OSR: 8 More Island-Based Reviews

I wanted to build an archipelago of tropical OSR island hexcrawls, similar to Dan D's "Distant Lands of DIY" map.

Turns out, a lot of the adventures I found are... kind of bad. I've briefly reviewed 7 of them here. 

In this post, I hastily review:
1. Sacrebleu
2. Misty Isles of Eld
3. Sea of Vipers
4. Lost Island of Castanamir
5. Neither Man Nor Beast
6. Stranded on the Baron's Island
7. Tammeraut's Fate
8. Golden Voyages

I'm going to focus on the map and hex key and the random encounter table. The module might contain other stuff and the other stuff might be very good... but I've found these two sections are a good barometer for how useful I'll find a given product. 

Does the module contain the 3 most common tropes for island adventures: volcanoes, dinosaurs, and invisible walls that gate certain areas or otherwise limit player options?

And the final verdict:
Drop In: I don't need to edit this module to run it in a wavecrawl-type game. I might need to add things, but I don't need to rearrange or remove anything.
Mangle: I'd need to rewrite, copy-paste, edit, and substantially rework this module to make it meet my standards. The module isn't mangled as is; I'll need to mangle it to use it.
Pass: I won't be using it.If you've got any other island, nautical, piratical, aquatical, or tropical adventures you'd like me to review, feel free to add a comment.

Sacrebleu

Self published, Tito B.A., 2018. Get it here.
Volcano: No
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: No.
Use: Mangle

Hex Map
56 6 mile hexes. Hexes aren't keyed. Major locations are marked. The map was made in one of those free programs (hexographer, I think), so it's got some issues. It's difficult to tell the jungle types apart and there are 2 types of tiles used for mountains, but since the random encounters aren't based on terrain type it's not a huge issue. If any kind souls would like to redraw the map for Tito in a fancy Hot Spring Island isometric view, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

The scale is also wonky. It looks like a small island, but there are 2x 6 mile hexes of cultivated farmland next to a hex with a village. On a smaller scale, this works well, but a 6 mile hex is... very big.

Encounter Table
It's good. Not perfect, but miles ahead of most products I've reviewed in this series.

There's also a "Things" table and a "Weather" table and few other encounter tables for other locations. Anything marked with an ace is unique. It shows up once, ever, unless the GM decides otherwise. That's a nice touch.

Final Notes
I might need to rearrange a few things and add some notes (there's a lot going on in the module), but you could run it as-is without too much trouble. The WW1 goblin aesthetic is excellent in abstract, but I'd probably replace them with generic piratical goblins if I was to plonk this into a hexcrawl. Gunpowder barrels, a cannon, maybe a captured experimental 17th century chain gun.

Misty Isles of the Eld

Labyrinth Lord, Chris Kutalik, 2016
Volcano: No
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: Arguable (the mists around the island).
Use: Drop-In

Hex Map
There isn't one. There's a nice pointcrawl map, but no scale is given. Points of interests are 300-400 yards apart, but some of the worms are 3 miles long, so... well, point is, it's a small island. Less than one 6 mile hex. It's a little misty speck. No expeditions. Just sprint around the place like lunatics.

The map itself is lovely. The little illustrations help the GM remember what goes where.

Encounter Table

Each encounter has a full description in the text, including stats and useful tips. There are also tables for the patrols. It's pretty much perfect.

Final Notes
There's not a lot to say. It's a bit gonzo and weird, but it's also very, very well designed. I never felt lost reading it. Answers were provided as soon as I started to form a question in my mind.

Sea of Vipers

Self published, Kyle Marquis, 2017
Volcano: Yes
Dinosaurs: Yes
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: No.
Use: Special Consideration
It's just a big list of ideas. Some of the ideas are quite good, but it's not a finished project. It might be possible to run it as written, but it's much more useful as a box of spare parts. Grab a few ideas, toss the rest.

A huge part of making a quality product is revising your ideas. Take your best ideas and discard or rework the rest. Makes sure everything is consistent. One hex a day is a great way to take a bunch of scattered ideas and put them into a context, but is it a useful context? Is there a plan from the very start? Why work in sequence instead of starting with a few critical locations and building around them? Where's the guidance for a GM? Where do I start, what's vital, how are these areas tied together?

But it's a free project and, for what it is, it's excellent. Go steal some ideas.

C3: Lost Island of Castanamir

TSR, Ken Rolston, 1984
Volcano: No
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: The power of boxed text.
Use: Pass 

I will point out that this is an "official competition adventure", and should be judged accordingly. The goal is to get the players (pregenerated, if needed) into the dungeon and see how far they get. It's not really an adventure. I grabbed it because it had "island" in the name, but, as you'll see, there's no island.

Here's the boxed text.

Five years ago in the Sea of Pastures an island mysteriously appeared. When adventurers attempted to investigate, their ships developed gaps in the hulls or were wrecked on invisible rocks. Those who managed to swim to the island were never heard from again. Those who clung to the wreckage and flagged down passing ships swore never to return. For a while no one dared go near the place. Then one day a young magician heard of the island and it reminded him of a legend he knew. After a little further investigation, he was almost certain the island belonged to Castanamir the Mad.
[...]
Believing that Castanamir had either died or lost his faculties and that this accounts for the reappearance of the island, the magician hired your party of adventurers to explore it and bring back whatever treasure you could find there. Since you were short on funds and winter was coming on, you decided to risk the attempt. You anchored your ship a distance away and swam to the island. The sea was rough, however, and much of your equipment and provisions was lost, and when you looked back, your ship was sinking.

At first glance the island is a disappointment. It is barren of all but rocks and short, wind-swept grass. There is no shelter, no edible plant life, and no wood for a fire. You are wet and hungry and a chill wind is blowing that promises to bring a storm with it. But just as darkness falls, you discover at the center of the island a shallow depression with a stone door. The door is unlocked and when opened reveals a descending stone stairway. At its bottom is another door of an unfamiliar material.

It would be amusing if the rest of the module continued like this, with the boxed texts commanding the characters hither and yon, telling them what they do and see and feel. But it doesn't. It's just a fairly standard dungeon with portals and gimmick monsters. Huzzah. Useless for my purposes.

Neither Man Nor Beast

TSR, 1995, Jeff Grub
Volcano: No
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: Ravenloft, so... sort of?
Use: Mangle

It's the Isle of Doctor Moreau, but in Ravenloft! Ooh, spooky. Anyway, after a mandatory shipwreck, the PCs arrive on an island. There are beast people. A helpless old man is actually an evil doctor. It's all very predictable (provided you're familiar with the genre and the source material) with lots and lots of grim and dark '90s boxed text, hamming away like a late Jason or Exorcist film.

Hex Map
No hex map, but a pointcrawl map is provided. The adventure is extremely linear. No exploration, no cutting overland, just moving from point to point. It doesn't tell you to railroad your players but it doesn't offer any other options.

Random Encounter Table
There isn't one.

Final Notes
You're right to ask why this is even being considered for mangling. Well, it's done most of the work of making and Island of Doctor Moreau for me. It's got good factions: the Doctor and his loyal creations, some rebellious creations ready to splinter further, and some monks with a strange secret, all in opposition. Take away the "unkillable plot-vital NPC" problem Ravenloft creates, add an encounter table, and add a typical group of OSR PCs, and they'll either be running the place or doing their own Mad Doctoring within the week. I'll post my own map and encounter table at some point.

Stranded on the Baron's Island

TSR, Dungeon Mag. #13, Willie Walsh, 1988
Volcano: No
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: No
Use: Mangle

It's a social adventure formatted like a location-based adventure. Applying a Kidnap the Archpriest style schedule would simplify this module immensely. The core idea of the social adventure is hilarious, interesting, and useful. The world is alive. The PCs just happen to blunder into things. Don't take the text too strictly. Just improvise on the theme and NPCs provided.

Hex Map
Hexes aren't keyed. Major locations are marked, but only the mansion is given a detailed description. The island is still 26 miles wide, but at least the hexes are 1 mile across.

Random Encounter Table
There isn't one. Not surprising, considering this is a social module.

Final Notes
You could probably drop this module into  your island-based setting without any significant issues. I'd add some notes, expand the island's description... and probably make Weird Elves (see: Misty Isles of the Eld) involved somehow.

Tammeraut's Fate

Paizo, Dungeon Mag #106, 2004
Volcano: No
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: No
Use: Pass

It's a 3.5 adventure, so there's a full failed novel's worth of backstory, named NPCs, locations, and all the usual cruft. The adventure hook is finding a corpse being devoured by harpies, telling the local villagers, and then deciding to check on the local hermits and their island. Skip ahead a bit and it's a standard "seal away the evil thing to protect the world".

Hex Map
There's a map of the island. It's very tiny. No exploration, no marked locations, just a building with rocks, a dock, and a garden.

Encounter Table
There isn't one.

Final Notes
I picked this up because of this positive review, but the reviewer fails to mention a major flaw. The module is about a zombie attack on a hermitage. It's 29 pages long. The attack itself is a page and a half. The rest is stats, cruft, readaloud text, superfluous art (though some of it is quite good), and pages of backstory. This adventure isn't designed to be used. It's designed to be read.

ALQ1: Golden Voyages

TSR, David "Zeb" Cook, 1992
Volcano: Yes
Dinosaurs: No
Magical GM-Conveniencing Energy Barrier: No
Use: Mangle

We've had King Kong and Dr. Moreau. Time for Sinbad the Sailor.

Hex Map
There are several maps, including map of currents and a "what the players know" map. It's reasonably convenient. Here's the main map, because it's not online as far as I know.

The map is ~200 miles wide, but the largest islands are only ~20 miles long, so it's fairly sensibly scaled. Everything feels connected. Major locations are marked with little illustrations... but adventure locations aren't always linked to the text. Some of the mini-adventures start in locations that aren't explicitly mapped.

Encounter Table
There isn't one. The text includes helpful advice like, "You can create any random encounters you wish for characters ascending to the summit." Good, and so can you David Cook! And you're the one writing the book, so why don't you do it and save me the trouble?

Final Notes
There's decent advice for sailing and shipwrecks, but the layout is a bit of a mess. It's full of proper Sinbad adventures; sorcerers, giant birds, islands on the backs of turtles, towers, mountains, spirits, and mythic treasures. They're a little wordy and sometimes very linear, but they often feel alive. For some reason, I can only imagine them in the colour palate of Popeye meets Sindbad the Sailor. Take them out of context, improve the map, and you're good to go.

In Conclusion

I've hastily thrown a few of these adventures into the same map. You can view it here. Hexes are 100 miles wide. I've added a 2nd page with the real world Caribbean added.