A one-page-dungeon by Felipe Tuller, screw levels.
Written for System Agnostic
  One of the most tragic falls in the TTRPG hobby is what happened to the One Page Dungeon Contest. On paper, this should be the best thing ever, right? I mean, I’m the Fall of Whitecliff guy, a regional adventure made up of one-pagers. I’m also the Adventure Site Contest guy, focused on making high-quality hex entries for use in peoples’ campaigns. OPDs are great for that kind of thing, right? Well, they can be. They should be. Unfortunately, the One Page Dungeon Contest isn’t that anymore…instead it’s now an art contest, where entrants bait the impressionable judges with increasingly elaborate spreads and formatting and isometric maps and colors and the one thing I most want out of an OPD, usability at the table, gets left in the dust. This product is from that benighted ground. Eighteen rooms, isometric map, you know the deal.
  As you’d expect from the title here, the story of They Dug Too Deep is that there were dwarves, the dwarves did what dwarves do and dug too deep, and now they’re all dead and there’s a monster wandering around. The monster is of the classic “wizard summoned me and I killed him” variety, represented as a wandering encounter check so it is technically possible to poke around all over and never meet the fellow.
  First off, let me mention what I liked most of all in the form of Miguel Melo’s illustrations, both the shadow critter and in all the little map rooms. Great stuff there, simple and evocative and exactly the kind of thing you like to blow up big and scare your players with. Give this man your commissions. I did also like the succinct backstory, just a couple sentences and gives everyone everything they need to know. A magic dwarf axe that only is +1 when the user is drunk on dwarven ale is fun. The fact that the bad monster regenerates is delivered to players by the message “IT COMES BACK” scrawled in dwarven blood, that’s good stuff.
  Alas, what can be improved here is going to have to be in the broad “make this dang thing for actual play” category. The pretty isometric map can’t be used at the table, and without embedded layers it’s hard to extract for VTT even. Stuff like mosquito-bats and amethyst animated statues are probably workable with your system of choice’s monster manual, but the tentpole monster needs mechanics as the centerpiece of the dungeon. Treasure is attempted, but it’s extremely light and kind of random. Hard to sus out flow looking directly at the map but there’s not any exploratory potential really, and the secret door to the wizard’s study might be the single most pointless secret door I’ve seen all year. Pretty but useless.
  Taking a moment, a pet peeve…I profoundly dislike the rails-and-elevators of Industrial Revolution-era coal mining appearing in pseudo medieval settings. Dynamite being here is even worse. That’s World of Warcraftism and it grates on my nerves in standard D&D. Your own mileage may vary.
  All this means that the best use case for this dungeon is to submit it to an art-focused One Page Dungeon contest. If you use it as a one-shot you’ll be okay too, just mismatched.
  Final Rating? */***** with less wrath, more sorrow. There’s some real talent here getting misapplied. 

​A starting adventure by Yochai Gal, level null.
Written for Cairn 2E
  Get excited everyone, we have us a teaching adventure. While theoretically these things are helpful tutorial levels for starry-eyed young game masters just looking to start out, in practice they tend to be overwhelmingly condescending affairs, both smug and simple. This dozen-page booklet describes an eleven-room dungeon designed to headline the new and even-more-plagiarized grab-bag of mechanics called Cairn 2E, written by the deeply sad-looking niche itch.io microcelebrity Yochai Gal. Although there’s an astonishing 4-person-team credited in layout, art, and editing for this A5 single-column .docx conversion. Format is bog standard, it’s fine.
  Despite my generally negative impression of Cairn adventures in the feature, the thing I have liked in it is that most of the adventures I’ve encountered have a woodsy/nature theme, bucolic and rural. I dig it. This…doesn’t have that. The story here is that a scholastic consortium sent a team of scholars to investigate a location expected to tie into the Roots, basically the Underdark with the serial numbers filed off. Team instead finds the tiny cave loop, messes things up being Captain Planet Villains, and get attacked by cannibal mutant blood olms for their troubles. “You are hired to recover the team” as is bog standard for these things and then after a few pages of condescending advice and background that barely matter we’re off to the races.
   I will say, what I liked first were the two main illustrations, cover and back, plus the nicely illustrated map. Ari-Matti Toivonen, good job. I like the one cave room laced with methane from vents/decaying tube worms that is a clear fire hazard, good naturalistic danger room there.

​   Beyond that, what can be improved hits a lot of my standard points. The map, charmingly illustrated as it is, doesn’t have much interest to it…the two different entrances barely matter in this loop, which is a linear map just looped because of a cargo-cult reading of The Alexandrian’s “Jaquaysing” article, no real exploratory choices exist. Rooms also are a series of monster fights or situations, unconnected to one another. I’d complain about a river spirit offering concrete boons for conceptual gifts but that’s story gaming for ya. For a module called “rise of the blood olms”, there’s a real issue with the titular blood olms being just three dudes in a corner cave, statted like closet trolls. The extremely abbreviated scope here clashes with what the backstory wants, making the whole place bigger wouldn’t matter for a procedure-light system like this and it’d offer a lot more depth.
  The best use case for Rise of the Blood Olms is probably as a one-shot, it is aggressively unwilling to be used to springboard into anything like a long campaign. Learning how to play from this would be rather difficult, but outside of B1 most modules fail on that measure to be fair.
  Final Rating? */***** ultimately it is a decent-looking module that has very little substance, lacking much in creativity or even interest. 

A hexcrawl by Hilander, level nill.
Written for Shadow & Fae 2E
  This was intended to be a Halloween adventure, I think. It’s got itself some scope, which is always interesting to me if there’s a use case optimized for the Special Holiday One-Shot, are you planning on making a day of this? A two-shot? Twenty pages with a hexcrawl, a town, a timeline, and a twenty-three room dungeon is admirable for a module but you’re spending a lot of time on that unless you have incredibly efficient players. I don’t know what Shadow & Fae 2E plays like but this claims OSE compatibility and there’s some content to work through here.
  Said content is charming enough, a little village is perched at the edge of a haunted wood, the mayor’s son has disappeared along with his sword and shield, there’s a weeping spirit that keeps appearing and rumors of an old mean hag in the wood that need a’ killin. Because we need more complexity in our plot, the weeping spirit is actually a trapped demon, the hag is actually a good woods-warden, and the forest itself is in fact a liminal space between life and death filled with the haunting spirits of the wicked dead who are unable to pass the Gates into heaven. Also the village is made up of poor folk settled beside the evil wood for their protection. And there’s a whole bunch of on-theme side characters like an alchemist living on pumpkins, ogres, drowned lady story, etc, etc, etc. Illustrations/maps are cute. 

​  As an aside, there’s a little bit of what I’ll call “Bryce-Baiting” going on here. The writer has clearly read a lot in the OSR scene, referring to multiple other adventures and blogs in the main text of the module. The fairytale vibe is almost guaranteed to get a good mention when encountered by Bryce Lynch, prolific and highly influential reviewer of tenfootpole. Other things that Bryce talks about a lot like information density, formatting and bullet points, “active” random encounters with a lot going on in each entry, are all heavily featured here. These are all style notes, substance-neutral, but it’s important style if you want the single most important blog reviewer in the game to give you a positive review. It’ll give you a few approving lip-smacks on Fear of a Black Dragon as well. 
  What I liked here were several folktale elements that worked well, like a ghost lady next to a tree that possesses people to free her corpse all tangled up in the roots, and several of the monsters as manifested wicked spirits is a good idea. The premise as a whole is pretty nice with the gates leading to heaven, the dying warden who wants an apprentice to carry on his burden, a witch who also wants a minion…it’s pretty nifty. Good haunted woods environment, reminds me of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Lot of nice maps, which does allow the reader to understand what’s going on.
  Ah, but what can be improved? Well…a lot once we get down to brass tacks. And I’m not going to get into the mood being a little overly twee, that’s just a personal taste thing. That aforementioned mansion, with 23 keys? All the rooms are just titled with notes on what loot is available is the party is looking to strip the place. There’s not much to fight, just menacing random encounters at a standard rate, no traps, no set-pieces, no difficult exploratory wrinkles. The hexcrawl procedure is pretty standard, but the hexes themselves are all written very vague at times. The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford expy “green wyrm” is the only major source of cash, which is an issue if it is truly OSE-compatible. There’s a nod given to an incoming Halloween festival (The Spirits’ Feast), but the details of how that incoming calendar event effects things…just aren’t there. Finally, GIVE A SINGLE LOCATION FOR THE MCGUFFIN KID. Randomness where no randomness should exist, the module wants me to roll a d6 to find out where the kid is and how he’s being menace. This is the inciting incident, the players assume it’s the main quest. Don’t be vague, module.
  This being said, the best use case here is as a self-contained pair to quartet of sessions, what the kids these days are calling a “campaign”. If Shadow & Fae 2E is one of those “not actually a TTRPG, but simulating playing a TTRPG” systems like Dungeon World or Trophy Gold or Knave then it might be possible to condense it into a one-shot. A few of the ideas and situations are extractable for value elsewhere, too.
  Final Rating? **/***** but it’s easy enough to add another star if the flavor is right up your alley, it’s certainly an admirable production with some real effort put in. 

​A dungeon level by Corey Davies, level unset (DANGER).
Written for system agnostic (OH NO)
  A CHOICE WAS MADE TO WRITE A ONE-PAGE DUNGEON ON A SHEET OF 11x17 PAPER IN ALL CAPS SO IT FEELS LIKE I’M BEING SHOUTED AT NONSTOP. IT’S A DEFINITE EXPERIENCE, ONE THAT I SHALL ATTEMPT TO PASS ON TO YOU, DEAR READER, BY WRITING THIS WITH CAPSLOCK HAMMERED DOWN.
  OUR SYSTEM-NEUTRAL DUNGEON IS APPARENTLY THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CITY NAMED CAMINIPOLIS, THE VAGUELY GREEK-THEMED NAME IS COMPLIMENTED BY A CYCLOPS IN THE MIDDLE MAKING WEAPONS, MYTHICAL WEAPONS AND TALK ABOUT DÉJÀ VU FROM TWISTED FAKES, AND THE FIRST BAD-GUY FACTION WEARING HOPLITE ARMOR. THE FACT THAT GENERIC “DENIZENS OF THE DEEP” AND “GODBEES” ARE THE OTHER MONSTERS TO FACE IS A LITTLE AGAINST THEME, BUT SURE, WHY NOT?
  WHAT I LIKED FIRST OFF IS THE MAP, IT’S A LITTLE LINEAR COMPARED TO THE INITIAL IMPRESSION BUT THERE’S SOME NICE GEOMETRY FOR THE SCALE AND SECRET/LOCKED/CHALLENGING ALTERNATE ROUTES CAN YIELD BETTER RESULTS, WHICH IS FUN. I LIKE THE GODBEES’ HONEY HAVING HEALING EFFECTS THAT COMPROMISE THE IMBIBER IF OVERUSED AND THAT THE BEESWAX MAKES EXTRA-GOOD TORCHES AND CANDLES. I LIKED THE IDEA THAT THE BLIND CYCLOPS SMITH MAKES WEAPONS INTENDED FOR A PARTICULAR FATED HERO, SO THERE’S ONLY A LOW CHANCE FOR A GIVEN WEAPON TO BE USEFUL FOR A PC WHO GRABS ONE. I LIKE PETRIFIED TREES WITH STONY DRYADS AMONG THEM AND GEODE FRUITS, THAT’S A SOLID “MESS WITH THING AND GET ATTACKED” SETUP. I ALSO APPRECIATE THE ORACLE GAS CHAMBER WHERE YOU SEE A FATED RESULT AND CAN CHANGE ONE DIE OUTCOME IN THE FUTURE, MARKING YOU AS “WRONG” IF YOU DEFY FATE THOUGH.

  YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT THE FIRST THING IN WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED IS TO GIVE ME A DADGUM SYSTEM, I DON’T CARE IF ITS BUNNIES & BURROWS, HAVING STATTED ENEMIES AND SOLID VALUES IS AN OBJECTIVE VALUE-ADD, WHILE I CAN ADAPT THE NUMBERS TO FIT MY OWN SYSTEM EFFORTLESSLY. HAVING A LEVEL IN MIND ALSO HELPS. I’M ALSO GOING TO MAKE MY USUAL COMPLAINT THAT MAZES ARE RATHER ROUGH TO RUN IN TTRPGS, PARTICULARLY THESE TIGHT MAZES WITH JUST RANDOM CONTENTS AT DEAD ENDS AND NO PURSUIT/TACTICAL ELEMENT. YOU’RE ALREADY PLAYING IN GREEK LANDS, GO HAM AND SALT IN A MINOTAUR TO CHASE US. SPECIFIC GAME-MECHANICAL EFFECTS (LIKE THAT “DEFIED FATE” MALUS) ARE ALSO INFINITELY PREFERABLE TO UNSPECIFIED “STUFF HAPPENS”. THE MAP LOOKS PRETTY BUT HAVING THE ELEVATION CHANGES MATTER A LITTLE MORE WOULD BE GOOD IN THE LABYRITHINE CAVERNS. FINALLY, EITHER AN ORDER OF BATTLE OR SOME RANDOM ENCOUNTERS SPICE UP AN EXPLORATION OF A STATIC “RUIN” ENVIRONMENT, EVERYTHING IS SET UP TO PERMIT THAT BUT THEN NOTHING HAPPENS.
  BEST USE CASE? I MEAN C’MON, IT’S GOT TO BE AS A ONE-SHOT OR SEEDED-IN DUNGEONLET, DESPITE THE NODS TO FURTHER CAVES THIS IS NOT REALLY DESIGNED TO BE A SMALLER SUBSECTION OF A BROAD MEGADUNGEON/UNDERDARK CAMPAIGN. NEAT STUFF TO PULL LIKE THE HONEY OR THE ORACLE CHAMBER MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR YOU TOO.
  FINAL RATING? **/***** WHICH IS A MILD BUMMER TO A MAN LIKE ME LOOKING FOR GREEK-THEMED ADVENTURES SITES BUT IT’D BE WORTH ANOTHER STAR WITH JUST A LITTLE ADDED SPECIFICITY.