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Blood in the Chocolate
by Meagan W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/26/2019 10:07:40

I had played in this adventure online. I thought it would be fun to run myself. After reading the entire adventure, I was suprised to see so much unconsentual sex. The DM who I played this game with left out that aspect, and I will be leaving that aspect out. It seems like it was just thrown in for the horror factor, and that's not ok. Which is too bad because it's otherwise very interesting, scary, and I loved the adaption of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Blood in the Chocolate
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LotFP Rules & Magic Free Version
by Caleb R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/12/2019 00:23:36

LotFP is one of the slickest OSR games out there, and the fact that this ruleset is available for free is awesome. I own the physical copy as well, and I would encourage anyone who enjoys the rules to do so - the art is phenomenal and the quality of the book is astounding (that binding is hardcore!).



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
LotFP Rules & Magic Free Version
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Fuck For Satan
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/09/2019 05:18:09

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 34 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, leaving us with 31 pages of content, laid out in 6’’ by 9’’ (A5). I own the Pdf-version of this supplement, and one of my generous supporters has sent me the softcover print copy of this adventure for my edification as well (#114 of 666); while the gentleman in question did not tell me to review the book at my earliest convenience, I’ve had it for a while, and so figured, it’d be time to cover this.

This module contains a drawing of a penis-shaped creature. If that offends you, steer clear.

Anyways, the first thing you need to know, is that this module is a farce, or, depending on your tastes and humor, a satire/response. This is not a form of judgment, it is an observation of what this offers, as it is nigh impossible to take a look at this review in a vacuum; this is very much a result of the internet. What do I mean by this? Well, as you may have gleaned from my reviews of the early Lamentations of the Flame Princess material, I do like the radically dark nature of many of these modules; I enjoy the bleak horror/dark fantasy angle for the most part. Here’s the thing: Even before the shock-for-shock’s-sake angle became so pronounced among the modules, there were plenty of folks that reviewed LotFP material, and quite a few of them were offended in their sensibilities.

That is every person’s prerogative, of course. Where I start taking umbrage, though, is how these reviews conveyed their displeasure and dislike. I usually try to keep away from other reviews to avoid coloring my own opinions…however, here, it was nigh impossible to do so. You see, one can state that one doesn’t like the BDSM-like humiliation games one of the NPCs in “Better than any man” proposes. Totally valid! But they were not mandatory to solve the module. They were not a crucial component of the adventure. One can say that “The Monolith Beyond Space and Time” is nigh unbeatable for your average dungeon-crawling group, and this would also be correct in a way…though the latter is clearly by design, and by genre. (See my review of that one and the assumptions of dungeoncrawling fantasy vs. investigative and methodical horror gaming.) I don’t want to tell anyone their opinions aren’t correct. However, I did read a bit of the outrage reception, of how the modules were condemned for being too deadly, arbitrary, etc. – and I couldn’t help but feel that many of them, either deliberately or due to their perception being colored by a kneejerk outrage response, failed to see the point of these adventures. There were valid points of criticism, sure – but some also were simply unfair.

I am not sure if this module is a form of resignation or a deliberate trolling; if this is the response of a wounded ego or a troll, or a combination thereof. But much like a certain book about crystal-headed clone children, this module took all those criticisms and molded them into a module. It quite deliberately creates the bad adventure that the often brilliant earlier LotFP-modules the author penned were made out to be. This means a couple of things: We begin with a multi-page spanning rambling diatribe of a thoroughly unpleasant, old-man; including a bonus-rant for games that feature demi-humans. We have a dungeon that indeed is there to be a pretty random and frustrating meat-grinder par excellence, and this “You want to see bad? You think my modules did this and that? Well, there you go!” response oozes from every page, every concept. In a way, this could be seen as a deliberately disjointed rebuttal in module form.

But…how does it work? What exactly does it contain? Well, in order to discuss that, we have to go into SPOILER territory. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion. … .. . All right, so, this nominally takes place in the Swiss town of Schwarzton. This may in itself be a pun. The German composite “Schwarz + Ton” would mean “shade of black.” If the common English town suffix “-ton” is instead referred to, it is a deliberate step back from the careful research that went into “Better than any man”, for example – “-ton” is not added as a town-suffix in German. There is a general, isometric overland map of the vicinity sans scale provided. I already mentioned the rambling, sexist, racist old geezer that acts as the central hook for the module. You don’t have to be a rocket-scientist to notice that this is a deliberate construction of the things LotFP was accused of.

There are kids missing, and a Satanist cult might be responsible. The PCs are pointed towards a complex, and then, suffering commences. The complex, you see, is a deliberate, ridiculous negadungeon (a deadly dungeon that will see the PCs worse off for having mastered it, if at all still alive) of the hardest kind. It’s not Grimtooth-level of ridiculous and gonzo; it can be beaten if you are careful, lucky and really understand how its aesthetics of in-game logic work, but oh boy. Oh boy.

But before we get to the dungeon, let’s talk briefly about the meta-aspects that we can see in LotFP-modules. (E.g. the chariot in “The God That Crawls”) – I don’t particularly like them, but they’re easy enough to ignore, and some common sense and caution can make them work. Perhaps you’re one of the persons that liked them. That’s totally valid. The complaints fielded against them depicted them as random and breaking immersion, and thus, the complex is front-loaded with one instance where the PCs can find a handout/book and beseech Twinkly the Star (as from that kid’s song), who doesn’t like the referee making the life of poor PCs a living hell. As such, there are 6 different effects like open rolls, 3 truthful responses, etc. – and these genuinely may be required to have a realistic chance of getting out of this module alive. Referees could contact an e-mail address and get a retaliatory benefit, custom-tailored for the first 250, but since I got the print version of the module as a donation, I did not claim that aspect of it. Still, it generates a rapport, which is per se an interesting aspect, even though I personally really don’t like it. That being said, this module basically requires Twinkly for the PCs to have a chance in the dungeon.

The second rebuttal of the “So random” claims would be the by now infamous solution of the module – the complex, the cult? Red herrings. The culprit is a relatively smart bear. Kill the bear, folks are safe. It’s a random encounter. Whether you consider that to be stupid or genius depends on your personal aesthetics and that of your gaming group.

Anyhow, the dungeon. It’s basically a super-twisted kind of containment facility, engineered by the Duvan-Ku (responsible for Death Frost Doom and tied to Death Love Doom, so if your players know these modules, they’ll at least be warned…). In a vermin-invested pit, there is a secret passage that leads to a room with levers. 3 of them, which can be in 3 positions each. These levers influence doors, deadbolt and open them, etc., and the table of their effects is almost a whole page long. It is pretty random, and while theoretically the PCs can learn by trial and error how you have to use these levers, it’s basically just a huge amount of methodical trial and error. It is deliberately not fun. It, ironically, with Twinkly and magic, may well be solved, making it more functional than quite a few modules I’ve read.

The general notion of being a farce extends to the entities contained within: We have, for example, the Half-Realized Poorly-Conceived Terror, which was, unless I’m sorely mistaken, one of the scathing condemnations of earlier LotFP-modules. It’s basically text that can come alive as some form of half-finished art. The creature’s attacks, though, are interesting, capable of leaving tattoos, transform items (or facial features) into lines, and could be considered to be genuinely creative and interesting. The same applies to the other creatures herein, most of which do also get their neat one-page b/w-artworks. There is, for example, a massive maggot-thing, the luck-sucker, which can fart a die-chain debuff (reduce die-size); It can theoretically be slain, but yeah – it’s super-deadly, and at 8 HD, a veritable TPK machine. Like the whole complex.

You see, the main treasure may be valuable, but it also is a super-deadly trap that will annihilate even mid-level parties. There is a way to get it, but it is predicated on not having plundered the complex or the dead bodies inside – and where showing respect for the dead made sense in previous modules, here, it’s just what the critics claimed it’d be. Random.

There is another first here, and one I really dislike: Namely random PC humiliation. There is a creature in the complex (the sole critter sans artwork) that is basically indestructible – a disembodied consciousness that makes the PCs piss and shit themselves, and then animates the feces to attack. And no, PCs can’t be “emptied”; this is not telegraphed in any way. Unlike the “humiliation for information”-angle in “Better than any man”, this is just random humiliation for humiliation’s sake – there is no player agenda or the like. There also is a sadistic trap that can see the PCs caught on an endless stair, though that one is at least creative in its devious implementation.

So yeah, this dungeon is a random, ridiculously lethal meatgrinder. It is a negadungeon that really wrecks PCs to bits, and it is not fair. Even dungeon-crawling veterans may well be TPK’d and call BS on quite a few aspects of this dungeon. Exploration is discouraged actively. (Come to think of it – the horror-end/sub-level at the end of “Better than any man”? You know the one where the character’s DEITY tells them to go back? Isn’t the like pretty much what some folks erroneously claimed that one would be?)

The whole dungeon atop the haunted hill feels like a caricature of a combination of “Death Frost Doom” and “Better than any man” to me.

Anyhow, the cult. If the dungeon is a scathing troll of the claims re dungeon-design and structure, the cult is all about the gritty stuff that more prude people may be offended by. The cult is basically a sex-cult that worships the penis-walker. I never though I’d write those words in sequence. The penis-walker is a ginormous, walking penis-shaped alien, with retractable filaments coming from the head. The entity is actually misunderstood; it’s a potent telepath/empathy of sorts, and it releases emotions as clouds – which are thoroughly misinterpreted by the primitive human brain. The poor, crash-landed dick-alien just wants home to its mate (who is, as it can glean, coupling with another member of its species back home), and the humans and their orgies? They miss the point. Not that the PCs will ever know. It takes Intelligence 30 to understand the penis-walker and realize that the whole satanic cult thing is actually a horrible misunderstanding. So, it’ll be more likely that the PCs slay the 0 HD creature. How the cult takes this? No idea. Nor do we get stats for the pseudo-satanic sex cultists. But, as noted before, this is another red herring. One that the PCs probably only notice if they observe the village, as opposed to running into the death trap dungeon…

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to a 2-column b/w-standard, and the module sports quite a few nice b/w-artworks. The handout letter is nice, and so is the cartography. The map of the dungeon, alas, does not come with a player-friendly, key-less version. The print copy is stitch-bound, and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

James Edward Raggi IV’s “Fuck for Satan” is basically post-modernism at its most hipster-like, in a negative sense, coming finally to RPGs. It takes the whole aspect of meta-playfulness with the reader/referee/player, and wraps it in a trollish “So you think that’s what I wrote? Well, all right, I’ll give you the hack job my modules ostensibly are!” One can’t help but feel a certain degree of admiration regarding the 0-fucks given attitude here.

Or, well, it could come off as someone deeply wounded by the often unfair criticisms fielded against work that did ooze passion, that was often smart and intricately detailed.

Either way, the adventure is not meant to be enjoyed on any traditional level, save that of detached irony and appreciation of how it lampoons module-structure and narrative tropes. It is, then, a testament to how bad plenty of adventures are, that I can genuinely point towards a whole slew of them and state that this is still better.

Indeed, there are plenty of good ideas in this book – it is not uncreative or per se slapped together, and if you need ideas to scavenge, there are quite a few of them to be found here. The module is also less “Lol, random everyone dies 1111onelevelen!” than the crystal-headed

children adventure, and more skill-based. There is a way to solve this, and one that does make sense. Is this fun? No.

It’s not designed to be fun. It can be an amusing experience, but the target-demographic of this module is very, very narrow. Most groups and referees will probably consider this to be a curiosity; as for actual play: There are certainly super-jaded roleplaying games veteran cynics out there that are bored by most commercial modules, because they’re too easy. If you want to test your mettle as a party against a module that is deliberately designed to screw you over, then this will deliver. This is a module that is very much worth trying to win, chuckle about how your PCs horrifically died, and then move on – if that is what you’re looking for. I’d firmly advise against using this in an ongoing campaign, unless your players are the best, most lucky, brilliant and jaded RPG-players ever. As a one-shot? Yeah, I can see it being “fun” for a very select group of people.

As a final aside: I really wish the author would go back to writing modules that are not like, well, this one. How to rate this? Oh boy. If one were to rate this as a satire, it’d be one in the tradition of Juvenal. There is no redemption here, just scathing bile. It’s the only true farce of a roleplaying game module I know of, and it achieves its obvious goals.

Reading it on a meta-level, as a cynical deconstruction of criticisms, of narrative structures, this has some value. But as a whole, I wouldn’t consider it to be compelling in the sense that even folks that adored e.g. “Death Love Doom” will necessarily subscribe to. For most groups, this will be a curiosity at best, and probably one they will never actually play. That being said, for the exceedingly narrow target demographic that this may cater to, there might be serious fun to be drawn from it. As such, my final verdict will clock in at 2.5 stars, and while most folks should probably round down (I know I’d consider this, as a person, at best a 2-star offering…), there’s a chance that you and your group might just fit this very niche audience; as such, my official verdict will round up, mostly due to in dubio pro reo.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Fuck For Satan
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LotFP Referee Book (old Grindhouse Edition)
by Justin H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/30/2019 12:05:45

I have come back to roleplaying after 30 years away and was looking for an appealling system (mechanically and stylistically) with which to run a campaign. I was intending to skim this referee book (as I had done with the free Rules and Magic book) in order to find out whether this was the system for me but I found it very compelling and ended up reading it thoroughly.

The author has strong opinons on what makes a good adventure and a good campaign. I found this reassuring. It felt like a strong base to work from. Late in the book, the author acknowledges that differences in style will mean that the advice here is not for everyone, but up until that point the information had a "one true way" flavour that I liked,

My only criticism is that I would have liked to see contrasting right and wrong examples to illustrate the author's assertions. The sample adventure (which looks like a lot of fun!) was exactly what I thought I was being warned against because it seemed to have a lot of NPC interaction. I obviously misunderstood this point and wondered what else I misunderstood. This would not stop me from using the LotFP system and I intend to try it out with the sample adventure.

The book is written with he/him as default pronouns.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
LotFP Referee Book (old Grindhouse Edition)
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She Bleeds
by Zarion B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/29/2019 05:44:25

This might sound harsh but to me this was a complete waste of money. It's a very detailed and well written description of something I'll never use in a game and I don't see it as much us for inspirational material either.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
She Bleeds
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Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/07/2019 06:57:37

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This adventure clocks in at 20 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 17 pages of content, which are laid out in 6’’ by 9’’ (A5), which means you could fit up to 4 pages on a sheet of paper, so let’s take a look!

This is an adventure intended for characters level 1 – 4, and it is one that can have some high-impact consequences. It should be known that, at level 1 and 2, the likelihood of PC death is pretty high. Compared to many Lamentations-modules, the adventure is not as lethal, though. The OSR-rules-set employed is obviously LotFP (Lamentations of the Flame Princess). The module does not feature read-aloud text.

While it looks cutesy, this is a pretty dark adventure (big surprise!), so no, this does not belong in the hands of kids.

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion. … .. . All right, only referees around? Great! So, King Connolly VI (or another minor king/lord/whatever have you…) is a bit of a racist prick. He started a pogrom against the local halfling populace…and only thereafter noticed that they made up for most of his income, being the manufacturers of luxury goods, apple brandy…and now the ruler wants the PCs to find the halflings that have escaped through the dark forest.

If you know Zzarchov Kowolski’s modules, you’ll notice a leitmotif here, and indeed, the first section of the adventure will have the PCs harry through the sheer endless forests. One encounter per 12 hours, different dice are used for day and night – and the exploration has an interesting angle: You see, the forest has a Dark Heart and actually hunts the PCs, at least in a way – depending on party composition, the dark heart will become more agitated…and it will be able to sooner or later form a dark avatar. From fearie knights to other, strange inhabitants, this first section is rather cool, but it should be noted that the stats are rudimentary: The statblocks note HD, armor in analogues (“armor as plate”), damage, and similar basics, but doesn’t provide the usual statblock segment we see in LotfP scenarios. It may not be issue for you, but it represents an unnecessary comfort-detriment for the referee. As a nitpick: The font used for the random encounters section is different. On the plus-side, we do get a rather interesting table of changes that are wrought upon PCs, should they choose to imbibe some potentially mutating mushrooms.

The module takes a complete 180° towards the weird promised by title and cover once the PCs find a hedge – moving through it will deposit them in basically a demiplane, where mild and honey literally flow. A candy-based place, where all the halflings have gone and no inhabit a gingerbread village in the shadow of an ivory tower. Obese and unhealthy, they smile neurotically, and indeed, from the pink poodles to the happy cupids flirting through the air to the teddy-bear patrol…this place is actually a nightmare.

The PCs will get to see as a halfling is rounded up, impaled, and then his guts are used for the happy, mandatory maypole dance – unless the PCs want to take up arms against the cutesy bringers of death. The fully mapped gingerbread village doesn’t offer much beyond this scene, though – no NPC personalities or the like.

Instead, the pdf pretty much clearly shows what the PCs are supposed to do – enter the ivory tower and confront the lord of the place – Mistysparkles. A pastel-blue unicorn with pink Pegasus wings. Who happens to be a true sadist. Alas, this fellow is far beyond the capabilities of the PCs to defeat, so smart players are required here. How did this place come to be? Well, you see, there is a portal towards an interstellar void, in which an idol stands. Devoted to a trickster god, it allows for wishes, but adds something to them – here, the result was “…or else!”, added to the wish for universal happiness. Mind you, clever players can actually deduce how this statue works! It should also be noted, that the module can end in a variety of ways. The girl that uttered the wish is actually kept drugged and docile. How to deal with here depends on your proclivities, but the wish must end in some way...

The module also features 5 different magic-user spells that are pretty interesting: Two of the deal with the gingerbread curse, which can make your hit point loss really hurt…or revert becoming cookie-like. As a cool aside: While partially gingerbread-ified, you will always outrun pursuers! That made me laugh. Nightmare fuel lets you animate toys with unholy life (hint: risky!), and there is an interesting spell called fireworks. It has you roll d6s for damage, but only 1s and 6s are applied…all others are rolled again next round, until they come up as 1s or 6s, making this hilariously chaotic. Rainbow bolt is another pretty chaotic spell, but it’s a direct damage spell, which feels a bit odd for LotFP. (There is also a wand for these included.)

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, but not as tight as usual for LotFP. Layout adheres to a 1-column b/w-standard, and the interior artwork…is b/w and okay. Very comic-like. This also holds true for the maps provided, which lack scale etc. They are not particularly useful and represent a weakness of the scenario. On the plus-side, the pdf comes with excessive bookmarks, making navigation easy. I only own the pdf version, so that’s the only one I can comment on. Zzarchov Kowolski’s “Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess” is an interesting, hyperglycemic nightmare – at least in the second part. The first part is wood-crawling excellence, as expected by the author that brought us the fantastic “Gnomes of Levnec” and “A Thousand Dead Babies,” two dark-fantasy wood-crawls he released under his own label. That being said, apart from the sheer oddity of the second part of the module, there isn’t much going on within this weirdness – it ultimately just works as dressing for the encounters: There is not much going on in the second part of the adventure. The design as a free-form “This is what’s here, insert PCs” is great and all, but no matter how you use the second half, there isn’t much to work with, at least not without expanding the material on your own. All in all, I couldn’t help but feel that this one is weaker than the author’s other , aforementioned “Dark Wood”-focused adventures with weirdness sprinkled in. My final verdict will hence clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo – if you’re looking for a wacky, but dark baseline or a pretty quick to run/prepare scenario, this’ll deliver.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess
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LotFP Rules & Magic Full Version
by david w. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/02/2019 19:31:00

I heard a lot of good things.. but I'm sorry, I find this ruleset unbelievably stupid. The HUMAN fighter is the only class that improves in combat ability. That includes Dwarves and Elves. After that I closed the book.

there are some interesting rules changes, and the art is really good... but I'm not going to be able to get past the silly fighter rules.

Also, the PDF opens up two pages at a time, making viewing it on a tablet, or actually printing it out impossible.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
LotFP Rules & Magic Full Version
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She Bleeds
by Alexander D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/31/2018 18:43:00

This is a wonderfully creative RPG supplement, and a thoroughly enjoyable read to someone with the right sensibility for it. I don't know if this will ever see use in any of my gaming, just because it might not be to the taste of my group members, but who knows? Reading through this certainly nudged my attitudes towards some subject matter more positively just a little bit, and I had thought I was already a pretty open minded guy. It's inspired me to want to know a lot more about traditional witchcraft, the parts covered up by history as written by the winners. I'd go so far as to call it maybe the most valuable read I've ever had in an RPG supplement I can think of, even if its contents don't directly end up in my game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
She Bleeds
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Better Than Any Man
by Jorge J. V [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/10/2018 21:07:26

Is there such thing as perfection? If this module/sandbox/mini-setting is not the perfect product for your roleplaying games (OSR or otherwise), then it's the closest to be it.

There is a dark plot here, one that will happen whether the adventurers (PCs) take part in or not; oh, that doesn't mean the result will be the same, by god, no! It means that there is a story that happens if the players don't get involved, but getting involved will change the story, at least to a degree.

But they don't have to get involved if they don't want to, there are lots of stuff to be done in the area: exploring witched, fighting thieves, helping peasants (or abusing them), dethroning a "theocracy", profiting of other's misery, and more. What's not to love here?



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Better Than Any Man
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James Edward Raggi IV's Eldritch Cock
by Jorge J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/10/2018 13:55:56

Disclaimer: You might not like it. That's fine. That doesn't mean it should not exist.

It's an excellent supplement, a new magic system, based in Vancian magic, to be sure, but with a weird and smart twist: all spells are level one, you can cast the best spells sine day one, before real life gets in the way and the campaign comes to a premature end.

The magic spells are original, the joke in the title is not followed by the content of the book, it was just a joke. The spells are solid and brand new, interesting and can transform you campaign in unforseen ways, which is a good thing.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
James Edward Raggi IV's Eldritch Cock
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Tower of the Stargazer
by Theodore S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/06/2018 15:12:09

Ran as a one shot using Maz Rats rules with 3 players, as a DM I only read about 1/3 before running at the table. IT WENT AWESOME. The text and diagrams make it easy to run with low prep. I just added a little bit of a hook to get the adventures interested and away we went. 2/3 characters died awesome deaths near the end and the last player lucked out and was able to solved the Treasure Room and walk away a rich man.

Love the weird aspects and made for a memorable game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Tower of the Stargazer
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Death Love Doom
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/02/2018 05:29:11

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This adventure clocks in at 24 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages of content, laid out in 6’’ by 9’’ (A5). Unlike many books laid out this way, the module does have quite a lot of content per page, so bear that in mind. I do own the print version of this module – it’s a softcover with a detachable sleeve that has the maps on the inside. As a HUGE plus for everyone looking to play this online, it should be noted that the pdf is layered, and allows you to turn off the map labels. Big plus!

This review was requested by one of my patreons, to be undertaken at my convenience.

Anyhow, as you may have noticed, this is suggested for mature audiences only. 18+. Usually, such ratings stem from (at least to my European sensibilities) pretty harmless cartoon nudity. Not so here. This haunted house module deserves the hardest of hard R-ratings you can imagine.

Indeed, I should note that this module will NOT be for everyone. In fact, it may only be suitable for a very select audience. And yes, that includes folks that otherwise enjoy Lamentations of the Flame Princess releases. If you have a trigger, then chances are pretty high that this module will hit it.

If grotesque, explicit and excessive illustrated violence, including mutilations of infants and children offend you, then steer clear. Same goes if grotesque and disturbing images of nude cartoon people disturb you. More than that, I’d like to strongly dissuade anyone suffering from depression or recuperating from it from playing this module, particularly if the like was prompted by a break-up/infidelity/failing relationship. The tone herein is allcaps GRIMDARK. This, in a way, is abyss-gazing; pure unadulterated misery. If you’re the referee, please make sure that your players can handle this adventure.

This becomes pretty evident from the author’s notes, who therein admits this module to have sprung from a nasty breakup, which, while good, first meant that hell would reign for a while – metaphorically, of course. In a way, this reminded me of some of my own best modules for my home-games in tone. In a way, the emotional struggle and pain are very much palpable in the grim and unrelenting hopelessness and misery this depicts; at least to me, it is pretty much evident that this is a form of catharsis, a transformation of traumatic experiences into a module. It is hard to explain, but unlike many dark modules out there, “Death Love Doom” very much carries this relentless bleakness with it throughout. It made me gulp. The catalogues regularly state that this is not a module to be enjoyed, but one to be endured. This is, for once, not ad-speak hyperbole. Reading this, when you’re already emotionally exhausted, can be draining; same goes for prepping and running this.

Who should consider reading on, then? Well, do you enjoy horror? Can you stomach gut-wrenching misery and excessive gore? Do you enjoy transgressive fiction and/or abyss-gazing? I know that I, personally, can draw strength from media depictions of atrocious misery, but plenty of people don’t work that way. If that sounds like something that you and your group could enjoy, then read on!

As far as rules are concerned, the module uses the Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP)-OSR-rules, but conversion to another old-school system is easy enough. The module works best for characters level 1 – 4, and as a whole, the group’s composition is less important than in many other modules. The module does not feature read-aloud text for the respective locations.

All right, this is as far as I can go without diving deep into SPOILER-territory. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

..

.

All right, only referees around? Great! So, it’s the year 1625, and the wealthy merchant Erasmus Sylvester Foxlowe, hasn’t been seen or heard from after receiving his latest shipment of imported deals, and the man lives in the Bloodworth House, a manor, near London, with his wife, mother and 4 children. Some gangs have been spotted casing the joint, expecting rich pickings. Of course, adventurers in LotFP are assumed to be misfits of a sort who can’t be bothered to get a proper job, so warning Foxlowe (or stealing all his belongings themselves!) may well be up their agenda.

The manor and its surrounding grounds are fully mapped, and the referee determines the position of the mobile, named adversaries at the start of the module, adding a certain chaos-factor to the proceedings. 12 different rumors are provided for your convenience. Checking out the stables, the PCs can make their first grisly find – a retainer, who had his head removed, and a horse’s head sewn on. That’s NOTHING compared to the horrors that have taken a hold of the manor.

You see, Erasmus hired a nanny to help his wife to help her, due to the demands of his job – said nanny turned out to be Sabrina Newguard, and he did fall madly, horribly, in love with her. So far, so cliché. However, unlike what you might expect, Foxlowe managed to keep it in his pants. Instead, a gift he presented his wife to quench his guilty conscience for his fantasies turned out to be the deadly Necklace of the Sleepless Queen, an item of the most profound morbid power. Sporting the dead sign on its inside, it is activated by handed from one lover to another person loved: The act then summons forth…the THING. This entity is accompanied by two psychic drones, the flesh-movers, which take “the lovers” – here, Erasmus, the giver, and the object of his love, Sabrina. After these somewhat insectoid, incorporeal things have parasitically merged with the two, the thing and its drones proceeded to twist the other family members, into grotesque shapes designed to inflict maximum pain while keeping them alive. Oh, and the flesh-movers will keep the two conscious. Basically, everyone has been transformed into grotesque tableaus of suffering. Applying curative magics sans surgery will fix these forms in place, dooming the unfortunates, and surgery has ridiculously low chances of saving anyone – and in many a case, the resulting survivor would pretty much be a paraplegic. That’s the best possible outcome. Told you this’d be dark.

How grotesque? Oh boy. So, Erasmus and Sabrina have insectoid things on their back, are fully cognizant of what happens, but are not in control of their bodies, as the flesh-mover can lash forth with a poisonous stinger from Sabrina’s vagina. Erasmus instead had his genitalia impaled from the back and now shoots acidic, black sludge from his penis. Yes, there are artworks for both. These are perhaps the most harmless ones. The maddened grandmother Penelope has replaced her nipples with her eyeballs and keeps her torture-instruments stuck in the raw meat of her genitalia. Her attacks, when scoring the occult “8” as damage (a leitmotif in LotFP), can rearrange her victims.

The 1-year-old-infants are particularly chilling: One of them has had his limbs amputated and sewn on to his brother. Instead of his limbs, pseudo-clock like limbs have been attached, his eyes removed and replaced with a grotesque pair of glasses, a clock set in the chest cavity. Touching the fellow, getting close, may mean rewinding the time for the horrors already defeated, which can be super-deadly. The limbs missing from the poor toddler? They’ve been sewn on to his brother, who had the top half of the skull removed, the brain lying there, bare, with eyes and nerves similarly still attached. The chest cavity has been opened, and in full-blown misery-mode, many of these unfortunate kids feature gold in their bodies – taking it kills the respective kid. Did I mention the castrated boy who had his teeth removed and limbs/heads sewn back on in the wrong way? The girl turned chandelier? What about Myrna, Erasmus wife, who had a miscarriage and who is now dragged around by her innards, courtesy of the undead foetus that was once to become her youngest child in a horrid twist that should be considered to be the utmost bleakest possible twist on anti-natalism? Even witnessing the latter can utterly. All of these folks are still ALIVE. And yes, we get b/w-artworks. Usually, Kelvin Green’s comic-like art style would make these look less…disturbing, but he has actually managed to make them feel even more twisted than they’d otherwise look.

Told you that this was twisted, right? I did warn you. And yes, the descriptions are VERY detailed.

The thing, just fyi, can’t really be slain, and the amulet is similarly nigh indestructible, increasing its value constantly – the fallout from this module for PCs managing to survive the encounters with the horrors within will be serious.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no serious glitches on a formal or rules-language level. Layout adheres to a 2-column b/w-standard, and the pdf has plenty of original b/w-artworks that illustrate the gruesome fates of the poor NPCs within. The softcover, as noted, is a nice little booklet, and the pdf has a plus in that its cartography is layered and thus, player-friendly. Really nice to see.

Oh boy. James Edward Raggi IV knows how to create nightmare fodder. Far beyond mere gore, far beyond the usual dark fantasy/horror-angle of his books, this is gut-wrenching misery, truly frightening gore and twisted body horror of the most explicit kind. If grimdark misery and pain, hopelessness and an acceptance that, sometimes, killing an innocent may be the only viable option, then this could well be for you. This is apex-level dark, as the rewarding for bad behavior, the futility of trying to be good, makes this, even for LotFP, easily the darkest, most twisted adventure/supplement in the whole catalogue.

To the point where, in spite of my own predilections, I am frankly not sure whether this could be called “fun” – it’s an experience, and a depressing and twisted one at that. It’s a module that might well be used as a threat, as a dark consequence of PC behavior. It’s perhaps the only commercial module I have ever read that managed to genuinely make me uncomfortable with its depictions of misery and pain beyond measure.

Let me make that abundantly clear: If you think that LotFP’s usual material is “too dark” or “borderline”, then this may not be for you. If LotFP’s regular modules, on a color-scale, were black, then this is frickin “vantablack”; a whole different level of darkness, sadness, and grotesque horror. I’ve had this module for more than a year now, and to this day, I am not sure I actually like it or consider it to be too much to stand.

Thankfully, as a reviewer, deciding that is not my task. On a formal level, this is a precise module that succeeds very well at what it attempts to do. It sets out to achieve exactly that reaction. If I were to criticize something, then that the house itself is simply not as interesting as in the author’s other modules. Having a series of nasty traps set up by Penelope as they explore, a bit more dynamic elements, would have further enhanced the replay-value. Provided you want to play this more than once.

How to rate this? Well if the above has managed to offend you in any way, then steer clear. For folks triggered by any of the dark themes within, this most certainly is not suitable. If you can stand the darkness, if you want to experience a truly abyss-level dark adventure that manages to be somewhat psychological in its grotesque gore, then this might work out rather well. As a whole, I think that the module succeeds in what it tries to do. As such, my final verdict will be 4 stars. Caveat emptor, though.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Death Love Doom
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Tales of the Scarecrow
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/25/2018 06:04:12

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This short roadside-encounter/mini-adventure clocks in at 10 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

All right, so this pdf comes with a pretty nice layout that presents some creepy shades in the background; in the pdf, which is layered, these may be turned off. The pdf features nice b/w-cartography, which unfortunately does not feature grids. In a slightly puzzling decision, the layered pdf does have an option to turn on/off grids etc., but this does not influence the keys of the map, meaning, alas, that you can’t make the maps player-friendly. My review is based on the pdf-version, and I do not own the print-version of this booklet.

The old-school ruleset employed within would be the LotFP-rules (lamentations of the Flame Princess), but as always, they allow for pretty easy conversion to other old-school rulesets. As far as level-range is concerned, this is probably best used in conjunction with low- to mid-level PCs; I’d recommend at least 2nd level PCs, unless you’re going for an everyone-dies/becomes insane-Cthulhu-purist-style scenario.

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

..

.

All right, only referees around? So, there is a truly verdant field of corn by the wayside, with a single path leading towards an old and somewhat dilapidated farmstead. If the PCs walk in and investigate (perhaps due to a hook or somesuch), the corn will pretty quickly close ranks; inside the farmstead, a place of horror awaits: Adventurers/relic-hunters have met a truly grisly doom. With the investigation showing even resorting to cannibalism. Among their possessions are three important magical items: The Malleus Deus, a grimoires that allows magic-users to cast cleric spells…and prevent ANY cleric witnessing them doing so from ever casting that spell ever again. Suffice to say, the Vatican has been known to kill pretty much everyone who even knows of the book, much less owns it…

The second artifact would be the sword which is uncertain, which treats all targets as AC 14, but all attack rolls of 16 or 17 strike a random, non-intended target instead for double weapon damage – and if no eligible target is available, the strike is banked for a future attack…this is a devilish angle for a cursed blade. Really cool!

The final item found within would be the grimoires that is known as Tales of the Scarecrow, a horror-anthology, where the PLAYERS get to weave each a brief horror-story of powers pertaining the (otherwise mostly harmless) scarecrow in the fields. Sure, touching it initiates a HP-countdown due to its vile energies, but that’s it. The PC who weaves the best horror story has it come true…and they may not share them or write them to screw over specific characters. Oh, and the PC whose nightmare becomes reality gets an XP-bonus. Cool exercise in fireside-style cooperative narration here!

…but, you know, there are more issues here. You see, in the corn, there are tentacles. There is a Great Old One-class huge monster below the corn, which is responsible for the fecundity of the field. It is limited in how many tentacles it can send forth and how it can consume victims, but it basically represents one horrific mousetrap to escape from (No, flight is not the instant-win-card…) even before the player’s tales are woven into the scenario. Oh, and between dangerous parasites and a thoroughly traumatized survivor, a super-unwieldy harpsichord would make for an amazing treasure that would yield an excellent price…but how to get it out?

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level – I noticed no serious snafus. Layout adheres to an impressive 2-column b/w-standard, and the pdf sports impressive b/w-artworks as well. This is a beautiful booklet. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, but unfortunately does not make full use of its layered nature.

James Edward Raggi IV’s “Tales of the Scarecrow” makes for a rewarding, deadly and horrific sidetrek thoroughly suitable for Halloween, one that thankfully steers clear of the old and tired “animated scarecrow”-trope in favor of a more interesting set-up where player-ingenuity ultimately depends whether they’ll live or die. (As an aside, recognizing the truth could be an adequate end for a one-shot in the vein of purist Cthulhu modules, where everyone dies or becomes insane…) So yeah, this is a fun supplement, available for a more than fair price. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t have to. As written, I consider this to be well worth a final verdict of 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Tales of the Scarecrow
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The God that Crawls
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/23/2018 07:27:51

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 57 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page backer-thanks, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 50 pages of content, laid out in 6’’ by 9’’ (A5)so let’s take a look!

This adventure is intended for a group of characters level 1 – 2, and one could argue that pretty much any party composition could be capable of besting it. In fact, this module could, theoretically, be run for a single character, but I’ll elaborate on that later. The ruleset used would be, no surprise there, LotFP (Lamentations of the Flame Princess), but, as always, translation to other old-school systems is pretty easy.

As far as difficulty is concerned, this may be one of the more forgiving LotFP-modules; in fact, I’d argue that it is one of the fairest, perhaps the fairest of the LotFP-modules. Save or suck, whether earned or not, or the like does not greatly influence the design-paradigm employed within. Instead, this is very much an adventure, where the greed of the PCs and players ultimately determines the difficulty and consequences of the adventure. It should be noted that the adventure has fallout potential that can change the course of campaigns, but more on that later.

My review is primarily based on the softcover of the module; one of my patreons donated the funds to acquire it for the purpose of a review at my convenience. I chose this time of the year for obvious reasons – this is a unique change of pace as far as horror-adventures are concerned.

I also own the pdf, and while the pdf is layered, there is, alas, no option to render the maps player-friendly, i.e. get rid of the keys denoting keyed encounters or the like. That being said, handing out a map to the players, in this instance, would be super counter-productive due to the whole angle of the adventure, so this, for once, gets a pass in that regard. The map does note places where the structures are instable and can be collapsed for brief respites from the threats within. More on that later. The layers in the pdf do allow you to turn off images and background and make it more printer-friendly, should you choose to print it.

It should be noted that this is NOT an adventure that you can easily run spontaneously – there is no read-aloud text, and the module demands that a referee is rather familiar with the peculiarities of the dungeon-complex featured within. Having to look up stuff can, in this instance, be even more of a mood-killer than usual, so if you plan to run this, do your prep-work, and do it thoroughly. If you have an excellent memory or are a veteran referee, then you should have no serious issues running this.

All right, this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

..

.

Okay, only referees around? Great!

So, the PCs are on their way to some place in the English country-side, but the module may, with a bit of reskinning, easily relocated to another place; there are rumors of a heresy or cult or somesuch, and the thus the PCs visit an old country church, where Reverend Elroy Bacon lives. This church is fully mapped and sports some interesting and creative artworks on display – while these are only described, they can provide a bit of a nice levity before the module turns dark.

You see, the rumors of the cult here? They’re, in a way, a kind of double-bluff: Yes, there is a “cult” of sorts, but it’s actually just a front for a secret religious order that conceals a great shame for Christianity, namely the true fate of none other than Augustine of Canterbury. Contrary to popular belief, the missionary did not die 604 AD. Paralyzed via poison, he was buried alive and then re-excavated from the lightless depths of his grave, only to be transformed into a horrid, shapeless mockery of his erstwhile form – the eponymous God That Crawls. It is a form of esprit de l’escalier that this transformation turned the man basically immune to the ravages of time. The conspiracy that began as pagan punishment became a cult, and when the Normans came, the cult was found, the goal, obviously, to keep the truth of Augustine’s state from ever coming to light.

Yeah. This does not bode well for the PCs. It should also be noted that clever PCs can find documents in the reverends room that, in a subtle manner, show the PCs how deep the conspiracy actually goes – these permits stretch back for years, and indeed, signatories are noted on a massive 2-page list. In another module, not even one would be given, so kudos for the obsessive attention to detail here! Now, the beginning of the module hinges on the PCs going down into the catacombs of the church, the place where the God That Crawls, looms, and a couple of simple deception angles are provided – this, in a way, represents a bottleneck for the referee to navigate, and the options, from drugged wine to force, could work, but depending on the paranoia level of your players, this may actually be the hardest part to pull off. Hence, my suggestion: Make the reverend own up to the catacombs being forbidden and warded, and hold a mass to “sanctify” the PCs so they don’t trigger the wards; all the villagers will proudly gaze upon the intrepid explorers, as they partake in drugged wine during the mass, only to have them wake at the bottom of the pit. This contextualizes the whole experience and appeals to player-ego, which may work for some PCs. Otherwise, another suggestion would be to have the villagers and reverend create a deliberate opening for infiltration. Both, at least to me, are a bit more subtle and likely to work than the suggestions presented, but that may just be me. After almost 20 years of suffering through my often sadistic GMing, my players are a tad bit paranoid, but I digress.

The dungeon presented is a remarkable, catacomb-like maze with tight tunnels and cells, spanning no less than 3 levels. In the print version, the map is on a fold-out in the back, with a stunning artwork of none other than Jason Rainville on the back. The bottom of the pit is covered in slime, for that is what the God That Crawls has become – a nigh-unstoppable slimy moloch that oozes through the claustrophobic tunnels. Stairs and ladders connect the three levels in a ton of connection points, and this is where the module becomes basically a survival-loot-run: The God That Crawls can theoretically be slain by feeding it clerics and thus reducing its regeneration, but that is EXTREMELY unlikely; the more likely outcome here would be that the PCs will be running. A LOT.

As such, the modules lists the modalities of running from the god, navigating stairs and traps and the like, in great detail, and provides two means for the referee to simulate the presence of the God That Crawls – one that has him spawn in, while the other meticulously tracks its movements. Which one you prefer is a matter of personal taste. I gravitate towards the harder choice of having him tracked properly, but your mileage may vary.

Now, if the villagers managed to drug/capture/fool the PCs, they will begin a ruckus to alert the creature pretty much immediately – and form then onwards, it’ll be the PLAYERS, not the PCs, who determine the difficulty of the adventure. You see, there are A TON of treasure caches denoted by Christian symbols – but breaking these open increases the chance of alerting the God That Crawls. (And yes, a generator is provided for these.)

In a way, this is akin to games like the Clocktower franchise or Haunting Ground when executed properly, as the God That Crawls shows up, resulting in panic and frantic escape. That being said, there is one point of criticism I have here: The God That Crawls is not a particularly interesting chase monster. There is one note of it reacting to mass by swaying in trance, but that’s about it. It doesn’t have unique reactions to certain areas, it doesn’t have unique set-piece reactions beyond follow and consume. Now, I get why that’s the case – it makes it a singularly determined and alien force, and it allows for some breathing room regarding the second leitmotif of the adventure, one that is not explicitly spelled out anywhere in the text of the module, or other reviews.

The God That Crawls, essentially, is an implacable and indestructible warden of sorts. Beyond the mundane treasure-caches, there are plenty of rooms here that contain evil, or at least extremely problematic, items. In a way, while reading this, I had this one impulse: “This is basically an SCP containment facility, fantasy edition!” There are a lot of rooms here that contain items that could be considered to be heretical and even deadly. There is, for example a gem in Null Space beyond a mirror, which may well se a character trapped there forever; there is a pin that makes a disgusting tumor grow slowly, which then proceeds to become a monster under its former host’s command. There is an invisible chair, a room that can make a silver coins gold, there are cursed statuettes that can garner obedience… and there is the spear of Longinus, which is surprisingly weak-sauce for such an artifact. It bypasses all immunities and armor, sure, but it also makes you anathema to the divine…so think well before picking it up. There is a text that could ignite horrific forms of anti-Semitism if circulated, courtesy of its despicable lies; there is a diamond that increases in worth if fed with blood…you get the idea.

Two of the items contained in this dungeon deserve special mention, with the first being the chariot of unreality, just the axle, actually. It’s magic, engulf a chariot affixed in flames, and may pull the PCs beyond space and time! And yes, the item actually comes with a warning. A spelled out warning. In game. If the PCs still go and do it…their problem. Anyway, the chariot may have the PCs vanish – if that happens, their character sheets are put in letters, which are then to be placed around public places. If they are returned, the PCs get XP, if not, the PCs are forever lost. Now, it should be obvious that this is a meta-item and somewhat experimental. I wouldn’t use this approach in e.g. New York City or the like, but yeah – it’s interesting. The chariot can also evaporate PCs if they take a specific amount of damage – reacting to that with humor is intended to be rewarded, which is a nice idea.

The second item would be The Book. Its write-up is a whole 6 pages long, and it is one of the most twisted, genuinely creepy artifacts I have ever encountered in a roleplaying game. It has been separated into different parts, so-called signatures, and these do contain a whole array of rather potent and unique spells; writing on it states that it must be assembled or kept apart and researching it…well, is nigh impossible. Why? Because The Book corrupts information. The more signatures are assembled, the more deadly it becomes, as everything starts unraveling – the item can well destroy all of existence, corrupting math, planes and the like. Beginning the process of assembly, having it fall into an enemy’s hands and then stopping it would be an amazing, utterly horrific campaign of apocalyptic proportions. I adore it. Unfortunately, I adore it more than pretty much anything else in the module.

In a way, the module may be too successful at its SCP-angle for its own good. The creepy and dangerous items with the God That Crawls as a kind of warden make for a super-unique angle, but one that would make more sense, at least to me, in the Vatican or a similarly heavily fortified place, framed by a heist narrative. The vast impact of the items and their religious significance in a couple of cases ultimately mean that it was a bit hard for me to suspend my disbelief regarding how they ended up so comparatively poorly guarded.

They also, in a way, dilute the focus, away from the survival horror aspect of the constant threat of the God That Crawls. The magical items and their cool angles stand in no true relation to the God That Crawls, and while PCs will probably experiment with a few of them/take them with them, the two focuses of the adventure never wholly align. Don’t get me wrong: They don’t impede each other in a crucial manner, and in a way, the dangerous items represent the true price to be gained here, but still. A sense of disjunction never wholly left me. That being said, this may well never actually come up in play for your group, as the whole containment site angle is very much a place that the players are not guaranteed to find or explore in detail.

Groups that find them, that are excited by the items may well consider the God That Crawls to be a nuisance of sorts, while paranoid/careful groups may well only encounter one or two, or even none of the items prior to escaping. Granted, most of these items are separated from the God’s roaming grounds by a chasm that it can’t cross, allowing for plenty of experimentation, but ultimately, the items, to me, somewhat diluted the frantic pace of the adventure.

If you manage to get the God That Crawls hunting the PCs done right, if you manage to incite the panic this module goes for, then the items will be less of a point of interest. This, in a way, ties in regarding my previous observation – the God That Crawls, in lack of a better term, doesn’t have a particularly compelling “AI”; adding a couple of “scripted” encounters is easy and should not overexert the prowess of any referee. Still, adding a couple of unique behavior patterns to keep up the pressure would have made the creature more compelling, at least for me. To give you an example: Within aforementioned chasm, there are mini-gods, split off over the century from the horrid slime-thing. They can’t, RAW, escape, but having conditions to free them would have made this more interesting – as would having the God That Crawls exhibit a kind of animal cunning, a couple of unique responses. The module, for example, allows the PCs to initiate collapses to get a respite from the God That Crawls – making the creature affect, at least potentially, the integrity of the complex, making it cut off PC routes and the like, would have added a whole new realization of terror here. Granted, once more that is easy enough to implement, but yeah.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level – I noticed no grievous glitches on either levels. Layout adheres to a two-column b/w-standard and manages to present quite a lot of content per page. The artworks by Jason Rainville are excellent, top-tier – no surprise there. The cartography by Devin Night is also full-color and neat. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, and the softcover print version is a nice book.

James Edward Raggi IV’s “The God That Crawls” is a module I wrestled with for a while. It plays better than it reads, courtesy of the smart design of the complex, and it requires some serious prep-work by the GM to become familiar with the complex and the plethora of stairs and ladders connecting the levels. It does reward the referee for doing so with the best execution of its trope I have seen in quite a long while, though. This is a good module, one could even argue it to be great. However, as discussed in the SPOILER-section above, it doesn’t feel as “whole” as e.g. “Death Frost Doom”, “The Grinding Gear” and some other early modules penned by the author. It has all the trademarks you’d expect: Lavish attention to detail, a bit of meta-game shenanigans, horrific stuff that can happen to the PCs, a focus on player-agenda over character-agenda, a focus on letting the greed of players/PCs dictate, in a way, the difficulty of the adventure…it’s all there. This module, in spite of my nitpicking above, is one that is definitely worth owning.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake that feeling, that, with a big more unique set-pieces pertaining the primary antagonist within, with a tighter focus or a more expansive scope, this could have been legendary. With a couple more pages to add a few unique reactions for the main antagonist, this could have been even better, a masterpiece; with a couple of mini-puzzles beyond navigation, this could have made for a longer and truly nerve-wracking exploration. Without the SCP-ish angle, this could have focused a bit more on the main theme of the adventure; with an expanded focus on this secondary leitmotif, it could have grown into something utterly brilliant.

This module, in a way, almost reaches true greatness, but can’t quite make the transition to it. The beginning is also, imho, somewhat rough on the referee. Still, this adventure is very much worth checking out. If you’re looking for just a collection of inspiring, nasty items, it may well warrant the asking price for these. As such, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The God that Crawls
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Towers Two
by Andres S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/03/2018 15:49:46

Maybe the most fun, gross and bizarre Loftp adventure. Not only text as the ilustrations as well.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Towers Two
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