James V. West throws his hat into the adventure module
writing arena with his first release, "Howler". There is a lot to like here.
James’ writing is clear and direct. Throughout, he strikes a
great balance in helping the DM run the adventure – he gives suggestions throughout
for ways you might want to play out particular encounters, but never railroads
the adventure into a particular direction. He often suggests possible avenues
for things that could happen, and throws suggestions that will help the DM
along. This really lends itself towards a DM who doesn’t have a ton of
experience, since these sorts of suggestions would have been a huge help to me
when I was first starting out. The flavor text is just right – snappy and
brief, establishing the scene and letting the DM get to the action.
The adventure itself uses a number of very common monsters,
but provides just enough variety to give each encounter some freshness, so you’re
not just fighting a group of generic goblins again. Each time, the variation is
simple and elegant, appropriate to low-level play, but sufficiently
interesting.
The main monster itself is quite clever, and is a great
threat for a low-level party. There’s also a new monster type introduced, which
I quite like. Hill Mummies for the win.
However, my favorite element here is the map, which is
simply too cool. My ONLY disappointment with the entire package was that there
weren’t more maps – I would have loved a small regional map in the same style
to go with the one we got. The entire package is quite professional, from the
expertly-designed cover to the clean, lively art throughout. The tone of the
art and design align well with the flavor of the adventure.
It’s a sharp little package, and I look forward to more of
James’ work. Now all he needs to do is set this up as ‘pay what you want’ so
that people can throw him a few dollars to support him!
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