The Village of Oester
Note: This is a review of an advance copy*. As it's an
adventure, there are some spoilers.
The Village of Oester is the follow up to the excellent and well
received d20 module (or "adventure setting") "The Hamlet
of Thumble" from Open
World Press. While it's not directly related, it is set in
the same world as Thumble, and if you have Thumble, you can see
the adventure locations on the region map in it. Actually, in
many ways, it's the opposite of Thumble in most respects.
While Thumble was almost really a sourcebook for the hamlet
itself, Oester is almost entirely an adventure. While part of a
town is detailed (fairly well, too), it's actually of a place
called Mullikin. Oester has largely been abandoned because of a
horrible curse, and that is actually the whole basis of the
adventure. The PCs hear about the problems in Oester (in general
terms) and presumably will investigate. (This is one of the
weaker aspects - trying to get the PCs involved).
The trip to Mullikin (which is the largest town on the way to
Oester) is fairly uneventful, though they will have some fun in
the town itself. After the shenanigans there (which I probably
liked the best), the PCs will presumably go on the road to
Oester. They will have a somewhat strange trip, meeting a very
strange barbarian, among others. Not much is left of Oester in
terms of population, much of the adventure is really set in the
nearby "Tower of Vernest" (which actually probably
would have been a better name for the module).
The adventure is basically two parts - getting to the tower, and
the tower itself. The latter is a fairly straight forward dungeon
crawl (or tower crawl in this case), but the first part of the
adventure has a lot of role-playing potential. The strong points
of Thumble also exist in this - the NPCs are very well detailed,
both in terms of stats, and more importantly, in terms of
personality and motivation. For the most part, they seem real.
There are also a lot of side quests in Oester, though some will
probably be too tough for the PCs.
It's somewhat dark in tone, though nothing really horrible. It's
really pretty much like Resident Evil. The creepiest parts are in
a side encounter (though I imagine Troy McClure
would find it quite enjoyable).
Some of the NPCs the players will meet are also delightfully
weird - one of them seems straight out of a 70s movie (one of
those that are simply about travelling from place to place,
meeting weird people).
The ending is also a bit unexpected. While your players can just
kill the bad guy, that's not the optimal ending. The optimal one
also has something of a twist to it. The optimal ending also
provides a good spring board for the PCs to own their own
stronghold/town. (If that is the ending your PCs end up with,
then much of the detail of the area around Oester will be put to
good use).
The maps are absolutely fantastic. One of the downsides of the
modern computer age is that it's quick and easy to make maps -
while it's fine for amateurs, many RPG companies (especially d20)
also went the computer program route. This often results in very
sterile and artificial looking maps, at least I think it does.
These maps look like they are out of a fantasy novel from the 70s
or early 80s. So maybe there is a nostalgia factor. (I do hope
they make the transition to the final product better than the
same style of maps did in Thumble - they were a bit blurry)
The art
is also pretty good. The cover art is by one of my favorite
artists, Storn Cook, and is downright creepy.
All in all, it's an enjoyable module - it combines all the things
I like - a bit of a mystery, killing zombies, roleplaying with
weird NPCs. It captures the best aspects of the old time modules,
but doesn't have their weaknesses. Even the thugs have detailed
backgrounds and personalities.
Still, it's not perfect - I found the time line a bit confusing.
It's not clear exactly when the tower was abandoned. It seems
like at least 3-4 generations ago, yet the tower has prisoners
still in it from then. Granted, they are from long lived species,
but I would think getting food was a bit problematic, since they
are chained to the wall.
It's also not that original in plot. The plot (something turns
the people of a village into monsters) is actually is fairly
close to that of "Unhallowed Halls" and a couple other
d20 modules I have. (Why is it that people always get turned into
something awful? If I were a villain, wouldn't it be much more
fun to turn them into supermodels or something?)
Other than the timeline vagueness, the adventure is well written,
and things are made easy for the GM. There are extensive random
encounters (including not just type, but what they are doing),
info on the weather, and the insight into the NPCs personality
really helps a lot. The encounters are also generally scaled for
a fairly wide range of party levels.
There's an option to play evil PCs, but that scenario involves
them being ghouls. While I'm sure it would be even more angst
ridden than being a vampire, I think most people would not want
to play ghouls.
Like most undead heavy modules, it is perhaps a bit too weighted
towards Clerics/Paladins. If you have them, it will likely be
easy (or easier), if you don't, it will be difficult. And like a
lot of adventures, it won't be terribly useful after you've run
it. Thumble was a great value because you could use Thumble
itself as a village in your game, or use them in some other game
on short notice (like I did with Stargate, I just changed the
halflings to Samoans). Still, quite a bit of Mullikin is
described (around 15 locations), and even more is shown on the
map of it (around 50). And with a little amount of work, it would
make a decent modern day or Call of Cthulhu scenario. B+
(*For those who don't have access to time machines, nor have
precognition, Oester should be available in November or so)
