I had my reservations when the Open Gaming License was announced. I was deathly afraid of a single system monopolizing the market and an the ensuing creative stagnation I was convinced would follow.
But after a year, I realized some of my concerns have been unfounded. Specifically, the Open Gaming License has allowed a myriad of small publishers instant access to a large and proven market---the D&D aficionados. I have generally been thoroughly impressed with the results. While some lack the polished feel of the industry leaders, which will come with experience and success, they all exhibit passion. And to me, that is what this hobby, and indeed all forms of expression, are about.
Mystic Eye Games is one of the newest d20 publishers, but already they have (in my mind) set themselves apart from many of their competitors. Most d20 publishers tend to set their products in a generic, pseudo-medieval high fantasy world to facilitate ease of conversion into one of the existing D&D game worlds. Mystic Eye Games is attempting to push the envelope a bit and creating a world with a distinct gothic horror feel. Good for them.
The inaugural release is an adventure designed for 4-6 characters of levels 2-4, entitled the Pits of Loch-Durnan. It's expansive, and easily provides several sessions of gaming. Indeed, it has something of an epic feel to it.
Visually, it's only average. The glossy cover features a beautiful painting, but the interior artwork generally ranges from sub-standard to passable. There are many maps which were obviously done on a home computer, but all are serviceable and accurate. Not pretty, but who cares. Only the gm ever sees them! The layout is quite good.
For me, appearance is of only secondary importance to content. Yes, a pretty book is a thing to treasure, but I look back to some of my favorite adventures of all time, particularly WEG's early Star Wars scenarios (Riders of the Maelstrom, Starfall, and the classic Tatooine Manhunt) and they weren't lookers by any stretch of the imagination. I wanna see new and innovative ideas.
The Pits of Loch-Durnan sees the heroes hired by desperate villagers to clear their mines of goblins, who have recently emigrated into them. Fair enough, but there is much more to the story than initially meets the eye. Loch-Durnan hides a terrible secret behind it's shroud of fog, and the threat is actually for more sinister than a mere infestation of goblins. A powerful and ancient evil is at work, seducing the villagers down the path to the dark side (BWA-HA-HA!!!)
The action takes the heroes from a spooky town where all is not as it seems, to the extensive network of mines, to the gothic manor of an evil nobleman and the tower of a twisted mage with a sick fascination with human anatomy. To give away much more would spoil several secretive plot twists, but consider a few of my players' favorite set-piece scenes: an attack by skeletons dressed in wedding gowns; a desperate combat against a flesh golem atop a tower; and an altercation atop a wooden bridge against hordes of zombies that played out like that classic scene from the end of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. If it sounds like the adventure is fun, that's because it is.
Don't get me wrong, the adventure is not without problems. The extent of the slaughter of goblins is a bit overboard, akin to genocide actually, and it distracts from an otherwise solid gothic horror story. I was not entirely convinced with the reason for why the heroes were lured to the pits in the first place, I mean why would you actually want attract adventurers who might screw up your machinations, but it was easy enough to alter and is really just a minor quibble.
The appendix includes a few things of note. It includes four new magic items, none of which will throw off campaign balance and all nicely tied into the circumstances in the story. As well, we find four new monsters, including the Shadow Hound and Mud Worm, and a host of pregenerated characters. A summary of reminders for the gm wraps up the section, providing staging tips and highlighting important tips.
With a bit of Warhammers grim tone, The Pit of Loch-Durnan has a unique mood among D&D adventures. A truly enjoyeable adventure, though with a few kinks as expected from an inaugural release, it provides Mystic Eye Games with a solid foundation from which to build from. It promises to be just a harbringer of great things to come, including a guide to the dark world of Gothos and an encyclopedia of the nightmarish horrors which haunt it coming in the next few months. And at $11.95 for 72 pages (and for my gaming group, almost 12 hours of gaming), it's outstanding value.
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