I love the map, good hexcrawl are rarer and rarer, and nice premises. Somewhat wanting all around, need quite aqork of developement. As it is, is very good material
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[Work In Progress] Snatching the Kirin's Saddlebags's itch.io pageRate this game
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Conceptually I really like what you’ve got here. The map is really cool too! Love seeing other hand-drawn entries. Could use a second pass for editing and some visual design improvements, but I dig it nonetheless.
One thing that bothered me is that you don’t actually explain why the King wants the saddlebags in particular nor clues to what’s therein. Were the demands in writing therein? Does it contain divine gifts? Since that is the name of the module, feels like you could develop that a bit more.
I really like the setting you've built and the central tension of the module, there is some good space for the players to explore and some fun ways the GM could develop the growing strife further.
I think the module could use a few more passes at editing as there are some minor typos, plus I think the font choice for the main body of text on page 2 should be different. It works on page 1 due to the lower quantity, but on page 2 it should probably just be used for headers so it is easier to read.
The hex keys are pretty solid, but you may have been able to trim them down a bit to earn back some space to breathe. I think an expanded version after the Jam would be good, just to give each hex a bit more room to improve readability. Great work"
Whoa, even at 3 pages there is a lot here and a lot to unpack. The ticking clock is a nice pressure and it changes the region, but with such a large area to explore it feels like the players will inevitably run out of time. The mystery can be a bit of a challenge as reading the whole thing I'm lost a bit myself. I'm not sure how the PCs can bring balance, but maybe that's what page 4 has!
Honestly, just expand this whole thing and describe every hex in as many pages as you need. Spread things out, make it easier to read and reference. You can even include subsections of the map on the relevant keyed pages to make things easier. This is great and the 4 pages is really limiting what this wants to be.
Great concept and a fantastic map. The information provided for the different hexes is interesting, although some parts are confusing and the text is crammed into the space, making it hard to read. This could become a very well-rounded adventure if you decide to expand on it further after the jam. Good job!
This looks like a really cool area to explore. I think you're pushing up against the constraints of the 4 pages a bit which is fine - I definitely was too lol. I only mention that bc you said it's a WIP. I'd suggest evolving it further outside of the 4 page restaint, rather than within it. But also what do I know haha. Just a thought.
That map is cracking! Really excellent little details. The doom clock progression is really great writing too, felt very dark indeed.
Only thing I'd suggest is giving the layout a bit more room to breathe. Bigger margins and maybe using that 4th page to space the text out a bit and add some spot art to break things up a bit
Excited to see the next version :)
Good work, especially because you only used 3 of the 4 pages. I particularly like your first page. I feel like your tagline under your title is strong, the map is great. I really like the hand drawn look. The adventure synopsis is a nice touch.
On the second page, you start to dive into specifics. I feel like a little bit more clarity in character names would help. Orphea is named in the bullet point after the character is first directly discussed, which made me double back and reread to make sure I wasn't missing who Orphea was supposed to be. I had the same issue with Seelia and Senara, who I'm assuming are Oren's younger sister and advisor (though I don't know which is which). The second one is a little bit tougher though because the two don't get referenced as a pair until the third page, though Seelia does come up in the second Adventure Hook. I think polishing up the text to make sure that character names are provided when those characters are introduced would go a long way to helping readers understand the module on a first pass. If I were to point to one thing that you could use your 4th page for, it would be something to help identify characters by name and give some more detail on who they are and how they act.
If I'm understanding the third page correctly, the Blessed Ruins is the current location of Senara, Seelia, and Orphea and therefore, the ultimate destination for the adventure. It is just a little bit unclear. On my first read, I assumed that the haphazard camp was evidence that they had been there, but not that they were still there. The light shining through the roof is the hint that tells me they're still there. I do think that if this is the case, it could be made more clear. I had the thought that maybe the system had a procedural solution to determining if the hexcrawl is over though, so I wasn't sure if the lack of specificity was intentional. I ended up reading through the Cairn hexcrawl procedures just to make sure that wasn't the case before going back and rereading it.
All in all, I really like the submission. I like how much effort you put into specifying the world that the players are in. I think that's really true to form, and something that I'm now kicking myself for not doing as much of. I also absolutely need to add a better intro written in prose rather than game speak.


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