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.
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.
The Stink in Golanda
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