MDBC 28: Complete Roslof Keep Campaign
After a week to wrap up Grande Temple of Jing, Megadungeon Book Club is moving on to The Complete Roslof Keep Campaign!
We're gonna break up each week into each of the 6 Folios that make up the text. This week is all of Folio 1.
Folio 1
Intro
So the conceit for the Roslof Keep Campaign is that the PCs are an adventuring party in a megadungeon with 6 other rival adventuring parties that all (potentially) want to kill each other. The megadungeon itself has powerful magic that creates random encounters and restocks the dungeon, the same magic that most of the adventuring parties are looking to acquire. The party is backed by a noble house, the only remaining member of which is a morose widower who recently lost his wife. Gameplay is going to be split between mechanical crawling through the dungeon and politicking with the other adventuring parties + the noble houses and factions that make up the infrastructure just outside the megadungeon.
It's a serviceable campaign structure that feels very tried-and-true. Campaigns with similar rival competitions / "tournament arc" style structures have existed for decades now and they're good fun, Roslof Keep plays directly to the tropes here. Every element you'd expect is present in the rival parties: "the good ones", "the monster party", "the backstabbers", "the party that just wants to tear down the whole thing", "the normal ones", etc.
Floor 1
A paint-by-numbers floor 1 dungeon with kobolds, hobgoblins, zombies, giant spiders, ghouls, and ogres. Compact floor design but maintains non-linearity with multiple decision points and short branching paths. Competently done but not much you'd remember by itself. Oddly doesn't have an included random encounters table but does reference the use of random encounters in the GM notes, something to keep in mind for running at the table.
A cool encounter that I will remember is the forge. Two salamanders live inside and hide within the flames, baiting their front door by placing a hoard of treasure just at the edge of the forge. Any group that approaches to loot the hoard gets ambushed by the camoflaged salamanders hiding within the flames. It's simple but evocative and would definitely be a shock to any party not expecting danger beyond the heated metal of the hoard.
Bonus Dungeon "Welcome to House Aldenmier"
This is a short one-shot dungeon intended to test the PCs before they ultimately get hired by their noble patron. Similar style to Floor 1 but placing more emphasis on investigation (skill rolls for the 5e version) as the place is intended to be an exam, not a deathtrap. Comparing it to Floor 1 makes the mini-module feel a bit redundant, but it might be useful as the centerpiece of an initial session building up the relationship with Lord Aldenmier.
Folio 1 Conclusion
Very classic style, structure and dungeon, with whatever connotations that brings along with it to you. The background for the dungeon is a bit scattered, with the text implying an "Egyptian/Sumerian" (quote from the text) theme but the spot art reading as much closer to generic European Fantasy. All the art inside so far (and there's a lot of it) is of the same consistent style which makes it more difficult to piece together which influence should be felt more strongly.
7/10, I wouldn't be embarassed to run or steal pieces from the first floor and might actually run this, but I'm not particularly excited by anything yet. I can see potential for something greater in the following sections.