16 September 2015

Review: The Necromancer's Wish

Here is a good reason to support an artist through Patreon.

Michel Prescott's super-tasty 1+ page adventure The Necromancer's Wish is a stripped-down, location-based adventure that packs a substantial punch of characterful details in a system-neutral way that all content generators should envy. Here's what you get:

  • a gorgeous, isometric map
  • a rich, multi-textured backstore
  • new creatures
  • a rumor table
  • new magic items

This adventure details the ritualistic happening occurring inside a multilevel cavern system. The caves are under the control of goblin-like creatures called the Ricalu who are lead by an aged necromancer named Nandoleeb. The great work of Nandoleeb will be discovered by clever players who do not tarry long in these storied caves. More details of what can be found within this adventure might spoil the surprises for players. The tone of the setting is dark and foreboding. The PCs will be at risk at all times while exploring this area, but not in an artificially hokey way.

As a short, self-contained location, this adventure can be easily dropped into an existing campaign, or even combined with other short cave-based adventures to create a multi-layered campaign setting that lasts many game nights.

As a free resource, it is well worth the time to download and read this surprisingly dense work. It is gems like this that make DIY publishing in the OSR community so exciting to be apart of. Since the adventure is not ruleset-specific, the game master will have to spend to some time providing appropriate stats to monsters, magic and traps. This is a small price to pay for the wonderful content contained within.

You can find more of Prescott's work (and become his patron) on Patreon