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A jam submission

The Jikininki in the JugView project page

An adventure for Cairn 2e featuring weird happenings in a mountain town and a snowbound temple.
Submitted by Dododecahedron — 20 hours, 17 minutes before the deadline
Rated by 21 people so far
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The Jikininki in the Jug's itch.io page

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

nice job, solid adventure

Submitted

Good module! I like the Reliquarium concept, I'll borrow it for some adventure. Great job. It's  a good dungeon with interesting rooms, and easy to read.

Developer(+1)

Thank you, Francisco! I love your art

Submitted

This adventure is excellent. Extremely pleasing layout and a dungeon map consistent with the layout. The Breadblade is great. The forget-me-not crawlers are super eerie and I am stealing them. How would you stat the jikininki?

Developer

Thank you for the kind words! Because the Jikininki isn’t meant to be a threat, I’d give him the following stats: 3 HP, 10 STR, 10 DEX, 8 WIL. I’d reduce his WIL if players denied him access to corpses.

Submitted

Gave this one a read through and have added it to my roster! Really enjoy what you did here, the writing is well done and I really like the cover art! Looking forward to running it with my players sometime.

Developer(+1)

Thank you! If you do end up running it, I’d be curious to hear how it goes. I wonder if it’s telegraphed well enough that the characters should investigate the temple at night, specifically.

Submitted

I will reach out with a play report when I get the chance to bring my party to it.

Submitted

This reads like a creepy fairy tale from some ancient book no one's supposed to read anymore. Great setup, and I love the Mervyn Peakesque names of the NPCs. Strong themes. Exactly the kind of place PCs would want to investigate quickly and then get the hell away from ASAP.

Developer(+1)

Thank you! Titus Groan absolutely inspired a few of the character names

Submitted

Oof, that's a difficult title to work with, but you pulled it off! Good setup, clean dungeon, fun content. My nitpicks would be the information presentation, I think bolded words and bullets can help a GM easily find the information. Incredible that this is your first adventure. Make more!

Developer

Thank you for the comment! Yeah, I plan on using Cairn-style keying next time around

Submitted

Use of theme/title is on point. Lots of good world building and details that make the setting feel lived in. Understated horror elements. Well done. 

Developer

Thanks for reading!

Submitted

Very clever/imaginative adventure. I really like this concept: 

"The jikininki’s house, made from pieces of Feltarn homes"

I think it would be cool to explore that a bit more in a spatial sense. Like for example does that mean that certain keys from citizens open certain doors? Can knowledge of someone's home help you navigate the space? 

Other than that great!
Developer(+1)

Thank you! Ooh, those are great ideas and absolutely worth stealing if I create an expanded version of this

Submitted

Very clever/imaginative adventure. I really like this concept: 

"The jikininki’s house, made from pieces of Feltarn homes"

I think it would be cool to explore that a bit more in a spatial sense. Like for example does that mean that certain keys from citizens open certain doors? Can knowledge of someone's home help you navigate the space? 

Other than that great!
Submitted

High gameability with the lists of rumors, concrete info and secrets, the sort of thing you immediately go for in a module to learn it entirely.

Developer

Thanks! I appreciate the comment

Submitted

by my reckoning, this is one of the hardest titles i've seen: a specific creature in an uninspiring spot, without the raw power of a proper name, and a culturally loaded term on top of that. i would've been sweating in my boots if i got this lmao. i'm impressed with what you were able to turn out here - it's moody, strange, but still cleanly written and playable. the keying is functional without skimping out on some striking imagery. i really like the color choices, especially the fleshy pale purple associated with the jikininki! 

some minor thoughts:

  • i like using the colored bottom margin for notes, but i'm not sure the encounters were the most effective choice. partly because it's skimpy, partly because the dungeon is written with enough tense buildup that i think it could work on its own without the pressure of encounters. not sure what i would put there instead, maybe the relic text.
  • fezza's finger: i'm a fan, but i think you kneecapped it too much! unusable under daylight AND once per day is harsh. i think you could make it more usable while wringing more flavor out if you used cairn's charging format (limited uses with an evocative recharge method). on the other hand, the Breadblade is perfect, no notes.
  • you really elevated this with bold, physical descriptions. the way you play the jikininki, the corpse worms with his face, the bizarre statue in the shrine - yuck (complimentary)! you're tight on space, but i would've liked to see plumcuff and bogglebeard get that same love

high: two of the keys are stellar. the jikininki's house made from bits of the village that fade in and out overnight is just... mwah. straight out of mushishi. but i think i like the hall of busts more: the way it's written feels like a jumpscare. i can picture the slow pan over the busts and creeping reveal of this gross old man crystal clear in my head.

low: i think you could reorganize the first page significantly to draw a lot more blood from this stone. the punchy village description followed by the punchier line of Agnes' chimney disappearing at night is great and full of intrigue - put that first! it grabbed me immediately. the rumors share informational overlap with the (more interesting, IMO) everybody/nobody knows list, i think you can merge them without much trouble. with a little extra space, you could have fleshed out the otherwise blurry Lord Filchskin (crazy name btw) and given this thing a hook that really shines!

in-between: i love the cover. so ominous! i appreciate that you gave it the proper number of teeth. i kind of wish you'd given it more. just one or two, for a little bit of uncanniness, as a treat.

overall: great work! and put more stuff on itch lol i can't believe this is your first release

Developer

Thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough comment! I super appreciate the feedback. I agree that paring down the intro to flesh out the encounters and minor characters properly would be a big improvement. Actually, all of your notes are on point. You'd make a great dev editor—genuinely. And yes, I absolutely plan to release more adventures soon!

Submitted

Creepy scenario!! The cover art and layout feels dark like a condemned house, it fits the name perfectly. I wish the setting was more aligned with the Japanese folklore the jikininki inhabits.

Developer

Thanks! Yes, I wish I’d had time for proper research

Submitted

The cover is so unnerving - so good! Layout is nice and clear, very good visual design! The description of the Jikininki is very creepy. I also like how they are described to grovel if threatened and will initially talk to the party - might be a good surprise for some. 🏺

Developer(+1)

Thank you! I’m very much not an artist, so it’s nice to hear positive responses to the cover

Submitted

This is a cool dark fairytale adventure with some nicely evocative written bits. You may want to consider some bolded key words or bullet lists to streamline room contents for faster use at the table.

Developer

Thanks for the note!

Submitted

Weird and a little creepy. I really liked it, especially the jikininki and the crawlers. I appreciate that it's not just a dungeon to loot, but that there's a story to uncover, which makes the exploration more interesting.

Developer

Appreciate it, thanks!

Submitted

I love all the NPC names. The cover art is scary, unsettling! I like the creepy scene in room 10, room 2's special effect and the possibilities presented by Fezza's Finger. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks! Mervyn Peake‘s Titus Groan inspired the naming convention

Submitted

Nice adventure.

Developer

Thank you! I’m excited to check out everyone’s submissions now that I’m finally done with mine