Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io....The Mephic Laboratory of the Pescamancer

​A dungeon by Nate Treme, level obscura
Written for "old school"
   Pamphlet dungeon, ho...this time with vaguely 8-bit art and a silly theme. Okay, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice...nah, I won't be fooled. I like the old graphic style, but it's been too many times with a crummy adventure behind the look. This one is pretty standard, nine rooms described in two of the "folds", which is a lot of real estate left over for the two-page map, cover fold, and encounter stuff. I see you, Treme. I see you.
   Our story is appropriately weird, with the titular pescamancer a mad wizard all about making fish-mixed-with-other-creature hybrid monsters. The local fishing village doesn't particularly appreciate getting monsters instead of mackerels in their nets, so the local headman offers a hundred bucks and a magic fishing net to the party that kills "whatever is causing this". Simple enough. Go fight fish-monsters. 
   Silly as it is, what I liked was how this adventure conveyed its story simply and effectively, we get the story in and out with no muss, no fuss. Not everything has to be Shakespeare, sometimes its enough to have a delving excuse in some dank caves. Fishling monsters are fine beasts to fight. I like how there's a majestic mystic turtle to rescue, that makes sense. Having potions of water breathing, mermaid statues, and a sharkskin-bound tome on fish anatomy as loot is all good. Map iconography is good and communicative. 
   Once we get to the execution, though, we're deep in what can be improved territory though. Map is "loopy-doopy'd" but there's not a lot of exploratory gameplay despite the water features. Fish themeing is strong here but there's not a lot of mechanical stuff making the fish stuff matter...because, again, no specific system is designed for (drink). Basically, we have an initial idea, but there's not a lot of follow-through. Pity.
   Best use case here is to use as a handy-dandy little lair when you need an hour of gameplay at most. It's got a few cute ideas but it's rather insubstantial.
   Final Rating? **/***** because I'm feeling generous and my youngest child loves turtles. It's not very much muchness, but hey, sometimes you need a lair in your back pocket. It'll serve.