​A dungeon by Lars Huijbregts, leveless
Written for “BLOCK DODGE PARRY” or Cairn
   So, this is apparently the second “Bite-Sized Dungeon Module” ever made. Let it never be said that small is bad, for dungeon-making. Adventure Site Contests live and breathe on the 2-page format. I’ve played some truly amazing games run out of lil’ guys like this. This one in particular is using a DENSE format, three-column with information organized in bullets and boxes. A couple pieces of old public-domain art wedge in there too, an admirable inclusion. Less admirable, of course, is the wickedly sinful space-saving move to eschew a proper map in favor of the vile block diagram. -60 points to Hufflepuff. 

   Once the rage-induced crimson blood-haze subsides and is subsequently avoided again by resolutely ignoring the map-travesty, we can continue on and read the actual story of the dungeon. It’s fine. Ancient elven prison now used by beastmen raiders inhabited by formerly-chained demon whose whispers drive the beastmen to sacrifice BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, eventually freeing said demon. There are a few nice little elements to play with here stemming from the premise, including every single beastman’s blood getting auto-suctioned down into the stone and their tribal shaman  being possessed at variable levels depending how many deaths occur during the Standard Murderhobo Party Crashing. Silver bracelets block the demon’s whispers and if the full-possessed shaman is killed after having a bracelet snapped on somewhere, that takes care of Ye Olde Demon for good. The effect isn’t particularly well-lampshaded, and the awkwardly-phrased clues aren’t exactly clear, but it should probably be noted the situation is at least interesting enough that I spent a little time thinking about fixes. Good sign. I’m somewhat less fond of the “beastmen aren’t evil, they’re just poor tribals being misled” trope, but that’s easily ignored.
   I do so natter on. What I liked beyond the premise was a good solid loot haul at the very end of the rainbow and the basic level-the-endboss-up thing with killing more adds making a gnarlier boss. The attempt to have multiple means of egress, as always, is appreciated.
   Obviously said entries are part of what can be improved first, which is GIVING US A REAL MAP. Seriously. There are also some promising bits that also easily suggest themselves after a moment’s thought. If we’re going by videogame logic, why not have the “kill mobs beforehand” mechanic change the type of final fight to be more interesting? The idea of killing the shaman with a bracelet on to kill/trap the demon is cool, but a better indicator plus explainer would be to have an old prisoner-skeleton with a silver bracelet broken off. Also, hey, that shows that the final fix is maybe not so final. Prisoner and NPC dialogue is a little scripted, some more goals/motivation would help make interactions better. Of course, even better improvement would be to write the adventure for a real system.
   Snide asides aside, best use case here is probably just to have a magical tea party here with a bunch of Cairnies. The concepts are decent but hard to extra, and sadly with neither map nor concrete magic item work, there ain’t much gold to be extracted as nuggets of gameplay.
   Final Rating? */***** although there’s a nice three-star hiding inside the ramshackle vague mass of ideas. Give us a real map and some refinement and you might have a bite-sized dungeon worth nibbling.

An adventure by Robin Fjarem, leveless
Written for Mothership RPG
   Ah, Ye Olde Mothershipe Trifold. Classic. Ubiquitous. I don’t understand the format’s appeal, personally, but sure, it’s a perfectly cromulent method of conveying adventure information. Since this one is for Mothership, our graphics are unsightly and out formatting is wonky, but everything about the scenario is at least understandable. I’m slightly baffled for why these ugly monochrome adventures are the standard, must have been some kind of terribly-conceived jam.
   Speaking of terribly-conceived plans, our story here is that you and your merry band of victims have arrived on Bore IX, an icy moon with a breathable but toxic atmosphere, to pick up a nice fat shipment of iridium ore. As is inevitable in the Mothership universe, the toxic atmosphere turns people into Ice Zombies and there’s also a serial killer who has summoned pirates to buy the ore instead. Also there’s constant hailstorms, the comms array is down, and worst of all, your maps are all abstracted. Horrifying.
   Dunno what I liked here outside of some basic nice descriptions and the way the moon gets described. It’s Stars Without Number-compatible in that sense, at least. The traitor-killer-guy has a nice diary where he wrote down all his incriminating evidence and hid it beneath the bed of another crewmate, that’s a good move. All d10 mining post NPCs are given enough description to run smoothly, that’s appreciated.
   What can be improved here, really? I guess the first would be to drop the “roll for which NPC is the murderer/victim” but at least they have suggested NPCs “if you don’t want to roll”, so that’s a good head-nod to the fact that nobody wants to roll that crap. Real missed opportunity on the “frost madness” disease thingy, for what’s supposed to be the main threat of the adventure there’s not a lot of detail given. Naturally the biggest room for improvement is to STOP ABSTRACTING YOUR MAPS. I loathe the block-and-line diagram style, particularly in a situation where both exploration and tactical combat at possibilities. Inexcusable.
   That being said, best use case is probably to just use this as a sci-fi horror scenario. Traveller or SWN could support this just as easily as Mothership; unfortunately, that’s not very easy, you have a homework assignment to finish this puppy off. Due to the high level of abstraction and the ugly art/visual design, there are officially zero bits or bobs that you’re going to want to swipe for a different game.
   Final Rating? */***** with a sigh. I saw this and I knew, somehow, exactly what I was in for. Zero surprises here, it’s just an unpleasant experience to read.

An adventure by Seba - Rackhir - SlmlOfDoom, leveless
Written for as high-concept notional whim of a system’s idea
   You saw this adventure’s art, didn’t you? Do you really need me to tell you that this thing is high concept? Well, yeah, of course, this is a high-concept little adventure. I’m mostly surprised by how little this adventure is. It’s just a little bifold, call it two pages, with ten locations keyed on the map, a quick random encounter table, a “here’s the story setup” paragraph or two, and the by now de-regur “here’s how to freeze in winter” rules. I don’t know if this is supposed to be “OSR” or freaking Dungeon World, but at least it doesn’t hurt my eyes. Those are my standards here on Crapshoot Monday, folks.
   So, what’s our high concept? Looks like the god of seasonal change (the Smith of Seasons) has been killed, which, oops, has locked the world into eternal winter. Standard D&D Problem, happens maybe 2-3 times a decade, I get it. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to summon spring, just have to strike the eponymous Anvil of Winter with the dead god’s hammer. Sadly, said hammer is half a ton, so must be moved by sled or a giant, and only someone huge can use it. Also there’s a minor nature goddess who’s imprisoned a wild elemental, local villages, and an extradimensional necromancer ship full of sleeping invaders who killed the ol’ guy in the first place because they want to plunge the world into eternal winter. That’s a regional campaign waiting to happen. “Warmth points” are designed to encourage more and more movement as the players bumble onward.
   I’ll begin what I liked with an approving nod to the map’s look. It is vivid, clear, and invites a regional exploration. The weird spiky Necromonger interdimensional spaceship in particular is pretty cool-looking. The concept in general is neat, and I can see a fun game based on it, especially with the (admittedly arbitrary) need for gigantism in the hammer-striking. Said hammerer magically becoming the new Smith of Seasons is rad.
   …but when I consider how much effort it would require to make this idea into a playable game, it’s obvious that what can be improved first, second, and third is GIVE MORE THOUGHT TO YOUR EXECUTION. There’s a ton of handwavium at play here, from accessing the Necromonger Ship to climbing mountains to dealing with the factions to handling the hammer-blow itself. One could certainly manage to make a fun campaign with this high concept, but it certainly appears that the designer intends something like a one-shot here. That’s…a little rough.
   I’m scratching my head a little on the best use case here.  I like the concept, but it’s a tremendous amount of work to give it a proper treatment, while running it as a one-shot feels a little…cheap? It’s also not something that easily fits into most ongoing games/worlds unless you’re cool with really changing your setting’s baseline theological design. I guess I’ll land on “one shot” side here, but it really is awkwardly positioned. Given this is a set of wild ideas mixed with sneaky homework assignments, mining the adventure for neat ideas is very rewarding.
   Final Rating? **/***** and that one added star is only grudging because while it is a cool idea, it’s NOT a COMPLETE adventure. Come back and do the work to turn this into a 20-pager, oh authorial trio.
Nifty yak illustrations, tho.

A “zungeon” by Katt Kirsch, level not listed.
Kind of maybe sort of written for OSE?
   I don’t know what you call Artpunk, but this thing’s heart is what I’d call Artpunk. Sure, there’s an attempt to make our bare little eight pages (six after cover/rear) describe an ambitiously large two dozen key dungeon plus a hexcrawl, but the fundamental focus here is on presentation. It’s cool-looking, the aesthetic is very much to my taste, and format is admirably clean. Unfortunately, as that ratio usually portends…our content is a little thin.
   Story is a little bit of a digging project. Our region’s troubles began, as these things do, with a falling star that sickened and mutated the local village (turning them into the Drek-men, pretty solid name). Baron figures he’ll use this clearly dangerous thing for power, specifically by hiring a bunch of alchemists and using it to prolong his life (?) and kill a red dragon (I dig this illustration). Hooks are a little tenuous but we need to play D&D tonight so I guess we’re hexcrawling (?) to the keep (?) where the Barron is dead, the fallen star is apparently an egg that hatched, and the taxidermized dragon is up and walking again. Go ye therefore and loot.
   So what I liked, before the art above and the pretty decent formatting…I like the magic available, with a +2 Sabre joined by a Staff of Striking and a carnelian periapt. Even better look is an NPC with combat stats who’s happy to see the players. Those are already good. I like one room being filled with a dozen live chickens, who alert the guards next door, charming. Dragon present, automatic +1. 

  You know what’s about to come here…WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED IS GIVE ME A REAL MAP. This is a ball-and-stick style map with a 3D isometric layout. I like adding a z-axis, but the abstraction is still pretty miserable, really undercuts what is actually some halfway decent flow. The “hexcrawl” “map” is also not “good”, just a little gauntlet going from Big Town to Bad Keep. Decent magic loot aside, the gold values in this one are awful and should be massively increased, you’re fighting a dragon for heaven’s sake. All bad, but honestly the worst sin here are the abstracted keys…each room has a very tiny one or two line description, and most of the interactability is in the random encounter charts. One of the most important bits of information, that the baron is dead, isn’t revealed until the keys by the way. Uh. No. A little more personality distinction would help the Drek Men too.
   The best use case here is as a quest for your OSEnians, I reckon. The biggest issue is that I’m not sure what level we’re looking at on this one, the Dreks are basically goblins but the dragon is and legit unnerfed dragon (except for being stupid). It could be fairly fun. Lot of homework for that fun though, and not a lot value to extract sans context.
   Final Rating? **/***** pretty much only because of the dragon. If there’d been a less abstracted map and more details given in the keys it could have been a lot better, but as it is we’re mostly just here to admire style.

A dungeon by Idyll Games, level not listed.
Written for The Electrum Archive, whatever that is.
   There are an infinite number of RPG systems. Mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers may tell you that’s impossible…they might point out the sheer vastness of the concept of infinity, the fact that there are only eight billion people on this planet right now, the fact that even if a hundred billion worlds with a trillion people all working for a quadrillion years on bespoke artsy RPG systems we still shouldn’t have a drop in the bucket compared to the limitless vastness that is infinity. Nevertheless, there are an infinite number of RPG systems.
   To whit, The Electrum Archive. No idea what it is, but this adventure is written to be compatible with it under the TEA license. Six pages with a generous art budget, eight keys, kind of random placement of information here or there, but otherwise with normal bolding/bullets/organization. Good job, Idyll Games, I saw your sketchy map and had been worried, but this is a perfectly readable product.
   Our story is fine. Rumors are about a new sacred spring in the desert draw in pilgrims, but a lot of those who drink from the spring later die. Apparently in this setting there are malign High Spirits who can move into handy empty idols, in this case said spirit is haunting an old shrine and sending up water as a temptation to pilgrims. Why? Metaphysics are unclear, but there’s nothing wrong with the odd hungry ghost in any setting. Please go destroy the evil idol, thanks.
   What I liked, beyond the dark chalk-art piece on the penultimate page, is this map. It’s linear, but with an 8-room dungeon that’s reasonable, and it does have water features which always improve things. Plus there are multiple means of ingress, secret passages, and it all makes sense. The scribbly style here is not at all to my taste, but game recognize game. I like the monsters, just the right amount of weirdness, and the sturgeons that grab and drown PCs are a good idea. I waffled a bit on the drowning mechanic being in the “liked” column, but in the end I think it’s neat…anyone who drowns in this shrine reawakens in the silver pool at full health but having lost one core memory. It’s fine for a one-off weird space. Treasure values, I have no idea, but the treasure itself is well-placed and decently frequent. This one surprised me with how many decent elements it had.
   Which is why what can be improved seems a little bare. I do think the site lacks a little on the interaction front. There are naturalistic traps and bits to fiddle with, and the monsters all have goals, but something sentient and able to talk would make for a better session. Even a multiply-drowned amnesiac would be nice. On the drowning thing, I’d also add a mechanical penalty myself, but I’m not sure if this system has enough juice to supply that. Obviously, writing this for B/X or whatever would be an improvement but now we’re just being churlish.
   Yeah, you’re hearing me right, this is a pretty okay adventure site. I think the best use case is to adapt it into whatever system you are running, put it in a handy desert hex (or other dry region, to be honest), and let those rumors naturally flow. It’s not anything unique or out-of-this-world, but that’s not needed all the time, sometimes you just need a decent little adventure site. This is that.
   Final Rating? ***/***** with almost another half star added. Really, it’s as good as something this humble and small can be, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. A good and useful location, feel free to place in your hexmap with my permission.