Recently, I soloed my way through Mighty Scout Leaders (22 pages, free/pay what you want at DriveThruRPG). I did use four of the characters that are in this set of rules as my PCs. To solo this I used Magic the Gathering cards with a yes/no/maybe oracle. So, the adventure started out with the four camp counselors and their campers trying to earn a cooking badge out at their campfires. It suddenly started to rain, and the event was washed out. No badges for anyone. When the campers got into their sleeping bags that evening, my four PCs went to the dining hall to play poker. Unfortunately, an alien ship came down, put the PCs asleep with a sleep gas, and the four cat sized aliens attached themselves to the heads of the PCs. This put them into a dream state. If the PCs survive the dream they can reject the alien’s influence. If the PC dies during the dream, he/she becomes a drone. For the dream sequence I used Shadows of the Halfling Hall (26 pages at DriveThruRPG, a fantasy adventure).

The dream starts with the PCs listening to the quest instructions from Redd at his inn. They start their investigation and question several people who are scattered throughout the town. They also go back to the inn and recruit a goblin wizard. The clues lead them to the Brambletoe estate. In The Hall, and down beneath it, they battle different kinds of zombies and skeletons. The PCs do take damage and things get nasty when they run into the DreamKeeper. Roger goes down, but they do kill this Big Bad.

As soon as the monster is dead, Cleo, George, and Tag wake up. The aliens that were clinging to their faces, make a run for it. Roger is now a drone and heads towards the alien ship floating outside. Cleo tries to stop Roger, but Roger knocks her out. George tries to get inside the alien ship, but he is hit with a paralyzing ray. Tag chases an alien in the kitchen, but slips on a greasy spot. He catches up to it out in the grass outside and kills it. Roger the Drone and the other aliens make it to the alien ship and it takes off. Maybe you will have better luck.

Give this fun adventure a try!

Vital Statistics: Shadows of The Halfling Hall is an adventure written for the Castles & Crusades RPG by Mike Stewart for characters of Level 1-3 with a challenge level of 0-1. This last part means it’s right in line with what Level 1-3 characters should be able to do. Not too hard but not too easy. I downloaded it as part of a larger C&C module bundle. It is 24 pages long, includes 5 keyed maps (although based on my reading, one may be missing from the PDF that I think may have been present on the inside cover) and 3 very interesting new monster types. The adventure is well written in clear and concise narrative format (meaning you can read it from cover to cover and get the gist of the story). While simple, it’s still an enjoyable read. Modules written in this voice are always nice to prep for because you don’t have to jump around so much for it to make sense. There are a few typos, but not as many as most TLG products. There is also one possible mathematical error where a lockbox is said to have a lock set by a 3rd level rogue, which it decrees as CL18 when I think it should be CL3, meaning there is an additional 3 added to the Challenge Base of either 12 or 18 for a total of Challenge Class 15 or 21. Other than those, the adventure reads nice and smooth.

If you’ve ever read any of the first edition AD&D modules or even the early basic D&D modules, you’ll be immediately familiar with how the adventure is laid out. It starts with a basic plot outline and then goes into nice detail on the NPCs. Their motivations and concerns are given as well as how they may react to certain actions by the PCs. It is all written with the assumption that NPCs encountered will be involved in significant roleplay scenes. There are actually quite a few NPCs. Lots of people for the group to talk to and ask questions. The storyline is a bit of a mystery that needs solving (see below for a spoiler free explanation) and so I would expect much of this adventure to be investigation. If your group isn’t into investigation, this module will still work nicely but you’ll lose a fair bit of the content that it includes, which for the price, is still a good value.

The keyed maps I mentioned are not strictly the graph paper style of old but would work fine drawn on a grid or not. They are not designed for minis but rather as a point of reference for description via both exploration or combat. They are simple enough that hand drawing them in a larger format will be quite easily accomplished. One of the beauties of C&C combat is that it doesn’t require minis or a battle mat, but will work fine with both if that’s what you choose.

Spoiler Free Story summary:

In Shadows of The Halfling Hall, the party finds themselves in the halfling canton of New Briar. One of the more prominent residents of the town, Willic Brambletoe, recently threw a party to celebrate the completion of his new home (a hobbit hole of course). However, after the party, no one was seen again. Now, it is up to the group of adventurers to find out what happened to the revelers. This will involve investigation with townspeople, family members, and even friends (and enemies) of the missing halflings. There’s a lot to learn in this little town and every inhabitant has some small piece of the story. Quite pleasingly, the author does a great job of naming the halflings according to Tolkeinian norms. Some names include Merin Fireheel, Josephus Longbottom, Gwynnd Knucklefoot, and most interestingly, Kyann Scarytoe. (Note to DM: If you don’t do something interesting with Kyann Scarytoe, you’re simply not doing this module justice)

Eventually, the party will work their way to the newly finished home of Willic Brambletoe. What they find there and what they’ve learned in their investigation will lead to some pretty interesting adventures as they start to put all the pieces together.

Start of slight spoiler….

As they investigate the scene of the “event” they’ll learn lots of interesting things about people in the village as well as how the new home was constructed. It will end in a relatively short dungeon crawl as they get to the bottom of things (pun intended). The final showdown is pretty interesting and should have low level players on the edge of their seats. Death is a risk in this adventure as it is in most old-school games.

End of slight spoiler…

Ultimately, I’d qualify this short adventure as a success on multiple levels. I think it does a good job of introducing new gamers to how the C&C ruleset treats the world, including the interactions between the residents of the world and the PCs. Secondly, I think it does a good job of offering an interesting story that is of an appropriate scale for new players and dungeon masters. One thing that I like about more classic systems and adventures is the scale. Everything feels more personal. Perhaps you’re not saving the world, or an entire nation, but instead you’re saving a village, or a friend, or someones loved one. The scale is smaller and more palpable. Shadows of The Halfling Hall does a great job of capturing this spirit. If you have a group ready to play C&C, this would be as good a place to start as any. With a small amount of work, it could also be a very good Halloween adventure. By adding a bit more strangeness and suspicion to the NPCs and a little more spider webs and fog toward the end of the adventure, it could really work great as a Halloween special.

A nice, relatively straightforward, low level adventure that is perfect for when you mostly want to bash skeletons in with an ax.

That being said, there is enough detail laid out in the town and surrounding areas, including NPCs, that a campaign or a series of adventures could be built around the town and the people living there.

The Mayor went up to feast at Willic Brambletoe's hall, then the Reeve went to see what happened to the Mayor - and none of them ever came back .. A nicely detailed village setting around an introductory short dungeon bash with a couple of interesting new monsters, plus an optional extended encounter. I received a copy of this adventure through the Gamers Helping Haiti bundle.