Demonspore - Review Part I

This is the first part of a review of Matt Finch's latest Swords & Wizardry product, "Demonspore," published by Mythmere Games, available in both print and PDF versions. This review is of the free review copy of the PDF.

The first part of the review is an first impressions overview of the product; the forthcoming second part will dig into the guts of this adventure.

Spoilers will About... Be Forewarned

Demonspore is a two part dungeon adventure for characters of levels 3-6.

It involves sinister fungus beings seeking the rebirth of a dead fungus god, and their manipulations of a group of toad people. An enterprising DM could easily incorporate this adventure with other campaign elements such as The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom; the cults of Tsathoggua or Zuggotomy; the Sporecery Guild; etc. It also affords great opportunity for a plot-driven "Heroic Goody-Two Shoes" campaign, "Elminster needs you, the lawful heroes, to stop this wicked plan!"

I'm a big fan of Matt Finch's line art, and would have preferred such a rendition of the cover art as opposed to the painting which is a bit too muddy for me. I do think that Matt could illustrate an excellent children's book if he continued painting.

The lurid & rugose interior art, by Jason Sholtis, is uniformly excellent. I find it evocative of the subject matter and fun.

I'm unsure who is responsible for the cartography, but it is both clear and attractive. The maps are fairly non-linear and appear to offer significant tactical options.

The adventure begins with 3 pages of Exposition and Referee Notes. Usually I HATE HATE HATE such content if it runs longer than a couple of paragraphs (see Pathfinder adventures for an example), but in this instance I don't mind.

The clean layout makes the above information (and the rest of the adventure) easy to find information and read, as opposed to the HATE HATE HATE of run-on tiny text and spidery handwritten font sidebar in Pathfinder. It is also concise, clear, and doesn't dive into unnecessary text bloat.

I'm not meaning to turn this into a Pathfinder bash fest, but usually the Referee Exposition in a Pathfinder adventure takes an entire damn page to communicate a couple of paragraphs of information ....blame it on getting paid by the word? Although Demonspore does feature extensive introductory text, it is also efficient.

The adventure seems amenable to multiple approaches by the players: kick in the door, diplomacy/guile, stealth. There are several opportunities for interaction with NPCs, some of which appear to quite worthwhile, and the possibility of in-dungeon allies and resupply. Important NPCs are provided with concise histories and motivations, making them three-dimensional without the author falling into the black hole of frustrated fantasy author syndrome.

There is an appendix with several new monsters, which I like and are appropriate for the adventure. My favorite, hands-down, has to be the Toad-Hydra, which is part of a great encounter.

I appreciate the lists of all of the monsters/encounters in the adventure, provided in order for a referee to strike off ones already slain and plan monster tactics.

At this point I very much quite like Demonspore and am planning on purchasing the print version.

The product is attractive, clear, organized, and well-laid out, and should be easy to consult while running the game.

I like the setting, players, and plot, and could easily use it in my games, in many different ways. I get the impression that it has been thoroughly playtested and gone over with quality control in mind.

Useable for Megadungeon levels? Check!
NPC-assigned Heroic Quest/Investigation? Check!
Fodder for some beer-and-pretzel hack'n'slash play? Check!

My assessment of Demonspore at this point is uniformly Excellent, being imaginative, well-crafted, and versatile. Now I need to get it printed out and thoroughly picked over for part II of this review.

What If ..... Paizo released old-tyme versions of their products?

By that I mean what if Paizo released some of their Pathfinder material, such as adventures and bestiaries, in a Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord or OSRIC version?

I think I'd buy some of their adventures to use as sandbox material, and I'd definitely get the bestiaries. I guess the layout would be an issue, the artwork to text ratio would be considerable, and I'd prefer it they had less intense graphic design and layout, although that's even more unlikely than Paizo Swords & Wizardry material.

You could probably fit all three bestiaries in one S&W book.

One issue I have with their adventures, from looking at them, is that they contain soooo muuuuuch exposition, etc. that I find it hard to find the what I consider the juicy "meat" of the adventures. What & Where. Imagine one of their adventure path installments trimmed down to a slim TSR eighties-tween module, that I would buy.

Adventure/Module Recomendations?

I'm looking to pad out my collection of adventures; system doesn't matter as long as it's reasonably compatible with OSR-ish D&D & varients.

Looking for swords & sorcery/pulp fantasy/science fantasy. Free, not-free, included in a magazine, it's all good.

I like:
The Fane of St. Toad
The Dreaded Isle
The Unknown City
The People of the Pit
Obregon's Dishonor
The Isle of Dread

Dwellers of the Forbidden City

The Mines of Khunmar
Mesopotamia
The Coils of Set
ANYTHING by Gabor Lux

Do you guys have any sterling recommendations?

Further Brainstorming on "The Tomb of the Elohim"

My Players Keep Out!

In the Aeons of the Great Unmaking that ended the Aeons of the Ancients, Chaos permeated the world and the servants of the Great Old ones ran wild and free across the churning land. The Lords of Light send a mighty servitor who arrived in the form of a giant column of smokeless radiant fire ascending to the heavens that burned across the hordes of the wicked and evil. Next it descended in the form of a serpent of smokeless radiant fire with seven eyed wings which it used to cover its head and tail. From four throats it issued hymns and proclamations of the Lords of Light that cowed the wicked and evil and caused them to repent. As a golden giant clad in shining armor it strode across the land performing great Lawful works. Eventually a band of adventurers slew it and were torn apart by it's Lawful followers before they could loot the body.

In pulp fashion the tomb is guarded by a tribe of fanatic nomads (I know, it's deliberate). I was imagining them with tattoos of an eyed wing on their foreheads, but I'm trying to avoid tattoos, piercings and any other "extreme dude-isms" so they paint a golden eyed wing on their foreheads. They wear robes and veils and wield scimitars because the tomb is in a desert and also robes are vaguely ecclesiastical. Some sort of evil unhuman shapechanger servants of the Lords of Change have infiltrated them, of course, and will try to aid adventurers that fall into the clutches of the zealots.

In Abraham Merrit fashion the air in the tomb glows, ergo no shadows.

Yes I am well aware what the presence of an "ancient astronaut" implies. Two words: navigational presents. Not that I'm one of those hippy-dippy item-enabling DMs, but the players were discussing getting radiation resistant suits during a recent session so that could be good synergy.

Chogha Zanbil (Persian: چغازنبيل) is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran...It was built about 1250 BC by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak.

I picture I found while looking at ziggurats that served as an inspiration for the exterior of the adventure site. Seriously, dig that name, INSHUSHINAK, Now that's sword & sorcery inspiration fodder!

Below is the rough draft of the map. Nothing too fancy, just a tomb containing an ancient astronaut?/angel?...

Here's the map and rough notes for another dungeon I'm working on, "The Vault of the Womb Harvesters" (inspirations: The Red Moon from The Warlord comics and Frank Hebert's Hellstrom's Hive)

Adventure Brainstorming - The Crypt of the Hierodule

My Players Keep Out!

So my better half wanted to watch Legion. Despite my disdain for anthromorphic angels (especially ones that are outfitted like action figures), the geeky discussion regarding "How could you fight an Angel?" afterward inspired me. (p.s. My answer is that you can't fight an Angel as they're temporary manifestations of an omnipotent god's will in our material realm, i.e. it's fingertips)

I've been rereading Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun," I'm always down with some ancient astronaut wackiness (ever read the Von Danniken book where he claims that the ancient astronauts are angels?) and my favorite Hellboy moment is the sublime WTF?!?! when they cut to the aliens?/angels? monitoring the monoliths imprisoning the beast.

So I now know what my next dungeon will be: The Crypt of Hierodule, the Tomb of the Elohim, a grave-dungeon containing the remains of an ancient otherworldly servant of Law/The Lords of Light. Maybe it's an alien explorer, maybe it's a six-winged serpentine Seraphim composed to radiant smokeless fire, maybe it's both and something else as well...

Inhabitants? Degenerated Nephilium, positive-energy mummies, golems, Lawful cultists, Indiana Jones style traps. A nice reversal of the usual rotting, filthy catacombs containing tentacled gelatinous horrors motif in my campaign.