itch.io

Self-contained conundrum here! I really like the setup for the situation. 

Some favorite things:

• The veil being both useful as the ultimate seal or in other interesting ways interacting with the demon
• The dead High Priest as a potential resource
• The cover illustration that goes with the blueprint-style map 

I believe Perth and Yerglae are meant to be different names for the same demon, but some of the details made it feel somewhat up to interpretation? Fun module!

“woven from the black and golden silk of far Teffiria’s spiders...” This sounds cool. 

Gauntlets are the best! Stitched-together PC monstrosities are super cool. No doubt the survivors will be an interesting adventuring party hereafter. 

Favorite things:

• Giving SD stat blocks along with a turn-delayed mechanic
• Friendly patchwork kobold named Skitch!
• The way the encounter table doubles as eerie ambiance

A single column ancestry table with “roll twice” could work since the second column is just jumbled. But I’m just looking for a place to give feedback! Awesome gauntlet!

“Smell of rot and bleach.” Blegh!

Fun adventure! Interesting idea to intend it as an "annex"!

Favorite things:

• The coffin passage into the dungeon
• The paired portcullises
• The sentinel -- panoply link

Nice trifold and mono-color design!

A few favorite things: 

• The Seer's Path encounters nicely provide a sense of a journey and introduce elements of the adventuring site
• Odds determining where Xar or other characters will be found
• Meaty treasure!

This is just a trifold of absolute fun, isn’t it? And, given the right player character predicament, I will be bringing them to this auction. 

Some favorite things:

• Everything Crinkle Fox
• Specifying the buying power of each bidder
• The Money Changers options! High cost and potentially high rewards!

“Don’t ask how I procured the mayo.”

Thanks for taking a gander! I appreciate that feedback. I would love to include more interesting locales/characters; I spent most of my energy squeezing in the scaffolding to support building tension along the journey. But upping the weirdness on what's present could be a win!

Looming dread indeed! This definitely has a mood, and I quite like the clean layout!

A few favorite things:

• The premise is killer, both as a concept and as it is written
• Surfacing at the ash cistern
• Very useful internal pointers (e.g., "full reference on p. 4")

I would love an example or two of how the Beneath might manifest!

"fine as flour, warm as a held hand." Nice!

I was definitely envisioning some spooky scenes!

I have seen what I believe to be the cover art for Vaults of Vaarn, but this definitely had me looking it up! Immaculate vibes and awesome work!

Some favorite things:

• Characterizations are sublime. Short and colorful!
• Sky Strings is awesome.
• The gravity well sensibly restricts movement, but also provides a loop back to continue (or redo) exploration!

I love that "all light shines only towards the Gravity Well." Maybe an example of how that could affect things would be useful.

He smells lemony. We all know a guy like that.

Thank you! I hoped the clocks were compelling! I spent sooo many hours playing FFX back in the day... a hundred more hours couldn't hurt, right?

I remember the Thunder Speakers from the last Appx. N Jam and plan to look at your adventure's version of "doom in the desert" soon! 

Leaving it up to the GM is fine! I simply wasn’t sure if I missed something. Great work!

Thank you for taking a look! I would have loved a little more space to help characterize the NPCs a touch more. Maybe a bookmark-sized insert is called for. :)

Absolutely! It has everything it needs, especially given the constraints of the jam. I was looking for some constructive feedback to give, but it already includes a block of tips for players who might be stuck. The How to Run WtESF supplement idea sounds perfect. Even just a bookmark-sized insert! Regardless, WtESF is so solid and so metal!

That title is metal, and the art and writing both totally deliver. This is DOPE.

A few favorite things:

• Super robust and well-presented Heroes+System
• The Bonds supply simple links between heroes and play into Offer Aid
• The framing of the adventure as an epic to be conducted

The questions given to ask the players put a lot of onus on them for creativity. Some groups would thrive with that openness, but I sure would be caught in the headlights! There is definitely not room for it, but maybe mini-spark tables could help players find answers to the questions? But maybe that would hamper creativity!

"To lay down your life is to return what you only borrowed." Love it.

Cool-looking cover, functional map, and a zany amalgamation of scenarios! Fun read.

Some favorite ideas:

• Motivation + Karma Pairs
• Sheep-y unhinged, absurdities
• Sticky "designer notes" appended to the docs

A long-winded thought: The payoff aims to be moralizing or subvertive of the character's motivations. If the faceless King is a tyrant, overthrowing him would be just. It doesn't seem that the players need to partake in morally dubious "means" to do so; they could stealthily dethrone the King without harming anyone! The subversion of the character's motives feels like a prank at the end if there's no in-world reason for it to happen. I feel that a stronger payoff would give the Seat the power to fulfill those motivations (power, revenge, wealth, freedom), but that it comes with that Karmic curse. In this scenario, the King could be semi-tragic. Maybe he truly wants another to dethrone him, or he is seen to be suffering because he had his wish fulfilled.

"A marvel of technology, the trebuchet perched at the peak of this 150ft tower could launch a sheep anywhere within 1500 ft radius..." I thought this was hilarious.

Lovely! Great energy and loads of neat ideas packed into little space! The vibrancy, font, and sketches really drew me in. Very ambitious effort and well executed!

A couple of favorite ideas: 

• Using duplicate encounter rolls to speed up the eruption countdown
  
• Restoring the Blade and tying it to the Hydra's heads is excellent.
• D6 specialty item stock

It seems Calebos has the Blade, but it's not clear to me where the players would encounter him. I may be missing something obvious, though!

"The climb is treacherous but so are the Pterodactyls."

I like to think that a shady Tetromino Commissioner convinced Bo Jackson that his talents were needed in yet another arena.  Thanks for the high praise!

Really fun idea! I am wondering more about how to incorporate this into play. Who can perform? What tools or instruments might they need? How long does it take to play a song, and how often can it be done?

I absolutely love the concept, and I would love to see it in action!

I want more of the Rock Snorters! I enjoyed that their tactics are all terrible and very Street Fighter appropriate. There are two Rock Snorters submerged in a sewage pool, breathing through a straw? That's bonkers!

Fun, inordinately colorful characters and quite an expansive dungeon that seems ready to use. Nice work!

Classic Shadowdark hex-y dressings and cool cover art! Really Drunk is a great trait name. The threads of night are awesome, and the risk of becoming a Thrall is a lot of fun. The CHA boon "spells" is a neat potential reward!

I got a little confused on the overview page and by the map. It makes sense, but there are many boxes, arrows, and maps with multiple perspectives. I noticed the adventure Overview states that "Korreg Lem has[Leffa] in their basement, [...]" However, Visha Pereem is the school with Leffa! They are identical, so I can see why it was mixed up, haha. 

The whole concept is really fun and well-executed!

The way the Sigil Instability keeps the pressure front and center in the players' minds seems like a fun element, though I agree with the other commenter that 70 minutes feels quick! The three trials and the boss battle are great individual set-piece encounters or challenges, and the inspirations for each are quite clear. The games themselves have very little overlap, so I'm sure it was a challenge to tie them into a cohesive adventure. Fun ideas!

Thank you so much! Coming up with puns and riffs was half of the fun! I mean, it simply had to be Da Owlbears, haha.

Thank you kindly! I'm sure this wouldn't be every group's cup of tea, but some tables might really get into it!

Hey, this has an elegant simplicity that I dig, personally. The layout is clean with a restrained use of color, and the scope of the keep is tight and usable. I like the fire-and-ice mashup from the inspo, though it may be difficult to incorporate much of the background information. The Wand of Shape Ice has no obvious purpose (from what I can tell), but it seems that it could lend itself to all sorts of shenanigans. 

As for what Cri pointed out, you may have intended the Area 2 bridge to be above Area 10 (typo of Area 11), since that room describes the flame monsters being unaware of the bridge above them slowly melting.

Awesome intro screen style manual, very retro video gamey layout! Fun concept for an exploratory puzzle-manse and more riddles at the end, but plenty of combat and deadly dangers throughout. The cover art is most excellent.

Thanks for taking a look! That's true: physical stats feature in most checks. Adding a glitch or something that targets mental stats could be a huge win!

The Winged Yeti is a nod to my entry in the last Shadowdark game jam. Definitely not a relevant reference for anyone but myself, but with the DK Jr. NES title, I figured I'd sneak it in there in place of DK.

Thanks so much! I'd love to hear about it if you do!

CCN usage is a smart way to scale the castle's difficulty, especially if players may travel through them out of order. The consistent castle layout is helpful and very Super Mario. The Silverfish's transform mechanic is a neat way to "promote" a mob monster.

I'd agree with the other comment that the sheer amount of enemies may overwhelm Shadowdark characters. Shuffling in unique treasures or giving the transformed commoners personalities might enrich a castle's unique feel.

Fun concept and very NES-style!

Hey, this was a lot of fun to read through, and it seems very usable. I like the Adventure-type scales at the beginning that let GMs/Players know what to expect. Having the players pick the quick start scenario is a fun touch. Respect for handcrafting your map and the 3D perspectives were a nice touch! 

Thank goodness Captain Sneerl forgot to charge his disintegration gun!

Thank you! I'm glad The Last Waltz left an impression. I spent a wild amount of time on it last jam. You might appreciate the winged yeti's appearance in my submission for this jam!
It's really fun to see creators work pop up in different jams! Heroes' Journey definitely has an elegant feel!

Thanks for taking a look! It took the whole jam, but the pieces mostly came together in the end!

Thanks for the kind words! It was a fun challenge to build a game that functioned within the Shadowdark ruleset. I hope I mostly pulled it off!

I'm bothered when people skip straight through the operating instructions and setup, thinking they can be a ninja without following proper ninja protocol. Those people bum me out, until I remember that I was raised by ninjas and *ZING!* shuriken to the face.

Ninja Vanish!

The rumors seem extremely helpful for directing players and hinting at puzzles! I love that the weapons double as cool magic items and puzzle pieces. Also, the Demonic Draw boss mechanic is awesome! I was wondering if the bloodstains carried significance, so I'm glad you added the boxed callout.

I typically like a less directly structured dungeon adventure, but given the NES Zelda inspiration and the Baron de Ropp escalated puzzle influence, this is perfect! It really feels like you could have pulled this out of an NES classic and put in Shadowdark details.

I love the dark graphics and hand-drawn aesthetics, very Shadowdark. The town of Undertow, the Cave, and the Fugu-folk have great character. This has awesome vibes!

It took me a little while to figure out how the 2d8 exploration/encounter table works. For enemy encounters, you have provided cool monsters, but does the GM decide which ones, how many, and whether to include those or other Shadowdark creatures every time? The Hazards seem more manageable for a GM to improvise.

I have to agree with folks that "She, Most Deep" is an excellent, ominous name. Good work!

Thanks so much! It definitely felt like a fun idea while working on it, and trying to solo-playtest. 
And it turns out pixel art is a lot of fun!

Thanks for taking a look!

They're called "La Raiders" so that's different... right? It might be worth changing at some point, haha.

You nailed the NES vibes here! I love the art and layout design too. It might be a bit busy on the Area description pages with the background and everything, but I love it. The setup is easy to understand, but everything absolutely oozes with personality!

Let me just call out a few of my favorite things.

• "His pus-filled eyes ooze and crust from ‘seeing too much shit’" Geeez
• A swanboat-hippo love story
• Saving the day without all the keys (though I'm not sure how the option is communicated to the players)
• 5d100 damage on explosion? So you're saying there's a chance! :P 
• Torches with effects? Genius!
• Poor ol' Pizbak
• Everything happening at The Gash

Very fun! Very playable!

Fun dungeon escape full of Greek mythology! Casting Felix the Cat as a Rakshasa is the best. Backwards name and backwards hands!

I ran into questions in a few places; for instance, regarding Quakes with Xelif. Since that happens every round, is there always a 50% chance of hitting another PC? Or is it one time per round? Can the Cyclops's key simply be taken while he's petrified? Is this intended to telegraph the Medusa? 

Regarding the Medusa, I love the idea of calming the pool, a great way to incorporate the environment; similarly, the Cerberus' Lair bursts of fire. And "Tracks. Circuits the room — Match the PC's footwear." Great way to provide players with insight into some of the setup here!

Great work! I love a bit of mythology! Oh, and great maps as well!

I'm not 100% sure, but the jam may have asked to incorporate all three NES titles that were assigned. Regardless, I'm a fan of the layout and graphics, and the excellent use of Mega Man.

The start menu table of contents and the pre-gen stat blocks are all splendid. The map is clean and readable, and for the most part, I was able to identify the rooms from the descriptions easily. I have an idea how I might run the sliding floor tiles, though it's not immediately obvious to me. Fun thematic monsters, especially the Silent Guardians (a la the Weeping Angels). The distended giant snake is a great way to clue players in that it has one of the crystals. 

We need a stat block for the Ancient Weapon so we can have a Kaiju Battle!  Awesome work!