Dr. Malcontent & the Forces of E.V.I.L.
by Mike Nagle ​
First Thoughts​
Love the graphics on the cover for number of players, estimated time to complete, and tier of play.
Having the final confrontation of a BBEG that the players have been pursuing for some be the premise of a one-shot is a good story decision. Gives the players a cohesive reason to be together and for knowing each other pretty well.
The maps for Dr. Malcontent's lairs are really good. Excellent detail and nice to look at. Even though I am not a big fan of colored maps I really like these.
Dr. M from the start feels like a cartoon villain personality and I love it. From the name of his organization to the comical behavior when the players first enter his lair. It's refreshing.
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Puzzle Room​
My initial feeling on the first trap the players encounter was...I don't like the set up because it doesn't seem like there are any clues to figure out what they need to do besides trial and error...and error comes with consequences in the form of loss hit points. But these are high level players.
Note: As soon as I wrote that I read the next page and there is a way to give the players a hint if they are really stuck. I really like the Investigation check to find previous attempts from other adventurers. It adds verisimilitude to the lair and world.
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The Dragon Way
The traps in this room are pretty straight forward. Pressure plates and trip wire. There is nothing wrong with straight forward traps but for a tier 3 adventure about the lair of an evil genius running an evil organization I would have liked to have seen something more complex.
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Storage Room​
Pretty straight forward combat. I would have liked a description of Subject 25B in the section where we first encounter it instead of at the end of the supplement since it's a new creature.
I am excited about Subject 25B. It gives me major Scorpion King feels which is one of my favorite creatures from the Mummy/Scorpion King movies.
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The Oddities Room
There isn't much going on here in the way of traps or combat, but it is a great room for reinforcing Dr. Malcontent as a character in regards to his experiments. It's a nice break while keeping the narrative going.
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The Laboratory
This is the final battle with Dr. Malcontent and the Abomination. First off, I love monster tactics. I love when it is laid out clearly for DMs.
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Second, the available lair actions are cool, but I would have liked to see more of them. I believe it when people say variety is the spice of life.
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Defeating the Doctor​
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OH MY GOD. I don't know why I didn't see this fucking plot twist coming but as soon as I read it my jaw just dropped. I love it.
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Final Thoughts​
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This is a good, fun adventure and I can't wait to whip it out on my players when I need a break from my homebrew stuff. Outside of the small things (more complex traps and descriptions) there's nothing I would change.
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