ASC3 Review - Great Drum Primordial

Adventure Site Contest 3 review

This adventure was submitted for consideration in Adventure Site Contest 3 being run by Ben Gibson at Coldlight Press. It has been or will be reviewed by the official judges, who will be selecting the eight winning adventures. This is an unofficial review, which was written prior to reading (or watching) any of the official judges’ reviews. I will do my best to link to the official reviews at the bottom of the review.

I will use a five-star scale, based on both playability and interest:
*          Failing grade. The adventure doesn’t meet minimum standards of playability.
**         I could see running this, but it fails to inspire me or has significant playability issues.
***       I would consider running this.
****     I am considering running this.
*****   I want to run this. Now.

Great Drum Primordial
By Ethan B.
For AD&D
Level 6 (4-6 player characters)

Time to grok the adventure: 20 minutes (and counting)

Set-up:

There are two rival sages of natural philosophy. The first has constructed a site with a fake dinosaur-skin drum (he died); the second has gone to the site (he got caught in a trap laid by the first). Why the second went to the site is less clear: maybe to see the dinosaur skin, maybe to earn a 10,000 gp reward for live carnivorous ape specimen. 

It’s not really important to the adventure though, as the adventure is primarily concerned with the rivalry between a carnivorous ape tribe and an evil human tribe, each of which views the site as holy.

There will inevitably be a dust-up, and the question is how the party fits into the mess. 

No adventure hooks are provided. Maybe, like the second natural philosopher, the party is after the 10,000 gp reward.

Things I like:

The set-up feels like A Fistful of Dollars (two rival evil factions and a neutral interloper who plays them off each other).

Things to note:

Does it matter to the party that the dinosaur skin isn’t real? 

If the party is after the bounty, won’t they always side with the humans against the apes?

The “Savages” form a tribe hated by other locals. It is not clear whether the “other locals” are relevant to this adventure. 

“Blood diamonds” is used to refer to something other than blood diamonds.

As the author notes, conflict is likely between the apes and humans. Is the GM supposed to play out the skirmish in front of his or her players?

The outcome of any such skirmish is given by the author: one ape goes “apeshit” (technical term in this context) and kills some rank-and-filer, then the other apes flee. Huh? 

Does the ape go apeshit because it is wounded by human arrow fire? Is the rank-and-filer an ape (which give sense to the other apes’ flight)? Do we assume normal mass combat prior to this happening, with each side taking casualties until moral breaks for one side? Again, is the GM running all this in front of his bored players?

The order of battle refers to the Witch being present in disguise, intent on ambushing the party. Present where? Why does she want to ambush the party? 

If tunnel 15 is well-travelled by human and ape alike, how has the fire trap not already been triggered?

A ring of human influence with two charges. I did check to see that the ring is one of those few that the DMG says might have limited charges, but two? 

Rating:
**1/2  A novel adventure idea that I wanted to love

Links to official judges’ review:
(forthcoming)