Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found On Itch.io…The Cursed Knights

An adventure by Clyde (@LowKeyTTRPG), levels 1-2.
Written for Shadowdark
   I have…questions. You have a production written for Shadowdark, probably the easiest system to write for in the world. Level one or two. You have a generous nineteen pages to explain your dungeon, which only has eleven keys (confusingly labelled 1-3, and a-h). You’re using lots of tables, color coding, and careful long faction descriptions for what gets encountered in those less-than-dozen locations. So…WHY WOULD YOU FEEL THE NEED TO MAKE A YOUTUBE VIDEO EXPLAINING IT? Alright, Clyde, it’s cross-promotion, I get it, game recognizes game. Even so.
   The story is about as normal as it can get, the second “undead knights + monster humanoids” we’ve hit in a row. Little more spice, this time at least there’s a solid connection…knights are cursed by a dragon they killed to rest uneasily, kobolds were lairing here just chilling until taken over by some dragon-worshipping lizardmen, now they’re stealing mining equipment to break into the knight’s inner tomb to steal his dragon-fire sword. Add in a lost wedding band from a confused wandering local villager and some bandits blowing a hole into the complex and boom, there you go. It’s a lot to stuff in to an itty bitty sub-Dyson.
   So what I liked here are actually quite a few of the little details. There are neat little traps, the magic items and the npcs of note are all named and with motivations, and the map has two entrances, which actually matters. All good. I don’t know why, but I was particularly charmed by the pair of vases-with-scrolls-in-them in the final undead room with clear “break in case of restless dead” instructions. More of that, please.
   Alas, all this good work is severely undercut by the teeny-tiny nature of the map; what can be improved first and foremost is to EXPAND THE MAP. Ideally, add water features and a second level or two. Conversely, the actual map itself is perfectly functional as a small lair map, but in that case the improvement would be to stuff it less. I’m also not fond of preset loot that then requires rolling on the system table; pre-roll that crap, particular if they’re in the adventure to be anti-undead priest scrolls. Rolls are fun outdoor or random encounters, not a pregen little lair.  I really think this guy had a good story idea with some good design intent but was really under-served by his map.
   Thus it with resignation that I say best use case here is to run it as a one-shot in 5E. It would be more useful if it was lighter, or heavier, but the puffy slow-combat shamble that is 5E needs that kind of over-engineered, under-sized craft. Shadowdark can handle a lot better, brother. I guess this is why we needed a YouTube explainer.
   Final Rating? **/***** but I really think there’s some promise here. Either scale up or scale down and we have quite a decent adventure writer. Give us more next time, Mr. Clyde.

Not bad, but needs MORE.