A5 staple-bound Softcover - 32 pages

FOR DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS for Old-School Essentials

Requires Old-School Essentials

About This Adventure

New High Score presents a low-level adventure set in a classic 1980s small town in the United States. Characters will investigate attacks against kids from the local high school - possibly their friends and colleagues - that happen in multiple locations around town. What links the attacks are the high scores all of the victims hold on the newest and most popular games in the old Dragon Arcade. 

Dark Places & Demogorgons

This adventure was created to be played with the Dark Places & Demogorgons supplement for Old-School Essentials. Alternatively, use the classic Basic/Expert game or another derived rule set. 

Character Levels 1-2

This adventure is suitable for 1st-2nd level PCs. Most of the challenges and obstacles, however, challenge players’ ingenuity and creativity, instead of their characters abilities, allowing the adventure to remain relevant and exciting even for higher level characters. 

About Names

This is a small-town adventure in which a monster is killing a series of individuals, each of whom have several connections and relationships. We opted to not name every single individual mentioned in the adventure, focusing on giving proper names to the main NPCs involved in the events. Referees are encouraged to come up with these individuals’ names as needed, although we recommend everyone uses more generic terms such as “Anderson’s dad”, “William’s math teacher” and so on. Too many names and character details might confuse the players, and make them lose focus. 

Sandbox Play

This is an open-ended adventure, without a clear path to follow, or a series of obstacles to overcome until they get to the last one. It’s more like a puzzle, and can be approached in multiple ways. The last piece, defeating the monster that is spreading harm is a very tough piece to put together, so we encourage the Referee to be flexible, and to reward creativity as much as they can without sacrificing the challenge of the situation.

The details of this puzzle are spread around locations, and its main characters. Players should ask questions, poke around, and investigate. Reward effort with information and avoid locking clues behind a die roll. Put them behind intentional investigation.

Old School Essentials

This adventure utilizes the Old School Essentials ruleset.