Sunday, January 4, 2009

Old Rock Tower (Unicorn Rampant Publishing)


If you have read my other reviews, you will know that I was not a big fan of UPR’s first foray into 4e. But I figured they had had 6 months more to learn and understand the system, so I decided anyway to check out their new adventure. I cannot emphasize enough what a stupid decision that was. Once again I feel ripped off. Old Rock Tower is a very straight forward adventure, where the heroes head to an ancient wizard tower, now overrun by undead and other assorted monsters. Oh, and dire chickens… Wait. What? Yep, I said dire chickens. The Adventure is full of editing errors and poor (yeah, I know, who am I to talk) English. Monsters are only listed by their page number in the MM, and even that is often forgotten. This is a GSL thing I guess (and thus not URP’s fault), but insanely annoying. The maps are at best described as a strain on the eyes to look at. Out of the few monsters created for the adventure, they manage to screw up the most important one. Also, in the final battle room, there is this gem: “The altar is enchanted with an unhallow spell, with a bane effect for any who do not worship evil powers (DC 14 Will save or -1 to attack rolls and -1 to fear saves for 5 minutes)”. Needless to say, stuff like that doesn’t improve help the general impression, which is a extremely straightforward adventure with boring combats and encounters, boring traps, no skill challenges and no role-playing opportunities.
Rating:*

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