ever wanted a sprawling dungeon that is not quite a mega dungeon, but well worth the money to provide a centerpiece of a campaign? Barrowmaze is a ideal purchase just for that.
"Local villagers whisper of a mysterious place deep in the marsh - a place shrouded in mist and dotted with barrow mounds, ruined columns, and standing stones. The tomb-robbers who explore beneath the mounds - or rather the few who return - tell tales of labyrinthine passages, magnificent grave goods, and terrifying creatures waiting in the dark. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to enter the Barrowmaze?"
The feel is not heroes going down to clean evil, though they would be welcome, it feels more of "Hey, lets go kill things and take their stuff!" and it is well suited for that.
Now, Mega-dungeon is a not well defined term. I would say it something that is "A complete campaign" would suffice for a mega-dungeon, and this is not QUITE large enough to do so. However it 300 encounter area map means that you will get a LOT of bang out of your buck. And for the ever popular Play by Post, this would most likely be a complete campaign to clear it out.
The layout is a very clean two column setup, which brief, (bot not totally terse) room descriptions. I happened to think it picked a good balance of fitting in information and giving you some flavor without massive text-blocks of room descriptions. It gives a good sense of being there.
In addition, Barrowmaze includes some new monsters, stated in the back of the book. Some of these are new, some are conversions of some of the more useful FF races. All are well illustrated.
In fact, the artwork is A+, it is of a consistent, top quality level and unlike some smaller press productions, it does not feel like 2-3 artists slapped together some work, but there is a constant feel. You cannot really ask for better artwork.
There are a few fractions in the complex, and some good hints on how to restock and play out these battles. Also, there is a lot of charm of finding former treasure seekers, many of them already finding doom in some sort of trap or as a meal for some beast. Much of barrowmaze is stocked with undead (as one might expect) so a good GM will need to keep that in mind if their is a lot of clerics, but it adds a number of new types of undead and keeps it varied.
The rules are for labyrinth lord but could easily be converted to most old school systems.
Rating: A
(Heck, if I wanted to start a new LL - B/X - BECMI type campaign, I would be most likely using Barrowmaze for levels 1-5, then using the Orcus hooks included to lead the more seasoned party to my recently reviewed Rappan Athuk.
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