Review of The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford
A mist-shrouded sandbox for your players. One of the best tabletop adventures yet.
The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford by Chance Dudinak has already been reviewed by prominent Old School Renaissance (OSR) reviewers. But great adventures deserve more reviews to get the word out. And this one deserves to be played by anyone who enjoys fantasy roleplaying whether they follow the OSR or not. Plus I’ve run it a couple times now.
What is it?
Published in 2020, The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is an adventure for 4-8 characters of levels 1-3 written for B/X rulesets (systems based on 1981 Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert D&D, including retroclones like Old School Essentials, Basic Fantasy RPG and Labyrinth Lord). It will take most groups between 3 and 6 sessions to complete.
This adventure has 3 strengths that put it ahead of most others:
A setting that evokes medieval and Romantic era legend more than Gygaxian D&D, complete with NPCs and points of interest out of folk and faerie tales.
A layout is a pleasure for the referee because it requires minimum looking down at the page and page flipping, and uses evocative descriptions that are easy for the GM to riff off of and look good doing it.
A mini-sandbox setting combined with an overarching goal of slaying a dragon that sets the game up for open-ended exploration and player choice and creativity in pursuit of that goal.
Each time I’ve run it players had a blast.
Classic Romantic Legend
Brandonsford has few trappings of gonzo Gygaxian Dungeons & Dragons or of Appendix N literature. It is more reminiscent of 19th Century Romanticism more than 20th century weird tales. Its in a world of knights and faeries rather than of beholders and orcs. This will make it more familiar and accessible to many audiences who aren’t immersed in the roleplaying hobby. It’s oddly uncommon for fantasy RPG authors to create classic storybook fantasy adventures, which makes this refreshing.
One direction OSR authors have followed is to create adventures and settings inspired by fictional genres and settings with greater fidelity to the feel and tropes of those genres than earlier D&D publishers usually attempted. For instance, an OSR take on Alice in Wonderland would likely have greater emotional resonance with the experience of reading the Lewis Carroll's stories or watching screen adaptations than Gary Gygax’s Dungeonland (1983) does. The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is a good example of that direction. While mythology and Romantic legend have an influence on classic D&D, they were often so blended with the influences of Tolkien, the Lovecraftian mythos, and sword & sorcery, that the affects fairy tales often evoke could get lost in the shuffle. That blending produced all manner of creativity but taking elements out enables new roleplaying experiences as much as adding them in.
That said most classic D&D settings like Mystara or Greyhawk have room for Brandonsford and the nearby woods. (And to be clear, I feel Gygaxian D&D has a great deal to offer).
Playing in the Sandbox
The adventure is a sandbox area that would fit comfortably within a single 6 mile hex. It is full of things for players to discover and interact with, from the fears and goals of characters in Brandonsford to the sites and random encounters of the forest. Players can devise their own schemes to stop the dragon based on their explorations. The town itself also has plenty going on that I will not spoil.
The dangers of the woods are real and players are forced to use all of their wits in navigating them. A few player characters or retainers died during each of our playthroughs.
The random encounter table includes a variety of encounters and specifies how each creature reacts to the adventurers, which saves the GM time and mental energy at the table. The random encounters add to the picture of the forest players create in their mind and some are linked to the story. In a sandbox campaign random encounters can easily be 50% or more of the encounters in a game so a well-designed table like this one can go a long way.
The black and white GM-facing regional map is clear and easy to use. Its stylistic simplicity improves its clarity. It uses a 1 inch = half mile scale and relies on the referee to eye the map. A referee can understand it at a glance and adjudicate travel times by eyeing the map or, if they want, by using a ruler.
The simple dungeon maps prove that even the most basic map is adequate if a dungeon is well constructed. The main dungeon is modestly Jaquayed, giving players some options as they explore it, putting it ahead of many small dungeons.
This sandbox is full of bits and bobs for players to interact with.
The New Standard for Layout
Aside from front matter and OGL legal information in the back, the adventure is 16 pages. The text has a comfortably large font size and spacing, and uses judicious bolding and bullet points for ease of reading. Many adventures with far less for the players to do use many more words. No paragraphs or sections are divided across pages. Dudinak employs a two column format that reduces the need for both vertical and horizontal scanning, allowing a referee to m9re easily refer to it at the table. You could read this for 20-30 minutes and run it. (A novice referee may need longer.)
Bulleting information and keeping a section to a single page or spread has become the norm in some parts of RPG publishing but this is a model way to do it. Necrotic Gnome’s adventures for OSE such as The Hole in the Oak, which Dudinak may have imitated, are the closest comparisons.
Conclusion
The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is an excellent standalone adventure or opening to a longer campaign. It’s easily a contender for my favorite out of the adventures I’ve run, which is why its the first I’m reviewing here. New players will experience the joys of sandbox play in an familiar setting while many experienced players will find it refreshing. Highly-recommended for any roleplayer who enjoys fantasy. I would love to see more authors of adventures draw on this model.
Player fun 5/5
Ease to run 5/5
Player agency 5/5 (high for the length and scope)
Creative setting, characters & objects 5/5
Maps 4/5 (simple, clear and effective)
Art 3/5 (sparse but well-used public domain art)
Other reviews (warning: may have spoilers!) from Axian Spice, Questing Beast, and Ten Foot Pole.