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Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival $5.00
Average Rating:4.6 / 5
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Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival
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Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival
Publisher: Kabuki Kaiser
by Liberty C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/27/2022 11:06:27
An Excellent OSR Module.

Disclaimer: I have only read this module. I have had the misfortune of not having the time nor situation of running this brilliant piece of work.

Flower Liches of the Dragon-Boat Festival is an amazing piece of RPG work for those of you who love Bizarro Martial Arts and Asian Witch-Craft Horror like The Boxer’s Omen or films like Spirited Away. Even if you are not into those kinds of things, (you don’t like Spirited Away?) you can still use the material here to throw curveballs at your group.

The plot is that there is a deathmatch Dragon-Boat Festival held by the mysterious Flower Liches in an unnamed Asianic-esque city, allowing you to make the city be wherever you want for your own setting. The city is weird, coming out of fevered myths and fairy tales from all around Asia, and full of marvelous encounters, monsters, objects, mythical locations, and more. Events that will shake things up and plots are being formulated, but the PCs can be dragged into those things if they like or not, the module is set up like a sandbox for your PCs to just explore. The Flower Liches are just the tip of the iceberg with this module’s weirdness and creativity. I’ll let you find out that weird stuff for yourself.

It is jam-packed with fantastic ideas for you to run as is or to mine for concepts to slam into your own setting or game. Even if you are not into Asianic milieu rpgs, you can grab the ideas and mechanics introduced in this module. I used, for example, the dragon-boat race mini-game rules for a car-chase scene, changing the vehicle from dragon-boats to cars and it worked perfectly and was a wonderful rush for our group.

The art in this is really something, the perfect kind for me. Vibrant and impressionistic, allowing you and your group to get an idea of what you are looking at yet providing room to make your own version of what the person or creature looks like.

The module provides a character and notes for solo-roleplaying which I have not used, so you can use Flower Liches as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel if you don’t have a group to play with.

For criticisms, there are a few kinks in this module, but nothing that pulls it down. I’m not a fan of the dungeon and location descriptions being long paragraphs that require the referee or GM or whatever to do some more legwork. I would have preferred the standard room/key way of things. Another big problem is that a lot of the clues and hooks for events going down and locations to be found are only able to be psychically discovered because the character for solo gaming is a psychic detective. The problem is: what if you are running a game that doesn’t have psychic powers or the characters your group is playing don’t have the right psychic powers. A simple remedy for this is to either make those clues available to non-psychics, which requires more referee legwork, or have the solo gaming psychic detective being a henchwoman (the detective is female) for the PCs. Another problem is that it feels that the module would have benefited from one more draft, which most of the other problems, I feel, arise fron. The only thing else I would say is that this module probably isn’t for the first time referee or GM.

Yet don’t let those minor blemishes dissuade you from buying this product. With the PDF being so cheap and the amazing, rich stuff you get packed full within this module, you will be a fool not to grab this PDF.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival
Publisher: Kabuki Kaiser
by Eric F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/01/2017 09:58:59

"When omens portend ill fortune for the city, the priests call upon a Dragonboat Festival: a racing competition gathering swift boatmen from all over the continent. Their ancient chants call forth the powers of the undying, waking the Flower Liches from their distant graves. For a week, the liches roam the city freely, and oversee the race, taking the losing crews as tributes and sacrifices. Once the Dragonboat Festival is finished and the liches disappear, the city's prosperity is magically replenished, and all the monetary wealth the citizenry had before the festival — player characters included — is doubled."

I was recently sent a copy of "Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival" From Kabuki Kaiser is both adventure & setting resource book that can be dropped into your home campaign. The adventure channels as much of the Wuxia ghost vibe as it does the Asian pulp Dungeons & Dragons vibe as the author can pack into one of his efforts. This is an adventure that dips liberally from its sources & the warped imaginings of its author. Much like his Mad Monks of Kwantoom OSR campaign & setting book the mythological/pulp Asian world of P. Crespy Flower Liches presents a world & adventure that is both familiar & utterly new. In point of fact both of these products would work extremely well together. The artwork, lay out, & presentation is a bit different then other efforts of the author/designer, in this adventure everything dovetails into a seamless product that presents a world of the weird & very dangerous centeral to its setting. There are things to do, experience, and dangers ever present within '/The Flower Liches of The Dragon Boat Festival'. This adventure centers around the party circling and creating weirdness for the party to get themselves into all kinds of trouble.

If presentation is everything within an adventure then this one has some stunning writing, plots, and OSR artwork. The combination reminds me of a Saturday afternoon Kung Fu theater flick. Slick on its presentation and long on its adventure hooks! Everything is double downed on in this adventure from the Kung Fu action to the supernatural horror. Here's an adventure where the dangers to PC's pale in comparison to the weirdness infecting the adventure throughout. PC's are going to have their hands full and clocking in at ninety five pages there's plenty of dungeon and supernatural action to be had. This is a Labyrinth Lord adventure but it has the look & feel of a Lamentations of the Flame Princess line effort but without the lingering adult nonsense to get in the way of play. 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' is clearly easily adaptable to any OSR game. There is a sense of whimsy but deadliness about this adventure & it stands to reason that it would given the writer's passions for Asian culture & pop culture Kung Fu. The fact is that dungeon master has another full stop world book & source book in this adventure for a full South Asian style setting. This works as a set up for a full campaign starting city point in such a campaign. From hirelings to starting equipment 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' is clearly designed for such a purpose & very well designed to do this at that! 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' works with both Labryth Lord & The Advanced Companion in equal measure. The real strength of 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' lays in the fact that it serves as a fantastic source book for 'Mad Monks of Kwantoom'. In this regard its a great source book & add on for this or really any pulp Asian flavored style campaign setting. But it really fits into the world of 'Mad Monks'. Because of its mini game included the adventure has some solid replay abilities. The hirelings, background, encounters, etc. are all inductive of a popculture far East and it works. I can also see 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' being used for a post apocalyptic world such as Mutant Future in which cultures are looking to the 'Ancients' for their divine inspiration. The liches take full advantage of the gullible human fools & the result is the world spot lighted in this adventure/source book.

Another possibility that 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' could be used for a human centric land in 'Apes Victorious' where these humans have used the power of the liches to resist the onslaught of the advancing ape army. So adjustments will have to be made to use 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' with Apes Victorious. Another possibility for campaign use is to drop the setting of 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' into 'Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition' whole sale again there is a bit of adjustment as a possible South Asia analog. For Sword & Sorcery play this is an excellent book & tool kit to add such a mix. In closing is this isn't a perfect to kit to add to the mix of campaign play for old school style campaign. It clocks in at ninety five pages & to tell the truth I wish there was a bit more fluff connective tissue with this book. There needs to be more here and it I want to know more about 'this' world and not simply use this book as another drag & drop book for campaign play. So in closing a solid four out of five for 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats'.

Eric Fabiaschi Swords & Stitchery Blog Want to see more support on this & other OSR products? Subscribe To https://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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