My March Mythoard arrived two days ago. I had time to take pictures, but that was on the same day as my Wednesday night online AD&D game I play in, so I am just now writing about it. There have been other reviews, but I’m putting in my two cents here.
It included Gygax Magazine #5, The Dungeoneers Journal February/March 1981, a one page adventure from +Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor, a mini module, The Miller’s Blunder, by Thom Wilson, two sample dice of the Inkwell Ideas dungeon Morph dice, and a set of four magnetic monster mash tokens.
This issue of Gygax Magazine is the one with the winner of the 2014 One-Page Dungeon Contest. I have one or two other issues that I have picked up at cons, but I haven’t had time to read the other(s) I have. It reminds me of the old Dragon Magazine from back in the day – Cool art, some stuff for ideas, some stuff I might use, a lot of stuff I will never use, and some comics in the back. I like Order of The Stick, and follow the web comic. I did not learn about OOTS until I found it online a few years ago. There have been a lot of complaints about Gygax magazine being slow to publish, but if you didn’t pay for a subscription, like me, it isn’t a problem. I will read them eventually.
There is familiarity to the issue of The Dungeoneer’s Journal. I think I saw it on the shelves of my FLGS back in the day, and/or some of my friends may have had it. It is familiar. Articles on games I never played, some I dabbled in, and more. Judge’s Guild material is something my brother and I tended to avoid, because it was “rough” in appearance. We had “advanced” D&D and were above those rough looking materials. I have learned in the last few years, that those rough looking things I snubbed had some good ideas in them, and I have them now in PDF, and some I have backed Kickstarters to get. I plan to read through this when time allows.
I did not realize that the adventure materials put out in all the Mythoards use a standard campaign setting, so they are set in the same world, or can easily be crafted to your own world. Tim Short’s “Guardian of the Sale Spring”, is printed on a slick, heavy card stock that is three-hole punched. The material is high quality. The printing and art is well done. I have not yet seen one of Tim’s adventures in person. This format of a small map, area description, and a random chart are so simple that I find that I could easily incorporate this into my own campaign. I am the type of DM who has to take way more time to read and understand a module designed by someone else to make it “mine”. It would be quicker and easier just to develop my own adventure. The simplicity of this overcomes my barriers. A series of mini-modules in one larger module would also get past my issues of running stuff written by others.
The Miller’s Blunder is a mini-module by Thom Wilson of throwigames.com. It is a center stapled, card stock covered booklet. It is only 17 pages with the inside of the back cover as the last page. The text is enough to set the scene and make it clear what is going on. The goals are clear and the various outcomes for the players are covered. While a lot more information than a back and front mini adventure, Thom Wilson has presented the pertinant facts in a way, that I could also easily make this fit into my campaign. I have not yet read the whole thing in detail, but reading the set up and skimming the rest, it is well designed and presented. The quality of this booklet is quite high.
I already have a set of dice from Inkwell Ideas from backing the DungeonMorphs 2: Cities & Villages: Map Generator Dice/Cards Kickstarter. They go well with the ones I already have, that I wrote about here. I am still waiting for fulfillment of the new dice in the series, so I’ll have more on that later. I backed the Kickstarter because I wanted some dice to help map/guide exploring the ruined city in my campaign, that my series for the 2015 A to Z Challenge is helping me collect my thoughts. These dice are large and have heft. They are loud on my plastic table, and would be on any table. Perhaps a padded box to roll them in would help if it is too loud for you, or too annoying for others you live with. Quick random dungeons are helpful. I like the ideas of the geomorphs, and Inkwell Ideas has started a series of contests for generating more geomorphs.
Finally, there are four round, magnetic monster tokens from gamemash.com. I’m not sure how I would use these other than on my refrigerator. I suppose they might come in handy to show placement in live play. For those who have to have more than scribbles on paper to do placement of characters, NPC’s, and monsters in play, these might be your thing. They are not my thing. I am not knocking the product. The art is good, and firmly attached to the magnets. The magnets have some heft to them, so they would not be easily moved, even if you don’t have a magnetic playing surface.
