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A jam submission

The Hollow HymnView project page

Church "heist" for Cairn
Submitted by Vanishing Vault — 2 days, 20 hours before the deadline
Rated by 22 people so far
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The Hollow Hymn's itch.io page

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Comments

Submitted

Good basic heist. The premise is quite interesting, but the heist needs spice and a lot of finish work to be really grest

Developer(+1)

Yeah, that seems to be the consensus. I hope I find the time to improve it at some point

thanks for the feedback :)

Submitted

As is said already: Page 1 is bigger than the adventure. The map itself needs a few rooms more, some hallways, perhaps a tower with something in it.

I think this could’ve worked with a twist: The players are not the thieves, but any number of hook-employees run against the players who are the disguised guards, trying not to blow their cover. A big table of events happening on every corner of the big map during the night (fixed and random) till the duke appears in the morning to celebrate the hymn.

Developer

Oh, interesting idea, make it a reverse heist :D

Thanks for a fantastic list of very specific suggestions. Even if we keep the PCs as thieves, this could elevate it so much

Submitted

First page is a banger. I love dungeons in unusual places!

Developer

thanks. now just to figure out how to make the other 3 match the first page ;)

Submitted

I like the premise, and delivery, but I feel the adventure is a little dry afterward that. The rooms are dressed quite mundanely. A touch more wonder and peril could turn this into a banger. 

Developer

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for any future modules

Submitted

A simple yet elegant design, just like the adventure itself. I really like the premise, but I think the rooms could have more elements that players can interact with to support the premise, especially things related to the hymn itself. Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the kind words :)

And you are right, the rooms could be more interactive. Maybe there will be an updated version at some point

Submitted

I would love to see it if you do it

Submitted

Love the concept, very much my type of setup, grounded with a layer of existential horror. 


What I thought worked well 

  • Concept is neat , first page hooked me
  • Very open and agnostic, can use it for almost any game, like that
  • Simple yet with a lot of potential, was already visualising all the chaos in the huge space

What I thought could be improved

  • I lacked a bit of the hymn after the first page. It kind of ends there and then it's just rooms and some minor events. Was hoping for outcomes or effects of the hymn at least
  • Lacked the sense of a big crowd and ongoing sermon throughout, could have been nice to add some reinforcement because the idea is great
  • The text on dark grey is not very accessible and felt hard to read
Developer(+1)

thanks :)

And thanks for the very good feedback. I'll take it into account for a possible updated version of this down the line

Submitted

Love the concept, very much my type of setup, grounded with a layer of existential horror. 


What I thought worked well 

  • Concept is neat , first page hooked me
  • Very open and agnostic, can use it for almost any game, like that
  • Simple yet with a lot of potential, was already visualising all the chaos in the huge space

What I thought could be improved

  • I lacked a bit of the hymn after the first page. It kind of ends there and then it's just rooms and some minor events. Was hoping for outcomes or effects of the hymn at least
  • Lacked the sense of a big crowd and ongoing sermon throughout, could have been nice to add some reinforcement because the idea is great
  • The text on dark grey is not very accessible and felt hard to read
Submitted

Great job! Clear layout, an inventive situation and frankly a very cool story behind it. Apotheosis via a hymn is a great way to interpret the title. Also really good job in not making a church feel too linear - that's hard to do! I'm also jealous you fitted so much in but still had room for a cover, more than I managed!

Developer

thanks man :)

And unfortunately, there is no cover. That is just for the Itch page :D

Submitted

I wish I'd thought of that. :)

Submitted

I like this, even more in the context of this being your first module. You can be proud of this!

Developer(+1)

Thank you, it means a lot :)

Submitted

A classic, evocative dungeon crawl! It feels delightfully retro. 

Developer

Thanks :)

Submitted

This was a fun read! The language is loose and breezy and approachable - I felt reading it like I could immediately bring it to the table and just go.

I got the sense that having the maps blown up big, and tracking everything on them as table battle mats with miniatures, would perhaps be the best way to reliably track how many priests and guards remain, and where they remain at.

The visual design could be cleaned up a bit - sometimes sections felt like they had too much space, while the creature statistics, for example, are kinda cramped in their bounding box.

Developer

Thanks for the nice words :)

Also, thanks for the feedback. This is the first module I've ever made, so yeah, there are many things to improve, and comments like this help with that 

Submitted

I like that you kept the dungeon map and associated rooms on the same page, that's good design. I'm not a big fan of monsters that 'might' be somewhere though, just my personal taste.

Developer(+1)

Yeah, fair point. Thanks :)

Some of it was a bit rushed, to make it for the deadline, there is definitely room for improvement