One-on-One Mini-Dungeon: Six Feet Under

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.

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. This is a One-on-One mini-dungeon – intended for use by one GM and one player. As such, it obviously has different requirements that other modules

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 PC should have a small, sentimental heirloom.

The PC awakes in utter silence, as an amazing read-aloud text catapults the PC straight into the proceedings: All is silent…and it looks like a goblin was just interrupted while robbing a grave. The PC’s grave, for the poor gal/guy has been buried alive – no gear near either and the last several months are just…gone from memory. The adventurer will have different issues, though, for the goblin sets the robbed grave ablaze while fleeing – so it’s climbing out of the grave first! After that, the PC will have to deal with the goblins – probably with a shovel, no less, and the nearby mausoleum contains more of the creatures…and they want the PC’s loot! In case the PC is overtaxed (very likely for less martial or unlucky characters), a night watchman can provide support – but in the end, the PC will be left with a lot of questions…to be continued…

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.

Justin Andrew Mason’s first one-on-one mini-dungeon is certainly not bad – it is a damn awesome way to kick off a campaign and can easily be used in regular contexts for either a whole group or the first character in the game…but at the same time, it does suffer from trying to be universal: Spellcasters may well burn alive before they escape their grave. Similarly, wizards sans spellbooks, clerics sans holy symbols, etc., may well be pretty screwed. This works well for skill/martial characters that do not rely on tools…and should imho specify the like. Such characters can have an amazing time here. The others…not so much. And unfortunately, as much as I love this otherwise, as a reviewer, I have to take that into account. This drags down what would otherwise be an amazing offering – For item-dependent classes, this can be as bad as 2 stars, for the right classes a 5 star+ seal experience, though. I have to take that range into account for my official final verdict and thus, I can’t rate this higher than 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

You can get this cool mini-dungeon here on OBS!

Endzeitgeist out.

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