[OD&D] The Scorching Gantlet (UD-1) module released!

 

I've just released a new adventure for OD&D type rulesets, The Scorching Gantlet. Don't @ me about that spelling!

This is a very brutal 'escape the dungeon' style adventure where the PCs have their equipment confiscated and must escape with their lives from an evil fire giant's labyrinth. It's best suited to 6-8 players of around 2nd level and contains 38 rooms over 2 levels. Old-school, borderline funhouse stuff!

It's available to purchase on DrivethruRPG and on Itch.io, with plenty of free community copies at the latter if you can't or don't wish to pay for it.

From the blurb: 

Run the Gantlet of Farradok!

Imprisoned by a sadistic fire giant and stripped of their weapons and equipment, the adventuring party must escape from the fiery labyrinths beneath his court - but it won't be easy. His three evil champions and retinue of hobgoblins have also joined the game...

The Scorching Gantlet is a punishing old-school dungeon crammed with evil traps, monsters and puzzles - players will need to be resourceful, hardy and brave as they scrounge and solve their way to the surface.

 This dungeon will (hopefully) be the first in what I hope is a series of lo-fi offerings with a DIY spirit, that don't sacrifice solid craftsmanship. Have fun!

[Tunnels and Trolls] New adventure released!

I've just released a new PWYW Tunnels and Trolls adventure that I wrote for use in convention play, Ferverax and the Wildnerness of Gleam. It features a hand-painted map for the party to move around on at speed as they try to locate the invisible castle of the titualar evil wizard Ferverax.

 

He has an X at the end of his name, he must be bad news

I did my usual 'over-prepare in a panic by 5000%' method and spent hours on this acrylic painting for the map. It's very much inspired by the Mike Winterbauer school of CRPG map design, and in fact the adventure does feature magical fountains that boost your level a la Might & Magic which Mike produced some absolutely glorious maps for.

Map by me, Andrew Walter. The original is big!

Tunnels & Trolls is a game I've really found myself enamoured with in the last few months (I have had the 5th edition rules for several years but it never really clicked for me until quite recently). Of all the 'old games' it definitely seems to be the one that's languishing, which is a shame because I think the central Saving Throw mechanic would really appeal to a lot of the more modern rules-lite folks out there, and then of course there's the bugfuck crazy 'wall-of-fists' combats where you roll buckets of d6. It's currently still in an odd space as far as third-party creators after the acquisition of Flying Buffalo by Webbed Sphere, but since this is free hopefully I'm not stepping on any legal toes.

I'll probably do a proper wot-i-think post about Tunnels & Trolls in future but until then, I hope people enjoy this.