I bought this mod this morning (UK-time) after coming home from work, opened it and the first thing I saw was a text saying "cover art by John Elliot." Now... in the pdf there's no cover art. I thought to meself that this is probably to keep the download size down a little, makes perfect sense, really. Not everyone has a superduper broadband conection, even in 2012. So I don't really bother about that part.
So, onto the adventure itself: It's a short and sweet little adventure, goals are easy to understand, there's no hidden agenda or big choices that can make or breake the experience, or the conclusion of the adventure. In short, simply investigate an old and forgotten coppermine. The NPCs I think should be a little twitchy, due to some recent happenings, but at the same time, they should be relieved there's someone brave enough to investigate said happenings. So I felt that I as a DM should should try and play the NPCs in this slightly ambivolent manner. Relived twitchiness. That's just me, other DMs may or may not play them in another way.
The adventure even suggests that the players can roleplay out the howabouts they came together to be a band of brothers/sisters, it does, however, make no presumtions about how this should or could be done. It does suggest, however, that the DM creates a little backstory as to their meeting up for the first time, which I thought was a nice touch.
The adventure itself is, as I said, easy enough to understand: Go into the mine and find out mainly two things: 1; what happened to the investigators sent before, and 2; see if there's still some profits to be made from the mine.
Point 1, involves a fairly fresh mother to puppies and, as any mother would, she and her pack are only defending the puppies, as well as providing food for the Mother so she can raise the litter. This part of the adventure can go at least three ways, depending on what the party decides and their actions at each part.
Part 2, is the mine still profitable, is also answered, though there wasn't a big emphasis on this part at the end.
Upono conclusion of the adventure itself, it does lead to a couple of things that the DM can do, if he so chooses, albeit there's no mention of any aftermaths in the text itself. However, what I could imagine, was that the town folks could for example hire the PC's on a more permanent basis as guards for the mine, at least untill the production is back up and running. The PCs could also be hired to clear out other mineshafts, or secure the whole area against other monsters or even looters and pillagers from neighbouring villages and town. But that part, is left entirey up to the DM to decide, whether or not this adventure should be part of a bigger campign or just as a little introduction to have the players learn some of the choices and opportunities RolePlaying Games can give.
I've seen one glitch in the adventure so far, though I've only read through once, so I might find more:
It says that the "floor, walls and ceiling of the mine is slippery due to WEATHER...."
Now.. my very first thought was "how on earth can any weather have had any impact, the mine have been sealed for however many years, no weather has come into the mines' opening untill the past 2 weeks or thereabouts"
That there's dampness in there that has been trapped and condensed on the walls, is fine, but weather didn't make much sense to me. But then, it's only a minor glitch, the main thing here is that the mine floor is slippery and as such should affect combat.
The locations in the mine are well presented, well marked and well described, I can't really see myself changing much if anything if I should be using this adevnture.
I dare say, Mr Vincent has done a very good job, and I hope to see more from him and his team in the future.
£2 well spent.
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