tower
The Ballad of Sarta Rapida
Content: Mobs of rabid fans, cutthroat sycophants, ex-lovers, and the voice of an angel, of sorts.
Writing: Yes, it’s about Taylor Swift.
Art/design: Outlined mobs, grainy photographs, alterations. Black, yellow, pink. Blackletter
Usability: Want fluff, hope you’re proficient in blackletter, work for it.
The Broken Sword of Vile Souls
Content: A seemingly unassuming tower crawl with a murderous climax (and some loot along the way)
Writing: Mostly devoted to background and description but includes stats for enemies and the titular sword (which is pretty brutal even while broken)
Art/design: Graphics add character and ambience, and the maps provide easy navigation for the GM
Usability: It’s a tower. There’s nowhere to go but up.
The Slobberer’s Observatory
Content: A cosmic-horror-themed adventure and a matching character class
Writing: Concise descriptions of rooms and lightweight stat blocks for monsters and loot
Art/design: Fairly liberal page layouts, readable typefaces, and a mix of hand-drawn and open-source images
Usability: The flat yellow ground on some pages is a bit eye-burning on the screen, but it’s only really prominent on a few pages
The Spire of Grief
Concept: “Drawn to the spire, the only shelter for many miles, you seek refuge from a storm of prophetic intensity.”
Content: 4 rooms and inhabitants to populate them
Writing: Provides atmosphere and scenery; more suggestions rather than hard, fast rules
Art/design: Creates a wonderfully isolated, Gothic feel
Usability: Mapless; easy to grasp and highly usable at the table
The Spire of Spite
Content: A pocket zine tower adventure. Three floors, three factions, and a treasure table. Flexible as a social or combat encounter.
Writing: Sensory descriptions distinguish rooms. NPCs play to (and against) fantasy tropes.
Art/design: Simple printer-friendly layout with a welcome splash of color.
Usability: Consistent visual cues aid quick reference and jog memory. Descriptive text is a bit small (it is a pocket zine).
The Three Towers of Flägash the Undying
Content: A cult-fueled tower-crawl. With thrills, spills, and gravity-defying wills.
Writing: A responsive and versatile adventure style. With mechanics that reinforce a narrative of subtle and contagious cult reprogramming.
Art/design: A dreary affair, punctuated by the occasional otherworldly shadow or psychedelic highlight.
Usability: Uneven two-column layout and mini-maps aid in table reference. Additional tools provided to assist in bookkeeping for the central adventure mechanic.
Tower of Insanity
Tower of Scoundrels
Concept: “The heroes search for shelter from the impending downpour. Lightning flashes, illuminating the forest and revealing a tower.”
Content: A tower crawl designed to distract from larger plots and quests
Writing: Provides background on the tower and descriptions of each room and character
Art/design: Woodcut-style graphics, vibrant colors, and other visual flourishes set the tone well
Usability: Album sleeve doubles as a GM screen with concise maps of each level and a summary of enemy stats and key features; booklets are organized by floor with descriptions and stats in close proximity to maps
Tragic Castle Obsession
Content: A vampire castle dungeon, and Old Nick album crawl.
Writing: A full-blooded and aggressive parody of spooky vampire dungeons.
Art/design: Illustrations reinforce the cheesy haunted castle aesthetic.
Usability: Highlighted mini-map and column sidebar make for convenient table reference.