There’s no incentive for PCs to strike the crystals with hard objects. This first manifests as babbling voices in the head, but it can be controlled fairly easily. Given time to learn the layout of the geode, it is possible to play music here, perhaps by throwing coins.Īnyone who hears such a piece gains telepathy with all fellow listeners. If struck with a hard object, the crystals ring with clear tones of surpassing beauty. This bowl-shaped chamber is lined with enormous crystals, in purplish and blue hues, some twice the size of a person. Take this example from this adventure: 7. oh, I don't know, rub some duck blood on it?Ĭool ideas without hooks ("Why should we care? What can we do with this?") or with hidden information ("How in the world would we have figured that out?") are often useless. The only person who knows this is Sir Alfred Mooseblaster, who died 300 years ago on another continent. It is an inert stone 20' tall.īook: The Obelisk of Grune produces gallons of pure gold if the blood of an albino duck is rubbed on its surface. Sometimes, module designers forget that the players don’t have all the information. The mix of horizontal and vertical space means neither a top-down grid and a side-view cutaway will work. It might be best to have players map this dungeon as a series of points with lines connecting them rather than a traditional grid. Poor: no draw, minimal treasure, very convoluted map with no payoff. Written in collaboration with Michael Atlin. More info on how to run the firebreathing Wyrm, less trivia. I do care that there’s a giant adventurer-eating Wyrm somewhere in this dungeon. I don’t care that wolves in this valley live on rats and hares. Roll for initiative.”Ī reader is incentivized to keep reading to solve the mysteries raised in the text, but this isn’t very useful at the table. It’s a bit like that old joke about a GM who describes a room in great detail, then goes “and there’s a red dragon in the middle. This is the first time the dungeon mentions a wyrm. 1 is, “The Vinteralf hacked their way to the hot spring cavern under the ice to avoid the attentions of the Wyrm Jokun.” In Stellarium of the Vinteralf, the last sentence on pg. It’s frustrating because you need to read the whole dungeon thoroughly before use. It’s cool because it makes the dungeons interesting to read. This is simultaneously cool and frustrating. Room 1 implies something room 20 resolve that tension. Some dungeons start off by not explaining what’s going on. Saved by excellent treasure and gimmicks. The adventures are reviewed purely on the text on the page. I'm also ignoring any additional context provided by Michael's blog or the rest of the book. They're tools for use at the table, and that's how I've reviewed them. That's not, in my view, what they're for. I don't care about how enjoyable these adventures are to read or how many exciting ideas come burbling into my brain. Lots of people have said they really enjoyed reading the Trilemma compendium. Just saying "they're all great" doesn't help anyone. The results might seem harsh or even glib, but I feel like it's important to separate the adventures in some way. A module I've rated "Poor" is not something I'd go out of my way to use, though it might have specific applications or cool ideas. A module I've rated "Mid-Tier" is usable, but requires a bit more effort or a few tweaks. How hard is it for the average GM to grab one of these dungeons and use it?Ī module rated "Good" is immediately useful without question or adaptation. I've also focused on immediate usability in my reviews. However, tension, tone, and presentation vary widely.
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