Dead by Dawn - Review & Redux

Dead by Dawn is a starting adventure for Shadow of the Demon Lord, meant for characters of level 0. This is a funnel. And an interesting one at that. I've played the adventure once, and ran it 3 times. As it is only 1.5$, I'd say for me it already paid for itself.

The setup is extremely straightforward, and includes interesting mechanics to resolve the situation without the whole session turning into a drag-fest (not that kind though). But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.


This thing contains spoilers (duh..), so if you're sensitive to them, stop reading and go do something else.

Adventure Summary & Review

"Even as the darkness from the Void casts its shadow across Urth, there are other dangers found lurking in the gloamings of the world. Some perils seek to entrap the innocent. Some are never defeated, their evils only delayed for a time. And at least one hungers for blood and meat to sustain its immortality. Tonight, this horror sets out to feed its vile hunger with fresh flesh."

The Goathorne Inn stands on the side of a secluded road. It's close to a gloomy forest of your choice, and far enough of civilization to make it isolated. Characters arrive to the two story building and are met by 3 folks: a pair of dwarven ladies, retired mercenaries, Ananda and Gelda, and Bester, the helping boy. There's a 4th NPC in the building, a priest of the Old Faith named Horvath, who unbeknownst to the innkeepers, has been dead for about a day.

Initially, players are allowed tavern shenanigans. They get to roleplay and get to know each other in character, and meet the two dwarven ladies and Bester. Heavy rain pours outside, so a warm drink & meal should sound like an inviting offer. Depending on your group they might get really into it, but you have a way to move the action forward with the dinner.

The Good

• Premise of the adventure is simple but brilliant. There's a sense of dread, and a ticking clock that can explode in the PCs faces at any moment. An adventure has to feel like a tray full of half-empty drinks currently balance by a pin needle. Then you throw the players on top, and see where all falls.
• Space is confined, very much so! There's an inn. That's it. Makes the situation nice and controllable. As written though, it could use some expanding. More to it later on.
• Splitting the resolution into 2-hour chunks is also clever and elegant, to keep the session in order and things moving forward. This mechanic is nice, although the "Siege Encounters" table on pg 6 can use some adjusting depending on the number of PCs in the inn.

The Bad

• There are three NPCs in this adventure: Ananda and Gelda (the dwarven ladies), and Bester (the helping boy). As presented, the NPCs are a tad dull, and the most you get is a silly gimmick of how the dwarves pronounce the name of their inn. This needs spicing up! We need a creepy and crazy NPC that shills that "Dark Souls/Warhammer Fantasy" feel to the players.
• This adventure features exactly one adventure, the Goathorne Inn. There's no map. Art is expensive, I get it. But this is a massive missed opportunity, and should have been included as part of the adventure. There are detailed descriptions, but the less I have to parse from text, the better.
• No mechanic for escaping the inn. It should be virtually impossible to do so during the outbreak, but I would've appreciated some commentary or mechanics on how to handle clever and innovative players that decide to make a run for it.
• Useless roll are not good adventure design. Repeat with me: do not make your players roll if there are no strict consequences. From the text: " Once he is dispatched, have bitten characters make Strength challenge rolls with 1 bane. There’s no effect on a failure or a success, other than to raise the tension". Not my cup of tea.
• Layout and art minor issues here and there. The "Unexpected Events" table is split in two pages. The 2 pieces of art are... not indicative at all from other SotDL products. I don't want to dunk on the artist. But it just doesn't fit the theme and adventure.

Don't be fooled by the dominance of negative points. I tend to find flaws and not praise the good! This is a very good adventure.

Some Hacks - The Redux

Let's face it... your dwarven ladies need beards

The PDF where I write notes and attempt to enhance the adventure

1. Spice up the NPCs in "Getting Started".
• Remove Bester (as presented, he's quite dull), and add Old Sam (Commoner), that's an old wicked human (sounds like Old Man Touchy) who talks about "certain Doom if you succumb to weakness and violence", "you reek of Corruption". He's creepy, but harmless. The dwarven ladies let him stay in the common room and serve him a pot of stew a day in exchange to tending their beasts at the stable.
• Make Ananda very troubled and mentally scarred. That Insanity 3 has to shine.
• Make Gelda behave like a sergeant, giving orders and cussing like a sailor.
2. In "Death For Dinner" have a clear trigger for what makes Horvath rise, deliver the line and attack. As presented, it seems he acts arbitrarily (after the PCs have explored the room a bit). Make it be anyone touching the corpse for examination of the cause of death will awaken Horvath.
3. Create a random table to spice up where the bodies break in in the "Encounter Resolution Phase". Locations in the first floor to be weighed in more heavily, but cellar and second floor should be a possibility.
4. Complicate the plot by adding interesting things inside the inn (after the outbreak). This point ties to #1 above.
• The adventure is vague as to what there is on the inn. I would suggest adding a couple of cooking knifes (daggers), 2 barrels of ale, 2 casks of oil (used for lamps and cooking), a shovel, and 50 ft of rope.
• Let's convert the Zombie Apocalypse of this adventure into Zombie Apocalypse + Hateful Eight. This serves two purposes: first, to allow the introduction of new (hidden) characters that players can pick up when theirs ultimately succumb, and secondly, to force more tension within the inn (by the way of conflict).
• The same day of Horvath's demise, the following happened: there is an Orc cook lady called Pliers. She was getting some action in bed with Ananda, ultimately cheating on Gelda. Unbeknownst to them, they get peeped by naughty boy Bester (a la Game of Thrones). Pliers notices this last time mid-act, and kills him out of rage in a moment of stupidity (instead of buying off the boy's silence, which was the sensible thing to do). Gelda now did find out, subdued the Orc employee, and was in the middle of torturing her in the cellar (with the help of her old mercenary "tools"), and removed her right eye. And then the PCs arrive.
• Above circumstances forced Gelda to move the ale barrels to a spare room on the 2nd story of the inn. This room is locked, and additional to the 4 suites described in the original text. We place the rest of equipment I described in the first point here as well.
5. The conclusion to Dead by Dawn as presented happens under two circumstances: PCs either survive till dawn (5 x 2-hour shifts during the night), or their faces get eaten by a swarm of undead creatures. But we all know groups will attempt to get creative. Especially when the odds are stacked against them, and things are spiraling down.
• Write down possible escape routes and plans during the night. It should be tough, but don't negate clever player ideas.
• Some escape options might include:
• Throw lit oil through a window, cause a fire, and flee through another window in the opposite direction.
• Confront Gelda, take all food and supplies to the cellar, and start digging a tunnel.
• Cover yourself in guts and feces, and try if you are undetected by the walking corpses.
• ... etcetera

Conclusion

Midnight snack, by Joao Fiuza

If you are slightly interested in SotDL, buy this thing. And run it. In my opinion it's an excellent introductory adventure to Shadow of the Demon Lord. Better than the recommended Dark Deeds in Last Hope if your players prefer action-packed stuff (and they usually do), and you need less hand holding to run a game.