Table for Two 9 Adventures 1 DM & 1 Player from Megan Irving (@mogibeargames) et al

First, let’s just take a moment to absolutely gush about just how unbelievably gorgeously beautifully splendiferously magnificent the cover by D. W. Dagon (@DW_Dagon)! I’m just staring at it in disbelief. It’s freaking mind-blowing!

Right, duets! There is something wonderful and intimate about the joy of a duet game. I love playing them with my partner, I absolutely love the DMs Guild and Patreon works of D&D Duet/ Grove Guardian Press, Beth (@GroveGuardian) and Jonathan Hall (@DnDDuet), as well as the fabulous everything from solo to group To Hell and Back Again by Kienna Shaw (@KiennaS) and Donathin Frye (@DonathinFrye) and the incredibly focused and fun Blood Hunter by Anthony Joyce (@Thrawn589) and illustrated by Gordon McCaplin (@gmcalpin). I play them in person, over video and more recently a bunch play by post using discord chat with ultimate flexibility. I am a big fan! *(Links to all these mentioned below as recommendations to check out after this awesome anthology whets your appetite!)

This has me ridiculously excited and dangerous levels of Hype!

The introduction discusses the difficulties trying to get the standard four to six players together for standard adventures that are designed with them in mind, as well as supplying advice for those new to the more intimate and manageable format. This advice is divided into Narrative, Combat and Anecdotes from the team, from heartfelt advice from Sam, “Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable! With only one PC on the stage, you can shine a bigger spotlight on their emotional responses...” to David’s fantastic observation regarding the unique opportunity duets provide, “Having only one player gives you the opportunity to leverage their character’s backstory in a much stronger way...” and Megan’s inspired suggestion, “Let the player skip combat altogether. This is a very loose way to play D&D, but I find one on one D&D can feel like more of a shared narrative and less of a war-game...”

Tea for Two by Collette Quach (@ColletteQuach)

“A simple stroll outside turns into a trip into another plane of existence. Stuck in the domain of Euphoria, the adventurer must find a way out of this plane before they lose themselves in the bliss.”

Content Warnings: Mental Illness, Drug Use, Eating Disorders

It’s great to see content warnings being appropriately used, but it’s even more heartening to see this reinforced, along with a brief discussion of the safety tools of “lines and veils” to endeavour to assure everyone feel safe and confident when more heavy and troubling content arises, and heavy topics like those that make up elements of this adventure.

This adventure takes inspiration from Alice in Wonderland with the character falling down a hole into Euphoria and having a Blissful time in this Feywild Domain. Echoing the story there is no combat with the emphasis on exploration and roleplaying, as well as the introduction of unique Bliss mechanic representing the mania-inducing effects of this setting, with the threat of losing their will to get home and succumbing to Euphoria. With roleplaying and improvisation such a key element of Duet, this is such a glorious and rarely seen setting for the adventure and I see much fun and bizarre scenario, especially with all manner of weird and wonderful things being juggled, and the opportunity to try their hand at this daring feat.

Things haven’t even begun to get weird as the six lieges of Euphoria each have a bizarre trial for the hero to overcome relating to their own domains of vice with Bliss being avoided by overcoming the trials more creatively. These range from putting a workaholic to sleep using any or all of the following, “sleeping pills, a bow and arrow, hot chocolate, and a pillow” and baking a blissfully sinful “chocolate blue rose sponge cake with black lily drizzle” (which looks divine and comes with a full recipe!) for the Lady of Consumption, to collecting drugs and avoiding intoxicating pollen for the Lord of Ecstasy and a masked masquerade soiree where a secret assassination target must be located in which loose lips sink ships, lords and ladies for Lord of Secrets.

Finally free to escape home, it’s all a matter of find the correct door home, with the chance of being given a whirlwind tour of another planes, as well as the possibility of coming back with so much Bliss the hero wants to stay...

A many-varied awesome psychedelic ride through a plane rarely seen these days! Great fun and the Lady of Consumption is brought to vivid life, a veritable feast for the eyes!

Hidden Valley by Megan Irving (@mogibeargames)

Treasure, betrayal, dinosaurs, oh my!

Hired by a sketchy seeming Lord, the adventurer heads into a jungle with Lord Trustworthy in the search of treasure, facing all manner of flavourful random jungle encounters. Finally, coming to the eponymous Hidden Valley seemingly guarded by a pair of humanoid quetzalcoatlus statues, which are beautifully illustrated.

The dinosaur-filled valley has all manner of different ways to be traversed with their own challenges, dinosaurs, and goodies to be found, including something important for DMs to remember, actually considering the player/s when placing and awarding magic items. It really sucks finding something useless to your character or party, so when I saw, “Depending on the adventurer’s class, it is either a staff of the adder (DMG), doss lute (DMG), or longsword of warning (DMG)” I knew I was in good hands. That and the many, many various dinosaur attacks!!! My favourite of these coming from the point where the tangents reconnect “Near the very top of the hill, Lord Rolen leaps to the top of a small boulder and proclaims himself King of Dinosaur Valley”, only for the boulder to be attached to an Ankylosaurus who is no quite ready to welcome their new liege.

Finally, the treasure lays beyond a puzzle and a sudden, but inevitable, betrayal! With various ways for things to out, all. Manner of fascinating and inspiring booty, great seeds for further adventures and/ or events. In many ways this is so much more than simple treasure and a little fun adventure, this is a springboard to all sorts of dinosaur and untrustworthy nobles and too much treasure to carry. This really makes the vault and secret dinosaur valley an important point and potentially recurring location in your further adventures – the real treasure was the secret dinosaur Valley6 we discovered along the way!

A seriously fun, action-packed, and fast past frolic with dinosaurs and a noble who can’t be trusted, with so much tangible and inspiring elements for further adventures. A perfect introduction to Duets with so much potential for more fun positively oozing out of it!

Missing in the Underdark by Paul A. Keiter

A richly described caravan protection mission to a svirfneblin village in the Underdark from Neverwinter with a deep gnome ally returning home, designed to act as a foil for the PC with a sensible note from the creator to the DM: “Biknuk’s class should be chosen to compliment the player. Four templates are provided in the Appendix.” These templates are cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard, each with minimal and easy adjustments for the DM to easily apply.

Opening with dreams of dark wings the caravan heads through the foreboding Neverwinter Woods with the pervading unease captured beautifully in a cause and effect table of evocative and tensions building moments that enhance the forest and bring the encounters also provided to greater life. With these simple, but powerful tables the forest can truly be brought to unsettling life and will test the player in a variety of interesting ways. As will the continuingly disconcerting dreams and foreboding glimpses of the forest at night.

True hats off for the chapter title “A Land Down Underdark” and the fantastic random encounter table providing a wonderful variety of subterranean denizens, including the most important of all – a flumph! Plus, it can be convinced to help the caravan! Flumph friend! The rest of this chapter sees several grisly bodies at the checkpoints, leading to an encounter with the very awesome and not used enough (a running theme of this anthology), a sneaky obolex!

An Inheritance of Heads by KC Shi (@kc_shi)

Content Warnings: death, animal abandonment

This is a fascinating and thoughtful adventure that begins with the end of an old Ranger. “Conceptually, this adventure began as a way for a Beastmaster ranger to meet their animal companion and can still be played that way by swapping out the hydra for a different beast. At its heart, though, this module is about caring for an inconvenient creature,” which is a bloody brilliant conceit, and the writing is truly captivating and ensorcelling.

Opening at the funeral of Scaea, an unique opportunity for some emotional and engaging roleplay as “the funeral guests invite the adventurer to talk about how they knew Scaea. So long as the player is comfortable with this level of improvisation and roleplaying.” This presents a singular situation for fleshing out a character and exploring their history in the context of this adventure.

What has been left to the player are the lands to tend...and the animals that come with it. One just happens to be a relatively tame and friendly Hydra that has been raised in captivity due to it’s damaged legs, which necessitate the big beastie needing to be cared for. This is a potentially fraught and rewarding endeavour that comes with its own table of complication scenarios ranging from dealing with the Constitution-shattering unburied leavings or in the immortal words of Jar-Jar Binks, Hydra Poodoo, to ensuring the hydra gets enough exercise and food, as well as helping it prune its old heads.

The final trial comes when a ‘hero’ comes to vanquish the hydra, dragging their adolescent nephew with them. Has the PC built enough rapport with the hydra to soothe it and can they reason with the ridiculous and pompous arse?

There are many ways the adventure could conclude with this being a campaign starter and/ or the beginning of further adventures. With the Greek names and hydra, this would work wonderfully as an introduction to the Theros setting, and I’m already thinking of ways to use this as the inspiration for a side adventure on my upcoming Theros campaign.

This is a seriously awesome and unique adventure with more bite and heart than many and is simply begging to be its own Studio Ghibli/ Disney blockbuster and their answer to How to Train Your Dragon!

The Unmaking by Cat Evans (@perpetualgloom)

Content Warnings: Drug misuse/drink spiking

This adventure starts in media res on the road with advice on how to slot it into your own ongoing adventures or campaign, as they undertake the taking of a sentient magic item to a temple where it can be unmade. Bendith, a sword so powerful it must be destroyed, despite its storied, heroic, and tragic past. Great advice is also included regarding tying the person charging the adventurer with this quest to patrons, allies or known entities within your game.

A Dramatis Personae is provided with a band of delicious and evocatively described miscreants and heroes.

Bendith actually comes as a template for you to be able to create your own blessed/ cursed blade! “Bendith is a template to fit over any existing weapon: it should be something the player character can use. Whatever type of weapon Bendith is, it is always made of white metal, with a spherical blue crystal set into it.” There are innate abilities and those to choose from, as well as a table of alignment for conflict with the PC, as well as traits, quirks, and flaws. Combined, there are so many vastly different and exciting Bendith’s to bring into existence and to possible give your adventurer (and your player) an existential crisis.

Evans provides a wonderful selection of questions to pose your player about their travels and interactions with Bendith to really get the roleplay and improvisation kicked off, as well as impressing the import of Bendith. This is a recurring theme at campfires that act similarly to those in Dark Souls – a chance to save and reflect on the earlier action. I think it’s important to ask questions of your players to expand on their character and help to world-build with you, even more so in Duets, and Evans has a real knack for cutting to the quick and asking important and incisive questions.

The road ahead is filled with dangers, surprises, and demands from Bendith to be wielded - a bait and switch bandit attack with some depressing family dynamics and a cult intent on ambushing the adventurer and taking Bendith by force. On their travels Bendith becomes more talkative, though there are topics they are more guarded about. To that end a table of topics and information are provided, divided into those Bendith is “actively seeking,” “open to discussing” and “unwilling to discuss” to provide a framework and help build on the magic item’s personality and relationship with their wielder.

When offered some ‘easy coin’ from a sketchy-seeming character there are two separate ways the story progresses. This is either acting as a caravan guard and becoming increasingly disconcerted by the company they keep, learning their frosty secrets and possibly their beautifully poetic and sad creed, or they get right to the point and have at it with these cold brigands. Either way there is a chance for a dangerous fight, as well as the opportunity for clemency.

The second reflection and save at the campfire sees Bendith be seen, as they project themselves as a ghost from the magic item again, Evans has insightful advice: “As with Bendith’s personality, design their appearance to appeal to the player: the weapon’s humanoid form should be someone they will see as a comrade, a friend, or even a romantic interest.”

The final chapter contains fundamental choices about what to do with Bendith – to keep this powerful sapient entity, destroy this powerful relic that could bring about devastation in the wrong hands or “subvert expectations entirely because they’re a player character and that’s what they do.” The Endless Winter attempt to claim Bendith and will fight for him, leaving the adventurer with a choice and a DM with all sorts of ideas and inspiration for further adventures.

Whispers of Nightmares by David Markiwsky (@DavidMarkiwsky)

Content Warnings: Colonialism

The hooks for this adventure in Chult see Flaming Fists recruiters frothing at the mouth, extolling the virtues of the mercenary company and the evils of the dreaded yuan-ti, to get the player all excited for some classic D&D colonial murder and possibly genocide...only to have this concept flipped as sympathetic adventurers are approached by yuan-ti pureblood anti-colonist worried for themselves and their people. Ezra hopes the PC will be willing to join their resistance by joining the mercenary company and helping to take their expedition down from the inside – You had me at anti-colonist!

The horror of colonialism and military conflict are brought home the moment the Flaming Fist outpost is reached with the camp in chaos with part of the palisade being blasted before the PC’s arrival. Bodies are stacked on a pyre, which is bleak enough, but this image is made all the more disturbing when it is revealed the pyre and the camp’s cookfires are being fuelled “religious and cultural artifacts from the Yuan-ti.”

In response to the damage to the camp, an attack on the yuan-ti defending themselves from ruins in the jungle is planned, and with it there is the opportunity to sabotage various elements of the Flaming Fists’ arms and armour, which are organised into a helpful table of sabotage actions and their mechanical result. Information on extending this section, including the meeting of an Elven follower of the god of knowledge with a passion for yuan-ti poetry, is included.

Upon the morrow as the battle begins, a nightmare mists ravages yuan-ti and Flaming Fist alike, leaving the PC cut off and facing four encounters. The success or failure of each item determine the final form of the nightmare in the final encounter. These range from trying to convince a Flaming Fist captain to spare an unarmed innocent and to turn away from their battle lust, even as they protect their horrifically wounded recruits, with potential for them to even become an ally, try to convince a righteously furious yuan-ti anathema railing against the destruction of their people and history from wiping out a Flaming Fists battalion, attempting to stop a group of mercenaries smashing up a temple, and try to convince a yuan-ti necromancer you mean no harm to their library, despite the Flaming Fists previous wanton acts of biblioclasm.

Facing the nightmare, itself: “a mass of writhing darkness, dragging a long, serpentine body forward with two massive claws. Dark mist trickles from between its slavering jaws.” This monstrosity is horrifying and all the more scary and hardy for each failed encounter. This is a mighty boss battle, though ultimately it can be overcome in a number of ways, including pacifism. Being only a nightmare conjured from the adventurer's mind, it cannot ultimately kill them, leaving them a bloody mess before dissipating. Defeating it in battle does earn the hero a mighty empowering speech from the nightmare.

Finally, a gruesome scene turns into of dejection and exhaustion. The yuan-ti Nightmare Speaker has seen all possible glimpses of the future that foretell of the Flaming Fists driving them from their homes. This is a depressing, but true to life reflection these bleak situations and results of colonialism and capitalism – because of this aspect, this adventure won’t be for everyone, but truly serves to deliver an important, if heartbreakingly point beautifully. In this moment the adventurer has many options to do various levels of good, not bad, or evil. These various options and their results are described, and it’s up to the adventurer, player and all of us to decide whether we want to try and do whatever good we can in this moment.

A wonderfully woven, powerful and evocative tale. Phenomenal!

Atonement by Samantha Lavender & Miranda Mels

“This is an adventure for a fallen paladin. Not an oathbreaker or a death knight, but a fallible, well-meaning mortal who has stumbled on their sacred path.”

This deliciously different adventure puts the player in control of a Paladin in a bit of a pickle: “Until they have atoned, the paladin cannot expend or regain spell slots—including Divine Smite—and does not benefit from any features granted by their Sacred Oath, including their Channel Divinity.” This is a bold and scary prospect, as well as running the risk of leaving a player feeling useless at such a high level, but the thought and storytelling ensure they remain engaged, as well as making the journey to atonement and the salvation and power they confer feel truly earned.

Wonderful information is provided for roleplaying the surviving acolyte of a great tragedy and the former acolyte-turned-vampire spawn, desperate to become a full vampire, are provided bringing these characters to vivid life (and unlife), as well as providing keen insights on their likely reactions to the Paladin. There is a fascinating dynamic between a fallen Paladin and a vampire spawn who was once an acolyte. This is encouraged trough this sage advice, “each confrontation between Ianthe and the paladin should also be a conversation, a cautious battle of uncertain wills.”

Over the course of the night the Paladin is tested, being celestially weighed and measured by their words and deeds, but not only do failures keep the fallen Paladin from receiving solatium, but they serve to bring the vampire spawn closer to their apotheosis. Mechanically, the vampire spawn gains elements or traits from the vampire statblock correlating to the failed tests, which is a blooming marvellous idea!

Before dawn a final confrontation takes place, which is as much a battle for the souls of the Palladian and former acolyte as it is for their physical forms. There are several ways for this to play with all manner of potential for further adventures and potential for a truly glorious and divine moment!

I love this so much and fervently wish more adventures were written with this kind of unique, thoughtful perspective and macro-focused stories that play out over short, intense periods of time.

The Heist of High Hill by Ally Sulentic (@theuselessbard)

This is a rogue-y or roguelike adventure taking on the big job a master burglar, and possibly the PC’s mentor, auntie or next-door neighbour, was never able to complete. It’s time to get your heist on of a rich lord’s fortified manor on a birthday! Birthday heist! The heist items, targets, father/ daughter conflict, defences, guard captains and accomplices are provided on random tables (with unbelievably pretty art for the items and NPCs sprinkled across the adventure), allowing for much replayability with further adventures and jobs. It is wise for the PC to choose accomplices that will work well with them, which should be easy to choose by their preferred roll and sparkling personalities, especially with their being five distinct roles for the heist. Although, there’s always the option of the padawan really waning to show the master how it’s done, flying solo.

It’s possible for a diligent thief to do the legwork before with a table of suggested actions, checks and information that could be gained, but then it’s happy heistday to you!

Essentially, this is a tool kit for almost unlimited heists as well as the adventure! The scenes, tables and twists truly allow for one awesome adventure and countless more with all manner of twists to make them unique and exciting (even if I very much feel the need for the rival thief, the Silver Jackdaw to be an essential twist for the parent-defying-queer-romance of it all! #BirthdayGalPals). I do love an adventure that keeps on giving and this is definitely what we have here!

It’s all just so good and fun and flavourful and replayable!

Take a Wish Foundation by Leon Barillaro (@barilleon)

First of all, we have a front runner for best adventure title of 2020! I humbly submit my own subtitle: Nothic To See Here.

So, an open house doesn’t sound like the most exciting of things. But wait, what is the house was a Wizard’s tower...acquired and trying to be promptly shifted by the Black Network, after a suspicious death...oh and there’s a Wish anyone ca use upstairs and maybe the truth about what really happened to the previous owner? Now “any ne’er-do-well worth their weight in gold would jump at the opportunity to visit, and subsequently steal from, such a place”, right?

For this heist of another kind there is a fascinating array of possible accomplices, some with rather interesting ties to one another. But it’s not that simple: The player gets to pick to allies, one of which acts as a standard Sidekick under their control, while the other all is controlled by the DM. Oh, and those not picked are still all up in the business, only working for themselves. They all have their own strengths and entry montage moment to really get the heist movie aesthetic going on. There’s even mechanics to allow you to “backstab” your sidekick and go with another one with a roll and roleplay, ending with “The adventurer says, “It’s nothing personal; it’s just business”.”

Did I mention there was a cypress tree treant guardian in the upstairs greenhouse called Sempevirus? If you ask them nicely, they’ll let you harvest some of their proper good wand wood. Of course, there’s an upstairs greenhouse and if you haven't snuck up there yet, what are you doing? Stop eating Zhentarim canapes!

There’s also a cavalcade of chained up creature curiosities and a no non-sense imp ready to unleash them on less polite thieves. This menagerie includes possibly one of my favourite understated lines I’ve ever seen: “An earth elemental named Pierre (he/him, true neutral) also resides here. He seems perturbed by being imprisoned in a cage, as that was not the agreement he and Rozpero had reached.” Pierre will also offer gemstones grown from his body in return for freedom, which is sad, weird and shiny.

The library holds rare, expensive and blasphemous books, as well as a “Suspicious Bookcase” and a fun Magic Mouth puzzle with the lights going out and changing floors – I just can’t not picture the room with the portraits in the queue for the Tower of Terror at Disney. This leads to the dark demiplane of the now nothic Rozpero, who clearly doesn’t know heist etiquette, asking personal questions about everyone’s “strongest desires, their deepest insecurities, and their greatest regrets.” I mean, read the demiplane aberration-man! But it’s the only up...

There is a lotta junk in that trunk, by which I mean attic, maybe? Apex? Turret? At the toppymost bit there are all sorts of wonders to be found, including the Wish scroll! The NPCs have various ideas for the Wish, from altruistic to superficial and ridiculous. It could restore the Wizard and gain his thanks and gifts...but also player with a Wish and access to all the Wizard’s stuff? In the strange case of the pious player a table of various rewards that may come with the various Sidekicks they worked with. Oh...and if the goals of the PC and Sidekick don’t align, they do a betrayal and “the characters present take sides and begin to duke it out”, and duke it out they almost certainly will.

A fantastic, silly and fun adventure to act as a wonderful cap on this flipping awesome anthology! Bonza!

For anthologies I usually give each adventure a good read and then fairly briefly summarise them, before getting into the anthology as a whole, but each one of these are so annoyingly good, different, brilliant, varied and stunning, I had to go over them repeatedly and, in more detail, because I bloody well love each and every one of them!

There are so many absolutely stunning anthologies out there, many of which I have had the honour to review (or own and/ or have on my eternal Spreadsheet of Many to review), but I don’t believe there is such a wildly strange and different selection of adventures taking you to places never seen in such diverse and fascinating tales. This is a tome so ridiculously full of wonder, variety and awesomeness, I don’t know how it’s possible to keep the pdf closed!

With a beautiful Layout and truly varied and sumptuously gorgeous artwork that perfectly reflect the depth, tone and story of each adventure. This is seriously one of the most impressively aesthetic books on DMs Guild, impressively matched by the quality of writing throughout this anthology. Everyone on this project has brough their A-game in every area and it seriously shows. Everyone involved in this project should already be on your radar for awesomeness, but if not, you need to keep an eye on these names and the utter fabulousness they create and produce!

I cannot recommend this more vociferously, whether you play Duets (you should give it a go, and this is a spectacular place to start), enjoy reading phenomenally well-written adventures, simply like ogling splendiferous art and layout (one compliments the other superbly), or as a gosh darn perfect primer on how to tell so many different stories through D&D adventures. I mean it, this could be used as a teaching tool on all these wonderful things, including but certainly not limited to, crafting an adventure to a format – these are finely wrought gems of Duets.

CREDITS

PROJECT LEAD: Megan Irving

COVER ART: D.W. Dagon

WRITERS: Ally Sulentic, Cat Evans, Collette Quach, David Markiwsky, KC Shi, Leon Barillaro, Megan Irving, Miranda Mels, Paul Keiter, Samantha Lavender

EDITORS: Cat Evans, David Markiwsky, Leon Barillaro, Liz Gist, Megan Irving

ARTISTS: Amet, Alison Huang, David Markiwsky, D.W. Dagon, Eric Grimoire, Jennifer Peig, Liz Gist, Luciella Scarlett, Kari Kawachi

LAYOUT: David Markiwsky

My affiliate link: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/324666/Table-For-Two?affiliate_id=1507682

Other Duets Mentioned (All very good things to check out after enjoying this phenomenal anthology)

D&D Duet: Beth and Jonathan Ball

https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Beth%20Ball?affiliate_id=1507682

Grove Guardian Press (D&D Duet Patreon)

https://www.patreon.com/groveguardianpress/

To Hell and Back Again by Kienna Shaw and Donathin Frye

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/288363/To-Hell-and-Back-Again?affiliate_id=1507682

The Blood Hunter by Anthony Joyce with Design by Gordon McCaplin

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/303709/The-Blood-Hunter?affiliate_id=1507682