Review: Challenge of the Frog Idol

Dyson’s entry into the Fat Frog Challenge clocks in at an impressive 20 booklet sized pages of adventure (plus cover and copyright pages). What you get in these pages is basically a mini-campaign! There is a dying city, a swamp full of forgotten gods and other interesting things, and a 12 room dungeon that marks the entrance of a megadungeon!

Before we even get to the city, the adventures are each given a roll on 3 different rumor charts! These rumors do as much to help flesh out the area as almost anything else in the adventure. The city is, as I said above, one that is in decline. It is ruled by the garrison commander and the whores! The weekly gladiatorial fights are the city’s only entertainment (aside from the whores). Between the rumor chart and the info the adventure provides, it wouldn’t be hard to use this place as an active and ongoing base of operations or even the focus of a campaign.

The swamp takes up the bulk of the adventure. This makes sense, as the hex map detailing the swamp and the area immediately around it take up 252 six mile hexes! Out of these there are only 12 keyed locations, and 2 of these are left to you to fill in. However the locations that are filled in are done so skillfully. #5 I think has to be my favorite for a number of reasons.

The dungeon is a map that Dyson has shared before, but I don’t recall it being previously keyed. There is just enough in these 12 packed areas to really tempt adventurers further in.

If you haven’t yet checked out Dyson’s entry into the Fat Frog Challenge, I suggest you download it and do so right away!