Review 49 - Unseen Vaults of the Optic Experiment
We're well past the Halloween season, but that just means we're in the grey late autumn time, which is perfect for Mörk Borg! This week I'll be talking about The Unseen Vaults of the Optic Experiment, written by Johan Nohr.
According to the module, this was an adventure originally written for B/X that was later converted to Mörk Borg once that game came into existence and was recently released as part of the launch of the Kartellian Vaults web store. I ran this as a one-shot game on short notice using randomly generated Mörk Borg characters.
The general premise is that the titular vaults, once the tomb of an old noble family, has been occupied by strange beings known as the Freak Freaks who are using the vaults to conduct strange experiments related to the concept of "true vision". The side effect of these experiments are a reported blurriness of vision experienced by the people of the surrounding villages, and one of the hooks for the PCs is to investigate and hopefully remove the source of this. But let's be honest-- 99% of the time, the only hook players need is "we're going to play a game tonight, here's a dungeon to go into!"
Getting it to the Table
One thing I've noticed with the numerous third-party Mörk Borg adventures is that a lot of them seem to go overboard with really jarring layout and typeface, forgetting that while the core book definitely had that collage-like style, the introductory adventure Rotblack Sludge was actually fairly subdued in its layout, focusing on readability and usability at the table. The overall design and layout of this one is similar to that, and as a result we can enjoy the clean and efficient Stockholm Kartell house style. The adventure opens with a map of the vaults and a key on the facing page that has a very brief summary of the important features, including secret passages and connections to other rooms. After this high-level overview, we're given the "what's really going on" summary and an explanation of the special feature of the dungeon-- the closer the party gets to a particular room, the more their vision is blurred and obscured.
After the introduction, the bulk of the pages are devoted to concise and evocative room descriptions along with stat blocks for the various NPCs and foes the party will encounter, including an excellent "boss fight" in the form of a blinded beholder-type monster. This was a particularly fun encounter, as there are a variety of eye rays that randomly target PCs with a bunch of fun and deadly effects. Each room follows a standard format: a terse sensory description, a summary of the room itself, relevant stat blocks, and notes about secrets. There are also occasionally sidebars for additional information.
Finally, the adventure closes with a page titled "Tips and Ideas", which is always a nice bonus for a potential GM! This includes advice for running certain NPCs, expanding the dungeon, or how to adjudicate some of the more unusual ideas that players have had in the past.
What Worked?
- Clean and efficient layout. Perfectly usable and effective, as usual.
- Lots of secret doors! Nearly every room has something for inquisitive players to find, and there's plenty of opportunity for them to use the layout of the dungeon itself to their advantage once they learn where things are.
- Variety of encounters. Not everything is a fight, and there are potential allies or annoying sidekicks. Special shout-out to the flying skull that is capable of speech and carries a deep hatred of every living thing. I recall that he ended up with a thick New Jersey accent in my game.
What Didn't Work?
- Everything worked in this one. I honestly couldn't find anything to critique when this adventure is approached in the spirit that it was intended for-- it's a weird OSR dungeon crawl, plain and simple.
Final Thoughts
There is a particular joy that can be experienced when you're just eschewing the "role-playing" aspects of TTRPGs and focusing on the "game" part. I always think of this adventure when I hear folks talking about "Door D&D", coined by Brad Kerr and Yochai Gal on Between Two Cairns. This adventure is entirely about opening doors to see what's behind them and exploring for its own sake. There is certainly room to develop this more and flesh it out if you want to, but the fact that you can run it at the most basic level as a Game is one of its strengths.
You can get The Unseen Vaults of the Optic Experiment at the Johan Nohr's itch page. Thanks for reading!