Review: "The Lair of Largash the Lurid" by Michael Mills

The Lair of Largash the Lurid is a free introductory module (released as Pay What You Want with a recommended price of nothing) by Michael Mills of Canister & Grape Wargames.  The scenario is intended for use with Classic D&D, specifically B/X, and would run very easily under Labyrinth Lord.  Other old school rules could be used with a little bit of conversion.

From what I can tell, Mills is primarily interested in historical wargaming, rather than role-playing games.  That caught my attention as a perspective that's natively "true" to the Old School.  Given the recent unpleasantness it also seems note-worthy that Mills seems to have play-tested the module with his wife and children at the family table.  If one wished to know about a dark future in which no RPG product can be for adults only, Largash might give some insights.

I kid.  Mills' work isn't what's at stake in the "Offensive Content" debate and the family-friendly tone doesn't detract from the Largash's underlying structure.  The scenario is an 18-page .pdf, with illustrated front and back covers.  Art within the module proper is sparing and mostly looks like stock sketches - a major exception is a nice illustration of one of the DM specials.  Still, I felt that the art matched up with the feel of the prose and that's always a good sign.  Largash does make heavy use of boxed text descriptions for its keyed locations and I can't imagine that I'd ever read them out if I were running the module.  Still, it's pitched as an introductory product and there is something to be said for providing such resources to the novice - all the more so if Mills is pitching his product at the pre-teen audience.  If I have a real complaint about the production values, it's the maps.  They're handsome enough and fairly clear, but I really think that grid lines would have been an improvement.

There's no adventure hook included in Largash, so it's up to the DM to either handwave the characters to the adventure site or to invent some reason for them going there.  However, the scenario has a background and the design stays faithful to it.  Largash isn't a particularly deep character, but he is consistently portrayed and his lair offers a fair mix of challenges and rewards.  One noteworthy feature of the scenario is that Mills has included a couple of very difficult combat encounters that seem to call for the party to know when to retreat and regroup.  I think this is a sound idea in sceanrio design generally, and even more so in an introductory module.  I was also taken by the use of wandering monster tables to indicate differences in the character of the dungeon's different levels.  Mills has also included a few ideas for expanding the adventure, all of which are good spurs for a beginning DM.

To be honest, there's nothing really special about Largash.  The components are of a fair quality and the scenario is thoughtfully constructed, but it spends a lot of words on holding the DM's hand and doesn't do much for the DM outside of the dungeon's doors.  My rating is 3/5, although I would more strongly recommend it (on the level of 4/5) for inclusion in a "first RPG packet" for young people.