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Thanks again! There will be a revised and expanded version in the fullness of time.

Thanks for reading! Your comments and reviews are much appreciated. I doubt I'd retool this one in particular, since it's so steeped in Keep, but I agree that some ready-made pubs would be a handy thing to have on offer. It might be fun to port some of the P&P NPCs into something more agnostic, though, as I'm quite fond of these weirdos. 

I knew I wasn't going to get my entry together in time, so I offered up some titles on the Discord when Lex made the open call for more. I'm really happy to see this one, The Orchard of the Owlfather, and a few others get turned into such unique works. I'm glad I still got to contribute to the jam in a small way :)

I just got around to reading  The Explorateur #8 and saw this jam listed. I really like how the dwellings look in black and white, so I'm going to try to make a short Cairn adventure set in a shadowy desert town. Let's see if I can make it happen in 5 days! 😅

A wealth of on-theme NPC or Rune Stone names to be found here: https://lar5.com/ikea/

Compiled by a Swedish Rubik's Cube master no less! 

Hey Pete! I've only made a few free things for jams (no idea about the intricacies of DriveThru ) so I don't really have much expertise to impart. What I can say is that jams are certainly a good motivator for getting something out of your head and into the world—in some state of completion at least. You don't necessarily need fancy software to get started—The Knacker's Yard was made entirely with PowerPoint, including the collage work! A lot of other folks used Canva as well for this jam (fellow jammer Hugh Lashbrooke has some nice templates) I guess it depends on your publishing goals. I'd just recommend poking around on the ol' blogs.

Lots of useful stuff  here, here, and here. Enjoy!

Thanks for checking it out! Alas, no #Honeypunk content, but at least some Boschian herons for your enjoyment :)

Great voice: all the precision of a deeply weird surgeon. Love it! 

Thank you! The Befouler of Ponds is one of the backgrounds that really sold me on Troika. I've been wanting to riff on it for a while and this jam was the perfect catalyst.

You're quite right. For me, creating the character art is usually a big part of the brainstorming. Then the question: so, who is this? What's their deal? 😅 

With the exception of Sulak, all the names came from Knave tables, but most of them selectively. "Ione Swineling" was the only truly random one, and that really helped connect some dots between "eldritch slaughterhouse dungeon" and "city of (dueling and) livestock." 

I thank you for your kind attention.

I greatly appreciate this. I thought a lot about how to get the bare playable essence of Ellucid across in just one page. I've been reading The Valley of Flowers lately and find their parenthetical duos/trios of NPC adjectives do a lot of heavy lifting for minor characters. I realized that the hooks, rumours, and encounters are doing a big part of subtly establishing the flavour of the city too.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read it.

Beware the Knacker sign indeed, friend! I got an audible "eww" from my wife reading the phrase "pulped herd of barrow pigs" so I know I did something right there ;)

Much appreciated! The rumours table really came together at the 11th hour, but I think that actually enhanced the looser conversational tone of the entries.

My pleasure!

Once the Weed Wacker weapon was introduced I really couldn't help but imagine Bruce Campbell as the lead knave, wild-eyed and blood-drenched, hacking away at living brambles to save the town! XD

However I didn't pick up that the grippli were supposed to be frog creatures until p. 14 when it says that they ribbit.

Much obliged! My process is very rudimentary, but as an inveterate kitbasher of minis I think I've got a good eye for head swaps and such :)

Thank you! The Knave tables are certainly unpredictable when it comes to monster generating. I would never have dreamed up a "roc-like creature with cricket legs" out of the blue!

👍

I love me a good Meaningful Name, and that one was unique enough to want to look up! The -xol initially made me think it may have been an actual figure from Aztec mythology or something.

Accidental characterization can be the best kind. All the better to squeeze the taxes. "You notice a slow wriggling beneath the Counselor's frock coat as they adjust their spectacles."

"Have none of you knaves put any points into charismaeeeeee?"

Big Skaven energy, especially with names like Jezzerac and Qitch Gearclaw. Snikt, Relic Dagger of Vermeen is perhaps a bit too on the nose 🗡️🐀 Lots of nasty rat fun to be had!

Seconded on the mini-maps: a design feature with great utility!

"I wonder if that city Priest knows the Ranger is fixing up all those old shrines. Where you find piled high stones you find fey boars, dad says, so I kicks ‘em over!" I like rumours that are written in a voice like this—helps to just drop them into rp rather than providing them as units of information.

Gotta ask: what's the story with the Counselor's tentacles?

Very clean style with the soft greys and crisp illustrations. I found the map and location rendering very helpful.  I would probably sacrifice the read-aloud text for bolding and additional treasure, but there's clearly thought put into the dungeon location and the unique sea hazards, which is great. 

I really liked the seaweed-and-soot disguise detail of the bandits, and it made me want a bit more on them: a leader or gang name, what they plan to do with the missing crew, etc.  

I think adding some additional options for learning about (perhaps within the shipwreck?) or interacting with the Ancient Hero would help to make his presence less random and punishing. Him not speaking the language of the characters also complicates both his offer of help against the bandits and ability to explain his cosmic purpose before disappearing with the time stone (seemingly for no reason from the players' perspective). But I certainly understand that both page count and deadline get in the way of the ideal! Nice one, Jacob!

Much appreciated, Francisco—especially coming from an actual professional designer like yourself! As an aspirational dabbler, I am both flattered and encouraged :D

Even better!

Very cool. Those beefy tteok rabbits are not to be messed with! I really like the "items of potential" concept of could-be relics. Great Patron stuff here and very characterful comic art.

I rolled the names Daegal and Hoonai on the Knave tables for NPCs in The Knacker's Yard, so wove in a wee bit of fantasy Joseon flavour, with a magic weapon inspired by the Seven-Branched Sword (칠지도) which I saw at a museum in Korea many years ago.

Punchy, fun, confident writing and a creative conceit to boot. I've always enjoyed the meta trope of dungeon designer (ala Brick Road in Earthbound) and the trap-setter angle here is well played for adventure.

"Building the Quintessential Wizards Tower: A Reflection on the Spire of Garzant" Based on my own adventure, I'm now going to consider this a canonical euphemism ;)

Great idea. Let us quest in the name of our ruby-toothed King!

Clean layout, tight writing, lots to chew on. Wet hot knavery like it says on the can! The stated inspirations of Lankhmar x "all of Florida"  makes me kind of yearn for a "Florida Man" Fafhrd pastiche. You should write a short story :)

Many thanks!

#HoneyPunkJam2025 ;)

Once I start making characters, I find it hard to stop...

Thank you so much. Yes, I don't think I'm done with this one yet :)

Weylon the King of Crocodiles is a great swampy character encounter. Would have liked to see some more treasure, perhaps, but I suppose swamps aren't famously loaded with wealth!

"What is a Dwark? A miserable little pile of salt"—but enough talk, Thunk at you! XD

Lots of fun writing throughout. Really like the NPC spread—lots of gameable characterization to be found there. Getting those good Kingdom of Loathing vibes from things like Cogdonk, Frictionless Spherical Cow, etc.

"The Cerberus Trio" 😙👌

Some nice writing here. Love the floor plan maps. Very fun stuff.

Seconding the great look of the cover (Vermis vibes 🤘) and maps.

The names Vulk, Izax, and Gurang all play well together and with the volcano setting. If I were running it, I might take the city's "fishing" theme connect to jigging for some kind of lesser fire serpents in vents at the base of the volcano.  If I were playing it, my character would certainly seek out additional rear armour pieces knowing that a ruthless assassin named Harrowbottom was in the vicinity XD

I think I mentioned it in the Discord, but I really like your Bog Lurker design—calls to mind the shadow creatures of Don't Starve in a great way. Smart choice to include them as printable minis.

Thanks for those suggestions! Yes, I certainly admit to sacrificing clear spacing in order to jam in more content 😅 With more time I could have made it work with a line break between rooms, but so it goes.

I appreciate your kind words and feedback!

Extremely metal. Fantastic layout.

Big fan of Mieville, so I spotted the handlinger reference, but I think an original name for it here would have been better, maybe something to match the Slavic tones of the adventure.