First Impressions - The Gnomes of Levnec (minor spoilers)

Cover of The Gnomes of Levnec

This was an impulse purchase (only available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG) following a review on another blog. This is an adventure situation set up on the edge of a large forest, in a remote village. It's written for OSR D&D style games and also for the author's Neoclassical Geek Revival system. The author is Zzarchov Kowolski, who has written several other scenarios that I've enjoyed in the past.

Very much a sandbox, the 20 page adventure provides the tentpoles for a session or two of adventures. Levnec is a poor and starving village with an oppressive local lordling. The last winter was hard, and people died because there wasn't a lot of food around. The local priest declared that Gnomes were only talking animals, so it was fine to eat them; a group of starving villagers turned the village's Gnomish toymaker into a stew. Mmm. Some months later, people are disappearing into the Woods and not coming back. The lordling assumes it's the Gnomes taking their revenge, so wants to hire you to make an example and calm down the villagers. 

There's more to it than this. If your players are smart, they may discover why people are disappearing. They may even find the Gnomes. Let's hope that they don't feel the need to eat them, as game and food is scarce in the region. Surely not..?

The village has a few key non-player characters with decent descriptions to hang interactions off. There are enough secrets and locations to drive interest, but ultimately it's a simple and effective set-up. There's no plot to drive, but there are enough ideas to hang the game off. Personally, I'd be tempted to tweak it a little and use it with Helvéczia, as it does have an appropriate vibe, but it's the kind of scenario that could be slotted in anywhere there's a vast and dangerous forest with remote villages.

Recommended,

24 July 2021