Fronds of Benevolence
A downloadable adventure
Duke DeCorticus is dying!
The peaceful lynchpin duchy of Plandra is under threat. Its quasi-arboreal ruler is starved of his esoteric earths, sedition is rife, assassins glint in the shadows and green ink is everywhere! The quest to restore stability takes you to the Rainbow Badlands, across the precipitous face of The Wall and into the very vaults of the hump-backed sky!
Fronds of Benevolence is a chapbook adventure for TROIKA! best suited for groups of 4 to 6 characters.
Physical book available from www.melsonia.com
Book Details
- Written & illustrated by Andrew Walter
- Hardcover: 43 pages
- Publisher: Melsonian Arts Council (13 Nov. 2019)
- ISBN: 978-0-9957567-5-5
- Dimensions: 15.4 x 0.9 x 21.6 cm
Purchase
In order to download this adventure you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of £10 GBP. You will get access to the following files:
Comments
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Absolutely loved reading this. It's so wonderfully strange, fun, and beautiful.
I feel like every time I read or play something Troika! I feel more inspired!
My only issue is being uncomfortable with the description and portrayal of Feng. I see that the unfortunate connotations have been addressed on the Melsonia server, being received openly with understanding and a very clear statement that Feng was not written as 'Asian or the Troikan equivalent', which I was extremely glad to see.
The adventure, ideas, and artwork truly are something else and I am extremely excited to both run it (with a reworked Green Overseer) and use it as a source of inspiration.
Marvellous stuff!
My Chinese partner summed it up as "he can have the moustache or the beard but not both". We're going to tidy him up before the next time it goes for reprinting though
Makes sense and appreciate that the change is going ahead.
Seeing the conversation on the server and chatting to Andrew over there, and knowing the work and politics of the team, I totally get that there was nothing intentional and I'm casting no aspersions.
Take care and keep up the awesomeness. I truly so unbelievably inspired and excited about everything Troika!
Reviewed it on my podcast. Spoiler: I loved it: https://anchor.fm/plundergrounds/episodes/347-Fronds-of-Benevolence-e1po6fm
Fronds Of Benevolence is a 48 page Troika adventure that crackles relentlessly with both Troika energies and old school vibes.
Structurally, Fronds is a pointcrawl for a moderate-sized group, lasting for roughly two meaty sessions of play. It sort of wants PCs created specifically for it, but it's possible to work into a campaign if you you plan for that. It's also very gallivant-y. Fronds wants you to move from beat to beat without lingering too long on anything, and it benefits from a slightly lighter, wackier tone than osr adventures often prepare people for.
That said, it's possible to lose Fronds before you even start it, as the adventure is on a GM-facing timer and it's possible to randomize the timer in such a way that the players can't clear the adventure in time without heavy shenanigans, and don't know that they need to use those shenanigans because the timer is GM-facing.
This probably won't be a problem for every group (at least partly because the adventure is still fun if you fail it,) but you may be able to circumvent this issue by simply making the timer visible to the players.
Content-wise, Fronds is extremely lush and fun. It's a fetch-quest to save an ailing ruler, and that framework is solid, but it misses no opportunity to hit weird and enjoyable beats. It also gives players a lot of choice, going so far as to branch significantly right at the start, and letting the GM have a pick of different optional encounters for each area the PCs wander into.
Overall, if 'bizarro picaresque' is a phrase that makes you sit up and pay attention, this adventure is for you. Honestly, all of Troika is for you. Fronds is probably runnable with other osr systems with a bit of work, but if you like Troika you'll like it, and vice versa.
Minor Issues:
-Page 4, 3rd para, "undulate" undulates
-Page 25, para 4, "looking along the wall" walking?