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Outstanding work! Match the blend of Ocarina. ItO, and creepy mystery perfectly. As others have noted, the map is brilliant and makes me want to give that a go. A few other minor points:

• madness specter: the art and description were spot on for this. What came first for you? If the art is from public domain I’d love to know more of that story.
• font: Thematically it had almost a dreamy feel to the font, which I liked. But the typeface was a little challenging for me to read in color. It was a bit better in bw. Might be a me problem?
• while impossible to apply to every campaign, perhaps in an extended edition offer a rollable table or two for why characters would enter that you can explicitly tie into the module? I could see some tables struggling to do so without a bit more prompting.

Super gripping module with some snappy visual design.

Other than maybe using some cover art depicting the Widows or some specks of ash for texture, I actually would be strangely happy without additional art in this. Everything was right where you’d want it to be. The use of the page headers/footers to quickly indicate what is below was brilliant, though would probably be better leveraged for a much longer work.

Thinking best intent, I wonder if they just misinterpreted “use and reflect the title.” The designer did at least explicitly state in the module that it was for “assigned theme: Covenant of Ash and Sorrow.” Understandable if dq’d but stinks because this is actually pretty darn solid.

Genuinely struggling to find anything h to significant to critique. Top marks all around.

• Any intent to add some color to the locations page? Your use of color was not only thematically appropriate it really made things pop and helped carry eyes around the page. Whether just making the art color or carrying the blue font for headers, I think it would help.
• Beside space, any reason you only went with a d4 for signs/encounters/environment entries?

Really cool adventure with evocative and clear writing that I could definitely see on the list of weird fantasy Appendix N is known for. Room for some minor improvements with layout, but otherwise would recommend this adventure. Readily adaptable to a range of systems. Suggested adjustments:

• There’s uneven line spacing and paragraph indents. If tightened up, you could also eliminate the issue of paragraphs continuing onto the next page.
• Any reason for using a different font for what the PCs know? I think sticking with either the sidebar or body font would be preferred.
• Any reason for the visible borders/lines on the table? Especially since it seems to overflow across the lines, might as well just hide the lines.
• Did you consider adding any sorts of color to this? From the free paper textures to color-filled text boxes and unique backgrounds (perhaps of knotwork?).

Again, really happy with the writing. I think you could really make things pop though with just a bit more fine tuning.

Thanks for the feedback! I really went back and forth between putting the location information before the recent developments bits. Ultimately, I agree it’s missing a strong “what’s going on here” blurb.

Fun premise that feels like something I’d read in an early module or inspiration. The “body count” is equal parts hilarious and a helpful tracker.

The portal racetrack is also pretty neat, but I wonder whether you might need to further adjust the encounter checks there? It should only take the Ogres about 5-6 turns/minutes to run the loop, and maybe an extra 1-2 as they debate who won. So it’d be pretty tough for a 12” speed PC to NOT see it. Maybe reverse the odds to 5-in-6, then lower one step each time you do encounter one?

The green is sooooo gorgeous, and really impressed you managed to fit in wilderness and dungeon in crawl and so much brilliantly playable Conan-content. Also really dig the classic trap causing an area to collapse, making the retreat matter just as much as the initial crawls.

Really dug the wave defender concept and could definitely see this on the bookshelf.

Totally missed this title in the list when I was developing my Domdaniel-related one. Definitely will be reaching out if I do a v2 to see how I can seed your adventure in somehow.

Dripping with great vibes. Might be contentious, but I think leaning in with the blue dye into more of the visual designs (e.g. font shifts from black to deep blue by the final page?) might be beneficial.

I assume you meant to say “the whale knight,” but it Looks like the last sentence of point 6 is missing something.

A ton of brilliant work here! The idea of looters brandishing lich-fingers in a wizard duel made me bust out laughing.

Excellent application of a depthcrawl too. Made me wonder how I might be able to leverage it an update or future game.

This is a Gnoll who read the syllabus. Fantastic work nailing the theme, creating a readable & usable work that I think anyone could run.

Wow! The folding dungeon idea is brilliant and has my mind a flutter with other ways to iterate, like an origami fortune teller perhaps or animal-themed dungeons.

Any chance for some community copies during the jam review period?

Any chance for more community copies? This looks super slick and would love to have a look to rate for the appendix n jam.

Another hit from Munkao! If this game doesn’t inspire you to reimagine what adventuring could be, I don’t know what will. Exquisite vibes, fun innovations on Odd/Cairn derived procedures. Encouraging Singing, dancing, and sharing food? Brilliant.

Ran this module as a one-shot (4.5 hours) with Cairn 2E playtest, though easily could have stretched it to two sessions as we rushed it a bit at the end. Almost all the players were new to the system and this provided an engrossing environment and looping dungeon to explore. Between trying to brain through the nature of the automatons to disgust (in a good way) at the half-wasps, we had a blast playing this. I was a bit generous with Satur no wake, but otherwise the characters were skirting death and “failure” at every corner. Plenty of space for a Referee to improvise if desired or just run this module strictly as written.

My only (minor) gripe was it could use a little more of why the adventurers would care. In a region of a thousand temples, what’s the consequence of one tiny temple dying? Treasure? Sure, but might need to raise the stakes or explicitly tie them to an NPC/mystery. I ultimately got lucky with my players rolling items and omens I could twist to drive them toward the adventure.

Again super minor critique. Overall this was a great time and I intend to use this again to introduce new players to OSR/NSR style gaming. Probably the best short-form adventure I’ve read/run in years. Can’t wait to see more from you!

DO judge this book by its cover, which immediately transport you to the Universal Century. Susanah Grace’s CHVLR builds on the tragic tales of youths at war popularized by the Mobile Suit Gundam franchises, but also Chris Bissette’s delightful tumbling block resolution system that leads your Pilot to their inevitable end. They blend perfectly into this zine-length solo-RPG, giving you just enough structure to explore the challenges of a mecha pilot drafted into another forever war. Between the content warnings and your character sheet, the destination is clear. Your pilot will die in action. But what they face, what they give up for “victory” is yours to find out.

Literary review language aside: this will rock your socks off if you are a Robotech or Gunpla fan. Even if you are not though, there is plenty of inspiration and flavor to CHVLR to get you in the right headspace. Loved the game and am constantly pushing it on my friends.

The change is chef’s kiss. It is just disruptive enough to force the stunned player (or GM) to re-evaluate their plan and make a tactical decision, rather than going passive and watching the round go by. “How can I make the most of this action or get away from trouble?”

Loving the updates! I was digging into the Statuses this time and honed in on STUNNED. Knowing how debilitating and fun-sucking stunned/paralyzed is in other d20 systems (e.g. 5e) has me a little concerned there’s no way for GM or another player to prevent this, even stronger effect.

1. In the long-term, do you plan for anything else to cause this status beside Crushing Stone on a hit or Crits for Staffs? Alternatively, will support classes have any counters? The only one I see on first glance is a successful Parry, since everything else just prevents damage, not turn the hit/crit into a miss.

2. Not sure if intentional but I think getting Stunned technically lets you still use your reaction during the round.

3. Since you have fast and slow turns you can choose from, I wonder what it would be like if Stunned (or another status) instead forced you to take your next turn as a Slow Turn. Some fun support class shenanigans could be had controlling what type of turn a target you hit takes next.

Related to reactions, might need to tweak Parry a bit, compared to Counter Attack and Withdraw. The play example indicates you can choose to Parry after you know what the attacker rolled (and whether they hit)–just like Counter Attack and Withdraw. But I could use it against a hit or miss.

• If the triggering attack is already too low to hit, it is probable the Defender would have a better chance of landing a hit against the missed attack than the attacker’s Dodge.
• Parry also doesn’t trigger any subsequent reactions because every other reaction only triggers against an Attack. Downside being, no opportunity to Crit or use of techniques that require you to make an attack.
• Compared to withdraw, you don’t get to move, but worst-case you take damage and miss. Failing at the check with Withdraw, you take damage and the next attack is at +5 against you.

I think if you made the PC use the reaction when the attack is declared (before knowing hit or miss) or only usable when you are hit, it might mitigate some. But probability wise Parry is a much better deal. Especially because it can also mitigate damage from an attack against you.

I absolutely can’t wait to run this! Art? Stunning. Characters and factions? So flipping flavorful. Additional rules and procedures? Probably being slotted into near all my games moving forward. Can’t wait for my physical copy to come in.

Any chance you can add the Maps zip to the download package from the Prismatic Wasteland website? It wasn’t included in the download link for the physical+pdf bundle I was gifted.

It is purple, but honestly don’t mind the color over blue.