Play Pamphlet
Cathedral of the Red Immortal's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| GAME DESIGN — How good is the game balance or concepts there in? | #1 | 3.929 | 3.929 |
| FAVORABILITY — how much do you personally like the submission? | #1 | 4.036 | 4.036 |
| ART — How good is the art/graphic design? | #7 | 4.393 | 4.393 |
| Overall | #7 | 3.872 | 3.872 |
| THEME — How well is the jam theme used? | #10 | 3.786 | 3.786 |
| WRITING — How does this read? does it emanate with horror, humor, drama...? | #10 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| UTILITY — Does complexity inspire game prep? Or Is it very "Pick-up-n-Play"? | #23 | 3.536 | 3.536 |
| LAYOUT — How well does the module get across information? | #25 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I am a huge fan of good tables, and this is awash in them. I like that your hooks have payment attached, the random encounters are flavorful, and god that Decoherence table goes HARD. A very clever (if somewhat tedious) mechanic. And you do a great job of rewarding all sorts of skills with specific boons. I also love the geometry of the layout: the sharp angles are very evocative. I found this a little hard to read however; critical information is very spread out, and I would appreciate a summary. This adventure has a lot of great mechanical ideas, but I feel like you don't give them enough room to breathe, and I think a summary could also provide the Warden with really concrete and juicy implications of Decoherence, a quasi-teleported ship, and an extradimensional superpredator.
Art: Really nice overall. The ship map is probably better than the pyramid but see Layout.
Writing: Good overall, and you probably wouldn't have any issues in a longer format. I think in this format there's a little more planning required in terms of what is absolutely essential and what could be cut to leave room to make the essential stuff clearer, because it's a little hard to follow at times.
Game Design: I really like the concept of a dungeon that's also a ship and exists in two places at once. One of the best ideas I've seen in this jam. Probably deserves to be a zine and needs that space to do it justice. I was going to say why does it seem like the players are destined to get bleeding wounds no matter which way they go, but then it all makes sense. Decoherence is a neat concept.
Theme: Maybe it's not the most overtly mythological thing in this jam, but it has an ancient pyramid and the concept is good enough I'll just give you the full marks.
Layout: Some nice design flair but I will make two suggestions here: firstly, I would do the Warden a solid for their first read-through and spill the beans about the dual nature of the dungeon and the Immortal's need for blood early on, like at the top of the inner flap before anything else. Secondly, maybe we don't actually need two maps? Maybe one map with the locations at full opacity and then ghostly outlines of the temple and ship versions of the surroundings? That would free up a lot of space for the text and let you be clearer about the more unusual and potentially confusing parts of the scenario.
Utility: I don't know if I'd need to prep that much additional content, but I'd definitely need to read everything over several times to get it all straight in my head. And maybe still not get everything quite as you intended it. For more story-oriented groups, there's also the need to flesh out the hooks and build up the hype around the pyramid so it's not just "here's a thing, go adventuring."
Favorability: The Big Idea goes a long way here. It's cool enough for full marks even if the rushed and/or cramped aspects of the execution would bother me more in a more generic module.
Thank you for such detailed feedback, definitely going to be coming back to this as I revise it over the coming weeks
Ok, this is cool.
I keep trying to find reasons to hate it because I have strong feelings about tossing around names like cathedral and Solomon and altar, but...you nailed it. I can't find anything to complain about. I'll try anyways.
The layout is a bit dense, and it takes 2 reads to understand what is actually going on and how it all works. Easy to miss key details that way.
You do have a typo in "Thrusters", though. Your version says "Thursters" which I now wonder if this was intentional...
Oh my god, yep did not intend to have the ship propelled by "thursters" but that may just need to stay. Thank you for the feedback, I am in the process of stipping it down to the studs and dialing it in so this is very helpful, thank you!
The layout with the fold is obviously amazing! The decoherence table is a cool idea but might be a little soft compared to the wounds they are supposed to replace. The usage of blood to power everything seems a little gimmicky and is not really necessary to convey the vampire theme.
Thanks for the feedback! Dialing in this pamphlet has been tricky, I would love hear your thoughts on how to punch it up and improve the areas you mentioned. Any ideas?
05: This stands out as not being to soft, but rather too harsh. I think average stat for sanity is 31%, succeeding on a disadvantage check at the average stat would be around 10%. If you get this result you are very unlikely to recover. Perhaps moving this to lethal or even fatal injury would be better.
06: I do not find minimum stress to be a very interesting mechanic as you barely never go back down after starting to accumulate stress. Perhaps forgetting some major npc or even a pc would be more interesting.
07: I might have read this incorrectly. I was thinking items was just including consumables and such things and not weapons. My group do not use those kinds of items very often and the times they do dropping the item and having to pick it up again in a low pressure situation would not have any actual effect on the game. If it does include weapons it is definitely harsh enough.
08: Doesn't seem very impactful at all, perhaps move down to major injury.
09: Almost seems like a boon rather than a curse. The flavor of permanent decohere is good but it should be a terrible fate to be caught here.
In summary option A is switching 05 and 08 and adding something truly diabolical to 09. Option B is to move 05 to fatal injury, 08 to major injury, and add something a little softer than 05 as the final lethal injury.
Gotcha! I see what you mean about the danger curve, I will be revisiting it before too long here and will keep your feedback in mind, thank you!
This slaps. No notes. Well done!
Thank you so much!
Nasty nasty nasty. Could do with a content warning for some players! Clever design and layout. I agree that this would really benefit from another page or so just to flesh things out. The decoherence stuff is cool, but takes up a lot of space for what it is - it's a big ask, but would you cut or simplify it? I appreciate it is currently functioning as a second axis of threat, but it's thematically operating in quite a different space from other aspects of the adventure.
I quite like the idea of using the ship as a more permanent campaign fixture, and you've provided the support for that. The red immortal adventure part could be spread over the course of various other adventures, and needing a constant supply of blood is a great and unusual motivation for the crew.
Thank you so much! I hear you, there is a lot going on. To be honest, I would be more inclined to cut anything else before the decoherence stuff but I completely agree the adventure needs more space from somewhere. If you end up use the ship, I would love to hear how it goes!
Love this one! Really excited to run it. There are a few points of confusion; I'm having trouble parsing the perspective on the ruin map, and I'm unclear how the red immortal attacks. How does she target light sources?
Still, these are pretty minor quibbles. I love the ancient aliens media company hook, love the decoherence wounds, love the phasing. I'm officially seconding the calls for a longer version.
Perspective on the map is intended as top down but you are totally right it isn't clear. And that is a confusing call out on my part, I intended it as a way to increase the chance of phasing but it is weird since its the only attack pattern. Definitely gonna rework this
Really enjoyed this one, trippy and evocative in all the right ways. I will agree with what others have said, this could be larger, its bursting at the seems and my biggest gripe with it is the layout of information on the first read… once you know what is going on the module makes sense, but the way its laid out you don’t get to that till the 3rd panel and that makes the first read hard. That said once you HAVE read it it makes sense and i actually really like the “effect” of the flap (panel 2) folding over and swapping the map for the warden… very very cool…
So yeah amazing job, you should 100% consider expanding this to an 8 or 12 page zine, it could easily fill that with what you have here and a few pieces of art.
Thanks for making somethign Rad!
God, I would love to expand it so much. Thank you for the feedback, I feel Neo downloading kung fu except its pamphlet layout
This fucking rips. The decoherence table is the coolest thing I've read in the whole jam so far. Normally I'm not a fan of maps in trifolds, but I think it is completely justified here and adds to the adventure.
My only criticism is the layout. After the title page, the "general mechanics" section makes sense as the starting place to read the rest of the adventure, but it's not in a place that a reader would naturally start at. I would definitely recommend moving that to the other side of the page, as that is where I would expect the orienting material to be. This would also allow you to put the Ruin and the Ship side by side on the same page, which would be much more user friendly imo. (Edit: ignore that suggestion, just realized the maps overlap when the page is folded over. That is so cool!)
Thank you! I hear you about the layout, I wrestled with that quiet a bit and am looking foward to giving it another pass post jam with inspiration from everyone else's stuff. Y'all have sick spreads haha
Rich setting that could bear a much longer adventure, and well presented in a visual aesthetic that supports the 'feel' of the huge Cathedral/Pyramid structure, Very cool complexity available with the various rooms, hooks, and random encounters. Decoherence mechanic offers an interesting new way to punish players :D
I feel this would benefit from spread out a little more over another page, I know that's not the competition etc, but I would definitely buy this spaced out with a bit more art to show the interiors or maybe what being decohered does to someone. Good stuff.
I was really trying with the aesthetic so it is really good to hear it is working. I totally agree about another page and art of the ship. I have a full 3D render of it in space I just couldn't fit anywhere I would love to use.
Make it an additional download as a map!!! Nice big render for the table/ vtt
Dang, quantum vampire is a cool idea. Evocative descriptions and exciting concepts.
Good integration of mechanics. I liked how different skills conferred bonuses or provided clues.
I really like how you incorporated scientific concepts into gameplay. Decoherence is great. Being forced to essentially reroll your character as you play is really clever.
I also liked how you used quantum superpositionality for multiple gameplay mechanics! But for defeating the immortal, I though that the clue may be a little too vague. Maybe instead of "Bullet through the head," it could be "Bullet through its head," since when I first read it, I immediately though it meant bullet through your own head.
You even specced out the ship so players can use it. This is just so good and well thought out.
Thank you so much, I am glad it landed for you! This is super helpful
LOOKS SO GOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDD. Really love the layout and design language/aesthetics of the overall design.
Thank you so much! Greatly appreciated