Review: "Hasken's Manor" by Scott Brocius and Mark A. Jindra

Hasken's Manor is a short adventure for D&D 3.5 and is fairly compatible with Pathfinder. The module is recommended for a party of four 7th-level characters and has notes for scaling its difficulty for higher- or lower-level parties. It requires the core rules (PHB, DMG and MM, or Core Rules and Bestiary).  Those who recall Scott Brocius' role in the old wizards.com feature, The Mind's Eye, will be unsurprised to hear that psionics make an appearance in Hasken's Manor. For 3.5, the Expanded Psionics Handbook would an obvious choice (especially as most of its content is in the D20 SRD), but Pathfinder players may not feel comfortable using the equivalent material because it was published by Dreamscarred Press rather than Paizo. Thankfully, core-only equivalents are provided for those who want them.  While this module no longer available as a free download, there's a $0.99 re-release of Hasken's Manor.

The .pdf is 14 pages with space for two full-colour maps and a bird's eye view of the manor. While the maps are good if not spectacular, I can't really see any use for the top-down view during the adventure itself.

Before approaching the manor itself, the PCs are introduced to Haskenport.  The town was founded thirty years ago by Reynald Hasken, a paladin who venerated St. Cuthbert and is split into a religious commune and a rowdier trading port. However, there's no civil war brewing. Instead, adventurers are required due to a report that a band of hobgoblins has taken up camp inside the abandoned manor that Hasken lived in before his death ten years ago. While the Church of St. Cuthbert owns the manor, they apparently couldn't afford for its upkeep. Like the rest of the series, the DM is told that they know best and given three hooks to get the party into the adventure - and like the rest of the series, the best one is that the manor has treasure in it. However, what the town is prepared to pay to clear out the manor – 100gp per adventurer, plus free board and meals and minor healing magic – makes me think that the town could have afforded to maintain the manor, perhaps as a mayoral residence or a sanitarium.

Hands down my favourite encounter in Hasken's Manor.

I don't think it spoils anything to note that the adventure involves more than mere hobgoblin warriors. Brocius and Jindra added two further, unrelated events to their set-up in order to justify a decent mix of reasonably challenging encounters. There was also an attempt to bring some life to Hasken's Manor. A particular highpoint for me was learning the required Search DC to discover a family of mice living in the stove. On the other hand, there's some truly awful boxed text and if you're not already in the habit of skipping it then Hasken's Manor should change your ways. The worst example is in an area which has two possible encounters: the DM is instructed to read a box about the room and its inanimate contents, then given options depending on which of the encounters is to be played. Surely the adventurers would notice the creatures in the room first! The ugly cousin of boxed text, canned dialogue, also makes an appearance in this module.

The best bit of Hasken's Manor is the conclusion. Throughout the adventure, a number of loose threads have been dropped and they all get another throwaway line or two at the end. There are two potential moral quandaries, a tale of romance and chivalry, and the stirrings of war between nations. It's all much more exciting fare than what Brocius and Jindra decided to concentrate on.  There's also a use for the top-down map!

My rating is 2/5. I don't really recommend Hasken's Manor, but it's certainly playable.   Consider using it to start a campaign at a higher level, as that would set you up to use the module's loose ends.