Review: "Wreck Ashore" by Robert Wiese

This review covers the third of the free “Original Adventures” series that Wizards of the Coast distributed to support D&D 3.5. Robert Wiese's Wreck Ashore is designed for four 1st-level characters and requires the three core D&D 3.5 rulebooks or their equivalent in the Pathfinder RPG (Core Rulebook and Bestiary).  WotC have issued a re-release through DriveThruRPG, for $0.99.

The adventure is just an 11 page .pdf, with one page given over to a black-and-white map and illustration and the last presenting a short biography of the author. But Wiese manages to load this little document with a surprising amount of content.

Let's start with the map – or as it turns out, maps. The monochrome graphic turns up on page six, detailing a location with no encounters that has been included purely for the purpose of building atmosphere. Wreck Ashore's real map, covering a small swampy peninsula and the busy port town of Seawell, is described in the first two paragraphs of the module: it's Florida, shrunk down to fit within a 2,500 square miles box. Perhaps some people consider this a cheap trick, but I like it. Aside from the advantage of controlling cost on the product, the technique is a good one to pass on. There's also a prompt to research the flora and fauna of the Everglades National Park if more realism is desired.  (If you can't lay your hands on one better, an excellent topographic map of Florida is available at Wikimedia Commons.)

As the default starting point of the adventure, Seawell gets a very functional description, laying out what it can offer in terms of adventure hooks and assistance but skipping descriptions of particular characters. The town is not in great crisis, with a well-trained militia to defend it from raiders. However, three ships have been lost on the other side of the peninsula and going off to look for them is a fine job for reckless bravos in pursuit of adventure. Of the three hooks Wiese provides, his most interesting is putting the party on one of the wrecked ships and running the module in reverse.

Wally welcomes you to the peninsula.

Wreck Ashore's main adventure location is the peninsula. There's a short section on the ecology of the area and notes on movement, plus five example encounters with denizens of the wetlands and a reference to the appropriate charts in the DMG for for additional random encounters. The five examples are advice on how to use normal animals in the game, rather than “specials”, explaining how these creatures would be encountered and under what conditions they would fight. Unfortunately, the statistical information in this section appears to have a couple of typos. (For anyone running Wreck Ashore, I recommend giving the creatures in A5 and A6 the average hp from their hit dice in the Monster Manual instead of what is listed in the module.) There's also a short note on what lizardfolk might be doing in the area. However, this isn't a mandatory route for the party unless the DM insists, so Wiese has included a brief section about taking a ship around the peninsula instead.

The other three sections of Wreck Ashore detail the area where the ship wrecks have occurred. Firstly, the hazards and possibilities of the general area are detailed in “A Bad Neighbourhood”. The encounters here are well thought-out, though they do contain quite a bit more treasure than I would expect. If the PCs have to go through the peninsula, then the overall threat to reward ratio is about right, otherwise they are getting off lightly. There are also two sites within the bad neighbourhood, one of which gives the players an insight into the lives of the victims of the piece and the other, naturally, details the villains. I found the former section on the victims to be somewhat affecting even when doing a comfortable read of the module, and it could be quite dark when presented by a skilled DM. The description of the villains' lair covers the daily routine, along with special preparations that might be made if the PCs tip their hand, and some notes on how the party might handle such dangerous foes. Unlike the treasures in the perimeter, the loot in the villains' lair feels about right, and some of it would be quite difficult to carry on the return trip to Seawell.

The concluding sections are short, but one point is striking. When discussing expanding the adventure, Wiese devotes half his time to how the DM might expand on the adventure and the other half to how the DM might respond to the players taking an interest in the location. This balanced approach is a fine example.

My rating is 5/5. This module is far better than I expected from a free product. It is versatile and informative for the DM, and rewards thoughtful play more than “hack and slay” routines. (In fact, trying to just bull through Wreck Ashore will probably result in heavy casualties.) I would recommend it to just about anyone looking for a module – the only possible exception would be a DM who is also playing their first game of D&D or Pathfinder.