Mini-Dungeon: Pit your Wits
This pdf clocks in at 2 pages and is a mini-dungeon. This means we get 2 pages content, including a solid map and all item/monster-stats hyperlinked and thus, absent from the pdf, with only deviations from the statblocks being noted for the GM. Oh, and the series now comes in an archive that also contains…*drumroll* a .tif-version of the map! Yeah, that’s pretty amazing
Since this product line’s goal is providing short diversions, side-quest dungeons etc., I will not expect mind-shattering revelations, massive plots or particularly smart or detailed depictions, instead tackling the line for what it is. Got that? Great!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.
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Still here?
All right!
The PCs arrive at a well-known mining operation’s base…the issue, though, would be that it’s gone. In its stead, there lies a chasm filled with inky blackness, the result of an elder thing’s “planer[sic!]” ship crash-landing there – the fall of the ship has resulted in truly strange creatures – like giant crickets covered in glowing toadstools. Highly volatile fuel left on planks may ignite at a touch, moss has transformed in mindslaver moss; a goblin was turned into a monstrosity of warped legs with tentacle-like bits; intestines have congealed into a slug-like thing and what was once a half-dragon troll living nearby is now something completely different – investigating the strange crash-site will certainly yield some seriously interesting, horrific foes…and can be seen as a masterclass example in practice on how to properly reskin monsters to make them feel fresh and new. And yes, random encounters included.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the pdf comes sans bookmarks, but needs none at this length. Cartography is full color and surprisingly good for such an inexpensive pdf. The .tif version included here, which you can easily cut up and hand out to the players as they progress is a huge bonus -and even better: A KEY-LESS VERSION sans the annoying letters/numbers is included as well for full VTT-compatibility!!!. The pdf does sport one nice piece of original full-color art – kudos!
Stephen Yeardley proves that he can do the horrific just as well as the creatively weird here – the mini-dungeon shows with perfect ease how you can reskin monsters and make them truly unique encounters, how you can logically and cohesively establish a thematic leitmotif in a mini-dungeon and run with it. This is a fun excursion, particularly so for fans of science-fantasy, dark fantasy or horror – with only minimal emphasis changes, you can easily ramp up the respective components. While this mini-dungeon is thus not necessarily brilliant, it most certainly represents a more than fun low-level excursion for such games. My final verdict will hence clock in at a well-deserved 4 stars.
You can get this cool mini-dungeon here on OBS!
While my review’s based on the PFRPG-version, there is also a 5e-iteration here!
Endzeitgeist out.
