scroll
Anti-Paladin Filthy Slime Jam!
25 contributors
All proceeds donated to Doctors Without Borders
Böwhoss’ handbook: notes on internal ignition
Content: A variety of NPCs, monsters, and other hazards as well as a new scroll, a malevolent mushroom, an optional Misery-related madness, a relatively benign tavern, and a much less benign inn
Writing: The first-person POV and travelogue style have a folksy and often irreverent tone
Art/design: Typefaces, engravings, and paintings reinforce the concept while other graphic elements lend some insidious and esoteric atmosphere
Usability: Includes player-facing handouts that include lore but no mechanics or GM-specific information
Box of Shadows
Content: A sprawling sandbox-style adventure set amidst a sinister miasma emerging in Grift
Writing: Incorporates copious descriptions, in-game documents, and random tables to add flavor to play; also includes numerous monsters, NPCs, and items
Art/design: Incorporates original and found art into exuberant designs and diverse layouts
Usability: Includes copious reference sheets, handouts, and topic-specific indices for GMs and players to use during play; GM-eyes-only material is segregated to facilitate more exciting solo play
Chaotic Scrolls
Checkerbeak
Content: A checked & beaked follower, ready to turn scrolls against their owners.
Writing: Clear when necessary. Cryptic when desired.
Art/design: Bold layout and palette give Checkerbeak’s rendition room to breathe.
Usability: Checkerbeak directs the eye to the critical text, which is overall legible and concise.
Damned in Darkness
Death's Head at a Feast
Content: Includes a filthiness score mechanic, new sacred and unclean scrolls, and mechanics for rerolling failed tests (and additional effects for outcomes)
Writing: Primarily devoted to mechanics but includes some introductory descriptive text
Art/design: Text-heavy but stylized with blackletter (sometimes yellowletter) and some illustrations for macabre flavor
Usability: Requires tracking an additional filthiness quantity, but the mechanics are simple
Death Witch
Content: An archetypal witch class with 10 new unclean and sacred Powers
Writing: Clearly written and easy to understand
Art/design: Easy-to-use layout and a lovely Klimt sketch; nicely emulates the feel of an old, well-used spellbook
Usability: Modifies the penalties for failed Powers for a different but still challenging spellcasting experience; particularly fun use of d6s and modifiers in Draw Down the Doom, which is specific to this class
Erroneous Revelations
Content: A scroll to bring about an unlikely future.
Writing: Hilariously un-prophetic.
Art/design: Serious layout belies decidedly humorous contents.
Usability: Specificity adds to the hilarity.
False Dusk
Content: A scroll that summons darkness and feral pigs
Writing: Mostly descriptive with a few mechanical components
Art/design: Typography and layout differentiate sequential elements; also includes a piggy
Usability: Intuitive, with some potentially entertaining applications
FÖLK-LORE: Environs & Ephemera
25 contributors
Forbidden Tomes and d666 Incantations
Content: 216 Powers and tables for generating 432 tome names
Writing: Tome and spell names vary between creatively descriptive to more Mörk Borg-style esoteric; spell text efficiently describes the effects; overall, very Cthulhu Mythos inspired
Art/design: Spell names and descriptions are presented in blocks alongside thematic images and grounds
Usability: Easy to navigate and use, and a solid source for a lot of spells in one place
Glimpses of a Dying World
Concept: “Savage creatures lurk in the depths of forgotten crypts, incomprehensible relics lie waiting in the shadows of crumbling tombs, mystics argue incessantly trying to find a escape to the impending doom, and the powerful occupy themselves with vengeance.”
Content: A sprawling offering of all things Mörk Borg
Writing: Captures the tone and atmosphere of the Dying World through the descriptive text as well as the character of the mechanics
Art/design: Adapts the aesthetics and tactics of the core book with extensive use of modified public domain art
Usability: There’s something here for everyone
Grave Matters
Concept: “New uses for dry corpses”
Content: Undeath-themed classes, gear/weapons/scrolls, optional rules, monsters/NPCs, encounters, and an adventure site
Writing: Loads of creative concepts presented through expressive, inspiring, and witty prose
Art/design: Modified public domain images and original art support the theme along with layouts, typography, and colors that make this undeniably Borgy
Usability: References amongst entries create a sense of cohesion and interconnection; an excellent resource for a game or arc themed around skeletons, zombies, and corpses