Saturday, February 4, 2012

Review: Zogorion, Lord of the Hippogriffs


The party is be-bopping over hill with poor old Dale dragging his ass because he's still wounded from the fight against the potato throwing gnomes.   High above a small herd of griffons flies over head when one lands nearby and addresses the party.  You have just met the Mighty Zog,Lord of Hippogriffs.  This is where the adventure begins.

Okay because this is a Jason Sholtis adventure first thing I'm checking out is the artwork.  He and John Larrey, Jason's cohort at UNDERWORLD INK, have done a fantastic job.  Their artwork can be found in almost every corner of the OSR.  I like the attitude they take towards the artwork and the adventure.  It all revolves around having a good time.  The cover cracks me up because they are playing a tabletop RPG using Zog's house rules.  And once you read the adventure that cover tells you a lot of what goes on in the adventure.  It's very, very cool.  The other piece I thought was outstanding was a quivering lipped goblin wearing suspenders.  I feel really bad for the lumpy headed fellow.   

The adventure itself is a short one.  Something that can be built up to for a minor boss or something the players encounter in a sandbox setting.  It has a perfect set up to be an interesting location in a sandbox.  The other thing that I really like about the adventure is it is built for 3rd to 7th level characters.  Most OSR adventures are geared for beginning levels, having an adventure that is in that mid-range is a nice change of pace. 

Jason was inspired by Loviatar, so this adventure as of this writing and as of this blogger's limited knowledge is only available from Jason himself.  No PDF.  At $2, Jason will send you this 16-page adventure with a cardstock cover and map inside.  The print and pictures are sharp and good quality.  So scrape together a couple of bucks, you can find that in your couch cushions and treat yourself.  Treat your players to a wild adventure. Just follow this link and look to the left side of the page and Zog will be flying to your door in no time.

7 comments:

  1. "...he's still wounded from the fight against the potato throwing gnomes. "

    Ha ha! Classic I agree about the artwork. The cover is so amazing! Zogorion is such an amazing NPC. He's exactly what you'd expect from an ego-maniacal, reincarnated wizard capable of time travel.

    I really hope Jason produces more supplements. :)

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  2. I love this zine! I sure hope he writes more, this one hits just the right old school fun that I am looking for.

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  3. This is the second review of it that I've seen. I ordered mine yesterday, and it should be here in, oh, maybe a week.

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  4. Is it for any particular system? I hit his website but couldn't tell.. And in a kind of related note.. My daughter was playing Fable 3 and in one of the quests you get shrunk by 3 wizards who then force your character to run through their 'Hobs and Hills' adventure they wrote. The banter during the quest is quite funny.

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  5. The Dave It is geared for Swords & Wizardry, but of course is easily adapted to pretty much any old school system. Never played Fable 3 or 2 for that matter. I liked the first one, just thought it was short. But now might be the time to get the other two should be able to get them cheap.

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  6. Tim: Thanks so much for the review! This small project is a bit of a trial balloon for me. I like the zine-derived idea of producing inexpensive hard copies copyshop-style (I've always had an interest in home-made media), but I have no idea if the DIY D&D community will embrace the humble production values. Christian's awesome Loviatar (issue #7 is my favorite: 100% hexcrawl) gets all the credit for re-blazing this trail.

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  7. Tim: thanks for the review. Of course, this means another effort of scraping up some more shekels to get this piece of art.

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