Speaking of the price, it's time for the usual disclaimer. Corey offered me a review copy of this adventure, as I'd reviewed his last offering (The Black Ruins). This led to a momentary standoff where I had to admit that I'd been considering buying Heeter and wasn't sure if one of my reviews done honestly would be worth more than the purchase price. Be kind, reader, and assume that my accepting the copy for review says more about Mr. Walden's confidence that his work would deserve a favourable review than it does about the negotiability of my principles!
Heeter is a striking-looking work. Aside from the cover, Walden did his own illustrations and I think his otherwordly pastels do a great job in setting the mood for the adventure. The place and entities on those odd-looking pages are oddities themselves, a few skips away from the regular fare of kobolds and elves. Those who prefer a sharp separation of fantasy and science fiction might find this a little jarring, but I suspect that the average OSR group will find Walden's creations appealing.
Turning to the scenario proper, there's no definite plot to be followed into the Cliff-Lair. Instead, there are three suggestions about placing the scenario into a larger campaign world and the implicit "just plant this in an appropriate hex". One of these involves the unseemly acts involving horses referenced in the module's blurb on lulu, but I can assure the reader that these acts are not particularly foul and in any case could be removed from the scenario without doing too much violence to the work. Heeter can provide a campaign with a treasure-horde to be looted, an unusual sage figure, a diplomatic challenge, and perhaps stranger things still, depending on the whims of the group playing. This is a good design principle.
The module details a site, its inhabitants and their activity. The small location map is sharp and clear, although the scale grid is perhaps a little bit faint. Thankfully, the size of most rooms is included in the key. Walden dispenses with "read-aloud" text in the location entries and gives short paragraphs directed towards the referee. Key points (such as the lair's defences and treasures) are noted down in bullet-points. It looks a little like the kind of notes a lot of people make for themselves when writing their own material, which makes me suspect that it's easier to use than longer paragraphs. A particularly valuable inclusion is the rough schedule of activity for the denizens of the Cliff-Lair. This takes advantage of the small scale of the site to produce "monster wandering" without the need for abstraction and die roll.
In general I like the balance of risk and reward. Heeter has the potential to be a very dangerous scenario but there are substantial rewards on the line as well. However, it's worth underlining, as a caveat rather than a criticism, that Heeter is a "thinking person's module". That means a play group accustomed to storming in and laying waste to their enemies will suffer at least a setback, if not worse, and this might not be the most satisfactory experience. I would recommend it more strongly to groups that enjoy reconnaissance and operational planing. That sort of gathering could have a lot of fun with Walden's module.
When reviewing The Black Ruins I noted that it was a superior module which felt incomplete in some ways. Happily, The Cliff-Lair of Heeter has some of the same strengths as its predecessor while the tighter focus makes for a more readily-used module. My rating is 4/5, for a scenario that would add something to most campaigns and would certainly help a time-pressed DM. I recommend picking it up and keeping an eye out for more by Corey Ryan Walden.
(As a post-script, let me answer the obvious question. "Why isn't The Cliff-Lair of Heeter a 5/5 module?" The short answer is that it left me thinking, "This is a really good module for a week when I'm tired, rushed or uninspired," and that even though my players tend to be a little headstrong. Those weeks always come up and I'm sure I will post at a later date about what my players made of Heeter. A 5/5, on the other hand, would be something that made me want to make room for it. More technically, I felt that the map was good but not great, as it does the job but doesn't have any inherent challenges. Heeter is also short on set-piece puzzles, relying more on the denizens of the lair to cause problems for the characters. I usually look for either a variety of challenges in a module or a design that avoids using monsters to cause problems, the former being strong and the latter potentially innovative.)
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