​Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io…The Mountain of Power

A dungeon by M. Allen Hall, for “low-level”
Written for OSE
   Hey, check it, OSE; two-years-ago’s most popular game in the universe, now shockingly abandoned. I don’t mind it, it’s just B/X, and B/X is lingua franca of the OSR. This module in particular is about as standard as it gets too, four-pager with a cover page, an explainer/setup/bestiary page (back cover), a page of keys, and a map. Would classify as a valid adventure site submission for the contest, and I wouldn’t get map about the information organization or writing at all. Only quibble is that “low-levels”.
   The story of the dungeon is actually very different indeed. Mad wizard attacks dwarven temple, takes over, melts all gold down into circuitry, enslaves a treasure hunter into being a Control Weather monkey to constantly summon lightning storms against the peaks, turns himself into an electro-lich, starts experimenting on how to raise a massive electrified army of the dead to conquer, uh, stuff. Speaking as an Electrical Engineering major, I can affirm this is a completely realistic and reasonable usage of electricity. Players come into contact with the dungeon because it’s full of legendary treasure and/or the wizard’s magic. Very reasonable motivation.
   What I liked first of all here was the monster setup (although it makes me wonder about what we consider “low-level”). The bestiary is just five things, all on-theme, with just minor tweaks to make them all electric, all making plenty of sense. The lich gets recharged on his throne if brought to zero, the skeletons have a single-use zap attack that’s recharged at nice obvious charging stations, adds just enough interest. I’m not sure how turning interacts with undead who’ve been raised by mad science, not necromantic magic, but that’s okay. Loot being melted-gold circuits that also zap you? Love that.
   Outside of what you do with a cleric, what can be improved first is, uh, “gimmie some magic loot”. There’s a lot of enemy hit dice here to fight, and while the gold rewards are fantastic, the only loot is Boots of Speed and “a scroll”, nothing unique or flavorful based on where you are. The “adept” casting continuous Control Weather is also handwaved, which is kind of nuts. Margins are generous here, I think you could take the extra space to describe just a bit more. Map is isometric, which isn’t terrible given the size, but it does manage to obscure how linear it winds up being. Some horrible Frankenstein res device wouldn’t go amiss either.
   All that aside, best use case is to make this a fine and dandy little one-off little adventure site. It’s fresh, it works well in theme, it’s rewarding. Just make sure it’s before your players get consistent energy resistance and figure out the turning rules ahead of time. I’d be happy using this in my games.
   Final Rating? ***/***** at about the max something this scale and scope can be asked for. OSE getting well-represented here.

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