The 11th Hour (OGL) PDF

5.00/5 (based on 3 ratings)
PJR318E

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Beset by a strong storm an hour before midnight, the PCs take cover at the first opportunity—in this case, the Gator's Gullet Inn. But the PCs enter this quaint roadside establishment at just the wrong time, as a cleric named Nantiken casts a glyph of warding in his upstairs room, completing the spell just after the PCs arrive.

This short (but not necessarily quick) fantasy adventure interlude, written by Bret Boyd, is designed for use with 1st-level characters. Unlike most adventures, though, The Eleventh Hour requires no combat to complete. Additionally, the adventure can be run in "real time" where keyed events happen at specific times during the adventure's hour-long loop.

This adventure is presented with a series of forms that the DM can use to track customization and adventure progress. Each separate room description, and other information, is on a separate page making it easy to keep track of the various areas and occupants as the game progresses.

Written by Bret Boyd. Layout and Cartography by David Jarvis.

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5.00/5 (based on 3 ratings)

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A very innovative scenario of the highest caliber!

5/5

This pdf consists of 28 pages, 1 page OGL, 1 page credits and one page front cover.

That leaves 25 pages of adventure, 3 of them maps of the inn in which the adventure takes place.

"The 11th Hour" is an oddity among adventures in so much as it can be solved without any combat whatsoever.

The layout of the adventure is special due to the focus on details and a timeloop not unlike in "Groundhog Day".

Unfortunately, it's absolutely impossible to write much about the adventure without spoiling it.

Thus, I'll only write that there are several NPCs with full stats to interact with (although your PCs probably won't battle with them) and is chock full with details.

Due to the special nature of the adventure, the formatting is special, too: There is room for the DM to put down notes with regards to every room and NPC, helping the DM to run this adventure and making it very easy to play this adventure with a minimum of preparation time. While a novice DM may have to read the adventure more than once, an experienced DM can spontaneously run this adventure without any prep time. I did and it worked perfectly.

A highly recommended introduction adventure that is something completely different from your run-of-the-mill scenarios. Give it a try, it's fun and intelligent.

The only downside is the lack of artwork, but that's only a minor blemish.


Now, THIS is an adventure!

5/5

In his own review, Bret gives an idea about the plotline here. I'll save you re-reading that.

I want to speak of the quality of this product. Tricky Owlbear has gone far out of its way to make this product as useful and friendy for the GM as possible. Details include how the outside world reacts to the situation, the characterization of the NPCs, and some terrific red herrings.

I cannot recommend this highly enough.


Review copy/pasted from ENWorld by Crothian

5/5

Spoilers! This review is of a module that can not be discussed without fully spoiling it. Please don’t read this if you think you might one day get to play through the module. There is a special twist and like with movies knowing the twist does ruin the experience for yourself and the people you are gaming with. This is not going to be an easy module for your DM to run so be kind to him and don’t ruin the adventure.

The 11th Hour is a module written by Bret Boyd. It is a PDF adventure and one of the few adventures that is better as a PDF then if one bought it in print. It is not a long adventure though if played the way the author suggests it could take a few hours or longer to go through. The module is written under the Open Game License for third edition Dungeons and Dragons. The idea of the adventure though is one that can easily be used in almost any game though one will need some sort of supernatural element of science fiction in there to explain how it all happens.

What is the module all about and why is it so important that even the slightest knowledge can ruin the adventure? It is about a time loop. I have not seen any other adventure try this sort of thing before though it is a staple of science fiction stories. The group of first level characters though it should be easy to make this adventure for higher level ones as well comes into an inn or tavern out of a rain storm. It does not matter where the tavern is, everything the adventure needs is right here. One of the great yet very challenging ideas of the adventure is to play it in real time. The group arrives in the Tavern and has many planned encounters that happen at different times around the place. The whole thing takes on hour and at the end of that hour everything repeats itself and only the player characters have memory of the previous hour. There are eleven things the module has happen in that hour. From the players point of view most of them could somehow be causing the time loop and they have to investigate each to learn what is going on. And it is possible for the group to stop the time loop without realizing what they have done stops it till it doesn’t happen again.

The adventure is very detailed oriented. With the events repeating themselves it is important for the DM to take notes on exactly what happens in the first hour so he knows how to have things play out in the hours that follow. It is the reason this adventure makes good use of being a PDF. There are places for notes in each encounter. It is very useful to have ones notes on the same pages the encounter. And with this being a PDF one can print off multiple copies that are clean instead of having to write on the master print version.

The time loop does involve rats and when my group played through it they almost stopped the loop from ever happening. They had the magical item known as the Pipes of the Sewers and we always play with it bringing out the rats in the area like the Pied Piper. They almost used it early on but talked themselves out of it. That is the only real concern for a higher level group I would have. They might have means to accidently make it so the time loop never happens.

The adventure is something very different from almost anything out there. There is no dungeon crawl and really no chance for player character death. It is a mystery and a chance to introduce some colorful NPCs that are not expected to be killed off. It is much more of a role playing module then almost any other module I have read or played for D&D. I highly suggest this one for people looking for a night of something different. It would make for a good side adventure after a particularly thrilling and long dungeon crawl. It could also make a good one shot since it requires not a lot of preparation ahead of time. The DM though needs to take notes during the adventure. It is edition proof. There is nothing in here that would stop one from using it with other editions of D&D or even other games.



I just ported over a review for The 11th Hour which I recalled had been hidden away in ENWorld's blog section (I believe their reviews section had been down during that specific time). I thought Crothian's review could use some time in the sun so enjoy!


Question for those who have this... can the module be played with only one or two players, or does it require a broader mix of classes? Thought it might be fun as a one-on-one , but... would it work that way without requiring too much work?


TwiceBorn wrote:
Question for those who have this... can the module be played with only one or two players, or does it require a broader mix of classes? Thought it might be fun as a one-on-one , but... would it work that way without requiring too much work?

I would say that you could play through this with any number of PCs you'd like. There's really no class requirements since the adventure can be combat-less; guess that depends on the personality (and frustration level) of the player. ;)

[And thanks to Chris for his review. But credit where credit is due, kudos for anything except the text belong to Phil Reed of Ronin Arts. Since I wrote this, Phil allowed me to keep it for Tricky Owlbear sale.]

Bret Boyd
President
Tricky Owlbear Publishing, Inc.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

TwiceBorn,

Playing through this adventure with one player is possible, and the player might be successful, but I think that would take away a lot of the fun. Once the party realizes what's going on, it's a big puzzle to figure out. And having two or three people trying to work out the puzzle is more fun than one person sitting at the table, trying to noodle it out on his own.

I suppose I should also point out that, if you have a player who just likes to roll dice and is trying to find all the goblins that need killin', this adventure is going to be a tremendous waste of a good session.


I just bought this tonight and played it. It took about two hours to play. (They caught on really quick when there was a loud explosion from upstairs somewhere and then suddenly things started to be wonky.)

Everyone thought it was "Fantastic!" and I really enjoyed seeing my husband's eyes bug out. (Usually he's the GM.)

Just wanted to say how much we loved it. !!! :)

-The Banelicious One!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Sounds interesting.

Dark Archive

Funny how I just yesterday mentioned to Bret (on his contest thread) that I enjoyed running this early last year.

We had a lot of role playing, I had the players act out certain actions they were taking, and I even had a certain someone make a cameo, we wrapped up the game in just under 4 hours.


Despite being "just OGL", this little pdf has done alright for itself. Thanks for the continued love, everyone! If there's much more positive chatter about it, I may have to pen more little adventures with a gimmick.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

I see a PfRPG version of this over at RPG Now. Any chance of an updated version being available here?

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