The Old Mines by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with OSRIC. 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 5th to 8th level characters.
The supplement is available as a 29 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explains that a clan of dwarves abandoned a particular mine, even though it wasn’t played out, and sealed it off.
For the Game Master explains that the dwarves broke through into the Underdark and released hook horrors that killed the miners, and gives some more details on the creatures and that as the characters get deeper more and more of the creatures will arrive to attack.
Rumors About the Mines has a d10 table of rumours, some true, some false.
Random Encounters in the Mountains has a d8 table of random encounters on the way to the mines.
Random Encounters Within the Mines is another d8 table of random encounters, including sounds and debris.
Key to the Mines details the mines themselves, which are four levels deep and populated by monsters, with hook horrors being in the majority, as well as some treasure. There are also some details about how to do mining in various parts of the mine, which can yield more valuables but also attract monsters.
New Monsters covers these, which are two variants of the hook horror, one merely being a large version.
New Magical Items has these, which are heavily tilted towards dwarves including a couple of powerful dwarven items.
The final page of content has a map of the mine.
The Old Mines in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the map and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a pretty standard delve, though one with perhaps less in the way of tricks, traps and monster variety, thanks to it being a mine that was primarily overrun by one type of creature. With that creature being able to signal for more of its own kind, the adventure can prove to be dangerous as hook horrors gather in potentially overwhelming numbers. There are some valuable items, but the best aren’t that much use for anyone not a dwarf. The Old Mines can be found by clicking here.
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