village
Corpsewake Cove
Concept: “There is no nest of scurvy rats as foul or felonious as the pirates of Corpsewake Cove!”
Content: A self-contained, sandbox-style swashbuckling adventure from inciting incident to bloody climax
Writing: Text-heavy but clean, clear, and effective on all levels; includes lots of description as well as stat blocks, tables, and other mechanical components
Art/design: Balances out the verbal elements with lots of vivid, nautically themed designs
Usability: A fair amount of content and moving parts to manage, but nothing a seasoned and conscientious GM can’t handle
Dance Macabre
Content: A rodent sensation. It’s sweeping the nation. Plague!
Writing: Clearly telegraphed rat-catching adventure, complete with moral quandary, and incarnated miasma.
Art/design: A crowded, yet clean, pamphlet adventure containing inviting iconography in distressing contrast with its content.
Usability: Spend an evening dancing the night away, painting the rats red, and setting fires.
Daughter Destroys Dragon
Content: A dragon kidnapping, treasure, and a demon exorcism.
Writing: A twist on a traditional fantasy adventure narrative.
Art/design: Engaging and dynamic sketches highlight characters and locations.
Usability: Simple concise adventure structure with randomization elements to enhance improvisational gameplay.
Fimbulvinter
Flails at Chrimbo
Concept: “Your insane sister apparently sent the children Flails this Christmas. Flails!”
Content: A sandboxy, randomized crawl through streets beset by flail-wielding tykes. (Yes, it is as dark and hilarious as it sounds.)
Writing: Multiple tables for different types of encounters, suggested destinations, and a grim finale
Art/design: Primarily textual, but well-organized to do its work effectively
Usability: Facilitates linear flow through the document
For Whom the Deer Haunts
Content: Provides a hook, suspects (with a fun alibi system), and culprit
Writing: Conveys the necessary information concisely but effectively
Art/design: A gritty graphic character with strategic shocks of color
Usability: Allows GM to customize scenario to taste or need; includes a twisted twist on the reward
Gone with the Gnomes
Content: Adorable gnomes. Celebration. Maypoles. Riddles. Hattery. A village in peril.
Writing: Full of childlike whimsy and bloodshed. A real fairytale.
Art/design: Admirably ambiguous yet gleefully grotesque illustrations in a riotous layout.
Usability: Start in the upper right and make your way around the center. Hydrate or die.
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
Grave Matters: Dig Deeper
Harrowshade
Content: A Sölitary Defilement Grift-crawl to string you along and leave you in stitches.
Writing: Contains enough rotten detail for engaging solo or GM-less play. With secrets hidden in the navigable text.
Art/design: Inky illustrations and rich textures in a fluid and navigable layout.
Usability: Contains portions of The Grisly Fare, The Fleshmonger, and Vorgs by Unit Six. Available in a variety of full-color and print-friendly formats.
Harvest of Horror
Content: April Fools meets “alchemy of flesh”.
Writing: Iconic horrors such as: “Rotcabbage”, “Tenebrous Carrot”, and “Goretater”.
Art/design: Uncanny Valley vegetable creations in tenebrous tri-fold pamphlet format.
Usability: Legible but may require “alchemy of print”
Hexed & Dying World: Village Maker
Content: Five characteristics to generate a Southern Tveland village.
Writing: A village maker sprinkled with the dying world’s unique humor.
Art/design: Clean structured two-column layouts and enumerated lists.
Usability: Clear hierarchy aids quick reference.
Häzelrygg
Content: A folk horror apple crawl with a decidedly stuffed follower.
Writing: A surprisingly fleshed-out scarecrow follower with enough folk legends and intrigue to inspire an investigation adventure.
Art/design: A collage of public domain images with accessible blocked text.
Usability: Also available in pure plaintext.
Idle Borg: avert the apocalypse
Content: An apocalypse-averting, temple-building, village management minigame.
Writing: Rules to pass your final days, spend your last silver, and roll the Misery dice between adventures.
Art/design: A series of generated village locations, defined by bordered text laid upon bordered scrolls.
Usability: Adventure minigame included for stand-alone play. Table of contents included. Reference sheets provided.
Kavlov’s Sanctuary
Content: A demon-bound mega-dungeon crawl. A campaign setting with 13 unique dungeon locations, 5 new classes, monsters, bosses, magic items, and gear.
Writing: An interwoven series of thematic dungeons centered on demonic corruption.
Art/design: A dense but visually organized two-column layout, with classic grid maps and charming comic illustrations.
Usability: Color-coded dungeon locations aid navigation. Separate maps provided.
Keep of the Crow Witch
Kult Proroka Pnączy (The Cult of the Vine Prophet)
Content: A overgrown, larva-infested, basement cult-crawl.
Writing: A convincing cult hideout. With agency, ecology, and ingenuity. Captured in a moment.
Art/design: Grimy and vine-choked isometric map captures a moment in time.
Usability: Stylish and organized. Polish & English language.
Martolea, Tuesday’s Demon
Content: A bizarre, subversive, brutal beast and a simmering, horror-themed investigation spanning a few days in a seemingly quiet town
Writing: Includes a standard stat block as well as additional attributes and an overview of the monster’s MO; the adventure balances subtle tension and intrigue with moments of overt violence and gore
Art/design: Graphic design aids in navigating the adventure; illustrations add lots of creepy visual character
Usability: Includes a town map and an appendix of character sketches for quick reference
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.
Mork Tract
Murkwürst is burning
Content: A burning village vtt hexcrawl.
Writing: A series of events tables, npcs, and location descriptions to drive the action.
Art/design: Engaging maps and gritty illustrations.
Usability: Integrated with FoundryVTT, references Alles Wird Brennen & Gregor’s Folly.
Of Grey Matters
Content: A scenario with stats for NPCs and, of course, mechanics for brainworms; optional content includes additional items and a monster as well as stats for Mausritter
Writing: Elevates sardonic cynicism to an artform
Art/design: Linear layout punctuated by shocks of color
Usability: Easy to digest with well-placed stat blocks
Penuria
Content: A filthy pointcrawl, a miserable village setting, and the local ziggurat.
Writing: A village in hardship. Potentially some deep shit. Specifically Fathmu’s shit.
Art/design: The classic grimy yellow in a crisp accordion pamphlet design.
Usability: Printable, but hard on your yellow ink. Spanish language.
Sacrifice Before Sunrise
Content: Political assassination by ritual god-child sacrifice.
Writing: A surprising amount of depth for a tiny, burned village and the chase for an infant god.
Art/design: Divine blend of color, artful illustration, and navigable sidebar column layout.
Usability: Easier to use than murdering a god-baby.
Somnolevolence
Content: A dead basilisks’ dreamcrawl.
Writing: A tortured text with misery lying just below the surface. A dying world dress rehearsal, complete with psalms.
Art/design: Strong cover illustration and design elements support a tortured narrative.
Usability: Clear rules pamphlet with a self-contained map. Available in full color, print-friendly, and digital formats.
Soul Wrenched Shaman
Concept: “The streets of Schleswig are filled with empty husks … Fathmu IV has put a hefty bag of 200 silver to anyone who can put a stop to this.”
Content: Adventure hook and framework with a creative final boss
Writing: Sets the overall scenario and trajectory, and provides seeds for scenes along the journey
Art/design: Features a pretty bizarre illustration
Usability: Content is well-organized for linear use
Spore-spawn of the Rhizoworm
Content: An adventure in fungal infection
Writing: Presents rules and flavor for a skin-crawling ecology
Art/design: Diverse but unified; useful in navigating the document during play
Usability: Some ambiguity in the fungal infection rules but intent becomes clear
Stull
Content: A bitterly satirical scenario centered on a deal with the devil
Writing: Concise but descriptive and punctuated with sardonic wit
Art/design: Well organized with visually differentiated sections and expressive illustrations
Usability: Gives GMs latitude to work setting and situation into campaigns and adventures as they need or see fit
Suffer the Children
Content: A rural adventure with some traditional horror tropes
Writing: Leans on the writing to deliver the atmosphere as well as the content
Art/design: Monochrome, single-column layout with some inset illustrations
Usability: Information mainly presented in extended paragraphs ; may present some issues when trying to reference or review quickly during play
Survival
Content: A village hideaway, and its buried occupants.
Writing: Implies as much as it says about the sad history of this place.
Art/design: A tunnel entrance buried under the boxed text.
Usability: Stats for villagers when needed.