X9 The Savage Coast by Merle M. Rasmussen, Jackie Rasmussen and Anne C. Gray is a role playing game supplement published by Wizards of the Coast (originally TSR) for use with Basic Dungeons & Dragons. This is a wilderness adventure set in the Known World, which later became known as Mystara, and is an Expert level adventure for 2-8 characters of 4th-10th level.
The supplement is available from RPGNow as a PDF for $4.99 but the original printed book can still be purchased from places such as Amazon. The original printed book is the version reviewed. The module has 32 pages but the tri-fold cardboard cover is not affixed to the pages, a common feature of the era. There is a colour hex map of the Savage Coast on the exterior of one of the three pages of the cover, limiting its use as a DM’s screen as players will be able to see it, and the three interior covers have small maps of various encounter locations. Of the supplement, one page is the Table of Contents and one page is blank.
The first page is Preparing for the Expedition. This gives an overview of wandering monster usage, abbreviations and encounter maps. How The Savage Coast hex map fits onto that in X5 Temple of Death is also covered.
The single page Introduction has the characters starting in Slagovich (which is not actually on the map in this module) with four different hooks to get them to explore the peninsula. Including an offer to give each(!) character 50,000 gp(!) for mapping the area. Which seems a little excessive for an Expert adventure.
The Adventure covers the regions of the peninsula. There are unplaced encounters in each area as well as some that are marked on the maps. Many of the encounter areas are settlements of different types; in fact, most of the non-random ones seem to be. There are two major encounters with large maps, the Lost City of Risilvar and the Lawful Brotherhood Outpost. Each of these is covered in (comparative) detail.
Within this section are four pull out pages of maps. There is a two page map of the continent, with the relative positions of the maps from this supplement as well as X1 The Isle of Dread, X4 Master of the Desert Nomads, X5 Temple of Death, X6 Quagmire! and CM1 Test of the Warlords. Although none state which supplement is being referred to. One page of this has a blank player’s map of the region, one page has two handouts, two pages have a map of the Lawful Brotherhood Outpost and the final two a map of the Lost City.
After the location descriptions, the first appendix, Outpost Information, gives a schedule, list of positions including levels, spells known and stats for members.
Monsters is the next appendix and has thirteen new monsters, some of them from earlier modules.
Random Encounters has eight encounters each for the Open Sea and Rivers. Finally, Pre-Rolled Characters has six pre-generated characters.
X9 The Savage Coast in Review
The text maintains a three column format and appeared to be largely free of errors. The sole colour illustration is the, perhaps not exactly appropriate, one on the front cover, although there are many custom black and white illustrations inside. The colour hex map of the Savage Coast actually looks worse than the black and white ones seen in earlier supplements; each hex is simply filled with a block of colour, rather than having the illustrations seen in earlier black and white maps and later colour ones.
The region of the Savage Coast, known as Orcs Head Peninsula, is one of those that got a massive overhaul. The area as depicted in this supplement is a sparsely settled region with a few outposts, native settlements and humanoid villages. Beginning in The Voyage of the Princess Ark series in Dragon Magazine (beginning at about Dragon #171 and continuing for many editions afterwards, including in The Known World Grimoire) the area became much more heavily populated, with many small states. It was touched again lightly in Champions of Mystara but the greatest overhaul came in the Red Steel and Savage Baronies boxed sets after Mystara was converted to AD&D 2nd Edition.
Even by the limitations of the time (an entire adventure, Tortles of the Purple Sage, was trimmed from the supplement and printed in Dungeon #6 and #7) this is rather sparse. This isn’t helped by the fact that eight pages are maps and one page is a full page illustration. Together with another mostly blank page, the front page, extensive monster section and pre-rolled characters, only about half the pages are devoted to the adventure. The result is that the entire region feels bland and empty. Even though X6 Quagmire! was similarly under populated – and written by Rasmussen as well – it did not feel so undeveloped. The random encounter charts were more evocative too. By modern standards, X6 is lacking in many areas, but it feels far superior to this supplement.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is the attempt to create various communities for different types of intelligent, and often humanoid monsters. Still, the entire region feels bland, barren and empty, and for a hex crawl lacks any really evocative locations. Or many locations at all that aren’t outposts and villages. X9 The Savage Coast can be found by clicking here.
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