Yes, Hell done right!
If you've ever entertained the notion of publishing a brutal dungeon based in Hell, don't bother, here it is...
Though technically, this is the Abyss, but to mere mortals, what's the difference?
A rare module I can read without falling asleep.
Seriously, I can't read modules to save my life, rulebooks yes, modules no, mechanics yes, bland room descriptions no. There are many boring adventures out there, we all owe Bryce, Melan, and Prince a debt of gratitude for laboring through them.
The Dream House of the Nether Prince is written by Anthony Huso, whose blog is here.
(This is not a proper review ((those have been done; a good one is here and another good one is here)) just my initial thoughts on something I find ridiculously refreshing in its darkness and complete and utter devotion to AD&D. It makes me want to drop everything else...)
In the preface, Huso lists the AD&D core canon, in order of importance (to him) as...
1. Monster Manual 2
2. Dungeon Masters Guide
3. Player's Handbook
4. Monster Manual
5. Fiend Folio
Aside from some monsters scattered throughout various modules, he calls everything else, interpretive dance. He's not wrong, really, if AD&D is the pinnacle for you. Though I think he's the first I've seen to put Monster Manuel 2 on top. I would replace Fiend Folio with Deities & Demigods.
Dream House is designed for at least 6, 14th+ level characters. There is a culture of sorts here and a currency. Demons are explained, summing up every drop of reference to them in AD&D. Their ranks, how they're made, how they're unmade, their amulets, what they eat... oh yeah, Huso hits on a core truth in (actual reality) that HUNGER drives everything, all things consume other things, eat or be eaten. Those of you who see the universe as beautiful and harmonious... you are wrong. Demons want to eat you, and the fatter you are the better (they would love modern America, in more ways than one.) In fact, the very fabric of the Abyss itself is made of corpse matter, the bodies and souls of the damned are broken down and molded into new demons or the raw materials of such. Remember how Lovecraft spoke of the human mind's inability to correlate all of it's contents as being a thing of mercy? Huso has correlated all of AD&D's contents on demons... roll for insanity.
There is no hex crawl here, no rumors nor overland random encounters. You are of a high enough level that you're expected to simply arrive at the Dream House, a sort of, vacation home of Orcus called, Caedis High. Linger outside too long and the weather will kill you.
There are core AD&D references all throughout this book and every one of them includes a page number -- you need those books. E.g., The Fulivium (Black Soul Rain) weather condition threatens mutation and calls for a roll on the subtable on pg. 194 of the DMG, and I thought -- there are no mutation tables in the DMG. Oh, but this is a clever use of Appendix D: Random Generation of Creatures From the Lower Planes. There is also a d100 table in the back of Dream House for generating random undead, 100 entries from all over AD&Dland, the Core books, Modules, Dragon Magazine, White Dwarf, etc., a somewhat useless table for most, but this book knows its core audience.
As with all things Orcus, doom is the name of the game. You are but pawns in the machinations of an ancient unholy grudge match. There are actual battles to be fought here. I'm not sure I'd even attempt to run the finale. No, I think for myself, I would slice it down to -- that thing/person you need/want is somewhere in Hell. How bad do you want it? You've been warned! Nobody's gonna survive this place; nobody's meant to. I find it hard to imagine a party even getting far. Huso's players must have been immensely powerful in their own right, not just 14th level characters. At times, you'll be fighting through literal hordes of demons. There won't be much parlay and if the demons don't kill you, there are plenty of save-or-fuck-you situations that will.
There are optional mechanics in here (for the final confrontation) pulled from a book called The Primal Order by Peter Adkison, published in 1992. Huso praises it here.
In the appendices there are new demons, new spells (Become Legend stands out), new magic items including some technology, and artifacts. All worth reading; equally as entertaining as the dungeon-crawl itself, if not more so, but that's the rules side of me kicking in.
And the art... by Valin Mattheis, stylized, a mixture of color and black & white, the closest comparison I can give is Scrap Princess. For all of this book's adherence to AD&D, its appearance (layout and art) does not. One critique I have is that stat blocks are literal blocks of text, lots of comas, not fun to read.
Many of the rooms are vast; not your standard little 20'x20' chambers. And with the rule of the Abyss that no vision exceeds torchlight (unless under the Abyssal sky) I wonder how this plays out at the table for those that use theater-of-the-mind. Hand-waving I suppose, lest the players hug all of the walls and rarely experience the center of a room. Yes, just set the mood as dark and give monsters an edge when it comes to ambush.
Properly run, this place is not for the squeamish. Glass-eyed corpses abound and they often whisper. Roll on a random table to see their crime, and then I suggest whispering something vile into the ear of the appropriate player. Creep them out. Did I mention that dead babies are a form of currency here? -- if that is not evil...
The Dream House of the Nether Prince. I think I've said enough.
As someone who has rarely run other people's stuff, I would run this.
No question.
This was one of the coolest things I have ever played, and it started my fascination with high level dnd. Absolutely great.
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