Dungeon Crawl Classics #82: Bride of the Black Manse by Harley Stroh is a role playing game supplement published by Goodman Games for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for level 3 characters.
The supplement is available as a 36-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $6.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one is the front matter and about half a page is the Open Game License.
The Introduction explains that the adventure is a horror murder mystery intended to be played out in a 4-hour session, and that it’s likely characters will not explore the full manse. It’s designed for 4-8 3rd level characters including a thief and a cleric.
Adventure Background explains how the death of the matriarch of House Lis brought the rivalry to a head between the house members. The oldest child, a daughter, sold her soul to Mammon, killed everyone else and declared herself a man, due to the rules of primogeniture. The Mad Prince, as she became known, later regretted her choice and tried to back out of the bargain. Whose anniversary is now at hand.
Adventure Summary explains that each PC is attached to a member of House Lis. The haunted house contains items that may be of use in defeating Mammon.
One Manor, Many Veils gives an order of events and Adventure Hooks explains that this was originally intended to be a challenging convention adventure, with few characters surviving. Neither hooks nor character survival were important in that; something not true of home games.
The house is then mapped in three different sections. Exploring these will provide characters with useful information and items to survive the night.
Appendix A: The Devil’s Masque is the conclusion to the adventure, with some suggestions as what characters may do at its end. Some choices are definitely better than others. A sidebar explains how to make more hands of glory.
Appendix B: Heir Masks gives an overview of what powers every mask has, though each also has different ones, explained where they are found.
The Floating Oasis of the Ascended God by Stephen Newton is an adventure for level 1 characters. The characters are recruited to head up to a cloud realm to recover something and bring it back. The clouds are not exactly sturdy and falling is likely. Given that the damage is 12d6, and that the characters are 1st level, it may just as well say fatal, and given the number of times rolls will need to be made to prevent falling, it is highly likely that at least one character will plummet to their death.
Dungeon Crawl Classics #82: Bride of the Black Manse in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major sections linked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column black and white format and appeared to be free of errors. There are custom black and white illustrations, maps and handouts, up to full page in size. Presentation is good.
The main adventure, as stated, had its roots as a convention adventure and these can still be seen. It is investigative, and time limited, and would still likely play out better as a one shot than as part of a campaign. A good one shot, admittedly. The ending is rather open; there are many different ways characters could decide to react to Mammon coming to claim his bride. Some are going to be fatal. Overall, an interesting adventure. The Floating Oasis of the Ascended God, however, has a fairly significant problem. There is too high a chance of a character randomly dying through no fault other than having to make frequent rolls to not plunge to their death. This isn’t great and a GM would be advised to modify that. Whilst a degree of random chance is expected, forcing too much of it to stay alive is not. Dungeon Crawl Classics #82: Bride of the Black Manse has an interesting major adventure, perhaps best as a standalone, and a less great smaller one, and it can be found by clicking here.
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