What Ho, Frog Demons! by Chris Kutalik and Luka Rejec is a role playing game supplement published by Hydra Cooperative for use with Labyrinth Lord.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a PDF for $12, as a softcover black and white book for $15.99, as a softcover colour book (there is only one colour illustration in this version; this is simply to get better quality paper) for $17.99, PDF and black and white softcover for $15.99 or PDF and colour softcover for $17.99. The PDF is the version reviewed. and has 112, pages, with two being the front and rear covers, one the front matter, one a list of abbreviations, referencing the Labyrinth Lord books, Slumbering Ursine Dunes, Fever Dreaming Marlinko, Hill Cantons Cosmology and this supplement (the latter being a mistake; it should have referred to Misty Isles of the Eld) and two pages are the Contents.
The Introduction! explains that this is the fourth in the Slumbering Ursine Dunes series and how it may be used. It is a hex crawl of Marlinko Canton and contains a couple of small adventure sites. It is aimed at 4–7 characters of 2nd–4th level, which means it’s lower level than some of the earlier material. This section also has another list of abbreviations, this one including Misty Isles.
Welcome to Marlinko provides a brief overview of the canton, which is the largest and most uninhabited of the Hill Cantons.
Marlinko Canton News and Hooks has a d12 table of rumours, which may be partially or wholly false, on the canton, Marlinko, the Misty Isles and the Ursine Dunes. This is followed by a d6 table of weightier information.
After this is a two-page hex map of Marlinko Canton, with 13 points of interest briefly described. Three are covered in more detail in the other supplements, one is stated as being inspired by the Stonehell Dungeon and two sites are covered in more detail in this supplement.
Next is a four column d12 table that has different encounters. Two d12s are rolled; the first d12 table determines what column to use, the second which row. No encounters are weather encounters. Road Riff-Raff and Other Personages is the first column and there is a d12 listing of these creatures, with the final result being multiple people. Weird Sites in Marlinko Canton has 12 different locations. The final one of these, Tree Maze of the Twisted Druid, has a comment from the editor that the author lazily included a dungeon that he designed when he was 12, along with a, deleted, apology. Although the link to the adventure is broken, it is available on DriveThruRPG.
Adventure Site 1: Frog Demon Temple is a dungeon that is stated to be intended as a meatgrinder dungeon for characters of the required levels – it’s called a two-bit Tomb of Horrors. There are sample frog demons and a reference to Hell Frog Heaven, a supplement that contains more. Or would, if it actually existed. There is also a section of Bestsellers of the Hot Hell, ten books in total.
Adventure Site 2: Beets for the Beet God has some details on running the adventure, what happened to cause the current situation and that the adventure consists of a manor and a pointcrawl. There is a beet spawn infection index, which is similar to the chaos index found in others in this series. However, although certain actions can move the index up and down, time is one of the factors. After the characters get the first hook for the adventure, the index will increase every week. The pointcrawl covers various locations and the manor is a detailed site. Depending on what level the infection index is, what will be encountered at each location varies, with a decrease in uninfected and an increase in infected. Dead bodies also deteriorate.
Appendix A: Bestiary and Frog Demon Generator has ten new monsters, although some are also in other supplements in the series. The Frog Demon Generator is a d20 table of mutations that can be used to modify frog demons.
Appendix B: Bucolic Village Generator explains which hexes on the hex crawl have villages, has 4 d10 tables for names, a d20 table of village quirks, a d8 table of rustic dwellings and their characters and a d20 table of misadventures. There are also rules on carousing in the countryside, with a table whose numbers vary depending on the PC’s actions.
What Ho, Frog Demons! in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with the major and minor sections linked, although there are some errors in the nesting. The Contents is to a similar level of depth and is also hyperlinked. Finally, there is a supplement in this series that isn’t a pain to navigate in PDF; navigation is decent but, compared to others in the series, it’s excellent. The text maintains a single column black and white format and a few minor errors were spotted. It should be noted that the language used in the supplement is more mature (there are also a number of insider jokes and references scattered throughout). There are a number of black and white illustrations, up to a full page in size, which appear to be custom and include one for every monster. Presentation is good.
This is, as stated, a hex crawl. It is also a really weird one, just like every other supplement in the Hill Cantons setting. The stated aim was to take the typical wilderness hex crawl and pare it down to just the interesting places. Then, it would appear, to crank the weirdness up several notches. The ordinary places that can be encountered contain thoroughly weird NPCs, the major adventure location is potentially lethal for the character range and the second, weird horror location is both horrific and truly bizarre. This supplement covers a strange place for characters to adventure, but one that is still dangerous. It can be used to tie the other supplements together, but that may require a bit of work, given the range of levels they cover. What Ho, Frog Demons! is a totally strange but interesting supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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