Oak and Thorn

You can tell I wrote this one awhile ago as it is still using my old format but I’ve been excited to share this review of Penny’s one-shot for months! 

Introduction

Written by Penny Blake, Oak and Thorn is a feel-good one shot for parties of 4-5 players of any level. It is set in the market town of Boscage, which can be located wherever best suits your setting.

The town of Boscage is in decline. Its once fertile farmlands have struggled to produce a suitable harvest for years, outbreaks of disease are common, and the population is – understandably – discontent. The Oaks and Thorns, botanic alchemists who made the once golden and glorious Oakthorn tree as a symbol of the unity between their houses, have been at war and the town has become their battlefield. The memory of the once great union of these affluent houses has been lost to living memory, and the Ladies Oak and Thorn head the most recent generation of plotting and scheming.

The townspeople have had enough, so when the heirs to the respective houses go missing the night of the Mid Winter Festival, the Ladies Oak and Thorn are issued an ultimatum: restore the missing heirs by sundown or lose their heads. Will the adventuring party be able to put the pieces together to find the missing heirs in time to save their Ladyships from the chopping block? Will they, in the process of unravelling this mystery, discover how to restore the Oakthorn tree? And what of the rumours surrounding Lady Mistletoe – what role does she have to play in all of this?

Overview

Your party starts in a tavern, with a suggestion of using tavern games (included at the back of the book) to break the ice if they don’t already know one another. After a tavern brawl breaks out, the party is locked into cells overnight along with everyone else involved – this is where they find out about the missing heirs and can accept an offer to help one, or both, families. The next morning they’re released and witness their Ladyships being threatened with execution if the heirs aren’t returned.

It is the day of the Winter Parade in Boscage, and there’s a full day of activities to enjoy including a market, the parade itself, and a feast at Lady Mistletoe’s to end the day. The PCs can choose to investigate whatever takes their fancy, and if they’re stuck on what to do a helpful townsperson will be around to direct them. Once they determine where the heirs are, they’ll need to navigate various monstrosities, uncover the secret of the Oakthorn tree, and – hopefully- save the Ladies Oak and Thorn from execution!

Highlights

The sheer chaos between various factions in this town are delightful to read and really hit this Shakespearean note of drama well. I found myself chuckling while going over events in this adventure and think they would be entertaining to encounter as a player. As a GM I found there were a lot more NPCs to keep track of than I personally would be able to do by voice and, if running by text I’d be doing a lot of preparation in advance to keep things moving as there are quite a few instances of NPC interactions – which is great! It’s very lively and something I loved reading over in terms of story and that I would thoroughly enjoy encountering as a player. Another upside of there being a large selection of NPCs is that you can pick and choose the ones you most enjoy to keep the focus on certain people from each faction – that choice is always nice to have.

I enjoyed the riddles in a later section of the adventure! I immediately had to ask someone if they wanted to try and solve them and took particular amusement from the answer that is also a pun. What’s nice about the riddles is that yes, players can try to solve them, but there is a low DC check if riddles aren’t your party’s thing. This was nice to see as while I love riddles, they stress me out as a player – especially when they’re meant to be easy and I’m just not getting it! Having a low DC is a useful alternative to explicitly offer so that your group doesn’t get stuck on something that is very fun, but might not mesh well with your party or their playstyle. 

There are so many events and random encounters to choose from! I was looking at the page count with a big question mark over my head going “this is a one shot, how is it 48 pages long” and the answer comes, in part, from being provided with a large number of options for customization. You’re offered a lot of control over how short or long your game runs, and plenty of different hooks to engage your group depending on their interests. I appreciated seeing all of these because it really does mean there isn’t anything that I, myself, as a DM need to improvise – truly everything I could possibly need in terms of customization is provided here already.

Monsters

There are 15 new and delightful monsters (with stat blocks) included in this adventure. While choosing a favourite is difficult (with creatures like Steamed Pudding, Sugar Mice, and Gort: The Devourer, how can I pick just one??) but ultimately I think the Wreath of Wrath was my favourite, at least in part because of its otherwise innocuous nature! It’s just festive foliage, nothing to worry about! Or nothing to worry about until it launches itself onto your head, convinces you that your friends are your enemies, and makes you attack them.

As A DM, As A Player

As a DM I was appreciative of just how many options there were and, as a DM who runs games by text as often as not, I appreciated there being clear ‘breaks’ that make for natural stopping points . While I can see this game being run as a one shot, I could also easily see it being the start of a campaign, or a brief interlude in an ongoing game that lasts for more than one session. I think the monster stat blocks are fascinating, and I deeply enjoyed the riddles. While the NPCs are all delightful, I did feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of them and think that is part of my hesitancy to approach this as a one shot, but that is easily mitigated by having some or several characters be background features rather than speaking characters.

As a player I know I’d be delighted by the chaotic unfolding of events in the tavern and over the course of the Winter Watch Parade. I think the different factions have great personality, and the utter ridiculousness of everything that’s going on against this backdrop of “there are two missing people and if we don’t find them there’s going to be an execution” would be fun to engage with – you’re there to try and help and are getting swept along in nonsense going back centuries! The different ways to approach the mystery and options for the ways to deal with various checks would be encouraging as I’d know we weren’t going to be impossibly stuck at any juncture. This, combined with low DCs, adds to the forward momentum and sense of “we’re good at this” that is just satisfying. I also found Boscarte felt particularly lively. It has fallen on hard times, but the town is one that is so clearly lived in, and that sense comes across clearly in this adventure.

As a player and GM, I would have loved to see the Druid faction get their own subclass. Is this because I’d want to play one? Yes, absolutely that is 100% why I’d have loved to see this. But in a book that is already providing you with a robust adventure, fully fleshed out NPCs, several optional encounters and events, fifteen new monsters, a recipe, and a tavern game? Absolutely not a problem at all. I just think their concept is neat!

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a comedic and potentially deadly mystery to engage your table with over the holidays (with a cup of mulled wine if that’s up your alley – a recipe is included!) then Penny Blake’s Oak and Thorn will be right up your alley.

Oak and Thorn is available on Dungeon Masters Guild for $2.00USD (here). Like all of Penny’s work it is an absolute steal and even if you’re just looking to spend time reading over a good story, this is an excellent fit for that purpose. To keep up with everything Penny is doing you can find her over on Twitter (here), and interviewing creators and characters in the TTRPG space on her blog, Glitzy Demon’s Dungeon (here).

As a little bonus, every single time I read ‘Oak and Thorn’ I started humming the refrain to The Longest Johns’ “Oak & Ash & Thorn” so feel free to enjoy that song just here.

That’s all from me this week! Stay Cozy!