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SNIPE HUNT's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| THEME — How well is the jam theme used? | #45 | 2.745 | 2.810 |
| UTILITY — Does complexity inspire game prep? Or Is it very "Pick-up-n-Play"? | #46 | 2.652 | 2.714 |
| WRITING — How does this read? does it emanate with horror, humor, drama...? | #48 | 2.652 | 2.714 |
| LAYOUT — How well does the module get across information? | #48 | 2.233 | 2.286 |
| ART — How good is the art/graphic design? | #49 | 2.187 | 2.238 |
| GAME DESIGN — How good is the game balance or concepts there in? | #50 | 2.559 | 2.619 |
| FAVORABILITY — how much do you personally like the submission? | #50 | 1.907 | 1.952 |
| Overall | #50 | 2.419 | 2.476 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I like the handwriting, but it’s a little hard to read some of it. I really like the facility and the snipe– it’s a cool idea! I do struggle a little bit to think of any reason any reasonable player would ever enter such a facility however, besides desperation…. and little motivation to do anything but immediately escape.
This could work as a drop-in in a campaign maybe?
I like the writing style, even if there isn’t much in the way of plot or motivation. The writing that is there is evocative, and the descriptions are vivid. The facility reminds me of a soviet nuclear bunker built by the people who made the CUBE from … CUBE.
The generator stuff is the strongest part by a long shot.
I feel like this should either be almost completely focused on the snipe, on the facility, or on the hunt, or the facility should be condensed to one or two panels in a table, the cover/a panel should be focused on how to actually integrate/motivate players to join, and the rest should lean more into the monster generation/behavior.
Art: None to speak of. The textures aren't great but they don't hurt my eyes, and I'm glad you went to the effort of making the pages of text not just look like a Word doc.
Writing: I try to grade for things like plot consistency and plausibility. I get that the point here is not to have those things, but I can't help but feel that's a bit of a cop-out to avoid engaging with one of the more challenging aspects of scenario design. On a technical level, no huge mistakes, but some inconsistency in whether you're addressing the Warden or the player, e.g. "You gain 2 Damage Reduction and lose 10 Speed [...] In 10, min. the player loses control..." (IMO you should always be addressing the Warden in this context, as the players should not be reading the adventure).
Game Design: I imagine that some players will enjoy the randomly-generated snipe and appreciate the replayability, even though the usual expectation is that scenarios are single-use with a given group. As with the writing, using randomness and "it doesn't have to make sense" to leave the environmental design to chance feels like you're avoiding part of the point of the exercise. The only point of entering the facility seems to be to try to find loot, but there's not much to be found. Assuming the players are stopping to interact with the rooms at all, they'll probably trigger the Snipe in the first room or two, and then what? Just keep wandering until they meet it again or find the exit?
(As an aside, I take it that "Trespass" and "Slumber" are references to the TOMBS system, so it's worth noting that I'm pretty sure TOMBS is meant as a guideline for planning story arcs, not to be included in modules as if it was a game mechanic.)
Theme: I like the idea of treating this 20th century practical joke as an ancient legend. I wish the nature of the snipe hunt itself was integrated in more ways than just the beast's changing nature. Like, what if the players were sent here as a practical joke by someone who doesn't think there's anything there? Could lead to some funny roleplaying after they're almost killed, and the guy can't understand why they're so mad.
Layout: Error in panel order. You've got "Henko Aquisitions [sic] Spike-Caps" on the cover and your actual cover on the inner flap (if book fold) or back pleat (if Z-fold).
Utility: Would be easy to run as you intend it, but I'm not sure it would be much fun except for groups that just want a monster to chase or be chased by.
Favorability: Aside from the creative theme, there's nothing much here that appeals to me, I'm afraid. Relying on the dice to tell the story is an aspect of RPGs I don't care for very much and you've removed everything except that, which probably just means we have polar opposite taste. We didn't have to make an adventure, so maybe this would have turned out better if it had been a pamphlet about rolling up a random monster... that's the strongest part of it and seems like the part you enjoyed most, so maybe it should have been five panels of Snipe and one panel of suggestions for incorporating a hunt into other adventures.
Ok, so first off this is very hard to read. The fonts, colors, and text density make this hard on the eyes.
That being said, this is a fun (if not entirely unexpected) little side-quest scenario I could see my players enjoying.
(errors: Single Stage to Liftoff Press = Single Stage to Orbit Press?; "On one of the tables" = "One of the the tables")
Snipe hunts hold a special place in my heart, so I was very excited to read this. I will say in my personal experience, the "snipe" was small bird that hid, not a scary creature. Regardless, I think it's a very clever use of the theme. My thoughts as I read through:
I don't know if there's an official panel order, but I think all of the ones I have read here has had their front panel on the far right and back on the far left.
I don't think you need to put Barrow and Raine in quotes.
As others have mentioned, the handwritten font is a bit hard to read, especially with these background colors. Maybe try bolding or lightening/darkening the background colors.
On first read through, which I did left to right, I'm a little unclear about the Henko page. Presumably this is the block construction mentioned on the first page, I would clarify that as "a block construction, the abandoned Henko facility," if that is the case.
The Henko spike cap page is taking up a lot of real estate for only applying to one of the 10 variations. If this is going to be central to gameplay I would include it in more of the snipe variations.
I'm a little unclear on the meaning of this sentence, "If the *SNIPE* has manifested, do not trigger a new Trespass until the party has lost or slain the beast. " So the trespass sections only come into play when the party is trying to return home?
I think you're on to something really good here with the Snipe Hunt theme, the handwritten style, the monster hunting people, but I don't feel like it all came together in this package. Part of this is based on my expectations going into this. If I were to rework it I would have a troupe of Space Scouts going on a snipe hunt only to be hunted and eaten by a monster and in need of rescue (too dark? The children are the players' "snipes" because they've all been eaten! haha) or maybe the nosy PCs are sent into a dangerous forest/jungle by the bad guy to find a special creature that doesn't exist as a red herring.
For me, the Snipe was described as a carnivorous Squirrel, that I had to catch it in a pillowcase before it bit me and we'd cook and eat it.
I was absolutely floored to find out most places describe it as a bird, and in one area of the deep south it is a frog/lizard.
I need to rework or be more explicit about the adventure starting the crew dropped into the shifting maze of this complex, and how Snipes can move from room to room and be more explicit about rooms shifting. More like "The Night Cage" and less like "Blue Prince".
The workspace for this version of this adventure is practically unworkable (thanks ProCreate), so I am already planning on taking what I've learned and just completely redo this on a different program, and I won't be so hyperfocused on the 'Sol of Our Own" colors this time around.
I should probably use this opportunity to come up with a new fungal infection instead of swiping one from another adventure. (And the loader, too.)
Modern myth is a fun take and is at the center of this adventure which is awesome. To take this up a notch, these are the things I would focus on:
Snipe generation mechanics are cool and another direction you could take this is a full monster creation tool kit, which would be dope as hell.
i didn't knew about snipe hunting , i think i saw it in some American cartoon once but didn't gave it more thought so learning its a real thing is interesting !
+ Points for using puffins in your intro.
- I had a hard time reading the hand written stuff, i do zoom in but the writing is so thin that it still is hard to read, i would recommended to use a bigger pen size.
-i was confused at first as i didn't saw a table for the body before i saw it was in the snipe adaptation under each number 2 letters each time. maybe this would need some rework as it doesn't read naturally.
The creature generation is novel, some of the adapations are sick as hell, and I like a number of the locations inside the facility! Some thoughts:
All told, I feel like there are a variety of improvements that could be made, but there's a lot of cool foundational elements here that I'd love to see expanded upon! Good work!