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strong and pulpy dungeon delivered in a clean and pulpy way
Wildly fun and pulpy, this adventure features Martian vampires, so that's a win. I agree with other comments that I'd like to know more about Athanor. I take it she's meant to be a possible ally? Perhaps more Martian vampires will come down to follow up on Dracaine in a Part Two…
“(martian) vampires have clockwork alchemical contraption which supplies them with firearms and dinosaurs to aid in their conquest”…yes to all of this! 😎
I love the visuals and how the map is laid out, but I’m having such a hard time to read the pictures and the connections. I think using a letter to key them would help with the referencing, and either spacing the pictures out to not connect diagonally (or having rounded corners) would help a lot with reading the map. It does not help that it seems like the rooms are described in a random order that doesn’t follow the flow of the map.
While the text is packed of fun and evocative descriptions, I felt like I was missing a few things that I needed a better description, like a bit more about Athanor, her personality, what does it mean for her to be “rolling on her round body” (is she the round teapot thing from the picture in the alchemy lab? is this a fat joke?). What exactly is a mnemonic bead chain, and how is it big enough to hide a secret door?
You rather effortlessly fit a really good, jam-packed adventure into three pages. And you did it without creating jam-packed pages (not an easy feat in this particular jam). My hat is off to you. The use of pictures instead of numbers for the map is clever, and that front cover is gonzo as heck.
Dope cover which reminds me of old Warhammer miniatures in some way! Also, undead dinosaurs from space? Hell yeah!
fun one to use this in a system neutral adventure! great artwork and nice use of symbols to stand out.
I love the use of symbols for readability on everything. It’s a nice way to do a system neutral module to just have the monsters be rated by challenge. Overall very cohesive and nice to look at.
What a ride! I especially love the cover. Brilliant in the best tradition of pulp magazines.
I love how the premise kept escalating. Of course the martian vampire count's alchemically-produced dinosaurs are also undead. I love how diligently the Count takes care of his pet raptor, the pile of unfinished marble statues, the fact that we find the alchemist rolling around because her body is round. It's great, really fun, really playable.
Sometimes I think I didn't escalate it enough, you know. But for what it ends up being, I'm proud through and through.
Put simply: this slaps. Design is impeccable. Colors, textures, art. No notes. A lot of really great elements to work with here.
Thanks! Won't be like this if not for public domain arts lol.
preaching to the choir! All hail the public domain!
Raptors and Vampires and The Artificial Alchemist. Great stuff!
Thanks! Your module is also great!
This is such a fun adventure. You took so many tonal risks that all paid off. This will be a fun one to run this at my table. Out of sheer curiosity, what made you decide on the Alchemist trying to escape containment?
Thank you! I need her to be another point of conflict for Dracaine, that's why I made her escape from the lab. Otherwise Dracaine has nothing to worry about (beside getting blood, ofc).
Dinosaurs martians and vampires. What a trip. I love that cover! I want to play this one. Great job!
Thank you. Please do play it and tell me how it goes!