A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement The Dungeon of Elemental Horrors

The Dungeon of Elemental Horrors by Sam Bunda is also published by Sam Bunda. This is an adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License with some of it being considered Open Game Content as a result. The adventure is intended for four level 5 characters.

The supplement is available from RPGNow as a Pay What You Want collection. There are a number of items in the collection. Three of these are images, all maps of the dungeon. One of these is the labelled DM’s maps, the other two are both players’ maps intended for use with Roll20, one optimised for 200% zoom. The next item is a Fantasy Grounds module.

The Dungeon of Elemental HorrorsThe final item is a PDF of the actual adventure. This is an eleven page bookmarked PDF of which one page is the colour front cover and two pages the Open Game License.

The Introduction states that the dungeon was created so that the author could improve his map-making skills in Photoshop, rather than adventure creation, and apologises if there are any errors as a result.

The Story So Far is getting the characters to visit the dungeon, which is built in an abandoned marble mine, by a sage who wishes to pay them to recover some elemental magic items. The dungeon is also visited by members of a strange cult. Around five pages detail the dungeon. Various areas are built around themes based on the four main elements.

Finally, there is under half a page for a new monster.

The Dungeon of Elemental Horrors in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked for its length with the various encounter locations linked. Navigation is therefore decent for a short supplement.

The text maintains a two column format and a number of errors were noticed, although nothing truly major. Excluding the front cover, there are no illustrations in the PDF; the maps are all separate files. This is slightly inconvenient in some ways. Having player maps that are separate files is definitely useful, but it might have been a good idea to include the GM’s map in the PDF as well as separately. The various encounter areas have a description that can be read out to players, conveniently with a different background colour making it stand out. The maps are okay and in full colour; there are better ones around but there are also definitely worse ones too.

The dungeon itself is described as a deathtrap dungeon. Whilst perhaps not at the same level of danger as Tomb of Horrors, there are quite a few potentially deadly encounter areas. Foolish characters could easily end up dead and some traps are difficult to spot or avoid. Like most such dungeons, the logic of it existing is a bit stretched, and the feel is pretty old school.

This is a potentially deadly side quest but slotting it into a campaign should not be difficult. The addition of a Fantasy Grounds module may also be helpful. The Dungeon of Elemental Horrors can be checked out for free by clicking here.

 

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