Review: "The Barrow of the Moon Druid" by the Oliver Brothers

The Barrow of the Moon Druid is a free adventure hosted on Dragonsfoot for characters of levels 2-4.   The material is intended for use with AD&D 1st Edition or 2nd Edition (with some adjustments).  Realistically, any TSR-era D&D or a clone of the same would suffice. Writing and illustration is all credited to the Oliver Brothers (James, Will, and Paul), as is the play-testing.



The Olivers have come up with a very interesting premise for their adventure, although for reasons of design I can't actually talk about it without spoiling it.  So let me talk about the problems of implementation and just take it for granted that there's a good idea being put into practice here.

Will Oliver's small map is clearly laid out and the graphics used mitigate the lack of a key.  However, the map is strictly linear: the action proceeds from one room to the next without so much as a secret door to the side, let alone a T-junction.  On the bright side, Will's illustrations lend a certain charm to the module's 29 pages and help to bring its many "DM Specials" to life.  Unfortunately, the copy I downloaded does not read particularly well on my system.  While the text is legible the spacing of characters is very uneven throughout the document.

There's an extensive background and introduction to the module.  It's really far more than the DM needs, with explanations for the premise and references to other modules dealing in similar themes from a different angle.  Although the text is something of a burden, there are only two pages of it and I don't think it would cause too much trouble for someone running the module.  However, some warning bells started sounding in my head when the Olivers explained that the players have no chance of applying their knowledge of the campaign world to the peculiar problems of the Barrow.

Enough beating about the bush.  This module is a railroad, and I don't mean that just as an epithet.  Once embarked, the players are in for a series of pre-determined and apparently unavoidable stops.  There are a very few tricks in the early part of the module, but past that it descends into hack-and-slay.  It's not very interesting design and shopping the Barrow out to some other groups of playtesters would have revealed this weakness.  (To be perfectly honest, I can't help thinking that anyone with an internet connection should be very wary of releasing a module that looks like a railroad!)

On the bright side, the Olivers did take the trouble to provide a slate of DM specials to vex manual-memorisers, and this is (as always) much appreciated.  Their mini-bestiary of eight new monsters all come with an illustration and I thought that the first and last in the series were particularly good ideas.  Even the "retouched" versions of more conventional monsters are reasonably useful.

It might come as a surprise to see that my rating is 3/5.  I certainly don't like The Barrow of the Moon Druid and in the most part it's a good idea ruined by clumsy implementation.  Nonetheless, it can be played out of the box and the material on the module's premise is worth a read.