[Review] Holy Mountain Shaker (OSE); While the Iron is Hot

[Adventure]
Holy Mountain Shaker (2021)
Luka Rejec (Necrotic Gnome Press)
Lvl 5 – 6

Following the recommendation of a loyal reader by the name of Shuffling Wombat, I did indeed purchase one of Mr. Rejecs modules and see if/how his stance on gaming impacts his actual writing. In many ways it does; Holy Mountain Shaker is not something that one runs out of the box without careful study and likely excision of the more cumbersome elements (although you might be a brave man and go for it as is). At the same time, its flaws pertain more to organization and implementation then being necessarily incomplete.

The premise is laudably ambitious, perhaps a bit too much for characters of levels 5-6, and covers a descent into the ancient Holy Mountain, following ominous earthquakes, through the ruins of ancient civilizations, in search of the cause. There is a plethora of science-fantastical elements, the undead remnants of piscine civilizations, magical animals, a ticking clock, decaying civilizations, and a giant god fish that lurks in the heart of the mountain and comes across as someone trying to fit three alternate universe versions of Deep Carbon Observatory into a single 56 page point-crawl.

The town is mostly abstracted with 3 factions holding a total of 8 rumors and these are actually set up in an interesting way, where they are all red herrings but they will spur initial investigation, then a likely return to the town, followed by dismay as the quakes do not cease. There is a simple but robust timeline of 6 days, with increasing rewards being offered each day, as well as a massive quake rendering one of the entrances unusable. Some intrigue or fleshing out of the towns is an option but given the limited time-span, it is likely the PCs will want to get onto the mountain proper asap.

The adventure is a pointcrawl, effectively a hexcrawl with bounded directions, of sixteen locations total, following three alternate routes, and contains occasional secret passageways to bypass certain areas so as to incentivize exploration. The system for adjudicating it is introduced in 2 pages and I must confess it feels baroque. We introduce a new unit of measurement, the Watch, which is composed of 12 turns, and is used to measure overland progress. Begging my lord’s pardon, but what is wrong with using turns and hours? A random encounter is set to occur every watch, there are procedures for investigating the area (which takes up additional time but reveals additional features). Normally it takes 2 watches to travel through a region, but if the PCs spend 2 watches fully exploring it, it thereafter takes only a single watch to traverse. So far so good. I think it would have been a good idea to cover the interaction of resting with a random encounter but as a system it covers most of the basics.

I’m a bit skeptical of the ability to avoid monster encounters entirely by using spending a watch (with differing associated chances of doing so, although they are always at least 50%), as doing so automatically triggers another encounter. I am reminded of the Wilderness Evasion tables and wonder if these would not have sufficed, with the minor addition: Rushing through an unexplored area is possible but has a large possibility of getting the characters lost, which means more watches, which means more encounters and time pressure etc. etc. Likewise the abstraction takes into account only movement rates of under or above 60, while giving a base rate and adjusting it would have allowed for other factors (what if, say, the PCs are using mounts, or use flight?). The whole works but is a bit clunky.

Welcome to Pointcrawl Hell!

Random Encounters (challenges) proper cover the entire pointcrawl, with 3 sub-entries for each separate area and mostly consist of static effects that inflict damage or fatigue unless a saving throw is made, with the occasional area specific creature thrown in for good measure. It feels a little…static? There are environment specific hazards like falling pillars or collapsing areas that can be bypassed without hazard if the right equipment (like rope) is utilized but the general areas are straightforward resource depletion. An additional sub-system moderates the collapse of the mountain when the party has successfully aided the Holy Mountain Shaker, the Giant Fish god, and travels into his gullet to free him of his ache, and means that the party suffers increasingly hazardous complications the longer they take to get back to the village, with possible death (and maybe some treasure) as a result.

Encounters proper are colorful. In a module this compressed, the sensible option, reskinning existing monsters, is undertaken with a minimum of fuss, with a few new additions adding spice and variety. Shadows are reimagined as the radioactive ghosts of a ruined metropolis-esque society, there is a Bosh reference from Logan’s Run, there are sacred animals that provoke challenge roles if molested, robot spiders with wood golem stats, fish-wights and my favorite was the 18 foot golem of an Emperor that animates if his crystalline sarcophagus is molested, using simple frost giant stats. The truth is that very often, the wheel need not be re-invented, and the selection is suitably varied. In addition, natural hazards are actually present, something which is often omitted. It feels like an expedition.

Encounter use is novice-level praxis with a Level 1 certification in the Bryce-lynch encounter design course i.e. you will get occasional powerful monsters that should be avoided, monsters that guard treasure and will only attack if molested and there is the odd special encounter to add substance. A strange orb in a ruined city that if destroyed frees the permanently frozen inhabitants back to a shadowy existence. There are a handful of these types, scattered about, but the bulk is fairly straightforward encounters with a single creature type. A stray npc that may be picked up, a golem servant pining for a lost mistress, but not much in the way of faction play or opportunities for infiltration. Complicated orders of battle, different enmities, alerts or something would spice this up.

Treasure is very good. Hidden, occasionally guarded, the amounts are right, and magic items are given the exact correct amount of description, which is 2 sentences. My favorite was a 3 set halfling ring which renders the bearer invisible but causes 1 damage per watch, a second function which causes continual light but also causes damage, and an offsetting which causes no damage but emits a high pitched noise that irritates dogs and other animals.

My main gripe with Holy Mountain Shaker lies not in its content but in the format. I believe this is the OSE standard and I would urge caution. Observe.

Despair (overwhelming).

The top text is near lifeless. A description would normally create a vivid image that the GM can breathe life into but without the connecting tissue of sentences one must strain to squeeze the imagery from the few nouns and adjectives as water from a stone. There is a power to language that is extinguished here. Everything is compressed so the various wonderful environments come and go without leaving a mark. This is a rare example when MORE text would have worked quite well. A brief description or introduction to each area prepares the mind of the reader, allowing him to interpret the area and invest it with the appropriate gravitas.

The constant abstraction means the relations between objects are never clear and the interactions with each location feel finite and restrained, a far-cry from the open-ended nature of a good game of DnD.

Take this example. Swim the lake 2 turns. You find a boat later, 1 turn, 3 turns to repair it, whatever. You take this action, only then do you find the secret door. Everything feels like it has fixed solutions.
If the lake is given physical dimensions one can account for any number of attributes and permutations but because of the abstraction the way in which locations can be utilized is necessarily curtailed. It comes across as bowdlerized and limited. A 4500 foot shaft, fucking awesome…but then its just the same shit again, take 2 watches, here is some shit to explore bob is your uncle.

Somewhere in N-space is an alternate universe version of Holy Mountain Shaker that is about 78-86 pages long, and has a 1-3 maps and a small encounter key for each of its 15 areas (including the Shaker itself, which could easily have been a dungeon), it is written in a human tongue and is rated a high *** to low ****. The distances are handled like they are in D1, there are simple random encounter tables moderating the whole, and the expanded exploration options are dealt with by simply adding areas of the submaps that may or may not be explored. The effort would be considerable, but perhaps it would be worth it.

This clearly took a lot of effort, has good bits and if you are one of those weirdos who buys modules for inspiration, a chopshop and you can read this newspeak without bleeding from your eyes this might just be up your alley. I am going to very hesitantly flunk this as the cost of experimentation in the pointcrawl format. It is, however, nowhere incomplete or rules light. Was it the editing?

**/*** if you buy it for inspiration

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