Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io…Shots in the Dark (MEGA EDITION)

A dungeon compendium edited by Connor Ludovissy, levels 1-6
Written for Shadowdark
  Well, never let it be said that good ideas are one-of-a-kind. My adventure site compilation has the contest and review elements, but the end product is eight small adventures in a thirty-two-page document, designed to be easy to drop into any ongoing campaign. Shots in the Dark is a sixty-eight-page compilation of eighteen adventures designed to be easy to drop into any ongoing campaign. I’m a fan of the format, obviously, and while I don’t play Shadowdark it’s certainly produced usable adventures for me in the past…exciting. The review here is going to be a little chopped up/capsule, but that’s not a problem given scope.
  Also, you may be temped to play a drinking game every time my map comment contains the term “loop” but please refrain, you will not survive.

  First off, we have Spores From the Undercity, a classic “fight fungus in a sewer” nine-room level 1 adventure by Brynjar Már Pálsson. Hey, it’s Brynjar, I’ve seen an adventure by him before, I really liked it. Now we have a classic sewer dive, an addictive fungal Last Of Us bloom is spread spores under “the city” and needs to be destroyed, along with the corrupted druid who’s responsible. Thugs and giant rats, check, but there are no were-rats so at least that trope is dodged. Map is tiny with an apathetic pair of loops.
  What I liked here are some of the descriptions, nice and goopy but also tragic. Sadly what can be improved is mostly map-dependent, because this tiny little thing is over-stuffed to the point of absurdity, and there’s also nothing really to explore here. The best use case is when you need the most generic of all sewer adventures in a one-shot, not much content to raid. Final Rating will cap out at **/***** because while there’s nothing overtly wrong here, there’s also not much innovative or new.

  Second is Flooded Crypt of the Necromancer, a twelve-room level 1 tomb from Samantha O’Brien. It’s a standard tomb with bandits in it, undead waking up because of disturbed rest, with a “rock troll” adding a wrinkle. If you like the idea of a troll named Tommy Rocks who sings rock songs and wears shoulder pads and a pink tutu then you will dig the vibe here, otherwise you’re like me. Map is tiny with an apathetic set of loops.
  Yeah, what I liked was darn little beyond the admirable thinking about morale effects, what can be improved is “add more interest to your enemies than soap opera details between thieves”, and the best use case is probably to add to a city-crawl to make you players appreciate Spores From the Undercity more. A final rating of */***** is all I can grant, because while it’s inoffensive it’s also not doing much more than what you’d do with a random generator. Add eleventy billion stars if you’re tickled by the example punk rock troll.

  Third in our list are The Rotting Gardens of Rafflesia, a five-room level 1-2 crypt penned by Sam McKay. Now we’re in the 5RD realm, and it’s as simple as the formula normally is, just a little crypt of rot in a swamp, where you loot a few magic items and avoid plant/zombie/ooze encounters. Map is an arty little isometric illustration with a notional pointless loop.
  What I liked about this one was the corpse flower with an elf skeleton in it and the bone motif for some of the book standard magic items. What can be improved is probably cutting down on the wandering encounters, don’t bother with the pointless loop via water-filled tunnel, and give environmental effects a chance to matter. Best use case is to put this in an elfy swamp of your choice….I’m giving this a final rating of **/***** because it’s usable for a quick lair result or whatever.

  Numero quattro is Ill-Gotten Gains, a level 1-2 pirate lair made out of ten rooms from the mind of Michael Kuhns. Basic idea is that these pirates are lairing in a ruined temple to Mammon, greedy players are raiding them while the bulk are out pillaging, there’s a chance that the pirates return in the middle of things and there’s a few curses from the god of greed around the place. Map is vaguely interesting, the loops offered only as a fig leaf to Justin Alexander but the real action is that it’s a cove with multiple caves, there’s some Actual Tactical Potential here.
  Well hot dog, what I liked on this one will take up multiple sentences. The map is good, as mentioned, and it’s peopled in an interesting way (a ballista guarding the cove has its gunner asleep by default, for example). The theming is strong, both “pirate” and also “god of greed” parts are strong in the encounters, treasure, and curses…particularly note an amulet that brings the dead back to life, but with a 1:6 chance (worse every time)  of turning them into mindless slaves of Mammon. Really what can be improved the most would be adding a third dimension to the map with elevation and probably giving more details in order of battle/pirate return stuff. Best use case is how I am going to use it, as a pirate lair on your campaign map. It dovetails with a rich merchant lord’s interests in my current campaign even. Final rating of ****/***** means this sucker I’d actually welcome in the adventure site contest. Well done Mr. Kuhns.
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  Fifth on our docket is The Doom of Cear Ferros, a fifteen-room ruined keep for level 1-2s (no) written by Jack Arcanum. What we have here is your standard Cursed Fallen Keep, a little fortress in the Vague Foothills inhabited by undead and scavengers. You’re here for looting so it’s fine…actually there’s a comment about lost merchants, so maybe another hook got cut because it implies a wider world. Map is pretty much what you expect for a keep diagram, simple box-with-boxes setup.
  I’m going with what I liked as “consistent vibe” on this one. There’s an abyssal Thing in the squamous depths below the keep that’s cursing everyone here and making the dead restless, caves leading up to it have some good horror touches. There are fun D&D moments like a skeleton pinned by a magic sword…of course the skeleton animates and attacks if you grab the loot. Really what can be improved is lean in on it, make there be weird tunnels underneath, bring out more demons, make the map more interesting…and please for the love of Pete up the recommended character levels. Still the best use case is to run this as a pure old-fashioned adventure site, you’ll have a good time. My frustrations aside a final rating of ***/***** reflects the fact that I’m going to put this on a map someday.
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  Adventure number six (a third of the way through, woohoo) are The Mines of Gloomwind Ravine, which is a level 2 adventure with no gloom and no wind but plenty of caves, Frey Bugbee did this thing. Ostensibly a fetch quest of a McGuffin, what this actually is is a bunch of set-piece encounters in isolated hexagonal caves. The map deceives…while it looks pretty linear, there’s actually a stupid amount of teleporting, magic tunnels, passways, etc that make it so nonlinear as to be a mush.
  There are individual set-pieces among what I liked, like obvious magically restrained cockatrices next to big stacks of gold. That also shows what can be improved though, every part of this adventure is as subtle as a hammer, it’s also very direct puzzle/fight/secret password stuff and the magical bypasses of geography is awkward too. Best use case if probably taking a highly gonzo-tolerant group into this as a one-shot, but a final rating of */***** is what you get when you completely fail to spark joy.

Lucky seven is The Monster Under the Tower, which is a level 2 five-room tower, natch, by Sarah Angell. I do begin to suspect most of those included in this compilation are not publishing under their given Christian names. Reasonable, because you don’t always want to be known on LinkedIn for your little tower-crawls where a butcher disappeared making a delivery. The titular monster under the tower is a little dwarf girl who’s also a werewolf. This situation makes me a little sad. The tower is a linear tower, cutely illustrated at least.
   Guess for what I liked I can put in the tower doodle, although it gains no points for layout. Thus what can be improved is not so much the map itself but the whole thing, it’s such a childishly simple premise that it really needs beefing up. Best use case is as a wizard tower adventure if you’ve burned out on the 831,941,587 other wizard’s tower adventures, you know that final rating has to be */*****.

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    We’re going to strange places in adventure eight with Vault of the Once Great Thief, a bizarre level 1-3 dungeon in the form of a lock tumbler by StorytellerSteamer. I’m having a bit of a hard time even understanding this one, the basic plan is that the titular vault is protected by a weird set of up-down lock pins that shift the chambers up and down, said chambers are also infested by kobolds who are trying to get the McGuffin of the Vault. Map is trying really hard and gives us what we need.
  What I liked here is the creative idea and boldness in pursuit of it, but what can be improved is make it more clear”, probably this never was play tested by a different DM than the author. Best use case is to use this as a gonzo vault, it’s actually something I could see putting in Sharn in an Eberron campaign. Final rating **/***** improves by at least one star if you’re Eberron or other high magitek setting.

  Nine and halfway through gets us into The Forgotten Isle of the Hydra Cult, where six rooms in a rock on the water gets called a level 1-3 adventure by Ethan Schotborgh. The tagline “race against pirates to find buried treasure within a cursed island’s crypt” tells you what you need to know, but while I think he’s going for Pirates of the Caribbean, the end result is probably a bit more standard “murderhobos murder mobs” fare. Map is a linear spiral and that’s fine.
  What I liked in this one were the shameless Indiana Jones references, a simple riddle, a rolling boulder trap, and the giant ruby you steal in the center being load-bearing, causing the whole dungeon to collapse unless something of equal weight is on the pedestal. That’s the stuff right there. Bonus points for a great illustration of a hydra in the adventure. Sadly what can be improved is making this whole affair a little more subtle, there’s a little less detail that needed for the scope. Still the best use case is going to be poking this as a hidden lair in your island map or as a one-shot when you only have an hour-long timeslot, the final rating of **/***** would be a whole ‘nother star if just a little more depth had been added.

Nice hydra art, props to the artist.

  As a comment now that we’re halfway through this whole kit and kaboodle it’s a little sad that we’re still in “for levels 1-3” territory. Part of the whole point of a ten-level TTRPG system is to make a clear and obvious “you’ve won the game” condition in reach even for the Smartphone Generation. I think if you play all nine discordant adventures back-to-back you’re level 4 at this point and out of range of the next one. Plus rather confused. It’s a small quibble, but I think it shows a lack of imagination on the part of the Shadowdark community, this is certainly staying in the shallow end. With water wings on.

  Double-digit adventure number ten is The Blackridge Labyrinth where Connor Ludovissy (hello again) takes level 1-3’s on a dozen-key maze run trying to find some lost children. There is a full A5 page dedicated to describing the village (3 paragraphs) and wilderness (3 paragraphs). This is the single longest non-dungeon adventure writing ever accomplished for Shadowdark. Once you get to the dungeon you go through a maze and then fight skeletons and an ancient crystal controlling one of the kids, plus a dead kid, hardcore. Also unpleasant. Map has the usual objection of “how are you running a maze in a TTRPG?”, and is otherwise very linear.
  Okay, what I liked was the genuine no-foolin’ village description given at the start, along with a ranger guy who comes along to find his kid brother (the child corpse). What can be improved beyond “don’t try mazes in D&D” is everything else, sadly. Wilderness is just automatically finding the dungeon after a 2:6 roll to see if two wolves attack. The history and reasons for the purple crystal being the boss fight aren’t relevant to gameplay or indeed discernable to the players. What’s my motivation, Ludovissy? The best use case for this is as a one-shot for a group of players who don’t find descriptions of dissected children being wept over by a brother distasteful. Final rating of */***** is for lack of function, though, less the personal dislike of the form.

  We’ll leave level 1 eventually, but not in number eleven, Sam McKay’s The Tarwell, where five rooms entice level 1-3 PCs in a…tar factory? That’s now monster-infested and contaminating the town’s water supply? There’s not a lot to say, there’s a new monster, the ocktar, which is a land octopus who lives in tar, kill them, and get “the town” to hand you a bag of rewards. Map is a simple little four-armed star.
  What I liked is the ocktar, I guess, the octopus ink-ocktar tar connect makes a kind of spine-level sense. What can be improved is “the rest”, however. I’m not against a short adventure but “unusually clean wrench that functions as a +1 mace” shows an unfortunate lack of depth. Best use case is thus as a city site or one-shot for that mythical 1-hour con slot. Final rating going to be */***** for lack of spark.

  We’re at a dozen now and FINALLY OUT OF LEVEL 1. The Scorchard by Sam McKay is a seven-key affair for levels…2-3. Be still my heart. Now that we’re into the stratospheric heights, the location is a gonzo little gem garden located inside a volcano being tended by an eldritch guardian from the plane of fire made of embers. The map is teeny but it has one of those required loop thingies.
  Flavor will be to taste, but what I liked was how committed this adventure is to the concept, I like the idea of a rock garden in a lava tube that grows stone trees with gem-fruits. The ember guy is a pretty good bossfight too. What can be improved would be to grow the concept into something appropriately sized…this should be giant chambers and multiple lava tubes, built for at least mid-level PCs, instead of this dinky little dot of a site. This means the best use case is as an epic site for a suffering group of mudcores so abused by their dungeon master that its taken years to hit level 3…and that’s going to net a final rating of **/*****, much more disappointed than usual for two stars.

  Thirteenth adventure is up to level 3 only with Thrice Sealed, a nine-room dungeon delivered to us by Sarah Angell. I was being slightly sarcastic last time, but this one is actively enraging…a level 3 adventure about unsealing a Domni and two Seraphs bound by seals of molten gold and blood, including a golden intelligent evil longsword wreathed in eternal flame. Traps are “take 2d6 damage” and enemies are “acolytes”. Map is a dinky little chapel map with technical loops.
  I’m frustrated, what I liked were a few of the ideas, like an angelic halo as loot/relic. But what can be improved once again is give us some space, the whole thing is so small and so claustrophobic that it’s completely at odds with the central ideas, which is why the best use case is to raid this thing for actual high-level play, while feeling pity for the benighted creatures who never experience a level higher than three. Final rating is an actively angry **/***** because this is cruel self-sabotage.

  Sarah Angell strikes again at adventure fourteen with Warrens of the Deepwood King, where eight keyed areas get explored by level 3’s in a social mode. A huge tree is our setting this time, with fairies in the canopy fighting a war against a mushroom-man king living in tunnels at the roots. The tree’s dryad is sad about it and offers a staff of restoration to stop the fighting. Genocide is always the solution, but apparently just stealing mushroom-guy’s crown is also a fix. Cute illustration of the guy. The side-view vertical map manages a limp loop to thrill us.
  So while what I liked was the enabling of some negotiation, what can be improved would be considering what irritated hyperviolent well-armed vagrants would do…my players are setting this tree on fire. The best use case is as a bunnies and burrows encounter for groups of children, but the final rating of */***** assumes a normal group of grown adults who’re going to get annoyed.

  Adventure number fifteen and we’re finally up to level 3-5 with Samantha O’Brien’s Elemental Mistakes, a fifteen-key exploded wizards tower in the middle of a big elemental battle. The hook is “two letters teleport to you” which is, um, direct. The basic story (three apprentices tried to summon an elemental, they screw up, one is a murderous jerk) won’t win any novelty awards but at least all the fighting elementals give the location some potential dynamism. Map is simple but at least the tower formula gets shaken up by the fact that half of it is exploded.
  Lest I sound jaded, let me emphasize that what I liked is the weirdo environment with stairs having reversed gravity (stick-figure diagram provided), the apprentices having little personalities, and the magic items being functional…all good. Though the first of what can be improved would be to add more magical magic, the fighting earth/water/fire/air is a little generic, nice as the fight timer is. A wizard’s tower without a clear wizard’s personality reflected is also always a missed opportunity. The best use case is still probably as a one-shot or con game, absent a long-seeded hint here. Final rating at **/***** is more peaceable, it’s about as good as the concept deserves.

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  Sixteen and I’m all right with you, in Frozen Tomb of the Nameless One Samantha O’Brien takes five rooms to outline a crashed spaceship for level 3-5 PCs to explore. The thing appears as a snow-covered metal mountain in the middle of a frozen lake (apparently unseasonably cold), go inside you see a bunch of frozen bodies in space suits, poke around and get his by crew ghosts and space goop, and then finally free an ice elemental to wreck the countryside or bossfight. Gonzo space stuff abounds, somehow, even though the map is a little five room hexagonal loop.
  It’s not generally to my taste to have scifi in my D&D, but what I liked was how the shadows aboard the ship are more about fighting the ice guy than the PCs. What can be improved is to give us more imagination and weird gonzo on a CRASHED AND FROZEN SPACESHIP. Look, it’s not my taste but some people love this stuff and the scope needs to be a lot bigger for this premise. Best use case is thus as a little teaser for the gonzo-lovers, leaving ‘em wanting more. Final rating of */***** is because I for one do not like being teased.

  Seventeenth we have our penultimate adventure, Terror of the Demon Cyst by Michael Thorn, finally fully in the mid-levels with seven rooms aimed at level 5 PCs. Plot is pretty much your bog-standard “Mutant trolls lair in a wizard-made compound designed to contain a demonic cyst and oh by the way there are also duergar explorers”, so far so normal. A mummy is added for spice. Map is a basic loop, but with three potential entrances.
  What I liked was the map as far as it goes, nice to have multiple approaches, but what can be improved is “add more 3D elements” to the crawl along with well, everything else. Everything in a site doesn’t have to stick to theme, but there should be a theme, and this thing is all over the place, focus please. Also maybe telegraph your traps a little less than “there’s a painting of triggering both traps”. The best use case for this is as a one-shot targeted specifically at goldfish or Drew Barrymore’s character in 50 First Dates, long term memory is the real demon cyst. Final rating */***** but you can do better, Mr. Thorn.

  Finally, the eighteenth adventure fills us with excitement and hope. The Word-Eating Wyrm by Sam McKay is a whopping level 6, only seven rooms, but it promises us a dragon. That’s what I’m talking about. The plot I’m all on board for, the city’s ruined great library has been taken over by a dragon who hoards books and scrolls, she’s served by kobolds but doesn’t really care for them, this is a good dragon premise. Map is where I get nervous, as it’s tiny and there’s not even a real loop.
  I’m going to start with what I liked, and it’s more than just the premise. I like that the valuable book room is barred to the kobolds and they resent that, and I like that it contains a bonus hook, a map to an ancient bank vault. The dragon casts spells by eating scrolls, which is perfect for a dragon and is accompanied by a great art piece. What can be improved is…more please. Everything is nice and creative and then you go and crush me by having my level 6 DRAGON ADVENTURE be so dinky and small. This is Just Another Lair in the end, and a shabby one at that. The best use case is to seed into a city crawl and then beef it up to high heaven, just take the premise and the pieces and make something worthy of a dragon out of it. Sad final rating of **/***** is given out as a single tear rolls down my cheek. I thought we were going to end it well.
  Actually the last "content" is three pages of apathetic tables for travel encounters, dungeon hooks, and encounter types, all requiring a massive amount of homework to get to usable states.

I love this picture so much, best thing in the entire product.

  The overall feelings I have towards this product is…tiredness. It’s suffering a lot from comparison to Adventure Sites I, which you might argue is unfair given the selection process winnowed down an initial set into the eight best selected by five judges, but I look at even my lowest-ranked sites and I still see more creativity, invention, and quality than even the few redeemable adventures here. So, what’s to blame?
   Some of the issue is with Shadowdark as a system. It seems like a perfectly cromulent dungeon crawler, but something I didn’t emphasize enough with the quite decent example adventure from the starter edition is that it was alienated from any consideration of an ongoing campaign in a living world. Or even of a general setting for context at all. This weakens the adventures in a compilation like this, leading to an alienated, aimless lack of theme or consistent worldbuilding. Shadowdark needs a 1-10 (max) campaign setting, rather desperately, something that brings its fanbase into the world outside of the dungeon. I know its wilderness/city mechanics are sparse, but they’re not this sparse.
  More than anything, though, I’m going to be complimentary to my audience and say that the people submitting to the Adventure Site Contest are generally smarter, wiser, and more veteran people. As a result of it being The New Hotness Shadowdark is pulling from a bunch of newbies who’ve never read the wisdom of the ages, nor have they learned lessons that come from years of playing a campaign. The levels are a symptom of this lack of experience…nobody involved in this lacks talent or creativity, but there’s a lack of playtesting sensed throughout the whole thing. Nobody’s putting this stuff on the table first.
  My overall value extract from Shots in the Dark is 2.5 out of 18…that’s two adventures in the pile I’ll be using, and another couple that I’ll at least be taking bits from. A solid job was done with formatting, writing, and art on this product, which makes it all a little bit sadder…I wish you well, Shadowdarkians, just try playing at the table first next time.
  And hey, if any of the writers want to submit to the next Adventure Sites Contest...