Mini Review - JD2 Darkland Moors (OSR Sandbox Adventure for levels 3-5)

The second part in the Jeff Dee series of adventures (thus the numbering of the adventure as "JD2"), Darkland Moors is a sandbox adventure of sorts. The only map supplied is an outdoor map (supplied in both DM and player versions, which is damn cool and very suitable for VTT play).

So, your players defeated the bog-mother or whatever she was in JD1 and are going to continue adventuring in the area - this is their sandbox.

You get your choice of three hooks to get your players involved, which is cool. If your players kicked off the campaign with JD1, you should probably home brew and adventure or two before kicking off the plot line in JD2, but as you have the local sandbox supplied as well as the local map, that shouldn't be much of an issue. Unless, of course, you failed to move a decimal point in the loot values in JD1 - in which case your PCs may already be level 3 to 4... sigh.

Actually, Darkland Moors is a nice little sandbox so long as you put some minimal time into fleshing it out. There really is a lot more this can be used for then just the included storyline. Why waste a sandbox that's already been handed to you? There are roughly 500 square miles of adventuring in the Darkland Moors. Use them to your, and your party's, advantage.

From the blurb:

A huge, monstrous presence rampages through the farms and villages of Darkland Moors, throwing the locals’ formerly peaceful lives into turmoil. What manner of giant is responsible, where is it taking its captives, and what is their fate? To restore peace, our heroes must scour the misty Moors and track the beast to its lair! This is the sequel to JD1 Cess-Pit of the Bog-Mother!

This module was originally created as a stretch goal for Jeff Dee’s Kickstarter project to re-create his lost paintings from the covers of the classic RPG adventures A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, and C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness. The author wishes to thank all of his backers, whose support made this work possible.

Included are three alternate introductions to this outdoor adventure, stat blocks for the standard creatures which appear herein, complete stats for unique creatures especially designed for the adventure, plus GM and player maps.