Description
- for players of Old-School Essentials: Classic Fantasy
- perfectly crafted adventure
- great for beginner players
Word has recently spread through the cramped taverns and wine stalls of Arak Brannie that orcs have been spotted near the island's northern shores—a place where only shepherds and their flocks roam among the hardy scrub, olive groves, and melancholic ruins of a bygone era. The worried patricians of the City Council have immediately declared that whoever smokes out the orcs may keep their loot. And if some ancient coins from long-forgotten tombs happen to get mixed in with the plunder? No one will be asking any uncomfortable questions about such trifles this time around…
Vaults of Volokarnos is an adventure for 1st to 3rd level characters for Old-School Essentials. It is a dungeon complex of burial chambers infiltrated by orc smugglers and other unsavory elements, set in a Mediterranean-inspired environment.
The adventure aims to demonstrate the dungeon design principles described in OSE, utilizing random generation, default enemies, treasures, and magic items from the core rulebook to show how to combine them into a functional whole. It also serves as a "training" adventure for new players, though it pulls no punches. In true old-school style, it features uncompromising difficulty—but offers high rewards in return. Players will quickly learn that only sharp thinking and clever tactics will lead them to success.
- A dungeon with 52 locations described in a clear, bulleted format.
- Practical electronic version for easy and quick searching.
- Downloadable unmarked maps for VTT play.
Links
Review by Jiří „Markus“ PetrůProduct's details
Reviews
44,3 (4 reviews)
An excellent dungeon. Evocative, dangerous, believable, fantastic, and packed with both combat and puzzles. It teaches you how to play full-blooded old-school D&D. And if this catches your interest even a little, go and buy everything by Gábor Lux. Because The Catacombs of Volokarno are just a glimpse into his design kitchen. With every one of his modules, you will learn something new if you're a DM, and experience something unknown if you're a player.
Vynikající dungeon. Evokativní, nebezpečný, uvěřitelný, fantastický, plý bojů i hádanek. Naučí vás hrát plnotučné staré DnD. A pokud vás toto aspoň trochu zaujme, jděte a kupte si všechno od Gábora Luxe. Protože Volokarnovy katakomby jsou jen náhled do jeho designerské kuchyně. S každým dalším jeho modulem se naučíte něco nového, jste-li DM, a zažijete něco nepoznaného, jste-li hráč.
A slim booklet focusing on a single dungeon/catacombs. The adventure is partially procedurally generated, and unfortunately, it shows. From my perspective, it doesn't offer anything particularly interesting. It's just a list of rooms and corridors with brief descriptions of their appearance and contents. Some sections of the catacombs don't make much sense. I find the plot hooks and rumors at the end of the booklet unnecessary.
Describing a 100x100 km area on two pages is nonsensical. I assume everyone will drop these catacombs into their own world, and besides, plot hooks like 'monks living on an island creating monsters through rituals' are really shallow and don't help much. However, if you want a simple, pre-made dungeon, Volokarn's Catacombs will certainly serve its purpose, and at a great price too.
Útlá brožura zaměřující se na jeden dungeon/katakomby. Dobrodružství je vygenerované do určité míry náhodně a je to na něm bohužel znát. Z mého pohledu nenabízí nic extra zajímavého. Prostě jen výpis místností a chodeb se stručným popisem vzhledu a obsahu. Některé pasáže katakomb nejsou příliš logické. Za zbytečné považuji náměty a zvěsti na konci brožury.
Na dvou stranách je nesmyslné popisovat oblast 100x100 km. Předpokládám, že si katakomby každý vloží do svého světa, navíc zápletky typu na ostrově žijí mniši, kteří pomocí rituálů vytvářejí monstra, jsou opravdu plytké, takže moc nepomohou. Pokud ale někdo chce jednoduchou předpřipravenou jeskyni, tak Volokarnovy katakomby svůj účel určitě splní a ještě za příznivou cenu.
1 - 4 reviews from 4