Review of "Hamlet of Volage," Adventure Module V1 from BRW Games for Adventures Dark and Deep.
I love printed gaming materials. I adore published modules that have a distinct old-school look. If I see such modules being offered, I generally purchase them, for my own collection and to support small publishers. They usually don't cost too much.
Modules with witches, fae, conspiracies and/or cults are another selling point for me.
Case in point: I purchased each of the V series modules by BRW games before they were published in print, so I got each as a PDF with the printed book to be sent later when completed. The stories revolve around different covens of witches, existing in secret(naturally) and warring among themselves.
Take the incredibly small hamlet of Volage. At least one coven exists here, most of them living normal, public lives, while members of other covens either live within, or visit frequently, to keep tabs, act as spies and everything you'd expect of such a scenario.
As I'm running this module for a system that we're play testing for publication by Penny Thought Exchange, and this happens to be an anthro based system based loosely on our Steal This Game! public domain engine, I ran the module as "The Hamlet of Vole Lodge: The Haunting of Pell House." None of these kinds of changes affected the module's play too much. Since characters are animal based, they do have access to abilities that run of the mill PCs in other games might not, but we try to balance these abilities as a part of character creation. Also, the NPCs, including the baddies, get these also, so it levels out. Otherwise, it's largely cosmetic, as NPCs are assigned an animal type and fitting description.
Because the module has so many NPCs and information on the town, I printed these out and affixed them to standard paper sized cardboard for quick reference. It also made it easier to track my own additions, such as what animal types the various NPCs are.
All that said to prepare for the review proper, I have to give one last bit of insight. I was running for a very small group, and certain among them are known to get frustrated quickly if leads and clues aren't given to them easily or frequently enough. Thus, I'm not sure in certain places where the problem may lay with the module or with the sensibilities of certain individuals, though in at least one case the problem is certainly the module's, as I will describe as we continue.
Within a day or so in the hamlet, there was already grumbling that nothing was turning up of any real interest. Most of the supernatural occurences, as the PCs felt, were rather mundane, unprovable, or non sequitur to their investigations. Blankets getting bedbugs and such seemed normal enough. Sheep being attacked by wolves and then vanishing is a bit odd, but not enough to jump to suspicions of witchcraft, and seemingly not enough to investigate at any rate. The module itself didn't suggest or describe any methods of doing so or anything learned if PCs did, but it wasn't relevant since they were disinterested in doing so. Every cat being found dead was more mystifying but another case of "what are we supposed to do about it?" People getting sick, people falling off ladders, all seemed like a typical string of unfortunate but not distinctly magical occurances.
They decided to spend the night in the cemetery, where only one random event took place, a weird fog or mist which I tried to play up as much as I could. When all was said and done, however, it was more of the same: "Weird, but nothing we can learn anything from and seemingly unrelated."
The group decided that after another day or so if they didn't come across something of more interest they were going to bail. I still had two more modules and they were ready to quit before getting more than a day into the first. I ended up throwing in a clue not in the module to keep them in, though I regretted throwing bones like that simply because the PCs became disinterested. Still, I really wanted to continue the module, so I did so. To some degree, two of them, but the details of those aren't very important.
They decided to keep an eye on some of the young ones of the hamlet who had been rumored to run off into the woods some nights, and follow them.
Around this time, I decided to look into the next module. It shouldn't be necessary. Each were published at different times, and are supposed to be playable independently. Yet the second module gives details of great importance: the way the Pell family is butchered. V1 simply says they were killed violently. The second reveals that the attack has the hallmarks of an animal attack, yet they got into the house at night, somehow, and left without being seen. Now that gives some serious indication of some supernatural going's on. Too bad V1 decided we didn't need to know!
After telling the players about this new info, they became much more convinced of supernatural tomfoolery, but still felt about the same as they did - follow the young ones next time they run off, if that doesn't lead to anything, we leave.
I don't believe the module tells you what night the young witches go to their esbat, but an NPC suggested the night of the new moon, so the PCs kept special notice that night. One of the bones I threw in to keep the adventure going.
In the end, they got noticed while trailing the girls, but the witches pretended not to notice. They completed their esbat, getting new familiars and other boons before revealing their awareness of the PCs.
The battle didn't last long. The PCs got destroyed. However, it was a small group, and my suggestions of getting retainers and mercenaries to boost their numbers fell on deaf ears. I do not fault the module for their loss whatsoever.
At the moment, I'm running my own revision of an old adventure I wrote(I shared a little taster of it a bit ago), but afterwards, I hope to jump to V2 and see how that one goes. If it works out well, on to V3, or perhaps my sequel idea to the module I'm rewriting now, and then V3. If V2 goes poorly, I suspect I will abandon the series and leave them to look pretty on my shelf.
If you like OSR adventure modules, despite my less than stellar success, you can't go too wrong for a $4 PDF. https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/373537/Adventure-Module-V1--The-Hamlet-of-Volage
Addendum: While looking for a quick cover image to put at the beginning of the review, I came across tenfootpole's review. I often agree, sometimes strongly disagree, but generally find their reviews entertaining either way. Looking to see if they hailed it as a masterpiece and realize I'm a big dummy, oh boy did they not find it impressive. Strong language warning for those sensitive to that kinda thing. Their agreement does not make me right, but I'm gratified that at least it wasn't just me who was kind of bewildered by a lot of the adventure.
