Innovative escort scenario with a variety of possible outcomes and ways play might unfold. There is a mystery to solve, and plenty of opportunities for superior play. A number of tactics are described for the opposition forces tracking the PCs' group. Not suitable for a novice referee: there is a large cast of NPCs, and several attacks to plan.

A welcome change from the usual sort of low level scenario. This was fun in play. Highly recommended.

A fantastic riff on B2, with lots of neat little flourishes and touches that might make you think you were raiding the Caves of Chaos, but in the bleak world of WFRP!

A human outpost (the Bleak Tower) is under siege by the Split Tongue orc tribe. Can the PCs defeat the source of the trouble in the Ironwood Gorge?

A familiar set up, but with some interesting twists and features: (i) Intrigue amongst the residents of Bleak Tower; (ii) Travel to the 2 level dungeon via the Ironwood should be a memorable and creepy experience. A new monster, the Ironwood Dryad, is a nice variant on a classic, suitable for a Mirkwood-like forest; (iii) Geographical features come into play in the gorge; (iv) There are allies to find; displaced and downtrodden goblins have useful information; a good variety of combat encounters, including some new monsters; (v) The Split Tongue orc tribe is well described, with tension between the Warlord and the Priest; (vi) There are bonus areas to discover, and multiple routes to find and exploit.

My group needed three trips and an alliance with the dwarves to defeat the orcs. There are many "stop the humanoid raiders" adventures available, but this is a superior one. Highly recommended.

A fine introductory adventure that introduces the players to the Blackmarch. Like the Ironwood Gorge this adds a fair amount of character to what initially may look like a standard dungeon run. Most of the things I would have liked to have seen in this module (more detail on the Bleak Tower, etc) are resolved in Ironwood Gorge so it's not really a bit issue. Though I kind of wish that the secondary plot was expanded upon a bit more instead of just ending in a random hole in the forest.

I converted this module for use in my Hackmaster campaign and have to say that it worked beautifully. The interesting backstories and small touches really make what looks like a standard dungeon crawl come to life. I had to tone down the number of enemies and treasure but that's purely a mechanical issue of conversion, I'm sure it would be fine for the intended systems. This is an adventure that can easily be the setting for an entire campaign.

A fair number of empty caverns and obvious unresolved cliffhanger stop it from being a full 5 stars but I would highly recommend this module.

A good follow-up to the earlier Sanctuary Ruin, but here the difficulty is cranked up a serious notch. If you GM this as an impartial referee in the spirit of the OSR, your players will have a seriously hard time - if they aren't experienced as players, I'd recommend having characters with a few levels among them, probably around 3rd to 4th at least.

I haven't had time to play the adventure yet, only read through it and prepare its placement in my campaign, but it is a solid product which I highly recommend as a starting point if you are interested in exploring the OSR world.

I picked up The Sanctuary Ruin because I wanted a small encounter area (a side trek, if you will) as the PCs traveled to the main area. A place for them to pick up some experience and some treasure, because the next adventure will be a bit tough for them if they go into it at their current level. I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Some spoilers may follow.

The module reminds me of a very small Keep on the Borderlands. A goblin warren is described, along with the "home base" for this adventure, although many details the home base are left to the GM.

The goblins are presented with alternate actions, depending on what the PCs do. For example, if a large number of goblins are killed, the remaining goblins will harvest poisonous mushrooms and drop them in the inn's water supply. Goblin reinforcements are mentioned as well, moving from one area to the decimated area. These details help GMs make the game world seem more alive, that critters don't just wait around for the PCs to slaughter them. Furthermore, there is an outside group exerting pressure on the goblins, and the goblins are plotting revenge. Enterprising PCs (and perceptive players) could find a way to use this to thier advantage.

There are two issues I have with the adventure. First, the random encounters are very difficult for a low-level group to survive. A 1-in-6 chance of an encounter every hour wandering the woods means over the course of a day, a party will have 4 encounters. The first entry on the random encounter table is "d4 giant toads." I will be modifying this for my own game. Second, there is a very real possibility the PCs will be overwhelmed by the goblins. This resembles adventures like B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, but that wasn't my favorite part of the module. It will require some thinking on the players' part to accomplish the destruction of this goblin tribe.

A final quibble: the initial encounter describes a wagon peppered with arrows, and a band of goblins victorious in their raid. But the goblin equipment described doesn't mention bows or arrows.

I like the interactive nature of this module. I like that it is generic enough for me to place where I need it, with minimal backstory. I believe reckless PCs meet their dooms. I would have liked a little more development of the PCs home base. But this is a very good module, and I'm very pleased with my purchase. Overall, then, I'll give this module 4 stars.

Kingmaker is a useful and well-built adventure to start a group with as it is full of options and opportunities in play, not restricting a new group to any forced path. It should serve as solid building block for a new campaign and contains a great deal of play in a small package.

Kingmaker: for 2-8 1st level characters is an 18-page PDF (15-pages if you remove the covers and OGL page) for any Retroclone RPG (such as OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord) written by Eric Jones and published by Ludibrium Games. This is volume 1 of Ludibrium Games’ Sessions line.

Kingmaker has mostly a traditional two column layout and is easily readable. The art is black and white and nicely evocative. A page of tokens for all of the characters that appear in the module (along with blank one for the player characters) is included.

Kingmaker hinges on a simple plot but provides a wide field of options, the characters are hired as caravan guards and are drawn into the events. A roster of interesting NPCs to interact with along with a set of scheduled (to the GM’s pace) and triggered events allow for this module to play out in a wide variety of ways depending on the choices of the players and the luck of the dice.

Beyond the adventure itself, there is a brief discussion on how it resolves will affect the campaign world. Appendices contains eight pre-generated characters, a new monster, magic item and spell.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

One forgets that old school anything is not actually the past revisited. So I am happy to report that Kingmaker is not some rotten old Model T Ford you've just found under debris in someones barn, compared with such it would be a 1950s Morgan in showroom condition. Under the hood you find well recognized parts such as "hired on as caravan guards," still much in use today. You won't find "random encounter tables" or "meaninglessly populated dungeon rooms" or any such past unpleasantness. The plot is direct as old school should be, but it is strong, unlike many then and now. There is opportunity for roleplay, allowance for the take the money and run players, and, timeline and triggered events.

If you have a fantasy campaign that involves travel then buy this scenario whatever system you are playing. Re-statting it is simple and it will at least be good to keep handy for an interlude. Kingmaker has already made its way into one of my campaigns. In short, a fine veteran sports car as it should have been, the past re-engineered.

The adventure presents a precarious situation, one where PCs face real danger on all fronts, but at the same time it is eminently ‘winnable’ and your players will feel like they really achieved something.

The premise is essentially the tried and true kill-the-orcs-in-the-cave, but no two encounters are alike, and there is a terrific twist at the end. The pre-gen characters alone show the huge attention to detail that went into every page of this module.

As a fan of the classic campaign, I really can't find anything bad to say about this module. It flows nicely and is good for the beginnings of a long term adventure or even just for a one shot, straight through push. The choices of foes to be fought is classically creative. All in all, this is a well put together, nicely detailed and well rounded module.

The Sanctuary Ruin is a nice little mini adventure, that could well be used as part of a main campaign; or run as a one off.

Designed to be run through systems like Labyrinth Lord or ORSIC, it has that old-school feel about the whole thing. A mystery surrounds the area of Blackmarsh, with patrols going missing and rumours of goblins in the nearby woods. The stage is set for a classic adventure, with evil; dungeons and a little treasure along the way.

Its a nice little supplement, that could well be converted to newer systems; giving you a ready made side quest or plot hook for futher adventures.