Review of "The Stink in Golanda"

Reading only. I did not GM this module for anyone in a play session. I will score it like a Russian ice skating judge: start at 10 and deduct mercilessly.

It is 17 pages. It costs $15. Let's forget that this product is overpriced for the modern PDF market. If it were a print product it would be fairly priced based on page count. But just for fun, how does the publisher's pricing stand up to the old TSR price gouging?

Let's compare it to the 1981 omnibus module "D1-2 Descent Into the Depths". It was 32 pages. I think I recall modules like this going for $5 when I was a kid. So $5 in 1981 adjusted for inflation to 2014 dollars is $13. TSR thought their work was worth $0.40 per page. Polyhedron Games thinks their work is worth $0.88 per page.

Normally, I remove points for overcharging, but I'm waving that off for having the moxie to charge me more than double old TSR rates. If they had asked for a nickel less, I would have docked an entire point. There comes a time where one has crossed the line from greedy gouger to elite provider, and Polyhedron Games has crossed that line.

The last 2 pages are made up of nothing more than a series of large blocks of empty checkboxes preceded by a monster's name in boldface. The module reads, "This is a battle sheet that you can use to mark off foes..." Not cool, dude. I can use a scrap of paper to tally monster kills. -2 points.

Remember the original AD&D Monster Manual? The one with the demon section detailing types I - VI? Well, those stat blocks are repeated for you in the module, plus the stat blocks for a few other basic monsters, mostly undead. I estimate that this content accounts for 6 pages. -2 points: a module at this price per page does not have room for a basic zombie stat block taking up half of a page.

The running page count is 17 - (1 [cover]  + 2 [empty checkboxes] + 6 [well known monster stat blocks]) = 8 pages of potential original content.

Now the run down on the actual content. It is for a large party (more than 5 characters) of about level 8. A temple in a small fortified town has been overrun by supernatural horrors. Characters have to go find out what happened to the first cleansing party and then finish clearing it out themselves. Nothing original but more importantly nothing cringe-worthy. No point loss.

Some might say this is a matter of style, but in the first three paragraphs the author mentions 9 newly made up geographic locations, 4 persons of note with long funny titles, 4 political entities with aliases, and 2 gods. I don't need all that data for a simple temple run. Just tell me to tell the players, "You are here to find good cleric Joe." And when/if the players find good cleric Joe, he can tell them about his missing paladin escort. This space needed to be spent giving me specific advice for how to fit this module into my world, scaling it for stronger or weaker parties, rumors to hand out and so on. -1 point.

The module is 8 sequential encounters (4 monster, 4 NPC) in undead apocalypse town to arrive at the midway point. I do not care for forced sequential, but that is easy enough to fix. The encounters are nothing special, although one has a high quantity of low threat monster so mages can show off an area of effect spell. No point loss.

The rest of the module is 5 sequential encounters of increasing threat as characters assault the corrupted temple linearly. There are some hints at how these encounters could be made outstanding, but the author did not spend enough time thinking on and documenting his thoughts regarding this topic. For example, what happens if characters get 2 encounters in, disengage, and then come back 2 days later? I'm paying for you as an author to think on this a bit and give me some ideas. It also has a pressing dungeon ecology problem: while the characters are engaged in encounter 3, encounter 4 and 5 can surely hear them and come running. They are about 100 feet away. No party of this module level could survive that. -1 point.

Only one map. It is of the temple. And it is only 250 feet long and 150 feet wide. No map of the town. No map of area around the temple. Why does the temple have no windows? The last 2 encounters should have been on a different map (second floor or basement). -1 point.

There is a good trap in this module. If this module has a highlight, it is this trap. I will not say more because of spoilers. But it is tough, can lead to further adventures, and is well integrated into the plot. I like it. +0.25 points.

I cannot help but compare this to Dungeon Crawl Classics 18 "Citadel of the Demon Prince". That module and this one have many parallels. But that module has 68 pages, 6 maps, and more thought put into each encounter. And it costs $3 for the PDF.

Total score is 3.25 out of 10.

Corrections:

Product Format: PDF
Product Version: 2012-05-09

If an admin can fix, please.

The form kept barfing on the product version and unchecking the PDF format checkbox. Even when I gave up on putting in the product version number, the format still ignored my PDF format choice in the end.

I decided to use the date from the "File last updated" field on RPGNow because that is what makes the most sense. How many indie authors version their work anyhow?

Do a lot of people buy garbage like this? If so, I can crap out maybe 3-6 shitty adventures a day and charge a dollar a page for them.

Related question: Did you pay for this? Or did you score a free copy? I think calling 15 bucks for a 17 page adventure "priced too high for the modern pdf market" a bit of a stretch. I can get perfect-bound softcover with a 170 pages for just a couple dollars more. The price point of this pdf is more aptly called Wallet Rape.

The price is ridiculous.
If it were the price of the DCC adventures I might check it out just for the trap you mention.

Ah ah ah! You have made a pretty awesome review to discourage people of buying this product!! :rotfl:

Quote from: everloss;782703Related question: Did you pay for this?

I paid full price. I had no idea it was garbage before I bought it. How else to know unless someone honestly reviews it? I believe we should give unknown publishers a chance. And I like modules a lot better than yet another set of damned rules or broad setting material [yawn]. Because this particular product hurt so badly, I was compelled to write a review somewhere relevant as a warning to others.

Quote from: Simlasa;782762If it were the price of the DCC adventures I might check it out just for the trap you mention.

Hold on now. I think you misunderstand. The trap was good like finding an unmasticated cashew in your stool is good.

I think it now best if I spoil this trap is order to discourage buying this product in its present form. The trap is based on a key evil artifact. It is triple warded. The first ward sends a character to a prison on the astral plane. The third ward is save vs death. You get the idea. Some personal papers of the big bad boss later in the adventure (which is 30 feet away, sadly) contain the location of the Astral prison. And that is also the location of a missing person from the first expedition.

I thought it was neat because I envisioned some foolish mage trapped in a sturdy iron cage floating in a vast sepia-toned nothingness. And he has a nearly dead from starvation acolyte for company. It was also one of the few things the author put some thought into.

I realized now that this module was probably just GM notes that the author made for himself. The actual adventure is somewhere in his head still.

Quote from: UdderlyCowed;782916I paid full price. I had no idea it was garbage before I bought it. How else to know unless someone honestly reviews it? I believe we should give unknown publishers a chance. And I like modules a lot better than yet another set of damned rules or broad setting material [yawn]. Because this particular product hurt so badly, I was compelled to write a review somewhere relevant as a warning to others.

I agree. and I suppose a thank you is in order for biting the bullet on this one.

The author posts a lot at Dragonsfoot (and is a mod, actually).

Based on the samples of his work there...I wouldn't download them for free.