A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement All That Glitters is Not Gold

All That Glitters is Not Gold by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 25 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.

The opening paragraphs explain that the characters are approached by a representative of the Sonoran Investigative Agency; the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space, though this isn’t stated. The patron wants the characters to recover a wanted criminal from a planet where the local authorities don’t care what he’s done. There is a bounty on other planets, thought.

The Patron gives details on the patron.

The Target gives details on the criminal.

Complications are various things that can go wrong; as is quite common, the patron is lying.

Random Encounters Outside the Mesa Castle has patrolling guards to encounter.

Random Encounters Within the Mesa Castle are people that can be encountered inside.

Before Starting the Attack on the Castle has a table to determine where the target is.

The Key to the Mesa Castle covers the various locations.

Guards on the Roof of the Castle are those defending the roof.

Encounters in the Deep Desert Surrounding the Castle has these; an odd position for this section, as this would happen before the castle is entered.

Valentina and Her Gang are some thugs.

Contingencies are what the target will do if the castle is attacked.

Completion Objectives are what’s needed to successfully complete the adventure

The final page of content is a black and white map of the castle.

All That Glitters is Not Gold in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Var the map and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.

This might seem like a simple mission; find a target and recover them, or their body. However, as is fairly common for the adventures from this publisher, the patron is lying through their teeth, which makes things more difficult. This was something that had been happening less frequently, but it’s still common enough for players to instinctively distrust patrons. The adventure also suffers from another common problem; pages and pages of stats for NPCs who really could have just been defined as “Guard” and all given the same details. All That Glitters is Not Gold is an okay adventure and it can be found by clicking here.