A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Side Paths – Tunnels of the Twisting Worm

Side Paths – Tunnels of the Twisting Worm by Alex Riggs and Joshua Zaback is a role playing game supplement published by Necromancers of the Northwest for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License with some parts considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This supplement is intended to be used to expand the content in Paizo Publishing‘s Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path, inspired by material in #122, Into the Shattered Continent. This is an adventure for four characters of 13th-14th level (and, as such, is too dangerous to be incorporated in the Into the Shattered Continent module, which is aimed at 4th level characters).

The supplement is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $1.49 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1. This is a ten page bookmarked PDF with two pages being the colour front and back covers, one page being the front matter and one page the Open Game License.

This starts with the Introduction and Background. The Introduction explains that this supplement is not specifically an adventure (unlike the previous two Side Paths from the publisher, Kennels of the Red Fang and Trials of the Drowned), instead being a kit containing everything needed to make one. Descriptions and treasure need adding.

The scenario features morlocks and the Background explains how one of them made a pact with a demon, gaining power and immortality as a result.

Next are a series of Suggested Encounters. The first has morlocks raiding the colony where the PCs are living. There are four more encounters actually within the tunnels themselves, culminating in a boss fight. A sidebar explains conditions in the tunnels and that they are not mapped and should be considered incapable of being mapped.

The final section, Monsters and NPCs, provides stat blocks for all the creatures encountered in the adventure. Another sidebar has five suggestions for expanding the adventure.

Side Paths – Tunnels of the Twisting Worm in Review

The PDF is decently bookmarked with everything except the sidebars linked. Navigation is decent for a short supplement.

The text maintains a two column format on a coloured background and no errors were noticed. There are a couple of sidebars of white text on a purple background. These proved to be absolutely awful to read on a tablet and are less than wonderful on a monitor. There are no illustrations. Presentation is okay but marred by the awful purple sidebars.

The Introduction says that although the adventure is designed to work best with the Ruins of Azlant adventure path, it can be used with other settings or as a standalone. In particular, this looks like it would fit well in the Serpent’s Skull adventure path at some point.

As stated, this is not really a complete adventure and will need a bit of work for a GM to turn it into such. It does not look as if this will be an overly complicated process to do though, although it will take a bit of time to turn it into a scenario that will last the suggested few hours.

Side Paths – Tunnels of the Twisting Worm is a decent kit for GMs that do have the time to flesh it out, but less useful for those that are temporally or creatively challenged, and it can be found by clicking here.