The Hole in the Oak

Can this be run with Classic or Advanced OSE?

I cant review because I bought elsewhere- But running this for DCC and the players are loving it! Its a wonderful little adventure.

amazing sandbox crawl

How many players this adventure should be run with?

What is the grid size for the VTT map? I can't seem to get the grid to line up with the printed squares.

Question, how long would it take to run this on average?

We wanty. Will this be in print soon?

Fantastic update!

I ran two one-shots in this, and it worked very well. Good atmosphere, lots of moving parts that are easy to ad-lib from, and it's presented in a way that makes it easy to use at the table without much preparation.

Dismissed it when I first received it with my bundle but I used it to run an impromptu swords and wizardry game and it fit the bill perfectly! I read through most of the book a few hours before our scheduled session and was able to run it on the fly for a group of osr newbies.

They had a blast and really got hooked by the atmosphere, our session ended up running long into the night. Very good balance between challenge and teaching moments. Love the concise room keys, just enough there to give the DM inspiration while playing.

Gavin - What about a print version? :) Also, would you run this or Winter's daughter first for a dolmenwood game?

Great module, story and map! This is a great introduction adventure to the OSR with just the right amount of challenge for beginning characters yet not too long. So much more fun and well thought-out than the my introduction to B/X..."Keep On The You-know-what". I used this to introduce my pre-teen niece and nephew to RPGs using Old School Essentials and the D&D B/X game I started with back in the 1980's...and they couldn't get enough of it. Don't let the cover and artwork fool you. This adventure is not child's play and not a fairy-tale. Players will have to show skill and quick-thinking to survive. Rash decisions will get you slaughtered and eaten. Our band of 4 (I played NPC mercenaries to help them) only survived by throwing ourselves into the underground river and going over a waterfall. I planned on adding another level of my own creation but hear a sequel (2nd level) is in the works?

Dare You go into the Hole in the Oak?

"The Hole in the Oak" by Gavin Norman
Published and Distributed by Necrotic Gnome
ISBN-13: 978-3-96657-0021-3 -- 32 Pages -- Digest Sized
Introduction to the Mythic Underground

The Hole in the Oak is a starter module for Necrotic Gnome's Retro Fantasy Adventure Game.

GMs! There is a very nice two-page spread of the Dungeon that can be reached from the Hole in the Oak, as well as other entrances and exits. The color coding is a nice touch, and informs the GM what to prepare for their players in each area!

The book is indexed from the Table of Contents, which is a numerical list of the 60 places in the dungeon characters may visit. This book is for characters from beginning to 2nd level. GMs should also have the 'Core Rulebook' and the 'Classic Fantasy: Cleric and Magic-User Spells' books. The 'Monsters' and the 'Treasures' are given in the module.

There are no less than 60 different...See more places to visit which gives this book a bit of replayablity, since it is doubtful that the players could visit the entire dungeon in a day. Wonderful random occurrences pop up here and there, and the area descriptions are good enough to give players a general idea of what the are looking at.

The color tinted artwork is very good, and seems to fit the subject matter well. There are even factions within the dungeons, giving GMs the interesting idea of having the PC's stumble into a room filled with combat between the various factions! There are many mysteries to find, including the =real= owner of the dungeon!

Random happenings in the dungeon are given, and the 20 different ones are easily expanded. The dungeon descriptions are very simple, and thus allow each room to be customized by a crafty GM!

Only the first level of this dungeon id explored by this booklet, and there are three ideas for GMs to ponder using to expand it. GMs may use their own ideas at this point, and the paragraphs about what lies beyond the waterfall, the Crypt Level, and upstream are only the tip cf the iceberg!

Of course, this is a great jumping off point to use with a new campaign based on Necrotic Gnome's Old School Retro Fantasy Adventure Game. I really enjoyed this booklet, and hope to find a group of players that don't have their noses stuck into nothing but 5th Edition of the World's Greatest Role Playing Game. I'd love to run this version, perhaps with a group of older gamers that miss the good old days! The entire collection of Necrotoc Gnome's Old School Rules is highly recommended!

Great module. Do you have a player facing version of the map, without the notes and highlights? Its great to use as the basis for an online tabletop.

Please can we have a 5e version as well please?