Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io…Isle of the Bleeding Ghost

An adventure for level 1 by Jordan Thompson
Written for Shadowdark
   There’s a definite sub-category of Shadowdarkians who use the system primarily to play pirate-themed games. I don’t know why…I reviewed the core system in quite a lot of detail and nary a whit was seen about the shivering of timbers or the avasting of me hearties. Nevertheless, the nongame that is Pirate Borg doesn’t seem like enough for the RPGer who wants to be both swashbuckling and trendy. I don’t hate it, just don’t understand it. It’s a fine theme for RPG adventures, at least.
   In this particular pirate-themed Shadowdark adventure (seventeen rooms over eight pages), we’re in the classic “cursed buried treasure” territory with a legendary pirate queen sitting on a bunch of her booty in a sea cave, undead of course. I’m delighted to report she is, in fact, a bleeding ghost, unlike the skeleton portrayed on the front (beautifully done cover by the way, Mr. Thompson’s relative Cassandra seems like quite the artist). There’s also haunting music playing throughout the caves by an octopus on a pipe organ, because we’ve all seen the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
   I’ll start what I liked by being genuinely positive towards the map. It’s got multiple meaningful paths running through it, one an actual waterway, as well as three points of egress. Couple that with the diagrams working hard to show traps depicted on the main map and lots of cute doodads actually reflecting the contents of each room? Yessir, this is an admirable map. I like several of those clever traps, like a pool of sharp corals, a trap that dumps oil on water and lights it, sand-and-spike trap…it’s all solid. Good “stuff to mess with” too like a statue that blesses bleeders but curses vandals by turning them into fish. Solid.
   What can be improved most of all is applying some of that febrile imagination in the actual monster encounters. Skeletons attack. Castaways and mermen negotiate. Bleeding ghosts blood-scream. The octopus, uh, plays the organ and then attacks. It’s all very standard. Treasure is also a little bit insipid, which seems to be a Standard Shadowdark Problem. Nothing awful, but values are hard to translate to better XP systems and the magic items are meh. Ostensibly there are factions here but everyone is just sitting around in their rooms or on the somewhat labored random encounter chart. Which, by the way…1d6 darkmantles is potentially a little nasty for level 1’s, just sayin’.
   There’s a best use case here that’ll surprise nobody…just use this as an undead pirate adventure. There’s maybe a little bit to steal from with the traps but it all works together pretty well. You got a seafaring campaign loaded with pirates and mermaids and undead, throw this one at ‘em, they’ll have good time.
   Final Rating? **/***** because while nothing in here is particularly original or sparks joy, this is a competently made little dungeon module, worth using in a pinch.