Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io…Vagabonds and Wastrels #1

A ‘zine (with dungeon) by Logen Nein, level 1-2.
Written for Heroes of Adventure
  Interesting, I’m going to apparently do a mini-theme over the holiday week, ‘zines-with-adventures. Mr. Nein here is going to be wrapping up our month with a Heroes of Adventure product, not a beloved system but unlike most it’s never made me mad. The ambitious “1” on this product tells me we have a man with a dream, a dream of tons of twelve-page little labors of love, each with a few handy tables, a rule hack or two, a hex flower, a blank map to fill in, a new player race…and a two-page adventure. We’re adventure reviewers here on Crapshoot Monday, but the rest of content here seems nice. Usability probably has a hit rate about like late-stage Dragon Magazine, it’s fine. My main focus is on “A Grave Concern”, the adventure:

  The plot here won’t set your world on fire, “a local community” is under attack by dead ancestors at night, an unspecified bounty gets offered to the PCs for killing or capturing whoever’s responsible for the undead infestation. The burial grounds are “two or three hexes away” from the community with vague handwaves about encounters on the way, and finally we reach the eight-room barrow to loot and/or explore. Grave robbers have opened the place up and half of them got killed, while the “few” remaining await in ambush. Adorable little map has keys and the traps are called out individually, go to the end of the tomb and face the Ancient King, who is surprisingly willing to chat about things but also holds a magic sword and guards a treasure trove, so odds aren’t great for Mr. King receiving a peaceful resolution to his ongoing issues.
  It might be the five-day-old wassail talking, but what I liked first was the little map, not just artistically compelling in a scribbly way but a good layout for a short-shot. Traps are classic but good, a portcullis trap, a cave-in trap, and a secret door that falls forward to smash unwary openers, that last one is a hoot. Loot is flavorful without being overdone, magic items are nice (shield that can block hit without shattering and healing sword that raises the wielder as undead). Once we’re inside the mound, descriptions are tight and flavorful.
  …which leads me to what can be improved. GIMMIE SPECIFICS, DUDE. The vague stuff is completely no-value-added, I could have written that starting plot synopsis about ten thousand different starting adventures…once again, I can change details but you’re the writer, you tell me the village name, the name of the ancient king, how many grave robbers are ambushing me (!), there’s a space issue here that is actually easier to solve with proper nouns. I was also about to get all excited about the cruelty of a banshee in a starter adventure, but that’s a much milder monster in this system so...okay. But give her a name, for an example.
  Our best use case for “A Grave Concern” is as a fun little afternoon jaunt, either a one-shot or hex entry. Besides the funny door-fall trap there’s not much unique, but once you get beneath the ground it’s a fine example of the type.
  Final Rating? **/***** with a generous rounding up. What the heck, it’s a new year in a couple days. Just give me proper nouns next time, Nein.