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A really cool scenario! In particular, I like the timeline of events that drives the adventure. It’s great to see event-based adventures in the mix of a lot of location-based stuff.
Nice! A village trying to survive a typhoon in Japan. I really like the fact that there is no epic goal, but rather the fury of the elements provides enough of a challenge to drive the narrative. The village and its inhabitants reminded me of the novel "Village of Eight Gravestones" by Seishi Yokomizo.
The only tiny thing I would revise is the names (I might be nitpicking here): although they are references to the myth, I think it's unlikely that they would name their kids with Shinto gods' names, which seems too grandiose for Japanese culture and feels a bit odd. Also, the name of the temple Inari feels like a missed opportunity since there are no elements related to foxes.
Good, evocative module!
beautiful work on the cover, nice layout work, the story sounds interesting to visit but expect the unexpected moments in this village.
This! This cozy, wet, everchanging bottle-episode of a ttrpg-module! I love it. The little village is completely digestable for players and GMs alike, the tasks to be done are so simple and unheroic. We just sit in a hut, teaching a child to read. And then the world from beyond the rain, the world the players cannot break out to, breaks in.
Just one thing: Please explain to me Noon, 3rd day:
What is meant by that? Has Hiruko hired those ronin?
Och, that sentence is a kind of indulgence of mine. The 4 ronin are all brothers! Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan, and he had three brothers who featured in the tales of his adventures: Itsuse, Inahi, and Mikeiri. I wanted to reference the myth, but did so in a pretty clipped way, like I did with all the folklore here. I will mark that phrase down as another one to clarify for the after-judging revisions.
(And thank you, very much, for your kind review. <3)
A small rural adventure of a kind I've never really seen before. Love the atmosphere this brings. It's a real slow-burn of an adventure, which is different than I'm used to, but I can see the village coming to life with the right GM. Your excellent writing really sets them up for success.
I love that you use Into-the-Odd mechanics because that means it's easier for me to drop this in somewhere :)
The japanese history and folklore angle was a nice surprise! I like the idea of having adventurers spend various days in a "peaceful" location and still having drama and conflict come find them. Would work quite well for a campaign going through its winter months.
Very well written adventure; the setting is grounded in a way that makes these more ~mundane~ NPCs really shine. Like many people have said, feels cinematic. The small sandbox paired with an escalating timer reminded me of playing Desperation (card game by Jason Morningstar). The art included is really good, I just wish there was more of it to help me picture the village (but then, you'd lose some beautiful words so who knows!).
This is a great little module. You've woven a really interesting narrative through this.
It was a little hard for me to follow at times. Might be useful to specify what the overall goal is, e.g., what does success/failure mean for the village?
Same with the individual villagers. What might happen if the players don't assist Ojin with hanging the bozu? This is a good chance to reward the players with helping (maybe he's more accommodating to visitors), or maybe a penalty for failure. I'm assuming that the players will have to do a lot of negotiating with different parties to get them to accept more and more refugees. Listing some basic wants or needs might help here. It would be a lot to come up with on the fly.
Layout-wise, very clean. You write well and have chosen a nice, readable font in a decent size. I like the drop-cap key numbers. Very economic with the space. If I were to nitpick anything, the subheads (NOON, 1st DAY) are probably a little too lightweight for my liking. The ordinal suffixes (the 'st' part of '1st') do not print well. You also switch between em-dashes and brackets, I'd say just pick one or the other to keep things consistent.
I really like the back page. You've used a lot of Japanese terminology here, and the Glossary will help a lot. Worth the space that it takes up.
I see in the credits that this is your first adventure. I hope you're proud of how it turned out. It's really great.
Thank you for the review, and a lot of meat here for me to consider!
With respect to aimlessness, I think I have to bite that bullet. I hope players will consider success for themselves, and I expect some will try to save everybody, enrich themselves, gain power in the village, or simply take the blows as they come. (The ronin act as a foil to the party, whatever they choose, because they are also “adventurers” of a sort.)
That being said, I think you’re right I need to have some more detailed wants & needs, maybe even possible moves. A ton of the interactivity here relies on GMs playing the villagers “to the hilt,” following their desires. If Ojin didn’t get anybody to the bozu dolls on the first day, I’d have him asking refugees to do it on the second, and have the refugees asking him why nobody has helped him yet. It ought to come across that Ojin would be upset with someone sheltering in the shrine, too… You’ve given me much to think about for after-judging revisions. In an earlier version of the module, I had much more written for the characters, but I couldn’t fit it with the schedule of events added later.
All your advice for layout seems dead on to me, and I thank you for it. The weight of the Jost calendar headings was me trying to lend them a kind of movie quality, but they’re out of whack with the weight of… all the other Jost in the PDF. I don’t know I have the heart to get rid of my brackets, though (and I’d have to—I find em-dashes too useful to get rid of them, either!).
Thank you for the thoughtful review. The time you take does not go unappreciated. <3
a lot of very smart choices being made in this one. leading with the narrative, the order of houses, planting the house capacity seed right off the bat-- this is one of those rare cases of GM material that is as rich a text for them as it is for the players to experience. great work there.
not to deride the jam's namesake, but there's an emotional intelligence and tone to this scenario that wouldn't be addressed in a lot of pulp. it's very subdued. the stakes are real, but no characters are grand heroes or adventurers, explorers-- you have honest folk trying to do their best in a storm. i don't think that alone makes it feel off-theme, but i think its your deliberate ambiguity regarding Hiruko's appearance that's the tipping point. it's a double edged sword, y'know? it makes this module more flexible overall, but loses that connection to the appendix. i don't think there's a wrong or a right call here, by the way-- just worth noting in the context of the jam.
tying the opening watercolor description to the illustration was clever. i dig it. and the note on running the game was well put. you have a strong voice :)
Cool submission. It feels like a short movie! Good job
Amazing art and concept for a unique gameplay. Feels like a cinematic experience too.
The writing really pulled me in and with a table able to handle the weight of this, you’ll have a hell of a game. That cover too, A+ art.
I had a wonderful time in reading the module and it transported me into a place where tragedy is born. I also like the order of the information presented as it really helps putting everything together. I could also see the heavy decision that the players have to make at the table if I were to run it (oh how they'll ponder and argue!) Also love the cover! It really encapsulates the whole vibe and setting, plus the watercolour is really lovely! great stuff!
Art and Layout are wonderful and easy to use. Writing is also top notch and efficient. Very polished. Look forward to seeing more from you! Only feedback I could give is it’s not as pulpy as most Appendix N stuff I’ve read but the quality is top shelf.
Thank you very much for the review! I’ve been so encouraged by people’s response, and feedback makes me want to keep making games <3
I completely agree with your critique, too—at some point, I decided to limit my palette of explicitly supernatural elements in favor of the historical, and leave the rest up to implication (naming the Izas after kami, having Hiruko seem like an oni, and using personification to characterize the storm). I knew it wasn’t a very pulpy direction, but I hope I ended up somewhere that maybe Sprague de Camp & the other historically-minded Appx. N writers would like.
They would like it because it’s well written! I wanted to say also that the magic items were intriguing and appropriate to the theme. You clearly pushed all aspects to enhance the experience
Is the cover digital or physical media? It's really really well done, regardless. It's so hard to imitate watercolors in digital, and it's so difficult to do watercolors well. You should do more cover work for people!
It’s all physical! Watercolor and colored pencil, to be exact. Thank you so much—I’d really like to illustrate for other games, as well as make my own!
This is an interesting piece that should play wonderfully. Great work!
I found myself very intrigued by the drama that the sequence of events creates. Interesting adventure.