The Black Knight Rides 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.
The supplement is available as a 42 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, three the front matter, one is blank and three the Open Game License.
Background explains that a knight after failing to get the recognition he believed he deserved turned to darkness and his son was raised as a shadow knight and has been seen recently near a city and is believed to be responsible for raiding caravans.
Game Master Notes explains where the adventure is set and that it is intended for characters of 3rd to 5th level. The Black Knight may survive, and if he does, there is a sequel, The Black Knight’s Revenge. The shadow knight is a new class and the characters arrive just as the Black Knight’s men are attacking a caravan.
The Opening Act has the characters encountering the attack on the caravan and then being paid by the merchants to track down the Black Knight and kill him and his men.
The Castle of the Black Knight describes the castle itself. There are some random encounters as well as the castle which possesses multiple levels. There are a number of puzzles inside the castle, though none are needed to progress, only being sources of other benefits and treasure.
Following this are four pages of maps for the castle.
New Magical Items has several new items that can be found.
New Monsters has a single new monster.
New Non Player Class describes the Shadow Knight class.
The Black Knight Rides in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. There are a variety of colour and black and white illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a fairly standard adventure exploring a location filled with all kinds of dangers, some monsters, some not, and some of these dangers are rather serious. There is the potential sequel hook; if the Black Knight escapes, the characters will not get the largest individual part of the reward. In order to ensure that there is a sequel without denying the characters the reward, the GM may want to change things so that the Black Knight can definitely get away but the characters still get a reward despite this. The Black Knight Rides can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply