Close
Close
Advanced Search

Aberrant ReflectionsClick to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/419533-sample.pdf

Aberrant Reflections

ADD TO WISHLIST >

Print copies available on the directsunGames store.


At the bottom of an ancient temple,

beyond the mirror's edge,
lies the spot where reality was sundered.
Fortune and power await those who learn its secrets.
A fate worse than death is reserved for those who fail.
You’ve come to plunder the temple between worlds
and gaze into its ABERRANT REFLECTIONS.


OSR-Style puzzle dungeons lean heavily on the exploration pillar of adventure games. They are a test of a player's ingenuity and designed to invoke the experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept. “Aha!”


Aberrant Reflections is a puzzle dungeon roleplaying adventure module for low level characters (1–4).

It's compatible with B/X, old school, and modern fantasy rules with minimal conversion.


You’ll find within its 44 digest-sized pages:

  - Problems, puzzles, and combat that encourages player creativity and understanding of their environment.

  - Stunning art from Jacob Fleming, Del Teigler, Luke Broderick and Kiril Tchangov.

  - New and wondrous magic items and fearsome creatures to keep your players curious and excited!

  - A "control panel” layout design that’s easy for game masters to reference and run on-the-fly.


Content Warning: Aberrant Reflections contains elements of body horror. Depictions of such horror can be removed or happen “off-screen” without negatively impacting the adventure. Talk with your players beforehand about using safety tools in your game.


Praise for Aberrant Reflections:

"If you have a group of players that love shenanigans and love putting their brains to work to solve problems in unorthodox ways, this is probably going to be an adventure that they would love and it's the sort of thing that I love. Strongly recommend this."

    - Ben from Questing Beast

"A puzzle dungeon that doesn't necessarily feel like a puzzle dungeon. Which is a good thing."

    - Bryce Lynch of tenfootpole

"Aberrant Reflections has gross, mysterious monsters and clever puzzles packed into a tight, carefully designed dungeon filled with beautiful art. I can't wait to watch my players scratch their heads, hold their sides, and gasp as their characters are ripped limb from limb."

    - Yochai Gal; Author of Cairn

"Aberrant Reflections is BONKERS and I love it. It’s a mind-bending, “Legend of Zelda”-esque puzzle dungeon module with really good art and creative information presentation. This is the kind of module I like to run."

    - Brad Kerr, Author of Hideous Daylight

"One of the few “puzzle dungeons” out there that makes the puzzle an organic part of the structure of the dungeon. As players slowly figure out how the dungeon works, they become able to explore more and more of it, exploit its secrets, and (maybe) find its most valuable treasures. Didn't want to quit until we had mapped every square inch of the place."

    - Benjamin M. (CowardlyB); Playtester

Looking for more puzzle dungeons?

Check out The Seers Sanctum

dtrpgpromo.png


pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (1)
Discussions (5)
Customer avatar
Ville M November 07, 2023 10:38 am UTC
I was running this adventure yesterday and we got about halfway the dungeon. PCs are resting in a nearby village now but they intend to go back soon.

I like the puzzle aspects of this dungeon, and feel my players are highly engaged and enjoying too. However there are some unexplained things that I didn't notice during my previous read-throughs, which I now started to question during play.

Spoilers ahead so players please do not read further:

- The text doesn't specify which things are mirrored in the Aberrant. There's no ruling into that. For example: Are all the furniture mirrored? What about the portcullis? The coffins? The stairs leading to the surface world? How bout the surface world? That would be like a new campaign world.
The dais are there at least, and so are the statues and the hub wheel... Maybe, if it's not mentioned in the text and it's not purple, it's not there? (I don't know)
- Is the Phase Key invisible in the Aberrant? If I bring it to the...See more
Reply
Customer avatar
Direct S November 09, 2023 4:31 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Glad you're enjoying the adventure!

I understand the want to make sure you understand everything before running. In my experience, many of your concerns won't affect play.

Feel free to make calls on the fly for the stuff not specified. You won't break anything.

Lean heavily on, and be generous with showing, the room illustrations to players. They help describe the weirdness of overlapping dimensions.

This probably isn't the response you were hoping for, but trust me. Roll with it, and the game will turn out great.

Cheers,
directsun
Customer avatar
Jacob J October 06, 2023 12:50 pm UTC
PURCHASER
WasabiBurger did a really good review of this module.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNrL0RG4k28
Customer avatar
Ryan H March 25, 2023 3:04 am UTC
Your link to Directsun in the description is broken, fyi. Looking forward to picking this up in the future. Looks awesome!
Reply
Customer avatar
Direct S March 27, 2023 5:57 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for the note. DriveThruRPG doesn't allow links off site. If you google directsunGames, you should be able to find our web store for prints. Also available here:

US:
directsunGames
Indie Press Revolution
Exalted Funeral

US/international: Floating Chair Club

UK: Dungeonland

Finland: Pelikrypta
Customer avatar
Nicholas B March 21, 2023 7:22 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of getting pages 2 and 3 as a single image?
The handouts are all b&w but the book has them as b&w and purple - was that intentional.
Reply
Customer avatar
Direct S March 27, 2023 6:07 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Send me a message on Mastodon or Twitter if that works and I'll shoot you the images.
No plans to include separate color images in the downloads right now, but if there is enough additional interest, I can put it in.

Mastodon: @directsun@dice.camp
Twitter: @directsunGames
Reply
Customer avatar
Nicholas B March 27, 2023 8:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks, but I just grabbed a physical copy instead. :)
Customer avatar
Janne P December 20, 2022 2:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The full-size preview appears to be the adventure in its entirety - is this intentional?
Reply
Customer avatar
Direct S December 20, 2022 3:13 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes, this is intentional.
The non-watermarked PDF included with purchase is fully bookmarked with clickable text links throughout the module.
Also, the digital download comes with player handouts and VTT maps.
Thank you for your note though! I hope you like it.
Cheers.
Reply
Customer avatar
Janne P December 20, 2022 8:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
That's very generous of you, and at the same time the paid version offers nice perks.

I did a first readthrough of the adventure and I do like what I'm seeing - the premise happens to slot in nicely with some ideas I've been working on lately. I must admit that I had to re-read parts of the adventure to wrap my head around what was going on, but the (wonderful) illustrations were super helpful in figuring things out.

The best example I can give of this is on pages 23 and 24 - the table of statues does not mention where in the room each statue is, but the illustration combined with the written descriptions clears it up.

Also, a minor thing - the handout Contents page says "Cecli" instead of "Cecil".

Cheers!
Reply
Customer avatar
Direct S December 21, 2022 8:08 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks! I appreciate the kind words.
I fixed the typo in the handout booklet table of contents.

Cheers!
Browse Categories
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Electrum seller
Author(s)
Pages
44
File Size:
96.98 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Last Updated:
December 21, 2022
This title was added to our catalog on December 19, 2022.
Publisher
directsun
Publisher Average Rating