A Trilemma: This Costly Thing I Found on Itch.io…The Tower of Cinder

A perilous underground exploration adventure by Gray Dungeon Dealer, “For High-Level Characters”.
Written for “OSR” (uh oh).
Being sold for SEVEN UNITED STATES DOLLARS
  Someone suggested I look at the itch.io gleanings for high-level adventures. I didn’t hate the cover on this one, so I figured why not. This thing…this thing, though. It’s pretty enough, with bright gonzo flashes of imagination, evocative art (by Eve, whoever that is, good job), and a landscape format that isn’t too terrible. Unfortunately, no targeted system is listed, instead it is the dread “for OSR”, which means something different to each person. It’s almost as systemless as Trilemma Adventures, with less brevity.
  First of all, what does Gray Dungeon Dealer mean by “high level”? Enemies range from HD8 to HD18***, with status effects that are either handwavium (age nearby souls 1 year per round) or pitiful damage burps (3d6 damage). By high-level I think we’re talking about level eight or so, then? There’s nothing that feels like characters of 11+ should sweat about. Whatever the system is, it sure as hell isn’t gold=XP, despite all the hard work on the magic loot there’s nothing worth cold hard cash here. A new magic system entirely built on draining WIS makes me think of 3.P-style ability score damage. The dread term “disadvantage” does crop up so one thinks Shadowdark, but there’s also “save vs. breath”. What we actually have is the designer putting out the frenzied product of his own imaginings, unplaytested outside of a session of magical tea party, so there’s no definite planned level.
  What’s the actual story here? Well I hope you’re planning on this being a one-shot because this location definitely Has Implied Setting out that wazoo…the titular tower is in the middle of a vast cavern (charmingly illustrated) of mostly ash, which is of course the comprised of the dead bodies of the Titans after their souls burned out their mortal flesh countless eons ago. Like you do. And of course, the tower of the Titans has a clockwork centipede monster underneath from the Everted Minaret below, and a vine dangling above from the vast subterranean crystal-lit jungle, the Entangled Deep. Two things jump out…one, that all sounds kind of cool, and two, how on Oerth am I supposed to do anything gameable with all that? It’s setting fluff that doesn’t matter, along with dire snails and ancient predatory trilobites in the Ashen Plains for the “overland” portion of the adventure (single page, no mechanics provided).
  Once you get to the tower content itself it’s…kind of a standard linear ancient ruined tower. Golems at the door, check. Trap on the floor along with rune-covered rock the grants magical power, check. Story-delivering wall-mural level, check. Cracked level with cindervine growing out of crack and a valuable magic flow that angers the mote-flies buzzing around, check. Top area with dead body of a Titan, check. Basement with said clockwork centipede monster, check. Random encounters are with the shade of that Titan triggered by being noisy or annoying the GM personally. If said Warden is fought, there’s a note “put*on*gothic*chants*or*Dark*Souls*boss*music”, cute.
  Appendices in the back of the slide deck (landscape format, again) are concerned with three things: First, the oddball “centurypede”, which is a fairly easy bossfight outside of the year-draining-aura and has an extremely involved backstory regarding wizards in the aforementioned Everted Minaret deeper underground (like the Entangled Deeps, the module promises future products detailing said locale). Second, we hear about Titan magic, Pyromancy, which is granted by a billion-year-old runestone and is powered by the caster’s own soul (WIS drain, no recovery rules)…and does at most 14d8 damage in one particular fire spell? Look I like Soulfire from the Dresden Files too but it’s a weird implementation. The third and final appendix details the magical knick-knacks, paddy-whacks, and given-out dog bones found in the tower, where the dribs and drabs of primordial creation are used to…add a die of damage to your Fireball once or upgrade your +2 sword to a +3. An arrow of the Titans can be used as a +2 spear that level drains on a crit, I guess that’s okay. The centurypede loot is a fate thingy that might vaguely be used for rerolls? That’s your homework, sucker.
  It’s not Monday but sure, I’ll say what I liked on this one. There’s some genuine imagination shown here, which, coupled with the fine illustrations, make this little product somewhat entertaining to read. Like a mid-quality False Machine or Goblin Punch blog post, you can kind of cross your eyes and fuzz out in a mindset that feels like creativity, at least. Given my own system accommodates ability damage fine there might be some Soulfire spells I weave in because Jim Butcher won’t send a cease-and-desist to my home table. I don’t know if I enjoyed the instruction to play background music when the Warden fight happens ironically or directly, but sure, you get a point.
  What can be improved? Oh heavens, so very much. First, what I’m not critical of…it’s a small, linear site, very simple in layout…but that’s okay, there’s a use case for those. I’d be embarrassed to ask for $7 for it, but hey. Rather than nit-pick though, I’m just going to say the way to improve this thing is TARGET A SPECIFIC LEVEL RANGE IN A SPECIFIC SYSTEM. Every time I look at this trying to figure out how it’d actually work in play, the resolution goes all blurry, this isn’t made for, for example, 4-6 OSE characters of level 8-10, it’s made for “high level OSR”. Which is useless.  
  This means our best use case is tragically as a one-shot in GLOG or something like it. Although with some effort there are good ideas to be mined here and there, I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze. I’ve had to squeeze it in this process anyway but that’s an expensive glass of OJ. With medium pulp, the exact amount nobody wants.
  Final Rating? **/***** by my usual Crapshoot Monday standards for free or PWYW products. */***** only for something that’s being sold for 175% the price of Black Wyrm of Brandonsford. *** post if I saw this on an OSR blog.

---

I'm charmed by this art style, good job.