Product Name: The Cursed Chateau
Publisher: Rogue Games
Author: James Maliszewski
System:
Setting:
Series:
Theme: Retro Fantasy, Horror
Type: Adventure
Link: http://themysticalthrone.com/?p=16433
The Cursed Chateau is a horror-infused, retro fantasy, location-based adventure module designed to be compatible with any old-school class-and-level system. It is designed for 4 – 8 characters of 4th – 6th Level and contains stats that are meant to be broad for compatibility with many systems. The adventure pins the PCs in a nasty little game of investigation and survival while attempting to succeed in the adventure’s hopeful outcome. This module is filled with twists and lots of nasties and should keep the players on their toes, as long as they realize how success is achieved.
ADVENTURE
It’s difficult to give a detailed review of the adventure without spoiling it, so this will be brief. As the PCs enter the cursed chateau, they are thrown into a series of twists and turns that keep them guessing and force them to play the game or fail to achieve the final goal: Get out alive!
The Cursed Chateau is filled with different rooms and each one is not only described but is fully detailed as far as encounters, treasures, and physical descriptions. Maps accompany these details and each room is numbered with the associated room description number.
APPENDIX
The appendix contains a great collection of new creatures used throughout the adventure. Each one is presented with a bare amount of stats (for flexibility) and a detailed description. An illustration could be beneficial, but the creatures are standard enough to easily be constructed.
OVERALL
The infusion of retro fantasy and horror is done perfectly. Obtaining the great riches can come at a heavy cost with plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows. It’s a great adventure module for dropping into a campaign or running by itself. Although if you’re not careful, this adventure could cut your campaign short.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 8 out of 10
The Cursed Chateau contains Rogue Game’s simple and easy-to-read layout and presentation with a smattering of interesting illustrations. These illustrations are disturbing and twisted and fit well with the setting, but I found a couple of them didn’t match the descriptions in the content. This may be done deliberately and are meant as an enhancement to the content rather than a visual display of the description, but they definitely help in depicting the scene being portrayed. The presentation of the content is very well-done and the NPC stat blocks are all easy to read.
Storyline: 8 out of 10
The storyline has a properly developed background and a definite end-point, however the storyline in-between is a bit vague and is presented as story-points rather than a story that flows from beginning to end. While this allows the PCs to move through the location as they please, I had to go back-and-forth between points to piece things together. This does create a very flexible storyline and allows the game-play to dictate the details.
Desire to Play: 10 out of 10
This could be a very interesting adventure module to run multiple times. Not for the sake of succeeding each time, but for the fact that your party may fail the first couple times and the players may want another crack at it. It’s a great combination of “dungeon crawl” and investigation, brought together in a fairly Lovecraftian style.
Overall: 9 out of 10
I definitely recommend running this adventure module. Not only as an old-school styled module but also as a horror-themed module for any compatible game system (or one that can become easily compatible). With its possible high-level of difficulty, its bound to keep your players guessing and each and every turn.
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