Colonial Gothic: The Landlord’s Daughter
The Landlord’s Daughter is an adventure for the Colonial America fantasy horror system Colonial Gothic (powered by the 12° system) written by William Butler and Brendan Davis and published by Rogue Games.
By Aaron T. Huss
The Landlord’s Daughter is a two-part adventure with the first being a sandbox investigation and the second part being a race against the clock as things turn from bad to worse. The PCs find themselves involved in a twist of weird events in Lynn, Massachusetts where not everyone is as they seem. The adventure is filled with the smallest details that can lead to some of the biggest turn-arounds that very little can be shared without spoiling it. All I will say is check every nook and every single cranny.
OVERALL
The Landlord’s Daughter was a great read as much as it is a great adventure. Even if you don’t run the adventure as-is, it’s written in a way that a Game Master can essentially piece together the different events in a number of ways, coming to a new end result. But running the adventure as-written can make for a great couple gaming sessions as the players wrack their brains trying to piece all the clues together; and as soon as they think they’ve got it figured out, you throw something right in their face that catches them completely off-guard. There are so many twists and turns that sometimes you have to read certain sections twice just to avoid missing the little details.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 7 out of 10
Colonial Gothic always carries very simple layouts and formatting that are usable and very functional. However, as The Landlord’s Daughter is an investigation-style adventure and written as a series of clues and information to gather, the Game Master will do a lot of flipping back-and-forth throughout the publication. As it is a PDF-only product, it should accommodate this much better such as using lots of PDF bookmarks, page references, and/or a detailed index that can be printed and quickly referenced. While the layout is simple and easy to use, it will require a lot of continual back-tracking through a PDF that doesn’t support that function very well. At least the headers are all clearly defined and most of the content is grouped together to correspond with different sections within the adventure.
Storyline: 9 out of 10
The Landlord’s Daughter has a very interesting storyline with lots of twists and turns and hooks to keep you guessing. It’s a perfect investigative adventure as it gives the PCs the ability to take things in multiple directions without breaking the overall storyline. Their decisions may result in unwanted occurrences, but at least they can ultimately find a way to make things better, hopefully.
Desire to Play: 10 out of 10
The Landlord’s Daughter is written as a sandbox adventure until the timeline hits a certain point in which predefined events begin to occur. At that point, the sandbox turns into a series of causes and effects with the PCs fully driving the adventure’s momentum. However, the content within the publication is written in a way that Game Masters can turn it into a much more defined adventure with specific events occurring in a specific order should the players lack the desire to play an investigative adventure or if they run out of ideas for where to go next. There are plenty of opportunities for the GM to drop hints without spoiling the outcome.
Overall: 9 out of 10
I’m a big fan of this style of adventure. It’s one that makes you think in the beginning and then throws you right into the mix near the end. It’s full of possibilities and adventurous GMs can change the momentum on the fly to correspond with the direction the PCs are taking. If you’re a fan of adventures with more direction, you can easily assemble this storyline into a given series of events using the content as its written very concise and covers a lot of bases and what-ifs. However, players always manage to take a direction GMs don’t expect.
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