To
start off my RPG review blog, I decided to do a page-by-page review of the
latest product I received, Patrick Wetmore’s Dungeon Module ASE1, or Anomalous
Subsurface Environment. I detail the highlights and impressions from every single
page. If you don’t want to see the minutiae of my review, just skip to the
TL;DR at the bottom. NOTE: This review, by necessity, contains major spoilers.
Cover:
The cover features amazing art that really sets off the module in an
interesting manner, as well as a fun and concise summary of the module.
Page
1: The first page is merely the cover but in a black-and-white color scheme.
Nothing much to report here.
Page
2: The second page is merely credits, disclaimers, and such. Again, nothing new
to report.
Page
3: The third page is solely devoted to a table of contents and a list of all of
the tables in the book. This is exceedingly helpful if you need to find table X
right now.
Page
4: Page 4 starts with a description of what is contained in ASE1 and the
meaning of megadungeon. Wetmore states that ASE1 is meant to have campaigns
revolve around it and begins to talk about the organization of the book.
Page
5: Page 5 contains advice for running the city of Denethix and advice for referees
new to retroclones based around OD&D. While not for everyone, the advice
for new referees is concise while managing to hit most of the main points.
Page
6: On this page, advice is given for referees to give to inexperienced players.
This is limited to a few short bullet points that the referee can just rattle
off. This finishes off the introduction and without further ado, it begins to
describe the campaign setting. The core part of the setting is that it is based
in a post-apocalyptic land where wizards rule the wastelands, with Denethix
being the only chance for a decent life.
Page
7: Page 7 finishes talking about the brief setting description given and begins
to talk about ‘orbital gods’, the deities of the setting. In the Land of One
Thousand Towers, the gods are in fact artificial intelligences created prior to
the cataclysm that reside in satellites. From their satellites, they
communicate through the God’s Eyes, which are described on
Page
8: On page 8, even more information is given about the orbital gods. It tells
that for the most part, the gods are Neutral, sometimes bordering on Chaotic.
It provides advice for paladins and clerics and reveals the pantheism of the
gods. After this, the Cult of Science is explained. The Cult of Science is a
group of people who literally worship science, using a basic understanding of
some minor aspects without any true discoveries or research. This is quite
original and provides a cool bit of flavor for the setting.
Page
9: Page 9 introduces the Cult of Starry Wisdom, infravision, and demi-humans.
The Cult of Starry Wisdom is devoted to Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. They
are heavily Chaotic and prone to practicing human sacrifice. One of their
primary goals is the seeking of the Shining Trapezohedron, an ancient artifact.
Infravision has been expanded to wide spectrum vision, a choice that does make
sense for the setting. Demi-humans have been cosmetically altered from
Labyrinth Lord but have no real mechanical alterations. All in all, this page crawls
with great flavor that really resonates with the reader.
Page
10: Page 10 revolves around goblins, revealing that they are merely the
servitors of Hive Minds, aliens exceedingly like illithid elder brains. It also
begins to describe the map located on
Page
11: Page 11 is devoted to a map of the Land of One Thousand Towers. It uses a
hex grid, but the terrain is not tied to the hex grid. This is one of the
better options for using a hex grid, allowing players to move on a hex grid but
not restraining the map to fitting into set hexagons.
Page
12: Page 12 describes places with names as flavorful as ‘the Feasting Trees’ or
‘Lanthanide Wastes’. Every place comes with a brief description of the rumors
enshrouding it and of the dangers lurking within, typically around four
sentences each. The page ends by beginning to describe the history of Denethix
and its mad ex-ruler Feretha. All in all, this page drips with adventure ideas.
Page
13: Page 13 describes the fate of Feretha, who died of a stroke and was
secretly replaced by the only two people who witnessed his death. This was what
led to Denethix being the haven of freedom that it is. The second half of the
page is devoted to describing law and society in Denethix, especially the bureaucracy
and hazards involved. This page shows some unique concepts and ideas but not as
many as the previous ones.
Page
14: Page 14 begins to showcase the various factions of Denethix. The sample
stat blocks provided for the members of the Unyielding Fist are quite helpful
and the descriptions do suggest several concepts. The enmity between the
Society of the Luminous and various other factions especially could prove
fruitful.
Page
15: Page 15’s key features are stat blocks for Koyl Yrenum and Marcus Tyro, the
two true leaders of Denethix. Besides this, not too much helpful information is
included.
Page
16: A basic map of Denethix is on this page, along with descriptions of the
Street of Upright Living and the Street of Worthy Servitude. The map is barebones,
but this is a necessity due to the constant change to the planning of Denethix.
Page
17: Page 17 details the Street of Lesser Men, the Street of Industrious
Efforts, and the Street of Students. The average inhabitants of each are
described, as well as lists of popular inns and taverns there. The lists of
popular inns and taverns are a welcome addition.
Page
18: Page 18 continues detailing locations, ranging from the Street of the Alien
to the Verdant Plaza. The locations mentioned here are more interesting and
unique than the ones found on the previous pages. Quote: “The poor also live in
wooden tenements tucked between the slave warehouses and manses of the flesh
peddlers, but it is an uneasy existence…” That quote immediately suggests an
adventure hook of the party coming upon the scene of a slaver enslaving a
citizen.
Page
19: Page 19 contains a quarter page illustration of people at the Inn of
Alabaster Surprise, one of the more popular establishments in Denethix. It also
describes how the (wealthy) people of Denethix receive power.
Page
20: Page 20 contains descriptions of more interesting locations. The most
interesting location is the Bank Inviolable, the heart of Denethix’s economy,
which is protected by four man sized automatons who kill any would-be robbers.
All in all, this is a decent selection of locations.
Page
21: On this page, two more locations in Denethix are detailed, as well as a few
towns and villages surrounding Denethix. It describes the mold farmers of
Gansett and the dirt farmers of Chelmsfordshire, who hang out at the Muddy Cup.
While not very serious, the towns and villages thus far seem to be quite
interesting.
Page
22: Page 22 contains information on more villages and towns. The most detailed
and interesting is Lugosi, a town that practices several odd rituals and
festivals based around their vampiric past. For each of these towns and
villages, the most popular eating houses are detailed.
Page
23: Page 23 contains another hex map that focuses on the areas around Denethix,
such as all of the surrounding towns and villages, as well as the River
Pristine, the River Effluent, and Mount Rendon.
Page
24: Page 24 details three more towns and cities, each of which have an
interesting detail that goes along with them. It also has a table that allows
you to randomly generate city rumors. The best one, “The Unyielding Fist’s got
a new laser, see? Big one! But get this… it’s fueled with people! People!”
However, all of them could set the stage for a cool side adventure.
Page
25: Page 25 contains even more random tables, that let you generate unusual
curios, shops of the greater Denethix area, and random city events. Every
single one of the unusual curios are indeed unusual, such as a four-sided
triangle or a doll made of human teeth. The shops are quite easy to comprehend
and the events have brief and detailed descriptions.
Page
26: On page 26, the random city events table is finished and a list of city
encounters is provided. For every encounter, a type of person and a random
number is provided, as well as any other relevant information.
Page
27: Tables for dangerous encounters and random encounters are on this page. All
of the dangerous encounter entries contain stat blocks and a few relevant details.
An amusing pair of entries are one entitled ‘Sometimes mold cakes just don’t
satisfy’, where you encounter beggars turned cannibals, and one entitled ‘Sometimes
when you kill a beggar-turned-cannibal, they don’t stay dead’. The town and
village encounters are quite interesting as well, with examples being gauchos
riding protoceratops and an ancient robot continually planting seeds. All in
all, this page contains two of the better tables.
Page
28: Page 28 contains tables to generate good clean country violence, fashion
for wealthy gentlemen, and haute couture for ladies of means. These tables aren’t
quite as interesting, but, once again, the good clean country violence table
contains complete stat blocks.
Page
29: Page 29 contains tables for generating random horrible secrets and
barkeepers. Every entry in the barkeepers table gives a name and a description
of their manners and appearance. Each of the horrible secrets is indeed a
horrible secret, ranging from being an aspect of Nyarlathotep to not having a
soul. These tables help add to the gonzo theme of ASE1.
Page
30: This page contains tables for generating villagers and urban poor. Just
like the barkeepers table, every entry has a name and a unique feature about
the person, from having two noses to seeking to make a ‘parrot’ from a carrot
and a potato. The entries on the urban poor don’t always have detailed
features, sometimes just a brief description, but the rustic villager table is
more robust.
Page
31: Page 31 contains tables to generate the bourgeoisie and the opulent. Both
of these tables make the characters seem interesting and have a sense of
mystery or motivation.
Page
32: Page 32 contains a table to generate random demi-humans and orbital
deities. The table to generate demi-humans is somewhat lackluster but the table
of orbital deities lists their domain and what they manifest as.
Page
33: On page 33, the final random table is provided for henchmen for hire and a
section on equipment begins. The henchmen for hire table lists a short
description, a name, and a class. The equipment section lists a short
background on how the assembly line and mass production are not used and begins
to describe the weapons that are described. The fact that the propellant used
instead of gunpowder is a waxy paste made from fusillade beetle excrement is a
fun detail.
Page
34: Page 34 contains a table detailing various guns and other ranged weapons
and details on machine guns and grenades. The table is fairly small and
contains a bevy of ranged weapons.
Page
35: Page 35 contains descriptions for plasma and laser weapons as well as
flamethrowers. It then begins to talk about reloading and acquiring ammunition
for weapons, and prices for ammunition. All in all, this is a mostly
flavorless, albeit necessary page. It ends on a quite interesting note with
describing manifold weapons, weapons that phase shift through dimensions and
use Cherenkov radiation to deal damage.
Page
36: On this page, a new table with information on advanced melee weapons is
given as well as information on miscellaneous equipment ranging from paint guns
to baby grunkies (read discount trap finders). This page is much more
interesting than page 35 and makes me wonder what my players would do with this
non-traditional equipment.
Page
37: Page 37 details costs of living per day, monthly rental costs, and cost of ‘purchasing’
a home (houses are only semi-permanently leased in Denethix). All in all, this
allows you to always have an answer for a player asking ‘Hey, how much would a
[building] cost’, when trying to establish a base of operations or HQ.
Page
38: Page 38 has prices for meals, ranging from mold cakes to peryton hearts,
and begins to introduce more information on wizards in the Land of One Thousand
Towers.
Page
39: Page 39 provides some sample stat blocks for wizards in the Land of One
Thousand Towers. The most interesting one is Canus, lord of the hounds, who
created the Dober-Men, dog-human hybrids after killing the wizard who
experimented on him. The other wizard is Ferayn, wizard of Tab-Nakel who flies
in a giant stone head.
Page
40: This page contains more information on Ferayn and a stat block for M onsantor,
lord of the stalks, a riff on Monsanto. Monsantor controls a corn army to raid
his neighbors and take his loot to his massive grain silo.
Page
41: This page details the history of the Anomalous Subsurface Environment, the
megadungeon introduced in ASE1. The ASE was once a mine owned by Integrated
Mineral Exploration Services/Dynamic Materials, Inc. that contained unique
materials and that violated the laws of physics. For seven years, the dungeon
was excavated and mined until a lock down procedure was initiated, locking
every single person in the ASE inside. This history of the ASE interweaves with
the history of the Land of One Thousand Towers and makes sense.
Page
42: On this page, the main materials that can be found in the ASE are detailed,
protonium-metal, argonium, and sick rock. Each of these have special mechanic
features, often saying that a weapon or piece of armor is effectively a magic
weapon.
Page
43: The introduction adventure, Moktar Lair, is introduced and detailed on this
page. A small map is included and every trap is detailed. This adventure is
designed to get the party’s hands on some sick rock to open the ASE.
Page
44: This page expands upon Moktar Lair, detailing more rooms and loot that can
be found in the lair. The characters and monsters detailed inside feel realistic
and the moktars are smart, using the spider cave to store their loot safely.
All in all, this is a well-polished dungeon with interesting traps, such as an
electromagnet that smashes anyone wearing metal armor into the ceiling.
Page
45: This page contains a table for wandering monsters on Mount Rendon and
describes the gatehouse of the ASE. The table, once again, contains complete stat
blocks and the description of the gatehouse mentions the metals that it is made
from. Some of the automatons using the human remains to jury rig repairs and
the rift between them and the other automatons is quite ingenious.
Page
46: On this page, several rooms are detailed, as well as a table for wandering
monsters in the gatehouse. It is evident in several of the areas that it has
been abandoned for years, such as a green slime having taken over the showers
and a black bear living in the entrance to the gatehouse. There are a couple
minor typos (‘to’ instead of ‘too’ and so on) but no major problems.
Page
47: This page contains a map of the gatehouse and descriptions of the barracks.
The map is more constrained to the grid than the overhead maps of the terrain,
but not wholly constrained to the grid. Usefully, prices are given for items
that may be stolen by the party, such as wall sconces and pins.
Page
48: This page contains information on more rooms in the guard house, with more
prices for miscellanea (papers in the engineering room)! There are also rusted
weapons that were once used by the guards. Cool details such as cages
underneath pit traps falling if too much weight is applied and signs indicating
directions are welcome additions as well.
Page
49: Page 49 contains a cool illustration of the emergency generator core as
well as six more rooms. These rooms range from empty rooms to rooms packed with
automatons searching through human remains to find any potential replacement
parts. Dimensions are given for lots of the items in the rooms and the undisturbed
wooden tables disintegrating if touched is a nice touch.
Page
50: This page contains yet more descriptions for rooms ranging from a lair of a
powerful automaton to a training simulator. A bit of dark humor can be found in
the hologram stating that the AES has been accident free for the exact amount
of time that it has been sealed away from the outside world. Ways to randomly
generate results for touching wires together and a secret closet full of loot
are fun additions as well. These sections of the guardhouse are quite loot
laden, with the abomination having one thousand and two hundred fifty gold
pieces in treasure, in addition to a protonium-metal bar.
Page
51: This page details the last sections of the guard house. The fact that there
is an empty trapped chest with a secret compartment filled with… nothing is
interesting. For every footlocker in the guard room, the contents are specifically
detailed. The entrance to the dungeon is sufficiently grandiose, with klaxons
sounding and searchlights activating when the entrance is opened.
Page
52: On page 52, the hierarchy of the first floor is revealed. The screechmen
and the goblins are abused (can’t think of a better word) by the morlocks who
truly control the first floor. On this page, there are also a list of new
entrances to the AES and what other factions do to them. This page does indeed do
a respectable job on introducing the structure (social and physical) of the
first floor.
Page
53: On this page, the first few rooms are detailed and a table to generate
wandering monsters is included as well.
The table to generate monsters is quite interesting and so are the
rooms. The room called ‘Eyeful of Jellies’ is quite interesting, with corpse
jellies being released from the eye sockets of skeletons if enough levers are
not pulled. It even provides a percentage for the players being surprised by
this occurrence. The page also contains a decent illustration of the room
containing the jellies.
Page
54: On page 54, more rooms are detailed on the first floor. The ‘Place of Bones’
is where bones are dumped and has a location where a green crystal skull can be
used to make a non-magical object into a magic item. In addition to this, there
are also an assortment of descriptions of rooms where there are not many
interesting artifacts.
Page
55: This page has a massive map of level 1 and a description of another room.
The map is highly detailed and easy to understand. Once again, the man-made
sections are more limited to the grid but the more natural elements are not.
Page
56: Page 56 contains a small drawing of the cross room and details three new
rooms. Once again, crystal skulls (red this time) are used to generate magical
effects, in this case a portal. The room entitled ‘Screechman Surprise’ should be
a challenging encounter for the party but there is not such a gonzo attitude as
in the other rooms.
Page
57: This page details several interesting rooms, from a trapped throne to a set
of evil spheres called ‘party balloons’. This page also details the dungeon
highway, a passage that the screechmen, goblins, and morlocks use to travel
from place to place on the first floor. Several alcoves that can be found in
the dungeon highway are described and many intricate details about the highway
are listed.
Page
58: This page details a cellar full of slime, a chamber with a hidden treasure,
and a trapped bejeweled statue made of stone. How long the gas from the trapped
statue takes to fully dissipate is interesting and the jewels and gold on the
statue have prices as well. This page helps foster the unique atmosphere of
AES.
Page
59: This page details a room with a trap set by the morlocks and a cave filled
with the serpent. The serpent and goblin spiders make sense as minibosses, or
more powerful individual enemies that would reside in the room.
Page
60: More rooms utilized by the goblins are detailed on page 60, including the
goblin lair and the room where the goblin hive mind was. The room of the hive
mind has been mostly abandoned after a morlock raid killed the goblin hive
mind, leaving the goblins without intelligent direction. The goblin lair is
just filled with what little treasure the goblins could find and a few goblin
spawn-sacks. Once again, prices for miscellanea are provided, from clawfoot
chairs to a mahogany table.
Page
61: Page 61 details a storage room and the misty arches, a room where the
archways are filled with colorful mist. The room has unique properties based
entirely on which archway was entered through. The effects caused by pouring
the jug of water into the basin can either grant the character unique powers
for a day or cause them to take a penalty for a while. Regardless, the
potential benefits and penalties are well balanced with each.
Page
62: This page finishes describing the misty arches and continues describing an
assortment of rooms that do not have as much detail as the misty arches. It
contains a cold room full of human bodies, a dining hall with a cursed item, a
dance hall full of intelligent mushrooms, and a carving of a bearded man who
will answer any question. This collection of rooms doesn’t seem like it should
be able to go together but with the background of the AES, it makes quite a bit
of sense.
Page
63: This page mainly details the morlocks, with information about other rooms
that don’t contain as many weapons. It contains a paper about the trapezohedron
detailed in the description of the Church of Starry Wisdom that is in
scientific jargon that can only be deciphered by a successful check. There is
also a bit of a technological joke where a secret door’s passcode is 1234.
Page
64: On this page, it details a cool magical item and more rooms used by the
morlocks. The morlock skins are exceedingly interesting, grafting onto a wearer’s
skin and slowly transforming the wearer into a morlock. Another interesting
room is the audio/visual training room, a room that contains a training
hologram and talks about some of the rooms found on the lower floors.
Page
65: This page talks about a room containing masterpieces from before the cataclysm
and a room containing a cyborg sasquatch. The masterpieces in question are da
Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and Michelangelo’s David. In a bit
of irony, due to the current residents not being aware of the fine points of
art involved in the creation of each piece, the price for selling one is very
low. There are also two blade zombies with a solid gold hookah for no
immediately obvious reason. The grammar and mechanical writing here is quite
good though.
Page
66: Page 66 explores several small rooms, one containing more party balloons! In
addition to the party balloons, there are wood gnomes in the shape of lawn
gnomes and tunnel moths surrounding a lamp post. Besides these interesting
rooms, there is nothing else of note on this page.
Page
67: This page contains descriptions of several rooms, ranging from a room with a
mummified corpse holding a letter, a ‘treasure mollusk’, and a series of
shelves for crystal skulls. There is also a room with a party of troglodytes
trying to hide from the screechmen… who will negotiate!
Page
68: Page 68 deals with a room called the treasure grinder, the last room
detailed! It is a pool that dissolves anything but gold. And if you remove
~half of the gold in the pool of acid, a trap is triggered and cylinders of
DEATH try to cut you to death and splash you with acid. Basically, the final
room is a deadly, and creative, death trap.
Page
69: Page 69 devotes a couple paragraphs to finishing the description of the
treasure grinder and starts describing magic items. The magic items described
are the amulet of vampire health and the cannibal’s crown. The amulet of
vampire’s health stops characters nearby from healing normally and siphons hit
points from nearby sleepers to the wearer. The cannibal’s crown detects nearby
meat but compels the wearer to perform acts of cannibalism.
Page
70: This page details the malicious mirror, a mirror that is effectively the
opposite of Harry Potter’s Mirror of
Erised, showing you horrendous scenes. Luckily, it contains a table to randomly
generate what you see, ranging from seeing nothing to seeing the viewer kill
everyone in the room and then himself.
Page
71: On this page, more stat blocks for monsters that are found in the AES are
included. It contains stat blocks for the lesser automaton abomination and the
greater automaton abomination, along with a more in-depth description for each.
Page
72: On this page, more statistics for automatons are included. Besides the more
in-depth descriptions, nothing of note is included here.
Page
73: Two cool graphics are on this page, one of one of Monsantor’s cornstalk
warriors and one of a blade zombie, zombies with blades stuck throughout their
body. The blade warriors aren’t necessarily a unique idea but are quite
interesting and the cornstalk warriors are quite a weird addition to this
monsters section.
Page
74: This page contains information on the custodians of the Bank Inviolable and
the corpse jellies, as well as a graphic of the corpse jellies.
Page
75: This page controls a picture of a dungeon elemental and of a dober-man, the
two monsters detailed out this page. The dober-men appear to resemble Anubis
but with the heads of Dobermans instead of jackals.
Page
76: This page details the giant earwigs and the dust ghost. Dust ghosts are the
remnants of an automaton carried through static electricity between dust motes
and filled with great rage. Giant earwigs are effectively just giant earwigs
who attach to their enemies.
Page
77: This page contains a picture of a goblin spider and statistics for
Exterminators, goblin spiders, and grunkies. It also explains the origins of
goblin spiders – “The goblin spider is a weapon bred by the Hive Minds for
their use. Without a Hive Mind controlling it, it is a mindless killing
machine, seeking only to feed.” This makes the goblin spider’s inclusion in the
module and the goblins’ fear of it far more understandable.
Page
78: This page contains a picture of a grunkie and a jawhead, as well as stat
blocks for grunkie overlords and jawheads. Grunkie overlords are quite
interesting, gaining their massive stature (~5’ tall) from consuming too many
grunkie pineal glands.
Page
79: On this page are pictures of a malignant sphere (party balloon) and a
moktar. Moktars are lion headed raiders and mercenaries while malignant spheres
are mindless bubbles that stab tendrils at its enemies.
Page
80: This page contains no graphics but contains stat blocks and larger
descriptions for the morlocks, perytons, and giant pill bugs. Besides
suggesting that morlocks could be the descendants of the miners trapped in the
AES, this page doesn’t really contain much of note.
Page
81: This page contains statistics for the pincer serpent, sasquatron, and
screechman, with a picture of the cyborg sasquatch sasquatron. Out of these,
the sasquatron is the most interesting, with the claw for a right hand and a
computer in lieu of a proper head.
Page
82: This page contains statistics for flat screechers and steel leviathans, the
vehicle of choice of the Unyielding Fist. Here, at least, the greater
description of the steel leviathan was greatly appreciated, as we finally get a
better idea of what these hulking behemoths are,
but sadly no illustration.
Page
83: This page contains statistics for the radioactive stirges and the treasure
mollusk but nothing else of note.
Page
84: This page contains statistics for the tunnel caterpillars, tunnel moth, and
vagabond mushrooms without any illustrations. It is interesting that the tunnel
caterpillar uses coins and gems to bait its tunnels so that it can lay eggs in
the corpses of adventurers though.
Page
85: This page is merely an index of some of the more interesting items found
throughout this module/setting.
Page
86: This page is the Open Gaming License necessary to use Labyrinth Lord
material.
Page
87: This page contains the end of the OGL and the copyright notices for the
product.
Back
Cover: The back cover contains a picture of a blade zombie and an enticing
introduction to the ASE.
TL;DR: In
summation, although it does have its faults, the ASE is a wonderfully fun and
entertaining read and accomplishes what it set out to do: give you a stage and
platform to run a ‘gonzo robots’n’swords campaign’. All in all, I would give
ASE1 5 stars out of 5, especially due to the cool black and white illustrations
scattered throughout in addition to the excellent material. Definitely check
this out on Lulu if you have some spare funds.
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