"Salted Legacy" is the 1st (and 1st level) adventure in the D&D anthology Journeys Through the #RadiantCitadel. It takes place in the Dyn Singh Night Market -- an "endlessly changing maze of stalls filled with incredible wares, enticing smells, and magical lights."

I'm continuing the Let's Read of the entire Journey, which started with an overview of the Radiant Citadel itself. If you'd like to begin from the beginning, you can take a trip on a Concord Jewel over to here. https://twitter.com/hexcrawl/status/1549575403538452486…

So... here's a thing I don't like. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel doesn't give credit for specific adventures. (JTRC on left, example from Candlekeep Mysteries on the right.)

Feels particularly grody given how much of the marketing campaign for #RadiantCitadel, rightfully, focused on the phenomenal writing talen that made it possible. I shouldn't have to use Google to identify Surena Marie as the author of "Salted Legacy." https://dnd.wizards.com/news/salted-legacy-surena-marie…

From what I've read so far, the practical realities of #RadiantCitadel means that the really cool settings can only be sketched in with broad brush strokes. I know I will often be looking at something like the Night Market and saying: MOAR PLZ.

This is generally a good thing. But there are places where it can lead the book a little astray.

For example, here's a map of Siabsungkoh (where the Night Market is located).

What the text says: "Traders from Siabsungkoh's scattered communities flock to the Dyn Singh Night Market..." "The [Outer Edges] that border the wilderness... Many of the scattered communities here reject the bureaucracy of the market district..."

What the map shows: No scattered communities and the "Outer Edges" are half a mile from the Night Market itself, so (a) you can probably see one from the other and (b) there's no room for communities, let alone communities in separate "districts."

From my experience, I feel it's almost certain the cartographer accurately (and evocatively) presented everything that was likely on the design sketch they were given to work from.

But because there's only room to present the setting in the broadest strokes, there just wasn't enough detail on this design sketch. Even without the scale that locks it in on the final version, barrenness on a map is interpreted as tininess.

I do like that there are locations shown here which are not described in the text (Monkey Mask Farm, Silver Carp Farm, etc.). I'm a big believer in RPG maps inviting the user - including the GM - to explore the world. To ask, "What's this? What's this?"

Is Monkey Mask farm run by awakened monkeys? Does it literally grow monkey masks on magically enhanced teak trees? Do the farms of Siabsungkoh hang masks above their gate, representing the patron animals who protects their crops? (Are some of these masks possessed/enchanted?)

Tabula rasa is the scraped table. The empty spaces on the map. That can be fun to fill in. But rasa is the fundamental flavor or essence of a creation, and offering just the hint of it can often be even more powerful than the blank spaces.

Okay. What about the adventure itself? The core concept is that Kasem Aroon and his twin brother Vi Aroon operate the Spice Brothers stall. Vi, however, is getting married and moving away.

Kasem realizes he can't run the stall by himself, so he concocts a "brilliant" plan! He'll sabotage other businesses in the Night Market so that one of them will sell their stall to him. Then he'll own TWO businesses he can't run by himself! Problem solved! ... ...wait.

So there are some issues here. Here's an idea: What if Vi isn't moving away? Vi getting married means that Kasem, as the younger son, will be pushed out of the Spice Brothers. Then Kasem trying to figure out how to buy another business and stay in the Night Market makes sense.

I actually wonder if this might have been the original idea? It would explain why the Happy Ending version of the scenario wrap-up is "another vendor offers to adopt [Kasem] into their family."

Structurally, "Salted Legacy" has the PCs witness a feud between stall owners (which has been instigated by Kasem using wynling, flying fey he's bribing with persimmons). The stall owners hire the PCs to get proof that their feud-ee is responsible for all the sabotage!

So the PCs start investigating and the adventure says (paraphrasing): "Literally nothing they do works. Your #1 job as the DM is to make sure they cannot solve this mystery. Investigation check? Nothing. Questioning? Nope! Stake out? GTFO."

The PCs are being stonewalled so you can force them to participate in the Market Games: A set of festival events including a pepper challenge, cooking competition, and caterpillar hunt.

See, no one at the festival will answer the PCs' questions because they don't trust outsiders. So the PCs need to earn their respect by competing in the games. The more respect points they earn, the more information they can get.

So, to sum up: Two of the oldest and most respected families of the Night Market hire outsiders to solve a mystery. But no one will help the outsiders, because no one in the Night Market trusts outsiders.

The "need" to block all lines of investigation also leads to silliness: Like, the PCs may find persimmon peels (from the wynlings). Logically, they should be able to find out who's selling persimmons and maybe learn that Kasem has suddenly started buying a lot more than usual.

But that's not allowed, so: "A character who further investigates these fruit peels learns no stalls in the night market currently sell persimmons."

Ironically, this will likely lead players to hyper-obsess on these persimmons: If they aren't sold here and nobody eats them, where are they coming from?! (This is, of course, never answered. Where IS Kasem getting his persimmons from?)

Anyway, the point here is that the focus of this scenario isn't actually the mystery: It's the Market Games. The mystery is just the mechanism for forcing the PCs to play in the Games.

It would probably make more sense to just have an adventure premise that says "play in the Market Games," rather than "do this other thing, but I'm going to arbitrarily stop you from doing it until you play in the Market Games."

Partly because I hate mysteries designed to prevent the PCs from solving them. Mostly because it turns the Market Games -- which should be a lot of fun! -- into a chore that the players have to complete. Chores are not fun.

Once we actually focus on the Market Games, though, one thing becomes clear.

My personal favorite is the cooking competition. MC: Welcome to Iron Chef Dyn Singh! PCs: Awesome! MC: Your secret ingredient is... SHRIMP! PCs: Cool, cool... MC: Giant shrimp. PCs: Hol' up. MC: You will need to kill it first. PCs: oh shit

"Salted Legacy" is a delicious treat that has been wrapped in unnecessary frustration. But, to be clear, there's a pretty solid core here that can make for a fun evening of gaming.

What I would do is refocus the hook on the Market Games, and THEN have the investigation pop up as a B-plot.

Possible hooks: - PCs have been selected as competition ambassadors, sent to the Night Market specifically to compete. - There's a prize for this years competition which is [thing they need/want].

Alternatively: You tell me. This is likely the first adventure in your campaign, so just tell your players to explain to you why they want to compete in the Market Games as character creation and frame it as This Is How You Met. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/45149/roleplaying-games/running-the-campaign-dragon-heist-creating-the-characters…

If you want to flesh things out a bit, go grab Call of the Netherdeep, grab all the festival games, and plop 'em down in the Night Market. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/48216/roleplaying-games/review-call-of-the-netherdeep…

So then, games proceeding apace, you bring in the marketplace sabotage and trigger an investigation. This is your B-plot instead of your A-plot and it's no longer locked behind the Market Games.

This is actually pretty easy to achieve: Just read through the adventure and every place where it says "if the PCs do X, they don't find anything" replace it with "if the PCs do X, they find [useful information]" and you'll ironically end up with a pretty robust mystery.

The two key revelations I'd focus on would be: 1. Persimmons are associated with the mischief sites. (And you can then trace the persimmons to Aroon.) 2. There's some sort of invisible, flying blue monkeys. (And then you can catch + interrogate them or follow them to Aroon.)

Standard three clues for each. Either gives you multiple paths to ultimate success. (PCs can even combine the revelations by, e.g. using persimmons to set a trap for the wynlings.) https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule…