The green of spring has turned to the oppressive heat of summer. A drought has hit the Elder Kingdom. The year’s harvest withers on the vine and livestock falls over in the fields. Players take the role of errants recently arrived as a few of many new refugees seeking relief from the drought.
Tourist Season is a FREE 1 sheet-style scenario that focuses on a band of errants in the Blackwood setting. As players uncover the truth of a string of grisly assaults, they learn what good folk can do when driven to desperation. Welcome to the world of the Blackwood, where danger lurks all around and help might not always be welcome.
Art Imitates Life
As you may have noticed, Tourist Season was not written by Eli. Instead, we had our Lumberjack in Chief, Derek Smith, draw upon some of his own local history for an adventure. Growing up in a lake town, Derek is no stranger to a sudden population boom every summer. The Blackwood is “the land of lakes and rivers,” (one more nod to the wuxia genre), so he had plenty of lakeside settlements to choose from.
Population booms in the Blackwood aren’t exactly due to sunbathing tourists though. Instead, it begins with a familiar story: summer is here, the elves are getting more meddlesome, and a lot of refugees are streaming in from collapsed local settlements. They’re all hungry, and they’ve all worn out their boots trying to make it to the safety of a walled city like Farwater Beach. From these relatively mundane needs, Derek spins a fun yarn full of mystery, social conflict, and action.
One of the more well-known Grimm’s Tales, The Elves (known also as The Elves and the Shoemaker), tells the tale of a family of cobblers who are so poor they can only afford enough leather to make a single pair of shoes. The cobbler lays out the materials and goes to bend, intending to make the shoes in the morning. To his surprise, some benevolent elves have made the shoes for him! It’s a handy production line that bring the cobbler enough wealth to get back on his feet (no pun intended).
At this point, it should come as no surprise that Blackwood elves are not so altruistic. Instead of some free help, the elves in Tourist Season do help the cobbler to make ends meet, but they’re using human flesh to do it. It’s one of the most macabre moments in any Blackwood adventure so far, but it’s a perfect fit.
If you’ve already got the Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition, head over to DriveThruRPG to get this next adventure in the Blackwood:
Be sure to check out our previous releases too:
The Seven Quillcrows One Sheet
The King of Knuckle Peak One Sheet
The documents feature some awesome character art from Eric Quigley, Daniel Comerci, and old woodcuts in the public domain. Even though we’re official Savage Worlds licensees, all four of these products are totally FREE! So what are you waiting for? Scoop ’em up and head out into the woods!
When you sit down to run this adventure with your gaming group, take a take a table selfie with the hashtag #BlackwoodGames. And if you enjoy the adventure, please leave us a review on DriveThruRPG!