Classic introductory adventure, great if you're starting a new campaign, although I would love it if they tried to expend on the area and the story in future products.

Dreamscape design has done a complete ground up revamp and improvement to the Blueholme adventure The Necropolis of Nuromen from the interior outward with lots of little blends and bobs to it. The adventure clocks in at at twenty pages of pure adventure with a fairy tale feel to it on steroids. This is a great adventure to throw a beginning party of adventurers into. This adventure features additional background, new maps, and an entire follow-on mini-adventure starring the notorious outlaw Lothar the Lawless. The reasons why this is such a great adventure are also laid out by the author, this is a modular quest designed to let the referee introduce a group of 1st level characters to the thrills of Underworld exploration as they attempt to unravel they secrets of the evil necromancer’s lair and deal with some bandits, too. But does it live up to the hype? I actually think it does. Right out of the gate the party of adventurers is brought into a situation that draws them in and brings them close to the edge of a campaign setting that will provide them with weeks if not months of play. This adventure lays out everything from back history to full blown dungeon crawling in one go along with NPC's, some monsters (well lots of them) and some solid weird pulpy fairy tale adventuring right into the center of the whole affair. The prose is cleaned up and the layout solidly done and everything has been put together in a nice easy to read style. On the whole the adventure flows very well in the reading and is very easy on the eye. There are a ton of public domain artwork scattered throughout but these are perfectly suited to the whole affair and add to the adventure without distracting at all from the whole. The adventure is keyed to be regionalized and local to it's environment, rumor tables link back into the implied campaign setting, things make sense on a local level, and forces are all evenly matched to the weird of the setting. This is a perfect adventure for players who will or could migrate into a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign along the way or vice versa with Blue Holmes. If you already have a copy of The Necropolis of Nuromen, then go back to Drivethrurpg and grab the updated PDF. You won't be sorry the maps are very well done. The fact that this adventure has a fully realized dungeon at its center and side makes this a great starting point to bring players into the Holmes mindset over and over they get a taste of the weird while maintaining the integrity of their PC's. In the middle of all this there are several places, events, and monsters that can end their 1st level snow flake existences and lives like blow torches. That's not an easy balance to pull off but The Necropolis of Nuromen does this with wit, charm, style and a sense of the fairy tale wrapped around a core of a solidly done adventure. My advice is to grab this one, some friends and get into the middle of a BlueHolmes style of play. Everything is right here to bring home the vibe and weirdness of a fully functional dungeon crawl that can play havoc with PC's while everyone has fun. This adventure brings home that old school vibe of play with a sense of terror and weirdness while creating an adventure that is actual fun to play. The Necropolis of Nuromen is a great adventure for both veterans and beginning players of old school OD&D and Blueholmes style games.

This has been one of my go-to adventures for new players and characters for a long, long time. Before it was a Blueholme adventure in fact - it used to live on the author's website free for the borrowing.

However, with this latest update, the Blueholme version really shines. Amazing cartography, a starting location and safe haven, outstanding layout, great editing.

Any referee using any system will find a wealth of resources within these pages - not to mention a brilliantly scripted old-school module.

I'm really keen to see much more from the Blueholme stable AND from Justin Becker.

5-stars.

Overall, this adventure is a really good, if very classic, dungeon for introducing players to the charms of the OSR in general. It will, as usual for these kinds of products, work great with most any D&D derivative, but it does require some work not just adapting to your ruleset but to your play style.

It also has a small number of annoying errors, such as doors being described differently depending on which direction they are approached from, but a thorough read-through before running the module clears that up.

The graphic aspects and especially the images used are great! The adventure in itself is a good starting level dungeon crawl, that will appeal to new players.

Introductory first-level adventures are a hard genre to work in, because the fragility of starting characters means every hazardous encounter may be a character’s last, while a PC death may only be the party’s first. Perhaps for this reason, most intro adventures tend to follow patterns which make them very predictable: small humanoid lairs, static ruins with lots of abandoned storerooms, save-the-village quests. I have seen few attempts to break with the formulas established in Keep on the Borderlands, In Search of the Unknown, and The Village of Hommlet. The Maze of Nuromen happens to be based on the basic concept of In Search of the Unknown (with a hint of The Tower of Zenopus), the abandoned lair dungeon, which I suppose is logical considering it is written for BLUEHOLME™, a Holmes D&D clone.

There is a very promising outer charm to this (free) product: cartography, layout and the presentation of information all have a simple elegance which make the contents accessible, and the package attractive. Particularly notable are the wondrous public domain-sourced illustrations by Harry Clarke, whose decadent art nouveau pictures suggest a strange fairyland atmosphere, and which were the reason I downloaded and read this adventure.

Unfortunately, The Maze of Nuromen does not rise above a competent but average B1-inspired starter dungeon, and Clarke’s influence is not in particular evidence. Although the backstory has a high fantasy element that sounds interesting, what we have in the room descriptions are the same old armouries with corroded weapons, kitchen with discarded pots and pans, and barrack rooms with beds and a bunch of skeletonised guys still sitting around a card table (a low level dungeon encounter if there ever was one) – content which is elementary, mostly mundane, and lacking in potential for varied interaction.

Of course, Nuromen is presented as a beginner’s adventure, so it should theoretically be all new and wondrous to new gamers. There are two issues I would take with this line of reasoning: first, the realities of gaming are, very few beginners will start with the BLUEHOLME™ rules. Second, there is no reason why a beginner’s module should not have more of the good stuff – stuff that is fantastic, strange and unexpected. These elements are few and far between in this module, and although there are some inventive undead encounters – like with a phantom of a drunkard, or a nasty surprise packed in an iron maiden – they scarcely detract from otherwise routine dungeoneering. What if there was more of the illustrations’ essence in the gameplay? What if those elementary ideas were twisted around a bit, or used in an extraordinarily interesting way? What if there was a dynamic element, perhaps related to the backstory (which is an adventure hook, but not a strong, active part of the action)?

In summary, my problem with The Maze of Nuromen is not with the product per se, since it is a functional, playable meat-and-potatoes dungeon for first level PCs, and even gives off that elusive Holmes atmosphere if this matters. Rather, it is missing its own voice: it is one Holmes-inspired low-level dungeon among many, reusing the same ideas in a different combination. Get this one, get another, or cut up your own copy of B1 and rearrange the pieces: they will all be very similar. Dare we ask for more? Maybe not. If there is a lesson here, it is that sometimes that fancy artwork does not constitute a promise to go in with a certain set of expectations: it is often just artwork that happens to be very, very good.

This is a wonderfully written intro module for the BLUEHOLME Prentice Rules. It has more "meat" to it than a lot of introductory adventures, and really presents a fully realized dungeon. There is enough background story to bring the game to life without becoming story centered, while throwing more than simple combats at the party.

Very impressed with BLUEHOLMES arrival to the realm of old school gaming!

The Maze of Nuromen is a first level adventure for the BLUEHOLME Prentice rules that were recently released. Just in case the release of the D&D PDFs earlier today distracted or confused you, BLUEHOLME Prentice is a retroclone of the Holmes Basic Boxed set.

So, what do you get with The Maze of Nuromen?

You get a two level dungeon to assault your players with. Actually, it's a nicely designed dungeon with multiple paths, which is always a plus. The two levels are nicely drawn.

The rooms descriptions are top notch. This dungeon should be a tough challenge for a 1st level party, and a 2nd level party still won't find it a piece of cake. I like that the wandering monster charts include creatures that have a maximum count - if the party has defeated the max number, they won't occur again. You just don't see this as often as you should.

The art is very nice. The fact that it is all public domain is awesome. Very evocative and definitely works.

Now my one complaint. The font. It's annoying. I'm sure they were going for some authentic old time feel with it, but it made reading the adventure less than pleasant on my computer screen. One demerit ;)

Overall, it's an excellent adventure for any OSR game. Just be prepared to find the font annoying. I admit it's a small price to pay for free.