OPD Review 1 - The Mountain Lair of the Misanthropic Magus

"To gain a huge reward, the characters must rescue the Merchant's daughter Fayona from some Bandits who dwell deep within a mountain, home to a reclusive Magus."

By Sean Wells

Okay. Not a bad hook - and lays things out pretty well. There's a mountain lair with bandits, fair Fayona and a Magus.

There's 42 numbered areas on the map. Enemies include the bandits, spiders, goblins, a golem and the magus, possibly some skeletons, plus a number of traps and surprises, including possible ally and a neat, if very specific, item.. No level range given - I'd say low level, though, but "scalable."

Organization: Not bad. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 or somesuch rating. "Entering the Lair" and "Lair Description" are buried at the bottom of the page. Several rooms have the same basic description and might benefit from a map label instead of noting in the key: "these rooms are empty" "1d4 bandits in each" "mattress, pot, 1d3 goblins in each". Letters like E, B and G would simplify this (I know you'd have to change the nature of the catacombs... small price to pay, really). I'd organize it differently overall, but I can find what I need.  A highlighter would be probably make a world of difference.

Clarity: Well, the map could be less fuzzy - hard to make out some of the numbers. Everything is pretty easy to find (again, a highlighter will help).

Usefulness: I could see getting a session or two out of this - it drops in easily enough - could replace the hook with "friend was kidnapped" and change one of the encounters to reflect that - but you miss out a bit too. Like most OPDs, you have to either prep stats or be really good on the fly (not a big deal - except for the spell caster...)

Subjective: This is "meh" for me. I'd use it for a once-off or if I suddenly had a party track bandits to their lair, but I doubt I'd drop it into a sandbox as a feature. Just about every region has "bandits" so it's a serviceable enough lair with a couple nice twists. A few "funhouse" elements I don't love... Still, I'll print it and index it and have it ready "just in case."

Affiliate link to the 2009 OPD Compendium