Pre-Written Adventures and Me

Last night I was talking to my wife as we were cooking dinner and she made the comment that in the 11 years we've been together that she's only see me run a pre-written adventure a handful of times. I started to argue with her but it's true. The vast majority of the time that I've been running has been me starting the adventure by giving them a location, a few things around them they can shop at, and an assortment of adventure hooks. From there the players craft the story they would like to play by determining where they're going and what they're doing. 

The idea of a pre-written adventure being pushed through my own, weird sensibilities has a certain amount of appeal though. I think I would like to explore this option a bit more in the coming days.  And I think that I should do some actual gaming online again. 

Think of this as a heads up.

The Monument of the Oppressor by Paul Lehr

And the painting by Lehr as a sign of where my mind's at today.

Monkey Business by Jens D., The Disoriented Ranger

For those of you who haven't yet heard Jens D of the Disoriented Ranger produced an adventure, Monkey Business. He's published it on Drive Thru RPG as a pay what you want venture and this is my not review, review. 

Now what do I mean by that silly sentence?

I cannot divest myself from my feelings for Jens. I think he is a brilliant person and I love reading his blog every time he updates. I think that in each post he often puts together a more passionate and thought provoking piece than many of us do over the course of a dozen posts (myself included). As a result I find myself so predisposed to liking this adventure that I can't tell you that it isn't because I think so highly of him. And that puts me, as a reviewer, in a terrible place: I'm unreliable. 

Let me tell you what I like about this adventure.

From the moment that I began reading the descriptions of the cast I found myself taken with this adventure and I have been actively working to incorporate them into the campaign I'm preparing. I'm a cherry picker of a Dungeon Master and the way Jens has created these characters makes them very easy to throw into my pulp heavy games. I love things like this, and Jens is always a fountain for such things on his blog, so it's good to see that in this adventure there's a lot there for me to use. It's also just zany as all get out and I fucking love that. I love the drug running gorillas, the world's strongest man, the carnival, and the aliens! There's just so many wonderful things here, and they're all strange, and funny, and just hitting right in my sweet spot.  

Also, I've totally added the Mark Van Vlack Monkey Generator to my Dungeon Master's Toolbox. That thing is just a quick, useful way to describe monkeys beyond, "You see a fucking monkey flinging poo at you from the tree."

Should you go out and download Monkey Business? 

I say absolutely. It's fun and zany - but here's the best part about about Jens publishing it as a pay what you want venture: you can try it for free. You can download the adventure, and if I'm right, you'll find that it's more than worth paying for at which point you can purchase it again from Drive Thru RPG and toss Jens some well deserved cash. 

Free Dungeons & Drunkards PDF!

You know how I mentioned earlier that we had been working on one last part to our Dungeons and Drunkards series? Well here it is! This is a combined PDF of the entire series in a single place that will allow you to take it anywhere! It features all of our articles in an easy to read format without all of the junk that comes along from jumping from one site to the next and having to wait on it all to load!

I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank each of my fellow contributors to the series for all their hard work. +Jens D. kept us on track when it seemed like no one else could or would and his mastery of the rules made his article a perfect starting point for the series. +Sean Bircher lent us his brilliant mind to create all of the monsters you find here and was always the first person available when anyone needed to talk about where things were going. +Stelios V. Perdios was a source of inspiration when it seemed like we were hitting a wall and reading his thoughts most assuredly helped inspire my own writing if not all of ours. We hope you enjoy reading the PDF of our series as much as we've all enjoyed doing it! 

DOWNLOAD THE PDF!

Dungeons and Drunkards

Part 1: A pub crawl through assorted editions of D&D (and some homebrew) by +Jens D. 

Part 2: The Dance of the Tarantella by Charles Akins

Part 3: Boozing it Up in 5e by +Sean Bircher
  Part 4: When the DM Gets Drunk by +Stelios V. Perdios
Part 5: Drunken Beasts by +Sean Bircher 
Part 6: B-E-N-D-E-R! by +Sean Bircher
Part 7: Wine Angel by +Sean Bircher
Part 8: The Drunk Girl and the Game Master by +Stelios V. Perdios
The Complete Dungeons & Drunkards PDF

If you liked this project be sure to check out the next one that's just been announced! 
We're still accepting new people for it!