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When I opened my MasterScreen, I found The Secret of Greenrock inside, unadvertised and unexpected. "Excellent!" I thought. "A free adventure for 5th-level characters! Maybe I can drop it into my campaign." Then I read it.

The PCs arrive in a port city following a plot hook. They end up at the Guild Hall, where they're offered a job upriver. Some miners have disappeared, and the mining company is offering a reward for information of their whereabouts.

So far so good, right? Not really. There's no map of Spool, so the PCs can't decide where to go. Instead, the adventure railroads them into a barroom brawl right off the ship. No stats for the patrons are given, except for the one involved in a set piece later on. In fact, the brawl has no appreciable impact on the PCs at all, other than to introduce said NPC.

Later, the PCs are expected to go to the Guild Hall. (What guild? The adventure never says.) When they arrive, they witness a flogging. That's "witness" as in "are unable to do anything about it." The adventure assumes there's no option but to allow the flogging to proceed.

There's also a rumor table for the Guild Hall. There's no Gather Information check mentioned. Just roll randomly if the PCs ask around at all. Blah.

So the PCs take the job, and leave on a passenger ship. Another major disconnect happens here. One of their fellow passengers does a few things after they all disembark. The adventure assumes PCs and NPCs travel to the town of Greenrock together, but the PCs have no chance to notice this person slip away at night. In fact, for the plot to work they must not notice. No overnight watches, no listen checks, nothing they do may interfere with this NPC's actions.

Eventually they get to town. The map of Greenrock looks quite nice, done with some sort of cartography program, but no city district is labeled. Only Rock Town, the district outside city walls, is obviously identifiable.

Eventually the adventure turns into a dungeon crawl. This is normally OK, of course, but this dungeon has problems. For starters, none of the level maps have scales or grids printed on them. With a ruler and room descriptions you can figure it out, but you shouldn't have to.

Problems continue. There's a trap in the dungeon that has a Save DC, but no Search or Disable information listed. Monsters are described only by name and Monster Manual page number. And if the heroes miss the lone clue at the beginning, they'll never be able to finish the dungeon.

All the important NPC stats are in the appendices. They're fully statted with skills and feats included. But they all lack information about their possessions. They simply state something like, "2,500 gp in gear." Every last one of them has a gold piece value for their gear, but not so much as a suggestion of what they might actually have.

One final inconsistency. The Secret at Greenrock uses standard races from the PHB, but all have been renamed. Dwarves are kelnar, humans are tsoli or arani, etc. This is no big deal, since it's in support of the area's worldview. But only some of the NPC stats follow these conventions. The rest have the default names of human, half elf, and so forth. Since most campaigns will use the standard race names, it's easy enough to adjust, but it still should have been caught in editing.

The Secret at Greenrock is not a total loss. The cartography is quite good, apart from the complete lack of labels, and the rest of the artwork is at least competent. It also introduces a new monster, the wraith shark. There's something about an undead incorporeal shark flying out of an underground lake that makes the DM in me feel all warm and fuzzy.

But the shark isn't enough, especially since it's available for free from Citizen Games' Website. I cannot recommend this adventure.

The Secret at Greenrock
The Secret at Greenrock Capsule Review by Patrick Clark on 09/11/02 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money) A serviceable if uninspired premise marred by terrible execution. Product: The Secret at Greenrock Author: Rob Stone Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Citizen Games Line: Hero's Journey Cost: 8.95 Page count: 32 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 1-929474-25-3 SKU: CIT001 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Patrick Clark on 09/11/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	When I opened my MasterScreen, I found The Secret of Greenrock inside, unadvertised and unexpected. "Excellent!" I thought. "A free adventure for 5th-level characters! Maybe I can drop it into my campaign." Then I read it. The PCs arrive in a port city following a plot hook. They end up at the Guild Hall, where they're offered a job upriver. Some miners have disappeared, and the mining company is offering a reward for information of their whereabouts. So far so good, right? Not really. There's no map of Spool, so the PCs can't decide where to go. Instead, the adventure railroads them into a barroom brawl right off the ship. No stats for the patrons are given, except for the one involved in a set piece later on. In fact, the brawl has no appreciable impact on the PCs at all, other than to introduce said NPC. Later, the PCs are expected to go to the Guild Hall. (What guild? The adventure never says.) When they arrive, they witness a flogging. That's "witness" as in "are unable to do anything about it." The adventure assumes there's no option but to allow the flogging to proceed. There's also a rumor table for the Guild Hall. There's no Gather Information check mentioned. Just roll randomly if the PCs ask around at all. Blah. So the PCs take the job, and leave on a passenger ship. Another major disconnect happens here. One of their fellow passengers does a few things after they all disembark. The adventure assumes PCs and NPCs travel to the town of Greenrock together, but the PCs have no chance to notice this person slip away at night. In fact, for the plot to work they must not notice. No overnight watches, no listen checks, nothing they do may interfere with this NPC's actions. Eventually they get to town. The map of Greenrock looks quite nice, done with some sort of cartography program, but no city district is labeled. Only Rock Town, the district outside city walls, is obviously identifiable. Eventually the adventure turns into a dungeon crawl. This is normally OK, of course, but this dungeon has problems. For starters, none of the level maps have scales or grids printed on them. With a ruler and room descriptions you can figure it out, but you shouldn't have to. Problems continue. There's a trap in the dungeon that has a Save DC, but no Search or Disable information listed. Monsters are described only by name and Monster Manual page number. And if the heroes miss the lone clue at the beginning, they'll never be able to finish the dungeon. All the important NPC stats are in the appendices. They're fully statted with skills and feats included. But they all lack information about their possessions. They simply state something like, "2,500 gp in gear." Every last one of them has a gold piece value for their gear, but not so much as a suggestion of what they might actually have. One final inconsistency. The Secret at Greenrock uses standard races from the PHB, but all have been renamed. Dwarves are kelnar, humans are tsoli or arani, etc. This is no big deal, since it's in support of the area's worldview. But only some of the NPC stats follow these conventions. The rest have the default names of human, half elf, and so forth. Since most campaigns will use the standard race names, it's easy enough to adjust, but it still should have been caught in editing. The Secret at Greenrock is not a total loss. The cartography is quite good, apart from the complete lack of labels, and the rest of the artwork is at least competent. It also introduces a new monster, the wraith shark. There's something about an undead incorporeal shark flying out of an underground lake that makes the DM in me feel all warm and fuzzy. But the shark isn't enough, especially since it's available for free from Citizen Games' Website. I cannot recommend this adventure.