Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found On Itch.io…Into the Shadows

An adventure by James Melo, level 1.
Written for Shadowdark
   Waitaminute, do I detect a repeat author here? I believe we’ve encountered Mr. Melo very recently. That one was a trifold, this time we have a full-bore twenty-page dungeon, complete with twenty keyed locations and all the usual rumors/hooks/bestiary. This ratio might make you nervous at first, but it’s okay…these are the Shadowdark standard of zine-scaled with margins comfortable even by your most short-sighted ninety-year-old grandma’s standards. It’s simple, but it’s also nice and complete.
   It’s a first-level adventure, so our story is about as standard as it gets: Goblins in a cave lead to undead knights in a tomb. Goblins have pet giant centipedes. Undead have giant rats. Default railroad is “players randomly bumble upon a convoy that’s just been raided hours ago, d12 victims have been taken and are getting et”. That’s a little convenient, but your modern players expect a little hand-holding. And this is a very, very, Present Year adventure:

   I’ll grant a single what I liked point to the map is that there are multiple ways in, there’s the Boring Assumed Way with the cave opening and then there’s the more interesting way with a bunch of standing stones on the hilltop leading down to the main tomb proper. There are a few nice bits of environmental interaction, like a goblin god’s idol inflicting negatives, a pool cavern only accessed via swimming, a portcullis that opens with a lever just out of reach…all fun little bits of interaction. There’s a fun bit with the giant centipedes eating a corpse with gold on it. They’re not evil or even aggressive, but don’t mess with their lunch.
   Unfortunately, what can be improved first of all is making a little more interest in all other NPC interactions. The goblins aren’t really built with many negotiation levers, the undead are mostly undead, and the one sentient undead guy you still fight just because he wants to hand off his magic sword to someone worthy. Not a lot of interesting fight stuff either, which is understandable for level 1 but we’re looking for places to improve here. Map, outside of the one water feature, is one of Dyson’s more boring ones. Loot could also stand to be a little better…the magic sword in particular feels a little underpowered unless we’re in a 5-minute-adventuring-day mode.
   I’ll say best use case here is probably to play a simple Ye Olde Game of Shadowdarke, not anything strange or unexpected, but pleasant and almost comforting. There’s nothing here particularly worth cutting out and using elsewhere. Nobody will be sad, it’s going to be a perfectly cromulent time.
   Final Rating? **/***** without rancor. It’s not offensive, it’s not even possible to mind this thing, but there’s nothing unusual here either.