Ian Long
A Dead God’s Stronghold
Content: 6 thematic hazards and stats for some pretty brutal basilisks
Writing: Clear descriptions with a healthy dose of humor
Art/design: Fits a fair amount of content efficiently onto one page alongside some nice graphic elaborations of the base image
Usability: Can be used as an overlay for another dungeon to add extra character and lethality
A Question of Honor
Content: An optional rule that punishes you for being too dis/honorable and affects encounters and initiative
Writing: Clear description of the mechanics with plenty of humor worked in (particularly the color text and the offenses and tasks tables)
Art/design: Works primarily in yellow, pink, white, and black with some red for particular emphasis; some interesting layout and clever typographical effects
Usability: Some visual friction due to point size and shifts in typefaces, but the issue’s balanced by its brevity
Anti-Paladin Filthy Slime Jam!
25 contributors
All proceeds donated to Doctors Without Borders
Cannibal Cook
Concept: “Some people are dying. Other people are hungry. You just might have found a way to solve both their problems.”
Content: A character class whose name says it all
Writing: Showcases the comedic side of eating people
Art/design: Clever layout and typographic design with perfect public domain art
Usability: Stylized but pretty straightforward
Dead Dimensional Diver
Content: A darkness-dwelling revenant from beyond the known universe
Writing: Short, punchy flavor text with concise special features
Art/Design: Grungy typography and illustration mesh well and fit the relatively reserved but well-balanced layout
Usability: Store in a dark environment away from fire
FÖLK-LORE: Fiends, Freaks, & Foes
41 contributors
Content: The first volume of collected FÖLK-LORE Jam entries
Writing: Varies by author, see individual entries under the FÖLK-LORE Jam tag
Art/design: Varies by entry; single-page entries are well balanced in spreads
Usability: Varies by entry, but it’s all Mörk Borg—how tough could it be?
Making Friends and Eating People
Concept: “Eat your friends. They’d do the same for you.”
Content: Optional rules for upcycling dead characters and benefits for doing so
Writing: Darkly humorous and appropriately off-kilter
Art/design: If Hell has insane asylums and their cafeterias have menus, they probably look like this
Usability: The mechanics are nestled in with the flavor text, but if you know what you’re looking for, you’re good to go
Monolith 1: Harvest
8 contributors
Content: “A journey through dilapidated townsteads, rejuvenated fields and terrifying dungeons, with all the horrors you meet along the way”
Writing: The pedagogy of planting and population planning, and a forgotten temple to begotten basilisks, all aggressively annotated.
Art/design: Darkly grotesque cultists, disturbed floral prints, cultured public domain illustrations, and colorful marginalia highlight the body text.
Usability: Organized, aside from a few intentionally frustrating almanac charts. But I’m sure you can manage those with a little old-fashioned spit and polish.
QVKE BORG VTT Tokens
9 contributors
The Dyer Lich
Content: A persecuted witch bent on vengeance
Writing: Includes a prose-poetic description in addition to stats for lich and her rock
Art/design: Layout creates a strong visual flow, and the colors reinforce the integral sensatiosn of heat and cold
Usability: Not only very useable but also very compelling
Time for Tea
Content: A surreal string of events revolving around a teapot and some invisible visitors
Writing: Clearly traces the album’s thread through descriptions and unified, interlinking rules and mechanics
Art/design: The text’s hues and temperature contrast well against the ground, and its layout amongst the images creates shapes reminiscent of pouring tea or rising steam
Usability: “Do not include this teapot in your game unless your scvm are ready for: inter-party conflict, spilled blood, hypnotism, memory loss, and light cannibalism.”