Introduction

I've decided to start reviewing modules, focusing mostly on things that I own and especially if I don't think they have gotten enough attention (or I feel like I have something to say that I don't feel like has been said). Expect a lot of Cairn modules for obvious reasons. My tastes are perhaps a bit idiosyncratic because I really like dungeons and dungeon-crawling but am turned off by a lot of older mechanics (but not procedures). I hope that, despite my biases (or perhaps because of them), people will find these reviews useful.

Disclaimer: Amanda P. and I hang out in a lot of the same discords, and we have talked on more than one occasion. They are very cool in my book. I'm also an overly-opinionated person who is the guy who can walk out of a movie that everyone in the group liked and start the dialogue off with "I liked it, but..." and then rattle off 20 quibbles. Yes, I am "that guy". All that is to say, don't think that just because I like someone and/or something that I will refrain from criticism.

Premise/Setting

Tannic takes place in this wonderful little bucolic village that is right in the middle of a summertime festival that attracts people from all over. The main hook of the adventure is that three youths go missing during a traditional rite of passage (camping in the forest) and people from the village offer to reward your party for any assistance in locating them. It's a pretty basic premise, but theoretically effective in motivating a wide variety of player types.

For me, the really noteworthy thing about this adventure is the genre of fantasy that it captures. The book describes itself as pastoral, but I really think the vibes being put out here are more Romantic Fantasy in the vein of this Against the Wicked City blog post. Pretty much every intelligent foe in this module can be overcome via investigation and talking, and smart players will leverage existing relationships to ensure that troublesome NPCs listen to them. Even the monsters and "traps" of the adventure feel very naturalistic and not designed by some sort of malign intelligence like you'll find in a lot of more traditional OSR modules.

I love the details that Amanda uses to bring the town, festival, NPCs, and the forest to life. All of the major NPCs have really clear motivations, and the areas leading up to the dungeon (town, festival, and forest) are just full of potential encounters that give the party something to do and will likely given them a reason to care about the three youths that are currently missing.

Every single event is almost guaranteed to produce a memorable encounter for players.

The main dungeon is probably the weakest of the areas explored in this module, but mostly because a crypt (even a waterlogged one) is really well-trodden ground in this space. I do like the fact that interacting with various things in this adventure (most of which telegraph the potential danger) exposes you to the same effect that lured the youth into their current predicament. A clever party is likely to unravel the effects of the "Hear Undead" effect and come up with proper countermeasures, and that's a good thing given that it would be much more frustrating if sprung upon them without warning mid-way through the dungeon.

Art and Aesthetics

The uses a combination of public domain art and photography as well as Amanda's own work. Everything is well-integrated and doesn't produce that feeling of dissonance that you get sometimes when viewing a product that has various public domain pieces drawn from different sources. I especially like the photos that have been color-manipulated to the point where they almost look sketched (the cover is a great example of this).

The original art by Amanda P. is awesome as well. Check out this pillar of skulls!

I am particularly impressed with the map style, which is hand-drawn with a lot of naturalistic rooms and scenery depicted on the map, but also light sketching of 10 foot (I presume) squares for people who care about such things. It is a really nice blend of artistic and usable that I wish I saw in more adventures.

I'm not one of those people who can pick up a product and rattle off information about paper size and weight, but the zine format feels good in the hand and the cover and pages have a great feel. This is not a purchase where you wish you would have just printed it off yourself to save the money.

Layout and Usability

I quite like how most of this module is laid out. There are sections going over the premise, major NPCs (living and dead), the hexcrawl, and all of the major locations of the module. The rumors are all clear and actionable, the encounters (both festival and forest) are bursting with flavor and many are entertaining in their own right. My only concern is that players won't want to leave the festival (but it does give you a great excuse to dump most of the rumor table on them if they stick around).

My main criticism comes when we make it to the Dungeon of the module. The keying has paragraphs of what can essentially be used as boxed text, but has bullet points underneath that expand on the contents of the room in more detail. The problem is that there was a missed opportunity here because the flavor text at the top often doesn't fully align with bullet points found below. This is an issue in that it makes it more likely that a GM will omit a potential point of interest in a room, or might have to introduce the element after a general description has been provided. It's not a huge issue, but it does have an impact on usability.

A good example of what I'm talking about here is how things that would draw the players' attention, such as the decorative font, are left out of the descriptive text at the beginning. Really great environmental clue with the harpist warning about the dangers of the Prince's harp, though!

I also have a small quibble regarding the pillar of skeletons in the Ossuary, which I feel like is a good opportunity to allow the players to take a risk to gain valuable information, but mostly provides minor details and humorous but ultimately useless information in regards to solving the "puzzle" of the Prince.

Finally, there are a few things in the book that are insufficiently detailed and would require referencing outside sources or improvisation on the GM's part. In particular, several instances where valuables are present but aren't listed item-by-item and/or do not have stated values, and monsters that we are told should use certain stat blocks for but the stat blocks themselves are not present within the module. Both issues could be easily remedied with only a small amount of text, but they represent an effort in prep/improvisation on the part of the GM that I feel like should be unnecessary.

Side-Note: On Dual-Statting

Tannic is statted for both Old School Essentials and Cairn, but I think the author would have an easier time of it had the module committed to one system or another. There is a bestiary at the back with stats for both systems, and the space saved by omitting one system could have been used to provide stats for every potential creature encountered in the module instead of requiring referencing outside sources.

Also, one final quibble, but there are Giant Toads in the bestiary but not in the adventure itself. If you are running this, make sure to add some Giant Toads somewhere. If at least one player doesn't end up stuck with a tongue and chewed on by a Giant Toad I will be very disappointed.

Conclusion

Despite my small criticisms, Tannic is a great module and one that I think is a strong contender for being used when you want a more light-hearted adventure that avoids a lot of the doom and gloom commonly found in many fantasy modules that involve Dungeons. Every intelligent (and even non-intelligent) thing encountered in this module has an understandable motivation and can potentially be reasoned with or dealt with non-violently. There's some really great potential resolutions with the Prince at the end, and the least interesting and desirable outcome is "hack the Prince to bits".

In particular, I could see myself running this adventure for my children, or for people turned off by the stereotypical "kill orcs in a hole" style of play that is commonly associated with the hobby, and everyone having a really great time. In some ways, it makes me think that it is how I would want a Beyond the Wall adventure to be written. I hope that Amanda P. continues to write modules with a similar tone, because I can think of very few modules that scratch the same itch that this one does.

You can get Tannic digitally from Amanda's Itch page (It's PWYW, but at least by her a cup of coffee), or physically and digitally from Exalted Funeral.