The overwhelming thought that crossed my mind while playing The Lost Town of Obridab — well, apart from wondering how the heck to pronounce “Obridab” — was that this scenario was exceedingly competent. The first, of hopefully many, effort by Nathaniel Wooding, the scenario assigns you the mission of tracking down your long lost gramama, who the family seems to have misplaced in Misty Valley.

How to proceed? Well, basically you’ve just got to go there — pick up a plot coupon or two on the way, of course, and fight your way through the requisite local bandits lair. But that’s about it, really, finding your grandmother isn’t all that difficult.

Forced to rely on the strength of the plot alone, this scenario wouldn’t take you very far. Thankfully, as become obvious almost immediately, the scenario doesn’t rely solely on its plot. In fact, in a crucial sense, it’s difficult to accurately call this a scenario at all. Most of the town levels in Obridab have very little to do with the plot itself — in fact, in the entire scenario, you only have to visit three of them (beyond the initial starting area) to complete the chief quest. The additional detail provided, the additional storylines going on — all of which bear no direct relevance to the primary plot — makes you feel less like you’re playing a scenario, and more like you’re exploring a small world — a very nice result.

The world you’re exploring itself, however, is something of a mixed bag. The characterization (especially the dialogue) of the residents is very nicely done, with quite a few pinches of well placed humor splashed in. The local denizens, however, come off not nearly as well. The choice and layout of your foes — Goblins, Goblins, Bandits, Nephilim — is very boilerplate, and the “original” aspects of those dungeons will leave your scratching your head — wondering how and why those particular areas were built.

Obridab could have also used some (more?) betatesting. There’s no technical bugs, at least not any that I ran across, but visual aesthetics are lacking in many a key place. It’s not fatal, it’s not even that serious, but it does downgrade gameplay to a degree.

All said, however, this is an enjoyable little scenario. The relative abruptness of the ending — which necessarily precluded decent plot/character development, combined with the par and subpar nature of many of the “hostile” areas, drags the final score down a bit from where it otherwise should be. Nevertheless, it’s a scenario worth trying, and hopefully, as the text file promises, this will not be the last effort from the author. 

The Lost Town of Obridab is designed for low level parties, and is rated PG.

My Score — 6.5

 — Alcritas

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