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Clean, straightforward but very charming and rich of vibes. A good job. Black background isnt the best imho, thank you for providing printer (end old eyes) friendly version
A charming lil adventure with nice B&W layout, and just enough color to spice things up. Also, I do believe this is a tad deadlier than most DURF modules I’ve seen. Maybe could’ve used a bit more art, but all in all a good job!
Neat straightforward point crawl, and interesting mechanic with the Widoow’s random encounter, but there’s a few things that I don’t get:
Very clean design. You went with mostly black and White, but the green is clearly setting the vibes for a thrilling pointcrawl in the woods. I like the hand-drawn map and the writing is very understandable. There is content for a couple of sessions and, with some work, even for a smaller campaign.
Just wanted to ask: I believ the guards tell the adventurers about the beast and keep the secret from the ordinary people, right? Or do their chief pay 1k pieces for killing a generic beast? Will they describe the features of the target? Or is the secret known and kept by the entire village, and they took as a mission to be the guardians of that knowledge?
Also , I imagine it's called the widow cause, being a mantis, it ate his husband after procreation, or is it for a different reason? In that case you might want to make the GM and players know there are rests of the precedent preys, or maybe she's even feeding their meat to the spawn. Just an idea!
I like both the adventure and the presentation, great job!
Thanks a lot for your thorough comment!
Yes! That’s not clear in the text, but the guards are actively seeking for help from skilled adventurers while trying to keep the info from the public.
You nailed it! :D Having the rests of other males is a great idea, I’ll keep that one for the expanded edition!
Well I'm looking forward to the expanded edition!
I like this point crawl. It’s the right size for one or two sessions, the NPCs make it scalable, there a little side quests, but the main is: go into the woods and kill the beast.
There is a bit of work carved out for the GM, though. Some passages concerning the Woodguard contradict each other: They all know about the Widow and keep it secret, but their chief sets an reward for killing the beast? The patrol makes sure nothing leaves or enters the forest, but will only let the PCs through if they try to enter the forest?
The Widow herself needs a bit of an introduction, she is namedropped suddenly in a location. A short background paragraph describing her, what she wants and why she’s here would be appreciated. I get: The cleric did it and she’s mantis-like. But why the name? There seems to be more.
Nothing a GM cannot improvise and the players will need little more motivation than: “Bad in wood. Must die.” So it is a totally playable, fun-looking entry :)
In my head it was clear, but it seems it wasn’t in the prose 😅 The Woodguard know about it and are seeking for adventurers to help them, but they will try to keep the public from knowing. They should let the PCs through if they talked about the mission with Helcia.
You’re totally right about the lack of info about why the Widow is here, this will be in the expanded edition! As for the name, as ASpinosaurusNamedSimone suggested above, praying mantises females devour the males after procreation.
Thanks again for taking time in writing a detailed comment, much appreciated!
Love the point-crawl map, the illustrations are great and the paths allow for multiple good decision points. The Weirdwood Sap is a very nice consumable, and setting up a home base in Cafeld looks like a really good idea for adventurers. The Random Encounter with the Widow is also well engineered for pacing. Great job!
Thanks a lot for your comment!
It’s great to see something written for DURF in this jam! Plus the map is really charming, and the you nailed getting that pamphlet layout packed with info without squeezing too much!
Thanks a lot, it was indeed challenging to fit everything 😅
I really enjoyeed reading this, and even though I don't know the system, everything seems very clear and readable.
Thanks Selemaks, I really liked yours too!
Looks like spooky fun!
Hehehe, thanks!
Tight solid slice of adventure. That stress carrying capacity design is super elegant and works great for forcing the decision making. Fun ideas well executed with a clean layout and clearly written for play. Well Done.
Thank you, and thanks for the detailed feedback you provided over on Discord 🙏
I like the mist mechanism, and I love the praying mantis. Great adventure site!
Thanks!
I adore that the Widow is a Praying Mantis, and the tables all work very well. Wild number of creatures for a 4 page module! I did miss a What's Going On section to get my bearings more easily throughout the adventure.
Thanks a lot for your feedback, I’m glad you liked it!
Regarding the what’s going on part, I tried to summarize it in the intro but I realize it is not clear enough. I also scattered some of the details in the text itself (such as the corrupted priest having summoned the mantis) when they should have been presented upfront.
My idea was also to leave some leeway to DMs for improvisation (I initially thought about writing “Be creative here” in the Deep Forest location description but it felt too cheap lol), so you could easily integrate it in a wider campaign frame.
I’ll keep this feedback for next modules (or the expanded edition!)
DURF! Cool layout and concept.
Thanks for your comment!