Killing the Dragon by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is a Master adventure.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a 2-page PDF for $0.69 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. Around a sixth of a page is the Credits.
The opening paragraph explains that two nights ago, Sixton, the capital of the Northern Reach, was attacked by a dragon. The characters are recruited to find and kill the beast.
Setup explains that it’s assumed the characters have already accepted the job and found the entrance to the dragon’s lair, though the adventure can be expanded, adding the attack, the recruitment and the travel to the lair.
Creating the Dragon’s Lair is how to map it out. No map is included, but a number of d6s – ten is suggested – can be rolled onto a sheet of paper. Where each dice lands a circle is drawn and the number rolled is noted. Lines are then drawn to join the caves together.
Tunnels has a random table where a d6 is rolled for an encounter with the number of previous tunnels added on.
Caves is on generating what’s in each cave. The number rolled for the cave determines what type of thing is in, with obstacles, hazards, people and treasure and denizens being possible. A d6 is rolled on each table to determine the precise contents. If more than ten caves are used, it’s suggested to add more results.
The Final Cave is the encounter with the dragon and has a d6 table of hazards.
Killing the Dragon in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, with only two pages, doesn’t need them. Navigation is fine. The text maintains a three-column landscape layout and no errors were noticed. The supplement has a colour layout but no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is an interesting adventure. It can, as mentioned, be made into a substantially larger adventure, though that will require some work on the GM’s part. However, there is definite room for expansion. The location itself is effectively generated on the fly, which means that the adventure will never be precisely the same. There is also room for expansion here. Killing the Dragon is a nice, inexpensive little adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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