Secret of The Black Crag Review

Written and illustrated by Chance Dudinack and published by Silver Arm, Secret of the Black Crag is an OSE pirate adventure. Designed for characters 1-5, it's an island-crawl sandbox. Clocking in at 95 pages, this hardcover is packed full of OSE content. Inspired by Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Monkey Island, the adventure is a great mix of action and quirky humor. 

The adventure starts in Port Fortune, a wealthy port in the archipelago known as Salamander Islands, unofficially ruled by the pirate lord, Red Roger. A legendary dark island with a mysterious past has risen from the depths. This island holds ancient secrets and the plunder of the legendary pirate Janzoon.  

Great detail is given to Port Fortune. Ten locations (each with an important NPC) are detailed (some a little more than others). Pirates, whores, and even an enchanted sea hag occupy the town. Every location has some sort of hook to get the characters invested. Pirate crews, a pirate generator, plus rumor and encounter tables help bring the port to life.

I wouldn't expect an island hopping adventure to have a traditional dungeon, but that is what the titular Black Crag is. There are two cavern levels, a fallen city, and a palace to explore. There are four different factions the party can play off each other. Some cool roleplay opportunities are presented. The island is tied to ancient aliens which adds some fun sci-fi elements to the whole adventure. 

While Black Crag is the ultimate focus and impetus of the adventure, it's an island-crawl so of course there are other islands (to um... crawl upon). The map of the Salamander Islands includes 20+ islands. Many of these are keyed locations, though there are also several unidentified ones that you can do whatever you'd like with them. There's nice variety of locations. My favorite location is the Temple of the Monkeys. Intelligent monkeys and a gorilla dressed as a pirate captain? Hell yeah! There's also a nice nod to The Odyssey in Nereus the cyclops. Plenty of encounter charts are given to help a GM populate the unidentified islands. Expect a future post discussing how I'd expand the adventure. 

There are four appendices. The first features several pages of monsters. The second presents a few pages of new magic items. This is followed by some quick and dirty underwater adventuring rules. Finally there is a list of inspiration, which includes the franchises I mentioned above (as well as a few other).  

I really dig the art and the pieces in this post are my favorites . The writing is excellent too. Chance gives enough information for a GM to use, but doesn't over do it. There are many courses the party can chart, which allows for a variety of play styles. Even the Black Crag itself has multiple entrances, paths, and routes. Another aspect of the design I like is that the traps are telegraphed. Much like the impaled skeletons in Indiana Jones films that warn Indy of traps, chance includes set pieces like this to warn canny players. 

If you want some nautical OSE fun, this is a must have. I definitely want to run it soon. You can pick up the pdf on DriveThru RPG here. A print copy can be ordered from Games Unlimited here.