Forbidden Lands: Crypt of the Mellified Mage Review
I originally posted this article on A Pawn's Perspective on January 5, 2021
Crypt of the Mellified Mage is a small collection of four adventure modules that can easily be plugged into just about any Forbidden Lands game. Each adventure has its own unique feel to it, though it still keeps the Forbidden Lands universe’s overall tone. Keeping in line with the rest of the books in the Forbidden Lands series, Crypt of the Mellified Mage is an amazing looking and feeling book.
Crypt of the Mellified Mage contains four types of adventures within its pages, three dungeons and one village. There’s the title adventure, Crypt of the Mellified Mage, as well as The Firing Pit of Llao-Yutuy, Temple of the Six-Limbed Lord, and The Dream-Cloud of E’Lok Thir.
These adventures are more modular and presented as more of an outline than an in-depth, step-by-step guide. Each contains a background, information on getting to the adventure, events, locations, tables, and a conclusion. They can run as long or as short as you would like them to, and place a little bit of work on the GM’s part to flesh them out.
Never fear, GMs. The outlines provided give you everything you need except a path to follow and an overarching story to play them in. Think of Crypt of the Mellified Mage as more of an adventure toolkit. All the important highlights are included, but the minor details are up to you.
Forbidden Lands titles, and pretty much anything else Free League publishes, are always expertly produced. Crypt of the Mellified Mage has a full-color, textured cover and thick, off-white pages. All the text and artwork inside is presented in jet-black ink that gives off a feeling of RPGs from a previous time.
The book is an absolute joy to flip through. It even smells good. Something about the paper used. I can not fully explain it, but Forbidden Lands books, in particular, are exquisite titles to handle. While the PDF of Crypt of the Mellified Mage is very well done, nothing compares to the physical book.
Crypt of the Mellified Mage is not a very large book. With 78 pages of content, it dwarfs in comparison to Bitter Reach, which comes in at 312 pages. Of course, they are both very different books with very different functions.
Doing exactly what it sets out to do, Crypt of the Mellified Mage gives GMs four great options to drop onto their map and include in their campaigns. All four adventures are designed in a way where they are fairly self-contained, though they contain threads that can be used to tie them into whatever you have already got in place.
At $25, this book is a great addition to any Forbidden Lands collection. Though small, it is packed full of quality content and amazing value.
A copy of Crypt of the Mellified Mage was provided free for review by Free League Publishing