Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io…Lost Eye of Ospinode

A dungeon by Sergio Cotelo, level unspecified
Written for System Agnostic
  You would think the trifold would have a standard fold pattern, but I see multiple takes on the trifold design over the course of this labor. Considering the vast majority of itch.io adventures have to be actually used either on a tablet or a phone, any sort of folding design represents an obscuration of the adventure’s information. Some people love ‘em, though, they keep cropping up. This one uses its “two pages” to detail a nine-room dungeon with just enough greyscale pixel art to induce primal feelings of nostalgic positivity in your humble reviewer. A few minor ESL issues crop up here or there but it’s overall well-written in a conversational, albeit excitable, tone. All-caps text with flourishes like “THE WATER CARESSES THE FINE SAND OF THIS BEACH” might annoy some users but I find it charming.
  Yes, yes, but what about THE PLAY Mary Todd? Well you see there were these pirates, right? They tricked the titular Ospinode (Neptune, basically) into giving up his left eye, which they then hid in a cave before dying to wrath-of-the-gods reasons. Now there’s a treasure map, a rumor of a mighty artifact, and the DM is looking at you all expectantly so you better bite on this quest hook. This is a fine setup.
  Setup goes first into my what I liked bucket. There’s attention paid to having dynamic and flavorful encounters with fishmen and giant turtles, including some communication nods. I like there being two entrances to the sea caves, one by water and one by land, that’s a good instinct. The secret door, wonder of wonders, genuinely matters. Finally, as a usability nod, all monsters are given stats in the text, which means I do NOT give this my usual system-agnostic ire. It’s just B/X, which is fine.
  What can be improved first is the map. This is NOT, for once, me talking about the map’s design structure, which is a little linear but that’s completely fine for nine rooms. Instead, this is a visual design critique…the pixel-art tile set for different terrains is a good idea, but water and sand are way too similar in the greyscale. As an object d’art I enjoy this, but if I was using this at the table I’d be a little annoyed. Encounters, there’s also a bit more hack-and-slash density than is idea, with also the sin of “1d6 fish people” cropping up multiple times in room keys. Bad, no, you don’t give me homework. Treasure found in a half-buried chest is nice (that should provoke an encounter to dig up) but sadly the titular eye itself is a little…sad. It’s the LEFT EYE of the GOD OF THE SEA and its power is…Create Water once a day. Give us something more, friend, particularly when it’s an artifact that carries with it the danger on annoying the aforesaid sea god. I like the seed, but some growing is needed.
  You know, best use case here is the have this as a sea cave dungeon found on a treasure map, just like it says on the tin. I’d be embarrassed about how minor the artifact’s magic effects are, but hey, it’s a functional plan at least.
  Final Rating? **/***** which is just about the floor for something I could see myself using. Pity there’s a lot of homework associated with it but at least it’s something you could see getting actual play.