The Search for the Temple of the Golden Spire

By Barney Sloane

Games Workshop

AD&D, 2nd-4th level

Premise: As the party arrives in a near abandoned village magical runes show a poem on a stone cross.

What do we get here?

  Over 4 pages in White Dwarf 22 we get a hex map and two major adventure sites

 Usability/formatting

 

 Expecting players to solve a riddle to find the adventure is a bit of a dicey proposition, if they can't figure it out then just no adventure?

 The writing is pretty good for the most part. Things are kept to a minimum which is good even if it does tend towards a little bit of a lack of flavour in places. You actually get a lot of content in two pages thanks to the brevity. 

 Of the two major adventure sites, both have decent maps although I prefer the castle one that is a really nice little map. The writing of the kobold castle is the better of the two in my opinion, some of the locations in the castle are one of the places that some flavour actually comes through in the adventure. 

 The starting village could do with punching up a bit as could some of the magic items which are a bit bland. 

For the most part you can run as is and won't have too many problems.

Portability

   You should be able to drop in any forested region fairly easily.

Recommendation

 A decent little adventure that can be easily run even if it lacks a little in personality. I would definitely steal the kobold castle if I needed one.

A Murder at Flaxton

 By Micahel Heaton

Games Workshop

AD&D, low-level

Premise: A customs agent washes up dead on the beach of a small fishing village, those sent to investigate disappear.

What do we get here?

  Over 5 pages in White Dwarf 67 we get a simple mystery adventure.

 Usability/formatting

 

 A classic set, this is not a complicated adventure. Things could be a little better organised but for the most part this is an easy to follow adventure.

 It would have been nice to have a few more clues clearly spelt out for plays to bump into however this should be an easy-ish one to figure out, the village is not big enough for multiple suspects. Mercifully the backstory does not drag on excessively as some adventures do, fairly decently written in terms of brevity.

 The setting of this adventure is very grounded so you should not be surprised at the lack of magic items for rewards, gold only on offer here.

Portability

   Should fit any fishing village between two major towns.

Recommendation

 This is a situation for your players to drop into more than a detailed adventure, which is a good thing! A little more flavour on the NPC part would help really draw you in on this one however you have everything you need to improvise it out.

The Bloody Raven

By Kerry Mould

Self Published

Harn, low/moderate difficulty

Premise: While travelling in the wilds the players come across an abandoned dwarven outpost.

What do we get here?

  Over 6 pages we get a mini adventure.

 Usability/formatting

 

 Consider me perplexed. This is supposed to be a "dungeon crawl, with the dungeon it self" however it seems to be missing the dungeon crawl part.

There is plenty of set up and an external map but nothing like a dungeon crawl map to go with it.

 I am down for the set up there just doesn't appear to be any follow through. Really needs a major flesh out to be able to run it.

Portability

   Pretty easy to put anywhere in the wild I suppose.

Recommendation

 More of an outline than anything else, not really game-able content as is.

Available on Lythia for free.

https://www.lythia.com/adventures/bloody-raven/

Red Chains

By Steve Winter

Sasquatch Game Studios

5E, level 4-6

Premise: Rescue a barbarian prince from slavers.

What do we get here?

  Over 14 pages we get an investigation and rescue adventure.

 Usability/formatting

 

 A lot of investigation adventures suffer from being a railroad as there are only so many ways the designer can conceive for you to solve the mystery and this adventure has some of that. Some of the clues are very heavy handed and the options for resolution are straight up flagged as certain death if the PCs don't go the way the writer wants.

 I actually think it was a big mistake to not have the PCs go into the catacombs to rescue the barbarian prince, they actually sound like an interesting location that could have made a memorable end to the adventure. Just saying if they want to go in there being certain death is such a wet blanket.

 The writing is on the wordy side for sure. Big paragraphs could be cut down and the large read out blocks are tiresome too.

 I think you probably could hack this down and salvage something out of it if investigation adventures are your bag. Honestly the loose frame work and bullet points version would work a lot better as you have to keep things open handed given how players can be super unpredictable when investigating mysteries.

 The only rewards or treasure on offer here are gold which is boring as can be.

Portability

  Written for the Primeval Thule setting you can probably adapt this fairly easy to any setting with evil slavers in it as their city is where 90% of the adventure takes place.

Recommendation

 Probably not for me, I think we can learn something from this and work up a better adventure though. Rescuing someone from a slaver city is classic stuff and if it was done right is great adventure fodder.

Available on drive thru as part of an anthology with two other adventures, three for $9 is not too bad honestly before we get into the quality of the adventures.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171225/Primeval-Thule-5e-Adventure-Anthology

MA#95 The Little Book of Barrows Vol 1.

 By Tim Short

Gothridge

B/X, level 1?

Premise: Sort out a mess of ghost dog and wights bothering a rural family.

What do we get here?

  Over 8 pages we get 2 very small barrows.

 Usability/formatting

 

 These are not really adventures or even adventure sites, more curios you can place in a hex for players to stumble across and poke at.

 The first barrow comes with an unnecessary page of back story that will never come up in play. 

 I like the concept of the two barrows, the maps and writing are decent they just need to be expanded a little both in room size and theme. There is actually some merit to the idea of a book of barrows, file that under ideas I'll never follow up on.

Portability

   Very simple to drop into hexes as required.

Recommendation

 I feel like the author always gets off to a good start with these micro set ups they just need a bit more polish to the writing.

Available on the author's patreon

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-95-little-of-49458157

The Spudfield Good Girl

 By Niklas Wistedt

self published

B/X, low levels

Premise: Sort out a mess of ghost dog and wights bothering a rural family.

What do we get here?

  Over 2 pages we get a 6 room dungeon.

 Usability/formatting

 

This adventure has a pretty decent set up, which the locals misunderstand so needs investigating by the players. I think there might need to be one or two more clues to get the players going in the direction, otherwise pretty good.

 The writing is functional, maybe a tiny bit verbose in places, otherwise it is fine.

 Standing out here is the art, some nicely drawn locations which really add to the piece. 

 There is a nice unique magic item and the actual lay out of the dungeon is pretty good.

Portability

   Can be put in any small settlement and run fairly easily.

Recommendation

 Not as good as the previous effort I reviewed from the same creator however it has personality and will be a decent little adventure to run.

Free on the author's blog, can't go wrong with that.

https://www.wistedt.net/2020/11/02/the-spudfield-good-girl-free-dd-adventure/

Curse of the pyramid

By OnePageMage

self published

5E, level 4

Premise: A cursed monster is rumoured to protect great treasures in a pyramid.

What do we get here?

  Over 1 page we get a 5 encounter adventure.

 Usability/formatting

 

Within the limitations of a one page dungeon this adventure is okay, nothing special. It is laid out well, you can easily follow and run this one.

 There is a lack of anything really evocative, there is no theme that really shines through.

 As 5E adventures go this is a pretty standard one and will be missing a lot of the elements OSR players might be looking for in terms of interactivity and so on.

Portability

   While described as a pyramid in the desert the basic nature of this one means it could be a tomb in any location really.

Recommendation

 As always hard to argue with free, just not a lot here.

 Available for free on reddit.

https://i.redd.it/nl7ioswe90y71.png

Perpetual Temple of the Pale Falcon

 By Sean F. Smith

self published

Basic(?), levels 1-2

Premise: The court wizard wants you to go get the mcguffin from a dungeon.

What do we get here?

  Over 4 pages we get a dungeon split over 3 small levels.

 Usability/formatting

 

The writing here is very simple and workman like. It is all nuts and bolts, no flowery or evocative language.

 There is a nice theme and set up to the dungeon, especially the second level.

 At times the lack of evocative language does make it feel like the theme is not fully played out into the setting. An example of the lack of flavour is no unique magic items. The adventure hook is pretty lazy too. A little bit of effort goes a long way.

Portability

   Pretty simple to plop down as it is just a dungeon.

Recommendation

 A nice little pick up, probably value for money.

 Available on drive thru for under $3.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/331544/SGi--Perpetual-Temple-of-the-Pale-Falcon

Surgerock Vault

By Malrex

The Merciless Merchants

OSE, levels 7-9

Premise: A strange floating rock presents options for exploration.

What do we get here?

  Over 10 pages we get a dungeon split over 4 small levels.

 Usability/formatting

 

It is hard to find much wrong with this adventure, the maps not being up front is about all I would pick issue with.

 The writing is clear and in places evocative. For me the highlight is some of the magic items on offer, nicely unique.

 A very nice adventure location for decent level PCs to poke through. There are factions and alternate routes of exploration. I suppose you could say there is a slight lack of interactivity if you are being really picky.

Portability

   A mysterious floating rock is pretty easy to drop in anywhere even if you don't have a sea in your setting.

Recommendation

 Pay what you want on drive thru, definitely a worth while pick up.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/390976/Surgerock-Vault

Whirlpool Barrow

 By ClericsWearRingmail

self published

Basic, 3rd level

Premise: It is a dungeon and you are adventurers, what more do you need?

What do we get here?

  Over 9 pages we get a dungeon with 24 keyed rooms.

 Usability/formatting

 

 We get no context for this dungeon which is a real shame as it might help reinforce a theme for the location.

 The layout is decent, map up front and mini maps with every room. I like the writing too, it won't win any awards but it gets the job done in terms of giving you all the important information succinctly.

 Another major omission here is decent magic items as treasure, a real oversight.

 For the most part this would be easy to run and there is plenty to interact with.

Portability

   The lack of context makes this a pretty portable effort.

Recommendation

 Entirely free on the author's blog so no reason not to pick up to have stored away as a back up option.

https://clericswearringmail.blogspot.com/2020/08/whirlpool-barrow.html

St. Kruskiev's Gold

By Agathokles & Chipman

Pandius

D&D type games(?), levels 2-4

Premise: Help a church recover stolen relics.

What do we get here?

  Over 6 pages we get an investigation adventure.

 Usability/formatting

 

 To start out with I am not a huge fan of the formatting of this adventure. Huge pillars of text hide away all the important information and the NPCs your players are hunting for are not detailed till far too late in the text with too much info.

 Mysteries and investigations can be hard to run in d&d type games and this adventure gatekeeps a lot of the clues behind skill checks which is always a bad idea. Roll bad? No adventure for you tonight.

 Because of the nature of the way these types of adventures play out this ends up being more a framework with some suggested scenes as who knows how your players will stumble around.

Portability

   The adventure is very tied into the politics of the setting so you will have to switch that up if you want to run it in another setting. Requires a decent sized city to be run in

Recommendation

 Given away for the low, low price of free I still can't recommend this one really. From the log line of the adventure you can probably come with something equal to if not better than what we get here.

http://www.pandius.com/StKruskiev.pdf

HH-1 Nashka's Lair

 By Erin Bisson

Rended Press

B/X, levels 1-2

Premise: Orcs have moved into an abandoned dwarven redoubt!

What do we get here?

  Over 10 pages we an adventure with a 7 room dungeon.

 Usability/formatting

 

 What we get on the page is pretty well thought out and organised. There is good advise on how to run the combatants and the potential for some faction play.

 The treasure is okay, nothing special. When we finally get the map it is decent enough for the small size.

 My problem with this one is that it misses the key parts of the adventure that build up to the dungeon. You have to do all the work yourself of building up Nashka as an interesting and memorable villain. We need some villages that have been laid waste to and so on, tales of Nashka's cruelty.

 There is potential here you just have to pull it out of the adventure.

Portability

   Given the lack of background to this adventure it is pretty portable.

Recommendation

 This is a free adventure so hard to complain too much. Just wish there was more to it to make it a solid recommend rather than it being an average orc dungeon you can pull out in a pinch.

https://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-release-nashkas-lair.html

The Opened Barrow - Beyond the Wall Scenario pack

By John Cocking & Peter S. Williams

Flatland games

Beyond the Wall, starting characters

Premise: A barrow near your village has been opened, and now there is an unquiet spirit to deal with!

What do we get here?

  Over 8 pages we get tables to create an adventure.

 Usability/formatting

 

 This is not an adventure exactly, rather most things you need to improvise one on the fly. 

More realistically what you'll do is roll up most of this before hand then slot in some details from the player character creation. In Beyond the Wall character creation fills out the NPCs and locations of the starting village which I have always thought is a nice touch to the game, something I regularly want to steal for my own nefarious uses.

 The table entries are really good at giving you plenty of hooks to pull off of in a single sentence and the tables included are comprehensive enough to give you the frame work. You can even get some good faction play and interesting treasures out of the tables, nice!

 What is missing here is a barrow map or a way to generate a barrow map. Otherwise you are good to go. Even the monsters you might need are all included in the 8 page write up, very helpful.

Portability

   You can probably adapt this pretty easily to any barrow haunting village scenario you want to use, not just as a starting adventure.

Recommendation

 A tiny bit more flavour would really tip this over the edge however as is I think it is a really good starter for either new or experienced referees. Beyond the Wall gets rather over looked in the OSR scene these days which I think is a real shame given all the fantastic tools it has like this, there is a huge amount to plunder from the system.

 This scenario pack is part of a larger product which is $5.99 over on drive thru, plenty of value in my opinion for the whole thing.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/313621/Beyond-the-Wall--Dangers-Near-and-Far

BH12 In Search of the Forgotten City

By RC Pinnell

Self published

Basic, 3rd level+

Premise: After finding the local ruins cleared you discover a door to a secret layer below.

What do we get here?

  Over 15 pages we get a 2 level dungeon.

 Usability/formatting

 

 My pet peeve of dungeon maps being right at the end of the adventure rather than near the text rears its ugly head here. A large number of chambered are keyed E for empty with the helpful suggestion you could stock them yourself as if this is not the job of the one writing the adventure. Beyond empty rooms there are a number of other areas where the GM is encouraged to "fill in" if they so desire.

 Everything is written in long paragraphs you have to hack through which makes my patience for this adventure pretty thin. There is nothing in the way of theme here, just a mish mash of monsters. Lack of theme and bland writing gives little flavour to the adventure

 There are loops in the map, when we do finally get them. Nothing approaching faction play is available here due to the random monsters included. Some of the treasure shows at least a little thought behind it.

Portability

   Supposed to be the mid part of a three adventure series so hard to really drop down on its own.

Recommendation

 No flavour means no love from me.

Not sure where I picked this up originally and doesn't seem to show up on google anymore, you aren't missing much.

The Maggot King MA98

  By Tim Shorts

Self published

No system/level given

Premise: Investigate what lies beyond a stone door in the woods.

What do we get here?

  Over 4 pages we get a simple 2 room dungeon.

 Usability/formatting

 

 Obviously you are not going to get a lot in a two room dungeon however there is a decent amount of stuff to interact with given the size.

 There is a fair amount of superfluous backstory that players are never going to get to know unless you seed it way in advance of them running into this tomb which seems unlikely as this is supposed to be a random hex encounter really. It would be better to foreshadow things if there was a maggot carved on the initial door rather than a crow.

 The writing and formatting is fine, nothing special. For four pages this is perfectly usable content.

 I do like the attempt to put some unique treasure in with the bone dust, that is pretty nice. Given the size of the dungeon there is obviously no space for faction play really.

Portability

   You might need to switch up the lore a little but you can basically drop this in anywhere as intended.

Recommendation

 If you want a really short dungeon this is a fine little example you can pull out without needing much thought.

Available on the author's patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-98-maggot-54112470?l

Bird of a Feather

By Zach Galzar & John Hammerle

Lesser Gnome

B/X games, levels 3-4

Premise: A village wants brave hunters to go kill a dangerous bird.

What do we get here?

  Over 21 pages we get a five points of interest and a 6 room dungeon.

 Usability/formatting

 

 A lot of effort has been put into cross linking the content in this adventure and the writing. Unfortunately nearly all the effort in the writing is in florid text only the referee will ever have to read. 

 Getting through this adventure is a real chore, it is a 5 or 6 page adventure split over 21 pages. There is a huge backstory that the writers even admits is unnecessary. When we finally get to the adventure itself it is pretty bog standard stuff with no real theme about it.

 I appreciate the effort to attempt to create some unique magic items however some of them are a bit crass. 

 You can see what they are going for but this just is not fun and the writing doesn't carry it.

Portability

   Yeah, sure it is designed as a drop in adventure so it is pretty portable.

Recommendation

 A chore to read through and not inspiring to want to play. That's a no.

Available on drive thru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145341/Bird-of-a-Feather--An-Adventure-for-Classic-RolePlaying-Games?

The Barrow of the Tapping Crow

 By Tim Shorts

Self published

No system/level given

Premise: Crows sit atop a barrow in the woods, go investigate.

What do we get here?

  Over 2 pages we get a simple barrow to explore.

 Usability/formatting

 

 For simple content this is pretty good. I would really like to see the contents of the barrow tied together better thematically however if you can over look that it runs fine.

 I like the treasure, the magical bracers are whatever but the magical torch is pretty nice.

 The random monster encounter table only has four entries, which is fine, I am not sure they fit so well for such a small and enclosed location. 

 There is the odd grammar mistake in the writing which is not the end of the world.

Portability

   You could drop this into any woodland hex you have that needs spicing up.

Recommendation

 I like the idea, the execution just needs a couple more drafts to really amp this thing up. As is you can pull out and drop in easily enough I just don't love it despite the potential it has.

Available on the author's patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-96-tapping-51935238

In the Pines MA#93

By Tim Shorts

Self published

No system/level given

Premise: A small village requires the help of an elf!

What do we get here?

  Over 6 pages we get a small solo adventure for an elf character.

 Usability/formatting

 

 I am kind of baffled at the order information is given in this adventure. It really seems like the pages are out of order and with so few pages that is a pretty impressive feat to achieve.

 You can figure out what is going on after reading through the whole thing but really should you have to in this day and age?

 The adventure itself is a twist where the PC ends up as the sacrifice. Without much warning and no clues that is a bit harsh. And what is the character supposed to do when they find out they have been double crossed? It does not go anywhere after that.

With some time and effort you could probably build a folk-horror out of this adventure, it just is not here with what is given.

 

 I will say that the hex map of the area is nicely done, well worth using if nothing else.

Portability

   Any small forested area should fit for this adventure, you could probably make it work for a party rather than solo if you really wanted too.

Recommendation

 Potential with a major rewrite. The author puts out a nice looking product it just does not work is the problem. 

Available on the author's patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-93-in-pines-43375631

Dead Troll Halls

By Clerics Wear Ringmail

Self published

B/X, level 4

Premise: Go explore the dungeon of the troll priest.

What do we get here?

  Over 7 pages we get a dungeon with 12 keyed locations.

 Usability/formatting

 

 A troll holy space has some potential to it as an idea, I am not sure this adventure does particularly deep on that though. It could easily be a holy place of any type of creature, there is nothing that really screams troll about the place.

 Rooms have a decent amount of interactivity. There is one save or die trap that is not really telegraphed very well which seems a bit harsh.

 Writing is good enough to run from, nothing to really blow you away. Treasure is all mundane, nothing too special.

 

Portability

   Does not look to hard to drop in as there is nothing implied with in the dungeon about the location the dungeon is found in. A lack of hooks is a double edged sword in that regard, gives flexibility but requires more work of the referee.

Recommendation

 Fine if not inspiring. You can run as is just nothing makes you want to. Free on the writer's blog.

https://clericswearringmail.blogspot.com/2020/12/dead-troll-halls.html

Valley of the Cracked Helm

By Billy Longino

Union of Hirelings, Henchmen and Hangers on

OSE, levels 3-5

Premise: Explore a valley of wild dwarfs if you dare.

What do we get here?

  Over 2 pages we get a point crawl with 10 major locations in it.

 Usability/formatting

 

 I much prefer this to the previous effort I reviewed from the same designer. Here we have the same level of detail and content packed into an incredibly small space with just the right level of humour. Sure the set up is bananas however it is not as meta as "Thicc as Thieves".

 You can easily run this lost valley for several sessions. You will have to pad out some of the locations and add in decent treasure yourself, the frame work is there though for you to have plenty to build off.

 Where the adventure does get meta it does so in the right way, I am thinking of the rival murder hobos in the random encounters table.

 

Portability

   Easy to drop into a mountainous region on the edge of civilization.

Recommendation

 Definitely looks like a lot of fun even if you do have to add to it a little yourself. For the length (two pages) and the cost (free if you want) you will be hard pressed to find better than this.

 Pay what you want on drive thru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/317097/Valley-of-the-Cracked-Helm