Review of The Foresaken Elves

The Pulp Dungeons take you back to the early days of gaming. Pulp Dungeons are generic adventures that are adaptable to any game systems. The Forsaken Elves sends a party of characters down into a dungeon to rescue a group of young elves from their insane elders. The elves having been banished to the dungeon beneath a ruined asylum by a mysterious magical Coven. The Forsaken Elves is designed for low-level adventurers and is Adventure 1 in the Pulp Dungeon Series 1: Just Above the Pit. The dungeon is presented in a single, digest-sized 16-page book.

The mechanics of the Pulp Dungeons are presented in a straightforward fashion using common monsters that are described in terms of hits of damage inflicted and hits of damage sustained, with one hit being the equivalent of an average sword hit. Random events are presented as checks on a d6. Magic is presented with an emphasis on the spell effects rather than spell mechanics. The mechanics of the Pulp Dungeons work easily enough. The only limitation is that no value is given for an attack ability. Apparently, it is assumed that gamemasters are using a system that bases attack ability on number of hit dice (i.e. AD&D). If anything, the monsters used are a bit anemic - a pack of timber wolves comes across more like feral poodles. Alternatively, because the monsters used are standard fantasy creatures (e.g. elves, goblins, skeletons, etc.), a gamemaster may easily substitute the monsters and mechanics of his favorite game system. A GM will also want to adjust the numbers of opponents encountered to suit the numbers and abilities of the player characters.

Inside the dungeon, the party proceeds through a series of rooms defeating monsters and taking their treasure. Oh, and rescuing the young elves. Several rooms include clues to encounters in other dungeons in this series. Unfortunately, half of the rooms in the dungeon are blank and the author offers no suggestions for describing what may be found in these rooms. The rooms are also arranged in a completely nonsensical order with the entranceway leading through the torture chamber to the library. Each encounter is presented as an individual set piece with no hint as to how the elves would respond to an attacking party. Surprisingly, there is no random encounter table. So, a GM will have to develop his own. What's a pulp dungeon without wandering monsters? Overall, you don't get a sense that the elves live in the dungeon and have lives other than as cannon fodder. You know, there were reasons that TSR and Judges Guild stopped producing dungeons like this.

Amazingly, after setting up the premise of a rescue mission, the dungeon ends with a heavy handed lead-in to the other three dungeons in the series. But the young elves are left hanging. Are the players supposed to leave them behind or have them tag along to further adventures? This dungeon doesn't even address how players may consider this dilemma.

Overall, the Forsaken Elves is a fun adventure, but a GM will want to flesh out parts of the dungeon before using it.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)