Orcs of the Howling Bones by John Adams is a role playing game supplement published by The Smiling Bandit 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. This is a small dungeon adventure that is intended for characters of levels 5-8.
This is a sixteen page PDF that is available as a Pay What You Want supplement from RPGNow. One page is the front cover, one page is a map of the dungeon, two pages are the Open Game License and one page is what is technically the front matter although it is at the back.
The dungeon starts with an overview of how to use the book, the dungeon itself and the extensive use of traps and the orcs of the Howling Horde, who are lycanthropes and therefore more of a challenge than the typical orc. There are suggestions about how to foreshadow the orcs before they are actually encountered.
There is a single encounter outside the dungeon with orc who are not members of the tribe as yet and a further five within the dungeon. Each encounter has some read aloud text as well as other details. Unique monsters are covered where they are located; others are covered in the Bestiary.
The orcs do not appear to behave that intelligently, having more in common with older versions of the game. The dungeon complex is not that big and the various chambers lack any doors. So sound – such as characters in combat with other occupants – should carry quite well, yet there is nothing about what might happen in this case. Each room is a separate encounter, unconnected from the others. If the orcs did cooperate, the characters could quite possibly get overwhelmed.
Following the dungeon are three pages of Bestiary of the common encounters within the dungeon. Finally, there are two pages on Orcs of the Cragfang Wastes. There are three different main tribes, including the Howling Horde, and this section covers their behaviour.
Orcs of the Howling Bones in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it’s comparatively short, these would have been appreciated. The various standard orc encounters are all hyperlinked to their Bestiary entry, which is useful; there is no link backwards however. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two column format and appeared free of errors. The colour page backgrounds will make it hard to print though. The sole illustration is the colour map, which is serviceable. Presentation could be better.
It’s unclear as to why there are details of the orcs in the Cragfang Wastes. Are these supposed to be dropped into another setting, or are they part of a setting? The dungeon would work just as well without this, so it seems a bit needless.
Probably the biggest problem is the one already mentioned; if the orcs decide to behave intelligently, and react to the sounds of intruders in their lair, there are quite a lot of them considering their lycanthropic abilities. Orcs of the Howling Bones is an adequate if not exceptional dungeon and it can be checked out for free by clicking here.
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