Incandescent Grottoes feedback
I have some feedback on the Incandescent Grottoes module. I'm not sure how much of this is just me being nitpicky so... grain of salt.
One thing affects several of the items I list below. It appears that all objects are read-only, so it's not possible to change settings for anything in the module without making copies of whatever I want to change. This is particularly relevant for roll tables (all of them are set to visible) and encounters where I might want to change the (un-)identified, faction, and token. I have other items I've purchased which are not read only; for example DCC adventures picked up from the main FG store (DCC #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea), to OSRIC's Monsters of Myth picked up from The Forge... oh, yeah... and The Hole in the Oak... also not read-only. Should have lead with that. Since these are not read-only I can change things in play. With everything locked down in Incandescent Grottoes, I have to make a copy of every single entity I want to treat differently from the packaged settings.
- The "00.01 Maps" story is blank.
- The "00.03 Table of Contents" story is missing links—the link title is there, but the links are not. As well, there's a "Dungeon Areas" heading with nothing appearing after it.
- The "00.07 Treasure in the Dungeon" story has no parcel links just a placeholder for "Parcels for each area".
- The "00.08 Random Happenings" story has no links to the L1 and L2 random encounter tables.
- All NPCs appears to be identified. Better would be unidentified. Wouldn't be a problem if the module weren't read-only.
- All encounters leave the factions undefined—the hover text reads "Factions" as opposed to "Friendly," "Neutral," or "Hostile." However, when the encounter is added to the combat tracker they switch to hostile. I'm torn on this one. If the combat tracker were only used for initiative, this might be preferable. But the combat tracker is also used for putting pre-placed encounters on the map—those encounters may remain peaceful, for example the red-cap monkeys. If the module weren't read-only this wouldn't be a problem.
- Roll tables are all set to visible. I roll everything in the open except for my roll tables and things like hiding/sneaking. This is particularly unhelpful for the "Rumours" table which lists "(F)" and "(P)" for false or partially true. Wouldn't be a problem except for the "read-only".
- Included NPCs lack descriptions. The notes tab includes the specials, but not the description—unlike The Hole in the Oak, which appears to have everything but the statblock in the notes.
- Encounters are mostly enumerated by numeric key, but there's no zero-padding used to maintain correct sort-order, so "4" is listed below "10". Better would be to use zero-padding to the length of the maximum number. "04" will correctly appear earlier than "10".
Cheers,
Tuirgin