The Secret of Bone Hill

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Module #L1

by Lenard Lakofka

Danger lurks in the Lendore Isles. Bands of evil creatures prowl the hills overlooking the town of Restenford, seeking unwary victims. Now you have come to this sleepy little village looking for adventure and excitement. You seek to fathom the unexplored reaches of Bone Hill and unlock the mysteries of Restenford.

This module contains complete information on the town of Restenford and the lands surrounding it. Included herein are encounter tables, background information, and numerous maps of the town, the surrounding areas, a dungeon, and various points of interest. This module may be incorporated into an exisitng campaign or used in conjunction with THE WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy World Setting.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Games

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a mixed bag, but back in the day almost everybody played it because it was practically the only AD&D adventure in the 2-4 level range. The good: the main dungeon detailed in the module is very clever and memorable with its differing day/night encounters, 3D elements, and new monsters. For many adventurers, this is the moment when they take their first enemy fireball in the face, and it can be quite sobering. The part where the adventurers must face themselves is usually the most discussed part on forums. Also, the campaign map of the area is nice. The bad: though a fun romp, the main dungeon lacks a backstory. You never really find out 'the secret of bone hill' except that it is loaded with badguys and treasure. Also, the dungeon takes up less than half the module's page count. There is a lot of detail devoted to city inhabitants and dwellings that will never come up during play, and the baron's dungeon where he hides his treasure is fully detailed, I guess in case you want to run evil pcs who want to steal it. There's also another mini-dungeon right near the town that is 'meh', and a church devoted to gambling which is kind of comic relief. Finally, the beautiful painting on the back cover of a hydra depicts a monster which doesn't appear in the adventure, which is rather odd.

[Pádraic]

A pretty banal little sandbox. There's a good rumour table, but none of them lead to anything really interesting, nothing approaching a plot. A plot isn't necessary per se, you know, it can be fun enough just running around bumping into things and making the connections yourselves, but the things in the sandbox have to be, well, not boring. Here it's just some people in a town and some monsters in a dungeon; none of it sparks, none of it means anything. For this sort of style of adventure I think you're better off with The Isle of Dread.

[TTocs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big fan of the Secret of Bone Hill. Nice sand box adventure that lets you go in almost any direction and find something to do. Nice module for characters that have been run through an introductory module and are looking for a little more , but not too much of a challenge. The DM does have to take ownership on this module coming up with among other things, what the secret of Bone Hill actually is. Very useful rumour list which again lets the pc'S go in almost any direction. We played this module several times and I dmed it twice. Groups always seemed to enjoy it. It had some nice unique magic Items which players enjoyed, though some, like the gem of true seeing became real module busters.
Don't take the group from here out to fight a group of illusionists. I never tried to dovetail this module with it's follow up the Assassin's Knot but I think f you played the two back to back you could lay some groundwork that would help with the second mystery module. It was fun to DM and fun to play with a lot of different encounters,treasures traps and monsters.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike some I never played Len Lakofka's Secret of Bone Hill back in the day, although like many the awesome cover stuck in my mind. So I perhaps don't have the nostalgia value which probably elevates this curious module, that awaited a good number of years for its sequels L2 and L3.
There are some good features, certainly. The granularity of the different areas is excellent, with details of flora, of occupants, how often they are near, changes in night/day. The Bone Hill with its ruined castle and quirky dungeon is well written, and I quite like the fluidity of the rosters as an encounter style. There's a couple of slightly bizarre rooms, one with a magic mirror duplicating characters to fight themselves.
Unfortunately the main 'act' i.e the Bone Hill is less than half the module and although good doesn't really have anything beyond a description. There's no indication of why to go there, despite the then huge focus on the town. In the same detail as T1: Village of Hommlet we get a ton of stats and maps of taverns and inns, loads on a castle despite it saying it's only relevant for L2, the barons vaults with zero chance of L2-4 PCs getting in and out, and a random warren of rats and undead. Finally, at the start of the module, are a collection of wilderness locations which are okay (a comedy temple of gambling, some gnolls and orcs).
What it lacks is anything even vaguely like a plot save the use of rumours to drive a curious trip to Bone Hill. Agreeably, it's the same as B1 in that regard but this feels even more disparate. It sits between a campaign setting and an adventure and that's not helped by the odd construction of the adventure. It doesn't read well: surely you need town, then wilderness, then main adventure/dungeon. It's saved by its quirks: creative treasure and magic items, curious monsters, and detail.
Overall a 3 star. Glad I finally bought it, but more from a completist sense.

[Louis Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This module is really more of a mini-campaign setting or just description of a series of encounter areas / dungeons. The DM would need to piece together actual adventures and do most of the roleplaying work, however it is densely packed with statistics. It also seems quite generous with the magic items - but, on the down side, there is an ultra-deadly mirror of opposition in one area. Overall it is an OK module, but probably not one of the best.

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an old sandbox, but needs a lot of work from the DM. The setting is filled with encounter tables and percentages and with unnecessary stats, but lacking the interesting info like npc personalities. And the actual adventure site feels a bit random.

Still, I enjoyed reading this a lot. A nice peek to the adventuring of early 80s.

[David Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

For old school gamers, this is a must read.

[John Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible amount of information packed into this book, and lots of interesting ideas.

[Mindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much useless info and stats that seem to be nothing more than book filler.

[John Somers · Rating 3 out of 5]

10/20.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/26/2015: This is a good example of the kind of AD&D module I really enjoyed as a dungeon master. It presents a local environment with various potential threats, objectives, and allies (and NPCs that can go either way), but does not try to pigeonhole the characters into a particular storyline. The town of Restenford is established as a good base of operations, while nearby Bone Hill represents a place to explore and seek treasure and experience, but there are various other areas that can be adapted to a campaign and even some surprises in the town itself. I liked the fact that there is a hidden dungeon with giant rats and low-level undead underneath an abandoned guard station, which can be used as a sort of warm-up adventure before heading out to Bone Hill. This is also the adventure that first introduced the “Spectator,” later to appear in the Monster Manual II, a good monster to spring on players who had read the “Monster Manual” and would be terrified at the sight of a Beholder (heh).

To the degree I have criticisms of this module, it is because it is not complete, but rather an extension of the “World of Greyhawk” campaign – a campaign that does limit the DM’s creativity and world-building opportunities. Several NPCs have “secrets” that are not revealed until subsequent modules, and the place of Restenford in the surrounding world is explained in other materials. Still, a good DM could adapt it and the small map of the surrounding wilderness to most environments. It is a good place for still-beginning characters to start to get their bearing in the AD&D universe and gives enough for a novice DM to get started without having to visualize an entire campaign from the first day.

12/17/2023: My update to this review is that, reading it now, I see how the town of Restenford may have been the birthing place of the “murder hobo” style of play. Because much of the detail is of the denizens of the town and the castle, and because there is treasure and xp to be gained by focusing on them, it seems likely that early parties, finding not enough to do in Bone Hill or the “warm-up” adventure I mentioned above, decided to go ahead and steal the Duke’s treasure, or take on the Magic User and/or Druid, each of whom have treasures of their own. Also, it is very funny to me now how few “0-level” npcs there are in Restenford; every fletcher and bar owner seems to be a retired pc of 1st to 4th level (which also ups the xp for killing them, hence the “murder hobo” designation).