5E Mini-Dungeon: Pit your Wits (5e)

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. Big plus: This mini-dungeon comes with a key-less .tif player map as well as a high-res GM map for VTT-use – kudos!

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 a weird meteorite – the fall of the it has resulted in truly strange creatures – like giant toads covered in glowing toadstools. Highly acidic acid bubbles burst, stones may cause insanity; 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 wyrmling living nearby is now something completely different – investigating the strange place 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. While the 5E-version doesn’t have random encounters, its conversion is rather detailed – in the original, this was a crashed space-ship and this version changes the strange proceedings and hazards rather well.

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, and the inclusion of a key-less map and VTT-capable options is a big plus for me.

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, and while I personally bemoan that the 5E-version loses the science fantasy component, The person who tackled the conversion has done a great job at changing the theme in a consistent manner and since 5E has so far significantly less source-material to work with, I get the decision. I can’t comment on who did it, since it doesn’t specify the conversion specialist. However, none of the hyperlinks in this pdf are functional, which constitutes a slight comfort detriment. My final verdict will hence clock in at a well-deserved 3.5 stars, rounded up for the purpose of this platform.

You can get this pdf here on OBS!

Endzeitgeist out.

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