REVIEW: A Bad Day at Duck Rock

When there’s smoke in the air and Ennio Morricone’s warbling Western sting fills your ears, you know someone is destined to have a bad day. Hopefully, that won’t be you!

This week we’re taking a look at A Bad Day at Duck Rock, Peter Hart’s first foray onto the Jonstown Compendium. Bad Day is an 88-page adventure set in the heart of Sartar which draws on themes from classical tabletop adventures and Western films alike. Providing illustrative support is Gloranthan veteran Dario Corallo (who, by the by, has produced several RuneQuest art packs—an insta-buy for prospective Jonstown Compendium creators).

So without further ado, let’s saddle up!

Disclaimer: I’ve received a free review copy of the PDF in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, Peter! This review contains minor spoilers.

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What’s Inside?

Bad Day is divided into two major sections: the adventure (37 pages) and the Dramatis Personae (42 pages). The adventure adopts, in general, a sandbox approach to telling Bad Day’s story through the description of major locations. These are primarily the eponymous village of Duck Rock, and the nearby Cave Complex within which lurk a band of Chaotic baddies.

And what baddies they are! The band menacing the area worships the dreadful Thanatar. This cult is one of my favorites due to its signature spell: Create Head. The Thanatar worshiper cuts off a victim’s head, binds their spirit inside, and can wield all their magic. It’s a nasty, nasty ability, and a great deal of fun if you’re the gamemaster. While Thanatar’s full write-up will be published in the forthcoming Chaos volume of Chaosium’s Cults of RuneQuest series, all spells needed for this adventure can be found in the Red Book of Magic. Hart does suggest that gamemasters pick up the RuneQuest Classic reprint Cults of Terror if they seek additional information about the cult. Ultimately, a version does at least remain in print.

In general, I’d describe the plot as occurring in two phases:

• What the Hell happened?
• What are we going to do about it?

The story begins with the adventurers entering Duck Rock to seek rooms at the inn and sell bronze on behalf of their employer. Meanwhile, said employer has gone to visit some friends at a local farmstead. Since he never shows up in town, it’s left to the adventurers to figure out what happened. Snooping around is quite likely to result in a skirmish with some of the baddies. This leads to discovering the cave complex and the revelation that something really is going on.

I’m simplifying this somewhat; there’s quite a bit more at play than my linear outline suggests. The possibilities range among meeting local magical entities (such as a naiad or an only-slightly-evil vampire), an assassination attempt, stopping (or helping) a Humakti get revenge, and visiting the site of a dead durulz deity.

This is pinned together by an in-depth gamemaster background at the start of the adventure, and a timeline of past, present, and future events. Naturally, the players’ choices may well change these events. Once all the details are woven together, the basic takeaway is that the adventurers have one week to save their employer. Otherwise, he’ll get sacrificed to Thanatar with Create Head!

The Dramatis Personae are for the most part a long collection of statblocks. Some gems worth mentioning include the description of a vampiric Dancer in Darkness’s tactics when casting sorcery, a lovely little myth about vampire bats, and the inclusion of a giant in search of his missing hand. As the page count suggests, this section provides exhaustive statistics for each non-player character mentioned in the adventure (and many which are unnamed in the main text as well).

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Production

Bad Day is polished substantially above what I would expect for a creator’s first RuneQuest adventure in text, illustration, and layout.

The text reads very well, largely using an admirably concise style without becoming dull. Bad Day is a credit to both the author and the editor! Information is presented logically and thoroughly throughout the adventure. In particular, Hart does a good job juggling the openness of sandbox adventures with the need to avoid endless “if… then…” sequences to cover player choices. This is tricky, but Bad Day pulls it off with grace. I think the use of a timeline worked very well, here.

There are occasional typos or inconsistencies (such as “Spot” instead of “Scan” to see an assassin). These are infrequent, and never threw off the meaning of a sentence. Throughout, Bad Day exceeds my expectations for textual polish among indie publishers, and honestly is quite close to the standard I strive for in my own work.

(Insert the obligatory noise that Austin is over-picky about textual polish—I’m well aware.)

With a handful of exceptions, the illustrations are all by Corallo, and are in his well-known “cartoon-like” style. (At least, I think that’s an accurate adjective?)

The use of a single artist for the art worked very well. Corallo’s illustrations provide additional unity to the adventure. While I often favor visual diversity, the persistent style in Bad Day set a consistent tone to positive effect. Due to the adventure’s moving parts the visual consistency manages to depict the non-player characters, but avoids distracting the reader.

The cartography—I believe also by Corallo—is simple and effective. Perfect for an adventure. The isometric map of Duck Rock in particular is quite charming. I appreciate that the creators used maps without much visual fuss. They’re accompanied by both scales and cardinal directions, making the maps easy to understand and use.

The layout is not complex—largely following the template provided by Chaosium—and functions well. Simple graphic design which presents the adventure’s text clearly is superior to pretty graphic design which obscures information. I pretty much never actually noticed the graphic design while reading. To me, this says it was a full success. In particular, I want to call out Hart’s effective use of headers and boldface to organize information, locations, and so on.

My only substantial recommendation on the layout is to break up the Skills section of the statblocks. I like to do so with bullet lists, but a boldface style for each skill category would work too. This would improve the ease with which the eye scans the skills to find the needed rating.

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Conclusion

A Bad Day at Duck Rock is an intriguing and compelling adventure. It is not morally grey; you’re here to kill the bad guys. Yet, those bad guys are nonetheless drawn in very realistic terms. Evil doesn’t mean stupid, and Hart shows that he’s quite aware of that fact throughout the sandbox. The character description, tactics, and ambitions is likely the strongest narrative element in the adventure.

I do have some reservations about this adventure’s complexity. It is, quite clearly, flexible and robust. The players would have to do something really wild to throw it entirely off the rails. Yet these properties arise because, I feel, the adventure leaves the gamemaster to do a fair bit of legwork. For example, shifting between different sections to determine how the non-player characters respond or making ability rolls against non-player character abilities to determine how not-quite-off-screen events play out (a scuffle in the next building, for example).

I’d recommend a bit more “stage direction” for the gamemaster. The adventure says the players went into town, and then begins describing the town. There are many useful story elements in the town’s description. However, it wasn’t always clear to me how I’d answer the question “OK, what happens next?” during the first half of the adventure. In reflection, I suspect the answer is to put the map in front of the players, and ask them where they go around the town. A little guidance in this vein can go a long way.

The adventure’s definitely worth running. I just might recommend it for more experienced gamemasters rather than newbies.

I do also question the quantity of statblocks in the Dramatis Personae. In particular, there’s a number of named characters who are companions to a more important non-player character, each with their own section. Randomization and personalization can add enjoyable color, but I don’t think it was effective in Bad Day. I found myself skimming through the statblocks, rather than intrigued by the varied abilities. Like I said above, there’s some gems in this section, but overall I suspect most gamemasters will pick a “typical such-and-such” then rely on the focal characters.

A Bad Day at Duck Rock exemplifies why I’m lukewarm about giving “scored” reviews. Oscillating back and forth between a 4 and a 5 (mostly due to half the book being statblocks), I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to weigh this based on price. And the price is good.

In my mind, $10 for 40 pages of engaging, well-illustrated story which has been polished for ease of use is absolutely worth buying. When I run this I’ll use the Dramatis Personae, sure, but that’s not the focus of this product. I suspect most groups will get at least two to three sessions out of this adventure. That’s a ton of entertainment for ten bucks. It’s ripe for replaying, too, with how the sandbox sets up varied threads through the plot.

A Bad Day at Duck Rock deftly presents a story older than RPGs: a group of strangers ride into town looking for a drink and a bed, and discover someone’s been killed or gone missing. What happens next is up to them.

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