A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Beneath the Village Well

Beneath the Village Well by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. 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 32 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 a village has been peaceful for years but has suddenly been plagued by goblin raiders and no-one knows where they are coming from.

Notes for the Dungeon Master explains that this is an adventure aimed at six 1st level characters, what the village, which isn’t described, should consist of, especially having places the characters can buy gear and weapons from, and how it can be placed.

Encounter Number One has the characters hear screaming the first night after they are equipped and outside, they will see dead villagers and goblins heading down into the well with loot.

Random Encounters in the Areas Beneath the Village has a d8 table of random encounters.

Key to the Areas Beneath the Village covers the underground complex accessed through the well. Parts of this are natural and parts constructed at various times, with an assortment of traps, treasure and monsters.

The final page of content has a map of the area.

Beneath the Village Well in Review

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

This is a pretty straightforward adventure; the characters need to head into the complex and defeat everything that’s there, as well as remove a dam that has caused the well to dry up and allowed the goblins another way of leaving the complex. Which is an oddity, because how come the villagers didn’t notice their water source no longer had water? Beneath the Village Well can be found by clicking here.