Introductory first-level adventures are a hard genre to work in, because the fragility of starting characters means every hazardous encounter may be a character's last, while a PC death may only be the party's first. Perhaps for this reason, most intro adventures tend to follow patterns which make them very predictable: small humanoid lairs, static ruins with lots of abandoned storerooms, save-the-village quests. I have seen few attempts to break with the formulas established in Keep on the Borderlands, In Search of the Unknown, and The Village of Hommlet. The Maze of Nuromen happens to be based on the basic concept of In Search of the Unknown (with a hint of The Tower of Zenopus), the abandoned lair dungeon, which I suppose is logical considering it is written for BLUEHOLME™, a Holmes D&D clone.

There is a very promising outer charm to this (free) product: cartography, layout and the presentation of information all have a simple elegance which make the contents accessible, and the package attractive. Particularly notable are the wondrous public domain-sourced illustrations by Harry Clarke, whose decadent art nouveau pictures suggest a strange fairyland atmosphere, and which were the reason I downloaded and read this adventure.

Unfortunately, The Maze of Nuromen does not rise above a competent but average B1-inspired starter dungeon, and Clarke's influence is not in particular evidence. Although the backstory has a high fantasy element that sounds interesting, what we have in the room descriptions are the same old armouries with corroded weapons, kitchen with discarded pots and pans, and barrack rooms with beds and a bunch of skeletonised guys still sitting around a card table (a low level dungeon encounter if there ever was one) – content which is elementary, mostly mundane, and lacking in potential for varied interaction.

Of course, Nuromen is presented as a beginner's adventure, so it should theoretically be all new and wondrous to new gamers. There are two issues I would take with this line of reasoning: first, the realities of gaming are, very few beginners will start with the BLUEHOLME™ rules. Second, there is no reason why a beginner's module should not have more of the good stuff – stuff that is fantastic, strange and unexpected. These elements are few and far between in this module, and although there are some inventive undead encounters – like with a phantom of a drunkard, or a nasty surprise packed in an iron maiden – they scarcely detract from otherwise routine dungeoneering. What if there was more of the illustrations' essence in the gameplay? What if those elementary ideas were twisted around a bit, or used in an extraordinarily interesting way? What if there was a dynamic element, perhaps related to the backstory (which is an adventure hook, but not a strong, active part of the action)?

In summary, my problem with The Maze of Nuromen is not with the product per se, since it is a functional, playable meat-and-potatoes dungeon for first level PCs, and even gives off that elusive Holmes atmosphere if this matters. Rather, it is missing its own voice: it is one Holmes-inspired low-level dungeon among many, reusing the same ideas in a different combination. Get this one, get another, or cut up your own copy of B1 and rearrange the pieces: they will all be very similar. Dare we ask for more? Maybe not. If there is a lesson  here, it is that sometimes that fancy artwork does not constitute a promise to go in with a certain set of expectations: it is often just artwork that happens to be very, very good.

Thank you for taking the time read the Maze.

I designed the original dungeon; background, maps and key.

The fellow who edited the game actually did as much or more work than I on putting it into an elegant and beautiful format that gives it the outer charm you mentioned and he did in fact change some elements of the story and the dungeon, making improvements as far as I am concerned.

I wanted the Maze to be a more comprehensive "Basement of Zenopus", both as a tribute and to accommodate my individual players at the time. I had only two veteran players...the remaining five to six players who played it (some couldn't play every session due to schedules) had never even cracked a D&D rule book and new nothing of the game or old school dungeons.

When I designed it, my goal was to give them that old school dungeon experience for the first time.

It is "the same old stuff" to you and I, but it wasn't for them...B-1 was a bomb dropping airplane to them and they'd never even heard of the Holmes book. So it was pretty pre-school stuff, but I can only judge the results.

It lasted several play sessions, each one was fun and exciting, and most of my newbies are pretty passionate players now.

It's not a masterpiece by any means and wasn't intended to be--I uploaded it for fun on the internet to share with other gamers. You mentioned that few first time gamers will start with Blueholme, which was also nicely done; the Maze of Nuromen could be used, like any dungeon, with any rules system.

I will make a defense of it on one point: to me, if any dungeon is drab and mundane and boring, it is largely the DM's fault.

I put several things in there for a DM to be able to do some roleplaying and interaction with players. The goblins, the undead thief, Nuromen and his wife, the old man illusion, and the magic door. A creative and outgoing DM could turn any one of those encounters into customized laughs and chills for any party.

Even in some of the most mundane rooms, the players can be in suspense if it's done well.

Of course, I may just be a proud parent with an ugly baby here but that's okay...the fun I had mapping and writing the Maze and the truly great times we had with it (we played in it for eight hours in one session) was immensely satisfying and the reason it was designed in the first place.

I would like to stress that the editor did all of the hard work in making this more accessible and user friendly and I am very impressed by his work. he cleaned up some of my messier writing and he has a real flair for good practical English.

I do appreciate your words, they challenge me to create newer and better dungeons.

Thanks for the review, Melan, I appreciate the honest opinion (I'm that fellow who edited it). I believe the fault with the faults you found lies with me - I really should have added a little more introduction to explain to the novice referee how to get the most out of this dungeon.

For example, one of the key features of Blueholme (which will hopefully become clearer as more products appear) is that combat is only one option - and usually not the best one. If you check out the monster assortment in the Prentice Rules, you'll see that there are creatures in there that a 1-3 level party could never hope to defeat in combat. The reaction roll table should not be underestimated - the goblins could actually be useful allies if the PCs approach them properly, which may lead to problems with the elves later. Blueholme is a melting pot and there are few monsters that are absolutely inimical (i.e. not all orcs are chaotic evil).

xerxez, Vile: Thank you for your comments! (And sorry for keeping them unanswered; I only check this subforum every once in a while.) I completely agree that The Maze of Nuromen would hold up well in play, especially with new players, and as far as I am concerned, if you used it to introduce new people to the hobby, you did good.

But I also maintain that this is the sort of adventure everyone should make at home, and only release if it is more than a rearrangement of B1, Zenopus or one of the other classics. And B1, while a basic dungeon, had more content like the pool room or the cavern of the mystical stone (and Palace of Silver Princess, while very flawed, was way, way stranger). If a GM can create a great experience with the simpler encounters what could he or she do with that?

Which is what makes this an average module - and that should not be meant as a bad module (something badly written, or likely to result in a poor play experience).