Table of Contents - A handy way to check out my articles by topic
My most recent Guides:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You can reach me at: powerscorerpg@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Dungeons & Dragons - Jungle Treks

You can buy this right here.

Jungle Treks is a DMs Guild book that contains 6 scenarios that you can plop into your Tomb of Annihilation game to keep the jungle portion spicy. From what I can see, these can be used in any campaign, really, with almost no adjusting at all.

This is written by Teos Abadia and Eric Menge, who have both made a lot of D&D stuff.

The entire book looks a lot like a 2nd edition product, right down to the fonts. I find it very comforting. Check out the logo on the cover:

That's a replica of the old Realms logo, which I always really liked. There are so many weird little things you can do on the DMs Guild. You can put that logo on your product! I can barely wrap my head around it. Great idea!

This book has 6 adventures that you can use to plop into your Tomb of Annihilation game. There are summaries of each in the beginning. As soon as I saw the words "tropical harpies" I got more than a little excited.

All of the adventures are made to be scaled. There's three "tiers" for characters level 1-4, 5-7, and 8-10. In each adventure, you're given stats appropriate for each. For example, the DC of a saving throw could be DC 15/17/19. Use 15 for a group of heroes that are level 1-4 and use 19 if your group is levels 8-10.

They actually make charts to tell you how many monsters to use depending on what level your group is.

Let's go through these scenarios real quick.
 
Tavern Trouble: This is one big encounter in a tavern. There's a bar fight, and there's all these lizards running around. The group needs to identify and nag one particular lizard. Very amusing!

If Looks Could Kill: This is an expedition to take care of a herd of one of those really weird D&D monsters - the catoblepas (the plural form is "catoblepones"). There is a ton of detail on the NPCs that will interact with the group, including a lot of notes about romantic interests. Each of them has a quest involving the Catoblepones.

Wow, check out the catoblepas stats. Their death ray does 36 necrotic damage! Yikes.

Ambush From Above: This is an ambush encounter involving grungs who worship a pig. There's a cyclops in the mix, too. People never use cyclopses in D&D and I don't know why. Too mythological?

Mystic River: This is a good idea - an encounter for groups canoeing in a river. There are a series of cool challenges here that will make this a very memorable, fun encounter. This is easily my favorite so far!

Mudslide: Wow.. I just made a mudslide encounter yesterday! This is very well thought-out and extremely useful. They actually go over the options the group has to avoid the mudslide, including jumping from tree to tree, which sounds really awesome. I love this one.

Beautiful Plumage: Here we go! Tropical harpies. Hey... they have a name for a flock of harpies: A "scream" of harpies. Pretty good!

Here's the description: "...bipedal creatures that combine the worst aspects of a human and a bird with feathers that are as brightly colored as any parrot."

Someone make some art of that! Very cool idea. I like this one a lot!

This is the biggest of all the adventures. It has a complete set of ruins, a maze, a tower, and other entities lurking about.

Overall

This is a really easy thumbs up from me. It takes just a few minutes to read one of these, and then you can roll it out in your game. It is extremely handy for DMs who don't have a lot of time to prepare for their games. Plus, it is very inexpensive. $4! Definitely worth it.

Note: I was sent a free review copy of this book.

4 comments:

Teos Abadia said...

Thank you so much for the awesome review! Eric and I are huge fans of your guides and in-depth lore articles. Having you review Jungle Treks was an honor, and we are so glad you liked it!

Marcin said...

Hi, just stumbled on your blog while hunting for research material on the underdark. Read your adventure of last year in the vault of the drow - that led me to Gygax's Demonweb Pits adventure. good stuff.

Quick question for you or the authors: DO you know of something similar for 'Out of the Abyss?'

Marcin said...

I should rather ask: Does your "out of the Abyss guide" offer similar adventures?

Sean said...

Teos Abadia: Thanks! It's a great book.

Marcin: Nope! This is the first time I did this. There are quite a few adventures linked to out of the abyss on the DMs Guild site, you should check it out!