Everyman Minis: Lost Children
This Everyman Mini clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 3 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
Somewhere between the Plane of Dreams, the Shadow Plane and our mortal realms, there lies a place that we all can remember from our childhoods: The realm beyond the streets, beyond the bed, beyond the walls of the closet – the Underverse, a place where nature is not fixed, a place that can be equal parts Neverland or Nightmare realm. Time is erratic, and entryways and exits are ephemeral. Whether you visit UnLunDun or one of the aforementioned places – they all potentially fit in the underverse.
However, those kids and young beings (monstrous humanoids qualify) that stay too long in the Underverse, ultimately, become Lost Children, represented as a CR +1 template. Particularly if you consume the food and drink there, you’ll be at risk. And yes, this pdf does codify proper planar traits for the Underverse!
Mechanics-wise, Lost children gain darkvision, an improved natural armor bonus and a built-in armor bonus that scales with HD, +2 to all ability score modifiers, Ranged Feint…and they get claw attacks and are experts at combat maneuvers, courtesy of their mischievous nature. Protected by misdirection and nondetection with the ability to bed-stride (treestride using beds, with a greater range and the option to bring others along…), they are potent…however, exposure to bright light may have them temporarily collapse into piles of unwashed clothing – for a time. They rematerialize properly, but only when the clothes are not separated!
The pdf also includes a sample statblock, a young human lost child unchained rogue that clocks in at CR 5.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no hiccups on a formal or rules-language level. Layout adheres to the two-column full-color standard of the series, and Jacob Blackmon’s artwork provided is neat – strong Oliver Twist vibe there! The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
Alexander Augunas’ take on peter Pan-ish lost children is really cool. The plane is a great concept, and indeed, the concept can be captivating for adults and kids alike. It’d be perfectly valid to use the Underverse in conjunction with Childhood Adventures – or, if you’re looking to make things more horrific, to scavenge the concepts from DCC’s “Sinister Sutures of the Sempstress” and weave them in. Or to have the PCs, you know, attempt to cure/capture lost children and bring them back to their parents… The contextualization of the plane within a general planar cosmology helps to keep this easy to integrate into your game. That being said, I do have one minor complaint: As written, there is no way to lose being a lost child. While this obviously is thematically consistent with the real world mythweaving that inspired this pdf, it’s still a potential stumbling stone. That being said, I am complaining at a high level here. I genuinely adored this little pdf. 5 stars + seal of approval.
You can get these tough kiddos here!
Missed Childhood Adventures? While not requried to use this supplement, it’s a natural fit and can be found here!
Endzeitgeist out.
