Valor in the Prison of Despair aka All About Wandering Monsters by John Josten is a role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. Though most of the material is generic, there is one bit that refers to Legend Quest. This is part of the Small Bites series and is the “World Walker” version. Normally the full version, which is close to six times the length of this edition, is only available to Patreon supporters. However, this is part of the Endless Dungeon series and the Game Masters’ edition, which contains an adventure, is also available to buy.
The supplement is available for free from DriveThruRPG as a 13-page PDF. One page is the front cover.
The Introduction says that this supplement is intended to make wandering monsters, a staple of older styles of play, more interesting. In this adventure module, the characters stumble across a prison where the prisoners are not locked in cages and are therefore technically wandering monsters.
The Fletnern Wiki states that previous editions have used so many Brinston and Endless Dungeon posts that there aren’t many such left. The wiki entries included are, therefore, intended to give more background on the World of Fletnern. The entries in this all cover sites.
The Sounding Board reproduces a blog post, The Theme of the Adventure (part 2) discusses railroad and sandbox campaigns, how dungeon adventures are by definition railroad-y in nature and how true sandboxes are incredibly difficult, so something in-between is easier.
Monsters and Other Menaces has details and Legend Quest stats on horsehide trolls.
Valor in the Prison of Despair is the adventure and this largely says the adventure is in the full edition, together with suggestions if Legend Quest isn’t used and some languages.
What’s Missing? covers the large amount of material available in the full version.
In Conclusion wraps things up and finally there are links and details on the Patreon and a player map of the region.
Valor in the Prison of Despair aka All About Wandering Monsters in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is not as thorough but is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. Apart from the partly coloured map, there are a number of stock and public domain black and white illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is by far the shortest “World Walker” edition published, and the full version is significantly larger. Normally, these supplements are an eclectic assortment of articles around a theme. The assortment this time is much shorter and the theme isn’t really present. The edition may state is about wandering monsters, but these are barely mentioned at all outside the Introduction. Perhaps they are covered in the full version. Valor in the Prison of Despair aka All About Wandering Monsters is a bit lacking but it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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