CON5

Kneel Before the Goblin King

Kneel Before the Goblin King is a short adventure location written for the Shadowdark RPG and intended for parties of Level 1 or 2. It is written by Joseph R. Lewis and the (really good) cover art is by Tania Herrero. I assume the cartography is by Lewis himself. In format, it is 12, A5 pages (including covers and endpapers). It is available at DrivethruRPG for a PWYW price.

The Brass Tacks:

It’s kinda fun, completely free, but could use more fleshing out. If you have time to add some missing details, go download it and run it. If you don’t, download it anyway because it’s a fun, short read.

You’ll love this if:

You want to introduce new people to a game like Shadowdark with a simple, straightforward adventure.

You’ll hate this if:

You expect fleshed out factions, detailed room descriptions, or problems that can be solved in multiple ways.

Full Review (spoilers ahead):

Firstly, this is a good, if simple, adventure. There. That’s out of the way. I’m not saying it’s bad.

The setup to the adventure is as follows:

“There have always been goblins in the Brambles, but now there’s a small army of the nasty things in there, wearing stolen armor and riding cackling worgs. They’re attacking travelers on the East Road! And several villagers have disappeared! Please, save us! Kill the goblins! And get the Black Briar Crown!”

What’s really happening:

The goblin shaman, Mama Yaska, is using her magic cauldron to turn humans into goblins. That’s why there are more, they wear human armor, and why people keep disappearing. The goblin King Krunshlik is using his crown and throne to control those goblins as his soldiers. In his spare time he enjoys eating human hearts; he thinks it makes him stronger. They are repeating this cycle ad infinitum to bolster their ranks. Recently they’ve ramped up “recruitment” efforts and taken a bunch of townsfolk and a young couple of the nobility. They also have a small pack of Worgs at their disposal. It is clear that the goal of any party in this adventure is to kill all the goblins (or somehow return them to humanity, more on that later) and their masters.

What I like:

  1. The random encounter and random loot tables. Shoutout to the random loot table specifically. Players are going to search every corpse and having a table like this is so much better than trying to make it up each and every time.
  2. The goal of the adventure is straightforward, a good thing for new players or those lacking confidence. I really see that this could be a good introduction to Shadowdark or OSR style dungeon crawling games in general.
  3. The low level enemies, Goblins and Worgs, usually have names and a hint of personality. I especially like the goblin cooks, and the goblin torturing the fairies.
  4. There are multiple traps that make sense in the setting and would be discovered by a careful party. Some of these are less deadly than my OSE heart desires, but I could spice them up. But they are all good fun and easy to see coming. Players won’t feel slighted to spring one of these.
  5. The idea of humans being goblinized. Pretty strange ramifications from an ecological perspective, but really cool nonetheless. Would the offspring of two goblinized humans be a goblin or a human? Was the whole species born of experimentation like this? Who knows, but it's evocative.
  6. The possibility of inciting a Worg rebellion. This is the only group with which diplomacy is likely to be effective. Some of them chafe under the rule of the cruel goblins. I love that. Better still, there are Worg pups that players can raise as their own!
  7. The clean and easy to read layout. It’s the traditional shadowdark style. You know it and either you like it or you don’t. I prefer a bit more detail and longer room descriptions, but that’s a matter of taste. What really matters is readability and playability. This excels in both of those areas.

What I don’t like:

  1. The linearity of the goal. Players must defeat the goblins.
  2. The lack of follow up on the promise from the overview that “every situation can be solved through stealth, violence, or diplomacy.” It is clear that not every encounter can be solved with diplomacy. And that’s okay! But why did you even say that?
  3. The main characters’ lack of depth. It’s awesome that there’s a goblin named Goba picking her nose. For one of the main characters we get “eats human hearts and wants to rule a kingdom”, which, when you think about it, isn’t all that much more.
  4. The obtuse nature of the “solution” to the goblinization. So Mama Yaska is turning humans into goblins in her boiling cauldron. Fair enough. You want to turn them back? You need to get them to sit in the Wychwood Throne on the opposite end of the dungeon. Why would you think to do this? You wouldn’t. How would you figure this out? I have no idea. How are you going to compel them to do that? Unless through mind control from the Black Briar Crown, you probably won’t.

Conclusion:

I wanted to hate this or love this and I can’t make myself do either. It’s…okay. Joseph R. Lewis has risen to a crazy high status in the Shadowdark world and I suppose that may have made me more critical. The adventure is good in that there are hints of unique and fun characters and interactions. But it never goes beyond those hints. In my opinion, this one could’ve used 4 more pages. I wish the link to the throne and the goblinization was established somewhere and I wish there was a reason to parley with the goblins (who again, seem to be written to always be hostile). Of course, some more development could’ve been given to the main characters. That being said, it’s free and fun. Those two traits count for a lot in my book.

Rating:

7/10

To the author:

Thanks for the free adventure, Joseph! We’ve met and I know you are an awesome dude. I suppose this just isn’t the adventure for me. Thanks for doing the good work: making stuff for humans, by humans.