Review: Through Ultan's Door #1

Through Ultan's Door #1 is a short one-level dungeon released in zine format by Ben L. of Mazirian's Garden. It is set primarily in the Dreamlands, a setting that evokes the baroque fantasy of Lord Dunsany and of H. P. Lovecraft's Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Aside from this unusual aesthetic, the dungeon contains many familiar features: a range of monsters, NPC factions to be negotiated with, traps and puzzles to solve. It is written with the assumption that treasure-hunting is the primary concern of the PCs, but also offers some ideas for other motivations. The writing is lush and evocative, yet never purposeless; the whole zine feels like it would be extremely functional at the table.

I'm writing this review after reading the zine, but I haven't yet run it. My perspective is one of someone who has been away from tabletop RPGs, and OSR gaming in particular, for a long time. I would consider myself something of a novice DM, especially when it comes to dungeon crawls.  

Through Ultan's Door #1 looks like an excellent choice as an introduction to old-school play, both for the DM and the players. It appears relatively easy compared to some OSR modules, and has no instant-death situations that might feel unfair to new players. The room descriptions contribute to this feeling of fairness; they are very vivid and detailed, which helps to evoke the Dunsanian aesthetic, but they also give clues to players about what is useful and what is dangerous. For example, a floor littered with melon rinds serves as both a warning that a monster lair is nearby, and a hint that the melon tree in the next room is safe to eat.

It seems to me that clues like these are crucial to the agency-driven play that is so often espoused in the OSR community (and has been so carefully delineated on Courtney Campbell's blog). Without adequate information, the players are just blundering around the dungeon, encountering weal or woe at random. Yet these clues are often absent from published dungeons, or at least not as clearly emphasised as they are here. It's possible that experienced DMs will insert such clues on the fly, or that experienced players will be canny enough to gather information without needing it laid out for them. But as someone who is looking to begin a LotFP campaign with a fresh group of players, I really appreciate the details that Through Ultan's Door #1 provides.

The only real criticism I can make of the zine is that it almost evokes its particular aesthetic too well. If I begin my campaign with this module, and my players love it as much as I do, then I can probably expect most of the campaign to take place in Ben's Dreamlands. Expanding the setting with my own content is a daunting prospect: I fear I wouldn't be able to adequately mimic Ben's style, but if I apply my own style it might be a jarring shift. Possibly my best hope is to wait for Through Ultan's Door #2.