About Puzzle Dungeon: The Seers Sanctum

Puzzle Dungeon: The Seers Sanctum is a definitely interesting OSR dungeon adventure. It was originally launched during ZineQuest3, and is currently available at DriveThruRPG.

Some basic information. PD:TSS is a 22 pages PDF, offering a10 room dungeon adventure for characters level 1-4, with statistics that allow to use it with pretty much any odnd/BX/BECMI type of ruleset.

The dungeon is the underground temple of the long lost cult of the Seers, and sight is the theme of the whole place.

What's so great about the module? A lot:

• Original theme. Being original is not a strict requirement for me, but having a dungeon which is not just yet another crypt filled with undead, or cave with a bunch of orcs, is definitely good.
• Interactive environment. Each and everyone of the 10 rooms offers a "puzzle". These are not actual puzzles as much as environments that the players can examine and interact with in a series of meaningful ways, and this is definitely good. There's a hand mirror that allows to see how the place was in the past, allowing for a lot of investigation. And the general theme of sight is carried on consistently through the place, meaning that players should reasonably figure out how to circumvent traps and reveal secret passages and hidden things.
• Non-necessary fights. The whole dungeon only host 4 rooms with a single creature encounter and one room with 2d4 creatures. The cool thing is none of them, except perhaps the grey ooze in the first room, is a necessary fight. The 2d4 floating eyeballs don't attack by default, and can be tricked in several ways. There's a medusa whose objective is to leave the dungeon, and a gelatinous cube that first appears trapped inside a pool, and so on.
• Great formatting. The text organization and layout are excellent and make preparation and running the adventure very easy.

Things I'm not completely happy with.

• Some unclear points. The text and formatting is, in general, excellent, but I've found a few odd bits. The iron doors in room 2 are described as "no handles, no hinges, locked" and that's it. Perhaps a paragraph is missing? Anyway, before running the scenario the GM must decide how to handle those doors. Personally, I would just treat them like the similar door found in room 1.
• Treasure. There is a very cool magic item (a stick that can be used like a periscope), but the treasure in the treasure room is barely described ("coins, gems, golden monkeys") and the GM must decide the actual value. Being the only monetary treasure, I would go for something like 1d3 x 1,000gp worth of coins, and two more rolls for the gems and the monkey statues.
• Treasure, again. The deepest room has a medusa trapped inside. She only wants to be free again, so unless the players mess with her, The problem I see is that getting to her room requires some effort and clever thinking, so I would rather put some treasure here: jewels, jars with precious oils, something like that, for another 1d3 x 1,000gp at least.
• Room 8 has the "final puzzle", a planar travel device which the group might figure out how to use (finding it is one of the possible reasons to enter the dungeon, as per the provided hooks). It IS cool, of course, but I would keep it as it is only if I'm ready to have the player characters hop into other planes. Should I run this dungeon (which I definitely would like to), I think I'll change the device in someway, if I play it as part of a larger campaign.

[Please note my observation is based on the PDF version I bought and printed at home last week. Later versions (especially the PDF) might have these little things fixed]

 For those using VTTs, redditor StevenZivon has made a very cool map of the whole dungeon.

Into OSR? Check my other OSR posts and reviews!

Dragon Treasure Alternate Tables

Currently working on finishing the Deadly Dragons Dire and Daunting zine which will be part of the Axian Library book.

It is a LARGE set of tables and tools, and today I want to share this group, which tackles the dragon's treasure hoard.

It is designed to be compatible with Old-School Essentials and so, as usual, it is compatible with BX D&D and similar editions and retroclones.

Treasure Table 1: Value

Alternate Tables: All dragons in Old-School Essentials have treasure type H, with average value 60,000gp. This and the following tables aim at generating a dragon’s hoard more quickly, while maintaining randomness, and also at making it interesting.

Roll 2d6 to establish the overall value of the dragon’s hoard. Apply modifiers resulting from the dragon’s age, if any.

2	Nothing! The dragon’s hoard has been stolen and it is obviously mad about it.
3	5,000gp
4	10,000gp
5	25,000gp
6	40,000gp
7	60,000gp
8	70,000gp
9	80,000gp
10	90,000gp
11	100,000gp
12	110,000gp

Treasure Table 2: Composition

Roll 1d20 to establish the general composition of the dragon’s hoard.

1	Mostly silver and copper coins
2-3	Mostly silver and electrum coins
4-7	Mostly electrum and gold coins
8-11	Mostly gold and platinum coins
12	About half the value in coins (roll a d10 on this table to determine type of coins), and half in gems with an average value of 500gp
13	Mostly gems, with an average value of 500gp
14	Mostly jewels, with an average value of 1,000gp
15	About half the value in coins (roll a d10 on this table to determine type of coins), and half in unusual precious items: fine porcelain or glassware (easily broken); rare spice (ruined by water); cloth, tapestry, paintings, ancient books and scrolls of great artistic or historical value (all highly flammable). Each item is worth 1,000gp.
16	About half the value in coins (roll a d10 on this table to determine type of coins), and half in jewels with an average value of 1,000gp
17	About half the value in gems with an average value of 500gp, and half in jewels with an average value of 1,000gp
18	The value is divided in roughly equal parts between coins (roll a d10 on this table to determine type of coins), gems with an average value of 500gp, and jewels with an average value of 1,000gp
19	About 25% of the value of the treasure is in a single exceptional gem. Roll 1d12 on this table to establish the composition of the other 75%. Examples of exceptional gems: star crystal, moon pearl, ethereal diamond, astral amethyst, blood ruby, nether diamond.
20	About 50% of the value of the treasure is in a single exceptional jewel. Roll 1d12 on this table to establish the composition of the other 50%. Exceptional jewels may be made of platinum or even rarer, more precious metals, and may be studded with dozens of gems, or even exceptional gems (see above). They may also be dragon-sized!

Treasure Table 3: Magic Items

Alternate Table: All dragons in Old-School Essentials have treasure type H, which has a 15% chance to include 1d4 magic items plus 1 potion and 1 scroll.

This table determines in a single roll both if any magic item is present in the hoard, and the item type, making treasure generation easier and faster. The results are also more varied, and tied to the dragon’s HD.

Roll 1d20 and add the dragon’s HD.

1-10	no magic items
11	1 magic item
12	1 scroll
13	1 potion
14	1 potion, plus 1 scroll
15	1 magic item, plus 1 scroll
16	1 magic item, plus 1 potion
17	1 magic item, plus 1 potion, plus 1 scroll
18	2 magic items, plus 1 scroll
19	2 magic items, plus 1 potion
20	2 magic items, plus 1 potion, plus 1 scroll
21	3 magic items, plus 1 scroll
22	3 magic items, plus 1 potion
23	3 magic items, plus 1 potion, plus 1 scroll
24	4 magic items, plus 1 scroll
25	4 magic items, plus 1 potion
26	4 magic items, plus 1 potion, plus 1 scroll
27	5 magic items, plus 1 potion, plus 1 scroll
28	5 magic items, plus 2 potion, plus 1 scroll
29	5 magic items, plus 1 potion, plus 2 scroll
30	5 magic items, plus 2 potion, plus 2 scroll
31	6 magic items, plus 2 potion, plus 2 scroll
32	6 magic items, plus 3 potion, plus 2 scroll
33	6 magic items, plus 2 potion, plus 3 scroll
34	6 magic items, plus 3 potion, plus 3 scroll
35	7 magic items, plus 3 potion, plus 3 scroll

Treasure Table 4: Origin

Roll 1d20 to determine whence the dragon’s hoard came from.

1	It was an ancient dwarf king’s treasure. Add 2d6 gems with an average value of 500gp.
2	It was an elven queen’s treasure. Add 2d6 jewels with an average value of 1,000gp.
3	It was a giant king’s treasure. Add 1 giant-sized jewel worth 5,000 gp.
4	It is a collection of several princes’ and princesses’ ransoms. Add 1,000pp to the treasure.
5-6	It is the accumulation of tolls extorted to travelers crossing the area around the dragon’s lair.
7-8	It is the accumulation of tributes of enslaved or defeated humanoid tribes. Roll an additional humanoid tribe on the Allies table.
9	It is the accumulation of donations from several cities that paid to be spared. Add 20.000gp to the treasure.
10	It is the treasure of a long lost civilization.
11	It is the heirloom of the dragon’s ancestry.
12	It was the hoard of another, now dead dragon. Add a dragon skull!
13-14	It is the accumulation of riches taken from assaulted merchant caravans or ships. Add 2d6 items as listed in entry n. 15 of the Treasure Composition table.
15-16	It is the accumulation of donations and gifts from the dragon’s allies. Add 2d6 items as listed in entry n. 15 of the Treasure Composition table.
17-18	It is the accumulation of spoils of dead would-be dragonslayers. Add two more rolls on Treasure Table 3: Magic Items.
19-20	Roll twice!

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Into OSR? Check my other OSR and Random Tables posts!

About The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

 The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is, well, an excellent OSR adventure, and you should probably stop reading now, click on the image, and buy it straight away.

As I'm writing this, it is even part of the GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG...

But since you are still reading, I'll give you a bit more context.

TBWoB is a sandboxy pointcrawl adventure for level 1-3 characters, with statistics compatible with most OSR rulesets of the od&d/BX/BECMI type. You find AC, HD, and so on. Treasure is in line with the gold/xp progression of those games.

It takes place in a small forested area, pretty much the size of a 6 miles hex, with a river and some mountains at the north.

The town of Brandonsford is the only civilized settlement, and the adventure starting place.

The citizens refuse to go outside the city walls because a dragon has been sighted for a few weeks.

This is the basic set-up.

The module includes two dungeons (one is 6 rooms, the other is about 20), and several other smaller locations. The city of Brandonsford includes several NPCs, and others (including a whole humanoid faction) live in the woods.

The theme/implied setting is vanilla fantasy with more than a sprinkle of fairy tale/folklore vibes. I like it.

What's so great about the module? Three things:

• Number one, everything connects with something. The NPCs in town have their hooks and miniquests and information bits that may lead the adventurers in new directions, look for certain areas, investigate places, and so on.
• Number two, freedom. There is nothing the group has to do in order to "solve" the scenario, but there are lots of different paths of action that can make the battle against the dragon much easier. Even the "miniquests" are great, interesting situations with no predefined solution but a variety of possible approaches and outcomes. Everything is open-ended, but tightly designed to push adventure on.
• Number three, great formatting and text. As far as I'm concerned, they're pretty much perfect: sweet and short and well organized, without useless fluff. In just 18 pages you get hours and hours of gaming, and they're very easy to understand and prepare thanks to a clear layout and use of bold and bullet points.

Is it perfectly perfect? Well, almost!

There's basically only three minor flaws that I've found, and you can fix them in 5 minutes.

• Some creatures don't have their stats in the adventure: I remember the fauns and the witch, not sure if that's all or I'm forgetting something. This is solved with using stat blocks from your game of choice. And if doesn't have them, you can just wing it using the gnoll stat block and a level 4 magic user, I guess! For Old-School Essentials, you have Satyrs in the Advanced Fantasy monsters book, but no witches it seems!
• Exploring the outdoor area, and familiarizing with the town and the locals is intentionally left to the GM. This means you must think how to start the scenario and run the exploration. Luckily, you may use these maps I've found on Reddit: hex map of the area, and Brandonsford town map, both by  Bricky (reddit user BadRussell). Oh and there's also this colorized map on Imgur.
• In the goblin castle map, number 3 and 4 are swapped; and so are 10 and 11 in the Barrow Mound. This was pretty obvious from the room descriptions.

[Please note my observation is based on the Print on Demand version I bought last week. Later versions (especially the PDF) might have these little things fixed]

....so, yes, I'll just copy-paste the first line of this post now.

 

 The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is an excellent OSR adventure, and you should stop reading now, click on the image, and buy it straight away.

GM's Day Sale: My OSR Recommendations!

  The GM's Day Sale is on at DrivethruRPG, and will be on through March the 13th. Here's the OSR offers I recommend.

Whether you've never played OSR games, or you're a veteran looking for something cool, here we go!

OSR GAMES: THE BIG ONES

Worlds Without Number - Kevin Crawford's masterpiece, and one of the most successful games on the whole DrivethruRPG platform. A great game in itself, and a book with tons of tools to generate everything, from world building to adventures, whatever game system you prefer.

Old-School Essentials - Whole Line - The best retroclone around, a faithful reproduction of the B/X D&D rules, with an exceptional work done on the text to make it clear and user-friendly, with an egregious layout. Recommended if you're new to the OSR and want the distilled, simple experience of the original B/X rules. Everything you need to play in one book. Also, my favorite OSR game.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Core Book - A glorious OSR game that is not a retroclone but captures the feel of old school games, with unique mechanics that build on a solid d20 system, generally compatible with other OSR stuff. Recommended if you want a more modern cut, while true to the spirit of OSR... and you like crits and fumble tables.

OTHER OSR GAMES

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells, and Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells - Both of Diogo Nogueira's original games are a blend of OSR and modern sensitivity, with streamlined rules and inspired tables.

You may definitely want to check: Hyperborea (Player's Manual and Referee's Manual), Troika, and Warlock!

OSR SUPPLEMENTS

A lot of supplements and adventures are included in the GM's Day Sale!

The Gardens on Ynn - A point-crawl adventure set in an ever-shifting extradimensional garden, with a system to generate content while you play.

The Stygian Library - Gardens of Ynn's twin, this time a dungeon set in an infinite, extradimensional library.

The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford - An EXCELLENT sandboxy point-crawl adventure for characters level 1-3, very easy to run, with lots of interaction between locations. Gotta review this sooner or later! Just reviewed it!

Lands of Legends - My zine series with 500 areas and 500 unique encounters for your sandbox. Learn more about Lands of Legends here!

Ominous Crypt of the Blood Moss - A very good 10 room dungeon. I've reviewed it here.

Puzzle Dungeon: The Seers Sanctum - Another very good 10 room dungeon with, well, a lot of well conceived puzzles!

Hideous Daylight and Temple of 1000 Swords - Two third-party Old-School Essentials adventures by Swordlords Publishing with awesome reviews.

Xanadu - Another acclaimed third-party Old-School Essentials dungeon adventure, by Singing Flame.

Bottomless Pit of Zorth - Another acclaimed adventure, with a slime theme and insane art, for characters level 3-5.

OR REAL OLD SCHOOL?

The sale is on a lot of actually old titles! Here's a few titles I recommend:

Rules Cyclopedia - The BECMI D&D rules combined in one volume (except for the Immortals set, which can be grabbed for free!).

The whole B1-B12 series of adventures is on sale, with some must-have scenarios for the Basic D&D set. Note that the current sale makes them cheaper than the regular bundle with the all series!

So if you want to only pick up a few, I'd go with those that are the best in my view: B1 In Search of the Unknown, B2 The Keep on the Borderlands,  B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, B4 The Lost City, B7 Rahasia, and B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond with its five mini adventures.

And then there's a little less known supplement that's worth checking:

AC10 Bestiary of Dragons & Giants - Despite the "Bestiary" in the title, this is, for the most part, an adventure anthology with a dozen or so quick scenarios involving, of course, dragons and giants. A great pick for sandbox campaigns!

ALSO OF NOTE: 500 rpg items for $5 on itch.io!

On itch.io there's a great charity bundle with almost FIVE HUNDRED rpg items (full games as well as scenarios, zines and accessories) that's only $5. Among other things, it includes the Wyrd Science magazine issue 1 and 2; the Into the Wyrd and Wild setting; Planar Compass issue 1; the OSR adventure Roseate Growth; the OSR-compatible mini-game for spell research Vade Arcanum; the OSR dungeon adventure Sea Fortress of the Yule Queen.... and who knows what else! Definitely wroth checking!

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Into OSR? Check my other OSR posts!