC’s to Oak Island, the adventure really hangs on the PC’s willingness to root out clues and talk to the parties involved. This is not your average d20 Modern “shoot-em-up”. This adventure is all about investigation, character interaction, and a big reveal at the end when we finally discover just what the GM has chosen to put at the bottom of the pit. It’s a refreshing change to find an adventure like this. These sorts of adventures are a real boon to the harried GM. It’s easy for a GM to pick a monster from a book, and give the team some reason to track it down. It’s a much bigger job to send your PC’s after a real mystery and plant the clues they will need to figure things out. In this respect, Urban Legends – Oak Island Money Pit really shines.
Another added value included in this file is a 73 page PDF that includes the maps and floor plans that will be needed during the game. If you like to use miniatures, tokens or counters during your games, then these pre-tiled maps will be a big help. I have just two complaints with the maps. First, I would have preferred to not have them pre-tiled, so that I could print out only the sections I want. However, I recognize that everyone using this product may not have the same printing capabilities I have, so I understand the need to keep things accessible to everyone. Second, the maps are all clearly labeled by room, with full room names. I would have preferred to just have numbers that matched a room key, so I could keep certain rooms secret until the PC’s enter them. Again, this is a minor complaint, and the solution was easy enough. I just kept the map off the table, or covered any hidden areas with other books or papers until I was ready to reveal them.
Conclusion: This is a complex product that will deliver exactly as much as the GM puts into it. Again, this isn’t a simple adventure. It has a lot of depth to it. There are numerous NPC’s with a variety of motivations that the GM will need to be familiar with. You’re not going to be able to skim this book an hour before game time and then run it. I reviewed the adventure for nearly a week before I ran it, and I still felt that I could have used a better familiarity with it. That’s not a complaint. I appreciate the detail and scope of the project. But aspiring GM’s would be well advised to do their homework before running his adventure. This is an excellent product, and one that will add a level of mystery and complexity to any d20 Modern game.
