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Author Topic: Scourge of the Demon Wolf  (Read 1955 times)

Bedrockbrendan

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Scourge of the Demon Wolf
« on: December 04, 2012, 12:00:39 PM »
Scourge of the Demon Wolf is a module published by Bat in the Attic Games and written by Robert S. Conley, for Swords and Wizardry (a retro-clone of OD&D) and the Majestic Wilderlands campaign setting (an expansion of Judges Guild’s City-State of the Invincible Overlord).  It is a 71-page softcover book, with color cover art and black & white interior art and maps. This review is based on a reading of a complimentary print copy provided by the author. Full disclosure, the writer has done some mapwork for my company, Bedrock Games.

The cover of the book is three different full-color scenes, each set inside a gridmap hex. The first image appears to be a group of villagers clashing with local beggars. The second is of an ominous-looking wolf and the third is an aerial view of one of the settlements in the module. I felt this was highly effective because it told me immediately about the structure and style of the adventure as well as its contents. So right off the bat, the book had my interest.

Inside the module is well structured. After an introduction and overview, it provides a small 30-page adventure, followed by a setting supplement. I really liked the organization, and I loved the fact that Scourge of the Demon Wolf is part setting and part adventure module. To me the best modules are mix of those two things and this one succeeds at that.

The Adventure

The adventure itself is non-linear, and situation-character based. Without giving too much away, the basic set-up is a village in the Barony of Westtower is being stalked by a mysterious wolf. There is much more to the situation than meets the eye, and players seeking to end the creature’s killings will find a number of other clever challenges along the way.

I like that the essential adventure is simple and the background is easy to digest. Sometimes modules give you too many twists and turns to deal with just in the backstory or in the overall adventure and this one does a solid job of keeping these elements simple. And because of the loose structure, a simple adventure is somewhat important.

The GM is presented with a number of key NPCs and factions and these give the adventure its breath of life. Obviously stopping the wolf is key, but at its heart this is really an investigation into the source of the problem.

The meat of the adventure section is broken up by encounter. At first I was a bit disappointed by this, preferring more location-based organization for an investigation, but because of the setting supplement in the back and because this is really more about characters and situations, the structure works well. I would need to run it to know for sure (and I haven’t had the opportunity to run it yet), but my GM instinct tells me the author made the right call. Also, while it is based around encounters, I should point out that the encounters themselves are keyed to a map, so the setting is still important.  

There were two things that jumped out at me immediately reading the adventure, the maps and illustrations are truly helpful.  The section starts with a map of the entire Barony, but most of the encounters have maps as well, and all of these are well done. The illustrations are also linked to the content of the adventure, and even serve as useful handouts for the party (there are two in particular that actually quite critical in this respect).

Throughout the book, there is a sidebar called “Rob’s Notes”. Mostly what he uses this for is to tell the GM how each encounter played out at various playtests. At first glance this might not seem all that helpful, but it genuinely is. Not only does it illuminate how the writer intends the module to be used, but it gives you some sense of what directions things can go. These are all very casual, not at all pretentious. Just his thoughts on what occurred in playtest or how he ran certain NPCs.

While the adventure is simple enough to grasp, there are a lot of characters. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does require the GM to go over the material a bit. So while the adventure is organized by encounters, those encounters involve different NPCs or groups that are described at the beginning of the module. Knowing each of these by heart is important to running the adventure smoothly. In my opinion the characters are clearly explained and interesting. I felt like I had a solid understanding of what each character is about and how to run them after reading their entries. I also like that he didn’t just have good and bad guys. There are characters with motivations here, often with flaws, but they are not just team blue or team red and to me that is a lot more interesting to run.

The real sparks of the adventure come from the interaction of NPCs and factions. It could really play out a number of different ways depending on how the players approach things. One nice thing about the module is, while there is no one right way to run through it, and it is certainly non-linear, there are clearly things going on in each encounter and location so the game doesn’t trail off or become aimless.

The Setting

The supplement portion of Scourge of the Demon Wolf is essentially a sandbox of the Barony of Westtower. The author is clear that the type of sandbox he created is more about the people. It does cover physical locations, and covers them well, but there is a lot of attention paid to NPCs, relationships and factions.

It begins with an overview of the Barony, which is part of the Duchy of Dearthmead (apparently the breadbasket of the City-State). There is enough history here to provide context, but not so much that you are overwhelmed.  This is followed by an overview of key geographic features, settlements and the four major locations featured in the adventure.

Though the entries were short, I quite liked the settlements section. One frustration as a GM is not having the names of important local leaders or key details about minor locations on the map. This provides that in an easy at-a-glance format. Each settlement gives a name, the number of households, the leader, resources, military information, and a short one paragraph description. Even though the entries run about about 3-4 sentences, just enough was provided that I felt confident I could run each, in an interesting way, off-the-cuff.

The locations go into considerably more detail. Just to give an example, for the Village of Kensla, the writer gives a full page of background and includes information on daily life, farming, architecture and local herds—all very important, street-level stuff for running a game. He also provides a full entry for every household in the village. This is genuinely impressive to me, as there are 43 such entries. So if you want to know about Tunric the yeoman, he and his wife are fully described and given stats. In my opinion, the details the writer chooses to focus on in each entry are those that are particularly helpful to running the characters.

I can’t go into much more detail of the remaining areas without risking a spoiler, so I will just say that the rest of the setting section is as solid as the Village of Kensla. The last location is my personal favorite. Again, the maps are highly effective and the characters/factions are well described. There are also a number of launching pads in these entries for adventure.

I highly recommend Scourge of the Demon Wolf. It gives you the tools to run interesting adventures without pre-ordained outcomes and is very friendly to off the cuff GM styles. Non-linear adventures are a challenge to design and they are a challenge to run. Because the writer has to make them for every group that buys the book, and not tailor the contents to his own gaming group, it can be difficult to produce something others can use that isn’t “railroady”. This book demonstrates a good deal of forethought, and the organization works well. If there were moments when I was a bit unclear on a detail, it was very easy for me to find clarity by consulting the appropriate entry. A GM can use the actual Scourge of the Demon Wolf adventure in the book or just take the setting portion and drop his PCs in to see what happens.

estar

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Scourge of the Demon Wolf
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2012, 02:47:33 PM »
Thanks for taking the time to write this. I appreciate the kind words.

The way I initially wrote it was just a page and a half of notes along with some maps describing the locales, NPCs, and the initial situation. I didn't what to expect when I first sat down with the adventure. What got written was from me recording the result of multiple playtests.  Remarkably the various groups handled the various situations in similar ways.

Although there were distinct differences. For example a pair of adventurers from one group robbed the Temple of Mitra and then got attacked by wolves looking for people roaming at night. One of them was able to flee back into the village safely, the other however ran into the woods and eventually wound up in a tree for the night.